N00441:72
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.
Fourthly. Discontent is the most Unreasonable piece of Madness, the maddest piece of Unreasonableness in the World. It is said of Discontented persons, in Psal. 39. 6. Surely, they are Disquieted in Vain. Truly, t'were easy to give a thousand Evidences, ⟨p. 54⟩that People are usually Discontented in Vain, when they are so at all.
Discontent, it will procure none of the those Good Things we are concerned for: They will not come a bit the sooner for all our Intemperate Snatches after them. Indeed, a Likely, yea, a Certain way for us, to have more Good, is to be so Content with what we have already, as to be Thankful for it. I have heard, that Old Mr. Dod, having a Kinswoman, among the first Planters of New-England, who Underwent more than Ordinary Inconveniences, in the Beginning of the Plantation, he sent the Gentlewoman for a present, at the same time, first, a Brass Counter, then a Silver Crown and then a Gold Jacobus, all of them severally wrapped up; with this Instruction to the Gentleman who carried it; That he should first present her only the Counter, and if she received it with any show of Discontent, he should then take no further Notice of her; but if she Gratefully Resented that small Thing, for the sake of the hand it came from, he should then go on to present the Silver, & so the Gold; and withal assure her, That such would ⟨p. 55⟩he the Dispensations of God unto her, and the other good People of New-England; if they would be content with such little things as God at first bestowed upon them, they should in Time have Silver and Gold enough. The Gentlewoman gave the man occasion to go thro' with all his Presents; and many more besides her have also found the Reality of the Observation. But now, Discontent puts men out of the way and reach of Gods Blessing upon them. If a man do happen to Get any thing with discontent, it is a thousand to one, he'll keep it so, if he keep it at all. What comes with a Eret, has a Eret in it when it comes. If a Rachel be discontented for her Barrenness, and cries, Give me Children! what sort of Children do they prove unto her? Truly, very deadly Ones. No,