An exposition of Solomons book called Ecclesiastes or the preacher. Seen and allowedAn exposition of Salomons booke called Ecclesiastes or the preacher. Seene and allowed

The sight of the eye is better then to walk after lusts. This is also a vanity and vexation of Spirit.

The sight of the eye is better then to walke after lustes. This is also a vanitie and vexation of Spirite.

¹All this is an Hebraical kind of speech to us utterly unknown. The Hebrew word properly signifieth a looking glass, that is a thing coming toward our eyes or sight. For thus we read in Exodus. 38. He made the Laver of brass, and the foot of it of brass, of the looking glasses of the women, that watched at the door of the Tabernacle. This should thus be translated in ⟨p. 101⟩the hebrew. He made a laver &c. in the sight of those that watched before the door of the Tabernacle of witness. For this people had certain women votaries, which continued in prayers and supplication, watching and serving God day & night, as we read in the first of kings, and second of Luke, that Anna watched. Of this watching,² the women were called the host of the Lord, watching before the door of the tabernacle of witness. Afterward in process of time, the religion decayed, and as Judas saith, was turned into wantonness. So of Rachel the wife of Jacob it is said, she was comely to the glass, that is, to sight, or to look upon: she was fair or pleasant in sight. The meaning therefore is:³ It is better to enjoy the things in sight, & before our eyes, than to wander after our lusts and desires, that is, use the things thou hast, and let not thy wit wander about coveting of that, like Aesops dog, who catching at the shadow, lost the meat in his mouth. That which God hath set as it were before thee, that use and be content, and follow not the desire of thine hart, which can not be satisfied,