heart who healeth the broken in heart and giveth Ps 1â—â— 30. them medicine to heale their sicknes But I will not anticipat an application with a preface only give me leave to breath out a short ejaculation and so to our work the Lord give us broken hearts break us that we may be broken and breake us that we may not be broken and give us contrite spirits that we be not reserved to fall under the weight of that sad and antient Porphesie Conterendj * Polychrâ—â—icon that we may be contriti that we be not Conterendi But to the words Beza and our learned Fuller approves his judgment sayes that the Apostles 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Fulleri miscell p. 224. lib. 3. 2 Tim. 2. 15. rightly dividing the word of truth is a metaphore that alludes to the Priests dividing the Sacrifices under the Law and probably enough because in preaching the word the Minister chooseth and singles out a particular Text out of all the â—â—ock of Scripture to be consecrated for that use as a Sacrifice by dividing it part for God and part for his people and to the people their due share in their due season therefore the businesse of my Text being Sacrifices I shall open it as they used to open the Sacrifices under the Law 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that is the meaning of St Pauls 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Heb. 4. 17. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 All things are naked and open so we read it but it is rather opened as they used to open the Sacrifices of the Law throwgh the middle from the neck downward as we see it cleared in the practise of Abraham Gen. 15. 10. And he took the Sacrifices and divide them in the mid'st and layd each piece one against another and this beareth a huge proportion with our Text for 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 an iron sinew in theneck and a stone in the heart speak the same thing in Scripture and must be both alike Sacrificed and broken so shall I Sacrifice my Text by so breaking of it that is just in the midst into two parts and lay the the parts one against another thus The two parts are 1. Sacrifices offered 2. Sacrifices owned and honoured 1. Sacrifices offered the Sacrifices of God that is offered to God are a broken spirit and a contrite heart 2. Sacrifices owned and honoured a broken heart and contrite spirit for I must put both into both God will not despise 1. Sacrifices offered the Sacrifices offered to God a broken spirit and a broken and contrite heart here are two participles in the Hebrew which make two weighty Epithets upon which lies the whole stresse and burden of the Text and they are 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the one signifies to break whole things all of a piece and the other signifies to breake hard things all to pieces that is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a word of a higher streine to break a thing to powder So Psal 94. 5. They break in pieces thy people O Lord 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 So Job 19. 2. How long will ye vex my soul and break me in pieces with words 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Atteretis me will ye grinde me to powder So that put both together and you have here Heart a whole Heart broken in pieces and a Heart a hard Heart beaten to powder things must be whole or they cannot be broken to pieces and they must be hard or they cannot be beaten to powder so that this breaking this beating speakes violence the macerations and martyrizations of repentance that holy violence and force that Heaven is taken with Therefore a Heart so used is called a broken and a contrite heart Thus it signifies a soul truly humbled beaten and broken and ground to powder in this sense it is applyed to Christ Es 53. 10. Yet it pleased the Lord to bruise him he hath put him to grief the Hebrew is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to break him in pieces thus in the same sense you finde contrite and humble put together twice in one Text Es 57. 15. For thus saith the high and lofty one that inhabits eternity whose name is holy I dwell in the high and holy place with him also that is of a contrite and humble spirit to revive the spirit of the humble and to revive the spirit of the contrite ones A broken heart then is a spirit duly and deeply humbled under the sense of sin for the School gives a distinction between Attrition and Contrition the object of Attrition is the evil of punishment but the object Contrition is the evil of sin So that a broken heart is a heart bleeding under the sight and sense of and sorrow for sin 2. Part is the Sacrifices owned and honoured and to this you rise in state by three stepps 1. Sacrifices 2. Sacrifices of God 3. Such Sacrifices as God will not despise 1. Sacrifices in the Plural Number all Sacrifices as if all other sacrifices were either nothing at all to this or without this or all in all in this of a broken heart when we beate or breake hard things into minute parts or powder we call it the flower of it a broken heart is slos cordis the flower of the heart and that is the Flower of all Sacrifices and the finer the flower that is the more beaten or broken the fitter offering for God Thus truly pulvis sanctus is pulvis cardiaâ—us the Heart powder is the holy powder Besides the ordinary Frankincense for common uses the finest and fittest for Gods Rev. 2 17. 