N00441:49
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.
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.
Of THIS, we have a doleful Instance in the Words now read unto us. The Corin•••ians had written a Letter unto the Apostle Paul, to request his Resolution, upon diverse Cases of Conscience, which they were in the Dark about. One of those Cases was, Whether Christians might have Communion with Pagans in th••r […] •• trous Festivals! Our Apostle […], No; by no means; and he […] […] with sundry Arguments. One of those Arguments is drawn from the Sin, & […] ⟨p. 34⟩wherein Christians would be Entangled by that Communion. It was an Usual thing for the Old Heathen Idolaters, at such & such Times of the Year, to have their Holidays in Honour of their Dri••es, and those Holidays were so many Merry Festivals among them. Thus particularly, in the Month of December, they had their Sa•urnalia• Jollities; and their S ••urn, whom they made the President of Drunkenness, being indeed, but Originally the same with our Noah, they then made a Trade of those Excesses, with one Act whereof, Noah of old was Unawares overtaken; and it was, Mensi• Geni•lis with them, as they called it; that is, A V•lup•••s. […]. Now, as those ••olick-some Festival, of Idolatry, did woefully Ensnare the Souls of the poor Pagans, in all sorts of Sins, and therefore in the Plagues that would be Consequent thereupon; So, if Christians ever […] bear a Part in those Rites of Pag•••, they do b• bring themselves into the […] of the like Sins and Plagues before the Lord. In the Prosecution of this matter, our • postle here lays before us, the Example of Sinful Israel; who making of a […] (or Ox) to suit the Impressions, which ⟨p. 35⟩