The great consummation, when those that are hopelessly ruined will be separated from the good, is at an indefinite period ahead, and may be many ages, while the same process of labor and training are proceeding in the unseen world, and yet so that the conduct and character formed in this life have a _decided influence_ on the whole course of existence that follows.
Thus when the good man dies we may hope that his upward career is eternally secure. But when the wicked die there must be "a certain fearful looking for of judgment and fiery indignation."
The Creator does, has done, and will do _all that is __ possible_ to save all that _can_ be saved from this doom, and as the highest possible motives we can conceive to secure this end, would be the appearance of our Creator in human form as a teacher of his laws, an example of virtue and a self-sacrificing Saviour, we infer that he has done or will do this, at the time and in the manner which is best fitted to the great end in view.
The Augustinian system presents a view of the character and conduct of the Creator in mournful contrast to this.
Our only idea of a perfectly benevolent being is that of one who prefers happiness to suffering, and who does _all in his power_ to promote one and prevent the other. Our only idea of a malevolent being is, that he wills misery when he has full power to make happiness in its stead. Our only evidence of the _moral_ character of a being (or that exhibited in _willing_) is _the nature_ of his works. On the Augustinian theory, all the chief works of the Creator's hand, the immortal minds, which alone give value to any other existences, are depraved so totally that there is no really good act done by any one of them till created anew.
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.