something roused by an enemy, and Satan, the old
inhabitant, seems to exert himself, like a serpent disturbed and
enraged. Many in such circumstances, have felt a great spirit of envy
towards the godly, especially towards those who are thought to have been
lately converted, and most of all towards acquaintances and companions,
when they are thought to be converted. Indeed, some have felt many
heart-risings against God, and murmurings at His way of dealing with
mankind, and His dealings with themselves in particular. It has been
much insisted on, both in public and private, that persons should have
the utmost dread of such envious thoughts; which if allowed tend
exceedingly to quench the Spirit of God, if not to provoke Him finally
to forsake them. And when such a spirit has much prevailed, and persons
have not so earnestly strove against it as they ought to have done, it
has seemed to be exceedingly to the hindrance of the good of their
souls. But in some other instances, where persons have been much
terrified at the sight of such wickedness in their hearts, God has
brought good to them out of evil; and made it a means of convincing them
of their own desperate sinfulness, and bringing them off from all
self-confidence.

The drift of the Spirit of God in His legal strivings with persons, has
seemed most evidently to be, to bring to a conviction of their absolute
dependence on His sovereign power and grace, and an universal necessity
of a mediator. This has been effected by leading them more and more to a
sense of their exceeding wickedness and guiltiness in His sight; their
pollution, and the insufficiency of their own righteousness; that they
can in no wise help themselves, and that God would be wholly just and
righteous in rejecting them and all t