will be in vain To this agrees the Doctrine of that Great Man the Son of Sirach He that washeth himself after the touching of a dead body if he touch it again what availeth his washing So it is with a Man that fasteth for his Sins and goeth again and doth the same Who will hear his Prayer or what doth his humbling profit him Ecclus. 34.25 26. One Request now concludes the Preface That they who use this Book and find Benefit by it would not only give Glory to GOD for it to whom alone it wholly belongs But also that they would Remember its unworthy Composer in their daily Prayers especially on the days of their Devout and Solemn Addresses to Heaven ☞ That the plain Reader might meet with no Difficulties to stop or hinder Him in the perusing this Treatise some few things not altogether so obvious and easy as the Rest are taken out of his way by being thrown back in the Quality of Notes to the End of the Book THE Holy Mourner c. CHAPTER I. The Usefulness of our Faculties and Passions What Religious Mourning is Two Sorts of it Publick and Private The two Kinds of Private Mourning with the respective Branches of them AS GOD hath given us a lofty Nature and endued that Nature with excellent Faculties So He designs those Faculties for worthy Ends. He intends them not only for Ornament but Use and by them means to make us better as well as higher than other Creatures Thus He gave us an Understanding that we might know Himself as well as other things A Will that we might chuse our Duty as well as other Advantages A Memory that we may treasure up Divine as well as other Truths that so within our selves we might not only have Matter to entertain our Thoughts profitably but also be competently furnish'd with some good Principles from whence to take the measures of our Practice And if we look more downward into the Frame of our Being we shall see that our Passions tho' much inferior to the mentioned Faculties were contrived by the all-wise GOD Who made them for our very Souls Improvement For when He put them into us it was that they might be instrumental to our heavenly and eternal as well as to our temporal and secular Interests Love for instance He planted in us to fix our Hearts immoveably on Himself and to carry them out in Desires towards Him with all the Force and Vigour and Vehemence which that Sweet and Powerful Principle has Fear to awe our Minds into Seriousness and so to balast them as to keep them steady that they being tossed with no Lightness or Folly we may be kept from all Loosness and Sin Hope to draw us to true Religion and not only to induce us to it but to encourage us in it while lively Expectation of its future Rewards carries us through all its present Difficulties enabling us with Laudable Patience and Zeal to perform both its active and passive Duties Joy to enliven and elevate our Spirits that so besides zealous Patience and Constancy we may persist in our Duties with Alacrity and Pleasure For where Joy intermingles with the Offices of Religion it abates or takes off the uneasiness of them and turns them into real and high Delight To mention no more even Grief it self as mean a Passion as men think it and as bitter and irksome as it seems to be is of singular use to the Sincere Christian and serves him in his best and noblest concerns with an happy Efficacy Tho' to instance in what Particulars it does it would be to anticipate the Matter of this Treatise in the Sequel of which they will Sufficiently appear At present therefore we note but this much That Grief is eminently serviceable to good Christians as it ministers to holy or religious Mourning and is an essential or constituent Part of the same This will be evident if we do but consider what religious Mourning is And that I think may not improperly be thus described It is a blessed Work of the HOLY GHOST whereby we grieve heartily upon some spiritual account It is a work of the HOLY GHOST Nor can it be otherwise For where a plentiful Effusion of HIM is promised we find holy Mourning in the true Church to be an immediate Fruit of it I will pour upon the house of David and upon the Inhabitants of Jerusalem the SPIRIT says GOD Zech. 12.10 And then it follows in the next Verse in that Day there shall be a great Mourning To Mourn as Men is incident to all and indeed inevitable As Nature hath given us Power to do it So our Circumstances give us Occasion enough here in this State of Mortality and Misery But to Mourn as Christians is quite another thing Religious Sorrow grows at no time upon the Stock of mere Nature tho' never so well cultivated by Virtuous Education That no where flows with any laudable Stream but where the HOLY GHOST first opens the Springs He bloweth with His Wind and the Waters flow Psal 147.18 St. Jerom from a literal turns the Text to an Allegorical Sense and by the Wind understands the Spirit of GOD. But then the Waters which by His means flow are no other than those of pious Tears which cannot flow unless He causes them to do it And therefore by the Way we have no Reason to think that divine Comforts are either the Sole or the Chief Indication of the Good SPIRIT 's kind and propitious presence Godly Sorrow is as clear a Symptom and assure