19 Whose end is destruction, whose God is their belly, and whose glory is in their shame, who mind earthly things.)



Ver. 19. Whose god is their belly] A scavenger, whose living is to empty, is to be preferred before him that liveth but to fill privies; as they do that make their gut their god, that dunghill deity. Such a one was that Pamphagus, Nabal, Dives, and others, that digested in hell what they ate on earth. They say the locust is all belly, which is joined to his mouth and endeth at his tail. The spider also is little else than belly. The dolphin hath his mouth almost in his very belly; the ass-fish hath his heart in his belly. (Solinus. Aristot.) In mea patria Deus venter est, et in diem vivitur. In my country (saith Jerome) their belly is their god, they live from hand to mouth, &c. Epicurus said, that eternal life was nothing else but an eternal eating and drinking; ùóôå ðáíôá ÷ñïíïí äéáãåéí ìåèõïíôáò . See my Common Place of Abstinence.



Who mind earthly things] As they have their hands elbow deep in the world, so their minds are shut in their chests, as dead bodies are buried in coffins; they are interred in the Golgotha of this world, as moles in their hillocks.