N00887:248
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.
Meditation. XXII.
On the Nimbleness of the Flame.
I am looking after some Qualities of the Flame, to consider, with such Reflections, as may have a Tendency to encourage Good Qualities in us that are about it. And methinks, the Nimbleness of it, gets before its other Qualities, and first offers it self to be considered. How Nimbly it moves? How Swiftly it proceeds! How Swiftly it Ascends! and gets beyond its Pyramidical Bounds, into the Invisible World! The Swiftness required unto the Pronunciation of that Verse, in the Dactyls whereof an Ingenious Person, did Poetically Limn out, (or, Sound out) the Nimble Flame, •erne Levem Stipulam •repitantibus urere flammis,
Is not equal to the Swiftness of that which it endeavours to decipher.