7 But when ye

pray,

f

use not do not lengthen your prayers with idle tauto[e] vain repetitions, logies, after the manner of the heathen, which think as the heathen do for they think that they shall have their prayers granted through the they shall be heard multiplicity of words used by them in their defor their much Votions.

speaking.

8 Be not ye there

fore like unto them:

g hath no need of your expressions to tell him for your Father your wants, and therefore is not likely to be wrought what on by the length and multiplicity of them.

* knoweth

things ye have need of, before ye ask

him.

9, 10. I shall therefore set you a pattern, after which to form your prayers. Our Father which re9 After this man- mainest in thy throne in heaven, and there art praised ner therefore pray by the angels and saints, which reignest there, and ye : Our Father art perfectly obeyed, grant that thy name may be which art in hea- hallowed, thy throne may be set up and acknowledged, thy holy will and commands obeyed here to Thy kingdom below on earth also, by us thy sons and servants, come. Thy will be sincerely and readily, and in some proportion to what done in earth, as it is there in heaven.

ven, Hallowed be

thy name.

is in heaven.

II Give us this h the necessaries of our lives from day to day, day our [f] daily or that which is proportioned to every man's being

bread.

12 And forgive us our debts, as we forgive our debtors.

or sustenance.

12. And punish not on us all the sins wherewith we have offended and provoked thee to punish us, as 13 And lead us we do most freely forgive all the injuries which have not [g] into tempta- by others been done to us.

thine is the king

tion, but deliver us i permit us not to be brought into any temptfrom 5 evil : For ation or snare, suffer us not to be entangled in any dom, and the power, dangers or difficulties, which may not be easily supand the glory, for ported by us.

ever. Amen.

14 For if ye for- 14. For it hath been well observed by the wise give men their tres- men among the Jews, that our pardoning of those passes, your heaven- who have injured us, is rewarded by God with hearly Father will also ing of our prayers for his forgiveness. See Ecclus. forgive you: -5. and Matt. v. 7. 15 But if ye for- Xxviii. 2—

give not men their trespasses, neither will your Father forgive your tres

passes.

16 Moreover k they put on sad and mournful looks, appear when ye fast, be not, in foul sordid garments, and unwashed faces, which as the hypocrites, of makes them look lamentably, or perhaps they cover a 7 sad countenance: or veil their faces that they may discover or reveal figure their faces, their fasting.

k

8

for they [h] dis

4 bring.

7 horrid, ghastly.

5 the evil one, τοῦ πονηροῦ. 6 for ever and ever: see note on Luke i. [i]. cover their faces, or spoil their looks.

8

that they may appear unto men to fast. Verily I say unto you, They have their reward.

17 But thou, when

thou fastest, '[i] a- 1 behave thyself as upon an ordinary day, (for noint thine head, and the Jews anointed and washed themselves daily, save wash thy face; only in time of mourning).

18 That thou appear not unto men to fast, but unto thy Father which is in secret: and thy Father, which seeth in secret, shall reward thee openly.

19 Lay not up for yourselves treasures

m who seeth thee when no man else doth.

19. It is a great vanity to hoard or treasure up upon earth, where any of the possessions of this world, for they are all, moth and [] rust whether cloth, or fruit, or money, subject to those 9[k] doth corrupt, and three casualties of moths, vermin, and thieves; every where thieves break one the worse, some lost by keeping.

through and steal:

20 But "lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where

not break through

nor steal:

22 The 10 light of

n Ecclus. xxix. 11.

neither moth nor 21. For as long as your treasures are those of rust doth corrupt, this world, your hearts will be fastened upon this and where thieves do world; your only way of elevating your desires, and setting them on heaven, is to lay out that which God 21 For where your gives you on his service. treasure is, there will 22, 23. As the eye is the candle of the body, your heart be also. lightens and directs it, so hath liberality of mind a the body is the eye: most observable influence upon the whole Christian's if therefore thine eye life and actions, serving them with light and direcbe single, thy tions toward the making them all very Christian. whole body shall be But where, instead thereof, covetousness is gotten in, full of light. there is commonly nothing but darkness, i. e. a life 23 But if thine eye be 12 evil, thy whole alien from Christ, from the temper which he rebody shall be full of quires. If then that most eminent leading virtue in darkness. If there- Christianity, thy charity or liberality, be extinct, and fore the light that is turned into the contrary, that of covetousness, what in thee be darkness, how great is that a deep darkness shalt thou walk in, though the light of the gospel shine round about thee!

