A Coal from the Altar, to Kindle the Holy Fire of Zeal
Ward, Samuel, 1577-1640Project Gutenberg · United StatesDec 2019
Rating 3.0- Word count
- 82K words
- Chapters
- 9
Tags
English Originals Religion Religious ZealIntellectual EnlightenmentMoral CultivationMissionary WritingsHomiletic LiteraturePopular ExplanationReligious SermonsPuritan TraditionChurch of EnglandDevotional ReadingSummary
Project Gutenberg was the first provider of free electronic books, or eBooks. Michael Hart, founder of Project Gutenberg, invented eBooks in 1971 and his memory continues to inspire the creation of eBooks and related technologies today.A Coal From The Altar, To Kindle The Holy Fire of Zeale by Samuel WardAuthor: Ward, Samuel, 1577-1640,Language: English, Class: BX: Philosophy, Psychology, Religion: Christianity: Churches, Church movements, Release Date: Aug 3, 2005Editor's review
This is a seventeenth-century sermon by the English Puritan Samuel Ward, centered on the theme of "zeal" and using the fire of the altar as a metaphor to urge believers to rekindle their devotion. The text belongs to the typical early modern English sermon literature, with intricate sentence structures and dense scriptural allusion, retaining the rhetorical tension characteristic of religious writing of the period. Its value lies not in offering a practical program of faith but in giving readers direct access to a primary text of the Puritan devotional tradition and a sense of that era's insistent pursuit of inward piety. For readers studying the intellectual history of post-Reformation England, homiletics, or early modern English, it is a rare piece of primary source material. General readers seeking light devotional reading may find the experience rather demanding. It is best approached as a document of historical value rather than as a popular work.Who it's for
A good fit for
- Scholars studying the Puritan movement and seventeenth-century religious thought in England
- Literary researchers interested in the genre of the sermon and early modern English rhetoric
- Readers wishing to engage with primary texts of Christian devotional literature
Not a good fit for
- General readers who prefer modern vernacular and a light reading experience
- Students seeking systematic theology textbooks or introductory guides
- Purely literary readers with no interest in religious themes
Reading tips
- Begin with an introductory article on Puritan studies to become familiar with the historical context and terminology before turning to the main text.
- Read slowly, paragraph by paragraph, consulting the sources of biblical quotations to follow the line of argument.
- Read alongside a modern English translation or annotated edition to reduce the difficulty of early modern sentence structures.
About the publisher
Project Gutenberg United States · Founded in 1971Project Gutenberg is a digital publishing project focused on public-domain ebooks. Its publishing direction centers on classic literary works whose copyright has expired, covering genres such as poetry, drama, fiction, and epic. Representative books include Lyrical Ballads by Wordsworth and Coleridge, Proust's Du côté de chez Swann, Shakespeare's Macbeth and The Complete Works of William Shakespeare, Homer's The Iliad, Dante's La Divina Comèdia: Purgatòri, Cervantes's The History of Don Quixote, Volume 2, and Grahame's The Wind in the Willows. Its author resources consist mainly of classic Western writers such as Wordsworth, Proust, Shakespeare, Homer, Dante, Cervantes, Grahame, and Tolstoy. Its publishing feature is the provision of freely accessible ebooks in EPUB and Kindle formats; it is not a traditional publisher, and publicly available information is limited.
Contents
- 1
- 2
- 3
- 4
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- 8
- 9
FAQ
Is this book suitable for readers with no religious background?
It can be read, but some preparation is needed. The sermon relies heavily on biblical quotations and the theological controversies of its time; without background knowledge it is hard to follow the argument. It is advisable to first grasp the basic outlines of the Puritan movement and then read the book as a historical document rather than a devotional guide; the gain will be clearer.Is the text in Old English or Early Modern English?
It is Early Modern English, close in period to the King James Bible, retaining many archaic forms in grammar and spelling, but it is not Old English. Readers with a foundation in English can work through it with the help of annotations, though the sentences are long and the rhetoric dense, requiring patience.What should be noted when reading an electronic edition?
Public-domain e-books usually lack modern editorial annotations, so it is advisable to have a Bible index tool at hand for locating quotations. One may first browse the table of contents and opening to judge the length and structure, then decide whether to read closely or selectively.This site is an index: you start “Search all sources” in your browser, and the entries it lists all point to third-party sites; please judge their availability yourself.
About the author
Ward, Samuel, 1577-1640 Author · English · 1577–1640Samuel Ward (1577–1640) was an English Puritan minister. Public information about his life and education is limited; what can be confirmed is that he long served in the ministry and was known for his devotional writings. His representative work, A Coal From The Altar, To Kindle The Holy Fire of Zeale, takes its title from the fire of the altar and seeks to kindle zeal in believers' hearts, reflecting the Puritan literary style with its emphasis on inner examination and practical faith. The library also records his devotional work The Life of Faith. His writings, addressed mainly to ordinary believers in plain and earnest language, stress godly living and spiritual renewal, giving him a place in the seventeenth-century English Puritan devotional tradition and some influence on later English devotional literature.