God of my Master Abraham I pray thee send me good speed this day and shew kindness to my Master Abraham c. Prayer is the means to know your duty in your Service and to be able to perform it by this means you may have the testimony of your Masters and of the truth it self which Jacob had of his Master Laban Gen. 30.27 I have learned by experience that the Lord hath blessed me for thy sake And this leads me to the second Part of the Servants Duty CHAP. III. The Servants Duty 2. towards their Masters HE is the good Christian that is good in the place and relation wherein God has set him and that is the Religious Servant who out of a Principle of love to God and in obedience to his Command does perform his duty to them to whom God has subjected him Your Duty therefore towards your Masters consists 1. In the reverend subjection of mind and respectful honour that your place requireth Let as many Servants as are under the Yoke count their Masters worthy of all honour that the name of Christ and his Doctrine be not blasphem'd 1 Tim. 6.1 2. this command of the Apostle is the more remarkable because it is spoken to them that had Infidel Masters and if yours be Unbelievers wicked Persons without so much as a profession your Duty is more difficult it is hard to honour a Fool or reverence one that you frequently see in his Vomit of Drunkenness or venom of Malice and Passion But yet their Authority they have from God and you must reverence the Image of God's Dominion in them lest you cause the name of Christ to be blasphem'd and lest you give occasion to the wicked Man to reproach Religion and to say These are your Professours your Religious Servants ay they are all alike And if so be that God has subjected you to those that are serious and Godly you must honour them the more So saith the same Apostle ver 3. and they that have believing masters let them not despise them because they are Brethren but rather do them service because they are faithful and beloved partakers of the benefit Be not you like those insolent Youths that set light by their Masters either before their faces or behind their backs God has not set you as Companions with your Masters nor does he allow of a sawcy Carriage in their presence nor to talk disrespectfully of them or of their Imperfections in their absence The more careful they are to instruct reprove and restrain you from sin and vanity the more do you prize them and bless God for them Be as ready or more to be catechized examined and directed about your Souls as about any business that you are employ'd about 2. Your Duty lies in a Religious faithfulness and constant fidelity in all that you undertake When you hired your selves you sold your time and labour to your Masters all but what God and nature more immediately requires to be reserv'd and besides the sin against God in idleness you defraud your Master if you idle away an hour that should be employ'd in his business And to delay his Messages put off his work to others to slubber over his work or leave it half undone is to rob your Master of the Wages that is due for the work which you should have done accordingly but did not This is the Eye-Service which the Apostle condemns Col. 3.22 when Hypocritically you seem earnest in his work when his Eye is upon you but loyter away your time when he has turn'd his back They that are unfaithful in their Master's work will not 't is to be fear'd make much Conscience of defrauding him in his Estate How quickly does the Devil teach an ungodly Servant to make bold with his Master's Money in buying or selling and to excuse it by the secrecy or smalness of the matter till they who made nothing to trample on God's Law for a Peny came afterwards to Pounds and higher Robberies And here let me beg of Servants to take heed of Ale-Houses Gaming-Houses places of Drunkenness or Uncleanness of loving Cards and Dice or sitting up to unseasonable hours at such Vanities such will need much Money to play away and riot away and then how strong is the temptation to keep back or convey away part of the Money that you sold the Goods for if you have any of these Devices know It is a downright Theft and if it be but a Peny you know not where it will stop They that take a little when the Temptation is strong will venture upon a great deal and they that rob their Master to day will rob others to morrow And how sad and bitter a Case must this prove when the best that can be hop'd for is a Confession of your Theft full of sorrow and shame and the restitution of every farthing to the utmost of your power without which there can be no Repentance and so no Salvation And if this be not done your Thefts in your Service will be like Moths in your Goods when you come to get something of your own of your own did I say Yea till you have made restitution you do not eat your own bread and 't is not your giving part of your ill-gotten Money to the poor that will prevent the horrour of Conscience at last God hates robbery for burnt-offering I 'll add but one Instance more under this Head which is the Perfidiousness of Servants in any Trust committed to them Like the unjust Steward that when there was owing his Master an hundred measures of wheat order'd them to take their bill and write fourscore And if you should say but did not the Lord commend the unjust steward Yes for his wisdom not for his cheating his Master It is a Parable and we must mind the scope of it which is to shew us a pattern of foresight how we should secure a better habitation when these Tabernacles fail as this wicked Servant look'd about him what should become of him when his Master turn'd him out Another manner of Servant was Jacob who had a hard Service in the Summers Heat and Winters Frosts for twenty Years yet could say Gen. 30.33 My righteousness shall answer for me and if it be said Did not Jacob play fast and loose with his Master in laying the Rods in the watering Troughs I suppose not the effect being not natural but by a Special Providence and therefore we find the fact not by his own invention but by God's appointment in a Dream Gen. 31.10 who thus gave away what was Laban's to Jacob. But beyond all Examples is that plain Command Tit. 2.10 Not purloyning but shewing all good fidelity that they may adorn the Doctrine of God our Saviour in all things 3. Your Duty lies further in a willing Obedience and conscientious hearkning to your Master's Commands And tho' you must not perform your Service as Men-pleasers Col. 3.22 i. e. as meerly such you
