Matthew Poole and continuators on Matthew 5:4

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

The World is mistaken in accounting▪ the jocund, and merry Companions the only happy Men, their mirth is Madness, and their joy will be like crakling of Thorns under a Pot, but those are rather the happy Men who mourn, yea such are most certainly Happy, who mourn out of Duty in the Sense of their own sins, or of the sins of others, or who mourn out of choice rather to suffer Afflictions, and Persecutions with the People of God, than to injoy the Pleasure of sin for a Season. Tho such sufferings do excite in them natural Pa[illegible: 1 letter]sions, yet it is a Blessed mourning, for those are the blessed Te[illegible: 1 letter]rs which God will wipe at last from Peoples Eyes, and such are these, They shall be Comforted either in this Life, with the Consolations of the Spirit, or with their Masters joy in the Life that is to come, Isa. 61.3. Ioh. 16.20. Iames 1.12. So as this Promise, and Declaration of Blessedness▪ is not to be extended to all Mourners, but only to such as God hath made so, or who in Duty have made themselves so, obeying some Command of God; for Sympathizing with Go[illegible: 1 letter]s Glory, or with his afflicted People▪ Rom. 12.15. or Te[illegible: 1 letter]tifying their Repentance for their sins, for there is a mourning, which is a meer natural effect of Passion, and a Worldly sorrow which worketh unto Death, as well as a Godly sorrow, working Repentance to Salvation, 2▪ Cor. 7.10.

Marginal references: Isa. 61.3. Luk. 6.21.