Chapter 6

Matthew 5:4: Blessed are they that mourn.

Here are eight steps leading to true blessedness; they may be compared to Jacob's Ladder, the top of which 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 would be 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. 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. I begin with the first — the assertion: mourners are blessed persons. Luke 6:21: Blessed are you that weep now. Though the saints' tears are bitter tears, yet they are blessed tears.

Question: But will all mourning entitle a man to blessedness?

Answer: No; there is a twofold mourning which is far from making one blessed.

There is a carnal mourning. There is a diabolical mourning.

First, there is a carnal mourning, when we lament outward losses. Matthew 2:18: In Rama there was a voice heard, lamentation and weeping, and great mourning; Rachel weeping for her children. There are many such tears shed; many can mourn over a dead child, who cannot mourn over a crucified Savior. Worldly sorrow hastens our funerals. 2 Corinthians 7:10: The sorrow of the world works death.

Second, there is a diabolical mourning, and that is twofold.

First, 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 Amnon mourned and was sick, until he had defiled his sister Tamar (2 Samuel 13:2). Thus Ahab mourned for Naboth's vineyard (1 Kings 21:4): He laid him down upon his bed, and turned away his face, and would eat no bread. This was a devilish mourning.

Second, when men are sorry for the good which they have done. Pharaoh grieved that he had let the children of Israel go (Exodus 14:5). Many are so devilish that they are troubled they have prayed so much and 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.

Showing the object of holy mourning.

To illustrate this point of holy mourning, I shall show you what is the full object of it. There are two objects of spiritual mourning: sin and misery.

First, sin; and that twofold: our own sin, and the sin of others.

First, our own sin; sin must have tears. Nothing is worthy of weeping except sin. While we carry the fire of sin about us, we must carry the water of tears to quench it. Ezekiel 7:16. They are not blessed (says Chrysostom) who mourn for the dead, but who mourn for sin. And indeed good reason we mourn for sin, if we consider: first, the guilt of sin, which binds us over to wrath. Will not a guilty person weep, who is to be bound over to the court? Every sinner is to be tried for his life, and is sure to be condemned, if mercy does not become an advocate for him. Second, the pollution of sin; sin is a plague-spot, and will you not labor 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, and poison is medicinal. But the sinner has that which the devil has put into him (Acts 5:3): Why has Satan filled your heart to lie to the Holy Ghost? What a strange transformation sin has made! The soul which was once of an azure brightness, sin has made of a dark color. We have in our hearts the seed of the unpardonable sin; we have the seeds of all those sins for which the damned are now tormented; and shall we not mourn? He that mourns not surely has lost the use of his reason. But not every mourning for sin is sufficient to entitle a man to blessedness. I shall show:

What is not the right gospel-mourning for sin. 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.

First, a despairing kind of mourning; such was Judas's mourning. He saw his sin, he was sorry, he made confession, he justified Christ, he made restitution (Matthew 27). Judas, who is in hell, did more than many do today; he confessed his sin. He did not plead necessity or good intentions, but he made an open acknowledgment 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 (Matthew 27:3). But how many are there who invade the rights and possessions of others, but say not a word of restitution! Judas was more honest than they are. Well, wherein was Judas's 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 a repentance unto life, but rather unto death.

Second, a hypocritical mourning; the heart is very deceitful, it can betray as well by a tear as by a kiss. Saul looks like a mourner; as he was sometimes among the prophets (1 Samuel 10:12), so he seemed to be among the penitents (1 Samuel 15:25): And Saul said to Samuel, I have sinned, for I have transgressed the commandment of the Lord. Saul played the hypocrite in his mourning; for first, he did not take shame to himself, but rather took honor to himself (verse 30): Honor me before the elders of the people. Second, he minimized and excused his sin that it might appear lesser; he laid his sin upon the people (verse 24): Because I feared the people; they would have me take the spoil, and I dared do no other. A true mourner labors to draw out sin in its true colors, and accent it with all its killing aggravations, that he may be deeply humbled before the Lord (Ezra 9:6): Our iniquities are increased over our head, and our trespasses are grown up to heaven. The true penitent labors to make the worst of his sin; Saul labors to make the best of his sin — like a patient who makes the best of his disease, lest the physician should prescribe him too sharp a remedy. How easy it is for a man to put a cheat upon his own soul, and by hypocrisy to weep himself into hell!

Third, a forced mourning; when tears are pumped out by God's judgments. These are like the tears of a man who has the stone, or who lies upon the rack. Such was Cain's mourning (Genesis 4:13): My punishment is greater than I can bear. His punishment troubled him more than his sin. To mourn only for fear of hell is like a thief who weeps for the penalty rather than the offense. The tears of the wicked are forced by the fire of affliction.

Fourth, an outward mourning; when sorrow lies only on the surface. They disfigure their faces (Matthew 6:16). The eye is tender, but the heart is hard. Such was Ahab's mourning (1 Kings 21:27): He tore his clothes, and put sackcloth on his flesh, and went softly. His clothes were torn, but his heart was not torn; 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.

Fifth, a vain and fruitless mourning; some will shed a few tears, but are as bad as ever. They will cheat, and be unclean. Such a kind of mourning there is in hell; the damned weep, but they blaspheme.

What is the right gospel-mourning?

Answer: That mourning which will entitle a man to blessedness has these qualifications.

First, 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 (Luke 7). 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 forced.

Second, gospel-mourning is spiritual; that is, when we mourn for sin more than for suffering. Pharaoh said, Take away the plague; he never thought of the plague of his heart. A sinner mourns because judgment follows at the heels of sin. But David cries out, My sin is ever before me (Psalm 51). 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 offense against God troubled him; he grieved more for the treason than the bloody axe. Thus the penitent prodigal (Luke 15:21): I have sinned against heaven and before you. 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 is spiritual, must be under this threefold notion.

