That ye may be the children of your Father which is in heaven: for he maketh his sun to rise on the evil and on the good, and sendeth rain on the just and on the unjust.
Ver. 45. That ye may be the children of your Father] That ye may appear to be, and will approve yourselves to be, the sons of God without rebuke amidst a perverse and crooked nation, Philippians 3:15; while we resemble him, not in outward lineaments only, as an image doth a man, but in nature and disposition, as a child doth his father. Now God, to make known his power and patience, endureth with much longsuffering the vessels of wrath fitted to destruction, Romans 9:21; such incarnate devils as march up and down the earth, with heart and hands as full as hell with all manner of mischief, lewdness, and rebellion. Neither doth he bear with them only, but gives them the gospel to call them to repentance, and strives with them by his Spirit, which they desperately resist, yea, despite, hardening their hearts as the nether millstone, Job 41:24, refusing to be reformed, hating to be healed; till at length they lose all passive power also of escaping the damnation of hell, which is a conformity to the very devils. This is his dealing with rebels and reprobates. Neither so only, but that he might make known the "riches of his glory on the vessels of mercy, which he had before prepared to glory," Romans 9:23. He loved his elect not yet existing, nay, resisting, and effectually called them, not only not deserving, but not so much as desiring it. "For when we were enemies, we were reconciled to God by the death of his Son," Romans 5:10. God so loved the world, the wicked and wayward world, "that he sent his only begotten Son," &c. Now, Qui misit Unigenitum, immisit Spiritum, promisit vultum; quid tandem tibi negaturus est? He that sent thee his Son, imparted unto thee of his Spirit, promised thee his favour; what will he deny thee? how shall he not with his Son give thee all things also? Romans 8:32. a Oh let his patience be our pattern, his goodness our precedent, to love and show kindness to oar greatest enemies. So shall we force a testimony, if not from the mouths, yet at least the consciences of all, even the worst, that we are born of God, and do love him better than ourselves, when to please him we can so much cross ourselves in the practice of this most difficult duty.
For he maketh his sun to rise on the evil] A sweet mercy, but not prized, because ordinary; as manna was counted a light meat, because lightly come by. But should we be left in palpable darkness, as were the Egyptians for three days together, so that no man stirred off the stool he sat on, this common benefit would be better set by. The sun is, as it were, a vessel whereinto the Lord gathered the light, which, till then, was scattered in the whole body of the heavens. This David beheld with admiration, Psalms 8:3, not with adoration, as those idolaters that worshipped the queen of heaven, Jeremiah 44:17; (not so Job, Job 31:26-27). Truly, saith Solomon, the light is sweet, and a pleasant thing it is for the eyes to behold the sun, Ecclesiastes 11:7; and St Chrysostom wondereth at this, that whereas all fire naturally ascendeth, God hath turned the beams of the sun towards the earth, made the light thereof to stream downwards. b It is for our sakes and service doubtless, whence also the sun hath his name in the Hebrew tongue (shemesh), a servant, as being the servant general of mankind; while he shines indifferently upon the evil and the good, and to both imparteth light and heat.
And his rain to fall] Not only upon flowers and fruit trees, but also upon the briars and brambles of the wilderness. Those bottles of rain, the clouds, are vessels (saith one) as thin as the liquor which is contained in them; there they hang and move, though weighty with their burden; but how they are upheld, and why they fall here and now, we know not, and wonder. This we know (and may well wonder), that God maketh his sun to shine and his rain to fall on the evil and unjust also. What so great matter is it, then, if we light up our candle to such, or let down our pitcher that they may drink? This is our Saviour's inference here. The dew we see falleth as well upon the daisy and thistle as upon the rose and violet, Ingens multitudo hominum et pecorum decidentibus subito nubibus, ac effusis consertim aquis, submersa est, &c. Bartholin. Idem in cataclysmo universali contigit. Pareus.
