Jonathan Edwards:
If we spend our lives in the pursuit of a temporal happiness; as riches or sensual pleasures; credit and esteem from men; delight in our children, and the prospect of seeing them well brought up, and well settled, and etc.
All these things will be of little significance to us. Death will blow up all our hopes, and will put an end to these enjoyments…
God is the highest good of the reasonable creature; and the enjoyment of him is the only happiness with which our souls can be satisfied. To go to heaven, fully to enjoy God, is infinitely better than the most pleasant accommodations here.
Fathers and mothers, husbands, wives, or children, or the company of earthly friends, are but shadows; but the enjoyment of God is the substance.
These are but scattered beams; but God is the sun.
These are but streams; but God is the fountain.
These are but drops; but God is the ocean.”
—The Christian Pilgrim, Section II p. 530
