e good that I would I do
not: but the evil which I would not, that I do. Now if I do that I
would not, it is no more I that do it, but sin that dwelleth in me. I
find then a law, that when I would do good, evil is present with me.
For I delight in the law of God after the inward man: but I see
another law in my members, warring against the law of my mind, and
bringing me into captivity to the law of sin which is in my members."
Again, in the Epistle to the Galatians, he says: "For the flesh
lusteth against the Spirit, and the Spirit against the flesh: and
these are contrary the one to the other: so that ye cannot do the
things that ye would."

When we are born of God, we get His nature, but He does not
immediately take away all the old nature. Each species of animal and
bird is true to its nature. You can tell the nature of the dove or
canary bird. The horse is true to his nature, the cow is true to hers.
But a man has two natures, and do not let the world or Satan make you
think that the old nature is extinct, because it is not. "Reckon ye
yourselves dead"; but if you were dead, you wouldn't need to reckon
yourselves dead, would you? The dead self would be dropped out of the
reckoning. "I keep my body under"; if it were dead, Paul wouldn't have
needed to keep it under. I am judicially dead, but the old nature is
alive, and therefore if I don't keep my body under and crucify the
flesh with its affections, this lower nature will gain the advantage,
and I shall be in bondage. Many men live all their lives in bondage to
the old nature, when they might have liberty if they would only live
this overcoming life. The old Adam never dies. It remains corrupt.
"From the sole of the foot even unto the head there is no soundness in
it; but wounds, and bruises, and putrifying sores: they have not been
closed, neither bound up, neither mollified with ointment."

A gentleman in India once got a tiger-cub, and tamed it so that it
became a pet. One day when it had grown up, it tasted blood, and the
old tiger-nature flashed out, and it had to be killed. So with the old
nature in the believer. It never dies, though it is subdued: and
unless he is watchful and prayerful, it will gain the upper hand, and
rush him into sin. Someone has pointed out that "I" is the centre of
S-I-N. It is the medium through which Satan acts.

And so the worst enemy you have to overcome, after all, is _yourself_.
When Capt. T-- became converted in London, he