The Excellency of a Broken Heart (2)

— continued —

I come now to another sign of a broken and contrite man.

2. And that is, he is a very sorrowful man. Thus, as the other is natural, it is natural to one that is in pain, and that has his bones broken, to be a grieved and sorrowful man. He is none of the jolly ones of the times, nor can he be, for his bones, his heart is broken.

(1) He is sorry that he feels and finds in himself a pravity of nature. I told you before, he is sensible of it, he sees it, he feels it; and here I say, he is sorry for it. It is this that makes him call himself, wretched man! it is this that makes him loathe and abhor himself; it is this that makes him blush — blush before God, and be ashamed (Romans 7:24; Job 42:5,6; Ezekiel 36:31).

He finds by nature no form nor comeliness in himself; but the more he looks in the glass of the Word, the more unhandsome, the more deformed he perceiveth sin has made him. Everybody does not see this, therefore everybody is not sorry for it: but the broken in heart sees that he is by sin corrupted, marred, full of lewdness and naughtiness; he sees that in him, that is, in his flesh, dwells no good thing, and this makes him sorry, yea, it makes him sorry at heart. A man that has his bones broken finds he is spoiled, marred, disabled from doing as he would and should, at which he is grieved and made sorry.

Many are sorry for actual transgressions because they do oft bring them to shame before men; but few are sorry for the defects that sin has made in nature, because they see not those defects themselves. A man cannot be sorry for the sinful defects of nature till he sees they have rendered him contemptible to God, nor is it anything but a sight of God that can make him truly see what he is, and so be heartily sorry for being so. Now “mine eyes see Thee,” said Job; “now I abhor myself.” “Woe is me, I am undone,” said the prophet, “for mine eyes have seen the Lord, the King.” And it was this that made Daniel say, his comeliness in him was turned into corruption; for he had now the vision of the Holy One (Job 42:6; Isaiah 6:1-5; Daniel 10:8).

Visions of God break the heart, because by the sight the soul then has of His perfections, it sees its own infinite and unspeakable disproportion, because of the vileness of its nature.

Suppose a company of ugly, uncomely, deformed persons dwelt together in one house, and suppose that they never yet saw any man or woman more than themselves, that were arrayed with the splendors and perfections of nature; these would not be capable of comparing themselves with any but themselves and consequently would not be affected, and made sorry, for their uncomely, natural defections. But now, bring them out of their cells and holes of darkness where they have been shut up by themselves, and let them take a view of the splendor and perfections of beauty that are in others, and then, if at all, they will be sorry and dejected at the view of their own defects.

This is the case: men by sin are marred, spoiled, corrupted, depraved, but they dwell by themselves in the dark; they see neither God, nor angel, nor saint in their excellent nature and beauty; and therefore they are apt to count their own uncomely parts their ornaments and their glory. But now, let such, as I said, see God, see saints, or the ornaments of the Holy Ghost, and themselves as they are without them, and then they cannot but be affected with, and sorry for, their own deformity. When the Lord Christ put forth but little of His excellency before His servant Peter’s face, it raised up the depravity of Peter’s nature before him, to his great confusion and shame, and made him cry out to Him in the midst of all his fellows, “Depart from me; for I am a sinful man, O Lord” (Luke 5:4-8).

This, therefore, is the cause of a broken heart, even a sight of Divine excellences, and a sense that I am a poor, depraved, spoiled, defiled wretch; and this sight, having broken the heart, begets sorrow in the brokenhearted.

(2) The brokenhearted is a sorrowful man, for that he finds his depravity of nature strong in him, to the putting forth itself to oppose and overthrow what his changed mind doth prompt him to. “When I would do good,” said Paul, “evil is present with me” (Romans 7:21). Evil is present to oppose, to resist, and to make head against the desires of my soul. The man that has his bones broken may have yet a mind to be industriously occupied in a lawful and honest calling, but he finds by experience that an infirmity attends his present condition that strongly resists his good endeavors; and at this he shakes his head, makes complaints, and with sorrow of heart he sighs and says, “I cannot do the thing that I would” (Romans 7:15; Galatians 5:17).

I am weak, I am feeble, I am not only depraved, but by that depravity deprived of ability to put good motions, good intentions and desires into execution, to completeness: Oh, says he, I am ready to halt, my sorrow is continually before me.

You must know, the brokenhearted loves God, loves his soul, loves good, and hates evil. Now, for such a one to find in himself an opposition and continual contradiction to this holy passion, it must needs cause sorrow; “godly sorrow,” as the apostle Paul calls it. For such are made sorry after a godly sort. To be sorry for that thy nature is with sin depraved, and that through this depravity thou art deprived of ability to do what the Word and thy holy mind doth prompt thee to, is to be sorry after a godly sort; for this sorrow worketh that in thee, of which thou wilt never have cause to repent; no, not to eternity (2 Corinthians 7:9-11).

(3) The brokenhearted man is sorry for those breaches that, by reason of the depravity of his nature, are made in his life and conversation. And this was the case of the man in our text. The vileness of his nature had broken out to the defiling of his life, and to the making of him at this time base in conversation. This, this was it that did all to break his heart.

He saw in this he had dishonored God, and that cut him: “Against Thee, Thee only, have I sinned, and done this evil in Thy sight” (Psalm 51:4). He saw in this he had caused the enemies of God to open their mouths and blaspheme; and this cut him to the heart. This made him cry, “I have sinned against Thee, Lord”; this made him say, “I will declare mine iniquity, I will be sorry for my sin” (Psalm 38:18).

When a man is designed to do a matter, when his heart is set upon it — and the brokenhearted doth design to glorify God — an obstruction to that design, the spoiling of this work, makes him sorrowful. Hannah coveted children, but she could not have them, and this made her “a woman of a sorrowful spirit” (1 Samuel 1:15).

A brokenhearted man would be well inwardly and do that which is well outwardly, but he feels, he finds, he sees he is prevented, prevented at least in part. This makes him sorrowful; in this he groans, groans earnestly, being burdened with his imperfection (2 Corinthians 8:1-3).

You know, one with broken bones has many imperfections, and is more sensible of them, too, (as was said afore) than any other man; and this makes him sorrowful, yea, and makes him conclude, “that he shall go softly all his days in the bitterness of his soul” (Isaiah 38:15).

— to be continued —

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