Case 1. I will here add a case. So)ne say the;/ cannot iceep, but they can grieve; ichether then is it necessary or no to weep? Tears are taken for the spring of tears ; grief, all grief, shall be taken away. Tears are but the messengers of grief; and oftentimes the deepest apprehension, that takes things deeply, cannot express it in tears. In some the passages fetching the conceit to the heart are made more tender that they can weep. Now, the grief of a Christian is a judicial* grief; a rational grief, not only sensible tears must have sensible grief, but a Christian's grief is a sensible, judicial grief. He hath a right judgment of things that cause sorrow, willeth it, and tears are only an expression of it.
But how shall I know whether gi'ief be right or no ? There be tears God hath no bottle for. ' Thou puttest my tears into thy bottle,' Ps. Ivi. 8. He makes much of them. They be vinum anyelicum, as he saith. God is an angel to his people, to wipe away their tears. But some tears God hath no bottle for, hypocritical tears, Delilah's tears, tears of revenge and anger, Esau's tears. And therefore the true tears that God will wipe away, are such as first of all follow our condition here, our misery. God will wipe them away. If we speak of tears from a judicial ground,
1. The spring of true tears is the love of God, and of Christ, and of his church, and the Jove of the state of Christianity. Tears spring fi'om love, these tears specially.
Oh ! a Cln*istian takes to heart that God should be so ill used in the world ; that Christ, the Saviour of the world, should find such entertain- ment, that he should have anything in him that should offend such a * That is, 'judicious.' — Ed.
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Saviour ! This unMndness stingeth him to the heart. He takes it griev- ously that God should be abused. Laititia hahet suas lachripnas, there is not only grief that is the immediate cause of tears, but another cause beforehand ; that is, love. Joy likewise hath its tears, though they be not here meant specially.
2. Again, tears are good and sound when we weep /or our own sins as well as the sms and miseries of others. And I will add more, we must weep for the sins of others as well as for our own. For it is a greater sign of the truth of grace to take to heart the sins of others more than our own. You will say this is a kind of paradox, for often a man may take to heart his own sins as matter of terror of conscience ; not his sins, as contrary to God, having antipathy to him, being opposite to the state of the soul, not as sin is properly sin, but to be grieved and vexed for sin as it hath vexation and terror of conscience. When a man can take to heart the sins of another, and that truly as it is an offence of his good God, and a crucify- ing again of his sweet Saviour, these be true tears indeed. It is more sign of grace than to weep for a man's own sins.
Some are taken up with terrors of conscience, that let their children, family, and friends alone. Their heart is eaten up with self-love, and they be near eaten up with their own terrors of conscience. But here is true grief and an hatred of sin in a right respect, when it exerciseth itself upon others as well as upon ourselves.
3. Again, tears arise fi'om the right spring, fi'om true grief, when ice can weep in secret. Oh ! saith Jeremiah, if you do so and so, ' My soul shall weep in secret for your pride,' Jer. xiii. 17. Here was a good soul indeed. Many will have tears of comfort in public, &c. Aye, but when they can weep in secret for their own sins and the sins of others, it is an evidence of a right spring of grief.
4. Again, when tears tend to reformation of ivhat theij grieve for; for else they be steriles lachrijma:, barren tears. Do they tend to reform what we weep for ? Do they tend to action ? Affections are then good when they carry to action ; as grief, love, joy, they are all for action. When we weep and grieve, and reform withal, it is a good sign. I will name no more. You see then that gi'ief is sound when it springeth from the love of God, and is for the sins of others as well as our own, and our own as well as others ; when it stirs up to reformation ; when it is in secret ; and there- fore let us examine our grief by these and the like evidences. It will be a good character of a gracious soul. Then God will carry himself as a sweet nurse, or loving mother to her child, that sheddeth tears. God wiU ' wipe away all these tears.' Oh ! the transcending love of God ! His love is a tender love. The love of a mother, the love of a nurse ! It is not love, but the bowels of love, the bowels of mercy and compassion. How low doth he stoop to wipe away the tears of his children ! ' God will wipe away all tears.'