Commentary on the Gospels and Acts, Commentary 1 · Chapter 6 · Verse 26 – Verse 31
Verse 26. Behold (or cast your eyes upon) the fowls of the foreign.ayr]
Look upon them …, consider them wisely, learn of them carefully, to cast away carnall caresullnesse, and to cast all your care upon God, who careth for them, how much more for you? Ask now the fowls of the ayr, and they shall tell thee, saith… 12. 7. Job, that there is a reward for the righteous, and a God that judgeth in the earth. As he made them at … for his own glory (that we might admire his workmanship in their multitude … variety of colours, … and taste, 1 Cor. 15 39.) and for our both use and …: so he knows them all, Psal. 50. 11. and maintaineth them: … both for their use, Ps. 147. 9. and delight, Psal. 104. 12. … us wisedom beyond them, Job 37. 11. and yet setting us to … to them, to learn dependance upon God, both for … from evil, Matth. 10. 29. and for provision of good, as here, … Iob 39. 16. He taketh care of the Ostriches young ones, and of … young Ravens that cry unto him, Psal. 147. 9. They are fed of God, when forsaken of their dammes, and left bare and destitute:Aristot. hist. … out of their dung, and carrion, brought before to the nest, … … …. 9.a worm, which creepeth to their mouth and feedeth them.… 31.
They sow not, neither do they reap, &c.]
They take no care, nor … any to care for them, as Geese, Hens, and other tame pullen; … yet they are provided for, we see. And oh that we would see, … our Saviour here enjoyns us, and behold not only the fowls of … ayr, but the clouds above them, and other heavenly bodies! … one asked …, where he could be safe and at quiet? … coelo, said he. And to Pontanus the Chancellour of Saxony, Scultet. ….… propunds to be viewed and weighed by him, that most … arch-work of heaven, resting upon no posts nor pillars, and yetIn Epist. … fast for ever and ever, meerly upheld by the mighty handNon decidentes, … velut … nobis …. Luth. of God. The clouds also, as thin as the liqour contained in them; …, saith he, how they hang and move, though weighty with their burden; they salute us only, or rather threaten us, and vanish we know not whether. These things would be thought on, that God may be the better rested on. … not ye of doubtfull minde, foreign. saith our Saviour, live not in carefull suspense, hang not as meteors in the ayr, betwixt heaven and earth, uncertain whether to keepLuk 12 29. explained. your standing, or sall to the ground, to trust God, or otherwise as… volunt, quod …, & quasi … teneant. … … de … eorum … vero altquo modo … gisse Magir. …. you can, to make sure for your selves. Meteors are matters that few men can tell what to make of. Aristotle himself …, that he knew little of many of them. And as little can the distrustfull person …, what to make of those infinite projects, and discourses in the ayr, that he … frames for the compassing of his desires. When, he needs but either to look up to the birds, or down to the …, and learn, that if God feed and cloath them without … their care and pains, surely he will much more provide for his people that rely upon him, and with their reasonable pains and moderate care do … his providence. Shall the great housekeeper of the world, water his …, prune his plants, fodder his cattle, and not feed and cloath his children? Never think it. God provided for the necessity and comfort of the unrèasonable … ere he made them: … for the beasts, and light for all … and moving creatures, and all for …, for the man in … especially. Compare P … 8. 45. with Heb. 2. 6, 7, &c. and it … appear, that whatsoever is spoken there of man is applied to Christ; and so is proper to the Saints, by … of their union with Christ. In which respect, saith one, they are more … …. ….then heaven, Angels, or any creature: and shall these want food and raiment?
Verse 27. Which of you by taking thought, can adde one cubite … stature?]
And as little able are we (though we take never so much care and pains) to adde … mite to that dimension of our …, which God by his wise and powerfull providence … allotted unto us. Every man shall have his statute-measure, … foreignslint and proportion in his estate, as well as in his stature, to the… 12 …. …. …. …. which he shall come and not exceed. All carking care therefore is bootlesse and unprofitable. Men may eat up their hearts thereby, and trouble their houses, Prov. 15. 27. (what with labour, … what with passion, a covetous man and his houshold never live at …, all is continually on a tumult of haste and hurry) … cannot adde any thing to their … or …, much I … to … spirituall growth, which is hereby exceedingly hindered and hide-bound: as we see in the …, the … young Pharisee, and those other, that being called to be Christs disciples, were so taken up with the care of their worldly …, that they could finde no present … to follow Christ.
Verse 28. … the … of the ….]