1 Pet. 3. 41. service and sacrifices the Physicians call Manna thuris the Broken and Contrite heart is Manna cordis the Hidden Manna of the Hidden man of the heart the Broken heart is not only for all services but for all Sacrifices nay is all Sacrifices Every ragg every shiver every graine every atome of the Broken Heart is a whole burnt offering nay a hecatomb of Sacrifices 2. The satcrifices of God it is a frequent Scripture-phrase to raise the price of things of excellence and eminence above others by adding the name of God to them as the waters of God the mountain of God the Cedars of God and so here the Sacrifices of God that is the most excellent sacrifices We have it in the new Testament The Peace of God that is such a Peace as do's not only passe other Peaces but all understanding Phil. 4. 7. But I conceive there is more in it than so the sacrifices of God that is the sacrifices that God do's most owne and honour and is most interested in as if he had said all other sacrifices are but the sacrifices of men Bullocks and Rammes Sheepe and Goats Turtles and Pigeons Beasts and Birds Fruits and Flowers these were but the sacrifices of men but my son give me thy heart sais God that is the Prov. 23. 26.
life it self slide from him with no more disturbance and with more comfort and contentment than Passengers in a Boat upon the Thames see the great City and the fair houses glide from them when their business is at Whitehall and Westminster the City and Court of the great King His soul is landed in Heaven already It was rarely spoken by that old Souldier of Henry the 4th of France who having received his deaths wound in one of his many battles when he was above 80. years old and his friends coming about him to condole and comfort him against the fear of death what saies he have I lived above fourscore years and do you think I do not know how to die a quarter of an hour he can die any day every day 2 Cor. 25. 31. that dies daily his heart will never be broken for leaving the world at his death whose heart hath bin broken in leaving the world in his life 3. I have nothing to do now but only to give you two words 1. To quicken you to get your hearts broken if they be not 2. To caution you that you be sure they are broken 1. That you would get your hearts broken if they be not and that for two short Reasons 1. Is from the Text that this is the only sacrifice that God will not despise this he ownes and loves above all others at least all others for and in this All sacrifices and services without this are but broken sacrifices broken services A sacrifice without a heart was a Prodigy and without a broken heart is a Profanation that which breakâ—â—â— makes us Vulnus opem tulit our wounds bleeâ—â—â—â—am 2. A broken and contrite heart gives you a key into Gods presence-chamber you have a Patent for it under Gods hand and seal will you see the Charter Esay 57. 15. Thus saith the high and lofty one that inhabits eternity whose name is holy I dwell in the high and the holy place with him also that is of a contrite and humble spirit to revive the pir it of the humble and to revive the spirit of the contrite ones Here is oyle of Gladnesse indeed but it is a broken vessel that must receive it a broken and humble heart 2. To caution as well as quicken you that you give not over the work till you be sure your hearts are broken I shall hint four Reasons 1. Because your hearts are deceitfull and apt to put a cheate upon you especially in this duty this irksome duty of searching your own hearts to be satisfied that they are really broken you had need call a Parliament a great Councel of all the facultys in the polity of man together for this scrutiny and be assured thou shalt find thy heart as full of tricks and juggles to keep thee off from calling this Councel as the Church of Rome put upon the Christian Princes of that age about calling that councel which proved the Councel of Treâ—t It was a good time before his holiness would be preswaded the Church or Court of Rome needed reformation there was omnia benè Therefore a Councel would be as needlesse as physick to a sound body but at last to stopp the mouth of the loud clamours of the world a councel is yeilded to but the time and place kept them in many years debate to while out the time till they hoped their zeal might cool but at length called it was but what was the Issue of it why that councill that was designed for a scourge of the Church and Court of Rome proved a successful engine of its advnacement such is commonly the result of such great and tumultous assemblies as they are managed by parts and partyes So their ordinary product are the dictates of wit and power for the most part to the raising of the worst if not to the ruine of all as we have but too lately seene but to apply it to our purpose Thou wouldest faine bring thy heart to the test to try whether it be that broken and mortified humble thing it pretends to Never expect to find it willing to stand the triall What to be cut and cauterized to be prob'd and tented to run through the macerations and martrizations of a thorough examination It will never endure it when it comes to the push it will give