N00441:63
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.… › II. The Evil of DISCONTENT.
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. The Evil of DISCONTENT.
Now to Blacken the Sin of Discontent, Let it be Considered.
First, Our Discontent is a Monstrous Piece of Ungodliness, Yea, of Rebellion against the Almighty Lord. There is a woeful Corruption in the Soul, where DISCONTENT Predominates; it is like a Fretting Humour in an Ulcer, yea a Cancer of the mind. It is Ungodliness: in Jude 15. 16. we find Ungodliness, no less than four times over, in one verse charged upon some in the world; and who are they? It follows, These are Murmurers, Complainers, Yea, 'tis B•belion. In Numb. 16. 41. with 17. 10. It was said, All the Congregation Murmured; and then it follows, There was a Token against the Rebels. Indeed, our Discontent, is but a Quarrelling with Almighty God; but, Woe to him that striver with his Maker? A discontented man, either Quarrels the Wisdom of God, as if ⟨p. 47⟩God might have done things more conveniently; or, he Quarrels the Goodness of God, as if Good pleased himself in our Sorrows; or he Quarrels the Truth of God, as if God would not fulfil his Merciful Engagements. However, be sure, he Quarrels the Justice of God. Qui de pnts Murmur at, Ferientis Justitiam accusat. Among all his Lamentations, you shall not hear him-using the words in our Inspired Lamentations, Why should a Living Man complain! a man for the punishment of his Sin? He does not own his Sinfulness to be such, nor Gods Righteousness, that he is dealt kindly withal, while any thing short of Death and Hill, is inflicted on him. It is indeed a most Impious and Accursed Pride, which is the Rise of our Discontent. A Sinner counts himself to Be better than his Neighbours, and therefore if he don't Fare better than they, he will be Discontented at it. Yea, the Almighty God himself must gratify all of his Capricio's, or he'll be dissatisfied. Altho' there is perhaps not one known Papist an Inhabitant of this Country; yet there is many an Antichrist in the midst of us; Every Discontented man has, A Man of