preaching, which cafts a vail over gospel-grace, is not the way to make good Chriftians. Joel lays the hearts of his hearers on mercy, then fetches his ftroke with the hammer of the law, and cries, chap. ii. 13. Rend your heart, and not your garments, and turn unto the Lord your God, for he is gracious and merciful, flow to anger, and of great kindness, and repenteth him of the evil.” But it is the Spirit of the Lord that carries home the stroke, else it will not do.-A broken heart is,

2. A pained heart, an aching heart: Acts, ii, 37. "When they heard this, they were pricked to the heart, and faid unto Peter and the rest of the apoftles, Men and brethren, what fhall we do?" Bruifing or breaking a living member is not without pain. God wounds the guilty conscience, that the finner may fee and find what an evil and bitter thing fin is: Jer. ii. 19. "Thine own wickedness shall correct thee, and thy backflidings fhall reprove thee; know therefore, and fee, that it is an evil thing and a bitter, that thou haft forfaken the Lord thy God, and that my fear is not in thee, faith the Lord God of hofts." The deeper that the wound is, the forer the heart is broken. It is pained with forrow: Prov. xv. 13. "By forrow of the heart the spirit is broken." A. broken heart is a forrowful heart for fin, for the offence given to God, the dishonour put on him by it, and the evil brought on one's felf.. Thus the broken-hearted finner is a mourning finner,' Zech. xii. 10. The spirit of heavinefs fits down on the man, till Chrift bind up his wound; his joy is turned into lamentation.--The heart is pain-ed also with remorfe for fin, Acts, ii. 37. Every remembrance of his folly gives him a twitch by the scourge of confcience. He calls himfelf fool and beast for so requiting the Lord. He is hear

tily

tily difpleafed with himfelf on that account: Job, xlii. 6. "Wherefore I abhor myself, and repent in duft and afhes." He fmites on his breast, as worthy to be pierced, Luke, xviii. 13.; and fmites on his thigh, as worthy to be broken for what he has done. Again, it is pained with anxiety and care how to be faved from fin: Acts, xvi. 30. "What fhall I do to be faved ?" It brings a burden of care upon his head, how to get the guilt removed, the power of it broken, and to get it expelled at length. Never was a man more anxious about the cure of a broken leg or arm, than the broken-hearted finner is to get his foul-wounds healed, and to be free of fin, which is his greatest crofs.-The heart is pained with longing defires after grace: Pfal. cxix. 20. " My foul breaketh for the longing that it hath unto thy judgements at all times." The broken-hearted finner, fenfible of his fpiritual wants, longs for the fupply of them, pants for it as a thirsty man for water; and the delay of answering these desires makes a fick heart: Prov. xiii. 12. "Hope deferred maketh the heart fick."-A broken heart is,

3. A fhameful heart. The whole heart in fin is impudent; but the broken heart is filled with fhame. Ezra faid, chap. ix. 6. "O my God, I am ashamed, and blush to lift up my face to thee, my God: for our iniquities are increased over our head, and our trefpafs is grown up unto the heavens." The man hangs down his head before the Lord, as not able to look up, Pfal. xl. 12. He fees himself stripped of his beautiful garments, and is afhamed of his fpiritual nakedness, and, with the publican, he cannot lift up his eyes. He is fallen into the mire, and is afhamed to come before God in his defilement, Ifa. lxiv. 6. His vain expectations from the way. of fin are baulked,

and

and fo he turns back afhamed. His reproach is difcovered, he is convicted of the bafeft ingratitude, and fo is filled with shame. As the thief is afhamed when he is found, fo is the house of Ifrael afhamed, Jer. ii. 26.-A broken heart is,

4. A foft and tender heart, for a broken and a hard heart are opposed to each other: Ezek. xxxvi. 26. "I will take away the ftony heart out of your flesh, and I will give you an heart of flesh." When the Spirit of the Lord breaks the heart with gofpel-grace, he melts it down, and softens it, takes away that ftoniness, stiffness, hardness, that cleaves to the heart in its natural state. The broken-hearted finner, however, will very probably say, Alas! I find my heart a hard heart.To this I anfwer, To find the hardness of heart, and to be weighted and grieved with it, is a fign of tenderness, even as groaning is a fign of life: 2 Cor. viii. 12. « For if there be firft a willing mind, it is accepted according to what a man hath, and not according to what he hath not." There is no heart in this world but there is some hardness in it. There may be tears where there is no broken heart, as in Efau, and there may be a broken and tender heart where tears are not. Try, therefore, the tendernefs of your hearts by the following marks.

Are your hearts kindly affected with providences? Thou meetest with a mercy, and it is a wonder to thee that the Lord fhould be fo kind to fuch an unworthy wretch.. Thou fayeft as Jacob, "I am not worthy of the least of all the mercies, and of all the truth, which thou hast thewed unto thy fervant," Gen. xxxii. 10. It melts thy heart into an earnest defire of holiness, knowing that the goodnefs of God leadeth thee to repentance. Again, thou meeteft with a rebuke of providence, fhewing thee that thou art

cut

out of the way, and thou darest not venture farther that way. This is a good fign: Prov. xvii. 10. "A reproof enters more into a wife man, than a hundred ftripes into a fool."--Again, do the threatenings of the Lord's word awe thy heart, not only in refpect of grofs outbreakings, but in the course of thy daily walk? Ifa. lxii. 2. "--but to this man will I look, even to him that is poor, and of a contrite fpirit, and trembleth at my word.” Art thou afraid of the Lord's displeasure more than of any thing else, and must thou ftand at a distance from these things which the world makes light of on that account? This is a fign of a tender heart. This reflection was comfortable to Job, chap. xxxi. 23. « For destruction from God was a terror unto me; and by reafon of his highness I could not endure." Now this had a tendency to keep him free from all fin.--Finally, have the Lord's commandments an awful authority on thy confcience, so that thou art tender of offending him, and trampling on them? A hard heart can easily digeft an offence against God, but a tender heart refpects all his commandments, Pfal. cxix. 6. A burnt child dreads the fire; and the finner whofe heart has been broken for fin dreads fin as the greatest evil. There are some who will be very tender at their prayers, it may be that they weep and pray; but then fearful untenderness appears in their ordinary walk. But fhew me the person who is in the fear of the Lord all the day long, who is afraid to fay or do an ill thing I fay, this is the tender person, though his prayers fhould be filled from beginning to end with complaints of hardness of heart; not the other: 1 John, v. 3. " For this is the love of God, that we keep his commandments; and his commandments are not grievous."-A broken heart is,

5. A