N01685:21
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.
3. CHRIST will be present with many of them and make them gracious. For the advantage of Religion God will prepare many Godly Men to Preach the Gospel: The Piety of Ministers is greatly for the promoting of Religion: Piety makes them more studious: Piety furnishes them with such Experience, as greatly helps them in their work: Piety makes them more faithful to the Souls of Men; and the sense that People have of their Piety, causeth them to lay the more weight on their words, and causes the word to fall with more authority on them. God fits Men for the Ministry. So God fitted Paul: He had chosen him to Preach the Gospel, and Converted him in a wonderful manner. Gal. 1.15, 16. It pleased God who separated me from my Mothers Womb, and called me by his Grace, to reveal his Son ⟨p. 13⟩in me. God promised of old to raise up a faithful Priest, 1 Sam. 2.35. And sometimes especially there shall be a great Number of faithful Preachers. Jer. 3.15. I will give them Pastors after mine own heart, that shall feed them with Knowledge and Understanding. Christ adviseth us to Pray that it may be so. Mat. 9.38. Pray ye the Lord of the harvest, that he would send forth labourers into his harvest. And He doth at times eminently answer such Prayers. So He did at the time of the casting off of Popery, which that Scripture hath reference unto, Rev. 14.6. I saw another Angel fly in the midst of Heaven, having the Everlasting Gospel to preach to them that dwell on the Earth. God raised up Luther and Melanchthon, and Zwinglius, and Calvin, with many others, who did great Service to the Church of God. God Converts some Men and then makes them Ministers. So he did Paul: He made him faithful, and so put him into the Ministry, 1 Tim. 1.12. And He puts some Men into the Ministry and then Converts them. They are qualified with Gifts and Learning before, and after they are entered into the work, God qualifies them with Grace.