THE Holy Mourner OR AN EARNEST INVITATION TO Religious Mourning c. THE Holy Mourner OR AN EARNEST INVITATION TO Religious Mourning in general WITH A large Declaration of the Divine Comforts and the blessed Effects which attend the Performance of it But more particularly to Mourning in Private for our own personal Iniquities and the publick crying Sins of the Nation To which are added FORMS of DEVOTION Fitted to that pious EXERCISE By ERASMUS WARREN Rector of Worlington in Suffolk Delicatus es mi frater si vis gaudere cum Seculo postea regnare cum CHRISTO D. Hieron Ep. ad Heliodor LONDON Printed for B. Aylmer at the Three Pigeons against the Royal Exchange in Cornhill And W. Rogers at the Sun against St. Dunstan's Church in Fleetstreet MDCXCVIII TO THE Most Reverend Father in GOD THOMAS Lord Archbishop of Canterbury Primate of all England and Metropolitan And one of His Majesty's most Honourable Privy-Council May it please Your GRACE HOW little soever this Treatise may seem its Designs are certainly the greatest in the World For the Duty it urges if conscienciously practis'd will highly conduce to the Glory of GOD and the Good of Souls redeem'd by the precious Blood of CHRIST These I am sure are the Considerations that Your GRACE loves and values and that YOU daily study and strive to advance to the utmost of Your Power And this Piece falling in with the settled Tendency of Your own most pious Thoughts and Actions which are ever inclin'd and zealously carri'd on to further GOD's Honour and the Happiness of Men I am prone to believe that YOU will not be averse from the Patronage of the same YOUR SELF being so eminent and exemplary a Promoter of the Ends it aims at The Work I am sensible hath its Imperfections but I am willing to hope that my sincere Intentions may recommend it to Your GRACE's favourable Acceptance And then I doubt not but that will so extenuate all its Defects that others will be the more ready to excuse them That the Good GOD by Whose Divine Providence YOU worthily preside in so high a Station over us would long preserve YOU in it as a great Blessing to this Church and Nation is the most earnest Prayer of Your GRACE 'S In all humblest Duty and Observance Erasmus Warren The Preface I Have often thought how very strangely such a Treatise as this will look in the Eyes of many in the World and how it must be resented and received by them Even with great Disgust if not with Contempt instead of regard or approbation And no wonder it should considering how little Congruity there is betwixt its Genius and their Temper For as it lies quite Cross to their Common Principles so it runs as contrary to the course of their Practice The Generality of men as all know are only for gay and pleasing things For things that suit their Humour and delight their Fancy and serve to Entertain and gratify Curiosity And these 't will be granted must be light for some and lofty for others and of various Tasts for differing Palates But how should this Piece be taking with such or escape being despised and decried by them as being wholly pious and most deeply practical and written in so familiar and so low a strain For intending it for the use of ordinary Christians in reason I was obliged to fit its Composure exactly to their Capacity that so it might be the more serviceable to them And accordingly in it there is Nothing that is high Nothing that is fine either in matter or method but only honest Truth in its plainest Dress and a pious Duty earnestly recommended to the serious and the good And truly as for others I never designed to trouble them with it nor indeed is it over proper for them For be they never so learned and ingenious and not sober and good they can neither throughly understand nor truly relish what it contains Not that its Contents are so lofty as to be above their reach but so Religious as to be out of their way Again therefore I declare it to be useful to none so much as to them that are seriously good And to all such I most heartily recommend it with the great Duty that is urged in it what Rank or Quality soever they are of However we may be of divers Persuasions yet I Earnestly beg that our different Judgments may not hinder our uniting here in so weighty a Performance For if we be but sincerely and throughly good and so hearty lovers of all heavenly Truth and ready to receive it wheresoever we discern it and desirous to discover it that so we may embrace it I hope that GOD notwithstanding the variety of our unhappy Mistakes involuntary Prejudices and unaffected Errors will hear our Sighs and see our Tears and answer our devout and mournful Prayers with all needful Blessings Yet I intend not that this general recommendation should reach to one sort of men to those I mean in the Sacred Function For as I know they are well able in all things else to be my Instructors so this very Work of holy Mourning they can do in ways and measures of their own far better than any that I can direct The chief Reason of my Publishing this Book is the great need that there is of it For as our Nature is prone to Sin so Numbers amongst us abound with it in their Practice A thing so obvious even to common and incurious observation that to Attempt to prove it would be pure Impertinence But then the Judgments of God and endless Destruction being the natural fruits and products of our sins especially where they are so rife and notorious to mourn for our sins must be as needful for us as it is to avert our impending Miseries and to prevent our Eternal Ruine And if to mourn for our sins be absolutely needful upon these Accounts 't is every whit as needful that we be taught how to do it And in this Discourse is that Doctrine delivered I must here add this material Caution Let none in a state or course of sin of any known and deliberate sin apply themselves to observing the Rules here laid down For to mourn for our own or others Sins while we foolishly persist in what we lament is but preposterously to trifle with GOD and under the Specious colour of most serious Duty to affront and provoke him with saddest Hypocrisy Let all that take this Treatise for their Guide be really righteous or firmly resolve forthwith to be so Then I hope it will be helpful to them But lest any should think they shall reap the least benefit by the strictest observation of its Directions while they indulge themselves in any chosen sin again I plainly declare to such that they will rather offend and provoke God than profit themselves The best that they can look for is that they shall certainly lose their labour for all that they do
under their Government and can conveniently join in them And to make good this there are several Examples in holy Scripture of Princes in joining their respective Subjects to perform these Duties Some of these Examples we shall by and by touch upon If we look to the Rise of Public Mourning we shall find it Early in the Church In Samuel's days the Jews were no Strangers to it For in the first of those Books which bear that Prophet's Name it is remembred * Chap. 7.5 6. that all Israel were gathered together to Mizpeh and drew Water and poured it out before the LORD and fasted in that day and said there We have sinned against the LORD There are that imagine this Water was Water of Trial like that of Jealousy And accordingly they tell us that as many as drank of it if they were Idolaters their Lips by Virtue of it would cleave together and that so fast as not to be parted But the Water here was not to be drank but was poured out and therefore this seems to be a meer Fancy and indeed it is no other than a Rabbinical Fiction Others by this Water understand more rightly Poenitential Tears And so the Chaldee Paraphrase makes it to be For that says that repenting of their sins they drew water out of the Well of their heart and wept abundantly before the LORD And Grotius is of this opinion * Aqua effusa lachrimas significat In loc that the Water poured out signifies Tears And of the same Judgment is Junius That it is an †Hyperbolica description ingentis lamentationis quasi dicat eos lachrimarum rivos ex intimo sonte cordis haustos oculis coram Domino profudisse In loc Hyperbolical Description of a great Lamentation as if he should say that from their Eyes they poured out those Rivers of Tears which they drew from the inward fountain of their Heart But Public religious Mourning claims a greater Antiquity than this For four hundred Years before even in Moses's time we may observe it was practised by the Israelites in the Wilderness So we find Moses Himself and the Children of Israel weeping for the sins of some of the People Numb 25.6 And before that they having brought themselves into great Danger into Danger of losing GOD's propitious Presence and of being suddenly consumed for their sins in way of Prevention they betook themselves forthwith to Holy Mourning Exod. 33.4 And the Course they took prov'd very effectual For by it they recovered the ALMIGHTY's Favour and a renewed Promise of the Continuation of His Gracious Presence which they had forfeited And the happy Success which crowned their Performance might possibly raise its Reputation so high with the Rulers of GOD's Church as that they might ever after look upon it as a Pattern worthy of Imitation and in the like Circumstances might be careful to ingage both themselves and their People in the Like Exercise And truly whenever they did so and were sincerely devout in the Undertaking a desired Issue hath still attended it The sacred Writings signify as much out of them I alledge but two Instances of it The first is that of the Jews in King Jehoshaphat's time When they were in fear of powerful and confederate Enemies * 2 Chron. 