The mourner directory, guiding him to the middle way betwixt the two extremes, defect,…The mourner directory, guiding him to the middle way betwixt the two extreams, defect,…

(2.) To set forth the degrees of sorrow under sore and heavy Judgments. When God threateneth to bring such sore and heavy Judgments that shall cause Mens Mirth to cease, their Joy to be banished, their Sorrow to be multiplied; he compares it to the mourning for an only Son; as what useth to be in highest degree. Amos 8.10. And I will turn your feasts into mourning, and all your songs into lamentation, and I will bring up sackcloth upon all loins, and baldness upon every head; and I will make it as the mourning of an only son, and the end thereof as a bitter day.

(2.) To set forth the degrees of sorrow under sore and heavy Judgments. When God threatneth to bring such sore and heavy Judgments that shall cause Mens Mirth to cease, their Joy to be banished, their Sorrow to be multiplied; he compares it to the mourning for an only Son; as what useth to be in highest degree. Amos 8.10. And I will turn your feasts into mourning, and all your songs into lamentation, and I will bring up sackcloth upon all loins, and baldness upon every head; and I will make it as the mourning of an only son, and the end thereof as a bitter day.

(3.) The degrees of sorrow of convinced, repenting Sinners. This manner of mourning is used to set forth the great degrees of sorrow that the repenting Jews should have, when they should be convinced of their Barbarous and Bloody Fact in Murdering of the Son of God. Zech. 12.10. And I will pour upon the house of David, and upon the inhabitants of Jerusalem, the spirit of grace, and of supplications, and they shall look upon me whom they have pierced, and ⟨p. 18⟩they shall mourn for him, How much? As one mourneth for his only son, and shall be in bitterness for him, as one that is in bitterness for his firstborn. All these show not only what sorrow is allowed, but what degree also is required, and hath been in Parents for the death of Children, that have had a due sense of God's afflicting Hand in taking their Children from them by death; Even sorrow setting forth, (1.) The sorrow for the Calamities of the Church. (2.) The greatness of the sorrow Men are filled with when God's heavy Judgments are upon them. (3.) The sorrow of true Penitents for their sinful carriage to God's own Son. Though the parallel will not hold in all respects, yet the greatness of the sorrow of the one is made use of to declare the greatness of the others; which is sufficient evidence that such sorrow is great in it self.