6. But if thine eye be evil, thy whole body shall be full of darkness. If thine eye be evil: We see there is no medium between a single and an evil eye. If the eye be not single, then it is evil. If the intention, in whatever we do, be not singly to God, if we seek any thing else, then our mind and conscience are defiled.
Our eye therefore is evil, if in any thing we do, we aim at any other end than God; if we have any view, but to know and to love God, to please and serve him in all things: if we have any other design than to enjoy God, to be happy in him both now and for ever.
7. If thine eye be not singly fixt on God, thy whole body shall be full of darkness. The veil shall still remain on thy heart. Thy mind shall be more and more blinded, by the God of this world, lest the light of the glorious gospel of Christ should shine upon thee. Thou wilt be full of ignorance and error touching the things of God, not being able to receive or discern them. And even when thou hast some desire to serve God, thou wilt be full of uncertainty as to the manner of serving him; finding doubts and difficulties on every side, and not seeing any way to escape.
Yea, if thine eye be not single, if thou seek any of the things of earth, thou shalt be full of ungodliness and unrighteousness: thy desires,tempers, affections, being all out of course, being all dark, and vile, and vain. And thy conversation will be evil, as well as thy heart, not seasoned with salt, or meet to minister grace unto the hearers, but idle, unprofitable, corrupt, grievous to the Holy Spirit of God.
8. *Both destruction and unhappiness are in thy ways; for the way of peace hast thou not known. There is no peace, no settled, solid peace, for them that know not God. There is no true, nor lasting content for any, who do not seek him with their whole heart. While thou aimest at any of the things that perish, all that cometh is vanity. Yea, not only vanity, but vexation of spirit, and that both in the pursuit and the enjoyment also. Thou walkest indeed in a vain shadow, and disquietest thyself in vain. Thou walkest in darkness that may be felt. Sleep on; but thou canst not take thy rest. The dreams of life can give pain, and that thou knowest: but ease they cannot give. There is no rest, in this world or the world to come, but only in God the center of spirits.
If the light which is in thee be darkness, how great is that darkness! If the intention which ought to enlighten the whole soul, to fill it with knowledge, and love, and peace, and which, in fact, does so as long as it is single, as long as it aims at God alone: if this be darkness; if it aim at any thing beside God, and consequently cover the soul with darkness instead of light, with ignoranceand error, with sin and misery: O how great is that darkness! It is the very smoke which ascends out of the bottomless pit! It is the essential night, which reigns in the lowest deep, in the land of the shadow of death.
9. Therefore lay not up for yourselves treasures upon earth, where moth and rust doth corrupt, and where thieves break through and steal. If you do, it is plain your eye is evil: it is not singly fixed on God.
*With regard to most of the commandments of God, whether relating to the heart or life, the Heathens of Afric or America stand much on a level, with those that are called Christians. The Christians observe them (a few only being excepted) very near as much as the Heathens. For instance: the generality of the natives of England, commonly called Christians, are as sober and as temperate, as the generality of the Heathens, near the Cape of Good Hope. And so the Dutch or French Christians, are as humble and as chaste, as the Choctaw or Cherokee-Indians. It is not easy to say, when we compare the bulk of the nations in Europe with those in America, whether the superiority lies on the one side or the other. At least, the American has not much the advantage. But we cannot affirm this, with regard to the command now before us. Here the Heathen has far the pre-eminence. He desires and seeks nothing more than plain food to eat, and plain raiment to put on.And he seeks this only from day to day. He reserves, he lays up nothing; unless it be, as much corn at one season of the year, as he will need before that season returns. This command, therefore, the Heathens, though they know it not, do constantly and punctually observe. They lay up for themselves no treasures upon earth: no stores of purple or fine linen, of gold or silver, which either moth or rust may corrupt, or thieves break through and steal. But how do the Christians observe, what they profess to receive as a command of the most high God? Not at all; not in any degree; no more than if no such command had ever been given to man. Even the good Christians, as they are accounted by others as well as themselves, pay no manner of regard thereto. It might as well be still hid in its original Greek, for any notice they take of it. In what Christian city do you find one man of five hundred, who makes the least scruple, of laying up just as much treasure as he can? Of increasing his goods just as far as he is able? There are indeed those who would not do this unjustly: there are many who will neither rob nor steal; and some, who will not defraud their neighbour; nay, who will not gain, either by his ignorance or necessity. But this is quite another point. Even these do not scruple the thing, but the manner of it. They do not scruple the laying up treasures upon earth; but the laying them up by dishonesty.They do not start at disobeying Christ, but at a breach of Heathen morality. So that even these honest men do no more obey this command, than a highwayman or a house-breaker. Nay, they never designed to obey it. From their youth up, it never entered into their thoughts. They were bred up by their Christian parents, masters and friends, without any instruction at all concerning it: unless it were this, to break it as soon, and as much as they could, and to continue breaking it to their live’s end.
10. *There is no one instance of spiritual infatuation in the world, which is more amazing than this. Most of these very men read, or hear the bible read, many of them every Lord’s day. They have read or heard these words an hundred times, and yet never suspect that they are themselves condemned thereby, any more than by those which forbid parents to offer up their sons or daughters unto Moloch.
O that God would speak to these miserable self-deceivers, with his own voice, his mighty voice! That they may at last awake out of the snare of the devil, and the scales may fall from their eyes!