a Proof of the HOLY GHOST's resting upon us or residing in us as the most refreshing Joys can be And therefore as humble Acknowledgments should be made to GOD and as hearty Praises rendred to Him for the one as for the other The Cloudy Pillar was as evident a Token of GOD's Providential Care of the Jews and of His special Residence with them as the Pillar of Fire tho' all know it was not so bright a one And tho' the SPIRIT 's Consolations are a more lightsome Sign of His Descent upon us yet holy Mourning must be as plain a Mark of his gracious Presence as being as much an Effect of His favourable Influence And then It is a blessed Work of His. Blessed in the entire Capacity of it For as it is wrought in us by a blessed Cause the breathing of this Glorious SPIRIT we speak of and as it is of a blessed Nature being a lamenting of our Wandrings from and Actings against the Laws and Interests of Righteousness So it hath a most blessed Tendency For it tends directly to the purging our of Sin to the purifying of the Soul to the making us upright and holy upon Earth and happy in the Kingdom of Heaven for ever We farther describe it to be a Grieving heartily As there can be no Mourning where there is no Grieving so on the other side where the Mourning is holy the Grief will be hearty There are two
must mourn for our own Sins we are next to consider what Reasons there are for our Mourning for the Sins of others The Principal are these Seven ensuing First We must mourn for the sins of others because the Best have done it And so it is as much our Duty as it is to answer the divine Intention or the end of Providence in recording their Practice For why hath the HOLY GHOST registred good men as great Mourners in this respect but that we might come up to their excellent Patterns and make our selves happy by conformity to them And that this may be done we should be often viewing and seriously contemplating such worthy Exemplars of this Nature as in the sacred Writings are set before us For so by observing and wisely considering them we may in time become like them And to work our selves to so blessed an Assimilation let us turn our Eyes and fix our Thoughts upon some of those famous Persons in Scripture who bear the Character of Mourners for other Mens Sins The first of them we note is Ezra of whom in that Book which bears his Name we read thus * Ezra 10.6 Then Ezra rose up from before the House of GOD and went into the chamber of Johanan the Son of Eliashib and when he came thither he did eat no Bread nor drink Water for he mourned because of the trangression of them that had been carri'd away captive A plain case that the good man laid the Sins of his People to heart and that so far as to mourn for them And that he mourned deeply as well as truly appears from his carriage for in the day of his Mourning he neither ate nor drank no not so much as a Bit of Bread or a Drop of Water Nor did his Mourning cause Abstinence only but also Amazement another Argument of its Greatness For as we find in the foregoing chapter he †ver 4. sat astonied until the Evening Sacrifice Such was the sadness and heaviness he conceiv'd for the People's Guilt and so very much loaden and oppressed was he with its ponderous Burthen that for the greatest part of a whole Day together he was scarce able to rise up from under it Too few I fear are now a days sensible of such a Pressure Next to Ezra in the sacred Book stands Nehemiah Who does not only equal Him in the Performance we are upon but seems to out-do him His own Words testify no less Nehem. 1.4 And it came to pass when I heard these words that I sat down and wept and mourned certain Days and fasted and prayed before the GOD of Heaven That he was here concern'd not only for the Affliction and Reproach of his People mentioned v. 3 but mostly for their sins the cause of those Evils is evident from what occurs in the 6th verse For there we find that he prayed before GOD day and night for the children of Israel and confessed the sins which they had sinned against Him So that when he sat down on the Ground that is or in Ashes as the way of Mourners was amongst the Jews and wept his Tears were spent chiefly upon their Sins And for their sins it was that he fasted and prayed and that he mourned certain Days As says * Multis diebus the vulgar Translation many days and so Lyra reads it And how many these days were that Commentator expressly declares when he says that he mourned †Tribus mensibus three months Nor is his Assertion at all improbable For he began his Mourning in Chisleu Neh. 1.1 which is the ninth month with the Hebrews and in Nisan the first of their months he was so deep in it that as we learn in the beginning of the 2d chapter the King discerned the Sorrow of his Heart by the sadness of his Countenance And from Chisleu to Nisan it must be three Months at least How many amongst us tho' they live to great years bestow not half that time in the whole course of their Lives on this needful Duty After these two such famous men a greater follows the King of Israel And as he was above them in dignity and power so in holy Mourning for the sins of others he was not at all inferiour to them Witness that remarkable