N00887:8
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.
A Prefatory POEM To the Little Book, Entitled, Christianus per Ignem.
A Praefatory POEM To the Little Book, Entituled, Christianus per Ignem.
The Fire of Meditation burns What Sense into the Fancy turns. And all is G•ist that comes to Mill Where thinking is with grace & skill For all men know the busy mind I to one Object not confined. The touch, the taste, Eye, Ear and Smell, Matter provide for musing well. Invention, Judgment, Memory, And Conscience have a faculty, To make all praise him that made all: The Sanctified thus bless Him shall. There is a Stone (as I am told) That turns all Metals into Gold: But I believe, that there is none, Save pious Meditation. Yet if there be, sure this excels, That […] them Gold, and all things else. ⟨p. 3⟩The Brass, the Iron Dogs, and Tongs, And Bellows that have leather Lungs Fire, Wood, Brands, Ashes, Coal▪ and Smoke, Do all to Godliness provoke: The flame, the sparks, light, heat, and motion, Are Metamorphosed to Devotion. If Godliness be greatest gain, And doth when Gold is dross, remain; Conclude then this Celestial Stone, Out does the Philosophic One.
THe Fire of Meditation burns What Sense into the Fancy turns. And all is G•ist that comes to Mill Where thinking is with grace & skill For all men know the busie mind I to one Object not confin'd. The touch, the taste, Eye, Ear and Smell, Matter provide for musing well. Invention, Judgment, Memory, And Conscience have a faculty, To make all praise him that made all: The Sanctify'd thus bless Him shall. There is a Stone (as I am told) That turns all Metals into Gold: But I believe, that there is none, Save pious Meditation. Yet if there be, sure this excels, That 〈…〉 them Gold, and all things else. ⟨p. 3⟩