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Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
book_n	life_n	read_v	write_v	3,333	5	5.3999	4	true

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ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A50175	Winter meditations directions how to employ the leisure of the winter for the glory of God : accompanied with reflections as well historical as theological, not only upon the circumstances of winter, but also upon the notable works of God, both in creation and Providence ... / by Cotton Mather ; with a preface of John Higginson.	Mather, Cotton, 1663-1728.; Higginson, John, 1616-1708.	1693 (1693)	Wing M1170; ESTC R24049	51,315	99

Games is Like the Goods of th●● which Dy of the Plague which commend bring a Fest with them Nor is it altogether unworthy to be considered That the more special Successes of your T●●rger Gamesters whereupon even ●ome o● Themselves do sometimes profanely ●ay 〈◊〉 Devil will make a Gamester of that Young Man do very terribly intimate a peculiar Interest of the Devil in Ruling the Chance of these Games 't is an Observation which my most Honoured Friend the Venerable Baxter has made in the close of his Book about The Worlds of Spirits Pray then have a care And if men may Sin by some sorts of Gaming in the Winter mayn't they do it in some kinds of READING too Not only Books of Debauching Jests and Songs are very unworthy to be our WINTER-ENTERTAINMENTS but the most of Romances too will then but create a Wast of Time to be Repented of And here also that I may not Impose my own Opinion I shall give you the Judgment of two Writers whom the World have not accounted Inconsiderable The One is The Author of The whole Duty of Man who Dehorting of Young Women from the Reading of Romances has these words 'T is very difficult to Imagine what vast mischief is done to the World by the false Notions and Images of things particularly of Love and Honour those Nobler Concerns of Humane Life 〈◊〉 resented in those Mirrours The other is the Incomparable Dr. Tuckney who likewise disswading of young Students from the Reading of Romances has these words Make this Trial whether when you have been Greedy in Reading such Books you have thereby any great w●nd to Read the Bible I am sure that when you have been Reading That you will have as little Delight i● Reading them as Paul had in the Thorn in his Flesh when he had been before caught up to Paradise All that I shall add is That when the Rules of Sobriety and Righteousness and Godliness are Transgressed Men instead of Knowing the Works of God are Doing the Works of Gods Great Enemy And I am sure The VVinter is not a Leisure for such Odious VVorks But then Secondly we may speak more POSITIVELY and it is to be now affirmed That the Liesure of the Winter is to be Employ'd in such Things as may be called A WISE REDEEMING OF THE TIME It is Enjoyned upon us in Eph. 3.15 16. VValk circumspecily now as Fools but as VVise Redeeming the Time because the Days are Evil. Thus about the VVinter Because the Days are now short and sharp therefore Let us now be so wise as to Redeem our Time in these Days When we have Least to do we should then be Best Employ'd About the Liesure of the VVinter we must own Deus n●bis h●●c Otia fecit it is God that has made this Liesure for us and therefore it becomes us to Employ this Liesure for God We never have a Liesure-Day befalling us but we should Eye the Hand and End of God in ordering such a Day and think with our selves VVhy did my God send me this Day what would He have me to do this Day We are not VVise if on our VVinter-Days all such Thoughts as these Ly Frozen in our Minds But How is VVinter-Time to be Redeemed We will particularize I. In the VVinter we have Liesure to Reflect upon OUR OWN WORKS and the God of Heaven does then Expect that we should so Reflect There are some who take my Text in that sense He Seals up the Hand of every man that every man may know his own work We have Liesure in the Winter to fettle our Iemperal Affairs and we may then see whereabout our Work Lies what progress what success we have had in our Work and what further steps we are to take about our works The VVinter-time should accordingly be a Time of much Contrivance with us and a Time to State our whole Business for all the Year about But more than so our Spiritual and Eternal Affairs are those which the Winter gives us the host Liesure for and we should now settle those by Reflecting upon our work It was