N00887:122
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 5: Meditation V.
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.
Meditation V.
On the Burning of the World.
When I see what Havoc the Fire makes of the Fuel, whereof it hath taken Hold, it becomes me to give Thanks unto the Great Keeper of Israel, that my House, with all the valuable Treasures in it, is not by any unhappy Accident made the Fuel of devouring Flames. The Fire we say, is a Good Servant; but a Bad Master: and I am the most ungrateful Wretch in the world, if I don't particularly and explicitly Give Thanks unto God, that while the Fire is the Servant of my Comfort, my Estate falls not into the devouring Jaws of such a Master. Great Cities have sometimes been horribly Destroyed by Fire, ⟨p. 65⟩as well as little Cottages; And the Multiplication of such Disasters and Destructions, in our Age, (especially by the Arms, of a certain, OG, or, Burner,) has been thought by some, to be somewhat praesagious of that Conflagration, which the Oracles of Heaven foretell to our Sinful Earth. Whether such Desolations by Fire, be any Presage of this Grand one, I am sure, those little ones that are on my Hearth, will serve as a Figure of it, and lead a Devout mind unto the Contemplation of an Universal Conflagration.
WHen I see what Havock the Fire makes of the Fuel, whereof it hath taken Hold, it becomes me to give Thanks unto the Great Keeper of Israel, that my House, with all the valuable Treasures in it, is not by any unhappy Accident made the Fuel of devouring Flames. The Fire we say, is a Good Servant; but a Bad Master: and I am the most ungrateful Wretch in the world, if I don't particularly and explicitly Give Thanks unto God, that while the Fire is the Servant of my Comfort, my Estate falls not into the devouring Jawes of such a Master. Great Cities have sometimes been horribly Destroy'd by Fire,