N00887:364
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.
On the Ashes.
MY Hearth has now an heap of Ashes upon it. But can my Heart Read nothing there? Methinks, I can Read several Admonitions written in the Ashes, though no one has formed any distinct characters on ⟨p. 182⟩them. To find Salt in the Ashes, would be no difficulty: to fetch Grace from the Ashes, ( •hat Heavenly Salt!) would be a greater and a better Action.
Out of the Ashes, 'tis well known, we make the Soap wherewith our Clothes are cleansed. On that passage in Luk. 14. 34, 35. The Salt is Good; but if the Salt have lost its savour, wherewith shall it be seasoned? It is neither fit for the Land, nor for the Dunghill, but men cast it out. I remember, Monsieur Le Cler•, thinks 'tis not Salt properly so called, that is there spoken of. He says, That Salt loses not its Savour; and that Salt which keeps its Savour is neither fit for the Land, nor for the Dunghill; and that if it keeps not its Savour, yet it is not cast out. He therefore supposes, That the Husbandmen called Ashes for Lye (which have the Salt of the Wood therein) by the Name of Salt. The Ashes 'tis very sure, lose their Savour, when they are diluted with Washing, and they did so, when of old they washed their Linen in them. And being thus diluted, they are not fit either to manure the Ground alone, or mixed with Dung; for they have lost the Salt with which they were impregnated. Then indeed they are fit for nothing, but for to be cast out into the High way. However, Monsieur Le Clear, submits his conjecture unto the Judgment of the Learned, (and so do I) for he has no precedent for his conjecture, and the Critick