Now, in attempting to point out a few of the innumerable ways in which the carnal mind manifests itself, plain, we think, it is that we need not dwell on the grosser forms of evil in which it delights to revel; these are again and again enumerated in Scripture under the designation of the "works of the flesh," and are placed in direct opposition to the "fruits of the Spirit," with their respective results, viz., death and life. Depraved as human nature is, there are few to be found who would openly advocate the practice of the deeds of darkness, the lusts of the flesh and of the mind; numerous motives, even purely selfish, prevent the mass of mankind from rushing into excess of evil, so that danger is not to be apprehended so much from the hideous. forms which evil often assumes, as from the soft and enchanting blandishments which captivate the senses, and ensnare the affections; these are the real" depths of Satan," the wiles by which, as an angel of light, he leads men captive at his will.

And first of all, and to speak in the most general terms we can adopt, we would endeavour to trace the manifestation of the carnal mind in its attempts to ally itself with the extension of the kingdom of God on the earth.

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During the time of its existence, there was nothing on the face of the carth that could be compared with the Mosaic dispensation for external splendor and magnificence; its gorgeous temple, its costly ritual, and the sublime tokens of the whole being under the immediate care and direction of Jehovah so often granted, filled the nations with But all this glory was only a faint representative of a glory that was to throw it completely into the shade; the Jewish Theocracy was the mere type of the kingdom of the King of kings, and the Lord of lords; before this King all the kings of the earth were to bow down and do homage, and all the nations of the earth to bring their wealth into His kingdom.

Where, then, are we to look for this kingdom? The King himself declares" My kingdom is not of this world;"-it is a purely spiritual kingdom, and can only be spiritually discerned ;-it consists not in external ceremonies, but in righteousness and peace; and exists wherever the Lord is worshipped, in spirit and in truth, as the God of heaven and earth. The only genuine specimen of this all-glorious dispensation, is that which may be seen described in the life and labours upon earth of its adorable Founder, and in the coöperation of His chosen servants the Apostles, and His numerous disciples. In treating of these the New Testament supplies us with a very simple and unvarnished statement of the spiritual nature of the church of God as

first planted among men; but how different, not to say diametrically opposite, do we now find, wherever we look for it, that which claims for itself the name of church! At an early period, even in the days of the Apostles, the "MAN OF SIN" commenced his operations against the kingdom of the Most High. Open persecution proved a failure; the more he crushed Christianity the wider it spread and became the stronger. To hinder and retard its progress was then his aim, and this he effected by throwing around it his pretended protection, and clothing it with all the meretricious ornaments that secularity could devise. In this form, and of this quality, we certainly have a very extensive display of what men agree to call the kingdom of God; but divest the whole of the mummeries of superstition; take away the pomp and splendour of the Priesthood; renounce the lust of dominion; discard all weapons in the Christian warfare save those the Apostles fought with; send Mammon to his own place, and what have you remaining? what but a melancholy proof of the small progress that the True Christian Religion has made in the world in the course of eighteen hundred years?

And here let it be noted, that where this secularizing spirit most abounds, the farther are they who are influenced by it removed from the love of God, for "the carnal mind is enmity against God, and neither is nor can be subject to the divine law." The reader will almost instinctively turn his eyes toward the widely spread and all grasping Church of Rome. Well, to this we cannot object, for much, very much of the carnal mind, and in its most deceitful forms too, does she display; but although we should admit to the full the declaration of a recent writer, viz., that the whole of Romanism is carnality based upon a lie, we think it would be the height of infatuation to confine our view to that one section of the professedly Christian world. For, do we see nowhere but in Rome the existence of the evils just mentioned? We think we can perceive them not only where spiritual and temporal power are united as one, and where secularity, in making merchandise of things sacred, is unblushingly supported and defended, but also, and to an extent perhaps little thought of, among those who boast of their nonconformity to all Hierarchical impositions; we may see the lust of dominion not unfrequently as fully displayed in the conventicle as in the cathedral. It becomes every, even the smallest, Christian society to take heed lest DIOTREPHES should insinuate himself into its fellowship. (iii. John 9.)

In the second place, Creature Worship may be noticed as affording a most extensive manifestation of the working of the carnal mind. This Protean evil even Paul himself seems to have found no small difficulty

in defining. Hence the numerous epithets he bestows upon it. He speaks of it as a thing that would defraud the Christian of his future reward; a will, or would-be thought worship having a shew of wisdom; a voluntary humility, or the very essence of spiritual pride; a worshipping of angels, which may mean either the invocation of angelic beings, or the fanaticism of those who pretended to a seraphic intercourse with God; an intrusive and arrogant prying into those things which are, by the Divine wisdom, concealed from mortal sight, and all originating in, and nourished by, the vain inflation of the carnal mind, which he designates as "the condemnation of the devil.” (Colos. ii. 18; 1 Tim. iii. 6.) Well might the Apostle finish the above list of the forms assumed by creature worship with the expressive words :—“ And not holding the head;" for the slightest deviation from the worship of the CREATOR to that of the creature, even in its highest form, is the changing of the truth of God into a lie," whether that truth is exhibited in the magnificent works of nature, or in the sublime disclosures of Divine Revelation. The works of creation clearly shew forth the eternal power and Godhead of the Creator; the sacred volume of Divine Truth lays it down as a grand and fundamental principle that He is ONE, and His name One; and we are most explicitly assured that in all His fulness He dwells in the ONE PERSON of the Lord Jesus Christ; this, we are told, "is the true God and eternal Life," and are solemnly cautioned to keep ourselves from idols, or the worship of any other being than the Lord Himself,

