us and to win and bring us home unto Himself A Thought which should work kindly with us methinks and make us the more forward to weep for our Offences as well as the more free or liberal in our Tears And the rather should we be thus that so the Eye which is a great Occasion of Sin might bear its part in proportionable Mourning Remember says the Son of Sirach that a wicked Eye is an evil thing and what is created more wicked than an Eye therefore it weepeth upon every occasion Ecclus. 31.13 And if the Eye be so evil and so prone to weeping nothing can be more just than that it should weep for Sin that so that Guilt may run out at its Tears which ran in at its Glances Secondly We must mourn for our own Sins because the Nature of Sin calls for it and also the Sufferings of our SAVIOUR Sin if we look to its Definition which shows its Nature is * 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 illegality in the Abstract or a transgression of the divine Law So an inspired Pen describes it 1 S. Joh. 3.4 Now if Sin be a transgression of the Law it must necessarily be an opposition to GOD's Will the written Law being nothing else but His revealed Mind And what can be more vile than that Evil the very Essence of which is a direct repugnancy to GOD and so an absolute Contrariety to the most pure perfect and eternal GOOD Where rational Creatures as we are have chosen and delighted in a thing so extreamly so infinitely base surely we cannot but think we have reason to mourn for so egregious Folly and that it calls for Mourning to the highest Pitch If we lose an Estate or lose a Child lose a Friend or lose a Limb we grieve excessively and sink deep in Sadness and Lamentation But how then should we overflow with Sorrow for Sin as being unspeakably worse than the worst of Evils which be they never so many and never so bad are all but the issues or products of that And then the same Sin which is so evil in it self occasion'd most dreadful Sufferings to our SAVIOUR Should I go about to describe them in their Heighth and Bitterness Time would fail me and Words too And therefore our Hearts methinks should send forth flouds of mournful Tears at our weeping Eyes when we think they were indured for our Sins That there should be such a Mourning amongst all good Christians for their SAVIOUR's Passion was foretold long since by a famous Prophet Zech. 12.10 11. And I will pour upon the house of David and upon the inhabitants of Jerusalem the Spirit of grace and of supplication and they shall look upon me whom they have pierced and they shall mourn for Him as one that mourneth for His only Son and shall be in bitterness for Him as he that is in Bitterness for his first-born In that day there shall be a great Mourning The SPIRIT of Grace was to be poured out upon the Christian Church and when and wherever that blessed Effusion should be graciously made by this Prediction there must be liberal Mourning for JESUS's Sufferings caused by our Sins As therefore we have * Quem continuè irritarunt quasi telis rebellionis suae pupugerunt Calv. in loc continually provoked our SAVIOUR and pierced Him with the darts of our rebellious Practices so let us mourn and that greatly and bitterly for the same And so we shall certainly do unless our Hearts be drier than a Pumice and harder than Adamant Thirdly We must Mourn for our own Sins because in Scripture we are exampled to it We are very apt to be led by Example and a strong and mighty force it is that we feel from the influence and power of it And that it is of a potent Efficacy is clear from hence that Heaven it self often referrs us to Example as desirous to work upon us by it Look unto Abraham your Father and unto Sarah that bare you Isai 51.2 Yea this is one Reason why GOD sent His SON in the likeness of our Flesh that He might be a Pattern or President of Righteousness to us and His exemplary Obedience might encourage ours Tho' this was far from being the chief and farther from being the sole End of His Incarnation as some contend And as besides that of His SON GOD in the holy Book has recommended several other great Examples to excite our religious Imitation so He strictly requires us to live well our selves that thereby we might become exemplary unto others Let your light so shine before Men that they may see your good Works and glorify your Father which is in Heaven Mat. 5.16 And there being such notable Strength in Example to draw us over to compliance with or conformity to it self to bring Men to mourn piously for their Sins 't will be proper to remember those that have done so And here of many Examples in the sacred Volume let me note but a few For this King David was eminently remarkable as his own Words witness I am weary of my groaning all the night make I my bed to swim Psal 6.6 So unintermitting was His Grief that his Groans were incessant and when in his Bed he should have rested in Sleep he was swimming in Tears Nor was it thus with him for a few minutes at a time once in a great while but his violent Sorrows lasted long and returned often He spent himself in them and was wearied with them * 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 all the night or every night for several together Insomuch that he complained v. 7th Mine Eye is consumed because of grief A sad Symptom of excessive Mourning when his Eyes were wasted with continual Weeping and his Sight was sunk into sensible Decay through the great plenty of Tears which he shed Nor did this Sorrow flow from the pains of Sickness or insults of Enemies only but from the guilt of his Sins chiefly So the Quality of this Psalm gives us to understand For it is not only a penitential one but the first of them that are called by that name And when in it he deplored the other Miseries 't was only so far as they were caused and deserved by his hainous Sins Nor did he mourn thus sadly by Night only but also by Day I go mourning all the day long Psal 38.6 And this was upon Account of his Sins again Mine iniquities are gone over mine Head as an heavy burthen they are too heavy for me 'T was the weight of their guilt that so sadly depressed him So apprehensive was he of that so amazed at it and confounded with it that it almost overwhelm'd and quite overset him At least it put him into deep Mourning or made him * 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 go in black even all the day long And O that we could do as this good King did in mourning for our Sins †Psal 6.6 Water our Couch with our Tears by day
surely some have advised and admonisht us Parents I hope have not been so unnatural to us nor God-fathers and God-mothers so regardless of us nor Relatives and Friends so inconcerned for us nor Ministers so forgetful of their care over us but at times they have given us serious Instructions and religious Directions and have earnestly and affectionately intreated and importun'd us to listen to them and be led by them But were we so wise Alas how many instead of that have not minded or have not mattered what hath been said to us but have at once despised the Counsel that was given us and the Persons who gave it And is not this another amazing Aggravation of our sinfulness Unless we repent we shall find it so at last For look how many have been faithful Monitors cautioning us against Sin and so many Witnesses there will be against us in the final Judicature to cast us in our Trial and condemn us to Torment And will not that be a most astonishing Light that shall only show Evidence in the high Court of Justice to cut us off and consign us to eternal Vengeance Lastly We have sinned against the Light of humane Laws And here I shall concern my self no farther than to shew that we have commonly and presumptuously broken several Statute-laws under which we live In many Cases they lay their illightning Obligations upon us but we have rudely violated them by consenting to and acting of such gross Immoralities as they expressly forbid and put under just Penalties Such hath been the laudable Piety of our Legislators that they have taken due care to keep us innocent and virtuous by restraining us from vitious and enormous Practices or at least by endeavouring their best to do it To this end they have wisely enacted that if such and such Crimes were wilfully committed the Perpetrators of them should be so and so punisht But we too like the unjust Judge who neither feared GOD nor regarded Man in many instances of affected unrighteousness have boldly sinned against humane Ordinances as well as divine Thus as many of us as have been guilty of prophane and customary Swearing and Cursing which I fear is little less than epidemical amongst us have sinned against the Light of a Law * 16. Car. 1. made perpetual to prevent and reform prophane Swearing and Cursing and †6 7. W ◠afterwards reinforced and the Penalties inlarged The Light of which Law methinks is very bright in our Horizon As many as have suborned others to forswear themselves or have been guilty of Perjury in their own Persons have sinned against the Light of a Law made * 29 Eliz. perpetual for the punishment of such Persons as shall either procure or wilfully commit that horrid Wickedness And does not this Light shine full in our Eyes As many as have been guilty of Drunkenness have sinned against the Light of a Law made †4. Ja. 1. perpetual for the repressing that sin And by the Light of that Law one would think we should see so much Vileness in it as to hate and leave it For it declares it to be ‖ See Pulton a loathsom and odious Sin and the root and foundation of many other enormous Sins That besides impoverishing many by abusively wasting the good Creatures of GOD it occasions Bloudshed Stabbing Murder Swearing Fornication Adultery and such like Lastly As many as have been guilty of Prophaning the LORD's Day have sinned against the Light of a Law * 29 Car. 2. made for the better Observation of it And this Light in conjunction with that of an higher Nature which we happily injoy should have guided us directly to our Duties in the case and where it hath not our selves must needs be egregiously to blame Now when the Providence of GOD and the Wisdom and Piety of good and great Men have provided such excellent Laws as these to keep us from the aforesaid and such like Impieties if we notwithstanding have committed and repeated them this of necessity must heighten our Guilt and proportionably inflame GOD's Wrath against us Indeed when the Sins of a People grow rife and rampant and their Transgressions spreading and notorious if then good Laws be made to crush them this vindicates the Government and hinders those Sins in a great Measure from becoming National because the Head of the Nation or the Ruling Legislative part thereof not only disowns them but appears against them and labours to suppress them But then the same Laws which make these Sins unimputable to Governours as such and so renders them less national do mightily aggravate them on the People's side as being committed against Laws designed to prevent them So far then as we know this to have been our Case or perceive it to be the Case of the Nation that we live in let us well weigh and rightly consider it and in reason it must be as strong a suasive to Mourning as it really is a sad Aggravation of our Sins And therefore I have thus represented it here shewing how to consider it and by some Hints given how in our Thoughts to expatiate upon it so as it may help to raise sorrow in us both for our own and the Nations Impieties CHAP. XXIII The second Aggravation of our own and others Sins considered as the second Suasive to Mourning for the same we have sinned against the greatest LOVE As against the LOVE of GOD and against the Love of our best Friends THE second Aggravation of our sinfulness which is exceeding hainous and O that it might be but as affecting is that we have sinned against the Greatest Love This will easily be made appear for we have sinned against GOD and He is Love and infinite Love and so the greatest that can be GOD is LOVE 1 Joh. 4.8 An over-flowing Fountain of sweetest Kindness or rather an immense and boundless Ocean of Clemency and Benevolence unto Men. And as His Disposition to us is such also are His Dealings with us unless our unworthiness provokes and forces Him to make them otherwise Besides illustrious Revelations in many Periods of His Word He hath given us such glorious Tokens of it as strongly argue and plainly evidence that He is not only Love in Himself but strangely expressive of His Love to us Some happy Creatures there are in the World that know this is true as finding it to be so by blessed Experience I mean by their free Intercourse humble Familiarity and holy Intimacy with the ALMIGHTY And they that do not feel it from sensible Influences and Communications of His Favour may yet be sufficiently convinced of it by many Arguments I alledge but one which indeed may serve instead of all as carrying the clearest Demonstration with it and that is in short His Redeeming Mankind by the Death of His SON St. John the Evangelist of all the Apostles that writ treats most of the Divine Love as being perhaps best acquainted with