Liberty of Heart and Will in the work of your Master Not a Liberty to live in sin which is an Abuse of the word and a Liberty that is not in Heaven it self the Perfections of God are an Eternal Law to himself that he cannot lye or deny himself but an holy exemption from the Servility of Sin and a free propension to whatsoever is good that whereas before you could not pray you were bound up and fetter'd He has now brought you out of Prison that you may praise his Name That under any temptation to discontent in the Service of Men your Souls should be raised in Praise of your Great Master who has already entered you into the glorious Liberty of the Sons of God and will at last set you at liberty from the burden of this flesh and the Body it self at the last day from the hand of the Grave and will make all his Servants Kings and Priests to God and our Father Oh blessed are thy Servants that shall dwell in thy house for they will be still praising thee And blessed be his glorious Name who took upon him the form of a Servant and was himself bound to a Pillar That he might set us free Who has proclaimed Liberty by his Gospel and the opening of the Prison doors to them that are bound who has given us of his free Spirit and made us willing in the day of his power and here we offer up our selves our Souls and Bodies as our most reasonable Service We thank thee and praise thy glorious Name But who am I or what is my people that we should be able to offer so willingly after this sort For all things come of thee and of thine own have we given thee 1 Chron. 29.13 14. And let none repine at being Servants who through Grace have such a Liberty and Freedom as this CHAP. VII The Hinderances of the Servants Calling 3. Want of Time real or pretended TO every Work there is an appcinted Time and every Duty has the special Season for it but here lies the Servants difficulty their Time is their Master's and his Work fills it up that they have not the leisure for Duties and Exercises of Religion that others have Others can read and pray as long as they will but Servants are called up early about their Work and tyred with it all day and what time then have they for Prayer Meditation or Covenanting with God Truly by the way to whom much is given of them God requires the more And they that have Estates and less necessary Business in the World must find more Time for the immediate Service and Worship of God than the poor Servant can But still one thing is necessary and they that have most Business in the World have Souls to mind as well as others Some indeed have Masters that do purposely allow them time and see that they spend it in Reading and other Duties and some whose Hearts God has inclin'd by Grace can find time to have their Hearts with God when their Hands are in the World and what sweet and Heavenly Meditations does their Plowing Sowing Reaping and other parts of their Work afford them Though they cannot be long at Prayer they endeavour to be the more fervent in it they go the more unwillingly from it and come to it the more chearfully again When they go into the Fields to their Work or come back they have as free a time as if entered into a Closet and the door shut about them But it is not thus with all some have rough and careless Masters that hurry them to bed that they may rise the sooner about their Work and think all time lost when that is not in hand and the slothful Heart is glad of the Excuse to silence Conscience which else would check them for living without Prayer and other Duties that they have heard press'd upon them offer them a Catechism they have no time to learn it others go to an Opportunity for Instruction but they cannot be spar'd to go with them Like Faelix they put it off to a more convenient time which yet never comes To remedy this sore Inconvenience there are these Two plain Directions 1. That they carefully avoid all those things that unnecessarily and sinfully take up their time and then they will quickly sind That want of Time is more a pretended than real Hinderance of the Servant's Duty To speak plainly to you How did such and such whom you know and perhaps have laugh'd at as too precise get their knowledge of the things of God How do they get time for Prayer and Reading and Examination of their Hearts Have not they as hard Places as you and as much Work on their hands and better done Is it not that they redeem and improve the time that you trifie and squander away Is it not known of some of you That some merry Meetings as they call them and drunken Bouts have first stolen away your Hearts and then steal away your Time And because you did not it may be come reeling home you think it nothing that you have wasted the good Creatures of God and the Time which he lent you for higher Ends. Oh how will this bite like an Adder when time shall be gone indeed and the Angel shall lift up his hand and swear by him that lives for ever and ever that time shall be no more and thou mourn at last when thy flesh and thy body are consumed and say How have I hated Instruction and have not obeyed the voice of my Teachers nor inclined mine ear to them that instructed me Prov. 5.11 12 13. Do you think That this Plea will hold at last when all the Tribes of the Earth shall be gathered before their Judge and you stand trembling amongst the rest Shall it suffice to say I heard indeed the Calls of Grace but Lord I was a Servant and had but little time Will He not say Out of thine own mouth I condemn thee thou wicked Servant Thou knewest that thou hadst but a little time why then didst thou squander it away amongst thy idle Companions Why then didst thou sit up to such unseasonable hours at thy Cards and other Sports If thou dost indeed want time leave off thy Chat thy idle Stories that fill up the long Winter Evenings and other vacant hours and thou wouldst have it Yea better that thou shouldst work the harder and sleep the less that thou mayst get time for thy Soul before Sickness and Death overtake thee and thou cry in vain Call time back again Oh call time back again when it is too late and thou art lanching into the Ocean of Eternity 2. That Servants that want time all the Week do the more dearly prize the Lord's Day and improve the Seasons of Grace therein When by God's Consent you contracted with your Masters for your Time this Day He reserv'd for his own special Service And that Masters might know That the
