The Beatitudes - Thomas Watson
Blessed are they that mourn
Blessed are
they that mourn.
Here are
eight steps leading to true blessedness. They may be compared to Jacob's
Ladder, the top whereof reached to heaven. We have already gone over one step,
and now let us proceed to the second: `Blessed are they that mourn'. We must go
through the valley of tears to paradise. Mourning were a sad and unpleasant
subject to treat on, were it not that it has blessedness going before, and
comfort coming after. Mourning is put here for repentance. It implies both
sorrow, which is the cloud, and tears which are the rain distilling in this
golden shower; God comes down to us.
The words
fall into two parts, first, an assertion that mourners are blessed persons;
second, a reason, because they shall be comforted.
1. I begin
with the first, the assertion; mourners are blessed persons. `Blessed are ye
that weep now'. {Lu 6:21} Though the saints' tears are
bitter tears, yet they are blessed tears. But will all mourning entitle a man
to blessedness? No, there is a twofold mourning which is far from making one
blessed. There is a carnal mourning. There is a diabolical mourning.
There is a
carnal mourning when we lament outward losses. `In `Rama there was a voice
heard, lamentation and weeping, and great mourning; Rachel weeping for her
children...'. {Mt 2:18} There are abundance of these
tears shed. We have many can mourn over a dead child, that cannot mourn over a
crucified Saviour. Worldly sorrow hastens our funerals. `The sorrow of the
world worketh death'. {2Co 7:10}
2. There is a
diabolical mourning and that is twofold: When a man mourns that he cannot
satisfy his impure lust, this is like the devil, whose greatest torture is that
he can be no more wicked. Thus Ammon mourned and was sick, till he defiled his
sister Tamar. {2Sa 13:2} Thus Ahab mourned for
Naboth's vineyard: `He laid him down upon his bed, and turned away his face,
and would eat no bread'. {1Ki 21:4} This was a devilish
mourning.
Again, when
men are sorry for the good which they have done. Pharaoh grieved that `he had
let the children of Israel go'. {Ex 14:5}
Many are so devilish that they are troubled they have prayed so much and have
heard so many sermons. They repent of their repentance; but if we repent of the
good which is past, God will not repent of the evil which is to come.
To illustrate
this point of holy mourning, I shall show you what is the adequate object of
it. There are two objects of spiritual mourning, sin and misery. Sin, and that
twofold, our own sin; the sin of others.
Our own sin.
Sin must have tears. While we carry the fire of sin about us, we must carry the
water of tears to quench it. {Eze
7:16} They are not blessed (says Chrysostom) who mourn for
the dead, but rather those who mourn for sin; and indeed it is with good reason
we mourn for sin, if we consider the guilt of sin, which binds over to wrath.
Will not a guilty person weep, who is to be bound over to the sessions? Every
sinner is to be tried for his life and is sure to be cast if mercy does not
become an advocate for him.
The pollution
of sin. Sin is a plague spot, and will you not labour
to wash away this spot with your tears? Sin makes a man worse than a toad or
serpent. The serpent has nothing but what God has put into it. Poison is
medicinable (capable of being used as a medicine); but the sinner has that
which the devil has put into him. `Why hath Satan filled thine heart to lie to the
Holy Ghost?'. {Ac 5:3} What a strange metamorphosis
has sin made! The soul, which was once of an azure brightness, sin has made of
a sable colour We have in our hearts the seed of the
unpardonable sin. We have the seed of all those sins for which the damned are
now tormented. And shall we not mourn? He that does not mourn has surely lost
the use of his reason. But every mourning for sin is not sufficient
to entitle a man to blessedness. I shall show what is not the right gospel-mourning
for sin, and what is the right gospel-mourning for sin.
What is not
the right gospel-mourning for sin? There is a fivefold mourning which is false
and spurious.
