N00592:17
Durable riches. Two brief discourses, occasioned by the impoverishing blast of heaven, which the…
Durable riches. Two brief discourses, occasioned by the impoverishing blast of heaven, which the undertakings of men, both by sea and land, have met withal. : The one, handling, the true cause of loosing; the other, giving, the true way of thriving. / By Cotton Mather. ; [Four lines of quotations in Latin]
Boston: printed by John Allen for Vavasour Harris, 1695
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.
There were sore Losses that befell the People of God, who having obtained from the King, a Good Charter, with a Good Governor, Empowering them to Settle a Good Order both in Church and State, among themselves, too soon laid aside the Holy Designs which they had begun upon. The Losses which thus Crippled the Body of this People as well by Land, as by Sea, in the Infancy of their Plantation, must needs be very Exercising. Their Condition is in these words Expressed unto them, Ye looked for much, and lo it came to little; and when ye brought it home, I did blow upon it. It seems they met with such Losses in their Ways of Living, whether by Tillage, or by Traffic, that they could not Thrive in any of their Undertakings. But the God of Heaven, very ⟨p. 3⟩graciously sent one of His Ministers, to debate with the people about their Losses, & Exhort them and Invite them to Repent of the Sins, which had been the Moral Causes of those Disasters.
There were sore Losses that befel the People of God, who having obtained from the King, a Good Charter, with a Good Governour, Empowring them to Settle a Good Order both in Church and State, among themselves, too soon laid aside the Holy Designs which they had begun upon. The Losses which thus Creepled the Body of this People as well by Land, as by Sea, in the Infancy of their Plantation, must needs be very Exercising. Their Condition is in these words Expressed unto them, Ye looked for much, and lo it came to little; and when ye brought it home, I did blow upon it. It seems they met with such Losses in their Wayes of Living, whether by Tillage, or by Traffick, that they cou•d not Thrive in any of their Undertakings. But the God of Heaven, very ⟨p. 3⟩graciously sent one of His Ministers, to debate with the people about their Losses, & Exhort them and Invite them to Repent of the Sins, which had been the Moral Causes of those Disasters.
Our Haggai was one of those Ministers; and, as 'tis noted by one of the Ancients, because this Haggai was but a Young Man, Lest any should therefore Despise his Youth, he came with a very Divine Authority; he demands Attention, with a doubled, Thus saith the Lord of Hosts; and, if the Message come from, The Lord of Hsts, who dare do any other than Attend unto it? The Errand upon which our Prophet here comes unto this People, is, briefly, to direct them unto a way, how they might both find out the Cause, and obtain the End, of all the Calamitous Losses, which had overtaken them. And that i my Errand unto Yu this Day; in the Discharge whereof the Text now Read will be very Serviceable.