N00618:90
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 if you will not be such Orderly Servants, 'tis a terrible thing that I have to say unto you. All the Sorrows that you see in this World, are but the Beginnings of Sorrows, and Little Emblems of the Sorrows that remain for you in another. Do you meet with Hunger here? You shall there be Hungry and hardly bestead for ever. Does the Heat Oppress you here? You shall there be Tormented in a Flame hotter than that of Brimstone for ever. Does the Cold afflict you here? You shall there have Gnashing of Teeth for ever? Do you here sometimes want your Sleep? There you shall not Rest, neither Day nor Night, for ever? Are you Beaten here? Why, the Devil will be your Overseer; and you'll be Weltering under intolerable Blows and Wounds, World without End.
But if you will not be such Orderly Servants, 'tis a terrible thing that I have to say unto you. All the Sorrows that you see in this World, are but the Beginnings of Sorrows, and Little Emblems of the Sorrows that remain for you in another. Do you meet with Hunger here? You shall there be Hungry and hardly bestead for ever. Does the Heat Oppress you here? You shall there be Tormented in a Flame hotter than that of Brimstone for ever. Does the Cold afflict you here? You shall there have Gnashing of Teeth for ever? Do you here sometimes want your Sleep? There you shall not Rest, neither Day nor Night, for ever? Are you Beaten here? Why, the Devil will be your Overseer; and you'l be Weltring under intollerable Blows and Wounds, World without End.
Masters, These poor Negroes will hardly mind what I say; I pray, do you Repeat it unto them.
And now, may the Lord bring us all to that Bliss, where Abraham the Master, and Eliezer, or Lazarus the Servant, are together With the Lord for ever! Amen.