Discourses on Several Subjects and Occasions (Volume 3)

This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated.1794 Excerpt: ... DISCOURSE I. THE DUTY OF TAKING NO THOUGHT FOR THE MORROW. MATTHEW VI. 34. Take therefore no thought for the morrow; for the morrow stall take thought for the things of itself sufficient unto the day is the evil thereof. w HAT? Take no thought, no Disc. thought at all for the morrow?' Attend only to the day that is passing over us, and make no provision for the future? Are we not to look forward; to suppose a continuation of life, and a want of the means which are necessary to support it? Should we sit still, with our arms folded, and expect that Providence will supply us with those means, without using our own Vol. in. B endea Disc, endeavours? Is not the husbandman, when.' he has reaped one harvest, to sow his feed for another? Most undoubtedly he is The Scriptures suppose all men to have some occupation, and to be labouring in it, that the state of the world may be upholden. They tell us, in the Old Testament, that the hand of the diligent maketh rich; and in the New, that if any man will not work, neither should he eat. In the former, man is sent to learh wisdom of the ant, which provideth her meat in the summer, and gathereth her food in the 'f harvest, with a view to the approaching winter; in the latter we read, that ' the parents should lay up for the children. In a word, po one thing is more severely condemned and exposed, than the folly of the sluggard, who has the presumption to tempt God, by imagining, that all the blessings of heaven will descend on the head of idleness, and that meat will drop into Ms mouth, if he does but condescend to open it.--How are these very different directions to be reconciled? The The truth is, that the Greek word, here Disc. rendered take no thought, signifies properly,' be not anxious, solicitous, mise...