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66
FLESH
AND
SLIRST,
&C,
ESERM.
Iv.
all the sinful
tendencies of
fleshly
nature,
or
do
I
main-
tain
a
continual resistance? Is there
a
combat,
and, as
it
were,
a
duel
within
me,
when
temptations present
themselves?
or am
I
easily led away,
and
yield
to sin
naturally, without
any
reluctance
?
Do
I
find my
flesh
and
spirit
at
war within
me,
when
any
sensual allure-
ments
appear
?
or
do
I
yield up
all
my
powers
as
ser-
vants
to sin,
and
comply with the lusts
of
the
flesh,
with
á
hearty delight
?
Am
I
like
a dead
fish
carried
down
with
the stream
of
my
appetites and
passions,
and
make
no pretences
to
oppose the vicious
current
?
If
upon
this
enquiry
I
find
that
the
flesh
is sovereign, and
the
spirit
never opposes
it,
I
may
pronounce
myself
then
to
be
in
the
flesh,
in
the most significant and complete
manner:
then I have nothing but
flesh
in me,
and
my
soul
is,
as
it
were,
carnalized,
and
deep immersed
in
the
fleshly
life.
I
confess
there
may be some
sort
of
opposition made
to
fleshly
lusts, where
there
is
no renewed
nature, no
saving grace,
no
true
principle
of
holiness, such
as is
described
by the
spirit
in my
text. Many
a
youth
re-
sists his
inclination
to
a drinking hour, or unclean ini-
quities,
by
the
'mere force
of
his
education,
by
the awful
regard
he
has
to his
parents,
by
a fear
of
injury to
his
health,
or
of
public shame
or
scandal.
Many a
wicked
roan refuses to
comply
with his
corrupt
appetites,
be-
cause
he
cannot bear
the anguish
of
his own
conscience,
and the sharp reproaches
of
his
reason
and better
judg-
ment.
And
many
a
guilty passion
is
restrained
and
suppressed, from
a
natural
fear
of
the justice
of
God,
and an everlasting
hell,
without
any inward
principle
of
real
piety.
It
is
not
every,
resistance therefore
that
we
make and
maintain
against
sin,
can
be
a
sufficient
evidence
that
we
are
new
creatures,
unless
we
can
say
with
St.
Paul,
Rom.
vii.
22.
I
delight
in the law
o
f
God
after
the
inward
man ;
that
my
soul
not
only
approves, but takes pleasure
in
holiness;
that
sin
is
the object
of
my
utter
hatred,
as
well
as
my
present
resistance
;
and
that
not
only
as
it
promotes
my own
ruin,
but
as
it
brings'dishonour,
to
God
:
that
my
very
heart
and
soul
are
set for
Gad
and
religion,
and
it
is
a
grief
and daily
burden
to me,
that
,there should
be
any
such
thing
as
a
law in
my members