Declaration of his Psal 119.136 Mine eyes gush out with waters or as the other Translation renders it more ‖ 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 properly Rivers of Waters run down mine Eyes because they keep not thy Law It was too much in David's Time as now it is in our Days the World was full of naughty men that made no conscience of Duty to GOD. Instead of keeping His Laws they grievously violated them the observation of which would have made them righteous here and most blessed for ever But how did David resent this Like a pious Prince and the Prophet of GOD he mourned for it at a mighty Rate Insomuch that his swelling and excessive Grief discharged it self in abundance of pious Tears Not like a violent Land-floud the which is suddenly up and as soon down but like settled Rivers which keep on in a free and even course and flow with constant and copious streams How happily would it be for the Christian Church were store of its Members of such a melting Temper To the Three foregoing I must add a Fourth which is Jeremiah And so eminent a Mourner was he in the Jewish Church that he composed a Book of Lamentions for Her That he was the Author or Pen-man of it the seventy were so confident that in a short Proem they have prefixed to it they warrant and proclaim as much in these words * 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Jeremiah sat weeping and bewailed Jerusalem with this Lamentation Nor did he only lament the Calamities of the People but their hainous sins as appears in Sundry Passages of the Book And so affecting is the stile or strain of it and so piercing and pathetic the Expressions in it †Orat. 12. that Gregory Nazianzem professes of himself that as often as he read it his Speech was stopt and he overwhelm'd with Tears And if perusal of the Book wrought so powerfully with him that read it how doleful were the Mournings of him that wrote it and what a Floud of Sorrows must issue from him Surely it was with him even as he * Jer. 9.1 wished his Head was Waters and his Eyes a Fountain LORD make ours to be so too on the Days that we set our selves to mourn before Thee But besides those in the Old we have famous Mourners for other Mens Sins in the New Testament I note but Three The First shall be S. Paul Who was very frequent as well as serious in the solemn Exercise Nor was He only frequent but constant in it For as he professes Act. 20.19 he served the LORD with all humility of Mind and with many Tears and Temptations So that pious Mourning and plenty of
to deal with them in fury neither to pity them nor spare them nor once to hear them tho' they cried never so loud in His Ears In pursuance of this His terrible Resolution He appointed six men with slaughter-weapons in their hands to destroy these Sinners charging them in the Prophet's hearing to slay utterly old and young both Maids and little Children and Women ver 6. But amongst these there were some holy Mourners for the People's sins * Ver. 4. Men that sighed and cried for all the abominations that were done in the midst of them And what was to become of them how were they to speed As the Vision shows GOD was exceeding kind to them and by His gracious Providence extraordinary care was taken of them For among the six men aforesaid there was one that had a Writers Ink-horn by his side And him the LORD injoined to go through Jerusalem and to set a †Ib. mark upon the foreheads of these Mourners that so none of those Destroyers might come near any of them So far were they from being permitted to strike them that they might not dare so much as to come nigh them And be this Vision historical as relating to things past or prophetical as respecting things to come or perhaps both as capable of being either we may hope it contains nothing in reference to the Jewish but what may be made good as to the Christian Church So that if any of us be so pious and tender hearted as to sigh and mourn for the sad misdemeanours of that sinful people amongst which we live then when GOD sends forth destroying Angels to execute His Judgments on the grievous Offenders they may as some have been be markt out for an happy deliverance and secured by exemption from the common Destiny And if here be not sufficient reason why we should mourn for the sins of that Place or Nation we belong to all that are wise and good may judge For Deliverances granted under the Old Testament upon the same sort of Duties which continue under the New in reason should be granted to the performers of those Duties under the New For what 's the foundation or cause of those Deliverances but GOD's Mercy And His Mercy being more liberally dispens'd under the New Testament than the Old why should not Christians rightly fulfilling the common Duties share in the same kind of Deliverances that the Jews did for doing those Duties When Sodom was so dreadfully overthrown and all its ungodly Inhabitants perished how miraculously was Lot delivered And why Not only because he was righteous just Lot as St. Peter terms him but because he was 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 vexed or oppressed with the filthy Conversation of the wicked and by mourning for their sins 