N00441:32
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.
II. In the mean time, tis our Petition to God, that our Laborious Pastors may Cry aloud, and not spare, but lift up, their Voice like a Trumpet, against those Evils, which will not let our God become our Friend While they do like the Soldiers of G•deon car, the Light of the Gospel (as Paul, speaks) in Earthen Vessels, they also at the same time carry Trumpets to oppose what is Contrary unto God. Qui Claves haben• Eccles•• Ostia Suorum Lib••rum aperiant. The great God hath seen such Evils in our Camp, that He Demands, Who is on my side, against them all? It is to be hoped, that the Sons of Levi, will all appear for Him. Their Name is that of, A Reprover; and the Almighty God says unto them. as unto young Jeremiah, Arise, and Speak unto them all that I Command thee, been's dismayed at their Faces. I know very well, that the Reprover who acquits himself with a good ⟨p. 21⟩Fortitude and F••lelley, shall if not with John loose his own Head, yet loose the Heart of many an Exasperated ••fendor; but, God will make it up! Very truly says the Excellent OWEN; He is a lost man in this World, who without Respect of Persons, will engage seriously in this Work; Every Day he shall find one or other Displeased, if not Provoked. And yet even in this World, by the strange Interposition of Heaven, The Reprover often lives more Comfortably that the Flatterer. They Report of the Tiger, that the sound of a Trumpet, will cast him into a Prodigious Rage. Truly, the World ha's many Tigers in it; if we Lift up our Voice like a Trumpet, against their misdemeanours, they will be monstrousl. Enraged at it: but its no matter; […] we had been Dumb Dogs, instead of Shepherd, the Tigers would have l•k•d us: Let us have the Last Trumpet continually Sounding in our Ears; and that's Enough to animate us and Encourage us. W•• though our Athanasian Courage in bearing all sorts of Testimonies for our God, should so Ens•ame the Indignation of both Heretuke, and […], that for a man to Rail at Us, must be one of the first Shjbolth to