A PRESENT FOR SERVANTS From their Ministers Masters OR Other Friends Especially in Country Parishes 1 Cor. vii 24. Brethren let every man wherein he is called therein abide with God Licensed Jan. 20. 1692. LONDON Printed by T. Warren for Nath. Ranew at the King's Arms in St. Paul's Church-Yard 1693. TO All Masters of Families in the Parish of Great Kimbel in the County of Bucks Grace Mercy and Peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ Dearly Beloved HAving design'd to write something for the use of your Servants I could not do better than to put the little Book into your Hands to whom God has committed the Charge of them and I have herein the highest Example even of God himself who gives first his Commands to Masters of Families to be by them handed down to all in their Houses as for instance in the great Commandment about the Sabbath he does not speak to Servants immediately but makes their Masters the trustees of his Will saying thou shalt do no manner of work neither thou nor thy Man-Servant nor thy Maid-Servant implying that they must cause them to observe the Commandment and indeed for this cause were Families as well as all other lawful Societies or dain'd that the Salvation even of the lowest members thereof may be the better furthered under the Government therein But alas how little do men think when they take on them the Government of Families that God has committed to them a Charge of Souls if they did how durst they take a Charge that they are not able to perform by reason of their Ignorance or never mind by reason of their willfulness if you did believe that every Servant you take into your House will add to the dreadfulness of your account if he perisheth through your fault and negligence could you then be so indifferent in your choice of them as too many be I remember David saith His eyes were upon the faithful in the land that they might serve him Psal 101.6 but we have Masters that chuse Servants as they do their Horses if they be strong and able for their work they mind no more though you would not bring in a scabbed Sheep into your Flock yet are there not that bring in drunken swearing Servants with the plague of prophaneness upon them into their Houses and lay the infected Wretches with their dear Children and other Servants Can you as easily perform your duty towards obstinate stubborn Servants as towards those which are good or at least pliable and willing to be instructed and admonished Is not so great a Blessing or Curse as a good or bad Servant will prove to your Family enough to make you pour out one Prayer for God to direct you in the choice It is hard that you cannot enquire into the Education that they have formerly had or at least into their present inclinations to good or evil Do not lightly take into your Families a Companion of Fools whose customs and habits of sin have been visible in their former Conversations unless you have good evidence or ground for hope of their reformation But the misery again of it is when Masters are as bad as the Servants He cannot enquire after the Godly disposition of Servants that is about to bring them into a cold Prayerless Family nor can He ask them whether they are willing to be instructed who is himself so ignorant that He cannot or so careless that He never intends to instruct them But I am perswaded better things of some of you and things that accompany Salvation And He that is devoted to God himself will engage for his Family too as Joshua Ch. 24.15 As for me and my house I will serve the Lord. God himself gives testimony of Abraham I know him that He will command his Houshold after him Christian Families are frequently called Churches for the worship of God perform'd therein Every Master is a Priest in his own Family and I have often thought his obligation to teach and govern his Servants is much greater than that of a Minister to any particular Family in his Charge You have an opportunity to know their tempers and temptations that we have not and by your nearness to them can take every Servant by himself and deal with him as his case requires by your constant continuance with them and having the power of rewards and punishments in your hands you may more easily perform your duty towards them if you have hearts to it I know you are counted Good Masters in the places where you dwell and I cannot say the contrary as to outward things for ought I know the most of you if not all give unto your Servants that which is just and equal in necessary provision both in health and sickness in faithful discharge of your Contracts in their Wages or Salary in prudent ordering of their work and business And it is not the hard labour of Servants that I pity them for so that they are not unnecessarily expos'd to cold or wet that may endanger their health or so tyred with the World as to be unfit for Family or secret Prayer or other duties For indeed it is for the Servants Souls that I am pleading with you There is not any poor Boy or Girl that you keep but has a Soul as pretious as Lords and Ladies and cost as dear a price What have you done for the Souls of them that are under your Roof Let Conscience speak if you should give your Servants no meat and drink all the Country would cry shame on you but is it not a worse shame and greater Cruelty to starve their Souls Do you keep Servants with rational Souls only like your Horses to eat and to drink and to work If any of you are not able to instruct them be deeply humbled