20.3 he proclaimed a Fast throughout all Judah And His Subjects in obedience to his Royal Proclamation gathered themselves together to seek the LORD And being piously assembled they stood before Him with their Little Ones their Wives and Children asking Help of Him And as with Fasting they prayed for Aid and Deliverance so we need not doubt but they Joined holy Mourning with their Abstinence and Supplications considering their Sins and their imminent Dangers And very signal was their success For when they prayed thus Mournfully to Him He heard them and helped them He caused their potent combined Enemies to fall out amongst themselves and destroy one another and left just Nothing for them to do but to seize the rich Spoil and to gather that up and to carry it away cost them three days time it was so plentiful This first Instance is of a People that were actually in Covenant with Heaven and professed Worshippers of the True GOD. But even Heathens themselves have found good success in Public Mourning The second Instance therefore shall be of them I mean the Ninevites Nineveh was a great and populous City So great that it was almost fifty Miles in Compass had Walls of an extraordinary Breadth an hundred and twenty Foot high and beset with fifteen hundred Towers So populous that when Jonah prophesied against it * Jon. 4.11 there were sixscore thousand in it so Young that they knew not their Right hand from their Left Now to this mighty City GOD sent a most dismal Message †Jon. 3.4 Yet forty Days and Nineveh shall be overthrown Tho' He did not declare how or by what Means it should be done The divine Herald entring into the Town for three days together aloud proclaim'd its appointed Destiny by repeated Denunciations of that dreadful Sentence * Note II. This so struck the King of Nineveh that he presently issu'd out his Proclamation requiring all the Inhabitants of it to keep a strict Fast to be covered with Sack-cloth and to Cry mightily unto GOD. Which mighty Crying implies public religious Mourning And what this Prince injoined His People to do he seriously acted in His own Person And that these their humble mournful Applications were highly successful appears from the Event For so pleasing was their pious carriage to GOD that as soon as He beheld it His Anger was pacified His Sentence reversed and consequently their impending Ruine averted For when God saw their Works that they turned from their Evil way GOD repented of the Evil that He said He would do unto them and He did it not Jon. 3.10 Whence we may lawfully inferr and conclude that if we do upon occasion as these Ninevites did we may speed no worse than they as having reason to hope that we shall rather Speed better For GOD who was so Merciful to a Mourning Heathen City may well be more Gracious to a Mourning Christian Church And truly considering how provoking our Sins are and what fearful Dangers they expose us to it is much to be wisht that one or two Days might Yearly be set apart such as to our Sovereign's Wisdom shall seem fittest for public Fasting and Mourning for the Nation 's Sins And as often as such solemn Days are appointed it should be every ones care that they be as solemnly kept or observed For if we fail in that Duty which as we see very Heathens performed we may well expect to fall under those Punishments which they escaped Yea not only the Judgments which God hath menaced and we have deserved may Justly fall heavy upon us now but the Men of Nineveh according to our dearest LORD's Prediction shall rise up in Judgment with
these Comforts being procurable by Holy Mourning what good Man who considers it well would not set Himself to Mourn that so he may be comforted and thus assured O Christian is not Assurance a most desirable is it not a most invaluable Blessing They that injoy it are too happy to have their Felicity describ'd tho' these may be some faint or imperfect Hints of it They are raised in their Minds they are generous in their Thoughts they are lofty in their Desires they are chearful in their Spirits they are even in their Tempers they are sweet in their Dispositions they are pleasing in their Converse they are innocent in their Carriage they are pure in their Intentions they are upright in their Proceedings And if we pass a little higher I mean from their civil to their religious Capacities and observe them there we shall find them as laudable in divine Accomplishments For how strong are they in Faith How joyful through Hope How full of Fear and Love to GOD and of Kindness and Charity to all Men How confident are they in Devotions How unconcern'd in Dangers How patient in Sufferings How invincible in Troubles How fearless and resigned as to Death How firm in Believing how chearful in Expecting how constant in Looking how earnest in Wishing how eager in Longing for the eternal Judgment In one word innumerable are the Benefits of this Assurance as well as inestimable Let me name but two more and insist a little upon them It makes Religion very easy to us and us to be very zealous in that First It makes Religion very easy to us The Stronger he that labours is the less irksom are his Works And the more we are strengthned * Eph 3.16 in the inner Man the less difficult will our Spiritual Exercises be Now Assurance corroborates us within It warms our Affections with an holy Vigour and an heavenly Sprightliness and so making us †Eph. 6.10 strong in the LORD and in the Power of his Might does greatly facilitate Religion to us It is not the weight of things that makes them hard to be born so we have but strength proportionable to bear them The Posts and Gates and Barrs of a City were nothing for a Sampson to take upon his Shoulders and to carry them away even to the Top of an Hill Assurance turns us into Spiritual Sampsons If we were Children before it makes us Men and if we were Men it makes us Giants It fills us with such noble Heat as raises our Strengths up to our Tasks and apportions our Abilities to our Imployments And then the weightiest Duties which lie upon our Hands become not only practicable but delightful and the serious and constant performance of them turns into the truest and most entertaining Pleasure of our whole Life And who would not purchase such a pleasure at the price of Mourning O the dull and weary Pace that many walk in the ways of Duty O the black and dismal Accusations wherewith they charge them O the grievous and bitter Complaints which they make against them CHRIST's easy Yoke galls their Necks and his light Burthen breaks their Backs and they are ready to cry out they know not how to endure them I cannot Believe I cannot Hope I cannot Pray I cannot be Meek I cannot be Humble I cannot be Patient When the Devil tempts I know I should resist Him when the World flatters I know I should despise it when the Flesh entices I know I should deny it but I cannot alas I am not able to do it This is the comfortless language of Thousands and thus with Sorrow in their Hearts and with Tears in their Eyes they bewail the Hardness of their incumbent Duties But now would such as these but change the Scene a little which they act in and turn their pensive into pious Mourning the Torrent of their Grief would soon be stopped and the Fountain of their Lamentation dried up For the Difficulties in Religion would quickly disband and the things they complain of as toilsome and troublesome would be matter of Ease and Satisfaction to them And can we stick at Mourning or any other Performance to bring this about Think O Christians and consider well with your selves Will it not be an happy a most happy Case when our Duties shall be turned into high Divertisements and divine Recreation When it shall be our Meat and Drink to do the Will of our heavenly Father When our Minds shall always be inclin'd towards Heaven and our Hearts be sweetly affected with Religion When we shall freely yield up our selves to the Government of our LORD and chearfully follow the Conduct of His SPIRIT When abhorring all treacherous Delights of Sin we shall devote our selves to the Love and Service of GOD studying His Will and rejoycing to obey it Consider wisely I say and then speak if this will not be a most blessed Condition Yet be but persuaded to be Holy Mourners and ye shall be some of these Blessed Creatures Then ye shall heartily choose the ways of Righteousness and run on in them with little Pains and ascend to Heaven with a great deal of Ease For then ye shall be strong in Faith and lively in Hope and fervent in Love and fit to Pray and swift to Hear and ready to Practise and all the Parts of Evangelical Obedience shall be but matter of Complacence to you Let all that are good Remember this and by it be induc'd to what I urge Would we not be glad to have our Duties naturalized and made easy Would we not be glad to act GOD's Will with as much Readiness and Alacrity as ever we did Satan's or our own Would it not Rejoyce us and Rejoyce us exceedingly to see all those huge and mountainous Difficulties over which we thought we should never be able to climb quite levell'd and made plain before us and so plain as to be pleasant to us Yet by Religious Mourning may this be done For that makes way for holy Comforts and They will bring on heavenly Assurance the certain Cause of this desirable Effect Secondly The same Assurance which makes Religion easy to us will make US zealous in that They who labour for uncertain Wages want the chief Motive to Diligence and so may well be cold in their Work GOD therefore to banish all Chilness out of us in His Service hath set a most incomparable Recompence before us And as the sight of that Reward if beheld with fixt and unprejudiced Eyes is enough to cure Lukewarmness so Assurance of it is enough to inflame our Zeal in the ways of Godliness What can we believe that GOD is our Father that CHRIST is our REDEEMER and that the HOLY GHOST is our constant appointed COMFORTER Can we believe fiducially that we have GOD's Graces to sanctify us His Power to guard us His Laws to guide us and His Providence to take care of us Can we firmly believe that we are happily related to