cannot but heighten the Degrees of our Baseness and help very much towards filling up the measures of our growing Iniquities When we lived well and kept on in an even Course of Religion if the Pains we took had not been recompenc'd with holy Pleasures we might then have remitted of our pious Strictness and when we became careless might have thought our selves the less culpable But which of us can take up such a Plea in his own Defence and truly alledge that he was loose or licentious because he found no Delights in Holiness Can any Justly complain that Duties rightly performed by us were dry and barren and empty things No no so long as we adher'd to GOD and lived in his Fear He still fed us with spiritual satisfactions and perhaps with too many For meer plenty of these may have made us the more negligent And had He been less kind and liberal in this case we might have been more careful and sedulous But like unworthy and ingrateful Servants we abated of our Work because our great Master raised our Wages Secondly We have sinned against our Experience of the Bitterness of Sin and the Troubles and Terrors occasion'd by its Guilt To how ruful a Condition hath our Impiety oft-times reduc'd us As the Prophet complains Isai 59.2 it hath separated between us and our GOD and hath Hid His face from us And besides depriving us of His Presence and His Countenance it hath laid us under a deep sense of His displeasure and made us to drink of the Phials of His Wrath and the Cup of His Fury And this hath sunk us so far below Hopes of Heaven as to set us down as it were in the Gates or Suburbs of Hell where we could look for nothing but eternal Vengeance and a lamentable Portion in the Lot of Reprobates And when Sin hath brought us to this sad pass and we have felt its insupportable Weight and Torment then what heavy Sighs what earnest Prayers what sorrowful Tears hath it wrung from us Then what Vows of Repentance what Promises of Amendment what Resolutions of abstaining perpetually from Sin have we made if GOD would but please to relieve us in or to release us from our uneasy Circumstances Or if we have not done thus in time of our Health yet when Sickness hath seized us and Weakness undermined us and Death to our thinking hath been drawing near us or standing by us ready to arrest us and carry us before the supreme Judge from whom we have dreaded a severe Sentence for our unrepented Crimes then I am sure we had a killing sense of the Bitterness of Sin and fully purposed to have no more to do with it upon any terms in case of Recovery But when our gracious GOD most kindly restored us and put us upon the trial have we throughly performed what we undertook Have we stood to our Purposes and fulfilled our Promises and kept our Vows and Resolutions inviolate So far from that that it may be we have no sooner been cured of our Sickness but we have immediately relapsed into our Sins We have * 2 Pet. 2.22 returned according to the Scripture-Proverb with the Dog to His Vomit and with the Sow that was washed to wallowing in the Mire And is not this a most grievous Aggravation of our sinfulness I may here add that we have not only sinned against our own personal Experience of the Bitterness of Sin but also against the declared Experience of others For some of our Friends perhaps or several of our Neighbours when they have been well in health have made as light of Sin as we But when we have seen them sick they have cried out of their Miscarriages and complained of their Guilt and wished themseves innocent and would have given the whole World they might have liv'd but so long as to have made their Peace with GOD and become better Men. And at the same time they have sorrowfully owned that should Death snatch them hence without farther respite they were unfit for it and should be most miserably undone by it through such and such presumptuous Transgressions But for all this Death hath then prevailed and we have beheld them dye and dye most piteously That is with Reluctancy and Unwillingness with Doubts and Scrupulosity with much Fear and mighty Terrors and trembling Apprehensions and Amazements And when GOD cut them off and removed them out of this World how He receiv'd and where He plac'd them in the next we cannot tell or we must not say But what hath been the Effect of this upon our selves Why we have sometimes seriously thought of the Accidents and solemnly reflected on the lowring Providences and the Spectacles of this Nature have occasion'd some Grief and Tears unto us In short we have remembred the unhappy Persons with sadness and have talked of them a few days with melancholy and told those about us we should never forget them But yet within a while after their Burial all this as to good Purposes was as much out of our Minds as the Parties deceas'd were out of our Sight Yea which is strangely and horribly worse it may be we have audaciously committed such Sins as they so much exclaimed of and were so extremely disordered with if not everlastingly undone by And whether our sinning thus against others Experience of the Bitterness of Sin be not a fearful Aggravation of our Guilt let any competent Judge determine Fifthly We have sinned against the Light of Ordinances As of Baptism Prayer and the Sacrament of the LORD's Supper to name no more 1st Against Baptism One main End of it is to cleanse us from Sin by a mystical Washing typifi'd and represented by Dipping or Sprinkling with elementary Water used in the religious Celebration of it And so it is a Light that clearly shows the moral Filth and Pollution of Sin Had it not abominable Defilement in it such a Lavatory had never been provided And in the same Ordinance by our selves or Sureties we openly renounce the Devil and all his Works the vain Pomp and Glory of the World with all the covetous Desires of the same and the carnal Desires of the Flesh so as not to follow or be led by them But instead of that ingage manfully to fight under CHRIST's Banner against Sin and to continue His faithful Souldiers to our Live's end And thus it is a Light again that clearly shows the Danger and Destructiveness of Sin For were it not of perillous and most pernicious Consequence to our Souls why should we enter into such a sacred Covenant of Abjuring and Opposing it to our last Breath But then how should the flashings of this Light in our Consciences deter and drive us from all wilful Transgressions 2ly We have sinned against Prayer This Ordinance gives great Light into the Vileness and Deadliness of Sin For in it we explicitly confess our Sins and confess them to be most grievous things hainous in themselves provoking
us with constant and most powerful Preaching of Thy Word but we do not hear it so as to obey it Thou indulgest to us a blessed Liberty and frequent Opportunities of calling upon Thee by Public Prayer but we do not join it so as to honour Thee and advantage our selves by it Instead of keeping holy * Isai 58.13 Thy Day we break and pollute it Instead of Reverencing Thy †Levit. 19.30 Sanctuary we neglect or prophane it Instead of ‖ Mat. 6.9 Hallowing Thy Name we abuse and blaspheme it Instead of Duly frequenting Thy Table we turn our Backs upon it or come unworthily to it Instead of rightly attending on any of Thine Ordinances we either so slight them as to absent from them or if we resort to them we are so lukewarm in them that we profit little or nothing under them Instead of * 1 Thess 5.13 Esteeming Thy Ministers very highly for their Works-sake we despise them too much and vilify them too often upon that account These are great and provoking Sins O LORD and who besides Thy patient Self could ever have born so long with us in them But yet I have more and more hainous Sins to confess unto Thee which multitudes amongst us most Blessed GOD commit against Thee For many are guilty of horrid Atheism They do not only say in †Psal 14.1 their Hearts there is no GOD but profess and contend for it and maintain it in their Discourse Notwithstanding they are Baptiz'd into the Faith of Thy SON they doubt of thy Being and dispute against it O Heavenly Father Many are guilty of abominable Idolatry The Glory which is due to Thee alone they superstitiously give unto a meer Creature against the plainest sense and clearest Reason adoring even the Bread which themselves do eat Many are guilty of damnable Heresie and some allow not of Thy DIVINITY O Eternal and most Glorious JESUS But though Thou hast laid down Thy Life as a ‖ Mat. 20.28 Ransom for our Souls they wretchedly deny * 2 Pet. 2.1 the LORD that bought them Many are guilty of hideous Perjury They make light not only of common Swearing but of the Solemn Oaths of GOD upon them They count them such sorry and trifling Obligations as impiously to neglect the necessary Duties to which they are bound by those Sacred Ties And O LORD how lamentable must our case be when in this one miscarriage alone there is malignity enough to make †Jer. 23.10 a Land to mourn Many are guilty of most filthy Pollutions Thou feedest them to the full and they assemble themselves by Troops in the ‖ Jer. 5.7 Harlots Houses Instead of * Gal. 5.24 crucifying the Flesh they †Ephes 4.19 work uncleanness with greediness and Adultery and ‖ 5.3 Fornication which should not once be named amongst Christians are matters of their common and continual Practice How shalt thou * Jer. 5.7 pardon us for this O LORD and what direful effects of thine Anger may we justly expect when for †Eph 5.6 these things sake the wrath of GOD cometh upon the children of Disobedience Many are guilty of high Injustice They oppress the Widow and wrong the Fatherless and instead of living righteously in the World they steal and they kill and addict themselves to Fraud and all manner of violence Many are guilty of Faction in the State Instead of being ‖ Rom. 13.1 subject to the higher Powers which are ordained of GOD and of * 1 Pet. 2.13 submitting themselves to every Ordinance of Man for the LORD's sake they are so †2 Pet. 2.10 presumptuous as to confront Government ‖ Jude 8. despise Dominion and speak evil of Dignities Many are guilty of Schism in the Church Instead * Eph. 4 3. of keeping the Unity of the SPIRIT in the bond of peace of being of one †Act. 4.32 heart and of one Soul of ‖ Rom. 15.6 glorifying GOD with one mind and with one mouth they have sowed Dissentions and have caused Divisions they have invaded the Ministry and seduced thy People drawing them away into divers Sects by dangerous Separations Many are Guilty of Gluttony and Drunkenness Instead of eating and drinking to thy * 1 Cor. 10.31 Glory O GOD they do it continually to their own great shame and to thy dishonour And notwithstanding the many and great Obligations upon them to Sobriety they abuse themselves and the good Creatures Thou vouchsafest them to most brutish Intemperance and Excess And which mightily aggravates all our sins so deadly in themselves they have been acted directly against Knowledg and Conscience We can plead no Ignorance O LORD in excuse of our Enormities For Thy word from Heaven hath taught us plainly and told us aloud that we †2 Cor. 5.10 must all appear before the Judgment Seat of Christ That ‖ Rom. 6.23 the wages of Sin is Death That there shall be * Rom. 2.9 tribulation and anguish upon every Soul of Man that doth evil That except we †Luk. 13.3 repent we shall all perish That the Wicked shall go into ‖ Mat. 25.46 everlasting Punishment But all this and whatever else should have hindred us from sin through our own perverseness hath but heightned our Guilt Nor have we sinned only against strongest Convictions but with greatest Boldness We have boasted of our Lewdness we have bragged of our Baseness and have been ready to defend if not to applaud it Our Immoralities and Irreligion have fac'd the Sun and instead of concealing them we have gloried in them And as thus we have offended the upright and virtuous so the vitious we have encourag'd to do like our selves Nor are our Sins few O LORD that have been thus hainous For they are greatly multiplied as well as scandalous and are not more notorious than innumerable * Jer. 5.9 Shall not GOD visit for these things shall not His Soul be avenged on such a Nation as this Here rest again and by reflecting and ruminating on the Nation 's Sins raise your Sorrow for them as high as you can And to help to increase it use these Petitions LORD make mine Eyes a Fountain of Tears to weep for the Transgressions of this sinful Nation Let mine †Lam. 1.16 20. Eye run down with Water O GOD and let my Bowels be troubled because this People have so grievously rebelled We have ‖ Ps 106.6 sinned with our Fathers we have committed iniquity we have done wickedly for this let mine * Lam. 2.11 19. Eyes flow with Tears and let me pour out my heart like Water before the face of Thee O LORD I have contributed too much to the Sins of this Land which call for Vengeance inable me Good GOD to help to drown that hideous Cry with holy Mourning If Sorrow swells to such a rate as to debilitate or dispirit you then once more
