Commentary on the Gospels and Acts, Commentary 1 · Chapter 6 · Verse 23
Verse 23. But if thine eye be evil, &c. If the light that is in thee be darknesse, &c.]
An evil eye is here opposed to a single eye, that looks on God singly abstracted from all other things, and affects the heart with pure love to him for himself, more then for his love-tokens. These we may lawfully have, but they may not have us. If any man love the world, the love of the Father is not in 1 Ioh. 2. 16.…. For all that is in the world, the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life, that is, pleasure, profit and preferment; these three, like those three troops of the Caldeans (Job 1. 17.) fall upon the faculties of the soul, and carry them away from … the right owner. The minde is filled with greater darknesse then… à non … dicitur: & Mydas ecundum Etymologiam Graecam … est. can be expressed. How great is that darknesse? The Prince that … understanding is a great oppressour: but he that hateth covetousnesse, that hath not his eyes bleared and blinded with the dust of earthly-mindednesse, shall prolong his daies, Prov. 28. 16. So, Isa 56. 10, 11. His watchmen are blinde: And why? They are greedy dogs, which can never have enough, and they are shepherds which cannot understand: they all look to their own way, every one for his gain, from his quarter, Isa. 56. 10, 11. Of this sort were those covetous Pharisees, that devoúred widows houses: therefore blinde, because covetous, Luke 16. 14. the property of which sin is to besot and infatuate, as it did Judas, who, though he wanted for nothing in our Saviours …, but was sufficiently provided for, yet for filthy lucre, basely sold his Master, and … for thirty silverlings (the known and pitcht price of the … slave) and had the face after all, to ask, Master is it I? when he knew Christ to be the true God, and to know all things. … Comets (though but Comets) as long as they keep …, shine bright, but when they decline from their pitch, they fall to the earth. So, when men forsake the Lord, and minde earthly things, they lose that light they had, and are dissipated, destroy'd and come to nothing. Good therefore is the counsel of …, … 23 4. 5. … facies … tuos in …?Labour not to be rich: Wilt thou set thine eyes upon that which is not? Or as Mercerus otherwise reads that text, Wilt thou darken … eyes upon them? As those that walk long in the snow, or that … in a smoaky corner, can see little at length. Whoredome and … Iob 11. 17.take away the heart, saith Hosea, cap. 4. 11. as they did …; Amos 4. 13.they drew out his spirits, and dissolved his reason: so doth covetousnesse. It makes a man that he cannot see the net that is … before him, which every bird can do, Prov. 1. 17. but whiles … Aves quae vident rete … capiuntur, sed videntes periculum cavent. ….coveteth the bait, loseth his life, as Shimei did by looking his servants: as Lot, who had like to have run the same hazard, by … the plain of Jordan: as Jonas, that suffered himself to be cast into the sea, that the ship with her lading might come safe to shore. How many carnall mindes, like … raven, fly out of the Ark of Gods Church, and imbrace this present world: and like the Mariners, when they found out Jonas, yet fain they would have saved him: So many will rather venture their own casting away, then cast their worldly lusts over-board. How much better Joseph, who let go his garment to save himself, as Elias did his mantle to go to heaven; and Bartimeus his cloak to come to Christ? How much better Moses, who by faith seeing him that is invisible, and having an eye to the reward; when he was come to years (as the text noteth) and therefore well knew…. 21. 24, 25, …, what he did, for he was no baby, refused to be called the son of Pharaohs daughter, and the worlds darling; and chusing rather the afflictions of Gods poor people, then the pleasures of sin for a season, he esteemed the reproach of Christ (the worst part of him) greater riches then the treasures of Egypt. And why all this? For … had respect to the recompence of reward. He set his foot, as it were, upon the battlements of heaven, and there-hence looked uponPost quam in … assendertmus parva nobis & …, & … etiam videntur: sit parva videbantur otium gloria … cum coeium respicias. these earthly happinesses, as base and …, … and slender, waterish and worthlesse. The great Cities of Campania seem, but small cottages to them that stand on the top of the Alps: the Moon covereth her self with a pale vail, and shines not at all in the presence of the Sun: No more doth the beauty and bravery of the world (wherewith carnall mindes are so bedazelled and …) to a man that hath been in paradise with Paul, that hath already laid hold on eternall life. The moles of the earth, that are blinde and cannot see farre off, that have animam triticiam, a wheaten soul, with that fool in the Gospel, and know no other…. Hom. happinesse, … to have and to hold; these have their eyes blinded15. ad pop. …. by the god of this world, as Isaac had his wels stopped up with2 Pet. …. 9. foreign, Muris … habentes, subterranei scilicet muris, hoc est, …. earth by the Philistines. And as a small dish being held near the eyes, hideth from our sight a great mountain: and a little hill or cloud, the great body of the Sun, though it be farre bigger then the whole earth: So these earthly trifles being placed near mens …, do so shadow and over-cloud those great and glorious excellencies that are above, that they can neither truly behold them,Gen 26. 15. nor rightly judge of them. When men travell so farre into theThe Poets … Plutus the god of … to be …. South, that the sight of the North-pole is at length intercepted by the earth, it is a signe they are farre from it: so is it, that men are farre from heaven, when the love of the earth comes in betwixtDivites facul. tatibus … alligati magis … suspiciunt, quam coelum Minut Octan. their souls, and the sight thereof. Earth-damps quench the spirits lamp. Much water of affliction cannot quench that love, that yet a little earth may soon do.