SERMON XVII.

HALTING BETWEEN TWO OPINIONS.

1 KINGS xviii. 21.

And Elijah came unto all the people, and said, How long halt ye between two opinions? If the Lord be God, follow him; but if Baal, then follow him.

In my former discourse on these words, I observed that the choice which is proposed to us in regard to our religious conduct, is very much of the same nature with that which would be offered, if this country were unhappily the scene of a civil war; that, as in the latter case, we should not be allowed to hesitate and waver between rebellion and loyalty, but must of necessity join one party or the other, either those who should support the cause of their lawful king, or those who should be for wresting the

sceptre of authority from his hands, and bestowing it on a usurper; so in religion, we have but the choice of two opposite parties; there is no middle state between that of faithful devotion to God on the one hand, and that of attachment to his enemy, Satan, on the other.

That the matter is so represented in the Holy Scriptures, I proved to you by abundant references to their authority; nor do I see how it is possible for you, as believers in those Scriptures, to entertain the slightest doubt of the fact. This is not one of those difficult and controverted questions, which afford room for much argument on both sides. I know nothing more clearly stated in the whole volume of inspiration, than, that the first fall of man, was owing to the temptation of the evil spirit; that our Saviour came to counteract the effects that he had wrought, to deliver mankind from his influence, and to save them from his power; that all opposition to the faith and the holiness of the Gospel, is his work; and that in consequence, all ultimately abandoned sinners will, as belonging to his party, and having favoured his cause, be consigned to the place of punishment prepared originally for him and his angels. It was of course this scriptural view of the origin of sin, that induced our church, as I stated this morning,

to require it as the very first stipulation and vow on the part of those who are to be admitted by Baptism into the Christian Covenant, that they should renounce the Devil and all his works," and to enlist them as soldiers prepared to fight under the banners of Christ, against this spiritual adversary. And we ought to consider, that as Christians, we are engaged on the side of God, our lawful King, in opposition to a wicked rebel, who would, if it were possible, trample under foot, all his wise, and just, and salutary laws, subvert his paternal government, and seat himself as a tyrant on the throne of the universe: nor is the desertion of God's service, any less than a direct adoption of the views and practises of his opponent.

culation.

I must beseech you not to dismiss this view of the subject with thoughtless ridicule, nor to entertain it with a mere careless curiosity, as if it were a gross superstition, or an uncertain speTo say nothing more now of the authority of Scripture, which I have shown to be decisive on the doctrine, it is the most rational and probable account of the origin of sin and all evil, that has ever been given. Nothing has more perplexed persons who have meditated much on the constitution of the world, than the existence of evil in a creation that proceeded

from the hands of a Being of perfect goodness. Still here it is; that we cannot deny; we see it, and feel it, and suffer it; and at the same time we know that God must be good, as we have such innumerable proofs of his goodness around us, and if He were not good, all would be evil. Yet why is there any evil? I say that it is impossible to give a more satisfactory explanation of this great mystery, than that which we collect from the Bible; viz. that God, long since, in the past ages of eternity, created a race of spiritual beings, to whom he granted a freedom of will and action, and whom he placed in a state of moral trial, as he subsequently did man, i. e. required of them submission to his laws; that one of superior rank failed in this trial, rebelled against his authority, and with all his followers was expelled from the happy community in which he lived; and that he has permission, until the great day of judgment, to resist God, (and no doubt in so doing continually to "heap up wrath unto himself against the day of wrath,") by endeavouring to seduce mankind from his worship, and to bind them with the chains of sin, and so make them worthy to share with him in the horrors of his place of torment, when the wicked shall finally be severed from among the just.

We are so apt to associate the absurdities of popular superstition, with our ideas of the evil spirit, that we in general very much underrate the importance of the character which he sustains in the system of religion, which has been revealed to us. But when we seriously consider what the representations of scripture actually are on the subject; that he was the leader of a great rebellion in heaven itself; that he was the contriver of our first parents' fatal transgression; that he is spoken of, under various denominations, as the author of, and the object of worship in, all the false religions that have ever prevailed in the world; that the Son of God was manifested upon earth, expressly for the purpose of undoing the dire effects of his malice, according to the original promise, that" the seed of the woman should bruise the serpent's head;" that both bodily diseases and mental infirmities are frequently ascribed to his influence; that, as the author of every temptation, he must be omnipresent upon earth, and have the power of access to every mind at every moment; that our Saviour speaks so exultingly of his "fall from heaven," as if it were a most important triumph; that he was permitted to try by strong temptations the Redeemer himself, both at the beginning of his ministry, and just before his death; that he is described by such