The Fountain of Life
The Fountain of Life opened up: or, a display
of Christ in his essential and mediatorial glory
by John Flavel
Christ's memorable Address to the Daughters of
Jerusalem, in his Way to the Place of his Execution
"And there followed him a great company of people, and of
women, which also bewailed and lamented him. But Jesus turning unto them
said, Daughters of Jerusalem, weep not for me, but weep for yourselves, and
for your children." Luke 23:27,28,etc.
The sentence of death once given against Christ, the
execution quickly follows. Away they lead him from Gabbatha to Golgotha,
longing as much to be nailing him to the cross, and feeding their eyes with
his torments, as the eagle does to be tearing the flesh, and drinking the
blood of that lamb she has seized in her talons, and is carrying away to the
top of some rock to devour.
The Evangelist here observes a memorable passage that
fell out in their way to the place of execution; and that is, the laments
lions and wailing of some that followed him out of the city, who expressed
their pity and sorrow for him most tenderly and compassionately: all hearts
were not hard, all eyes were not dry. "There followed him a great company of
people, and of women, which also bewailed and lamented him," etc.
In this paragraph we have two parts, namely, the
lamentation of the daughters of Jerusalem for Christ, and Christ's reply to
them.
1. The lamentation of the daughters of Jerusalem for
Christ. Concerning them, we briefly enquire who they were, and why they
mourned.
(1.) Who they were? The text calls them "daughters", that
is inhabitants of Jerusalem"; for it is a Hebraism; as "daughters of Zion,
daughters of Israel". And it is like the greatest part of them were women;
and there were many of them, a troop of mourners, that followed Christ out
of the city towards the place of his execution, with lamentations and
wailings.
(2.) What the principle, or ground of these their
lamentations was, is not agreed by those that have pondered the story. Some
are of opinion their tears and lamentations were but the effects and fruits
of their more tender and ingenuous natures, which were moved and melted with
so tragical and sad a spectacle as was now before them. It is well observed
by a judicious author, "That the tragical story of some great and noble
personage, full of he royal virtue and ingenuity (yet inhumanely and
ungratefully used) will thus work upon ingenuous spirits who read or hear of
it, - which when it reaches no higher, is so far from being faith, that it
is but a carnal and fleshly devotion, springing from fancy, which is pleased
with such a story and the principles of ingenuity stirred towards one, who
is of a noble spirit, and yet abused. Such stories use to stir up a
principle of humanity in men unto a compassionate love; which Christ himself
at his suffering found fault with, as being not spiritual, nor raised enough
in those women that went weeping to see the Messiah so handled. Weep not for
me, (says he) that is weep not so much for this, to see me so unworthily
handled by those for whom I die." This is the principle from which some
conceive those tears to flow.
But Calvin attributes it to their faith, "looking upon
these mourners as a remnant reserved by the Lord in that miserable
dispersion; and though their faith was but weak, yet he judges it credible
that there was a secret seed of godliness in them, which afterwards grew to
a maturity, and brought forth fruit". And to the same sense others give
their opinion also.
2. Let us consider Christ's reply to them; "weep not for
me, you daughters of Jerusalem," etc. Strange, that Christ should forbid
them to weep for him, yes for him under such unparalleled sufferings and
miseries. If ever there was a heart melting object in the world, it was
here. O who could hold, whose heart was not petrified, and more obdurate
than the senseless rocks? This reply of Christ undergoes a double sense and
interpretation, suitable to the different construction of their sorrows.
Those that look upon their sorrows as merely natural, take Christ's reply in
a negative sense, prohibiting such tears as those. They that expound their
sorrows as the fruit of faith, tell us, though the form of Christ's
expression be negative, yet the sense is comparative, as Mat. 9:13. "I will
have mercy, and not sacrifice," that is mercy rather than sacrifice. So
here, weep rather upon your own account, than mine; reserve your sorrows for
the calamities coming upon yourselves and your children. You are greatly
affected, I see, with the misery that is upon me; but mine will be quickly
over, yours will be long. In which he shows his merciful and compassionate
disposition, who was still more mindful of the troubles and burdens of
others than of his own.