complaine● in Jer. 8.6 No man Repented him saying what have I done In the Winter we have Little to Do well but now 't is a Time for us to Reflect What have I been d●ing ever since I came into the World The great work of Self-Examination is ●ods Work 't is the Work whereto our God has called us We have a Precept so it in Hag. 1.5 Thus saith the Lord of Hosts consider your W●●s We have a Pattern for it in Psal 119.59 I thought on my Ways and I turned my Fed unto thy Testimonies VVe do the Work of God when we thus Try what our own Works have been VVhen the Winter then has driven us into Retirements Let us take Time for this Work even to See and Know what Work we have been doing since our God ●irst let us to work among the ●i●ing on the Earth 'T is now a Time for us to Enquire How have I answered the End which I came into the World upon God has Required us to work out our own Salvation well but what strokes have we struck at that more all this while Ask our selves How have I done the works Agreeable to Repentance and. How have I done the works of Believing on the Lord Jesus Christ And herewithal bring we all our works to such an Examination as may discover the Errors and Follies of our Works in order to our thorough Humiliation for them Why should not a Winter-day be sometimes made a PRAYING-DAY yea and a FASTING-DAY before the Lord No man will arrive to very high Attainments in the Grace of God who does not sometimes devote whole days unto a secret Communion with him Now let us have many such Dayes every Winter to Pray and Fast and Humble our Souls before the ●od of Heaven But on such a Day one very proper exercise would be for us to call over the Works of our lives and finding the Obliquity of our Works by Comparing them with the Holy Just Good Commanements of our God Let us then Judg ourselves that we may not be Judged of the Lord Behold a Catalogue of sins against the Commandments of God Reflect now distinctly exactly upon your works and find out whether you have not had such sins in your works Demand of Yourselves QUAESTION I. Have not I grievously forgotten the God that made me And have not I given to the World the Flesh and the Devil the Homage which is due to God alone Or have not let Creatures have the Affection and Obedience which God alone may lay claim unto Quest 2. Have I not Shamefully Neglected the Institutions wherein the Lord Jesus Christ has taught me to mentain a Fellowship with my God and have I not humoured the Superstitions of a Vain Conversation Quest 3. ‑ Have I not Irreverently treated the Names Attributes Hords Works and Ordinances whereby God

I why should not I endeavour that the Exercises of Devotion might so do both in my-self and others who ●eli●e to be As Green Olive-Trees in the House of our God The VVinter has been sometimes called H●ews ●ners the ●●uggish Winter but I would contribute what I can that it may be I●e●●s Sancra ●l●● Pious Winter the Holy Winter the 〈◊〉 Winter a Winter devoted unto the Works of the God of Heaven To S●●●p all Winter more befits a Bear than a Man and much more than a Saint It is very certain That there is more Time contained in a Natural Day of the Winter than there is in a Natural Day or the Summer for the Sun in its Animal Motion from the West unto the East thro' the Zodiac passes equal Arches in unequal Times the Winter Hall Year of the Suns passing from ●●b●a to Aries is but an Hundred and Seventy a Fight Days whereas the Summer Half Year of his passing from Aries to ●●bra is no less than an Hundred and Eighty Seven Days the Sun is Nine Days more in passing through the Semi-Eclip●ick of the Summer than he is thro' that of the Winter and accordingly an Hour upon the Sun D●● when the Sun is inclining to the VVinter-Tropick is longer than an Hour upon the Dial when he is advancing near the Summer Tropick Hereupon I could not but make that Reflection If there be more tho' it scarce be sensibly more Time in a Day now than at other Times in the Year why should I do less work for God for Christ for His People now than as other Times and as an effect of that Reflection Behold Reader some of my WINTER-MEDITATIONS 'T is as I remember Polydore Virgil who relates that when Mathildis was during the Depth of Winter straitly Besieged in Oxford She arrayed her self and her followers all in white the colour of the Snow upon the Ground and by the Advantage of that Colour escaped thro' the Besiegers unto a place of Safety That which I desire is a free passage for the Truths and the VVays and the