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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A Monitory LETTER About the MAINTAINANCE 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 A Decree of a National Synod of Reformed Churches at Paris All the Churches shall be desired to shun Ingratitude unto their Ministers a Sin too rife among us take special care that they be more Respected and their Labours better Rewarded not to Enrich Fatten them but to give them a Becoming Sufficient maintainance Duriter profecto et Misere viverent Evangelij Ministri si ex Libera Populi Contributione ossent Sustentands Luther Boston in N. E. Printed in the Year 1700. To J. F. Esq SIR A Famous Ruler in Israel gives us that Report of his own Conduct Neh. 13 10. 11. I perceived that the portions of the Levites had not been given them Then I contended for them and said why is the House of God forsaken God has made you a Ruler even one of the Counsellors Justices in our little Israel and tho' I know nothing is more distastful to you than a Worldly Slâ—thful Ambitious Clergy you are as far as any man I know from the Character of Priest ridden yet you count no sort of men more Highly to be Esteemed than Holy Prayerful Watchful Painful Humble Learned Ministers of the Gospel Because when you were informed that in many Towns those Men of God have not their Portions duely given them you hop'd that among other wayes of helping it some Good might be done by a Monitory Letter to the Negligent you desired one who has the least occasion for your Cares about him to compose it and are your seif at the charge to Publish it Scatter it The Worthy Ministers whom you thus desire to see well Supported have their Graces tryed by their Temptations Live by Faith Eving the Providence of the Lord Jesus Christ in the Provision that He strangely makes for them What if You should now be an Instrument of some Advantage to them because to them to their Flocks also You will at least meet with this Recompence while you Speak comfortably unto them who teach the Good Knowledge of the Lord they will in their Secret Prayers before the Lord Remember You your Family And whom they Bless their God will Bless A Monitory LETTER about the Maintainance of an Able and Faithful MINISTRY Brethren IF ever you arrive to Blessedness it must be by Faith in the Blessed Lord Jesus Christ who is Revealed and Offered unto you in the Glorious Gospel of God And if ever you Enjoy the Offers of the Gospel it must be by the Preachers of it Even by the Ministry of men set apart for the Work of Explaining and Applying the Great Mystery of Godliness among you A Ministry cannot be upheld without a Maintainance Now while some of your Ministers choose to leave their Salaries unto the voluntary Contributions of the People there are others who sensible of what the Great Voetius writes Hominum saepe tanta est Injustitia Fallaeia Lubricita ac profanitas ut Expediat Contractum intercedere do make their Contracts with their people for their Stipends But it is well known That tho' the Maintainance promised unto the Ministers among us be ordinarily very small scarce a Competency and our Ministers are mostly of Calvins mind in this point as in all other they are Calvinests Consilium dedimus ut Ministris tantum Erogaretur quantum ad Fragalitatem Ordine suo dignam sufficeret non quod ad Luxum redundaret Enough to supply them in a credible and suitable Frugality would suffice them nevertheless they are often cheated of much out of that Little that has been promised unto them The Ministers not rarely are put off with a Pay call'd sometimes by the Name of Synecdochical Pay wherein by a certain Figure of Avaritious Sacrilegious Rhetorick the part goes for the whole There are multitudes who from one end of the year unto the other do nothing towards the Support of the Evangelical Ministry and tho' a Levy do in most places Compel some to do something yet that something is done grudgingly as upon Compulsion the whole comes not up to all that had been Engaged If the Ministers now should go to take the Remedy which the Law gives them for the Recovery of their Arrearages they would find the Remedy worse than the Disease and by using the Law wound the future success of the Gospel While they have been by the Acts of Assemblies Exempted from Taxes they have in reality been Taxed above any one Rank of men whatsoever Nor does any but the Lord Jesus Christ who in his Infinite Wisdom orders His Holy Servants to Preach under the Cross know the Temptation that many of them have endured when they have been defrauded of the Dues Vow'd unto them when a Res angusta Domi has broken their Spirits and hindred their Studies ruin'd the Liberal Education of their Families It is their comfort indeed that the Lord Jesus Christ saies to the Angels of the Churches I know thy Works thy Poverty thy Patience Now Syrs give leave unto one who tho' he cannot be called as Rabbi Tarphon was among the Jews of old The Wealthy Priest yet is at this Time as little a Sufferer in this case as perhaps any man in the Country to Expostulare the Case a little with you on the behalf of his more Suffering Brethren throughout the Country In the first place Altho' your Ministers rarely if ever touch upon it because they would Preach the Lord Jesus Christ not Themselves yet I hope you are not ignorant That there is the plain and clear Commandment of the Lord Jesus Christ for the Maintainance of His Evangelical-Ministry I pray Do your Ministers the Right for once your selves to Read without putting Them to Read in the first Epistle to the Corinthians the Ninth Chapter from the fourth verse to the Fourteenth You shall here find an Inspired Apostle of the Lord Jesus Christ with six or seven irrefragrable Reasons in about nine or ten verses proving This which he makes his conclusion The Lord hath ordained that they which preach the Gospel should live of the Gospel It is then incontestably evident That if you do not your part that your Ministers may Live comfortably you Sin against the Ordinance of the Lord Jesus Christ I am astonished that many a man who calls himself a Christian can invent any way to quiet his Conscience before that positive word of the Lord Jesus Christ Gal. 6. 6. Let him that is taught in the Word Communicate unto him that reacheth in all good things Now because the Deceitful Hearts of men will plead in their own Excuse I can't afford these Expences my Family will want all that I shall spend that way the Apostle adds Be not deceived God is not mocked q. d. God knows that you throw
