The Duty Of A Pastor To His People
The Duty Of A Pastor To His People
Preached At The Ordination Of The Reverend George Braithwaite, M.A. March 28, 1734
Take heed unto thyself, and unto thy doctrine; for in doing this, thou shalt both save thyself, and them that hear thee—2 Timothy 4:16
The part of the work of this day assigned to me, is to give a word of exhortation to you, my Brother; who have been at this time solemnly ordained a pastor or overseer of this church, Your tong standing, and usefulness in the ministry, might justly excuse every thing of this kind, did not: custom, and the nature of this day's service, seem to require it. You will there.. fore suffer a word of exhortation, though it comes from a junior minister, since you know in what situation we are; our senior ministers are gone off the stage of this world, who used to fill up this place, and whose years best became it: Our fathers, where are they ? and the prophets, do they live for ever ? Give me leave to address you in the words of the great apostle of the Gentiles to Timothy, Take heed unto thyself, and unto thy doctrine; for in doing this, thou shalt both save thyself, and than that hear thee; since this epistle was written, not for his sake only, but for the use and service also of other ministers of the gospel in succeeding ages; that they might know how they ought to behave themselves in the house of God, which is the church of the living God, the pillar and ground of truth. In it the apostle gives a large account of the proper qualifications of the officers of churches, bishops, and deacons; and in this chapter descends to some particular advice and directions to Timothy, and which are designed for the benefit and advantage of other preachers of the word, and pastors of churches. I shall not take any notice of them here, seeing I shall have occasion to make use of them in some parts of the following discourse; and shall therefore immediately attend to the words of my text, in which may be observed,
I. A charge or exhortation given to Timothy.
II. Some reasons to support it, and engage his regard unto it.