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-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
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
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
must please God chiefly as the one thing necessary yet in and under him the same Apostle tells you That your Obedience to your Masters lies in doing their pleasure in all that they set you about Tit. 2.9 Exhort Servants to be obedient to their Masters and to please them well in all things Indeed we read of a pleasing Men that will not stand with our being the Servants of Christ You therefore still remember God is their Master and yours And if your earthly Master command any thing contrary to God's Word as to Lye or Cheat for his gain or the like as you love your Souls obey God rather than Men. But now as to all lawful things the Command stands good Col. 3.22 Servants obey in all things your Masters according to the flesh So that if the things be mean or low and as you think below you you must not nicely stand upon your Honour but set about your work yea tho' the Command be harsh and unpleasant you must bring down your high Stomach and submit So you 'll read 1 Pet. 2.18 Servants be subject to your Masters with all fear not only to the good and gentle but also to the froward If your Master be froward hasty difficult to be pleased and it may be ready to injure you this is his sin and a very great one yet you must perform your Duty to God and him But you 'll say Is there no Remedy for a poor Servant oppress'd by a Churlish Nabal no way to avoid his Rigour and unjust Severity Why Yes He may for the present withdraw himself prudently to avoid his Master's rage and tho' in case of the utmost extremity the Servant may obtain the help of the Magistrate against an unreasonable Master yet usually the Apostle's Caution is sufficient for the Servants to forbear all muttering returns which he calls Tit. 2.9 not answering again Which is not meant that they must refuse a respectful Answer to Questions when they are ask'd That is as great a fault on the other side as the Wise Man saith when they understand not to answer Prov. 29.19 But that they should not thwart and contradict or by rugged and unmannerly words provoke their Master's Indignation against them On the contrary there is required a willing Obedience called a doing what they do heartily or from the heart Col. 3.23 and if in harsh and unpleasant things you must obey how are they to blame that refuse their Masters Orders in the most gentle and necessary things That will tell their Masters they were not hir'd to be catechiz'd or the like Which is not only an affront to God in the contemning of his Ordinances for your Souls but a disobedience to them whom God has set over you For when you become Servants it is not only in this or that work that suits your humour as if you were to set your Conceits and Wills against their Commands but in all lawful things belonging to your place whereby you may testifie your Obedience to them CHAP. IV. The Duty of Servants 3. towards their Fellow-servants in the Family and Neighbourhood THey that are of the same Calling or state of life in the World are wont to be counted Brethren and especially when they live near to each other should most entirely love as such Society is the great Comfort of Life and Equality of Condition much adds to the sweetness of it where there be other higher Qualifications Indeed there is hardly any word so much abus'd as that of Good-Fellowship Men mistake the Order of it making it chiefly to respect the Body which is to be minded in subordination to the Soul and no less the Matter of it Good-Fellowship with them is to be amongst their Cups at best in idle Chat and Vanity And Servants and Youth hear it told by some grown grey in carelessness What love and good neighbourhood there was when they had not so much Preaching nor such ado about Religion But the Christian Servant has not so learned Christ There are more noble Ends of Society than careless Servants know such as 1. Mutual Watchfulness especially over the Souls of each other It is true That here Charity must begin at home in a cautious fear of danger to your own Souls especially if your Companions in the Family be none of the best Take heed you be not Tempters of others nor your selves tempted by them Remember the Exhortation that speaks unto you as unto Children Prov. 1.10 My Son if Sinners entice thee consent thou not And undue Familiarity between Servants of different Sexes in a Family has had fatal and tragical Effects How often has Opportunity and Privacy expos'd Men and Maids that live together to the Devil's Temptations And in houses where the Masters have set battlements on the roof they have leap'd over into the ditch for a Whore is a deep ditch and he that is abhorred of the Lord shall fall therein Prov. 22.14 How much more are Servants in danger where they have no warnings but wicked Examples how soon do filthy Words and wanton Dalliances betray them He that feareth the Lord shall escape the snare but the sinner shall be taken in it Eccles 7.26 And if they be of the same Sex there is no small danger in a converse with those that have infectious diseases and running sores of prophaneness upon them If they be only in the Neighbourhood that are thus infected it is more easie to avoid them 2 Thes 3.6 Now we command you That you withdraw your selves from every brother that walketh disorderly Who toucheth pitch and is not defiled Can any take coals in his bosom and not be burnt But if the Plague be in the House where you are and your Fellow-servants Drunkards prophane Swearers Scoffers at Religion your Case is the more dangerous How came you into this Hell on Earth where these things are suffered Ought you not to be deeply humbled That you made no better choice And upon what terms do you stay longer there You had need have a clear Call to dwell in a Pest-house Nevertheless while you stay in that place Thou shalt not hate thy brother in thy heart but shalt in any wise rebuke him and not suffer sin upon him Lev. 19.17 It seems without this you can neither testifie your hatred of their sins nor free your selves from the imputation of hatred of their Souls You must do it in faithfulness to your own Souls and you know not but you may thereby gain theirs You must watch the best Opportunity that your nearness to them will afford you to tell them their fault between them and you alone and with plainness lay open their sin before them this open rebuke is better than secret love And continue your Duty if they go on to sin unless by scoffing Malignity and Fury they shew themselves to be the dogs and swine that you must not throw your pearls before lest they turn again and rent you And then you
