FOOTNOTE[30]Read Mr. Tho. White's little book for little children. Mark ix. 36; x. 14, 16.
[30]Read Mr. Tho. White's little book for little children. Mark ix. 36; x. 14, 16.
ThoughI put your duty to your parents first, because it is first learned, yet your duty to God immediately is your greatest and most necessary duty. Learn these following precepts well.
Direct.I. Learn to understand the covenant and vow which in your baptism you made with God the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost, your Creator, Redeemer, and Regenerator: and when you well understand it, renew that covenant with God in your own persons, and absolutely deliver up yourselves to God, as your Creator, Redeemer, and Sanctifier, your Owner, your Ruler, and your Father and felicity. Baptism is not an idle ceremony, but the solemn entering into covenant with God, in which you receive the greatest mercies, and bind yourselves to the greatest duties. It is but the entering into that way which you must walk in all your lives, and avowing that to God which you must be still performing. And though your parents had authority to promise for you, it is you that must perform it; for it was you that they obliged. If you ask by what authority they obliged you in covenant to God, I answer, by the authority which God hath given them in nature, and in Scripture; as they oblige you to be subjects of the king, or as they enter your names into any covenant, by lease or other contract, which is for your benefit; and they do it for good, that you may have part in the blessings of the covenant; and if you grudge at it, and refuse your own consent when you come to age, you lose the benefits. If you think they did you wrong, you may be out of covenant when you will, if you will renounce the kingdom of heaven. But it is much wiser to be thankful to God, that your parents were the means of so great a blessing to you, and to do that again more expressly by yourselves which they did for you; and openly with thankfulness to own the covenant in which you are engaged, and live in the performance and in the comforts of it all your days.
Direct.II. Remember that you are entering into the way to everlasting life, and not into a place of happiness or continuance. Presently therefore set your hearts on heaven, and make it the design of all your lives, to live in heaven with Christ for ever. O happy you, if God betimes will thoroughly teach you to know what it is that must make you happy; and if at your first setting out, your end be right, and your faces be heavenward! Remember that as soon as you begin to live, you are hasting towards the end of your lives: even as a candle as soon as it beginneth to burn, and the hour-glass as soon as it is turned, is wasting, and hasting to its end; so as soon as you begin to live, your lives are in a consumption, and posting towards your final hour. As a runner, as soon as he beginneth his race, is hasting to the end of it; so are your lives, even in your youngest time. It is another kind of life that you must live for ever, than this trifling, pitiful, fleshly life. Prepare therefore speedily for that which God sent you hither to prepare for. O happy you, if you begin betimes, and go on with cheerful resolution to the end! It is blessed wisdom to be wise betimes, and to know the worth of time in childhood, before any of it be wasted and lost upon the fooleries of the world. Then you may grow wise indeed, and be treasuring up understanding, and growing up in sweet acquaintance with the Lord, when others are going backwards, and daily making work for sad repentance or final desperation. Eccl. xxi. 1, "Remember now thy Creator in the days of thy youth, while the evil days come not, nor the years draw nigh, when thou shalt say, (of all things here below,) I have no pleasure in them."
Direct.III. Remember that you have corrupted natures to be cured, and that Christ is the Physician that must cure them; and the Spirit of Christ must dwell within you, and make you holy, and give you a new heart and nature, which shall love God and heaven above all the honour and pleasures of the world: rest not therefore till you find that you are born anew, and that the Holy Ghost hath made you holy, and quickened your hearts with the love of God, and of your dear Redeemer.[31]The old nature loveth the things of this world, and the pleasures of this flesh; but the new nature loveth the Lord that made you, and redeemed and renewed you, and the endless joys of the world to come, and that holy life which is the way thereto.
