Early piety, exemplified in the life and death of Mr. Nathanael Mather, who ...…

2. The Walker with God is also a very ⟨p. 10⟩Happy Man: The Psalmist hath well determined where Happiness is to be found, in Psal. 73. 28. It is good for me to draw near to God: By the same Reason we may every one say, It is good for me to walk with God.

Happiness properly lies in the Conjunction of a Thing with such a good as the Appetites and Faculties of that thing are suited unto. Well, Walking with God cannot be without an having of God: God and Man do mutually possess each other in this blessed thing. Now the Soul is in conjunction with such a good as answers all the boundless Cravings of it. The Soul of Man hath placed in it by the Hand of God, a restless raging desire after an Infinite and an Eternal good: Until it find this, it pines, it frets, it is all on a light fire, like the Hart panting after the water-brooks: When it has got this, it is then at ease, and with a wonderful delight it cries out, This is all my Salvation, and all my Desire. Behold then the Happiness of a Walk with God; it hath no less than that vast thing Satisfaction in it. All Men are seeking after satisfaction every day; O but who finds this Pearl of great price? Where is it? The voluptuous Epicure, he thinks with Belshazzar, It is ⟨p. 11⟩to be found in Cups and sensual Relishes: The Covetous Muckworm he thinks with Achan golden Wedges will rive into the bowels of it: The Ambitious Hector he thinks with Haman, An high Chair of state will help a man to reach unto it: And the contemplative Scholar he imagines That it is folded up in the leaves of his Books, which he knows no end of looking into: These are all deceived. In the mean time the Walker with God says, I have found it. Enoch has it. For,