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SERMON XVI.

THE BROKEN HEART.

"The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit: a broken and a contrite heart, O God, thou wilt not despise."-PSALM li. 17.

No psalm expresses more fully the experience of a penitent believing soul:-1st, His humbling confession of sin, verses 3, 4, 5; 2d, His intense desire for pardon through the blood of Christ, v. 7; 3d, His longing after a clean heart, v. 10; 4th, His desire to render something to God for all his benefits. 1. He says, I will teach transgressors thy ways; 2. My lips shall show forth thy praise; 3. He will give a broken heart, verses 16, 17. Just as, long ago, they used to offer slain lambs in token of thanksgiving, so he says he will offer up to God a slain and broken heart. Every one of you, who has found the same forgiveness, should come to the same resolution—offer up to God this day a broken heart.

I. The natural heart is sound and unbroken.

The law-the gospel-mercies-afflictions-death-do not break the natural heart. It is harder than stone-there is nothing in the universe so hard. Isaiah xlvi. 12, "Ye stouthearted, that are far from righteousness." Zech. i. 11, "We have walked to and fro through the earth, and behold all the earth sitteth still and is at rest." Zeph. i. 12, "I will search Jerusalem with candles, and punish the men that are settled on their lees." Jer. v. 3," They have made their faces harder than a rock." Isaiah xxxii. 10," Careless women;" verse 11, women that are at ease."

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Why?-1st, The veil is upon their hearts.

They do not

believe the Bible-the strictness of the law-the wrath to

come-the face of a covering is over their eyes. 2d, Satan has possession. Satan carries the seed away. 3d, Dead in trespasses and sins. The dead hear not-feel not-they are past feeling. 4th, They build a wall of untempered mortar. They hope for safety in some refuge of lies-that they pray, or give alms.

Pray God to keep away from you the curse of a dead, unbroken heart. 1st, Because it will not last long-you are standing on slippery places-the waves are below your feet. 2d, Because Christ will laugh at your calamity. If you were now concerned, there is hope. Ministers and Christians are ready-Christ is ready; but afterwards he will laugh.

II. The awakened heart is wounded, not broken.

1. The law makes the first wound.—When God is going to save a soul, he brings the soul to reflect on his sins. "Cursed is every one," &c. "Whatsoever things the law saith," &c. "I was alive without the law once," &c. Life and heart appear in awful colours.

2. The majesty of God makes the next wound.-The sinner is made sensible of the great and holy being against whom he has sinned. 66 Against thee," Psa. li. 4.

3. The third wound is from his own helplessness to make himself better.-Still the heart is not broken-the heart rises against God. 1st, Because of the strictness of the law; 2d, Because faith is the only way of salvation, and is the gift of God; 3d, Because God is Sovereign, and may save or not as he will. This shows the unbroken heart. There is no more miserable state than this.

Learn-It is one thing to be awakened, and another thing to be saved. Do not rest in convictions.

III. The believing heart is a broken heart two ways. 1. It is broken from its own righteousness.—When the Holy Spirit leads a man to the Cross, his heart there breaks from seeking salvation by his own righteousness. All his burden of performances and contrivances drops. 1st, The work of Christ appears so perfect-the wisdom of God and the power of God-divine righteousness. "I wonder that I

should ever think of any other way of salvation. If I could have been saved by my own duties, my whole soul would now have refused it. I wonder that all the world did not see and comply with this way of salvation by the righteousness of Christ."-(Brianard, p. 319.) 2d, The grace of Christ appears so wonderful. That all this righteousness should be free to such a sinner! That I so long neglected, despised, hated it, put mountains between, and yet that he has come over the mountains! Ezek. xvi. 63, "That thou mayest remember and be confounded, and never open thy mouth any more because of thy shame, when I am pacified toward thee for all that thou hast done." Have you this broken heart— broken within sight of the Cross ? It is not a look into your own heart, or the heart of hell, but into the heart of Christ that breaks the heart. Oh, pray for this broken heart! Boasting is excluded. To Him be glory! Worthy is the Lamb! All the struggles of a self-righteous soul are to put the crown on your own head instead of at the feet of Jesus.

2. Broken from love of sin.-When a man believes on Christ, he then sees sin to be hateful. 1st, It separated between him and God, made the great gulph, and kindled the fires of hell. 2d, It crucified the Lord of Glory-weighed down his soul-made him sweat, and bleed, and die. 3d, It is the plague of his heart now. All my unhappiness is from my being a sinner. Now he mourns sore like a dove, that he should sin against so much love. "Then shall ye remember your ways, and all your doings wherein ye have been defiled, and shall loathe yourselves in your own sight."

IV. Advantages of a broken heart.

1. It keeps you from being offended at the preaching of the Cross. A natural heart is offended every day at the preaching of the Cross. Many of you, I have no doubt, hate it. The preaching of another's righteousness-that you must have it or perish-many, I have no doubt, are often enraged at this in their hearts. Many, I doubt not, have left this church on account of it, and many more, I doubt not, will follow. All the offence of the Cross is not ceased. But a broken heart cannot be offended. Ministers cannot speak too plainly for a broken heart. A broken heart would sit for ever to hear of the righteousness without works.