pleasest both them and me from the Strokes thereof by thy Special Providence †Psal 57.1 hiding us under thy Wings O LORD until the Calamities be over-past But if as we deserve Thou justly involvest us in the Common Miseries O mingle our Sufferings with a sense of thy Love and make them all Instruments of our Benefit and Blessedness And whatever shall happen to our Estates or Bodies LORD let our Souls be precious in thy sight and ‖ Mal. 3.17 remember them in the day when Thou makest up thy Jewels And that for His sake who redeem'd them even Thy CHRIST and our JESUS who hath given us assurance that * Joh. 16.24 whatever we ask in His Name we shall receive In His Name therefore and in His Words I humbly conclude my unworthy Supplications Our Father c. As short as this Mourning-Office may seem to be yet if it be recited deliberately and with calling to mind and sadly confessing our particular Offences compriz'd in those general Heads which come most home to our personal Extravagancies we shall find it will take up more time to rehearse it than we are aware But should it with the Intervals of Reading require all the Forenoon yet to fill up the whole Day from the time we rise till Six at night we shall want a farther supply for Devotion As meet provision therefore to carry on the pious Exercise thus far contitinu'd I shall here add another Form of Prayer And lest it should be too much to use it all at once I have divided it into several Collects or Sections that so you may the less abruptly break off where you please and as often as you think fit and then begin again where you left off A PRAYER For the Holy SPIRIT of GOD and the Principal of His Heavenly Graces O Most Merciful GOD and Father I the unworthiest of all thy Children prostrate in thy Fear and sacred Presence from my Heart do magnify Thee for the innumerable Blessings I have received from Thee And most humbly I intreat Thee to bestow such other good things upon me as I still need and can no where obtain but at thy bounteous Hands I. For the HOLY GHOST ABove all vouchsafe me thy HOLY SPIRIT which thou hast freely promised to them that * Luk. 11.13 ask Him And let Him be helpful to me in those several Offices which He came down from Heaven to execute in the Church even in comforting conducting and santifying of my Soul Make Him a Comforting SPIRIT to me That freeing my Mind from afflictive Horrors and disconsolate Heaviness I may †Phil. 4 4. rejoyce in the LORD evermore and live in that divinest Peace of GOD ‖ 4.7 which passeth all understanding Make Him a Conducting SPIRIT to me That dispelling the Darkness and Blindness of my Mind by illuminating me with bright and saving Knowledge He may help to lead me into a competent understanding of all necessary Truths Make Him a Sanctifying SPIRIT to me That Cleansing me from all moral Corruptions and Impurities I may become holy as * 1 Pet. 1.16 Thou art Holy by His infusing precious Graces into my Heart II. For Hatred to Sin LET Him fill me with Hatred and Detestation of Sin With such an Hatred as may not only turn me from it but set me against it and make me a deadly and irreconcilable Enemy to it To which End let Him open mine Eyes to see the malignant Nature of it How it is a Transgression of Thy Law a Contradiction of Thy Mind and an Opposition to Thy Will and so the worst and basest thing in the World as being contrary to Thee the Chiefest Good Let Him convince me also of its direful Effects How besides many Temporal and Spiritual Miseries it subjects me to woful Eternal Calamities which I can neither avoid nor yet abide And let the Consideration of its abominable Vileness and destructive Consequents help to beget in me speedy Repentance where I have committed it and also strongest Antipathies to it and constant and vehement Aversations from it in all presumptuous Instances whatever III. For Faith LET Him indue me with unfeigned Evangelical Faith With such a Faith as may inable me to †Heb. 11.6 believe that GOD is and that He is a Rewarder of them that diligently seek Him and so to believe it as to become my self a most diligent and unwearied Seeker of Him With such a Faith as is a ‖ Gal. 5.2 fruit of the SPIRIT as will shew it self * Jam. 2.18 by my Works as will †1 Joh. 5.4 overcome the World and so throughly ‖ Rom. 5.1 justify me that I may have peace with GOD. Even peace with Him * Eph. 4.13 till we all come in the Unity of the Faith to the sweet and endless injoyment of Him who is the sole †Heb. 12.2 Author and Finisher of it IV. For Hope LET Him work in me a most firm and lively Hope Such an Hope as may not ‖ Rom. 5.5 make me ashamed by suffering me either to presume or despair But may be an * 1 Thess 5 8. Helmet to me in my Spiritual Warfare and an †Heb. 6.19 Anchor of my Soul while I am tossed in the Waves of this tempestuous World And having this Hope in me let me ‖ 1 Joh. 3.3 purify my self even as He is pure who is at once both the Object and End of my Hope the LORD JESUS CHRIST V. For Love to GOD. LET Him inflame my Heart with Love to Thy MAJESTY O my GOD. With such an holy ardent and passionate Love as becomes a Creature to his Sovereign LORD and Maker and a Dutiful Child to his indulgent heavenly Father I acknowledge my self unworthy of so high a Favour But Thy only SON died to purchase this inestimable Grace amongst others for all that need and seek it of Thee None O LORD want it more than I and with humblest Earnestness I seek and crave it O deny me not this one Request whatever else Thou with-holdest from me I am willing to be I am willing to do I am willing to bear or to suffer any thing with Thy help so I may but love Thee Turn me all into Love and indear me greatly to Thy self and I wish no more I neither want nor ask nor care for any thing in this World like that It is not Health nor Wisdom nor Riches nor Honour nor Life it self nor any thing in it or belonging to it that I so importunately beg but the Love of Thy Self O dearest GOD the Love of Thy Self is the Blessing I desire LORD give me but that and I have enough Thou hast said that Thou * Psal 107.9 satisfiest the longing Soul and fillest the hungry Soul with goodness †Ps 71.4 Thou O LORD art the thing that I long for and my Soul Thou seest hungers after Thâ—… O that Thou wouldst fill it with
Discourse which perswades to Holy Mourning from the Blessedness that arises from the Comforts annexed to it is grounded upon the Second Beatitude let none surmise that it is at all improperly built upon it as if by Mourning there Mourning for Sin to which our Discourse especially leads were not meant For tho' Grotius and some others from or with him restrain it to Mourning in Adversity or under Affliction which is one very good and approvable Sense that we not only allow but use it in where we urge to Mourning in General yet learned Expositors do commonly understand it of Mourning for Sin Lugentes peccata vel sua vel aliena Mourning for Sins either their own or other Mens Pol. Synop. in loc S. Chrysostom also interprets it of Mourning for Sins and so does S. Jerome S. Ambrose Cyril Hilary Lyra Brugensis Spanhemius Piscator Maldonate c. not to omit the English Annotations Mourning we are upon For as Poverty in Spirit or Lowliness of Mind is set before it so Meekness and eager desire of Righteousness Mercifulness and Purity in Heart the Pacific Temper and patient Sufferance of Persecution and Martyrdom are put after it And when the Adorable Author of our Faith and Religion being just laying the Ground-work of the same made Holy Mourning a chief piece in the Superstructure of it and placed it high amongst the aforesaid Excellencies indispensably necessary to the Christian Life as to make it almost the very first of them this may convince us that it is as good and needful as other choice pieces of that divine Religion which He hath taught us and consequently as pleasing and acceptable unto GOD. And is not this great ACCEPTABLENESS of it another Obligation to Holy Mourning Is it not a mighty and should it not be an â—rresistible Motive to the Exercise CHAP. VI. A Third Motive to Holy Mourning in General It entitles us to divine Comforts in this Life As appears from the Nature of GOD from the Word the Office and the Disposition of CHRIST and from the Mission of the HOLY GHOST OUR precarious manner of existing in the World does sufficiently evince that we are not Authors of our own Beings but that we had them Originally from GOD who is the Source or Fountain of all Essence both to Himself and to all Creatures And we being wholly derived from Him we must of Necessity depend upon Him And this our Entire dependance upon Him must give Him absolute Dominion over us And so whatever He signifies to be His Will in reference to us we are indispensably obliged most heartily to Comply with according to our several Measures and Capacities And as every such Compliance with regard to His Sovereignty is an instance of our Duty so His Goodness hath made it an instrument of our Happiness For when at any time we yield Obedience to His MAJESTY He hath not only promised to accept it Himself but moreover to recompence it graciously unto us And as we shall have Reward for every Piece of Obedience so we shall not miss of one for Holy Mourning provided we be but faithful in the Performance And truly a most excellent Reward it shall be as consisting of Divine COMFORTS from above And that they shall attend upon Holy Mourning as a fair Remuneration of it in this present Life we have good Assurance For there are many irrefragable Arguments to prove it tho' I shall name but these that follow 1. The Nature of GOD. 2. The Word the Office and Disposition of CHRIST And 3. The Mission of the HOLY GHOST First The Nature of GOD. As we have learnt already out of Isai 57.15 the Holy Mourner is GOD's Habitation And where He dwells who is the GOD of all Comfort what Consolations can be wanting Divine Comforts do as naturally and necessarily attend His gracious Presence as radiant Brightness does the Body of the Sun And that we know where-ever it goes casts a Sphere of glorious Light about it and is able to make even Noon-day it self where before there was darkest Midnight Nor is GOD where thus present the Cause of these Comforts naturally only but if we may use the Distinction intentionally too by seconding the Efficacy of His Nature in the Case by the Power of His Will and so making the Comforts he sheds down upon His Servants to be the Issues of his Kindness as well as of his Residence And accordingly He proclaims in the cited Text that the very End of His abode with the Humble and Contrite is to revive their Hearts and to revive their Spirits The Consequence of which is as Happy as Obvious for the Beams of GOD's Favour being darted into Mourners by a double Efficacy that of His Nature and His Will at once they must needs enter with a double Force and so chear good Souls both with the sweeter and the stronger Influence The certain Consequence of which again will be that Men may as well freeze in the midst of Fire as holy Mourners can be destitute of divine Comforts I mean ordinarily tho' for some special and extraordinary Reasons GOD sometimes may yea often does suspend and withdraw his Comforts from them But then I say the Dispensaton must be lookt upon as extraordinary and will be different from and contrary to the usual Methods of His Procedure and the Common Measures of his Dealings with Mourners And yet they need not be troubled at it neither For however GOD may withhold His Consolations from them for a Time they are sure notwithstanding to enjoy them at last And even that intermediate want which they feel shall be better to them some way or other than the Fruition of them could have been Secondly That Holy Mourners shall be comforted we have farther Assurance from the Word the Office and the Disposition of CHRIST His Word to our purpose is most Express and Memorable For 't is that which He spake in the Days of His Flesh when He preacht the best Sermon that ever was heard * Mat. 5.4 Blessed are they that mourn for they shall be comforted So that true Spiritual Mourning entitles those that are serious in it to true Spiritual Comforts It must minister effectually to them and it can do no otherwise our SAVIOUR having said it Did He ever break His Word to His Proselytes Was He ever guilty of the Least Inconstancy Are not all the Promises in Him * Heb. 1.20 Yea and in Him Amen Where-ever He is pleased then to assert a thing so plainly Where-ever He is pleased to promise it so positively as He does that Mourners shall be comforted there is no colour for doubting or questioning it in the Least as coming from the very Truth it self And besides His Word we have the Mediatory Office of the LORD JESUS to ascertain divine Comforts to holy Mourners An Account of part of this Office is set down in the Beginning of the 61st of Isaiah Some Learned Expositors and Grotious for one would
