Page:An Exposition of the Old and New Testament (1828) vol 5.djvu/78

72 child: the Samaritans will compound between God and idols. No, says Christ, this will not do; it is but a supposition that gain is godliness, 1 Tim. 6. 5. Here is,

1. A general maxim laid down; it is likely it was a proverb among the Jews, No man can serve two masters, much less two gods; for their commands will some time or other cross or contradict one another, and their occasions interfere. While two masters go together, a servant may follow them both; but when they part, you will see to which he belongs; he cannot love, and observe, and cleave to both as he should. If to the one, not to the other; either this or that must be comparatively hated and despised. This truth is plain enough in common cases.

2. The application of it to the business in hand. ''Ye cannot serve God and Mammon. Mammon is a Syriac word, that signifies gain; so that whatever in this world is, or is accounted by us to be, gain, (Phil. 3. 7.) is mammon. Whatever is in the world, the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eye, and the pride of life, is mammon''. To some their belly is their mammon, and they serve that; (Phil. 3. 19.) to others their ease, their sleep, their sports and pastimes are their mammon; (Prov. 6. 9.) to others worldly riches; (James 4. 13. ) to others honours and preferments; the praise and applause of men was the Pharisees' mammon; in a word, self, the unity in which the world's trinity centres, sensual, secular self, is the mammon which cannot be served in conjunction with God; for if it be served, it is in competition with him and in contradiction to him. He does not say, We must not or we should not, but we cannot, serve God and Mammon; we cannot love both; (1 John 2. 15. Jam. 4. 4.) or hold to both, or hold by both in observance, obedience, attendance, trust, and dependence, for they are contrary, the one to the other. God says, ''My son, give me thy heart. Mammon'' says, "No, give it me." God says, ''Be content with such things as ye have. Mammon says, "Grasp at all that ever thou canst. Rem, rem, quocunque modo rem—Money, money; by fair means or by foul, money." God'' says, Defraud not, never lie, be honest and just in all thy dealings. Mammon says, "Cheat thy own father, if thou canst gain by it." God says, Be charitable. Mammon says, "Hold thy own, this giving undoes us all." God says, Be careful for nothing. Mammon says, "Be careful for every thing." God says, ''Keep holy the Sabbath-day. Mammon'' says, "Make use of that day as well as any other for the world." Thus inconsistent are the commands of God and Mammon, so that we cannot serve both. Let us not then halt between God and Baal, but choose ye this day whom ye will serve, and abide by your choice.

25. Therefore I say unto you, Take no thought for your life, what ye shall eat, or what ye shall drink; nor yet for your body, what ye shall put on. Is not the life more than meat, and the body than raiment? 26. Behold the fowls of the air: for they sow not, neither do they reap, nor gather into barns; yet your heavenly Father feedeth them. Are ye not much better than they? 27. Which of you by taking thought can add one cubit unto his stature? 28. And why take ye thought for raiment!raiment? as per 1811 London edition and typical KJV [sic] Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow; they toil not, neither do they spin: 29. And yet I say unto you, that even Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these. 30. Wherefore, if God so clothe the grass of the field, which to day is, and to-morrow is cast into the oven, shall he not much more clothe you, O ye of little faith? 31. Therefore take no thought, saying, What shall we eat? or, what shall we drink? or, wherewithal shall we be clothed? 32. (For after all these things do the Gentiles seek:) for your heavenly Father knoweth that ye have need of all these things. 33. But seek ye first the kingdom of God, and his righteousness; and all these things shall be added unto you. 34. Take therefore no thought for the morrow: for the morrow shall take thought for the things of itself. Sufficient unto the day is the evil thereof.

There is scarcely any one sin against which our Lord Jesus more largely and earnestly warns his disciples, or against which he arms them with more variety of arguments, than the sin of disquieting, distracting, distrustful cares about the things of this life, which are a bad sign that both the treasure and the heart are on the earth; and therefore he thus largely insists upon it. Here is,

I. The prohibition laid down. It is the counsel and command of the Lord Jesus, that we take no thought about the things of this world; I say unto you. He says it as our Lawgiver, and the Sovereign of our hearts; he says it as our Comforter, and the Helper of our joy. What is it that he says? It is this, and he that has ears to hear, let him hear it. Take no thought for your life, nor yet for your bodies; (v. 25.) Take no thought, saying, What shall we eat? (v. 31.) and again, (v. 34.) Take no thought, μὴ μεριμνᾶτε—Be not in care. As against hypocrisy, so against worldly cares, the caution is thrice repeated, and yet no vain repetition: precept must be upon precept, and line upon line, to the same purport, and all little enough; it is a sin which doth so easily beset us. It intimates how pleasing it is to Christ, and of how much concern it is to ourselves, that we should live without carefulness. It is the repeated command of the Lord Jesus to his disciples, that they should not divide and pull in pieces their own minds with care about the world. There is a thought concerning the things of this life, which is not only lawful, but duty, such as is commended in the virtuous woman, Prov. 27. 23. The word is used concerning Paul's care of the churches, and Timothy's care for the state of souls, 2 Cor. 11. 28. Phil. 2. 20.

But the care here forbidden is, 1. A disquieting, tormenting care, which hurries the mind hither and thither, and hangs it in suspense; which disturbs our joy in God, and is a damp upon our hope in him; which breaks the sleep, and hinders our enjoyment of ourselves, of our friends, and of what God has given us. 2. A distrustful, unbelieving thought. God has promised to provide for those that are his, all things needful for life as well as godliness, the life that now is, food and a covering; not dainties, but necessaries. He never, said, "They shall he feasted, but, Verily they shall be fed." Now an inordinate care for time to come, and fear of wanting those supplies, spring from a disbelief of these promises, and of the wisdom and goodness of Divine Providence; and that is the evil of it. As to present sustenance, we may and must use lawful means to get it, else we tempt God; we must be diligent in our callings, and prudent in proportioning our expenses to what we have, and we must pray for daily