First, we must mourn for sin as it is an act of hostility and enmity. Sin does not only make us unlike God, but contrary to God (Leviticus 26:40): They have walked contrary to me. Sin affronts and resists the Holy Ghost (Acts 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 is of one mind, sin is of another; sin does all it can to spite God. The Hebrew word for sin signifies rebellion; a sinner rebels. Now when we mourn for sin as it is walking contrary to heaven, this is a gospel-mourning; nature will not bear contraries.

Second, 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 you, my son? May not the Lord say to us, These wounds I have received in the house of my friends (Zechariah 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 deep; hence they are called crimson sins (Isaiah 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. Now when we mourn for sin as it has its accent of ingratitude upon it, this is an evangelical mourning.

Third, 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 (John 20:13): They have taken away my Lord. 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 (Song of Solomon 5:6): My beloved had withdrawn himself. This is a holy mourning. The mourning for the loss of God's favor is the best way to regain his favor. 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.

Third, gospel-mourning sends the soul to God. When the prodigal son repented, he went to his father (Luke 15:18): I will arise and go to my father. Jacob wept and prayed (Hosea 12:3). The people of Israel wept and offered sacrifice (Judges 2:5). Gospel-mourning puts a man upon duty; the reason is, because 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 (1 Samuel 28:7). Evangelical mourning is a spur to prayer; the child who weeps for offending his father goes into his presence, and will not leave until his father is reconciled to him. Absalom could not be quiet until he had seen the king's face (2 Samuel 14:32-33).

Fourth, gospel-mourning is for sin in particular. It is with a true penitent as it is with a wounded man — he comes to the surgeon and shows him all his wounds. So a true penitent bewails all his particular sins (Judges 10:10): we have served the Baals. David lays his finger upon the sore and points to that very sin that troubled him (Psalm 51:4): I have done this evil. 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. Clement of Alexandria says he never heard a cock crow but he fell a-weeping. There must be a particular repentance before we have a general pardon.

Fifth, gospel-tears must drop from the eye of faith (Mark 9:24): the father of the child cried out with tears, Lord, I believe. Our disease must make us mourn; but when we look up to our physician who has made a plaster of his own blood, we must not mourn without hope. 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 (Psalm 56:8).

Sixth, gospel-mourning is joined with self-loathing; the sinner admires himself, the penitent loathes himself. Ezekiel 20:42: you shall loathe yourselves in your own sight for all your evils. A true penitent is troubled not only for the shameful consequence of sin, but the loathsome nature of sin — not only the sting of sin, but the deformed face. How did the leper loathe himself (Leviticus 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.

Seventh, 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 (Joel 2:12): turn to me with weeping. 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 — it makes the thigh of sin to rot (Numbers 5:12). Psalm 74:14: you broke the heads of the dragons in the waters; 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. The waters of holy mourning are like the river Jordan, in which Naaman washed and was cleansed of his leprosy. It is reported 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.

Eighth, gospel-mourning must be joined with hatred of sin (2 Corinthians 7:11): what indignation? 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 (2 Samuel 13:5). To be a sin-hater implies two things: first, to look upon sin as the most deadly evil, a complicated evil that 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 (1 Kings 14:30): there was war between Rehoboam and Jeroboam all their days. Anger may be reconciled; hatred cannot. True mourning begins in the love of God and ends in the hatred of sin.

Ninth, 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 forgiveness; if we have wronged them in their estate by unjust or fraudulent dealing, we must make them some compensation. Thus Zacchaeus (Luke 19:8): if I have taken anything from any man by false accusation, I restore him fourfold, according to that law (Exodus 22:1). Saint James bids us not only look to the heart, but the hand (James 4:8): cleanse your hands, you sinners, and purify your hearts. If you have wronged another, cleanse your hands by restitution; be assured, without restitution, no remission.

Tenth, gospel-mourning must be a speedy mourning; we must take heed of adjourning our repentance and putting it off until death. As David said: I will pay my vows now (Psalm 116:18); so should a Christian say: I will mourn for sin now. Luke 6:21: blessed are you that weep now. As Popilius the Roman legate, when he was sent to Antiochus 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 presently to bewail our sins. Acts 17:30: now God calls everywhere to repent; 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. Quamdiu cras? says Augustine — how long shall I say I will repent tomorrow? why not at this instant? Mora trahit periculum: 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.

Eleventh, gospel-mourning for sin is constant; there are some who at a sermon will shed a few tears, but this landflood 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 quotidianus planctus — a daily weeping; as Paul said (1 Corinthians 15:31): I die daily; so should a Christian say: I mourn daily. Therefore keep open an issue of godly sorrow, and be sure it be not stopped till death (Lamentations 2:18): let not the apple of your eye cease. It is reported of holy Mr. 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 sea-water was cured; the washing of our souls daily in the brinish waters of repentance is the best way both to prevent and cure 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 (Romans 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 (Exodus 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 (2 Corinthians 7:11) which makes a Christian eternally blessed.

Showing that we must mourn for the sins of others.

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 Savior mourned for the sins of the Jews (Mark 3:5), being grieved super callo — for the hardness or brawniness of their hearts. And holy David, looking upon the sins of the wicked, his heart was turned into a spring and his eyes into rivers (Psalm 119:136): rivers of tears run down my eyes, because they keep not your law. Lot's righteous soul was vexed with the unclean conversation of the wicked (2 Peter 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 had vowed herself to religion had defiled her chastity, shame and grief filled the whole face of the congregation.

