He stands, as he sees, not only in need of mercy, but of the tenderest mercies. God has several sorts of mercies, some more rough, some more tender. God can save a man, and yet have him a dreadful way to heaven! This the broken-hearted sees, and this the broken-hearted dreads, and therefore pleads for the tenderest sort of mercies; and here we read of his gentle dealing, and that he is very pitiful, and that he deals tenderly with his. But the reason of such expressions no man knows but he that is broken-hearted; he has his sores, his running sores, his stinking sores; wherefore he is pained, and therefore covets to be handled tenderly. Thus God has broken the pride of his spirit, and humbled the loftiness of man. And his humility yet appears, mires and bows before them, and is ready to lick the dust of their feet, and would count it his greatest, the highest honour, to be as one of the least of them. Make me as one of thy hired servants,' says ne. Lu. xv. 19. 4. Now he is, in his own eyes, the greatest fool in nature; for that he sees he has been so mistaken in his ways, and has not yet but little, if any true knowledge of God. Every one now, says he, have more knowledge of God than I; every one serves him better than I. Ps. lxxiii. 21, 22; Pr. xxx. 2, 3. 5. Now may he be but one, though the least in the kingdom of heaven! Now may he be but one, though the least in the church on earth! Now may he be but loved, though the least beloved of saints! How high an account doth he set thereon! 6. Now, when he talketh with God or men, how doth he debase himself before them! If with God, how does he accuse himself, and load himself with the acknowledgments of his own villanies, which he 1. In his thankfulness for natural life. He reckoneth at night, when he goes to bed, that like as a lion, so God will tear him to pieces before the morning light. Is. xxxviii. 13. There is no judgment that has fallen upon others, but he counts of right he should be swallowed up by it. My flesh tremb-committed in the days wherein he was the enemy leth for fear of thee, and I am afraid of thy judgments.' Ps. cxix. 120. But perceiving a day added to his life, and that he in the morning is still on this side hell, he cannot choose but take notice of it, and acknowledge it as a special favour, saying, God be thanked for holding my soul in life till now, and for keeping my life back from the destroyer. Job xxxiii. 22; and Ps. lvi. 13; lxxxvi. 13. Man, before his heart is broken, counts time his own, and therefore he spends it lavishly upon every idle thing. His soul is far from fear, because the rod of God is not upon him; but when he sees himself under the wounding hand of God, or when God, like a lion, is breaking all his bones, then he humbleth himself before him, and falleth at his foot. Now he has learned to count every moment a mercy, and every small morsel a mercy. 2. Now also the least hopes of mercy for his soul, O how precious is it! He that was wont to make orts* of the gospel, and that valued promises but as stubble, and the words of God but as rotten wood; now, with what an eye doth he look on the promise? Yea, he counted a peradventure of mercy more rich, more worth, than the whole world. Now, as we say, he is glad to leap at a crust; now, to be a dog in God's house is counted better by him than to dwell in the tents of the wicked.' Mat. xv. 16, 27; Lu. xv. 17-19. 3. Now he that was wont to look scornfully upon the people of God, yea, that used to scorn to show them a gentle cast of his countenance; now he ad *Orts;' an obsolete word in England, derived from the Anglo-Saxon. Any worthless leaving or refuse. It is thus used by Shakespeare in his Troylus and Cresida, act 5, s. 2: The fractions of her faith, orts of her love: -ED. of God! Lord,' said Paul, that contrite one, 'I imprisoned and beat in every synagogue them that believed on thee. And when the blood of thy martyr Stephen was shed, I also was standing by, and consenting unto his death, and kept the raiment of them that slew him.' Ac. xxii. 19, 20. Yea, I punished thy saints oft in every synagogue, and compelled them to blaspheme; and being exceedingly mad against them, I persecuted them even unto strange cities.' Ac. xxvi. 9—-11. Also, when he comes to speak to saints, how doth he make himself vile before them! I am,' saith he, the least of the apostles; that am not meet to be called an apostle;' I am less than the least of all saints;' I was a blasphemer; I was a persecutor, and injurious, &c. 1 Co. xv. 9; Ep. iii.8; 1 Ti. i. 13. What humility, what self-abasing thoughts, doth a broken heart produce! When David danced before the ark of God, also how did he discover his nakedness to the disliking of his wife; and when she taunted him for his doings, says he, 'It was before the Lord,' &c., and I will yet be more vile than thus, and will be base in mine own sight.' 