Chap. 3 t. An txpofition upon the Took of J o a.. Verf. t. 295 What ftronger engagement can a man put upon himfelfe, or bind himfelfe with then a Covenant ? That's alwayes an imp.li- cite virtual( oath , and it bath an explicite formal oath oftenan- nexed to it ; David faith, ('P¡al. 519. i có. ) I have fworne and I will performs it, that I will keepe thy righteous judgements i Thus a Godly man fortifies himfife (through grace) with faced oath's and covenants againft all the aflaults and incur lions of Sa- Vetlem (r tans hellifh temptations, andhis ovine curled corruptions. A by. ser,non Jane ns- pocrite would fin if he migïit, but he that is fincere lets himfelfe lens pecca:um, with all his might againft lin. He hash no true will again fifin as Pia volcEal t. it is unlawfull , who could or lothw{fb that it were lawful? to fn. cereiiecra.u:r> And he who bath a reali purpofe to keepe his cove.nent with God not todoe evil(, makes a firme covenant with himfelfenc t todoe it. Fourthly, obferve; The eye is an Inlet tofin, efjsecially to thefinofuncleantnes. Laic enters at that window ; The eye feeds greedily upon wan- Nor,t eÁ iíod ton ob;e&s, and there the fire ufeally begins to kindle, which vrirt; vaieta) enfitmes firft and at laR confumes the whole man. Any of.the Jo,ona. fences may endanger the foals touncleanenes, but the eye molt. The eye may endanger the foule to any fin almoft, but moil ro uncleaisenes. I grant Covetoufnes is by way of eminence, call,. d the loft of the eyes, by the ApoRle ?ohn (r Ep. z. 16. ) yet, I conceave, the reafon ofit is not only, poffibly, not fomuch be- caufe, feeing the things ofthis world doth provoke the fpirit of man to covet them, or becaufe covetous men deire to fee the things of this world as becaufe, this is indeedall the benefit (,f it may be called a benefit) which covetous men get by inordi- nate defiringandgathering the things of the world , a fight of them with their eyes ; That ofSolomon fumes to carry a faire ac- commodation with this Notion ( Eccl. S. I I. ) when Goods on- creafe, theyare encreafed that Bate them ; and what good is there to theowners thereof, faving the beholding of them with their eyes. But I (hall not infift upon this,tt is enough to the poynt in hand, that though the Scripture gives inflance ofmany fins raking fire at the eye, yet the moil frequent inflances, are about thefin ex- prefted in this text. The first fin ( which had all fin in it and brought finupon all the world) began here ( gen. 3. 6.) When the
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