The Holy State, Book 3 · Chapter 15
CHAP. 15. Of Deformitie.
DEformitie is either Naturall, Voluntary, or Adventitious, being either caused by Gods unseen Providence (by men nicknamed, Chance) or by mans Cruelty. We will take them in order.
Maxime 1If thou beest not so handsome as thou wouldest have been thank God thou art no more unhandsome then thou art. 'Tis his merciemercy thou art not the mark for passengers fingers to point at, an Heteroclite in Nature, with some member defective or redundant. Be glad that thy clay-cottage hath all the necessary rooms thereto belonging, though the outside be not so fairly playstered as some others.
2Yet is it lawfull and commendable by Art to correct the defects and deformities of Nature. Ericthonius being a goodly man from the girdle upwards, but, as the Poets feigne, having downwards the body of a *Servius in illud Virgilii lib. 3. Georg Primus Ericthonius, &c.Serpent (moralize him to have had some defect in his feet) first invented charets, wherein he so sate that the upper parts of him might be seen, and the rest of his body concealed. Little heed is to be given to his *Sanders de schism. Anglic. lib. 1. pag. 17.lying pen, who maketh Anna Bollen, Mother to Queen Elizabeth, the first finder out and wearer of Ruffes, to cover a wen she had in her neck. Yet the matter's not much, such an addition of Art being without any fraud or deceit.
Mock not at those who are misshapen by Nature. There is the same reason of the poore and of the deformed; he that despiseth them despiseth God that made them. A poore man is a picture of Gods own making, but set in a plain frame, not guilded: a deformed man is also his workmanship, but not drawn with even lines and lively colours: The former, not for want of wealth, as the latter not for want of skill, but both for the pleasure of the maker. As for *…. 7. Polit. cap. 16.Aristotle, who would have parents expose their deformed children to the wide world without caring for them, his opinion herein, not onelyonly deform'd but most monstrous, deserves rather to be exposed to the scorn and contempt of all men.
Some people handsome by Nature have wilfully deformed themselves. 4Such as wear Bacchus his colours in their faces, arising not from having, but being, bad livers. When the woman (the first of Kings, the 3. and 21.) considered the child that was laid by her, Behold, said she, it was not my sonne which I did bear. Should God survey the faces of many men and women, he would not own and acknowledge them for those which he created: many are so altered in colour, and some in sex, women to men, and men to women in their monstrous fashions, so that they who behold them cannot by the evidence of their apparell give up their verdict of what sex they are. It is most safe to call the users of these hermaphroditicall fashions, Francisses, and Philips, names agreeing to both sexes.
Confessours which wear the badges of truth are thereby made the more beautifull; 5though deformed in time of Persecution for Christs sake through mens malice. This made Constantine the Great to *Russin. lib. 1. cap. 4.kisse the hole in the face of Paphnutius, out of which the Tyrant Maximinus had bored his eye for the profession of the faith, the good Emperour making much of the socket even when the candle was put out. Next these, wounds in warre are most honourable: Halting is the stateliest march of a Souldier; and 'tis a brave sight to see the flesh of an Ancient as torn as his Colours. He that mocks at the marks of valour in a Souldiers face, is likely to live to have the brands of justice on his own shoulders.
6Nature oftentimes recompenceth deform'd bodies with excellent wits. Witnesse Aesop, then whose Fables children cannot reade an easier, nor men a wiser book; for all latter Morallists do but write comments upon them. Many jeering wits who have thought to have rid at their ease on the bowed backs of some Cripples, have by their unhappy answers been unhors'd and thrown flat on their own backs. A jeering Gentleman commended a Begger who was deformed and little better then blind for having an excellent eye, True (said the Begger) for I can discern an honest man from such a knave as you are.
7Their souls have been the Chappells of sanctity, whose bodies have been the Spitolls of deformity. An *Guliel. Malm. lib. 2. cap. 10.Emperour of Germany coming by chance on a Sunday into a Church, found there a most misshapen Priest, pene portentum Naturae, insomuch as the Emperour scorn'd and contemn'd him. But when he heard him reade those words in the Service, For it is he that made us and not we our selves, the Emperour check'd his own proud thoughts, and made inquiry into the quality and condition of the man, and finding him on examination to be most learned and devout, he made him Archbishop of Colen, which place he did excellently discharge.