So this is spiritual mourning, when a man mourns because God in hifl love and in his comforts leaves him, and his countenance shines not upon him ; because the word of God and the grace of God spreads not, that it stirs not sensibly within him, as formerly it hath done. And so likewise for ills. A man that mourns spiritually, ho mourns for spiritual ills, to find so much corruption, so much pride, so much hypocrisy, so much self- love, so much worldliness, so much naughtiness in his own heart. This is
SPIRITUAL MOURNING. 275
his grief, as it was Panl's. He cries, 0 tired, ' 0 wretched man that I am, who shall deliver me from this body of death ?' Rom. vii. 24. He weeps, and takes on more for the corruption of his nature, for the sins in himself, and in the people of God, than for persecution and disgrace, than for losses and crosses that befall him. So when a man mourns for sin, that he takes to heart the sins of his family, the sins of the state and of the church that he lives in, this is spiritual mourning. And so also when a man moui'us for outward things spiritually, say he be poor, say he be afflicted, say he be famished, say he be persecuted, he turns all his griefs to godly grief; he apprehends God's displeasure. In these he apprehends and sees sin : in these he considers his crosses, in the cause, and in the root of them, in sin ; and so he mourns for sin and the cause. This is spiritual mourning. Now when a man thus mourneth for the absence of spiritual good things, and for the presence of spiritual ills that lie upon him and others, then he is said to mourn spiritually, and so he is a blessed man. This is all we can stay to say for the point.
Quest. Now, in the next place, how shall a man do to get this spiritual mourning ?
Ans. First, He must labour to have an heart capable of grief and sorrow that is spiritual, a tender and soft heart. He must see that he have a disposition to holy mourning, able and inclinable so to do, when just opportunity and occasion is offered. Now how shall a man get this tender heai't ? Why surely he must go to God in his means and ordinances, who hath promised, as you heard, in the covenant, to take 'the stone out of our hearts, and to give us soft and fleshy hearts.' This a man must do for it. Withal he must be ready in the next place, when God hath given him a tender heart, to stir up the graces of the Spirit that are in him, to raise up his affections and his sorrow, and to provoke himself to mourn and to lament upon due occasion. Thus that he may do, he must,
1. First, Consider of a method that he must use ; and then,
2. Of motives to stir him up thereunto.
1. For method. (1.) First, He must have respect to the time, that he do not let his heart lie fallow too long. Jer. iv. 3, it is said, ' Plough up your fallow ground.' Ground, if it lie long unploughed, it will require much pains to rear it and fetch it up, but if it be oft done, it will be the easier. So it is with the heart of man ; he must not let his heart be fallow too long, but take it into task ever and anon, and labour to keep the flesh ten- der, and raw, and fresh, as we may say ; and then upon every occasion it will be ready to bleed and to pour forth itself. To this end a man should every day be exercised in the duty of a godly mourning, every night reckon for the passage of that day, and say with thyself. What sin have I commit- ted ? What have I done ? What have I said ? What have I seen this day ? What have I heard this day, that might be matter of humiliation and grief to me ? And so work this upon the heart, that it may be turned to tears of godly sorrow.
(2.) Secondly, For the time, a man must he sure to take God's time. When God calls on him, when God gives them the heart, and is ready to close and to join with him, then take the advantage, set upon godly mourn- ing, when the Lord hath ransacked thy heart, when the Lord hath dealt with thee in the ministry of his word, when he hath applied himself to thy soul and conscience, and detected thy corruption, and shewed thee thy sin, and hath wounded thy heart in public with afflictions, in private with terrors and fears. So when the nature of grief is stirred by the occasion
276 SPIBITUAL MOURNING.
of the word, then take the advantap;e of this, seize upon this for the king's use ; set upon sorrow whilst it is there, turn it into the right stream, into the right channel ; turn it for sin, weep for sin, and not for outward losses and crosses. Thus much for the time.
2. Secondly, There is another thing to be done for the order, and that is this, that a man must be sure to (five over carnal mirth and carnal mourn- ing, if he will mourn spiritually. His carnal laughter must be turned, into mourning, as James speaks, iv. 9 ; and his carnal mirth must be turned into spiritual moui'ning too, or else he will never come to spiritual mourn- ing. But we cannot stand upon that. We will only touch the motives, because the time is run out, and so conclude for this time. Consider well what are the motives to set us to work to mourn, and to mourn spiritually.