of Scripture mistaken and misapplied First False Comforts are sometimes Effects of Nature Where the Spirits are good and the Bloud is sweet and the Ferments of the Body regular and even besides Health and Indolency we there find a constant readiness in Men or a standing Disposition to Lightsomness and Jollity So that if they of this Constitution who dwell as it were upon the Brinks of Joy be at any time carri'd by Just occasions but a little farther they forthwith step into the pleasing Passion it self And how they should come to be advanced to it and also raised to an high Pitch in it even by a natural complexional Efficiency is easy to apprehend Melancholy in conjunction with a sanguine Temper is able to do it For by mingling its brisk acrimonious Flatulency with a sweetish heavyish kind of Bloud it strikes upon the Nerves with such grateful Touches as cause delightful Titillations in the Body and so affect the Soul with much joy and pleasure Nor need we wonder that such joyous Comforts or Delights should result from meer nature or our bodily Temper if we do but consider how other things are very productive of the like Effects Wine for instance hath a power in it to chear our Spirits or as it is expressed in holy Stile * Psal 104.15 to make glad the Heart of Man Insomuch that Josephus says of it †〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Antiq. li. 11. cap. 4. it even transports and regenerates Souls It puts a kind of new life into them by mending or raising the Temper of their Bodies and rendring them more healthful and vegete I speak of the moderate and sober use of it it being most baneful both to Soul and Body wherever it is taken in excess So Mela informs us that the Thracians who had no Wine suppli'd the want of it at their Feasts by a certain Seed And of such a Quality was that Seed that the Smoak of it caused Intoxication and Mirth Which things considered how Melancholy should cause high Joys within us will not be difficult to conceive For it is but allowing hypocondriacal Humors to have Affinity with Wine or its Vapours to have cognation with the Fumes of the Thracian Seed and the work is done And that Nature which out-does the most exquisite Chymists should refine Melancholy to such a Degree and sublimate or exalt it to such an Height as to make it so capable of the forementioned Operations as to fill us with joyous and triumphant Delights cannot be surprizing to the intelligent For they know very well that where Melancholy is predominant and duly heated and invigorated by a sanguine Temper or Constitution very strong Joys and even rapturous Delights will result from it So * 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Aristotle expressly affirms that it produces Extasies and Joys of Mind and that too as he adds †〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Probl. sect 30. with singing And when Men may so overflow with Joys as that their Joys shall rise up into Raptures and their Raptures run out and spend themselves in singing must not the Gratifications they feel within be exceeding high Yet these are Fruits that may grow upon the bare stock of Nature and so may have nothing at all of the Good SPIRIT in them or of His true Consolations Secondly Inward Comforts False ones I mean may be Effects of a worse Cause than this they may be derived from Satan himself As GOD sheds abroad true Joys and heavenly Consolations into the Hearts of His Servants to encourage and strengthen them in the Works of Religion so the Devil who loves to ape the ALMIGHTY where he can does sometimes cast false Joys and delusive Comforts into the Hearts of his Vassals to animate and imbolden them in the Ways of unrighteousness For should they always walk on in Dulness and Darkness this might so startle them as to make them seriously bethink themselves It might so alarm and terrify them as at some time or other to fright them out of their vitious into virtuous Courses Now and then therefore he tantalizes them with some feeble Glimmerings of false Light and Comfort He darts some glaring Joys into their Souls to make them well opinion'd of themselves And perswading them by this means that their Condition is good tho' it be quite otherwise he so prevails with them to persist in Sin till at length they fall into irrecoverable Ruine Nor is it hard to conceive how the Evil Spirit should kindle this Fire of false Joys in our Breasts and warm us as it were with Comforts which flash from Hell For since an agreeable mixture of Melancholy with our Bloud can raise us as we have heard to an Elevation of rapturous Delights the Devil who hath power to actuate the Humors and Vapours in our Bodies especially if we be his Servants by his dexterous agitation of those Vapours and Humors inforcing them beyond their natural strength he may easily transport us with ravishing Satisfactions And thus the strange Delights which some Men feel and which they reckon to be divine Influences from above and blessed Productions of the HOLY GHOST are but natural Effects or Satanical Injections and so rather hellish Infusions than Inspirations from Heaven Thirdly False Comforts may proceed from Enthusiasm For where that prevails Imagination is strong Insomuch that the Mind which should always be under the government of free Reason is wholly sway'd by this lower Faculty And where Fancy rules it easily over-powers and bears down the Soul into a firm Belief of the Truth of what she vigorously apprehends be her Apprehensions never so enormous and extravagant Hence it hath come to pass that one Fanciful Enthusiast has conceited himself to be a Prophet or an Angel another has thought himself to be the true Messiah or the great Judge of the World another has boasted himself to be GOD the FATHER or the HOLY GHOST Now when the Strength of Fancy or Force of Imagination thus carries away the Mind into a credulous Assent to such wretched Mis-conceits these or the like Conceits naturally lift up Souls which fully believe them to be great Truths into very high Joys and Ravishments of Spirit Yet be they never so lofty or never so luscious they are but a corrupt and dangerous sort of Fruit as having nothing but Enthusiasm for their chiefest Root Fourthly False Comforts may arise from wrong Notions which Men have in Divinity Thus some too opinionative are mightily for absolute or irrespective Predestination Others for Justification by Faith alone Others for being justifi'd by CHRIST's Righteousness imputed And others again are as stiff Assertors and as strenuous Maintainers of that absurd Perswasion that GOD sees no Sin in His own Children Now they that firmly believe and fiercely contend for these and such Fancies conclude they are highly beneficial to them in their greatest Interests and so they are strangely affected with them and influenced by them and feel them
good Arts and holy Exercises to seek them earnestly before we can find them Nay perhaps all we can do will not sometimes procure them at last For possibly our Sins may offend our GOD and force him to stand at a distance from us Or it may be He sees our Dispositions to be such that He durst not shed down Comforts upon us lest we should wax loose and wanton under them and so instead of kindnesses they should prove occasions of ruine to our Souls But in Heaven it shall be otherwise As we shall there be fit to receive great Joys so GOD will be ready to impart the same and nothing between us shall intercept and hinder their Descent upon us or render them more flat or less pleasing to us This is the first excellent Property of future Joys They are derived immediately from GOD Himself and pour'd into our Hearts by His sacred Hands And in this regard they far exceed our present Comforts For when they come most directly of all there are some things or other which bring them to us or work them in us as the HOLY GHOST makes them instrumental to produce them And tho' this does not make our Comforts at all impure yet it renders them the more imperfect Secondly Our future Joys will be sincere There shall be no sadness or bitterness intermixed with them This Property is an inseparable consequent of the former For Joys Immediate must needs be simple and unsophisticate Proceeding from GOD solely they must be sincere for what Composition can they bring from Him whose Perfection it is to have none in Himself Our present Comforts are not such Here our finest Gold is mingled with Dross and our purest Grain is blended with Chaff Our whitest Flour hath its Bran and our sweetest Roses have their Pricks Our highest Pleasures go off with Pain and our strongest Delights have somewhat in them or somewhat with them that damps or weakens them But in Heaven our Joys shall be pure and defaecate There shall be Light without Darkness and Peace without Trouble Mirth without Heaviness and Ease without Affliction Happiness without Care and Pleasure without Complaint or the least Lamentation There 's nothing there to stop nothing to trouble the Torrent of our Satisfactions but the deep and mighty Streams of Joy run on with undisturbed Smoothness as well as with undefiled Clearness This is the Second excellent Property of future Joys They are simple and sincere sublimated and refin'd from all drossy Mixtures Not clogg'd not stain'd not toucht with any diluting or diminishing Adherencies And upon this account they far exceed our present Comforts For when they are most divinely bright and sweet there is still some Cloudiness or Uneasiness in them or soon after them Yea GOD many times is constrain'd to dash and allay our Comforts lest by being too strong they should prove injurious Thus Numbers in the Church are so unhappy in Weakness Giddiness and Levity that were they favoured with plenty of high Consolations they would be so puft up with the valuable Privilege as to be very unseemly if not sinfully transported Thirdly Our future Joys will be Satisfactory In GOD's Presence His glorious Presence there is Fulness of Joy Psal 16.11 A compleat Satiety of heavenly Contentment An immense and also an entire Felicity A Sea of Delights where the most inlarged Appetites may not only fill themselves up to the Brim but sink and drown as it were in boundless and bottomless Gratifications Our present Comforts are not of this sort Comparatively they are slight and shrivell'd things rather and of a very narrow and contracted nature When they are shed down most copiously upon us they leave huge Chasms and Vacuities in us They are so far from satiating the Soul that when she drinks deepest of them she thirsts after more and the freest Draughts that ever she takes do rather inflame than fill her Desires And they that always burn with desires after more Joys than here they have sufficiently prove that the greatest they feel are not big enough for them But in Heaven there 's a Plenitude of divine Joys Such a perfect and absolute Fulness of them as is every way commensurate to our vast Capacities Such as will easily supply all our Necessities and also entertain all our Faculties and likewise answer all our Expectancies even beyond whatever we can think or wish And so we shall not be able to say we want this or we would have that because we shall have more than we can need or long for in the Joys we shall possess And they that are furnisht at such a Rate I hope must be satisfi'd Now one great Reason why our future Joys are so throughly satisfying is because they are so very suitable Otherwise they could never be satisfactory to us tho' most Excellent They shall not be gross and sensual indeed but then for that they will not be the less but the more suitable For being of a fine and spiritual Quality they must be the more agreeable to humane Souls because they are of the like Nature And so carnal Pleasures and secular Things can never satisfy them in regard they are of a spiritual Substance For that Reason the Soul can no more be satisfi'd with Gold and Silver with Houses and Lands with Dignities and Honours and the Delights of Sense than our Barns can be filled with Virtue or our Baggs with Grace or our Coffers with Godliness Could any Man improve his Estate to a Kingdom and then raise that Kingdom to an Empire and then make that Empire universal extending it over the whole World and so intitle Himself to all earthly Power and Pleasure yet his Soul could no more be satisfi'd therewith than his Body can be fed and nourisht with Wind. For betwixt the Soul and the World betwixt spiritual Desires and material Objects betwixt divine and lofty Appetites and low and sordid and ignoble Gratifications there is no manner of parity or congruity But therefore the Joys we speak of are spiritual and so exactly suitable and so compleatly satisfying their Suitableness being joyned with abundant Fulness This is the Third excellent Property of future Joys They reach even to our real thorough satisfaction They fill us so as perfectly to quiet us So as to leave us no Needs of or Cravings for more than we possess nor yet any Emptiness whereby they should be caused And here again they far exceed our present Comforts They never did nor can so abound as throughly to satisfy any Soul When in greatest measures they rest upon us we are capable of greater and reach after them as desirous to receive them They may be highly useful and beneficial to us as hath been shewed but satisfy us they cannot they were never designed to that End They are spiritual indeed and so suitable enough but they are short of that Sufficiency which should render them satisfactory Where the Fire is too little we may still be cold
