N00441:61
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.
Thirdly, There are many, perverse, Froward, Expressions, wherein Discontent uses to vent it self. Indeed, it Leads to the Breach of all the Commandments; particularly, The first Motions to all Second Table Sins, are in this Discontent. But there are some other Expressions of Discontent, which the other Commandments do not so directly refer unto. It is said, in Eccl. 6. 9. The wandering of the Desire;—this also is vanity and vexation of Spirit. Where Discontent comes, the Desire falls to wandering after this and that vanity, and from thence comes a vexation in the Absence of it. A discontented man does first wish that he had this and that, which God has placed out of his reach, and he does then Vex, and fret, and fume, that he cannot reach it. He is a man that fancies ⟨p. 44⟩many straits upon him, and they are but Fancied straits; as it is said in Job 20. 22. In the Fullness of his Sufficiency; he shall be in straits. He has more wants then ever God Almighty permitted him to reckon so; and though he be never so much preferred, unless he may have the Knee of Mordecai too, he says, All this availeth me nothing! And To, a vast flux of Cares now runs and eats into the Soul of such a man. We should ordinarily treat our Cares, as a Person of Quality does his Inferiors, that ask to wait upon him; we should say, Let 'em stay, till I call […] them in! But by Discontent, the Doors of our Souls, are set open so, that all kinds of Cares rush in upon us, with a most untruly violence; and O what a Clamour do they make upon us! Our Affections hereupon come to be all in a Tumult; like that Riotous Multitude at Ephesus, One cries one thing, another cries another, and all is in Confusion! And our Soul-nourishing, our Soul-refreshing Thoughts of God, are superseded by Troublesome Thoughts, upon that point, How shall I Compass my Desires? At last, it grows on to the Discouragement, and Melancholy; ⟨p. 45⟩which is quite contrary to Serving of God with Gladness of Heart. The Hornets that stung the Hearts as well as the Skins of the Ancient Canaanites, are got into the Soul of a Discontented man; they disorder the man, as the Hornets that got into the Trunks of the Elephants, did the Army of Sapores, when he Besieged a C• ty where many Christians were Endangered. Yea, 'tis well if this Inward Fever do not cause a Scab upon the Lip: