PREFACE

TO "THE WORLD TO COME."

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 consequents, 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 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 amongst them. These were some of the sharpest weapons of their holy warfare, which entered into the iamost 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.

It is for the same reason, that I have selected a few discourses, on these arguments, out of my public ministry, to set them before the eyes of the world in a more public manner, that if possible, some thoughtless creatures might be rouzed out of their sinful slumbers, and might awake into a spiritual and eternal life, through the concurring influences of the blessed Spirit.

I am not willing to disappoint my readers, and therefore I would let them know before-hand, that they will find very little, in this book, to gratify their curiosity about the many questions relating to the invisible world, and the things, which God has not plainly revealed: Something of this kind, perhaps, may be found in "Two Discourses of Death and Heaven," which I published long ago: But, in the present discourses, I have very much neglected such curious enquiries. Nor will the ear, that has an itch for controversy, be much entertained here, for I have avoided matters of doubtful debate. Nor need the most zealous man of orthodoxy, fear to be led astray into new and dangerous sentiments, if he will but take the plainest and most evident dictates of scripture for his direction into all truth.

My only design 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.

If this volume shall find any considerable acceptance among christians, there are several more discourses, on the same themes, lying by me, which may, in time, be communicated to the world.

The treatise, which is set as an introduction to this book, was printed several years ago, without the author's name, and there in a short preface, represented to the reader these few reasons of its writing and publication, viz.

The principles of atheism and infidelity have prevailed so far upon our age, as to break in upon the sacred fences of virtue and piety, and to destroy the noblest and most effectual springs of true and vital religion; I mean those which are contained in the blessed gospel. The doctrine of the resurrection of the body, and the consequent states of heaven and hell, is a guard and motive of divine force; but it is renounced by the enemies of our holy christianity: And should we give up the recompences of separate souls, while the deist denies the resurrection of the body, I fear, between both, we should sadly enfeeble, and expose the cause of virtue, and leave it too naked and defenceless. The christian would have but one persuasive of this kind remaining, and the deist would have none at all.

It is necessary, therefore, to be upon our guard, and to establish every ⚫motive, that we can derive, either from reason or scripture, to secure religion in the world. The doctrine of the state of separate spirits, and the commencement of rewards and punishment immediately after death, is one of those sacred fences of virtue, which we borrow from scripture, and it is highly favoured by reason, and therefore it may not be unseasonable to publish such arguments as may tend to the support of it.

In this second edition of this small treatise, I have added several paragraphs and pages, to defend the same doctrine, and the last section contains an answer to various new objections, which I had not met with when I first began to write on this subject. I hope it is set upon such a firm foundation of many scriptures, as cannot possibly be overturned, nor do I think it a very easy matter any way to evade the force of them. May the grace of God lead us on further into every truth, that tends to maintain and propagate faith and holiness. Amen.

Note, Where these discourses shall be used, as a religious service, in private families on Lord's-day evenings, each of them will afford a division near the middle, lest the service be made too long and tiresome.

1739.

THE WORLD TO COME;

OR

Discourses on the Joys or Sorrows of departed Souls at Death,

AND THE

GLORY OR TERROR OF THE RESURRECTION.

AN ESSAY

Toward a Proof of a Separate State of Souls between Death and the Resurrection,

AND

THE COMMENCEMENT OF THE REWARDS OF VIRTUE AND VICE IMMEDIATELY AFTER DEATH.

SECTION I.-The Introduction, or Proposal of the Question, with a Distinction of the Persons who oppose it.

IT is confessed, that the doctrine of the resurrection of the dead, at the last day, and the everlasting joys, and the eternal sorrows, that shall succeed it, as they are described in the New Testament, are a very awful sanction to the gospel of Christ, and carry in them such principles of hope and terror, as should effectually discourage vice and irreligion, and become a powerful attractive to the practice of faith, andlove, and universal holiness.

But so corrupt and perverse are the inclinations of men, in this fallen and degenerate world, and their passions are so much impressed and moved, by things that are present, or just at hand, that the joys of heaven, and the sorrows of hell, when set far beyond death and the grave, at some vast and unknown distance of time, would have but too little influence on their hearts and lives. And though these solemn and important events are never so certain in themselves, yet being looked upon as things a great way off, make too feeble an impression on the conscience, and their distance is much abused to give an indulgence to present sensualities. For this we have the testimony of our blessed Saviour himself; Mat. xxiv. 48. The evil servant says, my Lord delays his coming; then he begins to smite his fellow-servants, and to eat and drink with the drunken: And Solomon teaches us the same truth; Eccles. viii. 11. Because sentence against an evil work is not executed speedily; therefore the heart of the sons of men is fully set in them to do evil. And even the good servants, in this imperfect state, the sons of virtue and piety, may

be too much allured to indulge sinful negligence, and yield to temptations too easily, when the terrors of another world are set so far off, and their hope of happiness is delayed so long. It is granted, indeed, that this sort of reasoning is very unjust; but so foolish are our natures, that we are too ready to take up with it, and to grow more remiss in the cause of religion.

Whereas, if it can be made to appear, from the word of God, that, at the moment of death, the soul enters into an unchangeable state, according to its character and conduct here on earth, and that the recompences of vice and virtue are, in some measure, to begin immediately upon the end of our state of trial; and if, besides all this, there be a glorious and a dreadful resurrection to be expected, with eternal pain or eternal pleasure, both for soul and body, and that in a more intense degree, when the theatre of this world is shut up, and Christ Jesus appears to pronounce his public judgment on the world, then all those little subterfuges are precluded, which mankind would form to themselves, from the unknown distance of the day of recompence : Virtue will have a nearer and stronger guard placed about it, and piety will be attended with superior motives, if its initial rewards are near at hand, and shall commence as soon as this life expires; and the vicious and profane will be more effectually affrighted, if the hour of death must immediately consign them to a state of perpetual sorrows, and bitter anguish of conscience, without hope, and with a fearful expectation of yet greater sorrows and anguish.

I know what the opposers of the separate state reply here, viz. that the whole time from death, to the resurrection, is but as the sleep of a night, and the dead shall awake out of their graves, utterly ignorant and insensible of the long distance of time that hath past since their death. One year, or one thousand years, will be the same thing to them; and therefore they should be as careful to prepare for the day of judgment, and the rewards that attend it, as they are for their entrance into the separate state at death, if there were any such state to receive them.

I grant, men should be so in reason and justice: But such is the weakness and folly of our natures, that men will not be so much influenced, nor alarmed by distant prospects, nor so solicitous to prepare for an event, which they suppose to be so very far off, as they would for the same event, if it commences as soon as ever this mortal life expires. The vicious man will indulge his sensualities, and lie down to sleep in death with this comfort, "I shall take my rest here for a hundred, or a thousand years, and, perhaps, in all that space my offences may be forgotten, or something may happen that I may escape; or, let the worst come that can come, I shall have a long sweet nap before my sorrows