Two discourses I. of the punishment of sin in hell, demonstrating the wrath of…

5. I add, as a Corollary from this, that Conscience, though it be thus naked and ⟨p. 97⟩open to God and his Wrath, yet it is so great a secluse, so fast and privy a Cabinet, so intimate a Power and Principle, in and unto the Soul it self; and so entirely reserved unto God himself, who is the Lord thereof: as it is not immediately subjicible to, or to be broke open by Creatures: No, not those who are superior Spirits to it, either Angels or Devils; they are not able to terrify the Conscience, until it hath been first made raw and tender by God. God only made the Heart, and God only knows the Heart, and God only can come at and strike at the root of the Heart. The Devils or Angels can come but into an outward Room, the Fancy, and cast in Images thereinto; the Fancy being the Souls Looking-glass, wherein it vieweth its own thoughts, and from which it takes off into it self the Species that are cast in there. Also they may stir bodily Passions (both which I have elsewhere shown) but they cannot enter into the Closet of the Soul. God only is intimior intimo nostro, as the Ancients express it; God only is greater than our Hearts, as the Apostle expresseth it. Conscience is a Book so fast clasped, as it is God's Prerogative alone to open it; which he then at that day will do: and ⟨p. 98⟩thereunto, that likewise may be applied, He openeth, and none shuts; and he shuts, and none opens. That Speech holds as true of Conscience, as of any other thing. And as it is a Book which he alone can open, so in which he alone can write over every Man's Sins, not with Ink, but with Wrath, which, like Aqua fortis, every letter of it shall eat into the Soul. According unto that in Job: Thou writest bitter things against me, and causest me to possess the Sins of my Youth, Job 13. 26. Let no Man therefore imagine, that Devils are the greatest Tormentors of Men, or of their Consciences in Hell: or if any would affirm it, I would demand, Who it is that torments the Consciences of Devils themselves? Certainly none but God. They now believing there is a God, do tremble; but in Hell they fear him, and for ever have to do with him. And it is as sure, that the same God, with whom those Spirits and their Consciences have for ever to do, the Consciences of Men shall also.