Page:Divine shepherd, or, The good minister's care over the flock of Jesus Christ.pdf/21

 And Indeed, if a man ſeriouſly conſider the proceedings of God in this particular, he will preſently find them to be most highly reaſonable. For, all people comnitted to a minister's charge, are, or at least he is to endeavour to make them his children according to the ſpirit, begotten again through his ministry, to a lively hope, by the reſurrection of Jeſus Christ from the dead, Gal.iv compared with 1 Pet.i.3. And if a Minister, that does not catechiſe and preach in his own Pariſh church, does force his children according to the ſpirit, to go from pariſh to pariſh and from church to church, to beg a little ſpiritual food for the ſouls, that are ready to starve for hunger and thirst; then is it not most highly reaſonable, that his children, according to the fleſh, ſhould be forced to go from houſe to houſe, and to beg their bread from door to door?

The Lord himſelf has complained of the Priests of old, Hof.iv.6.7.8. My people are destroyed for lack of knowledge: becauſe thou hast rejected knowledge, and will alſo reject thee, that thou ſhalt be no priest to me seeing thou forgotten the law of thy God, I will alſo forget thy children, and turn thy glory into ſhame: and the priests at up the ſin of my people, and they ſet heir heart on their iniquity. That is, they eat and ſeast upon the ſacrifices, which my people offer for their ſins; and they are heartily glad that they commit ſo many ſins, and do not at all endeavour to reclaim them, lest their gain ſhould be lost. Thus, you ſee, that every morſel you eat, every draught you drink, and every bag of clothes you and your children wear, are the price of the blood and ſouls of theſe poor people, which periſh through your neglect. You grind the faces of the poor: and then, as the Pſalmiſt elegantly expreſſed it. You eat them up for bread, whenever you feed yourſelves with the tithes and offerings of thoſe people, who are ready to periſh everlastingly, becauſe your ſhameſul abſence all the year long. And by this means, ye cover the altar of the Lord with the tears of weeping of your miſerable people; infomuch, that the Lord regardeth not your offering any more, nor reliveth it with good what your hands, Mal.ii.13