N00441:87
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.
Furthermore, let us think, Tho' my condition be never so bad, it won't be Long. Our Mortality may give a Deaths would unto our Discontent. So thought the Apostle in I Tim. 6, 7, 8. We brought nothing into the World, and it is certain we can carry nothing out; Now having Food and Raiment, let us be therewith Content. Are we Discontent, because we have not so full a Chest as another man? Remember, Within a little while, I am to be my self Locked up in a Black Chest, among the Dead! Are we Discontent, because we have not so fair an House, as another man? Remember, ⟨p. 68⟩A cold, small, dark House, of about six foot long, will 'ere lo•g serve my Turn! Are we Discontent, because our Tables are not so well spread, as we would have them? Remember, I shall my self shortly Feed the Worms! But when are we like to see this Time? Truly, 'tis upon the Wing towards us; it flies, as we read in Job 9, 25, 26. Swifter than a Past, passing as the swift Ships, as the Eagle that hastens to the Prey. With so quick a Dispatch, will the Time come upon us, when that which […] causes our Discontent; will all be over […] […], quid mul••• viatici? We have not so much of our Way yet before us, that we should be Discontents about what […] […] in the way. A Great Saint among […] a Bone broken, and not well set again, with a pleasant gravity said unto some of his Friends that were Discontented a• […] no matter, it will serve as long […] I have […] for it. Why, are we Discontent, because our Affairs are any of ••em out of Joint. It may be things will […] as they are, while we have any […] them. O keep the Curse of […] in the world; and say with the […], Lord, I am a Sojourner! Tho' ⟨p. 69⟩we Fare-hard, and Lodge hard, and are molested with filthy Bugs, that will fetch Blood of us too, yet Remember, All these are but the Inconveniences of our Inn, from whence I shall be gone immediately! What Esau said profanely about his Birth right, we may piously say for our own Content, Beh•la, I am at the point to Dy, and what signifies it, whether the World go one way or […] with me? And as our Dying, so do our Lords Coming loudly bespeak our Contentment, with what our Station is. It was said, in