Apology for the Ministry and its Maintenance, Title page – To the reader
AN APOLOGIE FOR THE MINISTRY, and its Maintenance:
Wherein is set forth the Necessity, Dignity, and Efficacy of a Gospel-Ministry; against the Socinians, Swenckfieldians, Weigelians, Anabaptists, Enthusiasts, Familists, Seekers, Quakers, Levellers, Libertines, and the rest of that Rout.
Here you have many Texts of Scripture explained, all the Cavils of the Adversaries (of any weight) refelled, the Equity of Tythes by many Arguments evinced, and the Iniquity of such as seek sacrilegiously to remove them is demonstrated, and the most material Cavils against them are succinctly, yet fully answered.
By Tho. Hall, B. D. and Pastor of Kingsnorton.
Jer. 3. 15. I will bring you to Sion, and I will give you Pastors according to my heart, which shall feed you with Knowledge and Understanding.
1 Cor. 9. 7. Who goeth a Warfare at any time at his own Charges? Who planteth a Vineyard, and eateth not of the fruit of it? Or who feedeth a flock and eateth not of the milk of the flock?
LONDON: Printed by A. W. for Joseph Cranford at the Castle and Lyon in St. Paul's Church-yard. 1660.
To the Right Worshipfull, and his much honoured Cousin, the Lady LUCY GRANTHAM of Ratcliffe upon Soare, in the County of Nottingham, Grace and Peace.
Madame:
BEnefits (we say) are binders, and every Favour received makes the Receiver a Debtor: If this be so, I must needs acknowledge my self deeply indebted to You for those many reall Favours which from time to time You have shewed to me, and to my Sonns that have been Your Chaplains. And, that I may not wholly dye ungratefully, I have sent you a Scho…ars Gift, a Paperpresent, as a Testimony of my best Respects unto Your Ladyship, who have been so eminent a Friend and Patroness to us of the Ministry; and that in a time when so many hate us, rob us, revile us, without a cause. You have been more like a Nursing mother than a Friend to many of your neighbou…ing Ministers, especially where their means is low: Your Ladyships readiness to contribute to the augmenting of the Maintenance of Ministers, and setting up of Preaching, where there is none; Your respectfull Entertainment of the Min…sters of Christ weekly at Your house; Your bounty in parting with considerable Summes towards the breeding of ingenuous and hopefull Children for the work of the Ministry; Your tender respect especially to the Orphans of Ministers; Your late disbursing of a considerable Summ at a bare motion of mine towards the breeding of a very hopefull childe, the son of a pious and painfull Minister, whose father is now with God; your great care for their family in Spirituals as well as Temporals; your constant Morning and Evening Sacrifice there; and your care to see that your Family l…ve Prayers, and live their Sermons, and live up to their D…ties: and if any be found to be Drunkards, Fornicatours, Lascivious, Sabbath-prophaners, &c. You quickly make them know, that those who will not be servants to God, shall be no servants to you; your Religious care in a timely providing of a p…ous and ingenuous Instructor for the fatherless and motherless Little On…,Samuel Marrow Esquire. which now lies solely upon your hands; as he is a Samuel by name, so you endeavour to make him a Samuel indeed, by instructing him betimes in the wayes of God, that so he may have a heart to improve that great Estate which providence hath cast upon him, to the glory of that God that gave it; your carefull Observation of the Lords-day, not onelyonly in the publick, but in the Intervalls of Divine Worship, to keep your Family from straying; you have not onelyonly Repetitions, but also Reading of some practical Divinity constantly on the Lords day to your Family. These things justly praise you in the gates, and though no tongue should praise you, yet your works themselves will do it: Vertuous actions are the best Oratours, and they speak best, who do best; And though your Ladyship had rather do good, than hear of it; yet that others (in these last and worst times, when the love of so many waxeth cold) may be incited to follow your Ladyships Pious and Charitable Example, I could not but publish those things to Gods glory, and your further encouragement in the work of the Lord.
'Twas the Commendation of Dorcas, that she made c…ates for the poor whilest she lived (Acts 9. 39.) she did not as most do, put it off till death, and then make good wills, after all their evill deeds: but your Ladyship in your life-time hath expressed your bounty long since to the Town of Nottingham, in giving them Two Hundred Pounds, as a Stock to be carefully improved for the best advantage of their poor: besides the dayly occasional gifts to such as are reall Objects of pitty and compassion. You have been Eyes to the Blinde, Feet to the Lame; a Father to the Fatherlesse; a Mother to the Motherlesse; These you take into your Family, and when you have hatched them up, you part with considerable Summs to set them forth Apprentises; And, which is worthy observing, your Ladyship hath been a great gainer by all this, God hath blessed your Substance, and your Store, he hath made your latter end better then your beginning, and hath cast riches on you in abundance, which you never looked for; and, above all, he hath given you a heart to improve what he hath given you to his praise; and to order your affairs with that discretion, and good Huswifery, that those who have farr greater means, yet do not the Tythe of that good which you do; and all because they spend that in riotous feasting, superfluous building, keeping a kennel of Hounds, or some other sinfull and exorbitant course, which disables them, and dispirits them from Works of Piety and Mercy, Now the good Lord remember you in mercy for all that you have done for his House, for his Ministers, and for his people▪ He recompence all your labour of Love seven-fold into your bosome; and when You have served your Generation here, he receive you unto himself in glory. This is, and shall be the Prayer, of
Kings-Norton: Novemb. 3. 1659. Your much obliged Kinsman Tho. Hall.