And indeed, the days of calamity coming upon them and
their children were doleful days. What direful and unprecedented miseries
befell them at the breaking up and devastation of the city, who has not read
or heard? And who can refrain from tears that hears or reads it?
Now if we take the words in the first sense, as a
prohibition of their merely natural and carnal affections, expressed in
tears and lamentations for him, no otherwise than they would have been upon
any other like tragical story; then the observation from it will be this,
DOCTRINE. 1. That melting affections and sorrows, even
from the sense and consideration of the sufferings of Christ, are no
infallible signs of grace.
If you take it in the latter sense, as the fruit of their
faith, as tears flowing from a gracious principle; then the observation will
be this,
DOCTRINE. 2. That the believing meditation of what Christ
suffered for us, is of great force and efficacy to melt and break the heart.
I shall rather choose to prosecute both these branches,
than to decide the controversy; especially since the notes gathered from
either may be useful to us. And therefore I shall begin with the first,
namely,
DOCTRINE. 1. That melting affections and sorrows, even
from the sense of Christ's sufferings, are no infallible marks of grace.
In this point I have two things to do, to prepare it for
use.
First, To show, what the melting of the affections by way
of grief and sorrow is.
Secondly, That they may be so melted, even upon the
account of Christ, and yet the heart remain unrenewed.
First, What the melting of the affections, by way of
grief and sorrow, is.
Tears are nothing else but the juice of a mind oppressed,
and squeezed with grief. Grief compresses the heart; the heart so compressed
and squeezed, vents itself sometimes into tears, sighs, groans, etc. and
this is two-fold: gracious, and wholly supernatural; or common, and
altogether natural. The gracious melting or sorrow of the soul, is likewise
two-fold; habitual or actual. Habitual bodily sorrow is that gracious
disposition, inclination, or tendency of the renewed heart to mourn and
melt, when any just occasion is presented to the soul that calls for such
sorrow. It is expressed, Ezek. 36:26. "By taking away the heart of stone,
and giving a heart of flesh;" that is a heart impressive, and yielding to
such arguments and considerations as move it to mourning.
Actual sorrow is the expression and manifestation of that
its inclination upon just occasions; and it is expressed two ways, either by
the internal effects of it, which are the heaviness, shame, loathing,
resolution, and holy revenge begotten in the soul upon the account of sin:
or also by more external and visible effects, as sighs, groans, tears, etc.
The former is essential to godly sorrow, the latter contingent and
accidental, much depending upon the natural temperature and constitution of
the body.
Natural and common meltings are nothing else but the
effects of a better temper, and the fruit of a more ingenuous spirit, and
easier constitution, which shows itself on any other, as well as upon
spiritual occasions: as Austin said, he could weep plentifully when he read
the story of Dido. The history of Christ is a very tragical and pathetical
history, and may melt an ingenuous nature, where are is no renewed
principles at all. So that,
Secondly, Our affections may be melted, even upon the
score and account of Christ; and yet that is no infallible evidence of a
gracious heart. And the reasons for it are,
1. Because we find all sorts of affections discovered by
such as have been no better than temporary believers. The stony ground
hearers in Mat. 13:20. "received the word with joy," and so did John s
hearers also, who for "a season rejoiced in his light," John 3:35. Now, if
the affections of joy under the word may be exercised, why not of sorrow
also? If the comfortable things revealed in the gospel may stir up the one,
by a parity of reason, the sad things it reveals may answerably work upon
the other. Even those Israelites whom Moses told they should fall by the
sword, and not prosper, for the Lord would not be with them, because they
were turned away from him; yet when Moses rehearsed the message of the Lord
in their ears, they mourned greatly, Numb. 14:39. I know the Lord pardoned
many of them their iniquities, though he took vengeance on their inventions;
and yet it is as true, that with many of them God was not well pleased, 1
Cor. 10:5. Many instances of their weeping and mourning before the Lord we
find in this sacred history; and yet their hearts were not steadfast with
God.