presently and get others to instruct them Ought you not to have required their attendances on publick Catechizing and their submission thereunto I am sure the Church lays no less a penalty than Excommunication upon you if you refuse and is not your instructing them the way to increase in knowledge your selves What if the poor ignorant Servants that you made part of your Houshold should follow you from place to place from House to Field and cry after you to instruct them What if they should tell you with many tears that they are likely to die without knowledge and that they are convinced that Christ is coming in flaming fire to take vengeance on them that know not God Would you not instruct them And if you say but my Servants have no such sense no such desire Why then are they not the more miserable Have they not the greater need And does not their case cry as loud for pity as their voice can do Have you no bowels of compassion on perishing Souls If not at least have pity on your own and let not their blood be on your heads Family-Duties and Instruction if carefully minded would
have prevented much of that disorder that is in almost all Parishes which now is not so easily cur'd but it requires all your care and diligence to restrain that wickedness which ignorance has caus'd What saith the Law Deut. 22.8 When thou buildest a new house thou shalt make a Battlement upon the roof that thou bring not blood upon thy house if any fall from thence family-Family-Duties Prayer Reading singing Psalms repetition of Sermons Catechizing of Servants c. are like so many Fences or Battlements on one side Commands Reproofs Corrections and Restraints from sin are Rayls or Battlements on the other and if you set not these Battlements on your Roof woe be to you if any fall from thence and if you say I do not push them down I do not force them or require them to take such courses I would not have them fall Nay but this is not enough you must set Battlements to prevent their ruining themselves If you say further but if I do set Battlements they may climb over them and do what I can will run on to their destruction why then their blood will be on their own heads and you have delivered your house from the guilt thereof By all this you may see to how little purpose your complaint of wicked Servants has been When your own Purse is touch'd by unfaithful Servants you feel it You might have known it before when you saw how averse they were to knowledge c. that they that were not faithful to God were not like to be faithful to you that if you suffer'd them to haunt evil Company and break the Sabbath and to live in riotous Courses that these Extravagancies would call for Money and where should they have it but by defrauding you And if your grief be indeed for the sin of your Servants against God I beseech you look inward it may be your selves were Servants once and you liv'd in carelessness towards God and unfaithfulness toward your Masters and now God is visiting your sin upon you And what comfort can you hope for in your Families till that guilt be remov'd And if you are in earnest why are you as indifferent about the Servants you chuse since you have had this experience of their wickedness as you were before Nay why after trial of their obstinacy do you not rid your hands of them You know David's resolution Psal 101.7 He that worketh deceit shall not dwell in my house he that telleth lies shall not tarry in my sight But if any keep a debauched person a Drunkard prophane Swearer obstinate against God and Goodness for a second Year because it may be he is strong and able to do his work I note that Man as there are noted Families in the Apostles sense 2 Thes 3.14 and assuredly your sin will find you out But if you will be zealous for God and against sin in your Families how much may some of you do towards the promoting Religion in the Countrey and what a Colony of young persons may from time to time go out of your houses to bear up the Name of Christ in the places where they dwell What a blessing of the Lord will be within your Tabernacle What comfort in your Relations What joy in Afflictions and even Death it self Your House shall be built by Wisdom and established by Understanding Prov. 24.3 that this little Book may something promote this main design of Family-Godliness is the Prayer of Your Unworthy Minister and Servant for Jesus Christ Richard Mayo THE CONTENTS PREFACE MAster 's of Families have a Charge of Souls Their Care in chusing Servants to instruct them and restrain them from sin Blessing upon Godly Families CHAP. I. The Kind of Servants treated of The Providence of God in appointing the Servant's Calling the Vsefulness of it not against Christian Liberty CHAP. II. The Slavery of Souls by Nature Of the Servants entring into the Service of Christ by solemn covenanting with him their Carriage in that Service Advantage of a Time of Youth the Dreadfulness of the neglect of that Season Sins of Youth Death-bed Repentance What Families Servants should chuse Of doing what they do unto the Lord. CHAP. III. The Servant's Reverence to their Masters Of Fidelity to them Of Eye-Service Of cheating and defrauding Of Obedience in harsh and unpleasant things Of doing what they do heartily Not answering again CHAP. IV. Of Servants tempting each other to sin Sinful Familiarity of Servants of different Sexes Of reproving and warning the unruly Of Holy Conference Of Servants helping each other in their Work and in Soul-Affairs CHAP. V. The careless Ignorance of some Servants and danger of it Of Catechizing and Servants submitting thereunto and how Of fervent Prayer for Knowledge Of Knowing Christ CHAP. VI. The Hardships of Servants Danger and Cure of Discontent The Priviledges of Servants The miserable Condition of Slaves in other Parts Of the Temptations of Servants of State in Great Places Inconveniences of the Condition of poor House-Keepers the worst Slavery of all The Freedom of Godly Servants The Glorious Liberty of the Sons of God CHAP. VII Servants Want of Time How Godly Servants gain Time How Wicked Servants waste their Time Danger of it Of the Lord's Day