to give an account of just exactly as many talents as have been
committed to his charge, and no more.

In this respect, all the dispensations of divine providence are clearly
and broadly distinguished from the Calvinistic scheme of election and
reprobation. According to this scheme, the reprobate, or those who are not
objects of the divine mercy, have not, and never had, the ability to obey
the law of God; and yet they are condemned to eternal death for their
failure to obey it. This is to deal with them, not according to what they
have, but according to what they have not, and what they could not
possibly have. Hence, to reason from one of these cases to the other, from
the inequality of gifts and talents ordained by God to a scheme of
election and reprobation, as Calvinists uniformly do, is to confound all
our notions of just dealing, and to convert the rightful sovereignty of
God into frightful tyranny. The perfect justice of this remark will, we
trust, be made to appear the more clearly and fully in the course of the
following section of the present work.

Section II.

The Scripture doctrine of election consistent with the impartiality of the
divine goodness.

We have seen that the election of a nation to the enjoyment of certain
external advantages, or the bestowment of superior gifts upon some
individuals, is not inconsistent with the perfection of the divine
goodness. Beyond the distinctions thus indicated, and which so clearly
obtain in the natural providence of God, it is believed that the
Scriptural scheme of election does not go; and that the more rigid
features of the Calvinistic scheme of election and reprobation can be
deduced from revelation only by a violent wresting and straining of the
clear word of God. Let us see if this assertion may not be fully
established.

The ninth chapter of the Epistle to the Romans, it is well known, is the
portion of Scripture upon which the advocates of that scheme have chiefly
relied, from Augustine down to Calvin, and from Calvin down to the present
day. But, to any impartial mind, we believe, this chapter will not be
found to lend the least shadow of support to any such scheme of doctrine.
We assume this position advisedly, and shall proceed to give the reasons
on which it is based.

Now, in the interpretation of any instrument of writing, it is a
universally admitted rule, that it should be construed with reference to
the