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FROM  THE  LIBRARY  OF 
REV.   LOUIS    FITZGERALD    BENSON.  D.  D. 

BEQUEATHED   BY  HIM  TO 

THE  LIBRARY  OF 

PRINCETON  THEOLOGICAL  SEMINARY 


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THE 


LIFE, 

TIMES,   AND    CORRESPONDENCE 


OF  THE 


REV.  ISAAC  WATTS,  D.D, 

BY  THE 

REV.    THOMAS    MILNER,    M.A. 

AUTHOR  OF  "  THE  SEVEN  CHUBCHES  OF  ASIA."' 

'E/^  iicffw  eKKXijaiWs-  vfii'tjcrio  ac. 

LONDON: 
SIMPKIN    AND    MARSHALL; 

THOMAS  RICHARDSON,  DERBY. 
1834. 


MINISTERS,  CHURCHES,  AND  CONGREGATIONS, 


IN  GREAT  BRITAIN,  IRELAND,  AND  AMERICA, 


IN  WHOSE  PUBLIC  AND  SOCIAL  WORSHIP 


THE  PSALMS  AND  HYMNS  OF  DR.  WATTS  ARE  USED, 


THE  FOLLOWING  MEMOIRS  OF  THE  CHRISTIAN 


PSALMIST  ARE  INSCRIBED, 


BY  THE  AUTHOR. 


PREFACE. 


The    following   pages   are   devoted   to   the 
personal    history,   ministerial    character,   and 
literary  labours  of  Dr.  Isaac  Watts.     Few 
names  in  the  annals  of  English  nonconformity, 
are  more  Avidely  known  or  more  deservedly 
honoured  —  the  instructor  of  our  early  years, 
the  guide  of  our  youth,  and  the  sweet  singer 
of  the  modern  Israel.     "  Of  Watts,"  says  the 
Rev.  Dr.  Dibdin,  "  it  is  impossible  to  speak 
without  veneration  and  respect.     His  Hymns 
are  the  charm  of  our  early  youth ;  his  Logic 
the  well-known  theme  of  school-boy   study ; 
and  his  Sermons,  Essays,  and  other  theological 
compositions,     are    a   source   of  never-failing 
gratification   in   the   advance,   maturity,    and 
decline  of  life.     The  man   at  four-score  may 
remember  with   gratitude,   the   advantage  of 


Vlll  PREFACE. 

having  committed  the  hymns  of  this  pious 
man  to  his  infantile  memory."  A  character 
so  admirable  and  holy,  truly  eV  /coVots  TrepiaaoTcpws 
for  the  good  of  mankind  upwards  of  half  a 
century,  ought  not  to  be  without  a  biographi- 
cal record.  Yet  it  has  long  been  a  subject  of 
surprise  and  regret,  not  only  with  the  dissent- 
ing churches,  but  with  the  pious  and  enlight- 
ened of  every  communion,  that  no  lengthened 
notice  of  the  Christian  Psalmist  has  been 
compiled. 

The  individual  best  qualified  for  such  a 
work,  by  personal  knowledge  and  frequent 
correspondence,  was  the  incomparable  Dodd- 
ridge ;  and  soon  after  the  doctor's  decease,  he 
engaged,  at  the  joint  request  of  Nathaniel 
Neal,  Esq.,  and  Lady  Abney,  to  write  memoirs 
of  his  friend.  But  either  an  unfounded  ap- 
prehension that  sufficient  materials  could  not 
be  procured,  or  the  appearance  of  that  '*  pale 
consumption"  which  soon  brought  him  to  the 
tomb,  prevented  the  execution  of  the  design. 
Mr.  Neal  observes  to  him  in  a  private  letter, 
"This  morning  I  was  with  Lady  Abney  on 
the  subject  of  your  writing  Dr.  Watts's  life; 
and  am  now  to  acquaint  you  with  her  senti- 


PREFACE.  IX 

ments  in  concurrence  with  my  own,  which 
are,  that  very  few  materials  are  likely  to  be 
found,  and  those  that  may  be  must  not  be 
communicated  to  you  immediately ;  Dr.  Jen- 
nings having  declined  writing  the  life,  merely, 
or  principally,  for  want  of  materials,  which  he 
has  inquired  for,  particularly  of  Lady  Abney. 
The  booksellers,  therefore,  must  have  patience, 
or  they  will  precipitate  us  into  a  crude  and 
imprudent  conduct.  In  the  meantime  be 
assured  we  shall  not  be  unmindful  of  assisting 
you ;  and  propose  you  should  take  an  oppor- 
tunity of  letting  Dr.  Jennings  know  in  a  letter, 
that  being  informed  he  and  Mr.  Price  have 
declined  it,  you  have  agreed  to  undertake  it, 
provided  you  can  be  furnished  with  any  mate- 
rials proper  for  the  purpose ;  and  the  rather, 
as  you  have  been  solicited  on  this  head  by 
some  of  your  friends  in  foreign  countries." 
Apart  as  Dr.  Watts 's  life  was  from  the  busy 
world,  owing  to  a  natural  love  of  retirement, 
and  the  frequency  of  affliction,  and  devoid  as 
it,  therefore,  might  be  of  striking  incident,  yet 
sufficient  information  might  have  been  ob- 
tained from  his  large  circle  of  friends  and 
extensive  correspondence,  to  have  formed  an 


X  PREFACE. 

interesting  and  instructive  narrative.  It  may 
be  unjust,  at  this  distance  of  time,  to  blame, 
though  it  is  difficult  to  exonerate  from  it,  the 
Doctor's  immediate  friends,  that  they  allowed 
a  scantiness  of  material  to  hinder  the  contem- 
])lated  tribute  to  his  memory  from  the  pen  of 
one  so  eminently  fitted  for  the  task. 

The  subsequent  accounts  of  Dr.  Watts  that 
have  appeared,  are  desultory  and  brief.  In 
noticing  these  I  prefer  adopting  the  language 
of  my  excellent  friend,  the  Rev.  John  Black- 
burn, of  Claremont  Chapel,  Pentonville,  from 
the  "Congregational  Magazine,"  Feb.  1832: 

"  The  most  considerable  account  of  Dr. 
Watts  appeared  in  1780,  from  the  pen  of  his 
friend.  Dr.  Thomas  Gibbons,  entitled  '  Me- 
moirs of  the  Rev.  Isaac  Watts,  D.  D.'  This 
octavo  volume  contains  information  enough 
to  hav'e  secured  a  most  interesting  memorial ; 
but  biography  was  certainly  not  Dr.  Gibbons's 
forte,  for  he  has  thrown  into  his  notes  what 
should  have  formed  the  text,  and  burdened  his 
narrative  with  long  papers  and  dry  criticisms, 
which,  if  published  at  all,  should  have  formed 
an  appendix,  or  appeared  in  the  notes. 

"The  Life  of  Watts,  by  the  great  Dr.  John- 


PREFACE.  XI 

son,  which,  considering  the  prepossessions  of 
the  author,  is  written  with  unusual  candour, 
and  in  his  most  beautiful  and  finished  style,  is 
better  adapted  to  his  poetical  than  his  mimsterial 
character.  In  1791,  the  Rev.  S.  Palmer,  of 
Hackney,  published  Dr.  Johnson's  Life,  'with 
notes  containing  animadversions  and  addi- 
tions, relating  to  Dr.  Watts's  character,  wri- 
tings, and  sentiments,  particularly  on  the 
trinity.'  This  also  was  an  unhappy  effort,  as 
the  notes  were  occasion all}'^  extremely  fastidi- 
ous, and  were  written  in  a  style  which  caused 
them  to  appear  to  great  disadvantage  beneath 
the  brilliant  Johnsonian  pages  they  were 
penned  to  censure.  At  a  later  period  Mr. 
Palmer  did  the  memory  of  Dr.  Watts  more 
justice,  by  the  publication  of  a  pamphlet,  en- 
titled *  Dr.  Watts  no  Socinian  :  a  refutation  of 
the  testimony  of  Dr.  Lardner,  as  brought  for- 
ward in  the  Rev.  T.  Belsham's  Memoirs  of  the 
late  Rev.  T.  Lindsey  ;'  and  which  for  ever  sets 
at  rest  the  question  respecting  Dr.  Watts's 
opinion  on  that  momentous  controversy. 

"  Perhaps  it  may  be  desirable  to  notice  the 
only  other  biographical  sketches  of  Dr.  Watts 
of  which  we    have   any    knowledge.     About 


XU  PREFACE. 

1779  there  appeared  two  octavo  volumes, 
entitled  *  The  Posthumous  Works  of  the  late 
reverend  and  learned  Isaac  Watts,  D.  D. : 
compiled  from  papers  in  possession  of  his  im- 
mediate successors,  and  adjusted  and  published 
by  a  gentleman  of  the  University  of  Cam- 
bridge.' This  work,  Dr.  Gibbons  says,  is 
principally  made  up  of  pieces  written  by  the 
doctor's  father,  and  here  attributed  to  his  more 
gifted  son,  merely  to  answer  the  purposes  of 
trade ;  and  may  be,  therefore,  regarded  as  '  a 
shameful  attempt  to  impose  upon  the  public/ 
The  *  Protestant  Dissenters'  Magazine,'  for 
February,  1795,  contains  a  brief  sketch  of  the 
doctor's  life,  which  does  not,  however,  supply 
much  additional  information  to  that  previously 
known." 

An  interesting  relic  of  Dr.  Watts  was  re- 
cently discovered,  which  throws  some  light 
upon  the  early  part  of  his  useful  career.  This 
is  a  MS.  in  his  own  hand-writing,  entitled 
"  Memorable  Affairs  in  my  Life."  It  consists 
often  small  pages,  containing  Memorajida  con- 
cerning himself  on  the  right  page,  and  Coinci- 
dents relating  to  contemporaneous  events  on 
the  opposite  page.     This  register  is  frequently 


PREFACE.  xiii 

cited  in  this  work,  and  it  is  a  subject  of  deep 
regret  that  it  is  only  brought  down  to  the  year 
1710. 

I  now  come  to  notice  the  present  perform- 
ance. Of  the  success  which  has  attended  my 
endeavours  to  do  justice  to  the  character  and 
labours  of  one  so  universally  esteemed,  it  be- 
comes not  me  to  speak  :  freely  and  frankly  do 
I  acknowledge  that  the  best  on  my  part  has 
been  done  ;  and,  with  reference  to  the  result, 
sincerely  do  I  say,  "  would  that  it  were  wor- 
thier." The  works  of  my  predecessors  have  of 
course  materially  assisted  me;  private  sources 
have  also  supplied  me  with  information  ;  and 
several  literary  friends  have  contributed  im- 
portant hints.  To  Joshua  Wilson,  Esq.,  of 
Highbury  Place,  and  the  Rev.  John  Black- 
burn, of  Pentonville,  London,  I  am  particu- 
larly indebted  for  the  loan  of  books:  to 
Professor  Partington  my  obligations  are 
due  for  admission  to  the  library  of  the 
London  Institution  :  to  the  late  Sir  Edmund 
Cradock  Hartopp,  of  Four-oaks  Hall,  War- 
wickshire, to  Edward  Smith,  Esq.,  of  Fins- 
bury  Square,  and  to  the  Trustees  of  the 
Red-cross-street    Library,    my    thanks     are 


XIV  PREFACE. 

tendered.  At  the  commencement  of  this 
work  the  writer  laboured  under  an  impres- 
sion, sanctioned  by  all  his  friends,  that  but 
few  materials  could  be  found  for  it :  this 
apprehension  proved  to  be  unfounded  :  but 
it  led  him  to  dwell,  perhaps,  too  largely  upon 
Dr.  Watts's  early  career,  which  rendered  it 
necessary  that  some  valuable  letters  and 
papers  should  be  omitted  at  the  close,  lest 
the  size  of  the  volume  should  be  increased. 
Should  a  second  edition  be  called  for  this 
error  will  be  corrected.  It  may  also  be 
necessary  to  add,  that  the  appearance  of  this 
Memoir  has  been  delayed  by  the  frequent 
recurrence  of  sickness,  which  at  one  period 
rendered  it  probable  that  the  present  publi- 
cation would  be  posthumous  :  this  statement 
may  be  a  sufficient  apology  for  some  trivial 
errors  that  have  escaped  correction  :  the  con- 
finement of  a  sick  chamber  is  not  favourable 
to  literary  exactness. 

The  portrait  of  Dr.  Watts,  prefixed  to  this 
work,  is  engraved  from  an  original  painting 
in  the  possession  of  Edward  Smith,  Esq.,  of 
Finsbury  Square,  London.  It  was  formerly 
in  the  possession  of  Sir  Thomas  Abney,  and 


PREFACE.  XV 

has  been  pronounced  by  competent  judges  a 
production  of  Sir  Peter  Lely's.  Dr.  Gibbons, 
in  the  preface  to  his  Life  of  Watts,  refers  to 
an  "  original  painting  of  him  lately  become 
the  possession  of  Mrs.  Elizabeth  Abney"  — 
"this  painting,"  he  remarks,  "gave  me  the 
best  likeness  of  him  1  had  ever  before  seen." 
From  Mrs.  E.  Abney  it  passed  into  the  pos- 
session of  the  family  of  Dr.  Gibbons,  who 
bequeathed  it  to  the  Rev.  Josiah  Lewis.  He 
left  it  by  will  to  his  wife  during  her  life,  and 
at  her  death  to  Mr.  B.  Button,  from  whom  it 
was  purchased  by  Mr.  Smith,  the  present  pro- 
prietor. To  this  gentleman  I  am  obliged  for 
this  information,  as  well  as  for  the  use  of  the 
picture. 

The  writer  may  be  allowed  to  express  a 
hope,  that  the  example  of  sanctified  talent  he 
has  endeavoured  to  depict  will  be  of  some  little 
use  —  to  himself  he  trusts  his  labour  has  not 
been  in  vain  —  nor  will  it  to  the  reader,  if 
he  is  led  to  imitate  the  subject  of  these  pages 
in  faith,  in  patience,  and  in  devotion, 

"Who  bravely  suffer'd,  and  who  nobly  dy'd." 

Wigston  Magna,  near  Leicester,  July  12,  1834. 


CHRONOLOGICAL  LIST  OF  DR.  WATTS'S  WORKS,  WITH  REFER- 
ENCES TO  THE  PAGES  OF  THIS  VOLUME  IN  WHICH  AN  AC- 
COUNT OF  THEM  IS  GIVEN. 

1.  1705.    Horse  Lyricae ;  Poems  chiefly  of  the  Lyric  kiud,  iu  three  books  238—255 

2.  1707.    Essay  against  Uncharitableness,  whereiu  the  secret  springs   of  that 

Vice  are  traced,  and  the  mischievous  effects  of  it  briefly  surveyed 
212—214 

3.  1707.    A  Sermon  preached  at  Salter's  Hall  to  the  Societies  for  Reformation  of 

Manners  in  tlie  cities  of  London  and  Westminster   214 — 216 

4.  1707.    Hymns  and  Spiritual  Songs,  in  three  books 255 — 289 

5.  1716.     A  Guide  to  Prayer;  or,  a  free  and  rational  Account  of  the  gift,  grace, 

and  spirit  of  Prayer;  with  plain  Directions  how  every  Christian  may 
attain  them  314 — 318 

6.  1718.     The  Psalms  of  David  Imitated  iu  the  Language  of  the  New  Testa- 

ment, and  applied  to  the  Christian  State  and  Worship    .  .334 — 359 

7.  1720.    Divine  Songs  attempted  in  easy  language,  for  the  use  of  Children 

372—377 

8.  1720.     The  Art  of  Reading  and  Writing  English   378 

9.  1721.     Sermons  on  Various  Subjects,  vol.  ] 378 — 380 

10.  1721.     The  Christian  Doctrine  of  the  Trinity;  or,  Father,  Son,  and  Spirit, 

Three  Persons  and  one  God  asserted  and  proved ;  with  their  divine 
rights  and  honours  vindicated  by  plain  evidence  of  scripture,  with- 
out the  aid  or  incumbrance  of  human  schemes 380,  583 

11.  1722.     Death   and   Heaven,  or   the  last   Enemy  conquered,  and  separate 

Spirits   made    perfect,    attempted    in    two    Funeral  Discourses,   in 
Memory  of  Sir  John  Hartopp,  Baronet,  and  his  Lady  . . .  .382 — 385 
B 


xviii  CHRONOLOGICAL  LIST  OF  WORKS. 

12.  1723.     Sermons,  vol.  2 386,  387 

13.  1721.     The  Allan  invited  to  the  OrtliodoxFaitli :  or,  a  plain  and  easy  Method 

to  lead  sucli  as  deny  the  proper  Deity  of  Christ  into  the  belief  of 
that  great  article.     Three  Dissertations ^ . .  .380,  586 

14.  1721.     Logic;  or,  the  Right  Use  of  Reason  in  the  Inqniry  after  Truth;  with  a 

variety  of  Rules  to  guard  against  Error  iu  the  Aft'airs  of  Religion  and 
Ilumaa  Life,  as  well  as  iu  the  Sciences 387 — 389 

15.  1725.     Four  Dissertations  relating  to  the  Christian  Doctrine  of  the  Trinity,  589 

16.  1725.     Tlie  Knowledge  of  the  Heavens  and  the  Eartii  made  easy;  or,  the  First 

Principles  of  Astronomy  and  Geography  explained  by  the  use  of 
Globes  and  Maps.     Written  for  the  use  of  Learners 398 

17.  1725.     A  Discourse  on  the  Education  of  Children  and  Youth 399 

18.  1725.     Prayers  composed  for  the  Use  and  Imitation  of  Children,  suited  to 

their  dilferent  ages  and  their  various  occasions;  together  with  In- 
structions to  Youth  in  the  Duty  of  Prayer 399 

19.  1726.     A  Defence    against   the  Temptations    to   Self-murder,    wherein  the 

criminal  Nature  and  Guilt  of  it  are  displayed  ;  together  with  some 
Reflections  on  Excess  iu  strong  Liquors,  Duelling,  and  other  Prac- 
tices akin  to  this  heinous  Sin 420 — -122 

20.  1727.     The  Religious  Improvement  of  Public  Events,  a  Sermon  preached  at 

Bury  Street,  on  occasion  of  the  death  of  George  L,  and  the  peaceful 
succession  of  George  II 419,  420 

21.  1727.     Sermons,  vol.  3 426 

22.  1728.     An  Essay  towards  the  Encouragement  of  Charity-schools,  particularly 

those  which  are  supported  by  Protestant  Dissenters,  for  teaching  the 
children  of  the  poor  to  Read  and  M'ork ;  together  with  some  Apology 
for  those  Schools  which  instruct  them  to  write  a  Plain  Hand  and  fit 
them  for  Service,  or  for  the  meaner  Trades  and  Labours  of  Life;  to 
which  is  prefixed  an  Address  to  the  Supporters  of  those  Schools 
429—432 

23.  1728.     A  Book    of  Catechisms,  complete:   containing   (1.)  A  Discourse  of 

Catechisms,  how  to  write  and  judge  of  them  ;  (2.)  The  First  Set  of 
Catechisms  and  Prayers  for  young  Children  of  Four  or  Five  Years  of 
Age  ;  (3.)  The  Second  Set  of  Catechisms  and  Prayers  for  Children 
of  Eight  or  Nine  Years  of  Age;  (4.)  The  Assembly's  Catechism,  with 


CHRONOLOGICAL  LIST  OF  WORKS.  xix 

Notes  for  Children  of  Ten  or  Twelve  Years  of  Age;  (5.)  A  Pre- 
servative from  the  Sins  and  Follies  of  Childhood  and  Youth, 
written  by  Way  of  Question  and  Answer;  to  which  is  added  a 
large  Catalogue  of  Remarkable  Scripture  Names,  collected  for  the 
use  of  Children 433—435 

24.  1729.     A  Caveat  against   Infidelity,  or  the  Danger  of  Apostacy   from  the 

Christian  Faith ;  with  an  Answer  to  some  Queries  concerning  the 
Salvation  of  the  Heathens,  and  the  Hope  of  the  modern  Deists 
upon  Pretences  to  Sincerity 436 — 438 

25.  1729,     The  Doctrine  of  the  Passions  explained  and  improved;  or,  a  brief  and 

comprehensive  Scheme  of  the  natural  Affections  of  Mankind,  and 
an  Account  of  their  Names,  Nature,  Appearances,  Effects,  and  dif- 
ferent Uses  in  Human  Life;  to  which  are  subjoined  Moral  and 
Divine  Rules  for  the  regulation  or  government  of  them..  .439 — 441 

26.  1729.     Discourses  ou  the  Love  of  God,  and  the  Use  and  Abuse  of  the  Passions 

in  Religion ;  with  a  devout  Meditation  annexed  to  each  Discourse. 
440,  441 

27.  1730.     A  Short  View  of  the  whole  Scripture  History,  with  a  Continuation  of 

the  Jewish  Affairs,  from  the  end  of  the  Old  Testament  to  the 
coming  of  Christ ;  illustrated  with  various  Remarks  ou  the  Laws, 
Government,  Sects,  Customs,  and  Writings  of  the  Jews,  and 
adorned  with  figures , 441 

28.  1731.     An  Humble  Attempt  towards  the  Revival  of  Practical  Religion  among 

Christians,  and  particularly  the  Protestant  Dissenters,  by  a  serious 
Address  to  Ministers  and  People,  in  some  occasional  Discourses. 
475,  476 

29.  1731,     The  Strength  and  Weakness  of  Human  Reason;    or,  the  important 

Question  about  the  Sufficiency  of  Reason  to  conduct  Mankind  to 
Religion  and  Future  Happiness,  argued  between  an  Inquiring 
Deist  and  a  Cliristian  Divine,  and  the  Debate  compromised  and 
determined  to  the  satisfaction  of  both 476 — 478 

30.  1732.     Philosophical  Essays  on  Various  Subjects  :  namely.  Space,  Substance, 

Body,  Spirit;  the  Operations  of  the  Soul  in  Union  with  the  Body; 
Innate  Ideas;  Perpetual  Consciousness;  Place  and  Motions  of 
Spirits;  the  Departing  Soul;  the  Resurrection  of  the  Body;  tlie 
Production  and  Operation  of  Plants  and  Animals ;  with  some  Re- 
marks on  Mr.  Locke's  Essay  on  the  Human  Understanding.  To 
which  is  subjoined  a  Brief  Scheme  of  Outology,  or  the  science  of 
Being  in  General,  with  its  Affections 478 — 480 


jDC-  CHRONOLOGICAL  LIST  OF  WORKS. 

