N00887:118
Christianus per ignem. Or, A disciple warming of himself and owning of his Lord:…
Christianus per ignem. Or, A disciple warming of himself and owning of his Lord: with devout and useful meditations, fetched out of the fire, by a Christian in a cold season, sitting before it. A work though never out of season, yet more particularly, designed for the seasonable and profitable entertainment, of them that would well employ their leisure [sic] by the fire-side. : [Three lines in Latin from Alsted]Christianus per ignem. Or, A disciple warming of himself and owning of his Lord: with devout and useful meditations, fetch'd out of the fire, by a Christian in a cold season, sitting before it. A work though never out of season, yet more particularly, designed for the seasonable and profitable entertainment, of them that would well employ their liesure [sic] by the fire-side. : [Three lines in Latin from Alsted]
Boston: printed by B. Green for Benjamin Eliot, 1702
Title page typeset from the transcription.
Christianus per Ignem. Or, A Disciple WARMING himself And OWNING hi… › Meditation 4: Meditation IV.
Modern spelling is a reading aid: the words are the author’s, only the spelling is modernized. Original shows the page as printed, with the transcription marks.
But when I see some body going to Mend the Fire, I think we that Sit by it, want mending much more than the Fire it self. That Call, Mend the Fire, is not of a millionth part ⟨p. 61⟩of so much importance, as that call, Jer. 7 3, 5. Amend your Ways and your Doings; and again, Throughly Amend your Ways and your Doings. I am sensible, [My God, make me more Sensible!] That there is very much Amiss in my Heart, and in my Life, much that wants to be mended. I have heard a great and a just cry made, for, A Reformation The method of obtaining a general Reformation, would be for every one, to mend one. A whole Army is presently Turned about, when every man in the Army Turns himself.
But when I see some body going to Mend the Fire, I think we that Sit by it, want mending much more than the Fire it self. That Call, Mend the Fire, is not of a millionth part ⟨p. 61⟩of so much importance, as that call, Jer. 7 3, 5. Amend your Wayes and your Doings; and again, Throughly Amend your Wayes and your Doings. I am sensible, [My God, make me more Sensible!] That there is very much Amiss in my Heart, and in my Life, much that wants to be mended. I have heard a great and a just cry made, for, A Reformation The method of obtaining a general Reformation, would be for every one, to mend one. A whole Army is presently Turn'd about, when every man in the Army Turns himself.
Wherefore, What shall I do? The first thing to be done, in answer to that Question, is for every man to put another Question; even that, What have I done? It would be an agreeable thing, for a man to take a well expressed Catalogue of Things Required & of Things Forbidden, in the Ten Commandments of God. Beholding himself in that Glass, a man may come to see his own criminal Omissions, and Commissions, and know what there is to be mended in him. When a man has gone thus far towards the mending of himself, let not his next work be, according to the preposterous Divinity of our Days, to make Vows, That he will do no more Amiss. Those ill timed Vows will be broken on the next Opportunity, or Temptation to break them. No, the Next work is to Confess and Bewail, all that we find Amiss before the Lord, and therewithal