N00618:84
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.
But of all the Pernicious Things, which do make Ill Servants, & are therefore to be shunned by All Servants, there is none more Pernicious than that of Evil Company! Servants, O Remember that Caveat of Wisdom, A Companion of Fools, shall be destroyed. There are […], of Evil Companions, in every Town; those […] i• once you are in them, they will hold you fast in the Bonds of Iniquity. 'Tis in Bad Company ⟨p. 50⟩that you will get those Vicious Cursing, Swearing, Wanton, Lying, Scornful, Habits, which will render you Abhorred, not only by the Holy Lord, but also by all Sober and Virtuous Men. Tis in Bad Company, that you'll come to be bewitched with the Unlawful Games, of Cards, and of Dice which have in all Ages been Thundered against, by a Cloud of Witnesses, as well Pagans, as Christians, and Profane the Name of God, by Playing with Pure Lots, which are Solemn and Sacred Things. Tis in Bad Company▪ that you'll hear the Words & Ways & People of God, Scoffed at, until you your selves have Learnt like wise to Scoff at them, and Sit in the Seat of the Scorner. Your Masters are never like to have any Good of you more, if you are once fallen into the Snares of this Evil Company. Nor is this all the Lamentation and Mourning and Woe, which I am to produce concerning you; No, This Evil Company will carry thee down with them unto the Congregation of the Damned for ever; and the Fiery Furnace of Hell, will be Seven Times the Hotter upon thee, for thy having of thy Old, Lewd, Mad Companions about thee, in that hideous Place of Torment. How many forlorn Servants, have I beheld upon their Death Beds, Looking upon their former Companions now visiting of them, as upon so many Toads of Egypt in their Chambers, and Crying out, with the Dimness of the Anguish, of the Second Death upon them, Oh! These Companions have been the undoing of my Soul! ⟨p. 51⟩Consider of these Things, O our Servants; Depart from the Tents of those Wicked Creatures, lest you Perish in all their Sins.
But of all the Pernicious Things, which do make Ill Servants, & are therefore to be shunn'd by All Servants, there is none more Pernicious than that of Evil Company! Servants, O Remember that Caveat of Wisdom, A Companion of Fools, shall be destroyed. There are 〈…〉, of Evil Companions, in every Town; those i once you are in them, they will hold you fast in the Bonds of Iniquity. 'Tis in Bad Company