To the Worshipfull, and his honoured Friend RICHARD GREVIS of MOSELEY HALL, in the County of WORCESTER, Esq. the TRANSLATOR humbly wisheth the Multiplication of Grace, and the Continuation of Peace.
Worthy SIR:
I have emboldened my self to offer that unto the World, under Your Patronage, which, I believe, Your singular Modesty will almost decline, and fear, Your excellent Ingenuity will be ready to disown, when you finde it so unworthy of the benigne influences of your Eyes, much more of the Effluences of your Name, Virtue, and Authority, by which You are able to Patronize any thing that makes You its Sanctuary of Refuge. Neither Sir, have Principles of Policy onelyonly perswaded me to inscribe Your famous Name, and entitle Your Worthy Self to this my imperfection: but indeed, a desire to Express and Testifie the Esteem I have of the One, and the Love and Honour which I deservedly have for the Other. If any man, in this nice Age, may be judged worthy to be the Object of a Dedication, it must be a Theophilus; and, if any other, I do verily believe, you are a Theophilus; if a sober, moderate, Contemplative, serious life, adorned with many publick and private Exercises of Religion, Expressions of a Gracious Soul; if constant and vigorous Endeavours to reconcile Differences amicably, and suppress Sin Authoritatively; if an engaging, edifying, aweing presence, to Wife, Children, servants; if a sweet, friendly, charitable owning of Gods People; or a cordial, gladsome Entertainment of his faithfull Ministers; if any of these, if all these will denominate a man a Lover of God, Accept, I pray you, Sir, ths poor Oblation; and although I do not, cannot judg this little Impolite Treatise worthy your Countenance or Patronage, yet I beseech you, for the love of God, to stir up all your whole Soul … improve your utmost interest to maintain and defend the Cause which therein I study to Patronize, which is not yet so much my Cause, as the Cause of all the Faithfull Ministers of Christ, and not so much theirs neither, as Christs. Go on … beseech You, and, whatever Troubles shall be upon the earth, whatever Divisions, Distractions, Dissettlements, Apostasies are, or may be in England, yet study to approve Your Self to be a Friend to God's Cause, whom you love; and Faithfull to the Interest of Jesus Christ, in whom you believe. And so doing, that You may be bless'd with dayes as prosperous as many, with a Crown as Glorious as Eternall, is, and shall be the hearty Prayer of
Sir, Your Friend and Servant in Christ Jesus, Sam. Shaw. Long-Whatton. Iuly 2. 1659.
TO THE Impartial READER.
Reader;
IT is not long since, that a faithfull Minister of Christ, my very loving Friend, presented the World with a Latine Treatise, vindicating and asserting the Necessity, dignity and duty of a Gosp…l-Ministry; which when I had perused, and discovered (not onelyonly by the testimony of the Epistles Commendatory, but by my own Iudgment) in it a great Acuteness of Wit, a sweet Savour of a pious Disposition, pertinent and cogent Arguments, full and satisfacto…y Answers to all Objections militating against the Truth; holding Discourse with him concerning it, I was bold to intimate to him, how convenien…ly and usefully it might have been offered in a Tongue more known amongst us, for the Conviction and satisfaction of English Cavillers; Adding, That I thought, they, who had so much knowledge as to understand Latin, had also more Iudgment than to need to be satisfied in that thing: Whereupon, the Reverend Authour concurring with my Iudgment (but giving me a good Account of his Style) was pleased, at first, to desire, and upon reluctancy to press me to do that, which I onelyonly wish'd had been done: withall, trusting me with the liberty of Paraphrasing and Enlarging, by his Letters, of June 11. and June 25. 1658. Which Task I have accordingly undertaken, being Influenced (I hope) by a desire to glorifie God, and have performed, being assisted by the strength of that God, whom I desire to glorifie. Besides what I have already express'd and intimated, I need give no further Account of my Enterprize, but the Apprehensions which I then had. I see dayly more and more justified of the proneness of our Apostatizing times to grow Antiministeriall. Pardon me, I pray thee, if, through my weakness, any of the Author's Ingenuity, elegancy or strength be lost, or the Truth suffer through my Inability to vindicate it. And I humbly beseech Almighty God, that these poor Endeavors may contribute some little towards thy satisfaction or Confirmation; towards the Edification and Provocation unto Duty, the maintaining the Maintenance and Honor, the encouraging the Faintings and Fears of the Faithfull Ministers of Iesus Christ.