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.
Ver. 34. Take therefore no thought for the morrow] The Lord Christ, well knowing which way our heart hangs and pulse beats, beats much upon this string, drives this nail home to the head. When things are over and over again repeated and inculcated, it imports, 1. the difficulty, 2. the necessity, of the duty, 3. our utter averseness, or, at least, dulness to the doing of it. How hardly we come off with God in this most necessary but much-neglected duty, who knows not, feels not, bewails not? The world is a most subtle, sly enemy: and by reason of her near neighbourhood, easily and insensibly insinuates into us, and insnares the best hearts. Our Saviour saw cause to warn his disciples of the cares of life: and where was Thomas, when Jesus appeared to the rest of the disciples, the doors being shut, but either lurking for fear of the Jews (in probability), or packing up, and providing for one, now that his Master was slain, and taken from him? Whatever the cause was, the effect was woeful, John 20:24,25. And albeit in both Testaments (as Scultetus observeth) the saints of God have been noted to be subject to divers infirmities, yet not tainted with this enormity of covetousness. Yet St John saw cause to say to those that were fathers also: "Love not the world, nor the things that are in the world," 1 John 2:15. And David prays heartily, "Incline my heart to thy testimonies, and not to covetousness," Psalms 119:36. Satan will be busy with the best this way, as he was with our Saviour himself: he knew it a most prevailing bait. And when this would not work, he fleeth from him, as if despairing of victory. "Be sober therefore" (in the pursuit and use of these earthly things) "and watch, for your adversary the devil" watcheth you a shrewd turn by them, 1 Peter 5:7. They are so near and so natural to us, that, through Satan's policy and malice, when we think upon them (that we may the better learn to flee and slight them) they stick to our fingers when we should throw them away; they catch us when we should flee from them; they come over us with feigned words usually, 2 Peter 2:3; to hide our faults from the view of others, or subtle thoughts and evasions, to blindfold the conscience, with colour of Christ, necessary thrift, &c. Whence it is called, cloaked and coloured covetousness, 1 Thessalonians 2:5. A Christian hath ever God for his chief end, and will not, deliberately, forego him upon any terms. He errs in the way, thinking he may mind earthly things and keep God too: so being insnared with these worldly lime-twigs (like the silly bird), before he is aware, the more he struggleth the more he is entangled and disabled. All this, and more than this, our Saviour well knew; and therefore reiterates his exhortation, and sets it on with so many arguments. "Care not for the morrow," &c. "I will be careless, according to my name," said that martyr John Careless; "for now my soul is turned to her old rest again, and hath taken a sweet nap in Christ's lap. I have cast my care upon the Lord, who careth for me," &c. And Bishop Hooper, in a letter to certain good people taken praying in Bow churchyard, and now in trouble, writeth thus: "Read the second chapter of Luke; there the shepherds that watched upon their sheep all night, as soon as they heard Christ was born at Bethlehem, by and by they went to seek him. They did not reason, nor debate with themselves, who should keep the wolf from the sheep in the mean time; but did as they were commanded, and committed their sheep to him, whose pleasure they obeyed; so let us do now we be called, commit all other things to him that calleth us. He will take heed that all things shall be well; he will help the husband, comfort the wife, guide the servants, keep the house, preserve the goods, yea, rather than it shall be undone, he will wash the dishes and rock the cradle. Cast therefore all your care upon God," &c. Judea (as one hath well observed) a lay utterly waste for seventy years. Insomuch that after the slaughter of Gedaliah, when all, man, woman, and child, fled into Egypt, there was not a Jew left in the country. Neither find we any colonists sent thither, or any displaced to make room at their return. A wonderful providence, that so pleasant a country, left destitute of inhabitants, and compassed about with such warlike nations, was not invaded not replanted for seventy years' time; but the land kept her sabbaths, resting from tillage, &c., and God kept the room empty, till the return of the naturals. Jeremiah, immediately after he had foretold the captivity, and the Chaldeans were now besieging the city, was bidden to buy a field of his uncle's son; which also he did, weighing him the money, and sealing the evidences: for although it might seem an ill time to make a purchase, yet he took no further care than to trust God, who had said, Houses, and fields, and vineyards shall be possessed again in this land. Now God's promises, he knew, were the best freehold, Jeremiah 32:15. So in every seventh year's rest, the people were taught to depend on God's providence by faith. For though the owner of the field might gather, even on that year, for the maintenance of himself and family, Leviticus 25:6, yet he was neither to sow his field, thereby to greaten his harvest, nor to hedge his field, or lock up his vineyard.
