2 Peter 2:14 Having eyes full of adultery, and that cannot cease from sin; beguiling unstable souls… 1. It is a conquering sin, for it hath overcome the strongest. 2. It is a cheating sin, for, instead of repentance, it works the adulterer to labour a concealment. Instead of clearing their sin, they labour to cloak it. 3. It is a commanding sin; no iniquity that stands in the way must be refused if adultery be once admitted. 4. It is a condemning sin, and carries its own sentence about it. It must needs abandon all love of God, for that and the love of a harlot cannot stand together. As malice is damnable, because it is so diametrically repugnant to God who is love; so God is also purity, and therefore nothing more directly contrary to Him than uncleanness. I. Their EYES be the beagles that hunt after the game. 1. There is no sense which is not at the heart's command; but the principality of those servants is varied according to the disposition of their mistress. If the heart be gracious, the ear hath the superiority; if vicious, the eye. 2. The eye is of all senses the quickest of apprehension — a port to land the commodities of hell before the soul have warning. 3. The eye is the pander of a lustful heart; the window that lets in the infection, the first betrayer of the fort. Pliny writes of a chalky brimstone that draws to itself distant fire: the wanton eye attracts this adulterous fire to the heart. Alexander refused so much as to see Darius's wife, a lady of incomparable beauty, fearing lest he that had conquered the husband should be overcome by the wife. 4. Satan's first project is to take the eye; if that be once his friend, he hopes well of all the rest. Indeed, if the door stand open to the thief, what safety can be in the house? 5. Where be the eyes that have not been faulty? If the eyes have sinned, why should not the eyes be punished? Oh, let those eyes that have been the cisterns of corruption become the fountains of compunction! II. "ADULTERY" is the game, the beast they hunt. 1. The main attractive of the eye is beauty, and of this the fancy is informed by the eye; yet being so informed, then the eye is ruled by the fancy, and as that imagines her, so the eye sees her. Many a woman's beauty hath been her ruin; but blessing never forsook a beautiful soul. 2. But if a man's eye be delighted with beauty, may he not enjoy it with chastity? What a laborious, what a dangerous way the lustful finds out to his pleasure! 3. It is an adulteress they love, and that is but one bow short of Satan. We hate the Turks for selling Christians as slaves. How odious are they that sell themselves! III. "FULL of adultery" — this is the pursuit of the game, full cry. The eyes do not engross all their uncleanness; they are not only full, and the other parts empty. The caterer fills his basket with provision, but this serves afterward to fill the mouth and to fill the stomach. The eyes be first full, as the cistern; but the cistern serves all other offices of the house. Nor is this a fulness of satisfaction, for as "he that loveth silver shall never be satisfied with silver," so he that loves women shall never be satisfied with women. Unnatural desires are infinite: hunger is soon appeased with meat, and thirst allayed with drink; but in burning fevers, the more water is drunk, the more it is thirsted for. "Full." There is no mediocrity in sin: in extremes can be no mean; and every sin is an extreme, either deficient or excessive. (Thos. Adams.) Parallel Verses KJV: Having eyes full of adultery, and that cannot cease from sin; beguiling unstable souls: an heart they have exercised with covetous practices; cursed children: |
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