A23636:119
The principles of the Protestant religion maintained, and churches of New-England, in the profession…
The principles of the Protestant religion maintained, and churches of New-England, in the profession and exercise thereof defended against all the calumnies of one George Keith, a Quaker, in a book lately published at Pennsylvania, to undermine them both / by the ministers of the Gospel in Boston.The principles of the Protestant religion maintained, and churches of New-England, in the profession and exercise thereof defended against all the calumnies of one George Keith, a Quaker, in a book lately published at Pensilvania, to undermine them both / by the ministers of the Gospel in Boston.
printed by Richard Pierce, 1690
Title page typeset from the transcription.
Introduction › Reflections on Chapt. 4th. of Ministerial Gifts &c.
Modern spelling is a reading aid: the words are the author’s, only the spelling is modernized. Original shows the page as printed, with the transcription marks.
His first proof that Ministers can require no Maintenance but what is voluntary and of Charity, is from 1. Cor. 9.14. It would make any man of Reason out of Love with the Quakers Spirit, if it interprets Scripture so Diametrically opposite to the Letter; his Argument must needs run thus; If God hath positively ordained that Ministers of the Gospel shall have maintenance, then the people may choose whether they will maintain them or no: and it is observable, that the Apostle proveth this from the Ordinances of the Old Testament, relating to the Ministers of the Tabernacle, concerning whom we find, that God not only ordained that they should be maintained, but what they should have. And whereas he infers from hence, that they must only have necessary Maintenance, and that but if they are poor, just to relieve them and no more; it plainly contradicts the Apostle's Argument; for he pleads from the Care of God for the maintenance of the Old Testament Worship, and argues from the lesser to the greater: Now what Provision God made for the Priests & Levites, is to be conjectured by what is recorded in the Levitical Law. For, (as judicious men have computed, ⟨p. 60⟩and see particularly, Reinolds on Psal. 115. page 477, 478.) the Tribe of Levi was not a fortieth part of the people, & yet had as much maintenance allowed them as three of the other Tribes. Nor is the Ministers Maintenance an Alms of Mercy, but a Debt in Justice, as the New-Testament fully cleareth, Gal. 66. 1. Tim. 5.17, 18. 1. Cor. 9. per totum: in which Chapter the Apostle proves it by many Arguments. And if it be due in Justice, how poorly doth he plead against the Care of the Magistrate, by Laws to provide, that it shall be duly defrayed? All Acts of Justice come under the Cognizance of the Civil Magistrate, who is to see that all have their dues: nor does it prove any thing to the Contrary, that Christ sent forth His disciples, prohibiting them from taking any thing, and yet they wanted nothing: It was a Special Precept, and when Christ bids others to to do so, they may rely on His providence; till then it would be to tempt, and not to trust it. Whereas therefore he saith, that there should be no bargaining in this cas; it is built on the same mistake. There is a due, and it is lawful to use ways of prudence to obtain it: his Example of Paul is alien: