N01685:18
The presence of Christ with the ministers of the Gospel, opened & applied in…The presence of Christ with the ministers of the Gospel, opened & applyed in…
The presence of Christ with the ministers of the Gospel, opened & applied in a sermon preached at Swampfield, January 1st. 1717[/]18. Being the day of the gathering of the church, and the ordination of the Reverend Joseph Willard their pastor. / By Solomon Stoddard, A.M. & Pastor of Northampton.The presence of Christ with the ministers of the Gospel, opened & applyed in a sermon preached at Swampfield, January 1st. 1717[/]18. Being the day of the gathering of the church, and the ordination of the Reverend Joseph Willard their pastor. / By Solomon Stoddard, A.M. & Pastor of Northampton.
printed by B. Green, 1718
Title page typeset from the transcription.
The Presence of CHRIST WITH THE Ministers of the GOSPEL. › DOCTRINE.
Modern spelling is a reading aid: the words are the author’s, only the spelling is modernized. Original shows the page as printed, with the transcription marks.
2. Quest. How will Christ be present with them? How doth He engage His Presence? How far may we depend on those words of Christ, without straining them? If we consider the Qualities of many Ministers, we cannot conceive any eminent Presence of Christ with them; many of the Priests of Old were very bad. Jer. 2.8. The Priests said not, Where is the Lord, and they that handle the Law know me not: ⟨p. 10⟩and the Pastors have transgressed against me. So the Scribes & Pharisees were very corrupt. Mat. 23.3. Do not after their works, for they say and do nor. And so it is at this day in many Countries, especially with some Ministers of the Gospel; their Practices are such as make many to stumble at the Law.
2. Quest. How will Christ be present with them? How doth He ingage His Presence? How far may we depend on those words of Christ, without straining them? If we consider the Qualities of many Ministers, we cannot conceive any eminent Presence of Christ with them; many of the Priests of Old were very bad. Jer. 2.8. The Priests said not, Where is the Lord, and they that handle the Law know me not: ⟨p. 10⟩and the Pastors have transgressed against me. So the Scribes & Pharisees were very corrupt. Mat. 23.3. Do not after their works, for they say and do nor. And so it is at this day in many Countries, especially with some Ministers of the Gospel; their Practices are such as make many to stumble at the Law.
Answ. 1. CHRIST will be so present with the Gospel-Ministry, that His visible Kingdom shall be upheld. If some of them be notoriously defective of their duty; yet by those that are in the Ministry, His work shall be carried on, and His Kingdom shall be preserved throughout all Generations. The Gospel shall be Preached and there shall be those that shall make a Profession of the Truth. The Kingdom of Christ is sometimes in a more flourishing condition, and sometimes it withers: but it shall never be […]. […] of these Kings, shall the God of Heaven set up a Kingdom, that shall never be destroyed.