2 Sa. vi. 20-22. O, the man that is, or that has been kindly broken in his spirit, and that is of a contrite heart, is a lowly, humble man. Fourth. The broken-hearted man is a man that sees himself in spirituals to be poor. Therefore, as humble and contrite, so poor and contrite are put together in the Word. But to this man will I look, even to him that is poor, and of a contrite spirit.' Is. lxvi. 1, 2. And here we still pursue our metaphor. A wounded man, a man with broken bones, concludes his condition to be but poor, very poor. Ask him how he does, and he answers, Truly, neighbours, in a very poor condition!' Also have you the spiritual poverty of such as have, or have had their hearts broken, and that have been of contrite spirits, much made mention of in the Word. And they go by two names to distinguish them from others. They are called THY poor, that is, God's poor; they are also called the poor in spirit.' Ps. lxxii. 2; Ixxiv. 19; Mat. v. 3. Now, the man that is poor in his own eyes, for of him we now discourse, and the broken-hearted is such an one, is sensible of his wants. He knows he cannot help himself, and therefore is forced to be content to live by the charity of others. Thus it is in nature, thus it is in grace. 1. The broken-hearted now knows his wants, and he knew it not till now. As he that has a broken bone, knew no want of a bone-setter till he knew his bone was broken. His broken bone makes him know it; his pain and anguish makes him know it; and thus it is in spirituals. Now he sees to poor indeed is to want the sense of the favour of God; for his great pain is a sense of wrath, as hath been shown before. And the voice of joy would heal his broken bones. Ps. li. 8. Two things he thinks would make him rich. (1) A right and title to Jesus Christ, and all his benefits. (2) And saving faith therein. They that are spiritually rich are rich in him, and in the faith of him. 2 Co. viii. 9; Ja. ii. 5. be The first of these giveth us a right to the kingdom of heaven; and the second yields the soul the comfort of it; and the broken-hearted man wants the sense and knowledge of his interest in these. That he knows he wants them is plain; but that he knows he has them is what, as yet, he wants the attainment of. Hence he says-The poor and needy seek water, and there is none, and their tongue faileth for thirst.' Is. xli. 17. There is none in their view; none in their view for them. Hence David, when he had his broken heart, felt he wanted washing, he wanted purging, he wanted to be made white. He knew that spiritual riches lay there but he did not so well perceive that God had washed and purged him. Yea, he rather was afraid that all was going, that he was in danger of being cast out of God's presence, and that the Spirit of grace would be utterly taken from him. Ps. li. That is the first thing. The broken-hearted is poor, because he knows his wants. 2. The broken-hearted is poor, because he knows he cannot help himself to what he knows he wants. The man that has a broken arm, as he knows it, so he knows of himself he cannot set it. This therefore is a second thing that declares a man is poor, otherwise he is not so. For suppose a man wants never so much, yet if he can but help himself, if he can furnish himself, if he can supply his own wants out of what he has, he cannot be a poor man. Yea, the more he wants, the greater are his riches, if he can supply his own wants out of his own purse. He then is the poor man, that knows his spiritual want, and also knows he cannot supply or help himself. But this the broken-hearted knows, therefore he in his own eyes is the only poor man. True, he may have something of his own, but that will not supply his want, and therefore he is a poor man still. I have sacrifices, says David, but thou dost not desire them, therefore my poverty remains. Ps. li. 16. Lead is not gold, lead is not current money with the merchants. There is none has spiritual gold to sell but Christ. Re. iii. 18. What can a man do to procure Christ, or procure faith, or love? Yea, had he never so much of his own carnal excellencies, no, not one penny of it will go for pay in that market where grace is to be had. If a man would give all the substance of his house for love, it would utterly be contemned.' Ca. viii. 7. This the broken-hearted man perceives, and therefore he sees himself to be spiritually poor. True he has a broken heart, and that is of great esteem with God; but that is not of nature's goodness, that is a gift, a work of God; and that is the sacrifices of God. Besides, a man cannot remain content and at rest with that; for that, in the nature of it, does but show him he is poor, and that his wants are such as himself cannot supply. Besides, there is but little ease in a broken heart. 