Part II. ^';? /y^^ C R E A T I o N. 385 



may provoke and ftir up adulterous Thoughts 

 in the Mind, as they did in David's -, and like- 

 wife impure Thoughts conceived in the Heart, 

 may difcover themfelves by the Motions of the 

 Eye ; and therefore in this refpedt we fliould do 

 well, with holy Job, to make a Covenant with 

 our Eyes, not to gaze upon any Objedl which 

 may tempt us to any inordinate Appetite or De- 

 iire 5 for our Saviour tells us, it were better to 

 pluck out our Right Eye than that it fhould be 

 an Offence to us ; which I fuppofe refers to this 

 Matter , becaufe it immediately follows thofe 

 Words, He that looketb upon a Woman to luji after 

 her, hath already committed Adultery with her in 

 his Heart, 



3. There Is a covetous Eye, By Covetoufnefs 

 I underftand, not only a defiring what is another 

 Man*s, which is forbidden in the Tenth Com- 

 mandment, but alfo an inordinate Delire of Ri- 

 ches, which the Apoftle St. John feems to under- 

 ftand in his firft Epiftle, Chap. ii. 16. by the Lu[i 

 of the Eye, And Covetoufnefs may well be call'd 

 the LuJi of the Eye, becaufe, i. The Temptation 

 or tempting Objedl enters by the Eye ; fo the fee- 

 ing the Wedge of Gold and BabyloniJJo Garment 

 ftirr'd up the covetous Defire in Achan, 2. Be- 

 caufe all the Fruit a Man reaps of Riches, more 

 than will furnifli his Neceffities and Convenien- 

 ces, is the feeding of his Eye, or the Pleafure he 

 takes in the beholding of them, Ecclef, v. 11. 



C c When 