thee the slip if thou doest not looke to it it will use all the petty arts imaginable to keep it self from gaging and garbling it will tell thee thy heart is a good heart if you can let it alone there is many a worse heart that passes for a better is any man but you so nice and scrupulous and so cruell to his own flesh which he should love and cherish as to rake and grable Eph 5. in his own heart and to seek that in it which thou wouldest be sorry to finde and if thou doest not finde it thou wilt be as sorry thou hast searched it come let it alone man thy heart is as good a heart as others are but suppose all this fine deluding Rhetorick will not doe thou seest a necessity of searching thy heart to the quick and art resolved to set upon the work see if the Devil and thine own heart have not some trick in lavender to divert thy most serious intentions with some plausible pretences or other as sicknesse business company Pol me occidistis amici is too often true in this case of breaking the heart from breaking the heart But to make short work with it as thou must doe if thou wilt make any work at all If God at last smite thee by his word or sword that thou beginst to reflect upon thy self and say sure I am not in the way to Heaven that streight and narrow way I am not so strict as I should be for all my heart flatters me thus And therefore nothing shall keepe me from searching Then look for the grandest cheat of all then have a care thy treacherous heart doe not make thee believe that every little qualm of conscience is a heart-breaking every sleight touch at a Sermon every heart-ach for any affliction thou fearest or feelest and when all is done have a care that thy heart does not out-wit thee at last and that that meanes which thou usest as the most proper expedient to break thy heart doe not harden it more O thou dost not know thine own heart man It is a cunning and a cosening piece of flesh you have a strange example of this if you need any in Hazael 2 Kin. 11. 12. 13. Elisha looked upon him stedfastly till he was ashamede and the man of God wept and Hazael said why weeps my Lord and he answered because I know the evils that thou shalt doe unto the Children of Israel And when he had told him all his cruelties he should be guilty of What says Hazael Is thy servant a dogg He would not believe his heart was so base and yet the man that was so much
Moderne Impiety for Gods service and yours though I may be easily imagined to have bin so full of the great work I was to do that I had little roome to entertaine other thoughts yet I must ingenuously confesse that sadding Object which looked like the Picture and Emblem of the Church of England in its late ruinous posture broke through all my other notions that were then upon wing and fluttered to get out and stormd my hearâ— till at length it retreated to my eyes and went out where it came in with a wet Prayer in Davids language Psalm 102. 13 14. Arise ô Lord and have mercy upon Zion for the time is come that thou have mercy upon her yea the set time is come and why thy servants think upon her stones and it pitties them to see her in the dust Pardon my Zeale my Lord if it swallow down my Discretion it is for the House of God and that eat up David and the Sonne of David I owe my Birth and Breeding to the Neighbourhood of that Mother-Church to me in a more eminent way I have many precious Pawns deposited under her deare walls besides my living Relations that I must say with David For my Brethren and Psalm 122. 8. Companions sake I wish thee prosperity And so I know doth your Lordship and let the world know it too by a seasonable lending your successefull hand to raise up our Aged Mother out of the Dust It is a labour worthy such a Hercules to purge that Augaean Stable it is sad to call it so but it was so and blessed be God we may say it was so You know when a Den of Thieves made it a Stable for Horses and so or worse they would have used all our Churches They would have destroyed all the Houses of God in the Land destroyed them at least from being any longer Houses of God at least these Mother-Churches to spoile the breed and to that end they said let us take the Houses of God in possession they said that is it was resolved upon the Question but God repealed their Act if it be worth that name and turnd their Ordinance upon themselves and as it follows there made them like a wheele turnd it from Regno to sum Psâ—l 83. 12 13. sine Regno And who knows but that as God hath bin pleased to honour you with a great part in this glorious work of Restoring the King to his House but that it is intended by it to prompt you to restore God to his House the House of God to the God of the House Let me say to your Lordship as Mordecay said to Esther who knowes whether thou art come to this honour for such a time as this Never was Lord Maior wellcomed into his Office with more generall alacrity and acclamations which as they did loudly speak the good you had done so they did lovingly bespeak the good they would have you do And therefore let me be so bold to say to your Lordship as David did to his Son Solomon 1 Chron. 22. 