Have we not cause to mourn for the sins of others? The whole axletree of the nation is ready to break under the weight of sin; what an inundation of wickedness is there among us! Mourn for the hypocrisy of the times; Jehu said, come see my zeal for the Lord — but it was zeal for the throne. 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. Micah 3:11: they build up Zion with blood, the heads thereof judge for reward; yet will they lean upon the Lord and say, is not the Lord among us? 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 (1 Kings 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 has 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 judgments, we should not know them.

Mourn for covenant-violation; this sin is a flying scroll against England; breach of covenant is spiritual harlotry; and for this God may name us Lo-ammi and give us a bill of divorce.

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 (Luke 4:33) who had a spirit of an unclean devil. Mourn for the removing of landmarks (Deuteronomy 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 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.

That we must mourn for the miseries of the Church.

The saints are members of the body mystical as well as political, therefore they must be sensible of the injuries of God's Church. Psalm 137:1: we wept when we remembered Zion. 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. We were as far from joy as those willows were from fruit. How shall we sing the Lord's song in a strange land? We were fitter to weep than to sing.

When we consider the miseries of many Christians in Germany, the Duchy of Savoy, and other foreign parts, who have been driven from their habitations because they would not desert the Protestant and embrace the Roman religion — when instead of a Bible, a crucifix; instead of prayers, the mass — 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.

We hear England's passing bell; let us shed some tears over dying England. Let us bewail our internal 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; this top being cut off, we may truly say the body of the whole nation begins to wither.

Mourn for the oppressions of England; the people of this land have laid out their money only to buy mourning.

Showing the seasons of holy 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.

First, when there are indicia irae — 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 the 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. Isaiah 22:4-5: therefore said I, look away from me, I will weep bitterly, for it is a day of treading down. Joel 2:2, 13: a day of darkness and of gloominess — therefore turn you even to me with weeping and with mourning. Rain follows thunder; when God thunders in a nation by his judgments, now the showers of tears must distil. When God smites upon our back, we must smite upon our thigh (Jeremiah 31:19). When God seems to stand upon the threshold of the temple, as if he were ready to take his wings and fly, then is a time to lie weeping between the porch and the altar (Ezekiel 10:4). 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.

Second, before the performing of solemn duties of God's worship, as fasting or receiving the Lord's Supper. Christian, are you to seek God in an extraordinary manner? Seek him sorrowing (Luke 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 near to you in an ordinance, and say, Here I am (Isaiah 58:9). When Jacob wept, then he found God in Bethel (Hosea 12:4); he named the place Peniel, for (said he) I have seen God face to face (Genesis 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.

Third, after scandalous relapses; though I will not say with Donatus that there is no mercy for sins of relapse, yet I say there is no mercy without bitter mourning. Scandalous sins reflect dishonor upon religion (2 Samuel 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 (Isaiah 63:9); 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 luster of the gospel, now is the time for the dew of holy tears to fall from our eyes.

Setting forth the degrees of mourning.

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. Zechariah 12:10: they shall look on me whom they have pierced, and they shall mourn for him as one that mourns for his only son. The sorrow for an only child is very great; such must be the sorrow for sin. Verse 11: in that day there shall be great mourning, as the mourning of Hadadrimmon in the valley of Megiddon. 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 to set forth the graduation of sorrow:

First, our mourning for sin must be so great as to exceed all other grief. Eli's mourning for the ark swallowed up the loss of his two children. Spiritual grief must outweigh all other; we should mourn more for sin than for the loss of friends or estate.

Second, we should endeavor to have our sorrow rise up to the same height and proportion as our sin. Manasseh was a great sinner and a great mourner (2 Chronicles 33:12): he humbled himself greatly. Manasseh made the streets run with blood, and he made the prison in Babylon run with tears. Peter wept bitterly. A true mourner labors that his repentance may be as eminent as his sin is transcendent.

Showing the opposite to holy mourning.

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 a heart of stone (Ezekiel 36). A heart of stone is far from mourning and relenting; this heart of stone is known by two symptoms.

First, insensibility: a stone is not sensible of anything; lay weight upon it, grind it to powder, it does not feel. So it is with a hard heart — it is insensible of sin or wrath. The stone in the kidneys is felt, but not the stone in the heart. Ephesians 4:19: Who being past feeling.

Second, a heart of stone is known by its inflexibility: a stone will not bend. What is hard does not yield to touch; so it is with a hard heart — it will not comply with God's command, it will not stoop to Christ's scepter. A heart of stone will sooner break by death than bend by repentance. It is so far from yielding to God that, like the anvil, it beats back the hammer. It resists the Holy Ghost (Acts 7:51).

Christians, if you would be spiritual mourners, take heed of this stone of the heart. Hebrews 3:7: Harden not your hearts. A stony heart is the worst heart; if it were bronze, it might be melted in the furnace; if iron, it might be bowed with the hammer. But a stony heart is such that only the arm of God can break, and the blood of God can soften. The misery of a hard heart is threefold. First, a 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 plow of the Word will not go upon a hard heart. Second, a hard heart is good for nothing but to make fuel for hell-fire. Romans 2:5: After your hardness of heart you treasure up wrath. 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 for destruction (Romans 9:22). Impenitency fits these vessels for hell, and makes them like dry wood, which is fit to burn. Third, hardness of heart makes a man's condition worse than all his other sins besides. If one is 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 the heinousness of sin, but hardness of heart that damns. This makes the sin against the Holy Ghost incapable of mercy, because the sinner who has committed it is incapable of repentance.

Matthew 5:4: "Blessed are those who mourn."

There are eight steps leading to true blessedness. They might be compared to Jacob's Ladder, whose top reached heaven. We have climbed the first step. Now let us move to the second. "Blessed are those who mourn." We must pass through the valley of tears on the way to paradise. Mourning would be a sad and bleak subject if it were not surrounded by blessedness at the front and comfort at the back. Mourning here stands for repentance — it includes both the grief, which is the cloud, and the tears, which are the rain. In this golden shower, God comes down to us. The text has two parts. First, a statement: those who mourn are blessed people. Second, a reason: because they will be comforted. I begin with the first — the statement: those who mourn are blessed. Luke 6:21: "Blessed are you who weep now." Though the saints' tears are bitter, they are nonetheless blessed tears.

