N00618:24
A good master well served. A brief discourse on the necessary properties & practices…
A good master well served. A brief discourse on the necessary properties & practices of a good servant in every-kind of servitude: and of the methods that should be taken by the heads of a family, to obtain such a servant. / By Cotton Mather. ; [Two lines from Joel]
printed by B. Green, 1696
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.
When the Providence of God, hath brought a person, into any sort of Humane Society, it is not the least Office of Religion to direct, and assist, the person, in the Discharge of the Relation, which he bears to that Society. The true Religion, having a due Impression upon us, will vastly amend us, and improve us, in every Relation, wherein the Providence of God hath placed us. It has been a Maxim sometimes justly used; Be sure, that Religion cannot be right, that a man is the worse for having. And I will add This unto it; Be sure, if a Person seem to be Religious, but is not by Religion, made, a Better Husband or Wife, a Better Parent or Child, a Better Master or Servant, that persons Religion is vain.
When the Providence of God, hath brought a person, into any sort of Humane Society, it is not the least Office of Religion to direct, and assist, the person, in the Discharge of the Relation, which he bears to that Society. The true Religion, having a due Impression upon us, will vastly amend us, and improve us, in every Relation, wherein the Providence of God hath placed us. It has been a Maxime sometimes justly used; Be sure, that Religion cannot be right, that a man is the worse for having. And I will add This unto it; Be sure, if a Person seem to be Religious, but is not by Religion, made, a Better Husband or Wife, a Better Parent or Child, a Better Master or Servant, that persons Religion is vain.
We find therefore that the Scriptures of God often and largely insist on the Duties of men, […] those Relative Capacities, wherein they stand obliged unto one another. But among the rest, •he Duties of Masters and Servants are pressed, with a vary frequent, fervent and pungent Inculcation; and this most especially in the Inspired Epistles of the New Testament. In the Days of Primitive Christianity, there were Christianized Masters, who had much ado to lay aside, the fierce, harsh, brutish and bloody Usage of their Servants, whereto in their Paganism they had been accustomed; and there were Christianized Servants who on the other side had much ado to maintain a due Respect unto their Masters, after they were by Regeneration advanced unto the privileges of the Gospel, and made the Sons and Heirs of God. For this Cause, the Apostles, do very emphatically Demonstrate it, that Christianity will Teach persons to be better Masters, and better Servants, than ever they were before.