But I say unto you, That whosoever looketh on a woman to lust after her hath committed adultery with her already in his heart.
Ver. 28. But I say unto you, that whosoever looketh on a woman to lust after her] Lusting is often the fruit of looking; as in Joseph's mistress, who set her eyes upon Joseph; a and David, who saw Bathsheba bathing. Lust is quicksighted. How much better Job, who would not look, lest he should think upon a maid! and Nazianzen, who had learned (and he glories in it) to keep in his eyes front roving to wanton prospects! τους οφθαλμους σωφρονισαι. And the like is reported of that heavenly spark, the young Lord Harrington; whereas those that have eyes full of adultery cannot cease to sin, saith St Peter. 2 Peter 2:14 , μοιχαλιδος , full of the whore, as if she sat in the adulterer's eye. And facti crimina lumen habet, saith another. Samson's eyes were the first offenders that betrayed him to lust, therefore are they first pulled out, and he led a blind captive to Gaza where before he had lustfully gazed on his Delilah. It is true, the blindness of his body opened the eyes of his mind. But how many thousands are there that die of the wound in the eye! Physicians reckon 200 diseases that belong to it; but none like this. For, by these loop-holes of lust and windows of wickedness, the devil windeth himself into the soul. Death entereth in by these windows, as the fathers apply that text in Jeremiah. The eye is the light of the body, saith our Saviour, and yet by our abuse, this most lightsome part of the body draweth many times the whole soul into utter darkness. Nothing, I dare say, so much enricheth hell as beautiful faces; while a man's eye-beams, beating upon that beauty, reflect with anew heat upon himself. Ut vidi, ut perii! (Propert.) Looking and lusting differ (in Greek) but in one letter (εκ του οραν γινεται το εραν). When one seemed to pity a one-eyed man, he told him he had lost one of his enemies, a very thief, that would have stolen away his heart. Democritus (but in that no wise man) pulled out his eyes; and the Pharisee (little wiser) would shut his eyes when he walked abroad, to avoid the sight of women; insomuch that he often dashed his head against the walls, that the blood gushed out, and was therefore called Pharisoeus impingens, b How much better, and with greater commendation had these men taken our Saviour's counsel in the following verses!
a Coniecit in eum oculos, Gen. xxxix. Non dicit Moses, vidit, aspexit: sed hic fuit aspectus impudicus. Pareus.
b Democritus oculos sibi eruit, quod mulieres sine concupiscentia adspicere non possit. Sed nihil aliud fecit quam quod fatuitatem suam urbi manifestam fecit. Tertullian in Apologet. Voluptatem vicisse voluptas est maxima, nec ulla maior est victoria, quam ea quae a cupiditatibus refertur. Cypr. de Bon. Pud.