1. By giving them Respect, 1 Thess. 5.12. Know them which labour among you, and are over you in the Lord, and esteem them very highly in love for their work sake. I confess the scandalous Lives of some Ministers hath been a great Reproach, and hath made the Offering of the Lord to be abhorred in some places of the Land. The Leper in the Law was to have his Lip covered. Such as are Angels by Office, but Lepers in their Lives, ought to have their Lips covered, and to be silenced. But tho some deserve no Honour, yet such as are faithful, and make it their Work to bring Souls to Christ, are to be reverenced as Spiritual Fathers. Obadiah honoured the Prophet Elijah, 1 King. 18.17. Why did God reckon the Tribe of Levi for the First-born? Numb. 3.12. Why did he appoint that the Prince should ask Counsel of God by the Priest? Numb. 27.21. Why did the Lord show by that Miracle of Aaron's Rod flourishing, that he had chosen the Tribe of Levi to Minister before him? Numb. 17. Why doth Christ call his Apostles the Lights of the World? Why doth he say to all his Ministers, Lo, I am with you to the end of the World? But because he would have these Spiritual Fathers reverenced? In ancient times the Egyptians chose their Kings out of their Priests. They are far from showing this Respect and Honour to their Spiritual Fathers, who have slight Thoughts of such as have the Charge of the Sanctuary, and do minister before the Lord —Know them, saith the Apostle, which labour among you—Many can be content to know their Ministers in their Infirmities, and are glad when they have any thing against them; but not to know them in the Apostles Sense, so as to give them double Honour. Surely, were it not for the Ministry, you would not be a Vineyard, but a Desert. Were it not for the Ministry, you would be destitute of the two Seals of the Covenant, Baptism and the Lord's Supper; you would be Infidels; For Faith comes by hearing; and how shall they hear without a Preacher? Rom. 10.14.
1. By giving them Respect, 1 Thess. 5.12. Know them which labour among you, and are over you in the Lord, and esteem them very highly in love for their work sake. I confess the scandalous Lives of some Ministers hath been a great Reproach, and hath made the Offering of the Lord to be abhorred in some places of the Land. The Leper in the Law was to have his Lip covered. Such as are Angels by Office, but Lepers in their Lives, ought to have their Lips covered, and to be silenced. But tho some deserve no Honour, yet such as are faithful, and make it their Work to bring Souls to Christ, are to be reverenced as Spiritual Fathers. Obadiah honoured the Prophet Elijah, 1 King. 18.17. Why did God reckon the Tribe of Levi for the First-born? Numb. 3.12. Why did he appoint that the Prince should ask Counsel of God by the Priest? Numb. 27.21. Why did the Lord show by that Miracle of Aaron's Rod flourishing, that he had chosen the Tribe of Levi to Minister before him? Numb. 17. Why doth Christ call his Apostles the Lights of the World? Why doth he say to all his Ministers, Lo, I am with you to the end of the World? But because he would have these Spiritual Fathers reverenced? In ancient times the Egyptians chose their Kings out of their Priests. They are far from showing this Respect and Honour to their Spiritual Fathers, who have slight Thoughts of such as have the Charge of the Sanctuary, and do minister before the Lord —Know them, saith the Apostle, which labour among you—Many can be content to know their Ministers in their Infirmities, and are glad when they have any thing against them; but not to know them in the Apostles Sence, so as to give them double Honour. Surely, were it not for the Ministry, you would not be a Vineyard, but a Desart. Were it not for the Ministry, you would be destitute of the two Seals of the Covenant, Baptism and the Lord's Supper; you would be Infidels; For Faith comes by hearing; and how shall they hear without a Preacher? Rom. 10.14.
