TO THE READER. THAT the success of preaching the gospel, doth not depend on the instrument, but on the almighty power of God, is manifest, in that the best and ablest preacher, that ever was in the world, sadly complained, that he had "labored in vain, and spent his strength for nought:" so doth Christ speak, in Isa. xlix. 4. And this truth is with much clearness and solidity, evinced, in the Sermon emitted herewith. It is a very natural inference from the doctrine here insisted on, that if the ministers of the gospel are instruments, (though no more than such,) of the conversion and salvation of souls; they are for their works' sake, to be highly esteemed: Some have done so. The duke of Brunswick esteemed Urbanus Regius, his minister, as the greatest treasure he had in his dukedom, yea he valued him above his own life. Wherefore if men take up prejudices, against the faithful ministers of God, it will be unprofitable for themselves, for it will make their ministry to be unsuccessful, Heb. xiii. 17. It is much to be lamented, that it is so much so at this day in New England; and this for no other reason, but because the ministers of God have, after much study and prayer, declared to them, what they believe will be, more ways than one, for the benefit and safety of their people. It is sadly to be feared, that the awful judgment, by means whereof the slain of the Lord have been many among us, is but the beginning of sorrows; but that another seven times greater is near at hand. When the children of Israel murmured against Moses and Aaron, (ministers of God,) saying, "You Moses and Aaron have killed the Lord's people," God revenged the wrong done to the ministers of God, with a terrible plague; in that plague there died fourteen thousand and seven hundred. I pray God that some such thing may not befall the people of New England. Concerning the worthy author of this excellent Sermon, how am I troubled, that he has lately been surprised with a dangerous paralysis; but the Lord found him faithfully attending his Master's work. It was Austin's desire that he might die, Aut precantem, aut prædicantem: this faithful servant of Christ was found so doing. I pray for him in the words of the apostle John for Gaius, John iii. 2. "Beloved, I wish above all things, that thou mayest prosper, and be in health, even as thy soul prospers." As for the person lately ordained in the pastoral office to the church in Bristol, which occasioned the preaching of this suitable and profitable Sermon, I shall say little, nor is it (all circumstances considered) meet that I should say much, we know that he is descended from worthy ancestors. His father, Mr. Rowland Cotton, has been a great blessing to the church and town of Sandwich in New England. His great-grandfather, Mr. John Cotton of Boston, was in a singular manner in his day the father of New England. His judicious book; called, The Keys of the Kingdom of Heaven with the Power thereof, has truly stated the Congregational way of church-discipline. A very learned man of the Presbyterian judgment, viz. Mr. Rutherford, declared, That if all Congregationals would come up to Mr. Cotton's Keys (and why should they not?) he would meet them half way. I cannot wish to him that has been lately ordained a pastor to the church in Bristol, a greater felicity, than that a double portion of his blessed great-grandfather's spirit, gifts, and ministerial abilities, may from the Lord Jesus Christ, be poured upon him. The Lord make him a rich blessing, and a son of peace to the people, where Providence has cast his lot, which is the prayer of, INCREASE MATHER. Boston, Dec. 28, 1721. SERMON. 1 COR. iii. 6. "I have planted, Apollos watered: but God gave the increase." THEY are the words (you are very sensible) of the great apostle Paul, and they were expressed by him as a dissuasive from those divisions which were crept into the church of God which was at Corinth. That church was as famous and flourishing as any in regard of gifts, but as one* well expresses it, had crumbled into divisions, as they were eminent in knowledge. The apostle had been with them a year and six months, planting and scattering good seed, and looking for an agreeable harvest, but no sooner had he turned his back and left them, but the enemy came and sowed his tares. How quickly do the best churches sometimes degenerate! We must not look for any here in this world without their imperfections and corruptions; a being perfectly free from these is not to be expected in this life, but is reserved for that which is to come. What these contentions were about, which were among them, we have some account of, Chap. i. 12. "Now this I say, that every one of you saith, I am of Paul, and I of Apollos, and I of Cephas, and I of Christ." It seems that these rents and factions which were among the Corinthians were not in matters of faith, but they arose from their being guilty of that, Jud. xvi. 5. «The having men's persons in admiration." And what is prohibited, James ii. 1. "The having the faith of our Lord Jesus Christ with respect to persons." And truly however their gifts might be strong, this showed their grace to be, but weak. The having men's persons in admiration, the having the faith of our Lord Jesus Christ the Lord of glory with respect of persons, is a certain indication of this, and accordingly the apostle tells them, that he was * Mr. Charnock. feint to speak to them "even as unto babes in Christ," v. 1. of this chapter. "That he fed them with milk, and not with meat, for hitherto