31.  1733.     Several  Sermons  in  the  Bury-street  Collection  of  Discourses  by  eminent 

ministers 482 — 18G 

32.  1734.     Reliquiae  Juveniles,  Miscellaneous  Thoughts  in  prose  and  verse..  .487 

33.  1735.     The  Redeemer  and  the  Sanctifier;  or,  the  Sacrifice  of  Christ  and  the 

Operations  of  the  Spirit  vindicated  ;  with  a  free  Debate  about  the 
importance  of  those  doctrines 488 

34.  1737.     Humility  represented  in  the  cliaracter  of  St.  Paul,  the  chief  springs  of 

it  opened,  and  its  various  advantages  displayed 527 

35.  1738.     The  Holiness  of  Times,  Places,  and  People,  under  the  Jewish  and 

Christian  dispensations,  considered  in  several  Discourses  on  the 
Sabbath,  the  Temple,  Churches,  Meeting-Houses,  &c 532 

36.  1739.     The  World  to  Come  ;   or.  Discourses  on  the  Joys  and  Sorrows  of  de- 

parted souls  at  Death,  and  the  Glory  or  Terror  of  the  Resurrection ; 
to  which  is  prefixed  an  Essay  towards  the  proof  of  a  Separate  State 
of  Souls  after  Death,     vol.1 608 

37.  1739.     An  Essay  on  Civil  Power  in  Things  Sacred  j  or,  an  Inquiiy  after  an 

established  Religion  consistent  with  the  just  Liberties  of  Mankind, 
and  practicable  under  every  Form  of  Civil  Government    610 

38.  1739.     Self-love  and  Virtue  reconciled  only  by  Religion ;  or,  an  Essay  to  prove 

that  the  only  effectual  obligation  of  mankind  to  practise  Virtue 
depends  on  the  existence  and  will  of  God ;  together  with  an  occa- 
sional proof  of  the  Necessity  of  Revelation 612 

39.  1740.     The  Ruin  and  Recovery  of  Mankind  ;  or,  an  Attempt  to  vindicate  the 

Scriptural  Account  of  these  great  Events  upon  the  plain  Principles 
of  Reason  ;  with  an  Answer  to  various  Difficulties  relating  to 
Original  Sin,  the  Universal  Depravation  of  Nature,  and  the  over- 
spreading Curse  of  Death  ;  general  Offers  of  Grace  to  all  Men,  and 
the  certain  Salvation  of  some;  the  Case  of  the  Heathen  Nations, 
and  the  State  of  Dying  Infants.  To  which  are  subjoined  three 
short  Essays    613 

40.  1710.     Questions    proper    for     Students    in    Divinity,    candidates    of   the 

ministiy 621 

41.  1741.     The  Improvement  of  tiie  Mind;  or,  a  Supplement  to  the  Art  of  Logic: 

containing  a  Variety  of  Remarks  and  Rules  for  the  Attainment  and 
Communication  of  useful  Knowledge  in  Religion,  in  the  Sciences, 
and  in  Common  Life 622 


CHRONOLOGICAL  LIST  OF  WORKS.  xxi 

42.  1742.     The  Harmony  of  all  the  Religions  which  God  ever  prescribed,  con- 

taining a  Brief  Survey  of  the  several  public  Dispensations  of  God 
towards  Man,  or  his  appointment  of  different  Forms  of  Religion  in 
successive  ages    624 

43.  1745.     The  World  to  Come,  2ud  vol 672 

44.  1745.     Orthodoxy  and  Charity  united,  in  several  reconciling  Essays  on  the 

Law  and  Gospel,  Faith  and  Works 674 

45.  1746,     Useful  and  Important  Questions  concerning  Jesus  the  Son  of  God 

freely  proposed ;  with  an  humble  Attempt  to  answer  them  ac- 
cording to  Scripture    593 

46.  1746.     The  Glory  of  Christ  as   God-Man  displayed  in  Three  Discourses. 

( I .)  A  Survey  of  the  Visible  Appearances  of  Christ  as  God  before  his 
Incarnation,  with  some  Observations  on  the  Texts  of  the  Old  Testa- 
ment applied  to  Christ.  (2.)  An  Inquiiy  into  the  extensive  Pow- 
ers of  the  Human  Nature  of  Christ  in  its  present  glorified  State, 
with  several  Testimonies  annexed.  (3.)  An  Argument  tracing  out 
the  early  F.xistence  of  the  Human  Soul  of  Christ,  even  before  the 
Creation  of  the  World.  With  an  Appendix  containing  an  Abridg- 
ment of  Doctor  Thomas  Goodwin's  Discourse  of  the  "  Glories  and 
Royalties  of  Christ,"  in  his  Works  in  folio,  vol.  ii.  b.  3.  ... ,  ,t  598 

47.  1746.     An  Essay  on  the  Freedom  of  the  Will  in  God  and  in  Creatures,  and 

on  various  Subjects  connected  therewith :  namely,  The  Ideas  of 
Liberty  and  Necessity ;  the  Causes  of  the  Determination  of  the 
Will;  the  Use  of  the  Understanding  to  direct,  not  determine  it; 
the  Liberty  of  God  as  a  Creator,  a  Governor,  and  a  Benefactor; 
the  Doctrine  of  Fatality;  the  Spring  of  Moral  Good  and  Evil;  the 
Difference  between  Moral  and  Positive  Laws;  the  Sin  and  Fall  of 
Man,  and  the  Free  Grace  of  God;  the  Rewardableness  of  Faith  in 
the  Gospel,  and  the  criminal  Nature  of  Infidelity 681 

48.  1747.     Evangelical  Discourses  on  Several  Subjects ;    to  which  is  added  an 

Essay  on  the  Powers  and  Contests  of  Flesh  and  Spirit 681 

49.  1747.     The  R,ational  Foundation  of  a  Christian  Church,  and  the  terms  of 

Christian  Communion  ;  to  which  are  added  Three  Discourses :  (1.)  A 
Pattern  for  a  Dissenting  Preacher;  {2.)  The  Office  of  Deacons; 
(3.)  Invitations  to  Church  Fellowship 682 


CHRONOLOGICAL  LIST  OF  THE  LETTERS  IN  THIS  VOLUME. 

I680,  May  2L  Mr.  Isaac  Watts,  Sen.  to  liis  children 36—44 

1G93,  Feb.  Epistola  Fiatri  suo  dilecto  K.  W.     I.  W.    S.  P.  D.  .  .119— 122 

1696,  May  30.  Mr.  Jolm  Hughes  to  Mr.  Isaac  Watts     156—158 

1697,  Nov.  6.  The  Same  to  Mr.  Samuel  Say    131 

The  Same  to  Mr.  Isaac  Watts 173—176 

1698,  To  David  Polhill,  Esq 176 

1699,  Jan.  11.  Mr.  Samuel  Say  to  Mr.  John  Hughes    132 

1700,  March.  From  Mr.  Enoch  Watts    176—170 

1701,  July.  ToLadyAbuey     179—181 

1702,  Dec.  26.  Mr.  John  Hughes  to  Mr.  Samuel  Say     133—136 

No  date.  Dr.  Owen  to  Lady  Hartopp   1 53 

No  date. to  Charles  Fleetwood,  Esq 154 

1683,  Aug.  22. to  the  Same    155 

No  date. to  Sir  John  Hartopp     156 

1702,  Feb.  8.  To  the  Church  of  Christ  assembling  in  Mark  Lane,  London. 

181—187 

Feb.  26.  From  the  Rev.  T.  Rowe's  church,  to  the  Church  of  Christ,  of 

which  the  Rev.  Dr.  Chauucey  was  lately  Pastor 187 

No  date.  To  the  church  at  Mark  Lane 187 

No  date.  To  Mr.  Enoch  Watts     189—198 

1704,  June  15.  To  Sarah  and  Mary  Watts     225 

1705,  Aug.  24.  To  Henry  Bendish,  Esq 226 

1707,  Dec.  22.  To  the  Rev.  John  Shower 227 

1708,  Dec.  23.  To  the  Rev.  Samuel  Say    228 

1709,  March  12.  To  the  Same    229 

Nov.  1.  To  the  Same   231 

1711,  Nov.  18.  From     ]\Ir.    Seeker,    afterwards    Archbishop    of    Canterbury 

232—237 

1712,  Aug.  19.  To  the  Spectator   325—327 

No  date.  To  the  Church  of  Christ  meeting  in  Bury  Street,  of  which  the 

Holy  Ghost  has  made  me  Overseer     327 — 331 

1718,  Jan.  11.  From  Lord  Barriugton    332 

1719,  Jan.  9.  To  Sir  Richard  Blackmore,  Kut 333 

1721,  May  26.  From  the  Rev.  Joseph  Stauden 399—101 

July  8.  From  Lord  Barrington 401—404 

1722,  March  10.  From  Lady  Mary  Levelt     404 

Aug.  4.  To  the  Rev.  Hubert  Stogdon    405— 41 1 

April  7.  To  the  Rev.  Samuel  Rosewell    411 

May  24.  To  Mrs.  Rosewell     -112 

1724,  Jan.  23.  From  Lord  Barrington  413 

Aug.  18.  From  the  Same  m  •  •  •< "^^^ 


CHRONOLOGICAL  LIST  OF  LETTERS,  xxiii 

1725,  June.  From  Lord  Barrington 416 — 418 

172G,  Jan.  21.         From  Sir  Gilbert  Elliot 443 

March  6,       To  Mrs.  Rosewell     444 

Oct.  29.        From  Mr.  Robert  Porter 445—451 

1727,  Feb.  2.  To  the  Rev.  Samuel  Say    451 

Feb.  29.        From  the  Rev.  Daniel  Mayo    452—454 

March  4.      From  Sir  Gilbert  Elliot   454 

Aug.  10.        To  the  Rev.  Samuel  Say    455 

Sept.  12.      To  the  Same    456 

Nov.  8.  From  Sir  Gilbert  Elliot 456 

1728,  April  11.       To  the  Rev.  Samuel  Say 457—459 

Sept.  12.       From  Professor  Greenwood,  A.M 459 

1729,  Feb.  23.         From  the  Countess  of  Hertford 464 

Nov.  8.         From  the  Rev.  Philip  Doddridge,  D.D 465—467 

Nov.  22.       From  the  Same    , 468 

1730,  Jan.  8.  From  the  Hon.  Jonathan  Belcher   4G9— 471 

1731,  Feb.  4.  From  Lord  Barrington 489 

April  30.        From  the  Bishop  of  London  490 

May  17.        From  the  Countess  of  Hertford 491 

May  From  the  Rev.  P.  Doddridge,  D.D 492—494 

Aug.  3.  From  the  Countess  of  Hertford 495 

1732,  Feb.  23.         From  the  Rev.  Messrs.  Hunt,  Drake,  and  Doddridge 496 

March  7.       From  the  Bishop  of  Loudon 498 

Aug.  12.       From  Zabdiel  Boylston,  M.D 498 — 500 

Oct.  20.        From  the  Hon.  Jonathan  Belcher 500 

1733,  Dec.  28.         From  Samuel  Holden,  Esq 502 

1734,  Jan.  22.         From  the  Bishop  of  London 502 

Feb.  9.  From  the  Countess  of  Hertford 503 

April  8.         From  the  Same   504 

July  14.        From  the  Bishop  of  London 505 

Nov.  1.         To  William  Duncombe,  Esq 505 507 

Dec.  16.        From  Edward  Cave,  Esq 5O7 

Dec.  26.        To  Edward  Cave,  Esq 5O8 51 1 

1735,  Jan.  19.        From  the  Bishop  of  London 5II 

Jan.  21.        To  a  Friend 522 

Feb.  22.        From  the  second  Lord  Barrington    514 

March  11.    From  Edward  Cave,  Esq 5I5 

April  —        From  the  Countess  of  Hertford 5I6 

May  23.        To  William  Duncombe,  Esq 517 

Oct.  24.        From  the  Hon.  Jonathan  Belcher 5I9 

1736,  Jan.  17.        From  the  Rev.  George  Thompson     537 

Jan.  28.        To  the  Rev.  Samuel  Say    538 

Feb.  12.        From  the  Rev.  Benjamin  Colmau,  D.D 538 543 

May  24.        Fiom  Mr.  Elisha  Williams   543 545 


xxiv  CHRONOLOGICAL  LIST  OF  LETTERS. 

1736,  Nov.  29.  From  the  Hon.  Jonathan  Belcher    518—550 

Oct.  29.  From  the  Rev.  F.  M.  Ziegeuhagen 550—552 

Dec.  17.  From  the  Rev.  Benjamin  Colman,  D.D 5.52 559 

1737,  Feb.  8.  From  Dr.  Watts  to  his  Fatlier 53 

April  13.  From  the  Countess  of  Hertford 5,59 

April  23.  From  the  Bishop  of  London   561 

May  2.  From  the  Countess  of  Hertford    5G1— 503 

July  13,  From  the  Same    564 

Aug.  1.  From  the  Hon.  Jonathan  Belcher    506-569 

Aug.  17.  From  the  Countess  of  Hertford 509 

Oct.  27.  From  the  Same     509 

Nov.  30.  From  the  Rev.  F.  M.  Ziegeuhagen 570—573 

Dec.  9.  From  the  Same 573 — 575 

Dec.  10.  From  the  Hon.  Jonathan  Belcher 576 

1738,  June  6.  From  the  Countess  of  Hertford    577—579 

Aug.  8.  From  the  Same    579 

1739,  Jan.  17.  From  the  Same 630—632 

May  19.  From  the  Same    633 

June  7.  From  the  Same    634 

June  10.  From  the  Same    635 

July  30.  From  the  Same    636 

Aug.  15.  To  the  Bishop  of  London 637—640 

Aug.  20.  From  the  Rev.  Benjamin  Colman,  D.D 640—645 

Aug.  21.  From  the  Bishop  of  London   645 

Sept.  10.  From  the  Countess  of  Hertford 647 

Oct.  16.  From  the  Archbishop  of  York    648 

Oct.  20.  From  the  Hon.  Jonathan  Belcher 649 

Nov.  28.  From  the  Countess  of  Hertford 650 

1740,  Jan.  16.  From  the  Rev.  Benjamin  Colman,  D.D 651 — 655 

April  23.  From  the  Rev.  P.  Doddridge,  D.D 656—661 

1741,  May  20.  From  the  Hon.  Jonathan  Belcher 662 

June  6.  From  the  ISishop  of  Loudon    664 

June  19.  From  the  Bishop  of  0.\ford     664 

1742,  July  12.  From  the  Bishop  of  London    665 

1743,  Sept.  14.  From  the  Bishop  of  Oxford    666 

Dec.  15.  From  the  Arclibishop  of  Tuam 667 

1745,  March  2.  From  the  Bishop  of  London 683 

March  20.         From  the  Bishop  of  Oxford     684 

Nov.  8.  From  the  Rev.  Jolni  Sergeant 684—688 

Nov.  29.  From  the  Bishop  of  London 688 

Dec.  ]  4.  To  the  Rev.  Philip  Doddridge,  D.D 689 

.  1747,  Nov.  15.  From  the  Countess  of  Hertford    689—693 

Dec.  3.  From  the  Same    693 

Dec.  10.  From  the  Rev.  James  Hervey 694 


CHAPTER  I. 

MR.  ISAAC  WATTS,  SEN. 

INTRODUCTORY  REMARKS.— FAMILY  OF  WATTS.— MR.  THOS.  WATTS.— 
MRS.  M.  WATTS:— ODE  ON  HER  DEATH.— MR.  ISAAC  WATTS.— EJECTED 
MINISTERS  IN  SOUTHAMPTON.— .SAY  FAMILY— PERSECUTED.— PLAGUE 
AT  SOUTHAMPTON.— LICENSE  FOR  PREACHING.- MR.  I.  WATTS  PER- 
SECUTED, IMPRISONED,  AND  OBLIGED  TO  LEAVE  HIS  FAMILY:— 
WRITES  FROM  LONDON  TO  HIS  CHILDREN :— ZEAL  AGAINST  POPERY. 
—WRITINGS  OF  THE  NONCONFORMISTS  AGAINST  THE  PAPISTS.— 
RETURNS  TO  SOUTHAMPTON.— SINGULAR  DREAM  OF  A  STONEMASON. 
—POETRY,  "THE  SOULS  DESIRE  OF  REMOVE,"— "CEREMONIES,"— 
"DIVINE  WORSHIP,"— LINES  WRITTEN  IN  HIS  SEVENTY-FIRST  YEAR.- 
DEATH  OF  MR.  WATTS.— LETTER  FROM  HIS  SON.— FUNERAL  SERMON. 

"  We  carry  wisdom,"  says  one  of  the  fathers,  "  not  m  the 
external  habit,  but  in  the  mind  ;  we  do  not  utter  great  things, 
but  we  live  them."*  This  declaration,  which  its  author  ad- 
vanced to  check  the  arrogant  assumptions  of  a  vain  philoso- 
phy, and  to  describe  the  character  and  conduct  of  the  early 
Christians,  is  equally  true  with  reference  to  their  successors 
in  modern  times.  The  majority  of  those  who  have  ornamented 
the  faith,  have  been  strangers  to  the  "pomp  and  circumstance" 
which  captivates  the  observation  of  man ;  the  beauty  of  holi- 
ness has  been  generally  unfolded  in  the  privacies  of  domestic 
life ;  and  the  noblest  struggles  and  the  most  impressive  tri- 
umphs of  Christian  virtue,  have  transpired  where  no  mortal 
eye  can  penetrate,  in  the  retirement  of  the  human  bosom. 
There  have,  however,  been  those  connected  with  the  history 
of  the  church,  who  have  lived  great  things  as  well  as  uttered 
them ;  who  have  associated  the  influence  of  religion  with  the 
highest  intellectual  excellence  and  mental  grandeur;    and 

*  Minucius  Felix. 
C 


26  LIFE    AND   TIMES 

whose  names  are  deservedly  honoured  as  well  for  the  efforts 
of  genius,  as  for  the  more  unobtrusive  exercises  of  piety. 

To  the  greatest  minds  it  has  been  an  object  of  ambition,  to 
live  in  the  esteem  and  admiration  of  posterity ;  to  be  spoken 
and  thought  of  when  the  sepulchre  shall  have  closed  over 
their  remains ;  and  thus  to  travel  down  the  stream  of  time,  to 
receive  the  homage  of  succeeding  ages.  "  Nothing  I  confess," 
says  Pliny  to  his  friend  Capito,  "  so  strongly  stimulates  my 
breast,  as  the  desire  of  acquiring  a  lasting  name  —  a  passion 
highly  worthy  of  the  human  heart,  especially  of  his,  who, 
not  being  conscious  of  any  ill,  is  not  afraid  of  being  known  to 
posterity.  It  is  the  continued  subject,  therefore,  of  my  thoughts, 

By  what  fair  deed  I  too  a  name  may  raise."* 

But  in  estimating  the  characters  of  individuals,  and  in 
apportioning  the  honours  of  immortality,  the  world  is  too 
often  guided  by  maxims  directly  opposed  to  those  which 
the  "  wisdom  from  above"  sanctions.  The  admiration  of 
mankind  is  in  general  attracted  by  outward  show  and  pom- 
pous ceremonial;  and  he  who  has  contrived  to  surround 
himself  with  the  elements  of  earthly  grandeur,  however 
unworthy  his  actions,  and  disastrous  his  existence  may  have 
been  to  others,  is  often  distinguished  by  a  memorial  and  an 
eulogy.  The  pen  of  the  historian,  the  song  of  the  poet,  and 
the  chisel  of  the  sculptor,  hence,  have  been  employed  to 
preserve  the  memory  of  those,  who  have  alone  surpassed  their 
fellows  by  a  career  of  splendid  crime  and  desolating  power. 
The  distinctions,  however,  conferred  upon  such  candidates  for 
fame,  are  but  short-lived ;  for  though  the  record  of  their  names 
may  exist,  yet  posterity  consigns  them  to  merited  neglect,  or 
only  refers  to  their  story  to  illustrate  the  scorn  and  execration 
which  an  ill-spent  life  deserves. 

A  far  stronger  claim  upon  the  notice  of  a  future  age,  have 
they  who  attempt  to  secure  it  by  literary  eminence;   who 

•  Lib.  V.  Epist.  viii. 


OF   DR.   ISAAC    WATTS.  27 

distingviish  themselves  by  the  productions  of  genius — who 
explore  the  secrets  of  nature  to  decorate  the  temple  of  science 
—  or,  gifted  with  a  sublime  capacity  for  thought,  seek  to 
enrich  others  from  their  own  intellectual  stores.  The  names 
of  such  are  not  allowed  to  perish;  being  "dead"  they  yet 
"  speak"  with  an  immortal  voice  ;  they  are  placed  by  posterity 
among  the  benefactors  of  their  race ;  and  their  example  is  held 
up  to  excite  the  emulation  and  stimulate  the  energies  of 
kindred  spirits.  J'he  distinction  thus  conferred  by  mental 
superiority,  is  in  general  far  more  permanent  than  that  which 
is  obtained  by  wealth  or  station,  the  inroads  of  war,  or  the 
imposing  attitude  of  victory.  Empires  wide  in  extent  and 
eminent  for  power  and  civilization,  have  been  blotted  from 
the  map  of  nations ;  cities  which  gathered  the  commerce  of 
the  earth  to  their  gates  have  gone  to  decay,  and  are  no  longer 
to  be  distinguished  from  the  surrounding  deserts;  monuments 
which  were  erected  to  guard  the  ashes  and  register  the  deeds 
of  monarchs,  have  crumbled  into  dust,  or  remain  only  in  ruins 
to  tell  a  tale  of  baffled  pride  to  the  passing  visiter :  but  the 
thoughts,  aspirations,  and  communings  of  lofty  minds,  em- 
balmed in  song  or  embodied  in  philosophy,  have  triumphed 
over  the  sweep  of  ages,  and  survived  the  vicissitudes  which 
in  their  lapse  have  been  witnessed.  The  rhapsodies  of 
Homer  and  the  imaginings  of  Plato,  have  outlived  the  con- 
quests of  Alexander  and  the  riches  of  Croesus. 

But  intellectual  endowments  must  give  place  in  the  order 
of  true  greatness  to  moral  worth  ;  and  the  attempt  to  expand 
and  cultivate  the  mind,  commendable  as  it  is,  can  bear  no 
comparison,  in  point  of  importance,  with  the  effort  to 
improve  and  renovate  the  heart.  Mental  greatness  seeks  the 
improvement  of  man  in  time,  but  moral  greatness  aims  at  his 
preparation  for  eternity ;  the  one  has  the  sphere  of  its  influ- 
ence confined  to  the  present  state,  but  the  other  enters  in 
behind  the  "  vail,"  and  penetrates  into  the  "  holiest  place." 
The  object  which  it  contemplates  is,  to  inspire  our  fallen 


28  LIFE    AND    TIMES 

nature  with  the  love  of  virtue  and  reHgion ;  to  restrain  the 
passions,  purify  the  thoughts,  and  regulate  the  conduct ;  and 
thus  direct  the  footsteps  of  mankind  from  the  paths  of  vice 
and  error,  to  the  highway  of  holiness  and  truth.  It  is  in  the 
prosecution  of  a  design  so  magnificent,  that  the  noblest  kind 
of  renown  is  won,  the  highest  grade  of  honour  attained ; 
and  to  such  distinction  it  is  the  peculiar  province  of  Christi- 
anity to  lead.  It  excites  in  every  bosom  which  it  visits  the 
ambition  of  doing  good  ;  it  teaches  man  to  become  the  friend 
and  brother  of  his  species  ;  to  address  himself  to  the  mighty 
task  of  elevating  the  character  and  improving  the  condition 
of  his  race;  to  espouse  as  his  own,  the  interests  of  human 
nature;  and  to  be  ever  "ready  to  be  offered  up"  on  the  altar 
of  sacrifice,  for  the  well-being  of  the  erring  family  to  wdiich 
he  belongs.'  Characters  of  this  descrijjtion,  marked  with  this 
moral  greatness,  may  not  attract,  during  their  brief  day,  the 
gaze  and  wonder  of  a  dazzled  world;  but  after-ages  bring 
them  from  their  obscurity,  reverence  their  memory,  and  raise 
them  in  the  scale  of  worth,  far  above  the  heroes  of  historic 
page  and  poetic  song.  The  influence  which  they  exert  does 
not  cease  with  their  dissolution  ;  while  they  pass  from  us  to  a 
brighter  world,  the  impression  of  their  example  descends  a 
silent  blessing  to  posterity;  and  the  seeds  of  warning  and 
instruction,  which  their  lives  have  scattered,  and  the  record 
of  their  story  preserves,  spring  up  to  benefit  a  future  age. 
"They  rule  our  spirits  from  their  urns;"  they  restrain  and 
check  the  tide  of  human  degeneracy ;  excite  others  to  the 
attainment  of  similar  excellence;  awaken  in  far-distant 
bosoms  a  desire  of  emulation ;  and  kindle  in  the  mind  fami- 
liar with  their  career,  the  sparks  of  kindred  eminence. 