and make our Bed swim with them by night we should certainly lie much softer for it But where the HOLY GHOST speaks of David's watering his Couch with his Tears it may be worth observing that He expresses it by a most ‖ 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 emphatical word to set forth the Greatness or Passionatenss of his pious Grief For the word signifies to dissolve or melt As if He wept to such a Pitch as that the Plenty of his Tears was able almost to dissolve the very Couch he lay on And so we find the same * 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 word made use of Psal 147.18 to express the melting or thawing of icy Morsels there mention'd To David we may add S. Peter He rushed we know into a grievous Sin in Denying our LORD It was such for the matter of it as a Christian could not well be guilty of a worse And it was as unhappily circumstantiated For he acted it after Warning expressly given him by our SAVIOUR against it †Mat. 26.34 Verily I say unto thee that this night before the cock crow thou shalt deny me thrice He acted it after timely praecaution and a Solemn Promise that he would not commit it * ver 35. Tho' I should dye with Thee yet will I not deny Thee He acted it within a very short time even a very few hours after the Warning given and this Promise made He acted it at no distance from our Lord neither but in the same House and in the same Room where He was within His View and before His Face And yet He was one of the first Apostles that CHRIST ever called and amongst all the Apostles one chiefly favoured Nor did he barely deny his Master but he did it three times one after another interlarding his Denials with †ver 74. Cursing and Swearing A most sad Aggravation of his horrid Trespass when besides that it was so ill circumstantiated it was withal so hideously complicated and repeated But then his Grief we must observe was answerable to his Sin For he did not only mourn but weep Nor did he only weep but weep bitterly Mat. 26. ult And truly there needed more than ordinary sorrow to fetch out so deep and black a stain The last Example shall be that of Mary Magdalen By Sin She was gone a great way from GOD. But when she returned she mourned and wept and that in such a measure that she washed His Holy Feet with her Tears who cleansed her polluted Soul with His Blood If Scripture Patterns therefore of pious Mourning which are authentic Presidents be reasons for the Performance it is very fairly recommended to our Practice Fourthly We must mourn for our own Sins because it helps forward Repentance and destroys Impiety It helps forward Repentance By the sadness of the countenance the Heart is made better says Solomon Eccles 7.3 He speaks there of sadness arising from Civil Occasions And truly that 's an excellent Preservative of Innocence and so makes us better than otherwise we should have been by keeping us from growing worse For it tames our Wildness and binds up our Loosness it fixes our Minds and unites our Thoughts and makes us serious and considerate It calms the turbulency of our restless Passions and takes off the Gayness of our wanton Fancies and rebates the Edge and eager fierceness of our raging Appetites and vain Affections and so indisposes us to immoral Actions When Satan tempts a sorrowful Person he strikes fire as it were into wet Gunpowder that will not readily kindle Now if Worldly Sorrow as we are taught to call that which does not flow from Religious Principles be of such force to prevent Sin how very powerful must Godly Sorrow be to lead us to Repentance For godly sorrow worketh Repentance to Salvation not to be repented of 2 Cor. 7.10 It causeth us to repent so truly and throughly as to bring us into a Most safe condition and to Qualify us for Happiness whenever we dy tho' our sins have been never so great and numerous And they that repent at such a Rate must be far from repining at what they have done And as this Sorrow according to GOD helps forward Repentance so it effectually destroys Impiety Penitential Tears rot the Weeds of Sin at the Root they never thrive nor can they live in that Soil which is well watered with these shours Depart from me ye wicked for the LORD hath heard the voice of my weeping said David Psal 6.8 If once we fall to weeping to weeping for our sin we shall soon grow weary of it and warn it together with all its abettors from our company On our sins therefore let us spend our Tears So we shall turn them upon their right Object and put them to their proper and their best use For as * 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 S. Chrysostom well observes sorrow is profitable only for sin And this is manifest For they that grieve for their dead friends cannot restore them to life They that mourn for their lost riches cannot so recover or make them good They that lament their sicknesses are so far from curing them that they thereby aggravate and make them worse They that weep for their Debts or uneasy Imprisonments should they weep their Eyes out could by their Tears neither satisfy their Creditors nor procure their Liberty But Mourning for Sin is beneficial to our selves by being baneful to that And therefore the same Father adds †〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Sorrow was given for Sin and by Sorrow Sin is done away For ‖ 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. As the Worm which is bred in wood consumes that wood so likewise sorrow which is brought forth by Sin does abolish it And well it may For pious Sorrow awakens the Spirit and softens the Heart and makes the Conscience exceeding tender and then we cannot but be fearful to commit Sin and careful to avoid it For behold this self-same thing that ye sorrowed after a godly sort What Carefulness it wrought in you yea what Fear 2 Cor. 7.11 None are so watchful against Sin none so afraid of relapsing into it as they that have been duly sorrowful for it Lastly We must Mourn for our own Sins because 't is one great means to strengthen our Graces and may hasten our translation to the future Glory As Water cast upon quick Lime produces Heat and sometimes Fire so do pious Tears in good Christians They fill their Minds with solemn Thoughts and inflame their Souls with sacred Zeal and a serious Mind and zealous Heart will raise us to high degrees of Grace and so carry us to Heaven with a swifter course The Reason why our Stay upon Earth is prolonged and our Translation to the heavenly Glories deferred may be our immaturity and unfitness because we are short of the measure of Grace which is here appointed us Till we all come to a perfect man unto the
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
taught he that is * Prudens nemini miseretur prudent pities none But as the Wisdom of this World is foolishness with GOD 1 Cor. 3.19 so this Piece of Wisdom as the Stoics reckon'd it amongst true Religionists is the worst sort of folly as being a real and an hainous Sin And tho' †〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 De Rep. lib. 3. Plato who was Master of a nobler Philosophy excluded Tears from great Mens Eyes yet it cannot be deni'd but his Political Rule in that case does plainly interfere with the Evangelical Law and His Maxim of state lies cross to the precepts of Orthodox Christianity And then the weakness of their Principles is notoriously manifest from the contrary Practice For notwithstanding the Doctrines of both these Schools great and wise Men have been struck with commiseration and upon just occasions have exprest their Pity in plenty of Tears Thus Julius Caesar wept when the Head of Pompey was brought before Him Scipio Africanus wept excessively when he saw Carthage in flames Marcellus wept when he beheld Syracuse which he was to enter in so sad a condition tho' Livy says he wept for Joy at so great an Atchievement as his Conquest of it Now these were not only great and wise Men but wise and great Generals and by being Martial Heroes were Sons of Bloud not to add of Rapine and Violence and so by reason of their Office might be much harder than others Yet these very Persons had a natural Tenderness for Mankind and Sympathized deeply with such as were their proclaimed and professed Enemies And when heathen Soldiers could with Tears lament the sufferings of their Enemies shall not we Christians mourn for the sins of our Brethren In case we do not besides that we refuse to tread in the steps of the best we plainly call our own Goodness in question For according to the Greek Proverb * 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 good Men are prone to Tears And as they are so upon many accounts so especially for the sins of others And therefore in the Judgment of an admirable Divine †Guil. Paris lib. de Morib none can doubt but pious Souls do so much the more flow with tears of Pity by how much the more they see or hear the sins of their Neighbours to abound Secondly We must mourn for the sins of others because to neglect it is highly blameable It is GOD's Command to Christians Phil. 2.15 and so should be our care and endeavour to be harmless and blameless and without rebuke in the midst of a crooked and perverse Nation Tho' the Generation wherein we live be never so irregular and unrighteous yet we must not only be harmless as to others but blameless in our selves So blameless as to be guilty of nothing that the piercing Eye of the All-seeing GOD shall discern to be a wilful fault or that the fierce and malicious Accuser of our Souls may be able to charge upon us as such But then in order to this 't will be necessary for us to mourn for the known and scandalous Sins of those about us else the very omission of that will render us grossly culpable So it did a whole Church once and laid it under Apostolical Censure The Church I mean was that at Corinth It was newly planted and had lately received the Christian Faith and being just born and in her tender Infancy one would have thought she might have been innocent Especially having one so skilful and careful so pious and prudent as St. Paul was to super-intend her 1 Cor. 5.1 But we find it far otherwise with Her and that She was over-run not only with early but great Disorders Amongst the rest there was one corrupt and scandalous Member that liv'd in open and horrid Incest with his Father's Wife And yet which aggravates the Crime he was a Person that made some figure in the Church for according to S. Chrysostom and Theodoret both * 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 he had obtained the Degree of a Doctor Now so grievous a Lewdness being so publickly committed amongst the Corinthians how should they have behav'd themselves in reference to the bold and shameful miscarriage They ought by all means to have lamented it or mourned for it And because they did not they are reprehended and blamed by the great Apostle in these Words ye are puffed up and have not rather Mourned Which gives us to understand that when any in the Communion which we are of fall into deadly and damnable Sins it lies upon us to mourn for the same And in case we do not we are utterly in a fault In a fault so great that it deserves express Reproof from Heaven And as it highly deserves it it shall certainly have it for indeed such a fault where-ever it happens stands actually reproved by GOD already in those very words which we last cited As therefore we would escape the Dint of this Reproof we must bewail the great Sins of all those Christians that come to our knowledge but especially of those who belong to the same Church or Nation with us And if they be so many as GOD knows they are very numerous that we cannot consider and bewail them apart or every one in particular it must suffice that we do it in gross by a more comprehensive and general Mourning But then we must take care that this our Mourning be not slight and superficial but deep and hearty such at least for the sadness and seriousness of it as we usually bestow on our departed Friends And let none despise this Rule or Measure as being borrowed from no meaner Person than learned Origen For where he describes the Discipline of the Primitive Church he thus informs us That as the venerable School of the Pythagoreans * 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Con. Celsum lib. 3 set up empty Coffins in the places of all such as deserted its Philosophy to shew they were esteemed no better than Dead so for those that were conquered either by Carnality or any other Evil Christians us'd to mourn as for Creatures lost and dead to GOD. So that look how we mourn for dead and so we must mourn for sinful Christians Or if there be any Difference to be allow'd betwixt them the abatement must be made on the Deceased's side inasmuch as Moral or Spiritual Death is far more deplorable than that which is Natural Thirdly We must mourn for the Sins of others because such Mourning prevails with Heaven As we read Lam. 3.26 The LORD is good to the Soul that seeketh Him But how good He is to such and how strangely he manifests His Goodness to them in a gracious Readiness to be found of them none can tell like the well experienc'd Yet this I must say that none prevail more and none prevail sooner with GOD than they who seek Him with holy Mourning And therefore when Jacob had Power with GOD and such Power as to have his
