The monster of sinful self-seeking, anatomized together with a description of the heavenly and…The monster of sinful self-seeking, anatomizd together with a description of the heavenly and…

But now on the contrary, If thou pursuest after the things of Christ in the first and chief place; If thou mournest more for Church desolations than personal miseries; If the more wealth thou hast, the more courageous thou art for God, and art glad, that thou hast an Estate to lose for Christs cause; If the seeking of thine own things do not put thee upon lying, vain, frivolous, and unconscionable excuses; If thou art like unto Hormisdas, a Nobleman of Persia, who was deposed from all his Honours because he would not deny his Religion, and afterwards restored again, and a little after solicited again to deny Christ and his truths, but he rent his purple robe, and laid all his honours at the foot of the Emperor, and said, Si propter ista me denegaturum Christum put as, ea denuò accipe. If you think to gain me to deny Christ for the re-obtaining of my honours, take them all back again: If this be the frame of thy heart, it is a certain token that thou prizest, lovest and seekest the things of Christ before, and more then thine own things.

But now on the contrary, If thou pursuest after the things of Christ in the first and chiefe place; If thou mournest more for Church desolations than personall miseries; If the more wealth thou hast, the more couragious thou art for God, and art glad, that thou hast an Estate to lose for Christs cause; If the seeking of thine owne things doe not put thee upon lying, vaine, frivolous, and unconscionable excuses; If thou art like unto Hormisdas, a Nobleman of Persia, who was deposed from all his Honours because he would not deny his Religion, and afterwards restored again, and a little after solicited again to deny Christ and his truths, but he rent his purple robe, and laid all his honours at the foot of the Emperour, and said, Si propter ista me denegaturum Christum put as, ea denuò accipe. If you thinke to gaine me to deny Christ for the re-obtaining of my honours, take them all back againe: If this be the frame of thy heart, it is a certaine token that thou prizest, lovest and seekest the things of Christ before, and more then thine owne things.

3. The third sort of those who are guilty of this sinful self-seeking are such who pretend to seek the things of Christ, but seek their own things, under colour of seeking the things of Christ, who hold forth the preservation and propagation of Religion as a stalking horse, to catch men by, as a blind to deceive the