The central Presbyterian. [volume] (Richmond, Va.) 1856-1908, 1880-12-08
For the Central Presbyterian.
The Old Man and the New Man.


Thus two men there are in the Chris
tan: so hath he evil and so hath he not
evil. If, therefore, he purge out the evil,
1t is his new man purging out his old
man. Now, these two men within the
control of the personality of the Chris
tian, are real men, having each his own
will, his own energy, and his own enjoy
ment. = Waymarks IN the Wilderness,
Vol. III, p. 302; a work advocating
doctrines of the Plymouth Brethren" in
America
1t may interest the reader, as showing
how little there is that is new under the
sun, " to see how Augustine, the famous
Latin theologian, refutes this doctrine of
the two men" in one Christian as he
had heard it among his former, heretical
associates, the Manichaeans.-Co Confessions,
Blk. VIII, chap. 10.
May those men perish, Lord, from
thy presence-as perish babblers and Sc
ducers-who teach that, when they feel
two wishes competing in some moment of
elaboration, there are in the man two
natures Of two minds, the one good and
the other evil. 1t is they who are really
evil, when they feel these evil thoughts;
and 1t is the same persons who will be
good, if they think the truth and consent
to it i; as saith thy apostle to them: (Eph.
V: 81 For we were sometimes darkness,
but now are ye light in the Lord"
For these teachers would fain be
light In themselves and not in the Lord
and so they become thicker darkness by
fancying that the nature of the (human)
soul is what God is. For thus they have
withdrawn farther from Thee in horrid
pride: from Thee the true light that
hghteth every man that cometh into the
world. Take heed what we say, and
blush, and come nigh unto Him, and be
enlightened and your faces shall not be
ashamed"
While was hesitating whether I
should serve the Lord my God, as I had
long ago arranged, it was 1 who wished
to do it; it was l who was unwilling to
do 1T; was [. was not fully willing
to do it, nor fully unwilling. So, I strove
with myself and routed myself. That
rout occurred, indeed, without my con-
senting, but still it did not prove that
there was in me the nature of another
soul, but only the punishment of my own
soul. And thus, 1t was not that now
did it, but the sin that dwelt in me for
the punishment of the more voluntary sins
had committed because I was child
of Adam. For, if there are as many ma
lures as there are contending wishes,
there will be not two, but many. Ii
somebody hesitates whether to go to the
theatre or to the religious meeting of
these teachers, they exclaim: Behold the
two naturesl one good one leading this
way, another bad one drawing that way.
For whence this hesitation of the wishes
striving against each other?' But I say
they are both bad; the wish which draws
towards them, and the one that draws
towards the theatre. But they think the
former must be good, because it leads to
them Well: suppose some one of our
people should hesitate, whether he will
go to the theatre, or to oar meeting, and
should huctuate between these contend
ing wishes; will not these (Manichaeans)
have to hesitate what to say? For they
must either Acknowledgements they
don't like to admit that it is a good
wish which carries man to our meeting
as well as to theirs, when he receives
their sacraments and sticks to them; or
they must conclude that there are tlUo
eUiI natures, and tlOo eUJ souls striving in
one man; so it will not be true that one
of them, as they say, is good and the other
evil. If they do not like that reasoning,
let them turn to the truth and admit,
that when man hesitates, it is his one
soul,agitated by diverse wishes"
Now then: let them not say, when
they perceive two contrary wishes oppos-
ing each other in one man. that there are
two contrary souls contending, of two
contrary substances and sources, one good
and the other evil. For Thou, God OF
truth, dost refute and rebuke and convict
them, as in case of two wishes, both
evil, when (for instance) a man besitates
whether he shall kill somebody with a
sword or with poison: whether he shall
seize this mans or that mans tract Of
land when he see he can't seize both
whether he shall buy sensual pleasure by
expensive indulgences, or get the pleas
ure Of the miser by boarding his money
whether he shall 60 to the circus or the
theatre when both shows take place the
same day: or, Ia third alternative 90 to
steal out of another mans house the
chance being good that day or Ia fourth
go and perpetrate an adultery because
II