utterly condemned among the Jews, and that those who practised such arts were to be put to death, and rejected as "abominations" from the land. It would also appear that all these magical arts had more or less to do with open communication with spirits. Hence it was that this open communication with the world of spirits was so strictly forbidden.

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It will now be interesting to inquire into the causes why this communication with spirits was so severely prohibited. Man is created for heaven, and has, consequently, an internal mind, called by the apostle the "inward man," (Rom. vii. 22; 2 Cor. iv. 16.) or the spiritual mind," (Rom. viii. 6.) by which, when regenerate, he is in association with angels, having, as the same apostle says, "his citizenship in heaven." (Phil. iii. 20.) In the primeval times, called in poetry the golden age, or, in theological language, the most ancient or Adamic church, described in the first chapters of Genesis, there is reason to believe that men, in many cases, had sensible and open converse and communication with angels. The structure of man's internal mind, which is created to be, when opened and formed by regeneration, an image of heaven, warrants us in this conclusion and belief. Whilst man constantly fed on the "Tree of Life," or lived with a primary regard to his internal man, all his aspirations and affections would tend upwards towards heaven. The world, which he had so soon to quit for ever, would to him be comparatively nothing; whilst heaven, in which he humbly hoped to dwell for ever, would to him be every thing, and all his principal "affections would be fixed on the things that are above." (Col. iii. 2.) This was the golden age,the truly celestial state of man; the theme of such delight with the ancient poets, and a state on which the thoughtful and pious mind now dwells with delight and rapture. Eden, in Scripture representative of this state, meets the eye as a gem in every verse which it adorns. But when man began to seek his mental nourishment chiefly from the "Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil," or in his external man, he then had his affections directed downwards to the world, and the ends and objects of his life became worldly, and himself became worldly minded, and ceased to be spiritually minded, and consequently to enjoy that life and peace which can alone be found in the spiritual mind. This was the fall of man- -the love given to worldly things, as the essential ends and objects of life, in preference to spiritual and heavenly things. In this state man removed himself from heaven, and consequently from angels, and this more and more in succeeding generations. He then closed heaven to himself, or rather closed himself against

heaven, and opened himself towards the world. And this state, alas! still prevails, and nothing can restore us to our Father's house but the life of a genuine Christianity. Hence man ceased to have open communion with angels.

What, then, were the results of this fall and degradation? Man, as he then became external and earthly-minded, lost or perverted all genuine perceptions and ideas respecting heaven, and the things of heaven, consequently of the true love and worship of God, of the true love of his neighbour; in short, the doctrine of Love was extinguished, and the doctrine of Truth utterly perverted. This would follow as a necessary consequence of eating of the "tree of the knowledge of good and evil," or of seeking all the nourishment of his mental life in the merely external things of the world, and of finding his gratification to consist only in his external, or natural, and not in his internal or spiritual man. Hence worship became external; its essential life and spirit, which dwells in the internal man, expired as the internal became closed and buried in the external. The symbol was venerated instead of the thing symbolized. Hence the origin of idolatry, in all its forms and varieties. The outward form of religion was cultivated instead of its internal life and power; men began to multiply, in worship, external rites, ceremonials, and observances; and the whole of religion was reduced to a mere skeleton-like framework of a man deprived of flesh and blood and all vital principles. Such was the state of religion throughout the world, even at the time of Moses; not only the golden but the silver age,-not only the church of Adam, but the church of Noah had become defunct. Thus all the interior and heavenly perceptions which characterised the ancient churches were extinct. The mere science or external knowledge relating to spiritual things, to some extent, still existed; some discernment also of correspondences between things natural and things spiritual, like the last rays, when the sun is setting, still lingered upon the horizon of the human mind. But these feeble rays were not sufficient to enlighten the mind as to the true meaning of the emblems and representatives employed in worship.

To the men of the primeval church every thing they saw in nature had its spiritual meaning. To them nature was a theatre representative of the Lord's kingdom. The sun, to them, was a glorious emblem of the Deity in its light they beheld His Truth, in its warmth they recognized His Love. In the lamb they beheld His Innocence; in the flowing river they saw the "streams of truth which make glad the city of God." In the useful products and fruits of the earth they contemplated

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the gifts of His love and bounty. In short, every thing to them was full of life, wisdom, and glory; because "they saw through nature up to nature's God." In their acts of worship they were said, in symbolic language, to bring to the Lord of the "fatlings of their flocks," or "the first fruits of the ground;" not that they literally brought them, still less sacrificed them, as in the subsequent degenerate ages, but they were said to bring them, as in the case of Abel, to denote that pure acts of worship are represented by the offering of the choicest things which man possesses, or of those things which are dearest to his heart. Thus these external things are emblems of the purest and inmost affections by which alone the Lord can be worshipped. But in after ages, when the internal mind became closed, and the external only open to the world, men began, as already stated, to worship the symbol which their ancient forefathers had regarded merely as a sign "of an inward spiritual grace," instead of the thing signified. This was the origin of idolatry; for idolatry commenced with the fall, and consisted in preferring the life and gratification of the external to the life and gratification of the internal man; or in loving to eat of the "tree of the knowledge of good and evil," in preference to "the tree of life;" or, again, in seeking his gratification chiefly in the love of self and the world instead of the love of God and the neighbour.

