Fourthly, Deformity. Sickness withereth the beauty of the body, maketh it of a glorious a ghastly and loathsome spectacle. Come to the comeliest person living after a long and pining sickness, and you will not find the man in his own shape; a wan countenance, a shrivelled flesh, a lean visage, a hollow and standing eye, a trembling hand, a stammering tongue, a bowed back, a feeble knee a swelled belly: nothing left but the ••akes of the hedge, and a few sinews to hold them together. Behold here the picture of a sinner,1 swelled with pride, pined with envy, bowed with earthliness wasted and eaten up with lust, made as stinking and unsavoury as a dead Carcass. Psal. 14.3. Ezek. 16.4. When thou seest an unmerciful man, that hath no compassion left in him, think thou sawest Judas or King Jehoram, whose sore disease made his bowels fall out. 2. Chron. 21.19. When thou seest a worldly man whose heart is glued to earthly things, think upon the poor woman who was bowed together and could not lift up her self. Luke 13.11. When thou seest an Hypocrite walking crooked and unevenly in the ways of God, think upon Mephibosheth or Asa, lame, halting, diseased in their feet. When thou seest a proud ambitious man, think upon Herod eaten up with vermin. O if the diseases of the soul could come forth & show themselves in the body, and work such deformity there (where it would not do the thousandth part so much hurt) as they do within: if a man could in the glass of the word see the ugliness of the one, as plainly as in a ⟨p. 80⟩material glass the foulness of the other, how would this make him cry out, my head, my head: my bowels, my bowels: my leanness, my leanness: unclean, unclean? No man thinks any shape ugly enough to represent a devil by; yet take him in his naturals, and he was a most glorious Creature: it is sin that turns him into a Serpent or Dragon. There is something of the monster in every sin; the belly or the feet set in the place of the head or heart; sensual and worldly lusts set up above Reason, and corrupt Reason above Grace.
Fourthly, Deformity. Sicknesse withereth the beauty of the body, maketh it of a glorious a ghastly and loathsome spectacle. Come to the comliest person living after a long and pining sicknesse, and you will not finde the man in his owne shape; a wan countenance, a shriveled flesh, a leane visage, a hollow and standing eye, a trembling hand, a stammering tongue, abowed backe, a feeble knee a swelled belly: nothing left but the ••akes of the hedge, and a few finewes to hold them together. Behold here the picture of a sinner,1 swelled with pride, pined with envie, bowed with earthlines wasted and eaten up with lust, made as stinking and unsavoury as a dead Carcasse. Psal. 14.3. Ezek. 16.4. When thou seest an unmercifull man, that hath no compassion left in him, thinke thou sawest Iudas or King Iehoram, whose sore disease made his bowels fall out. 2. Chron. 21.19. When thou seest a worldly man whose heart is glued to earthly things, think upon the poore woman who was bowed together and could not lift up her selfe. Luke 13.11. When thou seest an Hypocrite walking crooked and unevenly in the wayes of God, think upon Mephibosheth or Asa, lame, halting, diseased in their feet. When thou seest a proud ambitious man, thinke upon Herod eaten up with vermine. O if the diseases of the soule could come forth & shew themselves in the body, and work such deformity there (where it would not doe the thousandth part so much hurt) as they doe within: if a man could in the glasse of the word see the uglinesse of the one, as plainly as in a ⟨p. 80⟩materiall glasse the foulnesse of the other, how would this make him crie out, my head, my head: my bowels, my bowels: my leannesse, my leannesse: unclean, unclean? No man thinks any shape ugly enough to represent a divell by; yet take him in his naturals, and he was a most glorious Creature: it is sinne that turns him into a Serpent or Dragon. There is something of the monster in every sinne; the belly or the feet set in the place of the head or heart; sensuall and worldly lusts set up above Reason, and corrupt Reason above Grace.
- 1Infl•tus & Tum•ns animus in vitio est. Sapientis animus nunquam turgescit, nunquā •ume•. Cic. Tuscul. quaest, l. 3. Invidus alterius rebus macrescit opimis. Horat. •• ep. 2, O curvae in terras Animae et Coelestium inane•. Pers. Ut Corpora verberibus, ita saevitia, libidine, malis consul is animus di••ceratur. Tacit▪ Anal, l. 6.Infl•tus & Tum•ns animus in vitio est. Sapientis animus nunquam turgescit, nunquā •ume•. Cic. Tuscul. quaest, l. 3. Invidus alterius rebus macrescit opimis. Horat. •• ep. 2, O curvae in terras Animae et Coelestium inane•. Pers. Vt Corpora verberibus, ita saevitia, libidine, malis consul is animus di••ceratur. Tacit▪ Anal, l. 6.