3. The broken-hearted man is poor, and sees it; because he finds he is now disabled to live any way else but by begging. This David betook himself to, though he was a king; for he knew, as to his soul's health, he could live no way else. This poor man cried,' saith he, and the Lord heard him, and saved him out of all his troubles.' Ps. xxxiv. 6. And this leads me to the fifth sign. Fifth. Another sign of a broken heart is a crying, a crying out. Pain, you know, will make one cry. Go to them that have upon them the anguish of broken bones, and see if they do not cry; anguish makes them cry. This, this is that which quickly follows, if once thy heart be broken, and thy spirit indeed made contrite. 1. I say, anguish will make thee cry. "Trouble and anguish,' saith David, 'have taken hold on me.' Ps. cxix. 143. Anguish, you know, doth naturally provoke to crying; now, as a broken bone has anguish, a broken heart has anguish. Hence the pains of one that has a broken heart are compared to the pangs of a woman in travail. Jn. xvi. 20-22. Anguish will make one cry alone, cry to one's self; and this is called a bemoaning of one's self. I have surely heard Ephraim bemoaning himself,' saith God. Je. xxxi. 18. That is, being at present under the breaking, chastising hand of God. Thou hast chastised me,' saith he, and I was chastised,' as a bullock unaccustomed to the yoke.' This is his meaning also who said, 'I mourn in my com- | I, is your husband amiss, or do you go back in the plaint, and make a noise.' And why? Why, 'My world? No, no, said she, but I am afraid I shall heart is sore pained within me.' Ps. lv. 2—4. not be saved. And broke out with heavy heart, saying, 'Ah, Goodman Bunyan! Christ and a pitcher; if I had Christ, though I went and begged my bread with a pitcher, it would be better with me than I think it is now!' This woman had her heart broken, this woman wanted Christ, this woman was concerned for her soul. There are but few women, rich women, that count Christ and a pitcher better than the world, their pride, and pleasures. This woman's cries are worthy to be recorded; it was a cry that carried in it, not only a sense of the want, but also of the worth of Christ, This cry, Christ and a pitcher,' made a melodious noise in the ears of the very angels!† This is a self-bemoaning, a bemoaning themselves in secret and retired places. You know it is common with them who are distressed with anguish, though all alone, to cry out to themselves of their present pains, saying, O my leg! O my arm! O my bowels! Or, as the son of the Shunamite, 'My head! my head!' 2 Ki. iv. 19. O the groans, the sighs, the cries, that the broken-hearted have, when by themselves, or alone! O, say they, my sins! my sins! my soul! my soul! How am I loaden with guilt! How am I surrounded with fear! O this hard, this desperate, this unbelieving heart! O how sin defileth my will, my mind, my conscience! I am afflicted and ready to die.' Ps. lxxxviii. 15.* But, I say, few women cry out thus; few Could some of you carnal people but get behind women are so in love with their own eternal salvathe chamber-door, to hear Ephraim when he is at tion, as to be willing to part with all their lusts the work of self-bemoaning, it would make you and vanities for Jesus Christ and a pitcher. Good stand amazed to hear him bewail that sin in him- Jacob also was thus: If the Lord,' said he, 'will self in which you take delight; and to hear him give me bread to eat, and raiment to put on, then bemoan his misspending of time, while you spend he shall be my God.' Yea, he vowed it should be all in pursuing your filthy lusts; and to hear him so. And Jacob vowed a vow, saying, If God offended with his heart, because it will not better will be with me, and will keep me in this way that comply with God's holy will, while you are afraid I go, and will give me bread to eat, and raiment of his Word and ways, and never think yourselves to put on; so that I come again to my father's better than when farthest off from God. The un-house in peace: then shall the Lord be ruliness of the passions and lusts of the broken- Ge. xxviii. 