6}

"I find then a law," he says, "that when I would do good"--that is when
I will to do good,--"evil is present with me. For I delight in the law
of God after the inner 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."[9]

It is well before going further to inquire what is this "inferior will"
that manifests itself in the great Saints, as well as in us sinners,
and in which this delight at the thought of sin is said to have its
place. How is it to be distinguished from the higher will, which,
while acknowledging the sense of pleasure, yet refuses to yield to it?
And what relation have these two wills to the act of consent, which
constitutes the sin? Let us find the answer to our question in one of
the best of spiritual masters, the author of "The Spiritual Combat":

"Although we may be said in this combat to have within us two wills,
the one of the reason, which is thence called reasonable and higher,
the other of the senses, thence called sensual and lower, and commonly
described by the words 'appetite,' 'flesh,' 'sense,' and 'passion'; yet
as it is through the reason that we are men, we cannot truly be said to
will anything which is willed {117} by the senses, unless we are
inclined thereto by the higher will.

"And herein does our spiritual conflict principally consist. The
reasonable will being placed, as it were, midway between the Divine
Will which is above it, and the inferior will or the will of the
senses, which is beneath it, is continually warring against both, each
seeking in turn to draw it, and bring it under obedience."[10]

{118}

It is the inferior will that runs forward with delight to act upon
Satan's suggestion; it is the higher will that checks this
precipitation and says, "I know it is not the will of God, and
therefore nothing will induce me to do it." This higher will is what
is commonly meant when we speak of the human will being conformed to,
or arrayed against, the Divine Will. It has to act before man becomes
responsible.[11]

It is this higher will that enjoys its freedom, and therefore
constitutes in us a part of the {119} divine image. There is no power
that can compel it until, by its own free action, it yields itself to
that power. God, reverencing His image, as He sees it in us, will not
force a reluctant will to serve Him; and Satan cannot.[12] Scupoli
says again:

"