ADVERTISEMENT. SEVERAL of the following Tracts were formerly published in the form of Discipline; but as this undergoes a revision once in four years, the General Conference of 1812 ordered that they be left out; and, that they might still be within the reach of every reader, directed them to be published in a separate volume. They have been accordingly prepared and published in this form in a stereotyped edition. There are several new Tracts included in this volume. The one on Baptism has been substituted, by the Committee of the late General Conference, for Mr. Wesley's short treatise on that subject. The Committee have also made some corrections, particularly in the references, inserted a table of Contents, and added an Appendix, defending the work against certain complaints. In these Tracts the reader will find the doctrines of Predestination, Election, Reprobation, Final Perseverance, Imputed Righteousness, Baptism, and Christian Perfection, stated and illustrated in a perspicuous and forcible manner, according to the scriptural account of these subjects, concerning which the Christian world has been so much divided. We hope the circulation of the book will be extended until the errors it so ably explodes shall be fully banished from the Church. PUBLISHERS. NEW YORK, January 1. 1861. PREDESTINATION CALMLY CONSIDERED. THAT to the height of this great argument, And justify the ways of God to men.-MILTON. 1. I AM inclined to believe that many of those who enjoy the faith which worketh by love, may remember some time, when the power of the Highest wrought upon them in an eminent manner; when the voice of the Lord laid the mountains low, brake all the rocks in pieces, and mightily shed abroad his love in their hearts, by the Holy Ghost given unto them. And at that time it is certain they had no power to resist the grace of God. They were then no more able to stop the course of that torrent which carried all before it, than to stem the waves of the sea with their hand, or to stay the sun in the midst of heaven. 2. And the children of God may continually observe, how his love leads them on from faith to faith with what tenderness he watches over their souls; with what care he brings them back if they go astray, and then upholds their going in his path, that their footsteps may not slide. They cannot but observe how unwilling he is to let them go from serving him; and how, not withstanding the stubbornness of their wills, and the wildness of their passions, he goes on in his work, conquering and to conquer, till he hath put all his enemies under his feet. 3. The farther this work is carried on in their hearts, the more earnestly do they cry out, "Not unto us, O Lord, but unto thy name give the praise, for thy mercy and for thy truth's sake!" The more deeply are they convinced, that "by grace we are saved; not of works, lest any man should boast:" that we are not pardoned and accepted with God for the sake of any thing we have done, but wholly and solely for the sake of Christ, of what he hath done and suffered for us. The more assuredly likewise do they know that the condition of this acceptance is faith alone; before which gift of God no good work can be done, none which hath not in it the nature of sin. 4. How easily then may a believer infer, from what he hath experienced in his own soul, that the true grace of God always works irresistibly in every believer! That God will finish wherever he has begun this work, so that it is impossible for any believer to fall from grace! And lastly, that the reason why God gives this to some only, and not to others, is because of his own will, without any previous regard either to their faith or works, he hath absolutely, un conditionally predestinated them to life before the foundation of the world! 5. Agreeably hereto, in The Protestant Con fession of Faith, drawn up at Paris, in the year 1559, we have these words: (Article 12.) "We believe that out of the general corruption and condemnation in which all men are plunged, God draws those whom, in his eternal and unalterable counsel, he has elected by his own goodness and mercy, through our Lord Jesus Christ, without considering their works, leaving the others in the same corruption and condemnation." 6. To the same effect speak the Dutch divines assembled at Dort, in the year 1618.— Their words are: (Art. 6, et seq.) Whereas in process of time, God bestowed faith on some, and not on others, this proceeds from his eternal decree; according to which, atly he softens the heart of the elect, and leaveth them that are not elect in their wickedness and not elect in their wic hardness. "And herein is discovered the difference put between men equally lost; that is to say, the decree of election and reprobation. "Election is the unchangeable decree of God, by which, before the foundation of the world, he hath chosen in Christ unto salvation a set number of men. This election is one and the same of all which are to be saved. "Not all men are elected, but some not elected; whom God in his unchangeable good pleasure hath decreed to leave in the common misery, and not to bestow saving faith upon them but leaving them in their own ways, at last to condemn and punish them everlastingly for their unbelief, and also for their other sins. And this is the decree of reprobation." 7. Likewise in The Confession of Faith set forth by the assembly of English and Scotch divines in the year 1646, are these words:(chap. 3.) "God from all eternity did unchangeably ordain whatsoever comes to pass. 66 By the decree of God, for the manifestation of his glory, some men and angels are predestinated unto everlasting life, and others foreordained to everlasting death." "These angels and men, thus predestinated and foreordained, are particularly and unchangeably designed, and their number so certain and definite, that it cannot be either increased or diminished. "Those of mankind that are predestinated unto life, God, before the foundation of the world, hath chosen in Christ unto everlasting glory, without any foresight of faith or good works. "The rest of mankind God was pleased, for the glory of his sovereign power over his creatures, to pass by, and to ordain them to dishonor and wrath. 4 No less express are Mr. Calvin's words, in his Christian Institutions, (chap. 21, sect. 5.) "All men are not created for the same end but some are foreordained to eternal life, others to eternal damnation. So according as every man was created for the one end or the other, we say he was elected, that is, predestinated to |