N00592:83
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.
Secondly, There is also a Recompense in the Life to Come, which the Liberal man is made partaker of. 'Tis testified unto us, in 1 Tim. 6.18, 19. That they who be Ready to Distribute, Willing to Communicate, therein, Lay up in store for themselves a Good Foundation against the Time to Come, and Lay hold on Eternal Life. As for all the Riches that we keep with our selves, they have no Foundation for them; any Little Storm will carry them away. But the Treasures which a true Liberality shall put out of our Hands, have such a Foundation, that we may thereupon Build our Hopes of Life Eternal; Not that any Good Works of ours do Merit Life Eternal, but they are a Blessed Evidence and Argument of our Claim unto it; so that a Liberal Man, when he comes to Die, may say, Lord, Thou knowest that my Heart was never Set upon this World; and I take that for a sign, that thou hast another and a better World for me to be happy in for ever. Our Lord says about the Liberal man, in Luke 16.9. When he fails, they w•ll Receive him into Everlasting Habitations. All the Riches in the World won't keep us from Failing and Breaking at ⟨p. 27⟩the last. But then, the Saints whom we have Succoured, and the Angels whom we have Imitated here, will bid us Welcome to an House Eternal in the Heavens. Our Lord also says unto the Liberal man, in Luke 14.14. Thou shalt be Recompensed at the Resurrection of the Just. It is impossible to tell, what Satisfactions, the New Jerusalem will bring to such a man, at the Resurrection of the Just. But indeed, after the Stupendous Transactions of the GREAT DAY, throughout the Days of Eternity still all our present Acts of Liberality, will be Lying by us, like so many Good Bills of Exchange, which our merciful God, for the sake of Christ Jesus, will be for ever Owning and Paying of. Then shall a Liberal Onesiphorus be sufficiently Retaliated by the Lord. This, This will be after many Days indeed! yea, after more than many millions of Ages, we shall make a greater Gain of the Poor, than Joseph did of a Famine in the Days of old. How runs the Final Sentence of the Righteous, but so? Come, ye Blessed, Inherit the Kingdom; inasmuch as you were Liberal to my Afflicted Members in the former World. (Mark) He says not, For you have bin Orthodox in your Opinions, or, You have