by it tho' it be of an heating Quality Fourthly Our future Joys will be Eternal As in GOD's Presence there is Fulness of Joy so at His right Hand there are Pleasures for evermore Psal 16.11 Not for days or weeks or months or years or ages but for ever and ever As in Righteous persons the hatred of Sin and the practice of Virtue had they lived for ever would have been endless so after their Death and the final Judgment their remunerative Joys shall be as durable Our present Comforts are nothing like them They are flitting and transient and of very short and momentany continuance When at any time they flow up to an high Tide peradventure by and by they ebb or fall as fast and 't is presently low Water with them again But in Heaven the Joys are long enough as being of no less than infinite Duration As they are so constant as to know no Intermission so they are so permanent as to have no Expiration As they have GOD for their Author and Fulness for their Measure and Satisfaction for their Effect and Happiness for their End so the only Boundary or Limit of their Existence is that which hath none at all in it self namely Eternity This is the Fourth excellent Property of future Joys When they have endured Hundreds Thousands Millions of Years they are never the nearer to an end for having run on so far from their beginning So long as we abide with GOD so long will they abide with us and we shall be for ever with the LORD 1 Thess 4.7 And in this respect lastly they far exceed our present Comforts For they at best are but fickle aguish and intermittent They come by fits and they leave us at times now they recede and then they return and all that we can do will not stay their Lability or Slipperiness and work them to a constant Settlement or Fixation The best upon Earth are at no certainty at all for their Comforts When they count them surest they may soonest slip from them They that have longest injoyed them must not think to hold them by Custom for in Spirituals there is no such tenure as Prescription Nor indeed is it fit that Comforts here should continue always at their Heighth for then we should be swallowed up entirely by them and be able to do nothing else but injoy them Such are the Joys of the World to come and impossible it is there should be Sweeter or Better If therefore we be but so good as to love GOD or else but so wise as to love our selves what Course would we not willingly take to procure them What would we not do or what would we not be What would we not suffer or what would we not give that so we might at last obtain and possess them And consequently if we be but so much Christians as to believe the great Truths which came down from Heaven and this for one that Holy Mourning gives a special Right to these excellent Joys that Faith will not fail to draw us to the Exercise and that with such Attraction as cannot be resisted And to ensure such matchless Joys as these few methinks should be loth to shed their Bloud but none should refuse to shed their Tears CHAP. XVIII The Thirteenth Motive to Mourning in General It hath been constantly practis'd in the Church of GOD and is highly conducive to its Happiness WHat is our Duty as we have seen Holy Mourning is and what makes for our Interest as we have seen that does were there none that ever acted it before us and none that would ever ingage in it after us we should yet have great Reason to close with it But then to Mourn piously we have greater Reason still because as 't is a Duty which serves our best Interests so it hath been of constant and catholic use amongst them that were good At all times and in all places where true Religion hath been heartily received that hath been taken up and seriously exercis'd by its choicest Professors Besides plenty of Instances proving as much the many Helps to it on Heaven's part and the mighty Occasions for it on ours sufficiently argue that it could not be wanting where GOD was well worshipt So that if we mean to conform to the best as all indeed are oblig'd to do how can we avoid Religious Mourning And truly why should we when the most excellent Persons that the World ever had have practis'd it as a thing most necessary and useful And if it were needful and beneficial to them why should it not be the same to us who have no reason to think we are better than they or that we need it less But here I must add that it is not only useful and advantageous to our selves in our private Capacities but also to the Militant Church in General and will minister to its Happiness with a mighty Efficacy where we set it a work to that purpose For Holy Mourning as we have shew'd is * Chap. 5. most acceptable to GOD and so in conjunction with that Body of Duties which belong to Christianity must needs be estimable and prevalent with Him upon great Accounts in reference to His Church and conduce very much to the felicity of it We 'll remark its Efficacy and how mightily it prevails when united with one great Duty only that of Prayer Suppose then the Church be oppress'd with Enemies and we pray for Her deliverance let us but join Mourning with our Supplication and so it will become more powerful and effectual King David seems to warrant this For when the Church's Enemies and His grew rampant and troublesome he did not only call upon GOD for deliverance but joined Mourning with his Invocation And for that reason he had the better Title to GOD's Attention and His gracious Answer as we may gather from Psal 55.2 Take heed unto me and hear me how I mourn in my Prayer Because he did not only pray for Deliverance but mourn in His Prayer he put a special Emphasis and laid a particular Stress upon that and expected to be heard the sooner for it And so he was as in another place he gives us to understand For when against such Enemies as now were mentioned he had prayed and wept they were immediately to be checkt and repell'd The LORD hath heard the voice of my Weeping the LORD hath heard my Petition the LORD will receive my Prayer All mine Enemies shall be confounded and sore vexed they shall be turned back and put to shame suddenly Psal 6.8 9 10. No sooner had he poured out his Prayers with tears but GOD was ready to appear against the Adversaries whose Malice he deprecated They were to be dissipated and he delivered suddenly * 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Tâ—rg 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Septuag in a moment or the least fragment of time So great Power have weeping Prayers with the GOD of Mercies And truly if zealous Christians
us at last and shall eternally condemn us Matth. 12.41 CHAP. III. Of Private Mourning as it relates to Others and to Our selves THO' Public Mourning is besides our Purpose yet let not that little which we have said concerning it be thought impertinent the Design of it being but to excite us to it and ingage us in it when at any time it shall be imposed or required We are now to speak to private Religious Mourning And this is matter of our free choice We enter upon it voluntarily or of our own accord without any intervention of the Civil Power or Compulsion from it As it relates to Others it hath respect to two Evils their Miseries and their Impieties First unto their Miseries And as it dwells upon them it springs up from a sympathetic Principle I mean from those Bowels of Compassion Mercy or Commiseration which the holy and elect of God are to put on Col. 3.12 Those choice Persons that are happy in a true Sanctification are full of Pity of Pity so tender and affectionate as commonly makes them prone to Tears Being high in the Evangelical Spirit or Temper they come up to the Evangelical Rule or Precept Weep with them that weep Rom. 12.15 And if we weep and mourn for our Brethrens outward Afflictions it is no more than what our Religion obliges us to For where the Christian Law injoins us to be all of one mind and to be loving to the Brethren 1 Pet. 3.8 it means we should be and it intends to make us of so sweet a Temper and of Spirits so united and mutually endeared as not to fail in sympathizing with our Suffering Brethren tho' their Troubles be but secular and external so they be really sharp or heavy This may seem a melancholy Doctrine yet to practise it is much our Duty and therefore let us do it Whenever we hear or where-ever we see any good People under GOD's hand let us duly lay their Condition to heart If they labour and groan under War or Famine or Pestilence or Persecution or the like Judicial or Providential Severities let us be affected with their deplorable Calamities and think of their Infelicities with Sorrowful Resentments To this the Apostle instructs us powerfully where He elegantly compares the whole Community of Christians to a body Organical telling us that tho' they be Many Members yet they are but One Body 1 Cor. 12.20 And then from the Comparison He rightly inferrs the Sympathy we speak of that if one member suffers all the members suffer with it v. 26. So that not to be toucht with a Compassionate fellow-feeling of good Christians Sufferings makes it questionable whether we be true living Members of CHRIST's Mystical Body or rather it puts it past all Question by making it evident that we are not such And tho' hearty Sympathizing with the Righteous in their Sufferings was never so clearly taught and forcibly recommended as now under the Gospel yet on the Religious it was incumbent before long before that blessed Dispensation came into the World As much may be gathered from that Passage Amos 6.5 6. For there the Prophet charged it as a Fault upon some in his Time that they were unconcerned for good Mens Adversity and addicted themselves to Pleasures while they Languisht in Trouble They chaunted to the Sound of the Viol and invented to themselves Instruments of Music like David they drank Wine in Bowls and anointed themselves with chief Ointments but they were not grieved for the Affliction of Joseph For us to live in high Delights and to