shall be no refuge from this tremendous tempest, nor falsehood any covert from this eternal storm. No false doctrines, nor false prophets, shall ever deliver any from this fire, or even themselves from the power of the flame, Isa, xlvii. 14. "They that go down into the pit cannot hope for thy truth."

18. God's absolute declaration to disannul and make void all such leagues and covenants, made with death and hell, seems to be another let or entanglement upon this universal restoration. "There are many devices in a man's heart;" this we know; nevertheless the counsel of the Lord that shall stand," both against the wicked and in behalf of the just: and there is nothing in all the predeterminate and revealed council of God that even countenances, much less supports, this universal restoration. There is no ground of hope for it in the eternal law, for not a tittle of that shall ever fail: it shall never fail of its being or existence; it shall never fail of its threatening, of it curse, of the wrath it reveals, nor the administration of eternal death. It is the ministration of death and condemnation; and the wages of sin, which thẹ law threatens, is sure, and eternally secured, to all that trust in it, are of the works of it, and die under it. Nor is there any ground of hope for this universal salvation from hell in the everlasting gospel, the awful sentence of which is eternal damnation; as it is written, "But he that shall blaspheme against the Holy Ghost hath never forgiveness, but is in danger of eternal damnation."

The words are much more forcible in the orignal, κ ̓ ἔχει ἄφεσιν εἰς τὸν αἰῶνα ἀλλ ̓ ἔνοχός ἐστιν αἰωνία κρίσεως, has no forgiveness to eternity, but is obnoxious to everlasting judgment, Mark iii. 29. Christ saves his people from going into hell, not out of it; he delivers them from going down to the pit by his ransom. But those whom God takes away with his stroke, and in his wrath, this ransom cannot deliver, Job xxxvi. 18; there remains no more sacrifice for sin to them. This covenant, which extends salvation to the damned, was never made by God, nor was it ever made with Christ: it was contrived many hundred years ago by the heathens, who were without God, and having no hope in the world; and was adopted as an article of faith into the popish church, after the Romans had cast off Christ and his yoke, and appointed themselves another head instead of him, namely, the son of perdition; and is called purgatory, of which the pope, we are told, keeps the keys, and out of which sinners are to come in answer to popish prayers, as they tell us; but, according to scripture, they are to come out when the eternal power and Godhead of Christ shall be no more; and when the eternal life, glory, and kingdom, of the saints is at an end; for these all bear one and the same eternal date. Nor will one person in the ever-blessed trinity ever have any hand in this restoration: not God the Father, for he is not the God of the dead, Matt. xxii. 32; nor Christ for they are none of his, Rom. viii. 9; nor the Holy Ghost,

for they have neither part nor lot in this matter, Acts viii. 21, and the world cannot receive him, John xiv. 17. Hence it appears plain that this covenant of restoration lies wholly with the ancient heathens, the papists, Mr. Winchester, and his confederates. But God will destroy it. "Judgment also will I lay to the line, and righteousness to the plummet; and the hail shall sweep away the refuge of lies, and the waters shall overflow the hiding place. And your covenant with death shall be disannulled, and your agreement with hell shall not stand; when the overflowing scourge shall pass through, then ye shall be trodden down by it." And wo be to them that are thus trodden down: "For I will tread them in mine anger, and trample them in my fury, for the day of vengeance is in mine heart." 66 They that go down into the pit cannot hope for thy truth."

19. The next wall of partition between the children of God and those of the devil is, the irreconcileable and eternal enmity that God has put between the woman's seed and the seed of the serpent, and between Christ and Satan. the dear Redeemer come into this world

Nor did

to make

up this breach; it is perez uzza still. No mediator was ever sent to stand in this gap. Christ came not to make up this breach; he came not to send peace upon the earth, but a fire; yea, a sword: and from henceforth there shall be five in one house, three against two, and two against three; and a man's foes shall be they of his own

house; yea, the father against the son, and the son against the father; the daughter against the mother, and the mother against the daughter, &c. &c. This enmity never was, nor ever shall be, slain; this breach shall never be healed; this perez uzza shall never be closed; nor shall any advocate, daysman, mediator, or intercessor, stand in this gap. Christ reconciled God to us, and us to God; and the elect Jews to the elect Gentiles; but he never reconciled the reprobate to God, nor God to them; no, nor the church to the world: so far from it, he declares that you shall be hated of all men for my name's sake. Jeremiah was ordered twice never to lift either prayer or cry in this breach, Jer. xvi. 11, 12.

up

No, the sin unto Neither Jeremiah,

death is not to be prayed for. Noah, Daniel, or Job, are sufficient for this work. This matter is settled by the threefold solemn oath of God, that neither Noah, Daniel, and Job, could ever turn, or altar, the mind of the Most High; nor should they deliver either son or daughter, but only their own souls, by their righte ousness, Jer. vii. 10, 11. 14; Ezekiel xv. 14. 16. 18. 20. And, as for Christ, he never undertook it, nor ever attempted it; and therefore it is not likely that Mr. Winchester should perform this strange work, or bring to pass this strange act, seeing "they that go down to the pit cannot hope for thy truth."

20. The threatened destruction of every false prophet hangs heavy upon this doctrine of salva

tion for reprobates and devils. If they are to be destroyed that preach it, they shall never be saved that believe it. And Mr. Winchester bids fair for this character; he appears not to have one beam of true light, the light that is in him being darkness, nor one grain of grace. He is an utter stranger to the fall of man, to his own depravity, to the spirituality of the law, to the terrible majesty of the Most High, and to all scripture and the power of God: what he knows he knows naturally, and in these things he corrupts himself. But God is in honour bound to stop the mouth of every gainsayer, to vindicate his own truth, and expose every liar, and to destroy every false prophet. "And, if the prophet be deceived, when he hath spoken a thing, I the Lord have deceived that prophet, and I will stretch out my hand upon him, and will destroy him from the midst of my people Israel, and they shall bear the punishment of their iniquity; the punishment of the prophet shall even be as the punishment of him that seeketh unto him." A lying prophet will contribute no more towards this universal restoration than the pope by his pretended release from purgatory, who is himself declared to be the son and heir of perdition. God will never set his seal to the lies of Plato and Virgil, nor upon those men who engraft the fables of heathens upon his everlasting gospel. "They that go down to the pit cannot hope for thy truth."

21. The law is made for the lawless and dis