N01536:47
Fair dealing between debtor and creditor. A very brief essay upon the caution to…
Fair dealing between debtor and creditor. A very brief essay upon the caution to be used, about coming in to debt, and getting out of it. Offered at Boston-lecture; 5. d. XI. m. 1715/16. / By Cotton Mather, D.D. & F.R.S. ; [Two lines of quotation]
Boston: printed by B. Green for Samuel Gerrish, 1716
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.
Let our Debtors pay some Regard unto the Admonition of God our Saviour.
If it be through' any Real Default of yours, that such a Debt be come upon you. 'tis most certain, you ought with a deep Repentance, to abase your selves before God, and the World. Your Acknowledgements unto your Creditors particularly, ought to have such a sensible, and Ingenuous, and self abusing Repentance in them, that their Hearts towards you may be ⟨p. 20⟩mollified, by their seeing the Brokenness of yours. It is prescribed unto one in Debt; Prov. VI. 3. Do this now, my son: when thou art come into the hand of thy Friend, Go humble thy self.
If it be thro' any Real Default of yours, that such a Debt be come upon you. 'tis most certain, you ought with a deep Repentance, to abase your selves before God, and the World. Your Acknowledgments unto your Creditors particularly, ought to have such a sensible, and Ingenuous, and self abusing Repentance in them, that their Hearts towards you may be ⟨p. 20⟩mollified, by their seeing the Brokenness of yours. It is prescribed unto one in Debt; Prov. VI. 3. Do tois now, my son: when thou art come into the hand of thy Friend, Go humble thy self.
But if it be the mere Hand of God that has by Impoverishing Losses brought this Debt upon you, still there is very much Self-Abasement called for. 'Tis a Rebuke of God upon you, that has thus Emptied you, and Enfeebled you; And a very Humbling Rebuke it is. Under it, you ought to be so Humble, so Modest, so Pensive, and so Submissive, that your Creditors as well as other Spectators, instead of Upbraiding you and Insulting you, shall but Sympathize with you in the Disasters that have befallen you. The Exhortation to such as are thrown into Debt, is that;