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2 CO SPIKITUAL MOURNING.
Are we, my brethren, such as do luourn, and mourn spiritually? Do we mourn for the breach of God's Sabbath? for the contempt of his word? for the abuse of his sacraments ? for the contempt of his name ? Do we mourn for the church that is under captivity, under the sword ? Do we mourn that Christians be under temptations, under misery, under afflic- tions ? Do we mourn because the work of grace goes on no better in the hearts of God's people and in our own hearts ? Do we mourn for our sins, and for the sins of our brethren ? especially those that profess religion, is this the matter of our sorrow, my brethren ? Here is comfort, you shall be comforted; the Lord hath passed his word that it shall be so. All these tears are registered and put into the bottle of God. He keeps them as a precious water, and there is not a tear shall be forgotten. All this is seed sown. If we sow in tears, we shall reap in joy. Harvest follows seed- time, so joy follows tears. It shall be so. ' There is light sown for the righteous,' Ps. xcvii. 11. It may be under the clods, it may be buried for a time, it may seem lost, but it will sprout at the last, and there will come a crop out of it. Well, here is comfort. All the sorrows of the godly, all his griefs, all his sighs, all his wants, all his heart-breaks, if all these turn to spiritual mourning, they shall all turn to his advantage and comfort in the end. Nay, his soitow for the present hath comfort along with it, and the more he sorrows, the more he rejoiceth, and the more true comfort he hath still. The more a man can weep over Christ, the more bitterly he can weep, the more sweet Christ will relish to him. The moi-e grief and sorrow he brings to the word and to the ordinances of God, the more true sweetness he finds in the word and carries from the word. And the more he can bewail himself before the Lord in his wants, in his bankruptness in grace, the more he is advanced, and enlarged to comfort and joy by the Lord. But for the wicked, woe to him ; for * in laughter his heart is sad,' saith the text ; he laughs in the face, but his heart mourns. On the other side, happy is the spiritual mourner ; in his mourning, his heart laughs, as it were. He hath matter of joy in sorrow, as the wicked hath matter of mourning in mirth. Woe be to the wicked, for all his joy shall end in sorrow ; the end of that mirth is sadness in spirit, saith Solomon ; but happy is the holy mourner. All his tears shall be wiped away, all his sorrows, all his griefs, all his. fears shall end in comfort and consolation at the last.
Obj. Oh, but how shall I know that my mourning is spiritual mourn- ing? I suspect it much this way. And why? First of all, my sorrow begins in the flesh ; I never mourned, I never went to God in prayer and fasting, or any exercise of religion, till God tamed me and took me down ■with crosses and afflictions ; then when he laid load on me, I went to it, and not before.
Sol. Well, my brethren, thus it may be : Thy sorrow may begin in the flesh ; but, if it end in the Spirit, all is well. It may be a Christian's sorrow was first occasioned by crosses, by worldly sorrow, and worldly respects ; but if he improve his sorrow, and turn it to holy sorrow, if he turn the stream into the right channel, if he set his grief, his indignations, his tears upon sin, all shall end well at the last, though the beginning were not so good.
Obj. Ay, but, will some say, my sorrow is more for outward things than for spiritual matters. I grieve when I am sick, but it is for pain more than for sin. I mourn when I am poor, but it is because I am poor in purse, because I am poor in state, rather than in regard of my spiritual wants ; and so for other matters too.
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Ans. My brethren, this is easily granted. Thei'e is no floor here, but there is chaff as well as wheat with it. There is no precious mine here so rich, but there is some dross as well as good gold, as well as good metal. So it is with a Christian. There is a mixture of flesh and spirit. They run both in the same channel, and they run within the veins of the same soul and spirit, as it were ; the question is not, therefore, whether there be any fleshy sorrow, any carnal sorrow, grief, and mourning ; but whether there be any holy and spiritual sorrow. How much there is of the one is not the point, but whether there be any of the other. And if it be so, it is spiritual sorrow, that thou canst shed some tears, vent some sighs and groans to God in spiritual respects, for spiritual losses, for spiritual evils. Here is matter of comfort, there is so much spiritual comfort, so much spiritual joy belongs to thee.