Contemplate …, …saith Luther: Understand them well, … Erasmus: Learn … they grow, saith Beza: Hang upon these fair flowers, with the … Bee, till … have suckt some sweet meditation out of them.… quomo. …, &c. God is to be seen and admired in all his wondrous works. A skilfall Artificer takes it ill, that he sets forth a curious piece, and no man looks at it. There is not a slower in the whole field (the…. word here rendred Lillies, signifieth all sorts of flowers) but … sorth God to us … lively colours. … to …, is to incur the…. curse he hath … against such, … regard not the work of the Lord, that is, the first making, Neither consider the operation of his hands, that is, the wise disposing of his creatures, for our … …. 5. …. explained.and benefit. A godly Ancient being asked by a … Philosopher, how he could contemplate high things, sith he had noAnton. Erem. upud de … Clrist. l b 1. & …. lib 8. c. 40. books? Wisely answered, That he had the whole world for his book, ready open at all times, and in all places, and that therein he could read things divine and heavenly. A Bee can suck honey out of a flower, that a flie cannot do. Our Saviour could have pointed us to our first parents clothed, and Elias fed, the Israelites both fed and clothed extraordinarily by God in the …. Never Prince was so served in his greatest pomp; not Solomon in all his royalty, as they. But because all men have not faith to believe that miracles shall be wrought for them, he sendeth us to these more ordinary, and more easie instances of Gods bountifull and provident care of birds and lillies; that in them (as in so many optick glasses) we may see Gods infinite goodnes, and be confident.
They toil not, neither do they spin.]
This is the sluggards posie.Ne que laborant, … Imp. How much … that Emperour who took for his Motto, …: Let us be doing. God made not man to play, as he hath done Leviathan, but commandeth him to sweat out his living. This was at first Gods ordinance in paradise, that his store-house should be his work-house, his pleasure, his task. AfterGen. 2. 15. the fall, it was enjoyned as a punishment. So that now manGen. 3. 19. is born to travel, and must labour with his own hands, neither eatingJob 5. 7. the bread of idlenesse, nor drinking the wine of violence. That MonkEphes. 4. 28. that laboureth not with his hands, is a thief, saith an Ancient:Hist. Tripart. Is a body-louse, sucking the bloud of others, saith a Neoterick: Ezek. 18. 18.he shall die in his iniquity, saith God, because he hath not done good Hic … est Vacia.among his people, He buried himself alive, as … Vacia in Seneca, he shall be buried with the buriall of an Asse, when he is dead:Jer 22 19. he shall hear, O thou wicked and slothfull servant, when he riseth againMat. 25. 26. at the last day. God puts no … between … and Nequaquam, an idle, and an evil servant. This made M. Calvin answer his friends with some indignation, when they admonished him, for his healths-sake, to forbear studying so …, Quid? Vultis ut Dominus … me otiosum inveniret? Beza in vita Calvin.What? Would you that Christ when he commeth should finde me idle?
Verse 29. And yet I say unto you, that even Solomon in all his glory.]
In all his bravery, which doubtlesse was very great, in the day of his espousals, especially, when his mother crowned him, …. 3. …. Herods cloth of silver did so dazle the peoples eyes in a Sunshine-day, that they deified him. Alcisthenes the Sybarites cloak,Act …. was sold to the Carthaginians by Dionysius for 120. talents. And…. Demetrius King of Macedon had a robe royall so stately and costly, that none of his successours would wear it, for avoiding of envy. There is no doubt but Solomons roy all robes were very sumptuous,…. being so mighty and wealthy a Monarch. Great ones may go arraied according to their state: and they that are in Kings houses … softs. Yet is it reckon'd as a fault in the rich man, Luk 16. 19.Mat. 11. 8. foreign. … …. 18.that he was often clothed in purple and fine linnen; and God threatneth to punish even Princes, and Kings children, and all other such as are cloathed with strange apparell. The Jews for … the Chaldaean habit, were soon after carried captive into Chaldea, Ezek. 23. 15. And what heavy things are thundered against those curious dames of Jerusalem by the Prophet Isaiah, who being himself a Courtier, inveighs as punctually against that … vanity, as if he had lately viewed the Ladies wardrobes. … Saviour findes fault with the Scribes that loved to go in long clothing, Mark 12. 38. And S. James with those Christians that would fawn upon a gold ring, and a goodly sute, Jam. 2. 2. In the year 1580. great ruffs with huge wide sets, and cloaks reaching almost to the ancles, no lesse uncomely then of great expence, were… as … & … bern. restrained here by proclamation, saith M. Camden. And need we not the like … now, when so many Prodigals turn rents into …, and lands into laces, Singulis auribus bina aut terna dependunt patrimonia, as Seneca hath it, hang two or three patrimonies…. … …. …, … est … … …. …. at their ears, a pretty grove upon their backs, a reasonable Lordship, or living about their necks. This is farre from that humility, wherewith S. Peter would have young men cloath themselves; and from that meek and quiet spirit, wherewith, saith he, the holy women of old adorned themselves, not with plaited hair, and golden abiliments, 1 Pet 3. 3, 4. Cyprian and Austin say, that superfluous apparel is worse then whoredom: because whoredom only corrupts chastity, but this corrupts nature.1 …. 5. 5.
