The Old Man

I have continued to read and study about the two natures-or one, depending on how you define 'nature'-and I have come across another interesting piece. Puritan Thomas Boston preached a sermon entitled The Old and the New Man in Believers. It is a quick read and well worth the short time investment. Here is an interesting quote on the old man being crucified:

The old man may live long on the cross before he be destroyed: but then his hands and feet cannot serve him as they did before, there are nails driven through them; he may move them indeed, but then it is with pain and difficulty.

Boston later explains,

The old man in believers is in a state of death, though not dead outright. It is crucified with Christ. It may move and stir in them, and vehement struggles it may make, as a dying man struggling with the mortal disease: but whatever efforts it make, it is on the cross, whence it shall not come down till it breathe out its last.

You can read the entire sermon here.