16. who was designed for such work the building of the Temple arise therefore and be doing and the Lord shall be with thee You cannot want incouragement for besides that the wishes of Prince and People concenter in it God hath blest London with a prudent Bishop cut out as it were for all manner of Church-work Therefore I will say no more but that when I see two such benign starres in conjunction and vertical over this great City I cannot but prophesie prognosticate is too fallible a term great blessings and I pray that I may be a true Prophet as I am truely My Lord Your Lordships most humble Servant in the work of our great Master Francis Walsall Westminster Jan. 1. 1660. Juxta Comput Ecclesiae Anglis ERRATA PAge 1. in Margin after Job 16. 14. add 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 confractione coram confractione with one breach in the sight of another like the waves of the Sea one upon the neck of another or like his own messengers of ill news one upon the heeles of another p. 3. l. 15. against Gen. 15. 10. in the Margin add these Verses Tunc piceae mactantur oves prosectaque partim Pectora per medios partim gerit obvius Idmon Val Flac. Arg. l. 2. Vid. plura in Analect sacra doctissimi Doughteij nostri p. 8. line 15. r. foyles p. 10. l. 7. r. lies p. 11. l. 15. r. broken into two pieces p. 15 l. 22. r. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 ibid. l. 30. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and ibib r. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 p. 18. in Marg. r. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 p. 29. l. 12. after above r. Gen. 7. 11. l. 13. r. deep p. 34. l. 10. r. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 p. 38. l. 2. r. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 p. 38. l. 19. r. his grace is his meal PSAL. 51. 17. The Sacrifices of God are a broken spirit a broken and contrite heart O God thou wilt not despise WE have had our share in broken and breaking Times the Lord hath broken us as Job saith with Job 16. 14 Breach upon Breach every thing has been broken but that which should be our hearts and though we think we have now a cleare Prospect into the end of our miseries and the healing of our Breaches by this miracle of mercy the happy return of the Soverainge repairer of our Breaches and restorer of paths to dwell in Es 58. 12. Jer. 14. 19. yet we have heard of those that looked for healing and behold trouble Whether the great Physician will at this time make a thorow cure of our ruptures I cannot divine but yet I may safely as sadly say if he doe not we may thank our selves for it we may thank our own thanklessness if we be any more broken it is because we are no more broken as we have been broken so much because we have not been broken enough we still want this Breaking in the Text Heart-breaking for all our other outward breakings we are heart-wholl still as we use to say our hearts are not broken our hearts are indeed sadly divided but not savingly broken we are not broken for sin we are not broken from sin but like the smiths anvill we are rather harden'd than broken by all our strokes we are word-proofe and sword-proofe we neither heare the rod of the Word nor the Word of the rod we laugh under the rod and the proud flesh grow's under the Sword we are not so much as pricked at the heart if we were we should be in their posture Act. 2. 37. When they were pricked at the heart they said unto Peter and the rest of the Apostles men and bretheren what shall we doe But doe we so surely no we doe not so because we are not so were our hearts truly and throwghly broken we would make more hast to the great Physician who is onely able to bind up the broken
sacrifice he only delights in all the rest without this are an abomination to him these alone are the Sacrifices of God for here as he did to Abraham God Ezek. 36. 26. himself provides the Sacrifice for himself for he alone that is the heart-maker is the heart-breaker it is Gods prerogative royall to take out the heart of stone and put in a heart of flesh it is no wonder if he liks his own choice and accepts what himself provides He is the feast the guest the wellcome and therefore sure he will not despise his own cheere and tha is thet 3d Step by which we rise to Gods owning and honouring these sacrifices that God will not despise them You will say this is but a very thin and low and slight way of honouring a thing not to despise it Sol. I answer that under this lower phrase of owning them that God will not despise them is to be understood Gods choisest way of accepting and honouring them in the highest degree as if he had said as the Apostle sai's of that other sacrifice of doing good and distributing Heb 13. 16. With such sacrifices God is well pleased so v. 17. The same chapt Obey them that have the Rule over you c. For it is profitable for you this is but a short expression and reaches not home to the Apostles meaning for according to his own Doctrine it is not only profitable to do it but it is damnable not to doe it because it is to be done for Christs sake and consience sake so 1 Thes 5. 