The Project Gutenberg EBook of Hymns and Spiritual Songs, by Isaac Watts

This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or
re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.net

Title: Hymns and Spiritual Songs

Author: Isaac Watts

Release Date: August 31, 2004 [EBook #13341]

Language: English

Character set encoding: ASCII

*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK HYMNS AND SPIRITUAL SONGS ***

Produced by Lewis Jones.

HYMNS AND SPIRITUAL SONGS.

In Three Books.

1. Collected from the Scriptures.

2. Composed on Divine Subjects.

3. Prepared for the Lord's Supper.

By I. Watts, D.D.

Revelation 5, 9.
_And they sung a new song, saying, Thou art worthy, &c. for thou
wast slain, and hast redeemed us, &c._

Soliti essent (i.e. Christiani) convenire, carmenque Christo quasi
Deo dicere.
_Plin. In Epist._

Transcriber's Note.

There are significant differences in the numerous reprints of
Isaac Watts' "Hymns and Spiritual Songs." The first generation
of this Project Gutenberg file was from an 1818 printing by C.
Corrall of 38 Charing Cross, London.

The "Index" and the "Table of the Scriptures that are Turned into
Verse" are retained, and can be found at the end of the text. The
"Table to find any Hymn by the first Line," however, has been
omitted for the following reasons:
1. It refers to page numbers that are here expunged; and
2. In this electronic version first lines can be easily
located via searches.

There are 3 books of hymns, and numbers have been added to indicate
in which of these the hymns are placed. For example, "2:38" refers
to "Book 2, Hymn Number 38," and so on.

Throughout, modern numerals have been substituted for their Roman
equivalents.

Preface.

The following extracts from the Doctor's preface contain the
substance of his plan in the three different parts into which the
Hymns are divided; the whole would have exceeded the limits of a
small book.

"Far be it from my thoughts to lay aside the Book of Psalms in
public worship; few can pretend so great a value for them as
myself: it is the most noble, most devotional and divine collection
of poesy; and nothing can be supposed more proper to raise a pious
soul to heaven than some parts of that book; never was a piece of
experimental divinity so nobly