ment to be awarded them at the judgment of the great day, to which they are therefore kept, as in chains and prisons.

Fourthly, Prifons are dark and noifome places, not built for pleasure, as other houses are, but for punishment; fo is hell. Jude, ver. 6. "Referved in everlafting chains under darkness," as he there defcribes the place of torments, yea, utter dårkness, Matth. viii. 12. extreme or perfect darkness. Philofophers tell us of the darknefs of this world, Non dantur purae tenebrae, that there is no pure or perfect darknefs here, without fome mixture of light; but there is not a glade of light, not a spark of hope or comfort shining into that prison,

Fifthly, Mournful fighs and groans are heard in prifons: Pfal xcvii. 11. Let the " fighing of the prifoners come before thee," faith the pfalmift. But deeper fighs and emphatical groans are heard in hell," There fhall be weeping and wailing, and "gnashing of teeth," Matth. viii. 12. Thofe that could not groan under the sense of fin on earth, fhall howl under anguish and defperation in hell.

Sixthly, There is a time when prifoners are brought out of the prifon to be judged, and then return in a worse condition than before, to the place from whence they came. God alfo hath appointed a day for the folemn condemnation of those fpirits in prifon. The fcriptures call it "the judgment of the great day," Jude ver. 6. from the great bufinefs that is to be done therein, and the great and folemn affembly that shall then appear before God.

But I will infift no longer upon the difplay of the metaphor; my business is to give you a representation of the state and condition of damned fouls in hell, and to affist your conceptions of them, and of their state.

It is a dreadful fight I am to give you this day; but how much better is it to fee, than to feel that wrath? The treafures thereof shall fhortly be broken up, and poured forth upon the fpirits of men.

You had in the former difcourse, a faint umbrage of the fpitits of juft men in glory; in this you will have an imperfect reprefentation of the fpirits of wicked men in hell: and look, as the former cannot be adequate and perfect, becaufe that happiness surpalleth our knowledge; fo neither can this be fo, because the mifery of the damned paffeth our fear.

The cafe and state of a damned spirit will be belt opened in thefe following propofitions.

Propofition 1. That the guilt of all fin gathers to, and fettles
Cce

VOL. III.

in the confcience of every Chriftless finner, and makes up a vaft treasure of guilt in the course of his life in this world.

The high and awful power of confcience belonging to the understanding faculty in the foul of man, was fpoken to before, as to its general nature, and that confcience certainly accompanies it, and is infeparable from it, was there fhewed; I am here to confider it as the feat or centre of guilt, in all unregenerate and loft fouls. For look, as the tides wash up, and leave the flime and filth upon the shore, even fo all the corruption and fin that is in the other faculties of the foul, fettle upon the confcience. "Their mind and confcience (faith the apostle) is defiled," Tit. i. 15. it is, as it were, the fink of a finner's foul, into which all filth runs, and guilt fettles.

The confcience of every believer is purged from its filthiness by the blood of Christ, Heb. ix. 14. his blood and his spirit pu rify it, and pacify it, whereby it becomes the region of light and peace; but all the guilt which hath been long contracting, through the life of an unbeliever, fixes itself deep and faft in his **confcience; "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 engraven in the very fubftance of the foul, as letters are cut into glafs with a diamond.

Confcience is not only the principle engagee, obliged unto God as a judge, but the principal director and guide of the foul, in its courses and actions, and confequently, the guilt of all fin falls upon it, and refts in it. The foul is both the fpring and fountain of all actions, that go outward from man, and the term or receptacle of all actions in ward; but in both forts of actions, going outward, and coming inward, confcience is the chief counsellor, guide, and director in all, and fo the guilt · which is contracted either way, must be upon its head. It is the bridle of the foul, to restrain it from fin; the eye of the foul, to direct its courfe; and therefore is principally chargeable with all the evils of life. Bodily members are but inftruments, and the will itfelf, as high and noble a faculty or power as it is, moveth not, until the judgment cometh to a conclufion, and the debate be ended in the mind

Now, in the whole courfe and compass of a finner's life in this world, what treafures of guilt muft needs be lodged in his confcience? What a magazine of fin and filth must be laid up there? It is faid of a wicked man, Job xx, 11. "His bones are "full of the fins of his youth;" meaning his fpirit, mind, or confcience, is as full of fin, as bones are of marrow; yea, the very fins of his youth are enough to fill them and Rom. ii. 5.

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they are faid " to treasure up wrath against the day of wrath," which is only done by treasuring up guilt? for wrath and guilt are treafured up together in proportion to each other. Every day of his life vaft fums have been caft into this treasury, and the patience of God waiteth till it be full, before he calls the finner to an account and reckoning, Gen. xv. 16.

Prop. 2. All the fin and guilt, contracted upon the fouls and confciences of impenitent men in this world, accompanies and follows their departed fouls to judgment, and there brings them under the dreadful condemnation of the great and terrible God, which cuts off all their hopes and comforts for ever.

"If you believe not that I am he, you thall die in your fins," John viii. 24. And Job xx. 11. “ His bones are full of the fins "of his youth, which fhall lie down with him in the duft." No propofition lies clearer in fcripture, or fhould ly with greater weight on the hearts of finners: nothing but pardon can remove guilt; but without faith and repentance there never was, nor fhall be a pardon, Acts x. 43. Rom. iii. 24, 25. Luke xxiv. 46, 47. Look, as the graces of believers, fo the fins of unbelievers follow the foul whitherfoever it goes. All their fins who die out of Christ, cry to them when they go hence, We are thy works, and we will follow thee. The acts of fin are tranfient, but the guilt and effects of it are permanent; and it is evident by this, that in the great day, their confciences, which are the books of records, wherein all their fins are registred, will be opened, and they shall be judged by them, and out of them,

Rev. xx. 12.