Question: But will all mourning give a person a claim to blessedness?

Answer: No. There are two kinds of mourning that are far from making anyone blessed.

There is a worldly mourning. There is a diabolical mourning.

First, there is worldly mourning — grieving over outward losses. Matthew 2:18: "A voice was heard in Ramah, weeping and great mourning, Rachel weeping for her children." There are many tears of this kind. Many people can mourn over a dead child but cannot mourn over a crucified Savior. Worldly grief speeds us toward the grave. 2 Corinthians 7:10: "The sorrow of the world produces death."

Second, there is a diabolical mourning, and this takes two forms.

First, when a person mourns because he cannot gratify his sinful desire — this is like the devil, whose greatest torment is that he cannot be more wicked. So Amnon was sick with grief until he violated his sister Tamar (2 Samuel 13:2). So Ahab mourned over Naboth's vineyard (1 Kings 21:4): "He lay down on his bed and turned away his face and would eat no food." This was a diabolical mourning.

Second, when people are sorry for the good they have done. Pharaoh was grieved that he had let the Israelites go (Exodus 14:5). Some people are so spiritually corrupt that they regret having prayed or heard so many sermons. They repent of their repentance. But if we repent of the good we have done, God will not repent of the judgment that is coming.

Showing what true holy mourning is directed toward.

To explain this point of holy mourning, I will show what it properly looks toward. There are two objects of spiritual mourning: sin and suffering.

First, sin — and this in two forms: our own sin and the sins of others.

First, our own sin. Sin demands tears. Nothing is truly worthy of weeping except sin. While we carry the fire of sin within us, we must carry the water of tears to put it out. Ezekiel 7:16. "They are not blessed who mourn for the dead," says Chrysostom, "but those who mourn for sin." And there is good reason to mourn for sin, when we consider: first, the guilt of sin, which exposes us to God's wrath. Would not a guilty person weep, knowing he is bound over to stand trial? Every sinner faces trial for his life and is certain to be condemned unless mercy speaks on his behalf. Second, the pollution of sin. Sin is a plague-spot on the soul — will you not labor to wash it away with your tears? Sin makes a person worse than a snake or a toad. The snake carries nothing but what God placed in it, and even its venom has medicinal uses. But the sinner carries what the devil has put into him (Acts 5:3): "Why has Satan filled your heart to lie to the Holy Spirit?" What a strange transformation sin has brought about! The soul that once shone with brightness has been darkened by sin. We carry in our hearts the seed of the unforgivable sin. We carry the seeds of all the sins for which the damned are now being tormented. Shall we not mourn? The person who does not mourn has surely lost the use of his reason. But not every mourning over sin is the right kind that gives a claim to blessedness. I will show:

What is not true gospel mourning for sin. What is true gospel mourning for sin.

What is not true gospel mourning for sin: there are five false and counterfeit kinds of mourning.

First, a despairing kind of mourning — such as Judas's mourning. He saw his sin, he was sorry, he confessed, he declared Christ innocent, he tried to make restitution (Matthew 27). Judas, who is in hell, did more than many people do today. He confessed his sin. He did not plead necessity or good intentions — he openly acknowledged his guilt: "I have sinned." Judas made restitution. His conscience told him the money was obtained wickedly. It was blood money, and he brought back the thirty pieces of silver to the chief priests (Matthew 27:3). Yet how many people today seize what belongs to others and never breathe a word about making it right! In that respect, Judas was more honest than they are. So where was Judas's sorrow lacking? It was a grief joined with despair. He believed his wound was wider than any bandage could cover. He drowned in tears, but it was not a repentance that led to life — it led to death.

Second, a hypocritical mourning. The heart is very deceitful — it can betray as readily with a tear as with a kiss. Saul appears to be a mourner. Just as he was sometimes found among the prophets (1 Samuel 10:12), so he seemed at other times to be among the penitents (1 Samuel 15:25): "And Saul said to Samuel, 'I have sinned; I have indeed transgressed the command of the Lord.'" But Saul's mourning was hypocritical. For first, he did not take shame to himself — he actually sought to preserve his honor (verse 30): "Honor me before the elders of my people." Second, he minimized and made excuses for his sin to make it look smaller. He blamed the people (verse 24): "I feared the people and listened to their voice." A true mourner works to describe his sin in its true colors, highlighting every serious dimension of it, so that he may be deeply humbled before the Lord (Ezra 9:6): "Our iniquities have risen above our heads and our guilt has grown even to the heavens." The true penitent tries to make his sin look as serious as it is. Saul tried to make his sin look as small as possible — like a patient who plays down his symptoms for fear the doctor will prescribe too harsh a remedy. How easy it is to deceive one's own soul and to weep one's way into hell through hypocrisy!

Third, a forced mourning — when tears are dragged out by God's judgments. These are like the tears of a man in agony from kidney stones, or a man stretched on the rack. Such was Cain's mourning (Genesis 4:13): "My punishment is greater than I can bear." His punishment troubled him more than his sin. To mourn only out of fear of hell is like a thief who weeps over his sentence rather than his crime. The tears of the wicked are squeezed out by the heat of affliction.

Fourth, an outward mourning — when grief exists only on the surface. "They disfigure their faces" (Matthew 6:16). The eye is moist but the heart is hard. Such was Ahab's mourning (1 Kings 21:27): "He tore his clothes and put on sackcloth and fasted and lay in sackcloth and went about despondently." His clothes were torn, but his heart was not torn. He wore sackcloth but had no genuine sorrow. He hung his head like a reed, but his heart was like granite. Many can be compared to weeping marble — both watery and flinty at once.