To  this  latter  class  the  subject  of  the  following  memoirs 
belongs;  conspicuous  for  greatness  of  mind,  purity  of  heart, 
benevolence  towards  man,  and  devotion  towards  God;  occu- 
pying a  station  in  public  as  well  as  in  private  life  to  which 
but  few  have  attained.     In  perusing  the  present  detail  of  his 


OF    DR.    ISAAC    WATTS.  29 

history,  the  lover  of  extraordiiiary  incident  and  strange  adven- 
ture, will  be  disappointed ;  but  he  who  delights  to  gaze  upon 
a  picture  of  piety  and  wisdom,  to  trace  the  operations  of  a 
mind  devoting  its  energies  to  the  best  interests  of  the  human 
race,  to  behold  an  individual  abstracted  from  earthly  concerns, 
jjursuing  in  the  silent  retirement  of  his  closet  designs  of  a 
purely  spiritual  and  intellectual  character,  will,  perhaps,  meet 
with  something  by  which  he  may  be  instructed,  gratified, 
and  improved. 

Of  the  ancestry  of  Dr.  Isaac  Watts  we  have  but  few  memo- 
rials. From  the  scanty  information  afforded  us,  it  appears 
that  the  family  possessed  some  paternal  property,  which 
would  have  been  considerable  but  for  the  intolerance  of  the 
times.  His  father  was  a  nonconformist,  and  unhappily  on 
that  account  he  suffered  from  the  persecuting  court  of 
Charles  II.;  and  it  is  probable  that  the  legal  proceedings  in 
which  he  was  involved,  materially  injured  his  private  fortune, 
and  deprived  him  of  the  fruits  of  an  industrious  life.  This 
was  indeed  a  common  case  with  the  dissenters  in  that  age  of 
bigotry  and  oppression ;  as  dissident  from  the  national  estab- 
lishment they  were  obnoxious  to  fines,  proscription,  and 
contumely ;  and  often  had  they  to  suffer  "  the  spoiling  of 
their  goods,"  to  meet  the  expensive  suits  instituted  against 
them  in  the  civil  and  ecclesiastical  courts. 

From  a  note  appended  to  one  of  the  Doctor's  poems,  we 
learn  that  his  grandfather,  Mr.  Thos.  Watts,  was  engaged  in 
the  naval  service,  as  commander  of  a  ship-of-war  in  the  year 
1656.  Among  his  contemporaries  he  was  much  esteemed, 
and  celebrated  for  many  of  those  accomplishments,  which 
gave  such  a  lustre  to  his  name  in  the  person  of  his  gifted 
grandson.  Not  only  was  he  well  acquainted  with  the  ma- 
thematics, but  also  skilled  in  the  lighter  arts  of  music, 
painting,  and  poetry.  His  personal  courage  was  remarkable. 
A  descendant  of  the  family  relates,  that  when  closely  pursued 


30  LIFE    AND   TIMES 

by  a  tiger,  while  in  the  East  Indies,  who  had  followed  him 
into  a  river  in  which  he  had  taken  refuge,  Mr.  Watts  turned 
to  grapple  with  the  monster,  and,  by  singular  coolness  and 
dexterity,  succeeded  in  ridding  himself  of  his  formidable 
enemy.  In  the  Dutch  war  the  vessel  he  commanded  unfor- 
tunately exploded;  and  by  this  accident  he  perished  in  the 
prime  of  life.  The  following  stanza,  relating  to  the  gallant 
and  ill-fated  seaman,  written  by  his  poetical  relative,  is  ho- 
nourable to  the  "  manly  spirit"  it  professes  to  describe : 

"The  painter-muse  with  glancing  eye 
Observ'd  a  manly  spirit  nigh, 

That  death  had  long  disjoiu'd  : 
'  In  the  fair  tablet  they  shall  stand 
'  United  by  a  happier  band,' 
She  said ;  and  fix'd  her  sight,  and  drew  the  manly  mind. 
Recount  the  years,  my  song,  (a  mournful  round) ! 
Since  he  was  seen  on  earth  no  more: 
He  fought  on  lower  seas  and  drown'd  ; 
But  victory  and  peace  he  found 
On  the  superior  shore." 

The  poem  from  which  the  above  lines  are  extracted  is 
inscribed,  "  On  the  death  of  an  aged  and  honoured  relative, 
Mrs.  M.  W."  the  widow  of  Mr.  T.  Watts,  and  the  grandmo- 
ther of  the  poet.  She  long  survived  her  unfortunate  husband, 
and  lived  nearly  to  witness  her  grandson  finish  his  preparatory 
studies  for  the  ministry.*  The  composition  shows  how  much 
he  esteemed  her  worth  when  living,  and  revered  her  memory 
when  dead.  In  his  early  education  she  took  a  prominent 
part;  and  as  her  counsels  and  instructions  would  doubtless 
be  directed  towards  bringing  his  mind  under  a  religious 
influence,  to  them  he  was  in  no  slight  degree  indebted  for 
the  preference  which  he  gave  to  piety  in  his  youth.  In  his 
ode  he  follows  his  revered  preceptress  to  her  celestial  dwell- 
ing, and  in  the  character  which  he  assumes,  that  of  a  "  painter- 
muse,"  thus  pictures  the  disfranchised  spirit: 

•  "  1693,  July  13,  Grandmo.  Watts  died."     Memoranda. 


or    DR.    ISAAC    WATTS.  31 

1.  "  I  kuow  the  kindred  mind.     'Tis  she,  'tis  she  ; 
Among  the  heavenly  forms  I  see, 
The  kindred  mind  from  fleshly  bondage  free  ; 
O  how  unlike  the  thing  was  lately  seen 
Groaning  and  panting  on  the  bed. 
With  ghastly  air,  and  languish'd  head,  ^ 

Life  on  this  side,  there  tlie  dead. 
While  the  delaying  flesh  lay  shivering  between  ! 


"  Gaze  on,  my  soul,  and  let  a  perfect  view 

Paint  her  idea  all  anew  : 
Rase  out  those  melancholy  shapes  of  woe, 
That  hang  around  thy  memory,  and  becloud  it  so. 
Come,  Fancy,  come,  with  essences  refin'd. 

With  youthful  green  and  spotless  white ; 
Deep  be  the  tincture,  and  the  colours  bright, 
T'  express  the  beauties  of  a  naked  mind. 

Provide  no  glooms  to  form  a  shade ; 
All  things  above  of  varied  light  are  made. 
Nor  can  the  heavenly  piece  require  a  mortal  aid ; 

But  if  the  features  too  divine 

Beyond  the  power  of  fancy  shine. 
Conceal  th'  inimitable  strokes  behind  a  graceful  shrine. 

"  Describe  the  saint  from  head  to  feet, 
Make  all  the  lines  in  just  proportion  meet; 
But  let  her  posture  be 
Filling  a  chair  of  high  degree  ; 
Observe  how  near  it  stands  to  the  Almighty  seat. 


6.  "'Tis  done.     What  beams  of  glory  fall 
(Rich  varnish  of  immortal  art) 
To  gild  the  bright  Original ! 
'Tis  done.     The  muse  has  now  perform'd  her  part. 
Bring  down  the  piece,  Urania,  from  above. 

And  let  my  honour  and  my  love 
Dress  it  with  chains  of  gold,  to  hang  upon  my  heart." 

Of  Mr.  Isaac  Watts,  the  doctor's  father,  some  interesting 
particulars  have  heen  preserved.  He  was  the  master  of  a 
very  flourishing  boarding-school  at  Southampton,  which  was 


3-2  LIFE  AND  TIMES 

in  such  repute,  that  pupils  from  America  and  the  West  Indies 
were  committed  to  his  care.  Dr.  Johnson,  indeed,  mentions 
a  report  of  his  being-  a  shoemaker;  hut  his  strong  prejudices 
against  the  dissenters,  led  him  in  this  instance  to  give  a 
rumour  access  to  his  pages,  which  he  must  have  learnt  from 
Dr.  Gibbons  was  wholly  groundless.*  Mr.  Watts  being  a 
decided  nonconformist,  and  a  man  of  unquestioned  piety, 
sustained  the  office  of  deacon  in  a  church  of  protestant  dis- 
senters in  his  native  town.  At  the  passing  of  the  Act  of 
Uniformity,  in  1662,  two  ministers  of  Southampton  were 
deprived  of  their  livings  :  Mr.  Nathaniel  Robinson,  ejected 
from  All  Saints',  and  Mr.  Giles  Say,  from  St.  Michael's.f 
The  latter,  after  having  been  imprisoned  for  his  secession 
from  the  persecuting  hierarchy,  removed  from  the  scene  of 
his  toils  and  sorrows  into  the  county  of  Norfolk;];  but  the 
former  continued  preaching  to  a  congregation  in  the  town, 
to  the  period  of  his  death,  in  which  it  is  probable  Mr.  Watts 
was  a  deacon. § 

The  intimate  connexion  of  Mr.  Watts's  family  with  the 
dissenting  history  of  Southampton,  and  the  friendship  which 
not  only  subsisted  between  them  and  the  Says,  but  between 
Dr.  Watts  and  Mr.  Samuel  Say,  the  successor  of  Dr.  Calamy 
at  Westminster,  which  will  hereafter  be  noticed,  render  the 
following  particulars  interesting. — Mr.  Giles  Say,  the  ejected 
minister,  was  born  at  Southampton  in  the  year  1632 ;    the 

*  See  Lives  by  Johnson  and  Gibbons. 

f  Palmer's  Nonconformist's  Memorial,  ii.  279. 

iHe  settled  at  Guestwick  in  Norfolk,  with  the  church  of  which  Mr.  Worts  had 
been  pastor,  where  he  continued  until  his  death  in  1692.  The  son  of  this  worthy 
man,  Mr.  Samuel  Say,  succeeded  Dr.  Calamy  at  Westminster.  In  the  church-book 
it  is  said,  that  ''the  dissenting  church  in  and  about  Guestwick,  sat  down  in  gospel 
order  in  the  end  of  16.52,  and  chose  Mr.  Richard  Worts  for  their  pastor,  who  with 
fidelity  and  success  laboured  among  them  till  his  death,  about  May  6,  1686;  he 
was  succeeded  by  Mr.  Giles  Say  (father  of  ]Mr.  Samuel  Say  of  Westminster),  who 
died  April  8,  1692." 

§  Mr.  Robinson  was  imprisoned  for  his  nonconformity,  soon  after  his  ejectment, 
along  with  Mr.  Say. 


OF   DR.    ISAAC    WATTS.  33 

family  originally  belonged  to  Dorsetshire,  but  removed  in 
consequence  of  the  father's  marriage.  On  the  blank  leaf  of 
a  bible  given  to  Giles  by  his  brother  Francis,  in  November, 
1640,  a  few  days  before  his  death,  he  writes  —  "My  mother, 
who  was  born  in  1588,  departed  this  life  in  February,  1669. 
She  was  of  the  French  seed.  Her  ancestors  were  protestants. 
Her  father  and  mother,  with  several  other  of  her  relations, 
fled  for  religion  out  of  France,  upon  a  great  persecution  there, 
in  the  beginning  of  Queen  Elizabeth's  time,  and  came  and 
dwelt  at  Southampton."  The  name  of  these  exiles  was  Catell, 
and  a  considerable  estate  at  Rouen  in  Normandy  belonged  to 
the  family.  The  Says  appear  to  have  been  eminently  talented 
and  pious :  the  family  register,  kept  by  Giles,  has  the  following 
record,  "March  4,  1659,  my  brother  Thomas  Say  began  his 
sabbath  in, heaven,  being  of  age  about  twenty-five  years."  In 
the  year  1660,  Mr.  Giles  Say  was  ordained  to  the  ministry  by 
the  presbytery  at  Bishop's-stoke,  a  village  in  the  neighbour- 
hood of  Southampton,  where  he  had  frequently  preached ; 
but  the  black  Bartholomew  day,  two  years  afterwards,  drove 
him  from  the  pulpits  of  the  establishment,  and  ranked  his 
name  with  the  two  thousand  confessors  who  preferred 
poverty  and  exile  to  the  guilt  of  a  sinful  compliance.* 

At  a  time  when  persecution  raged  so  bitterly  against  those 
who  maintained  the  rights  of  conscience  against  the  encroach- 
ments of  secular  power;  when  a  preference  given  to  the 
authority  of  the  laws  of  Christ  over  the  mandates  of  an  earthly 
sovereign,  was  branded  with  the  odium  of  sedition ;  the 
families  of  Watts  and  Say  were  called  to  sufi'er  severely  for 
their  attachment  to  the  principles  which  they  had  espoused. 
Colonel  Norton  of  Southwick,  a  village  where  Mr.  Say  was 
accustomed  to  preach,  though  a  churchman,  proved  a  friend 
to  him  in  his  distress ;  and  offered  him  the  living  of  Wellow, 
worth  about  £.80  a  year,  if  he  would  conform.  Sir  T.  Barrow 
also,  of  Plate-ford  in  Wiltshire,  afforded  him  an  asylum  ;  and 

*  Palmer.  Noncon.  Mem.  ii.  279.  Say  Papers.  Mon.  Repos.  1809. 


34  LIFE  AND  TIMES 

in  his  house  his  eldest  daughter  was  born,  in  September,  1666, 
when  the  plag-ue  was  ravaging-  in  Southampton.  The  family 
register  before  cited,  contains  this  memorandum :  "  A  plague 
began  in  Southampton,  the  latter  end  of  May  or  beginning  of 
June,  1665,  and  continued  till  November,  1666,  before  it  fully 
ceased.  It  is  concluded  by  the  common  vote,  that  there  died 
in  it  one  thousand  and  somewhat  over ;  but  there  are  that  do 
affirm,  that  there  died  betwixt  fifteen  and  sixteen  hundred. 
It  began  in  the  buildings  below  Bull  Hall,  being  in  the  lower 
end  of  the  Back-street,  by  the  Walnut  Tree.  The  last  that 
was  reputed  to  die  of  the  plague,  was  a  youth  that  died  over 
St.  Michael's  prison."  Upon  the  declaration  of  Indulgence, 
in  1672,  the  dissenters  in  Southampton  met  for  worship  in 
Mr.  Say's  house,  which  was  licensed  at  Whitehall  on  the  2nd 
of  May.  The  original  license  is  among  the  Say  Papers, 
printed  in  imitation  of  writing,  on  a  half  sheet  of  paper,  small 
folio,  with  the  blanks  filled  up  in  writing,  which  are  here 
expressed  by  italics : 

"Charles  R. 

"  Charles  by  the  grace  of  God,  King  of  England,  Scotland, 
France,  and  Ireland,  Defender  of  the  Faith,  &c.  To  all 
Mayors,  Bayliffs,  Constables,  and  other  our  officers  and 
ministers,  civil  and  military,  whom  it  may  concern. 
Greeting  —  In  pursuance  of  our  Declaration  of  the  loth 
of  March,  167^ — We  do  hereby  permit  and  license 
Gyles  Say  of  the  cougregationall  ])ersi(asion,  to  be  a 
teacher  of  the  congregation  allowed  by  us  in  a  Roome  or 
Roomes,  in  his  House,  in  Southampton^  for  the  use  of 
such  as  do  not  conform  to  the  Church  of  England,  who 
are  of  the  persuasion  commonly  called  Congrcgat'ionaU. 
With  further  license  and  j)ermission  to  him,  the  said 
Gyles  Say,  to  teach  in  any  place  licensed  and  allowed  by 
us  according  to  our  said  Declaration. Given  at 


OF    DR.   ISAAC    AVATTS.  8§ 

our  Court  at  Whitehall,  the  second  day  of  May,  in  the 
24th  year  of  our  Reign,  1G72. 

"  Say,  a  Teacher. 

"  (Signed)     Arlington^ 

Upon  the  king's  revoking  his  indulgence,  owing  to  the 
clamours  of  the  bishops  and  clergy,  the  holding  of  conventi- 
cles again  became  obnoxious  to  penal  statutes ;  and  Mr.  Say 
and  Mr.  Watts  were  doomed  to  the  hardships  of  imprison- 
ment. This  was  during  the  infancy  of  Isaac;  and  family 
tradition  has  recorded  the  fact,  that  in  the  course  of  his  father's 
confinement,  his  sorrowing  mother  has  been  known  to  seat 
herself  on  a  stone  near  the  prison  door,  to  suckle  the  child  of 
promise.  Mr.  Watts  was  again  imprisoned  in  the  year  1683, 
and  driven  afterwards  into  exile  from  his  family.  His  son  in 
his  memoranda  states  :  "  My  father  persecuted  and  imprison- 
ed for  nonconformity  six  months;  after  that  forced  to  leave 
his  family,  and  live  privately  in  London  for  two  years."  The 
trials  of  the  parents  made,  as  may  be  conceived,  a  deep  im- 
pression upon  the  mind  of  the  son ;  the  adversities  of  his  early 
years  were  remembered  by  him  in  after  life ;  and  doubtless 
here  originated  that  ardent  attachment  to  civil  and  religious 
liberty  which  marked  his  character,  and  which  led  his  muse 
to  hail  its  establishment  with  exultation,  when  the  dynasty  of 
the  tyrannical  Stuarts  was  driven  from  the  throne.*  At  what 

*The  Psalms,  Hymus,  and  Lj'rics  of  Dr.  Watts,  as  well  as  his  prose  writings, 
abundantly  show  his  zealous  concern  for  the  cause  of  liberty,  his  gratitude  for  the 
Revolution,  and  his  devotion  to  the  house  of  Hanover  when  threatened  by  the  Pre- 
tender. To  these  topics,  Psalm  75,  Hymn  1,  lib.  ii.  Lyrics  1,  lib.  ii.  1,  lib.  iii.  are 
expressly  devoted : 

2.  "Britain  was  dooni'd  to  be  a  slave, 

Her  frame  dissolv'd,  her  fears  were  great ; 
When  God  a  new  supporter  gave 
To  bear  the  pillars  of  the  state. 

3.  "  He  from  thy  hand  receiv'd  his  crown, 

And  swore  to  rule  by  wholesome  laws ; 
His  foot  shall  tread  the  oppressor  down, 
His  arm  defend  the  righteous  cause." 


36  LIFE    AND    TIMES 

time  Mr.  Say  quitted  Southampton,  it  is  impossible  to  ascer- 
tain ;  but  the  following  note  in  the  family  register,  shows  that 
Mrs.  Say  was  there  at  the  period  of  Mr.  VV'atts's  exile : 


*'  In  Southampton, 

in  the  parish  of 

St.  Michael. 


Martha  Say,  Junior,  was  born  the 
eighth  of  December,  1684,  in  Lord's 
Lane,  next  to  the  Blue  Anchor,  on 
the  east  side." 


There  is  a  document  extant,  which  Mr.  Watts  wrote  to  his 
children,  when  prudential  motives  led  him  to  retire  to  London 
from  the  storm  that  assailed  the  nonconforming  churches. 
It  contains  directions  with  reference  to  their  behaviour  in  the 
absence  of  their  earthly  protector ;  exhorts  them  to  practices 
of  piety  and  virtue;  and  expresses  a  perfect  resignation  on 
his  part  to  the  will  of  heaven  under  its  painful  and  mysterious 
dispensations.  The  letter  is  worthy  of  a  primitive  confessor; 
and  affords  a  pleasing  exhibition  of  the  amiable  character, 
paternal  tenderness,  and  eminent  spirituality  of  the  writer: 

"  My  dear  children, 

"  Though  it  hath  pleased  the  only  wise  God  to 
suffer  the  malice  of  ungodly  men,  the  enemies  of  Jesus  Christ 
(and  my  enemies  for  his  sake),  to  break  out  so  far  against  me, 
as  to  remove  me  from  you  in  my  personal  habitation,  thereby 
at  once  bereaving  me  of  that  comfort,  which  I  might  have 
hoped  for  in  the  enjoyment  of  my  family  in  peace,  and  you 
of  that  education,  which  my  love  as  a  father  and  duty  as  a 
parent  required  me  to  give ;  yet  such  are  the  longings  of  my 
soul  for  your  good  and  prosperity,  especially  in  spiritual  con- 
cernments, that  I  remember  you  always  with  myself  in  my 
daily  addresses  to  the  throne  of  grace.  Though  I  cannot 
speak  to  you,  yet  I  pray  for  you ;  and  do  hope  that  my  God 
will  hear  me,  and  in  due  time  bring  me  to  live  again  amongst 
you,  if  he  shall  see  such  a  mercy  fit  to  be  bestowed  on  me  or 


OF    DR.    ISAAC    WATTS.  g7 

you.  However,  we  must  endeavour  by  patient  waiting  to 
submit  to  his  will  without  murmuring;  and  not  to  think 
amiss  of  his  chastising  us,  knowing  that  all  his  works  are  the 
products  of  infinite  wisdom ;  his  designs  are  the  advancement 
of  his  own  glory ;  and  his  ends  towards  his  people  their  sanc- 
tification  and  salvation,  which  certainly  shall  be  accomplished 
at  last,  however  his  great  providences  may  seem  contrary  to 
it,  as  to  our  apprehensions. 

"  My  dear  children,  since  in  this  my  absence  from  you,  it 
is  the  desire  of  one  of  you  (that  is,  my  eldest  son*),  to  have  a 
line  of  counsel  from  his  father,  I  hope  he  has  but  mentioned 
it  as  the  mouth  for  himself,  and  the  rest  o^  you  that  are  in 
anywise  capable  of  understanding,  and  that  it  will  be  accep- 
table to  you  all,  and  regarded  by  you :  and,  therefore,  I  shall 
write  in  general  terms  to  you  all  that  can  understand  it  at 
present ;  and  to  the  rest  as  they  grow  up  to  understand  it,  if 
you  will  keep  it,  or  copy  it  for  them ;  for  though  I  am  not 
altogether  without  hopes  of  seeing  you  again,  yet  I  am  no- 
wise certain  of  it,t  all  our  time  being  in  God's  hands  ;  but  I 
would  have  you  know,  that  you  have  yet  a  father  that  loves 
you.  I  am  glad  to  hear  such  a  desire  from  any  of  you ;  and 
willing  heartily  to  comply  with  it,  so  far  as  my  time,  and  the 
many  disadvantageous  circumstances  that  attend  me,  will 
permit ;  which  take  as  followeth : 

"  1st.  I  charge  you  frequently  to  read  the  holy  scriptures ; 
and  that  not  as  a  task  or  burden  laid  on  you,  but  get  your 
hearts  to  delight  in  them :  there  are  the  only  pleasant  histo- 
ries which  are  certainly  true,  and  greatly  profitable ;  there  are 
abundance  of  precious  promises  made  to  sinners,  such  as  you 
are  by  nature ;  there  are  sweet  invitations  and  counsels  of 
God  and  Christ,  to  come  in  and  lay  hold  of  them  ;  there  are 
the  choice  heavenly  sayings  and  sermons  of  the  Son  of  God, 

♦Afterwards  Dr.  Watts. 

f  Anticipating  a  lengthened  exile  from  his  home,  which  was  the  fate  of  many  of 
the  nonconformists. 


