N00441:11
Fair weather. Or Considerations to dispel the clouds, & allay the storms, of discontent
Fair weather. Or Considerations to dispel the clouds, & allay the storms, of discontent: in a discourse which with an entertaining variety, both of argument and history, lays open, the nature and evil of that pernicious vice, and offers diverse antidotes against it; / by Cotton Mather. ; Whereto there is prefixed a catalogue of sins against all the commandments, whereof all that would make thorough work of repentance, especially at this day when the God of heaven so loudly calls for it, should make their serious and sensible confessions before the Lord; with an humble and fervent address unto this whole people, there-about.Fair weather. Or Considerations to dispel the clouds, & allay the storms, of discontent: in a discourse which with an entertaining variety, both of argument and history, layes open, the nature and evil of that pernicious vice, and offers diverse antidotes against it; / by Cotton Mather. ; Whereto there is prefixed a catalogue of sins against all the commandments, whereof all that would make thorough work of repentance, especially at this day when the God of heaven so loudly calls for it, should make their serious and sensible confessions before the Lord; with an humble and fervent address unto this whole people, there-about.
Boston: printed by Bartholomew Green for Benjamin Harris, 1692
Title page typeset from the transcription.
Introduction: AN Humble and Faithful TESTIMONY For God, unto the Children of my People.
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.
Inasmuch as the Miscarriage of our First Parents, while they represented whole Mankind in the Covenant of God, is by a Divine Ordination and Imputation most equally laid upon us all, it is but Righteous with God that the Children of such Parents, in their becoming so, be left without the Righteousness, with which His Image, now defaced by Theirs, would else have made them glorious; and the Absence of that Image, does as Reasonably, as Necessarily, infer the Presence of a Nature in us […] with a Depraved Prejudice against what is, Holy and Just, and Good.
INasmuch as the Miscarriage of our First Parents, while they represented whole Mankind in the Covenant of God, is by a Divine Ordination and Imputation most equally laid upon us all, it is but Righteous with God that the Children of such Parents, in their becoming so, be left without the Righteousness, with which His Image, now defaced by Theirs, would else have made them glorious; and the Absence of that Image, does as Reasonably, as Necessarily, infer the Presence of a Nature in us 〈…〉 with a Depraved Prejudice against what is, Holy and Just, and Good.
Such a Corrupt Fountain will have Bitter, Woeful, Deadly Streams; and w• may see [Lord, open our eyes!] a doleful prospect of them in our Hearts and our Ways.
Such a Corrupt Fountain will have Bitter, Woful, Deadly Streams; and w• may see [Lord, open our eyes!] a doleful prospect of them in our Hearts and our Wayes.
Hence 'tis, That we do not Acknowledge the True God, nor labour for an Acquaintance with Him; nor Glorify Him, in Thinking of Him, Speaking for Him, Praying to Him, Hearing from Him, Choosing Him, Loving Him, Trusting Him, & Serving Him; & Rejoicing in Him, when we have had nothing else to comfort us. Instead thereof, we Deny Him, we Forsake Him, we have mean Opinions of Him; we give to the World & the Flesh, & the Devil, the Homage which is due to Him alone; we let Creatures have the Affection, the Dependence, the Obedience, which he alone may lay claim unto; nor do we live as having him always in our Eyes. We have also laid open our selves to Heacsits about the Christian Faith; by a rush admission of Thoughts that overthrow the glorious Frame of Religion. Yea, there have been, at least Implicit Witchcrafts in some of our Usages.