N00618:66
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.
I say, The Favour of the Eternal King, will •e toward so Wise a Servant. And now, What Wonderful Consolation, may this be unto you' under all the Difficulties of your Service! The Lord Jesus Christ is your Master; if you ⟨p. 35⟩cannot spend, and stoop, for a mortal man, like your selves, can't you do it for such a Master as the Lord of Hosts? It may be, you'll have Little Pay from any man, for what you do Yea, but the Lord Jesus Christ will be you Pay master: He will Grant you Everlasting Recompenses, in that Blissful World, where not the Least Thing that has been done for the Lord shall ever be forgotten!
I say, The Favour of the Eternal King, will •e toward so Wise a Servant. And now, What Wonderful Consolation, may this be unto you' under all the Difficulties of your Service! The Lord Jesus Christ is your Master; if you ⟨p. 35⟩cannot spend, and stoop, for a mortal man, like your selves, can't you do it for such a Master as the Lord of Hosts? It may be, you'l have Little Pay from any man, for what you do Yea, but the Lord Jesus Christ will be you Pay master: He will Grant you Everlasting Recompences, in that Blisful World, where not the Least Thing that has been done for the Lord shall ever be forgotten!
II. Yield unto your Masters (and Mistresses) that Re•erence, which is due from a Servant unto a Master. Since by the Ordination of God, you are made Servants, don't think much o• that Inferiority, which is to be confessed by you, as long as you are Servants. It is an Apostolical Instruction, in 1 Cor. 7. 21. Art thou called, being a Servant, Care not for That For he that is called, in the Lord, being a Servant, is the Lords Free man. Even so, tho' thou shouldest be a Free man of the Lord Jesus Christ, count not thy self too Good therefore to be a Servant. The Proud Hearts of many Servants, make them discontented, at the Lowness of their present Station, and at the Lowliness which they must Express in their Station. But I am to remind you, That this Pride was the Sin of the Devils; the Devils could not bear to be Servants in such a Station as the Almighty God had appointed for them. Servants, be Humble; if you would not fall into the Condemnations of the Devil!