and the Spirit against the flesh? Will it be so, even when the man is dead? God forbid! Thou puttest off the flesh, how then shall thou draw the lusts of the flesh along with thee? Nay, if thou hast fought well, thou shall be received into rest. And from this rest, thou passest to be crowned, not condemned; that thou mayest after it be brought to the Kingdom. As long then as we live here, my brethren, so it is; so is it with us even who have grown old in this warfare, less mighty enemies it is true we have, but yet we have them. Our enemies are in a measure wearied out even now by age; but nevertheless, wearied though they be, they do not cease to harass by such excitements as they can the quiet of old age. Sharper is the fight of the young; we know it well, we have passed through it: “The flesh” then “lusteth against the Spirit, and the Spirit against the flesh; so that ye cannot do the things that ye would.” For what would ye, O holy men, and good warriors, and brave soldiers of Christ? what would ye? That there should be no evil lusts at all. But ye cannot help it. Sustain3845 the war, hope for triumph. For now in the meanwhile ye must fight. “The flesh lusteth against the 495 Spirit, and the Spirit against the flesh; so that ye cannot do the things that ye would;” that is, that there should be no lusts of the flesh at all. 12. But do what ye are able; what the Apostle himself says in another place, which I had already begun to repeat; “Let not sin reign in your mortal body, to obey the desires there- of.”3846 Lo, what I would not; evil desires arise; but obey them not. Arm thyself, assume the weapons of war. The precepts of God are thy arms. If thou listen to me as thou shouldest, thou art armed even by that which I am speaking. “‘Let not sin,’ he says, ‘reign in your mortal body.’ For as long as ye bear a mortal body, sin doth fight against you; but let it not reign.” What is, “Let it not reign”? That is, “to obey the desires thereof.” If ye begin to obey, it reigns. And what is it to obey, but to “yield your members as instruments of iniquity unto sin”? Nothing more excellent than this teacher. What wouldest thou that I should yet explain to thee? Do what thou hast heard. Yield not thy members instruments of iniquity unto sin. God hath given thee power by His Spirit to restrain thy members. Lust riseth up, restrain thy members; what can it do now that it hath risen? Restrain thou thy members; yield not thy members instruments of iniquity unto sin; arm not thine adversary against thyself. Re- strain thy feet, that they go not after unlawful things. Lust hath risen up, restrain thy mem- bers; restrain thine hands from all wickedness; restrain the eyes, that they wander not astray; restrain the ears, that they hear not the words of lust with pleasure; restrain the whole body, restrain the sides, restrain its highest and lowest parts. What can lust do? How to rise up, it knoweth. How to conquer, it knoweth not. By rising up constantly without effect, it learns not even to rise. 3845 Exercete. 3846 Rom. vi. 12. 1024 On the words of the Gospel, John v. 31, ‘If I bear witness of myself,’ etc.;…