Fifth, a pointless and fruitless mourning. Some will shed a few tears but go right on living as badly as before. They cheat and live in immorality without change. There is something like this kind of mourning in hell — the damned weep, but they also blaspheme.

What is true gospel mourning?

Answer: The mourning that gives a person a claim to blessedness has these characteristics.

First, it is free and spontaneous — it must flow like water from a spring, not be struck out like sparks from a flint. Tears for sin must be like myrrh that drips from a tree freely, without cutting or forcing. Mary Magdalene's repentance was freely given — she stood weeping (Luke 7). She came to Christ with ointment in her hand, love in her heart, and tears in her eyes. God accepts a freewill offering. He is not pleased by what is forced out of us.

Second, gospel mourning is spiritual — meaning we mourn more for sin itself than for the suffering it brings. Pharaoh said: "Take away this plague." He never thought about the plague in his own heart. A sinner mourns because punishment follows hard on the heels of sin. But David cries out: "My sin is ever before me" (Psalm 51:3). God had warned that the sword would circle through David's family — but David does not say, "The sword is ever before me." He says, "My sin is ever before me." The offense against God was what troubled him. He grieved more over the act of treason than over the executioner's axe. So the repentant prodigal (Luke 15:21): "I have sinned against heaven and in your sight." He does not say: "I am starving among the pigs." He says: "I have offended my father." More specifically, our mourning for sin, if it is truly spiritual, must operate in three particular ways.

First, we must mourn for sin as an act of hostility and rebellion against God. Sin does not merely make us unlike God — it makes us contrary to God (Leviticus 26:40): "They walked contrary to Me." Sin defies and resists the Holy Spirit (Acts 7:51). Sin is contrary to God's nature. God is holy; sin is filth. Sin is contrary to God's will. Where God is of one mind, sin is of the opposite mind. Sin does everything it can to oppose God. The Hebrew word for sin means rebellion — a sinner is a rebel. When we mourn for sin as walking in open defiance of heaven, that is gospel mourning. Nature cannot tolerate opposites.

Second, we must mourn for sin as the deepest ingratitude — as kicking against the mercies of God. God sends His Son to redeem us, His Spirit to comfort us. We sin against the blood of Christ and the grace of the Spirit — and shall we not mourn? We complain about the unkindness of others. Shall we not feel the weight of our own unkindness toward God? Caesar took it as a bitter personal blow that his son Brutus was among those who stabbed him — "You too, my son?" Can the Lord not say to us: "These wounds I have received in the house of those who love Me" (Zechariah 13:6)? Israel took their gold jewelry and made a calf of it. The sinner takes the gifts of God's mercies and uses them to commit sin. Ingratitude dyes a sin deeply red. This is why they are called crimson sins (Isaiah 1:18). Sins against the love shown in the Gospel are in some sense worse than the sins of the demons, because the demons were never offered grace. When we mourn for sin as stained with this mark of ingratitude, that is true gospel mourning.

Third, we must mourn for sin as something that robs us of good. Sin keeps blessing away from us and breaks our communion with God. Mary wept over Christ's absence (John 20:13): "They have taken away my Lord." In the same way, our sins have taken away our Lord — they have robbed us of His sweet presence. Would not a person grieve who had lost a precious jewel? When we mourn for sin under this aspect — as the thing that causes the Sun of Righteousness to withdraw from our horizon — when we mourn not so much because peace is gone or prosperity is gone, but because God is gone (Song of Solomon 5:6): "My beloved had withdrawn himself" — This is holy mourning. Mourning over the loss of God's favor is the very best way to regain it. If you lose a friend, all your weeping will not bring him back. But if you have lost God's presence, your mourning will bring your God back again.

Third, gospel mourning sends the soul toward God. When the prodigal son came to himself, he went back to his father (Luke 15:18): "I will get up and go to my father." Jacob wept and prayed (Hosea 12:4). The Israelites wept and offered sacrifice (Judges 2:5). Gospel mourning moves a person to action — because true sorrow contains a thread of hope, and hope drives the soul to use the means God has provided. The mourning that, like the flaming sword, keeps the soul away from God and beats it back from duty is a sinful mourning — a sorrow hatched in hell. Such was Saul's grief, which drove him to the witch of Endor (1 Samuel 28:7). Gospel mourning is a spur to prayer. The child who weeps for offending his father goes into his father's presence and will not leave until reconciliation is made. Absalom could not be at peace until he had seen the king's face (2 Samuel 14:32-33).

Fourth, gospel mourning is directed at specific sins. The true penitent is like a wounded man who goes to the surgeon and shows him every wound. So the true penitent grieves over his particular sins (Judges 10:10): "We have served the Baals." David puts his finger on the exact sin that wounded him (Psalm 51:4): "I have done this evil." A wicked man says in general terms that he is a sinner. A child of God says: "I have done this evil." Peter wept specifically for the sin of denying Christ. Clement of Alexandria says Peter never heard a rooster crow without breaking into tears. There must be specific repentance before there can be a general pardon.

Fifth, gospel tears must fall from eyes of faith (Mark 9:24): "Immediately the boy's father cried out and said, 'I do believe... help my unbelief.'" Our spiritual sickness must move us to mourn. But when we look up to our physician — who has made a healing remedy from His own blood — we must not grieve without hope. Though our tears fall to the ground, our faith must reach to heaven. After the heaviest rain, faith must appear like a rainbow in the cloud. The tears of faith are collected like precious wine (Psalm 56:8).