Name changed into Israel in token of his signal Prevalence with the ALMIGHTY this Powerful Remarkable Prevalence of His was owing in good measure to pious Mourning Nor can we be out in this our Assertion forasmuch as it plainly stands thus imputed by a venerable Prophet By his strength he had power with GOD yea he had power over the Angel and prevailed Hos 12.3 4. And why did he so It follows he wept and made supplication to Him So that His mighty Prevalence and Success in great part was due unto his Tears But then to come home to our purpose I must add that as religious Tears when shed for our selves prevail with Heaven so they will prevail for others likewise when poured out to GOD upon their account The following Instance will make this good beyond exception Israel had provoked the LORD to Anger and Moses was afraid as well he might that He would destroy them Hereupon he fell down before the LORD Deut. 9.18 That is he mourned as well as prayed for the People for Prostration was a Posture in use for both And because he mourned and wept Rabbi Solomon called that forty days wherein then he fell down says mine * Quadragena tristabilis Lyr. in loc Author the forty Mournful days And what the Effect of his Mournful intercession was appears v. 19. where we find that the LORD hearkened unto him at that time And when the Mournful Importunity of one good Man could quench the Fury of an inraged GOD and save a wicked People from utter destruction must it not carry a wonderful Prevalence with it For when he was minded to ruine the Rebellious Hebrews and to blot out the Name or Memory of them from under Heaven as well as the Generation then living He was pleas'd to cry out to Moses †〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 v. 14. Let me alone or be gone from me Implying there was such force or power of restraint in Moses's humble mournful Intreaty that unless it was silenc'd or removed GOD could not inflict those just Severities which he intended and they deserved But then who that are truly and throughly good can think they have not great Reason to mourn for the Sins of others when thereby they may avert the Judgments of GOD which are due unto them Yea tho' those Sins be most hainous of all even National Sins and the Judgments like to be proportionably heavy But here we must remember that tho' the holy Mournings of all good people are very powerful and prevailing with Heaven yet the Mournings of one sort of Men always were and ever will be of greatest prevalence namely those in the ministerial Office And therefore when terrible Judgments were coming upon the Jews the Prophet expresly charged the Priests the Ministers of the LORD not only to pray but also to weep in prevention of them Joel 2.17 And then adds immediately as the happy consequence or effect of the same Then will the LORD be jealous for His land and pity his People So when Christians at any time are visited with Sickness they are required to call for the Elders of the Church to pray over them Jam. 5.14 And so prevalent shall their Prayers be especially when mingled with holy Tears that if it be best the LORD shall raise them up again by restoring them to health as the Apostle declares in the next Verse Nor need we wonder that the Clergies Prayers should be most prevailing to prevent or remove any manner of National or Personal Judgments For if we rightly consider as they are or should be Men of the most zeal so they pray with the greatest Authority as being appointed and commission'd thereunto by virtue of the Function to which they are ordained And by the way they being thus doubly qualifi'd to pray with most prevalence they should as they have reason do it with all Diligence Pray even night and day to GOD for all his People tho' for some perhaps much more than others as particular Respects and Obligations bind them Only when they or any other set apart a day wherein to pray for their Souls or to pray for their Bodies for the remission of such Sins as they have committed or for the Removal of such Severities as GOD hath inflicted or for the Suspension of such Judgments as He hath plainly threatned let them endeavour to inforce their Prayers with mournful Tears which adds to the Strength and Efficacy of them Fourthly We must mourn for the Sins of others because such Mourning especially brings us Comfort And this it may do two Ways Either as it benefits those Persons whom we bewail which when it comes to our knowledge must needs afford us most noble satisfaction or else as it inclines the gracious GOD to dispense His holy Consolations to us as a liberal recompence for our Christian Pity in laying our Brethrens Miscarriages to Heart As many as mourn for other mens Sins must certainly be comforted one of these ways if not both Else the divine Promise must fail Isai 57.18 I will restore Comforts to him and to his Mourners Not only to reclaimed Sinners themselves that have well considered their crooked ways and wisely corrected and amended them but also to those Mourners for them that have lamented their Immoralities and great Offences And have we not reason to mourn for others Sins when thereby we shall draw down the Joys of Heaven upon our selves Fifthly We must mourn for the Sins of others because such Mourning secures us from Judgments when others fall by them Public and National Sins call for great and general Calamities and it is but Just with GOD to send them And when they come by His appointment they are exactly what the Prophet of old termed them Isai 28.15 an over-flowing scourge A scourge that breaks in with most terrible Violence and passes through a Country with such spreading Fierceness and irresistible Fury as is able to drown and dismally to sweep away all before it Now should GOD provoked to it by our Sins in His great Displeasure send down any sad Epidemical Evil upon this Nation as the Sword Famine Pestilence or the Like and should it dreadfully overflow the Land from one end of it to the other cutting off many if not most and threatning and indangering all would it not then be a signal Favour and singular Privilege or Felicity for some few to be providentially distinguisht from the rest and by a special Protection secured from the Dint of this judicial severity Yet thus it is sometimes yea thus we may hope it always shall be where there are Mourners for the Peoples sins and that those very Mourners shall be the Persons so Preserved For this hope there seems to be somewhat of good ground in the ninth Chapter of Ezekiel The Inhabitants of Jerusalem had committed many and most horrid Abominations and thereby had mightily offended GOD and incensed His MAJESTY To such a Pitch that he was now resolv'd
sinned against the Light of Conscience When we have been ready to run out of the way of Righteousness and foolishly inclin'd to commit Iniquity Conscience hath stood up in opposition to us and attempted to hinder us It hath friendly smitten us and flown in our faces and with very kind and officious checks hath warned us against the Evils we were about And when with all our Arts we could not drown its Voice nor stifle its Suggestions nor quiet its Clamours nor silence its loud tho' secret Dissuasions we have frowardly and forcibly broken through them all rushing into sin as an horse into Battel Do we not remember that it hath been thus with us When we have been lingring after any pleasing Sin and just stepping into the Perpetration of it hath not Conscience risen up and like a faithful Monitress rounded us in the Ear with proper and seasonable Cautions against it Hath She not plainly told us tho' not with an audible articulate Voice this is evil and that is forbidden here ye will offend GOD and there ye will dishonour CHRIST thus ye may endanger and so ye may undoe your immortal Souls When we have been just upon the point of doing foolishly and running unadvisedly into the Regions of Death hath not Conscience thus gently reproved us and made us feel and confess her Rebukes to be good Insomuch that indeed it hath been uneasy to resist them and a very great Pain and Trouble to us to go against such clear and strong Convictions But did all this work upon us or did it at all prevail with us When Conscience hath thus haunted us from Day to Day and Her light hath followed us from Place to Place and hath shown us the Deadliness of our respective sins from Time to Time hath this caused us to cease from them O no we have been so far from making that due use of this excellent Light that we have rather wisht it quite out that so we might sin with more Pleasure and less Reluctancy And when it was not in our Power to extinguish it wretchedly but in spite of all we could do it would glare us in the face we have walked perversely and prophanely against it sinning Presumptuously in defiance to that Light which GOD set up to keep us from Sin Secondly We have sinned against the Light of the SPIRIT When Conscience prov'd too weak to restrain us the gracious GOD hath struck in with the suasions of His Blessed SPIRIT to turn us off from our vitious Practices And with what sweet but cogent Arguments hath He sometimes set upon us When we have hankered after unreasonable Extravagancies and have been fit to plunge our selves into Perdition for the injoyment of them how watchfully and lovingly hath He appli'd himself to us in these or the like soft and compassionate Whispers to check and stop us in our unhappy Tendencies O rash and inconsiderate Creature art thou tampering again with thy dangerous Lusts and ready to reembrace thy fatal Sins It is but a while since through such Follies GOD found thee in a most rufull Plight Defiled with Guilt overwhelmed with Grief dejected with Doubts astonisht with Fears confounded with shame and by many woful but deserved Distractions brought almost to the brink of Despair Then as thou canst not chuse but remember His Mercy piti'd thee and in Pity He relieved thee He pardoned thee by His Grace and refreshed thee with His Comforts and restored unto thee the Joy of his Salvation upon thy penitent humbling of thy self before Him And art thou now disposed to apostatize from Him and rebelliously to kick against Him afresh Is this the amends He shall have for His Goodness Hast thou forgot the Smart of thy old Impieties that thou art so forward to listen to new Temptations Did Satan use thee so well when thou wert last in his hands that thou art willing to come into his hateful Power and under his hellish Tyranny again Or was GOD so hard a Master to thee that thou art so prone to desert His Service Judge for thy self in the case hadst thou not much Peace and many Pleasures when thou walkest uprightly with thy GOD And hadst thou not as much trouble and as many torments when you joinedst with His and thine own Enemies When thou was last at a Distance from Him and under His Displeasure didst thou not promise that if He would return and be reconciled to Thee thou wouldst be cautious and circumspect and take more care off offending Him than ever And did He not condescend to the measures thou desiredst Did He not hear thy Complaint and accept thy Vow and snatch thee from thy Woes and lay thee in His Bosom and renew thy Delights and give thee competent Assurance of His regained Favour And silly Wretch art thou now relinquishing this GOD and resigning thy Happiness to lie down and wallow in repeated Wickedness I appeal to Christians hath it not been thus Hath not the good SPIRIT very often thus contended with us and by his sacred Strugglings sought to check the fire of our kindling Lusts and so prevent its breaking out into flames of Sin Not that He hath spoken these very words distinctly to our Ears but He hath darted such Thoughts as these into our Minds which is His way of speaking to Men. Nor hath He barely suggested them to us but set them home upon us causing them to dwell in us so long and so powerfully to work with us as throughly to convince us of the Naughtiness of those things we were about to attempt But when all this was done it could not restrain or keep us from our sins which renders them most horrid and provoking And as it hath been with many in this case so I fear it may be still The SPIRIT of GOD pleads hard with them but alas He speaks to the deafest in the World even to a People that will not hear I mean that will not hear his charming Insinuations so as duly to regard them and be influenc'd by them O let them whose unhappy Temper and Carriage this is take all the care that possibly they can to rectify the same If they do not their Condition may prove extremely sad For then that divine and loving SPIRIT who hath striven so much and striven so long will not continue to do it always when He thus finds it to be in vain And if once He ceases His sweet Conflicts with us by reason of our affronting Him and gives us up to follow our vitious Inclinations because we grieve and quench Him by Stubborn resistance what will become of us The Curb that held us in being taken off us we shall presently fall to committing sin with greediness even all the Sins that we like and love to GOD's Dishonour and the eternal Ruine of our Immortal Souls And must not such be in a lamentable Plight They that are in it I confess are oft-times insensible of it They do not discern
