The beatitudes

7. Gospel-Mourning must be purifying; our tears must make us more holy; we must so weep for sin, as to weep out sin; our tears must drown our sins; we must not only mourn, but turn. Joel 2.12. Turn to me with weeping: What is it to have a watery eye, and a whorish heart? 'tis foolish to say it is day, when the Air is full of darkness: So to say thou repentest, when thou drawest dark shadows in thy life. It is an excellent saying of St. Austin, He doth truly bewail the sins he hath committed, who never commits the sins he hath bewailed^*. True Mourning is like the water of jealousy^*, it makes the Thigh of sin to rot. Psal. 74.14. Thou breakest the heads of the Dragons in the waters. The heads of our sins, these Dragons are broken in the waters of true Repentance; true tears are cleansing; they are like a Flood, that carries away all the rubbish of our sins with it; the waters of holy Mourning, are like the River Jordan, wherein Naaman washed, and was cleansed of his Leprosy. 'Tis reported there is a River in Sicily, where if the blackest s•eep are bathed, they become white; so, ⟨p. 77⟩though our sins be as scarlet, yet by washing in this River of Repentance, they become white as snow: Naturalists say of the serpent, before it goes to drink, it vomits out its poison; in this be wise as serpents; before thou thinkest to drink down the sweet cordials of the promises, cast up the poison that lies at your heart; do not only mourn for sin, but break from sin.

7. Gospel-Mourning must be purifying; our tears must make us more holy; we must so weep for sin, as to weep out sin; our tears must drown our sins; we must not only mourn, but turn. Joel 2.12. Turn to me with weeping: What is it to have a watry eye, and a whorish heart? 'tis foolish to say it is day, when the Aire is full of darkness: So to say thou repentest, when thou drawest dark shadows in thy life. It is an excellent saying of St. Austin, He doth truly bewail the sins he hath committed, who never commits the sins he hath bewailed