Works of John Bunyan Volume I Part 175

SHOWING THE NATURE, SIGNS, AND PROPER EFFECTS OF A CONTRITE SPIRIT.

BEING THE LAST WORKS OF THAT EMINENT PREACHER AND FAITHFUL MINISTER OF JESUS CHRIST, MR. JOHN BUNYAN, OF BEDFORD.

WITH A PREFACE PREFIXED THEREUNTO BY AN EMINENT MINISTER OF THE GOSPEL IN LONDON.

London: Sold by George Larkin, at the Two Swans without Bishopgates, 1692.

ADVERTIs.e.m.e.nT BY THE EDITOR.

The very excellent preface to this treatise, written by George c.o.kayn, will inform the reader of the melancholy circ.u.mstances under which it was published, and of the author's intention, and mode of treatment. Very little more need be said, by way of introducing to our readers this new edition of Bunyan's Excellency of a Broken Heart. George c.o.kayn was a gospel minister in London, who became eventually connected with the Independent denomination. He was a learned man--brought up at the university--had preached before the House of Commons--was chaplain to that eminent statesman and historian, Whitelocke--was rector of St. Pancras, Soper Lane--remarkable for the consistency of his conduct and piety of his life--but as he dared not to violate his conscience, by conformity to ceremonies or creeds which he deemed antichristian, he suffered under persecution, and, with upwards of two thousand G.o.dly ministers, was ejected from his living, and thrown upon the care of Divine Providence for daily food. The law ordered him to be silent, and not to set forth the glories of his Saviour; but his heavenly Father had ordained him to preach. There was no hesitation as to whom he would obey. At the risk of imprisonment, transportation, and death, he preached; and G.o.d honoured his ministry, and he became the founder of a flouris.h.i.+ng church in Hare Court, London. His preface bears the date of September, 1688; and, at a good old age, he followed Bunyan to the celestial city, in 1689. It is painful to find the author's Baptist friends keeping aloof because of his liberal sentiments; but it is delightful to witness the hearty affection with which an Independent minister recommends the work of a Baptist; and truly refres.h.i.+ng to hear so learned a man commending most earnestly the work of a poor, unlettered, but gigantic brother in the ministry.

Surely there is water enough connected with that controversy to quench any unholy fire that differences of opinion might ignite.

George c.o.kayn appears to have possessed much a kindred spirit with John Bunyan. Some of his expressions are remarkably Bunyanish. Thus, when speaking of the jailor, 'who was a most barbarous, hard-hearted wretch; yet, when G.o.d came to deal with him, he was soon tamed, and his heart became exceeding soft and tender.' And when alluding to the Lord's voice, in softening the sinner's heart, he says: 'This is a glorious work indeed, that hearts of stone should be dissolved and melted into waters of G.o.dly sorrow, working repentance.'

The subject of a broken heart is one of vital importance, because it is essential to salvation. The heart, by nature, is hard, and cannot, and will not break itself. Angels have no power to perform this miracle of mercy and of justice. It is the work of the Holy Spirit in the NEW BIRTH. Some have supposed that G.o.d always prepares the heart for this solemn, this important change, by a stroke of his providence; but it is not so. Who dares limit the Almighty? He takes his own way with the sinner--one by a whisper, another by a hurricane. Some are first alarmed by the preaching of the Word--many by conversation with a pious friend or neighbour; some by strokes of Providence--but all are led to a prayerful searching of the holy oracles, until there, by the enlightening influence of the Spirit, they find consolation. The great question is, not as to the means, but the fact--Have I been born again? Have I been grafted into Christ? Do I bring forth the fruits of G.o.dliness in mourning over my sins, and, in good words and works, am I a living epistle known and read of all--men, angels, devils--and of the Omniscient G.o.d?

These are the all-important inquiries which, I trust, will deeply influence every reader. Let two of Bunyan's remarks make an indelible impression on every mind: 'G.o.d will break ALL hearts for sin, either here to repentance and happiness, or in the world to come to condemnation and misery.' 'Consider thou must die but once; I mean but once as to this world, for if thou, when thou goest hence, dost not die well, thou canst not come back again and die better.' May our spirits be baptized into these solemn truths, and our broken hearts be an acceptable sacrifice to G.o.d.

GEO. OFFOR.

A PREFACE TO THE READER.

