THE WORLD TO COME; OR, DISCOURSES ON THE JOYS OR SORROWS OF DEPARTED SOULS at Death, AND THE GLORY OR TERROR OF THE RESURRECTION. BY ISAAC WATTS, D. D. AN ENTIRELY NEW EDITION. OXFORD: PRINTED AND PUBLISHED BY BARTLETT, NEWMAN, AND BARTLETT. PREFACE. AMONG all the solemn and important things which relate to religion, there is nothing that strikes the soul of man with so much awe and solemnity as the scenes of death, and the dreadful or delightful consequences which attend it. Who can think of entering into that unknown region where spirits dwell, without the strongest impressions upon the mind, arising from so strange a manner of existence? Who can take a survey of the resurrection of the millions of the dead, and of the tribunal of Christ whence men and angels must receive their doom, without the most painful solicitude, "What will my "sentence be?" Who can meditate on the intense and unmingled pleasure or pain in the world to come, without the most pathetic emotions of soul, since each of us must be determined to one of these states, and they are both of everlasting duration? These are the things that touch the springs of every passion in the most sensible manner, and raise our hopes and our fears to their supreme exercise. These are the subjects with which our blessed Saviour and his apostles frequently entertained their hearers, in order to persuade them to hearken and attend to the divine lessons which they published among them. These were some of the sharpest weapons of their holy warfare, which entered into the inmost vitals of mankind, and pierced their consciences with the highest solicitude. These have been the happy means to awaken thousands of sinners to flee from the wrath to come, and to allure and hasten them to enter into that glorious refuge that is set before them in the gospel. My design therefore has been to set the great and most momentous things of a future world in the most convincing and affecting light, and to enforce them upon the conscience with all the fervour that such subjects demand and require. And may our blessed Redeemer, who reigns Lord of the invisible world, pronounce these words with a divine power to the heart of every man who shall either read or hear them. The last discourses of this volume, especially The Eternity of the Punishments of Hell, have been in latter and former years made a matter of dispute; and were I to pursue my enquiries |