Many of you are offended when we preach plainly against sin. Many were offended last Sabbath. But a broken heart cannot be offended, for it hates sin worse than ministers can make it. Many are like the worshippers of Baal—“ Bring forth thy son that he may die," Judges vi. 30. But a broken heart loves to see the idol stamped upon and beaten small.

2. A broken heart is at rest.-The unconverted heart is like the troubled sea-" Who will show us any good?" It is going from creature to creature. The awakened soul is not at rest-sorrows of death, pains of hell, attend those who are forgetting their resting-place. But the broken heart says, "Return unto thy rest, O my soul." The righteousness of Christ takes away every fear-" casts out fear." Even the plague of the heart cannot truly disturb, for he casts his burden on Jesus.

3. Nothing can happen wrong to it.-To the unconverted, how dreadful is a sick-bed, poverty, death-tossed, like a wild beast in a net! But a broken heart is satisfied with Christ. This is enough—he has no ambition for more.

all, this remains.

He is a weaned child.

Take away

SERMON XVII.

"The wicked are estranged from the womb: they go astray as soon as they be born, speaking lies. Their poison is like the poison of a serpent; they are like the deaf adder that stoppeth her ear, which will not hearken to the voice of charmers, charming never so wisely."-PSALM lviii. 3-5.

It has been supposed by some interpreters that this psalm was written as a prophetic description of the unjust judges who condemned our Lord Jesus Christ. 1. It begins by reproving them for their unjust judgment. Verse 1, “Do ye indeed," &c. 2. It opens up the dark recesses of their heart and history; verse 3, "The wicked are estranged from the womb;" &c. And 3. It shows their coming destruction; verse 10, "The righteous shall rejoice when he seeth the vengeance; he shall wash his feet in the blood of the wicked.' However this may, they were of the same nature with us. The Scribes and Pharisees who condemned our Lord had hearts of the same kind as ours, so that we may learn this day the awful depravity of the heart of man.

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I. Original depravity.-Verse 3, "The wicked are estranged from the womb." The expression "from the womb" occurs frequently in Scripture, and means from the very first period of our existence. The angel of the Lord said to the wife of Manoah, Judges xiii. 5, "The child shall be a Nazarite unto God from the womb;" that is, from the very first point of its existence. God says to Jeremiah (i. 5), Before I formed thee in the belly I knew thee; and before thou camest forth out of the womb I sanctified thee; and ordained thee a prophet unto the nations." Jeremiah was set apart as a prophet before he was born. Paul says, Gal. i. 15, “But when it pleased God, who separated me from my mother's womb, and called me by his grace, to reveal his Son in me. Paul was set apart by God for the work of the ministry from the very first. So, in the words before us, it is declared that from the very first we are estranged from God. Now, this estrangement is twofold.

estranged from God. The natural man is God is a stranger to

1. Of the head.-The whole mind is "At that time ye were without God." ignorant of God from the very womb. him, so that he does not know him. He has no true discovery of God's infinite purity, of his immutable justice, and of the strictness of the law. He does not know the love of God, nor how freely he has provided a Saviour. He is mainly ignorant of God. Psalm x. 4, "God is not in all his thoughts."

Either he does not turn his mind upon God at all, or else he thinks him altogether such an one as himself. "There is none that understandeth." Psalm xiv. 2.

2. Of the heart.-A new born child will naturally feel after its mother's breast: it naturally seeks the breast But it does not in the same manner seek after God. "There is none that seeketh after God." From the very first we dislike God. A child soon comes to relish the presence of its earthly parents, and of other children. It does not relish the presence of God. The natural tendency of the heart is to go away from God, and to remain out of his sight. A natural man does not like the presence of a very eminent saint. If he has full liberty, he will leave the room, and seek other company more suited to his taste. This is the very way he treats God. God is too holy for him-he is too pure—and, therefore, he does all he can to leave his company. This is the reason you cannot get unconverted men to pray in secret. They would rather spend half an hour in the tread-mill every morning than go to meet God. This is the true condition of every one of you who is now unconverted; indeed it was the condition of us all, but some of you have been brought out of is. From the time you were in the womb, till now, your whole head and heart have been turned away from God. Gen. viii. 21, “The imagination of man's heart is evil from his youth," &c. Job xiv. 4, "Who can bring a clean thing out of an unclean, not one ?" Your whole nature is totally depraved. You are accustomed to think that you have some parts good; that though some part was depraved, yet some part sick, the whole heart is faint. Your whole history remained sound; but learn that the whole head is covered with sin. You are accustomed to think that great part of your life has been innocent. You admit that some pages of your life are stained with crimson and scarlet sins-some pages you blush to look back upon-but surely you have some fair leaves also. Learn that 66 you are estranged from the womb.' Every moment you have spent without God, and turning away from God-every page has got this written at the top of it, This day God was not in all his thoughts, he did not like to retain God in his knowledge. Genesis vi. 5, "Every imagination of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually."

II. Actual sin―" They go astray," &c.-There are two paths from which every natural man goes astray as soon as born.

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