give up our selves to be Merry and Gay when the Church of GOD is grievously afflicted and in great Tribulation must needs be a Crime and none of the Least by its falling thus under a Prophet's Reproof Very different from this was the King of Israel's Carriage even to Evil Men and such as derided Him and were injurious to Him When they were sick says He my Clothing was Sack-cloth I humbled my Soul with Fasting I behaved my self as a Friend or Brother I bowed down heavily as one that Mourneth for His Mother Psal 35.13 14. How divinely Soft and Sympathetic was the Temper of this good Prince When unworthy Wretches base in themselves and spiteful to Him fell into Misery he Fasted and Mourned and wore Sackcloth for them Tho' they scorned and maligned and aspersed Him yet he prayed most heartily and importunately for them for GOD's Mercy to them for His Blessing upon them for His Deliverance of them O that we did but demean our selves towards our best Friends when miserable and to the choicest and most eminent Servants of God as this renowned Monarch did towards his Enemies and hypocritical mockers as they are there termed Yet we are happy in a nobler Dispensation than he was and live in that time when according to the inspired mans Prediction he that is feeble shall be as David Zech. 12.8 And as we must mourn in private for others Miseries so we must 2ly for their Impieties And indeed much more for them there being much more reason for it Tho what the Reasons for it are we need not here consider We 'll rather note at present that Charity is the Principle from which it flows and that in this sort of mourning we exercise that Principle And can we set it a Work upon a better Account I believe that excellent man thought he could not whose Wish it was Oh that my Head were Waters and mine Eyes a Fountain of Tears that I might weep Day and Night for the slain of the Daughter of my People Jer. 9.1 But surely he meant as in other places it appears to weep more for those that were slain morally by Sin than for those that were to be slaughter'd by the Sword Charity from which pious sorrow springs would cause him to shed most Tears for such And so it behoves us all to do To mourn more for our sinning than for our suffering Brethren And tho' we be short of the Prophet in Goodness yet in Proportion to our Virtues and the Degrees of our Charity let us bewail the miscarriages of that People to whom we belong But then besides mourning for Others we must mourn in private for our selves And when we do so our mourning hath respect to three things to our Sufferings to our Duties or to our Sins When it respects our Sufferings it is pious Affliction No sooner do good Men feel themselves in Pain or fall into trouble but they are ready to consider from whence it comes And if upon mature consideration they find it descends from Heaven upon them as the fruit of an offended GOD's displeasure and a just infliction of His deserv'd severity it usually brings an holy Grief upon them Thus did David fast and weep and lie all night upon the Earth for the dangerous Sickness and the threatned Death of His illegitimate Son 2 Sam. 12. Or if in the Sufferings they feel there be no sting of Guilt
but all the smart of them is rather from unhappiness than from sinful unworthiness and more for trial perhaps than for punishment yet then they are apt to relent too and to be deeply pensive and duly mournful in proportion to the uneasiness incident to them So the Christians at Miletus wept sorely and sorrowed extreamly to understand they should see Paul's face no more Act. 20.37 38. And when our own demerits or God's good Providence shall at any time sink us into Infelicities the like afflictive Sorrow will not only become us but likewise benefit us and I may safely averr it is so far our Duty as it makes for our best and our highest Interests When private mourning respects our Duties it hath the nature of Zeal in it Thus he that is sensible he wants the Graces of Heaven and prays earnestly for them and through heat and vigour and vehemence of his Spirit mourns in his Supplications for the obtaining of them his mourning is but Zeal which plainly discovers it self in his high Concern for his unhappy Defects and his hearty Endeavour to get them supplied So he that acts the Heavenly Graces which he hath in fearing believing and loving of GOD and weeps and mourns that he can do it no better his mourning is Zeal and this his Carriage is a fair Symptome or Indication of as much For it shews that he is warm in these Actings already and that he hath intense and ardent Desires of more Awe of of more Faith in and of more Affection to the DEITY In short when he that dischargeth any Christian Offices grieves and mourns for his Deficiency in them whence can this come but from Displeasure at himself for presenting Services so imperfect and from Eagerness to offer such as are more worthy and so what is it but unfeigned and inflamed Zeal and a laudable Effect or Expression of it When private Mourning respects our own Sins it may be lookt upon as a piece of true Repentance Nor will it improperly come under that notion as being the first great step we usually take in that needful Duty For as they who feel nothing but Pleasure in sin will be too fond of it and delight so much in it as to be loth to leave it So they who find it bitter and irksome will quickly disgust it and by degrees grow weary of it and be weaned from it till they come finally to forsake it Nor does mourning for sin as it renders it distastful become instrumental to our first Turn from it only but where it continues it conduces greatly to the consummation of our Repentance also helping to perfect as well as to begin it But of this more in the Sequel of the Treatise CHAP. IV. What solemn Mourning in private is It s principal Concomitants these Seven Tears Prayer Fasting Alms-deeds Set-times free Forgiveness and select Associates BEfore we go any farther we must remember that it is not only Mourning and private Religious Mourning that we here treat of but such private and religious Mourning as is solemn Such holy Mourning that is as we do not fall into by Chance or preter-intentionally and as we do not continue in contingently and uncertainly for some few Minutes according as it may happen But such as we design and propose to our selves and such as we deliberately chuse and studiously promote wisely projecting and contriving for it and carefully and industriously labouring after it to raise it to the highest pitch we can and then to keep it there for some reasonable time For as sincere Christians who are upright in their Lives and regular and zealous in the Works of GOD are often visited with sudden Joys and lifted up with unlookt for Consolations while a bright Beam is unexpectly darted into them from above and perhaps at such a time when they are more than usually in Clouds or Darkness So on the contrary it sometimes happens that they are surprized with Grief when they little think of it When they are seated in their best and easiest Circumstances where the Air is free and the Sky is clear and all about them is lightsome and pleasant even then their Serenity grows thick on a sudden and an unexpected Gloominess comes upon them Or if the Heavens be not wholly overcast at once yet some watry Clouds rise in their Horizon and their fair Weather is turned into Showers which fall as Rains very frequently do when the Sun shines Their Hearts are struck I mean with pious Relentings unawares and they slide in an Instant into Holy Sorrow and that so unsensibly that they find themselves in it without any Prospect at all of it and feel their Souls much affected with it without taking any manner of pains to raise it Now such a surreptitious and accidental Mourning is not the Mourning which we here speak to For however the Pangs of it which seize the Christian at his Prayers Meditations or the like may be Instances of the Divine Favour towards him and may shew that he is dear to the HOLY GHOST who is pleas'd to honour Him with unsought Influences yet our principal Subject is an intended premeditated and endeavoured Mourning A Mourning that we strive and labour for using our utmost care and skill to make it as serious and solemn as we can And when it is duly solemn it hath these Seven Attendants or Concomitants 1. Tears 2. Prayer 3. Fasting 4. Alms-deeds 5. Set-times 6. Free Forgiveness 7. Select Associates First Where Holy Mourning is duly solemn it is often accompani'd with Tears They are a most natural Expression of Sorrow and where-ever it rises high in the Heart it is usual with it to run out at the Eyes There it commonly discharges it self tho' I dare not affirm that it always does so For some have such a Masculine hardness in their Temper that scarce any thing is able so far to melt them as to set them a weeping While others again are of so soft and feminine a Constitution that every thing almost can cause them to do it They dissolve apace and sink and drown as it were in Floods of Tears even upon slight and trivial accounts and from very unproportionable Motives and Occasions So that if we would not err here we must lay down some Rule which may serve to guide us in this matter And the safest Rule as well as the plainest to judge our selves by in the Case before us I think is this If we do not weep upon Religious Accounts as well as upon others we may justly suspect that all is not right with us For this strongly argues that either we are not throughly affected with the things of Christianity or that we are short of that Tenderness of Spirit which should dispose us to weep in such weighty Affairs If therefore thou beest naturally prone to Tears and canst shed them freely for lighter concerns as for the Unkindness of Friends the Abusiveness of Enemies or any kind of outward Afflictions or
