GREGORY NYSSEN.

"But," you will say,

Shew us man after Listen to the apostle :

LET us make man in our image, after our likeness: God speaks thus respecting the inward man. you are giving a dissertation upon reason. the image of God. Is reason the man?" Though our outward man perish, yet the inward man is renewed day by day. By what means? I own that man is two-fold, one who is seen, another who is hidden, and whom he that is seen does not perceive. We have therefore an inward man, and in some degree are two-fold. For I am that man who is inward; but I am not those things which are outward, but they are mine. Neither am I the hand, but I am the reason which is in the mind: But the hand is a part of the outward man.-On Gen. 1, 26.

Thus when the inward man, whom God denominates the heart, has wiped off the rusty filth which, on account of his depraved thirst, had grown up with his form; he will once more recover the likeness [of God] with his original and principal form, when he will become good.—On the Beatitudes.

(3.) MODERN DIVINES.

LET us now see the opinions of certain Divines, of our own age and religious profession, on the inward man.

CALVIN.

THOUGH the reprobate do not proceed so far with the children of God, as, after the casting-down of the flesh, to be renewed in the inner man and to flourish again.-Instit. lib. 2, cap. 7, sect. 9.

But the reprobate are terrified, not because their inward mind is moved or affected; but because, as by a bridle cast upon them, they refrain less from outward work, and inwardly curb their own depravity, which they would otherwise have shed abroad.-Ibid. sect. 10.

Besides, since we have already laid down a two-fold regimen in man; and as we have, in another place, said enough about the other which is placed in the mind or the inward man, and which has reference to life eternal, &c.-Ibid, lib. 4, cap. 20, sect. 1.

Though the glory of God shines forth in the outward man, yet the proper seat of it is undoubtedly in the mind.-Ibid, lib. 1, cap. 15, sect. 3.

Some persons perversely and unskilfully confound the outward man with the old man.

For the old man, about whom the apostle

treats in Rom. vi, 6, is something far different. In the reprobate also the outward man perishes, but without any counterbalancing compensation.On 2 Cor. 4, 16.

BEZA.

IS RENEWED, that is, acquires fresh strength; lest the outward man, who is sustained by the strength of the inward man, should be broken when assaulted with fresh evils: For which reason the apostle said in the 12th verse, "So then death worketh in us." -On 2 Cor. 4, 16.

BUCER.

IN HOLY persons likewise there are two men, an inward and an outward one. St. Paul says, "Though our outward man perish, yet the inward man is renewed day by day." As therefore man is two-fold, so likewise are his judgment and his will two-fold: A fact which our Lord himself was not ashamed to confess, when he said to his Father, "Nevertheless, not my will, but thine, be done." By saying this, " Not what I will, but what thou willest, be done," he undoubtedly shewed, that He willed what the Father willed; and yet at the same time He acknowledges that this was his will," Remove this cup from me." Our Lord therefore acknowledges within himself the existence of two wills, one of which was apparently at variance with the other.-On Romans 5. Fol. 261.

FRANCIS JUNIUS.

THE outward man hears the word of God outwardly, but the inward man hears it inwardly.-On the Three Verities, lib. 3, cap. 2, fol. 182.

But then, as in ecclesiastical administration, not only the inward man is informed in the knowledge of God, but as aids and [ministeria] services are also sought by the outward man, so far as the external signs of the communion of saints are required to feed and promote the inward communion; in this cause likewise we acknowledge, that God has delegated his authority to the Magistrate.-On Ecclesiast. lib. 3, cap. 5.

PISCATOR.

THE outward man, that is, the body, as he had previously called it. The inward man, that is, the soul or mind.-On 2 Cor. 4, 16.

THE CHURCH OF HOLLAND.

WHEN indeed, from the depraved heart, and from the inward man, evil fruits do proceed, a necessary consequence of this is, that he who is desirous of boasting that he is pure, must demonstrate the truth of his assertion by a spontaneous approval of the commands of Christ, and by a willing obedience to them.-A Pamphlet, in which they give a Reason for the Excommunication of Koolhaes. Fol. 93.

JOHN DRIEDO.

THE inward man is the reasonable mind unfolded in its powers, which never perishes. But the body, adorned with its senses, is called "the outward man," or "our man who is outward and corruptible;" as the apostle says in 2 Cor. iv, 16, “ Though our outward man perish, yet the inward man is renewed day by day." Again, he says, in Romans vii, 22, "I delight in the law of God after the inward man."-On Grace and Free Will. Fol. 262.

The apostle Paul frequently does not understand the same thing by "the old man" and by the outward man," nor has he signified the same thing by " the new man" and by "the inward man:" But in the inward man are found both the old and the new man. For, in the mind, oldness of this kind is formed, at the same time as newness: In it the likeness is either heavenly or earthly, that is, either a carnal will living according to the exciting fuel of sin, or a spiritual will living according to the Spirit of God. Ibid.