Sixth, gospel mourning is joined with self-loathing. The sinner admires himself; the true penitent loathes himself. Ezekiel 20:43: "There you will remember your ways and all your deeds with which you have defiled yourselves; and you will loathe yourselves in your own sight for all the evil things that you have done." A true penitent is troubled not only over the shameful consequences of sin but over sin's repulsive nature — not only the sting of sin, but its ugly face. How the leper loathed himself (Leviticus 13:45)! The Hebrew teachers say the leper declared unclean was to cover his upper lip both as a mourner and as a sign of shame. The true mourner cries out: "These corrupt eyes, this heart that is a den of wickedness!" He does not merely leave sin — he despises it. The one who has fallen in the mud loathes himself.

Seventh, gospel mourning must purify us. Our tears must make us more holy. We must weep for sin in a way that weeps sin out of us. Our tears must drown our sins. We must not only mourn but also turn (Joel 2:12): "Return to Me with all your heart, and with fasting, weeping and mourning." What is the point of a wet eye and a corrupt heart? It is foolish to say it is daytime when the sky is full of darkness. In the same way, to say you repent while your life remains dark with sin is foolish. Augustine put it well: the person who truly mourns over sins he has committed is the one who never commits again what he has mourned over. True mourning is like the water of bitterness — it causes the thigh of sin to rot (Numbers 5:12). Psalm 74:13: "You broke the heads of the sea monsters in the water." The heads of our sins — these monsters — are broken in the waters of true repentance. True tears are cleansing — like a flood that sweeps away all the wreckage of our sins. The waters of holy mourning are like the river Jordan, in which Naaman washed and was healed of his leprosy. It is said that a certain river in Sicily will turn the darkest sheep white when they bathe in it. In the same way, though our sins be as scarlet, by washing in this river of repentance they become white as snow. Naturalists say the serpent vomits its poison before going to drink. Be wise as serpents in this: before expecting to drink down the sweet comfort of God's promises, cast out the poison that lies in your heart. Do not merely mourn for sin — break away from it.

Eighth, gospel mourning must be joined with hatred of sin (2 Corinthians 7:11): "What indignation it produced in you!" We must not merely stop sinning — we must detest sin. The dove hates even the smallest feather of a hawk. A true mourner hates even the smallest impulse toward sin — a true mourner is a sin-hater. Amnon hated Tamar more fiercely than he had ever wanted her (2 Samuel 13:15). To be a sin-hater involves two things: first, to see sin as the worst of all evils — a complex evil more terrible to look at than death or hell; second, to be unrelentingly hostile toward it. A sin-hater will never negotiate any truce with sin. The war between him and sin is like the war between Rehoboam and Jeroboam (1 Kings 14:30): "There was war between Rehoboam and Jeroboam all their days." Anger can be resolved; hatred cannot. True mourning begins in love for God and ends in hatred of sin.

Ninth, gospel mourning in certain cases requires restitution. It is as much a sin to damage another person's reputation as to violate their purity. If we have harmed the reputation of others, we are obligated to ask their forgiveness. If we have wronged them in their property through dishonest or fraudulent dealings, we must make some compensation. So Zacchaeus (Luke 19:8): "If I have defrauded anyone of anything, I will give back four times as much" — in accordance with that law (Exodus 22:1). James urges us to attend not only to the heart but to the hand (James 4:8): "Cleanse your hands, you sinners; and purify your hearts." If you have wronged another person, cleanse your hands through restitution. Be assured: without restitution, there is no remission.

Tenth, gospel mourning must be prompt. We must not put off repentance and delay it until our deathbed. As David said, "I will pay my vows now" (Psalm 116:14), so a Christian should say: "I will mourn for sin now." Luke 6:21: "Blessed are you who weep now." When the Roman envoy Popilius was sent to King Antiochus, he drew a circle around the king in the sand and told him to give his answer before stepping out of it. In the same way, God has drawn a circle around us within the small span of our lives and calls us to grieve over our sins immediately. Acts 17:30: "God is now declaring to men that all people everywhere should repent." We do not know whether we will be given another day. Do not delay your mourning for sin until you are making your will. Do not think that holy mourning is only a deathbed duty. You may seek the blessing with tears, like Esau, when it is too late. "How long," asks Augustine, "shall I say I will repent tomorrow? Why not now?" Delay brings danger. Caesar's failure to read a letter warning him before entering the Senate cost him his life. The true mourner hurries to meet an angry God — just as Jacob hurried to meet his brother Esau. And the gift he sends ahead is the sacrifice of tears.

Eleventh, gospel mourning for sin must be ongoing. Some people will shed a few tears at a sermon, but this flash flood quickly dries up. The hypocrite's sorrow is like a vein that is opened for a moment and then immediately closed again. The Hebrew word for "eye" can also mean "a fountain" — suggesting that the eye should flow like a fountain for sin and not stop. But it must not be like the Libyan fountain of the sun that the ancients described — hot in the morning, cold at noon. The waters of repentance must not overflow with greater heat in the early morning of first hearing the gospel, only to grow cold in the middle of life, when health and prosperity arrive. No — it must be a daily weeping. As Paul said (1 Corinthians 15:31): "I die daily," so should a Christian say: "I mourn daily." Therefore keep the channel of holy sorrow open and do not let it be stopped up until death (Lamentations 2:18): "Let your eyes have no rest." It is said of the godly John Bradford that scarcely a day passed without him shedding some tears over sin. Daily mourning is a powerful protection against backsliding. I have read of someone who had epilepsy — a falling sickness — and was cured by being immersed in seawater. In the same way, washing our souls daily in the briny waters of repentance is the best means both to prevent and to cure falling into sin again.