On the just, and on the unjust] Those whom St Matthew calleth unjust, St Luke calleth unthankful, Luke 6:35. Ingratitude is a high degree of injustice. God is content we have the benefit of his creatures and comforts, so he may have the praise of them. This is all the rent he looks for, and this he stands upon; he indents with us for it, Psalms 50:15, and God's servants, knowing how he expects and accepts it, do usually oblige themselves to it, as that which pleaseth him better than "an ox that hath horns and hoofs," Psalms 69:31; And they have been careful to return it, as the solid bodies that reflect the heat they receive from the sunbeams upon the sun again. But most men are like the moon, which the fuller it is of light, the farther it gets off the sun from whom it receiveth light: like springs of water, that are coldest when the sun shineth hottest upon them: like the Thracian flint, that burns with water, is quenched with oil; or the Dead Sea, that swalloweth the silver streams of sweet Jordan, and yet grows thereby neither greater nor sweeter. "Do ye thus requite the Lord, O ye foolish people and unwise?" Deuteronomy 32:6. Do ye thus rob him of his praise, and so run away with his rent? Is this the best return we make him for his many matchless mercies and miraculous deliverances? Out upon our unthankfulness and unrighteous dealing! that can devour God's blessings as beasts do their prey, swallow them as swine their swill, bury them as the barren earth the seed; use them as homely as Rachel did her fathers' gods, yea, abuse them to his dishonour, as if he had hired us to be wicked; and fight against him with his own weapons, as Jehu did against Jehoram with his own men, as David against Goliath with his own sword, as Benhadad against Ahab with that life that he had given him. The injurious usage at the hands of the sons of men was that which caused God to make a world and unmake it again, to promise them 120 years' respite, and to repent him, so that he cut them short 20 years of the former number; yea, to perform the promised mercy and to repent him of it when he hath done, as David did of the kindness he had shown unworthy Nabal, 1 Samuel 25:21. Will not God take his own from such, and be gone, Hosea 4:9, turn their glory into shame, Hosea 4:7, blast their blessings, Malachi 2:2, destroy them after he hath done them good, Joshua 24:20, cause them to serve their enemies in the want of all things, that would not serve so good a master in the abundance of all things? Deuteronomy 28:47; What should a prince do, but take a sword from a rebel? what should a mother do, but snatch away the meat from the child that mars it? And what can the wise and just Lord do less than cut off the meat from the mouths, and take away his corn and his wine, his wool and his flax, from such as not only not own him to it, but go after other sweethearts with it, paying their rents to a wrong landlord? (Amasios suos. Hos 2:5) Thus he dealt by his unfruitful vineyard, Isaiah 5:5, by the unprofitable servant, Matthew 25:28, by the foolish philosophers (for, as the chronicler speaketh of Sir Thomas Moore, "I know not whether to call them foolish wise men, or wise foolish men"), that imprisoned (κατεχοντες) the truth in unrighteousness; and made not the best of that little light they had: God not only made fools of them, but "delivered them up to a reprobate sense," Romans 1:28, and only for their unthankfulness, which is robbing God of his due. O therefore what will become of us, that so ordinarily abuse to his daily dishonour our health, wealth, wit, prosperity, plenty, peace, friends, means, marriage, day, night, all comforts and creatures, our times, our talents; yea, the very Scriptures, the gospel of truth, the rich offers of grace, and our golden opportunities? Is not religion turned by many into a mere formality and policy? our ancient fervour and forwardness, into a general lukewarmness and unzealousness? and (besides the love of many waxen cold) doth not iniquity abound in every quarter and corner of the land? which therefore even groaneth under our burden, and longeth for a vomit to spue us out, as the most unthankful and unworthy people that ever God's sun shone upon and God's rain fell upon (the sun of Christ's gospel especially, and the rain of his grace) so fair and so long together? If there be any unpardonable sin in the world, it is ingratitude, said that peerless Queen Elizabeth in a message to Henry IV, King of France. The very heathens judged it to be the epitome of all evil: call me unthankful, saith one, you call me all that naught is. c Lycurgus would make no law against it, because he thought no man would fall so far below reason as not thankfully to acknowledge a benefit. d Thus nature itself abhors ingratitude; which therefore carrieth so much the more detestation, as it is more odious even to them that have blotted out the image of God. e Some vices are such as nature smileth upon, though frowned at by divine justice: not so this. "Wherefore have ye rewarded evil for good?" Genesis 44:4 .
a Nihil tandem ei negasse credendum est qui ad vituli hortatur esum. Jerome.
b Hom. vii. ad Pop. Antioch. So the earth is not covered with water, that man may inhabit it. Sailors observe that their ships flee faster to the shore than from it; whereof no reason can be given, but the height of the water above the land.
c Ingratum dixeris, omnia dixeris.
d Quod prodigiosa res esset beneficium non agnoscere.
e Ingratitudine nihil foedius etiam inter barbaros. Pareas