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]

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]

Table of contents

Title page

TO THE Reader.

The Best Way of Living; Which is to Die Daily: BOSTON. 22. d. IX m. 1713.

[Page]

The Best Way of Living; Which is to Die Daily: BOSTON. 22. d. IX m. 1713.

1 Cor. XV. 31.

I Die Daily.

ONE who Lives in the midst of Deaths, may find cause to say so. One who feels within him, that which bids him reckon his own among the many Deaths without him, can't but say so. One who has in less than Two Weeks, had Five Deaths in his Family, would be very senseless, if he should not say so. May [Page] it now be said by every One of us, in so Significant and so Religious a manner, as it ought to be.

Our Apostle speaks it, because he was Daily Exposed to Death, and Daily Expecting of it. His Dying Daily, was his being Daily willing to Dy, and his Daily Laying himself open in the Cause of Christ, unto the utmost Hazards of Death. God Enkindled and Preserved this Piety in him, and his Fellow-Souldiers, with the perswasion of a Resurrection from the Dead. A perswasion productive of so much Piety; and having a Tendency to such an Holy Life, and such a Triumph over the Fear of Death, is doubtless of GOD. Such a perswasion doubtless is no Delusion. We may therefore go on perswaded of a Resurrection from the Dead; We shall not be Deceived in it. Our Apostle is proving the Resurrection with it. Q. E. D. This is what our Apostle upon the Demonstration of.

The Doctrine, which I will present you withal, shall be this; ‘There is a Dying Daily, which true Christians Live in the practice of.’

[Page] Dying Daily, will be, as the Condition of every Christian, so, the Exercise of every Lively Christian. Dying Daily is a Mystery of Practical Christianity, which we ought all to Live in the Study of.

Tis not so much that which is our Condition, as that which is to be our Endeavour, that I shall insist upon.

The Case to be insisted on, is this; ‘What is the DYING DAILY, which a Christian is to Live in the practice of?’

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[Page]thou art Going. There is no man alive, whom this Advice may not be address'd 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 Dayes are but as an Hands-breadth; And if the progress of our Dayes be that [Page] 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 Dy Daily, is to do that wise Thing; the thing so ardently wish'd for; Psal. XC. 12. So to Number our Dayes, 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; That the Occasions which Daily occur to Blow up this Meditation, should not pass unobserved with us. Every Day brings to us fresh Monitors, to put us in mind of this, That we are to Dy in a very little while. We should not be Deaf to the Admonitions: On our Tables, we are fed by the Dead. We should infer, 'This Food will not keep me 'always from Death. In our Habits we are cloath'd from the Dead. We should infer, [Page] I am covered with the Shadow of Death. We attend upon Funerals, and follow the Dead. It should be with such Thoughts as these; I am shortly to follow, my Turn is coming; It won't be long before I am carried unto my Long Home. Every Bell tolled for the Dead, should ring such a peal as this in our Ears. When the Night comes, we should often think; My Night is coming! When we put off our Garments, we should often think; I am shortly to put off this Earthly Tabernacle! When we Ly down in our Bed, we should often think; My Grave will shortly be my Bed! We Dy Daily, when we keep up such a Daily Sense of this, That we are to Die Quickly!

II. In our Dying Daily, we are Every Day to keep Alive a prudent, perpetual, reasonable Suspicion, That this may prove our Dying Day. There is a Maxim of Wisdom, which we ought to Live under the Daily power of; Prov. XXVII. 7. Thou knowest not what a Day may bring forth. It is very sure, we must see our Last Day. And we are sure of no Day that comes, That it will not be our Last. We should [Page] often think in a Morning, 'For ought I 'know, I may Dy before the Evening. We should often think in an Evening, 'For ought I know, I may Dy before the 'Morning. When we take our Leave of a Friend, we should often think, ‘For ought I know, we may never see one another again.’ When we hear a Sermon, we should often think, ‘For ought I know this is the Last Sermon I shall hear among the People of God.’ When we make a Prayer, we should often think, ‘For ought I know, this is the last Prayer I shall make before my Breath be stopt!’ Such Dying Tho'ts as these, are extreamly countenanced, by our Circumstances in the World. Our Circumstances are tho; Jam. IV. 14. What is your Life? Tis a vapour that appears a little while, and vanishes away. Those, Eccl. IX. 12. Man knoweth not his Time. All Ages are Liable to the Stroke of Death! They that are under Six, are as Likely to Dy, as they that are beyond Sixty: And more Dy so. At this very Time, there Lies Dead in our Neighbourhood, An Aged, Pious, Useful Servant of God, an Elder [Page] of a Church, near Fourscore; And an Infant that was yet in the Cradle. The Stroke of Death, is also given sometimes very Suddenly. Persons are well one day, Dead the next. Last Night, an affecting Instance of it. A Young Woman well one hour, tending her Sick Son; the next hour Dead, and Leaving her Tender Husband in Tears. A Last Day must come; And there comes no Day, but, for ought we know, may be our Last. For us, to be moderately, and rationally, Suspicious, of Every Day! This may be my Last! Verily, There is an incomparable Discretion in it. For us, to make provision accordingly, would be very discreetly done. Such Thoughts, how much would they Mortifie our Vanities, Animate our Devotions, Regulate all our Behaviours, if they had a due Efficacy upon us! We Dy Daily, in such Thoughts as these; And we take a Course to Live unto God.

