The beatitudes: or A discourse upon part of Christs famous Sermon on the Mount.: Wherunto is added Christs various fulnesse. The preciousnesse of the soul. The souls malady and cure. The beauty of grace. The spiritual watch. The heavenly race. The sacred anchor. The trees of righteousnesse. The perfume of love. The good practitioner. By Thomas Watson, minister of the word at Stephens Walbrook in the city of London.

SECT. 2.

1 WHAT is not the right Gospel-Mourning for sin; there is a five-fold Mourning which is false and spurious.

1. A despairing kind of Mourning; such was Judas his Mourning; he saw his sin, he was sorry, he made con∣fession, he justifies Christ, he makes Restitution: Mat. 27. Judas who is in hell, did more than many now adayes; he confessed his sin; he did not plead necessity, or good inten∣tions; but he makes an open acknowledgement of his sin, I have sinned; Judas made Restitution; his conscience told him he came wickedly by the money; it was the price of blood, and he brought again the thirty pieces of silver to the High Priests, Matth. 27.3. But how many are there who invade the rights and possessions of others, but not a word of Restitution! Judas was honester than they are; well, wherein was Judas his sorrow blame-worthy? it was a Mourning joyned with despair; he thought his wound broader than the playster; he drowned himself in tears; his was not a Repentance unto life* 1.1, but rather unto death.

2. An hypocritical Mourning; the heart is very de∣ceitful, it can betray as well by a tear, as by a kiss: Saul

looks like a mourner, and as he was sometimes among the Prophets, 1 Sam. 10.12. so he seemed to be among the Pe∣nitents, 1 Sam. 15.25. And Saul said unto Samuel, I have sinned, for I have transgressed the the commandment of the Lord. Saul did play the hypocrite in his mourning; for 1. He did not take shame to himself, but he did rather take honour to himself, verse 30. honour me before the Elders of the people. 2. He did pare and mince his sinne that it might appear lesser; he laid his sinne upon the people, ver. 24. because I feared the people; they would have me flie upon the spoile, and I durst do no other; a true mourner labours to draw out sinne in its bloody colours, and accent it with all its killing aggra∣vations, that he may be deeply humbled before the Lord, Ezra 9.6. Our iniquities are encreased over our head, and our trespasses are grown up unto heaven. The true peni∣tent labours to make the worst of his sinne; Saul labours to make the best of sinne; like a patient that makes the best of his disease, lest the Physitian should prescribe him too sharp physick. How easie is it for a man to put a chea•• upon his own soul, and by hypocrisie to weep himself into hell!

3. A forced mourning; when tears are pumped out by Gods judgments; these are like the teares of a man that hath the stone, or that lies upon the wrack. Such was Cains mourning, Gen. 4.13. My punishment is greater than I can bear; his punishment troubled him more than his sin; to mourn only for fear of hell, is like a thief that weeps for the penalty, rather than the offence; the teares of the wicked are forced by the fire of affliction.

4. An extrinsecal mourning; when sorrow lies only in superficie, in the outside, 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉, they dis∣figure their faces, Matth. 6.16. The eye is tender, but the heart hard. Such was Ahabs mourning, 1 Kings 21.

27. He rent his cloaths, and put sackcloth on his flesh, and went softly. His cloaths were rent, but his heart was not rent; he had sackcloth, but no sorrow: he did hang down his head like a bull-rush, but his heart was like an Adamant. There are many may be compared to weep∣ing Marbles, they are both watery and flinty.

5. A vaine fruitlesse mourning; some will shed a few teares, but are as bad as ever; they will cozen, and be un∣clean; such a kind of mourning there is in hell; the damned weep, but they blaspheme.

Notes

• * 1.1

  Acts 11.8.