Fourthly^ Prisons are dark and noisome places, not built for plea- sure, as other houses are, but for punishments ; so is hell, Jude, ver. 6. " Reserved in everlasting chains under darkness," as he there describes the place of torments, yea, outer darkness^ Matth. viii. 12. extreme or perfect darkness. Philosophers tell us of the darkness of this world, Non danticr puree tenebrcc, that there is no pure or perfect darkness here, without some mixture of light ; but there is not a glade of light, not a spark of hope or comfort shining into that prison.
Fifthly, Mournful sighs and groans are heard in prisons, PsaL xcvii. 11. Let the " sighing of the prisoners come before thee,'" saith the psalmist. But deeper sighs and more emphatical groans are heard in hell, " There shall be weeping and wailing, and gnashing " of teeth," Matth. viii. 12. Those that would not groan under the sense of sin on earth, shall howl under anguish and desperation in hell.
Sixtldy, There is a time when prisoners are brought out of the prison to be judged, and then return in a worse condition than be- fore, to the place from whence they came. God also hath appointed a day for the solemn condemnation of those spirits in prison. The scriptures call it " the judgment of the great day," Jude, ver. 6. from the great business that is to be done therein, and the great and solemn assembly that shall then appear before God.
But I will insist no longer upon the display of the metaphor ; my business is to give you a representation of the state and condition of damned souls in hell, and to assist your conceptions of them, and of their state.
It is a dreadful sight I am to give you this day ; but how much better is it to see, than to feel that wrath ? The treasures thereof
A TREATISE OF THE SOUL OF MAN. 133
shall shortly be broken up, and poured forth upon the spirits of men.
You had in the former discourse, a faint umbrage of the spirits of just men in glory ; in this you will have an imperfect represen* tation of the spirits of wicked men in hell : and look, as the former cannot be adequate and perfect, because that happiness surpasseth our knowledge ; so neither can this be so, because the misery of the damned passeth our fear.
l^he case and state of a damned spirit will be best opened in these following propositions.
Proposition 1. That the guilt of all sin gathers to, and settles in the conscience of every christless sinner, and makes up a vast treor- sure of guilt in the course of his life in this xoorld.
The high and awful power of conscience belonging to the un- derstanding faculty in the soul of man, was spoken to before, as to its general nature, and that conscience certainly accompanies it, and is inseparable from it, was there shewed ; I am here to con- sider it as the seat or centre of guilt, in all unregenerate and lost souls. For, look, as the tides wash up, and leave the slime and filth upon the shore, even so all the corruption and sin that is in the other faculties of the soul settle upon the conscience ; " Their " mind and conscience (saith the apostle) is defiled,*'"' Tit. i. 15. it is as it were, the sink of a sinner's soul, into which all filth runs and guilt settles.
The conscience of every believer is purged from its filthiness by the blood of Christ, Heb. ix. 14. his blood and his spirit purify it, and pacify it, whereby it becomes the region of light and peace : but all the guilt v/hich hath been long contracting, through the life of an unbeliever, fixes itself deep and fast in his conscience ; " It is " written upon the tables of their hearts, as with a pen of iron," Jer. xvii. 1. i. e. guilt is as a mark or character fashioned or en- graven in the very substance of the soul, as letters are cut into glass with a diamond.
Conscience is not only the principal engagee, obliged unto God as a judp;e, but the principal director and guide of the soul, in its courses and actions, and consequently, the guilt of sin falls upon it, and rests in it. The soul is both the spring and fountain of all ac- tions that go outward from man, and the term or receptacle of all actions inward ; but in both sorts of actions, going outward, and coming inward, conscience is the chief counsellor, guide, and di- rector in all, and so the guilt which is contracted either way, must be upon its head. It is the bridle of the soul to restrain it from sin ; the eye of the soul to direct its course ; and therefore is principally chargeable with all the evils of life. Bodily members are but in- struments, and the will itself, as high and noble a faculty or power
134 A TEEATISE OF THE SOUL OF MAN.
as it is, movetb not until the judgment cometh to a conclusion, and the debate be ended in the mind.
Now, in the whole course and compass of a sinner'^s life in this world, what treasures of guilt must needs be lodged in his consci- ence ? What a magazine of sin and filth must be laid up there ? It is said of a wicked man, Job xx. 11. " His bones are full of the '*• sins of his ^^outh ;" meaning his spirit, mind, or conscience, is as full of sin, as bones are of marrow: 3^ea, the very sins of his youth are enough to fill them : and Kom. ii. 5. they are said " to trea- " sure up wrath against the day of wrath," which is only done by treasuring up guilt ; for wrath and guilt are treasured up together in proportion to each other. Every day of his life vast sums have been cast into this treasury, and the patience of God waiteth till it be full, before he calls the sinner to an account and reckoning, Gen. XV. 16.
Prop. 2. All the sin and guilt, coJitracted upon the soids and co7i- sciences of ivipeiiltent men in this world, accompany and Jbllon) their depai'ted souls to judgment, and there bring them under the dreadful condemnation of the great and terrible God, whlclt cuts off all their hopes and comforts Jbr ever.
" If you believe not that I am he, you shall die in your sins.'" John viii. 24. And Job xx. 11. " His bones are full of the sins "of his youth, which shall lie down with him in the dust." No proposition lies clearer in scripture, or should lie with greater Aveight on the hearts of sinners : nothing but pardon can remove guilt ; but without faith and repentance there never was, nor shall be a pardon, Acts x. 43. Rom. iii. 24, 25. Luke xxiv. 46, 47. Look, as the graces of believers, so the sins of unbelievers follow the soul whithersoever it goes. All their sins who die out of Christ, cry to them when they go hence. We are thy works, and we •will follow thee. The acts of sin are transient, but the guilt and effects of it are permanent ; and it is evident by this, that in the great day, tlieir consciences, which are the books of records, where- in all their sins are registered, will be opened, and they shall be judged by them., and out of them. Rev. xx. 12.