N00887:197
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.
Indeed the Ancients considered an Higher Mystery in this Burning Bush; They considered it, as a Figure of the Messiah, wherein the Bush of His Humanity, is possessed, and yet not consumed, by His Divinity, which is, A Consuming Fire. Thus 'tis Gregory's gloss upon it, Per Succensum Rubum ostensum est, quod ex illo populo exiret, qui Igne Deitatis carnis nostroe Naturam, quasi Rubi Spinam, acciperet; et inconsumptam Humanitatis substantiam, in ip•• Divinitatis Flamma servaret.
Indeed the Ancients considered an Higher Mystery in this Burning Bush; They considered it, as a Figure of the Messiah, wherein the Bush of His Humanity, is possessed, and yet not consumed, by His Divinity, which is, A Consuming Fire. Thus 'tis Gregories gloss upon it, Per Succensum Rubum ostensum est, quod ex illo populo exiret, qui Igne Deitatis carnis nostroe Naturam, quasi Rubi Spinam, acciperet; et inconsumptam Humanitatis substantiam, in ip•• Divinitatis Flamma servaret.
But we will at present, rather take this Burning Bush, to be the Church of the Messiah; and we will now say with Moses, I will now turn aside, and see this Great Sight. The Thing which is to be seen, is This; That although the Church of our Lord Jesus Christ, be like a Bush all on Fire, yet this Glorious Bush will never be consumed, but be gloriously Preserved, Rescued, and Enlarged.
The Church of our Lord Jesus Christ, is on a diverse account fitly compared unto a Bush. Particularly, There is much Lowness, much Meanness, much Contempt, Commonly attending ⟨p. 104⟩the Church of our Lord. It is called, A Low Tree. Tho' the Church have no less a Lustre than that of the Moon in Heaven, belonging to it; yet in outward Appearance, and in vulgar, Opinion, the Church is a poor Bush; yea, the All wise Dispensations of Heaven, towards the Church on Earth, have usually been such, that there has been room for that Complaint, We are brought very Low. The Church is therefore in the Visions of Zechariah styled, A Myrtle grove; a Myrtle is but a low and a mean sort of a Shrub. As the Church has but low and mean thoughts of it self, and the Members thereof do not aspire to be in Worldly Grandeur, like the proud Oaks of Bashan, so Worldly people have but low and mean thoughts of the Church, and look upon it, like the proud King, upon, The Thistle in Lebanon.