N00618:46
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.
But, Let as many Servants, as are under the Yoke, now hearken, with a very great Attention, ⟨p. 21⟩that the counsels which the words of the Ever living God, shall set before them. It was said, in Psal. 123. 2. behold, as the Eyes of Servants Look into the Hand of the Masters, and as the Eye of a Maiden to the Hand of her Mistress, so our Eyes wait upon its Lord our God. Thus, Let you that are Servants and Maidens, give a greater Attention unto the words of the Lord your God this Day, than ever you gave unto any Master, or Mistress what soever.
But, Let as many Servants, as are under the Yoke, now hearken, with a very great Attention, ⟨p. 21⟩that the counsils which the words of the Ever living God, shall set before them. It was said, in Psal. 123. 2. behold, as the Eyes of Servants Look into the Hand of the Masters, and as the Eye of a Maiden to the Hand of her Mistress, so our Eyes wait upon its Lord our God. Thus, Let you that are Servants and Maidens, give a greater Attention unto the words of the Lord your God this Day, than ever you gave unto any Master, or Mistress what soever.
1. This is the first Counsel that calls for your Attention; Servants, In the first place, Become the Devoted Servants, of the Lord Jesus Christ, who is, The Lord of all. O that you might all of you •e able to say, as he in Psal. 116. 16. O Lord, Truly I am thy Servant, I am thy Servant. It is Observable, That the Homage which we owe unto the Heavenly Lord, is ordinarily described by Metaphors drawn from the Service, of an Earthly Master. Among such Metaphors, I take a special Notice of this One; That the Lords calling of a man to Serve him, is expressed by His calling of that man, unto His Feet: In the Hebrew Original of the Old Testament, the […] for, A Servant, usually is, One at the Feet of his Master. At their Tables they Lay down on Carpets, and so the Servants that waited on them, stood at their Feet behind them. Thus among the Roman Writers also. Ad Pedes, or, A Pedibus, is the Phrase for a Servant: