judgment: for though he may see a better path, and pursue a worse, yet, at the time, he wills that which he thinks will, under the existing circumstances, contribute most to his hap- piness. Hence the carnal man, though he may feel some good desires after religion, and some purpose of heart to seek after it at some future period, determines that he will, for the present, give himself to the prosecution of his earthly objects. Hence, too, he chooses as his associates those who are like-minded with himself, and who can participate with him in his enjoy- ments. He may know of persons capable of advancing his spiritual welfare : but he has no sympathy with them, nor any desire after their company, Any excess in worldly-minded- ness he can forgive and palliate : but any thing that approxi- mates to excess in religious matters is deemed by him an unpardonable offence : and one instance of it will do more to repel him from religion, than ten thousand instances of the opposite habit to deter him from a conformity to the world.
The spiritual man, on the contrary, chooses, with deliberate purpose, his spiritual pursuits ; nor will he be deterred from them by any regard to the things of this world. His heart is fixed; and though he finds that the world has yet too great an ascendant over him, he maintains his conflicts with vigour, and becomes daily more dead to the world and more alive to God. He uses diligently, too, the means of spiritual advancement; and takes for his friends and associates those who will help him forward in his heavenly way.]
3. Their affections —
[These invariably are most called forth by the things which most preponderate in the soul. The carnal man accordingly betrays his indifference to spiritual objects by his total want of feeling in relation to them. He may go through his religious observances with constancy ; but he rests in them, and never thinks of the way in which his duties have been performed. But, in reference to earthly things, he is alive : his hopes and fears, his joys and sorrows, are called forth, according as he succeeds or fails in the objects of his pursuit. The spiritual man, on the contrary, though not regardless of earthly pursuits, is comparatively unmoved by them ; because he is chiefly solicitous that his soul may prosper, and that he may advance in a meetness for his heavenly inheritance. You may find him dejected or happy, without any visible cause : but when you inquire into the reasons of his experience, you will find that some change has taken place in his conflicts with sin, or in his sense of the Divine presence, or in his prospects in the eternal world ; and, according as these are favourable or not, his soul becomes elevated or depressed ; by which he shews that his chief treasure is in heaven.]
i860.] carnal and spiritual mind contrasted. 199 Application —
Take this portion of Holy Writ,
1. As a test whereby to try your state —
[Hitherto I have left unnoticed the peculiar force of the word which the Apostle uses to designate the regard which we feel towards the different objects here spoken of. But the question is, not so much what our external conduct is in rela- tion to them, as what the disposition of our minds is. Which of the two objects do we savour ? to which does our taste lead us ? and in which do we find most enjoyment ? Now, if we will only take notice whither our thoughts lead us, at those seasons when nothing particular has occurred to determine their course, we shall infallibly discover the real bias of our minds : if they run out after any thing that relates to this vain, transient world, we are carnal : if after things spiritual and eternal, we may rank ourselves amongst the number of those who are truly spiritual. The same judgment we may form, by noticing what subjects we most delight to converse about, whether on those which pertain to this life only, or those which relate to the kingdom of our Lord and the in- terests of our souls. Whatever it be that we most relish and and most delight in, that is the thing which occupies the chief place in our hearts, and determines us to be either spiritual or carnal, as the case may be. Take, then, this test ; and "judge yourselves, that ye be not judged of the Lord."]