38  LIFE    AND   TIMES 

the  blessed  prophets  and  apostles.  Above  all  books  and 
writings  account  the  bible  the  best,  read  it  most,  and  lay  up 
the  truths  of  it  in  your  hearts  :  therein  is  revealed  the  whole 
will  of  God,  for  the  rule  of  man's  faith  and  obedience,  which 
he  must  believe  and  do  lo  be  holy  here  and  happy  hereafter. 
Let  all  the  knowledge  and  learning  you  attain  by  other  books, 
both  at  school  and  at  home,  be  improved  as  servants  to  help 
you  the  better  to  understand  God's  word,  in  all  the  several 
tongues  wherein  you  read  it.  I  am  the  larger  upon  this  head, 
because  therein  you  may  come  to  know  your  duty  to  God  and 
man ;  and  indeed  the  sum  of  all  the  counsel  I  can  give  you, 
necessary  for  the  regulating  of  your  behaviour  towards  God 
and  man,  in  every  station,  place,  and  condition  of  your  lives, 
is  contained  in  that  blessed  word  of  God,  which  pronounceth 
a  blessing  to  those  that  read  and  hear  it,  and  keep  the  things 
that  are  therein  written.* 

"  2dly,  Consider  seriously  and  often  of  the  sinful  and 
miserable  estate  you  are  in  by  nature,  from  the  guilt  of  origi- 
nal sin,  which  came  in  by  the  fall  of  our  first  parents ;  also 
of  the  increasing  of  that  guilt  by  your  own  transgressions, 
and  that  you  are  liable  to  eternal  wrath  thereupon;  also 
think  of  the  way  of  fallen  man's  recovery  by  grace,  according 
to  the  foundation-principles  of  the  true  Christian  religion, 
which  you  have  learned  in  your  catechism  ;  and  beg  of  God 
by  prayer  to  give  you  understanding  in  them,  and  faith  to 
believe  in  Jesus  Christ,  and  an  heart  willing  to  yield  obe- 
dience to  his  gospel  commands  in  all  things. 

"  Though  you  cannot  tell  how  to  pray  as  you  should  do, 
nor  in  any  order,  yet  be  not  afraid  nor  ashamed  to  try.  Go 
aside,  my  dear  children,  and  think  in  your  minds,  what  it  is 
that  you  want  to  make  you  holy  and  happy.  Tell  God  that 
you  want  pardon  of  sin,  a  soft,  tender,  and  sanctified  heart,  a 
portion  of  the  spirit,  &c. ;  and  then  beg  God  to  help  you  to 
pray  for  those  things,  and  to  teach  you  to  pray,  and  to  pardon 

*  Rev.  i.  3. 


OF   DR.   ISAAC    WATTS.  ^ 

the  iniquities  of  youi*  prayers.  My  children,  thoiic^h  it  may 
want  a  form  of  words,  yet  if  the  heart  be  in  it,  this  is  prayer, 
and  such  a  prayer  too  as  God  will  hear  and  accept ;  for  he 
despises  not  the  day  of  small  things,  nor  little  ones,  but  loves 
to  see  them  come  and  tell  him  what  they  would  have.  Tell 
him  you  would  pray  better,  but  you  cannot,  till  he  pleases  to 
help  you.  My  children,  if  you  do  but  use  this  way,  you  shall 
find  that  in  time  you  will  come  to  have  praying  gifts  and 
praying  graces  too ;  '  for  to  them  that  ask  it  shall  be  given  ;'* 
it  will  be  your  excellency,  your  honovir,  and  your  great  profit, 
to  begin  betimes  to  be  praying  Christians.  Prayer  is  the 
character  of  a  child  of  God,  the  best  remedy  for  soul  diseases, 
and  the  best  weapon  for  a  saint's  defence  !  '  God  will  pour 
out  his  wrath  upon  them  that  call  not  on  his  name.'f 

"  3dly.  Learn  to  know  God  according  to  the  discoveries  he 
hath  made  of  himself  in  and  by  his  word,  in  all  his  glorious 
attributes  and  infinite  perfections  ;  especially  learn  to  know 
him  in  and  through  the  Lord  Jesus  Christ,  and  to  be  ac- 
quainted with  this  blessed  Redeemer  of  God's  elect,  who  hath 
paid  so  great  a  price  as  his  own  blood  for  the  ransom  of  your 
souls;  thereby  satisfying  Divine  Justice,  purchasing  peace 
and  reconciliation  for  sinners.  Labour  to  believe  that  this 
was  done  for  your  souls ;  and  look  upon  yourselves  bound, 
as  the  Lord's  redeemed,  to  walk  in  all  holy  conversation 
and  godliness.  Know,  that  if  Jesus  Christ  had  not  come  and 
sufi"ered  in  the  flesh,  thereby  undertaking  and  accomplishing 
the  work  of  redemption,  there  had  been  no  remedy;  but  you 
must  have  perished  for  ever  !' 

"  4th.  Remember  that  God  is  your  Creator,  from  Avhom 
you  received  life  and  being;  and  as  such  you  are  bound  to 
worship  him  ;  much  more  when  you  consider  that  he  is  your 
Benefactor,  from  the  fountain  of  whose  goodness  all  your 
mercies  come.  Now,  upon  both  these  accounts,  the  best  of 
your  time  and  abilities  are  required  in  his  service ;  and  the 

*Matt.  vii.  7.  f  Jer.  x.  25. 


40  LIFE    AND   TIMES 

earlier  you  begin  to  devote  yourselves  to  his  service,  the  abler 
you  will  be  to  perform  it  acceptably,  the  greater  will  be  your 
honour  here,  and  your  glory  hereafter  ;  though  you  must  not 
expect  to  merit  aught  at  his  hands,  by  way  of  merit  for  what 
you  can  do,  yet  certain  it  is,  that  Jesus  Christ  will  reward 
every  one  according  to  his  works ;  and  we  are  bidden  to  look 
to  the  recompense  of  reward,  in  that  sense  after  Moses's  ex- 
ample ;*  and  it  is  no  small  commendation  and  honour  to  be 
an  old  disciple  of  Christ. 

"  5lh.  Know  this,  that  as  you  must  worship  God,  so  it 
must  be  in  his  own  ways,  with  true  worship  and  in  a  right 
manner  ;  that  is,  according  to  the  rules  of  the  gospel,  and  not 
according  to  the  inventions  or  traditions  of  men.  Consider 
that  idolatry  and  superstition  are  both  abominable  to  God. 
Now  idolatry  is  the  worshipping  of  idols, f  images,  pictures, 
or  any  creatures  or  representations,  as  the  heathens  do,  or 
crucifixes  and  consecrated  bread,  as  the  papists  do.  Either 
to  worship  these  as  God,  or  to  worshi})  God  by  and  under 
them,  as  the  children  of  Israel  did  tlie  golden  calf,  or  to 
worship  God  in  a  false  manner  —  is  idolatry  ;  and  no  idola- 
ters must  enter  into  heaven.     Superstition  is  to  make  addi- 

*Heb.  ii. 

f  Idolatry,  eiCwXaXarptea,  e.ico9,  image,  \a7pevc1i',  tu  serve,  of  which  pro- 
testant  writers  justly  regard  the  papists  as  guilty.  ']"he  worship  of  images  was 
legitimatised  by  the  cuuncil  of  Nice,  A.D.  787;  and  though  modern  popish 
polemics,  Drs.  Milner,  Lingard,  Delahogue,  and  Mr.  Butler,  pretend  to  dis])iite  its 
authorit}',  yet  Bellarmine,  a  more  competent  judge,  remarks,  "Si  ergo  ilium  est 
Concilium  generate  legitimum,  certe  hoc  est."  In  the  same  page,  in  b.is  Treatise 
on  Images,  he  further  states  ;  "  Quod  Sgnodus  Niccena  decreveret,  imagines 
adorandas  cultu  LATiir.E"  (whicli  was  the  iiighest  worship),  " certis.iimum  est." 
lib.  ii.  p.  80G.  'I'he  council  ofTrent,  indeed,  in  its  tweuty-fiftli  session,  explained, 
*'  not  that  any  divinity  or  virtue  is  believed  to  be  in  them,  for  which  they  should 
be  worshipped  ;  because  the  honour  that  is  paid  to  them  is  referred  to  the  original 
which  they  represent."  To  explain  away  tlie  idolatry  of  the  service,  other  popish 
writers  have  introduced  a  refinement,  distinguishing  subordinate  from  supreme 
worship  ;  the  latter  degree  of  worsliip  is  to  be  paid  to  Gud  alone,  but  the  former, 
TttiiiTiKi]  TT-poaKvvnai'i,  may  be  rendered  to  images.  The  shallow  sophistry  of 
the  distinction  is,  however,  obvious  ;  and  image-worship  deserves  110  milder  name 
than  idolatry,  aud  papal  practices  in  this  instance  must  rank  iu  the  same  class 
with  pagan. 


OF    DR.    ISAAC    WATTS.  41 

tions  of  ordinances  or  ceremonies  to  God's  worship,  more 
than  he  hath  appointed,  though  they  have  ever  so  fair  pre- 
tences for  them.*  Take  heed,  my  children,  of  these  things. 
It  is  not  enough  to  say,  that  such  things  are  not  forbidden  in 
scripture;  but  you  must  see  whether  they  are  commanded 
there,  or  else  obey  them  not. 

"  6.  Entertain  not  in  your  hearts  any  of  the  popish  doc- 
trines, of  having  more  mediators  than  one,  namely,  the  Lord 
Jesus ;  of  praying  to  the  Virgin  Mary,  or  any  other  saints  or 
angels,  for  saints  and  angels,  though  in  heaven,  yet  they  are 
creaturesjt  and  prayer  is  a' divine  worship,  due  to  none  but 
God  the  Father,  Son,  and  Spirit :   also  avoid  their  doctrine  of 

*  "  Religentem  esse  oportet ;  religiosum  nefas."     Aultin  Gcllius,  lib.  iv.  c.  9. 

A  Christian's  notions  of  superstition,  will  not,  however,  coincide  with  those  of  the 
ancient  heathen.  It  is  not  an  error  of  dcfjree  but  of  Itind  :  a  substitution  of  the 
vain  inventions  of  men  for  the  ordinances  of  God.  In  tliis  light  the  nonconform- 
ists regarded  the  rites  and  ceremonies  prescribed  in  the  Book  of  Common  Prayer, 
to  which  the  Act  of  Uniformity  required  the  subscription  of  their  unfeigned  assent 
and  consent.  The  ;((S  divinum  prelatists  of  the  present  day,  may  treat  their  scru- 
ples as  needless,  fastidious,  and  uncalled-for  ;  but  to  do  them  justice  we  ought  to 
place  ourselves  in  the  same  circumstances.  "Suppose,"  says  the  biographer  of 
Baxter,  "  that  the  rulers  of  the  church  of  England  were  now  to  determine, '  That  on 
or  before  the  24th  of  August  (in  such  a  year)  the  present  occupants  of  livings,  cu- 
racies, 5cc.  shall  subscribe  a  declaration,  engaging  themselves  to  baptise  no  child 
without  the  employment  of  salt,  oil,  and  spittle,  as  part  of  the  ordinance  of  baptism  ; 
to  administer  the  Lord's  supper  to  those  only  who  should  previously  bow  to  the 
sacred  chalice,  and  submit  to  a  bread  wafer  being  put  upon  their  tongues.'  What 
would  the  serious  clergy  of  the  church  think  of  such  a  demand  ?  Would  they 
submit  to  it  as  a  just  exercise  of  ecclesiastical  authority?  Would  they  not  to  a 
man  abandon  their  livings,  rather  than  allow  their  consciences  to  be  lorded  over  and 
defiled  ?"      Orme's  Life,  i.  289. 

f  Melancthon  in  his  Cousilia,  drawn  up  in  opposition  to  the  famous  Interim  of 
the-  emperor  Charles,  remarks  :  "It  is  certain  that  the  invocation  of  saints,  and 
flying  to  images,  is  one  of  the  greatest  abuses  and  idolatries  of  these  later  ages. 
Prayer  to  an  invisible  and  absent  being,  attributes  to  that  being  the  power  of  know- 
ing the  heart,  a  power  exclusively  divine,  therefore,  prayers  to  saints  are  idola- 
trous." Consil.  2.  26.  .31,  32,  33.  38.  Zwiugle  also  in  a  similar  manner  observes  : 
"He  who  first  placed  the  statue  of  a  holy  man  in  a  temple,  had  certainly  no  other 
intention  than  to  offer  him  as  an  object  of  imitation  to  the  faitiiful :  but  men  did 
not  stop  there.  The  saints  were  soon  surrounded  with  a  pomp  which  impressed 
the  imagination  of  the  people;  they  were  transformed  into  divinities,  and  honoured 
as  the  pagans  honoured  their  gods.  Their  names  are  given  to  temples  and  altars, 
and  chapels  are  consecrated  to  them  in  woods,  in  fields,  and  upon  mountains. 
How  many  men  in  the  hour  of  trouble,  or  at  the  approach  of  danger,  instead  of 

D 


42  LIFE    AND   TIMES 

meriting  by  works  of  obedience,  for  there  is  some  sin  that 
pollutes  our  best  duties,  and  we  can  deserve  nothing  at  God's 
hand  but  wrath :  all  the  good  we  receive  comes  of  his  free 
grace  *  Their  doctrine  also  of  purgatory  is  abominable ;  for 
there  is  no  middle  place  for  souls  to  go  to — there  is  only  hea- 
ven and  hell  :t  also  their  doctrine,  that  the  pope  can  forgive 
sins,  is  a  lie,  for  he  is  a  wicked  man  himself,  and  must  go  to 
hell  unless  God  forgive  him  :  also  their  turning  the  bread:|: 


iuvokiug  the  Omnipotent,  call  upon  men  who  have  been  dead  for  ages,  whose  vir- 
tues have  certainly  placed  them  in  tlie  mansions  of  the  blessed,  but  who  can  neither 
hear  nor  succour  us!"     Hess.  171  —  173. 

*  We  cannot  but  admire  the  clear  and  scriptural  views  which  this  good  man 
entertained  of  the  gospel  plan  of  salvation.  Such  were  the  sentiments  of  the 
reformers,  as  Melancthon  beautifully  expresses  them  :  "All  our  virtues  in  this  life 
are  weak  and  imperfect,  and  much  evil  and  corruption  remains  in  our  hearts.  We 
must  needs,  therefore,  fly  to  the  Mediator,  lay  hold  on  him,  and  seek  grace  and 
mercy  through  him.  W^e  are  filled  with  horror  at  the  view  of  the  greatness  of  our 
own  sins  and  miseries;  and,  therefore,  are  compelled,  when  we  would  find  peace 
of  mind,  to  fly  to  the  one  only  Propitiator,  whom  God  in  infinite  wisdom  and 
mercy  hath  proposed  to  us,  and  then,  as  the  apostle  testifies,  '  being  justified  by 
faith  we  have  peace  with  God.'  "     Consil.  2.  39,  40. 

f  The  doctrine  of  purgatory  seems  to  have  been  too  delicate  a  subject  for  the 
fathers  at  the  council  of  Trent,  to  enter  upon  its  discussion.  It  was,  therefore, 
summarily  dismissed,  as  having  been  previously  settled  when  the  sacrifice  of  the 
mass  was  declared  to  be  propitiatory,  in  the  twenty-second  session  ;  "  not  only  for 
the  sins  of  the  living,  but  also  for  those  who  are  deceased  in  Christ,  and  are  not 
yet  fully  purged  :"  "  quare  non  solum  pro  fidelium  vivorum  peccatis,  poenis,  &.c. 
sed  pro  defanctis  in  Christo,  nondum  ad  plenum  purgatis,  rite  juxta  Apostolorum 
traditionem."  Scss.  22.  It  was  politic  surely  upon  such  a  point  to  prefer 
apostolic  tradition  to  scripture. 

;]:Paschasius  Radbert,  a  monk,  and  afterwards  abbot  of  Corbey  in  Picardy, 
according  to  catholic  writers,  was  the  first  who  explained  the  genuine  sense  of  the 
Romish  church  upon  this  point.  He  held,  that  after  the  consecration  of  the  bread 
and  wine  in  the  Lord's  supper,  nothing  remained  of  these  symbols  but  the  out- 
ward form  or  figure,  under  which  the  body  and  blood  of  Christ  were  really  and 
locally  present;  and,  that  this  body  so  present  was  the  identical  body  that  had 
been  born  of  the  Virgin  Mary,  had  suffered  on  the  cross,  and  had  been  raised  from 
the  dead.  '!"he  council  of  Trent  declares,  that  "  the  whole  substance  of  the  bread 
is  changed  into  the  substance  of  Christ's  body,  and  the  whole  substance  of  the 
wine  into  the  substance  of  his  blood  :"  totius  substantia-  panis  in  substantiam 
corporis  Christi,  D.  N. ;  et  totius  substantia;  vini  in  substantiam  sanguinis  ejus." 
Sess.  13.  The  anathema  of  the  church  is  inflicted  upon  them  who  deny,  that  the 
body  and  blood,  together  with  the  soul  and  divinity  of  Christ,  are  actually  ("vere 
realiter,  et  substantialiter"^  present  in  tlie  eucharist. 


OF    DR.    ISAAC    WATTS,  43 

into  the  very  body  of  Jesus  Christ  by  a  i^riest's  words  —  this 
is  a  falsehood  and  notorious  idolatry.  Many  other  erroneous 
and  damnable  doctrines  they  own,  which  I  cannot  enlarge 
upon  ;  but  you  must  receive  no  doctrine,  but  such  as  is  rightly 
built  upon  the  holy  scriptures.  My  children,  pray  to  God  to 
give  you  the  knowledge  of  the  truth,  and  to  keep  you  from 
error ;  for  it  is  a  very  dangerous  time  you  are  like  to  live  in.* 

"  7th.  Do  not  entertain  any  hard  thoughts  of  God,  or  of  his 
ways,  because  his  people  are  persecuted  for  them  ;  for  Jesus 
Christ  himself  was  persecuted  to  deatli  by  wicked  men,  for 
preaching  the  truth  and  doing  good,  and  the  holy  apostles 
and  prophets  were  cruelly  used  for  serving  God  in  his  own 
way.f  The  wicked  ones  of  the  world  are  the  seed  of  the  ser- 
pent; and  they  will  always  hate  the  people  of  God,  torment 
and  seek  to  destroy  them  ;  and  God  suifers  them  to  do  so,  not 
for  want  of  love  to  his  people,  but  to  purge  their  sins  by  chas- 
tisement, to  try  their  graces,  and  fit  them  for  heaven,  till  the 
wicked  have  filled  up  the  measure  of  their  iniquities,  and 
many  other  holy  reasons  :  therefore,  if  you  should  come  to 
live  very  poor,  for  the  gospel's  sake,  be  contented  with  it,  and 
bless  God  for  every  mercy  you  receive,  and  know  this,  that 
poor  ones  are  heirs  of  glory  as  well  as  rich  ones.:!; 

"Lastly,  I  charge  you  to  be  dutiful  and  obedient  to  all 
your  superiors :  to  your  grandfather  and  both  grandmothers, 
and  all  other  relations  and  friends  that  are  over  you,  but  in 
an  especial  manner  to  your  mother,  to  whose  care  and  govern- 
ment God  hath  wholly  committed  you  in  my  absence ;  who, 
as  I  am  sure,  dearly  loves  you,  so  she  will  command  and  direct 
you  to  her  utmost  ability  in  all  ways,  for  your  good  of  soul 
and  body.  Consider,  she  is  left  alone  to  bear  all  the  burden 
of  bringing  you  up  ;  and  is,  as  it  were,  a  widow ;  her  time  is 

♦This  letter  was  written  a  few  mouths  after  James  II.  ascended  the  throue,  and 
a  few  days  previous  to  Baxter's  iniquitous  trial. 

t  Heb.  xi. 

I  James,  ii.  5. 


44  LIFE    AND   TIMES 

filled  up  with  many  cares,  and,  therefore,  do  not  grieve  her 
by  any  rebellious  or  disobedient  ways ;  but  be  willing  to 
learn  of  her  and  be  ruled  by  her,  that  she  may  have  some 
comfort  in  seeing  your  obedient  carriage  ;  and  it  will  rejoice 
me  to  hear  it.  Avoid  bad  company  of  wicked  children ;  abhor 
swearing,  lying,  and  playing  on  the  sabbath-day,  and  all 
other  wicked  courses;  so  shall  you  grow  in  favour  with  God 
and  man.  Love  one  another.  You  that  are  eldest,  help  to 
teach  the  younger ;  and  you  that  are  younger,  do  not  scorn 
the  teachings  of  the  elder.  These  things  I  charge  and  com- 
mand you  with  the  authority  and  love  of  a  father.  Now 
commending  you  to  God,  and  what  I  have  written  to  his 
blessing  upon  your  hearts,  through  Jesus  Christ,  with  my 
dear  love  to  your  mother,  my  duty  to  your  grandfather  and 
grandmothers,  and  love  to  all  other  friends,  being  indifferent 
in  health,  I  rest  your  very  loving  father, 

"Isaac  Watts. 
"London,  the  21st  of  May,  1685." 

This  affecting  epistle  abundantly  discovers  the  writer's 
attachment  to  the  great  principles  of  protestantism ;  and  at 
once  refutes  the  calumny  which  has  been  propagated,  that 
the  nonconformists  were  passive  spectators  when  its  interests 
were  in,  jeopardy.  Amid  the  sufferings  in  which  he  was 
involved,  personal  considerations  were  lost  sight  of  by  Mr. 
Watts,  in  the  danger  to  which  he  saw  his  country  exposed ; 
and  in  the  minds  of  his  children  he  sedulously  sought  to 
instil  similar  sentiments.  The  times  presented  alarming 
indications,  that  the  ecclesiastical  subjection  of  the  nation  to 
the  see  of  Rome,  was  contemplated  by  an  influential  party ; 
the  emissaries  of  the  Vatican  were  actively  intriguing  about 
the  court  for  the  accomplishment  of  this  oljject;  and  the 
well-known  indifference  of  Charles  to  all  religion,  and  the 
avowed  adherence  of  James  to  popery,  had  long  seemed  to 
render  the  scheme  feasible.     The  spirit  of  the  papal  system 


OF   DR.    ISAAC    WATTS.  45 

was  so  favourable  to  the  darling  vice  of  the  Stuart  family  — 
the  exercise  of  arbitrary  power  ;  the  alliances  of  the  reigning- 
monarch,  were  chiefly  with  the  catholic  princes  of  the  conti- 
nent ;  and  these  considerations,  daring  the  reign  of  Charles, 
aided  by  the  weakness  and  Avanton  impiety  of  the  king,  had 
excited  a  just  alarm  for  the  safety  of  the  reformation.  It  was 
no  secret  that  measures  had  been  in  active  preparation  to 
effect  its  overthrow ;  the  Jesuits  openly  avowed  the  design ; 
and  the  sovereign  pontiff,  as  if  sure  of  his  prize,  was  calcula- 
ting upon  a  favourable  opportunity,  to  receive  the  Anglican 
church  again  into  his  fold.  These  signs  of  the  times  led  to 
various  controversies  on  the  principles  of  the  catholic  faith ; 
and  the  nonconformists,  harassed  as  they  were  by  the  exist- 
ing establishment,  ranged  themselves  with  its  dignitaries  as 
champions  in  one  common  cause.  It  has  indeed  been  stated, 
that  their  animosity  to  churchmen  led  them  to  be  inactive  in 
the  struggle,  and  indifferent  as  to  its  issue ;  but  no  insinua- 
tion can  be  more  ungenerous,  no  slateraent  in  point  of  fact 
more  incorrect.*     Deprived  as  they  were  of  their  livings, 

*  Baxter's  prayer  gives  us  a  curious  illustration  of  his  zeal  against  popery: 
"From  such  a  worldly  and  fleshly  sacred  generation,  as  take  gain  for  godliness, 
make  their  worldly  carnal  interest  the  standard  of  their  religion,  and  their  proud 
domination  to  pass  for  the  kingdom  of  Christ ;  from  an  usurping  vice-Christ,  whose 
ambition  is  so  boundless  as  to  extend  to  the  prophetical,  priestly,  and  kingly 
headship,  overall  the  earth,  even  to  the  antipodes,  and  to  that  which  is  proper  to 
God  himself  and  our  Redeemer;  from  a  leprous  sect,  which  condemneth  the  far 
greatest  part  of  all  Christ's  church  on  earth,  and  scparateth  from  them,  calling 
itself  the  whole  and  only  church;  from  that  church,  which  decreeth  destruction  to 
all  that  renounce  not  all  human  sense,  by  believing  that  bread  is  not  bread,  nor 
that  wine  is  wine,  but  Christ's  very  flesh  and  blood,  who  now  hath  properly  no  flesh 
and  blood,  but  a  spiritual  body;  that  decreeth  the  excommunication,  deposition, 
and  damnation  of  all  princes,  who  will  not  exterminate  all  such,  and  absolveth 
their  subjects  from  their  oaths  of  allegiance  ;  from  that  beast  whose  mark  is  per, 
pe?-jury,  jjerfidiousness,  and  jjersecution,  and  that  thinketh  it  doeth  God  accepta- 
ble service,  by  killing  his  servants  or  tormenting  them  ;  from  that  religion  which 
feedeth  on  Christ's  flesh,  by  sacrificing  those  that  he  calleth  his  flesh  and  bones ; 
from  the  infernal  dragon,  the  fatlier  of  lies,  malice,  and  miu'der,  and  all  his  mi- 
nisters, and  kingdom  of  darkness —  Good  Lord,  make  haste  to  deliver  thy  flock; 
confirm  their  faith,  hope,  patience,  and  their  joyful  desire  of  the  great,  true, 
final,  glorious  deliverance.     Amen,  Amen,  Amen  !" 

