ruit of their election."(213) This proposition is deduced
by a Calvinistic divine from the "Westminster Confession of Faith." It is
also conceded, that if the same grace which is given to the elect, should
be bestowed upon the reprobate, they also would be saved.(214) Why, then,
is it not bestowed? Why this fearful limitation of the divine mercy? Can
the justice of God be manifested only at the expense of his mercy, and his
mercy only at the expense of his justice? Or, is the everlasting mercy of
God, that sublime attribute which constitutes the excellency and glory of
his moral nature, so limited and straitened on all sides, that it merely
selects here and there an object of its favour, while it leaves thousands
and millions, equally within its reach, exposed to the eternal ravages of
the spoiler? If so, then are we bound to conclude, that the mercy of God
is not infinite; that it is not only limited, but also partial and
arbitrary in its operation? But such is not the mercy of God. This is not
a capricious fondness, nor yet an arbitrary dictate of feeling; it is a
uniform and universal rule of goodness.

To select one here and there out of the mass of mankind, while others,
precisely like them in all respects, are left to perish, is not mercy; it
is favouritism. The tyrant may have his favourites as well as others. But
God is not a respecter of persons. If he selects one, as the object of his
saving mercy, he will select all who stand in the like condition;
otherwise, his mercy were no more mercy, but a certain capricious fondness
of feeling, unworthy of an earthly monarch, and much more of the august
Head and Ruler of the moral universe.

These views and feelings are not peculiar to the opponents of Calvinism.
They exist in the bosom of Calvinists themselves; only they are so crushed
beneath a system, that they cannot find that freedom of development, nor
that fulness of utterance, which so rightfully belongs to them, and which
is so essential to their entire healthfulness and beauty.

We shall give only one illustration of the justness of this remark,
although we might produce a hundred. After having endeavoured to vindicate
the mercy of God, as displayed in the scheme of predestination, Dr. Hill
candidly declares: "Still, however, _a cloud hangs over the subject_; and
there is a difficulty in reconciling the mind to a system, which, after
laying this foundation, that special grace is necessary to the production
of