2. Tis not said if thine eye offend thee, observe it more then ordinary, look narrowly to it, but pluck it out. To note, that nothing less is like to do our souls good, then the mortifying, the killing, the cutting off of our corruptions. Let a mans hand be cut off it is a dead member immediately. It is not so with plants when they are cut off from their roots, they will grow and sprout again: and so it is with the most inferior sort of sensitive creatures, for instance, cut worms into several pieces, every part will live, and stir; hence the learned call them insecta. When the head of a fowl is separated from its body; it will live and flutter for some time: but this cannot be said of the most noble sort of creatures: this is a sure rule in nature, Unitas & indivisibilitas est comes perfectionis, multitudo, & divisibilitas imperfectionis. Union is a sign of perfection, divisibility of imperfection: the more perfect any being is, the more united it is to its self, and the less any part of it can live nisi in toto, but in the whole! so that this phrase is a great elegance, to note the killing of our beloved lusts, if thy right eye offend thee, pluck it out, and cast it from thee, &c.
2. Tis not said if thine eye offend thee, observe it more then ordinary, look narrowly to it, but pluck it out. To note, that nothing less is like to do our souls good, then the mortifying, the killing, the cutting off of our corruptions. Let a mans hand be cut off it is a dead member immediately. It is not so with plants when they are cut off from their roots, they will grow and sprout again: and so it is with the most inferiour sort of sensitive creatures, for instance, cut worms into several pieces, every part will live, and stir; hence the learned call them insecta. When the head of a fowl is separated from its body; it will live and flutter for some time: but this cannot be said of the most noble sort of creatures: this is a sure rule in nature, Ʋnitas & indivisibilitas est comes perfectionis, multitudo, & divisibilitas imperfectionis. Union is a sign of perfection, divisibility of imperfection: the more perfect any being is, the more united it is to its self, and the less any part of it can live nisi in toto, but in the whole! so that this phrase is a great elegancy, to note the killing of our beloved lusts, if thy right eye offend thee, pluck it out, and cast it from thee, &c.
