I made a covenant with my eyes; why then should I think upon a maiden?
All Commentaries on Job 31:1 Go To Job 31
Gregory The Dialogist
AD 604
4. Whereas the soul is invisible, it is in no degree affected by the delightfulness of things corporeal, except that, being closely attached to the body, it has the senses of that body as a kind of opening for going forth. For seeing, hearing, tasting, smelling, and touching, are a kind of ways of the mind, by which it should come forth without, and go a lusting after the things that are without the limits of its substance. For by these senses of the body as by a kind of windows the soul takes a view of the several exterior objects, and on viewing longs after them. For hence Jeremiah saith; For death is come up through our windows, and is entered into our palaces; [Jer. 9, 21] for ‘death comes up by the windows and enters into the palace,’ when concupiscence coming through the senses of the body enters the dwelling-place of the mind. Contrary whereunto that which we have often already said touching the righteous is spoken by Isaiah; Who are they that fly as clouds, and as the doves at their windows? [Is. 60, 8] For the righteous are said to fly as clouds, because they are lifted up from the defilements of earth, and they are ‘as doves at their windows,’ because through the senses of the body they do not regard the several objects without with the bent of rapacity, and carnal concupiscence does not carry those persons off without. But he who through those windows of the body heedlessly looks without, very often falls even against his will into the delightfulness of sin, and being fast bound by desires, he begins to will what he willed not. For the precipitate soul, whilst it does not forecast beforehand, that it should not incautiously see what it might lust after, begins afterwards with blinded eyes to desire the thing that it saw. And hence the mind of the Prophet, which being uplifted was often admitted to interior mysteries, because he beheld the wife of another without heed, being darkened afterwards joined her to him without right. But the holy man, who as a kind of judge of greatest equity is set over the senses granted him in the body, as over subject officers, sees offences before they come, and closes the windows of the body as against a plotting enemy, saying, I made a covenant with mine eyes that I should not even think upon a maid. For that he might preserve the thoughts of the heart with chastity, he ‘made a covenant with his eyes,’ lest he should first see without caution what he might afterwards love against his will. For it is very greatly that the flesh drags downwards, and the image of a shape once bound on the heart by means of the eye is with difficulty unloosed by the hand of great struggling. So then that we may not deal with things lascivious in thought we have need to take precaution because it is not befitting to look at what is not lawful to be lusted after. For that the mind may be preserved pure in thought, the eyes must be forced away from the wantonness of their pleasure, like a kind of ravishing unto sin. For neither would Eve have touched the forbidden free, except she had looked on it first without taking heed; since it is written, And the woman saw that the tree was good for food and that it was pleasant to the eyes, and a tree delightful to look upon, and she took of the fruit thereof and did eat. [Gen. 3, 6] Hence, therefore, it is to be estimated with, what great control we who are living a mortal life ought to restrain our sight towards forbidden objects; if the very mother of the living came to death through means of the eyes. Hence too under the voice of Judaea, who, whereas by seeing she coveted external things, parted with interior blessings, the Prophet says; Mine eye hath robbed mine heart. [Lam. 3, 51] For by lusting after things visible, she lost the invisible virtues. She, then, who lost the interior fruits by the exterior sight, did by the eye of the body endure the ‘robbing of the heart.’ Hence by ourselves, for safely keeping purity of heart, there ought also to be preserved the disciplining of the exterior senses. For with whatever degree of excellency the mind may be enriched, with whatever amount of gravity it may be invigorated, yet the carnal senses ring outwardly with a something childish, and except they were restrained by the weight of interior gravity, and as it were by a sort of manly energy, they drag the soul unstrung to things loose and light.
5. Let us then see in what manner blessed Job kept in by a manly [‘juvenili.’] vigour of wisdom all that the flesh might breathe of in him of loose and childish. For he says, I made a covenant with mine eyes, and because he quenched not only the doing but also the thinking of lust in himself, going on he added; that I should not even think on a maid. For he knew that lust has need to be checked in the heart, he knew by the gift of the Holy Spirit that our Redeemer on His coming would go beyond the precepts of the Law, and put away from His Elect not only lustful indulgence of the flesh, but also of the heart, saying, It hath been written, Thou shall not commit adultery? But I say unto you, that whosoever looketh on a woman to lust after her, hath already committed adultery with her in his heart. [Matt. 5, 27. 28.] For by Moses lust perpetrated, buy by the Author of purity lust imagined, is condemned. For hence it is that the first Pastor of the Church says to the disciples; Wherefore gird up the loins of your mind, be sober, and hope perfectly in the grace that is offered to you. [1 Pet. 1, 13] For to ‘gird up the loins’ of the flesh is to withhold lust from accomplishment, but ‘to gird up the loins of the mind,’ is to restrain it from the imagining thereof as well. Hence it is that the Angel who addresses John is described as being ‘girt above the paps with a golden girdle.’ [Rev. 1, 13] For because the purity of the New Testament puts restraint upon lust of the heart likewise, the Angel who appeared therein, came ‘girt’ in the breast. Whom a golden girdle rightly binds, because whoever is a citizen of the country Above does not now forsake impurity from dread of punishment, but from the love of charity. Now the wickedness of lust is committed either in thought or deed. For our crafty enemy when he is driven away from the carrying out of the deed, makes it his business to defile by secret thought. Hence too it is said to the serpent by the Lord, Thou shall creep on the breast and belly. That is, ‘the serpent creeps with his belly,’ when the gliding enemy by the human members subject to him calls lust into exercise even to the fulfilling of the deed; but ‘the serpent creeps with the breast,’ when those whom he cannot pollute in the deed of lust, he does pollute in the thought. Thus one man now perpetrates lust in act of doing, to this man the serpent creeps by the belly. But another man entertains it in the mind as to be committed, and to him the serpent ‘creeps by the breast.’ But because through the thought we are brought to the fulfilling deeds, the serpent is rightly described first as ‘creeping upon the breast,’ and afterwards ‘upon the belly.’ Hence blessed Job because he maintained discipline even in the thought, by a single guarding mastered both ‘the breast and belly of the serpent,’ saying, I made a covenant with mine eyes, that I should not even, think on a maid. Which same purity of heart whoever does not aim at acquiring, what else does he but drive away from himself the Author of that purity?
