_Directions for the right Choice of Masters._
Seeing the happiness of a servant, the safety of his soul, and the
comfort of his life, depend very much upon the family and place which
he liveth in, it much concerneth every prudent servant to be very
careful in what place or family he take up his abode, and to make the
wisest choice he can.
_Direct._ I. Above all, be sure that you choose not for mere
fleshly ease and sensuality, and take not that for the best place for
you, where you may have most of your own carnal will and pleasure. I
know that fleshly, graceless servants, will hear this direction with
as ill a will, as a dog when he is forbidden his meat or carrion. I
know I speak against their very nature, and therefore against their
very hearts, and therefore they will think I speak against their
interest and good; and therefore I may persuade them to this course a
hundred times, before they will believe me, or obey my counsel. All
ungodly, fleshly servants, do make these the only signs of a good
place, or desirable service for them: 1. If they may do what work they
will, and avoid that which they dislike; if they may do that which is
easy, and not that which is hard; and that which is an honour to them,
and not that which seemeth inferior and base. 2. If they may work when
they will, and give over when they will. 3. If they may rise when they
will, and go to bed when they will. 4. If they may eat and drink what
they will, and fare well to the pleasing of their appetites. 5. If
they may speak when they will, and what they have a mind to speak. 6.
If they may have leave when they will to sport, and play, and be
wanton and vain, and waste their time, which they call being merry. 7.
If they may wear the best apparel and go fine. 8. If their masters
will be liberal to them, to maintain all this, and will give them what
they would have. 9. If their masters and fellow-servants carry it
respectfully to them, and praise them, and make somebody of them, and
do not dishonour them, nor give them any displeasing words. 10. And if
they are not troubled with the precepts of godliness, nor set to learn
the Scripture, or catechized, nor called to account about the state of
their souls, or the ground of their hopes for the life to come, nor
troubled with much praying, or repeating sermons, or religious
exercise or discourse, or any thing that tendeth to their salvation;
nor be restrained from any sin, which they have a mind to, nor
reproved for it when they have done it. These are an ungodly, carnal
person's conditions, or signs of a good service. Which is, in a word,
to have their own wills and fleshly desires, and not to be crossed by
their masters' wills, or the will of God: which in effect is, to have
the greatest helps to do the devil's will, and to be damned.
_Direct._ II. See that it be your first and principal care, to live
in such a place where you have the greatest helps and smallest
hinderances to the pleasing of God, and the saving of your souls; and
in such a place where you shall have no liberty to sin, nor have your
fleshly will fulfilled, but shall be best instructed to know and do
the will of God, and under him the will of your superiors. It is the
mark of those whom God forsaketh, to be given up to their own wills,
or "to their own hearts' lusts, to walk in their own counsels," Psal.
lxxxi. 12. "To live after the flesh," is the certain way to endless
misery, Rom. viii. 8, 13. To be most subject to the will of God, with
the greatest mortification and denial of our own wills, is the mark of
the most obedient, holy soul. Seeing then that holiness and
self-denial, the loving of God, and the mortifying of the flesh, are
the life of grace, and the health and rectitude of the soul, and the
only way (under Christ) to our salvation; you have great reason to
think that place the best for you, in which you have most helps for
holiness and self-denial: and not only to bear patiently the
strictness of your superiors, and the labour which they put you upon
for your souls, but also to desire and seek after such helps, as the
greatest mercies upon earth. "First seek the kingdom of God and his
righteousness: labour not (first) for the food that perisheth, but for
that which endureth to everlasting life," Matt. vi. 33; John vi. 27.
Take care first that your souls be provided for, and take that for the
best service which helpeth you most in the service of God, to your
salvation.
_Direct._ III. If it be possible, live where there is a faithful,
powerful, convincing minister, whose public teaching and private
counsel you may make use of for your souls. Live not, if you can avoid
it, under an ignorant, dead, unprofitable teacher, that will never
afford you any considerable help to lift up your hearts to a heavenly
conversation. But seeing you must spend the six days in your labour,
live where you have the best helps to spend the Lord's day, for the
quickening and comfort of your souls; that in the strength of that
holy food, you may cheerfully perform your sanctified labours on the
week days following. Be not like those brutish persons, that live as
if there were no life but this; and therefore take care to get a
place, where their bodies may be well fed and clothed, and may have
ease, and pleasure, and preferment for the world; but care not much
what teacher there is, to be their guide to heaven; nor whether ever
they be seriously foretold of the world to come, or not.
