N01360:26
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.
V. We are to Die Daily, by Dying to the World every Day, and becoming Dead in respect of our Worldly Inclinations. To Die Daily, is to proceed every Day in the Work of Mortification to the World: Every Day to be at that Work; Gal. VI. 14. I am crucified unto the World. A man who Dies Daily, is one who has in him such Sentiments of this World, as Dying Men use to have. Come to a Dying Man, and ask him, How this World appears to him? His Answer will be; Tis a Vain World, a False World; It is a miserable Thing to be put off with a portion in this World: He is a very foolish and wretched man, who makes it his main Business to Lay up ⟨p. 17⟩a portion in this World. The Favour of God, and an Interest in a Great Saviour, is a thousand times more valuable than all this World; is worth ten thousand Worlds. To Die Daily, is to Live under the Force of such Sentiments; To Think of this World, as Dying Men do, and Live in this World as Dying Men wish to have done. But then, there is this in it: A Death upon our Dispositions for this World. It is true, And, Oh! When shall we have the Skill to place things in their due Subordination! O thou glorious and liberal Giver of Wisdom, Do thou give this Wisdom unto us!— I would say, it is true, So far as the Enjoyments of this world, may be Subordinate unto God, we are to Love them, and Seek them: So far as the Command and Service of God will direct us to do so, we are to Love and Seek the Enjoyments of this world. There is the Love of God in it, when we mind this world but in a Subordination unto GOD. But any further than we may Obey GOD, and Honour GOD, and be Led unto GOD, by this world, we must be Dead unto it. ⟨p. 18⟩This Dying to the World, is the same with the Dying to Sin, which is required of us: For our Sin lies in Departing from God, both to and for the World. A Death, A Death, upon our Dispositions, for this world; This is a Thing to be Daily maintained, a thing to be Daily studied; And therein, we are to Die Daily. The Dead, how are they Disposed for this world? We read Eccl. IX. 6. Their Love, and their Hatred and their Envy, is now perished; neither have they any more a portion for ever in any thing that is done under the Sun. Such a Death we should have on, and give to, our Passions for this world; An Holy Indifferency or all the Enjoyments of this World. There should be a Death upon our Esteem for this world.