N00441:92
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.
Finally, Let us compare our Condition with what it has been, as well as with what ⟨p. 74⟩it will be. As for what you will be, 'tis said of the most opulent man alive, in Psal. 49. 17. When he Dyeth, he shall carry nothing away. The Great Saladin, the Commander of the World, ordered his Grave Clothes to be showed at his Funeral, and this Proclamation to be made, Her• is all that a mighty Emperor now lays claim unto. The Day is at hand, when all your Clothes will be but a Windingsheet, and all your Lands a Sepulchre. But, perhaps, what you have been heretofore, should not be forgotten with you. Altho' you have lost never so much, can't you call to mind the Time, when you had Less than God has yet left you the Owners of. I have sometimes noted it, That such as have Risen from Nothing, to some Figure and Splendour, are of all persons the least able to brook any Frowns of God upon what they have. If such as These do meet with any Shipwrecks, or Burnings, or disadvantageous Bargains, or with any thing that abates their Upstart, Splendour and Figure, what a wretched whimpering and whining is made by these little Souls? Now this argues a very marvellous wickedness ⟨p. 75⟩in the Hearts of men! I pray, Reflect! As Jacob could say, Once I had nothing but my Staff, whereas I am now become two Bands; Thus is it not within the Memory of Man, That you were hardly worth so much as the Head of the Cane which you now carry in your Hands! And what if God should Reduce you to That again? Will you be so Ingrate, and wicked as to say, I cannot bear […]? However, you may say with Job, in Job 1. 21. Naked came I out of my Mothers Womb; and therefore tho' you should now become, As poor as Job; yet you should again say with Job, The Lord gave, and the Lord has Taken away; Blessed be the Name of the Lord!
Finally, Let us compare our Condition with what it has been, as well as with what ⟨p. 74⟩it will be. As for what you will be, 'tis said of the most opulent man alive, in