come so thick and grow so strong as to rent the Heart and to wound the Soul and to make as it were breaches in the Spirit of a Man this will be a valuable Temper with GOD a Frame of Mind that He will approve and love that He will really prize and make as great account of as ever He did of the Jewish Sacrifices under the old Mosaic Dispensation And that He had an high Esteem for them we need not question inasmuch as Himself was the Author of them By His order Sacrifices were introduced and set up in the Church and so were Rites of His own Institution The several Kinds of them and their respective Materials the Times when the Places where the Occasions upon which the Ways how the Parties for whom and the Persons by whom they were to be offered were all of His prescribing And when they were duly performed according to His pleasure and divine Appointment He could not but set an huge Estimate upon them But then it is as evident that He hath an equal Esteem for the Spirit that is broken with Holy Mourning because He calls it the Sacrifices of GOD. Not only His Sacrifice making it equivalent to this or that or the other single Sacrifice under the Law but His Sacrifices intimating that in His Esteem it equals many if not all of them at once And I must farther add this great Truth That if legal Sacrifices were so esteemed of GOD the broken Spirit must be much more estimable as being much more excellent For They were only outward and typical Services Symbols Figures and Shells of Religion at best but positive and so temporary things good for a time because they were commanded But the broken Spirit contains in it intrinsic Piety mental Virtue and moral Duty And so the mention'd Sacrifices must be as much short of it as a meer Skeleton is of a Man or as Shadows and Appearances are of most solid and substantial Realities For here the Religious do not bring their Oxen or their Heifers their Calves or their Kids their Sheep or their Lambs to be slain But things that are very much dearer to them I mean their Passions and their Appetites their Affections and their Lusts their selfish Interests and their sensual Delights and all their Pleasures and Practices that are sinful These are checked these are weakened these are wounded conquered and killed by holy Contrition When the Christian mourns these gasp and dye the Tears He sheds are the very Life-bloud of his Corruptions And therefore the broken Spirit must needs set us higher in GOD's Esteem than Holocausts or Hecatombs or the richest Sacrifices at any Altar And there is Reason for it For in them Men sacrificed their Beasts but in this they sacrifice Themselves which recommends them to the best Acceptance And shall not this effectually draW thee to Religious Mourning When thou doest it heartily beest thou never so low in thy Person or thy Circumstances thou shalt be very highly esteemed of GOD. Surely when the Jewish High Priest in his richest Garments did rightly make his choicest Offerings no spiritual Man could be more honourable in his Self or more acceptable in his Function Yet when Aaron array'd with all the pompous Ornaments of the Pontifical Habit stood in the holiest Place upon Earth and there presented the sweetest Incense to the MOST HIGH he could not be more approved or better esteemed than the poorest zealous Christian shall be when with a broken Spirit he pours out his Sighs or mournful Tears unto the same GOD. Nay if we measure Mens acceptance with GOD by the Quality or Goodness of the Oblations they make Him the Christian Mourner in his meanest Rags will be more acceptable than the Jewish Sacrificer in his Stately Robes Perhaps in this World there is not a Man that shines so bright in the Eyes of Heaven as the Christian does in a Mourning Cloud 3ly GOD dwells with Holy Mourners When one that is great and good and wise shall take up his Residence with such as are unspeakably beneath him and unworthy of him this alone sufficiently argues that he is much delighted with their Company and their Converse that what they are and what they do is extreamly pleasing and grateful to Him Let the Rule be applied to the most Great and Good and Wise GOD and it will shew his Acceptance of Holy Mourning for He professeth to dwell with them that exercise it Thus saith the HIGH and LOFTY ONE that inhabiteth Note III. Eternity whose Name is HOLY I dwell in the high and holy Place with him also that is of a contrite and humble Spirit Isai 57.15 And can any amongst us refuse to mourn or refrain from doing it that consider this If thou beest solidly good think with thy self what is there in the whole World comparable to this Where canst thou look for any thing like it or where shalt thou find it To have GOD dwell with us to have the Glorious GOD dwell in us O unspeakable Privilege 'T is much too high for the brightest Cherubin only He is pleased not to think it so But what is it then for sinful Souls in vile and frail and fleshly Bodies Where-ever a King dwells there is a Court and where-ever GOD dwells in the sense we speak it there must be Heaven Yet as mean as thine Heart is or as bad and base as it may have been GOD is ready to descend into it and to abide there if by Holy Mourning it be fitted for Him And should we weep till we wept our Eyes out methinks we should count it a cheap Price wherewith to purchase so rich a Blessing Tho' we plainly see that we need not go so far for it neither for a moderate Grief so much as makes the Spirit contrite will entitle us to it and settle it upon us Enough to amaze any thinking Christian O ponder it well and then speak Can the GOD of Heaven do thee a greater Honour or canst thou ask a greater Favour of Him than to dwell with thee for ever Blessed Blessed and for ever Blessed be His MAJESTY for it 4ly GOD hath ranked Holy Mourning amongst the noblest Perfections of the best Religion The LORD JESUS is GOD Blessed for ever Rom. 9.5 And when in tender Pity to lost Men He assumed their Nature to restore their Happiness and in order to accomplishing that glorious Work was newly entred upon His Mediatorship He publicly preached a most excellent Sermon to a Multitude of Hearers And in that divine and incomparable Discourse amongst other sacred useful Doctrines He recommended eight Beatitudes to them Truths and Duties of so high a Nature and heavenly an Efficacy as will certainly render all sincere Believers and hearty Conscientious Practitioners of them Spiritually first and then Eternally Blessed Now as we find in the Fifth of S. Matthew the Second in order of these Eight Beatitudes is the Holy * Whereas a considerable part of our
and venture so far as to make trial of it but a small number would heartily espouse it and prove its true and faithful Admirers GOD therefore pities His tender Converts and that they might not be overset in * They who begin their Conversion have commonly need of a prepossessed and indeliberate Pleasure to free them from their sensible Goods Malebranch Search after Truth Book 3. ch 4. sect 4. their first Approaches to Himself He affords them such Comforts as are able to support them Excellent Job seems to be a pregnant Instance of this In the 29th Chapter of his Book he wisheth thus O that I were as I was in the days of my Youth when the Secret of GOD was upon my Tabernacle The Body of Man as is well known was called a Tabernacle by the best Philosophers the Pythagoreans and Platonists as well as by the Hebrews And in the sacred Books it is very often so denominated And therefore when the SON of GOD had taken upon him an humane Body and dwelt on Earth it was said of Him †Joh. 1.14 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 He tabernacled among us And S. Paul speaking of CHRIST's Power resting upon him says that it may dwell upon me as in a ‖ 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Tabernacle 2 Cor. 12.9 By Job's Tabernacle then we may understand Job Himself whose Body under that Appellative is here put for his whole Compositum or entire Person By the Secret of GOD some will have GOD's Providence meant His Providence blessing and enriching Job But we may better take it to be GOD's Propitious Presence The hidden Motions and silent secret Operations of His consolatory SPIRIT According to that of David the Secret of the LORD is with them that fear Him Psal 25.14 Or that of Solomon His Secret is with the Righteous Prov. 3.32 And indeed the Comforts of the HOLY GHOST are such a Secret as is imparted but to few and is seldom and little revealed by those that possess it and so may much better be called a Secret as being a truer or deeper one than the Blessing of GOD bringing Secular Prosperity unto Men. For that cannot be hid but must publish it self or be openly discovered in very visible or notorious Effects Gejerus expounds the Secret of GOD to our Sense For by it He will have the inward Consolations of the SPIRIT to be meant And so does * Me consolando in loc Yra And very properly may they be termed GOD's Secret because by them He secretly chears and strengthens His Servants And therefore they are called Hidden Manna Rev. 2.17 as being reposited as secretly in pure Souls as the Manna was in its Golden Pot which being put in the Ark was kept in the most secret as well as in the most holy Place of the Sanctuary Heb. 9.4 And this Secret or these Comforts rested upon Job in the days †〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 of his Youth says he In the days of my Childhood as the ‖ 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Targum speaks it While he was very young and so green in Religion and as a Beginner newly acquainted with the ALMIGHTY And thus it fairly falls in with whit we assert That GOD by His Comfort does usually strengthen Men when they first undertake the true Religion The effect of which is it prevents their being damped or too much disheartned by any harsh Occurrencies and establishes them firmly in the Profession of it And no Wonder He should favour these Persons so much For like young Children being unable to