Commentary on the Gospels and Acts, Commentary 1 · Chapter 5 · Verse 45 – Verse 46
Verse 45. That … may be the children of your father]
That ye may appear to be, and well approve your selves to be the sons of…. 3. 15. God without rebuke amidst a perverse and crooked nation: Whilest … resemble him, not in outward lineaments only, as an image doth man, but in nature and disposition, as a childe doth his father. Now God to make known his power and patience, endureth with much …-suffering the vessels of wrath, fitted to destruction: such … Rom. 9. 22.devils, as march up and down the earth with heart and hands,Exod. 34 2. … full as hell with all manner of mischief, lewdnesse and rebellion. … doth he … with them only, but gives them the Gospel … call them to repentance, and strives with them by his Spirit, … they desperatly resist, yea despite, hardning their hearts … the nether milstone, … to be reformed, hating to be …;Neh. 9. till at length they … all passive power also, of escaping theAct; 7. … hell, … is a conformity to the very devils. This his dealing with rebels and reprobates. Neither so only; but, … he might make known the riches of his glory on the vessels …, which he had before prepared to glory; He loved hisRom. 9. 23. … not …, nay …; and effectually called them, … only not deserving, but not so much as … it. For when Rom. 5 10.… were …, we were reconciled to God by the death of his …. God so loved the world, the wicked and wayward world, … sent his only be gotten Son, &c. Now, Qui … …. de ….immisit spiritum, promisit …, quid … tibi … est? He that … thee his son, imparted unto thēe of hisNihil tandem … negasse … est qui a l … hort … esum. …. …, promised thee his favour, What will he deny thee? how shall … with his Son give thee all things also? Rom. 8 Oh let his … be our patern, his … our precedent, to love and … kindnesse to our greatest enemies. So shall we force a …, if not from the mouthes, yet, at least, the consciences of all, … the worst, that we are born of God, and doe love him better … our selves, when to please him, we can so much crosse our selves … the practice of this most difficult duty.
For he maketh his sunne to arise on the evil]
A sweet mercy, … not prized, because ordinary: as Manna was counted a light …, because lightly come by. But should we be left in …, as were the AEgyptians, for three daies together, so that … man stirred off the stool he sate on, this common benefit would … better set by. The sunne, is (as it were) a … whereinto theGen. 1. … gathered the light, which, till then, was scattered in the whole … of the heavens. This David beheld with admiration, Psal. 8. … with adoration, as those Idolaters that worshipped … QueenJer 44. of heaven (not so Iob, Chap. 31. 26.) Truly (saith Solomon) the light is sweet, and a pleasant thing it is for the eyes to behold the … 11. 6.sun: and S. Chrysostom wondreth at this, that whereas all … naturally ascendeth, God hath turned the beams of the Sun … ….the earth, made the light thereof to stream downwards. It is … …our sakes and service doubtlesse: whence also the Sun hath … name in the Hebrew tongue (Shemesh) a servant, as being the servant generall of man-kinde; whiles he shines indifferently … the evil and the good, and to both imparteth light and heat.
And his rain to fall]
Not only upon flowers and fruit-…,…. but also upon the briars and brambles of the wildernesse. … bottles of rain, the clouds, are vessels (saith one) as thin as the liquor which is contained in them: there they hang and … though weighty with their burden: but how they are upheld, … why they fall here and now, we know not, and wonder. This … know (and may well wonder) that God maketh his Sun to shine, and his rain to fall on the evil and unjust also. What so great … is it then, if we light up our candle to such, or let down our … that they may drinke? This is our Saviours inference here. TheD …. dew, we …, falleth as well upon the dayes-eye, and thistle, as upon… 551. … & …, … con …, …, &. the rose and violet.
