N00618:35
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.
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, ⟨p. 11⟩is Derived from God; Oh! Let not that Auth• rity he employed against Him. The Master and the Servants did but bring Everlasting Ruin […] on one another, in that horrid Action, where• we read, in a Sam. 13. 28, 29. Absalom Commanded his Servants to Commit a most pernicio• Villainy, saying, Fear not, have not I Commands you? And the Servants of Absalom, it follows, […] as be Commanded. Send not your Servants upon the Devils Business; make not your Servant▪ the Tools of any Wickedness; Let not you Servants be bidden, like Sennacherib's, to Reproach the Almighty Lord; No, but like another Abraham, show that you would not have the Conscience of a Servant in any thing Imposed […] Again, in Ordering the Work of your Servants you must Lay no Cruel Commands upon their not appoint them Too Hard Work. If you must be Merciful to a Beast, you must much more […] Merciful to a Servant, in your not Over-working of him. A Servant must not be handled like: Beast. The Strength of your Servants must b• considered:
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,