2. Because though the object about which our affections
and passions are moved, may be spiritual; yet the motives and principles
that set them on work, may be but carnal and natural ones. When I see a
person affected in the hearing of the word, or prayer, even unto tears, I
cannot presently conclude, surely this is the effect of grace; for it is
possible, the pathetical quality of subject matter, the rhetoric of the
speaker, the very affecting tone, and modulation of the voice, may draw
tears as well as faith working upon the spirituality, and deep concernment
the soul has in those things.
While Austin was a Manichee, he sometimes heard Ambrose;
and, says he, "I was greatly affected in hearing him, even, unto tears many
times:" howbeit, it was not the heavenly nature of the subject, but the
abilities and rare parts of the speaker that so affected him. And this was
the case of Ezekiel's hearers, chapter 33:32.
Again, 3. These motions of the affections may rather be a
fit and mood, than the very frame and temper of the soul. Now there is a
vast difference between these; there are times and seasons, when the
roughest and most obdurate hearts may be pensive and tender: but that is not
its temper and frame, but only a fit, a pang, a transient passion. So the
Lord complains of them, Hos. 6:4. "O Ephraim, what shall I do unto you? O
Judah, what shall I do unto you? for your goodness is as a morning cloud and
as the early dew, it goes away. And so he complains, Psalm. 78:34, 35, 36.
When he slew them, then they sought him: and they returned and enquired
early after God. And the remembered that God was their rock, and the most
high God their redeemer; nevertheless they did flatter him with their lips,
and lied unto him with their tongues." For had this remembrance of God been
the gracious temper of their souls, it would have continued with them; they
would not have been thus wavering thus hot and cold with God, as they were.
Therefore we conclude, that we cannot infer a work of grace upon the heart,
simply and mere from the meltings and thaws that are sometimes upon it. And
hence, for your use, I shall infer, that,
INFERENCE 1. If such as sometimes feel their hearts
thawed and melted with the consideration of the sufferings of Christ, may
yet be deceived; What cause have they to fear and tremble, whose hearts are
as unrelenting as rocks, yielding to nothing that is proposed, or urged upon
them? How many such are there, of whom we may say, as Christ speaks of the
inflexible Jews, "We have piped unto you, but you have not danced; we have
mourned unto you, but you have not lamented" Mat. 11: l7. They must
inevitably come short of heaven, who come so short of those that do come
short of heaven. If those perish that have rejoiced under the promises, and
mourned under the threats of the word; what shall become of them that are as
unconcerned, and unteached by what they hear, as the seats they sit on, or
the dead that lie under their feet? Who are given up to such hardness of
heart, that nothing can touch or affect them? One would think, the
consideration of the sixth chapter to the Hebrew should startle such men and
women, and make them cry out, Lord, what will become of such a senseless,
stupid, dead creature as I am? If they that shave been enlightened, and have
tasted of the heavenly gift, and were made partakers of the Holy Spirit, and
have tasted the good word of God, and the powers of the world to come, may,
notwithstanding such high raised affections as these, so fall away, that it
shall be impossible to renew them again by repentance, what shall we then
say, or think of his estate, to whom the most penetrating and awakening
truths are no more than a tale that is told? The fire and hammer of the
gospel can neither melt nor break them; they are iron and brass, Jer. 6:28,
29.
INFERENCE 2. If such as these may eternally miscarry;
then let us look carefully to their foundation, and see that they do not
bless themselves in a thing of nothing. It is manifest from 1 Cor. 10:12.
that many souls stand exceeding dangerously, who are yet strongly conceited
of their own safety. And if you please to consult those scriptures in the
margin, you shall find vain confidence to be ruling folly over the greatest
part of men; and that which is the utter overthrow, and undoing of
multitudes of professors.
