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earth, and to the whole world, “Love not the world, neither the things that are in the world.
Whosoever loveth the world, the love of the Father is not in him. For all that is in the world,
is the lust of the flesh, and the lust of the eyes, and the ambition of life.”3489 He begins at
the last with which the Gospel ends. He begins at that, at which the Gospel made an end.
“The lust of the flesh, I have married a wife. The lust of the eyes, I have bought five pairs of
oxen. The ambition of life, I have bought a farm.”
7. Now these senses are denoted by the mention of the eyes only, the whole by a part,
because the pre-eminence in the five senses belongs to the eyes. Wherefore though sight
belongs peculiarly to the eyes, we are accustomed to use the word “seeing” through all the
five senses. How? In the first place, in relation to the eyes themselves we say; “See how white
it is, look and see how white it is:” this has relation to the eyes. Hear and see how musical
it is! Could we say conversely, “Hear and see how white it is”? This expression, “see,” runs
through all the senses; whereas the distinguishing expression3490 of the other senses does
not in its turn run through it. “Mark and see how musical; smell and see how agreeable it
is; taste and see how sweet it is; touch and see how soft it is.” And yet surely since they are
senses, we should rather say thus; “Hear and be sensible how musical it is; smell and be
sensible how agreeable it is; taste and be sensible how sweet it is; touch and be sensible how
hot it is; handle and be sensible how smooth it is; handle and be sensible how soft it is.” But
we say none of these. For thus the Lord Himself after His resurrection when He appeared
to His disciples, and when though they saw Him they still wavered in faith supposing that
they saw a spirit, said, “Why do ye doubt, and why do thoughts arise in your hearts? See My
Hands and My Feet.” It is not enough to say, “See;” He saith, “Touch, and handle, and
see.”3491 “Look and see, handle and see; with the eyes alone see, and see by all the senses.”
Because He was looking for the inner sense of faith, He offered Himself to the outward
senses of the body. We have made no attainment3492 in the Lord by these outward senses,
we have heard with our ears, have believed with our heart; and this hearing not from His
mouth, but from the mouth of His preachers, from their mouths who were already at the
supper, and who by the pouring forth of what they there drunk in invited us.
8. Let us away then with vain and evil excuses, and come we to the supper by which we
may be made fat within. Let not the puffing up of pride keep us back, let it not lift us up,
nor unlawful curiosity scare us, and turn us away from God; let not the pleasure of the flesh
hinder us from the pleasure of the heart. Let us come, and be filled. And who came but the
beggars, the “maimed,” the “halt,” the “blind”? But there came not thither the rich, and the
3489 1 John ii. 15, 16, Vulgate.
3490 Proprietas.
3491 Luke xxiv. 38, 39.
3492 Carpsimus.
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On the words of the Gospel, Luke xiv. 16, ‘A certain man made a great supper,’…