they were not able to bear it," v. 2. Yea that these "envyings and strifes and divisions which were among them were sad discoveries of their carnality, v. 3, 4. Not but that the people of God may very justly sometimes, upon some accounts, and in some respects, prefer one minister of the gospel to another. The blessed God dignifies some above others, and we may honor those most whom God is pleased most to honor: But to cry up one and to cry down others; to idolize some and to decry, depreciate and make nothing of others, who are also the true and faithful servants of God in the evangelical work (as seems to have been the case of the Corinthians :) this is very evil, and speaks those in whom it is to have vicious and corrupt affections, and to walk more according to men than like real Christians. To make them sensible of the evil of this, and to bring them off from it, the apostle mentions two things to them. (1.) The first is that their ministers or teachers were not authors of faith to them, but only instruments by whom God assisted them in the great work of believing. "Who then is Paul, and who is Apollos, but ministers by whom ye believed, even as the Lord gave to every man," v. 5. Not masters, but ministers, not principal agents, but (I had almost said) only tools, to be sure only instruments whom the blessed God (from whom every good gift cometh) furnishes with various measures of gifts, and with different degrees of ability, just as he seeth good, and therefore none are to be so extolled and adhered to, as that for their sakes to undervalue or set at naught any others who endeavor to be faithful, and do what they can. In this sense, "Whoso mocketh the poor reproacheth his Maker," Prov. xvii. 5. Since it is the LORD that in this respect" maketh poor and maketh rich," 1 Sam. ii. 7. (2.) The other thing that the apostle mentions, is, because the success of all their labors depended upon the blessing of God. Where any of them came to be indeed beneficial, it was from him. Text: "I have planted, Apollos," &c. Two things are most obvious and easy to be taken notice of in the words. 1. The apostle's declaration of what himself and Apollos did in the ministerial work, "I have planted, Apollos watered." Concerning Paul's coming to Corinth and preaching the gospel there, we have an account, Acts xviii. begin. "There Crispus, the chief ruler of the synagogue, believed on the Lord with all his house and many of the Corinthians hearing believed and were baptized," v. 8. of that chapter. And there Sosthenes, who was a chief ruler of the synagogue also, was converted; mention is made of him, and also of what he suffered from the Greeks, v. 17. These believers I suppose were those called the church of God in Corinth. Touching this Apollos also (what he was, and how he carried himself) we read, Acts xviii. 24. "And a certain Jew named Apollos, born at Alexandria, an eloquent man, and mighty in the Scriptures, came to Ephesus," v. 25. "This man was instructed in the way of the Lord, and being fervent in the spirit, he spake and taught diligently the things of the Lord," &c. "He mightily convinced the Jews, and that publicly, showing by the Scriptures, that Jesus was Christ," v. 28. And as he mightily convinced the Jews, so probably was as useful to the Corinthians. Now saith the apostle, "I have planted, Apollos watered;" as if he should have said, God was pleased to put this honor upon me first of all to preach the gospel among you, and blessed my preaching to convert you unto Christ (thus though they might have "ten thousand instructors in Christ, yet had they not many fathers, for in Christ Jesus," he tells them "he had begotten them through the gospel," 1 Cor. iv. 15.) And when I left you, Apollos stayed behind, and he watered what I had planted, what I had begun by my ministry, he furthered and strengthened by his, was a means further to build you up in faith and holiness. 2. Here is an account how, what they did in the ministerial work came to be successful. And this was from God: "But God increased, or gave the increase," i. e. he blessed our ministry, he wrought inwardly to make our preaching lively and effectual, from him was the fruit found. The text, in short, is a metaphor, and the similitude is taken from planters, the allusion is to people of that denomination, whether husbandmen, or gardeners, these (it is well known) plough, they plant, they dig, they sow, and sometimes water, but after all that they do of this nature (yea, after it is watered by the clouds, and warmed by the influences of the heavenly bodies) the fruitfulness of the earth is wholly from God. Whatsoever concatenation of second causes there may be, God is at the higher end of the chain, and all must be resolved into him. "I will hear the heavens, and the heavens shall hear the earth, and the earth shall hear the corn and the wine and oil, and they shall hear Jezreel," Hos. ii. 21, 22. And thus it is in the spiritual plantation, even as it is in that which is of an earthly nature; as it is in the earthly husbandry or tillage, so is it in the spiritual, the increase, the fruit, the benefit of this is just as God is pleased to give, just as he seeth meet to bless the labors of those whom he improves in his vineyard, to succeed the endeavors of those whom he sends forth into his harvest. Hence the DOCTRINE. That whatever use or improvement God is pleased to make of the ministers of the gospel in the converting, and for the edification, and building up of souls, their being advantageous and |