20. Despise not prophecying here is our word again the Apostles meaning here is that we should honour prophecying though he sai's only despise it not and though this Text in the lowest sense has been so long too much despised even under high pretenses of doing it honour yet certainly he that would have honour and double Honour given to the Ministers for their workes sake would not have lesse given to the work it self Thus these sacrifices God will not despise that is God will accept them own them honour them above all other sacrifices in the world The result of all these clearings of the sense is this that a Broken heart is the most acceptable sacrifice to God which he most own 's most honours A principle that needs improving more than proving and therefore the wheels and hinges my discourse shall move upon shall be these four only 1. What a broken and a contrite heart is 2. Some 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Characters or rules by which a man may be able to pass a judgment upon his heart whether it be truly broken 3. Some whets to sharpen your desires and indeavors after a broken heart 4. Some arguments to quicken your Care and Caution that you give not over your paines till you be sure the work is done that when all is done you be not deceived in this important duty 1. What is a broken and a contrite heart and here because Contraria inter se posita magis elucescunt Contraries are the best fyles to set off and to set out one another I will pave my way to a Broken heart out of the quaâ—ry of a hard Heart you may please to know then that there is a threefold hardness of heart 1. A naturall 2. An acquired 3. A Judicial hardness of heart 1. A naturall hardness of heart which every man brings into the world with him we are all born Prodigies and Monsters with stones in our bosomes neather mill-stones in our hearts thus the Apostle characters the Gentiles Eph. 4. 18. Having the understanding darkned being alienated from the life of God through the ignorance that is in them because of the blindness of their hearts so we reade it but it should be because of the hardnesse of their hearts so saies the margin and so should have said the Text for besides that blindnesse is understood in the words before having the understanding darkned and the words following through the ignorance that is in them is in the Greeke 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Which very expression you have translated hardness of heart elswhere viz Mark 3. 5. Being grieved for the hardness of their hearts And yet it is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. And that it must be hardness and not blindness the derivation of the word speakes For the Greeks derive 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 from the stone 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the nature of which is to harden by the sticking to of viscous and glutinous waters as the stone hardens in the Reines and Bladder And so 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 signifies hardness and is by a kind of Catachresticall metaphore used for those tophi or hard swellings of purulent matter grown into a callous or brawny substance in the joynts or Lunges as Arist tells us in his historia animalium and that with all reverence to the memory of the learned Translators this is not my Conjecture only but the sense of the Spirit I shall give you a Text where both these words are used in their proper sense distinctly Joh. 12. 40. He hath blinded their eyes and hardened their hearts that they should not see with their eyes nor understand with their hearts c. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 he hath blinded and he hath hardened This is that naturall hardness of heart which I am speaking off not so much blindness as a Consequent and effect of it a hardness that grow's from blindness it is hard as well as blind nay hard because blind to lappe up both in one English word it may be stone-blind for it speakes an affected ignorance blindness in spite of light and sight 2. There is an acquired hardness Heb. 3. 13. least any of you be hardned through the deceitfullness of sin Sin cheates us into custome and custome out of conscience Sin is like some waters that have a naturall petrifying quality and will harden any thing into stone that lays any time in them Let a godly manly in any sin any time neglect duty and give himself a loose to the world and he shall see in how short a time a crust will grow over his heart a scirrus upon his conscience that will make him both unwilling to duty and unweildy in duty his faith will take winde and be apt to taint when he keeps not close to God in duty Delicata res est spiritus sanstus the spirit of God is a dainty tender thing and soone snibd no marvell therefore if that heart be hard that has driven away the softning spirit 3. There is a judiciall hardness of heart a hardness that comes or rather is sent upon the heart by the just judgment of God to punish those other hardenesses the Lord does many times turne as it was reported whether true or false I know not our hearts as he did the people in Tripoly into stone in judgment as we see Es 63. 17. O Lord why hast thou made us to erre from thy