stand of themselves or to go alone as they should is in giving them these Comforts He takes them by the Hand as it were to uphold and lead them And good Reason there is according to humane Judgment why weak Christians should have strongest Consolations Not only because they are weak but because their Temptations may probably be more and also more violent than those that are incident to the strongest of all For Satan we may conclude will fight most furiously where he hath the best Prospect and most hopes of Victory Where He sees the Fort of Virtue weakest there he 'll ply his fiercest Batteries 'T is usual with an Enemy to pass by a Garrison that is well fortifi'd or a Castle that he thinks impregnable and to attaque or besiege others that are less able to hold out in a good Defence or vigorous Resistance And 't is very likely that our Spiritual Adversary does ordinarily act at the same Rate Where He sees Christians arm'd and well appointed to the Combate their Graces strong their Judgments clear their Affections warm and themselves Resolute and like to prove invincible he passeth them by and ingageth not with them But where he spies out others that are weak and feeble and unfit to conflict and grapple with Him there he sets on with rage and vehemence expecting to vanquish and devour them Reasonable it is therefore as was said before according to the judgment of Men that weakest Christians should have strongest Comforts For as they meet with most and sharpest Encounters perhaps so they have least Abilities to endure them They who are most subject to faint had need be suppli'd with best Cordials And the good God hath taken care for this But farther as holy Comforts thus help to fix us so they help us as well to forward us in Religion I mean by incouraging us to and in its Duties To undertake to be Religious is an easy Work and soon done And therefore in Countries where Christianity prevails there are few but embrace it But then the misery is that these populous Multitudes who take up Religion with seeming Seriousness are generally plausible Pretenders to it only instead of sincere Practitioners of it They are nominal Christians but real Hypocrites and the Duties they act are but meer formal and theatrical things They may make a loud noise and a fine show but they have nothing of Life or Substance in them and so nothing of true Service to GOD or Benefit to themselves And tho' such as are sincere and thorough-pac'd Christians be commonly hearty in the Works of Religion yet very often they are so backward to them and so heavy in them that they want some help to overcome their Reluctancy and to quicken their Dulness Here therefore Comforts are helpful to them in aiding them through those weighty Duties which are required of them If ye * Joh. 13.17 know these things said our dear LORD happy are ye if ye do them signifying that Christians must not be Persons of Speculation only but of Practice It is not enough for them to understand well to think well and to intend and resolve well unless they do so too They must be active in the Offices incumbent on them in all the good Works which the Religion they profess obliges them to perform And these they must discharge with all good Conscience and Perseverance But then we being to
persist in such lofty Practices which stand upon the exalted Principles of Christianity there is no reaching them and running through them without considerable Pains and some Uneasiness And therefore we are taught by CHRIST Himself that His Religion is both a Yoke and a Burthen S. Mat. 11.30 But then as He perfectly understands the Height of His own Laws and the Frame of our Being so He hath throughly experimented the Difficulties of Obedience and the Infirmities of our Nature And so we need not doubt but He will graciously dispense his Comforts to us and that in such measures as shall be most suitable to the Tasks which Himself hath impos'd and as shall effectually assist us in the Performance of those Tasks For such is the Powerful Virtue of these Comforts that they wonderfully dispose us to the Worship of GOD and strengthen us in it Thus as sometimes when they come They fill us with Longings after His Service and make us even Restless till we are ingaged in it So at other Times when they visit us in our actual Waitings on His Glorious MAJESTY they so animate and inspirit us that we feel no Weariness at all in our Attendance And when in any Periods or Circumstances of our Life we chance to grow down or dead in Devotion and to droop and flag in our pious Exercises and to be in danger of turning Lukewarm in Religion no sooner are they darted into our Souls but they replenish us with fresh and lively Fervours And these again inspire us with such Active Force and vital Energy as enable us to fulfill our Several Duties not only with Content and chearful Alacrity but always with true and sometimes with great Delight and Pleasure And thus our LORD's Religion tho' it be a Yoke is made easy to us and tho' it be a Burthen is rendred Light as Himself proclaims it in the fore-quoted Place Nor do heavenly Comforts only inliven us in our dutiful Addresses to GOD but also infuse holy Confidence into us Such a Confidence as lifts us up into decent and modest Familiarity with His MAJESTY So that whereas they who are destitute of Comforts and dejected for want of them do commonly approach Him with troubled Minds and trembling Hearts and are so overset with the Sense of His Excellencies and their own Unworthiness that their Thoughts are disordered and their Duties dispirited We that enter GOD's Presence full of Peace and make our devout Aplications to Him do it at a far more happy Rate For as we are wholly free from all terrifying Dread so our filial Awe and reverential Fear are mixt and incouraged with ingenuous Boldness With so bashful and becoming a kind of Audacity as recommends us to Heaven and much facilitates our devotional Performances And their Ruggedness and Uneasiness being thus taken off or greatly abated the Labour of them in good measure vanisheth and Religion turns mostly into holy Recreation To come more home to our purpose Christian Duties as every one knows are either Private or Public and divine Comforts are ready to attend and animate us in both if we act them with Fidelity As to Private Duties let that Passage witness Psal 119.165 great Peace have they which love thy Law As many as love the Law of GOD which contains their Duties and love it so well as to mind and study it and make it their Guide or the Rule of their Practice They shall have Peace Not only all kind of outward Felicity which Peace does often signify in Scripture but inward Tranquility and Spiritual Joy of mind Nor shall they only have this Peace in some little Measure but in Plenty or Abundance for they shall have great Peace Peace so great that the World cannot give it S. Joh. 14.27 Peace so great that it passeth all understanding Phil. 4.7 Peace so great that nothing shall offend them that enjoy it as the Psalmist adds where we now cited Him There is * 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 no stumbling-block to them Nothing that can cause them to trip or fall or hinder them in their course of private Duties which Religion prescribes them tho' in it they meet with many Difficulties And then as to Public Duties that the like divine Comforts will attend us in them is evident from a clear and emphatical Testimony in Psal 36.8 They shall be abundantly satisfied with the Fatness of thy House and thou shalt make them drink of the River of thy Pleasures Muit gives the true Character of this Verse †Singula verba sunt emphatica et vehementia The Words are every one forcible and vehemently affect They are so full of meaning that there is no finding it out no attempting a thorough explication of them And long before them S. Austin upon the place delivered himself thus ‖ Nescio quid magnum promittit It promiseth I know not what great thing * Non capimus we comprehend it not The vastness and pregnancy of its sense makes us shallow Creatures incapable of conceiving it I only observe it manifests thus much That not only Comforts but abundance of them shall be the Lot of such as frequent God's House and publicly wait upon Him in His Ordinances In this mortal State Two of the greatest Satisfactions as well as Supports of humane Life are eating and drinking And to the Gratifications arising from these Natural Actions the SPIRIT compares the Pleasures which we feel in public Duties But then because the Quality of the things which we eat and drink contributes mightily to the Pleasure of doing so therefore that the HOLY GHOST might the better set off the Lusciousness of those Delights wherewith GOD favours us when we are zealous in Ordinances He screws up the comparison by which He chose to express it to the highest Pitch For suppose a Man would Eat meerly for Pleasure and to the highest Degree of Pleasure that He could What then could he desire to Eat of better than Fat things Especially if they were set in great Plenty before Him and he might eat of them freely and to satiety And therefore the good SPIRIT gives us to understand that they who conscionably resort to GOD's House shall there feed upon Fatness and not only so but shall be satisfied likewise and abundantly satisfied therewith The Pleasures that is which they are sensible of in GOD's public Service shall be equivalent to those which the Hungry perceive in eating choicest Viands if not far surmount them And so if a man were disposed to Drink his fill and with greatest Delight where could He do it so well as out of a River A River of Wine Suppose or of Milk and Honey by which last sort the holy Book describes a plentiful and pleasant Land But then imagine there were a River running nothing but Pleasures and whose Streams consist wholly of Torrents of Sweetness would not full Draughts out of such a River that flows with the clearest Oblectations most
