N00887:28
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 Time of our Lords being Arraigned, and Condemned, for us, had this Remark upon it; It was Cold. May that Circumstance add some warmth unto our Meditations on the Sufferings of our Lord. When we Remember, that the Agonies which our Lord in a Cold Night Endured for us, were such as notwithstanding His then Lying on the Cold Ground, threw Him into a bloody Sweat, it may well make us cry out, Lord, what means the Heat of this Anger? And beholding the Love of our Lord Jesus Christ unto us, in these His direful Agonies, we must acknowledge, The Coals of this Love, were Coals of Fire, having a most vehement Flame. What a deplorable Thing is it, that a Disciple, who had newly seen these Agonies of his Lords Love unto Him, should when Warming himself by a Fire of Coals, in that very Night, find his own Love unto his Lord so Cold, as to Deny Him!
The Time of our Lords being Arraign'd, and Condemn'd, for us, had this Remark upon it; It was Cold. May that Circumstance add some warmth unto our Meditations on the Sufferings of our Lord. When we Remember, that the Agonies which our Lord in a Cold Night Endured for us, were such as notwithstanding His then Lying on the Cold Ground, threw Him into a bloody Sweat, it may well make us cry out, Lord, what means the Heat of this Anger? And beholding the Love of our Lord Jesus Christ unto us, in these His direful Agonies, we must acknowledge, The Coals of this Love, were Coals of Fire, having a most vehement Flame. What a deplorable Thing is it, that a Disciple, who had newly seen these Agonies of his Lords Love unto Him, should when Warming himself by a Fire of Coals, in that very Night, find his own Love unto his Lord so Cold, as to Deny Him!
That this Time should be so Cold, may be perhaps by some a little wondered at, because the Spring was now advancing; the month of March was now begun▪ the Harvest in that ⟨p. 19⟩warm Climate was at hand. Our Biddulph, a famous English Traveller being in Jerusalem, at this very Time of the year, found the Day so hot, that he wondered how Peter could now be so Cold, as to creep unto the Fire side; but when the Night arrived, he found such misty, damp and chill Dews fall, as resolved his Doubt; for it was very Cold indeed. And the Jewish Rabbi's, in some of their Canons, do suppose Frost and Snow sometimes happening, at the oming in of Nisan, a little before the Passover. Tis true, the Greek word here used for Cold, is used in profane Authors, to signify the Intensest cold of the Winter; but here, if it signify no other than the wet cold of the Equinoctial Nights, that was cold enough, to call for a Fire among men that valued their Health; And Austin therefore gives this Account of it, Non Hyems erat, et tamen Frigus erat, quale solet etiam aequinoctio verno aliquano contingere.