N00618:48
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.
To bring you into this Blessed Service of the Lord, there are these Directions, which in the Name of that Great Lord, My Lord, and your Lord, I Charge you to comply withal.
First, Renounce, and, Forsake, the Service of those Invisible Masters, a Slavery to whom, is inconsistent, with the Service of the Lord Jesus Christ. Our Lord Jesus Christ hath said, in Math. 6. 24. Ye cannot Serve God and Mammon. Thus, ye cannot Serve the Lord Jesus Christ, and Serve the World, the Fresh, and the Devil. Joshua ⟨p. 23⟩said unto the Idolatrous People, Ye cannot Serve the Lord. And, I say unto all, that still make sublunary Vanities their Idols, Ye cannot Serve the Lord. Hear this. All ye Unregenerate Servants! Tis possible your Service, to the Houses where you Sojourn, may for some things be Irksome Enough unto you; Oh! but you are in another Service, that would be a Million times more Irksome, if you were not stark Dead in Trespasses & Sins. The Fashions of the World, you must Humour, the Cravings of the Flesh, you must Fulfil the Temptations of the Devil, you cannot Resist. It may be said of you, as in Jer. 5. 19. Ye have served strange Gods. Wretched Servants! Oh! That you were more sensible of your horrible Captivity; When will you be Aware, when will you be Weary of it! I tell you, a Turkish, or a Spanish Slavery, is not a thousandth part so miserable, as the Accursed Slavery of your Souls, to the Invisible Destroyers of your Souls. But will you at length take a Course, for your own Deliverance, O Wretched Servants, that you are?
First, Renounce, and, Forsake, the Service of those Invisible Masters, a Slavery to whom, is inconsistent, with the Service of the Lord Jesus Christ. Our Lord Jesus Christ hath said, in Math. 6. 24. Ye cannot Serve God and Mammon. Thus, ye cannot Serve the Lord Jesus Christ, and Serve the World, the Fresh, and the Devil. Joshua