216 SECT. 1 Cor. iii. 2 3 He tells them of their envying, and strife, &c. с which left room for the curiosities of sublimer erto ye were not av. speculation, and admitted of the greatest orna- ble to bear it, neither ments of discourse, because ye were not then yet now are ye able. able [to bear it ;] nor indeed are ye yet able; as I perceive by the account which our brethren give of your present state. For it evidently 3 For ye are yet appears, by what I hinted above, that ye are carnal; for whereas yet carnal, still under the influence of weak, and there is among you envying, and strife, indeed sinful, prejudices. I appeal to your and divisions, are ye own consciences on this occasion for the proof not carnal, and walk of this: while [there is] emulation, and conten- as men ? tion, and factions among you, are you not indeed carnal? and do ye not walk and conduct yourselves, as unregenerate men do? So that by this behaviour, a stranger would not know that you were Christians, or see any thing in you above uninstructed and unsanctified nature. 4 For when you eagerly contend about the honours of this or that teacher, and set him up as the head of a distinguishing party; so that one says, I am for Paul, and another, I am for Apollos,d I admire the sublime sentiments of the one, and I the fine language and address of the other; are ye not carnal? and do ye not talk in the spirit of your heathen neighbours, who have their favourite philosophers and ora5 tors too? And is this language for Christ- 5 Who then is ians? Who then is Paul? and who [is] Apollos? Paul, and who is AFor what reason do you regard either the one pollos, but ministers 4 For while one saith, I am of Paul, and another, I am of Apollos, are ye not carnal? or the other? Is it for no consideration but by whom ye believ • Ornaments of discourse.] If any think that the use of them might have been a proper condescension to their weakness, it is to be remembered, that the emulation of eloquence so ready to prevail among them, might have rendered such an indulgence dangerous. I for Apollos.] Mr. Locke fancies, (comparing chap. iv. 6,) that by Apollos, Paul means that Jewish teacher who was set up in opposition to him, and came among them, after he had preached the gospel to them; but it seems much more probable to me, especially from the text just referred to, that he chose this name, that he might give no offence, and to shew that he should lament and condemn any division among them, though it were in favour of himself, or the dearest friend he had in the world. I cannot think St. Paul would have described the false apostle, if there were any one person who might be so called, as watering his plantation, which he rather wasted; or have spoken of himself, and that messenger of Satan, as one ; as he does verse 8. But to his and Apollos' labours God gave the increase: 217 ed, even as the Lord religion, and under whose teachings ye have be- SECT. gave to every man? lieved and embraced it; and because they have V. humbly attempted to do their part for this great 1 Cor. purpose, even as the Lord gave to every man iii. 5 6 I have planted, both furniture and success. I have planted a 6 Apollos watered; Christian church among you; Apollos has since but God gave the watered it by his affecting and useful addresses, increase. (Acts xviii. 27,) but it was God who gave the increase, and caused the plantation thus watered to grow no labourer can make his seed spring up without the influence of heaven, sunshine, 7 So then, nei- and rain. When you come therefore to comther is he that plant- pare our part with that of God, it appeareth eth any thing, neieven as nothing, in the comparison. We freely 7 ther he that watereth; but God that own, that how highly soever you may think of giveth the increase. us, he that planteth is nothing at all, and he that watereth; but God, who by his efficacious Spirit and grace giveth the increase, is all in all. 8 Now he that But as for this opposition which you make 8 planteth, and he that between us, and this zeal with which you conwatereth, are one: tend for one against another, it is altogether receive his own re. unreasonable and absurd: for he that planteth, ward, according to and he that watereth, are one; we are united his own labour. and every man shall in interest, and united in design and affection; so that instead of being pleased, we are rather displeased and grieved, with these invidious comparisons in favour of either. Our great concern is, to please our great Lord, to whom we are shortly to give up our account, and from whom we shall receive, every one, his own proper reward according to his own labour, and not according to the prejudices of our fellow servants are either for, or against us. For we are not 9 labourers together lords and proprietors of the church, nor persons with God: ye are that have independent schemes of our own to carry on; but we are the fellow labourers of God,f the great Master of the family. Ye are 9 For we Are one.] This is, (as Mr. Cradock and the awful account of it to be given up well observes, in his Apost. Hist. p 156,) another cogent argument against divisions; that, though their labours were different, and their rewards proportionable, yet they had all in the general one office, and were employed as workers together by God, to plant the seeds of grace and holiness in the The fellow labourers of God.] souls of men, and to bring them on to per- is the exact import of Guyspy of ex, which fection. He here introduces an excellent our version renders, labourers together with discourse, of the happy consequences God; an improper rendering on every of faithfulness in the ministerial work, accouut. to God. A subject familiar to his own mind; and so proper for their teachers, that if it render the epistle something less regular, it balances the account by rendering it much more useful. This 218 V. Reflections on our attachment to human names and parties. SECT. the husbandry of God, which we are to cultivate, God's husbandry, ye that ye may bring forth fruit for him. [Te are] are God's building. the building of God, which we are to endeavour to advance; that he may dwell in you, as in his holy temple, and glorify his name among 1 Cor. iii. 9 you. verse IMPROVEMENT. WHO that wishes the welfare of the church of Christ, must 1 not lament those sad remainders of carnality, which are often to be found among them who have the greatest advantage for be coming spiritual; while the same contentious principles, fermented, no doubt, by the same malignant enemy of the whole body, breathe in so many of its members, and diffuse a kind of 3 poison, which at once swells and torments it? What envyings, and strife, and factions, among those who ought to join as brethren, and to know but one interest! What a desire, in many instances, to increase the burdens of each other, instead of bearing them with friendly sympathy! 4 May Christians be cured of this dishonourable and fatal attachment to distinguished parties, and human names! May minis ters feel more of that generous and noble spirit which this great apostle expresses! His reasoning hath the same force still. Ministers are still intended to be only the instruments of producing and establishing faith in their hearers, and still depend, 5,6,7 as entirely as ever, upon the blessing of God to give the increase to their labours. To that may they daily look; and be sensible that they are nothing without it; and that with it, their part is so small, that they hardly deserve to be mentioned. May their hands and hearts be more united; and retaining a due sense of 9 the honour which God doth them, in employing them in his vineyard, and in his building, may they faithfully labour, not as for themselves, but for the great Proprietor, and till the day 8 come, when he will remember them in full proportion to their fidelity and diligence. The apostle Paul had laid the foundation ; SECT. VI. As a useful lesson both to teachers and private Christians, in the present state of the Corinthian church, the apostle reminds them of that great trial which every man's work was to undergo, the great guilt of defiling God's temple, the vanity of human wisdom in the sight of God, and the great happiness of the true believer in that universal grant which God had made him of every thing necessary to his welfare. 1 Cor. III. 10, to the end. 1 Cor. III. 10 ACCORDING I 1 CORINTHIANS III. 10. 219 1 Cor. to the grace of HAVE spoken of you as God's build- SECT. ing; and in that view, have the pleasure God which is given unto me, as a wise to say, that in my first preaching amongst you, master builder I when you were entire strangers to the first iii. 10 have laid the foun- principles of the gospel, according to the measbuildeth thereon. ure of the grace of God given to me; to which But let every man I desire to refer the honour of all that I am, take heed how he and of all that I do, in this excellent work; I buildeth thereupon. have been enabled to act in the character of a dation, and another skilful architect, or master builder for with all due care and application, have I laid the great foundation, which hath strength sufficient to bear all the stress even of our eternal hopes. And one, and another, whom God calls to labour among you, buildeth thereon, for the further edification of your church, and of the souls of its particular members: but let every one carefully see to it, how he buildeth thereon, and what 11 For other foun- superstructure he raises. This is all indeed 11 dation can no man that remains to be done : for other solid foun lay than that is laid, which is Jesus dation no one is able to lay, beside what is already Christ. laid, which is Jesus Christ, the great foundation stone, which God hath laid in Zion, elect and precious; and I take it for granted, no one who calls himself a Christian will attempt 12 Now if any to lay any other. If any man build, I say, 12 man build upon this upon this foundation, let him look to the matefoundation, gold, silver, precious stones, rials and nature of his work; whether he raise wood, hay, stubble: a stately and magnificent temple upon it, adorned as it were, like the house of God at Jerusalem, with gold and silver, [and] large, beautiful, and costly stones; [or] a mean hovel, consisting of nothing better than planks of wood, roughly put together, and thatched with hay [and] stubble; that is, let him look to it, whether Which is Jesus Christ.] L'Enfant Christ; but I think the sense given in our would render it, even this, that Jesus is the text much nobler. 220 SECT. 1 Cor. iii. and it became others to take heed how they built thereon. manifest. For the the fire shall try ev ery man's work of he teach the substantial vital truths which vi. do indeed belong to Christianity, and which it was intended to support and illustrate; or set himself to propagate vain subtleties and conceits on the one hand, or legal rites and Jewish traditions on the other; which, though they do not absolutely destroy the foundation, disgrace it, as a mean edifice would do a grand and expensive foundation, laid with great pomp 13 and solemnity. But to prevent this, let me se- 13 Every man's riously admonish you, that whatever any man's work shall be made work may be, and however it may be covered, day shall declare it, and as it were hid behind the scaffolding, every because it shall be one's work shall ere long be made manifest. For revealed by fire; and the great day, which is approaching, shall lay it open, because it shall then be as it were discov- what sort it is. ered by fire; yea, the fire of that great day of general conflagration, when the heavens shall pass away with a great noise, and the elements shall melt with fervent heat, shall prove every 14 man's work, of what kind it is. It shall stand a severe examination, which will as soon expose the vanity of many things, which some admired preachers value themselves upon, and for which they are extolled by their hearers, as the flame of some mighty burning shews the difference between the stability of a straw roof and a marble wall. And then if any man's superstructure abide the test, and be approved, he will not only have the comfort of it in his own mind, which is an immediate and permanent satisfaction; but he shall also, receive a glorious reward from Christ, the great Head of the church, and Proprietor of the building, in comparison of which the applauses of men, or any thing they can bestow, deserve not to 14 If any man's work abide which he hath built thereupon, he shall receive a re ward. he shall suffer loss: 15 be mentioned by the name of a reward. But 15 If any man's if any man's work be then burnt up; if on that work shall be burnt, trial it be found like the combustible and mean materials which I represented by the wood, the hay, and the stubble; the consequence is, that he will sustain a proportionable loss. He The day shall prove every man's work.] It is so very unnatural, with Dr. Whitby, to interpret this of the time of the destruction of Jerusalem, or of any approaching persecutions of the Christian church, that one cannot but wonder, that critics of character should have adopted such a sense. • Sustain a proportionable loss.] I cannot but fear, that an application to such niceties of unprofitable learning, as those, in which some, who have the charge of souls, spend almost the whole of their time, to the neglect of the vitals of Christianity, will be found in this day, lost labour. |