N01685:35
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. Insist on those things that Men stand in special need of. All Scripture is profitable, but the great design of the Scripture and the Ministry is to Convert Men to God. Acts 26.18. To open their blind eyes, to turn them from darkness to light, and from the power of Satan unto God. Some Ministers speak a great deal to Saints to comfort and encourage them; and alas, there be but a few of them in many Congregations: The body of the People are in a perishing condition; and there is ten times more need that Men be awakened and terrified. Ministers should imitate Paul. 2 Cor. 5.11. Knowing the terror of the Lord, we persuade men. Christ Jesus was ⟨p. 27⟩often putting Men in Mind of Hell and the day of Judgment, in the time of His Ministry. It is not a little hint now and then, that will make them work out their Salvation with fear and trembling. Many Men are in a fast Sleep, and whispering will not awaken them; the threatenings of God had need ring in their Ears; they are so atheistical and devoted to the World, that it is well if Thunder & Lightning will scare them; they are so hardened, that talking moderately to them, as Eli did to his Sons, takes no more impression on them, than on the Seats of the Meeting house. The rule is, Ezek. 6.11. Thus faith the Lord God, Smite with thy hand, and stamp with thy foot, and say, alas, for all the abominations of the house of Israel, for they shall fall by the Sword, and by the Famine, and by the Pestilence.
2. Insist on those things that Men stand in special need of. All Scripture is profitable, but the great design of the Scripture and the Ministry is to Convert Men to God. Acts 26.18. To open their blind eyes, to turn them from darkness to light, and from the power of Satan unto God. Some Ministers speak a great deal to Saints to comfort and incourage them; and alas, there be but a few of them in many Congregations: The body of the People are in a perishing condition; and there is ten times more need that Men be awakened and terrifyed. Ministers should imitate Paul.