A despairing
kind of mourning. Such was Judas' mourning. He saw his sin, he was sorry, he
made confession, he justifies Christ, he makes restitution. {Mt 27:1-66} Judas, who is in hell,
did more than many nowadays. He confessed his sin. He did not plead necessity
or good intentions, but he makes an open acknowledgement of his sin. `I have
sinned'. Judas made restitution. His conscience told him he came wickedly by
the money. It was `the price of blood', and he `brought again the thirty pieces
of silver to the chief priests'. {Mt 27:3}
But how many are there who invade the rights and possessions of others, but not
a word of restitution! Judas was more honest than they are. Well, wherein was
Judas' sorrow blameworthy? It was a mourning joined with despair. He thought
his wound broader than the plaster. He drowned himself in tears. His was not
repentance unto life, {Ac 11:18} but rather unto death.
An hypocritical
mourning. The heart is very deceitful. It can betray as well by a tear as by a
kiss. Saul looks like a mourner, and as he was sometimes `among the prophets' {1Sa 10:12} So he seemed to be among
the penitents. `And Saul said unto Samuel, I have sinned, for I have
transgressed the commandment of the Lord'. {1Sa
15:24} Saul played the hypocrite in his mourning, for he did not
take shame to him self, but he did rather take honour to himself: `honour me
before the elders of my people' (verse 1Sa
15:30). He pared and minced his sin that it might appear lesser, he
laid his sin upon the people, `because I feared the people' (verse 1Sa 15:24). They would have me fly
upon the spoil, and I dare do no other. A true mourner labours
to draw out sin in its bloody colours, and accent it
with all its killing aggravations, that he may be deeply humbled before the
Lord. `Our iniquities are increased over our head, and our trespass is grown up
unto the heavens'. {Ezr
9:6} The true penitent labours to
make the worst of his sin. Saul labours to make the
best of sin; like a patient that makes the best of his disease, lest the
physician should prescribe him too sharp physic. How easy is it for a man to
put a cheat upon his own soul, and by hypocrisy to sweep himself into hell!
A forced
mourning. When tears are pumped out by God's judgements, these are like the
tears of a man that has the stone, or that lies upon the rack. Such was Cain's
mourning. `My punishment is greater than I can bear'. {Ge
4:13} His punishment troubled him more than his sin; to mourn only
for fear of hell is like a thief that weeps for the penalty rather than the
offence. The tears of the wicked are forced by the fire of affliction.
An extrinsic
mourning; when sorrow lies only on the outside. `They disfigure their faces'. {Mt 6:16} The eye is tender, but the
heart is hard. Such was Ahab's mourning. `He rent his clothes and put sackcloth
on his flesh, and went softly'. {1Ki
21:27} His clothes were rent, but his heart was not rent. He had
sackcloth but no sorrow. He hung down his head like a bulrush, but his heart
was like an adamant. There are many who may be compared to weeping marbles, they
are both watery and flinty.
A vain
fruitless mourning. Some will shed a few tears, but
are as bad as ever. They will cozen and be unclean. Such a kind of mourning
there is in hell. The damned weep but they blaspheme.
What is the
right gospel-mourning? That mourning which will entitle a man to blessedness
has these qualifications:
It is
spontaneous and free. It must come as water out of a spring, not as fire out of
a flint. Tears for sin must be like the myrrh which drops from the tree freely
without cutting or forcing. Mary Magdalene's repentance was voluntary. `She
stood weeping'. {Lu 7:1-50} She came to Christ with
ointment in her hand, with love in her heart, with tears in her eyes. God is
for a freewill offering. He does not love to be put to distrain.