Tkc  Frotcslatit  Rcliyion  truly  Staled  and  Justijud. 


46  LIFE    AND    TIMES 

banished  as  it  was  ihc  lot  of  many  from  their  homes  and 
families,  and  having  no  access  to  their  books,*  the  same  exer- 
tions could  not  reasonably  be  expected  from  them,  as  from 
the  prelates  of  a  wealthy  hierarchy  in  the  enjoyment  of  every 
literary  facility  ;  but  notwithstanding  these  disadvantages, 
most  of  their  eminent  ministers  stood  forwards  foremost  in  the 
contest.  The  harsh  treatment  which  they  had  received  from 
the  prelatists,  was  afterwards  regretted  as  a  question  of  policy 
by  many  of  their  persecutors;  its  natural  tendency  was  to 
sour  the  minds  and  embitter  the  spirit  of  those  who  came 
under  its  infliction  ;  and  though  in  some  instances  such  effects 
might  be  produced,  yet  the  preceding  letter  exhibits  the  sen- 
timents and  feelings  of  the  great  majority,  when  the  vital 
truths  of  religion  were  threatened  by  the  mistresses  of  a  profli- 
gate monarch  and  the  priestly  myrmidons  of  antichrist.f 

Mr.  Watts  was  upwards  of  two  years  an  exile  from  his 
family;  and  probably  returned  to  Southampton  in  the  year 
1687,  when  James  sought  to  bring  the  dissenters  over  to  his 
views,  by  publishing  his  flrst  declaration  for  liberty  of  con- 

*  In  a  touching  letter  to  Lord  Lauderdale,  Baxter  remarks  :  "  I  would  request 
that  I  might  be  allowed  to  live  quietly,  to  follow  my  private  studies,  and  might 
once  again  have  the  use  of  my  books,  which  I  have  not  seen  these  ten  years.  1 
pay  for  a  room  for  their  standing-  in  at  Kidderminster,  where  they  are  eaten  by 
worms  and  rats;  having  no  security  for  my  quiet  abode  in  any  place,  to  encourage 
me  to  send  for  them.  1  would  also  ask,  that  1  might  have  the  liberty  even,' beggar 
hath,  to  travel  from  town  to  town."     Orme^s  Life,  i.  3.37. 

fTong's  Defence  of  Henry's  Notion  of  Schism,  contains  a  full  answer  to  this 
calumny,  p.  \i>4,  l.j.j.  Mr.  Neal  observes,  upon  the  authority  of  Dr.  Calamy, 
Baxter,  and  others,  that  some  of  the  dissenters'  tracts  against  popery  being  thought 
too  warm,  were  refused  to  be  licensed.  Mr.  Jonathan  Hanmer,  ejected  from 
Bishop's  Tawton  in  Devonshire,  was  refused  a  license  for  one  of  his  discourses. 
Mr.  Henry  I'endlebury  met  with  alike  denial.  Dr.  Jane,  the  Bishop  of  London's 
chaplain,  denied  his  sanction  to  one  of  Baxter's  pieces.  Dr.  Crey,  however,  cites 
four  letters  from  Dr.  Ishani,  Dr.  Alston,  Dr.  Batteley,  and  Mr.  Needham,  licensers 
of  the  press,  in  which  they  positively  declare,  that  they  never  refused  to  license  a 
book,  on  account  of  its  being  written  by  a  dissenter.  With  reference  to  Baxter, 
Dr.  Isham  remarks,  that  "if  he  had  prepared  anything  against  the  common  enemy, 
without  striking  obliquely  at  our  church,  I  would  certainly  have  forwarded  them 
from  the  press."  The  books  referred  to,  to  which  licenses  were  refused,  were  pro- 
bably laid  before  Dr.  Jane  and  other  licensers. 


OF    DR.    ISAAC    WATTS.  47 

science.  His  prudence  and  integrity  secured  to  him  the 
esteem  of  his  townsmen ;  and  many  persons  were  accustomed 
to  consult  him  in  cases  of  emergency.  Mr.  Parker,  who  was 
Dr.  Watts's  amanuensis,  has  related  the  following  anecdote : 
— A  person  in  Southampton,  who  was  a  stonemason,  and  who 
had  purchased  an  old  building  for  its  materials,  previous  to 
his  pulling  it  down  came  to  Mr.  Watts,  under  some  uneasi- 
ness, in  consequence  of  a  dream,  viz.  that  a  large  stone  in  the 
centre  of  an  arch  fell  upon  him,  and  killed  him.  Upon  asking 
Mr.  Watts  his  opinion,  he  answered,  "  I  am  not  for  paying 
any  great  regard  to  dreams,  nor  yet  for  utterly  slighting  them. 
If  there  is  such  a  stone  in  the  building  as  you  saw  in  your 
dream"  (which  he  told  him  there  really  was),  "my  advice  to 
you  is,  that  you  take  great  care  in  taking  down  the  building 
to  keep  far  enough  off  from  it."  The  mason  resolved  to  act 
upon  his  opinion ;  but  in  an  unfortunate  moment  he  forgot 
his  dream,  went  under  the  arch,  and  the  stone  fell  upon  him, 
and  crushed  him  to  death. 

Of  this  good  and  singularly  devoted  man,  it  may  truly  be 
said,  that  his  "  latter  end"  was  "  blessed  more  than  the  be- 
ginning;" for  he  lived  long  enough  to  witness  the  triumph 
of  religious  liberty  under  the  princes  of  the  house  of  Hanover, 
and  to  enjoy  the  exquisite  gratification  of  beholding  the  son 
who  had  been  nursed  at  his  prison -door,  in  the  full  career  of 
his  usefulness  and  fame.  He  partook  of  his  taste  for  poetry, 
and  in  the  decline  of  life,  at  the  advanced  age  of  eighty-five, 
penned  the  following  simple  and  pious  effusions  : 


"THE  SOUL'S  DESIRE  OF  REMOVE. 

I. 

"Long  have  I  sojouru'd  in  this  weary  land, 
Where  sins  and  sorrows  everywhere  abound; 
Soul-threatening  dangers,  see  how  thick  they  stand  ! 
Snares  and  temptations  compass  me  around. 


48  LIFE    AND  TIMES 

"'Tis  an  unhealthy  clime,  where  vapours  rise, 
Whose  pestilential  influences  shed 
ISIalignant  fumes  beneath  the  gloomy  skies. 
Which  wound  the  heart  and  stupify  the  head. 

"  Wheu  shall  my  soul  obtain  a  kind  remove, 
These  fleshly  shackles  broke,  and  I  set  free 
From  this  dark  dungeon?     Soon  I'd  mount  above 
To  see  my  God,  the  Man  who  died  for  uie. 

"My  guardian  angel,  come  and  lead  the  way. 
Assist  my  footsteps  in  the  sacred  road  ; 
I'll  follow  on  through  realms  of  endless  day 
Up  to  the  palace  of  my  Father  God ; 

"  Where  solac'd  with  the  beatific  sight. 
No  evil  shall  my  perfect  peace  molest. 
But  with  those  holy  ones  array'd  in  white. 
Shall  enter  into  everlasting  rest. 


II. 

"  Worn  with  the  toils  of  fourscore  years  and  five, 
A  weary  pilgrim.  Lord,  to  thee  I  come  ; 
To  beg  supporting  grace,  till  I  arrive 
At  heaven,  thy  promis'd  rest,  my  wish'd-for  home. 

"Here's  nothing  to  invite  my  longer  stay, 
Among  the  darksome  melancholy  cells ; 
When  shall  I  leave  this  tenement  of  clay  ? 
Fain  would  I  be  where  my  Redeemer  dwells. 

"  Oh  !  had  I  but  some  generous  seraph's  wing, 
'J'here's  nothing  should  prevail  to  keep  me  here  ; 
But  with  the  morning  lark  I'd  mount  and  sing, 
Till  I  had  left  earth's  gloomy  atmosphere. 

"My  soul  directly  rising  upward  still, 
Till  I  should  reach  the  glorious  courts  above, 
Where  endless  pleasure  my  desires  shall  fill. 
And  solac'd  be  with  my  dear  Jesu's  love. 

With  sweet  refreshment,  ou  such  things  as  these 
My  serious  tiioughts  have  often  been  cmploy'd  j 
But  how  much  more  will  happiness  increase 
When  more  than  can  be  thought  will  be  cujoy'd." 


OF   DR.    ISAAC    WATTS.  49 

The  first  of  these  poems  was  given  to  Dr.  Gibbons,  by  Mrs. 
Jane  Rolleston,  a  lady  of  Southampton,  and  a  member  of  the 
dissenting-  congregation  there.  In  the  surreptitious  pubhca- 
tion  referred  to  in  the  preface,  entitled  the  "  Posthumous 
Works  of  Dr.  Watts,"  the  careless  compiler  has  twice  inserted 
it;  at  the  commencement  of  the  volume  as  the  composition  of 
the  father,  and  at  the  close  as  the  production  of  the  son.*  It 
must  undoubtedly  be  assigned  to  Mr.  Watts,  senior.  From 
the  compilation  in  question,  which  we  have  good  reason  to 
believe  contains  the  father's  manuscript  poems,  which  the 
doctor  entrusted  to  the  care  [of  his  sister,  Mrs.  Sarah  Brack- 
stone,  a  few  more  extracts  may  be  made,  as  the  work  is  little 
known,  illustrative  of  the  piety  and  talent  of  the  writer.  In 
the  following,  though  destitute  of  poetical  merit,  the  princi- 
ples of  the  nonconformist  are  prominently  developed : 


I. 

"ON  CEREMONIES. 

"  Why  do  our  churchmen  with  such  zeal  contend 
For  what  the  scriptures  nowhere  recoumiend  ? 
Those  ceremonies,  which  they  doat  upon. 
Were  unto  Christians  heretofore  unknown. 
In  ancient  times  God's  worship  did  accord. 
Not  with  traditions,  but  the  written  word ; 
Himself  has  told  us  how  he'll  be  ador'd. 

"  'Tis  true,  that,  in  the  legal  dispensation, 
Which  only  did  concern  the  Jewish  nation. 
Religious  rites  were  constantly  maintaiu'd. 
But  such,  and  only  such,  as  Heaven  ordaiu'd  ^ 
By  special  warrant  and  command  exprest. 
The  mitre  and  the  ephod,  with  the  rest 
Of  all  those  robes  wherewith  the  priest  was  drest. 

*  See  p.  p.  28,  167.  In  this  collection  there  are  several  poems  inserted  as 
sonnets;  one  consisting  of  eight  verses  of  four  lines  each,  and  none  of  the  others 
possess  the  requisite  quantity. 


60  LIFE  AND  TIMES 

"  The  altar  that  was  built  for  sacrilice, 
Must  bear  such  fashion  aud  be  such  a  size ; 
The  taberuacle  and  its  furniture, 
Its  tacks  aud  loops  so  many  and  no  more; 
Exact  according  to  the  pattern  shown 
By  God  to  Moses  in  the  mount  alone; 
Aud  so  for  form  must  every  thing  be  done. 

"  Nothing  was  left  to  man's  invention  free  ; 
No;  not  the  least  addition  must  there  be: 
The  worship  aud  the  mode  were  still  the  same, 
And  so  continued  till  Messiah  came, 
God's  Son  and  Heir,  whose  government  took  place, 
When  clearly  he  reveal'd  the  truth  and  grace. 
Which,  cloth'd  in  types,  lay  hid  in  former  days. 

"  Aud  here  commeuc'd  the  gospel  dispensation, 
Cent'ring  in  Christ,  the  author  of  salvation  ; 
Perfect  in  wisdom,  he  the  system  drew 
Of  iiis  own  worship  ;  who  shall  add  thereto  ? 
Can  foolish  man  Heaveu's  workmanship  refine? 
Or  puddle  water  meliorate  the  wine  ? 
'Tis  treason  to  corrupt  the  prince's  coin. 

"  When  Paul  was  first  converted,  'tis  not  said. 
He  read  a  prayer,  but  we  read,  he  prayed  ; 
Nor  do  I  find  he  did  a  surplice  wear. 
Either  in  time  of  preaching  or  of  prayer  ; 
Or  bow'd  to  altars,  heathen  superstition  ; 
At  Athens  he  reprov'd  that  vain  tradition, 
Aud  yet  'tis  sure  he  acted  by  commission. 

"  Nor  can  it  be  in  sacred  records  found, 
That  e'en  that  house  was  built  on  holy  ground, 
Where  Peter  went  upon  the  roof  to  prayer. 
And  yet  with  God  he  held  communion  there, 
While  dinner  was  prepar'd  ;  nor  is't  related, 
Cornelius's  house  was  ever  consecrated  ; 
Yet  gospel-worship  there  was  celebrated. 

"  When  Paul  and  Silas  were  in  prison  cast, 
And  by  the  gaoler  in  the  stocks  set  fast. 
They  never  question'd  aught  about  the  place. 
Being  quickened  by  the  Spirit  of  grace. 


OF    DR.    ISAAC    WATTS.  51 

Betook  themselves  to  prayer  aud  praises  high, 
Which  pleas'd  th'  Almighty's  ear:  blest  melody  ! 
Although  there  surely  were  uo  organs  by. 

"  Our  Saviour  did  th'  apostles  authorize, 
To  go  and  preach  the  gospel  and  baptise 
Throughout  each  kingdom,  and  in  every  coast, 
In  name  of  Father,  Son,  and  Holy  Ghost: 
But  not  a  word  I  read  in  his  command, 
Of  signing  with  the  cross  in  face  or  hand, 
Nor  thus  did  they  his  mandate  understand. 

"  Rome  did  these  ceremonies  first  invent, 
Confirm'd  them  by  a  council  held  at  Trent ; 
Sent  and  impos'd  them  on  the  nations  thence. 
Made  decency  and  order  their  pretence  : 
I  dare  not  with  such  superstition  join  ; 
Oive  me  pure  doctrine,  gospel  discipline, 
Where  God  is  serv'd — that  service  is  divine. 


II. 

"DIVINE  WORSHIP  MUST  BE  ACCORDING  TO  DIVINE  RULE. 

"  'Tis  not  religion  iu  an  outside  dress 
Of  forms  aud  modes,  that  can  acceptance  win 
With  Him  who  weighs  our  duties  more  or  less, 
According  to  the  principle  within. 

"  We  see  the  actions,  but  Heaven's  eyes  behold, 
The  secret  springs  from  whence  they  do  proceed ; 
Not  all  that  glistens  must  be  counted  gold  ; 
'Tis  pure  intention  consecrates  the  deed. 

"  The  daily  flames  that  from  the  altar  rise, 
Must  still  be  kindled  with  celestial  fire; 
This  only  makes  a  pleasing  sacrifice, 
When  sacred  love  breaks  out  in  pure  desire. 

"  The  rules  of  worship  all  appointed  were  ; 
The  victim  beast  must  not  be  lame  or  blind, 
Aud  must  be  ofter'd  with  an  heart  sincere ; 
The  life  of  true  devotion  is  the  mind. 


LIFE    AND   TIMES 

"  Who  in  God's  service  his  prescription  shuus, 
And  dares  another  form  to  introduce, 
On  the  thick  bosses  of  his  buckler  runs, 
And  calls  down  vengeance  to  repay  th'  abuse. 

"  This  Nadab  and  Abihu  knew  too  well, 
When,  with  strange  lire,  they  brought  their  offspring  nigh, 
A  sudden  flame  from  heaven  upon  them  fell. 
And  in  th'  attempt  they  at  the  altar  die. 

Ill, 

^^'l■itten  in  the  seventy-first  year  of  Iiis  asjc. 

"  When  I  can  call  the  blessed  Jesus  mine. 
By  strong  embraces  of  a  faith  divine, 

ISIy  soul's  transported  to  a  strange  degree. 
And  nothing  can  my  joyful  thoughts  remove 
From  the  dear  object  of  my  sovereign  love; 
My  inward  powers  dissolve  in  sacred  ecstasy. 

"  He  the  fix'd  centre  of  my  soul's  delight. 
On  whom  I  feast  by  day,  and  rest  by  night; 

In  him  alone  are  all  my  wants  supplied  ; 
When  I  can  clasp  him  thus  within  my  arms. 
In  vain  the  world  with  htr  deceitful  charms, 

Shall  ofler  from  his  love  to  draw  my  heart  aside. 

"  'Tis  true  there's  nothing  to  depend  npon. 
That  I  have  either  suffer'd,  wrought,  or  done  ; 

Yet  hope,  my  confidence,  shall  never  fall. 
While  Jesus  Christ  is  mine  and  I  am  his, 
I  cannot  fail  of  everlasting  bliss  ; 

Though  I  myself  am  nothing,  He's  my  all. 

"  Keep  up,  my  soul,  a  constant  cheerful  frame, 
At  the  remembrance  of  thy  Saviour's  name  ; 

Survey  the  records  of  time  past,  and  see 
When  Jesus  laid  aside  his  heavenly  dress. 
And  cloth'd  himself  in  robes  of  human  ilesli ; 

What  sorrows,  griefs  and  pains  lie  underwent  for  thee. 

"  To  make  atonement  with  his  precious  blood. 
He  gave  iiimself  a  sacrifice  to  God; 
And  now,  as  intercessor  in  thy  stead, 


OF   DR.    ISAAC    WATTS.  5S 

Appears  for  thee  before  his  Father's  face, 
To  sue  for  pardon  aud  supply  of  grace, 

Where  all  his  sufferings  for  thy  miseries  plead. 

"  See  next  the  promises,  which  stand  enroJPd 
In  Heaven's  great  charter,  whence  the  saints  of  old. 

As  from  a  living  spring,  their  comforts  drew  ; 
Assur'd  by  faith  that  what  th'  Almighty  spake. 
No  powers  of  earth  or  hell  could  ever  break. 
For  all  his  promises  are  faithful,  just  aud  true. 

"  Now  let  all  three  be  added  into  one. 
What  hath  been,  is,  or  further  shall  be  done. 

In  the  transactions  of  thy  Saviour's  love  j 
A  matchless  work  it  will  appear  to  be. 
In  union  of  the  eternal  Three, 

Accomplish'd  here  below,  but  first  contriv'd  above. 

"  'Twas  Wisdom's  self  that  did  project  the  scheme. 
How  God's  own  Son  should  criminals  redeem. 

That  Justice  should  appear  in  mercy  drest. — 
Here  stop,  my  soul,  and  join  the  heavenly  choir. 
And  when  thy  feeble  strains  can  reach  no  higher. 
In  humble  silence  meditate  the  rest." 


The  death  of  Mr,  Watts  took  place  m  February,  1736  or  7; 
and  but  two  days  before  this  event,  his  son  Dr.  Watts  address- 
ed to  him  the  following  letter  : 

"  Newington,  Feb.  8,  1736-7. 
"  Honoured  and  dear  Sir, 

"  'Tis  now  ten  days  since  I  heard  from  you,  and 
learned  by  my  nephews  that  you  had  been  recovered  from  a 
very  threatening  illness.  When  you  are  in  danger  of  life,  I 
believe  my  sister  is  afraid  to  let  me  know  the  worst,  for  fear  of 
affecting  me  too  much.  But  as  I  feel  old  age  daily  advanc- 
ing on  myself,*  I  am  endeavouring  to  be  ready  for  my  remo- 
val hence  ;  and  though  it  gives  a  shock  to  nature,  when  what 
has  been  long  dear  to  one  is  taken  away,  yet  reason  and  reli- 

*  Dr.  Watts  was  now  in  his  sixty-third  year. 


54  LIFE    AND    TIMES 

gion  should  teach  us  to  expect  it  in  these  scenes  of  mortality 
and  a  dying  world.  Blessed  be  God  for  our  immortal  hopes 
through  the  blood  of  Jesus,  who  has  taken  away  the  sting  of 
death !  What  could  such  dying  creatures  do  without  the 
comforts  of  the  gospel  ?  I  hope  you  feel  those  satisfactions  of 
soul  on  the  borders  of  life,  which  nothing  can  give  but  this 
gosjDel,  which  you  taught  us  all  in  our  younger  years.  May 
these  divine  consolations  support  your  spirits,  under  all  your 
growing  infirmities ;  and  may  our  blessed  Saviour  form  your 
soul  to  such  a  holy  heavenly  frame,  that  you  may  wait  with 
patience  amidst  the  languors  of  life,  for  a  joyful  passage  into 
the  land  of  immortality  !  May  no  cares  nor  pains  ruffle  nor 
afflict  your  spirit !  May  you  maintain  a  constant  serenity  at 
heart,  and  sacred  calmness  of  mind,  as  one  who  has  long  past 
midnight,  and  is  in  view  of  the  dawning  day  !  The  night  is 
far  spent,  the  day  is  at  hand !  Let  the  garments  of  light  be 
found  upon  us,  and  let  us  lift  up  our  heads,  for  our  redemp- 
tion draws  nigh.     Amen. 

"  I  am,  dear  Sir, 
"Your  most  affectionate  obedient  son, 

"  Isaac  Watts." 

The  decease  of  his  father  was  improved  by  Dr.  Watts  in  a 
sermon  to  his  own  people,  on  Zech.  i.  5  :  "  Your  fathers, 
where  are  they .?     And  the  prophets,  do  they  live  for  ever  ?" 


OF   DR.   ISAAC    WATTS.  55 


CHAPTER  II. 

EARLY  YEARS  OF  WATTS. 
1674—1690. 