III. Dying Daily will imply, that we should every Day be Ready and Willing to [Page] Dy. Our Apostle having said, We stand in jeopardy every Hour; then adds, I Dy 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 call'd 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 [Page] 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 Dy, 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. Lord, Now lettest thou thy Servant depart in peace. The Language of a Souldier in his weary Station, [Page] ready to Draw off, whenever His Great Commander shall give the word for it.

IV. To Die Daily, is to Do Daily those Things, which must be done, by every one that would Hope to Die Safely. Dying Daily, is Living in a Daily preparation for Death. It is demanded of us; Mat. XXIV. 44. Be ye Ready. We prepare for Death, and so for the Coming of our Saviour to Raise us from the Dead, by Doing those Things, of which the Divine Oracle tells us, They are the things that accompany Salvation. To Do such Things Daily, that so our Death whenever it comes may find us prepared for it, this is to Die Daily. My Hearers, I now demand of you, the greatest Attention, that ever you gave to any thing in the World▪ Oh! Hearken to me, that God may hearken to you another Day.

There must be first, an Habitual preparation for Death. And one who Die Daily, is one who is Daily doing of something towards this preparation: Daily giving some Good Strokes at the Work which must be done, by all that would [Page] propose to Die in Good Terms with Heaven. You shall have it set before you. One Thing is this. He that would be prepared for Death, must be Righteous. We read, Prov. XIV. 32. It is the Righteous who has Hope in his Death. At our Death, we are in an Hopeless, Undone, Forlorn plight, if we are not furnished with a perfect and spotless Righteousness, wherein we may stand before the Judgment Seat of God. We cannot obtain such a Righteousness, but by Accepting of, and Relying on, that Righteousness, which our Saviour has in His Obedience as our Surety unto God, provided for us. Well then; We must by faith make our Daily Flight unto the Righteousness of God. It must be our Daily course, Thankfully, Joyfully, Heartily to Receive the Righteousness of the Blessed Jesus, as the Free Gift of God, that we may lead it as our Title to Everlasting Happiness. It must be our Daily care that we do not continue under the Guilt of Sin, & the Cause of God, but present before God, the Sacrifice of our Blessed Jesus, for our [...]. Thus it is to Dy Daily. Another Thing is this. He that wou'd be [Page] prepared for Death, must be Holy. We read, Heb, XII 14. Without Holiness, no man shall see the Lord. Holiness, will be the Mark by which all that at their Death, enter into the Strait Gate, will be distinguished. Holiness, which Lies in a mind Renewed with a principle of Grace infused into it: Holiness, which Lies in an Heart principled with the predominant Love of God: Wo to us, if we are Strangers to this! Well then; It must be our Daily Study to get our Enmity to God all subdued. We must be Daily Learning to Fear God, & Prize Christ, & Hate Sin, and perfect Holiness in the Fear of God. We must be Daily Labouring to get the Image of Satan melted out of our Souls, and the Image of our Saviour gaining and growing in us. This is to Die Daily. A Third Thing is this. He that would be prepared for Death, must be able to give up a Good Account unto God, in the Judgment that comes after Death. We read, Rom▪ XIV. 12. Every one of us. shall give an Account of himself unto God. There is a Work which our Lord has assigned us to do in the World. Our Work is, To render & procure [Page] Acknowledgments unto God. We shall after Death, be called to an Account concerning our Work. It must then be our Daily Concern, by Repentance to get the pardon of all our Miscarriages about the Work of God; and by Diligence in this Work, to be capable of Giving up our Account with Joy, and not with Grief. This 'tis to Die Daily. We have a Term of Time allow'd unto us up on Earth; A Time, which Flies away like the Shadow of a Bird upon the Wing; which is the Chaldee Paraprase, for, Our Dayes are as the Shadow. We shall after Death, be called to an Account how we have spent our Time. It must then be our Daily Concern, to Lay out our Time in such Purposes, and Actions, that we may not be thunder struck from our Judge, with, O Slothful, and Wicked Servant! This is to Die Daily. We are betrusted with Talents from our Lord. We are Talented with various Blessings; with Opportunities to Do Good. After Death, our Talents must be Accounted for; how much, how well, we have improved them. It must be our Daily Concern, To Glorify God with all our Talents; To project, and pursue all [Page] imaginable wayes for the Glorifying of Him. This 'tis to Die Daily.

