Use 1. If it be an happy man that mourns aright, we have reason, first, to bewail our unhappiness ; unhappy time and unhappy men may we well say, touching ourselves, that vaiy so much from the mind and prescription of our blessed Saviour. 'Blessed,' saith our Saviour Christ, ' are they that mourn, for they shall be comforted.' 'Woe to you,' saith he, 'that now laugh.' We, on the other side, say, Woe to them that here mourn ; happy
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arc they that can here laugh and bo merry. And as wo vary in onr judg- ment from our Saviour, so much more wo vary in our practice from his direction and counsel. The Lord, when ho gives direction that will bring joy and comfort, ho bids us humble ourselves, cast down ourselves, afflict ourselves, &c., James iv. 10. God saith, ' Humble yourselves that you may be exalted.' . Wo on the other side say. Exalt ourselves, and we shall not bo humbled. God saith. Throw down yourselves ; we say. Secure our- selves. God saith. Afflict ^yourselves, and then you shall have comfort. The Lord saith, Let your laughter be turned into mourning, that so you may laugh. We on the other say, Let our mourning be turned into laughter, that so we may not mourn. And therefore when any grief, natu- ral or spiritual, begins to breed or to grow on us, presently wo betake our- selves to company, to sports and exercises, that may drown the noise of conscience, that may put out of our minds motives to spiritual grief and sorrow, and that may provoke us to carnal, or at the best to natural mirth and rejoicing. Thus we vary from Christ's directions quite in our practice; nay more, vary further from the practice of the saints of God. We vary from the very time and season in which we live. For behold, it is a time of darkness and blackness ; it is the year of God's visitation, as the pro- phet speaks ; it is the time of Jacob's trouble, us Jeremiah speaks. For howsoever we have peace at home, the church hath war abroad ; howsoever we have health, yet the pestilence rageth abroad. Though we have plenty, there is poverty and misery abroad in the bowels of the church in other nations. Now then, when the time calls for mourning, and weeping, and lamentation, we vary quite, and are like to them in the prophecy of Isaiah. ' In that day,' saith God, Isa. xxii. 12, seq., ' did I call for mourning and sackcloth : and behold here is slaying of oxen, and killing of sheep, and making merry, and provoking ourselves to all kind of jollity and security.' Further, we vary from the practice of God's children in like cases. They gave themselves to spiritual mourning upon due occasion. We read of Nehemiah, when he heard that the church was distressed and afflicted abroad, though he lived in credit, and in honour, and in safety himself at the court, yet he betakes himself to God in private, and there he fasts, and prays, and mourns, and there he sues to the Lord to be merciful unto Jerusalem. We read of good honest Uriah, he refused to go to his house and to refresh himself with meat and drink, upon this reason, because the ark of God and the captain of the host lay in the field in tents. This was the affection and the mind of God's servants of old : they wept with those that wept, and they mourned in the mourning and lamentation of the church. But now, my brethren, we forget the atilictions of Joseph abroad. And, as it is said of them in Amos, ' We drink wine in bowls, we stretch ourselves on our beds,' vi. 7 ; we give ourselves to music and mirth, and -we take not to heart the distresses of the church. So likewise for the sins of the time, we see what the saints did of old. Ezra, chap. ix. 10, when he heard of the sins that were committed among the people — the holy seed had mingled themselves with the cursed nations, whom the Lord had cursed — he betakes himself to prayer, and to mourning, and fasting ; and there assembled to him many well afiected men, and they trembled before the Lord, they cast down themselves, and wept in a solemn manner.
Thus the saints of God did for the sins of their time. But now, my brethren, what do we? We look on other men, and wonder that rulers and magistrates and public persons do no more. But what do we ourselves in private ? My brethren, do we lay to heart our own sins, the sins of our
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kindred and acquaintance, of our families, the sins of our neighbours, of our towns, of our places where we dwell and have our abode ? Had David lived in these days, he would have washed our streets with rivers of tears, as he speaks of himself, Ps. cxix. 13G, to have seen such pride, such im- piety ; to hear such oaths and blasphemies so frequent and so rife amongst us. We, on the other side, my brethren, sec, nay, we act and commit, gross sins ; we hear, nay, we utter, cursed speeches and blasphemies and oaths, and commit abominable sins, and yet there are not rivers of tears, nay, not a tear almost shed amongst us. This is that we are to complain of now, that we do what we can to put off mourning, and to bereave our- selves of true comfort ; and this dryness and emptiness of tears, were it only of temper of body, and not from distemper of soul, the matter were more suiferable and more pardonable. But what shall we say for ourselves, when we have tears at command for every trifle, for every bauble, and have not tears for sin and for the dishonour of God ? If a friend cross us, we can weep ; if an unkind word be uttered, we sob and grow sullen ; if a loss or a cross befall us, we can pour out ourselves in carnal weeping and lamentation : but for the sins of our souls, for the sins of our friends, for the sins of our nation, for the unkindness that we offer to God, for the contempt that is cast upon his name, we cannot shed a tear ; and were it now that we were ashamed of these things, the matter were less. But, alas ! we take not to heart that we have not hearts to mourn, and we labour not so much as to grieve because we cannot grieve. In our carnal natural grief, we stand and plead, we think we have reason to mourn : I have lost such a friend and such a friend. We think we have cause to bewail our estate in regard of such outward misery as befalls us. But we see no cause, no reason to weep over Christ for the sins we have committed against God.