Now there is nothing more apt to beget and breed this
vain soul- undoing confidence, than the stirrings and meltings of our
affections about spiritual things, while the heart remains unrenewed all the
while. For (as a grave divine has well observed) such a man seems to have
all that is required of a Christian, and herein to have attained the very
end of all knowledge; which is operation and influence upon the heart and
affections.
Indeed (thinks such a poor deluded soul) if I did hear,
read, or pray, without any inward affections, with a dead, cold, and
unconcerned heart, or if I did make a show of zeal and affection in duties,
and had it not, well might I suspect myself to be a self-cozening hypocrite;
but it is not so with me, I feel my heart really melted many times, when I
read the sufferings of Christ; I feel my heart raised and ravished with
strange joys and comforts, when I hear the glory of heaven opened in the
gospel: Indeed if it were not so with me, I might doubt the root of the
matter is wanting; but if to my knowledge, affections be added; a melting
heart joined with a knowing head, then I may be confident all is well. I
have often heard ministers cautioning and warning their people not to rest
satisfied with idle and unpractical notions in their understandings, but to
labor for impressions upon their hearts; this I have attained, and therefore
what danger of me? I have often heard it given as a mark of a hypocrite,
that he has light in his head, but it sheds not down its influence upon the
heart: whereas in those that are sincere, it works on their heart and
affections: So I find it with me, therefore I am in a most safe estate.
O soul! of all the false signs of grace, none more
dangerous than those that most resemble true ones; and never does the devil
more surely and incurably destroy, than when transformed into an angel of
light. What if these meltings of your heart be but a flower of nature? What
if you are more beholden to a good temper of body, than a gracious change of
spirit for these things? Well, so it may be. Therefore be not secure, but
fear, and watch. Possibly, if you would but search your own heart in this
matter, you may find, that any other pathetical, moving story, will have the
like effects upon you. Possibly too, you may find, that, notwithstanding all
your raptures and joys at the hearing of heaven, and its glory, yet after
that pang is over, your heart is habitually earthly, and your conversation
is not there. For all you canned mourn at the relations of Christ's
sufferings, you are not so affected with sin, that was the meritorious cause
of the sufferings of Christ, as to crucify one corruption, or deny the next
temptation, or part with any way of sin that is gainful, or pleasurable to
you for his sake.
Why now, reader, if it be so with you, what are you the
better for the influence of your affections? Do you think in earnest, that
Christ has the better thoughts of you, because you canned shed tears for
him, when notwithstanding you every day fiercest and woundest him? O! be not
deceived. Nay, for ought know, you may find, upon a narrow search, that you
puttest your tears in the room of Christ's blood, and divest the confidence
and dependence of your soul to them; and if so, they shall never do you any
good.
O therefore search your heart, reader be not too
confident: take not up too easily upon such poor weak grounds as these, a
soul-undoing confidence. Always remember the wheat and tares resemble each
other in their first springing up; that an egg is not liker to an egg, than
hypocrisy, in some shapes and forms into which it can cast itself, is like a
genuine work of grace. O remember that among the ten virgins, that is, the
reformed professors of religion that have cast off and separated themselves
from the worship and defilements of Antichrist, five of them were foolish.
There be first, that shall be last; and last, that shall
be first, Mat. 19:30. Great is the deceitfulness of our hearts, Jer. 17:9.
And many are the subtleties and devices of Satan, 2 Cor. 11:3. Many also are
the astonishing examples of self-deceiving souls recorded in the word.
Remember what you lately read of Judas. Great also will be the exactness of
the last judgement. And how confident soever you be, that you shall speed
well in that day, yet still remember that trial is not yet past. Your final
sentence is not yet come from the mouth of your Judge. This I speak not to
affright and trouble, but excite and warn you. The loss of a soul is no
small loss, and, upon such grounds as these, they are every day cast away.