things yeild not feell not therefore hardnesse of heart and contempt of Gods word and commandment are linked together as a chainebullet to be prayed against in that excellent peice of our Leiturgy the Letany I shall therefore lay it down as a cleare symptome of a broken heart when it is sensible of its own hardness when it sighs and weepes and bleeds over it and prayes against it Ut amplius noâ— indurescat cor nostrum sed cedat tibi c. Forer as they Es 63. 17 O Lord why hast thou made us to erre from thy ways and hardened our hearts from thy feare return for thy servants sake O ther 's nothing speaks a broken heart more emphatically than a sense of and sorrow for its own hardness as Divines say of the sin against the holy Ghost that when a man is afraid he has committed it and grieves for it it is a signe he has not committed it so when a man complaines of a hard heart it is a blessed symptome his heart is not hard St Chrysostom has a passage to this purpose of a friend of his that came crying and bellowing to him beseeching him to helpe to break his hard heart O sayes the good Father the worke is done thou couldest never desire to have thy heart broken if it were not broken already Therefore if you wold know whether your heart be broken aske your selves this question whether you desire to have it broken from a sense of and sorrow for its hardnesse Sorrow is the great heart breaker under God whose hammer it is to breake this stone and therefore sorrow that thy heart is not broken is a signe thy heart is broken it is a signe that God has struck the the Rock when the water gushes out the weeping of the marble is a degree of softening at the least a prophesy of and a preparation to its crumbleing 2. Catechise your soul with this Interrogatory Whether you prize a broken heart or no He that never truly valued a broken heart never desired a broken heart and he that never desired a broken heart never had a broken heart There are two sorts of hearts that God chiefly prizes the upright heart and the contrite heart and these are inseparable for that heart can never be upright that never was contrite and therefore St. Bernard sayes I am daily a troublesome Question to my self 3. He that hath a broken heart his heart hath Joel 2. 12. Jer. 4. 3. been active in and to its own breaking Rent your hearts and not your garments do you rent them your selves Plough up your fallow ground and sow not among thornes do you your selves plough them up You are not to stay in an idle expectation that God would break your hearts for you The drunkard must not stay at his Cups till his Wine inflame him squander away his precious houres which must one day be sadly accounted for dishonour God abuse his mercies and perhaps wretchedly guzle down his Childrens bread and his Wives tears and think that God should pluck the Pot from his nose and drag him out by the ears break the knot of good fellows that so tyes him to his debaucheries that he may break his heart whether he will or no. The unclean person must not think that God should come 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and snatch him from his Dalilahs lap to Abrahams bosome and say he staies but till God will break his heart but he must pray and grieve and strive and avoid all occasions or else he doth like the See this and more in Dr. Heylâ—ng Hist Quinquart Lantgrave of Turing of whom Heistibachius tels us that being warnd of his lewd and loose life and the sadness of his condition if he should dye in his sins that he made this wretched answer Si praedestinatus sum nulla peccata poterunt regnum Caelorum auferre si praescitus nulla opera mihi illud valebunt auferre if I be elected no sins can hinder me from Heaven if I be reprobated no services can help me to it therefore you must be active in breaking your own hearts your own selves Quest But how shall we do it Alas we would do it withall our hearts if we knew how Sol. Why I will tell you you must do it by taking in all humbling and softning and heart-breaking considerations viz. the hatefulness of sin the deceitfulness of sin the deceitfulness of your own hearts the dreadfulness of wrath the goodness of God that leads to repentance and the severity of God if thou repent not But after thy hardnesse and impenitent Rom. 2. 4 5. heart treasurest up unto thy self wrath against the day of wrath Set the hammer of the word to this stone and see if that cannot break it Apply the Bloud of Christ warm by faith and see if that cannot break this Adamant Let the love of Christ break it as we do flints upon a pillow I know there is another way of breaking and melting the heart which God often uses but it is commonly when nothing else will But he that deserves and desires it let him have it They say indeed that fire will make flints run But ô it is a shame for us that weare the name of Christ in such large Phylacteries of a loud Profession should be overgrown with such a hardness as not to be made fusile and ductile malleable at least fit to take the impression of Gods stamp and image we have defaced without so intense a heat as a fiery Furnace 4. Whosoever's heart is broken nothing will satisfie Matth. 4. him but pardoning mercy Give him the Devils offer to Christ the world and all the glory of it All the splendor and grandeur the pomp peace plenty and pleasure the whole world can afford in all outward Accommodations are all empty Ciphers insignificant nothings to him till he sees God shine upon him in the face of Jesus Christ O nothing can binde up the wound of a broken heart but a sight of God reconciled in Jesus Christ God hath pardoned me Christ is mine Heaven is mine this alone will do the work and nothing till this of other mercies till this and without this he cries with Tertullian Suspectam habeo hanc Dei indulgentiam these are suspicious mercies I will have none of them and with St. Bernard Misericordiam hanc nolo Domine and as the Tradition goes of Thomas Aquinas Bene de me scripsisti Thoma quam ergo mercedem accipies Nullam Domine praeter teipsam Thomas thou hast written well of me what reward wilt thou have None but thy self Lord. Look upon a broken heart on his death-bed when his body is breaking into dust O the end of that man is peace see him Psalm 37. 37. entring upon the confines of eternity with what patience with what peace with what pleasure can he see the glory and beauty of the world melt and moulder away he can 〈◊〉 relations liberty nay