Gospel-mourning
is spiritual; that is, when we mourn for sin more than suffering. Pharaoh says,
Take away the plague. He never thought of the plague of his heart. A sinner
mourns because judgement follows at the heels of sin, but David cries out, `My
sin is ever before me'. {Ps 51:3} God had threatened that the
sword should ride in circuit in his family, but David does not say, `The sword
is ever before me', but `My sin is ever before me'. The offence against God
troubled him. He grieved more for the treason than the bloody axe. Thus the
penitent prodigal, `I have sinned against heaven, and before thee'. {Lu 15:18,Lu
15:21} He does not say, `I am almost starved among the husks', but
`I have offended my father'. In particular, our
mourning for sin, if it be spiritual, must be under this threefold notion:
1. We must
mourn for sin as it is an act of hostility and enmity. Sin not only makes us
unlike God, but contrary to God: `They have walked contrary unto me'. {Le 26:40} Sin affronts and resists
the Holy Ghost. {Ac 7:51} Sin is contrary to God's
nature; God is holy; sin is an impure thing. Sin is contrary to his will. If
God be of one mind, sin is of another. Sin does all it can to spite God. The
Hebrew word for 'sin' signifies `rebellion'. A sinner fights against God. {Ac 5:39} Now when we mourn for sin as
it is a walking Antipodes' to heaven, this is a gospel-mourning. Nature will
not bear contraries.
2. We must
mourn for sin as it is a piece of the highest ingratitude. It is a kicking
against the breasts of mercy. God sends his Son to redeem us, his Spirit to
comfort us. We sin against the blood of Christ, the grace of the Spirit and
shall we not mourn? We complain of the unkindness of others, and shall we not
lay to heart our own unkindness against God? Caesar took it unkindly that his
son, Brutus, should stab him, `and thou, my son!' May not the Lord say to us,
`These wounds I have received in the house of my friend!'. {Zec 13:6} Israel took their
jewels and earrings and made a golden calf of them. The sinner takes the jewels
of God's mercies and makes use of them to sin. Ingratitude dyes a sin in grain,
hence they are called `crimson sins'. {Isa 1:18} Sins against gospel-love are
worse in some sense than the sins of the devils, for they never had an offer of
grace tendered to them. `The devil sinned though constituted in innocence, I
indeed when restored. He continued in wickedness by reprobation of God, I
indeed when recalled by God. He was hardened by punishment, I indeed by
(divine) gentleness. And thus both of us went against God, the one by not
seeking to know himself, I indeed against the one who died for me. Behold his
(the devil's) dreadful likeness, but in many things I
see myself even more dreadful' (Anselm: Concerning the fall of the Devil.) Now
when we mourn for sin as it has its accent of ingratitude upon it, this is an
evangelical mourning.
We must mourn
for sin as it is a privation; it keeps good things from us; it hinders our
communion with God. Mary wept for Christ's absence. `They have taken away my
Lord'. {Joh 20:13} So our sins have taken away
our Lord. They have deprived us of his sweet presence. Will not he grieve who
has lost a rich jewel? When we mourn for sin under this notion, as it makes the
Sun of Righteousness withdraw from our horizon; when we mourn not so much that
peace is gone, and trading is gone, but God is gone, `My beloved had withdrawn
himself' (Canticles 5: 6); this is an holy mourning.
The mourning for the loss of God's favour is the best
way to regain his favour. If you have lost a friend,
all your weeping will not fetch him again, but if you have lost God's presence,
your mourning will bring your God again.
Gospel-mourning
sends the soul to God. When the prodigal son repented, he went to his father.
`I will arise and go to my father'. {Lu
15:18} Jacob wept and prayed. {Ho
12:4} The people of Israel wept and offered sacrifice. {Jude 1:2:Jude 1:4,Jude 1:5}
Gospel-mourning puts a man upon duty. The reason is, that in true sorrow there
is a mixture of hope, and hope puts the soul upon the use of means. That
mourning which like the `flaming sword' keeps the soul from approaching to God,
and beats it off from duty, is a sinful mourning. It is a sorrow hatched in
hell. Such was Saul's grief, which drove him to the witch of Endor. {1Sa 28:7} Evangelical mourning is a
spur to prayer. The child who weeps for offending his father goes to his
presence and will not leave till his father be reconciled to him. Absalom could
not be quiet `till he had seen the king's face'. {2Sa
14:32,2Sa 14:33}
Gospel-mourning
is for sin in particular. The deceitful man is
occupied with generalities. It is with a true penitent as it is with a wounded
man. He comes to the surgeon and shows him all his wounds. Here I was cut with
the sword; here I was shot with a bullet. So a true penitent bewails all his particular sins. `We have served Baalim'.
