From Answer to a Pamphlet by Cotton Mather
... A travelling ministry are sent from town to town and from city to city, and from country to country, and over sea, so that they are not only taken from their own employment, but are also sent upon charges; their state and condition is like a man that is prest a soldier and sent away from his own living on charges and therefore maintained at the king’s charge. And hath not this man power to forbear work? though he tarry some days at a place, must he therefore maintain himself by his own labor? is not this the very state of a travelling ministry of the gospel?...
... I have thus proved by Scripture that a traveling ministry of the Gospel hath power to forbear work. And secondly that the churches ought to relieve them: And thirdly have shewed their differing state from settled elders.
... In the second place, I shall now prove by Scripture that settled elders are commanded to work with their hands and thereby to support the weak; by being givers rather than receivers.—We find that the apostle sends for the elders of the church.—He saith to them, I have coveted no man’s silver or gold, or apparel; ye yourselves know that these hands of mine have ministered unto my necessities and to them that were with me; I have showed you all things, how that so laboring, ye ought to support the weak, and to remember the words of the Lord Jesus, how he said, it is more blessed to give than to receive....
... And 3rdly Whereas Christ, upon sending them forth to preach the gospel, forbids them making any provision for their journey, requiring them to expect their meat and reward from his hands....
... From hence we may see by Scripture that Christ’s ministers, whom he calls and sends to preach the Gospel, are so well provided for by Him that they have no need to be hired by the children of the world; for in so doing they would reproach their Lord and Master and shew themselves not only faithless, but wickedly covetous, in practising contrary to this doctrine of Christ, and to come under the condemnation of this great sin so much condemned in Scripture, “The priests whereof teach for hire, and the prophets whereof divine for money, yet they will lean upon the Lord, and say, is not the Lord among us; none evil can come upon us. Therefore shall Zion for your sakes be plowed as a field, and Jerusalem shall become heaps, and the mountains of the house as the high places of the forest... yea they are greedy dogs, which can never have enough, they are shepherds that cannot understand; they all look to their own way, every one for his gain from his quarter.”... Christ calls them hirelings and ravening wolves.
And though the nameless authors of the said Pamphlet are pleased to call such (as join with Christ and his shepherds, to testify against these hirelings) by the name of wolves, yet these hirelings, or at least their shearers, the collectors, have always taken them for sheep, especially about shearing time.... Now we that join with Christ and the true shepherds to testify against these hirelings, we come under the blessing of Christ... Blessed are ye when men shall revile you and persecute you, for so persecuted they the prophets which were before you; yea this must we suffer all the time that these hireling prophets are under this curse of Christ. Wo unto you when all men shall speak well of you, for so did their fathers to the false prophets.
... In page 8, they assert... “That he be given to hospitality” and say they, “how is it possible for him to be so, if you be given to covetousness, and given to dishonesty and cheat him of his maintainance?”
To which I answer If it be the people’s gift, its their hospitality and not the ministers: the churl may be liberal, if other men’s purses make him so. But the ministers of the Gospel are given to hospitality of that which their own hands have ministered to them, and are obedient to their Master’s words, who hath said unto them, “It is more blessed to give than to receive.”
... And it is a shame for you to tell of the galling of your hands with inferior labor for the getting of bread; it is your duty to do so, and if the people be the cause, as you say, of your laboring with your hands, they are worthy of praise in causing you to do your duty, and you ought to have done it without their causing you to do it, and therefore you proclaim your shame. For you ought to have taken the holy prophets, and Christ and his apostles for your example, to have labored with your hands, and not the false prophets and false teachers, who sought to live upon the people,... Christ shews that such stewards as those could not dig for their living, and to beg they were ashamed....
And the true prophets, and Christ with his apostles have set us better example.... Here you may see that Elijah was plowing... here Elisha went to Jordan with the sons of the prophets and cut down wood.... Amos was a husbandman and a gatherer of wild figs.... Christ was a carpenter.... Paul was a tayler or tent-maker and worked at it tho’ he were a travelling minister of the gospel,—and so did the rest of the apostles, as is to be seen.... These examples, with that apostolical command (to the elders of the church) Acts 20, 34, 35, ought to be attended by Christ’s ministers....