Men's own souls."[29] They are rather
something within us than something without us. Sin and hell have the
same origin, "the same lineage and descent." "The Devil is not only
the name of one particular thing, but a _nature_. He is not so much a
particular Being designed to torture wicked men in the world to come as
a hellish and diabolical {313} nature seated in the minds of men. . . .
Could the Devil change his foul and impure nature, he would neither be
a Devil nor miserable. . . . All Sin and Wickedness in man's spirit
hath the Central force and energy of Hell in it, and is perpetually
pressing down towards it as towards its own place. There needs no
fatal necessity or Astral influences to tumble wicked men down forcibly
into Hell: No, Sin itself, hastened by the mighty weight of its own
nature, carries them down thither with the most swift and headlong
motion."[30] "Would wicked men dwell a little more at home, and
_descend into the bottom of their own Hearts_ they would soon find Hell
opening her mouth wide upon them, and those secret fires of inward fury
and displeasure breaking out upon them."[31] So, too, the Kingdom of
Heaven is within. It lies not so much in external things, golden
streets and crowns, as in the quality and disposition of a man's mind.
The enjoying of God consists not so much in a change of place as in
participation in the nature of God and in assimilation to God. Nothing
can stand firm and sure, nothing can have eternal establishment and
abiding permanence that "hath not the everlasting arms of true Goodness
under it."[32]

In a very fine passage, in the noble discourse on "True Religion,"
Smith says: "I wish there be not among some such a light and poor
esteem of Heaven, as makes them more to seek after _Assurance of Heaven
onely in the Idea of it as a thing to come than after Heaven it self_;
which indeed we can never be well assured of untill we find it rising
up within ourselves and glorifying our own souls. When true Assurance
comes, Heaven it self will appear upon the Horizon of our souls, like a
morning light chasing away all our dark and gloomy doublings before it.
We shall not then need to light up our Candles to seek for it in
corners; no, it will display its own lustre and brightness so before us
that we may see it in its own light, and our souls the true possessours
of it." "Should a man hear a Voice from Heaven or see a Vision from
the Almighty to testifie unto him th