N00592:69
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.
Fourthly, We are to do it Sincerely. Our Bread is to be Cast upon the WATERS; and there are two Notes of Sincerity couched in that Clause. Our Estates must be Cast upon the Water• ; that is, without Hope of Return. By Watery places here, some understand Watery Faces; that is, those whose Cheeks are by Affliction filled with Tears; and indeed a special Regard is to be had unto such in the Pious Uses of our Estates. But the meaning rather is this; What is Cast upon the Waters, will either Sink away, or Swim away; 'tis a Proverb for a thing that we never Look to see again, It is Projectum in Mare. Thus, when we are bountiful with our Estates, it should be without any proposal of Requital, from those whom we do Good unto; they should not be Cast upon Tiding Waters, •ut upon Current Waters; and we must ⟨p. 15⟩not Imagine with our selves, I shall […] have as Good […] Turn done to me, […] the man, whom I am now kind unto. […] are to single out such Objects therefore, as our Lord pointeth at, in Luk. 14.••. Thou shalt be Blessed, for they cannot •• compence thee. Again, Our Estates must be Cast upon the Waters ▪ that is, without Aim at Honour. That which is Cast upon the Waters, does not stay to be seen of men. If we Do what good we do, to be Seen of men, as the Pharisees did of old, we Cast it not upon the Waters, but we Nail it, or Paste it, upon Pillars. We must put into Waters, not into Trumpets, the Pious Uses of our Estates. Indeed, our being Seen of men therein, should not always hinder us from doing what is to be Done. The Bounty which our God will not accept, is not that, Quae fit et videtur, but that, Quae fit ut videatur. And it is a Caution, in Mat. 6.3. Let not thy Right-Hand know, what thy Left-Hand does; that is, as much as may be, Conceal thy Alms, not only from them that are most Related to thee at all; but even from those that are most Assistant to thee in the Scattering of them.
Fourthly, VVe are to do it Sincerely. Our Bread is to be Cast upon the VVATERS; and there are two Notes of Sincerity couched in that Clause. Our Estates must be Cast upon the Water ; that is, without Hope of Return. By Watery places here, some understand Watery Faces; that is, those whose Cheeks are by Affliction fill'd with Tears; and indeed a special Regard is to be had unto such in the Pious Uses of our Estates. But the meaning rather is this; What is Cast upon the Waters, will either Sink away, or Swim away; 'tis a Proverb for a thing that we never Look to see again, It is Projectum in Mare. Thus, when we are bountiful with our Estates, it should be without any proposal of Requital, from those whom we do Good unto; they should not be Cast upon Tiding Waters, ut upon Current Waters; and we must