and satisfaction
in this life, to compense their pains, are more easily attainable than
fellowship and communion with God, yet I am persuaded that there is
nothing more practicable than the life of religion. God hath condemned the
world under vanity and a curse, and that which is crooked can by no art or
strength be made straight, but he hath made this attainable by his
gracious promises, even a blessed life, in approaching near to himself,
the fountain of all life. And this is a certain good, an universal good,
and an eternal good. It will not disappoint you as other things do, of
which you have no assurance for all your toilings. This is made more
infallible to a soul that truly seeks it in God. It is as certain that
they cannot be ashamed through frustration, as that he is faithful. And
then it is an universal good, one comprehensive of all, one eminently and
virtually all things created, to be joined to the infinite all fulness of
God. This advanceth the soul to a participation of all that is in him.
This is health, Psalm xlii. 11. Prov. iii. 8. This is light, John viii.
12. It is life, (John xi. 25,) liberty, (John viii. 36,) food and raiment,
(Isa. lxi. 10, and John iv. 14,) and what not? It is profit, pleasure,
preferment in the superlative degree, and not scattered in so many various
streams which divide and distract the heart, but all combined in one. It
is the true good of both soul and body, and so the only good of man. And
lastly, it is eternal, to be coetaneous with thy soul. Of all other things
it may be said, "I have seen an end of them," they were and are not. But
this will survive time, and all the changes of it, and then it will begin
to be perfect, when all perfection is at an end. Now, from all this, I
would exhort you in Jesus Christ to ponder those things in your hearts,
and consider them in reference to your own souls, that ye may say with
David, "It is good for me to draw near to God."

That which all men seek after, is happiness and well being. Men pursue
nothing but under the notion of good, and to complete that which may be
called good, there is required some excellency in the thing itself, and
then a conveniency and suitableness to us, and these jointly draw the
heart of man. But the great misery is, that there is so much ignorance and
misapprehension of that which is truly good, and then, when any thing of
it is known, there is so little serious consideration and application of
it to ourselve