nor do they consider it But then for this they are not the less but the more miserable as being indeed the more like to perish They think they are safe and they conclude they shall be happy and so of all living on the face of the Earth are most sure to be undone because when they are in the very Jaws of Perdition they do not perceive that they are in Danger If therefore we love or value our Souls let us fear and tremble to go on in sin against this Light of the Blessed SPIRIT Thirdly We have sinned against the Light of the Word Thy Word is a Light Psal 119.105 And so bright and glorious a Light it is that it makes a most perfect Discovery of sin For it shows us the Vanity and Vileness of it together with the heavy Curse that attends it and its sad and direful Effects in this Life And it shows us the horrible Threatnings against it and the hideous Plagues and Punishments of it in the State of future eternal Sufferings into which it will sink all final Impenitents And yet we have sinned against this Light too and that as boldly as if it had never shined amongst us Nor does the Word only show the Evil of Sin in Gross and the Menaces that lie against it in General but moreover it descends to Particular Transgressions pointing out the Evil of them by threatning respective Penalties to them or to the Actors and Abettors of them Thus it shows the Evil of Pride Pride goeth before Destruction and an haughty Spirit before a Fall Prov. 16.18 Of Carnality if ye live after the Flesh ye shall dye Rom. 8.13 Of Cheating That no man go beyond or defraud his Brother because the LORD is the Avenger of all such 1 Thess 4.6 Of Swearing because of Swearing the Land mourneth Jer. 23.10 Of Lying lying Lips are an abomination to the LORD Prov. 12.22 And in the Fifth of the * Ver. 1â— 20 21. Galatians there is a Black List containing many Sins as Adultery Fornication Uncleanness Lasciviousness Idolatry Witchcraft Hatred Variance Emulations Wrath Strife Seditions Heresies Envyings Murders Drunkenness Revellings and such like the Punishment of which to all that live and dye in them is declar'd to be no less than Exclusion from Heaven they who do such things shall not inherit the Kingdom of GOD Can any things be more plainly told us than these Can they be set in a clearer Light before us But then if we will not believe what we plainly see or if our Faith be too weak to sway our Practice and we do not take due care to strengthen it this must greatly aggravate our present Guilt and so by consequence our future Punishment For he that knows his Master's Will and does it not shall be beaten with many Stripes S. Luk. 12.47 And then we have sinned against the Word Preached as well as against the Word written How many useful how many excellent Sermons have we heard wherein the destructive Nature and Qualities of Sin have been sufficiently opened What fair Caveats against loving it what faithful Warnings against committing it what mighty Dehortations from continuing in it have we there met with And these have sometimes gone very near us They have touched us to the Quick and pricked us to the Heart they have startled our Spirits and rowzed our Minds and awakened our Consciences and to our thinking have turned us entirely from our Naughtiness For hereupon we have fully resolved and frequently determined to renounce all loose and sinful Ways and to enter upon a stricter Course of Living But how long hath this lasted Perhaps by that time the Preacher had done Speaking we had done Resolving and the very next Temptation hath foiled us as easily and vanquisht us as shamefully as any did before And when notwithstanding those fatal Hooks which Satan covers with alluring Baits be thus plainly shown us by skilful Ministers we yet catch at them readily when he offers them again and swallow them down with delight and greediness must not this be another Aggravation of our Sinfulness and a very sad one Believe it it will double our Folly and our Guilt and they will double our Punishment to us or else the Difficulty of our Repentance If I had not spoken to them they had not had sin but now they have no Cloke for their sin said our Dear LORD Joh. 15.22 So if GOD had not spoken in his Word preached and spoken to us so plainly constantly and vehemently we should not have had the sin which we now have for it would have been considerably less than it is But now our Contempt hath been bold and our Contumacy high and we have nothing to excuse or extenuate either It may be hundreds thousands millions of Souls have been reclaimed from Sin and brought over to Righteousness by half those divine pathetic Discourses which we have sat under and sullenly withstood and which still perhaps we despise and resist And when we were otherwise bad this cannot but render us a great deal worse Fourthly We have sinned against the Light of Experience We have felt the Sweetness of Innocence and the Joys of Holiness and the Pleasures of Obedience and the Comforts of a good Conscience and we have sinned against these And on the other side we have been sensible of the vanity of Dissoluteness and the trouble of Irreligion and the bitterness of Impiety and the terrors and torments of a guilty Mind and we have sinned against these First We have sinned against the Sweetness of Innocence and the Joys of Holiness When we have walked in Uprightness before GOD how often and how graciously hath He met us and what pleasing Effects hath His gracious Presence had upon us It hath filled us strangely with divine Peace and inflamed us mightily with divine Love and both together have so wrought with us and indear'd Him to us that we have been all on fire with Zeal for His Honour We have immediately vow'd all Fidelity to His MAJESTY and devoted our whole Life to His Glory and Worship We have nobly resolved not only to spend our Time but our Bloud for His Interest and rather to dye in His Service than once yield to sin But hath this held on No alas we have soon relaps'd into our former deadness and our wonted indisposition to Virtue and Righteousness Our Zeal hath been surpriz'd with sudden Chilness and our hot Resolutions of doing GOD's Will have grown quite Cold. Nay which is worse the Stream it may be hath not only thus stopped with us but turned the clean contrary way Our Resolutions for Piety have changed into stiff Inclinations to Naughtiness and we have pursued Evil with as much eagerness as before we intended to practise Godliness And must not this again notoriously aggravate our Wickedness To close with Satan and consent to Sin and plunge our selves headlong into hainous Guilt when we have tasted the Delights of Innocence and Sanctity
Light of Passive Examples Nothing being so fatal to us as Sin it hath ever been the Design of our gracious GOD to keep us from it by all the methods of Wisdom and Goodness applicable that way and conducive to that End And to this purpose He hath set Passive as well as Active Examples before us That so others sufferings might be a Warning to us and we might learn to be wise by their Woes while the Sight of their Miseries issuing from their Sins might preserve us innocent But we Wretches would not be so restrained But have broken the Barrs of these strong Impediments and torn those Bands of aw in pieces and have sinned daringly in contempt and scorn if not in despight of the great Discouragements Thus as many amongst us as have been guilty of Murder have sinned against the Light of Cain's Example who suffered hideously for that Sin For besides the * Gen. 4.12 Curse pronounced on the Earth upon his shedding his Brother Abel's Bloud which brought a father Barrenness into it than that which befell it for Adam's transgression he was driven from GOD's †v. 14. Face or excommunicated He was driven from ‖ ib. the Face of the Earth or from his native Country by being banished He was kept under sad consternations of Mind afflicted with such black Apprehensions of Dying and affrighted with such woful horrors of Death that he verily thought every one that saw him would certainly * ib. kill him But that he might live miserably to the terror of men and to keep them from venturing upon the like Wickedness GOD set a †Note VII dreadful Mark upon him that none might ‖ v. 15. dare to dispatch him That so he might live in terrorem to fright others from so great a Sin by the punishment which he suffered As many as have been guilty of Adultery have sinned against the Light of David's Example who suffered grievously for that Sin Inwardly in his Spirit and outwardly in Judgments which fell heavy upon him His inward Sufferings show themselves in sorrowful complaints which he makes aloud in the Penitential Psalms There he stands as it were in a white sheet and does open Penance for his gross Miscarriages giving the World clearly to understand what he felt in his Mind for the Enormities of his Life In the 6th Psalm he complains of vexed Bones and a troubled Soul of weary Groans and a washed Bed of a watred Couch and a worn-out Beauty In the two and thirtieth Psalm of Bones consumed by his assiduous Roaring Of the hand of GOD that was heavy upon him heavy upon him day and night so heavy that it quite drank up his natural moisture and made it like to the Drought in summer The Anguish of his Soul inflamed his Bloud and the Feverishness of his Bloud parch'd up his Body In the thirty eighth Psalm he makes piteous Lamentations and seeks to ease himself in very piercing and pathetic Out-cries He exclaims that the Arrows of the LORD stuck fast in him and that his Hand pressed him sore That there was no Health in his Flesh because of GOD's Displeasure nor Rest in his Bones by reason of his Sins That his Foolishness had brought stinking Diseases upon him and that the grievous pain and noisomness of them did so afflict him that he went about mourning all the Day long That he was smitten with Feebleness and roared for Disquietness That his Heart panted and His Strength failed and the Sight of his Eyes was gone from Him And surely he must undergo direful things that could be attended with such dismal Symptoms And besides these woful Miseries within he lay under the Scourge of external Judgments which was terribly sharp and cutting to him GOD threatned to raise up evil against him out of his own house and what He thus menaced in the Event He made good For His Daughter Tamar was wickedly ravisht by his Son Amnon and His Concubines abused and that shamefully and publicly by his Son Absolom And these were lamentable tho' proper Punishments of his scandalous defilement of Bathsheba as the Death of Amnon and the Rebellion and untimely End of Absolom were of his murdering her Husband Uriah As many as have been guilty of Fornication have sinned against the Light of Zimri's and Cosbi's Example who were both destroyed in committing it And against the Light of Sampson's Example who by means of his lewd Paramour first lost his Innocence then his Strength then his Liberty then his Eyes and at last his Life As many as have been guilty of rebelling against lawful Magistracy or of usurping and invading the holy Ministery have sinned against the Light of Korah's Dathan's and Abiram's Example who together with their schismatical and seditious Accomplices for those very Crimes were either swallowed up * Numb 16.31 c. alive of the gaping Earth or consumed by devouring Fire from Heaven As many as have been guilty of Drunkenness have sinned against the Light of Noah's and Lot's Example The first of which †Gen. 19.21 22. by Intemperance was expos'd to great shame and the second drawn into an abominable ‖ Gen. 19.36 sin As many as have been guilty of Lying have sinned against the Light of Anania's and Sapphira's Example who telling Lies * Act. 5.4 c. were immediately struck dead with them in their Mouths As many as have been guilty of communicating unworthily have sinned against the Light of the Corinthian's Example †1 Cor. 11.30 Many of whom were weak and sickly and many slept or died for their rash Prophanation or irreverent Usage of that sacred Ordinance Now when Providence hath dealt thus severely with Sinners with Sinners of all Sorts and hath kindly recorded these its Dispensations to keep them alive in our Memories and exhibit them unto us for us then instead of fearing their Punishments to follow their Impieties must be a tremendous Aggravation of our sinfulness When GOD hath hang'd up some Transgressours in Chains as it were to make us dread those immoral Doings which brought them to such deplorable Ends if we will not be reformed but go on and live and dye in such Sins this will be such an inhancement of our Guilt as I can only recommend to your sober Thoughts and desire you well and throughly to consider for indeed I cannot duly express it Seventhly We have sinned against the Light of Admonitions The private Admonitions of such as either out of just Authority over us or else out of Christian Compassion to us have occasionally bestowed their pious and wholsom Counsel upon us It was an excellent Rule laid down by Moses and ought to be practis'd by CHRIST's best Disciples Thou shalt in any wise rebuke thy Neighbour and not suffer sin upon him Levit. 19.17 Now if none have done this good Office towards us if none have been so much our Friends as plainly to reprove us for our sinful Exorbitancies yet
