N00618:43
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.
Especially, the Commandment Charges you, to Charge your Man servants, and your Maid servants, That they Remember the Sabbath Day, to Sanctify it. If you will do such Things for your Servants, it will be said of you, as it was of Solomon, in 1 King. 10. 8. Happy are thy men, happy are these thy Servants, that stand continually before thee. But, Oh! Do one thing more, for the Souls of your Servants; That is, Pray for them, You, Pray with them, continually. There was a Prophet, that had a Servant, of whom, 'tis reported, in 2 King. 6. 17. He Prayed, and said, Lord, I pray thee, Open his Eyes, that he may see; and the Lord Opened the Eyes of the Young man. A pathetic, a pertinent Prayer of a Master, for a Servant; Lord, Open the Eyes of my Servant, that he may not go on blinded with Sin; and, Lord, Open the Heart ⟨p. 19⟩of my Servant, that he may cordially Receive the Influences of thy Grace! There was a Captain that had a Servant, of whom, 'tis reported, in Math 8. 7. He came, saying, Lord, my Servant Lies at home, Sick of the Palsy, grievously Tormented. Every Master should thus be concerned in Prayer for a Servant; Lord, I have a Servant sick by Sin O bring him out of his grievous Maladies! and Lord, I have a Servant under sinful Estrangements from thee, O let him not Lie in his grievous Unregeneracy! I have known Masters who rarely have had any Servants, but what have afterwards proved the Servants of God: Why, The Secret Prayers of those Masters, fetch the Spirit of God from Heaven, on almost all that Live with them. Thus ought, Masters to Pray; and in the hearing of their Servants too, they ought thus to Pray. There was a pious man, who had an House full of Servants; but it is reported, in Acts 10. 2. He feared God with all his House, and prayed unto God always. A Praying Master, like Abraham, will be very like to have Servants, like unto himself. But, Woeful, Rueful, will be the Condemnation of those Prayerless Masters, whose unhappy Servants, must bring in this Testimony before the Judgment Seat of God, Lord, This man did never quicken us to Pray unto thy Majesty; we seldom heard him at Prayer, for a whole Week, or a whole Month together! Masters, Consider of these Things in the Fear of God: and Mistresses, Consider also, what is to be your part, in the doing thereof.