The author of the ensuing discourse--now with G.o.d, reaping the fruit of all his labour, diligence, and success, in his Master's service--did experience in himself, through the grace of G.o.d, the nature, excellency, and comfort of a truly broken and contrite spirit. So that what is here written is but a transcript out of his own heart: for G.o.d--who had much work for him to do--was still hewing and hammering him by his Word, and sometimes also by more than ordinary temptations and desertions. The design, and also the issue thereof, through G.o.d's goodness, was the humbling and keeping of him low in his own eyes. The truth is, as himself sometimes acknowledged, he always needed the thorn in the flesh, and G.o.d in mercy sent it him, lest, under his extraordinary circ.u.mstances, he should be exalted about measure; which perhaps was the evil that did more easily beset him than any other. But the Lord was pleased to overrule it, to work for his good, and to keep him in that broken frame which is so acceptable unto him, and concerning which it is said, that 'He healeth the broken in heart, and bindeth up their wounds' (Psa 147:3). And, indeed, it is a most necessary qualification that should always be found in the disciples of Christ, who are most eminent, and as stars of the first magnitude in the firmament of the church. Disciples, in the highest form of profession, need to be thus qualified in the exercise of every grace, and the performance of every duty. It is that which G.o.d doth princ.i.p.ally and more especially look after, in all our approaches and accesses to him. It is to him that G.o.d will look, and with him G.o.d will dwell, who is poor, and of a contrite spirit (Isa 57:15, 66:2). And the reason why G.o.d will manifest so much respect to one so qualified, is because he carries it so becomingly towards him. He comes and lies at his feet, and discovers a quickness of sense, and apprehensiveness of whatever may be dishonourable and distasteful to G.o.d (Psa 38:4).

And if the Lord doth at any time but shake his rod over him, he comes trembling, and kisses the rod, and says, 'It is the Lord; let him do what seemeth him good' (1 Sam 3:18). He is sensible he hath sinned and gone astray like a lost sheep, and, therefore, will justify G.o.d in his severest proceedings against him. This broken heart is also a pliable and flexible heart, and prepared to receive whatsoever impressions G.o.d shall make upon it, and is ready to be moulded into any frame that shall best please the Lord. He says, with Samuel, 'Speak, Lord, for thy servant heareth' (1 Sam 3:10).

And with David, 'When thou saidst, Seek ye my face; my heart said unto thee, Thy face, Lord, will I seek' (Psa 27:8). And so with Paul, who tremblingly said, 'Lord, what wilt thou have me to do?'

(Acts 9:6).

Now, therefore, surely such a heart as this is must needs be very delightful to G.o.d. He says to us, 'My son, give me thine heart'

(Prov 23:26). But, doubtless, he means there a broken heart: an unbroken heart we may keep to ourselves; it is the broken heart which G.o.d will have us to give to him; for, indeed, it is all the amends that the best of us are capable of making, for all the injury we have done to G.o.d in sinning against him. We are not able to give better satisfaction for breaking G.o.d's laws, than by breaking our own hearts; this is all that we can do of that kind; for the blood of Christ only must give the due and full satisfaction to the justice of G.o.d for what provocations we are at any time guilty of; but all that we can do is to accompany the acknowledgments we make of miscarriages with a broken and contrite spirit. Therefore we find, that when David had committed those two foul sins of adultery and murder, against G.o.d, he saw that all his sacrifices signified nothing to the expiating of his guilt; therefore he brings to G.o.d a broken heart, which carried in it the best expression of indignation against himself, as of the highest respect he could show to G.o.d (2 Cor 7:11).

The day in which we live, and the present circ.u.mstances which the people of G.o.d and these nations are under, do loudly proclaim a very great necessity of being in this broken and tender frame; for who can foresee what will be the issue of these violent fermentations that are amongst us? Who knows what will become of the ark of G.o.d?

Therefore it is a seasonable duty with old Eli to sit trembling for it. Do we not also hear the sound of the trumpet, the alarm of wars; and ought we not, with the prophet, to cry out, 'My bowels, my bowels! I am pained at my very heart; my heart maketh a noise in me, I cannot hold my peace,' &c. (Jer 4:19). Thus was that holy man affected with the consideration of what might befall Jerusalem, the temple and ordinances of G.o.d, &c., as the consequence of the present dark dispensations they were under. Will not a humble posture best become us when we have humbling providences in prospect? Mercy and judgment seem to be struggling in the same womb of providence; and which will come first out we know not; but neither of them can we comfortably meet, but with a broken and a contrite spirit. If judgment comes, Josiah's posture of tenderness will be the best we can be found in; and also to say, with David, 'My flesh trembleth for fear of thee, and I am afraid of thy judgments' (Psa 119:120).

It is very sad when G.o.d smites, and we are not grieved; which the prophet complains of, 'Thou hast stricken them, but they have not grieved,' &c. 'They have made their faces harder than a rock, they have refused to return' (Jer 5:3).

But such as know the power of his anger will have a deep awe of G.o.d upon their hearts, and, observing him in all his motions, will have the greatest apprehensions of his displeasure. So that when he is coming forth in any terrible dispensation, they will, according to their duty, prepare to meet him with a humble and broken heart.