{Jude 1:10:Jude 1:10} They mourned for their idolatry. And David lays
his fingers upon the sore and points to that very sin that troubled him. {Ps 51:4} I have done this evil. He
means his blood-guiltiness. A wicked man will say he is a sinner, but a child
of God says, I have done this evil. Peter wept for that particular
sin of denying Christ. Clemens Alexandrinus
says, he never heard a cock crow, but he fell a-weeping. There must be a particular repentance before we have a general pardon.
Gospel tears
must drop from the eye of faith. `The father of the child cried out with tears,
`Lord, I believe'. {Mr
9:24} Our disease must make us mourn, but when we look up to
our Physician, who has made a plaister of his own
blood, we must not mourn without hope. Believing tears are precious. When the
clouds of sorrow have overcast the soul, some sunshine of faith must break
forth. The soul will be swallowed up of sorrow, it will be drowned in tears, if
faith be not the bladder to keep it up from sinking. Though our tears drop to
the earth, our faith must reach heaven. After the greatest rain, faith must
appear as the rainbow in the cloud. The tears of faith are bottled as precious
wine. {Ps 56:8}
Gospel-mourning
is joined with self-loathing. The sinner admires himself. The penitent loathes
himself. `Ye shall loath yourselves in your own sight for all your evils'. {Eze 20:43} A true penitent is
troubled not only for the shameful consequence of sin, but for the loathsome
nature of sin; not only the sting of sin but the deformed face. How did the
leper loathe himself! {Le 13:45} The Hebrew doctors say, the
leper pronounced unclean was to put a covering on his upper lip, both as a
mourner and in token of shame. The true mourner cries out, O these impure eyes!
this heart which is a conclave of wickedness! He not only leaves sin but
loathes sin. He that is fallen in the dirt loathes himself {Ho
14:1}.
Gospel-mourning
must be purifying. Our tears must make us more holy. We must so weep for sin,
as to weep out sin. Our tears must drown our sins. We must not only mourn but
turn. `Turn to me with weeping'. {Joe 2:12}
What is it to have a watery eye and a whorish heart? It is foolish to say it is
day, when the air is full of darkness; so to say you repent, when you draw dark
shadows in your life. It is an excellent saying of Augustine, `He truly bewails
the sins he has committed, who never commits the sins he has bewailed'. True
mourning is like the `water of jealousy'. {Nu
5:12-22} It makes the thigh of sin to rot. `Thou breakest
the heads of the dragons in the waters'. {Ps 74:14} The heads of our sins,
these dragons, are broken in the waters of true repentance. True tears are
cleansing. They are like a flood that carries away all the rubbish of our sins
with it. The waters of holy mourning are like the river Jordan wherein Naaman
washed and was cleansed of his leprosy. It is reported that there is a river in
Sicily where, if the blackest sheep are bathed, they become white; so, though
our sins be as scarlet, yet by washing in this river of repentance, they become
white as snow. Naturalists say of the serpent, before it goes to drink it
vomits out its poison. In this `be wise as serpents'.
Before you think to drink down the sweet cordials of the promises, cast up the
poison that lies at your heart. Do not only mourn for sin,
but break from sin.
Gospel-mourning
must be joined with hatred of sin. `What indignation!'. {2Co
7:11} We must not only abstain from sin, but
abhor sin. The dove hates the least feather of the hawk. A true mourner hates
the least motion to sin. A true mourner is a sin-hater. Amnon hated Tamar more
than ever he loved her. {2Sa 13:15} To be a sin-hater implies
two things: first, to look upon sin as the most deadly
evil, a complicated evil. It looks more ghastly than
death or hell. Second, to be implacably incensed against it. A sin-hater will
never admit of any terms of peace. The war between him and sin is like the war
between Rehoboam and Jeroboam. `There was war between Rehoboam and Jeroboam all
their days'. {1Ki 14:30} Anger may be reconciled.
