N00441:68
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.
Secondly, Our Discontent is not only Disagreeable to the Spirit of a Christian, but it is the very Spirit of the Devil. The Blessed Spirit of God, is like a Dove, whose meek, sweet, quiet Qualities, are inconsistent with Discontent; there is a Vulture, or an Harpy, that preys upon the Soul, where Discontent is Harboured Now, the Spirit of God is in every Christian; and, if he be got but as far as A. […]. C. in Christianity, that Spirit has made him Con a little of this Lesson, To be Content. The Christian has chosen God, both for his LORD, and for his GOOD; and hence, let things go never so Ill with him, there are two things that he attains unto. One is that in Psal. 39. 9. I was Dumb, I opened not my mouth; because thou didst it. He is willing that God should Rule, the whole World, and all his own little Affairs in the World. Another is that in I Sam. 30. 6. He Encouraged himself in the Lord his God. He reckons, ⟨p. 49⟩that while be has the Enjoyment of God the Knowledge, the Image, the Favour of God left unto him, the loss of all other things, is but like the spilling of a Cup of Water, unto him that has a perennous Fountain running at his Door. This is the Spirit of a Christian! But what then is Discontent? It is truly, the Spirit of the Devil. Satan is the greatest Malcontent in the World; and he is, The Father of such. He (with all his Legions) is a Roving, as well as a Roaring sort of a Creature; 'tis said of him, He seeks Rest, and finds none. We […] concerning, the Discontented man, He […] the Troubled Sea. Now 'tis said in Jam. 2. 19. The Devils Tremble; the Greek word is an Allusion to the Noise made in the Rote of the Sea, or by the dashing and breaking of the Ways against the Rocks. The Devils, and the Discontented, are like one another; both of them, as the Troubled Sea. Discontent is of all things, most properly, Vitium Diabolicum; there is a sort of Diabolism in Discontent; our Murmur is therefore the Devils Music. And hence, Discontent is the Stock upon which the Devil uses to Graft the most ⟨p. 50⟩violent and outrageous, of his Temptations. How many doleful Wretches, have been decoyed into Witchcraft it self, by the opportunities which their Discontent has given the Devil, to visit 'em and seduce 'em? We have seen tremendous instances of those Hellish Witchcrafts and Compacts unto which the discontent of some have driven them.