Davies was born in New Castle County, Delaware in 1723, of Welsh descent. In 1747 he was ordained by New Castle Presbytery as an evangelist to visit the newly formed congregations in Hanover County, Virginia. Upon returning from Virginia, his wife died in childbirth, and he himself was gravely ill for many months. When a renewed call to preach in Hanover County was received in 1748, Davies responded, hoping only to prepare the way for a more useful successor, and to be an instrument for good to a few before he succumbed to an expected early death. However, his health was restored, and he itinerated in the care of seven Virginia congregations east of the Blue Ridge Mountains. In 1753 he sailed to England and Scotland to raise funds in support of the proposed College of New Jersey, which was established at Princeton. He was elected president of the college in 1759, and served in that capacity until his death in 1761. In 1850, historian William Henry Foote spoke of Davies as the apostle of Virginia, and wrote, "To no one man, in a religious point of view, does the state owe as much." What Davies understood Scripture to teach about human instrumentality appears in the following sermon.

A sermon on I Corinthians 3:7: "So then neither is he that planteth any thing, neither he that watereth; but God that giveth the increase." Hanover County, Virginia, Nov. 19, 1752.

The design of God in all his works of creation, providence, and grace, is to advance and secure the glory of his own name; and therefore, though he makes use of secondary causes as the instruments of his operations, yet their efficacy depends upon his superintending influence. It is his hand that sustains the great chain of causes and effects, and his agency pervades and animates the worlds of nature and of grace.

In the natural world, he makes use of the instrumentality of the husbandman to till the ground, to sow the seed, and water it. But it is he that commands the clouds to drop down fatness upon it, and the sun to diffuse its vital influence. It is he that continues to the earth, and to the other principles of vegetation, their respective virtues; and without this influence of his the husbandman's planting and watering would be in vain; and, after all his labor, he must acknowledge, that it is God that giveth the increase.

So in the world of grace, God uses a variety of suitable means to form degenerate sinners into his image, and fit them for a happy eternity. All the institutions of the gospel are intended for this purpose, and particularly the ministry of it. Ministers are sowers sent out into the wild field of the world, with the precious seed of the word. It is the grand business of their life to cultivate this barren soil, to plant trees of righteousness, and water them that they may bring forth the fruits of holiness. It is by the use of painful industry that they can expect to improve this wilderness into a fruitful field; and the Lord is pleased to pour out his spirit from on high at times to render their labors successful; so that they who went forth bearing precious seed with sorrow and tears, return bringing their sheaves with joy. But alas! they meet with disappointments enough to convince them that all their labors will be in vain, if a sovereign God deny the influences of his grace. The agency of his Holy Spirit is as necessary to fructify the word, and make it the seed of conversion, as the influences of heaven are to fructify the earth, and promote vegetation. A zealous Paul may plant the word, and an eloquent Apollos may water it; the one may attempt to convert sinners to Christianity, and the other to build them up in faith, but they are both nothing as to the success of their labors, unless God gives the increase; that is, unless he affords the influence of his grace to render their attempts successful in begetting and cherishing living religion in the hearts of men. This is the great truth contained in my text: Neither is he that planteth anything, nor he that watereth; but God that giveth the increase.

The Corinthians had been blest with the labors of several ministers, particularly of the apostle Paul, who had been the happy instrument of turning them from their native heathenism, and planting the gospel among them, and of Apollos, who succeeded him, and watered the good seed he had planted among them. But the Corinthians, instead of peaceably and thankfully improving the different gifts of different ministers for their spiritual and everlasting benefit, fell into factions, through a partial admiration of the one, in opposition to the other. Some of them were for Paul, as an universal scholar, and a strong reasoner; others were all for Apollos, as an accomplished orator. And thus they considered these ministers of Christ, rather as the ringleaders of factions than as unanimous promoters of the same catholic Christianity. To suppress this party spirit, the apostle asks them, Who then is Paul, or who is Apollos? "What mighty beings would you make us in your idolatrous attachment to us? Alas! what are we more than feeble ministers of Christ, by whom ye believed? We were not the authors of your faith, but the humble instruments of it in the divine hand; and the success that either of us have had has not been from our own power, but just as God hath been pleased to give to every man (verse 5). I first planted the gospel among you; Apollos afterwards watered it; this was all we could do: but we could not make it bear the fruits of holiness in one soul. It was God that gave the increase, and made our respective labors successful (verse 6). Therefore turn your regard to him alone: - Cease from man, whose breath is in his nostrils; for wherein is he to be accounted of? (Isaiah 2.22). Do not idolatrously share the honor of your conversion between God the efficient, and us, the humble instruments of it; but ascribe it to him alone: for neither is he that planteth anything, nor he that watereth; but God that gave the increase; he is all in all."

