3. Above all senses the eye must be guarded.
[1.] Because it is the noblest sense, given us for high uses. There is not only a natural use to inform us of things profitable and hurtful for the outward man, but a spiritual use to set before us those objects that may stir us and raise our minds to heavenly thoughts and meditations. For by beholding the perfection of the creatures we may admire the more eminent perfection of him that made them : Ps. xix. 1, ' The heavens declare the glory of God, and the firmament showeth his handi- work ; ' and Ps. viii. 3, ' When I considered thy heavens, the work of thy fingers, the moon and the stars which thou hast ordained.' David, when he walked abroad in a moon-shining night, admired the glory of the moon and stars ; the moon and stars are mentioned because it was a night meditation ; his heart was set awork by his eyes : Eom. i. 20, 21, ' For the invisible things of him from the creation of the world are clearly seen, being understood by the things that are made, even bis eternal power and godhead,' &c. The perfections of the creatures are to draw us to God, and their imperfections and defects to drive us from themselves. The eye, as it is used, will either be a help or a snare ; either it will let in the sparks of temptation, or enkindle the fire of true devotion. These are the windows which God hath placed in the top of the building, that man from thence may contemplate God's works, and take a prospect of heaven, the place of our eternal residence. Os homini sublime dedit — God made man with an erect countenance, not grovelling on the earth, but looking up to heaven, and viewing the glorious mansions above.
[2.] Because they have a great influence upon the heart either as to good or evil, but chiefly to evil. In this corrupt state of man, e/c rov opelv <^/LveTaL to opav ^ — by looking we come to liking, and are brought inordinately to affect what we do behold : Num. xv. 39, ' That ye seek not after your own heart and your own eyes, after which ye use to go a whoring ; ' Job xxxi. 7, ' If my step hath turned out of the way, and my heart walked after mine eyes.' These are the spies of the heart — brokers to bring it and the temptation together ; the eye seeth, and
^ Qu. " €K Tov bpav yiverai to ipSv" .- — Ed.
YeR. 37.] SERMONS UPON PSALM CXIX. 391
then by gazing the heart lusteth, and the body acteth the transgression. It is more dangerous to see evil than to hear it ; the impression is greater ; the rehition of anything doth not affect us so much as the .sight of it. Those that hear of the fury of wars, firing of houses, ravishing of virgins, killing and wounding of men, and the like, can- not have so deep a sense of those things as they that see it. The sight of heaven works more than the report of it ; as Paul, when he had ii sight of these things, was in an ecstasy : the look doth immediately work on the heart. Well, then, it is dangerous to fix the eye on enticing objects, for it exciteth more than hearsay.
[3] The eye must be looked to, because it hath been the window by which Satan hath crept in, and all manner of poison conveyed to the soul. I shall prove it — (1.) Doctrinally ; (2.) Historical!}'.
(1.) I shall give you doctrinal assertions. The eye hath been the inlet of all sin ; as uncleanness : 2 Peter ii. 14, ' Having eyes full of adultery, and that cannot cease from sin, beguiling unstable souls,' &c. In the original, it is ' eyes full of the adulteress ; ' and the eye enkindles impure flames in the heart : Prov. vi. 25, ' Lust not after her beauty in thy heart, neither let her take thee with her eyelids.' Gazing on the beauty of women enkindleth foul flames within the breast, and we feel strange transports of soul when we give way to it. The evil heart is in its element when it is thus. Then covetousness gets into the heart by the eye : 1 John ii. 15, ' Love not the world, neither the things that are in the world : if any man love the world, the love of the Father is not in him.' And therefore the apostle, when he maketh a division of sin, he saith, ' For all that is in the world, the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life, is not of the Father, but is of the world ; ' because the mind is so secretly enchanted with the love -of those things it beholds, and are represented to it by the external senses. And Eccles. iv. 8, ' There is no end of all his labour, neither is his eye satisfied with riches ;' that insatiable thirst is enkindled in the soul by beholding the splendour of outward things ; it is born and bred and fed by it, and the heart is secretly enchanted v/ith a love to it, and therefore we must have more of it. Again drunkenness : Prov. xxiii. 31, ' Look not thou upon the wine when it is red, when it giveth its colour in the cup, when it moveth itself aright ;' that is so as to entice the heart to crave more and more till it cometh to excess. So envy : Mat. xx. 15, ' Is thine eye evil because mine is good ? ' The more they see and behold the flourishing of others, the more is their evil disposition nourished.