SERMON XXV.

THE SINFULNESS AND MISCHIEF OF WORLDLY

ANXIETY.

PHIL. iv. 6.

"Be careful for nothing; but in every thing by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known unto God."

ALTHOUGH the commandments of God now seem grievous to us, and very difficult to be observed, yet certainly they were designed at first for our ease and pleasure; they being all so exactly adapted to our nature, so agreeable to the temper we were made of, that every act of obedience to them refresheth and delights our minds, as David long ago observed, calling the "commandments his delights," and saying, that "in keeping of them there is great reward"." The same might be demonstrated by a particular induction of them, whereby it would be easy to shew that nothing is forbidden us but what is some way or other hurtful and prejudicial to us, nothing required of us but what is really for our good, and conduceth to our present comfort, as well as to our future happiness. I shall instance at present only in that which is enjoined in my text.

We cannot but be all sensible how great a misery it 2 Ib. xix. 11.

1 Ps. cxix. 143.

is to live in continual fears and cares about the things of this life, and how happily they live who are free from them, so as never to be disturbed or disquieted in their minds about any thing here below; especially if this proceeds from such principles, and is grounded upon such a foundation as is firm and lasting: and yet we not only may, but ought always to live thus; for this is that which is here enjoined us by the apostle, saying, "Be careful for nothing," &c.

The apostle here, in the close of his epistle to them, is directing the Philippians how both to carry and support themselves under the various occurrences of this present life. They were likely to meet with many crosses and troubles in the way to heaven; but, howsoever, he would not have them dejected, but always pleasant and cheerful under them: "Rejoice," saith he, "in the Lord always ;" and, to press it the more home upon them, he repeats it again, saying, “Again I say rejoice "." And although they should receive many affronts and injuries from others, yet he would have them always of an even and sedate temper; not hot and furious, but candid and ingenuous, meek and patient, peaceable and good to all. "Let your moderation," saith he, "be known unto all men; the Lord is at hand," both to assist you at present, and, ere long, to rescue and deliver you. And because they were to expect to be sometimes brought into great straits and difficulties, not knowing well what to do; in such cases he adviseth them not to be too anxious or solicitous, but to do their duty, and to leave the issue to God: "Be careful," saith he, "for nothing; but in every thing give thanks," &c. This is, in general, the sense of the words. But lest we should mistake them, and that we may more clearly and fully understand the mind of the Holy Ghost in them, I shall, by his assistance, shew in what sense we are not, and in what sense we are, to understand this precept, "Be careful for nothing;" and then explain the following words,

3 Phil. iv. 4.

wherein the apostle directs what to do in all such cases as are apt to put us upon too much thoughtfulness and care, saying, "But by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known unto God."

First, therefore, we may observe, that the apostle is here speaking not of spiritual but temporal things, and therefore where he saith, "Be careful for nothing," he is to be understood only of the things of this life, not of those things which concern the life to come; for they ought to be our chief and greatest care of all. And in this very place, where the apostle commands the Philippians to be "careful for nothing," he commends them for being careful of him, that is, of performing the duty which they owed him as the minister of Christ. "I rejoiced," saith he, "in the Lord greatly, that now at the last your care of me hath flourished again; wherein ye were also careful, but ye lacked opportunity." From whence it appears, that the apostle himself distinguisheth between the care of doing our duty to God, and the care of this world; and commends the one, as much as he condemns the other. The same apostle elsewhere makes the same distinction more plain, saying, "But I would have you without carefulness. He that is unmarried careth for the things that belong to the Lord, how he may please the Lord: but he that is married careth for the things that are of the world, how he may please his wife ":" where he first lays down the general rule, that he would have them ἀμερίμνους, άuepiuvovs, "without carefulness," the same that is in my text, undev μερuvâтε, "Be careful for nothing." μεριμνᾶτε, But then he explains himself, by distinguishing between "the things that belong unto the Lord," and the "things of the world." About the latter he would have them without carefulness; but not about the former, not about the things that belong unto the Lord, how they may please the Lord. The rule is not to be understood of such things; for, as he himself

Phil. iv. 10.

51 Cor. vii. 32, 33.

there intimates, we ought to take care of them, and not of the other. For that very reason we may take care of them, they being indeed the great and only things that we ought to be careful of: for, put all together, they are the "one thing needful," which our Saviour speaks of in Luke x. 42, and therefore commands us to seek them before all things else: “Seek ye first," saith he, "the kingdom of God and his righteousness "" To the same purpose is that of St. Peter, where he requires us to "give all diligence," to use the utmost of our care, to "add to our faith virtue; and to virtue knowledge; and to knowledge temperance; and to temperance patience; and to patience godliness; and to godliness brotherly kindness; and to brotherly kindness charity: and so to make our calling and election sure "."

And it is very observable, that the same apostle, who here commands us to "be careful for nothing," elsewhere requires all Christians to "be careful to maintain good works "," and that he himself was so: for, having reckoned up the many troubles he had met with in the world, he adds, "Besides those things that are without, that which cometh upon me daily, the care of all the churches "." If St. Peter had said this, what a stir would the Church of Rome have made about it! How would they have triumphed in it, as a most infallible proof that he was Christ's vicar upon earth, the universal bishop of the whole world, who had the care of all the churches! But it is well that it was not St. Peter, but St. Paul that said it; and he said it only to shew how careful he was in the discharge of his apostolical office towards the whole Church of Christ; and so hath left us an undeniable argument, that he was at least as much an universal bishop as St. Peter was: and also that we, after his example, ought to be careful to perform our whole duty in our respective places; and, by consequence, that when he

• Matt. vi. 33.

Tit. iii. 8.

7 2 Pet. i. 5-7. 10.

9 2 Cor. xi. 28.

commands us to "be careful for nothing," he doth not mean that we should not be careful to avoid whatsoever is offensive to God, and to do what is pleasing in his sight, to "deny ungodliness and worldly lusts, and to live soberly, righteously, and godly, in this present world:" but rather that we be so careful of such things, as to be careful of nothing else.

But here we may observe, that even in such things we may be too careful, that is, as the original word signifies, too "anxious," too much distracted and divided in our thoughts about them; as many are, who do what they can to live according to the rules of the Gospel, and yet suspect their spiritual estate; and, never thinking they can do enough, run into the contrary extreme, —of doing many things which are not required at their hands. Such are they who whip, and scourge, and macerate, their bodies, and so make themselves unserviceable to God and the world. And such are they, also, who, out of a groundless care and fear of offending God, scruple the doing of such things as he hath no where forbidden, and therefore will not be offended at their doing of them. This is the case not only of those who dissent from us, but of many good people among ourselves, who, being of a fearful and melancholy temper, indulge a strange kind of nicety and scrupulosity of conscience about things in themselves indifferent. And this seems to be that which the wise man forbids, where he saith, "Be not righteous over much; neither make thyself over wise: why shouldest thou destroy thyself?" As if he had said, Be not superstitious, or over scrupulous, about such things in religion as thou mayest, or mayest not, do without sin; nor make thyself over wise, as if thou sawest virtue, or vice, where nobody else can see it: "Why shouldest thou destroy thyself?" or rather, as the word signifies, Why shouldest thou stupify, astonish, or confound thyself? For so they all do, who trouble their heads about such little things; they do but confound and perplex their

10 Eccles. vii. 16.