20. hearted make them often get into a corner, and thus bemoan themselves. 2. As they thus cry out in a bemoaning manner. of and to themselves, so they have their outcries of and against themselves to others; as she said in another case, Behold and see, if there be any sorrow like unto my sorrow.' La. i. 12. O the bitter cries and complaints that the broken-hearted have, and make to one another! Still every one imagining that his own wounds are deepest, and his own sores fullest of anguish, and hardest to be cured. Say they, if our iniquities be upon us, and we pine away in them, how can we then live? Eze. xxxiii. 10. Once being at an honest woman's house, I, after some pause, asked her how she did? She said, Very badly. I asked her if she was sick? she answered, No. What then, said I, are any of your children ill? She told me, No. What, said This is in exact agreement with the author's experience, which he had published twenty-two years before, under the title of Grace Abounding to the Chief of Sinners,—' I was more loathsome in my own eyes than was a toad, and I thought I was so in God's eyes too. Sin and corruption, I said, would as naturally bubble out of my heart as water would out of a fountain. I thought that none but the devil himself could equal me for inward wickedness and pollution of mind.' A sure sign that God, as his heavenly Father, was enlightening his memory by the Holy Spirit.—Vol. i., p. 16; No. 84.—ED. | my God.' 3. As they bemoan themselves, and make their complaints to one and another, so they cry to God. O God,' said Heman, I have cried day and night before thee.' But when? Why, when his soul was full of trouble, and his life drew near to the grave. Ps. lxxxviii. 1-3. Or, as it says in another place, out of the deep, out of the belly of hell cried I.' Ps. cxxx. 1. Jonab ii. 2. By such words expressing what painful condition they were in when they cried. See how God himself words it. My pleasant portion,' says he, is become a desolate wilderness, and being desolate, it mourneth unto me.' Je. xii. 11. And this also is natural to those whose hearts are broken. Whether goes the child, when it catcheth harm, but to its father, to its mother? Where doth it lay its head, but in their laps? Into whose bosom doth it pour out its complaint, This account of the author's interview with a pious, humble woman, is an agreeable episode, which relieves the mind without diverting it from the serious object of the treatise. It was probably an event which took place in one of those pastoral visits which Bunyan was in the habit of making, and which, if wisely made, so endears a minister to the people of his charge. Christ and a crust is the common saying to express the sentiment that Christ is all in all. The pitcher has reference to the custom of pilgrims in carrying at their girdle a vessel to hold water, the staff having a crook by which it was dipped up from a well or river.—ED. more especially, but into the bosom of the father, of a mother, because there are bowels, there is pity, there is relief and succour? And thus it is with them whose bones, whose hearts are broken. It is natural to them; they must cry; they cannot but cry to him. 'Lord, heal me,' said David, for my bones are vexed; Lord, heal me, for my soul is also sore vexed.' Ps. vi. 1-3. He that cannot cry feels no pain, sees no want, fears no danger, or else is dead. Sixth. Another sign of a broken heart, and of a contrite spirit, is, it trembleth at God's Word. To him that is poor, and of a contrite spirit, and trembleth at my Word.' Is. lxvi. 2. The Word of God is an awful Word to a broken-hearted man. Solomon says, 'The word of a king is as the roaring of a lion;' and if so, what is the Word of God? for by the wrath and fear is meant the authoritative word of a king. We have a proverb, The burnt child dreads the fire, the whipped child fears the rod;' even so the broken-hearted fears the Word of God. Hence you have a remark set upon them that tremble at God's Word, to wit, they are they that keep among the godly; they are they that keep within compass; they are they that are aptest to mourn, and to stand in the gap, when God is angry; and to turn away his wrath from a people. It is a sign the Word of God has had place, and wrought powerfully, when the heart trembleth at it, is afraid, and stands in awe of it. When Joseph's mistress tempted him to lie with her, he was afraid of the Word of God. How then can I do this great wickedness,' said he, and sin against God?' He stood in awe of God's Word, durst not do it, because he kept in remembrance what a dreadful thing it was to rebel against God's Word. When old Eli heard that the ark was taken, his very heart trembled within him; for he read by that sad loss that God was angry with Israel, and he knew the anger of God was a great and terrible thing. When Samuel went to Bethlehem, the elders of the town trembled; for they feared that he came to them with some sad message from God, and they had had experience of the dread of such things before. Ge. xxxix. 