But then, there must be likewise an Actual preparation for Death, And one who Dies Daily, is one who is Daily doing of something towards this preparation also. To be Actually prepared for Death, is to be Daily imployed in such points of a Godly Life as are pleasing to God. It is in a Daily Exercise to keep a Conscience void of offence. It is in a Daily compliance with the Famous Direction, Be thou in the Fear of the Lord all the Day long. We read in Luke XII. 43. Blessed is that Servant, whom his Lord when He cometh, shall find so Doing. To be Actually prepared for Death, is to be Daily doing of that, which if our Death should come this Day unto us, it would be no Damage unto us, to be found so doing. My Fellow Travellers; Keep your Assurance for Heaven so fair and clear, that the Approach of Death may not make you afraid with any amazement. Keep your Souls in such an Heavenly Frame, that the Advance of Death may not find you indisposed for a Translation to a Better World. Be Daily Engaged in such Services, that it [Page] may be no Disadvantage for you, to be found so Engaged. This 'tis to Die Daily. One thing more: Every Night a man who Dies daily, will bestow some Thoughts on that Question, If I Die this Night, is all well with me? If I Die this Night, am I sure of a Better Life! ‘Do I fall Asleep this Night in the Arms of a Faithful Saviour.’ Non prius in dulcem declinent Lumina Somnum.

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 [Page] 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. [Page] 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. We are to look upon this World, as a Despicable Thing; the Pleasures of it, as Polluting Things; the Riches of it, as Deceitful Things; the Honours of it, as Empty Nothings. There should be a Death upon our Desire for this world. We are no more to be so Hungry & Thirsty after this World, as carnal minds use to be: Our Appetite for it, this must be pall'd, and lost, and gone: We must see [Page] no charming Beauty in it. There should be a Death [...] our Delight in this World. This World should not be any part of our Glory: The Things of it, we should reckon as Toyes only for Children to be pleased withal; not for Strong men in Christ: Such Toyes, too low, too mean, to be our Joyes, while our Spirit may rejoice in God our Saviour. There should be a Death upon our Expectation from this World. We should not promise to our selves, a Satisfaction in and from a World, which is but a Lump of meer Vanity. Dream not, that it will prove any other than a Dream, any better than a Shadow. Despair of ever finding any Content in any Creature. Lay aside the Hopes of any Happiness from such a world▪ Finally. Our Irascible Affections for this World, must also have a Death upon them. We must not be very much Displeased at those men, and those things, that hinder us from getting the Great Things of this Little World: Be not sensible of any mighty Harm done unto us, when we are Clogg'd in our Attempts to grow Great in this World. Swell not with Malice and Envy at them who stand in the way of our [Page] Advancement. Baulk no Duty to get this World; Let no Snares be run into, because we will be Rich; Break not our Hearts with Worldly Sorrow, when we Lose this World; Bear Losses, Easily, Patiently, Suitably. Whatever Grievous Things befal us in this World, we must be but moderately Grieved for them. The Temper prescribed unto us, is that, 1 Cor. VII. 30, 31. They that weep, should be as though they wept not; and they that rejoice, as tho' they rejoiced not; and they that buy, as tho' they possessed not. This it is to Die Daily. Such Dead men, are in reality, the only Living Ones. These Dead, O Lord, What Wonders wilt thou shew unto them!

