A treatise of original sin ... proving that it is

Fifthly, In natural and corrupt men, there is no sense or feeling of any such conflict. They never groan and mourn under such wrestlings and agonies within them, and the reason is, because they are altogether flesh, and flesh doth not oppose flesh; neither is Satan set against Satan. It is true, there is in some natural vicious men, sometimes a combat between their conscience and their appetite; their hearts carry them on violently to sin, but their consciences do check them, and they feel a remorse within them, but this is far different ⟨p. 481⟩from that spiritual conflict, which the Apostle doth here describe, and is to be found only in such men, who have the Spirit of God: No wonder then if there be so many who look upon this as a figment, if so many even learned men write and speak so ignorantly and advisedly about it; for this truth is best acknowledged by experience: It's not the Theologia ratiocinativa, but experimentalis, as Gerson divideth Divinity, that will bring us to a full knowledge of this, It cannot then but be expected that you should see men live at ease, and have much quietness and security in their own breasts, thanking God, as if their souls, hearts, and all were good within them, all were as they desire it; for the strong man the Devil keepeth all quiet; flesh would not oppose flesh: It is true, one sin may oppose another, covetousness; drunkenness; and so a man who would commit them both be divided within himself; one sin draweth one way, and another sin the other way: but still in the general here is an agreement; all is sin, all tendeth one way still, and therefore is not like this combat in the Text; but of this more in its time.

FIfthly, In natural and corrupt men, there is no sense or feeling of any such conflict. They never groan and mourn under such wrestlings and agonies within them, and the reason is, because they are altogether flesh, and flesh doth not oppose flesh; neither is Satan set against Satan. It is true, there is in some natural vicious men, sometimes a combate between their conscience and their appetite; their hearts carry them on violently to sinne, but their consciences do check them, and they feel a remorse within them, but this is farre different