On the just, and on the unjust]
Those whom S. Matthew … unjust, S. Luke calleth …. Ingratitude is an … degree of injustice. God is content we have the benefit of his creatures and comforts, so he may have the praise of them. This is … the rent he looks for, and this he stands upon; he indents with … for it, Psal. 50. 15. and Gods servants, knowing how he expects…. lib 2. de …. cap 21. …. …. and accepts it, doe usually oblige themselves to it, as that which pleaseth him better then an oxe that hath horns and hoofs: And they have been carefull to return it, as the solid bodies that reflect the heat they receive from the Sun-beams, upon the Sun again. But most men are like the Moon, which the fuller it is of light, theLuk. 6 …. … it gets off the Sun from whom it receiveth light: Like… 69 31. springs of water, that are coldest, when the Sun shineth hottest upon them: Like the Thracian flint, that burns with water, is … with oyl: or the dead sea, that swalloweth the silver streams of … …, and yet grows thereby neither greater nor sweeter. Doe ye thus requite the Lord, O ye foolish people and …. …. 6.unwise? Doe ye thus rob him of his praise, and so run away with his rent? Is this the best return we make him for his … … and miraculous deliverances? Out upon our unthankfullnesse and unrighteous dealing! that can devour Gods blessings as beasts doe their prey; swallow them as. swine their …; bury them as the barren earth the seed; use them as homely as Rachel did her fathers gods; yea abuse them to his dishonour; as if he had hired us to be wicked; and fight against him with his own weapons, as Iehu did against … with his own men, as David against Goliah with his own sword, as Benhadad against Ahab with that life that he had given him. This injurious usage at the hands of the sons of men, was that, that caused God to make a world, and unmake it again, to promise them 120 years respite, … to repent him, so that he cut them short 20 years of the … number; yea to perform the promised …, and to repent … of it when he hath done, as Divid did of the kindnesse he had … unworthy Nabal. Will not God take his own from such,1 Sam. 15 21. … be gone, Hos. 3. 9? turn their glory into …, Hos 4. 7? … their blessings, Mal. 2 2? … them after he hath done them good, losh. 24. 20? … them to serve their enemies in the want of all things, that would not serve so good a Master in the … of all things, Deut. 28. 47? What … a Prince doe, … take a sword from a rebell? what should a mother doe, but … away the meat from the childe, that … it? And what … the … and just Lord doe …, then … off the meat from the monthes, and take away his corn and his wine, his wool and his … from such as not only not own him to it, but go after other … hearts with it, paying their rents to a wrong …?… suos. … 2. 5.Thus he dealt by his … vineyard, Isa. 5. 5. by the unprofitable servant, …. 25 28. by the foolish … (for as the Chronicler speaketh of … Thomas Moore, I know not whetherE … foreign … 1. 28. to call them, … wise-men, or wise foolish men) that imprisoned the truth in …, and made not the best of that little light they had: God not only made fools of them, but dilivered them up to a reprobate sense, and only for their unthankfullnes, which is robbing God of his …. O therefore what will become of us, that so … to his daily dishonor, our health, wealth, wit, prosperity, plenty, peace, friends, means, marriage, day, might, all comforts and creatures, our times, our talents, yea the very Scriptures, the Gospel of truth, the rich offers of grace, and our golden opportunities? Is not … ned by many into a … formality, and policie? our ancient fervour and forwardnesse, into a generall … and unzealousnesse? And (besides the love of many waxen cold) doth not iniquity abound in every quarter and corner of the land? which therefore even groaneth under … burden, and longeth for a vomit to spue us …, as the most unthankfull and unworthy people that ever Gods Sun shone upon, and Gods rain fell upon (the Sun of Christs Gospel especially, and the rain of his grace) so fair and so long together? If there be any … sin in the world, it is ingratitude, said that … …, …Q. Elizabeth in a … to Henry 4. King of France. The very Heathens judged it to be the epitome of a levil: Call me unthankfull, saith one, you call me all that naught is. Lycurgus would…. make no law against it, because he thought no man would fall so far below reason, as not thankfully to acknowledge a benefit. Thus nature it self abhorres ingratitude; which therefore carrieth so… inter …. … … …. 44. 4 much the more detestation, as it is more odious even to them that have blotted out the image of God. Some vices are such as nature smileth upon, though frowned at by divine Justice: Not so this. Where fore have ye rewarded evil for good? Gen. 44. 4.
Verse 46. For if ye love them that love you, what reward have you?]
The Greek and Latine word (say the Rhemists) signifiethOn Mat. 5. 12. very wages or hire due for worke; and so presupposeth a meritorious deed. But what will they say to S. Luke, who calleth that foreign, or grace, which S. Matthew here called foreign, a reward? It is a reward, but of meer grace (see Rom. 4) that God will give to…, sed … … in Mat. 6. them that love their enemies. If thine enemy be hungry, feed him, &c. For thou shalt heap coales of fire upon his head, and the Lord shall reward thee, saith Solomon, Prov. 25. 21, 22. A …, and all little enough; 1. Thou shalt heap coals on … head, those coales are (as Austin interprets it) urentes … gemitus, the scorching sighs of true repentance: q. d. Thou shalt melt these hardest metals, (as many of the Martyrs did their persecutours) thou shalt meeken their rancour, overcome their …, cause them to turn short again upon themselves, and, upon sight of their sin, shame themselves, and justifie thee, as Saul did David. 2. The Lord shall reward thee. (And all his … are more then bountifull) yet not of merit (for what proportion betwixt the work and wages? but first of mercy. Reward and mercy are joyned together in the second Commandment, and Psal. 62. 12. Secondly, of promise, for our encouragement,) … our labour is not in vain in the Lord. Briefly, it is called a reward, not properly, but by similitude, because it is given after the worke done. Next, it is a reward, not legall, but evangelicall; promised in mercy, and in like mercy performed. Whence it is also called the reward of inheritance. Now an inheritance is not merited, butCol. 3. 24. freely descendeth on sonnes, because they are sonnes. Let no sonne say, with profane Esau, What is this birth-right to me? or with the prodigall in the Gospel, Give me here the portion that belongeth unto me (such are those that love their friends only, here they have love for love, and that's all they are to look for) but look up to the recompence of reward, with Moses; and answer as Naboth, God forbid that I should so farre gratifie the devil and mine own evil heart, as to part with my patrimony, my hope of reward, for a little revenge or whatsoever coyn, bearing Satans superscription.