N00618:67
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.
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! ⟨p. 36⟩you are sometimes Proudly Enough concerned, […] may be, that your Clothes are no finer, and you affect an unsuitable Gaiety and Gallantry. But i• you would have Ornaments indeed upon you, Then, as the Apostle speaks, you must be Clothed with Humility; that is, Wear Humility, as a Badge, of your being Servants, unto that Blessed Lord, who once took on Himself the Form of a Servant. Now one Discovery of your Humility, is to be, in a Reverent or a Respectful Demeanour towards those, whom God hath made your Masters. It was said, in Mal. 1. 6. If I be a Master, where is •y Fear? You ought always to Observe your Masters, with a Fear of Disobliging them; and you ought always to Observe in your Masters, •n Ordinance of God, which calls for your submissive, your Conceding, your Complying Disposition, towards them.
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 confess'd by you, as long as you are Servants. It is an Apostolical Instruction, in