N00887:240
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.
Teach me, O Lord, always to behave my self as before the Eyes of a Lord, that hath Eyes like a Flame of Fire
But I may, without any Difficulty in the Transition, pass over from hence to a Contemplation of those Blessed Spirits, the ANGELS, of whom it is said, Heb. 17. They are a Flame of Fire: And this the rather, because it is also said, of Them, Zech. 4. 10. They are the Eyes of the Lord. The Angels of God, even those Wonderful and Excellent Spirits, which compose the Heavenly Host, are very fitly called, Seraphim, or, Burners, for their Flaming Zeal, as well as upon other accounts. And he that would approve himself an Angelical man, (which the Pastors of Churches, who are called Angels, are concerned above others to do) must be a man of a Flaming Zeal for God, and for His Truths, and for His Ways, and against the Sin that is Offensive to Him. 'Tis very certain, That there are Good Angels, even Rational Substances, which are Spirits, that were made by God, in the Beginning of Time, for His own more special Service and Honour. This is doubted by none, but men under an horrible possession of the Evil Ones. That there are Evil Angels, we have had among our selves more than Mathematical Demonstration; and this is an Irrefragable Demonstration, That there are Good Ones too. Tho' Moses do not expressly mention the Angels, in his History of the Creation. yet the Repetition of that History in the Hundred and Fourth Psalm seems to make an Express ⟨p. 134⟩mention of them. Indeed, the Nature, the Office, the Degrees of Angels, do come on to our observation, by slow Degrees in the Book of God. The Story of the Bible is carried on Two Thousand years, even as far down as the Days of Abraham, ere we find any Angels visibly Exhibiting themselves unto the World. The Coming of the Messiah, the Lord of Angels, is in the Sacred Story, made somewhat plain, before the Angels themselves are much Exhibited in these Oracles. And possibly, towards the End of the World, the Truths concerning Angels, will be marvellously recovered, out of the Darkness as yet upon them, and more Discovered unto the People of God, than ever since the World began. However the Angels are now mentioned above two Hundred and sixty times in the Bible of God; and it becomes all that Enjoy the Bible, not only to Believe, but also to Study, with a due Modesty, the Ministry of Angels for the Chosen of God, under the Conduct of our Lord Jesus Christ.