and how Servants must improve it A PRESENT FOR SERVANTS CHAP. I. Of the Kinds of Servants and of the lawfulness of the Servants Calling THERE is scarce any general Name of a Calling that contains under it such different kinds of Persons as this of a Servant Some Service being so high and honourable that there is no Subject so great but that glories in being Entitled the King's Servant in the various Offices of his Houshold and some Service is so vile and miserable that the poorest Person in a Free Land is happy in being delivered from it There are three sorts of Servants that I shall name tho' it be only for the last of them that I have intended this Discourse 1. There are Servants of State that make up the Retinue of Great Men and Nobles who living in Ease Pleasure and Worldly Delicacies have no agreement with those that I am concern'd with save in the bare Name 2. There are Slaves and Vassals sunk in the lowest state of misery in the World being under the sole disposal of the uncontrouled Wills and Lusts of their often barbarous Owners And these are so either justly being condemn'd for some Capital Crimes and in Mercy Repriev'd and spar'd as to Life but deprived of their Liberty and many Comforts of Life or else unjustly by a violent Captivity or by unrighteous Sales and Contracts But I leave these under God to those who are acquainted with their Circumstances and Temptations and have opportunity to help them in the way to Heaven And shall apply my self to 3. A Third sort of Servants in a state of Life between the two former and which are most usual amongst us as making up a part of every Family and they are such as
by reason of Poverty or a meaner condition in the World have voluntarily submitted themselves by Contract for a certain time to the disposal of others according to the Word of God and Laws of the Realm And this Calling is founded upon the Will and Providence of God in these two things 1. In establishing Property and thereby a seemingly unequal distribution of the good things of this Life Without this the Relation of Master and Servant could not stand Prov. 12.7 The rich ruleth over the poor and the borrower is Servant to the Lender This inequality is not by chance but by the Soveraign Disposer of the Lord of all 1 Sam. 2.7 The Lord maketh poor and maketh rich Perhaps in Innocency if that state had continu'd all things might have been in common the Corn and Trees as free to all as the Light and Air are now But to suppose it so with us is to make a perpetual War many quarrelling about the same thing as when one Bone is cast amongst several Dogs And therefore that Community of Goods which we read of Acts 4.34 was extraordinary and lasted but a very little while so that now all have a right to the things that they do lawfully possess whether by Inheritance Donation or as gotten by honest labour and industry and as all Laws of Justice and Charity depend upon this so does this Relation of which we are speaking 2. His Will and Providence is further seen in rendering all persons in this inequality of their Conditiöns mutually helpful to each other yea necessary to one another in this lapsed state and the beauty and order of God's Government of the World is much to be observed that each shall stand in need of his Brother's help towards his own convenient subsistance in the World that as it is in the natural and as the Apostle saith in the mystical so it is in the political Body 1 Cor. 12.21 22. The eye cannot say to the hand I have no need of thee nor again the head to the feet I have no need of you nay much more those members of the body which seem to be more feeble are necessary The Rich cannot say to the Poor We have no need of you For whence then will they have their Servants And how can they miss the help which they daily receive by them As the Hands need the Head for Guidance and Direction so does the Head need the Hands for Work and Service And indeed by this means the seeming inequality in the distribution of worldly things is made up That as it is in matters of Charity as the Apostle doth establish it in an equality that your abundance may be a supply for their want that their abundance may also be a supply for your want that there may be equality As it is written he that gathered much had nothing over and he that gathered little had no lack 2 Cor. 8.14 15. Even just thus it is in matter of justice in an equality that your Money Wages and Provision may be a supply for their indigency and their Work and Service a supply for your inability to discharge your business without them and so all things are set right one has nothing over and the other has no lack And perhaps amongst the variety of places no Servants are more necessary than those in Country-Villages others wear finer Liveries feed higher and lie easier But the labour of the Country Servant is of most excellent and general use The profit of the Earth is for all the King himself is serv'd of the field saith Solomon Eccles 5.9 and tho' he must rub through many hardships yet he may comfort himself in this that the most drudging part of his Service is of necessity to the Common-wealth and when many other Callings are apparently unlawful and not a few exceeding doubtful The Servant 's Calling if not abus'd is unquestionably lawful It is true there is a Text that seems to oppose the Servants Calling and the lawfulness thereof it is 1 Cor. 7.23 You are bought with the price be ye not the Servants of Men. With which agree our Lord's Word Call no Man Master upon Earth and possible it is that in the Apostles Days some hearing of the liberty purchased by Christ might begin to cast off their Service especially to unbelieving Masters and therefore we find the Apostles Paul Peter and John so frequently calling Servants to their duty and instructing them better in it And though we are told that Believers are all one in Christ Jesus Gal. 3 28. Yet it must be understood of the soul or inner man and of the means of grace in order to the Salvation thereof for as to the outward Man they are still bond and free and abide Master and Servant still And so when he bids them to be no