N00618:77
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.
You are to be True in your Words. Oh! Never go to put off your Masters, with a Lye, in any matter whatsoever.
Dare to be True; Nothing can need a Lye; A Fault, that needs it most, grows Two thereby.
Dare to be True; Nothing can need a Lye; A Fault, that needs it most, growes Two thereby.
And, I beseech you that are Masters, to forgive in your Servants any Fault sooner than, a Lye; but let that Fault Never, I say, Never go Unpunished. There was once an Atheistical Servant, who would go to put a Sham upon his Master, with a Lye; his Master called him to an account, where he had been, and he falsely said, in 2 King 5.25. Thy Servant went no whither: but you have heard what became of that Servant; the Liar was made a Leper for ever. If you durst offer a Lye unto your Masters, to Excuse or Cover any thing amiss, I will say, What shall be done to thee, thou false Tongue? False Wretch; How will thou bear the wrath of God, when thou shalt cry for a Drop of Water to Cool the •o•menting Inflammations, of that lying Tongue?
And, I beseech you that are Masters, to forgive in your Servants any Fault sooner than, a Lye; but let that Fault Never, I say, Never go Unpunished. There was once an Atheistical Servant, who would go to put a Sham upon his Master, with a Lye; his Master call'd him to an account, where he had been, and he falsely said, in 2 King 5.25. Thy Servant went no whither: but you have heard what became of that Servant; the Lyer was made a Leper for ever. If you durst offer a Lye unto your Masters, to Excuse or Cover any thing amiss, I will say, What shall be done to thee, thou false Tongue? False Wretch; How will thou bear the wrath of God, when thou shalt cry for a Drop of Water to Cool the omenting Inflammations, of that lying Tongue?