from the Mouth of the SON of GOD their Qualifications must needs be such as cannot intitle them to genuine Comforts Yet even these who were thus characterised by our LORD did not only hear but receive the Word ‖ 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 with Joy But then their Joys must be spurious or false because they could have no manner of Right to the true For they are not usually the Lot of fluctuating and unstable Souls that are not rooted and grounded in Religion but of such as are well fixt in Faith and Piety We must withal remember that these false Joys or Comforts being different from the true they will likewise have different Operations and by them will produce very different Effects So that whereas true Comforts inliven the Mind and chear the Heart and delight the Spirit and laying fast hold of Men by their powerful Charms and taking them in their soft and sweet Intanglements draw them still nearer and nearer to GOD and intice them to higher Degrees of Righteousness indearing even all that is good to them False ones on the other side which come down upon them that are dissolute are apt to encourage and harden them in Carelesness And because when they do ill no sensible Inconvenience ensues upon it but they find they are at Ease and a secret Pleasure attends their Exorbitancies this rivets them close to their immoral Practices and makes it next to impossible for them to leave them And then which is worse these unhappy Ones do often Fancy their false Comforts to be true and their egregious mistake proves of evil consequence For while they so conceit or conclude concerning them they seal up their unwary deluded Souls in a deep Security and cause them to flatter themselves with Thoughts of Peace and Hopes of Safety till they sink into fearful unexpected Ruine The very Infelicity which S. Paul observes as incident to the Ungodly 1 Thes 5.3 When they shall say Peace and safety then sudden destruction cometh upon them Now it being thus evident that there are false Comforts and that they very much imitate or resemble the true and yet are as different from them in their Operations and as contrary to them in their Effects as they are seemingly like them in some Qualities and Symptoms this may be matter of concern to good Christians and may occasion them Trouble and great Solicitude For they considering that there are such counterfeit and fallacious Comforts and that they have so mischievous an Influence and Tendency will be fit to surmise that theirs are no better and that notwithstanding the singular content they find in them they will greatly indanger rather than advantage them And how such a suspicion would vex their Spirits and what Uneasiness such a Jealousy would bring upon them is not easiy to say To keep the Mispersuasion therefore out of good Minds where it is not entred and to cure or kill it where 't is gotten in it will be necessary to set down the principal Marks of genuine Comforts That so they that are happy in them that are true by the help of these Marks may for their own satisfaction be able to distinguish them from those that are false The chief Marks then of this Nature are Five The First is taken from the Time wherein they come The Second from the Objects whence they flow The Third from the Instruments whereby they rise The Fourth from the Effects which they produce And the Fifth from the state which we are in The Time wherein true Comforts come is mostly when we are well imploy'd The Objects whence they flow are commonly divine The Instruments whereby they rise are most coelestial The Effects which they produce are ever pious And the State which we are in must still be righteous The First Mark of true Comforts is They mostly visit us when we are well imployed When we are conscionably busied in those devout Exercises which GOD hath injoin'd us Which He hath laid upon us as Tests of our Sincerity as Instances of our Duty as Conditions of our Happiness and as Means to advance His own Honour by bettering and improving of our Nature Of this sort of Exercises are servent Praying attentive Hearing religious Watching solemn Fasting humble Mourning holy Communicating liberal Alms-giving patient Suffering the Angelic Work of singing Praises to GOD and the like When we are busi'd in these or other such high and divine Imployments if then holy Comforts break in upon us they prove themselves in some measure to be genuine For they encourage and abet us in that which is good a fair Argument if not a sure Evidence that they proceed from GOD. And when our Minds are unbent and our Virtuous Imployments are laid aside if they visit us at any time in the Intervals of Duty or in our innocent Rests or Cessations from the same they must still be true For however the Acts of Virtue for a while are then intermitted yet the Habits of it remain entire and when they come in such Junctures as they serve to Recompence Duties past so they dispose and whet us on to other approaching And where they come at so seasonable Times as happily to minister to such excellent Ends they intimate themselves to be of the right Kind But if Comforts usually rise within us when we are vainly set or vitiously inclined or actually ingaged an evil Practices and eagerly running on in licentious Courses this aloud proclaims them to be false and counterfeit and argues that they are not from the Blessed SPIRIT For He that injoins us not to bid the wicked GOD * 2 Joh. 10. Speed will never so interfere with his own Injunction as to countenance any in their naughty Ways by communicating heavenly Consolations to them while they persist in Sin and Lewdness The Second Mark of true Comforts is they commonly flow from divine Objects Men †Mat. 7 6. do not gather Grapes of Thorns nor Figgs of Thistles not can we expect to reap heavenly Comforts from earthly Grounds or Considerations Joys that are divine must spring up from divine Objects and be deriv'd to us by divine Vehicles or Conveyances GOD or His Attributes or Mercies CHRIST or His Merits or Benefits the HOLY GHOST or His Graces or Favours HEAVEN or its Glories or Felicities or some other noble Spiritual Excellencies must be in our Minds when Holy Consolations overflow our Souls For being of so divine a Nature themselves they can never grow but upon such Stocks as are congenerous or of the same kind with them If from these Objects therefore or from any like them we derive our Comforts here may be some Sign that they are genuine For they as we read of the Baptism of John they may be from Heaven and not of Men as flowing rot from the nether but the upper Springs But in case our Comforts be rooted in the Earth and grow up from below only that is from a sense of Health and
measure of the stature of the fulness of CHRIST are St. Paul's Words Eph. 4.13 Which seem to insinuate that there is a decreed Pitch or Perfection for us to reach in this Life before we can dy and ascend to Blessedness And shall we not haste on then by holy Mourning with all possible speed to the heighth of Grace which must be accomplisht in us What would we not fain be in Heaven Do we not sigh and groan under the Load of our Mortality and would we not gladly be freed from the heavy Burthen and hard Bondage of it Are we not weary of our present Troubles and do we not complain of many uneasinesses and should not a call to endless Rest and perfect Joy be welcome to us Or had we rather continue here and abide still in this earthly State O senseless stupid and egregious Folly can we love our Prisons and embrace our Chains and hug our Fetters Can we court a longer Exile from our eternal Home and be content to be kept out of the coelestial Kingdom Is not God our loving Father there Is not CHRIST our tender Husband there Is not the HOLY GHOST our sweetest Comforter there And to go lower are not many of our good Friends and dear Relatives there And is not the greatest part of the true Church gone thither and now triumphing in the Presence of our LORD and can we once wish to stay behind Does not the Hireling long for his Pay The Servant for his Wages The Souldier for his Reward The Husbandman for his Harvest The Heir for his Inheritance And do not we long and pant and ardently desire to be in Heaven It will be seen here whether we do or no for then we shall mourn the oftener and the more earnestly that so we may get thither quickly To all good Christians the Gates of Heaven are set wide open and the faster we improve in Divine Grace the sooner possibly we shall enter What more forcible Reason can there be or Motive either to provoke to this Duty If we can outstand the Dint of this vain it will be to propound any more well therefore may it be the Last I offer Let good Christians think seriously with themselves what a vast difference there is between what we are now and what we hope to be hereafter What a sad case are we in here What variety of Infirmities encompass and incommode us We have stupid Minds and crooked Wills clouded Understandings and erroneous Judgments unfaithful Memories and extravagant Affections sensual Desires and unruly Appetites polluted Souls and filthy sickly mortal Bodies What a blessed Condition shall we be in above and what a fulness of Beatitude shall there surround us For besides a freedom from the aforesaid Complaints we shall have a clear and most comfortable Vision of GOD whom our Souls upon Earth so entirely loved The immediate Fruition of the eternal JESUS whose very Name was so ravishing to us The taking Society of Angels most spotless and illustrious that now do us good and we perceive it not The delightful Fellowship of departed Saints whom we prized so much and were so loth to forego Souls pure as the brightest Cherubim and Bodies at length more glittering and radiant than the Starrs or Sun And shall not the hope of such high Preferment make us forward to increase in Grace tho' it were by Mourning that so we may the sooner be