N00528:227
Winter-meditations directions how to employ the leisure [sic] of the winter for the glory…Winter-meditations directions how to employ the liesure [sic] of the winter for the glory…
Winter-meditations directions how to employ the leisure [sic] of the winter for the glory of God. : Accompanied with reflections, as well historical, as theological, not only upon the circumstances of the winter, but also, upon the notable works of God, both in, creation, and providence: especially those, which more immediately concern every particular man, in the whole course of his life: and upon the religious works, wherewith every man should acknowledge God, in and from the accidents of the winter. / By Cotton Mather. ; With a preface of the Reverend, Mr. John Higginson.Winter-meditations directions how to employ the liesure [sic] of the winter for the glory of God. : Accompanied with reflections, as well historical, as theological, not only upon the circumstances of the winter, but also, upon the notable works of God, both in, creation, and providence: especially those, which more immediately concern every particular man, in the whole course of his life: and upon the religious works, wherewith every man should acknowledge God, in and from the accidents of the winter. / By Cotton Mather. ; With a preface of the Reverend, Mr. John Higginson.
Boston: printed by Benjamin Harris over-against the Old-Meeting-House, 1693
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.
[What Silius writes about the Top of Burning Aetn••.] Would it not be a most Irksome Thing to have a perpetual Winter upon us? But let all Unregenerates know, That it is always winter with them. Consider Sirs, Consider whether you have no• the signs of the worst winter, in the World upon you. The Cold of the winter does make things to become Un••ctive. As […] and the like Instruments will not Go in the winter; even the very Moral o• them sometimes is thereby distended so that their Teeth lose their Congruity; thus the Owners are sufficiently Listless too. And are not you […]? You can't Come, no, nor so much as Look, to the Lord Jesus Christ, for Life, tho' the Life of your Souls depend upon it. You can't Walk with God, or Move with any Activity, much less, can you […] with an Enlarged Heart in the Way of His Commandments. Again, The Cold of ⟨p. 77⟩the winter does make things to become Insensible. They who Die of the Cold, after their Hands and Feet are throughly seized, often grow past feeling; and fall into a Lethargic Drowsiness, wherein and whereof they are like to Die Irrecoverably. And are not you so? You don't Hear, the Calls of the Gospel, tho' the Loudest Thunders, are not so loud as the voice of that Silver-Trumpet. You don't See the Beauty of your Saviour, tho' He be Altogether Lovely You don't feel the L•ad of your Sins, tho' that infinite L•ad, be heavier than Talents, and Mountains of L•ad upon your Souls: Is there not a Dead Sleep upon you? Once more, The Cold of the winter brings Putrefaction with it. Tho' whilst Bodies continue Frozen, the Cold by arresting those […] articles, •om whose Tumultuary Motions Corruption uses to proceed, may keep the. Ill Operations of the Cold upon the violated Textures of Bodies, from appearing; so Dead Bodies in Greenland have been preserved thirty years entire from Rottenness; yet when once that is removed, they commonly and speedily discover how much their Texture had been vitiated by the Cold. And, are you Free from That? Why then have you such Rotten Communications? and such Rotten Imaginations? Why are you so much like Open Sepulchres? And now what mean you, ye Unregenerates, that you are not yet weary of this wretched winter? Even solid Marbles have sometimes bin broken by the Cold; O let it break thy Rocky Heart, when thou thinkest of the Cold, wherein it is Bewintered.