This may suffice to be spoken to the first observation,
built on this supposition, that it was but a pang of mere natural affection
in them. But if it were the effect of a better principle, the fruit of their
faith, as some judge; then I told you're the observation from it would be
this,
DOCTRINE. 2. That the believing meditation of what Christ
suffered for us, is of great force and efficacy to melt and break the heart.
It is promised, Zech. 12:10. that "they shall look upon
him whom they have pierced, and mourn for him, as one mourneth for his only
son, and shall be in bitterness for him, as one that is in bitterness for
his first-born." Ponder seriously here, the spring and motive, They shall
look upon me; it is the eye of faith that melts and breaks the heart. The
effect of such a sight of Christ; they shall look and mourn; be in
bitterness and sorrow. True repentance is a drop out of the eye of faith;
and the measure or degree of that sorrow caused by a believing view of
Christ. To express which, two of the fullest instances of grief we read of,
are borrowed; that of a tender father, mourning over a dear and only son;
that of the people of Israel, mourning over Josiah, that peerless prince, in
the valley of Megiddo.
Now to show you how the believing meditation of Christ,
and his sufferings, come kindly and savingly to break and melt down the
gracious heart, I shall propound these four considerations of the
heart-breaking efficacy of faith, eyeing a crucified Jesus.
First, The very realizing of Christ and his sufferings by
faith, is a most affecting and melting thing. Faith is a true glass that
represents all those his sufferings and agonies to the life. It presents
them not as a fiction, or idle tale, but as a true and faithful narrative.
This (says faith) is a true and faithful saying, that Christ was not only
clothed in our flesh; even he that is over all, God blessed forever, the
only Lord, the Prince of the kings of the earth, became a man; but it is
also most certain, that in this body of his flesh, he grappled with the
infinite wrath of God, which filled his soul with horror and amazement; that
the Lord of life did hang dead upon the tree; that he went as a lamb to the
slaughter, and was as a sheep dumb before the shearer; that he endured all
this, and more than any finite understanding can comprehend, in my room and
stead; for my sake he there groaned and bled; for my pride, earthliness,
lust, unbelief, hardness of heart, he endured all this. I say, to realize
the sufferings of Christ thus, is of great power to affect the coldest,
dullest heart. You cannot imagine the difference there is in presenting
things as realities, with convincing and satisfying evidences, and our
looking on them as a fiction or uncertainty.
Secondly, But faith can apply as well as realize; and if
it do so, it must needs overcome the heart.
Ah! Christian, canned you look upon Jesus as standing in
your room, to bear the wrath of a Deity for you? Canned you think on it, and
not melt? That when you, like Isaac, were bound to the altar, to be offered
up to justice, Christ, like the ram, was caught in the thicket, and offered
in your room. When your sins had raised a fearful tempest, that threatened
every moment to entomb you in a sea of wrath, Jesus Christ was thrown over
to appease that storm! Say, reader, can your heart dwell one hour upon such
a subject as this? Canned you with faith, present Christ to yourself, as he
was taken down from the cross, drenched in his own blood, and say, These
were the wounds that he received for me; this is he that loved me, and gave
himself for me: out of these wounds comes that balm that heals my soul; out
of these stripes my peace: When he hanged upon the cross, he bore my name
upon his bosom, like the high priest. It was love, pure love, strong love to
my poor soul; to the soul of an enemy that drew him down from heaven, and
all the glory he had there, to endure these sorrows in soul and body for me.
O you cannot hold up your hearts long to the piercing
thoughts of this, but your affections will be pained, and, like Joseph, you
will seek a place to vent your hearts in.
Thirdly, Faith cannot only realize and apply Christ, and
his death, but it can reason and conclude such things from his death, as
will fill the soul with affection to him, and break the heart in pieces, in
his presence. When it views Christ as dead, it infers, Is Christ dead for
me? then was I dead in law, sentenced and condemned to die eternally; 2 Cor.
