N01360:21
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.
III. Dying Daily will imply, that we should every Day be Ready and Willing to ⟨p. 9⟩Dy. Our Apostle having said, We stand in jeopardy every Hour; then adds, I Die Daily. A man Dies Daily, when his Life is in daily Jeopardy, for the Cause of Christ, and of His People. A man that ventures his Life, that he may Serve a Good Interest, is One who Dies Daily. We should be always Ready and Willing to Die, whenever the Great Lord of our Life shall call us to it; and say, Psal. CXIX. 109. My Soul is continually in my Hand. Q. D. My Soul, and my Life, I stand Ready and Willing, to make an Offering of it. The Spirit of Martyrdom, is ONE thing that belongs to Dying Daily. We ought to suppose, that we may be called unto, the Death of a Martyr, in bearing a Testimony to the Truths of God: That we may not Love our Lives unto the Death, nor hold them till they may terminate in a Natural Death. Supposing that we may be put upon Dying by the Fist of Wickedness, for our Disposition to Live Godlily, we must have a mind that shall be daily Resolved for it. To Die Daily, is to be in a Daily and fixed Resolution, to undergo whatever Sufferings, our Fidelity to the Kingdom ⟨p. 10⟩of our Saviour may bring upon us. We must be Daily of that mind, Act. XX. 24. None of these things move me, neither is my Life precious to me, so that I may but finish my Course with Joy. But then, If the Lord of our Life put us upon Dying only in the way of His Common Providence, and in the manner and method of Nature in its Decays; This is Daily; and Readily, and Willingly to be submitted to. We ought every Day, to keep in a Dying Frame; Ready and Willing to Entertain our Death with all possible Resignation, if this be the Day, which the Lord of our Life has ordered for it. Our Daily Frame should be this; Lord, My Life is entirely at thy Dispose; And if thou wilt have this Day, to be the Day of my Death, I will not Rebel against thy Order. Thy Will be done! A man does, what he Consents to do. He who Consents every Day to Die, if God shall please to say, I will have this to be the Day! Such an one dies Daily. To Die Daily, is every Day to say with him; Luke II. 29