N00887:229
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 20: Meditation XX.
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 XX.
On the Blowing of the Fire.
MY Fire not burning to my mind, the Bellows (whose Name I suppose, comes from the […] Saxon Bilig, which was perhaps from the Latin, Rulga, a Satchel) are taken in hand, for the Blowing of it, Without ⟨p. 128⟩Blowing, it seems, the Fire will not Burn. I suppose it will be allowed me, That the Fire shall be a lively Metaphor of Prayer, because it is a Divine One. In allusion to the Fire on the Altars, it was said, The Smoke of the Incense, which came with the Prayers of the Saints, ascended up before God: And alluding to that Morning a […]! Evening Fire, it is Enjoined on the Masters of Families, Continue in Prayer. The Warmth requisite unto Prayer, and the Heaven ward motion of it, [For, What is Prayer, but, [Greek or Hebrew];] are enough to Embolden the Metaphor. But alas, what ado must there be, to make this Fire burn? There must be a deal of Blowing upon me, as by the Providence of God, so by His Holy Spirit, before by Prayer will be inflamed into a proper Ardour. This Thought falls in well enough. The Spirit of God, is by the Son of God, from whom He does proceed, compared unto the Wind, and there are many Elegancies, to favour the Comparison. There must now be a work of that Holy Spirit on a man, before it can be said of the man, Behold he prays! And He is, for that Reason styled, The Spirit of Prayer; and it is assigned, as His Office, to Help our Infirmities in that eminent Act of Religion. I am sure, There is need enough, of such a work: For I shall not see the Excellency and Necessity of the Good Things, for which I am to Pray, ⟨p. 129⟩except the Holy Spirit Convince me thereof; nor shall I Exert those Graces, wherewith God in the Lord Jesus Christ is to be acknowledged when I Pray, except the Holy Spirit both Infuse those Graces, and Excite them and Assist them. We are commanded expr, To pray by the Holy Spirit; which if it had been a Gift Miraculous or Extraordinary, or to cease after the Apostolical Age, the Apostle would never have Exhorted All Christians to Exercise it. For any to Deride, Praying by the Holy Spirit; cannot but be very dangerously to Blaspheme one of His peculiar Operations. I wish, that my Prayers then may be such, as Nazinzen relates the Prayers of his Father made at the Eucharist, were;