BELLY, is often taken for Gluttony, Tit. i. 12. Philip. iii. 19.The Cretians are always liars, evil beasts, slow bellies; and elsewhere, There are many whose God is their Belly. And to the Rom. xvi. 18.Romans, People of this sort serve not the Lord Jesus but their own bellies.
Belly is used likewise for the heart, the bottom of the Soul. The words of a talebearer go down into the innermost parts of Prov. xviii. 8. — xx. 27.the Belly, and wound the very bottom of the Soul. And in another place, The spirit of man is the candle of the Lord searching all the inward parts of the Belly. The Spirit of man is like the light of God, which penetrates the very bottom of the Soul. And — xxii. 18.again, Preserve the lessons of Wisdom, if thou keep it within thy Belly, in thy heart, it will not break out upon thy lips.
The Belly of Hell, the grave, or some imminent danger of death. The Author of Ecclesiasticus says, that he was delivered de Eccl. li. 7. Jonah ii. 3.altitudine ventris inferi; and Jonah that he cried to the Lord out of the Belly of Hell, from the bottom of the Sea, from the whale’s Belly.