BIRTH  OF  WATTS.— EARLY  GENIUS.— COUPLET  FOR  HIS  MOTHER- 
WRITES  AN  ACROSTIC  ON  HIS  OWN  NAME.  — COMET  OF  1680.— 
FRANKLIN,  COWLEY,  AND  REYNOLDS.— LINES.— CLASSICAL  STUDIES. 
—FREE-SCHOOL. —  EXTRACTS  FROM  MEMORANDA.  —  REV.  JOHN 
PINHORN.  — LATIN  PINDARIC  ODE.  — TRANSLATION.  — IMITATION  OF 
HORACE.- THE  BRITISH  FISHERMAN.— LANDING  OF  THE  PRINCE  OF 
ORANGE.— BRADBURY.— DE  FOE.— PIETY.— MEMORANDA.— DR.  JOHN 
SPEED.— OFFER  FOR  HIS  EDUCATION  AT  COLLEGE  REJECTED.— GOES 
TO  LONDON. 

Isaac  Watts,  D.D.,  to  whose  life  the  following  pages 
are  devoted,  was  born  at  Southampton,  July  17,  1674.*  He 
was  the  eldest  of  a  numerous  family,  consisting  of  four  sons 
and  five  daughters,t  and  was  named  after  his  father,  Isaac. 
Though  his  natural  disposition  was  marked  with  great 
sprightliness  and  vivacity,  yet  he  was  indifferent  to  the  folHes 
and  vanities  which  usually  captivate  in  years  of  childhood. 
From  his  youthful  companions  he  was  often  observed  to  retire, 
to  devote  those  hours  to  gratify  a  thirst  for  information,  which 
they  spent  in  amusement.  As  soon  as  he  could  articulate  he 
was  ambitious  of  learning  to  read,  and  the  gift  of  a  book  was 
the  most  gratifying  present  he  could  receive. 

*"  I  was  born July  17,  1G74."      Watts's  MS. 

•)•  Richard,  the  second  son,  became  a  physician,  and  practised  in  London. 
Enoch  was  the  third ;  and  Sarah,  afterwards  married  to  Mr.  Brackstone,  a  draper 
in  Southampton,  was  the  fifth  child  in  succession.  In  the  "  Postluiiiious  Works" 
there  is  a  poem  on  the  death  of  Elizabetli  Watts,  "who  deceased  Nov.  11,  1691, 
aged  two  years."     These  lines  are  in  the  simple  homely  style  of  Mr.  W.  sen. 


66  LIFE  AND  TIMES 

In  surveyinj^  the  lives  of  those  who  have  outstripped  their 
fellow  mortals  in  the  march  of  mind,  we  are  led  to  look  with 
peculiar  interest  and  curiosity  upon  their  early  years ;  enter- 
taining a  not-unnatural  supposition,  that  those  who  are 
great  in  mature  age,  must  necessarily  have  exhibited  some- 
thing extAiordinary  in  their  boyhood.  This,  though  true 
with  reference  to  many  of  the  gifted  ones  of  the  human  race, 
cannot  be  received  as  an  invariable  rule ;  for  instances  are  by 
no  means  infrequent,  in  which  the  morning  has  been  dark 
and  lowering,  when  the  noonday  has  been  brilliant  with  the 
light  of  intellect.  Pascal  when  a  mere  child,  without  the 
assistance  of  a  tutor,  mastered  the  elementary  propositions  of 
geometry,  drawing  the  figures  with  a  bit  of  coal  on  the  floor 
of  his  room ;  whilst  Sheridan,  the  delight  and  admiration  of 
crowded  senates  in  his  prime,  was  given  up  when  a  boy  by 
both  parents  and  preceptors,  as  most  incorrigibly  dull.  The 
mind  in  its  manifestations,  is  in  no  slight  degree  influenced 
by  external  circumstances;  and  the  development  and  im- 
provement of  the  intellectual  faculty,  will  be  afl"ected  in 
diff"erent  individuals,  by  their  several  peculiarities,  their  modes 
of  education,  opportunities,  and  bodily  temperament.  As 
there  are  original  diff"erences  in  the  soil  which  the  husband- 
man cultivates,  it  is  obvious  to  an  attentive  observer  of  mental 
phenomena,  that  there  are,  perhaps  less  prominent,  but  well- 
defined  diff"erences  in  the  constitution  of  the  human  mi\id ; 
and  the  want  of  the  proper  consideration  of  these,  the  mis- 
application of  educational  formula,  the  expenditure  of  the 
mental  vigour  upon  studies  directly  opposed  to  its  natural 
aptitude,  Avill  stunt  the  growth  and  retard  the  manifestations 
of  intelligence.  If  it  is  necessary  in  agriculture,  that  the 
properties  of  the  land  to  be  cultivated  should  be  investigated, 
and  the  grain  adapted  to  its  peculiar  quality,  in  order  that  a 
successful  tillage  may  ensue  ;  so  in  intellectual  education, 
it  is  equally  important,  that  the  mental  susceptibilities  and 
tastes  should  be  consulted,  as  Avhcn  properly  directed,  they 


OF   DR.   ISAAC    WATTS.  57 

form  most  powerful  auxiliaries  to  the  discipline  of  instruction. 
But  even  where  all  this  has  been  done,  we  have  many  in- 
stances of  parental  tenderness  hopelessly  despairing  over  an 
apijarent  dulness  and  stupefaction  in  youth ;  when  in  after 
years,  by  some  accidental  occurrence,  the  long  dormant 
powers  have  been  awakened,  and  have  speedily  outstripped 
in  their  progress  to  maturity  the  more  early  advancements  of 
others. 

It  has  been  said  of  Watts,  that  "  when  a  child  he  began  to 
act  the  part  of  maturer  years;"  and  was  noticed  by  his  rela- 
tives and  immediate  associates  for  his  anxiety  for  mental 
improvement.  The  money  that  was  occasionally  given  to 
him,  was  expended  to  gratify  this  favourite  propensity  ;  and 
on  obtaining  any  such  present,  he  was  accustomed  to  run  to 
his  parents,  crying,  "a  book,  a  book  —  buy  a  book."  This 
feeling  of  the  want  of  knowledge,  and  the  strong  desire  to 
obtain  it  which  it  engendered,  were  fortunately  regulated  and 
controlled  by  the  benignant  influence  of  paternal  government. 
The  youthful  mind  is  in  general  influenced  by  a  love  of  disco- 
very, an  appetite  for  novelty ;  the  first  dawn  of  intelligence 
devel  opsa  principle  of  curiosity,  an  anxiety  after  the  nliqiild 
novum;  and  hence  it  is  a  matter  of  no  small  moment,  that 
the  attention  should  be  early  directed  by  a  controlling  agent 
to  subjects  that  will  improve  and  benefit.  The  desire  of  in- 
formation is  to  the  mind,  what  hunger  is  to  the  body  ;  and  as 
care  is  requisite  to  supply  the  wants  of  the  one  with  whole- 
some food,  it  is  equally  necessary  that  the  powers  of  the  mind 
should  be  employed  upon  materials  which  will  increase  its 
vigour,  expand  its  capacity,  and  be  an  aliment  to  its  cravings. 
If  left  to  rove  from  one  object  to  another  without  a  guide  ;  if 
not  subject  to  the  counsel  and  care  of  experience;  the  conse- 
quence will  almost  invariably  be,  that  unhealthy  and  destruc- 
tive ingredients  will  be  administered,  or  the  habit  contracted 
of  preferring  an  acquaintance  with  those  subjects  which  lead 
to  new  and  varied  sensation,  rather  than  to  moral  and  intel- 

E 


58  LIFE    AND    TIMES 

lectual  benefit.  It  was  a  happy  circumstance  for  Watts,  that 
his  mental  faculties  in  their  vigorous  spring-time,  were  directed 
by  a  judicious  parent  in  the  search  of  genuine  wisdom ;  that 
those  truths  were  presented  to  his  awakening  attention,  which 
exert  a  moral  and  hallowing  influence  upon  the  mind ;  that  a 
course  of  instruction  was  adopted,  which  led  to  the  communi- 
cation of  good  and  fixed  principles  :  for  by  the  corrective 
agency  of  early  discipline,  he  was  preserved  from  those  spe- 
cious errors,  which  grow  in  wild  luxuriance  and  attractive 
colouring  in  the  fields  of  literature,  and  taught  to  estimate  the 
value  of  objects,  not  as  they  gratify  a  passion  for  novelty,  but 
as  they  enlarge  the  understanding  and  regulate  the  life. 

At  an  early  age  Watts's  poetical  genius  developed  itself; 
and  along  with  Milton,  Cowley,  and  Pope,  he  may  be  said  to 
have  "  lisp'd  in  numbers,"  It  was  a  custom  with  his  mother, 
to  employ  her  husband's  pupils  after  school-hours,  in  writing 
her  some  verses,  for  which  she  used  to  reward  them  with  a 
farthing.  When  young  Watts's  turn  came  to  exercise  his 
gift,  he  furnished  the  following  couplet  : 

"  I  write  not  for  a  farthing,  but  to  try- 
How  I  j'our  farthiug  writers  can  outvie." 

About  the  same  time  he  composed  a  copy  of  verses,  which 
falling  into  the  hands  of  his  mother,  she,  upon  reading  them, 
expressed  her  suspicion  whether  he  was  really  the  author  of 
them.  To  remove  her  doubts  as  to  his  ability  to  compose  in 
this  manner,  he  penned  the  following  acrostic  upon  his  name : 

"  I  am  a  vile  polluted  lump  of  earth, 

S  o  I've  continu'd  ever  since  my  birth  ; 

A  Ithough  Jehovah  grace  does  daily  give  me, 

A  s  sure  this  monster  Satan  will  deceive  me, 

C  ome,  therefore.  Lord,  from  Satan's  claws  relieve  me. 

"  W     ash  me  in  thy  blood,  O  Christ, 
A     nd  grace  divine  impart, 
T     hen  search  and  try  the  corners  of  my  heart, 
T     hat  I  in  all  things  may  be  fit  to  do 
S     ervice  to  thee,  and  sing  tliy  praises  too." 


OF    DR.   ISAAC    WATTS.  59 

These  lines  are  evidently  juvenile;  but  they  afford  a  pleas- 
ing proof,  that  his  first  as  well  as  his  latest  attempts  in  verse, 
were  devoted  to  the  cause  of  piety  and  virtue ;  so  that  what 
Lord  Lyttleton  said  of  Thompson,  may  truly  be  applied  to 
him:  he  wrote, 

"No  line,  which,  dying,  he  could  wish  to  blot." 

Upon  attaining  his  sixth  year,  the  great  comet  of  1680  was 
the  marvel  and  wonder  of  the  day ;  and  Watts  frequently 
spoke  in  after-life  of  the  deep  impression  which  the  brilliant 
wanderer  made  upon  his  mind.  It  is  curious  to  trace  the 
accidents,  which  seem  by  some  mysterious  influence  to  have 
often  determined  genius  in  the  exercise  of  its  powers,  though 
we  have  not  sufficient  insight  into  the  mental  economy,  to 
discover  the  intermediate  links  between  the  cause  and  the 
effect.  It  was  the  sight  of  a  flash  of  lightning,  from  a  tree 
into  which  he  had  climbed,  to  see  where  the  fire  came  from, 
that  first  awakened  in  Franklin's  mind  a  longing  desire  to  in- 
vestigate the  origin,  and  ascertain  the  laws,  which  govern  the 
power  of  electrical  phenomena.  A  copy  of  Spenser's  Fairy 
Queen,  lying  in  the  window  of  his  mother's  apartment,  enlisted 
Cowley's  genius  in  the  cause  of  verse ;  and  Richardson's 
Treatise  is  said  to  have  added  the  name  of  Reynolds  to  the 
number  of  illustrious  painters.  In  most  minds,  where  the 
imagination  is  the  predominant  faculty,  the  influence  of 
external  nature  is  strongly  felt;  and  the  impression  made 
upon  Watts  by  the  "  stranger  of  heaven,"  vivid  and  long 
remembered,  seems  to  have  given  a  tone  and  colouring  to 
some  of  his  poetry.  At  a  subsequent  era  of  his  life,  he  thus 
altered  Dr.  Young's  description  of  the  comet,  looking  back 
to  the  marvellous  splendour,  which  had  surprised  and  excited 
his  youthful  fancy : 

"  Who  stretch'd  the  comet  to  prodigious  size, 
And  pour'd  his  flaming  train  o'er  half  the  skies  ? 


S6t  LIFE    AND   TIMES 

Is't  at  thy  wrath  tlie  heav'niy  monster  glares 
O'er  the  pale  nations,  to  denounce  thy  wars?"* 

The  classical  studies  of  young  Watts  corameuced  in  his 
fourth  year,  when  he  began  to  learn  Latin  of  his  father;  and 
soon  afterwards  he  was  sent  to  prosecute  his  further  education 
in  the  grammar  school  at  Southampton.  The  master  of  this 
seminary  was  the  Rev.  John  Pinhorne,  a  clergyman  of  consi- 
derable talent  and  respectability,  whose  attention  and  kind- 
ness, procured  him  the  esteem  and  gratitude  of  his  pupil. 
The  events  of  this  part  of  his  life  are  thus  recorded  by  him  in 
his  memoranda  : 

"  Coincidents.  Memoranda. 

Began  to  learn  Latin 

of  my  father,      .     .1678. 
To  Latin  school  and 

writing,     ....  1680. 
1683.  My  father  perse-  Began  to  learn  Greek,  1683,  or  before, 
cuted  and  imprison-  I  had  ye  small  pox,       1683. 
ed fornonconformity  Learnt  French,       .     .  1684,  1685. 
six  months.     After  Learnt  Hebrew,     .     .  1687  or  8."t 
that  forced  to  leave 
his  family,  and  live 
privately  in  London 
for  two  years. 

In  the  year  of  Mr.  Watts's  imprisonment,  the  persecution 
of  the  protestant  dissenters  was  at  its  height ;  and  the  most 

Dr.  Young's  lines  are  as  follow  : 

"Who  drew  the  comet  out  to  such  a  size 
And  pour'd  his  flaming  train  o'er  half  the  skies? 
Did  thy  resentment  liang  liim  out  ?     Does  he 
Glare  on  the  nations,  and  denounce  from  thee?" 

f  Watts's  MS.  The  private  paper  from  which  this  extract  is  taken,  and  to  which 
reference  has  been  made,  is  arranged  in  two  columns  as  above.  In  future  extracts, 
for  the  sake  of  couvenience,  I  shall  depart  from  this  tabular  arrangement,  and 
blend  the  "  Coincidents"  with  the  "  Memoranda." 


OF   DR.   ISAAC   WATTS.  61 

cruel  and  tyrannical  measures  against  them  were  adopted  by 
the  court,  and  eagerly  abetted  by  the  bishops,  the  universities, 
and  the  magistracy.  Charles  II.  had  been  allowed  by  an 
infatuated  country  and  a  servile  parliament,  to  usurp  all  that 
power  which  his  father  sought  at  the  expense  of  his  life ;  and 
with  the  liberties  of  the  people  prostrate  before  the  royal  pre- 
rogative, and  completely  in  the  hands  of  a  vindictive  clergy, 
he  lent  himself  to  the  iniquitous  acts  which  they  devised. 
Some  there  were  who  had  the  courage  to  condemn,  and 
nobly  to  oppose,  the  arbitrary  proceedings  of  the  government; 
but  these  obnoxious  individuals  were  soon  informed  against 
by  the  perfidious  underlings  of  the  ministry,  and  lost  their 
lives  for  plots  that  never  existed,  and  designs  which  their 
accusers  alone  conceived.  During  the  year  1683,  one  of  the 
most  fatal  in  the  reign  of  terror,  Russel  and  Sydney*  were 
consigned  to  the  scaffold ;  and  the  prisons  of  the  metropolis 
and  the  provincial  towns,  were  crowded  with  those  who 
dared  to  insinuate,  that  a  king  could  do  wrong,  the  prelacy 
be  fallible,  and  a  state-church  be  antichristian. 

It  is  impossible  to  form  anything  like  a  correct  estimate  of 
the  sufferings  of  the  nonconformists  at  this  time ;  much  lite- 
rary ingenuity  and  artful  interpretation  have  been  employed 
to  soften  and  extenuate  ;  but  the  record  is  too  well  authenti- 
cated to  admit  a  suspicion  of  any  considerable  exaggeration. 
It  is  only  necessary  to  read  over  the  acts  of  parliament,  which 

*  Upon  the  death  of  Sidney  the  following  lines  were  written  : 

"  Algernon  Sidney  fills  this  tomb. 
All  atheist  for  disclaiming  Rome  ; 
A  rebel  bold  for  striving  still 
To  keep  the  laws  above  the  will ; 
Crimes  damn'd  by  church  and  government  — 
Alas  .'  where  must  his  ghost  be  sent? 
Of  heaven  it  cannot  but  despair, 
If  holy  pope  be  turnkey  there ; 
And  hell  it  ne'er  must  entertain. 
For  there  is  all  tyrannic  reign : 
Where  goes  it  then?     Where't  ought  to  go, 
Where  pope  nor  devil  have  to  do." 

BenneVs  Memorial,  p.  359. 


62  LIFE    AND    TIMES 

Clarendon*  and  his  successors  either  originated  or  revived,  to 
be  assured  that  the  amount  of  suffering'  must  have  been  great 
indeed.  The  guilt  of  the  numerous  injuries  and  oppressions 
that  were  heaped  upon  the  dissenters,  must  fall  principally 
upon  the  clergy,  who  declaimed  against  them  from  the  pulpit, 
enforced  the  law  from  the  magisterial  bench,  and  intrigued 
around  the  throne.  The  universities  also  by  their  decrees  in 
full  convocation,  encouraged  the  prelates  in  their  sanguinary 
crusade,  and  the  monarch  in  his  career  of  crime  and  despotism. 
This  year  Dr.  Whitby,  precentor  of  Sarum,  published  a  book, 
entitled  the  "Protestant  Reconciler,"  "humbly  pleading  for 
condescension  to  dissenting  brethren,  in  things  indifferent 
and  unnecessary,  for  the  sake  of  peace,  and  showing  how 
unreasonable  it  is  to  make  such  things  the  necessary  condi- 
tions of  communion."   Such  high  offence  did  this  publication 


*  For  a  fair  aud  candid  estimate  of  the  character  of  this  idol  of  the  establishment, 
tlie  reader  is  referred  to  the  "Historical  Inquiries"  of  the  Hon.  Mr.  Agar  Ellis. 
The  disabilities  under  which  the  nonconformists  laboured,  for  which  tliey  were 
principally  indebted  to  the  chancellor,  the  willing  tool  of  the  clergy,  will  appear 
from  the  following  recapitulation.  1st,  As  to  the  dissenting  laity,  by  the  statutes 
1  Eliz.  c.  2—23  Eliz.  c.  1—29  F.liz.  c.  6—Z'j  Eliz.  c.  1,  and  3  James,  c.  4,  those 
who  neglected  to  attend  at  church  on  Sunday,  were  liable  to  the  censures  of  the 
church,  and  finable  Is.  for  each  oft'ence,  £20.  per  month  for  continual  personal 
absence,  and  £10.  per  month  for  the  nonattendaiice  of  their  servants.  These  fines 
were  recoverable  by  very  summary  proceedings  :  the  lauds  of  the  person  offending, 
were  seizable  by  the  crown  ;  and  persons  who  neglected  to  conform  might  be  com- 
mitted to  prison,  or  must  abjure  the  realm,  and,  on  tiieir  refusal  or  return,  incur- 
red the  guilt  of  felony  without  benefit  of  clergy,  and  the  punishment  of  death  :  by 
the  Conventicle  Act,  22  Charles  II.  cap.  1,  additional  and  most  severe  restrictions 
were  imposed. — 2d.  As  to  the  ministers  of  iJii;  pj-otcntant  (lissfiiteis  (besides  being 
liable  to  all  the  statutes  we  have  enumerated),  they  were  by  the  Act  of  Uniformity 
(13  and  14  Charles  II.  c.  4)  subject  to  a  penalty  of  £100.  for  administering  the 
Lord's  supper;  by  tlie  l''ive  mile  Act  (17  Charles  II.  c.  2),  they  were  prohibited 
under  a  penalty  of  £40.  from  coming  within  five  milesof  any  city,  town  corporate, 
or  borough;  and  by  the  Conventicle  Act  they  forfeited  £20.  for  the  first  offence, 
and  for  the  second  offence  £40.,  if  they  preached  in  any  place  "at  which  there 
should  he  Jive  or  more  besides  those  of  the  household." — .\nd  3rd.  Under  the  ope- 
ration of  these  laws  from  the  Restoration  to  the  Revolution,  during  the  short  pe- 
riod of  twenty-six  years,  informers  acquired  opulence  by  prosecutions  ;  sixty  thou- 
sand persons  suffered  for  dissent ;  several  thousand  persons  expired  in  prisons  ;  and 
during  three  years  property  was  extorted  from  the  dissenters  exceeding  two  mil- 
lions sterliii''. 


OF    DR.    ISAAC    WATTS.  63 

give,  that  the  university  of  Oxford  ordered  it  to  be  burnt,  iu 
one  of  the  quadrangles,  by  the  hands  of  the  marshal.  The 
author,  who  was  chaplain  to  Dr.  Seth  Ward,  was  obliged  by 
him  to  make  a  public  recantation ;  and  to  seal  his  peace  with 
the  higher  powers,  he  added  a  second  part  to  his  work, 
"earnestly  persuading  the  dissenting  laity  to  join  in  full  com- 
munion with  the  church  of  England." 

"  168|.  Feb.  K.  Ch.  II.  dyed,  and  K.  Ja.  II.  procl."    Mem. 