Direct.IV. Take heed of loving the pleasures of the flesh, in over-much eating, or drinking, or play. Set not your hearts upon your belly or your sport; let your meat, and sleep, and play be moderate. Meddle not with cards or dice, or any bewitching or riotous sports: play not for money, lest it stir up covetous desires, and tempt you to be over-eager in it, and to lie, and wrangle, and fall out with others. Use neither food or sports which are not for your health; a greedy appetite enticeth children to devour raw fruits, and to rob their neighbours' orchards, and at once to undo both soul and body. And an excessive love of play doth cause them to run among bad companions, and lose their time, and destroy the love of their books, and their duty, and their parents themselves, and all that is good. You must eat, andsleep, and play for health, and not for useless, hurtful pleasure.[32]
Direct.V. Subdue your own wills and desires to the will of God and your superiors, and be not eagerly set upon any thing which God or your parents do deny you. Be not like those self-willed, fleshly children, that are importunate for any thing which their fancy or appetite would have, and cry or are discontent if they have it not. Say not that I must have this or that, but be contented with any thing which is the will of God and your superiors. It is the greatest misery and danger in the world, to have all your own wills, and to be given up to your hearts' desire.[33]
Direct.VI. Take heed of a custom of foolish, filthy railing, lying, or any other sinful words. You think it is a small matter, but God thinketh not so; it is not a jesting matter to sin against the God that made you: it is fools that make a sport with sin, Prov. xiv. 9; x. 23; xxvi. 19. One lie, one curse, one oath, one ribald, or railing, or deriding word, is worse than all the pain that ever your flesh endured.
Direct.VII. Take heed of such company and play-fellows, as would entice and tempt you to any of these sins, and choose such company as will help you in the fear of God. And if others mock at you, care no more for it, than for the shaking of a leaf, or the barking of a dog. Take heed of lewd and wicked company, as ever you care for the saving of your souls. If you hear them rail, or lie, or swear, or talk filthily, be not ashamed to tell them, that God forbiddeth you to keep company with such as they, Psal. cxix. 63; Prov. xiii. 20; xviii. 7; 1 Cor. v. 12; Eph. v. 11.
Direct.VIII. Take heed of pride and covetousness. Desire not to be fine, nor to get all to yourselves; but be humble, and meek, and love one another, and be as glad that others are pleased as yourselves.
Direct.IX. Love the word of God, and all good books which would make you wiser and better; and read not play-books, nor tale-books, nor love-books, nor any idle stories. When idle children are at play and fooleries, let it be your pleasure to read and learn the mysteries of your salvation.
Direct.X. Remember that you keep holy the Lord's day. Spend not any of it in play or idleness: reverence the ministers of Christ, and mark what they teach you, and remember it is a message from God about the saving of your souls. Ask your parents when you come home, to help your understandings and memories in any thing which you understood not or forgot. Love all the holy exercises of the Lord's day, and let them be pleasanter to you than your meat or play.
Direct.XI. Be as careful to practise all, as to hear and read it. Remember all is but to make you holy, to love God, and obey him: take heed of sinning against your knowledge, and against the warnings that are given you.
Direct.XII. When you grow up, by the direction of your parents choose such a trade or calling, as alloweth you the greatest helps for heaven, and hath the fewest hinderances, and in which you may be most serviceable to God before you die. If you will but practise these few directions, (which your own hearts must say have no harm in any of them,) what happy persons will you be for ever!
FOOTNOTES[31]2 Cor. v. 17; Rom. viii. 9, 13; John iii. 3, 5, 6.[32]1 Cor. x. 31.[33]Psal. lxxxi. 10-12.
[31]2 Cor. v. 17; Rom. viii. 9, 13; John iii. 3, 5, 6.
[32]1 Cor. x. 31.
[33]Psal. lxxxi. 10-12.
Ifservants 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 maketheir 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 manshall 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.
FOOTNOTES[34]Exod. xx. 12; Rom. xiii. 7.[35]Acts x. 7.[36]Prov. xxv. 9; xi. 13; xx. 19.[37]Phil. iii. 18, 19.
[34]Exod. xx. 12; Rom. xiii. 7.
[35]Acts x. 7.
[36]Prov. xxv. 9; xi. 13; xx. 19.
[37]Phil. iii. 18, 19.
