Matthew 6:30

If God so clothe—oven, &c.— The original word αμφιεννυσιν, which we render clothe, Dr. Doddridge well observes, expresses properly the putting on a complete dress, which surrounds the body on all sides, and is used with peculiar beautyfor that elegant yet strong external membrane, which, like the skin in the human body, at once adorns the tender structure of the vegetable, and likewise guards it from the injuries of the weather. Every microscope with which a flower is viewed, affords a lively comment on this text. Dr. Doddridge and others render the original word κλιβανον by still, instead of oven; but the author of the Observations strongly opposes this interpretation, and informs us, that myrtle, rosemary, and other plants, with withered stalks of herbs and flowers, are made use of in Barbary and other parts of the East, to heat their ovens as well as bagnios; which, says he, gives us a clear comment on the present passage. The grass of the field here apparently is to be understood to include the lilies of which our Lord had been speaking, consequently herbs in general. Critics have remarked this large sense of the Greek word χορτος : nor can it with any shew of reason be pretended that our Lord is speaking of the morrow in the rigid sense of the word, but of a little time after. "Behold, then, says our Lord, these lilies and fine flowers of the field! yet beautiful and magnificent as they appear one day, they are in a manner the next thrown into the oven; their dried stalks are, with the dried stalks of other plants, employed in heating the ovens of the villages around us; and will not God much more clothe you, who are my disciples?" His sentiment here plainly is, that if God covers with so much glory things of no farther value than to serve the meanest uses, will he not then take care of his servants, who are so precious in his eyes, and designed for such important services in the world? Consequently he cannot be supposed as speaking of precious flowers, distilled either for medicinal purposes, or to make rich perfumes, but of those of which men make no higher use than they do of cow-dung and stubble. See Observations, p. 142 and the note on 1 Samuel 2:8 and Lamentations 4:5. Our Saviour adds, O ye of little faith! which is the first place where faith occurs in the New Testament. This was a term in the Jewish as well as the Christian Theology. The root is aman, nutrivit, he nourished; from which comes Amen, veritas, truth; and Emunah, fides, faith; as it were "the reception of truth, for the nurture of the soul." So we say in English, nurture for good instruction. Nor is this a fanciful application, but most consonant to the whole tenor of Scripture style in both Testaments, where the experimental and practical truths of religion are continually expressed by the various species of nourishment, as wellmeat as drink, in all the different forms they are used for bodily sustenance. Maimonides, in his explanation of the word achal, comedit, to eat up, shews, "that it is most frequently applied to express the reception of wisdom and doctrine, and universally all information of the mind, whereby it [the mind] is maintained for growth to the perfection of its nature, as the body is maintained by the food proper for its nourishment. Thus Isaiah, Leviticus 1. &c., inviting men to attend to his doctrine, says, Come ye, buy and eat," &c. And after quoting two passages from the Proverbs, where the same word is used, he says, "Wherever eating and drinking are spoken of in that book, wisdom or the law of God is always to be understood as the mental food." And hence it may be inferred that the Hebrew term for faith (according to the derivation before mentioned) may denote the proper disposition given to man by the grace of God for receiving and digesting the great truths of religion. Buxtorff in his Talmud, that is to say, Lexicon, explains emunah, faith, by religion; and indeed faith frequently includes piety, or godliness. Thus the Jews understood the word in our Saviour's time; and in this sense doubtless he used it, when he reproached them with neglecting faith, which he names a weightier matter of their own law, ch. Matthew 23:23 and the phrase that he used, O ye of little faith! was then common among the Jews, as is evident from many passages of the Talmud. To conclude; the term mammon, that is, riches, has, as we have observed on Matthew 6:24 the same derivation with the original word for faith, or amen, and for the same reason, namely, because men are so apt to confide in riches, as a true and stable fund on which to build their happiness. When the Divine Being holds that place in our minds which worldly wealth has in the minds of covetous men, then indeed we have faith in him. See Dr. Heylin, p. 132 who,insomefollowingdissertations,finelyandfullyillustrates this definition. But we shall also give other definitions and views of faith in the course of our Commentary.