THE EVIL AND DANGER OF HALTING

BETWIXT TWO OPINIONS. *

SERMON XXIV.

KINGS, xvi. 21.—And Elijah faid, How long halt ye betwixt two opinions?

A

MONG the crowds of irreligious men in the vifible church, there are few, if any, so pofitively determined against God and religion, as never to have a thought of repentance and reformation. Reafon and intereft appear fo much on the fide of religion, that where confcience poffeffes any power at all, one can hardly fail in having fometimes. favourable thoughts on that fide. But indecifion and unsettledness in that weighty matter ruins men. It is fo long ere they come to a point, that death often overtakes them before they have got the matter fixed; and they are fet beyond the poffibility of doing any thing for their fouls, before ever they have refolved firmly what to do for them. The text is. Elijah's expoftulation with a great affembly Kk 3

Maxton, Saturday, Auguft 2. 1718.

in

in that dangerous cafe. The worship of Baal was fet up, and authorised in Ifrael by Ahab, and patronifed by his courtiers. Thence the body of the people, though they did not utterly renounce the worship of Jehovah, yet they were greatly corrupted with that idolatry. God had on this account fent a famine on them, and, though it had continued three years and a half, it had not reformed them. But Ahab lays the blame of this calamity on Elijah; Elijah retorts it boldly on him. They agree that all Ifrael be gathered with Baal's priests, who were difperfed over all the country, and the priests of the groves, who were Jezebel's chaplains, that the whole matter betwixt God and Baal, Elijah and Ahab, might be decided. The affembly being convened, Elijah comes to them, and, without obferving any ceremony, or beginning to intercede with God for rain to them, he falls a pleading God's caufe with them, expoftulating with them on God's behalf, as in the text: How long (faid he) halt ye betwixt two opinions?

In which expoftulation, we have,

1. The matter of it; their halting betwixt two opinions. Here he attacks them on two points, and charge sthem with a grievous fault, an unaccountable weakness in the most weighty concerns of their fouls. He charges them,

(1.) With weak and wavering heads. They had two opinions; by the one they had a value for Baal, by the other for Jehovah. Not only did fome of that people in their judgement declare for Baal, others for Jehovah, but the fame perfons at one time thought it beft to follow Baal, at another time Jehovah; they were undetermined in this matter of the greatest importance. Their thoughts in this case were wavering, going hither and thither, like top-branches

of

of trees going with the wind, which is the Holy Ghost's own metaphor in the original word of the text. They were chargeable,

(2.) With unsteady feet. They halted betwixt these two, and they went from Baal to the Lord, and from the Lord to Baal again. Thus, paffing from fide to fide, they were poor lame fouls, (this is the Holy Ghoft's own metaphor), they did not only limp, like men lame of one leg, (the best Chriftians carry fuch a halt with them, till they come to the grave), but they were like men lame of both legs, for this is the import of the original word, 2 Sam. iv. 4. They crooked to both fides, they went wavering from fide to fide, never straight, one time they were for Baal, another time for Jehovah, they were never steadily fixed. In the expostulation, there is,

2. The manner of it: How long will ye halt? &c. They had been several years in that cafe, and yet were not come to a point. One might think the cafe was not fo very difficult, whether Jehovah or Baal should be their choice; but wonder not at it, for the cafe is even as plain betwixt the Lord and your lufts and idols, yet year after year you cannot come to a point. The phrafe is urgent; it imports,-the fhamefulness, the basenefs of their conduct, that they fhould be fo long in deciding in a matter fo very clear, stumbling at that rate in broad day-light ;-its grievoufnefs to the Spirit of God; he was fo weary with bearing with them, that he would fain have them come to a point, and therefore roufes them up to it.

FROM the expoftulation thus explained, I would obferve the following doctrines, viz.

DOCT. I. That to be still wavering and undecided

in the abfolute and final choice betwixt the Lord and idols, is moft abominable.

DocT. II. That an unequal and unfteady walk, here-away, there-away, betwixt the Lord and idols, is an unaccountable and abominable way of walking through the world.-Thefe I fhall fhortly confider in their order.

DOCT. I. That to be still wavering and undecided in the abfolute and final choice betwixt the Lord and idols, is most abominable.In fpeaking to this I fhall only drop a few things,

1. For explication of the point.

II. For confirmation of it.

And then,

III. Make fome application.I am,

I. To explain the point.-In order to this, confider,

1. That the Lord and idols are fuitors for the heart

of every man and and becaufe that ftrive to retain it,

woman that hears the gofpel; idols have the first love, they and the Lord comes to recover it. Lufts court it, and therefore the gofpel teaches to deny them, Tit. ii. 12. " denying ungodliness and worldly lufts, and while it thus teaches, it brings a better offer. The devil, the world, and the corrupt nature, are proxies to agent for our lufts; the Lord's Spirit, his minifters, and confcience, act for the Lord.-Confider,

2. That the finner's heart is urged with offers and arguments on both hands. God makes his offers, and urges them with the strongest arguments, taken from the certainty of eternal happiness, or mifery, of enjoying his unfpeakable love, or incurring his dread displeasure: Ifa. lv. 2. "Wherefore do ye spend your money for that which is not

bread,

bread, and your labour for that which fatisfieth not? Hearken diligently unto me, and eat ye that which is good, and let your fouls delight themfelves in fatnefs." Satan is not behind hand in pains to urge his offers, he plies them with allurements of prefent profit and pleasure, moft fuited to the corrupt heart, which naturally gapes for them.-Confider,

go.

3. That there can be no enjoying of both together: Matth. vi. 24. "No man can serve two masters; for either he will hate the one, and love the other; or else he will hold to the one, and despise the other. Ye cannot serve God and Mammon. The Lord will not deal fhares with lufts and idols, the offer is peremptory on other terms, If ye take "If the matter could let thefe me, be agreed betwixt the Lord and his rival idols, the wavering foul would foon be at a point, and would embrace both. But that cannot be; if the Lord be received, he must have the crown, and the most beloved lufts must be nailed to the cross: Gal. v. 24. " And they that are Christ's have crucified the flesh, with the affections and lufts." Confider,

4. That the matter must be determined by the finner's free choice: Josh. xxiv. 15. "Chufe ye this day whom ye will ferve." The Lord will not take poffeffion without the finner's confent, for it is the heart he feeks, and if that be wanting, there is no bargain. And the choice must be an absolute and a final one; there must be a final deciding of this cause, so that thereafter the foul may cleave to the one with full purpose of heart, and altogether abandon the other.-Confider,

Laftly, That the Lord requireth the finner's decided answer. But here the finner wavereth; he is neither determined to give up altogether with

the