away upon your needless vanities what you might much better have communicated unto your Teachers When our Lord sent forth His Ministers he directed them to expect a Subsistence from those to whom He sent them And that upon this consideration Mat. 10. 10 For the Workman is worthy of his meat Luk. 10. 7. For the Labourer is worthy of his Hire What horrid impudence is it now for the Wolves to bark at the Shepherds of our Flocks by the Name of Hirelings meerly because they accept a Maintainance from them Those Pagans for none worthy the Name of Christians would so directly expresly contradict our Glorious Lord Jesus Christ the Lord of Glory They have certainly forgot what the Apostle Paul writes a Cor. 11 8 about his Taking Wages or Hire of other Churches tho' he forbore to demand any thing of that at Corinth That Great Minister of the Lord Jesus Christ receiving the money that the Philippians gathered for him saies Phil. 4 18. It was a Sacrifice acceptable well pleasing to God God required a Maintainance for his Ministers under the Old Testament yea tho' their Tribe was â—ardly a Fortieth part of the people yet they had by computation as much Maintainance as Three of the Twelve Tribes beside And when they had part of their Maintainance detained from them the Almighty God Thundred upon it Mal 3. 9 10 Ye are cursed with a Cuase for ye have Robbed me Let there be meat in my House and prove me now herewith if I do not pour you out a Blessing Now the Apostle counted it no weak Argument that was to be fetch'd from the Maintainance of Ministers under the Old Testament for the Maintainance of Ministers under the New Saies he 1 Cor 9. 13 Do ye not know that they which Minister about Holy Things Live of the Things of the Temple And they which wait at the Altar are partakers with the Altar Even so they which preach the Gospel should Live of the Gospel The Ministers of the New Testament are as worthy of a Maintainance as those of the Old And yet they don't ask of you your Tythes which was but part of the Levitical Maintainance but if they might have so much as a Tenth part of what the Levites had I am yerily perswaded it would richly content many of them If Moses took such care for his Ministers will any man dream that Jesus the Son over his House takes no care at all for His The word of the Lord Jesus Christ requires of a Minister 1 Tim 36 That he be given to Hospitality How is it possible for him to be so if you be given to Coveteousness and given to Dishonesty and Cheat him of his Maintainance I beseech you Syrs Let Reason and Justice be a little heard pleading the cause of your Neglected Ministers Your Ministers demand not their Maintainance as making a Lucre of Prayers and Sermons and Sacraments and Spiritual Benefits They are not the Sons of Simon Magus to make a merchandize of things that are Spiritual nor are they unmindful of Simon Peters caution about Filthy Lucre. But while they apply themselves unto Spiritual Services first it is a vast Labour which they undergo The Ministry is a most Laborious Employmens unto all that have any sense of the Account that they must give of their Stewardship And sure a Maintainance is one Thing in the Honour belonging to them that Labour in the Word and Doctrine And then they are unavoidably taken off all other ways of nourishing themselves and their Families Had they been brought up unto another Calling or would they yet betake themselves to a meaner Calling they would probably grow Rich as fast as you But they confine themselves to their Ministry because the Lord has Commanded them to give themselves unto it and Be wholly in it It is therefore Barbarous to deny them an agreeable Maintainance Briefly Your Ministers are desirous to follow their Studies closely and indeed if they be not Hard Students it is impossible they should be Able Ministers of the New Testament In their Publick Discourses they are not fond of an Off hand Preaching they be not for Spitting of Sermons they would not give the Lord that which cost them nothing they would compose well Studied Meat-Offerings not only for You O People of the Lord but also for the Lord of Hosts Himself that Great King whose Name is dreadful It is needful they should have good Libraries which I assure you are Costly Things And it is needful they should not be like the Clerks who having large Libraries which they seldome look'd into were by the K. of France compared unto men with Crooked Backs which carryed a load they never look'd upon but they must sit much in their Libraries until they become themselves walking Libraries Besides all this the Government of their Churches takes up no little share of their Time And they must Visit their Flocks to pray over the Sick Comfort the Bereaved Instruct the Ignorant Relieve the Tempted give their best Advice unto the Unadvised Yea they must on frequent occasions give themselves to Fasting Praying in their own Retirements lest the Devices of Satan who Desires to Sift them should in any thing prevail against themselves their Flocks Now Sirs are any so forsaken of all Reason that they will not confess it an inestimable Benefit unto a Town for to have a Minister a Good man and full of the Holy Spirit Faith devoting himself unto these Divine Services for them Or Is it Reason that a man of worth so Devoted should by the unworthy Niggardliness of those whom he serves be left wholly to sink under his encumbrances Or Is all Reason gone out of the world If your Ministers are prudently Thoughtful about their Maintainance 't is because they have Read that Word 1 Tim 5. 8 If any provide not for his own he is worse than in Infidel And those men are truly worse than Infidels who clamour against an Honourable Provision for the Ministry the worst of Infidels do honourably Maintain those that are set apart for the supposed Service of their Souls And that which may make the Reproof to those men who Rob their Ministers of their Dues the more pungent is This That there is a Sacriledge in the Robbery T is a Robbing of God The Lord Jesus Christ in Heaven sayes Ye did it unto me Yea You must allow me to Advance this Assertion Every man owes a Portion of his Estate unto Pious Uses he owes it unto the Lord the Great Lord is abused if that Quitrent be not rendred unto Him But what Portion of his Estate is it that every man must Separate and Consecrate unto Pious Uses that so all the rest may be clean unto him I should think That something about a Tenth part seems the Least that can be I know very well that many do and must give more than such a Portion and I know the