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 tormented his righteous Soul from day to day 2 Pet. 2.8 Sixthly We must mourn for the sins of others because Nature and Religion bind us to it We are Men and all Men are made of one blood Act. 17.26 and that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 sameness of blood should beget in us a Sympathy of Affections even to the whole Mass of living Mankind And where we have true kindness for any it will certainly express it self in compassion to them and our Pity will ever be proportionable to their Misery The consequence of which will be that we must naturally bewail Sinners most if we have but Grace to discern their Misery is greatest And then Religion as well as Nature obliges us to mourn for other mens sins For either they mourn for their own sins or they do not If they do we must comply with them Divine Command having made it our Duty to weep with them that weep Rom. 12.15 By which Precept we are Particularly ti'd to mourn with those that mourn for their sins inasmuch as by them that weep there are meant such as are under * Vid. Grot. in loc And Dr. Hammonds Annot. Censure for their sins and so in Sorrow for them If they do not mourn for their own sins we have the more Reason to do it for that To see that they who have so great cause to mourn upon their own account have yet no will GOD help them to set about it Lastly We must mourn for the sins of others because we may have been sharers in them St. Paul adviseth Timothy well and in him every Christian not to be partaker of other mens sins but have we followed this advice Perhaps we may not have commanded or counselled them to sin we may not have urg'd provoked or directly enticed or tempted them to sin But there are other ways whereby we may partake of others sins Thus we may have connived at it or flattered them in it we may not have warned them against it or reproved them for it but instead of all this by our ill Example we may have powerfully invited and encouraged them to it Now if by all or any of these means we have ever been accessary to others sins we have great Reason to mourn deeply for them Yea as great Reason as we have to mourn for our own For look how far we have contributed to them and so far they are ours as much as theirs or at least they are ours in too great a measure CHAP. XXII The first Aggravation of our own and others Sins considered as the first Suasive to Mourning for the same We have sinned against the greatest LIGHT As against the Light of Conscience Of the SPIRIT Of the Word Of Experience Of Ordinances Of Examples Of Admonitions And of humane Laws AFter Reasons for Mourning for our own and others Sins Suasives to the Work will here follow in their proper place And to persuade to this what can be more effectual than a thorough conviction of our exceeding sinfulness And to convince us of that we cannot do betther than take a serious view of some of the most hainous and affecting Aggravations of our own and other mens Sins Of these Aggravations I recommend but Three as so many Suasives to Mourning for both The First is this We have sinned against the greatest Light Men in the dark may easily mistake and either do or go amiss But then they have a good excuse for it as wanting Light the common Guide in all external Motions and Actions But in our moral Miscarriages we were never destitute of such Direction and so they 'll admit of no such Apology It was not through any want of Light but through our neglect or evil contempt of it that we have run into the Works of Darkness And whereas want of Light would have mitigated our Guilt the plenty of it which we have always injoyed does mightily heighten it For in sinning against GOD we have gone unworthily against the greatest Light which could reasonably be afforded us here in our present state and circumstances This will plainly appear if we look into the Eight Particulars that follow And. First We have
shift your Posture and Imployment in favour of your fainting tiring Zeal For tho' the Spirit in it self be strong and so very willing and forward to persist yet being clogg'd and loaden with the burthen of this flesh it may very well want Support and Respite Here therefore rising up from your humble Prostration read a Chapter or two of the Lamentations or of some other Book in the Bible Unless you had rather make use of any practical Piece of some pious Author by you That so by remitting the Intensness of your Devotion you may recover a more lively degree of Fervency And then prostrating again in the Heavenly Presence supplicate thus A Supplication respecting our own and this Nation 's Sins O GOD most Gracious and Compassionate look down look down from Heaven I beseech Thee with an eye of Mercy of tenderest Mercy upon this miserably sinful Nation We have offended Thee greatly but LORD do Thou pity us We have provoked Thee strangely but LORD do Thou spare us We have dishonoured Thee shamefully but LORD do Thou pardon us It is of Thy * Lam. 3.22 Mercy that we are not consumed in our Sins O let the same Thy Mercy which hath forborn us in them absolve us from them And that Thou mayst freely forgive us all our Sins help us to repent unfeignedly of the same