"Who is Paul? Who is Apollos? He that planteth is nothing, he that watereth is nothing, but God that giveth the increase." II. It was to be feared (we proceed to the design of the text) it was to be feared, that under pretence that all the ministers of the gospel were united in one point of equality; under pretence that none of them were any more than servants of God, and canals by which he communicated himself to the church; I say it was hazardous, and much to be suspected, whether teachers themselves would not abuse this equality by applying what the apostle meant only of the abilities of preachers to the very doctrines themselves which they taught. If this were doubtful in regard to the preachers, it was no less so in regard to the hearers. People have, I think, a natural bias to superstition. They easily shew that respect, which is due only to the character of a minister of the living God, to all that put it on, even to such as use it only for the perverting of the gospel, yea to those who endeavour to subvert it entirely. Because we ought not to hear the gospel in a spirit of chicanery and sophistry, it is supposed we ought to lay aside a spirit of discernment. Hence this way of speaking, so superstitious, and at the same time so common among us, that is, that whatever difference there may be in preachers, yet they all preach the word of God. But is it not impossible, that from a text which is the word of God, explications may be given, which are only the word of man. Not impossible, did I say! I believe it seldom, if ever happens, that two ministers treat of one subject without at least one of them mixing with the word of God some expressions which are only the word of man. Why? Because the conformity of their sentiments can never be so perfect, but they will differ on some questions. Now, of two men, one of whom takes the affirmative side of a question, and the other the negative, one of them must of necessity, in this respect, preach the word of God, and the other the word of man. You should not, therefore, pay a superstitious attention to our discourses. You should not, under pretence that all your ministers thus preach the word of God, confound the word of God with the word of man, Whatever patience you may be obliged to have with our imperfections, you ought not equally to esteem two discourses, the greatest part of one of which you call, and have reason to call the word of God, and the greatest part of the other the word of man. The design of St. Paul in our text is to rectify our judgment on this subject. For this purpose he divides preachers into three classes. The first are such as preach the word of man, not only different from the word of God, but directly in opposition to it. The second preach the pure word of God without human mixtures. The third do indeed make the word of God the ground of their preaching, but mix with it the explications and traditions of men. The apostle characterizes these three kinds of preachers, informs us of their destination, and what account God will require of their ministry. 1. Other foundation can no man lay than that which is laid. This is directed against such ministers as preach 1 the word of man in direct opposition to the word of God, or the doctrine taught by Jesus Christ. What will be the destination of such ministers? St. Paul tell us by affirming, no man can preach, no man can lay any other foundation than that which is laid. No man can! Not that this can never happen. Alas! This hath too often happened; witness many communities, which under the Christian name subvert all the foundations of the Christian religion. But no man can do so without rendering himself guilty of the greatest crime, and exposing himself to the greatest punishment. 2. If any man build upon this foundation, gold, silver, precious stones. These are ministers, who preach the pure word of God. They not only retain all the fundamental points of the Christian religion, in opposition to the former who subvert them: but they explain these truths so as to affirm nothing inconsistent with them. All the inferences they draw fronı these great principles naturally proceed from them, and their whole doctrine is agreeable to the foundation on which it is built. On this account it is compared to gold, silver, and precious stones. What shall be the destiny of these ministers in the great day of judgment, when their doctrine shall be examined ? They shall receive a reward. They shall share the glorious promises made to faithful ministers of religion. 3. If any man build upon this foundation, wood, hay, stubble. These are ministers who really make the word of Godthe ground of their preaching: but who mix the word of man with it, and disfigure it with their fanciful sophistry. When the doctrine of these ministers shall be examined in the great day of judgment what shall their destiny be? They themselves shall be saved, because they have taught nothing directly contrary to the essential truths of Christianity : but they shall have no reward for exercising a ministry, in which they rendered the word of God of less effect by mixing with it the traditions of men, and they shall be saved, yet so as by fire, that is with difficulty, because their preaching occupied the time and attention of their hearers, in a manner unworthy of the disciples of Jesus Christ. This is, my brethren, a general view of the design of our text: but this is not sufficient to give an exact knowledge of it. In a discourse intended to prevent, or to eradicate a certain kind of superstition, nothing ought to be proposed that is likely to cherish it. You should not be required to believe any thing without the most full and convincing evidence. Having therefore, shewn you the general design of the text, we will proceed to our third article, and explain the several metaphors made use of in it. III. Although all these figurative expressions are selected with caution, and very bold, yet they are not all alike obscure to you. Which of you is such a novice, I do not say only in the style of the inspired authors, as not to know the idea affixed to the term foundation? In architecture they call those massy stones laid in the earth, and on which the whole building rests, foundations; and thus in moral things, particularly in sciences, foundations signify some propositions, without which all the rest that make the body cannot subsist. The foundation is Jesus Christ. These terms are to be understood in this place, as in many others, of the Christian religion, which is called Jesus Christ, not merely because Jesus Christ taught it to the world, but because his history, that is, his sufferings, his death, and his resurrection, is the principle subject. In this sense, the apostle says, he determined not to know any thing among the Corinthians save Jesus Christ and him crucified, that is, the Christian religion, of which the crucifixion of Christ is a principal article. The other emblems, wood, hay, stubble, gold, silver, precious stones, seem evidently to convey the ideas which we just now affixed to them. As St. Paul here represents the doctrine of preachers under the similitude of an edifice, it is natural to suppose, that wood, hay and stubble, especially when they are opposed to gold, silver, and precious stones, should mean doctrines less considerable, either because they are uncertain, or unimportant. For the same reason, gold, silver, precious stones, signify in the edifice of the church, or in the system of preachers, such doctrines as are excellent, sublime, demonstrable. In this sense the prophet Isaiah, describing the glory of the church under the government of the Messiah, says, "behold, I will lay thy stones with fair colours, and thy foundations with sapphires. And I will make thy windows of agates, and thy gates of carbuncles, and all thy |