In other words, the Creator, having full power to make every mind perfect in nature, and who still has power to re‐create all with perfect natures, has instituted a system by which the sin of one man entails a depraved nature on a whole race, while the evil as yet has been remedied only in the case of a small, “elect” number. All the rest are doomed to eternal misery for conduct which is the certain consequence of this misformed nature. To save men from the punishment of the sins consequent on their depraved nature, Christ, the most perfect and only unsinning being that ever visited earth, undergoes deep humiliation and excruciating sufferings. To call such conduct as this _just_, or _kind_, or _merciful_, is a violation of all our ideas of the meaning of such terms. What kindness is there in giving existence to _any_ being on such terms? What blessings are all the comforts and enjoyments of this life, so soon to be snatched away, thus making the contrast of future misery so much the more horrible? What mercy is there in any mode of rectifying a wrong so needlessly inflicted? What mercy, or what justice is there in adding to all the miseries of our race the sufferings of so noble and lovely a being as Jesus Christ, when all, and more than all, effected by his agonies, could be so much more justly and reasonably secured by regenerating all the minds thus needlessly ruined in their nature? This strange and mysterious transaction only adds to the terror and gloom that shroud such a Creator, whose character can be learned only by the _nature_ of his works. To call all this a _mystery_ is a misuse of terms, for there is no mystery about it. More direct, clear, and open injustice, folly and malevolence, can not possibly be expressed in human language than that here set forth and ascribed to God. Every mind instinctively asks, why did not the Creator give us a perfect nature when he has the power to do so? Why does he not stop all the sin and misery resulting from the depraved nature of man by regenerating all, when he has power to do so? How can we either respect or love a being who has done such awful and endless wrong to our race, and for no conceivable good made known to us? What cause of gratitude for the sufferings and death of Christ to save the few of us who alone are to escape from such needless and intolerable evils? Meantime, the various theories invented to relieve the baleful impression thus made as to the character of our Creator, only add new difficulties. To say that this perpetuated mode of bringing ruined minds into existence, is a penalty for a single sin of the first pair, thousands of years ago, what a violation of all our ideas of justice! To say that this transaction is _just_ because Adam was “_regarded_” by God as “the federal head” of our race, and that he “imputes” the sin of the father to all his descendants, what is this, to our conceptions, but puerile folly added to the baldest cruelty and injustice?