Wesley Corpus

9, 10. On which passages I observe, (1.) By ‘the old man’ is not meant a heathenish life, or an ungodly conversation; but a corrupt nature. For the Apostle elsewhere speaks of our ‘old man,’ as ‘crucified with Christ;’ and here distinguishes from it their ‘former conversation,’ or sinful actions, which he calls ‘the deeds of the old man.’ (2.) By ‘the new man’ is meant, not a new course of life; (as the Socinians interpret it;) but a principle of grace, called by St. Peter, ‘The hidden man of the heart, and a ‘divine nature. (3.) To put off ‘the old man’ (the same as to ‘crucify the flesh”) is, to subdue and mortify our corrupt nature; to “put on the new man’ is, to stir up and cultivate that gracious principle, that new nature. ‘This,” saith the Apostle, ‘is created after God, in righteous ness and true holiness.’ It is created: Which cannot pro perly be said of a new course of life; but may of a ‘new nature. It is ‘created after God; or, ‘in his image and likeness, mentioned by Moses. But what is it to be “created after God,” or ‘in his image?’ It is to be “created in righte ousness and true holiness;’ termed ‘knowledge, the practical knowledge of God. (Col. iii. 10.) But if ‘to be created after God, or ‘in his image and likeness, is ‘to be created in righteousness and true holiness, and if that principle of right eousness and holiness by which we are ‘created unto good works, is a ‘new man,” a “divine nature; it is easy to infer, that man was at first created ‘righteous’ or ‘holy.’” (Pages 9, 10.) “2. All things, as at first made by God, ‘were very good.’ Nor indeed could he make them otherwise. Now, a rational being is not good, unless his rational powers are all devoted to God. The goodness of man, as a rational being, must lie in a devotedness and consecration to God. Consequently, man was at first thus devoted to God: Otherwise he was not good. But this devotedness to the love and service of God is true righteous ness or holiness. This righteousness then, this goodness, or uprightness, this regular and due state or disposition of the human mind, was at first natural to man. It was wrought into his nature, and concreated with his rational powers.