Even God's own children must mourn after receiving pardon — for God does not in one act pardon both past and future sins. As repentance is renewed, so pardon is renewed. If God were to pardon future sins before they are committed, this would make part of Christ's intercessory work unnecessary. What need would there be for His ongoing intercession if sin were forgiven before it was even committed? The godly face daily sins of fresh incursion that must be mourned over. Though sin is pardoned, it still rebels. Though it is covered, it is not cured (Romans 7:23). There is in even the best Christian something that is contrary to God — something that deserves hell. Shall he not mourn? A ship that is always taking on water must have the water constantly pumped out. While the soul leaks through sin, we must keep pumping through repentance. Christian, do not think your sins are washed away by Christ's blood alone — it is by water and blood together. The bronze basin (Exodus 30:18) in which the Israelites were to wash was a fitting picture of this spiritual cleansing — tears and blood. When holy mourning has all these characteristics, this is what Paul calls "sorrowing in a godly manner" (2 Corinthians 7:11) — the mourning that makes a Christian eternally blessed.

Showing that we must also mourn for the sins of others.

Just as we must mourn for our own sins, we must also take the sins of others to heart. The poets imagined that Byblis was turned into a fountain. In the same spirit, we should wish with Jeremiah that our eyes were a fountain of tears, so that we might weep day and night for the wickedness of the age. Our blessed Savior mourned over the sins of the Jews (Mark 3:5), grieved over the hardness and callousness of their hearts. And holy David, looking on the sins of the wicked, felt his heart turn into a spring and his eyes into rivers (Psalm 119:136): "My eyes shed streams of water, because they do not keep Your law." Lot's righteous soul was tormented by the vile conduct of the wicked around him (2 Peter 2:7). Lot took the sins of Sodom and used them as spears to pierce his own soul. Cyprian records that in the early church, when a young woman who had consecrated herself to God defiled her chastity, shame and grief spread across the whole face of the congregation.

Do we not have reason to mourn for the sins of others? The whole foundation of the nation is ready to crack under the weight of sin. What a flood of wickedness surrounds us! Mourn for the hypocrisy of the age. Jehu said: "Come, see my zeal for the Lord" — but his zeal was really for the throne. This is the hypocrisy of some: they attribute God's authority to everything they do. They boldly use God's name to cover their wickedness — as if a thief were to claim the king's warrant for his robbery. Micah 3:11: "Her leaders pronounce judgment for a bribe, her priests instruct for a price, her prophets divine for money. Yet they lean on the Lord saying, 'Is not the Lord in our midst?'" Many strike the gospel a fatal blow with a pious kiss. Could Ahab not be satisfied with murdering and seizing Naboth's land — did he also have to bring religion into it and use a fast as a preface to his murder (1 Kings 21:12)? A hypocrite dressed in white is the most dangerous devil. A burning torch in the hands of a ghost is the most terrifying sight. Hearing God's name in the mouths of scandalous hypocrites is enough to drive others away from the Christian faith altogether.

Mourn for the errors and blasphemies of the nation. There is now a free market for false teaching. Toleration has given people a license to believe anything. Whatever heresy was buried long ago in the history of the church has now been dug up from the grave and is being worshipped by some. England has become as reckless in her religion as she is extreme in her fashions. The Jesuits' marketplace is open, and almost everyone wants the very latest opinion. If people's faces changed as fast as their beliefs, we would not recognize them.

Mourn for the breaking of covenants. This sin hangs like a flying scroll over England. Breaking covenant is spiritual adultery — and for this, God may name us Lo-ammi and hand us a certificate of divorce.

Mourn for the pride of the nation — our circumstances are low, but our hearts are high. Mourn for the godlessness of the land. England is like the man in the Gospel (Luke 4:33) who was possessed by an unclean spirit. Mourn for the moving of ancient boundaries (Deuteronomy 27:17). Mourn for the contempt shown to lawful authority — the spitting in the face of order and governance. Mourn that there are so few mourners. Surely if we do not mourn for the sins of others, it is a sign we are not even aware of our own sins. God regards us as partakers in the guilt of sins in others that we fail to lament. Our tears may help to turn away God's wrath.

Showing that we must also mourn for the sufferings of the Church.

The saints are members of Christ's body — both the spiritual body and the body politic — and therefore they must feel the wounds suffered by God's Church. Psalm 137:1: "By the rivers of Babylon, there we sat down and wept, when we remembered Zion." The people of Israel, cut off from public worship, sat by the rivers and wept. They laid aside their instruments: "We hung our harps on the willows." We were as far from joy as those willows were from bearing fruit. "How can we sing the Lord's song in a foreign land?" We were more fit to weep than to sing.

When we consider the sufferings of many Christians in Germany, Savoy, and other foreign lands — driven from their homes because they would not abandon the Protestant faith and adopt the Roman religion; given a crucifix instead of a Bible, the mass instead of prayer — when we think on these things, our eyes should overflow. Mourn to see God's Church as a bleeding vine. Mourn to see Christ's bride with garments soaked in blood.

We can hear England's funeral bell tolling. Let us shed tears over a dying England. Let us lament our internal divisions — England's divisions have been deadly; they once opened the door to the Saxons, Danes, and Normans. If a divided house cannot stand, how do we stand except by a miracle of free grace? Truth has fallen and peace has fled. England's beautiful coat of peace has been torn — like Joseph's coat, dipped in blood. Peace is the glory of a nation. When it is cut off, the whole body of the nation begins to wither.

Mourn for the oppressions of England. The people of this land have spent their money only to purchase grief.

Showing the proper seasons for holy mourning.

Though we must always keep the channel of godly sorrow open, there are certain seasons when our tears should overflow — as water sometimes rises higher. There are three special seasons of extraordinary mourning — times when the soul should be, as it were, at high tide.