When we see a people enjoy the frequent cultivations of the gospel, and the means of spiritual fruitfulness, and yet few new trees of righteousness planted, and those, that have been planted, seemingly withering and unfruitful, we cannot but conclude that something is wanting; without which all the means they enjoy be of no service. We should naturally turn our thoughts to an inquiry, what was wanting, had we tilled our lands from year to year without a crop. And since we find at present, that notwithstanding all the labors bestowed upon us, we lie in a deep sleep, and hardly know what it is of late to be animated with the news of some careless sinner here and there awakened to serious concern about his eternal estate, it is high time to inquire what is wanting? There is certainly something wanting, which is of greater consequence than anything we have. Here are the gospel, and its ordinances, which at times have done great things; and sinners have yielded to their resistless energy: here is a minister, who, however weak, has sometimes been the happy instrument of giving a sinner an alarm, and speaking a word in season to those that were weary: here are hearers that crowd our sanctuary; hearers of the same kind with those whom we have seen ere now fall under the power of the word. And what then is wanting? Why, God, that alone can give the increase, is not here by the influences of his grace; and in his absence, neither he that planteth is anything, nor he that watereth; they are all nothing together; and may labor till doomsday, and never convert one soul. Where is the Lord God of Elijah? Where is he that can do more execution with one feeble sentence, than we can with a thousand of our most powerful sermons! Why, he hath hid his face; and hence there is none that calleth upon his name, that stirreth up himself to take hold of him, Isaiah 64:7. And till the Spirit be poured upon us from on high, nothing but briars and thorns will come up among us, Isaiah 32:13 and 15.

Let your thoughts, therefore, with eager attention now pursue me, while I am proving, illustrating, and making remarks pertinent to our case, from this affecting truth contained in the text, That the success of the ministry of the gospel with respect to saints and sinners, entirely depends upon the concurring influences of divine grace; or, that without the divine agency to render the gospel successful, all the labors of its ministers will be in vain.

This truth can give us no surprise as a new discovery, if we have any acquaintance with the present degeneracy of human nature, with the declarations and promises of the word of God, with the accounts of the different success of the means of grace in various periods of the church, or with matters that might have come within the compass of our own experience and observation.

I. Such is the present degeneracy of human nature, that all the ministrations of the gospel cannot remedy it, without the concurring efficacy of divine grace.

So barren is the soil, that the seed of the word falls upon it and dies, and never grows up; as though it had never been sown there, till it be fructified by divine grace. It is a soil fruitful of briars and thorns, which grow up, and choke the word; so that it becometh unfruitful till divine grace root them up. Or it may be represented by a rocky or stony soil, where the word of God can take no deep root, and therefore withers till it be mollified by influences from heaven. Thus our Lord represents the matter in the famous parable of the sower, Matthew 13:3ff. and 18ff.

The metaphors used in sacred scripture to illustrate this case, sufficiently prove the degeneracy of mankind, and their entire opposition to the gospel. They are represented as spiritually dead, Ephesians 2:1, John 5:25, that is, though they are still capable of the exercises of reason and animal actions, yet they are really destitute of a supernatural principle of spiritual life, and incapable of suitable exercises towards God. And can a Paul or an Apollos quicken the dead with convictive arguments, with strong persuasions, or tender and passionate expostulations? No; none but he can do it whose almighty voice bade Lazarus come forth. Sinners are also represented as blind, II Corinthians 4:4. Now what can feeble mortals do to such? We can exhibit divine things before them; we can expose the horrid deformity of sin, and its tremendous consequences; we can display the glories of God, the beauty of holiness, and the allurements of redeeming love; but, alas! all this is but like exposing colors to the blind. We cannot open their eyes; we cannot communicate such views of things to their minds as are in any measure adequate to the things themselves. What can tender arguments avail to break hearts of stone? Of what use is reasoning to govern headstrong obstinacy, which regards it no more than a whirlwind: What can persuasions do to extirpate inveterate, implacable enmity? (Romans 8:7). What can the charms of eloquence do to charm deaf adders that stop their ears? (Psalm 58:4). The Israelites might as well pretend to overthrow the walls of Jericho with the sound of rams horns, as we with our feeble breath to overthrow the strong-holds of Satan in the hearts of sinners! It is the divine agency alone that gives the success in both cases. Clay cannot open the eyes of the blind, except in his almighty hands who could form a world out of nothing, and who can work without or against means as easily as with them.

The scripture representation of the degeneracy of mankind are confirmed by universal experience. If we form any observations of ourselves or others, we find that the whole bent of our souls by nature is contrary to the gospel. The gospel is designed to reclaim men from sin; but they are obstinately set upon it: it is designed to make sin bitter to them, and to dissolve their hearts into tender sorrows for it; but we naturally delight in sin, and out hearts are hard as the nether mill-stone: it is intended to bring apostate rebels back to God, and the universal practice of holiness; but we love estrangement from him, and have no inclination to return. We abhor the ways of strict holiness, and choose to walk in the imaginations of our own hearts. The gospel is calculated to advance the divine glory, and abash the pride of all flesh, in the scheme of salvation it reveals: but this is directly contrary to the disposition of the sinner, who is all for his own glory. This requires no tedious arguments to prove it. Look in upon your own hearts; look back on your own conduct; look round you on the world; and there the evidences of it will glare upon you.

Now, since the innate dispositions of men are thus averse to the gospel, it is evident that nothing but divine power can make it effectual for their sanctification. Instructions may furnish the head with notions, and may correct speculative mistakes; but they have no power to sway the will, and sweetly allure it to holiness. Persuasions may prevail to bring men to practice what they had omitted through mistake, carelessness, or a transient dislike; but they will have no effect where the heart is full of innate enmity against the things recommended. In this case, he that planteth and he that watereth is nothing; it is God alone can give the increase; as is more than intimated by,

II. The promises and declarations of the word, which appropriate all the success of the gospel to God alone.

Go to the next installment:
The Success of the Ministry of the Gospel: Part II