A Christian Directory

He made thee a man, and not a beast: He cast thy lot in his visible Church, and not among deluded Infidels, or miserable Heathens, that never heard, unless in scorn, of the Redeemers name: He brought thee forth in a Land of light; In a Reformed Church, where Knowledge and Holiness have as great advantage, as any where in all the world: and not among deluded ignorant Papists, where ambition must have been thy Governor, and Pride and Tyranny have given thee Laws; and a formal, Ceremonious Image of Piety must have been thy Religion. He gave thee Parents that educated thee in his fear: and not such as were profane and ignorant, and would have restrained and persecuted thee from a holy life: He spoke to thy Conscience early in thy childhood, and prevented the gross abominations which else thou hadst committed: He bore with the folly and frailties of thy youth: He seasonably gave thee those Books, and Teachers, and company, and helps, which were fittest for thee; and blest them to the further awakening and instructing of thee, when he past by others, and left them in their sins: He taught thee to pray, and heard thy prayer: He turned all thy fears and groans to thy spiritual good: He pardoned all thy grievous sins: and since that, how much hath he endured and forgiven? He gave thee seasonable and necessary stripes, and brought thee up in the School of affliction; so moderating them, that they might not disable or discourage thee, but only correct thee, and keep thee from security, wantonness, stupidity, and contempt of holy things, and might spoil all temptations to ambition, ⟨p. 148⟩worldliness, voluptuousness and fleshly lust. By the threatenings of great calamities and death, he hath frequently awakened thee to cry to Heaven; and by as frequent and wonderful deliverances, he hath answered thy prayers, and encouraged thee still to wait upon him: He hath given thee the hearty prayers of many hundreds of his faithful servants, and heard them for thee in many a distress: He hath strangely preserved thee in manifold dangers: He hath not made thee of the basest of the people, whose poverty might tempt them to discontent; nor set thee upon the pinnacle of worldly honour, where giddiness might have been thy ruin, and where temptations to pride, and lust, and luxury, and enmity to a holy life, are so violent that few escape them:

He made thee a man, and not a beast: He cast thy lot in his visible Church, and not among deluded Infidels, or miserable Heathens, that never heard, unless in scorn, of the Redeemers name: He brought thee forth in a Land of light; In a Reformed Church, where Knowledge and Holiness have as great advantage, as any where in all the world: and not among deluded ignorant Papists, where ambition must have been thy Governour, and Pride and Tyranny have given thee Laws; and a formal, Ceremonious Image of Piety must have been thy Religion. He gave thee Parents that educated thee in his fear: and not such as were prophane and ignorant, and would have restrained and persecuted thee from a holy life: He spoke to thy Conscience early in thy childhood, and prevented the gross abominations which else thou hadst committed: He bore with the folly and frailties of thy youth: He seasonably gave thee those Books, and Teachers, and company, and helps, which were fittest for thee; and blest them to the further awakening and instructing of thee, when he past by others, and left them in their sins: He taught thee to pray, and heard thy prayer: He turned all thy fears and groans to thy spiritual good: He pardoned all thy grievous sins: and since that, how much hath he endured and forgiven? He gave thee seasonable and necessary stripes, and brought thee up in the School of affliction; so moderating them, that they might not disable or discourage thee, but only correct thee, and keep thee from security, wantonness, stupidity, and contempt of holy things, and might spoil all temptations to ambition,