SPIRITUAL PEACE AND. COMFORT. 359 tians, the number of wounded spirits, I think, is very small, in com- parison of the rest. Indeed, it is usual for many at, or shortly after, their first change, to be under trouble and keep fears ; but that is but while the sense of former sin is fresh upon their hearts. The sudden discovery of so deep aguilt, andso great a danger, which a man didnever know before, must needs amaze and affright the. soul ; and if that fear remain long, where right means are either not known, or not used for the cure, it is no wonder ; and some- times it will be long, if the rightest means be used. But for those that have been long in the professionof holiness, and yet lie, or fall again' under troubles ofsoul, (except thosebefore excepted,) Iwould have them make a diligent search, whether God do not observe either some fleshly interest encroach uponhis right, or some actual sin to be cherished in their hearts or conversations. And here let me tell You, when you are making this search, what particulars they be which Ì would have you to be most jeal- ous of. i. The former sort, which I call contrary carnal interest, encroaching on Christ's right, are they that you must look after with far more diligence than your actual sins. (1.) Because they are the far greatest and most dangerous of all sins, and the root of all the rest ; for as God is the end and chief good of every saint, so these sins do stand up against him, as our end and chief good, and carry away the soul by that 'act which we call simply willing, or complacency, and so these interests are men's idols, and resist God's very sovereignty and perfect goodness ; that is, they are against God himselfas our God. Whereas those which I now call actual sins, as distinct from these, are but the violation of particular precepts, and against God's means and laws directly, and but re- motely, or indirectly against his Godhead ; and theyhave but that act of our will, which we call election, consent or use, which is proper to means, and not to the énd. (e.) Because, as these sins are the most damnable, so they lie deepest at the heart, and are not so easily discovered. It is .ordinary with many to have a covetous, worldly, ambitious heart, even damnably such, that yet have wit to carry it fairly without ; yea, and seem truly religious to themselves and others. (3.) Because these sins are the most com- mon ; for though they reign only in hypocrites and other unsancti- fied ones; yet they dwell too much in all men on earth. Ifyou now ask me what these` sins are, I answer, They are, as denominated from the point or term fromwhich men turn, all com- prisedM this one, ' unwillingness ofGod, or the turning of the heart fromGod, or not loving God.' But as we denominate them from the term or object to which they run, they are all comprised in this one, ' camal self -love, or turning to, and preferring our carnal self before God and as it inclineth to action, all, or most of it, is
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