4. Sure it is that this affliction _for the present is not joyous but grievous. Nevertheless, afterward it bringeth forth peaceable fruit unto them that are exercised thereby. Blessed_ therefore _are they that_ thus _mourn_, if they _tarry the_ Lord’s _leisure_, and suffer not themselves to be turned out of the way, by the miserable comforters of the world; if they resolutely reject all the comforts of sin, of folly and vanity; all the idle diversions and amusements of the world, all the pleasures which _perish in the using_, and which only tend to benumb and stupify the soul, that it may neither be sensible of itself nor God. Blessed are they who _follow on to know the_ Lord, and steadily refuse all other comfort. They shall be comforted by the consolations of his Spirit, by a fresh manifestation of his love; by such a witness of his accepting them in the Beloved, as shall never more be taken away from them. This _full assurance of faith_ swallows up all doubt, as well as all tormenting fear; God now giving them a sure hope of an enduring substance and _strong consolation through grace_. Without disputing, whether it be possible for any of those to _fall away, who were once enlightened and made partakers of the Holy Ghost_, it suffices them to say, by the power now resting upon them, [54]_Who shall separate us from the love of_ Christ? _I am persuaded, that neither death nor life, nor things present, nor things to come: nor height nor depth――shall be able to separate us from the love of_ God, _which is in_ Christ Jesus _our_ Lord! 5. This whole process, both of mourning for an absent God, and recovering the joy of his countenance, seems to be shadowed out in what our Lord spoke to his apostles, the night before his passion. [55]_Do ye enquire of that I said, a little while and ye shall not see me, and again a little while and ye shall see me? Verily verily I say unto you, that ye shall weep and lament_, namely when ye do not see me; _but the world shall rejoice_, shall triumph over you, as though your hope were now come to an end. _And ye shall be sorrowful_, thro’ doubt, thro’ fear, thro’ temptation, thro’ vehement desire: _But your sorrow shall be turned into joy_, by the return of him whom your soul loveth. _A woman when she is in travail, hath sorrow because her hour is come. But as soon as she is delivered of the child, she remembreth no more the anguish, for joy that a man is born into the world. And ye now have sorrow_: ye mourn and cannot be comforted. _But I will see you again: and your heart shall rejoice_, with calm, inward joy, _and your joy no man taketh from you_.