VVorks of God into the minds of my Neighbours and I have therefore taken the Advantage of putting a VVinter Complexion upon them I have Clothed them in the Colours of the VVinter And in this ESSAY I have after a sort Moralized the Fable of Antiphanes That there is in a certain Scythian Region such a Frost that the VVords uttered in the VVinter there Congele so as to be not heard until the Summer following shall dissolve them for 't was at Boston-Lecture in the Month of December last that the Heads of these VVinter-Meditations were first Preached and it is now in the Month of November following that they are Printed on the same Designs of Religion that gave them their Original When the Excellent Bartholinus published his Book De Usu Nivis it was accompany'd with an Epigram something to this purpose Libros Authoris quieunque recenset et Amos Amos quot poterit tot Numerare Libros 'T is possible that now I am Composing my Book about The Use of the Winter I may find my self obliged to confess unto the World as a Great Fault what was indeed counted None at all in that Incomparable Person I do confess That I have written too many Books for one of my small Attainments and I would say to my Reader whom I now suppose by the Fire ●●de If this or any Book of mine hinder men from acquainting themselves with the Bible that Book of God I wish as Luther in that case did about his own Books That they were all thrown into the Fire But I hope it will be otherwise whereto I would also add That all that Weariness of the Flesh as well as the various and humbling Temptation otherwise which I have undergone in the Study of Writing many Books has been abundantly Recompenced by the comfort of thin●ing That the Free Grace of my Good God will Accept of my poor Thoughts to be Serviceable unto the Inter●●ts of His Kingdom in the World And now I am Appendicing unto all the rest one Book upon the Winter I will not say as my newly mentioned Bartholinus did in the Preface of his Ego quidem ex hoc Niveo Labore preter Atram Invidiam nihil Expecto Or That I expect nothing but only to be Frost-bitten with Envy for what I do 'T is true There is a Froward Generation in every place whose Calumnies must Persecute all that Serve the Publick and I have had the Experience of both my Fathers as well as my own to convince me that this place has of those Frowards in it If this People could have had Greater which I know not yet all mankind will shortly know that it was impossible for any People to have Truer Juster and more Indefatigable Servants than some with whom I have the Honour to be well acquainted have been to This but the monstrous Depreciations that have attended Them have Taught Me That I also must Bene Agere et Male Audire Th●●r●●● if I will Do VVell and it will indeed be a life found that unto all Activity in well 〈…〉 persons for the Publick W●●l the Sport of 〈◊〉 itself is not a greater Freezer than 〈…〉 Usages Nevertheless I am so 〈◊〉 as to think That this is the Spirit 〈…〉 of at least That there are multitudes among us ●●so when any Servi●e is done for them do ●●a●tlly give Thanks to God for it and who ●i●●●● Resent the Zeal with which they may see Almighty God inspiring of any to be labouring for their Good For the sake of such none of our Thoughts none of our Cares none of our wea●y Su●●●ies the too much and it is unto such That These of Mine are now humbly offered Winter-Meditations It is Written in JOB XXXVII VI VII He saith to the Snow be thou upon the Earth likewise in the Small Rain to the great Rain of His Strength He Seareth up the Hand of every Man that all Men may know his Work THat most Laborious and most Imitable Minister of the Gospel the Apostle Paul after he had been Travelling on the Designs of the Gospel all the Summer long had some affairs of the Gospel to manage in the Winter too Speaking about a City of Thrace he said in Tit. 3.12 I have determined there to winter and accordingly in the Acts of the Apostles we find this ●amous Doctor of the Gentiles once abode three months in Greece after he had given much Exhortation to the People as he went along It seems the Service of the Lord Jesus Christ and of His Gospel was not in the Three Months of the Winter to be laid aside As for Us we are now getting into our Winter-Quarters and we ought not only to continue our Cares about Religion Salvation and all the Works of the Gospel all the VVinter long but there are some singular Lessons of the Gospel to be in these Winter Months inculcated and entertained