N00887:199
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.
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.
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 Grandure, 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.
Again, 'Tis a Dangerous thing, for any to fall foul on the Church of our Lord. The Bush wherein there was given a picture of the Church, was one, as the Hebrew word intimates, that had prickles on it: And we are told by Travellers, the Bushes thereabouts, are so prickly, that if a Bird Light on one of them, he can hardly scape without a Deplumation. This we may be sure of; They that go to wrong the Church of the Lord Jesus Christ, will find it a prickly, tearing and wounding thing. Indeed, it is not the Disposition of them