[ 1125] Heaven, Men desirous to be there, but will not take pains to come thither.
SAbellicus,* 1.1 in his History, brings in C. Flaminius playing upon Philoxomenes, that he had pulchras manus, & pulchra crura, sed ventrem non habuit, he had goodly arms, and strong thighs, but he had no belly: He meant, that Philoxomenes had brave and valiant souldiers, fair Troops of Horse and foot, but wanted that which is the sinews of War,* 1.2 he had no money to pay them. It may be inverted up∣on us, for we are all belly, full of appe••i••e and desire to happinesse; but we have neither hands nor feet, we will neither move nor labour to attain to that happi∣••ess••; we have fat desires, but lean endeavours; fain we would be in Heaven, but we will take no pains for it,* 1.3 nor seek the way to it; we make account to go up to Heaven in a whirlwind, or as Passengers at Sea, be brought to the Haven slee∣ping; to win Heaven without working, to be crowned without striving, to dine with the Devill, and sup with Abraham, Isaac, and Iacobin the Kingdom of Heaven; by all means we must die the death of the righteous, but by no means live the life of the godly; nay, if death do but offer to prefer us to Heaven, we will none of it,* 1.4 we thank him heartily, we refuse him with deprecations, and fortifie our sel••es against him with antidotes and preservatives: So that it may very well be put to the question, Where is our desire for Heaven, when we rather die, ne∣cessitatis vinculo, quam voluntatis obsequio; instead of looking for it, we look from it, and then onely pre••end a faint desire to it, when we can make no other shift, but that we must needs vent••••e on it.