ostolic ministry, and, in
language too explicit to be misunderstood, the propitiation of
Christ is said to be for the sins "of the _whole_ world,"--while, in
exact agreement with the consolatory declaration that God
"delighteth not in the death of a sinner," the apostles of Christ
are commissioned to "preach the gospel to _every creature_,"--we are
taught by Calvinism, that the God of truth is only mocking the great
mass of his miserable creatures with a semblance of mercy, from
whose tenderness they are excluded, and with promises and
invitations which He never designed should be accepted by them. A
dark and unrelenting fate has already sealed their destiny, and
their perdition is rendered inevitable before they have committed
those offences for which, as if in derision, they are commanded to
repent, in order that they may escape the wrath of the Almighty.
Thus, in total disregard of all that is holy and majestic in the
character of the Deity, He is described as a Being invested with the
most detestable of Satanic attributes, assuming the gentle
affections of a father, only to exercise more effectually the wanton
power of a tyrant, and treacherously inviting our confidence and our
love, when, with such falsehood and cruelty, as the most debased of
his creatures would not be able to perpetrate, He is only preparing
victims for his inexorable malice.

Let it not be said, in opposition to this, that we are imperfect
judges, in any particular case, of the rectitude of the divine
procedures; that our ignorance renders our decision in such a case
daring and presumptuous. We are _not_ ignorant of what is meant
either by justice or mercy. These moral qualities are essentially
the same in nature, whether in created beings or in their Creator.
The only difference is in degree. In the Deity they are _infinite_;
and, if infinite justice and mercy are compatible with conduct
which, on a smaller scale, would expose a human being to eternal
infamy, then are we disqualified for all just conceptions of the
character of God. If wanton cruelty be consistent with Divine
compassion, then may deception be reconciled with inviolable faith,
and they, who deem themselves to be happy in the electing love of
God, may awake at last to the fearful discovery, that, having
indulged in the dream of special grace, they are only reserved for a
destiny still more terrible than others, whom they had abandoned as
reprobate to the sovereign wrath of God!