14. Does not every reasonable, every thinking man see, that he cannot _possibly serve_ God _and mammon_? Because there is the most absolute contrariety, the most irreconcileable enmity between them. The contrariety between the most opposite things on earth, between fire and water, darkness and light, vanishes into nothing, when compared to the contrariety between God and mammon. So that in whatsoever respect you serve the one, you necessarily renounce the other. Do you believe in God through _Christ_? Do you _trust_ in him as your strength, your help, your shield, and your exceeding great reward? As your happiness? Your end in all, above all things? Then you cannot _trust_ in riches. It is absolutely impossible you should, so long as you have this faith in God. Do you thus _trust in riches_? Then you have denied the faith. You do not trust in the living God. Do you _love_ God? Do you seek and find happiness in him? Then you cannot love the world; neither the things of the world. You are crucified to the world, and the world crucified to you. Do you _love the world_? Are your affections set on things beneath? Do you seek happiness in earthly things? Then it is impossible you should love God. Then the love of the Father is not in you. Do you _resemble_ God? Are you merciful, as your Father is merciful? Are you transformed by the renewal of your mind, into the image of him that created you? Then you cannot be conformed to the present world. You have renounced all its affections and lusts. Are you conformed to the world? Does your soul still bear the image of the earthly? Then you are not renewed in the spirit of your mind. You do not bear the image of the heavenly. Do you _obey_ God? Are you zealous to do his will on earth as the angels do in heaven? Then it is impossible you should _obey mammon_. Then you set the world at open defiance. You trample its customs and maxims under foot, and will neither follow nor be led by them. Do you follow the world? Do you live like other men? Do you please men? Do you please yourself? Then you cannot be a servant of God. You are of your master and father, the devil.
15. Therefore thou shalt worship the Lord thy God and him only shalt thou serve. Thou shalt lay aside all thoughts of obeying two masters, of serving God and mammon. Thou shalt propose to thyself no end, no help, no happiness, but God. Thou shalt seek nothing in earth or heaven but him: thou shalt aim at nothing, but to know, to love and enjoy him. And because this is all your business below, the only view you can reasonably have, the one design you are to pursue in all things; _therefore I say unto you_ (as our Lord continues his discourse) _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_. A deep and weighty direction, which it imports us well to consider and throughly to understand.
16. Our Lord does not here require, that we should be utterly without thought, even touching the concerns of this life. A giddy, careless temper is at the farthest remove from the whole religion of _Jesus Christ_. Neither does he require us to be _slothful in business_, to be slack and dilatory therein. This likewise is contrary to the whole spirit and genius of his religion. A Christian abhors sloth as much as drunkenness, and flees from idleness as he does from adultery. He well knows, that there is one kind of thought and care, with which God is well-pleased; which is absolutely needful for the due performance ♦of those outward works, unto which the providence of God has called him.
It is the will of God, that every man should labour to _eat his own bread_: yea, and that every man should provide for his own, for them of his own houshold. It is likewise his will that we should _owe no man any thing_, but _provide things honest in the sight of all men_. But this cannot be done, without taking some thought, without having some care upon our minds: yea, often, not without long and serious thought, not without much and earnest care. Consequently, this care, to provide for ourselves and our houshold, this thought, how to render to all their dues, our blessed Lord does not condemn. Yea, it ♦is good and acceptable in the sight of God our Saviour.
It is good and acceptable to God, that we should so take thought concerning whatever we have in hand, as to have a clear comprehension of what we are about to do, and to plan our business before we enter upon it. And it is right that we should carefully consider from time to time, what steps we are to take therein; as well as that we should prepare all things before hand, for the carrying it on in the most effectual manner. This care termed by some, “The care of the head,” it was by no means our Lord’s design to condemn.