ashamed that the Prophet should think so ill of him was not ashamed to be as ill as he thought and doe as bad as he said A man would have thought that that tincture of grace that dye of shame that ingenuous blush which the Prophets eye had cast upon him had been the life-bloud of his broken heart that leaped into his face to write his innocence in a dominicall character that seasonable sally of modesty a man would have thought had been vertues colours but for all this he was so far from a bleeding heart that he had a bloudy heart a deceitfull heart lead him aside he could not fathom the depth Esay 44. 20. of his own heart The heart of man is deceitfull above all things and desperately wicked who can know it Jer. 17. 9. The word which we read deceitfull is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 from whence Jacob is derived that you know signifies supplanter and it has two very eminent senses in Scripture 1. It signifies crooked Es 40. 4. The crooked shall be made streight 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Your hearts are crooked hearts serpentine winding hearts the crooked serpent you know not where to have them The way to heaven is too narrow the gate to life too streight for such reeling riddling crooked pieces 2. It signifies treacherous Jos 8. 13. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Liers in wait Your hearts are treacherous hearts and lye in wait to deceive you your hearts are jugglers can cast a mist before you and make you think they are broken when they are utterly broke for want of breaking an ordinary legerdemaine and deceptio visus look to it O it is an unworthy thing for a man to be deceived but more to be deceived by himself by his own heart but most of all to be deceived by himself in so neere a concern as the breaking his own heart 2. Remember that God whose eye is in your heart and that is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 sees what course you take to break your hearts your hearts as false as they are cannot cheat him if you doe not pass a right judgment upon your hearts but burne them with a cold Iron pronounce them broken when they are not broken God will reverse your judgment repeal your sentence and break you because you are not broken 3. If you be deceived in this point of heart-breaking you will never thrive in the great work of Christianity if you judg not aright of your humiliation you will be mistaken in the whole work of your sanctification I was about to say of your salvation I will say of your satisfaction This is the fundamentall work of grace and it is in grace as it is in nature an error in the first concoction is not mended in the second 4. If you be deceived in this you are deceived for eternity the foolish virgins were so deceived and so eternally excluded I am â—ure that would be a great heart-breaking to you to see others in the Kingdome of Heaven and your selves thrust out And therfore be sure you use all the ways to break your hearts and be sure you use all the ways to be sure they are broken that they may be broken so as that you may goe in with the Bridegroome and not broken because you cannot goe in with the Bridegroome but see others goe in and your selves kept out Let us pray therfore to the heart-maker and to the heart-searcher who is the great heart-breaker that he would give us broken Spirits and contrite hearts that he would make them such Sacrifices as he will not despise Be it so Lord. Amen Amen FINIS
translate the righteous man and justly because meant of Abraham as the Caldee Paraphrase cleares it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Abraham the choise and famous man for righteousness And it alludes to that of Moses Deut. 33. 3. All his Saints are in thy hand and they sit down at thy feet every one shall receive of thy words that is are at thy feet in posture of servants and scholars that heare to learn and obey so obedient Abraham follows his master step by step wheresoever he goes as the Poet 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 2. The broken heart lyes at the foote of Gods will to suffer as well as to doe what he will he can dy for as well as doe and live to the will of God whether he please to delay or deny the good he has not or take away the good he has when a mans heart is broken from the world he is not sollicitous for any of the concernes of the world I am crucified to the world and the world to me saith St Paul And doe you thinke a man that is crucified or broken upon the wheele or rack will care much what his Cloathes or diet or room is The broken heart is at a point for all outward things he is content with any thing because he is nothing I have larned saith St Paul in whatsoever estate I am therewith to be content I know how to be abased and how to abound Phil. 4. 