A Body of Practical Divinity

2. Ministers, these Spiritual Fathers are to be honoured for their Work sake; they come like the Dove with an Olive-branch in their Mouth; they preach glad Tidings of Peace. Their Work is to save Souls. Other Callings have only to do with Mens Bodies or Estates, but the Ministers Calling is employed about the Souls of Men. Their Work is to redeem Spiritual Captives, and turn Men from the Power of Satan to God, Acts 26.18. Their Work is to enlighten them who sit in the Region of Darkness, and make them shine as Stars in the Kingdom of Heaven. These Spiritual Fathers are to be honoured for their Work sake, and this Honour is to be shown three ways.

2. Ministers, these Spiritual Fathers are to be honoured for their Work sake; they come like the Dove with an Olive-branch in their Mouth; they preach glad Tidings of Peace. Their Work is to save Souls. Other Callings have only to do with Mens Bodies or Estates, but the Ministers Calling is employed about the Souls of Men. Their Work is to redee• Spiritual Captives, and turn Men from the Power of Satan to God, Acts 26.18. Their Work is to enlighten them who sit in the Region of Darkness, and make them shine as Stars in the Kingdom of Heaven. These Spiritual Fathers are to be honoured for their Work sake, and this Honour is to be shown three ways.

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,