UPON OUR LORD’S SERMON ON THE MOUNT. DISCOURSE IX. MATT. vi. 24‒34.
_No man can serve two masters; for either he will hate the one and love the other, or else he will hold to the one and despise the other. Ye cannot serve God and mammon.
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?
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?
Which of you by taking thought can add one cubit unto his stature?
And why take ye thought for raiment? Consider the lillies of the field how they grow; they toil not, neither do they spin:
And yet I say unto you, that even Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these.
Wherefore if God so cloath the grass of the field, which to-day is, and to-morrow is cast into the oven, shall he not much more cloath you, O ye of little faith?
Therefore take no thought, saying, what shall we eat? Or, what shall we drink? Or, wherewithal shall we be cloathed?
(For after all these things do the Gentiles seek) for your heavenly Father knoweth that ye have need of all these things.
But first seek ye the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things shall be added unto you.
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._
1. IT is recorded of the nations whom the king of _Assyria_, after he had carried _Israel_ away into captivity, placed in the cities of _Samaria_, _They feared the_ Lord, _and served their own gods. These nations_, saith the inspired writer, _feared the_ Lord, performed an outward service to him, (a plain proof that they had a fear of God, tho’ not according to knowledge) _and served their graven images, both their children and their children’s children; as did their fathers, so did they unto this day_, 2 Kings xvii. 33, &c.
How nearly does the practice of most modern Christians, resemble this of the ancient Heathens? _They fear the_ Lord: they also perform an outward service to him, and hereby shew, they have some fear of God; but they likewise _serve their own gods_. There are those who _teach them_ (as there were who taught the _Assyrians_) _the manner of the_ God _of the land_; the God whose name the country bears to this day, and who was once worshipped there with an holy worship. _Howbeit_, they do not serve him alone; they do not fear him enough for this. But _every nation maketh gods of their own, every nation in the cities wherein they dwell. These nations fear the_ Lord, they have not laid aside the outward form of worshipping him. But _they serve their graven images_, silver and gold, the work of men’s hands. Money, pleasure and praise, the gods of this world, more than divide their service with the God of _Israel_. This is the manner both of _their children and their children’s children; as did their fathers, so do they unto this day_.
2. But altho’ speaking in a loose way, after the common manner of men, those poor Heathens were said _to fear the_ Lord, yet we may observe the Holy Ghost immediately adds, speaking according to the truth and real nature of things, _They fear not the_ Lord, _neither do after the law and commandment which the_ Lord _commanded the children of Jacob: with whom the_ Lord _made a covenant, and charged them, saying, Ye shall not fear other gods, nor serve them.――But the_ Lord _your_ God _ye shall fear, and he shall deliver you out of the hand of all your enemies_.
The same judgment is passed by the unerring Spirit of God, and indeed by all, the eyes of whose understanding he hath opened, to discern the things of God, upon these poor Christians, commonly so called. If we speak according to the truth and real nature of things, _they fear not the_ Lord, _neither do they serve him_. For they do not _after the covenant the_ Lord _hath made with them, neither after the law and commandment which he hath commanded them_, saying, Thou shalt worship the Lord thy God, and him only shalt thou serve. _They serve other gods_ unto this day. And _no man can serve two masters_.