Moses his choice with his eye fixed upon Heaven, discovering the happy condition of…

And so the delight of the creature is in communicating themselves; and therefore of all natural delights, that of marriage is the most, because there is the greatest communication of one creature to another: Now when as Gods delight is in communication, and our delight is in natural communication, then much more when we come to communicate our selves spiritually to God. There is a delight in the life of friendship, because one friend communicates himself to another, but in marriage greater, because that communication is greater; and according to the degrees of communication, the degrees of delight are; then the delight in the ways of God must be the greatest, because there is the greatest, and highest, and most glorious communication of a creature, it communicates it self, and lets out it self fully into the infinite Ocean of all good: If there were nothing but a letting out of it self into an ordinary good, it were delight, but to let out it self into an infinite Ocean of all delight, this is pleasure, and this is a mystery; this is a ground why no hypocrite hath the delight of the ways of godliness, because he does not communicate himself fully unto God; but when the heart comes off fully to communicate it self to God, there is infinite delight in them: The ways of godliness surely are ways of pleasure, if this be in them, as it is.

Sixthly, the ways of godliness are ways of ¹pleasure, because in them the soul hath the presence of God, and walks with God, walks up and down in the light of his face: There is a blessed ⟨p. 177⟩shine of Gods countenance, and of his love upon the soul, and influences of his graces unto the soul in those ways; as the soul hath delight in the communication of its self unto God, so they are ways of pleasantness, because in them there is a communication of God unto the soul: That place in Psal. 89. 19. hath a notable expression of the sweetness of the ways of godliness, and the delight that Gods people have in those ways: Blessed is the people that know the joyful sound, they shall walk, O Lord, in the light of thy countenance. God is in them, and lets out himself unto them; now the quintessence of all good put together, is in every beam of Gods face, and therefore when God shall let out himself, and be thus the portion of a soul, it must needs be a great deal of delight.