N00887:19
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.
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.
A Christian, that would conscientiously maintain a course of such Meditation, [Suppose, for the most part, a Quarter of an Hour, or more, every Evening,] would find incredible Advantages arising from it. The Advantages would be such, that from a sense of them, I remember with what a Pathos, the famous Dr. Hall concludes his Exhortation of his Reader to the cheerful practice of it; Let him Curse me upon his Death Bed (says he) if looking back from thence, to the bestowing of his former times, he acknowledge not these Hours, placed the most happily in his whole Life; if he then wish not, he had worn out more Days in so profitable and Heavenly a work.
A Christian, that would conscientiously maintain a course of such Meditation, [Suppose, for the most part, a Quarter of an Hour, or more, every Evening,] would find incredible Advantages arising from it. The Advantages would be such, that from a sense of them, I remember with what a Pathos, the famous Dr. Hall concludes his Exhortation of his Reader to the chearful practice of it; Let him Curse me upon his Death Bed (says he) if looking back from thence, to the bestowing of his former times, he acknowledge not these Hours, placed the most happily in his whole Life; if he then wish not, he had worn out more Dayes in so profitable and Heavenly a work.
But then there is another sort of more Transient Meditation, wherein the Christian that shall accustom himself unto it, will find a Lasting Satisfaction. All the Creatures of God about us, are so many Preachers from God unto us: and there is no Speech nor Language, ⟨p. 11⟩where their voice might not be heard, if men who have Ears to bear, would but hear it. As there are Footsteps of the Divine Power, and Wisdom, and Goodness, to be seen upon all the Creatures, Praesentemque docet quaelibet Herb• Deum; so there are also Numberless Lessons of Morality, which by the Help of the Analogy between the Natural and Spiritual World, (that, if we may use a Jewish phrase, are both Sealed with the same Seal,) we may learn from them. That passage of the Psalmist.