11

darkness!

24¶ No man can • he will perform faithful service to the one whom serve two masters: he loves, but for the other, whom he hates or unfor either he will hate the one, and dervalues, if he be engaged in his service, he will love the other; or despise his commands, and not care to please him; else he will [m] hold even so the tending and observing of wealth, doing

to the one, and de- nothing but what may in the eye of the world tend spise the other. Ye to increase of riches, is not reconcilable with the cannot serve God serving of God, doing what Christ requires of us. and mammon.

unto

25 Therefore I say P 13 you, Take P Be not fearful or anxious for the future, nor no thought for your doubtful of God's providence in allowing you the life, what ye shall eat, or what ye shall necessities of life, food and raiment; for it is so drink; nor yet for much more easy to give food than life, and raiment your body, what ye than a body, that sure God, who was so able and so shall put on. Is not kind to do the one, will not be unable or backward meat, and the body to do the other to all that depend upon him faithfully.

the life more than

than raiment ?

26 Behold the fowls of the air for they sow not, neither do they reap, nor gather into 14 barns; yet your heavenly Father feedeth them. Are ye not much better than they?

27 Which of you by taking thought can add [n] one cubit unto his 15 stature? 28 And why take

a they neither labour in husbandry for the sowye thought for rai- ing those things from whence in the time to come ment? Consider the lilies of the field, garments are made, hemp, flax, &c., nor do they spin lilies of the field, them when they are grown; i. e. they contribute

how they grow;

૧

they [o] toil not, nothing toward this matter of providing themselves neither do they spin: clothing for the future.

Solomon in all his

29 And yet I say the natural bravery of the lily, especially of the unto you, That even white lily, is beyond all the glory of apparel that art glory was not arrayed and cost could bring in to Solomon, (though it were like one of these. his glory ever to go in white,) that being but acci30 Wherefore, if dental and adventitious to him, this coming from the God so clothe the lily's own fruitful bowels, and so more genuine and [p] grass of the field, which to day natural, and truly glorious.

is, and to morrow is 30. And if God have made so rich and glorious a cast into the oven, provision of attire for those short-lived flowers, then shall he not much certainly for us (that have such instances of his promore clothe you, O vidence) to doubt of God's power or will to provide ye of little faith? 31 Therefore take us sufficient raiment, is a piece of weakness or want no thought, saying, of faith which will not be excused in us, God having What shall we eat? promised that he doth and will care for us, which or, What shall we drink? or, Where- promise cannot be doubted of without infidelity. be not beforehand so troubled with apprehension of future wants of food and raiment.

withal shall we be clothed?

13 Be not solicitous, μǹ μepiμvâte. 14 granaries, repositories, àπonкas. ἡλικία.

15 Or, age,

your heavenly Fa

32 (For after all 32. (The things that heathen men are so solicitous these things do the for; they that worship false idol gods, or that acGentiles seek :) for knowledge nothing of a divine providence,) for the ther knoweth that ye gospel tells us (not that we have no need of them, have need of all these but) that God knows we have need of them, and will things. in his providence take care for our wants, help us to the necessaries of life in due time, as long as he affords us life.

33 But seek ye first 33. But let your principal and first care be to the kingdom of God, approve yourselves the obedient servants of God, ness; and all these performing all those things with all diligence and things shall be added exactness, which are required to render you accept

and his righteous

unto you.

morrow : for the

is the evil thereof.

able in his sight, and then for the necessaries of this life (though ye now, which follow me, have no way to lay in for yourselves) I promise you, that they shall not be wanting to you, I will take care they shall be brought in unto you.

