7. Defertions, hidings of the Lord's face, and interruptions of the foul's communion with God. See how breaking thefe are, Ifa. liv. 6. "For the Lord hath called thee, as a woman forfaken and grieved in fpirit, and a wife of youth, when thou waft refufed, faith thy God." Sometimes the foul is brought very low by defertions, and ready to give up all for loft: Lam. iii. 18. « And faid, My ftrength and my hope is perifhed from the Lord." This is a bitter root, fpringing up from fin, and branches forth divers ways, all of them breaking to a fenfible foul.-There is fpiritual deadnefs, Song, v. 2. Influences from heaven are restrained, and fo the heart is bound up as with bands of iron and brafs. They cannot either believe, love, or mourn acceptably. All that remains is a fecret diffatisfaction with their own cafe, only a figh or a groan, because they cannot believe, love, or practice, as they know to be required of them, faying, Ifa. lxiii. 17. " O Lord, why haft thou made us to err from thy ways, and hardened our hearts from thy fear?"? This is breaking. Next there is, prayers fhut out, Lam. iii. 8." Alfo when I cry and fhout, he fhutteth out my prayer.". While a Chriftian has access to God by prayer, and can pour his complaints into his bofom, whatsoever be his cafe, he has not fo much to complain of. Thus Hannah, after the had done fo, went her way and did eat, and her countenance was no more fad. This alfo encourages them to wait upon the Lord, Micah, vii. 7. But when the door of accefs feems to be fhut, and a thick cloud is drawn about the throne, this is breaking: Lam. iii. 44. "Thou haft covered thyfelf with a cloud, that our prayer fhould not pass through." This made Zion fay, Ifa. xlix. 14. "The Lord hath forfaken me, and H 3 my

And Pfal. xx. 2.

my Lord hath forgotten me." "My God, my God, why haft thou forfaken me? why art thou fo far from helping me, and from the words of my roaring ?"-Again, there is wrath apprehended, the terrors of God feizing on the foul. "The arrows of the Almighty," faid Job, "are within me, the poifon whereof drinketh up my fpirit, the terrors of God do fet themselves against me," ch. vi. 4. This is of all terrors the most terrible, and what heart can remain whole under it? Prov. xviii. 14. "The spirit of a man will fuftain his infirmities, but a wounded spirit who can bear?" See how Heman was broken under this, Pfal. lxxxviii. 15. "I am afflicted and ready to die from my youth up: while I fuffer thy terrors, I am distracted." It made Job, a grave folid man, of extraordinary piety, cry out in the congregation, as unable to contain himself, chap. xxx. 29. 30. 31. "I am a brother to dragons, and a companion to owls: My fkin is black upon me, and my bones are burned with heat. My harp alfo is turned to mourning, and my organ into the voice of them that weep."Finally, there are temptations dogging the foul, the more vile and horrid thefe are, the more dreadful. Sometimesthe Lord loofes Satan's chains, and he is let almost loose on a Chriftian, 1 Cor. xii. 7. Hence there are fiery darts shot into the heart, extraordinary temptations as to faith or practice, Ephef. vi. 16.; and thefe, though repelled, yet coming back as if a fiege were laid to the foul, by an army refolved to mafter the town. And when withal, one is left often to fall under these, this is most breaking to a gracious foul--There is,

Laftly, To fam up all in a word, a Chriftian's finfulness, with the bitter fruits fpringing from his fin; these are what are breaking to his heart.

He

:

He is not what God would, nor what he would have himself to be. He is diffatisfied with himfelf, yet cannot right his case Rom. vii. 19. "For that which I do, I allow not; for what I would, that I do not; but what I hate, that do I." He brings miferies on himself by his fin, and therefore is fadly broken under the thought of his cafe. We now proceed,

III. To fhew what fort of a heart a broken heart is. As to this we obferve,,

li.

1. That it is a contrite or bruised heart: Pfal. 17. "The facrifices of God are a broken spirit; a broken and a contrite heart, O God, thou wilt. not defpife." Not only broken in pieces like a rock, but broken to powder, and fo fit to receive. any impreffion: So the word fignifies. The heart, though before sometimes like an adamant,, which mercies could not melt, nor judgements terrify, is now kindly broken and bruifed betwixt. the upper and nether mill-ftone ;-the upper millftone of the law, a fenfe of God's wrath against fin;; and-the nether mill-ftone of the gofpel, of divine love, mercy, and favour, manifested in word. and providences. If one going to break a hard: ftone, would lay it firm upon another hard ftone,. which will not yield underneath it, then, when you ftrike, it will either not break at all, or if it do,. it will not break in shivers: But either lay it hollow, or on a foft bed, and it will break all in fhivers. Thus, lay the hard heart upon the hardlaw, and strike it with the most dreadful threatenings of hell and damnation, it either will not break at all, or at least it will not break fmall.. But lay the hard heart on the bed of the gofpel of mercy and love, and then let the hammer of the law ftrike, the heart will go afunder. Legal preaching,