1. Agency; service; aid; interposition; instrumentality.
He directs the affairs of this world by the ordinary ministry of second causes.
2. Ecclesiastical function; agency or service of a minister of the gospel or clergyman in the modern church, or of priests, apostles and evangelists in the ancient. Acts 1. Rom 12. 2 Tim 4. Num 4.
3. Time of ministration; duration of the office of a minister, civil or ecclesiastical.
The war with France was during the ministry of Pitt.
4. Persons who compose the executive government or the council of a supreme magistrate; the body of ministers of state.
5. Business; employment.
He abhorred the wicked ministry of arms.