Ifyou would have good servants, see that you be good masters, and do your own duty, and then either your servants will do theirs, or else all their failings shall turn to your greater good.[38]
Direct.I. Remember that in Christ they are your brethren and fellow-servants; and therefore rule them not tyrannically, but in tenderness and love; and command them nothing that is against the laws of God, or the good of their souls. Use not wrath and unmanlike fury with them; nor any over-severe or unnecessary rebukes or chastisements. Find fault in season, with prudence and sobriety, when your passions are down, and when it is most likely to do good. If it be too little, it will imbolden them in doing ill; if it be too much, or frequent, or passionate, it will make them slight it and despise it, and utterly hinder their repentance: they will be taken up in blaming you for your rashness and violence, instead of blaming themselves for the fault.
Direct.II. Provide them work convenient for them, and such as they are fit for; not such or so much as to wrong them in their health, or hinder them from the necessary means of their salvation; nor yet so little as may cherish their idleness, or occasion them to lose their precious time. It is cruelty to lay more on your horse than he can carry; or to work your oxen to skin and bones. Prov. xii. 10, "A righteous man regardeth the life of his beast;" much more of his servant. Especially put not your servants on any labour which hazardeth their health or life, without true necessity to some greater end. Pity and spare them more in their health than in their bare labour. Labour maketh the body sound; but to take deep colds, or go wet of their feet, do tend to their sickness and death. And should another man's life be cast away for your commodity? Do as you would be done by, if you were servants yourselves and in their case; and let not their labours be so great, as shall allow them no time to pray before they go about it, or as shall so tire them as to unfit them for prayer, or instruction, or the worship of the Lord's day, and shall lay them like blocks, as fitter to lie to sleep or rest themselves, than to pray, or hear, or mind any thing that is good. And yet take heed that you suffer them not to be idle, as many great men use their serving men, to the undoing of their souls and bodies. Idleness is no small sin itself, and it breedeth and cherisheth many others: their time is lost by it; and they are made unfit for any honest employment or course of life, to help themselves or any others.
Direct.III. Provide them such wholesome food and lodging, and such wages as their service doth deserve, or as you have promised them.[39]Whether it be pleasant or unpleasant, let their food and lodging be healthful. It is so odious an oppression and injustice to defraud a servant or labourer of his wages, (yea, or to give him less than he deserveth,) that methinks I should not need to speak much against it among christians. Read James v. 1-5, and I hope it will be enough.
Direct.IV. Use not your servants to be so bold and familiar with you, as may tempt them to despise you; nor yet so strange and distant, as may deprive you of opportunity of speaking to them for their spiritual good, or justly lay you open to be censured as too magisterial and proud. Both these extremes have ill effects; but the first is the commonest, and is the disquiet of many families.
Direct.V. Remember that you have a charge of the souls in your family, and are as a priest and teacher in your own house; and therefore see that you keep them to the constant worshipping of God, especially on the Lord's day, in public and private; and that you teach them the things that concern their salvation (as is afterward directed). And pray for them daily, as well as for yourselves.
Direct.VI. Watch over them that they offend not God: bear not with ungodliness or gross sin in your family. Read Psal. ci. Be not like those ungodly masters, that look only that their own work be done, and bid God look after his work himself, and care not for their servants' souls, because they care not for their own; and mind not whether God be served by others, because they serve him not (unless with hypocritical lip-service) themselves.
Direct.VII. Keep your servants from evil company, and from being temptations to each other, as far as you can. If you suffer them to frequent alehouses, or riotous assemblies, or wanton or malignant company, when they are infected themselves, they will bring home the infection, and all the house may fare the worse for it. And when Judas groweth familiar with the Pharisees, he will be seduced by them to betray his Master. You cannot be accountable for your servants if you suffer them to be much abroad.
Direct.VIII. Go before them as examples of holiness and wisdom, and all those virtues and duties which you would teach them. An ignorant or a swearing, cursing, railing, ungodly master, doth actually teach his servants to be such; and if hiswords teach them the contrary, he can expect but little reverence or success.