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Now, plain enough it must appear that if by Him all things were created that are in heaven, and that are in earth, visible and invisible; if He is before all things, and by Him all things consist; then to Him, and to Him as the Head over all, every knee should bow, of those who are in heaven, of those who are on earth, and of those who are under the earth, and that every tongue should confess that He is the Lord alone, and that this is to the glory of God the Father. Here, then, we submit, is the true object of Christian worship, and contend that worship or religious homage addressed to any other being in the boundless universe is creature worship or idolatry. "Let all the angels of God worship Him," was predicated of the Lord in reference to His manifestation in human nature; and if all the angelic host worship Him, as we are assured they do, what becomes of all the scruples of the varied sections of the Christian world as to the propriety of addressing their worship to Him as the Only wise and true God? Do they think themselves wiser than the angels who immediately surround His throne? If they do not, whence, then, arise their scruples?

The majority, however, of those who really, and perhaps conscientiously, practise creature worship, contend that they only consider the objects of their adoration as mediators between God and themselves. But certainly this does in no degree lessen the enormity of the evil: for it is no less true that there is but ONE GOD, than it is that there is but ONE MEDIATOR, and that Mediator is THE MAN CHRIST JESUS. Thus in few words we have the glorious truth taught us that the glorified Humanity of the Lord is the One and Only Medium through which all Divine communications flow to man, and by which alone man can approach his Maker. This is a great first principle in the Christian religion, and cannot be set aside by the most plausible sophistry that the carnal mind can command. We really feel reluctant to waste words in reference to the notorious creature worship of Mary the Mother of the Lord; but as it stands at the head of all the minor forms of the abomination, and since if it is swept away they must all vanish with it, we would briefly remark that the Lord Himself settled the question for ever when he affirmed, in reply to the exclamation of the woman from among the multitude that surrounded Him:-" Blessed is the womb that bare thee," &c. "Yea rather, blessed are they that hear the word of God, and keep it." (Luke vi. 27, 28.) Can anything be plainer than that our Lord in this passage teaches what He elsewhere so often teaches, namely, that relationship according to the flesh is of no avail whatever as to membership in His kingdom; and that they, and they only, enjoy true felicity who hear His Word and obey His commandments? And do we not here see a striking proof of the solid grouud on which Paul made the remarkable declaration recorded in 2 Cor. v. 16"Wherefore henceforth know we no man after the flesh; yea, though we have known Christ after the flesh, yet now henceforth know we Him no more"? No one will deny that Mary was highly favoured of the Lord" in being selected to be His Mother according to the flesh; but where have we a vestige of proof that such honour conferred on her the smallest degree of spiritual power? The fables that have been related of her are a perfect outrage on common sense, and a foul libel on Christianity; and doubtless could she address her votaries, she would do it in the language of the glorious angel whom Jesus sent to shew John the things which he saw and heard in the isle of Patmos, and whom John mistook for the Lord Himself, and was about to worship,-" See thou do it not, for I am thy fellow servant;-worship God."

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In the third place. An evil of very extensive prevalence, and highly pernicious tendency in the Christian Church, and which is mentioned by the Apostle Paul as a prominent manifestation of the carnality of

the human mind, is that of PARTY SPIRIT. The vaunted philosophy of the Greeks, the zeal of the Judaizing Christians, together with the natural licentiousness from which they had, as yet, been but partly delivered, had produced in the members of the church at Corinth a state of mind of the most fearful description, as any one may see on perusing Paul's Epistle to them. Now these numerous and flagrant evils seem to have all sprung from the sectarian spirit that had gained ground among them after the Apostle had left them. Hence in writing to them he says he could not address them as spiritual men, but as carnal, even as mere babes in Christ:-" For ye are yet carnal; for whereas there is among you envying and strife, and divisions, are ye not carnal, and walk as men ?* For while one saith I am of Paul, and another, I am of Apollos; are ye not carnal?" (1 Cor. iii. 1, 4.)

From the great stress which the Apostle lays on the danger of indulging this unchristian spirit; the strong language which he uses in depicting its absurdity and utter worthlessness, and the exalted point of view in which he places its opposites, charity and humility, we cannot but see how deeply his mind was imbued with the spirit of his Divine Master who prayed for his followers, both Jews and Gentiles, that they all might be one, that thereby the world might the more readily be induced to believe in His Divine Mission. The sum of his address to the Corinthians may be thus stated:"Now I beseech you, brethren, by the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, that ye all speak the same thing, and that there be no divisions among you; but that ye be perfectly joined together in the same mind and in the same judgment; for I am aware that there are contentions among you; some saying I am of Paul, some, I am of Apollos, some, I am of Cephas, and some, I am of Christ." How absurd is all this! Is not the doctrine of Christ ONE? Was Paul crucified for you? or were ye

* We cannot omit the opportunity of noticing here how suggestive the words of the Apostle are of numerous portions of Scripture which strongly support the propriety, and shew the beauty of the term Proprium, as used in the Theological works of Swedenborg. The term signifies what properly belongs to man, as such, what is his own, the way or habit of human nature, &c., as in the following passages:- "The way of man is froward and strange," (Prov. xxi. 8.)—“ Yea, also the heart of the sons of men is full of evil, and madness is in their heart while they live," (Eccl. ix. 3.) "If I covered my transgressions as ADAM,” i.€., after the manner of men, (Job xxxi, 33.) "But they, like men, have transgressed the covenant." (Hos. vi. 7.) So men are said to be given up to their own hearts' lusts; to walk in their own ways; to walk in their own counsels, after the imaginations of their own hearts,-in the sight of their own eyes, and according to their own devices.