that is good. Therefore in how happy a condition is the soul that is acquainted with this blessed exercise of trusting and believing in God! It is a state wherein we shall be kept from all ill-I mean from the ill of ills: not from the ill of sense, but from the ill of ills, and from the poison of all ill. Whatsoever ill we endure, there shall be comfort mixed with it; and it is better to have it than the comfort. What a comfort is this! They that trust in the Lord shall want nothing that is good. He that trusts in the Lord is as a tree planted by the river side,' Jer. xvii. 7, 8. He shall alway have his leaf flourishing and bear fruit, because he is at the wellhead. He that hath the spring can never want water, and he that is in the sun can never want light. He that is at the great feast can never want provision. He that hath learned to trust in God, and can improve what is in him, what can he want? Oh it is the scarceness of our faith that we want comfort! As our faith is, so is our comfort; and if we could bring a thousand times larger faith to grasp the promises, we should carry away larger comfort and strength.

NOTES.

(a) P. 241.-'In the original it is poor, and mild, and gentle.' Cf. Dr Henderson in loc.

(b) P. 246.-'As St Augustine. ... saith, "We should boast and glory of nothing, because nothing is ours." A frequent acknowledgment in the 'Confessions,' with varying phraseology.

G.

SPIRITUAL MOURNING.

SPIRITUAL MOURNING.

NOTE.

'Spiritual mourning' forms Nos. 14 and 15 of the Saint's Cordials in first edition, 1629. It was withdrawn from the after-editions along with others, to give room for another series which had been published in the intervals. The title-page will be found below. Cf. notes Vol. IV. page 76, and V.

*SPIRITVAL

MOVRNING:

In Two SERMONS.

page 176.

Wherein is laid open,

Who are spirituall mourners, and what it is to mourne
spiritually.

That all godly mourning is attended with comfort.
How spirituall mourning is known and discerned from
other mournings.

Together with the meanes to attaine it, and the tryall
thereof, in sundry instances, &c.

[Wood-cut here, as described in Vol. IV. p. 60.]
VPRIGHTNES HATH BOLDNES.

LONDON,

Printed in the yeare 1629.

G.

Blessed are they that mourn, for they shall be comforted.-MAT. V. 4.

We have spoken of spiritual poverty the last day, when we shewed you that it is a grace especially in the understanding.* We must now come to the affections. And first, our Saviour begins with mourning, .which follows immediately from poverty of spirit. Mourning is a wringing or pinching of the soul upon the apprehension of some evil present, whether it be privative or positive, as we speak; that is, when a man finds that absent that he desires, and that present which he abhors, then the soul shrinks and contracts itself, and is pinched and wringed; and this is that we call mourning. Now this always comes to pass in poverty. Such as the poverty is, such is the mourning; and therefore our blessed Saviour's order is very good in joining mourning to that poverty of which we have spoken. Thus much for the order.

Now for the words. There are, you see, two things in this verse. 1. A point. 2. A'proof.

Our Saviour's point shall be our point of doctrine at this time, because we would not speak one thing twice. Therefore we will lay down the point in our Saviour's own words, and that is this, that spiritual mourners are blessed men. He is an happy man that is a good mourner. He that can mourn for his sins, he is in an happy case. That is the point.

Now in the prosecution of this, we must first expound it; secondly, prove it; and then apply it to you, as our Saviour doth to his hearers, Luke vi. 21, 'Blessed are ye that mourn.'

1. For the first, I may expound the point and the text both under one. You see the proposition what it is, every good mourner is in an happy condition. Here let us consider a little the terms to explicate them. Who is the party in speech? 'Blessed is the mourner,' saith Christ in Matthew; Blessed,' saith he in Luke vi. 21, are the weepers.' Both these, mourning and weeping, they are fruits of the same tree and root. The root is sorrow and sadness, opposite to joy; the bud mourning, opposite to mirth; The reference is probably to 'Rich Poverty,' from Zephaniah iii. 12, in the present volume.-G.