Awaken our Consciences into a due sense of our Guilt and smite our Hearts with Godly remorse and contrition for it and let us so bewail our Evil deeds as finally to forsake them and return †Hos 14.1 unto the LORD from whom we are fallen Open our Eyes O our good GOD that we may ‖ Luk. 19.42 see the things which belong to our peace and incline us effectually to consider and pursue them that so Thou mayst be fully reconciled to us and turn away * Jer. 18.22 Thy Wrath and Thy Judgments from us We know O LORD we know we have cause to fear Thy Judgments great cause to tremble in Expectation of them nor can heavier come than our Crying sins deserve and call for But in Mercy with-hold those dreadful Severities which with greatest Justice Thou might'st sadly inflict Or if we have so wretchedly wearied out Thy Patience that Thou art immutably resolv'd to give us up to Punishment Yet then O GOD whose Compassions fail not deal not with us after our Iniquities but in the midst of Judgment remember Mercy Let thy Rod correct but not destroy us and let the Smart we suffer end in thy Favour Sanctify all thy Dispensations to us and be they never so bitter let them turn to our Advantage But of all Evils Thou shalt bring upon us deprive us not O GOD and Father of Mercy of the Light of Thy Truth of the Purity of Thy Worship of the Solemnity of Thine Ordinances of the Liberty of Thy House of the Help of Thy Ministers But tho' we have long since forfeited these precious Injoyments yet so far overlook our provoking unworthiness as to continue them to us and also to our Posterity in succeeding Generations so long as the Sun and Moon shall endure And let these inestimable Mercies continu'd to us have their proper Influence and Effects upon us Let them banish Ignorance and abolish Atheism and drive away Infidelity Superstition and Prophaneness Let them lead us on to such Meekness of Wisdom and Sweetness of Temper and Lowliness of Mind and Holiness of Life as may conduce effectually to the healing of our Divisions and the composing of our Differences Let them so fill us with Love and unite us in Peace that the GOD †2 Cor. 13.11 of Love and Peace may be with us and Truth and Righteousness establisht amongst us and we may no more dishonour our Reformed Doctrines by our Dissolute Practices A general Intercession AND O Merciful GOD who ‖ 1 Tim. 2.4 wouldst have all Men to be saved * Psal 67.2 make thy saving Health known unto all Nations Let Strangers to Thy Truth and Enemies to Thy Gospel be made acquainted with Thy Will and obedient to Thy Word Be good to thy holy Catholic Church Purify it from Sin and preserve it from Error Free it from Fears and secure it in Dangers And where any in it are under Troubles or Persecutions arm them with such Courage that they may suffer with Constancy till they obtain Deliverance or be Crowned with Victory By Faith unfeigned knit all its Members firmly to Thy Self and by mutual Love to one another Settle it in Truth I most humbly beseech Thee and establish it in Peace Crown it with Prosperity and exalt it in Righteousness Fill every one in it with such divine Graces and Perfections from Heaven as may make it the Light and the Joy and the Glory and the Praise of the whole Earth Lead all Nations into it O GOD that the People of this World may become the Sheep of thy Pasture and we may all make but one most holy and happy Fold under that most good and great Shepherd the LORD JESUS CHRIST O that the time were come for Thee to have such Mercy upon Sion LORD let that Blessed time come Bless all Christian Kings and Governours As they bear Thy Name and are Thine Ordinance and act by Thy Power so let them carefully imitate Thy MAJESTY Let them rule their People with Mercy and Justice and make such wise Provisions for them as shall greatly advance both their present Welfare and their future Happiness Be with the Bishops and Pastors of Thy Flock Make them vigilant in their Stations and diligent in their Functions and zealous for Thy Honour and the Souls of Men. †1 Tim. 4.16 Let them take heed to themselves as well as to their Doctrines and not only teach Men to be good by their sound Instructions but provoke them to it by their powerful Examples Pour down thy Mercy upon the Neighbourhood I am of and upon this Family to which I belong upon my Relatives and Friends and upon all that have desired my Prayers and need them Grant them such a Faith in thy Doctrines such an Hope in thy Promises such a Fear of thy Threatnings as may put them upon dutiful Obedience to thy Commands Keep them from all known and presumptuous Sins and if there be any secret Wickedness in them let them so search their Hearts as presently to find it so try their Way as immediately to turn from it and that with the greatest Detestation and Abhorrency And to the End they may abhorr every evil Way do Thou ‖ Psal 139.24 lead them in the Way everlasting Even in the Way of Truth and Sincerity of Meekness and Temperance of Justice and Charity of Purity and Humility of Peace and Salvation And if at any time while we live Thou * Deut. 32.41 whet'st thy glittering Sword and thine hand takes hold on Judgment to execute it generally on the People of this Land secure if Thou