N00887:298
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 XXIX.
On the Sap of the Wood, forced out by the Fire.
When I see the Sap forced out of the Wood, by the Fire, I sometimes think on […] Tears of a Forced Repentance. The Sacred Scriptures report unto us, the Instances both of Persons and Peoples, from whom the Every Judgments of God have sometimes fetched Expressions of Sorrow and Remorse for their Sins against Him. And we see it in our daily experience, That Sinners under grievous Affliction, have seemed very penitent, and with Tears have professed their penitence. But the Liquor which drops out at the end of the Consuming Wood, is not more loathsome, or De••is'd by any of us, that look upon it, than the Tears of a Repentance, produced by the mere Torture of the Divine Judgments upon us, are ⟨p. 162⟩to the God who Weighs our Spirits. The Tears of Wretches under punishment, shed only because they feel themselves punished, are none of them any more in the Bottle of God, than that wretched Water which runs from our Brands Ends, is thought worthy to be preserved by us, in any of our Vials. One Tear proceeding from a genuine, and gracious principle, of Trouble and Anger at our selves for having offended the Holy God, and of Admiration at His Goodness, in providing for us, revealing to us, and Inviting us into the Methods of Reconciliation to himself, is of more account, than a River of those that are the Fruit of mere Vexation at our own uneasy circumstances.