N00887:337
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 XXXVI.
On Trials by the Fire.
Metals are not the only Things that are Tried by the Fire; All Bodies have their Trials in it: The Fire will discover the Nature, the Texture, and the Temper of what is put into it. And I too must come into the Fire; Grant, O my God. That when I am Tried, I may come forth as Gold.
MEtals are not the only Things that are Tried by the Fire; All Bodies have their Trials in it: The Fire will discover the Nature, the Texture, and the Temper of what is put into it. And I too must come into the Fire; Grant, O my God. That when I am Tried, I may come forth as Gold.
It becomes me, in the first place, to put my self as into the Fire, by a serious, frequent, exact Self-Examination. It is very certain, That I am fully known unto that God, whose Eyes behold, and whose Eye lids try, the Children of men, and of whom it is an Assertion, perhaps more than seven times repeated in His Oracles That He Tries the Hearts and the Reins. But it is of unspeakable consequence unto me, That I know my self; and that I may do so, […] as much consequence, That I Try my self. To be very solicitous, in Self Examination, would be both a Sign, and a Cause, of Sincerity. Hence, as when I have the Word of God