Now for generations prior to the time of Moses, mankind had existed in a most external and degenerate mental condition; and in this degraded state they not only began literally to slaughter animals for the purpose of worship, but even to make their children " pass through the fire to Moloch," as we read in the passage from Deuteronomy quoted at the commencement of this paper. And generally throughout the world human victims were immolated on the altars to the different deities of the respective nations, and even Abraham, who prior to his call was an idolator, was tainted with this abominable practice. For had he not been thus tainted, he would have had no plane in his mind to receive the divine injunction to immolate Isaac; which deed, although commanded, was nevertheless prevented, as we read in Genesis. But the command, when seen as to its internal meaning, signified the total surrender of every thing esteemed most dear, such as an only son, to the service of God. As stated above, that which is most dear and precious to us, is representative of our inmost and governing affections, and nothing is more dear and precious than a child, especially an only child. It was therefore customary in the ancient churches, long prior to the establishment of the Jews into a church, to speak of "offering

their first born for their transgression, and the fruit of their body for the sin of their soul," (Mich. vi. 7.) to signify, that the Lord could only be fully worshipped, and that evils could only be entirely removed, by the surrender and devotion to Him of the inmost, or of the most darling affections of the soul. It appears from a cursory view of the text in Judges xi., that Jephtha, according to his vow, immolated his daughter; but that he really did not kill her, but only consecrated her, may be abundantly proved. It was requisite that the appearance should exist in order to shew that the Ammonites, who signified the false of evil, could only be overcome from the pure affection of Truth denoted by the daughter of Jephtha; and as this affection can only come from the Lord, and as the crowning splendor of all victory in temptations is the ascription to Him of all the power by which the conquest has been won, hence to represent this important fact, Jephtha's daughter was symbolically, offered to the Lord in the way of "a burnt offering;" because a burnt offering signifies the worship of the Lord, and the ascription to Him of all the power, merit, and praise of salvation, which is spiritual victory, from the purest love. And even at the present day children are said to be given, dedicated, and consecrated to the Lord in baptism. But this language of symbolism, by which internal and spiritual things are expressed by external and natural things, was totally misunderstood by the degenerate descendants of the golden and silver ages. They took the symbol for the thing symbolized, and began to offer up their children and human victims by literally slaying and sacrificing them, or immolating them by making them pass through the fire to their false gods-a deed even the thought of which would have caused the utmost horror to their ancient forefathers; truly, then, was it an abomination" in the sight of God which could by no means exist or be tolerated in His church. In the same manner also the slaughter of animals for sacrifice in worship was originated, a thing never dreamed of in the most ancient and the ancient churches, (see Jeremiah vii. 22, 23.) and by no means commanded by the good pleasure, or direct will of God, but permitted, together with many other things, such as a plurality of wives and concubines, as the Lord Himself says, on account of the hardness of their hearts." (Matt. xix. 8; Mark x. 5.)

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Now, at the time of the institution of the Jewish church the Lord chose a people amongst whom, owing to the extreme externality and grossness of their nature, a merely external church, consisting, as the apostle says, "of types and shadows," could be established. In this merely external and typical church, the Lord brought, chiefly through

Moses, all representatives and types into a system, which are arranged into a divine form of symbolism or typology, in which every thing, even to the minutest particulars, has a spiritual meaning, or something which, when "spiritually discerned,” (1 Cor. ii. 14.) may serve as the bread which cometh down from heaven for the nourishment of the soul. The chief object of the Divine Providence and Mercy in establishing this merely typical church was the Revelation of the Word, which, in the organized association of the Jews, as a civitas Dei-as an external, typical, organization of His kingdom, and in the nature and facts of the history of this singular people, could find its proper basis upon which the Divine Wisdom could be most fully revealed, and most adequately accommodated, or adapted to all states of the human mind, to the simplicity of childhood, and to every grade of mental development. Thus the Word speaks to the child, by whom it is understood, according to its development and capacity; it speaks to the matured and intelligent, to the learned and the wise, and to angels as well as to men, and in its inmost bosom its wisdom is unfathomable by any finite intelligence, and this because God is its author. Thus the Word, as revealed to us, is the greatest of all miracles, and the more we know of its wonderful nature, and the more we receive of its " spirit and its life," the more we see this to be the case. It is the medium, and the only medium of conjoining us to the Lord, and of consociating us with the angels of heaven, and with one another upon earth, in the bonds of the truest friendship and love. It is also our only safeguard against the hells, that is, against evil and unclean spirits. Now, to establish this most merciful and wonderful gift of God upon earth, to poor fallen man, a necessary basis, as was said, was required,-a basis, in which vessels and receptacles could be found, which, according to the corres pondences between things natural, spiritual, and divine, could receive and body forth, and thus present to man in the most adequate manner, suited to all his states, the divine Love and Wisdom of God. This basis was the Jewish church, and its rituals of worship, together with the history, as to its main features, of that wonderful people.

Prior to the incarnation of Jehovah, mankind were not in the same relation either to Him or to his kingdom, as they were after that greatest of all events. The churches up to that period were all representative or typical churches, but after the incarnation and glorification of the Humanity, the church was no longer representative or typical. But, a typical or external church, is not under the same divine economy, especially as to externals, as an internal or real church; they are