Direct.IX. Patiently bear with those tolerable frailties which their unskilfulness, or bodily temperature, or other infirmity, make them liable to against their wills. A willing mind is an excuse for many frailties; much must be put up with, when it is not from wilfulness or gross neglect: make not a greater matter of every infirmity or fault, than there is cause. Look not that any should be perfect upon earth; reckon upon it, that you must have servants of the progeny of Adam, that have corrupted natures, and bodily weaknesses, and many things that must be borne with. Consider how faultily you serve your heavenly Master, and how much he daily beareth with that which is amiss in you, and how many faults and oversights you are guilty of in your own employment, and how many you should be overtaken with if you were in their stead. Eph. vi. 9, "And ye masters, do the same things to them, forbearing threatening, knowing that your Master also is in heaven, neither is there respect of persons with him." Col. iv. 1, "Masters, give unto your servants that which is just and equal," &c.
Direct.X. See that they behave themselves well to their fellow-servants: of which I shall speak anon.
Direct.I. Understand well how far your power over your slaves extendeth, and what limits God hath set thereto.
As, 1. Sufficiently difference between men and brutes. Remember that they are of as good a kind as you; that is, they are reasonable creatures as well as you, and born to as much natural liberty. If their sin have enslaved them to you, yet nature made them your equals. Remember that they have immortal souls, and are equally capable of salvation with yourselves. And therefore you have no power to do any thing which shall hinder their salvation. No pretence of your business, necessity, commodity, or power, can warrant you to hold them so hard to work, as not to allow them due time and seasons for that which God hath made their duty.
2. Remember that God is their absolute Owner, and that you have none but a derived and limited propriety in them. They can be no further yours, than you have God's consent, who is the Lord of them and you; and therefore God's interest in them and by them must be served first.
3. Remember that they and you are equally under the government and laws of God. And therefore all God's laws must be first obeyed by them, and you have no power to command them to omit any duty which God commandeth them, nor to commit any sin which God forbiddeth them; nor can you, without rebellion or impiety, expect that your work or commands should be preferred before God's.
4. Remember that God is their reconciled, tender Father, and if they be as good, doth love them as well as you. And therefore you must use the meanest of them no otherwise, than beseemeth the beloved of God to be used; and no otherwise than may stand with the due signification of your love to God, by loving those that are his.
5. Remember that they are the redeemed ones of Christ, and that he hath not sold you his title to them. As he bought their souls at a price invaluable, so he hath not given the purchase of his blood to be absolutely at your disposal. Therefore so use them, as to preserve Christ's right and interest in them.
Direct.II. Remember that you are Christ's trustees, or the guardians of their souls; and that the greater your power is over them, the greater your charge is of them, and your duty for them. As you owe more to a child than to a day-labourer, or a hired servant, because, being more your own, he is more intrusted to your care; so also by the same reason, you owe more to a slave, because he is more your own; and power and obligation go together. As Abraham was to circumcise all his servants that were bought with money, and the fourth commandment requireth masters to see that all within their gates observe the sabbath day; so must you exercise both your power and love to bring them to the knowledge and faith of Christ, and to the just obedience of God's commands.
Those therefore that keep their negroes and slaves from hearing God's word, and from becoming christians, because by the law they shall then be either made free, or they shall lose part of their service, do openly profess rebellion against God, and contempt of Christ the Redeemer of souls, and a contempt of the souls of men; and indeed they declare, that their worldly profit is their treasure and their god.
If this come to the hands of any of our natives in Barbadoes, or other islands or plantations, who are said to be commonly guilty of this most heinous sin, yea, and to live upon it, I entreat them further to consider as followeth: 1. How cursed a crime is it to equal men and beasts! Is not this your practice? Do you not buy them and use them merely to the same end, as you do your horses? to labour for your commodity, as if they were baser than you, and made to serve you?