34 Take therefore 34. Be not therefore beforehand importunely no thought for the doubtful or solicitous concerning your future subsistmorrow shall take ence, be not solicitous for that to-day, which may be thought for the soon enough cared for to-morrow, only labour and things of itself. Suf- pray for that which is sufficient for the present time; ficient unto the day and when the future comes, then take care and pray for that, let that have the proportion of care and prayer, which is due to it, laid or charged upon it, and let not the present have the charge and burden of the future also, having enough of its own trouble and turmoil belonging to it. (Thus is this whole discourse directly designed by Christ to prohibit all anxiety for the future in a Christian, though not absolutely all care or provision for the present necessities of life, or the prudent managing of store and possessions, when God gives such. Every day, as it comes, requiring that duty from us, to preserve that life in ourselves (and those that belong unto us) which God hath bestowed on us.

JUDGE not, that ye be not judged.

2 For with what judgment ye judge,

CHAP. VII.

1. THE sin of judging is very rife among the Jews, (see note on Rom. ii. [a]), against this therefore you are to be forewarned. Observe not other men's words or actions severely or without mercy, lest you suffer the same from others which you do to them, and will be most unwilling to suffer from them, nay, feel the like severity from God when he comes to judgment, James ii. 12.

2. For you have reason to expect to be dealt

ye shall be judged: with, both by God and man, as you yourselves deal and with what mea- with others in this particular; and this generally is be measured to you so observable, that it is become a proverb among you, (see note on ch. x. [h],) that with &c.

1

sure ye mete, it shall

again.

3 And why be- 3. How strange a thing is it, that thou shouldest holdest thou the look so severely on the light faults of others, who [a] mote that is in hast for the most part so much vaster crimes, parthy brother's eye, ticularly this of judging others, to be censured and the beam that is in reformed in thyself? this makes thy censuring others thine own eye? very unreasonable in thee.

but considerest not

4 Or how wilt thou 4. Which way in reason shalt thou ever be fit so say to thy brother, much as to reprehend, or direct another to amend Let me pull out the any the least fault, much less to judge him, when mote out of thine thou art thus guilty of greater faults thyself? Thy eye; and, behold, a beam is in thine own this of judging others) argues either no need of continuing still guilty of such greater sins (such is having his lesser faults reformed, or thy no skill to assist him therein.

eye?

beam out of thine

5 Thou hypocrite, 5. The beginning with other men, judging of them first cast out the and neglecting the reforming of thyself, is a piece of own eye; and then hypocrisy. Take care to reform thyself first, then shalt thou see clearly wilt thou be better able to work a reformation of any to cast out the mote even the smallest sin in another.

out of thy brother's

eye.

6 Give not that

6. And for this matter of reprehending others, which is holy unto (all holy advices and admonitions out of God's word,) the dogs, neither cast ye your pearls because they are a very precious deed of charity, before swine, lest (and so in like manner, for all other holy things, the they [b] trample word, and prayer, and the use of the sacraments, &c. them under their by way of analogy with that of reprehension here feet, and turn again particularly spoken of, ver. 4,) take care they be not

and rend you.

cast away upon those that are incorrigible, and will but return thee reproaches and contempt for them, as swine tread under feet the most precious jewels that are offered them, and as dogs often tear them

7 Ask, and it that give them what is most precious. shall be given you; 7. And that yourselves may be blameless, free from seek, and ye shall the greater and lesser guilts, (and so for all other find; knock, and it shall be opened unto things you want,) apply yourselves to God in prayer, and that will be a means of obtaining it, Luke xi. 9, 8 For every one 13. James v. 6.

you:

that asketh receiv- 8. For prayer, if joined with constancy and imporeth; and he that tunity, never misseth to obtain that which is most for to him that knocketh his benefit to receive, and therefore shall not fail to it shall be opened. obtain

seeketh findeth; and

grace.

I small thin shiver of wood.