Hatred cannot. True mourning begins in the love of God, and ends in the hatred
of sm.
Gospel-mourning
in some cases is joined with restitution. It is as well a sin to violate the
name as the chastity of another. If we have eclipsed the good name of others,
we are bound to ask them for forgiveness. If we have wronged them in their
estate by unjust, fraudulent dealing, we must make them some compensation. Thus
Zacchaeus, `If I have taken anything from any man by false accusation, I
restore him fourfold', {Lu 19:8} according to the law of Ex 22:1. St James bids us not only
look to the heart but the hand: `Cleanse your hands, ye sinners, and purify
your hearts'. {Jas 4:8} If you have wronged another,
cleanse your hands by restitution. Be assured, without restitution, no
remission.
Gospel-mourning
must be a speedy mourning. We must take heed of adjourning our repentance, and putting it off till death. As David said, `I
will pay my vows now', {Ps 116:18} so should a Christian say,
I will mourn for sin now. `Blessed are ye that weep now'. {Lu
6:21} As Popillius, the Roman Legate, when
he was sent to Antiochus (Epiphanes) the king, made a circle round about the
king and bade him make his answer before he went out of that circle, so God has
encircled us in the compass of a little time, and charges us immediately to
bewail our sins. `Now God calleth all men everywhere to repent'. {Ac 17:30} We know not whether we may
have another day granted us. Oh let us not put off our mourning for sin till
the making of our will. Do not think holy mourning is only a deathbed duty. You
may seek the blessing with tears, as Esau when it is too late. `During tomorrow?, says Augustine. How long shall I say that I will
repent tomorrow? Why not at this instant? `Delay brings danger'. Caesar's
deferring to read his letter before he went to the Senate-house, cost him his
life. The true mourner makes haste to meet an angry God, as Jacob did his
brother; and the present he sends before is the sacrifice of tears.
Gospel-mourning
for sin is constant. There are some who at a sermon will shed a few tears, but
this land-flood is soon dried up. The hypocrite's sorrow is like a vein opened
and presently stopped. The Hebrew word for `eye' signifies also `a fountain',
to show that the eye must run like a fountain for sin and not cease; but it
must not be like the Libyan fountain of the sun which the ancients speak of; in
the morning the water is hot, at midday cold. The waters of repentance must not
overflow with more heat in the morning, at the first hearing of the gospel, and
at midday, in the midst of health and prosperity, grow
cold and be ready to freeze. No, it must be a daily weeping. As Paul said, `I
die daily', {1Co 15:31} so a Christian should say,
`I mourn daily'. Therefore keep open an issue of godly sorrow,
and be sure it be not stopped till death. `Let not the apple of thine
eye cease'. {La 2:18} It is reported of holy John
Bradford that scarce a day passed him wherein he did not shed some tears for
sin. Daily mourning is a good antidote against backsliding. I have read of one
that had an epilepsy, or falling sickness, and being dipped in seawater, was
cured. The washing of our souls daily in the brinish waters of repentance is
the best way both to prevent and cure the falling into relapses.
Even God's
own children must mourn after pardon; for God, in pardoning, does not pardon at
one instant sins past and future; but as repentance is renewed, so pardon is
renewed. Should God by one act pardon sins future as well as past, this would
make void part of Christ's office. What need were there of his intercession, if
sin should be pardoned before it be committed? There are sins in the godly of
daily incursion, which must be mourned for. Though sin be pardoned, still it
rebels; though it be covered, it is not cured. {Ro
7:23} There is that in the best Christian which is contrary to God.
