THE DUTIES OF SERVANTS TO THEIR MASTERS.
IF servants would have comfortable lives, they must approve themselves
and their service unto God, because from him they must have their
comforts; which may be done by following these directions.
_Direct._ I. Reverence the providence of God which calleth you to
a servant's life, and murmur not at your labour, or your low
condition; but know your mercies, and be thankful for them. Though
perhaps you have more labour than your masters, yet, have you not less
care than they? Most servants may have quieter lives, if it were not
for their unthankful, discontented hearts. You are not troubled with
the care of providing your landlord's rent, or meat, and drink, and
wages for your servants, nor with the wants and desires of wives and
children, nor with the faults and naughtiness of such as you must use
or trust; nor with the losses and crosses which your masters are
liable to. Be thankful to God, who for a little bodily labour, doth
free you from the burden of all these cares.
_Direct._ II. Take your condition as chosen for you by God, and
take yourselves as his servants, and your work as his, and do all as
to the Lord, and not only for man; and expect from God your chief
reward. You will be else but eye-servants and hypocrites, if the fear
of God do not awe your consciences: and if you were the best servants
to your masters in the world, and did not all in obedience to God, it
were but a low, unprofitable service; if you believe that there is an
infinite distance between God and man, you may conceive what a
difference there is between serving God and man: your wages is all
your reward from man, but eternal life is God's reward: and the very
same work and labour which one man hath but his year's wages for,
another hath everlasting life for, (though not of merit, yet of the
bounty of our Lord,) Rom. vi. 23; because he doth it in love and
obedience to that God who hath promised this reward. "Servants, obey
in all things your masters according to the flesh: not with
eye-service, as men-pleasers, but in singleness of heart, fearing God:
and whatsoever ye do, do it heartily as to the Lord, and not unto men;
knowing that of the Lord ye shall receive the reward of the
inheritance; for ye serve the Lord Christ: but he that doeth wrong,
shall receive for the wrong which he hath done: and there is no
respect of persons," Col. iii. 22-25. The like is in Eph. vi. 5-8. So
much doth God respect the heart, that the very same action hath such
different successes and rewards, as it is done to different ends, and
from different principles: your lowest service may be thus sanctified
and acceptable to God.
_Direct._ III. Be conscionable and faithful in performing all the
labour and duty of a servant. Neglect not such business as you are to
do; nor do it lazily, and deceitfully, and by the halves. As it is
thievery or deceit for a man in the market to sell another the whole
of his commodity, and when he hath done, to keep back and defraud him
of a part; so is it no less for a servant that selleth his time and
labour to another, to defraud him of part of that time and service
which you sold him. Think not therefore that it is no sin, to idle
away an hour which is not your own, or to slubber over the work which
you undertake to do. Slothfulness and unconscionableness make servants
deceitful: such care not how they do their work, if they can but make
their masters believe that it is done well: they are hypocrites in
their service, that take more care to seem painful, trusty servants,
than to be so; and to hide their faults and slothfulness, than to
avoid them; as if it were as easy to hide them also from God, who hath
resolved to punish all the wrong they do their masters, Col. iii. 25.
If they can but loiter and take their ease, and their masters know it
not, they are never troubled at it as a sin against God: laziness and
fleshly-mindedness doth so blind them, that they think it is no sin to
take as much ease as they can, so they carry it fair and smoothly with
their masters, and to slubber over their business any how, so that it
will but serve the turn: whereas if their masters should keep back any
of their wages, or put more work upon them than is meet, they would
easily be persuaded that this were a sin. If your labour be such as
would hurt your health, (as by wet or cold, &c.) you may foresee it,
and avoid it in your choice of places: but if it be only the labour
that you grudge at, it is a sign of a fleshly and unfaithful person;
as long as it is not excessive to wrong your health, nor hurt your
souls, by denying you leisure for your duty to God. The Lord himself
commandeth you to be obedient in singleness of heart, as unto Christ,
not as eye-servants; and whatever you do, to do it heartily, knowing
that whatever good thing any man doth, the same shall he receive of
the Lord, Eph. vi. 5, 6, 8; Col. iii. 23.
_Direct._ IV. Be more careful about your duty to your masters,
than about their duty or carriage to you. Be much more careful what to
do, than what to receive; and to be good servants, than to be used as
good servants. Not but you may modestly expect your due, and to be
used as servants should be used; but your duty is much more to be
regarded; for if your master wrong you, that is his sin, and none of
yours: God will not be offended with you for another's faults, but for
your own; not for being wronged, but for doing wrong: and it is better
suffer the greatest wrong, than offend God by committing the smallest
sin.
_Direct._ V. Be true and faithful in all that is committed to
your trust: dispose not of any thing that is your master's without his
consent; though you may think it never so reasonable, or well done,
yet remember that it is none of your own: if you would relieve the
poor, or please a fellow-servant, or do a kindness to a neighbour, do
it of your own, and not of another's, unless you have his allowance.
