Selected quad for the lemma: spirit_n
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A50145
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Monitory letter about the maintenance of an able and faithful ministry directed unto those people who sin against & sin away the Gospel by not supporting the worthy preachers of the Gospel.
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Mather, Cotton, 1663-1728.
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1700
(1700)
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Wing M1130; ESTC R41045
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8,434
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17
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Business of many to Ly so that they can't exactly give just this portion However something about this portion seems a Good proportion I find our Father Jacob saying Gen. 28 21 22. The Lord shall be my God of all that thou shalt give me I will surely give the Tenth unto thee Syrs This was a long while before Moses was born It seems That man does not enough own the Lord for his God who is not willing to give so much as the Tenth unto Him Say Will you not be the Seed of Jacob They who beguile the Lord of this are not so much as they should be True Israelites I could never yet see an Answer to that Argument If the Tythes of Abraham were the Rights of Melchizedek then the Tythes of Christians the Seed of Abraham are the Rights of the Lord Jesus Christ For I am certain That the Lord Jesus Christ is A Priest after the Order of Melchizelek It may be I have a little surpriz'd you with some Fear that I am going to challenge your Tythes as due to the Clergy But I 'll put you out of pain as to That I do not so The Lord Jesus Christ has expresly provided others as well as His Ministers to be the Receivers of His Rents The Improvement which I am to make of the Argument is This. Let your Industrious and Self-denying Ministers have but One Half of what one would judge proper to pay to the Glorious Antitype of Melchizedek in Pious Uses and I will undertake it shall satisfie them It will be but Righteousness in you you 'l enjoy more than a little peace in it Yea 'T is possible in many Towns if you would permit your Ministers to single out only some Two Species perhaps One of the many Blessings that make up your Harvest and receive only a Tenth part of those Things their Maintainance would be better than it is they would gladly take up with it This indeed I don't propound but only argue Whereas now they are Exposed unto strange Hardships and they have over above given unto them to study upon that clause in the Lamentations Our Wood is Sold unto us Yea I have been told That when some of our Ministers have been visited by the Hand of God with Sickness and mourning for two or three months together with the Sighs of Heman I am shut up and I cannot come forth the people have gone to Substract so much of their yearly Maintainance as their Sickly months would have come to Alas my Friends common Ingenuity would cry Shame upon such doings And Christianity would have bespoke rather an Addition to than a Substraction from the Maintainance of your Ministers who are in your Service and only by the Calamity of Sickness interrupted in the Service But Sirs what can you imagine to get by thus witholding more than is meet Oh That you would Believe that word of God Prov. 11. 24 25. There is that withaldeth more than is meet but it tendeth to Poverty whereas The liberal Soul shall be made Fat If the Spirit of Judas cause you to begrutch all that is laid out upon the Lord Jesus Christ and His Ministers it is time for you to consider what Spirit ye are of And if the Impiety of Pinching and Starving your Ministers be aggravated by your breaking your Covenants with them for oftentimes men are so much worse than the Pharisees that they neither pay Tythes nor keep Faith I entreat you to ponder seriously on that awful Word Jam. 5. 4. Behold the Hire of the Labourers which is of you kept back by Fraud Cryeth and their Cries are entred into the Ears of the Lord of Sabaoth 'T is a Crime you see that Cries to God for Vengeance And I am astonished That the Impovershing Dispensations of God which have been upon us do no more put us upon doing as that People of old were call'd upon Hag 1 5 6 9. Thus saith the Lord of Hosts Consider your ways ye have sown much bring in little ye look'd for much lo it came to little why saith the Lord of Hosts Because of mine House that is wast Your injured Ministers especially the more Deserving ones do make as little Complaint as ever they can against their Neighbours or unto them They say with Job As for me is my Complaint unto man If it be is to little purpose But when they see Debts oppressing of them the Necessaries of Life hardly allowed unto them their Families while their People can throw away upon Pride upon Drink and upon their Diversions the Money that would have been a thousand times better assign'd unto any Vertuous Uses in the world Then they are Overwhelmed they pour out their complaint before the Lord. They mourn before the Lord in Secret places cry out Lord I am Oppressed undertake for me But an incredible wrath