5:14. "If one died for all, then were all dead." How woeful was my case when
the law had passed sentence on me? I could not be sure when I lay down, but
that it might be executed before I rose; nothing but a puff of breath
between my soul and hell.
Again, Is Christ dead for me? then I shall never die. If
he be condemned, I am acquitted. "Who shall lay anything to the charge of
God's elect? It is God that justifies, it is Christ that died," Rom. 8:34.
My soul is escaped as a bird out of the snare of the fowler; I was
condemned, but am now cleared; I was dead, but am sow alive; O the
unsearchable riches of Christ! O love past finding out!
Again, Did God give up Christ to such miseries and
sufferings for me? How shall he with-hold anything from me? He that "spared
not his own Son, will doubtless with him freely give me all things", Rom.
8:32. Now I may rest upon him for pardon, peace, acceptance, and glory for
my soul. Now I may rely upon him safely for provision, protection, and all
supplies for my body. Christ is the root of these mercies; he is more than
all these, he is nearer and dearer to God than any other gift. O what a
blessed, happy, comfortable state has he now brought my soul into!
To conclude, Did Christ endure all these things for me?
then it is past doubt, he will never leave nor forsake me: It cannot be that
after he has endured all this, he will cast off the souls for whom he
endured it. Here the soul is evangelically broken, considering the mercies
that emerge and flow to it out of the sea of Christ's blood.
Fourthly, and lastly, Faith can not only realize, apply,
and infer, but it can also compare the love of Christ in all this, both with
his dealings with others, and with the soul's dealing with Christ, who loved
it. To compare Christ's dealings with others, is most affecting: he has not
dealt with everyone, as with me; nay, few there are that can speak of such
mercies as I have from him. How many are there that have no part nor portion
in his blood? Who must bear that wrath in their own persons, that he bare
himself for me! He espied me out, and singled me forth to be the object of
his love, leaving thousands and millions still unreconciled; not that I was
better than they, for I was the greatest of sinners, far from righteousness,
as unlikely as any to be the object of such grace and love: my companions in
sin are left, and I am taken. Now the soul is full, the heart grows big, too
big to contain itself.
Yes, faith helps the soul to compare the love of Christ
to it, with the returns it has made to him for that love. And what, my soul!
has your carriage to Christ been, since this grace that wants a name,
appeared to you? Have you returned love for love? Love suitable to such
love? Have you prized, valued, and esteemed this Christ, according to his
own worth in himself, or his kindness to you? Ah no, I have grieved,
pierced, wounded his heart a thousand times since that, by my ingratitude; I
have suffered every trifle to jostle him out of my heart? I have neglected
him a thousand times, and made him say, Is this your kindness to your
friend? Is this the reward I shall have for all that I have done, and
suffered for you? Wretch that I am, how have I requited the Lord! This
shames, humbles and breaks the heart.
And when from such sights of faith, and considerations as
these, the heart is thus affected, it affords a good argument, indeed, that
you are gone beyond all the attainments of temporary believers? flesh and
blood has not revealed this.
INFERENCE 1. Have the believing meditations of Christ,
and his sufferings, such heart melting influences? Then sure there is but
little faith among men. Our dry eyes and hard hearts are evidences against
us, that we are strangers to the sights of faith.
God be merciful to the hardness of your hearts. How is
Christ and his love slighted among men! How shallow does his blood run to
some eyes? O that my head were waters, and mine eyes fountains of tears for
this! What monsters are carnal hearts? We are as if God had made us without
affections, as if all ingenuity and tenderness were dried up. Our ears are
so accustomed to the sounds of Christ, and his blood, that now they are
become as common things. If a child die, we can mourn over our dead: but who
mourns for Christ as for an only son? We may say of faith, when men and
women sit so unaffected under the gospel, as Martha said of Christ
concerning her brother Lazarus, If you (precious faith) had been here, so
many hearts had not been dead this day, and in this duty. Faith is that
burning-glass which contracts the beams of the grace, and love, and wisdom,
and power of Jesus Christ together, reflects these on the heart, and makes
it burn; but without it, we feel nothing savingly.
