FOURTH. Lastly, I now come more particularly to give you some signs of a broken heart, of a broken and contrite spirit.
First, a broken-hearted man, such as is intended in the text, is a sensible man; he is brought to the exercise of all the senses of his soul. All others are dead, senseless, and without a true feeling of what the broken-hearted man is sensible of.
1. He sees himself to be what others are ignorant of; that is, he sees himself to be not only a sinful man, but a man by nature in the gall and bondage of sin. In the gall of sin: it is Peter's expression to Simon, and it is a saying common to all men: for every man in a state of nature is in the gall of sin; he was shapen in it, conceived in it; it has also possession of, and by that possession infected the whole of his soul and body (Psa 51:5; Acts 8:23). This he sees, this he understands; every professor sees not this, because the blessing of a broken heart is not bestowed on every one. David says, 'There is no soundness in my flesh'; and Solomon suggests that a plague or running sore is in the very heart. But every one perceives not this (Psa 38:3; 1 Kings 8:38). He saith again, that his 'wounds stank, and were corrupted': that his 'sore ran, and ceased not' (Psa 38:5, 77:2). But these things the brutish man, the man whose heart was never broken, has no understanding of. But the broken-hearted, the man that has a broken spirit, he sees, as the prophet has it, he sees his sickness, he sees his wound: 'When Ephraim saw his sickness, and Judah saw his wound'; he sees it to his grief, he sees it to his sorrow (Hosea 5:13).
2. He feels what others have no sense of; he feels the arrows of the Almighty, and that they stick fast in him (Psa 38:2). He feels how sore and sick, by the smiting of God's hammer upon his heart to break it, his poor soul is made. He feels a burden intolerably lying upon his spirit (Hosea 5:13). 'Mine iniquities,' saith he, 'are gone over mine head; as a heavy burden they are too heavy for me' (Psa 38:4). He feels also the heavy hand of God upon his soul, a thing unknown to carnal men. He feels pain, being wounded, even such pain as others cannot understand, because they are not broken. 'My heart,' saith David, 'is sore pained within me.' Why so? Why! 'The terrors of death have fallen upon me' (Psa 55:4). The terrors of death cause pain, yea, pain of the highest nature; hence that which is here called pains is in another place called pangs (Isa 21:3).
You know broken bones occasion pain, intense pain, yea, pain that will make a man or woman groan 'with the groanings of a deadly wounded man' (Eze 30:24). Soul pain is the sorest pain, in comparison to which the pain of the body is a very tolerable thing (Prov 18:14). Now here is soul pain, here is heart pain; here we are discoursing of a wounded, of a broken spirit; wherefore this is pain to be felt to the sinking of the whole man, neither can any support this but God. Here is death in this pain, death forever, without God's extraordinary mercy. This pain will bring the soul to, and this the broken-hearted man doth feel. 'The sorrows of death,' saith David, 'compassed me, and the pains of hell gat hold upon me, I found trouble and sorrow' (Psa 116:3). Ay, I'll warrant thee, poor man, thou foundest trouble and sorrow indeed; for the pains of hell and sorrows of death are pains and sorrow the most intolerable. But this man is acquainted with one who has his heart broken.
3. As he sees and feels, so he hears that which augments his woe and sorrow. You know, if a man has his bones broken, he does not only see and feel, but oft-times also hears what increases his grief; as, that his wounds are incurable; that his bone is not rightly set; that there is danger of a gangrene; that he may be lost for want of looking to. These are the voices, the sayings, that haunt the house of one who has his bones broken. And a broken-hearted man knows what I mean by this; he hears that which makes his lips quiver, and at the noise of which he seems to feel rottenness enter into his bones; he trembleth in himself, and wishes that he may hear joy and gladness, that the bones, the heart, and spirit, which God has broken, may rejoice (Habb 3:16; Psa 51:8). He thinks he hears God say, the devil say, his conscience say, and all good men to whisper among themselves, saying, there is no help for him from God. Job heard this, David heard this, Heman listened to this; and this is the familiar sound in the ears of the broken-hearted.
4. The broken-hearted smell what others cannot scent. Alas! Sin never smelled so to any man alive as it smells to the broken-hearted. You know wounds will stink, but there is no stink like that of sin to the broken-hearted man. His own sins stink, and so do the sins of all the world to him. Sin is like carrion; it is of a stinking nature; yea, it has the worst of smells; however, some men like it (Psa 38:5). But none are offended with the scent thereof but God and the broken-hearted sinner. 'My wounds stink, and are corrupt,' saith he, both in God's nostrils and mine own. But, alas! Who smells the stink of sin? None of the carnal world; they, like carrion-crows, seek it, love it, and eat it as the child eats bread. 'They eat up the sin of my people,' saith God, 'and they set their heart on their iniquity' (Hosea 4:8). This, I say, they do, because they do not smell the nauseous scent of sin. You know that what is nauseous to the smell cannot be palatable to the taste. The broken-hearted man doth find that sin is queasy, and therefore cries out, it stinketh. They also think that at times the smell of fire, of fire and brimstone, is upon them; they are so sensible of the wages due to sin.
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