A Christian Directory

Are they good, and only Good, and Perfectly Good, and unchangeably and eternally Good? Are they the spring of comfort, and the satisfying happiness of thy soul? Hast thou found them so? Or dost thou look to find them best at last? Foolish soul! Canst thou love the uneven defective troublesome creature, if to some one small inferior use it seemeth suitable to thee? and canst thou not Love him that is all that rational Love can possibly desire to enjoy? What though the creature be near thee, and God be infinitely above thee? He is nearer to thee than they: And though in glory he be distant, thou art passing to him in his glory, and wilt presently be there. Though the Sun be distant from thee, it communicateth to thee its Light, and Heat, and is more suitable to thee, than the Candle that is nearer thee: What though God be most Holy, and thou too earthly and unclean? Is he not the fitter to purify thee, and make thee Holy? Thou hadst rather if thou be poor, have the company and favour of the Rich that can relieve thee, than of beggars that will but complain with thee: And if thou be unlearned or ignorant, thou wouldst have the company of the wise and learned that can teach thee, and not of those that are as ignorant as thy self. Who is so suitable to thy Desires, as he that hath all that thou canst wisely desire? and is willing and ready to satisfy thee to the full? Who is more suitable to thy Love, than he that Loveth thee most, and hath done most for thee, and must do all that ever will be done for thee, and is himself most lovely in his infinite perfections? O poor diseased lapsed soul! if sin had not corrupted, and distempered, and perverted ⟨p. 146⟩thee, thou wouldst have thought God as suitable to thy Love, as meat to thy hunger, and drink to thy thirst, and rest to thy weariness, and as the earth and water, the Air and Sun are to the inhabitants of the world! O whither art thou fallen? and how far, how long, hast thou wandered from thy God, that thou now drawest back from him as a stranger to thee, and lookest away from him as an unsuitable good?

Are they good, and only Good, and Perfectly Good, and unchangeably and eternally Good? Are they the spring of comfort, and the satisfying happiness of thy soul? Hast thou found them so? Or dost thou look to find them best at last? Foolish soul! Canst thou love the uneven defective troublesome creature, if to some one small inferiour use it seemeth suitable to thee? and canst thou not Love him that is all that rational Love can possibly desire to enjoy? What though the creature be near thee, and God be infinitely above thee? He is nearer to thee than they: And though in glory he be distant, thou art passing to him in his glory, and wilt presently be there. Though the Sun be distant from thee, it communicateth to thee its Light, and Heat, and is more suitable to thee, than the Candle that is nearer thee: What though God be most Holy, and thou too earthly and unclean? Is he not the fitter to purifie thee, and make thee Holy? Thou hadst rather if thou be poor, have the company and favour of the Rich that can relieve thee, than of beggars that will but complain with thee: And if thou be unlearned or ignorant, thou wouldst have the company of the wise and learned that can teach thee, and not of those that are as ignorant as thy self. Who is so suitable to thy Desires, as he that hath all that thou canst wisely desire? and is willing and ready to satisfie thee to the full? Who is more suitable to thy Love, than he that Loveth thee most, and hath done most for thee, and must do all that ever will be done for thee, and is himself most lovely in his infinite perfections? O poor diseased lapsed soul! if sin had not corrupted, and distempered, and perverted