invested with it Does not the sense of our many Miseries make us impatiently desirous of Heaven Are not our Sins many Are not our Doubts and Fears and Distractions many Do not these rend our Hearts and afflict our Spirits and sting and gnaw and wound our Consciences and make us oftentimes restless and joyless Can we serve and please GOD as the Souls of the just made perfect do Can we see Him and know Him and love Him and laud Him and derive Happiness from Him as they do Alas the best Services which we perform to Him and the Highest Felicities we receive from Him in these lower Regions are not worthy to be named in the same day with theirs The Duties we offer up to GOD are lame and imperfect mingled with Failings and many Weaknesses and scarce deserve the Name of Duties And answerable to our Duties to Him are our Comforts from Him so faint and low in comparison that they scarce deserve the Name of Comforts If now and then we can get a slight Taste of GOD's Goodness a short Glimpse of His Countenance a single Beam of His Favour darted into our Souls that 's all which ordinary Christians commonly attain to But O the quick and lively sense that the Saints in Glory have of GOD's Love O the close and sweet Embraces that they there feel in the Arms of His Mercy O the fresh Torrents of incessant Joys that always overflow and exceedingly affect them They continually bathe themselves in streams of delight that issue directly from the Great JEHOVAH and swim in such an Ocean of Divinest Pleasures as hath indeed neither Bounds nor Bottom Nor is the measure of their Happiness beyond its Duration for in respect of that it is really infinite being to last as long as GOD Himself Now are not these Excellent things worth the having Can there be any more valuable and so more eligible than they And consequently can we desire any thing so much as a speedy Passage into the Fruition of them Would we not gladly exchange corruption for Glory and a dying Life for blessed Immortality Had we not rather sit down before the Throne of GOD in Holiness and Triumph than abide here in a condition of Sin in a state of Sufferings and in a vale of Tears In short were it not better for us to be taken up into the Mansions on high to reap the Fruits and injoy the Rewards of our respective Labours than still to be imploy'd in any painful Exercises Why if in reality we think it better and accordingly desire it let us manifest the sincerity of our Desires by the Earnestness of our Endeavours to encrease our Graces by holy Mourning Happy are they who by any Piece of early Piety do so advance or augment their Graces as to obtain an early ascent to Heaven And to encourage a little farther yet as we shall go to Heaven perhaps the sooner for this so we shall have the more Glory there Every Vessel shall be full in that Sea but yet the biggest shall receive most That therefore we may be capable of the more Bliss in Heaven while we are on Earth let us enlarge our Graces by Religious Mourning CHAP. XXI Reasons why we must mourn for the Sins of others The Best have done it The neglect of it is blameable It prevails with Heaven It brings us Comforts It secures us from Judgments when others fall by them Both Nature and Religion bind us to it It may be we have been Sharers in the Sins of others HAving given in the Reasons why we
to deal with them in fury neither to pity them nor spare them nor once to hear them tho' they cried never so loud in His Ears In pursuance of this His terrible Resolution He appointed six men with slaughter-weapons in their hands to destroy these Sinners charging them in the Prophet's hearing to slay utterly old and young both Maids and little Children and Women ver 6. But amongst these there were some holy Mourners for the People's sins * Ver. 4. Men that sighed and cried for all the abominations that were done in the midst of them And what was to become of them how were they to speed As the Vision shows GOD was exceeding kind to them and by His gracious Providence extraordinary care was taken of them For among the six men aforesaid there was one that had a Writers Ink-horn by his side And him the LORD injoined to go through Jerusalem and to set a †Ib. mark upon the foreheads of these Mourners that so none of those Destroyers might come near any of them So far were they from being permitted to strike them that they might not dare so much as to come nigh them And be this Vision historical as relating to things past or prophetical as respecting things to come or perhaps both as capable of being either we may hope it contains nothing in reference to the Jewish but what may be made good as to the Christian Church So that if any of us be so pious and tender hearted as to sigh and mourn for the sad misdemeanours of that sinful people amongst which we live then when GOD sends forth destroying Angels to execute His Judgments on the grievous Offenders they may as some have been be markt out for an happy deliverance and secured by exemption from the common Destiny And if here be not sufficient reason why we should mourn for the sins of that Place or Nation we belong to all that are wise and good may judge For Deliverances granted under the Old Testament upon the same sort of Duties which continue under the New in reason should be granted to the performers of those Duties under the New For what 's the foundation or cause of those Deliverances but GOD's Mercy And His Mercy being more liberally dispens'd under the New Testament than the Old why should not Christians rightly fulfilling the common Duties share in the same kind of Deliverances that the Jews did for doing those Duties When Sodom was so dreadfully overthrown and all its ungodly Inhabitants perished how miraculously was Lot delivered And why Not only because he was righteous just Lot as St. Peter terms him but because he was 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 vexed or oppressed with the filthy Conversation of the wicked and by mourning for their sins 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 tormented his righteous Soul from day to day 2 Pet. 2.8 Sixthly We must mourn for the sins of others because Nature and Religion bind us to it We are Men and all Men are made of one blood Act. 17.26 and that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 sameness of blood should beget in us a Sympathy of Affections even to the whole Mass of living Mankind And where we have true kindness for any it will certainly express it self in compassion to them and our Pity will ever be proportionable to their Misery The consequence of which will be that we must naturally bewail Sinners most if we have but Grace to discern their Misery is greatest And then Religion as well as Nature obliges us to mourn for other mens sins For either they mourn for their own sins or they do not If they do we must comply with them Divine Command having made it our Duty to weep with them that weep Rom. 12.15 By which Precept we are Particularly ti'd to mourn with those that mourn for their sins inasmuch as by them that weep there are meant such as are under * Vid. Grot. in loc And Dr. Hammonds Annot. Censure for their sins and so in Sorrow for them If they do not mourn for their own sins we have the more Reason to do it for that To see that they who have so great cause to mourn upon their own account have yet no will GOD help them to set about it Lastly We must mourn for the sins of others because we may have been sharers in them St. Paul adviseth Timothy well and in him every Christian not to be partaker of other mens sins but have we followed this advice Perhaps we may not have commanded or counselled them to sin we may not have urg'd provoked or directly enticed or tempted them to sin But there are other ways whereby we may partake of others sins Thus we may have connived at it or flattered them in it we may not have warned them against it or reproved them for it but instead of all this by our ill Example we may have powerfully invited and encouraged them to it Now if by all or any of these means we have ever been accessary to others sins we have great Reason to mourn deeply for them Yea as great Reason as we have to mourn for our own For look how far we have contributed to them and so far they are ours as much as theirs or at least they are ours in too great a measure CHAP. XXII The first Aggravation of our own and others Sins considered as the first Suasive to Mourning for the same We have sinned against the greatest LIGHT As against the Light of Conscience Of the SPIRIT Of the Word Of Experience Of Ordinances Of Examples Of Admonitions And of humane Laws AFter Reasons for Mourning for our own and others Sins Suasives to the Work will here follow in their proper place And to persuade to this what can be more effectual than a thorough conviction of our exceeding sinfulness And to convince us of that we cannot do betther than take a serious view of some of the most hainous and affecting Aggravations of our own and other mens Sins Of these Aggravations I recommend but Three as so many Suasives to Mourning for both The First is this We have sinned against the greatest Light Men in the dark may easily mistake and either do or go amiss But then they have a good excuse for it as wanting Light the common Guide in all external Motions and Actions But in our moral Miscarriages we were never destitute of such Direction and so they 'll admit of no such Apology It was not through any want of Light but through our neglect or evil contempt of it that we have run into the Works of Darkness And whereas want of Light would have mitigated our Guilt the plenty of it which we have always injoyed does mightily heighten it For in sinning against GOD we have gone unworthily against the greatest Light which could reasonably be afforded us here in our present state and circumstances This will plainly appear if we look into the Eight Particulars that follow And. First We have