The Works of John Bunyan, vol 1 - John Bunyan (best self help books to read TXT) 📗

sweet, and sweet bitter; he judges quite amiss. These are they that God threateneth with a woe. ‘Woe unto them that call evil good, and good evil; that put darkness for light, and light for darkness; that put bitter for sweet, and sweet for bitter’ (Isa 5:20).

This latter part of this text shows us evidently that the things of God are disrelished by some. They call his sweet things bitter, and the devil’s bitter things sweet; and all this is for want of a broken heart. A broken heart relishes otherwise than a whole or unbroken one doth. A man that has no pain, or bodily distress, cannot find or feel virtue or good in the most sovereign plaister, were it applied to arm or leg; no, he rather says, Away with these stinking daubing things. O! but lay the same plaisters where there is need, and the patient will relish, and taste, and savour the goodness of them; yea, will prize and commend them to others.

Thus it is in spirituals. The world, they know not what the anguish or pain of a broken heart means; they say, ‘Who will show us any good,’ that is, better than we find in our sports, pleasures, estates, and preferments. ‘There be many,’ says the Psalmist, speak after this sort. But what says the distressed man? Why, ‘Lord, lift thou up the light of thy countenance upon us’; and then adds, ‘Thou hast put gladness in my heart’; namely, by the light of thy countenance, for that is the plaister for a broken heart. ‘Thou hast put gladness in my heart, more than in the time that their corn and their wine increaseth’ (Psa 4:1-7). O! a broken heart can savour pardon, can savour the consolations of the Holy Ghost.

Yea, as a hungry or thirsty man prizes bread and water in the want thereof, so do the broken in heart prize and set a high esteem on the things of the Lord Jesus. His flesh, his blood, his promise, and the light of his countenance, are the only sweet things both to scent and taste, to those that are of a wounded spirit. The full soul loatheth the honey-comb; the whole despise the gospel, they savour not the things that are of God.

If twenty men were to hear a pardon read, and but one of those twenty were condemned to die, and the pardon was for none but such; which of these men, think you, would taste the sweetness of that pardon, they who are not, or he that was condemned? The condemned man, doubtless. This is the case in hand. The broken in heart is a condemned man; yea, it is a sense of condemnation, with other things, that has indeed broken his heart; nor is there anything but sense of forgiveness that can bind it up, or heal it. But could that heal it, could he not taste, truly taste, or rightly relish this forgiveness? no; forgiveness would be to him as it is to him that has not sense of want of it.

But, I say, what is the reason some so prize what others so despise, since they both stand in need of the same grace and mercy of God in Christ? Why, the one sees, and the other sees nothing, of this woeful miserable state. And thus have I showed you the necessity of a broken heart. 1. Man is dead, and must be quickened. 2. Man is a fool, and must be made wise. 3. Man is proud, and must be humbled.

4. Man is self-willed, and must be broken. 5. Man is fearless, and must be made to consider. 6. Man is a false believer, and must be rectified. 7. Man is a lover of sin, and must be weaned from it.

8. Man is wild, and must be tamed. 9. Man disrelishes the things of God, and can take no savour in them, until his heart is broken.

[V. THE REASONS WHY A BROKEN HEART IS ESTEEMED BY GOD SUCH AN

EXCELLENT THING.]

And thus have I done with this, and shall come next to the reasons of the point, namely, to show you, why or how it comes to pass, that a broken heart, a heart truly contrite, is to God such an excellent thing. That to him it is so, we have proved by six demonstrations; what it is, we have showed by the six signs thereof; that it must be, is manifest by those nine reasons but now urged; and why it is with God or in his esteem an excellent thing, that is shown by that which follows.

First. A broken heart is the handiwork of God; an heart of his own preparing, for his own service; it is a sacrifice of his own providing, of his providing for himself; as Abraham said in another case, ‘God will provide himself a lamb’ (Gen 22:8).

Hence it is said, ‘The preparations of the heart in man, &c., is from the Lord.’ And again, ‘God maketh my heart soft, and the Almighty troubleth me’ (Job 23:16). The heart, as it is by nature hard, stupid, and impenetrable, so it remains, and so will remain, until God, as was said, bruiseth it with his hammer, and melts it with his fire. The stony nature of it is therefore said to be taken away of God. ‘I will take away the stony heart out of your flesh, and I will give you,’ saith he, ‘an heart of flesh’ (Eze 36:26). I will take away the stony heart, or the stoniness, or the hardness of your heart, and I will give you a heart of flesh; that is, I will make your heart sensible, soft, wieldable, governable, and penitent.

Sometimes he bids men rend their hearts, not because they can, but to convince them rather, that though it must be so, they cannot do it; so he bids them make themselves a new heart, and a new spirit, for the same purpose also; for if God doth not rend it, it remains unrent; if God makes it not new, it abides an old one still.