but in the temper of their Spirits till the heart be chang'd and cur'd But I shall mention such remedies as do particularly respect the persons to whom I am speaking It concerns All that lie under this temptation to consider the Soveraignty of God and his Wisdom in appointing their lot that Nature is contented with a little and Grace with less considering that the lowest condition out of Hell is mercy to poor lost Sinners how easily God can change their lot if he sees it good and how sweet the lowest state may be made to them by Quietness and Contentment But there are two special Considerations that I commend to Servants in order to the removing this hindrance of their Duty that from henceforth they may bear the Inconveniencies of their Callings with a more composed mind that they may not be weary of their condition or irksomely long for alterations of it but may wait God s leisure and be kindly affected towards others that are in a higher condition in the World than they 1. And the First Consideration is The happiness of the condition of Servants in comparison of that of many others For not to compare you with the Miserable Vagrants that eat the Bread out of the Mouths of the true Poor touching which disorderly Persons we have the Apostle's Command That if they will not work they must not eat I rather speak of the Condition of such as you never knew or considered in your Discontent How far then has God set you above Servants in other Times and Places which have been and are compelled to Slavery and forced Subjection to the Lusts of Men. Of this sort were many of those Servants to whom the Apostles wrote and if they were to do their work heartily without grudging how much more should you And in our Age have you never heard of the Slaves in the Plantations and how they are us'd especially with respect to their Souls by some more Savages than the Negro's that they call so And what Servant in England dares repine at their state that has ever known the Condition of their own Countrey-men when Slaves in Algiers and other places For not only are they enslav'd in a strange Countrey whereas the Smoak of ones own Countrey is sweeter than the clearest Air in a strange Land but the Miseries they suffer under Barbarous Masters calls for your pity towards them and contentment with your merciful Lot For being bereft unjustly of all their Goods they are constantly compelled to the hardest Labour without any rest scarce to drink a little Water and eat their decay'd Barly and Broth of Camels worn out with Work like themselves and this with the only intermission of four Days in the Year upon the slightest Faults cruelly beaten that they often die of their pain Indeed their Lives are no further valu'd than for their Service or Slavery and their Souls in greater danger by continual Temptations to escape all these Hardships by a dreadful Apostasie And to leave these to consider some others that seem to have a Life as full of Pleasure as these that I have mention'd have of Misery I mean the Servants of State whose Life you so much envy for their Ease and Fine Cloths Did you but consider their Temptations to Idleness and thereby to almost all other sins you would see that God has delivered you from many snares to which they are daily expos'd By appointing you a moderate Labour which is for the Health of your Bodies and the good of the Publick your Souls are not in danger of flattering the Great or ministring to the Pride and Lusts of those that think their Riches priviledge them to live a Life of Sloth and Sensuality Not that it is thus in all great Houses God forbid but that it is very difficult for a Camel to get through the Eye of a Needle And how general is the Debauchery and Ruine of those Servants that at first you grudged at But to come nearer home how free is the Servants Life and void of those Troubles to which even your own Masters and others that live round you are frequently expos'd They have great Rents to pay and the Money hardly got to pay them with they have Meat and Drink to provide for you and Wages at the Years end one trespasses on their Fields and another defrauds them of their Debts They hardly bear their own wants and more hardly the wants of Wives and Children They have Losses to be made up abroad and Houses to be repair'd at home And you see all this but feel it not You have no care next to the pleasing God but to do your work in the Day and sleep quietly in the Night Are not these burdens on their Minds greater than any you bear on your Shoulders And to name but one thing more under this Head Is there not a worse service or slavery than that I speak of in Algiers Are there not Covenant-Slaves of Satan that have sold themselves to work wickedness and made a kind of League with Hell All that worse than Egyptian Service wherewith they are made to serve Is it not with rigour And though they are Lords and Ladies and have long Trains of Servants yet if they are Unconverted Are they not Servants Yea Bond-slaves to Sin Satan Mammon and the fear of Death Let not thy heart envy sinners But this last Comparison does respect the Godly Servants only and so brings me to the second Consideration to cure this Discontent viz. 2. The much more happiness of the Servants of God though in the lowest and meannest services amongst Men. As He that is called being free is the Lord's Servant so He that is called being a Servant is the Lord's Free-man 1 Corinth 7.22 Though he ty'd fast your Yoke by his Word in all due Obedience to your Masters yet having broke the Yoke of Sin He has made you freer than Princes that continue under it Whom the Son makes free they are free indeed John 8.36 His Service is perfect Freedom though your Service to Men should be heavy to a Bondage How precious a Liberty has Christ bought for you and bestow'd by his Spirit upon you if you belong to him though the meanest Servant here in the lowest Cottage He has given you the external Liberty of his House admitted you to feast at his Table given you free leave to partake of his Provision and appointed his Stewards to dispence it accordingly and whether Paul or Apollos or Cephas all are yours He has sweetned this with a Liberty of Conscience and of a Judgment rightly inform'd for though he has not delivered you from a subjection to Magistrates any more than to your Masters yet so free has he made you That nothing shall bind your Conscience but his own Word and all your Obedience to the Commands of Men shall be for Conscience sake towards God requiring that subjection But above all where the Spirit of the Lord is there is
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