The

Now, before that general judgment, every foul comes to its particular judgment, and that immediately after death of this I apprehend the apostle to speak in Heb. ix. 27" It is appointed for all men once to die, but after that the judgment.' foul is prefently ftated by this judgment in its everlasting and fixed condition. The foul of a wicked man appearing before God, in all its fin and guilt, and by him fenter ced, immediately it gives up all its hope, Prov. xi. 7. "When a wicked man "dieth, his expectation fhall perish; and the hope of the unjust "man perifheth," His ftrong hope perisheth, as fome read it, i. e. his strong delufion: for, alas, he took his own shadow for a bridge over the great waters, and is unexpectedly plunged into the gulph of eternal mifery, as Matth. vii. 22.

This perishing, or cutting off of hope, is that which is called Ccc 2

* Etiam fpes valentiffima, i. e. Even the strongest hope.

in fcripture the death of the foul, for fo long the foul will live, as it hath any hope. The deferring of hope makes it fick, but the fiual cutting off of hope ftrikes it quite dead, i. e. dead as to all joy, comfort, or expectation of any for ever, which is that death which an immortal fout is capable to fuffer: The righte ous bath hope in his death; but every unregenerate man in the world breathes out his laft hope in a few moments after his last breath, which strikes terror into the very centre of the foul, and is a death-wound to it

Prop. 3. The fouls of the damned are exceeding large and capacious fubjects of wrath and torment; and in their feparate fate their capacity is greatly enlarged both by laying asleep all those affections whofe exercije is relieving, and throughly awakening att thofe paffians which are tormenting.

The foul of man being by nature a spirit, an intelligent spis rit, and, in its fubftantial faculties, affimilated to God, whofe image it bears; it must, for that reafon, be exquifitely fenfible of all the impreffions and rouches of the wrath of God upon it, The fpirit of man is a molt tender, fenfible, and apprehensive creature; the eye of the body is not fo fenfible of a touch, a nerve of the body is not fo fenfible when pricked, as the spirit of man is of the leaft touch of God's indignation upon it. A "wounded fpirit who can bear?" Prov. xvii. 14. Other ex ternal wounds upon the body, inflicted either by man or God, are tolerable; but that which immediately touches the spirit of man, is infufferable: who can bear or endure it?

And as the spirit of man hath the most delicate and exquisite fenfe of mifery fo it hath a vaft capacity to receive, and let in the fulness of anguish and mifery into it: it is a large veffel, called, Rom. ix, 22. "A veffel of wrath fitted to deftruction." The large capacity of the foul is feen in this, that it is not in the power of all the creatures in the world to fatisfy and fill it: it can drink up, as one fpeaks, all the rivers of created good, and its thirst not quenched by fuch a draught; but after all, it' cries, Give, give. Nothing but an infinite God can quiet and fatisfy its appetite and raging thirst.

And as it is capable and receptive of more good than is found in all the creatures, fo it is capable of more mifery and anguish than all the creatures can inflict upon it. Let all the elements, of men on earth, yea, all the devils and damned in hell, confpire, and unite in a defign to torment man; yet when they have done all, his fpirit is capable of a farther degree of torment; a torment as much beyond it, as a rack is beyond a hard bed, or the tword in his bowels is beyond the fcratch of a pin. The devils

indeed are the executioners and tormentors of the damned; but if that were all they were capable to fuffer, the torment of the damned would be, comparatively, mild and gentle to what they are. Oh, the largenefs of the understanding of man, what will it not take into its vaft capacity!

But add to this, that the damned fouls have all those affections laid in a deep and everlasting deep, the exercifes whereof would be relieving, by emptying their fouls of any part of their mifery; and all thofe paffions throughly and everlastingly awakened, which increase their torments.

The affections of joy, delight and hope, are benumbed in them, and laid faft afleep, never to be awakened into act any more. Their hope, in fcripture, is faid to perish, i. e. it fo peritheth, that, after death, it fhall never exert another act to all eternity. The activity of any of thofe affections would be like a cooling gale, or refreshing spring, amidst their torments; but as Adrian lamented himself, Nunquam joces dabis, Thou shalt never be merry more.

And as thefe affections are laid alleep, fo their paffions are rouzed, and thoroughly awakened to torment them; so awaken. ed, as never to fleep any more. The fouls of men are fometimes jogged and ftartled in this world, by the words or rods of God, but prefently they fleep again, and forget all: but hereafter the eyes of their fouls will be continually held waking, to behold and confider their mifery; their understandings will be clear and moft apprehenfive; their thoughts fixed and determined; their confciences active and efficacious; and, by all this, their capacity to take in the fullest of their misery, enlarged to the utter moft.

Prop. 4. The wrath, indignation, and revenge of God poured out, as the just reward of fin, upon the fo capacious fouls of the damned, is the principal part of their mifery in hell.

In the third propofition I fhewed you, that the fouls of the damned can hold more mifery than all the creatures can inflict upon them. When the foul fuffers from the hand of man, its fuf ferings are but either by way of sympathy with the body; or if immediately, yet it is but a light stroke the hand of a creature can give: But when it has to do with a fin-revenging God, and that immediately, this ftroke cuts off the fpirit of man, as 'tis expreffed, Pfal. lxxxviii, 16. The body is the cloathing of the foul Moft of the arrows fhot at the foul in this world, do but stick in the cloaths (i. e.) reach the outward man: But in hell, the fpirit of man is the white at which God himself thoots. All his envepomed arrows ftrike the foul, which is, after death, laid bare