more Servants of Men he has respect to the inner Man or Conscience which none can Command but God And tho our Lord has purchased a liberty for our Bodies as well as for our Souls yet we attain but to the first-fruits of it now There remains a Rest to be enjoy'd after Death then the weary are at rest saith Job and the Servant is free from his Master But we are not now freed from all Molestations Troubles and Inconveniencies in any state and so not from that of Service when called thereunto I shall therefore endeavour to set down 1. The Duties of Servants and how they may be best perform'd And then 2. The Temptations and Inconveniences of their Calling and how they may best be prevented or remedy'd by them CHAP. II. The Duty of Servants 1 towards GOD. THERE is such a comprehensive fulness in Scripture in which the Commandments are exceeding broad that there is no Case Condition or Relation in which the People of God can be or stand but there is something in the word that is suited thereunto There are none so high but the Word is above them and none so low but the Word condescends to them and speaks to their state and case Servants may be overlook'd by the World but they are directed by the Word And from that Word I shall endeavour to speak to the Duty of Servants under these three Heads 1. Their Duty towards God 2. Their Duty towards their Masters 3. Their Duty towards their Fellow-Servants in the Family and Neighbourhood As to the former their Duty towards God must first be minded as the foundation of their Duty towards Men. I have no hopes to do you good unless I can prevail with you in these matters of the highest concern 1. That you would engage your selves in the Service of God and be his Servants in the first place You are already his Servants at large and by outward profession You have taken his Earnest and worn his Livery upon your being Baptized It hath been no strange thing in the Church of God to have Infants own'd by God to be his Servants viz. by an external Relation and
Profession They are called so Levit. 25.41 42. and since this you have born his Name and Liv'd in his House and eat of his Bread and pretended to his Wages you have a Work to do and shall at last be called to a Reckoning when the Great Master comes but alas alas How many are there that are the Servants of Christ in Name but really the Servants of Sin all the time For know you not His Servants you are whom you obey Rom. 6.16 Jesus saith unto them Verily verily I say unto you He that committeth sin is the Servant of sin Job 8.34 You your selves were sometimes foolish serving divers Lusts and Pleasures Tit. 3.3 Rom. 6.17 20. 2 Pet. 2.19 You are by nature Slaves in your noblest part to the vilest of Creatures in the basest drudgery How has the Devil made you serve blindfold in Bonds and Chains If you are once made sensible of your case you would sigh and groan to be set at liberty you would be very inquisitive to find out a better place you would long to be directed to some better Service And if so I come to give you notice to my Master who tho' he wants not you nor any Servant that he has is very willing to entertain you in his Service It is an honourable Service and a profitable Service there is no such Master no such Wages to be had any where else Our Lord Jesus Christ offers to stand in many near relations to you and you that know what it is to go to Service should know upon what terms you may become the Servants of Christ See then 1. That you give up your selves to God and our Lord Jesus Christ by a solemn Covenant and Contract It is by Contract that you are Servants in the places where you live you knew what you did when you were hir'd upon what terms you took the Earnest Now Why stand you all the day idle Why are your Souls so long out of the Service of so great so good a Master Say not No Man has hir'd us I this Day call and invite you into the Family of God the Houshold of Faith Will you accept of his terms and consent to the Covenant He stands not with you upon the rigorous terms of the Covenant of Works He has admitted a Surety who has satisfy'd the Demands of Justice and purchas'd most excellent terms of Grace for you And now what does the Lord thy God require of thee He expects that you renounce your former Masters He will have all his Servants be for him and not for another no Man can serve two Masters He expects that you should reverence his Son that being ransom'd from your Slavery and bought with the price you should depend on his Merits and submit to his Will and serve him in your Souls and Bodies which are his Now who is He that engageth his heart to approach to God Have you considered his terms You must for sake your Father's House and your own People The divers Lusts and Pleasures which you formerly served must be entirely and eternally abandoned you must renounce your vain Confidences and submit to his righteousness you must deny your own Wills and stoop to his Word you must give up your Selves Souls and Bodies to be rul'd by him as ever you hope to be sav'd by him Do you now like his terms If you say No as the Lord liveth He will come down no lower Wherefore yield your selves unto the Lord as you have yielded your members Servants of iniquity unto iniquity so now yield your members Servants of righteousness unto holiness I know it must be the Finger of God that must turn about your Hearts and make you willing to his Contract And who knows but it may be the day of his power to some poor Souls Wherefore ponder upon your state by nature till you are deeply affected with your former slavery let the making of this Contract be look'd upon as the most solemn transaction of your Lives Get into a corner and count the cost He sees you as he did Nathanael as some think about the same work under the Fig-tree Reckon upon bearing the burden and heat of the day upon storms and many a cold blast in your Faces beg as for your Lives the assistance of his Spirit and let each of you take to himself words and say Other Lords have had Dominion over me but I am thy Servant truly I am thy Servant I put my self under the wings of the God of Israel I will