The  last  days  of  Charles,  as  they  are  described  by  Evelyn, 
an  eye-witness,  present  an  awful  scene :  "  I  can  never  forget," 
says  he,  "  the  inexpressible  luxury  and  profaneness,  gaming 
and  all  dissoluteness,  and,  as  it  were,  total  forgetfulness  of 
God  (it  being  Sunday  evening),  which  this  day  se-night  I  was 
witness  to :  the  king  sitting  and  toying  with  his  concubines 
Portsmouth,  Cleveland,  and  Mazarine,  &c. ;  a  French  boy 
singing  love-songs  in  that  glorious  gallery,  whilst  about 
twenty  of  the  great  courtiers  and  other  dissolute  persons,  were 
at  basset,  round  a  large  table,  a  bank  of  at  least  £2,000.  in 
gold  before  them,  upon  which  two  gentlemen  who  were  with 
me  made  a  reflection  with  astonishment ;  six  days  after,  all 
was  in  the  dust."  The  king  died  in  the  faith  of  the  church 
of  Rome ;  father  Huddlestoue  administered  to  him  in  articulo 
mortis  the  usual  rites ;  and  little  doubt  remains,  but  that  the 
unprincipled*  profligate  had  long  been  reconciled  to  the  papal 

*  The  duplicity  and  hollow-dealing  of  Charles  ought  to  consign  his  name  to  uni- 
versal execration.  When  a  deputation  of  miuistei's  went  to  the  Hague  to  congratu- 
late him  upon  his  restoration,  Oldmixon  tells  us,  that  his  majesty  contrived  it  so, 
that  the  ministers  should  be  placed  in  a  chamber  as  by  accident,  which  joined  to  a 
closet  where  the  king  was  to  be  at  prayers,  and  he  thanked  Cod  for  being  a  '■'■cove- 
nanted Jiing.'^  Before  the  Scotch  commissioners  he  uttered  the  following  oath  : 
"  1  Charles,  king  of  Great  Britain,  France,  and  Ireland,  do  assure  and  declare,  by 
my  solemn  oath,  in  the  presence  of  the  Almighty  God,  the  searcher  of  hearts,  my 
allowance  and  approbation,  of  the  National  Covenant,  and  of  the  solemn  League 
and  Covenant,  above-written;  and  faithfully  oblige  myself  to  prosecute  the  ends 
thereof,  ia  my  station  and  calling ;  and  that  I  shall  observe  them  iu  my  own  practice 
and  family,  and  shall  never  make  opposition  to  any  of  these,  or  endeavour  any 
change  thereof."  Then  followed  the  declaration  from  Dumferling,  Aug.  16,  1650, 
iu  wliich  his  majesty  "  doth  desire  to  be  deeply  humbled  before  God,  because  of  his 


$4  LIFE    AND   TIMES 

see.  Bishop  Ken  zealously  sought  to  bring  him  into  com- 
munion with  the  English  church,  but  though  he  received 
absolution  from  him,  he  rejected  the  sacrament  at  his  hands. 
It  is  to  the  disgrace  of  the  clergy,  that  they  flattered  the  vices 
of  their  "supreme  head;"  added  to  the  titles  of  the  royal 
libertine,  after  the  Savoy  conference,  the  epithet  "  our  most 
religious  king;"  and  taught  for  golden  stalls  the  "right  di- 
vine of  kings  to  govern  wrong."*  The  history  of  this  prince 
shows,  how  much  popular  manners  and  showy  qualities,  may 
impose  upon  the  minds  of  the  vulgar  ;  for  stained  as  he  was 
with  almost  every  vice,  the  mean  pensioner  of  France,  the 
conspirer  against  the  religion  and  liberties  of  his  people,  he 
has  yet  remained  a  favourite  rather  than  otherwise  with  the 
country  at  large. f 

father's  hearkening  to  and  following  evil  counsels,  and  his  oppositiou  to  the  work 
of  reformation,  and  to  the  solemn  League  and  Covenant,  and  fur  the  idolatry  of 
his  mother,  the  toleration  of  which  in  the  king's  house  could  not  but  be  a  high 
provocation  to  him  who  is  a  jealous  God,  visiting  the  iniquities  of  the  fathers  upon 
the  children."      Well  might  the  satirist  exclaim, 

'■ He'll  a  piesbyteriun  brotlier  be, 

And  vow  to  ratify  their  hierarchy  ; 
The  sins  of  his  father's  house  he  will  bewail, 
Mourn  and  lament  under  a  Scottish  veil ; 
But  this  relijiious  mask  we  all  shall  see, 
\\  ill  soon  the  downfall  of  their  Babel  be." 

*  "We  still  believe  and  maintain,"  says  an  address  from  theuniversity  of  Cam- 
bridge, presented  by  Dr.  Cower,  master  of  St.  John's,  "  that  our  kings  derive  not 
their  power  from  the  people,  but  from  God  ;  that  to  him  only  they  are  accountable  ; 
that  it  belongs  not  to  subjects  either  to  create  or  censure,  but  to  honour  and  obey 
their  sovereign,  who  comes  to  be  so  by  a  fundamental  hereditary  right  of  succes- 
sion, which  no  religion,  no  law,  no  fault  or  forfeiture  can  alter  or  diminish."  The 
monarch  might  well  chuckle  at  such  a  sentiment,  and  remark,  that  "  no  other 
church  in  the  world  taught  and  practised  loyalty  so  conscientiously  as  they  did." 

f  The  pen  of  Horace  Walpole,  Lord  Orford,  has  truly  characterised  Charles  IF, 
whom  Archbishop  Sheldon  and  his  ecclesiastical  junto  introduced  into  the  liturgy 
under  the  denomination  of  "most  religious  :" 

'•  Fortune,  or  fair  or  frowning,  on  his  soul 
Could  stamp  no  virtue,  and  no  vice  control. 
Honour  or  morals,  gratitude  or  truth, 
Nor  learn'd  his  ripcn'd  age,  nor  knew  his  youth  i 

The  cares  of  nations  left  to  w s  or  chance  ; 

Plunderer  of  Britain,  pensioner  of  France ; 
Free  to  buffoons,  to  ministers  deny'd  ; 
He  liv'd  an  atheist,  and  a  bigot  died." 


or    DR.   ISAAC    WATTS.  65 

The  proclamation  of  James  II.,  says  Burnet,  was  a  "  heavy 
solemnity  —  a  dead  silence  followed  it  through  the  streets ; 
few  tears  were  shed  for  the  former,  nor  were  there  any  shouts 
of  joy  for  the  present  king."*  The  bishop,  however,  being 
at  this  time  abroad,  was  doubtless  misinformed ;  for  Calamy 
observes,  "  I  was  present  upon  the  spot,  at  the  proclaiming 
king  James  II.,  at  the  upper  end  of  Wood  Street,  in  Cheap- 
side,  and  my  heart  ached  within  me  at  the  acclamations  made 
upon  that  occasion,  which,  as  far  as  I  could  observe,  were 
very  general."t  The  new  monarch  won  over  the  clergy  to  his 
interests,  by  declaring  to  his  privy  council  that  he  "  would 
preserve  the  government  as  by  law  established  in  church  and 
state;"  and  protestant  pulpits  resounded  with  thanksgivings 
for  the  accession  of  a  popish  king.  So  highly  delighted  were 
they,  that  they  promised  in  their  addresses  the  most  un- 
qualified submission  to  his  authority;  and  the  university  of 
Oxford,  in  the  excess  of  their  loyalty,  even  went  so  far  as  to 
declare,  that  "  their  religion  indispensably  binds  them  to  bear 
faith  and  true  obedience  to  their  sovereign,  without  any 
Ihnltation  or  restriction.^^  The  mad  attempt  of  James  to 
render  popery  the  dominant  religion  of  the  country,  put  their 
sincerity  to  the  test;  and  the  doctrines  of  passive  obedience 
and  divine  right,  which  the  clergy  had  so  often  and  so  loudly 
preached  to  the  nonconformists,  were  soon  discarded  when 
the  emoluments  of  their  church  were  endangered  by  the  bold 
aggressions  of  Rome. 

But  to  return  to  Watts :  at  the  grammar  school,  under  Mr. 
Pinhorne,  he  was  celebrated  for  his  unwearied  diligence  and 
rapid  improvement.  His  master  soon  discovered  his  avidity 
for  learning,  and  carefully  stimulating  and  directing  his  ge- 
nius, he  was  accustomed  to  foretell  the  future  eminence  of  the 
boy.  To  look  back  upon  the  restraint  and  discipline  of  our 
school-hours  with  gratitude  and  pleasure,  is  no  inexpressive 
tribute  to  the  kindness  and  care  of  our  instructors.     In  a 

*  Own  Time,  i.  620.  f  Calamy,  i.  1 16. 


66 


LIFE    AND    TIMES 


Latin  Pindaric  ode,  which  Watts  inscribed  in  his  twentieth 
jear  to  his  tutor,  he  honourably  acknowledges  his  obligations 
to  him  for  his  instructions ;  and  indulges  in  a  pleasing  retro- 
spect of  his  early  studies.  The  poem  evinces  the  attainments 
of  the  scholar,  and  the  merits  of  the  master.  Mr.  Pinhorne 
was  the  rector  of  All  Saints'  in  Southampton,  prebendary  of 
Leckford,  and  vicar  of  Eling  in  the  New  Forest,  Hants.  He 
died  in  the  year  1714,  and  a  monument  erected  in  the  church 
of  Eling,  where  he  was  buried,  bears  an  inscription  to  his 
memory.*  At  the  period  of  his  death,  the  anticipations  he 
had  indulged  of  his  pupil's  future  celebrity  had  been  fully 
verified ;  by  the  public  at  large  he  was  then  known  as  an 
eminent  poet  and  an  esteemed  pastor,  though  his  bright 
career  as  a  theological  writer  and  Christian  psalmist  had  not 
commenced. 


"TO  THE  REV.  MR.  JOHN  PINHORNE,  THE  FAITHFUL  PRECEPTOR 
OF  MY  YOUNGER  YEARS.f 

Translated  from  the  Latin  by  Dr.  Gibbons. 


"Pinhorne,  permit  the  muse  t'aspire 
To  thee,  and  vent  th'  impatient  fire 

That  in  her  bosom  glows; 
Fain  would  she  tune  an  equal  lay, 
And  to  her  honour'd  tutor  pay 

Tiie  debt  of  thanks  she  owes. 


"Through  Plato's  walks,  a  flow'ry  road. 
And  Latiuni's  fields  with  pleasure  ;;trow'd, 

She  owns  thy  guiding  hand: 
Thou  too  didst  her  young  steps  convey 
Througii  many  a  rough  and  craggy  way 

In  Palestiua's  land. 


*Here  lies  the  body  of  tiie  Rev.  Mr.  John  Pinhorne,  prebendary  of  Leckford  and 
vicar  of  Eling,  who  died  June  8,  1711,  aged  02." 

+  "AD     REVERENOUM     VIRUM    DOMINUM   JOHANNEM    PINHORNE,   fIDUM 
ADOLESCENTl^E  PR^CEPTOREM. 


"  PINDARICI  CAUMINIS  Sl'ECl.MEN. 
I. 


1G94. 


"  Et  te,  Pinorni,  musa  Trisantica 
Salutat,  ardens  disci piilam  tuam 
Grat^  fateri  :  nunc  Athenas, 
Nunc  Latias  per  amoenitales 
Tuto  pererrans  te  recolit  duccni, 
Tc  quondam  tcneros  et  Ebraia  per  aspera  gressus 


OF   DR.    ISAAC    WATTS. 


67 


"'Twas  thine  irradiating  light 
Open'd  the  Thespian  vales  to  sight, 

And  taught  the  muse  to  climb 
The  mountains,  where  the  muses'  choir 
Now  tune  their  breath,  now  touch  the  lyre 

To  ecstasy  sublime. 

"Of  high  Parnassus'  top  possest, 
See  Homer  tow'ring  o'er  the  rest — 

What  a  stupendous  strain  ! 
In  battle  gods  and  men  contend. 
The  heavens  outrageous  uproars  rend. 

And  slaughters  drench  the  plain. 

"My  ear  imbibes  th'  immense  delight. 
When  Virgil's  past'ral  lays  recite 
The  country's  humble  charms. 


Or  when  his  muse  exalts  her  voice. 
And,  like  the  warlike  clarion's  noise, 
Sounds  the  loud  charge  to  arms. 

"The  Theban  bard  my  soul  admires, 
His  tow'ring  flights,  his  mounting  fires, 

The  raptures  of  his  rage. 
Hail,  great  triumvirate  !  your  lays. 
The  world  consenting  in  your  praise. 

Resound  from  age  to  age. 

"When  from  my  labours  in  the  mine 
Of  heav'nly  truth  and  grace  divine 

To  leisure  I  retire, 
I'll  seize  your  works  with  both  my  arms. 
Take  a  sweet  range  among  their  charms. 

And  catch  th'  immortal  fire. 


Non  dura  duxisse  manu. 
Tuo  patescunt  lumine  Thespii 
Campi  atque  ad  arcem  Pieridon  iter. 
En  altus  assurgens  Homerus 
Anna  deosque  virosque  miscens, 
Occiipat  aethereiim  Parnassi  culmen  :  Homeri 

Immensos  stupeo  manes 

Te,  Maio,  dulc^  canens  sylvas,  te  bella  sonantera 
Ardua,  da  veniara  tenui  veneraie  camoena  ; 
Tuaeque  ;iccipias,  Thebane  Vates, 
Debita  thuia  lyraj. 
Vobis,  magna  Trias  .'  clarissima  noraina,  semper 
Scrinia  nostra  patent,  et  pectora  nostra  patebunf, 
Ciuum  mihi  ciinque  levem  concesserit  otia  et  lioram 
Hiviua  Mosis  pagina. 
II. 
"  Flaccus  ad  banc  Triadem  ponatur,  at  ipse  pudendas 
Deponat  veneres.     Venias  sed  purus  et  insons 
Ut  te  collaudem,  dum,  sordes  et  mala  lustra 
Ablutus,  Venusine,  canis  ridesve.    Kecisaj 
Hac  lege  accedant  Satyras  Juvenalis,  amari 
Tenores  vitiorum.     At  longe  caucus  abesset 
Persius,  obscurus  vates,  nisi  lumina  circum- 
-fusa  forent,  Sphingisque  a;nigmata,  Bonde,  scidisses, 
Grande  sonans  Senecce  fulmen,  grandisque  cothurni 
Pompa  Sophoclaei  celso  ponantur  eodem 
Ordine,  et  ambabus  simul  bos  amplectar  in  ulnis. 
Tuto,  poetae,  tuto  liabitabitis 
Pictos  abacos  :  improba  tinea 
Obiit,  nee  audet  saeva  castas 
Attingere  blatta  camoenas. 
At  tu  renidens  foeda  epigrammatum 
Farrago  inertum,  stercoris  impii 
Sentina  foetens,  Martialis, 
In  barathrum  relegandus  imum 
Aufuge,  et  hinc  tecum  rapias  Catullum 
Insulsii  mollem,  naribus,  auribus 
Ingrata  castis  carmina,  et  improbi 
Spurcos  Nasonis  amores. 


LIFE    AND   TIMES 


"Horace  shall  with  the  choir  be  join'd, 
When  virtue  has  his  verse  refiu'd, 

And  purg'd  his  tainted  page  : 
Pleas'd  I'll  attend  his  lyric  strain, 
Hear  him  indulge  his  laughing  vein, 

Aud  satirize  the  age. 

"Nextcleans'd  from  his  unhallow'd  scum 
The  mighty  Juvenal  shall  come, 

Aud  high  his  vengeance  wield  : 
His  satires  sound  the  loud  alarm 
To  Vice,  she  sees  his  lifted  arm, 

And  cow'ring  quits  the  field. 

"In  vain  should  I  expect  delight 
From  Persius  wrapt  in  tenfold  uight, 

Unless,  O  Bond,  thy  ray 
Had  pierc'd  the  shades  that  veil  him  round 
And  set  his  sense  obscure,  profound 

Amidst  the  blaze  of  day. 

"Now  Seneca  with  tragic  lays 
Demands  my  wonder  and  my  praise  : 
What  thunder  arms  his  tongue  ! 


Now  Sophocles  lets  loose  his  rage  : 
With  what  a  pomp  he  treads  the  stage. 
And  how  sublime  his  song ! 

"In  long  and  regular  array 

My  shelves  your  volumes  shall  display, 

Ye  fav'rites  of  the  nine  ! 
No  moth's,  no  worm's  insidious  rage 
Shall  dare  to  riot  on  your  page. 

Or  mar  one  modest  line. 

"Meantime  let  Martial's  blushless  muse. 
Whose  wit  is  poison'd  by  the  stews, 

Catullus'  wanton  fire. 
With  Ovid's  verse,  that  as  it  rolls 
With  luscious  poison  taints  our  souls, 

In  bogs  obscene  expire. 

"See  from  the  Caledonian  shore. 
With  blooming  laurels  cover'd  o'er, 

Buchauau  march  along  I 
Hail,  honour'd  heir  of  David's  lyre, 
Thou  full-grown  image  of  thy  sire. 

And  hail  thy  matchless  song  ! 


III. 

"  Nobilis  extreiiia  gradiens  Calodonis  ab  ai'a 
En  Biichatianus  adest  I     Divini  psaltis  imago 
Jessiadje  salveto.'  potens  seu  Tv'uminis  ivas 
l''ulminibus  miscere,  sacio  vel  lutnine  mentis 
Fiigare  noctes,  vel  citharai  sono 

Sedare  fluctus  pectoris: 
Tu  milii  haiiebis  comes  ambulant!, 
Tu  domi  astabis  socius  peiennis, 
Seu  levi  mensae  simul  assidere 

Dignabere  seu  lectica; : 
Mox  rceumbentis  rigilans  ad  aurem 
Aureos  suadebis  inire  soninos 
Sacra  sopilis  superinferens  ob- 
livia  curis. 
Stet  juxta  Casimirus,  buic  nee  paicius  ignem 
Natura  indulsit,  nee  musa  armavit  alumnum 

Saibivium  rudiore  lyrii. 
Quanta  Polonum  levat  aura  cyguuni 
Humana  linquens,  en  sibi  devii 
IMontes  recedunt,  luxuriantibiis 

Spatiatur  in  aere  pennis. 
Seu  tu  fort6  virum  toUis  ad  a^tbera 
t'ognatosve  thronos,  et  pati^um  Polum 

Visurus  consurgis  ovans, 
Visum  fatigas,  aciemque  fallis 
Dum  tuum  a  longe  atupeo  volatum. 

O  non  imitabilis  ales 


OF    DR.    ISAAC    WATTS. 


69 


"What  terror  sounds  thro'  all  thy  strings 
When  in  his  wrath  th'  Ahnighty  flings 

His  thunder  through  the  skies  ! 
Anon,  when  heav'u's  wide  op'ning  ray 
Shines  all  our  gloomy  doubts  away, 

How  soft  the  notes  arise  ! 

"When  billows  upon  billows  roll, 
And  night  o'erwhelms  the  tossing  soul, 

How  potent  is  thy  lyre 
To  hush  the  raging  storm  to  rest, 
Restore  the  sunshine  of  the  breast, 

And  joy  divine  inspire  ! 

"Thou  sacred  bard,  whene'er  I  rove 
The  smiling  mead,  or  shady  grove. 
Shall  entertain  my  way : 


My  humble  mansion  thou  shalt  grace, 
Shalt  at  my  table  find  a  place. 
And  tune  th'  ecstatic  lay  : 

"When  the  returning  shades  of  night 
My  eyes  to  balmy  sleep  invite. 

Thy  sweet  angelic  airs 
Shall  warble  to  my  ear,  till  sleep's 
Soft  influence  o'er  my  senses  creeps. 

And  buries  all  my  cares. 

"Next  comes  the  charming  Casimire  !* 
Exulting  in  seraphic  fire 

The  bard  divinely  sings  : 
The  heav'nly  muse  iuspir'd  his  tongue. 
The  heav'nly  muse  his  viol  strung, 

And  tun'd  th'  harmonious  strings. 


IV. 

"  Sarbivii  ad  nomen  gelida  incalet 
Musa,  simul  totus  feivescere 
Sentio,  stellatas  levis  induor 
Alas  et  tollor  in  altum. 
Jam  juga  Zionis  radens  pede 
Elato  inter  sidera  vertice 
Longe  despecto  moitalia. 
Quam  juvat  altisonis  volitai-e  per  athera  pennis, 
Et  ridere  procul  fallacia  gaudia  secli 

Terrell^  grandia  inania 
Quae  morfale  genus,  heu  mal^,  deperit. 
O  curas  liominum  miserasi  Cano, 
Et  raiseras  nugas  diademata  .' 

Ventosae  sortis  ludibiium .' 
En  mihi  subsidnnt  terrena;  a  pectore  feces, 
Gestit  et  effrasnis  divinum  effundere  carmen 
IVIens  afflata  Deo 


at  vos  heroes  et  arma 

Et  procul  este  dii,  ludicra  numina. 
Quid  mihi  cum  vestrre  pondeve  lanceae 
Pallas!  aut  vestris,  Dionyse,  Thyrsis? 
Et  clava,  et  anguis,  et  leo,  et  Hercules, 
Et  brutum  tonitru  fictitii  patris 
Abstate  a  carmine  nostro. 


"  Te  Deus  omnipotens  .'     Te  nostra  sonabit  Jesu 

Musa,  nee  assueto  coslestes  barbiton  ausu 

Tentabit  numeros.    Vasti  sine  limite  Numen,  et 
Immensum  sine  lege  Deum  numeri  sine  lege  sonabunt. 

"  Sed  musam  magna  poUicentem  destituit  vigor:  divinojubarepevstringituvoculorum  acies. 
En  labascit  pennis,  tremit  artubus,  ruit  deorsum  per  inane  getheris,jacet  victa,  obstupescit, 
silet. 

"  Ignoscas,  Reverende  vir,  vano  conaraini :  fragmen  hoc  rude  licet  et  impolitum  tequi  boni 
consulas;  et  gratitiidinis  jamdiu  debitee  in  partem  reponas." 

*  M.  Casimirus  Sarbiewski,  Poeta  insignis  Polonus.  Of  this  poet,  whose  productions  Watts 
greatly  admired,  some  particulars  will  hereafter  be  introduced. 


70 


LIFE    AND   TIMES 


"See  on  what  full,  what  rapid  gales 
The  Polish  swan  triumphant  sails'. 

He  spurns  the  globe  behind, 
And,  mountains  less'uing  to  the  eye. 
Through  the  unbounded  fields  on  high 

Expatiates  imconfin'd. 

"Whether  'tis  his  divine  delight 
To  bear  in  iiis  exalted  flight 

Some  hero  to  the  skies, 
Or  to  explore  the  seats  above, 
His  kindred  seats  of  peace  and  love, 

His  peerless  pinions  rise, 

"With  what  a  wing !    To  what  an  height 
He  tow'rs  and  mocks  the  gazing  sight, 

Lost  in  the  tracts  of  day  ! 
I  from  afar  behold  his  course 
Amaz'd  with  what  a  sov'reign  force 

He  mounts  his  arduous  way. 

"Methinks  enkindl'd  by  the  name 
Of  Casimire,  a  sudden  flame 

Now  shoots  through  all  my  soul. 
I  feel,  1  feel  the  raptures  rise, 
On  starry  plumes  I  cut  the  skies. 

And  range  from  pole  to  pole  ; 

"Touching  on  Zion's  sacred  brow, 
My  wand'ring  eyes  I  cast  below. 

And  our  vain  race  survey  : 
O  how  they  stretch  their  eager  arms 
T'  embrace  imaginary  charms. 

And  throw  their  souls  away  ! 

"In  grov'ling  cares,  and  stormy  strife. 
They  waste  the  golden  hours  of  life. 
And  murder  ev'ry  joy. 


What  is  a  diadem  that's  tost 
From  hand  to  hand,  now  won,  now  lost, 
But  a  delusive  toy  ? 

"From  all  terrestiial  dregs  rcfin'd 
And  sensual  fogs,  that  choke  the  mind. 

Full  of  th'  inspiring  God 
My  soul  shall  her  sublimest  lay 
To  her  Creator,  Father,  pay. 

And  sound  his  praise  abroad. 

"Ye  heroes,  with  yourbloodstain'd  arms, 
Avaunt !     The  muse  beholds  no  charms 

In  the  devouring  sword. 
Avaunt!  ye  despicable  train 
Of  gods,  the  phantoms  of  the  brain. 

By  Greece  and  Rome  ador'd. 

"Say  what  is  Wisdom's  queen  to  me. 
Or  her  fictitious  panoply. 

Or  what  the  God  of  wine  ? 
I  never  will  profane  this  hand 
Around  his  tall  imperial*  wand 

The  sacred  boughs  to  twine. 

"'Tis  all  romance  beneath  a  thought 
How  Hercules  with  lions  fought, 

And  crush'd  the  dragon's  spires : 
Alike  their  Thunderer  I  despise, 
The  fabled  ruler  of  the  skies. 

And  his  pretended  fires. 

"  Thy  name.  Almighty  Sire,  and  thine, 

Jesus,  where  his  full  glories  shine. 
Shall  consecrate  my  lays  ; 

In  numbers,  by  no  vulgar  bounds  con- 
troll'd. 

In  numbers,  most  divinely   strong  and 
bold, 

I'll  sound  through  all  the  world  th'  im- 
measurable praise. 


"But  in  the  moment  the  muse  is  promising  great  things  her  vigour  fails,  her 
eyes  are  dazzled  with  the  divine  glories,  her  pinions  flutter,  her  limbs  tremble; 


The  thyrsus. 


OF    DR.    ISAAC    WATTS.  71 

she  rushes  headlong  from  the  skies,  falls  to  the  earth,  and  there  lies  vanquished, 
overwhelmed  in  confusion  and  silence. 

