N00441:51
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.
A Sacred Exorcism, upon Sinful DISCONTENT. Uttered on December 24.… › A General Admonition.
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.
A General Admonition.
That the Sin of DISCONTENT or MURMURING, is a most provoking and pernicious Iniquity, sometimes found among the People of God.
The Apostates, that were to Arise before, and are now quickly to perish by, the Brightness of our Lords Coming, have committed This, among the Rest of their Absurdities; That while they have most sacrilegiously [And for that cause, Come out from among them, O People of God!] stolen the second Commandment out of the Decalogue, they have Nonsensically split the Tenth into two. To confute their Folly; 'tis enough if we compare the two Copies of the Commandments in Exodus, and in Deuteronomy; In Exodus the House is put before the Wife, from whence, by the way it has been ⟨p. 38⟩sometimes gathered, that People before they Marry, should know Where and How, they are like to Live; But in Deuteronomy, the Wife is put before the House; doubtless for a Cause worth Considering. Now, if both be not One Commandment, Let 'em tell me, which is the Ninth Commandment, and which is the Tenth? No, I may say of this Law, as was of old said in another matter; Though• it be doubled, yet the Thing is but One! And so, 'tis One sin, that is the Chief Transgression of it; which One sin, is that of, DISCONTENT. To Eight against neither small nor great, but against this King in the Army of Sins, I shall with Gods Help at this Time, Endeavour; & there are Three Particular Heads of Discourse, under which I may dispatch the Work of God now before me. But, O Lord God, I pray thee, Remember me, and Strengthen me this Once, I pray thee!