N00887:327
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 XXXIV.
On the quick passage of the Fire, from one Object unto another.
THE Fire, I see, nimbly passes, from one Stick to another: Yea, there are several sorts of combustible Materials lying together; but the Fire swiftly takes hold, first on one, then on another, and uses no great formality in the Transition. This puts me in mind of a Thing very observable in the Prophetical Writings, and which being well observed, would be a good Key to the meaning of them; and that is the sudden and obscure Transition of the Prophets from one Subject unto another. The Holy Spirit suggested unto their minds, first the Thoughts of Writing on such or such a Subject, and then assisted them as far as was requisite in the composition. But then at once the Holy Spirit carries them, like a Spreading ⟨p. 172⟩Flame, into now, and rare, and rich thoughts, and surprising Idea's, of the Messiah and His Kingdom; and what began in a •ort of Inspired Reasoning proceeds unaccountably to an Ecstatic Revelation. The First Subject is in a manner Deserted, and upon a New Hint, the Prophets perhaps without fully understanding, or comprehending the Transition themselves, are transported into predictions or the Messiah, and characters of His Person, and Office, and Actions. Many parts of the Bible will be the better Interpreted, if we do behold them, in the Fire Light of the Observation.