7-9. 1 Sa. iv. 18; xvi. 1-4. When Ezra would have a mourning in Israel for the sins of the land, he sent, and there came to him 'every one that trembled at the words of the God of Israel, because of the transgressions of those that had been carried away.' Ezr. ix. 4. There are, I say, a sort of people that tremble at the words of God, and that are afraid of doing ought that is contrary to them; but they are only such with whose souls and spirits the Word has had to do. For the rest, they are resolved to go on their course, let God say what he will. As for the word' of the Lord, said rebellious Israel to Jeremiah, that thou hast spoken unto us in the name of the Lord, we will not hearken unto thee. But we will certainly do whatsoever thing goeth forth out of our own mouth.' Je. xliv. 16. But do you think that these people did ever feel the power and majesty of the Word of God to break their hearts ? No, verily; had that been so, they would have trembled at the words of God; they would have been afraid of the words of God. God may command some people what he will, they will do what they list. What care they for God? what care they for his Word? Neither threats not promises, neither punishments or favours will make them obedient to the Word of God; and all because they have not felt the power of it, their hearts have not been broken with it. When king Josias did but read in God's Book what punishment God had threatened against rebellious Israel, though he himself was a holy and good man, he humbled himself, he rent his clothes,' and wept before the Lord, and was afraid of the judgment threatened. 2 Ki. xxii. 2 Ch. xxxiv. For he knew what a dreadful thing the Word of God is. Some men, as I said before, dare do anything, let the Word of God be never so much against it; but they that tremble at the Word dare not do so. No, they must make the Word their rule for all they do; they must go to the Holy Bible, and there inquire what may or may not be done; for they tremble at the Word. This then is another sign, a true sign, that the heart has been broken, namely, When the heart is made afraid of, and trembleth at the Word.' Ac. ix. 4-6; xvi. 29, 30. Trembling at the Word is caused by a belief of what is deserved, threatened, and of what will come, if not prevented by repentance; and therefore the heart melts, and breaks before the Lord. [IV. THE NECESSITY THERE IS THAT THE HEART MUST BE BROKEN.] I come, in the next place, to speak to this question. But what necessity is there that the heart must be broken? Cannot a man be saved unless his heart be broken? I answer, Avoiding secret things, which only belong to God, there is a necessity of breaking the heart, in order to salvation; because a man will not sincerely comply with the means conducing thereunto until his heart is broken. For, First. Man, take him as he comes into the world, as to spirituals, as to evangelical things, in which mainly lies man's eternal felicity, and there he is as one dead, and so stupified, and wholly in himself, as unconcerned with it. Nor can any call or admonition, that has not a heart-breaking power attending of it, bring him to a due consid eration of his present state, and so unto an effec- of God, and made tremble at its truth and tual desire to be saved. Many ways God has manifested this. He has threatened men with temporal judgments; yea, sent such judgments upon them, once and again, over and over, but they will not do. What! says he, I have given you cleanness of teeth in all your cities; I have withholden the rain from you; I have smitten you with blasting and mildew; I have sent among you the pestilence; I have overthrown some of you, as God overthrew Sodom and Gomorrah. Yet have ye not returned unto me, saith the Lord.' Am. iv. 6-11. See here! Here is judgment upon judgment, stroke after stroke, punishment after punishment, but all will not do, unless the heart is broken. Yea, another prophet seems to say that such things, instead of converting the soul, sets it further off. If heart-breaking work attend such strokes, Why should ye be stricken any more?' says he, 'ye will revolt more and more.' Is. i. 5. Man's heart is fenced, it is grown gross; there is a skin that, like a coat of mail, has wrapped it up, and inclosed it in on every side. This skin, this coat of mail, unless it be cut off and taken away, the heart remains untouched, whole; and so as unconcerned, whatever judgments or afflictions light upon the body. Mat. xiii. 15. Ac. xxviii. 