N00618:34
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.
Even, the Moral Philosophy, of the Heathen, pronounced, Three Things to be due from a Master, unto a Servant; namely, Work, and Good, and Discipline; [Nam Cibus sine Opere facit Servum Porcum; Opus sine Cibo, Asinum; Castigain sine utroque Canem] and, I am sure, our Christian Theology, will not Release you, from any of •he Debts which thus Lie upon you. Masters indeed should be Fathers unto their Servants. It was a most suitable word, which a Celebrated Master once had from those that were under him, in 2 King. 5. 13. His Servants came near, and spake unto him, and said, My Father. Thus, you should give your Servants reason to testify concerning you, That man has been a Father to me, as long as I have Lived with him. Now, that it may be so,
Even, the Moral Philosophy, of the Heathen, ••onounced, Three Things to be due from a Master, unto a Servant; namely, Work, and Good, and Discipline; [Nam Cibus sine Opere facit Servum Porcum; Opus sine Cibo, Asinum; Castigain sine utroque Canem] and, I am sure, our Christian Theology, will not Release you, from any of •he Debts which thus Ly upon you. Masters indeed should be Fathers unto their Servants. It was a most suitable word, which a Celebrated Master once had from those that were under him, in 2 King. 5. 13. His Servants came near, and spake unto him, and said, My Father. Thus, you should give your Servants reason to testifie concerning you, That man has been a Father to me, as long as I have Lived with him. Now, that it may be so,
The first Thing that you owe to your Servants, is, Work. Let them have Work to do, and let their Work be well done; countenance them not in any Idleness, whereof there comes no Goodness. Now in Ordering the Work of your Servants, you must Lay no Sinful Commands upon them, nor appoint them any Evil Work. It is your Title in the Book of God, Masters according to the Flesh. You may Command no further than the Flesh of your Servants; they may not by any Sin wrong their own Souls, to gratify you; nor may you Command them to do any of those things which are, the Works of the Flesh. Your Authority over your Servants,