For the morrow shall take thought for the things of itself] That is, the providence that brings the day shall also bring new events to comfort us over all the evils of the day. First, no man is sure of life till tomorrow, -thou knowest not what this great bellied day may bring forth. b Petrarch tells of a good old man, that being invited to a feast the next day, answered, "If you would have anything with me now, here I am: what is to be done tomorrow, think on it, you that have time before you, Ego enim, a multis annis, crastinum non habui: For I have not had, for these many years, a morrow to dispose of." Young men, he knew, may die, old men must die. Senibus mors in ianuis, adolescentibus in insidiis, saith Bernard. Old men may say, as Job, Job 17:1 "My breath is corrupt, my days extinct, the graves are ready for me." The young man, as Job, Job 16:22 "When a few years (perhaps a few hours) are come, I shall go the way whence I shall not return." Secondly, grant a man had a lease of his life, as Hezekiah had, yet who seeth it not to be extreme folly to anticipate future cares and combats before they come, yea, even those of the next day; seeing they will come time enough to our sorrow, though we send not for them by our distrustful fore thoughts, and so re-double our vexation? It is possible that we may never feel the evils we fear. God may repent upon our repentance, and be better to us than our fears. And therefore what a weakness is it, to undergo certain trouble and care about uncertainties? Or if they shall happen, we may have wit to foresee them, but no power to prevent them: and therefore to vex ourselves before they come is to be miserable before the time. It is excellent counsel, doubtless, that Solomon giveth us in this case: "Consider the works of God, for who can make that straight that he hath made crooked? In the day of prosperity be joyful," make the best of thy present comfort, "but in the day of adversity consider; God also hath set one against the other, to the end that man should find nothing after him," to wit, of those things that may come upon him in the course of his life, and later times, Ecclesiastes 7:14. He cannot by wit foresee, or by policy prevent, ensuing changes. Therefore it is a greater part of his wisdom to let certain and inevitable evils sleep, and keep in their stings till the time appointed; and not to make himself a thousand times miserable by one individual misery. Let us manage the affairs and master the miseries of the present day; and not, by too much fore thoughtfulness and painful preconceit, suffer feigned or future evils before they seize upon us. I grant that a moderate (Christian) provident care and forecast is both convenient and commanded, both for provision of necessaries and prevention of dangers. See 1 Timothy 5:8; 2 Corinthians 12:14; We read, Revelation 6:6; "A measure of wheat for a penny," &c. The word signifieth properly, such a measure of grain (χοινιξ) as was usually allowed for a day to servants. Hence that speech of Pythagoras, Super choenice non sedendum, Rest not in the provision that sufficeth for the day; but take care for the morrow. But this lawful care of necessaries both for ourselves and ours after us, Proverbs 13:22; (such as was that of Jacob for his own house, Genesis 30:30, and that of the good housewife, Proverbs 26:15; Pro 26:21), is not distressful, but delightful, because enjoined by God, who sendeth us to the ant, to learn this care of hereafter, Proverbs 6:6 .
Sufficient to the day is the evil thereof] c The strongest mind and best composed is weak enough to sustain the brunt and encounter of every day's crosses, whereof he is sure to have his back burden. Troubles without and terrors within are the saints' portion here. And what day shines so fair over them, wherein they meet not with a sharp shower ere night? Since therefore every day brings forth sufficient sorrow, and the heartiest man shall have his hands full, what a base and unworthy weakness is it (saith a reverend divine) to unfit and disable our already too weak minds, for a comfortable despatch, and digesting of dally uncomfortable occurrences, by such needless, fruitless, senseless distractions, vagaries of vanity, and utopian peregrinations? &c.
a Pemble on Zechariah 7:14 .
b Nescis quid serus vesper vehat.
c κακια, id est κακωσις, labor improbus.