I AM aware, that the divines of our profession frequently take "the inward man" for the regenerate and the new man: But then they do not consider "the inward man" except with a certain quality infused into it by the Holy and Regenerating Spirit; with which quality when the inward man is considered, he is then correctly called regenerate and a new man. If any one urges, that the very designation of " the inward man" possesses of itself as great a value with those Divines, as do the titles of "the regenerate" and "the new man;" I shall desire such objectors to demonstrate, by sure and stable arguments, that the meaning adopted by those divines is conformable to truth.

4. LET us now approach to the other foundation, (p. 547,) which is, that this man, to whom it is attributed that "he VOL. II.

delights in the law of God," is regenerate; and that this attribute can agree with no other than a regenerate person. That we may be able to clear up this matter in a satisfactory manner, we must see what is meant by this phrase," to delight in the law of God;" or "to feel a joint delight with the law of God," as it appears the Greek text is capable of being rendered, and as an ancient version has it. For the verb, σuvndoμai, seems to signify the mutual pleasure which subsists between this man and the law, and by which not only this man feels a joint delight in the law, but the law also feels a similar delight in him.

αναπαύσωμαι υμίν,

"

Συν

"I feel a joint delight with the law of God," that is, I delight with the law: The same things are pleasing to me as are pleasing to the law. This interpretation may be illustrated and confirmed by a comparison of similar phrases, which frequently occur in other passages of the New Testament. Συναγωνισασθαι μοι, "that ye strive together with me in your prayers to God for me." avanavowμas up," that I may with you be refreshed." (Rom. xv, 30, 32.) Zurnlλnoav poi, “those women who laboured with me in the Gospel.” (Phil. iv, 3.) Συμμαρτυρεί τω πνεύματι υμών, "the Spirit itself beareth witness with our spirit, that we are the children of God." (Rom. viii, 16.) From which, St. Chrysostom not inappropriately explains, "I feel a joint delight with the law," by this paraphrase, "I assent to the law that it is well applied; as the law, also, in return, assents to me, that it is a good thing for a man to will to do it." He takes his explanation of the phrase from the text itself; which kind of interpretation, not only may obtain, but likewise ought to be employed, in this pas sage, since there is no other in the whole of the Scriptures in which this same phrase is used.*

If any one wishes to attach the same meaning to this phrase as to that which is used in Psalm i, 2, "But his delight is in the law of the Lord;" let him who says this, know, that it is incumbent on him to produce proof for his assertion. This is not unreasonably required of him, because the antecedents and the consequences which are attributed to the man who is denoted in the First Psalm and described as being blessed, are not only vastly different from those things which are attributed to the man on whom we are now treating, but are likewise quite contrary to them. Conceding, however, this for the sake of argument, but by

* In the 4to edition, Frankfort, 1635, the following important words are omitted: “usurpatur. Si quis volet tantundem valere atque phrasis Psalmo 1, 2." An omission fatal to the sense of the passage; but it is found in a correct form in the Leyden 8vo edition, 1612; and in the Leyden 4to, 1629.

no means absolutely granting it, (which I am far from doing,) we must observe, that this man [in Rom. vii, 22] is said, not simply "to delight in the law of God," or "to feel a joint delight with the law of God," but he does so with restriction and relatively, that is, "according to the inward man." This restriction intimates, that "the inward man" has not obtained the pre-eminence in this man, but that it is weaker than the flesh; as the latter is that which hinders it from being able, in operation and reality, to perform the law, to which it consents, and in which it delights.

He who will compare the following verse with this will perceive, that the cause of that restriction is the one which we have here assigned. For in the subsequent verse, (the 23rd,) it is not said, "But I see another law in my members, according to which I do not delight in the law of God;" such as the opposition ought to have been, if by that restriction the apostle wished only to ascribe this delighting" to the man according to one part of him, and to take it away according to the other part of him. But since the apostle not only takes this "delighting" from the other part of him, but likewise attributes to it the power of warring against that inward man and overcoming him; it is evident that the restriction has been added on this account,-to shew, that in the man who is now the subject of discussion, "the inward man" has not the dominion, but is, in fact, the inferior.

Let him who is desirous to contradict these remarks, shew us, in any passage in which regenerate persons are made the subject of investigation, a similar restriction employed, and adduced for another purpose. From these observations, therefore, it appears, that the Proposition is most deservedly denied. Let us now attend to the Assumption.

5. I SAY that the Assumption is proposed in a mutilated form, as it was previously in the argument produced from the 18th verse. For with it the apostle joins the following verse, in such a manner that the 23rd verse may be the principal part of a compound and discrete axiom, employed for the purpose of proving what the apostle intended. But that which is now placed in the Assumption, is a less-principal part, conducing to the illustration of the other by separation. From this it follows, that the Conclusion cannot be deduced from the premises, because the Proposition is destitute of truth, the Assumption mutilated, and the Conclusion itself beyond the purpose of the apostle and contrary to his design.

6. LET us see, whether any thing further can be brought from the 23rd verse for the demonstration of the contrary opinion.