11. I have quieted my self as a child that is weaned from his mother my soul is even as a weaned child Psal 131. 3. I do not lament for the teates for the pleasant fields or fruitfull vines Esa 32. 12. I was a froward child indeed and cryed for all the fine things I saw but now I am broken from all these things weaned from the gay nothings that please the children of the world I am brought up by hand what my dear Father gives me that I take thankfully I eat and am satisfied and praise the Name of the Lord. The great heart-breaking of the men of the world is that they have not so great a share in the world as others Vicinumque pecus grandius uber habet Whereas the truly broken-hearted regards not what the world is to him or he is in the world O sayes the broken heart the very brokenness of my heart makes my heart whole 'T is true I am very poor my house poor my fare poor my all is poor but this doth not break my heart because my heart is broke for better things My heart is broken by God and for God the clefts of my broken heart hiatus cordis the desires of my heart are gaping after him Though I be poor I court not the God of riches but I gasp after the riches of God I am rich even in my poverty because I have a rich God and if he give me no more yet that I have is more then he owes me of debt and more then I can pay him for in duty When pride is never contented his house his cloathes his diet are never good enough because his heart is not broken He that is full of his own brokenness is broken from the worlds fulness like his Master Christ exinanivit seipsum he is full of nothing but his own emptiness and therefore sees nothing but emptiness in the worlds fulness He sees all is vanity and that truly the whole world is but a great nothing these outward things are all but phantasms they have no reall being in themselves but are only what we creat them in our fancyes besides meate and drinke and clothes all the rest is meerly opinion As the Preacher sayes Eccl. 5. 11. when goods increase they are increased that eat them and what good is there to the owners thereof saving the beholding of them with their eyes Loaden dishes swelling bowles gay clothes great houses vast rents numerous Retinue are nothing but what the worlds Gen 33. 9â— 11â— flattery and our own fancy creates them the Spirit of God calls them no more for when King Agrippa Bernice and Festus came in great state to hear St. Paul Act. 25. 23. When Agrippa was come and Bernice with great pomp it is in the Greek 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 with a great deal of fancy so true is that Arabick Proverb 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the world is not in the muches but in the enoughs Fortuna multis â—imium dedit nulli satis Many think they have never enough though they have never so much And therefore it is very observable how those two Brothers Jacob and Esau differ in their expressions in the Heb. when they seem to pass the same complement in our Translation Esau refuses Jacobs present because sayes he I have enough my Brother and Jacob presses it upon the same termes Take I pray thee my blessing c. because I have enough But Esau sayes 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 I have much but Jacobs is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 I have all Esau had much because he had a great deal but Jacob had all because he had enough which all had not been enough neither but that God was his all and that all makes not only much but enough of nothing and if God will give him nothing or take away that little 1 Sam. 3. 18. 2 Sam. 15. 26. Esa 3. Job 1. 21. more than nothing he has given him as he gave all so if he take away al from him It is the Lord sayes Eli. It is the Lord sayes David let him doe what seemeth good unto him God forbid that should seem ill to me that seems good to God Good is the word of the Lord saies Hezekiah The Lord gives and the Lord takes away sayes Job blessed be the name of the Lord. He gives thanks when God takes as well as gives when the Lord comes with a voiding knife and takes away his meate as well a when he layes his cloth and furnishes his table because his Grace is in his meale Thus you have seene the first high thoughts of God the Heart is broken into expressed in his humble submission to the will of God in being willing to doe and and suffer his will There remain four other perticulars in which a broken heart speaks loudly his high thoughts of God as 1 Sorrow for sinning against him 2 Shame as well as sorrow 3 Feare least he may sin again And 4 Prayer that he may not But this though a noble part of our frait to lighten our vessel and shorten our voyage I was content should be swallowed in the quick sands of the hourglasse and I will not weigh them up again for your eys that were drowned to your eares but rather tack about to the next point which is the 2 Thing How a man may judg whether his heart were ever throughly broken and truly contrite and I shall give you Four short Rules for this 1 Philosophers say Durum non cedit durum non sentit Hard