There is that in him which deserves hell, and shall he not mourn? A ship that
is always leaking must have the water continually pumped out. While the soul
leaks by sin, we must be still pumping at the leak by repentance. Think not, O
Christian, that your sins are washed away only by Christ's blood, but by water
and blood. The brazen laver {Ex 30:18}
that the people of Israel were to wash in might be a fit emblem of this
spiritual laver, tears and blood; and when holy mourning is thus qualified,
this is that 'sorrowing after a godly sort', {2Co
7:11} which makes a Christian eternally blessed.
As we must
mourn for our own sins, so we must lay to heart the sins of others. The poets
feign that Biblis was turned into a fountain. Thus we
should wish with Jeremiah, that our eyes were a fountain of tears, that we
might weep day and night for the iniquity of the times. Our blessed Saviour
mourned for the sins of the Jews: `Being grieved for the hardness' (or
brawniness) `of their hearts'. {Mr
3:5} And holy David, looking upon the sins of the wicked, his
heart was turned into a spring, and his eyes into rivers. `Rivers of tears run
down mine eyes, because they keep not thy law'. {Ps
119:136} Lot's righteous soul `was vexed with the unclean
conversation of the wicked'. {2Pe 2:7}
Lot took the sins of Sodom and made spears of them to pierce his own soul.
Cyprian says that in the primitive times, when a virgin who vowed herself to
religion had defiled her chastity, shame and grief filled the whole face of the
congregation.
Have not we
cause to mourn for the sins of others? The whole axle-tree of the nation is
ready to break under the weight of sin. What an inundation of wickedness is
there amongst us? Mourn for the hypocrisy of the times. Jehu says `Come, see my
zeal for the Lord', but it was zeal for the throne. {2Ki
10:16} This is the hypocrisy of some. They entitle God to whatever
they do. They make bold with God to use his name to their wickedness; as if a
thief should pretend the king's warrant for his robbery. `They build up Sion
with blood; the heads thereof judge for reward; yet will they lean upon the
Lord and say, Is not the Lord among us?'. {Mic
3:10,Mic 3:11} Many with a religious kiss
smite the gospel under the fifth rib. Could not Ahab be content to kill and
take possession, but must he usher it in with religion, and make fasting a
preface to his murder? {1Ki 21:12} The white devil is worst. A
burning torch in the hand of a ghost is most affrighting. To hear the name of
God in the mouths of scandalous hypocrites is enough to affright others from
the profession of religion.
Mourn for the
errors and blasphemies of the nation. There is now a free trade of error.
Toleration gives men a patent to sin. What cursed opinion that has been long
ago buried in the church, but is now dug out of the grave, and by some
worshipped! England is grown as wanton in her religion, as she is antic in her
fashions. The Jesuits' Exchange is open, and every one
almost is for an opinion of the newest cut. Did men's faces alter as fast as
their judgements, we should not know them.
Mourn for
covenant violation. This sin is a flying roll against England. Breach of
covenant is spiritual harlotry, and for this God may name us `Lo-ammi', and give us a bill of
divorce. {Ho 1:9}
Mourn for the
pride of the nation. Our condition is low, but our hearts are high. Mourn for
the profaneness of the land. England is like that man in the gospel who had `a
spirit of an unclean devil'. {Lu 4:33}
Mourn for the removing of landmarks. {De
27:17} Mourn for the contempt offered to magistracy, the spitting in
the face of authority. Mourn that there are so few mourners. Surely if we mourn
not for the sins of others, it is to be feared that we are not sensible of our
own sins. God looks upon us as guilty of those sins in others which we do not
lament. Our tears may help to quench God's wrath.
The saints
are members of the body mystical as well as political, therefore they must be
sensible of the injuries of God's church. `We wept when we remembered Sion'. {Ps 137:1} The people of Israel, being
debarred from the place of public worship, sat by the rivers weeping. They laid
aside all their musical instruments. `We hanged our harps upon the willows'
(verse Ps 137:2). We were as far from joy as
those willows were from fruit. `How shall we sing the Lord's song in a strange
land?' (verse Ps 137:4). We were fitter to weep
than to sing. The sound of song is not agreeable to mourning.
When we
consider the miseries of many Christians in Germany, the Dukedom of Savoy, and
other foreign parts, who have been driven from their habitations because they
would not desert the Protestant and espouse the Popish religion; when instead
of a Bible, a crucifix; instead of prayers, mass; instead of going to church,
they should go on pilgrimage to some saint or relic. When we consider these
things, our eyes should run down. Mourn to see God's church a bleeding vine.
Mourn to see Christ's spouse with `garments rolled in blood'.
Methinks I
hear England's passing bell go. Let us shed some tears over dying England. Let
us bewail our intestine divisions. England's divisions have been fatal. They
brought in the Saxons, Danes, Normans. If `a kingdom divided cannot stand', how
do we stand but by a miracle of free grace? Truth is fallen
and peace is fled. England's fine coat of peace is torn and, like Joseph's
coat, dipped in blood. Peace is the glory of a nation. Some observe, if the top
of the beech tree be taken off, the whole tree withers. Peace is the apex and
top of all earthly blessings. This top being cut off, we may truly say the body
of the whole nation begins to wither apace.
Mourn for the
oppressions of England. The people of this land have laid out their money only
to buy mourning.
Though we
must always keep open the issue of godly sorrow, yet there are some seasons
wherein our tears should overflow, as the water sometimes rises higher. There
are three special seasons of extraordinary mourning, when it should be as it
were high-water in the soul:
1. When there
are tokens of God's wrath breaking forth in the nation. England has been under
God's black rod these many years. The Lord has drawn his sword and it is not
yet put up. O that our tears may blunt the edge of this sword! When it is a
time of treading down, now is a time of breaking up the fallow ground of our
hearts. `Therefore said I, look away from me, I will weep bitterly for it is a
time of treading down'. {Isa 22:4,Isa
22:5} `A day of darkness and of gloominess, a day of
clouds...therefore turn ye even to me with weeping and with mourning'. {Joe 2:2,Joe
2:12} Rain follows thunder. When God thunders in a nation by his
judgements, now the showers of tears must distil. When God smites upon our
back, we must 'smite upon our thigh'. {Jer
31:19} When God seems to stand upon the `threshold of the
temple', {Eze 10:4}
as if he were ready to take his wings and fly, then is it a time to lie weeping
between `the porch and the altar'. If the Lord seems to be packing up and carrying
away his gospel, it is now high time to mourn, that by our tears possibly his `repentings may be kindled'. {Ho
11:8}
2. Before the
performing solemn duties of God's worship, as fasting or receiving the Lord's
Supper. Christian, are you about to seek God in an extraordinary manner? `Seek
him sorrowing'. {Lu 2:48} Would you have the smiles of
God's face, the kisses of his lips? Set open all the springs of mourning, and
then God will draw nigh to you in an ordinance and say, `Here I am'. {Isa 58:9} When Jacob wept, then he
`found God in Bethel'. {Ho 12:4} `He called the name of the
place Peniel, for (says he) I have seen God face to face'. {Ge
32:30} Give Christ the wine of your tears to drink, and in the sacrament he will give you the wine of his blood to drink.
3. After
scandalous relapses. Though I will not say with Novatus
that there is no mercy for sins of recidivation or relapse, yet I say there is
no mercy without bitter mourning. Scandalous sins reflect dishonour
upon religion. {2Sa 12:14} Therefore now our cheeks
should be covered with blushing, and our eyes bedewed with tears. Peter, after
his denying Christ, wept bitterly. Christian, has God given you over to any
enormous sin as a just reward of your pride and security? Go into the `weeping
bath'. Sins of infirmity injure the soul, but scandalous sins wound the gospel.