Be as thrifty for your master, as you would be for yourselves. Waste
no more of his goods, than you would do if it were your own. Say not
as false servants do, My master is rich enough, and it will do him no
harm, and therefore we may make bold, and not be so sparing and
niggardly. The question is not, what he should do, but what you should
do. If you take any of your rich neighbour's goods or money, to give
to the poor, you may be hanged as thieves, as well as if you stole it
for yourselves. To take any thing of another's against his will, is to
rob or steal: let the value be never so small, if it be but the worth
of a penny that you steal or defraud another of, the sin is not small:
nay, it aggravateth the sin, that you will presume to break God's law
for such a trifle, and venture your soul for so small a thing: though
it be taken from one that may never so well spare it, that is no
excuse to you; it is none of yours. Especially let those servants
think of this, that are trusted with buying and selling, or with
provisions. If you defraud your masters because you can conceal it,
believe it, God that knoweth it will reveal it; and if you repent of
it, you must make restitution of all that ever you thus robbed them
of, if you have any thing to do it with; and if you have nothing, you
must with sorrow and shame confess it to them, and ask forgiveness:
but if you repent not, you must pay dearer for it in hell, than this
comes to. _Object._ But did not the Lord commend the unjust steward?
Luke xvi. 8. _Answ._ Yes, for his wit in providing for himself, but
not for his unjustness. He only teacheth you there, that if the wicked
worldlings have wit to provide for this life, much more should you
have the wit to make provision for the life to come. It is
faithfulness that is a steward's duty, 1 Cor. iv. 2.
_Direct._ VI. Honour your masters, and behave yourselves towards
them with that respect and reverence as your place requireth.[34] Behave
not yourselves rudely or contemptuously towards them, in word or deed.
Be not so proud as to disdain to keep the distance and reverence which
is due. You should scorn to be servants, if you scorn to behave
yourselves as servants. Give them not saucy, provoking, or
contemptuous language; not wording it out with them in bold
contending, and justifying yourselves when your faults are
reprehended. Mark the apostle's words, Tit. ii. 9, 10, "Exhort
servants to be obedient to their own masters, and to please them well
in all things, not answering again; not purloining, but showing all
good fidelity, that they may adorn the doctrine of God our Saviour in
all things." And 1 Tim. vi. 1-4, "Let as many servants as are under
the yoke, count their own masters worthy of all honour;" (yea, though
they were infidels or poor,) "that the name of God and his doctrine be
not blasphemed." (For wicked men will say, Is this your religion? when
servants professing religion, are disobedient, unreverent, and
unfaithful.) "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. These
things teach and exhort: if any man teach otherwise, and consent not
to wholesome words--he is proud, knowing nothing."
_Direct._ VII. Go not unwillingly or murmuringly about your
business, but take it as your delight. An unwilling mind doth lose
God's reward, and man's acceptance. Grudging and unwillingness maketh
your work of little value, be it never so well done. "Do service
heartily, and with good will as to the Lord," Eph. vi. 7; Col. iii. 23.
_Direct._ VIII. Obey your masters in all things (which God
forbiddeth not, and which their place enableth them to command you);
and set not your own conceits and wills against their commands.[35] It
is not obedience, if you will do no more of their commands, than what
agreeth with your own opinions and wills. What if you think another
way best, or another work best, or another time best; are you to
govern or obey? If the work be not yours, but another's, let his will
and not yours be fulfilled, and do his service in his own way. It is
God's command, "Servants, obey your masters in all things," Col. iii. 22.
_Direct._ IX. Reveal not any of the secrets of your masters, or
of the family.[36] Talk not to others of what is said or done at home;
be not over-familiar at other men's houses, where you may be tempted
to talk of your masters' businesses; many words may have mischievous
effects, which were well intended. That servant is unfit for a wise
man's family, that hath some familiar abroad, to whom he must tell all
that he heareth or seeth at home; for his familiar hath another
familiar, and so a man shall be betrayed by those of his own
household, Mic. vii. 6, as Christ by Judas.
_Direct._ X. Grudge not at the meanness of the provisions of the
family. If you have not that which is needful to your health, remove
to another place as soon as you can, without reproaching the place
where you are. But if you have your daily bread, that is, your
necessary, wholesome food, how coarse soever, your murmuring for want
of more delicious fare, is but your shame, and showeth that your
hearts are sunk into your bellies, and that you are fleshly-minded
persons.[37]
_Direct._ XI. Pray daily for a blessing on your labours and on
the family, both privately and with the rest. A praying servant may
prevail with God, for more than all their labour cometh to; and their
labours are liker to be blessed, than the labours of a prayerless,
ungodly person. You are not worthy to partake of the mercies of the
family, if you will not join in prayers for those mercies.
_Direct._ XII. Willingly submit to the teaching and government of
your masters about the right worshipping of God, and for the good of
your own souls. Bless God, if you live with religious masters that
will instruct you and catechise you, and pray with you, and restrain
you from breaking the Lord's day, and other sins, and will examine you
of your profiting, and watch over your souls, and sharply rebuke you
when you do that which is evil. Be glad of their instructions, and
murmur not at them, as ignorant, ungodly servants do. These few
directions carefully followed will make your service better to you,
than lordships and kingdoms are to the ungodly.
[34] Exod. xx. 12; Rom. xiii. 7.
[35] Acts x. 7.
[36] Prov. xxv. 9; xi. 13; xx. 19.
[37] Phil. iii. 18, 19.