2. Do you not see how you reproach and condemn yourselves, while you vilify them as savages and barbarous wretches? Did they ever do any thing more savage, than to use not only men's bodies as beasts, but their souls as if they were made for nothing but to actuate their bodies in your worldly drudgery? Did the veriest cannibals ever do any thing more cruel or odious, than to sell so many souls to the devil for a little worldly gain? Did ever the cursedest miscreants on earth, do any thing more rebellious, and contrary to the will of the most merciful God, than to keep those souls from Christ, and holiness, and heaven, for a little money, who were made and redeemed for the same ends, and at the same precious price as yours? Did your poor slaves ever commit such villanies as these? Is not he the basest wretch and the most barbarous savage, who committeth the greatest and most inhuman wickedness? And are theirs comparable to these of yours?
3. Doth not the very example of such cruelty, besides your keeping them from christianity, directly tend to teach them and all others, to hate christianity, as if it taught men to be so much worse than dogs and tigers?
4. Do you not mark how God hath followed you with plagues? and may not conscience tell you that it is for your inhumanity to the souls and bodies of so many? Remember the late fire at the bridge in Barbadoes: remember the drowning of your governor and ships at sea, and the many judgments that have overtaken you; and at the present the terrible mortality that is among you.
5. Will not the example and warning of neighbour countries rise up in judgment against you and condemn you? You cannot but hear how odious the Spanish name is made (and thereby, alas! the christian name also, among the West Indians) for their most inhuman cruelties in Hispaniola, Jamaica, Cuba, Peru, Mexico, and other places, whichis described by Josep. a Costa, a Jesuit of their own; and though I know that their cruelty who murdered millions, exceedeth yours, who kill not men's bodies, yet yours is of the same kind, in the merchandise which you make with the devil for their souls, whilst you that should help them with all your power, do hinder them from the means of their salvation. And on the contrary, what an honour is it to those of New England, that they take not so much as the native soil from them, but by purchase! that they enslave none of them, nor use them cruelly, but show them mercy, and are at a great deal of care, and cost, and labour for their salvation! Oh how much difference between holy Mr. Elliot's life and yours! His, who hath laboured so many years to save them, and hath translated the holy Bible into their language, with other books; and those good men's in London who are a corporation for the furtherance of his work; and theirs that have contributed so largely towards it; and yours that sell men's souls for your commodity!
6. And what comfort are you like to have at last, in that money that is purchased at such a price? Will not your money and you perish together? will you not have worse than Gehazi's leprosy with it; yea, worse than Achan's death by stoning; and as bad as Judas his hanging himself, unless repentance shall prevent it? Do you not remember the terrible words in Jude 11, "Woe unto them! for they have gone in the way of Cain, and ran greedily after the errors of Balaam." And 2 Pet. ii. 3, 14, 15, "Through covetousness—they make merchandise of you.—An heart they have exercised with covetous practices; cursed children (or children of a curse) which have forsaken the right way, and are gone astray, following the way of Balaam, the son of Bosor, who loved the wages of unrighteousness, but was rebuked for his iniquity; the dumb ass speaking with man's voice forbad the madness of the prophet." When you shall every one hear, "Thou fool, this night shall thy soul be required of thee, and then whose shall those things be which thou hast provided?" Luke xii. 19-21; will it not then cut deep in your perpetual torments, to remember that you got that little pelf by betraying so many souls to hell? What men in the world doth James speak to, if not to you? Jam. v. 1-4, "Go to now, ye rich men, weep and howl for your miseries that shall come upon you. Your riches are corrupted, and your garments are moth-eaten: your gold and silver are cankered; and the rust of them shall be a witness against you, and shall eat your flesh as it were fire: ye have heaped treasure together for the last days. Behold, the hire of the labourers which have reaped down your fields, which is of you kept back by fraud, crieth: and the cries of them which have reaped, are entered into the ears of the Lord of sabaoth." How much more the cry of betrayed souls!
And here we may seasonably answer these cases.Quest.1. Is it lawful for a christian to buy and use a man as a slave?Quest.2. Is it lawful to use a christian as a slave?Quest.3. What difference must we make between a free servant and a slave?
ToQuest.1. I answer, There is a slavery to which some men may be lawfully put; and there is a slavery to which none may be put; and there is a slavery to which only the criminal may be put, by way of penalty.
