Solomon Stoddard, d. 1729

REV. SOLOMON STODDARD Second Minister of Northampton. b. 1643, Boston d. 1729 A 1662 graduate of Harvard University and their first librarian, Stoddard was called to be a minister in Northampton in 1669, and was ordained as pastor in 1672. In 1726 having reached the advanced age of 83 years, and finding himself inadequate to discharge of his whole duty as minister, he asked for a colleague. The town invited his grandson, Jonathan Edwards, then a tutor in Yale College, to become colleague pastor. He accepted and was installed in 1727, Solomon Stoddard continued to preach until shortly before his death on February 11, 1729 at the age of 86. His view that the communion table should be accessible to all persons not immoral, excited a long and bitter controversy. He married the widow of Eleazer Mather, the first minister.

Sermon by Solomon Stoddard, The Defects of Preachers Reproved

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