N00592:71
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.
Truly, We have an Opportunity, whenever we see an Indigency, that we are in a Capacity to do something for. Whom soever we see Lying under any Wounds, we must like the Compassionate Samaritan, Dispense our Oil and our Wine unto. Say not, I have done Good unto Seven Miserable People already; No, think not that Number perfect, but let there be Eight Instances of your Bounty, if you can make so many. But there are some Seasons for this which have a more certain Revolution with us; and tho' there should be Seven or Eight, yet we should never count that we see too many, of them. As now, Does God make any Addition to our Estates at ⟨p. 17⟩any Time? Hath any Adventure, or any Husbandry of ours been smiled upon? or has any Legacy been bequeathed unto us? Now is a Season for us to Let Pious Uses have something of our Increase. Have we Got Wealth? Says Moses now in Deut. 8.18. Now Remember the Lord thy God. Have we Gained a Seventh, or an Eighth more than we had? Let Seven then, yea, let Eight be the better for it. Again, Every Lords Day is a Season for this Bounty of ours. Thus we find the Apostle saying, in 1 Cor. 16.1, 2. Concerning the Contribution, Upon the First Day of the Week, Let EVERY ONE OF YOU, Lay by him in store, as God has prospered him. But then, I know a Place in the World, where many Hundreds do very little consult their own Prosperity! Moreover, A Day of Humiliation is another fit Season for it. Hence is that of the Prophet, in Isa. 58.6, 7. Is not this the Fast that I have Chosen? To Deal thy Bread unto the Hungry? Their Feeding upon our Kindness, is one of the best Articles in our Fasting before the Lord. When we Fast out of Piety, we must see that others do not Fast out of Poverty. Once more, A Day of Thanksgiving is another ⟨p. 18⟩fit Season for it. On such a Day, it was Commanded, in Neh. 6.10. Go your way, Eat the Fat, and Drink the Sweet, and Send Portions unto them, for whom Nothing is prepared. When we are Praising of our God, we should then be Blessing of our Neighbours; & we should Engage them to Rejoice with us in the Goodness of the Lord; t is, A Day of Sending Portions one to another, and Gifts to the Poor. Though these Occasions come oftener than Seven or Eight times in a year, yet let our Portions be given on them all.