ruin to both But now that which intollerably aggravates our Guilt is that we have sinned against this Wondrous Love All its Flames have not consum'd our Dross all its heat hath not melted us into Obedience to that gracious GOD who loved us so exceedingly Nay we have wretchedly made this Love of His an occasion of sinning against His MAJESTY and have done amiss with more freedom and frequency because His Love abounded towards us Our Surety was able to pay our Debts and therefore we cared not how far we ran on in the Score We valu'd not stabbing our precious Souls because we had a Sovereign Medicine at hand to heal the Wounds We have made CHRIST's Death a Patent for Licentiousness and have been the more ready to offend GOD because he gave his SON to die for our Offences The biggest Aggravation of Baseness that can be It lifts up our Guilt above that of Devils the worst of which never rebelled against Redeeming Love nor committed one sin against a crucify'd LORD who laid down his Life for their Salvation A most sad consideration and did we but keep our Minds close to it and dwell upon it in serious and compos'd Reflections methinks we should need no better suasive to Mourning for our own and the Nation 's Sins Yet here we may advance a little farther some of us at least and fitly think that we have sinned against the Love of our best Friends Our truest Friends are most concern'd for our greatest Interests They look chiefly at the Dispositions and habits of our Minds and are anxious and solicitous for the welfare of our Souls With a watchful eye and a yearning heart they mark and observe us in our Spiritual relations and capacities how we carry our selves towards GOD how we are affected with Religion how we are furnisht with Christian Perfections how well prepared we are to die and how well provided to live for ever And if they find us defective in these Accomplishments it becomes an occasion of sadness to them and sinks them down into Grief and Misery A famous instance and pattern of this was the rarely virtuous and renowned Monica Mother of St. Augustine When he was young and vain and loose in his Manners this pious Matron laid his Extravagancies deeply to heart and night and day lamented his wild and exorbitant life And this may be the case of our Real Friends and at such a rate they may be afflicted for some of us They may pine at our Wickedness and pray for our Repentance and sigh and sorrow to behold our stubborness and strange Perverseness While we with delight and brutish complacence dishonour GOD and destroy our selves they may be almost overwhelm'd with sadness at the sight of our Prophaness and the sense of our Debauchery Let us think upon this and learn to mourn for our own Sins that have been so offensive to our choicest Friends They could no way shew truer never shew greater kindness to us But then the singular Cordial Affection on their side grievously aggravates the sins on ours and that aggravation should still raise our sorrow and encrease holy Mourning If thou that readest this knowest it thy case if thou knowest that thy sins afflict thy best Friends I have this Caveat to leave with thee Take heed of abusing their affectionate Tenderness There 's too much ill Principle in thy Proceedings already do not superadd ill nature to it If sin hath eat out all sense of Religion yet surely thou hast somewhat of humanity left something of common civility in thee especially to kindest Friends and Relatives Cease to sin then in respect to them who manifest such pious compassion to thee lest thou shortnest their Lives and sendest them sorrowing to their Graves O it is a rich and invaluable mercy to dissolute Persons that they have such Friends as these I speak of Friends that can weep over their provoking miscarriages and with plenty of powerful Tears and Prayers intercede to the Merciful GOD for them But let none of these sinners be so unkind and ingrateful and unhappy too as by obstinate persistence in a course of unrighteousness to break the hearts of these incomparable Friends and so deprive themselves of an inestimable Blessing CHAP. XXIV The Third Aggravation of our own and others Sins considered as the Third suasive to mourning for the same We have sinned in a most shameful manner NOW follows the last Aggravation of our sinfulness which as it is very heinous should be as affecting to us We have sinned in a most shameful manner Light could not controll nor could Love restrain us we sinned under and against them both But which adds to our Guilt and renders it much more grievous still we have sinned withal most hideously or shamefully This will appear if we will consider these Four things 1. The nature and malignity of our Sins 2. The multiplicity or variety of them 3. The repetition or frequency of them 4. Our boldness or impudence in Sinning First Our Sins are of an high Nature or Malignity As if Sins of a lower Quality or lesser Rate would not throw us fast or far enough out of GOD's Favour or sink us down deep enough into His Displeasure we have been forward to those of a worser sort and of a larger size Sinful Thoughts and sinful Words would not content us we have broken out into sinful Actions and in actual sins we have exceeded For sins of incogitancy or inadvertency would not serve us we have run into sins of Deliberation Sins of omission or neglect would not satisfie us we have plunged into sins of commission Sins of infirmity or weakness could not bound us we have rushed into sins of Presumption And all these high Acts of sin have not been of the least kinds of Sins neither For if we look narrowly into our Transgressions perhaps we shall find them of a fouler nature of a blacker stain and of a deeper Die than we are aware Yea think what sins are most odious to GOD and flagitious in themselves and these I fear will appear to have been ours in too great measure if we throughly examine our Spiritual state Secondly Our Sins are multiform and various They are not all of one sort but of several kinds According to the Character of the Impious Psal 69.27 we have fallen from one wickedness to another or have added iniquity to iniquity To Sins against GOD we added Sins against our Neighbours and to Sins against them Sins against our selves if we distinguish them according to the Object And if diversified according to other circumstances as Time and Place and Providence c. we have sinned in our Youth and in our riper years secretly and openly by our selves and with others Against Mercies and against Judgments c. But lest in diversifying sin I should here run out into too large a Series of Particulars instead of going farther I refer the Reader to those brief * See them under
falling down upon your Knees or prostrating more humbly use the following Confession A Confession of our own Sins O LORD the GOD of Heaven and Earth of Angels of Men and of all Creatures Thou art Great and High and Glorious and Holy and Just and Terrible Yet Thou art the GOD whom I have dishonoured Thou art the GOD whom I have displeased Thou art the GOD whom I have offended and sadly provoked Unworthy unworthy most unworthy I am to come before Thee and how shall I dare to lift up my guilty Heart and Hands unto Thee But Thy Will it is O LORD that the worst of Sinners should come unto Thy Self and as bad as I am Thou hast commanded even me to do it O reject me not therefore in this my act of Obedience but now that I am come unto Thy Throne of Grace receive me O GOD receive me graciously and pardon the Sins I shall confess unto Thee And most humbly I acknowledge that my Sins against Thee are exceeding grievous For they are numerous and hainous various and repeated odious and abominable Insomuch O LORD that not only Shame but Confusion might cover me not only Fear but Trembling might seize me because not only Judgments but Vengeance it self might immediately befall me and break out most dreadfully and eternally upon me For I have broken Thy Laws and slighted thy Promises and despised Thy Threatnings and abused Thy Favours * Think of those signal Blessings for which thou hast not made due Acknowledgments and suitable Returns I have been false to my Vows and inconstant to my Purposes and unfaithful to my Principles and filthy in my Practices †Think what Sensuality thou hast been guilty of Under These Severities I have been senseless under Thy Mercies I have been fruitless and instead of being led by Thy * Rom. 2 4. Goodness to Repentance I have turned thy very Grace into †Jude 4. Wantonness My Mind hath delighted in evil Thoughts my Mouth hath abounded with idle Words my Will hath inclined to ungodly Motions my Hands have been imployed in unrighteous Actions and my * Think how thou hast sinned scandalously Example hath been of pernicious Influence My fault it is that some are not so good as they might have been and that others are so bad who would have been better and so I have hindred †Think whom thou hast tempted or drawn to Sin or imboldened to go on in it Souls in their way to Heaven which I should have helped thither My Conscience checks me my Thoughts accuse me mine Iniquities testify against me my Heart condemns me and Thou O GOD who art greater than my Heart and knowest all things might'st justly pass a sad Sentence upon me a Sentence banishing me for ever from Thy Glorious Self and shutting me up in the dismal State and intolerable Torments of eternal Damnation This is my Case and these are my Sins and how can I endure them or my self for committing them O LORD I am ashamed O GOD I am astonished and I have reason to be so for O LORD my GOD I am undone everlastingly undone everlastingly undone by my own self unless Thou wilt pity unless Thou wilt pardon me LORD pity my Soul in thine infinite Mercy and pardon my Sins through the Merits of Thy SON my LORD JESUS CHRIST For I repent O merciful GOD from the bottom of my Heart I repent of them all Here pause a while and reflect seriously on thy Sins and their respective Aggravations at least upon some of the Principal of them And to bring on holy Tears and Mourning put up these or the like Ejaculations with all pious Earnestness A * Psal 50.17 contrite Heart give me O GOD such as Thou hast said Thou wilt not despise O break this †Here lay thine hand upon thine Heart flinty Rock in my Breast and as it hath been a Source of grievous Sins so make it a Fountain of godly Sorrow Help me LORD JESUS to sow in Tears that I may reap in Joy and so to mourn as that I may be comforted That ever I should sin against so good a GOD. That ever I should sin against so loving a Father That ever I should sin against so gracious a SAVIOUR That ever I should sin against so sweet a Comforter For this let Rivers of Tears run down mine Eyes Oh my Sins my Sins my many and my grievous Sins LORD what have I done O LORD what shall I do When thou hast done weeping pray Dearest REDEEMER accept the Sacrifice of a troubled Spirit and wash my Tears with Thy most precious and purifying Bloud Tho' Religious Mourning be usually accompani'd with a secret sweetness yet withal it spends the Spirits and so occasions Weariness If therefore you have mourned in such a measure as to be somewhat infeebled at present and to abate in the vigour or pious fervency of your Applications to Heaven then to refresh you a little by change of Exercise rise up here and read the 9th Chapter of Ezekiel There you shall find holy Mourning for others sins encouraged Or else read the 9th of Daniel to the 22th Verse where a famous Prophet invites to it by his great Example So by relaxing your Mind a while you will recruit your impaired Strength and be the better inabled to mourn afresh But if you feel your Zeal still upon the Wing and not too much weak'ned by expensive Grief then continue the Imployment which you were in and without stopping go on thus A Confession of the Nation 's Sins BEsides that I am the worst of Sinners O LORD and deserve the heaviest and severest Punishments that can be inflicted here or hereafter I dwell in the midst of a guilty Nation too many of which are too like my self a * Isai 1.4 sinful People and laden with iniquity For we have done †Dan 9 5. wickedly and rebelled grievously in departing from Thy holy Laws and in transgressing Thy most heavenly Precepts Like an infinitely wise and gracious GOD what hast Thou not done that in reason Thou could'st do to amend and reform us But under all the Methods of Thy kindest Providence to make us better are we not grown worse or do we not continue as bad as ever For who can think the Corruptions of our Hearts or what Tongue can speak the lewdness of our Manners and Conversations Thy Judgments have not moved us Thy Mercies have not melted us but under the one we have been loose and unthankful and under the other stubborn and inflexible and under them both not only unrighteous but incorrigible Peace we have abused to Pride and Security Plenty we have turned to Excess and Luxury and Health and Prosperity we have made to minister to Vanity of Mind and Licentiousness of Life Thou hast given us Thy divine and sacred Truth but we do ‖ 2 Thess 2.10 not receive that precious thing in the love of it Thou favourest
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