from the Jealous Wronged Lord Jesus Christ breaks forth against the People that are guilty of so great an Oppression I tell you truly Except it be the Blood of the Lord Jesus Christ Crying against a People I know not whether any Cry more terrible can go up to Heaven than the Crying wants Straits of His Holy Ministers I have been told That if the Tavern-keepers in many Towns would bring in true Accounts of what Money they have received in the Needless visits of their Neighbours to the Taverns the Sum would vastly exceed all that is in those Towns laid out upon the House of God This is a Thing that Cryes to Heaven for the Removal of a Despised Gospel Believe it Sirs Believe it T is a wonderful Damage that you do your selves if it were no more than This That by taking off your Ministers from their Studies you Stunt their Abilities Cramp their Accomplishments loose the vast Good that would thereby accrue unto your selves It seems you would have your Ministers to be the Stars rather than the Lamps of the Churches like Stars to Shine without the supply of any Earthly Contributions But they are Lamps and how should they do any other than Burn Dim if you don't supply them Antigonus admiring to see the Diligent Philosopher Cleanthes grinding his own Corn at the Mill Cleanthes told him I must either grind or Starve whereupon Antigonus noted it as a great Indignity that the Hands whereby Excellent Things had been written should be galled with Mechanick Labours But how often do the people cause the Hands which have Baptized them and which break the Bread of Life unto them to be Galled with Inferiour Labours for the getting of Bread They must either Plough or Starve This must needs render their Ministry less Edifying to you than it would have been Yea your Unrighteousness towards your Ministers may be punished by the Righteous God with Spiritual Plagues and God may give you up to such a Spirit of Slumber that their Ministry shall never more be Profitable to you for the most Lively Ministry in the world will do good no further than that the Blessing of God accompanies it When people are call'd upon to Maintain their Ministers t is added Gal. 6. 8. He that soweth to the Spirit shall of the Spirit reap life Everlasting If you begrutch a small Pittance of of your Estates for the Maintainance of them that are to Feed your Spirits God may be so provoked as to Resolve that you shall Reap no Spiritual Advantages from their Ministry but remain Barren Figtrees till you are Cut down for the Fire of His Burning Indignation Yea Sirs If ever you did get Good by your Ministers one would think you could not think any thing too Good for them And what if the provocation should have this Effect also That God will Take away your Excellent Ministers then either leave you a long while Destitute perhaps Divided or send Successors that shall not be men of such Good Principles Properties as those men of God that went before them National Synods of the French Churches complained That the Ingratitude of people refusing to Contribute unto the Subsistence of their Minister threatened the Churches with a total Dissipution and they Ordered The Sacraments to be Denied unto the Ungrateful if they remained Obstinate And the Primitive Churches I find passed their Consures on such Offenders We have no such Method of proceeding in our Churches But the Lord Jesus Christ after a dreadful mannâ—r takes the work into His own Hand He Chastises an Ungrateful people with Depriving them of Sacraments and of Ministers too And as the French Churches 〈◊〉 Suffered a Total Dâ—ssipation Let us beware left Our Churches also do for their Ingratitude come under a Total Dissipation This I remember T was the complaint of Austin 〈◊〉 his Time That the Parsimonious Coldness of the Christians which disâ—osed them to Rob God withdraw the Maintainance of His Ministers was a grand Presage of the Calamities coming by Wars upon the African Churches With Souldiers he says Rapine will take what was grudged for the Lord Jesus Christ and His Ministers God Avert the Omen But you Brethren who in Maintaining your worthy Ministers will Do justly love mercy walk humbly with your God shall find your 〈◊〉 no loosers by your Equity Do but make an Impartial Observation of others whether those persons those places which Do best for the Maintainance of the Evangelical Ministry do not Thrive most under a very senseble Benediction of God Yea Do but make a Critical Experiment on your selves whether if you 'l Do more the next yeâ— towards the Maintainance of the Evangelical Ministry yâ—â— don't at the years End find that you Have more than you haâ— before However you may hope that God will Eminenâ—ly Prosper unto you that Ministry which you Liberally Sustain by that Ministry He will convey to your Souls those Benefits the Gain whereof is better than fine Gold God will strangely Hear the Prâ—yers of your Obliged Ministers for you on frequent occasion in this world And in the world to come you are likely to be the Crown of your Ministers They your Joy before the Lord Jesus Câ—â—â—â—t in those Fruitâ—â—â—s which Eye hath not seen Ear hath not heard With these Intimations I remain An Unknown but Hearty Servant of the Churches