Puritan Ralph Venning (1621-74) here proposes that true happiness is only to be found in understanding and doing the will of God. Venning was admired not only for his preaching but also for the consistency of his life. This, together with his powerful call to a pleasure-obsessed world to seek happiness only where it may be found, are perhaps the reasons why his writings continue to speak so powerfully to us today.

In this edition, English spellings have been updated as have some of Venning’s seventeenth century idioms, while quotations from Latin sources have been translated for the benefit of the reader unfamiliar with the language. The text, however, remains substantially Vennings’ and has not been abridged.