N00887:286
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. XXVII.
On the Sparks issuing from the Fire.
Beholding the Sparks to ascend in such Number, and with such Briskness, from the Fire, what can I so readily think upon, as those words of Eliphaz, Job 5. 7. Man is born unto Trouble, as the Sparks fly upward! The first Thought, which at the first View, now naturally rises like a Spark from the Fire, in the mind of a Devout Reader, would be This; That it is not more Natural for the Sons of the Burning Coal (as the Sparks are called here) to fly upward, ⟨p. 157⟩than it is for the Sons of Sinful man to run into Trouble. It becomes me therefore to live to the continual Expectation of Troubles; yea, as many Sparks do arise together from the Fire, and these do no sooner disappear, but as many more Sparks do succeed, so I must Expect a Succession of Troubles: And it will not be unprofitable for me, to consider Sin, as the Fire at the Bottom, from which all these Troubles are produced. We need not quote any Pagan Authority to prove, Natum in curas hominum genus. General Experience gives us proof Enough. Christians are Forewarned by the Lord, who was Himself a Man of sorrows and acquainted with griefs, That in the World we shall have Trouble. The Disciples of the Lord, who Dyed upon a Cross, must all be Cross bearers, no less than that famous Prince who was called, Crouch back, from his wearing an image of the Cross on his Back. Being thus Forewarned, let me be Forearmed, and not be Surprised, when Troubles of all kinds come upon me; but be prepared with Faith, and Patience to encounter them.