N00592:60
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.
But, Fourthly, 'Tis among the Pious Uses of our Estates for us, to Forgive a Debt, when the Hand of God has made the Borrower unable to Discharge it. This is that which the Word of God recommends unto us, in Ezek. 18.7. and elsewhere, under that Expression of Restoring the Pledge. To Restore the Pledge, ⟨p. 10⟩is, To Remit the Debt. I confess, 'tis a just Thing, that they who by Bad Courses, render themselves Insolvent, should undergo whatever Lash the Law will help their Creditors to inflict upon them; for they are a sort of Cheats and Thieves, the punishment of whom is a thing very Sovereign and Wholesome for the whole Body Politic which they belonged unto. But when the pure Frowns of God, have brought a Debtor Low, it is a commendable thing to say like those Creditors, in Neh. 5.12. We will Require Nothing of them. And you know where to find a Terrible Parable delivered by our Lord Jesus, for the pressing of it. Hence 'tis the Charge of our Lord, in Luk. 6.35. Lend, Hoping for Nothing again. To take that Simply, were to be Simple indeed; it would be to alter the very Nature of Lending. But the meaning is, Lend, with a Disposition to call for Nothing again, in case the Hand of God should Impoverish the Borrower. The Greek word here signifies, to Despair; when we Lend, we should suppose that the Debt may become Desperate; and be ready to Release Principal as well as Interest, if Divine Providence make it so.
But, Fourthly, 'Tis among the Pious Uses of our Estates for us, to Forgive a Debt, when the Hand of God has made the Borrower unable to Discharge it. This is that which the Word of God recommends unto us, in Ezek. 18.7. and elsewhere, under that Expression of Restoring the Pledge. To Restore the Pledge, ⟨p. 10⟩is, To Remit the Debt. I confess, 'tis a just Thing, that they who by Bad Courses, render themselves Insolvent, should undergo whatever Lash the Law will help their Creditors to inflict upon them; for they are a sort of Cheats and Thieves, the punishment of whom is a thing very Soveraign and Wholesome for the whole Body Politick which they belong'd unto. But when the pure Frowns of God, have brought a Debtor Low, it is a commendable thing to say like those Creditors, in