Sin to be looked on, as it is fierce and cruel. [ 1549]
IT is usual with us to conceive of a Lyon or a Bear,* 1.1 or a Dragon, as (indeed they are) fearfull and terrible beasts; but if we should see them painted on a wall, they would not in the least dismay us; though the Painter should use, and bestow the best of his Art, and the utmost of his skill in the laying of his colours to make them look most fierce; And why? because we know they are but painted: And thus it is that the most of men look upon Sin as a dead thing, onely painted out by the Oratory of witty Preachers, and therefore they are nothing at all troubled;* 1.2 But if they should chance to meet a living Bear or Lion in some open place, gaping and ready to devour, it would amaze them. Just such is Sin, of a murthering, destroying Nature, let every Man labour to see the life of it, the danger of it, the fierce gaping mouth of it, and then it will make them to run for safety by repentance.