innocent behaviour sometimes gives occasion hereunto, and, at the same time, overcharging his thoughts with them, as though no expedient can be found to atone for them. Again, if his natural constitution inclines him to sloth and inactivity, then the difficulties of religion are set before him, to discourage him from the exercise of that diligence which is necessary to surmount them. And if, on the other hand, his natural temper leads him to be courageous and resolute, then corrupt nature endeavours to make him self-confident, and thereby to weaken his trust in God. Or if he be naturally inclined to fear, then something is offered to him, that may tend to his discouragement, and to sink him into despair. These are the methods used by the flesh, when lusting against the spirit; which leads us to consider, (2.) The opposition of the spirit to the flesh; or how the principle of grace in believers inclines them to make a stand against indwelling sin, which is called the lusting of the spirit against the flesh. The grace of God, when wrought in the heart in regeneration, is not an unactive principle; for it soon exerts itself, as being excited by the power of the Spirit, who implanted it; and from that time there is, or ought to be, a constant opposition made by it to corrupt nature; and that, not only as the soul, with unfeigned repentance, mourns for it, and exercises that self-abhorrence which the too great prevalence thereof calls for; but as it leads him to implore help from God, against it, by whose assistance he endeavours to subdue the corrupt motions of the flesh; or, as the apostle expresses it, to _mortify the deeds of the body_, Rom. viii. 13. that by this means they may not be entertained, or prove injurious and destructive to him. And inasmuch as there is something objective, as well as subjective, in this work; since the power of God never excites the principle of grace without presenting objects for it to be conversant about, there are several things suggested to the soul, which, if duly weighed and improved, are a means conducive to its being preserved from a compliance with the corrupt motions of indwelling sin: these are of a superior nature to those made use of by an enlightened conscience, in unregenerate persons, to prevent their committing the vilest abominations, as was before considered; and indeed, they are such as, from the nature of the thing, can be used (especially some of them) by none but those in whom the work of grace is begun. Accordingly,