But if he should appear to us in his goodness, and farther lengthen out the day of our peace and liberty, yet still the contrite frame will be most seasonable; then will be a proper time, with Job, to abhor ourselves in dust and ashes, and to say, with David, 'Who am I that thou hast brought me hitherto'! (Job 42:6; 2 Sam 7:18).

But we must still know that this broken tender heart is not a plant that rows in our own soil, but is the peculiar gift of G.o.d himself.

He that made the heart must break the heart. We may be under heart-breaking providences, and yet the heart remain altogether unbroken; as it was with Pharaoh, whose heart, though it was under the hammers of ten terrible judgments, immediately succeeding one another, yet continued hardened against G.o.d. The heart of man is harder than hardness itself, till G.o.d softeneth and breaks it. Men move not, they relent not, let G.o.d thunder never so terribly; let G.o.d, in the greatest earnest, cast abroad his firebrands, arrows, and death, in the most dreadful representations of wrath and judgment, yet still man trembles not, nor is any more astonished than if in all this G.o.d were but in jest, till he comes and falls to work with him, and forces him to cry out, What have I done? What shall I do?

Therefore let us have recourse to him, who, as he gives the new heart, so also therewith the broken heart. And let men's hearts be never so hard, if G.o.d comes once to deal effectually with them, they shall become mollified and tender; as it was with those hardened Jews who, by wicked and cruel hands, murdered the Lord of life: though they stouted it out a great while, yet how suddenly, when G.o.d brought them under the hammer of his Word and Spirit, in Peter's powerful ministry, were they broken, and, being p.r.i.c.ked in their hearts, cried out, 'Men and brethren, what shall we do?' (Acts 2:37).

And the like instance we have in the jailor, who was a most barbarous, hard-hearted wretch; yet, when G.o.d came to deal with him, he was soon tamed, and his heart became exceeding soft and tender (Acts 16:29,30).

Men may speak long enough, and the heart not at all be moved; but 'The voice of the Lord is powerful, the voice of the Lord is full of majesty,' and breaketh the rocks and cedars (Psa 29:4). He turns 'the rock into a standing water, the flint into a fountain of waters' (Psa 114:8). And this is a glorious work indeed, that hearts of stone should be dissolved and melted into waters of G.o.dly sorrow, working repentance not to be repented of (2 Cor 7:10).

When G.o.d speaks effectually the stoutest heart must melt and yield. Wait upon G.o.d, then, for the softening thy heart, and avoid whatsoever may be a means of hardening it; as the apostle cautions the Hebrews, 'Take heed,--lest any of you be hardened through the deceitfulness of sin' (Heb 3:13).

Sin is deceitful, and will harden all those that indulge it. The more tender any man is to his l.u.s.t, the more will he be hardened by it. There is a native hardness in every man's heart; and though it may be softened by gospel means, yet if those means be afterwards neglected, the heart will fall to its native hardness again: as it is with the wax and the clay. Therefore, how much doth it behove us to keep close to G.o.d, in the use of all gospel-means, whereby our hearts being once softened, may be always kept so; which is best done by repeating the use of those means which were at first blessed for the softening of them.

The following treatise may be of great use to the people of G.o.d--through his blessing accompanying it--to keep their hearts tender and broken, when so many, after their hardness and impenitent heart, are treasuring up wrath against the day of wrath (Rom 2:5).

O let none who peruse this book herd with that generation of hardened ones, but be a companion of all those that mourn in Zion and whose hearts are broken for their own, the church's, and the nation's provocations; who, indeed, are the only likely ones that will stand in the gap to divert judgments. When s.h.i.+shak, king of Egypt, with a great host, came up against Judah, and having taken their frontier fenced cities, they sat down before Jerusalem, which put them all under a great consternation; but the king and princes upon this humbled themselves; the Lord sends a gracious message to them by Shemaiah the prophet, the import whereof was, That because they humbled themselves, the Lord would not destroy them, nor pour out his wrath upon them, by the hand of s.h.i.+shak (2 Chron 12:5-7).

The greater the party is of mourning Christians, the more hope we have that the storm impending may be blown over, and the blessings enjoyed may yet be continued. As long as there is a sighing party we may hope to be yet preserved; at least, such will have the mark set upon themselves which shall distinguish them from those whom the slaughtermen shall receive commission to destroy (Eze 9:4-6).

But I shall not further enlarge the porch, as designing to make way for the reader's entrance into the house, where I doubt not but he will be pleased with the furniture and provision he finds in it. And I shall only further a.s.sure him, that this whole book was not only prepared for, but also put into, the press by the author himself, whom the Lord was pleased to remove--to the great loss and unexpressible grief of many precious souls--before the sheets could be all wrought off.

