N00887:80
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.
Christianus per Ignem. Or, A Disciple WARMING himself And OWNING hi… › Meditation 1: Meditation I.
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 Fire proving it self to be indeed the Fire.
I See the Fire before me; But how do I know, that it is the Fire? The Philosopher long ago answered, Qui tam Stulte quaerunt, Ignem tangant. Truly, the proof of it, is better ⟨p. 44⟩Felt, than Spoke. I feel that it is […] Fire; I have a Sense of it, that I can't easily describe in words, unto another man; I need no Arguments to convince me of it; and if there were Arguments to the contrary, shaped with never such unanswerable Sophistry, I should think it Answer enough unto them, I know 'tis otherwise!
I See the Fire before me; But how do I know, that it is the Fire? The Philosopher long ago answered, Qui tam Stulte quaerunt, Ignem tangant. Truly, the proof of it, is better ⟨p. 44⟩Felt, than Spoke. I feel that it is 〈…〉 Fire; I have a Sense of it, that I can't easily describe in words, unto another man; I need no Arguments to convince me of it; and if there were Arguments to the contrary, shap'd with never such unanswerable Sophistry, I should think it Answer enough unto them, I know 'tis otherwise!
This Meditation carries me to consider, How do I know the Scriptures of the Old and New Testament to be the Word of God! And that which makes the consideration more agreeable, is, That this Word, is called, Jer.20 9. A Burning Fire. It is a Thing of more than ordinary consequence unto every Christian, to be well established in this point, How may a Christian indeed know, That our Bible is the Word of God, or, a Book of Truth, and a Rule of Life, given by Inspiration from Heaven? For, the influence of the Bible, on our whole Behaviour here, and Blessedness hereafter, depends on our Faith of this point; & our grand Enemy labours nothing more, than to keep our Faith hereof as Feeble as ever he can To confirm our Faith of our Bibles being the Word of God, we are, not unfurnished with moral Arguments enough to silence the contradiction of Sinners. It is infinitely reasonable to Believe, That the most High God has committed unto Writing, some where or other, what He would have us Think, and to Do, in order to our Glorifying of Him.