A Ministry cannot be upheld without a Maintenance. 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 Maintenance 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 Calvinists,) Consilium dedimus ⟨p. 4⟩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, called sometimes by the Name of, Synecdochical Pay, wherein by a certain Figure of Avaricious & Sacrilegious Rhetoric, 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 ⟨p. 5⟩Vowed unto them, & when a, Res angusta Domi, has broken their Spirits, and hindered their Studies, & ruined the Liberal Education of their Families. It is their comfort indeed, that the Lord Jesus Christ says to the Angels of the Churches, I know thy Works, & thy Poverty, & thy Patience.
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 ⟨p. 4⟩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 ⟨p. 5⟩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.