Lesser sins grieve the Spirit, but greater sins vex the Spirit. {Isa 63:10} And if that blessed Dove
weeps, shall not we weep? When the air is dark then the dew falls. When we have
by scandalous sin darkened the lustre of the gospel,
now is the time for the dew of holy tears to fall from our eyes.
Next to the
seasons of mourning, let us consider the degree of it. The mourning for sin
must be a very great mourning. The Greek word imports a great sorrow, such as
is seen at the funeral of a dear friend. `They shall look on me whom they have
pierced, and they shall mourn for him, as one that mourneth
for his only son'. {Zec
12:10} The sorrow for an only child is very great. Such must
be the sorrow for sin. `In that day there shall be great mourning, as the
mourning of Hadadrimmon in the valley of Megiddon (verse Zec 12:11). In that valley Josiah, that famous and pious
prince, was cut off by an untimely death, at whose funeral there was bitter
lamentation. Thus bitterly must we bewail, not the death, but the life of our
sins. Now then, to set forth the graduation of sorrow.
Our mourning
for sin must be so great as to exceed all other grief. Eli's mourning for the
ark was such that it swallowed up the loss of his two children. Spiritual grief
must preponderate over all other. We should mourn more for sin than for the
loss of friends or estate.
We should endeavour to have our sorrow rise up
to the same height and proportion as our sin does. Manasseh was a great sinner
and a great mourner. `He humbled himself greatly'. {2Ch
33:12} Manasseh made the streets run with blood and he made the
prison in Babylon run with tears. Peter wept bitterly. A true mourner labours that his repentance may be as eminent as his sin is
transcendent.
Having shown
the nature of mourning, I shall next show what is the opposite to holy
mourning. The opposite to mourning is `hardness of heart', which in Scripture
is called `an heart of stone'. {Eze
36:26} An heart of stone is far from
mourning and relenting. This heart of stone is known by two symptoms:
One symptom
is insensibility. A stone is not sensible of anything. Lay weight upon it;
grind it to powder; it does not feel. So it is with an
hard heart. It is insensible of sin or wrath. The stone in the kidneys is felt
but not the stone in the heart. `Who being past feeling...'. {Eph
4:19}
An heart of
stone is known by its inflexibility. A stone will not bend. That is hard which
does not yield to the touch. So it is with an hard
heart. It will not comply with God's command. It will not stoop to Christ's sceptre. An heart of stone will
sooner break than bend by repentance. It is so far yielding to God that like
the anvil it beats back the hammer. It `resists the Holy Ghost'. {Ac 7:51}
Oh
Christians, if you would be spiritual mourners, take heed of this stone of the
heart. `Harden not your hearts'. {Heb 3:7,Heb 3:8} A stony heart is the worst
heart. If it were brazen, it might be melted in the
furnace of iron; it might be bowed with the hammer. But a stony heart is such
that only the arm of God can break it and the blood of God soften it. Oh the
misery of an hard heart! An
hard heart is void of all grace. While the wax is hard, it will not take the
impression of the seal. The heart, while it is hard, will not take the stamp of
grace. It must first be made tender and melting. The plough of the Word will
not go upon an hard heart. An
hard heart is good for nothing but to make fuel for hellfire. `After thy
hardness of heart thou treasurest up wrath'. {Ro 2:5} Hell is full of hard hearts,
there is not one soft heart there. There is weeping there but no softness. We
read of `vessels fitted to destruction'. {Ro
9:22} Impenitence fits these vessels for hell, and
makes them like sere wood which is fit to burn. Hardness of heart makes a man's
condition worse than all his other sins besides. If one be guilty of great
sins, yet if he can mourn, there is hope. Repentance unravels sin, and makes sin not to be. But hardness of heart binds guilt fast upon the soul. It seals a man under wrath. It is
not heinousness of sin, but hardness of heart that damns. This makes the sin
against the Holy Ghost incapable of mercy, because the sinner that has
committed it is incapable of repentance.