N05272:146
A farewell-sermon preached at the first precinct in Northampton, after the people's public rejection…A farewel-sermon preached at the first precinct in Northampton, after the people's publick rejection…
A farewell-sermon preached at the first precinct in Northampton, after the people's public rejection of their minister, and renouncing their relation to him as pastor of the church there, on June 22, 1750. : Occasioned by difference of sentiments, concerning the requisite qualifications of members of the church, in complete standing. / By Jonathan Edwards, A.M. ; [Twelve lines of Scripture texts]A farewel-sermon preached at the first precinct in Northampton, after the people's publick rejection of their minister, and renouncing their relation to him as pastor of the church there, on June 22, 1750. : Occasion'd by difference of sentiments, concerning the requisite qualifications of members of the church, in compleat standing. / By Jonathan Edwards, A.M. ; [Twelve lines of Scripture texts]
Boston: printed by S. Kneeland over agianst the prison, 1751
Title page typeset from the transcription.
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.) Labour to obtain a Man who has an established Character, as a Person of serious Religion, & fervent Piety.
(2.) Labour to obtain a Man who has an establish'd Character, as a Person of serious Religion, & fervent Piety.
'Tis of vast Importance that those who are settled in this Work should be Men of true Piety, at all Times, and in all Places; but more especially at some Times, and in some Towns & Churches. And this present Time, which is a Time wherein Religion is in Danger, by so many Corruptions in Doctrine and Practice, is in a peculiar Manner a Day wherein such Ministers are necessary. Nothing else but sincere Piety of Heart, is at all to be depended on, at such a Time as this, as a Security to a young Man, just coming into the World, from the prevailing Infection, or thoroughly to engage him in proper and successful Endeavours to withstand and oppose the Torrent of Error, and Prejudice, against the high mysterious evangelical Doctrines of the Religion of Jesus Christ, and their genuine Effects in true experimental Religion. And this Place is a Place that does peculiarly need such a Minister, for Reasons obvious to all.
If you should happen to settle a Minister, who knows nothing truly of Christ, and the Way of Salvation by him, nothing experimentally of the Nature of vital Religion; alas, how will you be exposed as Sheep without a Shepherd! Here is need of One in this Place, who shall be eminently fit to stand in the Gap, and make up the Hedge, and who shall be as the Chariots of Israel, and the Horsemen thereof. You need One that shall stand as a Champion in the Cause of Truth and the Power of Godliness.
If you should happen to settle a Minister, who knows nothing truly of Christ, and the Way of Salvation by him, nothing experimentally of the Nature of vital Religion; alass, how will you be exposed as Sheep without a Shepherd! Here is need of One in this Place, who shall be eminently fit to stand in the Gap, and make up the Hedge, and who shall be as the Chariots of Israel, and the Horsemen thereof. You need One that shall stand as a Champion in the Cause of Truth and the Power of Godliness.