INFERENCE. 2. Have the believing meditations of Christ,
and his sufferings, such heart melting influences? Then surely the proper
order of raising the affections, is to begin at the exercise of faith. It
grieves me to see how many poor Christians strive with their own dead
hearts, endeavoring to raise and affect them, but cannot: they complain and
strive, strive and complain, but can discover no love to the Lord, no
brokenness of heart; they go to this ordinance and that, to one duty and
another, hoping that now the Lord will affect it, and fill the sails; but
come back disappointed and ashamed, like the troops of Tema. Poor Christian,
hear me one word; possibly it may do your business, and stand you in more
stead, than all the methods you have yet used. If you Would indeed get a
heart evangelically melted for sin, and broken with the kindly sense of the
grace and love of Christ, your way is not to force your affections, nor to
vex yourself, and go about complaining of a hard heart, but set yourself to
believe, realize, apply, infer, and compare by faith as you have been
directed; and see what this will do: "They shall look on me whom they have
pierced, and mourn." This is the way and proper method to raise the heart,
and break it.
INFERENCE. 3. Is this the way to get a truly broken
heart? Then let those that have attained brokenness of heart this way, bless
the Lord while they live, for so choice a mercy; and that upon a double
account.
1. For as much as a heart so affected and melted, is not
attainable by any natural or unrenewed person; if they would give all they
have in the world, it cannot purchase one such tear, or groan over Christ;
mark, what characters of special grace it bears, in the description that is
made of it, in that aforementioned place, Zech. 12:10. Such a frame as this
is not born with us, or to be acquired by us; for it is there said to be
poured out by the Lord upon us, "I will pour upon them," etc. There is no
hypocrisy or dissimulation in these mournings, they being compared to the
mourning of a man for his only son: an sure parents hearts are not untouched
when they behold such sights.
Nature is not the principle of it, but faith; for it is
there said, they shall look on me; that is believe and mourn. Self is not
the end and center of these sorrows; it is not so much for damning
ourselves, as for piercing Christ: "They shall look on me whom they have
pierced, and shall mourn;" so that this is sorrow after God, and not a flesh
of nature, as discoursed in the former point. Therefore you have cause to
bless the Lord, while you live for such a special mercy as this is. And,
2. As it is the right, so it is the choicest, and most
precious gift that can be given you; for it is ranked among the prime
mercies of the new covenant, Ezek. 36:26. This shall be the covenant; "A new
heart also will I give you, and a new spirit will I put within you; and I
will take away the stony heart out of your flesh, and I will give you an
heart of flesh." What would you have given sometimes for such a heart as now
you have, though it be not yet as you would have it? And however you value
and esteem it, God himself sets no common value on it: for mark what he says
of it, Psalm. 51:17. "The sacrifices of God are a broken heart: a broken and
a contrite spirit, O God, you will not despise;" That is, God is more
delighted with such a heart, than with all the sacrifices in the world; one
groan, one tear, flowing from faith, and the spirit of adoption, are more to
him, than the cattle upon a thousand hills. And to the same sense he speaks
again, Isa. 66:1, 2. "Thus says the Lord, The heaven is my throne, and the
earth is my footstool, Where is the house that you build to me? And where is
the place of my rest? - But to this man will I look, even to him that is
poor, and of a contrite spirit, and trembleth at my word;" q. d. All the
magnificent temples and glorious structures in the world, give me no
pleasure in comparison of such a broken heart as this.
O then, forever bless the Lord, that has done that for
you, which none else could do, and which he has done but for few besides
you!