In a general sense, mourning in the Bible represents a state of grief over the lack of desires for good and true ideas about life. This often happens when a church or an aspect of a church has fallen away from the Lord and has been devastated. It can also be when a new church or state of a church is soon to begin, and there is nothing yet in place. In particular, especially when paired with "weeping," "mourning" has do with the loss of all desire for good and the presence of evil; "weeping" in those cases has to do with the devastation of thought and knowledge.

1164. Weeping and mourning-That this signifies grief of soul and heart, is evident from the signification of weeping, which denotes grief of soul; and from the signification of mourning, which denotes grief of heart. The distinction between grief of soul and grief of heart is like that between truth and good. For soul in the Word is said of the truth which is of faith, and heart of the good which is of love. This is the reason why the expression, from the soul, and from the heart, frequently occurs in the Word. They are also distinguished as the will and the understanding in man, and also, as the respiration of the lungs and the motion of the heart. And because throughout the Word there is a marriage, as it were, of truth and good, or of faith and love, or of intellect and will, therefore it is also the case here with the expressions, weeping and mourning, weeping arising from grief of soul and mourning from grief of heart.

[2] Continuation.- But that man may be brought out of hell, and led into heaven by the Lord, it is necessary for him to resist hell, that is, evil as if from himself. If he does not resist as if from himself, he remains in hell, and hell in him, nor are they separated to eternity. This, also, follows from the laws of Divine Providence, which have been explained above. Experience also will teach us that this is the case. For evils are removed from man either by punishments, temptations and the aversions arising from them, or by the affections for truth and good. Evils are removed by punishments in the case of those who have not reformed; by temptations and aversions arising from them in the case of those about to be reformed; and by the affections for truth and good in the case of the regenerate. Experience is as follows. When an unreformed or evil man undergoes punishments, which is the case in hell, he is kept in them and not liberated until it is seen that of himself he does not will evils; he is thus compelled of himself to remove them. If the punishment does not extend to the intention and will, he remains in his evil. But still the evil is not even then removed, because he has not compelled himself, it therefore remains within, and returns when the fear ceases. In the case of those who are about to be reformed, evils are removed by temptations, which are not punishments, but combats. Men of this description are not compelled to resist evils, but they compel themselves, and implore the Lord, and are thus set free from the evils which they have resisted. They afterwards desist from them, not from any fear of punishment, but from a repugnance to evil, the very repugnance at length becoming resistance. But with the regenerate, there are no temptations or combats, the affections for truth and good keeping evils at a distance from them; for they are entirely separated from hell, whence evils come, and are conjoined to the Lord.

[3] To be separated and removed from evils is nothing else than to be separated and removed from infernal societies. The Lord is able to separate and remove all, as many as He wills, from infernal societies, that is from evils, and to transfer them to heavenly societies, thus to goods; but this endures only for a few hours, after which the evils return. I have sometimes seen this take place, and have observed wicked men continue wicked as before. In the whole spiritual world there is no instance of any one having been removed from evils, except by means of combat or resistance as if from himself, or of any one having been so removed except by the Lord alone.