VI. We are to Die Daily, by Daily meeting with Afflictions, and by Daily Bearing of them. To Die Daily, is the same that our Saviour speaks of, when He says; Luk. IX. 13. Let a man take up his Cross Daily. Our Afflictions belong to the Death, which is come upon us, by and for our Sin. We Die Daily, in those Afflictions, which are, as I may call them, The Van-Couriers of our Death; the Fore-runners [Page] of our Death. A man who Dies Daily, is one who Daily Encounters with Afflictions; and may say with him, Ps. LXXIII 14. I am scourged all the Day long, & chastened every morning. In Dying Daily, we are Daily to look for Troubles: and have so much prudence, that when our Troubles come, we shall be able to say, These were not altogether unlook'd for! Every Day we should arm our selves, for Ʋnknown Troubles; as knowing that we daily Ly open to many and heavy Troubles: When the Light of the Day first salutes us, think; Who can tell the Troubles, which I may see, and into how much Darkness I may be brought, before this Day be done! We must get an Heart Established, Confirmed, Strengthened, against any Troubles, which we may be called unto an Encounter withal. So the Good man, Ps. CXII. 7, 8. He is not afraid of Evil Tidings; His Heart is established. And, when we Encounter with our Daily Troubles, it should be, how patiently, how quietly, with what a lovely Resignation! We Die Daily, in making Daily Sacrifices; in Daily submitting to the Death of those Comforts which we are most fond of, and which are the [Page] Desire of our Eyes. Then does a man die indeed, when his Will is Dead. We Die Daily, when we Entertain our Daily Troubles, with a Will entirely swallow'd up into the Will of God. We Die Daily, when our Daily Troubles find us willing to Drink whatever Cup our Father shall give us to drink of. We Die Daily, when we bear our Troubles, with a sweet Submission to our Saviour; believing that His Intention is entirely to make us partakers of that Holiness which we have besought Him to Enrich us withal; and to make us more meet for our Heavenly Inheritance. After this manner we are to Receive our Troubles; ‘O my dear Saviour, I will submit with thy Help, unto whatever Cross thou shalt order for me.’

I know, thou wilt not appoint any Cross ‘for me, but what shall make me Wiser and Better, and bring me the more to Glorifie God. I will acquiesce in all thy Dispensations.’ Return to thy Rest, O my Soul; for the Lord will deal favourably with thee! You see how much goes to Dying Daily: And yet one thing more.

VII. To Die Daily, and to Good purpose, [Page] is to Look Daily, upon what is to come After Death. When we Dy, we pass into Another World. The Testimonies and Recognitions of this, which our God multiplies unto us, methinks, they should have some Regard paid unto them. Yea, Out of the mouths of Babes and Sucklings God has Ordained them. I am to morrow to attend the Funeral of a Child which was Two years and seven months old; A Child of uncommon Ripeness, and for which, I confess, I had too Engaged a Fondness;— having lain Speechless, under the Arrest of Death, for a Day or Two, her Speech returned a few moments before she died & the very minute that she died, she said She would go to JESƲS CHRIST. And wi [...] Older People now be insensible, that when they are Dying, they are Going to JESUS CHRIST, or where,—Oh! how can we do any other than Tremble to Think upon it If we Dy Daily, we Daily Converse with Another World. It is a Thing that should have a Daily Impression upon us; That [Page] God has not done with us, when we have done with this World. We shall Exist, & our longest Existence will be in another world. In Dying Daily, we shall do that thing; 2 Cor. IV. 18. Look not unto the things which are seen, and are Temporal, but unto the things which are not seen, and are Eternal. But let us a little Enquire; For the Glorious Redeemer, who is the True Witness, and the Deliverer of Souls, has Enabled us to answer the Enquiry; What will there be after Death? We are informed; Heb. IX. 27. After Death, the Judgment. And now I will tell you, What it is to Die Daily? it is to have Daily, and Serious, and Solemn Thoughts on the Judgment which is to come After Death. Every Day to think suitably on the Day of Judgment, is, to Die Daily. It should be a Daily Consideration with us; 'Am I Ready to appear before the Judgment-Seat of the Glorious Lord! What I am now adoing, will it be Approved, or will it be Condemned from the Judgment-Seat of the Glorious God? What shall I do, when God rises up, and when He visits, what shall I answer Him? We should be awakened Every [Page]Day to Fear God, and keep His Commandments, from this Consideration; God will bring every work into Judgment.

Well; but what follows upon the Judgment? We are informed; Matth. XXV. 46. Either Everlasting Punishment, or, Life Eternal. And now I will again tell you, What it is to Die Daily, It is Every Day to Look Downward into the Hell, which the Wicked, and all they that forget God shall be turned into: To be driven by that horrible Spectacle, unto the JESUS, who delivers from the Wrath to come; To Consider, Oh! Who can dwell in a Consuming Fire and in Everlasting Burnings? And, What a Fearful thing it is, to fall into the Hands of the Living God! It is Every Day to Look Ʋpward, unto the Heaven, where JESUS Sits at the Right Hand of God: To be Quickened from the View of the Recompence there set before us, in Runing the Race which is here set before us: To Consider, Oh! the Glory, and Honour, and Immortality of the Eternal Life, which by patient continuance in well-doing, I shall [Page] reach unto! To Live in such Contemplations, is, To Die Daily.