_Direct._ IV. Live, if you can obtain so great a mercy, with
superiors that fear God, and will have a care of your souls, as well
as of your bodies, and will require you to do God's service as well as
their own: and not with worldly, ungodly masters, that will use you as
they do their beasts, to do their work, and never take care to further
your salvation. For, 1. The curse of God is in the families of the
ungodly; and who would willingly live in a house that God hath cursed,
any more than in a house that is haunted with evil spirits? But God
himself doth dwell with the godly, and by many promises hath assured
them of his love and blessing. "The curse of the Lord is in the house
of the wicked; but he blesseth the habitation of the just," Prov.
iii. 33. "The wicked are overthrown, and are not; but the house of the
righteous shall stand," Prov. xii. 7. "The house of the wicked shall
be overthrown; but the tabernacle of the upright shall flourish,"
Prov. xiv. 11; so Prov. xv. 25. "The righteous man wisely considereth
the house of the wicked: God overthroweth the wicked for their
wickedness," Prov. xxi. 12. Go not into a falling house. 2. A master
that feareth God, will help to save you from sin and hell, and help
your souls to life eternal: he may do more for you, than if he made
you kings and rulers of the earth. He will hinder you from sin: he
will teach you to know God, and to prepare for your salvation. Whereas
ungodly masters will rather discourage you, and by mocks or
threatenings seek to drive you from a holy life, and use their wit,
and work, and authority, to hinder your salvation: or at best will
take little care of your souls, but think if they provide you food and
wages, they have done their parts. 3. A master that feareth God will
do you no wrong, but will love you as a christian, and his
fellow-servant of Christ, while he commandeth and employeth you as his
own servant, which cannot be expected from ignorant, ungodly, worldly
men.
_Direct._ V. Yet choose such a service as you are fit to undergo,
with the least hinderance of the service of God, and of your souls.
Neither a life of idleness, nor of excess of business, should be
chosen, if you have your choice. For when the mind is overwhelmed with
the cares of your service, and your bodies tired with excessive
labour, you will have little time, or heart, or power, to mind the
matters of your souls with any seriousness. Yea, the Lord's day will
be spent with little comfort, when the toil of the week days hath left
the body fit for nothing but to sleep. A service which alloweth you no
time at all to pray, or read the Scripture, or mind your everlasting
state, is a life more fit for beasts than men.
_Direct._ VI. If you can attain it, live where your fellow-servants
fear God, as well as the master of the family. For fellow-servants
usually converse with one another more frequently and familiarly than
their masters do with any of them. And therefore if a master give you
the most heavenly instructions, the idle, frothy talk of fellow-servants
may blot out all from your memories and hearts. And their derision of
a holy life, or their bad examples, may do more hurt, than the
precepts of the governors can do good. Whereas when a master's
counsels are seconded by the good discourse and practice of
fellow-servants, it is a great encouragement to good, and keepeth the
heart in a continual warmth and resolution.
_Direct._ VII. If you want any one of these accommodations, be
the more diligent in such an improvement of the rest, as may make up
your want. If you have a good teacher and a bad master, improve the
helps of your teacher the more diligently. If you have a bad master
and good fellow-servants, or a good master and bad fellow-servants,
thank God for that which you have, and make the best of it.
_Direct._ VIII. If you would be accommodated yourselves with the
best masters and usage, labour to be the best servants; and then it is
two to one but you may have your choice. Good servants are so scarce,
and so much valued, that the best places would strive for you, if you
will strive to be such. Excel others in labour, and diligence, and
trustiness, and obedience, and gentleness, and patience, and then you
may have almost what places you desire. But if you will yourselves be
idle, and slothful, and deceitful, and false, and disobedient, and
unmannerly, and self-willed, and contentious, and impatient, and yet
think that you must be respected, and used as good and faithful
servants, it is but a foolish expectation. For what obligation is
there upon others, in point of justice, to give you that which you
deserve not? Indeed if any be bound to keep you in mere charity, then
you may plead charity with them and not desert; but if they take you
but as servants, they owe you nothing but what your work and virtues
shall deserve.