Verse 30. The grasse of the field, which to day is, and tomorrow … cast into the oven.]
A fit resemblance of all outward things, the subject of our carking cares, likened (when they are at best) to the flower of grasse, Isa. 40. 6. The Sun is no sooner risen, saith S. James, with a burning heat, but it withereth the grasse, and…. 1. 10, 11. the flower thereof falleth, and the grace of the fashion of it perisheth: so also shall the rich man fade away in his waies, his riches cannot ransom him. But as grasse, when ripe, withereth, and is carried away, either by the teeth of beasts, or hands of men: so are all, by impartiall death. And as the sithe with a few stroaks, mows down thousands of piles and forms of grasse; so do Gods judgements millions of men, Psal. 9. 17. Prov. 11. 21. And as grasse is to day a flourishing field, to morrow cast into the oven: so are the greatest into their graves (if not into that burning fiery fornace) then when they are in their prime and pride, in their greatest flourish, in the ruff of all their jollity: as the rich fool, therefore a fool, because he stuck his clothes with these flowers of the field, these fading felicities, and thought himself thereby becomeAct. 8. 9. (as Simon Magus) some great one. Contrarily S. James makes it a signe of a convert, that though of high degree in theJam. 1. 10. expounded. world, yet he is herein made low, that he hath low thoughts of these low things, which he seeth to be mutable and momentary, as the flower of the grasse; and bids him rejoyce in that he is exalted, Animo magno … magnum.in that he is now made a greater man ever since; being converted he is become too big for these petty businesses: As a man grown up, delights to deal in lands, and laies by his Cherry-stones. But we pitty that want of wit which maketh the minde run on bables, but never think on ought substantiall.
O ye of little faith.]
Ye petty fidians, ye small faiths. Unbelief is that root of bitternesse, whence carefulnesse springeth. Hence it was, that the Heathen so abounded in it. Strive we therefore to a full assurance of faith and hope: so shall we rowl our selves upon God for all things needfull to life and godlinesse. Faith fearsFides famen …. no famine, it quelleth and killeth … fear: but awfull dread, it breedeth, feedeth, fostereth and cherisheth. When a man can sayHier. ex Tert. with Abraham, God will provide, he will be out of fear and doubt: when he can believe not only Gods promise, but his providence, as David, 1 Sam. 26. 10, 11.
Verse 31. Therefore take no carefull thought, &c.]
From the fore-named grounds. Our Saviour here resumeth and enforceth theCic. Tusc. 4. former exhortation. Sollicitudo est aegritudo cum cogitatione, saith the Oratour. Carefulnesse is a tormentfull plodding upon businesses. It is, say Divines, … act of fear and distrust, taking up not only the head, but chiefly the heart, to the very dividing and disturbing thereof: causing a man inordinately and over-eagerly to pursue his desires, and to perplex himself like wise with … and … thoughts about successe. Now our Lord Christ would have none of his servants to care inordinately about any thing, but that, when they have done what they can in obedience to him, they should leave the whole matter of good or evil successe to his care. To care about the issue of our lawfull endeavours, is to usurp upon God, to trench farre into his prerogative divine, to take upon us that which is proper to him. And it is no lesse a fault to invade Gods part, then to neglect our own. Adde hereunto, that God out of his wise justice, ceaseth caring for such an one, and because he will not be beholden to God to bear his burthen, he shall bear it alone, to the … of his back, or it least, till he is much bowed and … under it. If we … such as will put no trust in us, but love to stand upon their own ground, we give them good leave: as contrarily, the more we see our selves trusted to, … more … is carefull for them that stay upon us. Thus it is with … heavenly Father.
Saying, what … we eat? …]
Our Saviour by these distrustful. Questions, graphically expresseth the condition of …, their endlesse projects and discourses in the air. They are full of words, and many questions, what they … doe, and how they and theirs shall be provided for? They haven ver done, either … themselves, or consulting to no purpose, in things that either cannot be done at all, or not otherwise. And so someforeign understand that of our Saviour, Luk. 12 29. Hang not in doubtfull suspences; after he had brought in the rich fool, vers. 17. reasoning and saying, What shall I doe, &c. And Solomon brings in such… foreign …, … See M Harris on Mat. 5 7. And M. Pen. … on Eccl. …. 1. another fool, full of words, and he recites his words, A … cannot tell … shall be, and what shall be after him, who can tell? Eccles. 10. 14. And in the next Chapter, ver. 1. and so forward, he makes answer to many of these mens … queries and …, when moved to works of mercy. Old men specially are … of this weaknesse, who are apt to cark, because they …, saith Plutarch, foreign; that they shall not have enough to keep them, and bring them well home, as they call it; whence some conceive that covetousnesse is called, The root of all evil, 1 Tim. 6. 10. because as there is life in the root, when no sap in the branches: so covetousnesse oft liveth, when other vices die and decay. It groweth, as they say, the Crocodile doth, as long as he liveth.