1. No man may be put to such a slavery as under the first direction is denied, that is, such as shall injure God's interest and service, or the man's salvation. 2. No man, but as a just punishment for his crimes, may be so enslaved, as to be deprived of those liberties, benefits, and comforts, which brotherly love obligeth every man to grant to another for his good, as far as is within our power, all things considered. That is, the same man is a servant and a brother, and therefore must at once be used as both. 3. Though poverty or necessity do make a man consent to sell himself to a life of lesser misery to escape a greater, or death itself; yet is it not lawful for any other so to take advantage by his necessity, as to bring him into a condition that shall make him miserable, or in which we shall not exercise so much love, as may tend to his sanctification, comfort, and salvation: because no justice is beseeming a christian or a man, which is not conjoined with a due measure of charity.
But, 1. He that deserveth it by way of penalty may be penally used. 2. He that stole and cannot restore may be forced to work it out as a servant; and in both these cases more may be done against another's ease or liberty, than by mere contract or consent. He that may hang a flagitious offender doth him no wrong if he put him to a slavery, which is less penal than death. 3. More also may be done against enemies taken in a lawful war, than could be done against the innocent by necessitated consent. 4. A certain degree of servitude or slavery is lawful by the necessitated consent of the innocent. That is, so much, (1.) As wrongeth no interest of God. (2.) Nor of mankind by breaking the laws of nations. (3.) Nor the person himself, by hindering his salvation, or the needful means thereof; nor those comforts of life, which nature giveth to man as man. (4.) Nor the commonwealth or society where we live.
Quest.2. To the second question I answer, 1. As men must be variously loved according to the various degrees of amiableness in them, so various degrees of love must be exercised towards them; therefore good and real christians must be used with more love and brotherly tenderness than others. 2. It is meet also, that infidels have so much mercy showed them in order to the saving of their souls, as that they should be invited to christianity by fit encouragements; and so, that they should know that if they will turn christians, they shall have more privileges and emoluments than the enemies of truth and piety shall have. It is therefore well done of princes who make laws that infidel slaves shall be free-men, when they are duly christened. 3. But yet a nominal christian, who by wickedness forfeiteth his life or freedom, may penally be made a slave as well as infidels. 4. And a poor and needy christian may sell himself into a harder state of servitude than he would choose, or we could otherwise put him into. But, 5. To go as pirates and catch up poor negroes or people of another land, that never forfeited life or liberty, and to make them slaves, and sell them, is one of the worst kinds of thievery in the world; and such persons are to be taken for the common enemies of mankind; and they that buy them and use them as beasts, for their mere commodity, and betray, or destroy, or neglect their souls, are fitter to be called incarnate devils than christians, though they be no christians whom they so abuse.
Quest.3. To the third question, I answer, That the solution of this case is to be gathered from what is said already. A servant and a voluntary slave were both free-men, till they sold or hired themselves; and a criminal person was a free-man till he forfeited his life or liberty. But afterwards the difference is this; that, 1. A free servant is my servant, no further than his own covenant made him so; which is supposed to be, (1.) To a certain kind and measure of labour, according to the meaning of his contract. (2.) For a limited time, expressed inthe contract, whether a year, or two, or three, or seven.
2. A slave by mere contract is one that, (1.) Usually selleth himself absolutely to the will of another as to his labour both for kind and measure; where yet the limitations of God and nature after (and before) named, are supposed among christians to take place. (2.) He is one that selleth himself to such labour, during life.
3. A slave by just penalty, is liable to so much servitude as the magistrate doth judge him to, which may be, (1.) Not only such labour, as aforesaid, as pleaseth his master to impose. (2.) And that for life. (3.) But it may be also to stripes and severities which might not lawfully be inflicted on another.
