hall a believer make use of Christ, to the end
this old man may be gotten crucified? or, how should a believer mortify
this old man, and the lusts thereof, through Christ, or by the Spirit of
Jesus? We shall propose those things, which may help to clear this:

1. The believer should have his eye on this old man as his arch-enemy,
as a deadly cut-throat lying within his bosom. It is an enemy lodging
within him, in his soul, mind, heart, and affections, so that there is
no part free; and therefore is acquaint with all the motions of the
soul, and is always opposing and hindering every thing that is good. It
is an enemy that will never be reconciled to God, and therefore will not
be reconciled with the believer as such; for it is called enmity itself,
and so it is always actively seeking to promove the ruin of the soul,
what by prompting, inclining, moving, and forcibly drawing or driving,
sometimes with violence and rage, to evil; what by with standing,
resisting, opposing, counter-working, and contradicting what is good; so
that the believer cannot get that done which he would do, and is made to
do that which he would not. Therefore this being such an enemy, and so
dangerous an enemy, so constant and implacable an enemy, so active and
close an enemy, so deadly and destructive, it is the believer's part to
guard against this enemy, to have a vigilant eye upon it, to carry as an
irreconcilable enemy thereunto; and therefore never to come in terms of
capitulation or agreement therewith, never once to parley, let be make
peace. And the believer would not have his vigilant eye upon this or
that member of this body of death, so much as upon the body itself, or
the principle of wickedness and rebellion against God; the head, life,
spirit, or law, of this body of death; for there lieth its greatest
wickedness and activity; and this is always opposing us, though not in
every joint and member; but sometimes in one, sometimes in another.

2. Though the believer should have a main eye upon the body, this
innate, strong, and forcible law of sin and death, yet should he have
friendship and familiarity with no part, member, or lust of all this
body. All the deeds of the body should be mortified, Rom. viii. 13; the
old man with his deeds should be mortified, Col. iii. 6; and we should
"mortify our members which are upon the earth," verse 5; for all of them
are against us, and the least of them countenanced, entertained, and
embraced, wi