And now, as I hinted in the beginning, that what was transcribed out of the author's heart into the book, may be transcribed out of the book into the hearts of all who shall peruse it, is the desire and prayer of

A lover and honourer of all saints as such,

George c.o.kayn September 21, 1688

THE ACCEPTABLE SACRIFICE;

OR,

THE EXCELLENCY OF A BROKEN HEART.

'THE SACRIFICES OF G.o.d ARE A BROKEN SPIRIT: A BROKEN AND A CONTRITE HEART, O G.o.d, THOU WILT NOT DESPISE.'--Psalm 51:17

This psalm is David's penitential psalm. It may be fitly so called, because it is a psalm by which is manifest the unfeigned sorrow which he had for his horrible sin, in defiling of Bathsheba, and slaying Uriah her husband; a relation at large of which you have in the 11th and 12th of the Second of Samuel. Many workings of heart, as this psalm showeth, this poor man had, so soon as conviction did fall upon his spirit. One while he cries for mercy, then he confesses his heinous offences, then he bewails the depravity of his nature; sometimes he cries out to be washed and sanctified, and then again he is afraid that G.o.d will cast him away from his presence, and take his Holy Spirit utterly from him. And thus he goes on till he comes to the text, and there he stayeth his mind, finding in himself that heart and spirit which G.o.d did not dislike; 'The sacrifices of G.o.d,' says he, 'are a broken spirit'; as if he should say, I thank G.o.d I have that. 'A broken and a contrite heart,' says he, 'O G.o.d, thou wilt not despise'; as if he should say, I thank G.o.d I have that.

[I. THE TEXT OPENED IN THE MANY WORKINGS OF THE HEART.]

The words consist of two parts. FIRST. An a.s.sertion. SECOND.

A demonstration of that a.s.sertion. The a.s.sertion is this, 'The sacrifices of G.o.d are a broken spirit.' The demonstration is this, 'Because a broken and a contrite heart G.o.d will not despise.'

In the a.s.sertion we have two things present themselves to our consideration. First. That a broken spirit is to G.o.d a sacrifice.

Second. That it is to G.o.d, as that which answereth to, or goeth beyond, all sacrifices. 'The sacrifices of G.o.d are a broken spirit.'

The demonstration of this is plain: for that heart G.o.d will not despise it. 'A broken and a contrite heart, O G.o.d, thou wilt not despise.' Whence I draw this conclusion: That a spirit rightly broken, a heart truly contrite, is to G.o.d an excellent thing. That is, a thing that goeth beyond all external duties whatever; for that is intended by this saying, The sacrifices, because it answereth to all sacrifices which we can offer to G.o.d; yea it serveth in the room of all: all our sacrifices without this are nothing; this alone is all.

There are four things that are very acceptable to G.o.d. The

First is The sacrifice of the body of Christ for our sins.

Of this you read (Heb 10) for there you have it preferred to all burnt-offerings and sacrifices; it is this that pleaseth G.o.d; it is this that sanctifieth, and so setteth the people acceptable in the sight of G.o.d.

Second. Unfeigned love to G.o.d is counted better than all sacrifices, or external parts of wors.h.i.+p. 'And to love him [the Lord thy G.o.d]

with all the heart, and with all the understanding, and with all the soul, and with all the strength, and to love his neighbour as himself, is more than all whole burnt-offerings and sacrifices'

(Mark 12:33).

Third. To walk holily and humbly, and obediently, towards and before G.o.d, is another. Hath the Lord as great delight in burnt-offerings and sacrifices, as in obeying the voice of the Lord?--'Behold, to obey is better than sacrifice; and to hearken than the fat of rams'

(Micah 6:6-8; 1 Sam 15:22).

Fourth. And this in our text is the fourth: 'The sacrifices of G.o.d are a broken spirit: a broken and a contrite heart, O G.o.d, thou wilt not despise.'

But note by the way, that this broken, this broken and contrite heart, is thus excellent only to G.o.d: 'O G.o.d,' saith he, 'THOU wilt not despise it.' By which is implied, the world have not this esteem or respect for such a heart, or for one that is of a broken and a contrite spirit. No, no, a man, a woman, that is blessed with a broken heart, is so far off from getting by that esteem with the world, that they are but burdens and trouble houses wherever they are or go. Such people carry with them molestation and disquietment: they are in carnal families as David was to the king of Gath, troublers of the house (1 Sam 21).

Their sighs, their tears, their day and night groans, their cries and prayers, and solitary carriages, put all the carnal family out of order.[1] Hence you have them brow-beaten by some, contemned by others, yea, and their company fled from and deserted by others.