4 Of Self - Denial. S E R M. the meafures and limits within which their di- I reftion [hall he followed ; and we are indued with higher faculties and affeftions, to which the other are fubordinated ; and with liberty to purfue the nobler ends of our rational and mo- ral powers. Hence arifes the ftruggle between the motions and tendencies of thefe different principles, which every mari may find in his own experience, as the apoftle expreffes it, the f irit lufleth againfl the fl, and the flefh lufleth againfl the ffiirit, and thefe two are con- trary, the one to the other ; a virtuous difpofi- tion confias in the prevalence of the fpirit or confcience, and a vicious temper in the pre- dominancy of the lower appetites. But, I know no author who carries this diftinftion farther, and Rates it more clearly, than the apoftle Paul in the 7th chapter of his epiftle to the Romans. He gives a very lively defcription, as in his own perfon, of two oppofite interefts or principles in one man : one called fin that dwells in him, the body of fin and death, comprehending the whole complex of inward temptations, which take their rife from the body, fo intimately near, that a man finds them often working in his heart, to entice and draw him away : the other call'd I, more pro- perly the man, the rational felf- judging agent, that has the abfolute fuprernacy by the order of nature, the right of reftraining the lower ff,
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