never be the World 's again nor Sin 's nor Satan's any more I am thine and thou art mine Amen And the Lord God of Israel say so too Being thus hired you must see then 2. That you diligently apply your selves to know and do the will of your Master Being bound you must obey having open'd your mouths unto the Lord you cannot go back You are in for your Lives yea for ever and ever You must have your ear bor'd to the Posts of the Door and say I love my Master and will never depart from him You must chiefly delight in the inward part of your work but baulk no duty for any difficulty or danger that you may meet with therein You must not be quarreling with your Fellow-Servants when you should be at work but do all you do as approving your selves to the eye of your Master You must depend on the strength of Christ in all the Service you perform and when you have done all must count your selves unprofitable Servants and look only to his Grace and Merits for Pardon and Acceptance Nor shall you ever say that He is a hard Master reaping where he did not sow and gathering where he did not strow You shall have no occasion to liken him to the Egyptian Task-Masters that required Brick but gave no Straw He is neither Tyrannical in his Commands nor niggardly in his Encouragements He is not difficult to be pleased nor will he always chide He stands not upon legal perfection but admits of Repentance and Sincerity He offers his assistance that you may do all through Christ strengthening you He allows you to look to the recompence of reward that you may go the more chearfully on as those that know that your labour shall not be in vain in the Lord. 2. The next Duty of Servants is to improve the time of youth and strength The usual time of going to Service is in the younger years in that Age only are they thought fit for the Service of Men Oh let not the main work then be neglected in it To this purpose I commend to Servants these two Considerations 1. How advantageous a time the youthful Age is and what pity it is so free a time should be lost an Age in which God usually lays hold on the hearts of those whom he brings home to himself and in which Conversion is much easier like the bending of a tender Twig than when some old knotty Root is to
be cleav'd which must have many a Blow and indeed as every thing is beautiful in its season so how lovely is early Piety when the Young Man in the Gospel had but some good Inclinations it is said Jesus lov'd him How strong are such like to be and grow in Grace when like a Plant early set it has time to take Root How fruitful will they prove when they shall still bring forth fruit even to old Age What useful experimental Christians do such prove who have had a long time to tast the sweetness of the ways of Christ that they early chose None ever repented at last that they came in to Christ too soon on the contrary the Comforts of the Holy Ghost soon convince them that they have not lost their Pleasures but chang'd them left sensual Transitory Delights for such as are Spiritual and Eternal 2. On the other side How dreadful the neglect of the time of youth will prove how woful the hazard and how certain the damage Unconverted Youth is as full of sin as Job's Body was of sores We read of youthful lusts the iniquities of our youth which corrupt Nature in that Age is strongly inclined to How long a Vacation is there usually from God and Duty What foolish talking and jesting which is not convenient Is there not if not Oaths and Execrations yet abominable lying in the Tongue How sad is it to see the Pride and Vanity Disobedience to Parents Contempt of Advice vilifying of the Ministers and Servants of Christ and above all the prevailing Love of Pleasures unlawful Pleasures or at least of ill Report reigning amongst Youth at this day if through Grace they be awakened in their elder Years which is the best that can be thought of yet how bitter will these youthful Sins be to the Conscience when they are made to possess the iniquities of their youth they will quickly receive of the Lord double for all their sins i.e. doubly and triply more of horrour than ever they found of sweetness in them But alas it is very seldom so well with them who have lost their Youth in Sin Can the Aethiopian change his skin or the Leopard his spot c. How impossible almost to reclaim them especially if they spent their Youth in Vanity under the Gospel Life is uncertain and you have no assurance to live a day and if you live till Age alas how soon will it come the time in which you will say We have no pleasure in it How little is the Sinner that has miss'd his time and grown grey in sin acquainted with the Importance of the work which he has so foolishly delayed Do you think in your Consciences That all which you have so frequently heard of Conversion and Regeneration all about a Life of Self-denyal Meekness Humility and Contempt of this World is no more than to say Lord have mercy upon me when you are sick or to send for the Minister to pray by you Can the Work that requires the best Instruction the greatest Strength and Composedness of mind and Retiredness from the World be performed at last when you have spent your Youth and Strength in Ignorance and Obstinacy and come to be full of Pains of Body and Agonies of Mind and tyred with Company in Sickness and the over-officious Love of Friends as careless as your selves I know the Instance of the Thief upon the Cross is urged for a putting off Repentance to the last But suppose it were granted That there was no Work begun on his Soul before those last hours yet how many thousands have miscarried by such Delays to one single Instance of a Man that escapd Is not one to so many thousands bgreat Odds and he brought in at such an extraordinary season as never was before nor ever will be again It was in a time when all things were carried in a miraculous way the Sun was darkned the Rocks split the Temple-veil rent the Earth shook and the Graves opened and a Sinner converted at the last Our Lord was spoiling Principalities and Powers and as Captains snatch a Standard from the Enemy as a token of Victory so