N05154:46
Christ the great example of Gospel ministers. A sermon preached at Portsmouth, at the…Christ the great example of Gospel ministers. A sermon preach'd at Portsmouth, at the…
Christ the great example of Gospel ministers. A sermon preached at Portsmouth, at the ordination of the Reverend Mr. Job Strong, to the pastoral office over the South Church in that place, June 28. 1749, / By Jonathan Edwards, A.M. Pastor of the First Church in Northampton.Christ the great example of Gospel ministers. A sermon preach'd at Portsmouth, at the ordination of the Reverend Mr. Job Strong, to the pastoral office over the South Church in that place, June 28. 1749, / By Jonathan Edwards, A.M. Pastor of the First Church in Northampton.
Boston: printed by T. Fleet, 1750
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.
4. Ministers should follow that Example of Christ which has been spoken of, because if they are fit for Ministers, and are such as have any Right to take that Work upon themselves, Christ has set them this Example in what he has done for their Souls. I have given you an Example, (says Christ in the Text) that you should do as I have done TO YOU. Ministers should be animated in this Work by a great Love to the Souls of Men, and should be ready to spend and be spent for them; for Christ loved them, and gave himself for them: He loved them with a Love stronger than Death. They should have Compassion to Men under their spiritual Miseries, as Christ had Pity on them. They should be much in Prayer for the People of their Flock, considering how Christ prayed and agonized for them, in tears of Blood. They should travel in Birth with the Souls that are committed to their Care, seeing their own Salvation is the Fruit of the Travel of Christ's Soul. They should exercise a meek and condescending Spirit to the mean and weak and poor, and should as it were wash the Feet of Christ's Disciples; considering how ⟨p. 20⟩Christ condescended to them, when they were wretched and miserable and poor and blind and naked, and abased himself to wash their Feet.
The chief Trials of Christ's Virtue, and so their most bright and eminent Exercises were in the Abasement, Labour and Suffering, that he was the Subject of for our Salvation. Which certainly may well endear those Virtues to us, and greatly engage us to imitate that Example: So the Things whereof this Example consists, were Things by which we have infinite Benefit, without which we should have been unspeakably miserable for ever and ever, and by virtue of which we have the glorious Privilege of the Children of God, and have a full Title to the Crown of exceeding Glory, and Pleasures for ever more, at God's right Hand.
The chief Trials of Christ's Virtue, and so their most bright and eminent Exercises were in the Abasement, Labour and Suffering, that he was the Subject of for our Salvation. Which certainly may well endear those Virtues to us, and greatly engage us to imitate that Example: So the Things whereof this Example consists, were Things by which we have infinite Benefit, without which we should have been unspeakably miserable for ever and ever, and by virtue of which we have the glorious Priviledge of the Children of God, and have a full Title to the Crown of exceeding Glory, and Pleasures for ever more, at God's right Hand.