1. The limitations of a necessitated slavery by contract or consent through poverty are these: (1.) Such a one's soul must be cared for and preserved, though he should consent to the contrary. He must have time to learn the word of God, and time to pray, and he must rest on the Lord's day, and employ it in God's service; he must be instructed, and exhorted, and kept from sin. (2.) He may not be forced to commit any sin against God. (3.) He may not (though he forcedly consent) be denied such comforts of this life, as are needful to his cheerful serving of God in love and thankfulness, according to the peace of the gospel state; and which are called by the name of our daily bread. No man may deny a slave any of this, that is not a criminal, punished slave.
2. And the most criminal slave may not be forced to sin, nor denied necessary helps to his salvation. But he may penally be beaten and denied part of his daily bread; so it be not done more rigorously than true justice doth require.
Quest.But what if men buy negroes or other slaves of such as we have just cause to believe did steal them by piracy, or buy them of those that have no power to sell them, and not hire or buy them by their own consent, or by the consent of those that had power to sell them, nor take them captives in a lawful war, what must they do with them afterward?
Answ.1. It is their heinous sin to buy them, unless it be in charity to deliver them. 2. Having done it, undoubtedly they are presently bound to deliver them; because by right the man is his own, and therefore no man else can have just title to him.
Quest.But may I not sell him again and make my money of him, seeing I leave him but as I found him?
Answ.No; because when you have taken possession of him, and a pretended propriety, then the injury that is done him is by you; which before was only by another. And though the wrong be no greater than the other did him, yet being now done by you it is your sin.
Quest.But may I not return him to him that I bought him of?
Answ.No; for that is but injuring him by delivering him to another to continue the injury. To say as Pilate, "I am innocent of the blood of this just man," will be no proof of your innocency; yea, God's law bindeth you to love, and works of love, and therefore you should do your best to free him. He that is bound to help to save a man, that is fallen into the hand of thieves by the high-way, if he should buy that man as a slave of the thieves, may not after give him up to the thieves again. But to proceed in the directions.
Direct.III. So serve your own necessities by your slaves as to prefer God's interest, and their spiritual and everlasting happiness. Teach them the way to heaven, and do all for their souls which I have before directed you to do for all your other servants. Though you may make some difference in their labour, and diet, and clothing, yet none as to the furthering of their salvation. If they be infidels, use them so as tendeth to win them to Christ, and the love of religion, by showing them that christians are less worldly, less cruel and passionate, and more wise, and charitable, and holy, and meek, than any other persons are. Woe to them that by their cruelty and covetousness, do scandalize even slaves, and hinder their conversion and salvation!
Direct.IV. By how much the hardness of their condition doth make their lives uncomfortable, and God hath cast them lower than yourselves, by so much the more let your charity pity them, and labour to abate their burden, and sweeten their lives to them, as much as your condition will allow. And remember that even a slave may be one of those neighbours that you are bound to love as yourselves, and to do to as you would be done by, if your case were his. Which if you do, you will need no more direction for his relief.
Direct.V. Remember that you may require no more of an innocent slave, than you would or might do of an ordinary servant, if he were at your will, and did not by contract except something as to labour or usage which else you would think just and meet to have required of him.
Direct.VI. If they are infidels, neither be too hasty in baptizing them, when they desire it, nor too slow. Not so hasty as to put them on it, before they understand what the baptismal covenant is; or before you see any likelihood that they should be serious in making such a covenant. Nor yet so slow as to let them alone to linger out their lives in the state of those without the church. But hasten them to learn, and stir up their desires, and look after them, as the ancient churches did after their catechumens; and when you see them fit by knowledge, belief, desire, and resolution, to vow themselves to God on the terms of the holy covenant, then put them on to be baptized. But if you should feel an abatement of your desires of their conversion, because you shall lose their service, (much more if ever you had a wish that they might not be converted, which is plain devilism,) let it be the matter of your deep humiliation and repentance.
Direct.VII. Make it your chief end in buying and using slaves, to win them to Christ, and save their souls. Do not only endeavour it on the by, when you have first consulted your own commodity; but make this more of your end, than your commodity itself; and let their salvation be far more valued by you than their service: and carry yourselves to them, as those that are sensible that they are redeemed with them by Christ from the slavery of Satan, and may live with them in the liberty of the saints in glory.