«but if Baal, then follow him." This was, in effect, faying, How long will ye act this bafe difingenuous part of attempting to ferve two masters, and to worship at once both the Lord and Baal? The Lord is a jealous God. He demands your whole affection. He will not be served by halves; he will not accept of a divided empire with Baal. Chufe ye, then, whom ye will ferve, and no longer halt between two directly oppofite and inconfiftent opinions. If you are perfuaded (and never had any people more reafon to be perfuaded) that the Lord Jehovah, the great Creator of Heaven and Earth, is the only true God, act agreeably to fuch a perfuafion. Follow him, and him only; ferve him fincerely, uniformly, and entirely, with all your heart, and soul, and mind, and strength; and live a life of virtue and holiness, in obedience to his commands. But if, on the contrary, you can, in oppofition to the plainest and strongest evidence, bring yourselves feriously to believe that Baal is God, follow him. Follow him (if your nature recoil not at it) through all those impure and deteftable practices which his worship authorizes and requires. But come not thus reeking with

0 3

with idolatry to the altar of the Lord. He will accept of no facrifices from fuch polluted hands. Baal is then your God, and you are his people. To him alone offer up your vows; from him only expect the supply of all your wants, and deliverance from all your calamities.

The obfervation naturally arifing from the text thus explained, is this: That as God would not allow a partial worthip under the Mofaic difpenfation, neither will he admit of partial faith, and partial obedience, under the Chriftian covenant.

He who was the God of the Jews, is alfo the God of the Chriftians; has from the fame invariable pre-eminence of his divine nature, the fame claim to our entire and unreserved fubmiffion to his will, is equally jealous of his own glory and of our allegiance, and equally averfe to any rival in our affections, and our fervices. It was the duty of the Jew to believe and obey the whole law of Moses. It is the duty of the Chriftian to believe and obey the whole law of Chrift. In oppofition to the doctrines and duties of the Mofaic law, stood the extravagant conceits of Gentile theo

logy,

logy, and the execrable impurities and barbarities of idolatrous worship. In oppofition to the doctrines and duties of the Gospel, ftand the fanciful refinements of modern philofophy, and the allurements of a finful world, which are now too frequently diftracting the belief, and dividing the obedience of Christians, as fuperftition and idolatry did formerly those of the Jews. And it is no more allowable to halt in our belief between deifm and revelation, and in our practice between God and Mammon, than it was in the Jews formerly to follow at once both the Lord and Baal. The text, therefore, when divested of all peculiarity of circumftance, and brought home to ourselves, affords this general and useful principle, that we should not waver between two fyftems, and endeavour to ferve at the fame time two masters; but entirely devote ourselves either to the one or the other, and ftand to all the confequences of our choice. This admonition feems not improperly calculated for the ftate of Religion among ourfelves at this day, and may be applied with equal justice both to our faith and practice.

But I fhall, in this difcourfe, confine my obfervations almost entirely to the latter, as being the most useful, and the best fuited to the business of this place. For although much might be faid respecting ftrange conceits in matters of faith; although there are, it is well known, in this country, as well as in others, a few individuals who think themselves at liberty to select out of the Gofpel, for their creed, just what happens to fuit their particular humour or caprice, and to reject all the rest, and may therefore very justly be faid to "halt between two

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opinions;" yet the number of these perfons is fo inconfiderable, and the reception their tenets meet with is so very unpromifing, that to bestow much of our attention upon them, would be a very needless waste of time. Much lefs can it be neceffary to enter here into any confutation of their fanciful opinions. They have been confuted, moft effectually confuted, above feyenteen hundred years ago, and that, too, by a book which is, or ought to be, in the hands of every Chriftian; I mean the Bible. Every page of that facred volume bears testimony against them; and it is utterly impoffible for any man of a plain understanding, and

of

of an unprejudiced mind, to look into the Gospel without perceiving, that all those great and important doctrines, which our philosophic Christians are pleased to reject (and which, in fact, amount to almost every peculiar doctrine of the Gospel, except that of the refurrection) are taught and repeatedly inculcated in the facred writings, in terms as clear, explicit, and unequivocal, as it is in the power of language to exprefs. They are, in fact, so interwoven with the very frame and conftitution, with the entire substance and effence of Christianity, that they must stand or fall toge ther. They are found in the fame Gofpel, and are intimately blended and incorporated with those moral precepts, and those evidences of a refurrection and a future ftate, which are on all fides allowed to be divine; and there is no fuch thing as feparating them from each other, no such thing as diffolving the connection between them, without undermining the whole fabric of Christianity, and defeating the chief purposes for which Chrift came into the world.

Let no one, then, that profeffes himself a disciple of Chrift, ever be induced to fluctuate thus between two fyftems. Let him never listen to any fuch deceitful terms of accommodation