ten talents, or give me special grace? why did you not cut me down at camp-meeting, and convert me, as you did others? or why did you not make me equal to the angel Gabriel, then I would have served you and been happy?' But the Lord will answer, I gave you a natural understanding, by which you were enabled to know these things: consequently, you knew ny law, and the conscience I gave you has warned you of my judgment. Now, saith the Lord, “have you all your life done the best you could, in order to please and obey me, ac| cording to what you knew?" Let every objector's own conscience answer for itself.

But perhaps the objector may say, if a nan would always act agreeably to this light of conscience and understanding, and would never leviate from it, would be not then be saved? We answer, this is a case which has never happened, and we are bold to say, never will happen among men ; therefore it is useless to talk about it.

The third proof which the General Conference attempt to produce, in confirmation of this freewill doctrine of inherent grace, is the parable of the sower. They say, that the seed sown was all of one kind. We answer, supposing it were, what has that to do with the ground on which it were sown? Every intelligent reader can perceive that this argument is void.

The fourth and last proof which they pro

duce on this point, is found in Titus ii. 11. "For the grace of God that bringeth salvation, hath appeared unto all men; teaching us, that denying ungodliness and worldly lusts," &c.

What is the grace of God? There are from ten to eighteen different meanings, for which the word of grace is used in the Bible,* Among the rest, it is put for gospel doctrines. Heb. xiii. 9. "Be not carried about with diverse and strange doctrines: for it is a good thing to have the heart established with grace." Again, 2 Pet. v. 12. "I have written briefly, exhorting and testifying, that this is the true grace of God wherein ye stand," So here, the grace of God, or the doctrines of the gospel which bringeth salvation, hath been given and published to the world at large; and it teaches all men to deny all ungodliness and worldly lusts, &c. But do they all obey its instructions? No: their understandings are darkened, they walk in darkness,-there is no light in them, the light shines in the darkness, and the darkness comprehends it not; the seed is good, but it falls in stony places, or by the way. side; so that the wicked will not obey the instructions. But yet, it effectually teaches us, Paul and Titus, and all other true believers, to deny all ungodliness; because to them it was given, to know the mysteries of the kingdom of God; consequently, they were willing to obey

* See Butterworth's Concordance.

the instructions of the gospel doctrines, but the others were not.

In their preachings and arguments on this point, they sometimes quote for scripture, "that there is a measure of the spirit given to every man to profit withal" The General Conference have not produced this text, because it is not in the Bible. The scripture says, there is a manifestation of the spirit given; but even that, according to the Apostle, was miraculous, and only given to every member of the church, to profit withal.

Their writers have quoted a number of texts to prove that man is a free agent, which is seldom, if ever, denied by any person; and also, that Christ died for all men, and a great many things which operate neither in favour of them nor against us; many of which we all believe to be true. We venture to affirm, that if we had time to follow them through all their windings, we could give a natural and literal explanation of all the scriptures they can put in our way, in favour of their scheme. The texts we have noticed are the most likely to mislead of any we recollect in the Bible; these are always produced; and if there were no others but these, the reader might still think that their interpretation of them might be right; but the scripture, when examined, will explain itself.

Dear reader, we hope you feel yourself a candidate for that world where nothing but truth will stand the test. If so, we trust that you

will be careful not to array the Bible against itself. It is our only guide. With reverence let us speak; if God hath told us a falsehood, in a single instance, he is no longer a God of truth, or entitled to our credit. But we trust that all will reject such a thought with abhorrence. Therefore, if we acknowledge the Bible to be the word of the Lord, it must be reconciled with itself. You have seen how we understand those few texts which are brought to prove the freewill scheme; you see that according to our interpretation of them, they are literally true, and do not contradict the rest of the Bible. Now, you can look at all these scriptures we have quoted throughout these two sections, and see if they can be explained so as to be literally true according to the natural understanding of language, and at the same time comport with the freewill scheme of doctrine.

If it will be of any service to the humble inquirer, we can show him how the General Conference get over all these express declarations of the word of God. They say,*"this is the blasphemy clearly contained in the horrible decree of reprobation; and here I fix my foot. On this, I join issue with every assertor of it. You represent God as worse than the devil ;t

*Tract 2, p. 39.

+ If they had said, that carnal men hate him worse than the devil, the scriptures would warrant the truth of the expression.

But you

more false, more cruel, more unjust. say you will prove it from scripture. Hold! what will you prove by scripture? that God is worse than the devil? it cannot be. Whatever that scripture proves, it never can prove this. Whatever its true meaning be, this cannot be its true meaning.

"Do you ask, what is its true meaning then? If I say, I know not, you have gained nothing. For there are many scriptures, the true sense whereof, neither you nor I shall know, till death is swallowed up in victory. But this I know, better it were so say, it had no sense at all, than to say it had such a sense as this."

Is it not strange, dear reader, that all these men in the General Conference could not understand plain English? If we had written them a letter, or an epistle, and in it told them that the saints, or the " faithful in Christ Jesus, were chosen in him before the foundation of the world; that they should be holy and without blame, before him in love;" and that "God had made all things for himself, yea, even the wicked for the days of evil :" if they had not previously known that these were the words of the Bible, there can be no doubt, but they would understand us by our words; and would say, that we believed in the doctrines of election and reprobation especially, if we had repeated the idea as often as the Lord has done; they would have set down their foot against us, and have joined issue with us for asserting such doctrines. Both ancient and modern writers,