did our Lord rescue this Soul out of the hands of Satan as a Standard gain'd to make a Shew of it openly triumphing thereby over Satan in his Cross And how easily may this Instance be retorted on the careless Wasters of their Youth that the Thief on the Cross came in at the first Call and for ought appears to us had never one Gospel-Invitation before Did he ever despise the offers of Grace from Year to Year as you have done What a difference does this make that you have had duving your time of Youth and Vanity Line upon Line Precept upon Precept and have grieved quenched tempted vexed resisted and even done despight to the spirit of Grace And do you think to command the free influences of the Spirit when you have miss'd your time and he saith He will laugh at your Calamity and mock when your fear cometh 3. The last thing I shall name in the Servants Duty towards God is to do what they do in their places as to the Lord and not unto Men Col. 3.23 Whatever you do in word or deed do all in the Name of the Lord Jesus as eyeing the Image of his Authority in those that God has set over you for you serve the Lord Christ In order to this 1. See that in the entrance into Service or any new Place you mind chiefly where you may have the greatest advantages for your Souls Let not the easiest work or most wages be the main thing in your Eye in the places where you go Do not run into an infected place for some little outward advantage Do not chuse to live in a Parish where there is no preaching Ministry nor in a Family where there is no worship of God especially if the Governour or Members of the Family be notoriously prophane shun such a House as you would one in which the plague were broke out And if God has cast your Lot into a Godly Family esteem it as a special favour and remember to improve the price put into your hands It was a startling Speech of a holy Minister to a Maid Servant and prov'd of great use to her Machin in vit when observing how God had plac'd her in a Religious Family He told her That if she went to Hell out of that Family she would have a deep place there 2. That in doing the work of your Earthly Masters you seek the strength and aim at the glory of your heavenly Master Not to mention the Lord's Day as yet you must every day conscientiously beg a blessing upon your work and commit your Souls Bodies Relations and lawful undertakings into the hands of God by Faith and Prayer you partake of the Mercies of the Family and therefore you must pray down a Blessing upon it You remember Good Eleazar Gen. 24.12 O Lord
Commandment about the Sabbath was for their Servants as well as themselves He adds this to the Law in one place That thy Man-servant and thy Maid-servant may rest as well as thou Deut. 5.14 This is now the Labourers rest and see you lose not a minute of so precious a time Dispatch your Business the sooner the Night before shake off your Worldly Thoughts and go seasonably to rest that you may not lie abed longer on the Lord's Day Morning than at other times Oh think not when you say you want time to keep a Sabbath in an outward slothful rest as your Horses and other Beasts do Meddle with no worldly Business on this Holy Day but what is of Necessity and count nothing of necessity that hinders the Work of the Day and may be put off till another time If you have Masters that know the Worth of a Sabbath they 'll take care of you especially on this day not only to keep you from all Business that is not suited to the Day but to put you upon all Holy Exercises therein and how sweet is it to see Masters come to the Publick Assemblies furnished with their Train not suffering a Servant that can be spar'd to stay at home or lagg behind And if you have careless Masters that would have you make your visits or go journies on this Day because they cannot spare you on another rather deny your selves the Liberty offer'd you than be depriv'd of the Dearer Liberty of the House of God Above all avoid the prophane Feasts that yet are kept up in some places on the Lord's Day Let no Business of your own hinder you where it may be from attending Forenoon and Afternoon on the Publick Worship and that with Seriousness and Reverence as those that know into whose Presence you are come and beg earnestly for the Power of the Spirit to accompany the Word to your Souls Do not think the Sabbath is ended when the Sermon is done Let no wicked Companions perswade That you may find your own pleasures on this Holy Day Isa 58.13 Remember what an Inlet Sabbath-breaking has been into all Wickedness how many wicked Servants from cheating their Masters have been drawn to other Crimes and on the Gallows confess'd That neglecting and prophaning the Sabbath was the sin that exposed them to those Temptations which brought them thither Be you a Companion of them that fear the Lord and if you have none such to confer with about what you have heard as you go home or when you come there be the more by your selves double all the Spiritual Duties now that you have less time for on other days Be ready to give an account of your profiting if you are so happy as to have Masters that will examine you and count not the Day or the Duties therein a Weariness but call the Sabbath a Delight Admire the Kindness of God to poor Servants in appointing a Day on purpose for that which else you could hardly have found time for Look upon it as the Great Thanksgiving-Day Praise him for all his wondrous Works especially for your Redemption by our Lord Jesus Christ who when He had finished his Suffering-work did rise again from the Dead on the First Day of the Week and set his own Name on that Day That they that are tyred with their Labours all the Week may rest upon it That the meanest of his People may rejoice therein in hopes of an Everlasting Sabbath above where these Earthly Relations will cease and there will be no more Distinction of Master and Servant but all swallowed up in one Spiritual Relation to Him of whom the whole Family in Heaven and Earth is named and in one Holy Service of Praise and Thanksgiving to him that sits upon the Throne and to the Lamb for ever and ever FINIS