N01360:18
The best way of living; which is to die daily: very briefly described and…
The best way of living; which is to die daily: very briefly described and commended in a plain discourse, made at a time, when the author had newly seen repeated strokes of death, on his own family. And the publisher had his family also struck with a sudden death upon a vital part of it. : 22. d. IX. m. 1713. / By Cotton Mather, D.D. ; [One line from 2 Corinthians]
Boston: printed by J. Allen, 1713
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.
I. A Lively Sense of our Daily Progress to our Death, yea, a Daily Sense of it, revived on all occasions, this will be in our Dying Daily. We must never Lay aside, a Sense of our Mortality. To Lay that aside, is Folly in its Exaltation, Madness in its Extremity. Tis most certain, That we are Dying: It is the Thing appointed for us; It is unavoidable. The Whole World of Mankind Unites in the Accomplishment of that word; Psal. LXXXIX. 49. Who is that man that shall live and shall not see Death? To Go to the Grave, is to go in the way of all the Earth. The Grave, O man, Tis Whither ⟨p. 4⟩thou art Going. There is no man alive, whom this Advice may not be addressed unto▪ Oh! Let this Apprehension be continually kept alive in our minds: Job XXX. 23. I know that thou wilt bring me to Death, and to the House assigned for all the Living. Every Time the Sun sets, we should be sensible, we are one Day nearer to our Death, than we were when it rose. And every Time the Clock strikes, we may be sensible, we are one Hour nearer to our Death, than we were sixty minutes ago. Yea, 'Tis a Quick progress that we are making to our Death. We shall Quickly arrive unto it. Our Life is a Race very Quickly run. We are upon the Wing unto the Grave. Tis very Livelily set forth unto us; Job IX. 25, 26. Swifter than a Post, yea, as the Ships of Dispatch, yea, as the Eagle which flies after the Prey. With what Haste, Oh! What Haste are we Dispatching the Course of our Life! The Psalmist said unto the Lord, Remember how short my Time is! The Lord says unto the Christian, Do thou Remember how short thy Time is. If our Days are but as an Hands-breadth; And if the progress of our Days be that ⟨p. 5⟩of a Weavers Shuttle; Then say, O Dying Man; How near thou art unto thy Death. Truly, The Day is near, it is near, and it hasteth greatly! To Die Daily, is to do that wise Thing; the thing so ardently wished for; Psal. XC. 12. So to Number our Days, as to apply our Hearts unto Wisdom. Now, in Dying Daily, it is requisite, First, That we have some Daily Meditation on our Death; yea, that in our Meditation, we look on our Death, as both Certain and Speedy too. Oh! Don't put far away the Day! This will render it an Evil Day! Not one Day should pass us without some Thoughts of this Importance, I am a Dying man, and it cannot be Long before I am Dead! Yea, 'tis requisite, Secondly;