First, when there are signs of God's wrath breaking out over the nation. England has been under God's correcting rod for many years. The Lord has drawn the sword, and it has not yet been put away. Oh, that our tears might blunt the edge of that sword! When God is treading things down, now is the time to break up the hardened ground of our hearts. Isaiah 22:4-5: "Therefore I say, 'Turn your eyes away from me, let me weep bitterly. Do not try to comfort me concerning the destruction... for it is a day of panic.'" Joel 2:2, 13: "A day of darkness and gloom" — "Therefore return to Me with all your heart, and with fasting, weeping and mourning." Rain follows thunder. When God thunders over a nation with His judgments, showers of tears must follow. When God strikes us on the back, we must strike ourselves on the thigh (Jeremiah 31:19). When God seems to stand at the threshold of the temple, as if He were about to take flight and leave, then is the time to lie weeping between the porch and the altar (Ezekiel 10:4). If the Lord seems to be withdrawing and taking His gospel away with Him, it is now urgent to mourn — so that perhaps our tears may move His compassion.

Second, before performing solemn acts of worship — such as days of fasting or receiving the Lord's Supper. Christian, are you about to seek God in an extraordinary way? Seek Him with grief (Luke 2:48). Do you want to see the smiles of God's face and feel the nearness of His presence? Open every spring of mourning — and then God will draw near to you in the ordinance and say: "Here I am" (Isaiah 58:9). When Jacob wept, he found God at Bethel (Hosea 12:4). He named the place Peniel, for he said: "I have seen God face to face" (Genesis 32:30). Give Christ the wine of your tears to drink, and in the Sacrament He will give you the wine of His blood.

Third, after falling into a serious sin. I will not say with Donatus that there is no mercy for those who fall into sin again — but I will say there is no mercy without bitter mourning. Serious sins bring dishonor on the Christian faith (2 Samuel 12:14). Now our faces should be covered with shame and our eyes wet with tears. Peter, after denying Christ, wept bitterly. Christian, has God allowed you to fall into a serious sin as a just response to your pride and self-confidence? Go into the weeping chamber. Sins of weakness wound the soul, but grave public sins wound the gospel. Smaller sins grieve the Spirit, but greater sins torment the Spirit (Isaiah 63:10). And if that blessed Dove weeps, shall we not weep? When the sky is dark, the dew falls. When we have by serious sin darkened the light of the gospel, now is the time for the dew of holy tears to fall from our eyes.

Showing the degree of holy mourning required.

After the seasons of mourning, let us consider the degree of it. Mourning for sin must be a very deep mourning. The Greek word implies a great sorrow — the kind seen at the funeral of a dearly loved friend. Zechariah 12:10: "They will look on Me whom they have pierced; and they will mourn for Him, as one mourns for an only son." The grief for an only child is profound. Such must be the grief for sin. Verse 11: "In that day there will be great mourning in Jerusalem, like the mourning of Hadadrimmon in the plain of Megiddo." In that valley, Josiah — that righteous and much-loved king — was cut down by an untimely death, and his funeral was marked by bitter lamentation. With such bitterness must we mourn — not for the death, but for the life, of our sins. To show the measure of sorrow required:

First, our mourning for sin must be greater than any other grief we experience. Eli's mourning for the loss of the ark swallowed up his grief over the deaths of his two sons. Spiritual grief must outweigh everything else. We should mourn more for sin than for the loss of loved ones or possessions.

Second, we should press for our sorrow to rise to the same height as our sin. Manasseh was a great sinner and became a great mourner (2 Chronicles 33:12): "He humbled himself greatly." Manasseh had made the streets run with blood, and he made his prison in Babylon run with tears. Peter wept bitterly. A true mourner strives to make his repentance as deep as his sin was great.

Showing the opposite of holy mourning.

Having shown the nature of mourning, I will now show what its opposite is. The opposite of mourning is hardness of heart, which Scripture calls a heart of stone (Ezekiel 36). A heart of stone is far from mourning or softening. This heart of stone is known by two symptoms.

First, insensitivity. A stone cannot feel anything. Pile weight on it, grind it to powder — it feels nothing. So it is with a hard heart — it has no sense of sin or of God's wrath. A kidney stone is felt; a stone in the heart is not. Ephesians 4:19: "Having become callous, they have given themselves over to sensuality."

Second, a hard heart is known by its rigidity. A stone will not bend. Whatever is rigid does not yield to pressure. So it is with a hard heart — it will not submit to God's command or bow to Christ's authority. A hard heart will sooner be shattered by death than bent by repentance. It is so far from yielding to God that — like an anvil — it sends the hammer back. It resists the Holy Spirit (Acts 7:51).

Christians, if you want to be genuine mourners, guard against this hardness of heart. Hebrews 3:8: "Do not harden your hearts." A hard heart is the worst kind. If it were bronze, it could be melted in a furnace. If iron, it could be shaped with a hammer. But a heart of stone can only be broken by the arm of God and softened by the blood of God. The misery of a hard heart is threefold. First, a hard heart holds no grace at all. While wax is hard, it will not take the impression of a seal. While the heart is hard, it will not receive the stamp of grace. It must first be made soft and pliable. The plow of the Word cannot break up a hard heart. Second, a hard heart is good for nothing except to fuel hell's fire. Romans 2:5: "Because of your stubbornness and unrepentant heart you are storing up wrath for yourself." Hell is full of hard hearts. There is not one soft heart there. There is weeping there, but no softness. We read of "vessels prepared for destruction" (Romans 9:22). Impenitence prepares these vessels for hell and makes them like dry wood — ready to burn. Third, hardness of heart makes a person's condition worse than all his other sins combined. If someone has committed great sins but can still mourn, there is hope. Repentance unravels sin — it makes sin as if it had never been. But hardness of heart chains guilt firmly to the soul and seals a person under wrath. It is not the severity of sin but the hardness of heart that damns. This is what makes the sin against the Holy Spirit beyond the reach of mercy — the person who has committed it is beyond the reach of repentance.