And, my Brethren, let me assure you, Thus to Die Daily, will take away the Bitterness of Death. We shall not Live the less while, for so Dying Daily. It will not Hasten our Death: But it will Sweeten it. Thus to Dy Daily, is the way to Live Wisely; To Live Piously, Watchfully, Fruitfully. Yea, Tis the Way to Live Eternally.

FINIS.

Notes

*

Elder John Copp.

*

Mrs. Mary Boone.

*

Little JERƲSHA MATHER.

§

§

[Page]

[Page]

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.

2 Cor. VI. 9.

As DYING, and behold, we LIVE.

Boston, Printed by J. Allen, 1713.

TO THE Reader.

[Page]

IF he that has this brief ESSAY now in his hand, be indeed the READER of it, he will find himself there sufficiently informed of the occasion. The Bookseller having his Family wounded, by a sudden Death upon his nearest Relative, the Evening before the SERMON was Preached, he was willing, as to Get Good himself, so to Do Good unto others, on the Occasion, by publishing what he thought suitable, not only unto himself, but also unto all that can cast an Eye upon it. It was a very short Sermon, delivered when the Preacher was Confined unto such an One by a very Cold Season; But if the Blessing of God accompany this Exhortation of a Few Words, and very Right Ones, he knows, the Publication will not be Repented of▪

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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]

Mather, Cotton, 1663-1728.

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Text Creation Partnership,

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Ann Arbor, MI :

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2008-09.

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N01360

ID [TCP]

N01360

ID [STC]

Evans 1617

ID [NOTIS]

APY2883

ID [IMAGE-SET]

1617

ID [EVANS-CITATION]

99029969

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Early American Imprints, 1639-1800 ; no. 1617.

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— 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], Mather, Cotton, 1663-1728..

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[2], 26 p. ; (12mo)

Printed by J. Allen,,. Boston, :: 1713..

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Created by converting TCP files to TEI P5 using tcp2tei.xsl, TEI @ Oxford.

Editorial practices

EEBO-TCP is a partnership between the Universities of Michigan and Oxford and the publisher ProQuest to create accurately transcribed and encoded texts based on the image sets published by ProQuest via their Early English Books Online (EEBO) database (http://eebo.chadwyck.com). The general aim of EEBO-TCP is to encode one copy (usually the first edition) of every monographic English-language title published between 1473 and 1700 available in EEBO.

EEBO-TCP aimed to produce large quantities of textual data within the usual project restraints of time and funding, and therefore chose to create diplomatic transcriptions (as opposed to critical editions) with light-touch, mainly structural encoding based on the Text Encoding Initiative (http://www.tei-c.org).

The EEBO-TCP project was divided into two phases. The 25,363 texts created during Phase 1 of the project have been released into the public domain as of 1 January 2015. Anyone can now take and use these texts for their own purposes, but we respectfully request that due credit and attribution is given to their original source.

Users should be aware of the process of creating the TCP texts, and therefore of any assumptions that can be made about the data.

Text selection was based on the New Cambridge Bibliography of English Literature (NCBEL). If an author (or for an anonymous work, the title) appears in NCBEL, then their works are eligible for inclusion. Selection was intended to range over a wide variety of subject areas, to reflect the true nature of the print record of the period. In general, first editions of a works in English were prioritized, although there are a number of works in other languages, notably Latin and Welsh, included and sometimes a second or later edition of a work was chosen if there was a compelling reason to do so.

Image sets were sent to external keying companies for transcription and basic encoding. Quality assurance was then carried out by editorial teams in Oxford and Michigan. 5% (or 5 pages, whichever is the greater) of each text was proofread for accuracy and those which did not meet QA standards were returned to the keyers to be redone. After proofreading, the encoding was enhanced and/or corrected and characters marked as illegible were corrected where possible up to a limit of 100 instances per text. Any remaining illegibles were encoded as <gap>s. Understanding these processes should make clear that, while the overall quality of TCP data is very good, some errors will remain and some readable characters will be marked as illegible. Users should bear in mind that in all likelihood such instances will never have been looked at by a TCP editor.

The texts were encoded and linked to page images in accordance with level 4 of the TEI in Libraries guidelines.

Copies of the texts have been issued variously as SGML (TCP schema; ASCII text with mnemonic sdata character entities); displayable XML (TCP schema; characters represented either as UTF-8 Unicode or text strings within braces); or lossless XML (TEI P5, characters represented either as UTF-8 Unicode or TEI g elements).

Keying and markup guidelines are available at the Text Creation Partnership web site.