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ISAAC: Not every kind of shedding of tears is produced by one feeling
or one virtue. For in one way does that weeping originate which is caused
by the pricks of our sins smiting our heart, of which we read: "I have
laboured in my groanings, every night I will wash my bed; I will water my
couch with my tears." And again: "Let tears run down like a torrent day
and night: give thyself no rest, and let not the apple of thine eye
cease." In another, that which arises from the contemplation of eternal
good things and the desire of that future glory, owing to which even richer
well-springs of tears burst forth from uncontrollable delights and
boundless exultation, while our soul is athirst for the mighty Living God,
saying, "When shall I come and appear before the presence of God? My tears
have been my meat day and night," declaring with daily crying and
lamentation: "Woe is me that my sojourning is prolonged;" and: "Too long
hath my soul been a sojourner." In another way do the tears flow forth,
which without any conscience of deadly sin, yet still proceed from the fear
of hell and the recollection of It hat terrible judgment, with the terror
of which the prophet was smitten and prayed to God, saying: "Enter not into
judgment with Thy servant, for in Thy sight shall no man living be
justified." There is too another kind of tears, which are caused not by
knowledge of one's self but by the hardness and sins of others; whereby
Samuel is described as having wept for Saul, and both the Lord in the
gospel and Jeremiah in former days for the city of Jerusalem, the latter
thus saying: "Oh, that my head were water and mine eyes a fountain of
tears! And I will weep day and night for the slain of the daughter of my
people." Or also such as were those tears of which we hear m the hundred
and first Psalm: "For I have eaten ashes for my bread, and mingled my cup
with weeping." And these were certainty not caused by the same feeling
as those which arise in the sixth Psalm from the person of the penitent,
but were due to the anxieties of this life and its distresses and losses,
by which the righteous who are living in this world are oppressed. And this
is clearly shown not only by the words of the Psalm itself, but also by its
title, which runs as follows in the character of that poor person of whom
it is said in the gospel that "blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs
is the kingdom of heaven:" "A prayer of the poor when he was in distress
and poured forth his prayer to God."
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