N00618:78
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.
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 •o•menting Inflammations, of that lying Tongue?