This is that that is meant by his bending of men for himself, and of his working in them that which is pleasing in his sight (Zech 9:13). The heart, soul, or spirit, as in itself, as it came from God’s fingers, a precious thing, a thing in God’s account worth more than all the world. This heart, soul, or spirit, sin has hardened, the devil has bewitched, the world has deceived. This heart, thus beguiled, God coveteth and desireth: ‘My son,’ saith he, ‘give me thine heart, and let thine eyes observe my ways’ (Prov 23:26).

This man cannot do this thing: for that his heart has the mastery of him, and will not but carry him after all manner of vanity. What now must be done? Why, God must take the heart by storm, by power, and bring it to a compliance with the Word; but the heart of itself will not; it is deluded, carried away to another than God.

Wherefore God now betakes him to his sword, and bring down the heart with labour, opens it, and drives out the strong man armed that did keep it; wounds it; and makes it smart for its rebellion, that it may cry; so he rectifies it for himself. ‘He maketh sore, and bindeth up; he woundeth, and his hands make whole’ (Job 5:18).

Thus having wrought it for himself, it becomes his habitation, his dwelling-place: ‘That Christ may dwell in your hearts by faith’

(Eph 3:17).

But I would not swerve from the thing in hand. I have told you a broken heart is the handiwork of God, a sacrifice of his own preparing; a material fitted for himself.

1. By breaking of the heart he openeth it, and makes it a receptacle for the graces of his Spirit; that is the cabinet, when unlocked, where God lays up the jewels of the gospel; there he puts his fear; ‘I will put my fear in their hearts’; there he writes his law; ‘I will write my law in their heart’; there he puts his Spirit: ‘I will put my Spirit within you’ (Jer 31:31-33, 32:39-41; Eze 36:26,27).

The heart, I say, God chooses for his cabinet: there he hides his treasure; there is the seat of justice, mercy, and of every grace of God; I mean, when it is broken, made contrite; and so regulated by the holy Word.

2. The heart, when broken, is like sweet gums and spices when beaten; for as such cast their fragrant scent into the nostrils of men, so the heart when broken casts its sweet smells in the nostrils of God. The incense, which was a type of prayer of old, was to be beaten or bruised, and so to be burned in the censer. The heart must be beaten or bruised, and then the sweet scent will come out: even groans, and cries, and sighs, for the mercy of God; which cries, &c. to him, are a very excellent thing, and pleasing in his nostrils.

Second. A broken heart is in the sight of God an excellent thing; because a broken heart is submissive; it falleth before God, and giveth to him his glory. All this is true from a multitude of scriptures, which I need not here mention. Hence such a heart is called an honest heart, a good heart, a perfect heart, a heart fearing God, and such as is sound in God’s statutes.

Now, this cannot but be an excellent thing, if we consider, that by such a heart, unfeigned obedience is yielded unto him that calleth for it. ‘Ye have obeyed from the heart,’ says Paul to them at Rome, ‘that form of doctrine which was delivered you’ (Rom 6:17). Alas!

the heart, before it is broken and made contrite, is quite of another temper: ‘It is not subject to the law of God, neither indeed can be.’ The great stir before the heart is broken, is about who shall be Lord, God or the sinner. True, the right of dominion is the Lord’s; but the sinner will not suffer it, but will be all himself; saying ‘Who is Lord over us?’ and again, say they to God, ‘We are lords, we will come no more unto thee’ (Psa 12:4; Jer 2:31).

This also is evident by their practice; God may say what he will, but they will do what they list. Keep my sabbath, says God; I will not, says the sinner. Leave your whoring, says God; I will not, says the sinner. Do not tell lies, nor swear, nor curse, nor blaspheme my holy name, says God; O but I will, says the sinner. Turn to me, says God; I will not, says the sinner. The right of dominion is mine, says God; but, like that young rebel (1 Kings 1:5), I will be king, says the sinner. Now, this is intolerable, this is unsufferable, and yet every sinner by practice says thus; for they have not submitted themselves unto the righteousness of God.

Here can be no concord, no communion, no agreement, no fellowship.

Here, here is enmity on the one side, and flaming justice on the other (2 Cor 6:14-16; Zech 11:8). And what delight, what content, what pleasure, can God take in such men. None at all; no, though they should be mingled with the best of the saints of God; yea, though the best of saints should supplicate for them. Thus, says Jeremiah, ‘Then said the Lord unto me, Though Moses and Samuel stood before me,’ that is, to pray for them, ‘yet my mind could not be toward this people; cast them out of my sight, and let them go forth’ (Jer 15:1).

Here is nought but open war, acts of hostility, and shameful rebellion, on