We pass therefore from the doctrine here delivered, ' Blessed are the mourners,' and come to the reason of it, ' for they shall be comforted.' Let us join these together, and see how they do depend. The point will be thus much —
Doct. 1. That spiritual ynourning it ends in spiritual mirth. He that can mourn spiritually and holily, he shall undoubtedly and certainly be com- forted. Holy tears, they are the seeds of holy joy. You see our ground
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in the text for this point. For the clearing of it further, let us know that we have good security for it.
1. The promise of God ; and then, 2. The experience of God's people.
The best proofs that may bo. First, the Lord undertakes in his promise two things touching our comforts :
1. That all our godly sorrow shall end in true comfort. The next is,
2. That all our godly mournings arc attended and accompanied with com- fort for the present.
1. For the first of these, you know the promise, soiTow and weeping shall fly away, and joy and gladness shall come in ijlace, Isa. xxxv., last verse, which place will refer you to many more. God hath made a succession of these things, as of day and night. His children's day begins in the night and in darkness, and ends in the day. After sorrow comes comfort ; after they have mourned in a holy manner their sorrow shall be taken from them, and gladness shall come in the stead, Isa. Ixi. 3. The Lord Jesus is appointed of his Father to give beauty for ashes, the garment of glad- ness for the garment of sackcloth and mourning. God hath promised it shall be so ; God hath appointed Christ, and fitted him, and enabled him to this word, that so it may be. Not to insist on this, our mourning shall not only end in comfort, but it carries comfort along with it for the present. God hath undertaken it shall be so, speaking of the afliictions that should come upon the state : ' And my servants shall be full, but he,' the wicked and hypocrite, ' shall be hungry : my servants shall rejoice, but he shall mourn : my servants shall sing for gladness of heart, but you shall howl for heaviness of heart,' Isa. Ixv. 13. Lo, when afflictions come upon a state, such afflictions as make the wicked cry and howl, then God in judg- ment remembers mercy for his. They shall have matter of joy and triumph even then. So in Isaiah Ix., the beginning, he tells them, calling on his church, ' Arise,' saith he, ' and shine ; jrat on brightness and glory ; the Lord shall be a light unto thee in darkness.' AVhen the church is enclosed with darkness, nothing but misery and affliction round about her, then the Lord shall shine* light, that is, he shall give comfort to his church. All their mourning and sorrow, their outward afflictions, shall cause them in- wardly to mourn in spirit. God will take ofi" the garment of mourning, and put on the garment of gladness in his due time. In the mean time, he will be a light to them in the midst of darkness. Thus God undertakes, this is the promise. Now, God promiseth nothing but what he purposcth, and God purposeth and promiseth no more than he will perform. Hath he said it, and shall he not do it ? It shall certainly come to pass. All the counsels of God shall stand ; every word of God is pure. All the promises of God are ' yea and amen.' They are certainly made good to the hearts and consciences of all God's people through Christ. Since therefore God hath said it, it shall be thus ; sith Christ hath said, ' Mourn, and you shall be comforted,' we may build upon it that so it shall be.
2. To this promise of God let us add the experience of GocVs people. We will speak of the church in the bulk, and the particular members of the church they have all found this true, they have reported it by their own experience, and passed their word for God that it shall be thus with God's people. Thus the church is brought speaking in Micah vii. 8, * Rejoice not against me, 0 mine enemy : though I be fallen, yet shall I rise ;' com- fort will come at the last. Nay, while I sit in darkness, the Lord for the present will be a light and comfort to me. Thus you know again what the
* Qu. ' send ' ?— G.
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church spealis, Ps. cxsvi. 6, from their own experience, * They that sow in tears shall reap in joy.' There is a seed that doth fail sometimes and dis- appoint our hopes, but this seed it never fails, it falls upon good ground, it will take root. If the seed-time he wet, the harvest will be dry. ' They that sow in tears shall reap in joy ;' and in another, Ps. xcv., the latter end, ' light is sown to the righteous,' and he expounds what he means by light, joy to the upright in heart. So that though this seed lie covered for a time, yet notwithstanding there is light sown for the righteous, and they shall be sure to have it. Thus the church speaks and gives her word for God. So likewise you may see it in particular Christians. David always found this ; Ps. xciv. 19 saith he, ' In the multitude of the thoughts of my heart, thy comforts did glad my soul : ' when I was perplexed in my thoughts, my thoughts were tossed and tumbled up and down in mine own meditations, seeking here and there for comfort. Even then in this distress, and dis- traction, thy comforts, thy double comforts, as the word implies,* these comforts did refresh and glad this soul. So likewise Saint Paul, in 2 Cor. i. 4, he tells us that God did comfort him in all his tribulations ; and as his sorrows did abound, so his consolations did overtop and superabound. And hence we may say, as it were, of the saints of God, that which they extracted from their own experience and particular case, that God comforts the abject, those that are cast down, as Paul saith, 2 Cor. vii. 6, and that of David, Ps. xxx. 5, ' Heaviness may continue for a night, but joy comes to the righteous in the morning.' We see then that if we look to the experience of God's people, they from their own experience give testimony to this truth, and give us to understand that true spiritual mourning shall end in true spiritual joy and comfort. If all this suffice not, let us consider of these reasons, and then we shall see that it is but reason that we should do so.