Commentary on the Gospels and Acts, Commentary 1 · Chapter 6 · Verse 25
Verse 25. Therefore I say unto you, Take no carefull …, &c.]
This life is called in Isaiah, the life of our hands, because it is maintained by the labour of our hands. Neverthelesse let a … Isa. 57. 10.labour never so hard, and lay up never so much, his life … not in the abundance of the things that he possesseth, saith our …,Luk. 12. 15. and therefore bids, take heed and beware of covetousnesse. There is in every mothers-childe of us, a false presumption of selfsufficiency in our own courses, as if we, by our own diligence, could build the house. The devils word is proved too true. He said we should be like Gods: which as it is false in respect of divine qualities resembling God, so is it true in regard of our sinfull …: for we carry the matter for most part, as if we were petty gods within our selves, not needing any higher power, This self-confidence, the daughter of unbelief, and mother of carking care, and carnall thought-fullnesse, our Saviour … by many arguments … and …. Take no thoughtfull … for your life, what ye shall eat, &c. The word here used in theforeign. originall, signifieth sometimes a commendable and Christian care, as 1 Cor. 7. 33, 34. He that is married careth how to please his wife: Likewise she careth how to please her husband. It implieth a dividing of the minde into divers thoughts, casting this way, and that way, and every way how to give best content. And … should be all the strife that should be betwixt married couples: This is the care of the head, the care of diligence, called by the Greeks, foreign. But there is another sort of … here spoken against, as unwarrantable and damnable; the care of the heart, the care of …, a doubtfull and carking care, joyned with a fear of future events, a sinfull sollicitude, a distracting and distempering care, properly called foreign, because it tortures and tears asunder the minde with anxious impiety, and fretting impatiency. This maketh a man, when he hath done his utmost indeavour, in the use of lawfull means, for his own provision or preservation,foreign. to sit down, and with a perplexed heart sigh out. Sure it will never be: sure I shall die a beggaer; be utterly …, &c. Surely I shall one day perish by the hand of Saul: were it not better for me to shift for my self, and to … speedily into the land of the Philistims, 1 Sam. 27 1? A sinnefull consultation, for had not God promised him both life and Kingdom after Saul? Psal. 1 16. ….but he said (very wisely) in his hasty fear. All men are liars, Psal. 31. 21.Prophets and all. And again; I said in my sudden haste, I am cut off.
What ye shall eat, or what ye shall drinke, &c.]
I would have you without carefulnes about these things, saith the Apostle, thatforeign. ye may sit close to the Lord without distraction. And again, In nothing be carefull. How then? Why, make your requests known to 1 Cor. 7. 32, 35.God in prayer, as children make their needs known to their parents, whom if they can please, they know they shall be provided for. Little thought do they take where to have the next meal orPhil. 4. 6. 7. …. the next new …, neither need they.
… but we have praid, and yet are to seek.….Sol.
Add to your prayer, supplication, saith the Apostle there, strong cryes out of a deep sense of our pressing necessities, and then seeforeign, … foreign est …. what will come of it.
I have done so to my poore power: and yet it ….
To thy supplication add thanksgiving for mercies already …,…. saith he, Thanksgiving is an artificiall begging. See … ….in thy most carefull condition wherefore to be thankfull. Praise God for what you have had, have, and hope to have.
What will follow upon this?….Sol
What? The peace of God … passeth all understanding, shall foreignkeep as … a guard or … your hearts from cares, and mindes from feares, in Christ Jesus. This shall be the restfull successe … your praiers and praises. And is it not good that the heart be … with grace rather then the body forced with meats. … foreignbrave letters, and how full of life, were written by Luther to …, afflicting himself with continuall cares, what would be … issue of the Imperiall Diet held by Charles the fifth, and … States of Germany at Ansborough, about the cause of … Gospel? Ego certè oro pro te, saith he, & doleo te, … simam curarum hirudinem, meas preces sic irritas facere. I … for thee, and am troubled at it, that thou, by troubling thy self … unnecessary cares, makest my prayers of none effect for thee. … after many sweet consolations, mixt with reprehensions, he … cludes. But I write these things in vain, because … thinkest to rule these things by reason, and killest thy self … ….immoderate cares about them: not considering, that the … Christs, who as he needs not thy counsels, so he will bring about … own ends without thy carefullnesse, thy vexing thoughts, … heart-eating fears, whereby thou disquietest … self … measure.
Is not the life more then meat, &c?]
And shall he that hath given us that which is greater and better, deny unto us that which is lesse aud worse? Shall we beleeve Gods promises in the …, but not Gods providence in the means: as the Disciples … they … forgotten to buy bread, and as Abraham in the case … promise of issue of his body? Excellent is that of the Apostle, He that spared not his own sonne, but delivered him up for us all, …. …. 2.how shall he not with him also freely give us all things? Whereupon…. 8 32. St Bernard, Qui misit unigenitum, immisit spiritum, … vultum, quid tandem tibi negatur us est? And to like … ….S. Hierome: Never thinke, saith he, that God will deny thee any thing, whom he inviteth so freely to feed upon the fatted calfe.