N13259:93
Sermons, on the following subjects
Sermons, on the following subjects; The manner in which salvation is to be sought. The unreasonableness of indetermination in religion. Unbelievers contemn the glory of Christ. The folly of looking back in fleeing out of Sodom. The warnings of Scripture in the best manner adapted to the awakening and conversion of sinners. Hypocrites deficient in the duty of prayer. The future punishment of the wicked unavoidable and intolerable. The eternity of hell-torments. The peace which Christ gives his true followers. The perpetuity & change of the Sabbath. / By the late Reverend Mr. Jonathan Edwards, president of the College of New-Jersey.
Hartford: printed by Hudson and Goodwin, 1780
Sermon 2: The unreasonableness of Indetermination in Religion.
Modern spelling is a reading aid: the words are the author’s, only the spelling is modernized. Original shows the page as printed, with the transcription marks.
THE text contains an account of what Elijah said to all the people at their first meeting and of their silence ;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. To which the people, it seems, made no reply. In these words, we may observe,
1. HOW Elijah expostulates with the people about their halting so long between two opinions; in which expostulation may be observed,
(1.) WHAT the two opinions were, between which they halted, viz. Whether the LORD were GOD, or whether Baal were GOD. The case in Israel seems to have been this; there were some who were altogether for Baal and wholly rejected the true GOD; of which number, to be sure, were Jezebel and the prophets of Baal. And there were some among them, who were altogether for the GOD of Israel and wholly rejected Baal; as GOD told Elijah that he had yet left in Israel seven thousand, that had not bowed the knee to Baal, and whose mouths had not kissed him; 1 Kings xix. 18.
BUT the rest of the people halted between two opinions. They saw that some were for one, and some for the other, and they did not know which to choose; and as is commonly the case, when difference of opinions prevails, there were many who had no religion at all; they were not settled in any thing; the different opinions prevalent in Israel distracted and confounded them.—Many who professed to believe in the true GOD, were yet very cold and indifferent, and many very wavering and unsettled. They saw that the king and queen were for Baal; and Baal's party was the prevailing party; but their forefathers had been for the LORD; and they knew not which were right. Thus they halted between two opinions.