27. This which I call the coat of mail, the fence of the heart, has two great names in Scripture. It is called, the foreskin of the heart,' and the armour in which the devil trusteth. De. x. 16. Lu. xi. 22. Because these shield and fence the heart from all gospel doctrine, and from all legal punishments, nothing can come at it till these are removed. Therefore, in order unto conversion, the heart is said to be circumcised; that is, this foreskin is taken away, and this coat of mail is spoiled. 'I will circumcise thy heart,' saith he, to love the Lord thy God with all thine heart'-and then the devil's goods are spoiled-that thou mayst live.' De. xxx. 6. Lu. xi. 22. And now the heart lies open, now the Word will prick, cut, and pierce it; and it being cut, pricked, and pierced, it bleeds, it faints, it falls, and dies at the foot of God, unless it is supported by the grace and love of God in Jesus Christ. Conversion, you know, begins at the heart; but if the heart be so secured by sin and Satan, as I have said, all judgments are, while that is so, in vain. Hence Moses, after he had made a long relation of mercy and judgment unto the children of Israel, suggests that yet the great thing was wanting to them, and that thing was, an heart to perceive, and eyes to see, and ears to hear unto that day. De. xxix. 2, 3. Their hearts were as yet not touched to the quick, were not awakened, and wounded by the holy Word terror. But I say, before the heart be touched, pricked, made smart, &c., how can it be thought, be the danger never so great, that it should repent, cry, bow, and break at the foot of God, and supplicate there for mercy! and yet thus it must do; for thus God has ordained, and thus God has appointed it; nor can men be saved without it. But, I say, can a man spiritually dead, a stupid man, whose heart is past feeling, do this; before he has his dead and stupid heart awakened, to see and feel its state and misery without it? But, Second. Man, take him as he comes into the world-and how wise soever he is in worldly and temporal things-he is yet a fool as to that which is spiritual and heavenly. Hence Paul says, the natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God; for they are foolishness unto him,' because he is indeed a fool to them; 'neither,' says the text, can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned.' 1 Co. ii. 14. But how now must this fool be made wise? Why, wisdom must be put into his heart. Job xxxviii. 36. Now, none can put it there but God; and how doth he put it there, but by making room there for it, by taking away the thing which hinders, which is that folly and madness which naturally dwelleth there? But how doth he take that away but by a severe chastising of his soul for it, until he has made him weary of it? The whip and stripes are provided for the natural fool, and so it is for him that is spiritually so. Pr. xix. 29. Solomon intimates, that it is a hard thing to make a fool become wise. Though thou shouldest bray a fool in a mortar among wheat with a pestle, yet will not his foolishness depart from him.' Pr. xxvii. 22. By this it appears that it is a hard thing to make a fool a wise man. To bray one in a mortar is a dreadful thing, to bray one there with a pestle; and yet it seems a whip, a mortar, and a pestle is the way. And if this is the way to make one wise in this world, and if all this will hardly do, how must the fool that is so in spirituals be whipped and beaten, and stripped before he is made wise therein? Yea, his heart must be put into God's mortar, and must be beaten; yea, brayed there with the pestle of the law, before it loves to hearken unto heavenly things. It is a great word in Jeremiah, Through deceit,' that is, folly, they refuse to know me, saith the Lord.' And what follows? Why, Therefore, thus saith the Lord of hosts, behold I will melt them, and try them,' that is, with fire, for how shall I do for the daughter of my people.' Je. ix. 6, 7. I will melt them: I will put them into my furnace, and there I will try them; and there will I make them know me, saith the Lord. When David was under |