"Forgive,  Rev.  Sir,  the  vain  attempt,  and  kindly  accept  this  poetical  fragment 
though  rude  and  unpolished,  as  an  expression  of  that  gratitude  which  has  been  so 
long  due  to  your  merit." 

The  opinion  which  Watts  expresses  in  this  poem  respecting 
the  heathen  chissics,  is  one  which  his  maturer  judgment  sanc- 
tioned ;  for  in  his  "  Improvement  of  the  Mind,"  he  advocates 
the  use  of  selections  only  from  the  pages  of  Horace,  Ovid, 
Juvenal,  and  Martial,  &c.  in  the  public  seminaries.  It  is  to 
be  regretted  that  his  hints,  with  those  of  others,  have  not 
been  attended  to ;  and  that  the  writings  of  the  ancients,  with 
all  their  corrupting  ideas  and  offensive  imagery,  should  still 
retain  their  place  in  Christian  schools.  The  taste  of  the 
youthful  student  may  be  improved  by  their  perusal ;  but,  in 
their  present  state,  they  can  hardly  fail  to  corrupt  the  morals, 
pollute  the  imagination,  and  debase  the  mind.  The  idea 
which  he  throws  out  of  purifying  Horace,  and  purging  his 
"  tainted  page,"  he  attempted  to  follow  up  himself,  in  an  ex- 
periment on  the  close  of  his  twenty-ninth  ode  : 

"  Non  meum  est  si  mugiat  Africis 
Malus  procellis,  ad  miseras  preces 
Decurrere,  et  votio  pacisci, 
Ne  Cypria;  Syriaeque  merces 
Addant  avaro  divitias  mari. 
Dum  me  biremis  prsesidio  scaphae 
Nudum  per  j^geos  tumultus 
Aura  ferat,  geminusque  Pollux." 

TRANSLATION. 

.    "  Though  the  mast  howl  beneath  the  wind 

I  make  no  mercenary  prayers. 

Nor  with  the  gods  a  bargain  bind 

With  future  vows  and  streaming  tears, 

To  save  my  wealth  from  adding  more 
To  boundless  Ocean's  avaricious  store. 


7^  LIFE    AND   TIMES 

"  Tlien  in  my  little  barge  I'll  ride 
Secure  amidst  tlie  foaming  wave; 
Calm  will  1  stem  the  threat'ning  tide, 
And  fearless  all  its  tumults  brave  ; 
E'en  then  perhaps  some  kinder  gale, 
While  the  twin-stars  appear,  shall  fill  my  joyful  sail." 

FRANCIS. 

IMPROVEMENT  BY  WATTS. 

"the  BRITISH  FISHERMAN. 
I. 

"  Let  Spain's  proud  traders,  when  the  mast 
Bends  groaning  to  the  stormy  blast. 
Run  to  their  beads  with  wretched  plaints, 
And  vow  and  bargain  with  their  saints. 
Lest  Turkish  silks,  or  Tyriau  wares, 

Sink  in  the  drowning  ship  ; 
Or  the  rich  dust  Peru  prepares. 
Defraud  their  long  projecting  cares. 
And  add  new  treasures  to  the  greedy  deep  : 

IL 

"  My  little  skiff  that  skims  the  shores. 
With  half  a  sail  and  two  short  oars. 
Provides  me  food  in  gentler  waves; 
But  if  they  gape  in  watery  graves, 
I  trust  th'  Eternal  Power,  whose  hand 

Has  swell'd  tiic  storm  so  high, 
To  waft  my  boat  and  me  to  land. 
Or  give  some  angel  swift  command. 
To  bear  the  drowning  sailor  to  the  sky." 

"  1C88,  Nov.  5.     Prince  of  Orange  landed  in  Engl."* 

To  no  class  of  persons  was  the  revolution  a  subject  of 
greater  gratulation  than  to  the  protestant  dissenters :  it  ter- 
minated the  oppressions  they  had  endured  from  the  Stuart 
family ;  preserved  the  nation  from  the  domination  of  popery ; 

*  Watts 's  MS. 


OF   DR.   ISAAC    WATTS.  73 

and,  hence,  many  of  their  churches  and  congregations  ob- 
served with  religious  services  the  anniversary  of  the  prince's 
landing,  as  a  season  for  especial  gratitude  and  devotion.  The 
celebrated  Thomas  Bradbury  had  his  meeting-house  open  on 
that  day,  and  during  the  reign  of  queen  Anne  he  employed 
his  great  powers  of  mind,  on  the  periodical  festival,  in  com- 
bating the  measures  of  the  tory  ministers,  who  evidently 
intended  to  set  aside  the  Hanoverian  succession,  in  favour  of 
popery  and  the  pretender.  De  Foe  likewise  annually  com- 
memorated the  same  day  ;  "  a  day,"  says  he  in  his  Review, 
"famous  on  various  accounts,  and  every  one  of  them  dear  to 
Britons  who  love  their  country,  value  the  protestant  interest, 
or  have  an  aversion  to  tyranny  and  oppression.  On  this  day 
he  was  born  ;  on  this  day  he  married  the  daughter  of  England  ; 
and  on  this  day  he  rescued  the  nation  from  a  bondage  worse 
than  that  of  Egypt,  a  bondage  of  soul  as  well  as  bodily  servi- 
tude, a  slavery  to  the  ambition  and  raging  lust  of  a  generation 
set  on  fire  by  pride,  avarice,  cruelty,  and  blood."* 

Much  as  Watts  was  distinguished  in  his  youth  for  intellec- 
tual acquirements,  he  was  equally  admired  for  his  attainments 
in  religion.  He  appears  to  have  been  in  a  measure  sanctified 
from  his  birth,  and  from  the  first  dawn  of  reason  he  devoted 
himself  to  the  service  of  God.  By  means  of  catechetical  ex- 
ercises, he  had  early  become  acquainted  with  the  fundamental 
doctrines  of  Christianity;  and  the  frequent  perusal  of  the 
scriptures,  under  the  blessing  of  heaven,  led  to  an  experimen- 
tal knowledge  of  their  truths.  In  his  father's  house  he  was 
favoured  with  religious  instruction  and  examples  of  piety ;  the 
prayers  and  precepts  of  his  relatives  had  in  view  his  early  con- 
version to  God;  and  when  at  the  age  of  fifteen,  he  seems  to 
have  obtained  peace  and  joy  through  believing.    It  is,  there- 

*The  dissenting  ministers  in  a  body  waited  upon  the  prince  on  his  arrival  at 
St.  James's  palace,  and  were  introduced  by  the  Lords  Devonshire,  Wharton,  and 
Wiltshire.  Mr.  Howe  read  an  address,  in  which  he  apologised  for  the  absence  of 
some  of  his  brethren,  whom  age  and  infirmities  prevented  appearing,  alluding  to 
Baxter  and  Dr.  Bates.     Calamy\'i  Life  of  Howe,  142,  i43. 

F 


74  LIFE    AND   TIMES 

fore,  a  mistake  to  say  with  one  of  his  biographers,*  that  *'  the 
date  of  his  spiritual  life  cannot  be  ascertained,"  for  he  dis- 
tinctly refers  it  in  his  memoranda  to  the  year  1689: 

"Fell  under  considerable  convictions  of  sin,  1C88. 
And  was  taught  to  trust  in  Christ  I  hope,  1689. 
Had  a  great  and  dangerous  sickness,       .     .      1689."t 

The  beautiful  language  of  his  friend,  Mrs.  Rowe,  he  might 
truly  have  adopted :  "  My  infant  hands  were  early  lifted  up 
to  Thee,  and  I  soon  learned  to  know  and  acknowledge  the 
God  of  my  fathers." 

At  what  time  the  attention  of  our  young  student  was  turned 
to  theological  subjects,  we  are  ignorant ;  but  an  offer  was 
made  him  by  Dr.  John  Speed,  a  physician  of  Southampton, 
with  reference  to  his  education  for  the  ministry.  Having 
observed  his  talents  and  piety,  this  benevolent  man,  in  con- 
nexion with  several  others,  liberally  offered  to  defray  the  ex- 
penses of  his  education  in  an  English  university.  Firmly 
attached,  however,  to  the  principles  which  his  father  professed, 
and  for  which  he  had  suffered,  this  proposal  he  respectfully 
declined,  saying,  "  He  was  determined  to  take  his  lot  among 
the  dissenters."  During  the  time  he  remained  under  Mr. 
Pinhorne's  tuition,  which  was  upwards  of  ten  years,  he  made 
himself  master  of  the  Latin,  Greek,  Hebrew,  and  French 
languages  ;  while  his  leisure  hours  at  home  were  employed, 
under  the  parental  eye,  in  the  pursuit  of  biblical  knowledge. 
A  deep  reverence  for  the  scriptures  formed  a  prominent  fea- 
ture of  his  religious  character ;  he  had  been  taught  in  all  his 
studies  to  take  their  unerring  pages  with  him ;  and  with  this 
pilot  he  safely  adventured  in  the  frail  bark  of  reason,  able  to 
discover  upon  the  most  stormy  ocean  the  dangers  of  his  course 
and  the  mistakes  of  his  reckoning.     Gifted  with  a  lively  fancy 

•  Sketch  prefixed  to  the  Leeds  edition  of  his  Works. 
t  Watts's  MS. 


OF    DR.    ISAAC    WATTS.  75 

and  a  vigorous  imagination,  it  was  an  advantage  that  his 
mind  was  thus  early  employed  upon  theological  subjects ;  they 
tend  to  repress  its  excursive  speculations,  and  to  guard 
against  the  presumption  of  intellectual  vanity ;  while  the 
humbling  truths  and  the  every-day  duties  which  they  incul- 
cate, contribute  to  render  the  course  of  our  inquiries  fixed 
and  practical. 

It  argues  a  sincere  attachment  to  the  principles  of  the  non- 
conformists, and  a  determination  to  be  actuated  solely  by 
conscientious  views  and  feelings,  that  Watts  rejected  the  ge- 
nerous offers  of  his  Southampton  friends ;  offers  flattering  to 
a  child  of  genius,  and  peculiarly  tempting  when  the  party  to 
which  his  family  belonged,  and  in  whose  favour  he  himself 
decided,  was  exposed  to  so  much  obloquy  and  suffering.  The 
nation  had  indeed  been  delivered  from  the  oppressive  Stuarts, 
and  the  situation  of  the  dissenters,  so  long  beclouded,  was 
beginning,  by  the  passing  of  the  toleration  act,  to  assume  a 
brighter  aspect ;  but  they  were  still  regarded  by  a  large  majo- 
rity as  schismatics,  and  the  charter  of  their  religious  liberties 
was  rather  conceded  owing  to  the  political  circumstances  of 
the  times,  than  the  offspring  of  a  cordial  and  friendly  feeling. 
The  events  of  the  succeeding  reign  plainly  proved,  that  an- 
cient jealousies  continued  to  rankle ;  and  that  a  fair  opportu- 
nity was  alone  wanting  to  abridge  the  privileges  and  arrest 
the  labours  of  those  without  the  pale  of  the  establishment. 
Amid  such  forbidding  circumstances,  an  individual  inclined 
only  to  consult  temporal  interests,  personal  ease,  or  the  grati- 
fication of  literary  ambition,  would  have  unhesitatingly  acce- 
ded to  the  proposal  made  to  Watts ;  but  his  mind  had  been 
better  disciplined  —  he  had  learnt  to  refer  the  important  affairs 
of  life  to  the  decisions  of  conscience  —  and,  hence,  the  friendly 
patronage  tendered  unto  him  was  declined. 

Determined  to  take  his  lot  among  the  dissenters,  and  con- 
sequently to  forfeit  the  advantages  of  a  university  education. 
Watts  removed  to  London,  for  the  purpose  of  prosecuting  his 


76  LIFR    AND   TIMES 

Studies  for  the  ministry.  This  event  is  thus  noticed  by  him 
in  his  memoranda:  "  1690,  Left  the  grammar-school,  and 
came  to  Londo.  to  Mr.  Rowe's,  to  study  phil."  &c.  He  was 
now  in  his  sixteenth  year ;  "  such  he  was,"  Dr.  Johnson  ob- 
serves, "as  every  Christian  church  would  rejoice  to  have 
adopted." 


OF    DR.    ISAAC    WATTS.  77 


CHAPTER  III. 

1690. 
DISSENTING  ACADEMIES. 

INSTITUTION  OF  ACADEMIES:— OPPOSED  BY  THE  CLERGV.-DR.  SHARP. 
— TILLOTSON'S  POLICY.— OXFORD  OATH.— NEWINGTON  GREEN.-MR. 
CHARLES  MORTON'S  ACADEMY.— WICKENS,  LOBB,  AND  GLASSCOCK.— 
SAMUEL  WESLEY  ATTACKS  THE  ACADEMIES.— NOTICED  BY  DE  FOE 
AND  MR.  PALMER.— MR.  SOUTHEY.— CALVES-HEAD  CLUB.— EXECUTION 
OF  CHARLES  I— LORD  BARRINGTON  DEFENDS  THE  DISSENTERS.— 
THOMAS  BRADBURY.— MR.  WESLEY'S  CONDUCT— THEOPHILUS  GALE. 
—  LORD  WHARTON.— JOHN  ROWE.— THOMAS  ROWE.— DR.  DODDRIDGE. 
—REMARK  OF  WATTS.— POEM.— MR.  T.  ROWE'S  STUDENTS. 

The  importance  of  academies  to  perpetuate  the  efficient 
ministry  of  the  truth,  was  recognised  under  the  Jewish  dis- 
pensation ;  and  the  prophetic  colleges  which  were  established 
upon  the  "  hill  of  God,"*  give  a  precedent  and  sanction  to  the 
initiatory  seminaries  of  Christian  times.  The  institution  of 
academies  among  the  nonconformists,  was  partly  forced  upon 
them  by  the  straitened  circumstances  to  which  their  ministers 
were  reduced,  as  well  as  by  the  necessity  which  continually 
occurred  of  supplying  the  places  of  deceased  pastors.  Ejected 
from  their  livings  by  the  edicts  of  intolerance,  and  that  at  a 
period  when  the  yearly  revenue  of  their  vicarages  and  recto- 
ries was  nearly  due,  they  were  obliged  to  have  recourse  to 
private  tutorship  and  scholastic  labours  to  obtain  support.  The 
learning  of  the  Bartholomew  divines,  panegyrized  by  Locke, 
qualified  them  in  an  eminent  degree  for  the  task  of  instruct- 

*  1  Sam.  X.  5. 


78  LIFE    AND   TIMES 

ing  youth,  and  a  considerable  number  of  seminaries  were 
soon  established,  which  contributed  no  little  to  the  advance- 
ment of  theological  science.  Among  scholars  and  critics,  the 
names  of  Theophilus  Gale,  who  wrote  "the  Court  of  the 
Gentiles" — Hill,  the  editor  of  "  Schrevelius's  Lexicon" — 
Poole,  the  author  of  the  "Synopsis  Criticorum,"  with  several 
others,  will  ever  be  distinguished ;  and  many  of  these,  as  their 
only  resource  for  subsistence,*  and  the  employment  most 
congruous  with  their  habits,  became  tutors  in  private  families, 
opened  schools,  and  read  lectures  on  the  dill'erent  branches  of 
science  and  theology  to  divinity  students. 

The  efforts  of  these  learned  men  were,  however,  viewed 
with  jealousy  by  the  high-church  party ;  and  the  basest  mo- 
tives of  conspiracy  and  sedition,  were  imputed  to  their  blame- 
less characters.  At  the  instigation  of  the  clergy,  vexatious 
suits  were  frequently  commenced  against  them  in  the  spiritual 
courts;  and  measures  were  adopted  to  prevent  the  increase 
and  check  the  usefulness  of  the  institutions  over  which  they 
presided.  During  the  reign  of  William  III,  these  proceedings 
were  discountenanced  by  the  liberality  of  the  monarch,  and 
owing  to  his  interposition  they  were  often  suspended  ;t  but 
the  demon  of  intolerance  was  called  forth  by  the  court  of  his 
successor,  and  the  government  was  disgraced  by  repeated  and 
violent  attempts  to  invade  the  retreat  of  the  dissenting  student. 

*  Some  betook  themselves  to  the  practice  of  pliysic.  In  the  "  Art  of  Thriving, 
by  Thomas  Powell,"  a  curious  anecdote  is  related  of  an  ejected  minister,  in  "  the 
happy  raigne  of  our  good  Queen  Elizabetli."  When  adjudged  to  lose  his  benefice, 
he  iiiiputiently  exclaimed,  that  it  would  cost  many  a  uuvn  his  life.  Upon  which 
being  bronglit  again  before  the  commissioners,  and  charged  with  having  spoken 
treasonable  words,  he  thus  explained  his  meaning  :  ■"  Ye  iiave  taken  from  me  my 
living  and  profession  of  the  ministrie.  Scholarship  is  all  my  portion  ;  and  I  have 
no  other  means  now  left  for  my  maintenance  but  to  turn  piiysitian,  and  before  I 
shall  be  absolute  master  of  that  mystery,  God  he  knows  how  many  men's  lives  it 
will  cost.  For  few  physitiaus  use  to  trj^  experiments  upon  their  own  bodies." 
Scotrs  Sotncrs's  Tracts,  7.  200. 

f  When  Richard  Franklin,  M.  A.  was  excommunicated  for  nonappearance  in  the 
Bishop's  court,  where  he  had  been  cited  for  keeping  an  academy,  K.  William,  at 
tlie  intercession  of  Lord  Wharton  and  Sir  'J'.  Kookby,  ordered  his  absolution  to  be 
publicly  read  in  the  parish  church  of  (I'iggleswick. 


OF    DR.    ISAAC    WATTS.  79 

In  the  dedication  of  Lord  Clarendon's  history  to  the  queen, 
written  by  one  of  the  author's  sons,  probably  the  Earl  of  Ro- 
chester, the  writer  observes,  "  What  can  be  the  meaning-  of 
the  several  seminaries  and,  as  it  were,  universities  set  up  in 
divers  parts  of  the  kingdom,  by  more  than  ordinary  industry, 
contrary  to  law,  supported  by  large  contributions,  where  the 
youth  is  bred  up  in  principles  directly  contrary  to  monar- 
chical and  episcopal  government."  The  subject  was  formally 
introduced  into  the  house  of  lords  by  Dr.  Sharp,  archbishop  of 
York,  who  said,  "he  apprehended  danger  from  the  increase 
of  dissenters,  and  particularly  from  the  many  academies  set 
up  by  them,  and  moved,  that  the  judges  might  be  consulted 
what  laws  were  in  force  against  such  seminaries,  and  Ijy  what 
means  they  might  be  suppressed."* 

An  ingenious  stratagem  was  recommended  by  Tillotson,  as 
affording  a  fair  pretence  for  proceeding  against  those  dissent- 
ing tutors  who  had  received  a  diploma  from  an  English  uni- 
versity. The  clergy  of  Craven  having  petitioned  Dr.  Sharpf 
to  suppress  a  seminary  kept  by  the  excellent  Richard  Frank- 
lin, M.  A.  Tillotson  advised  him,  "  as  the  fairest  and  softest 
way  of  getting  rid  of  the  business,"^  to  proceed  against  him 
on  the  ground  of  the  oath  which  he  had  taken  on  receiving 

*  Upon  this  occasion  Lord  Wharton  moved,  "  that  the  judges  might  be  consulted 
about  the  means  of  suppressing  schools  and  seminaries  held  by  nonjurors,  in  one 
of  which  a  noble  lord  had  both  his  sons  educated. 

"The  Archbishop  of  York  supposed  he  was  the  person  meant.  His  two  sons 
were  taught  by  a  sober  virtuous  man,  and  a  man  of  letters,  who  had  qualified  him- 
self according  to  law.  But  when  he  refused  the  abjuration  oath  he  took  his  sous 
from  him."     Proceedings  of  the  Lords,  ii.  J.j8. 

f  Sharp,  according  to  Burnet,  was  "  one  of  the  most  popular  preachers  of  the 
age,"  but  one  who  changed  with  the  times,  and  abandoned  the  doctrine  of  "  divine 
right"  when  it  suited  his  purpose.  When  preaching  in  St.  Lawrence  Jewry,  soon 
after  the  accession  of  James,  he  observed,  "As  to  our  religion,  we  have  the  word 
of  the  king,  which,  with  reverence  be  it  spoken,  is  as  sacred  as  my  te.vt.'^  He  soon, 
however,  found  himself  mistaken  ;  for  preaching  against  popery,  in  his  own  church 
of  St.  Giles,  the  king  ordered  his  diocesan,  the  warlike  bishop.  Dr.  Compton,  to 
suspend  him.  After  expressing  his  sorrow  he  was  dismissed  with  a  gentle  repri- 
mand. 

±  Birch's  Life  of  Tillotson. 


80  LIFE    AND   TIMES 

his  degree.  The  oalhs  administered  at  Oxford  and  Cambridg-e, 
originated  in  the  dark  ages  of  popery  ;  and  were  framed  owing 
to  the  careful  poUcy  of  the  court  of  Rome,  to  prevent  the  for- 
mation of  rival  universities  in  the  kingdom.  To  entangle  the 
consciences  of  the  dissenting  tutors  who  had  graduated,  and 
to  fix  upon  them  the  stigma  of  perjury,  it  was  attempted  to 
interpret  these  oalhs,  as  binding  them  not  to  communicate 
any  instruction  whatever  out  of  the  two  universities ;  whereas 
their  original  intention  and  evident  meaning,  refer  not  to 
private  but  to  public  teaching  upon  other  foundations,  and 
even  in  this  sense,  in  the  opinion  of  the  nonconformists,  as 
well  as  many  of  the  liberal  clergy,  they  were  "  antiquated, 
null,  and  void."  It  had  been  common  with  many  of  the  dig- 
nitaries in  the  establishment,  privately  to  instruct  the  sons  of 
the  nobility  and  gentry ;  and  the  expedient  was  mean  to 
calumniate  the  character  of  the  dissenting  teachers,  for  a 
practice  in  which  they  themselves  had  been  engaged.* 

The  academy  under  the  care  of  Mr.  Rowe,  to  which  Watts 
was  sent,  was  situated  at  Clapham  in  Surrey,  in  Little  Britain 
in  the  city,  and  at  Newington  Green,  the  latter  place  celebra- 
ted in  the  history  of  dissent,  as  a  seat  of  learning  and  the 
residence  of  many  esteemed  ministers.  The  first  seminary  that 
w^as  established  at  Newington,  was  formed  by  Mr.  Charles 
Morton,  M.  A.  soon  after  his  ejectment  from  the  rectory  of 
Blisland  in  Corn  wall. f    This  gentleman,  during  his  residence 

*  The  oath  administered  at  Oxford  was  as  follows:  "Jurabis  etiam,  quod  in 
ista  facilitate  alibi  in  Anglia  quam  hie  et  Cantabrigiic,  lectiones  tuas  soleinniter, 
taiiquam  in  universitatc  non  resumes;  nee  in  aliqua  facilitate,  sicut  in  iiniversi- 
tate,  soiemniter  incipies;  nee  consenties  lit  aliquis  alibi  in  Anglia  incipiens  hie 
pro  magistro  habeatur.  Item  jurabis,  quod  non  leges  ant  audies  Stamfordirc  tan- 
quam  in  universitate,  studio  vel  collegio  gencrali."  The  Cambridge  oath  was : 
"  Jurabis  quod  nusqnam  praiterquam  Oxonije  lectiones  tuas  soiemniter  resumes, 
ncc  consenties  ut  aliquis  alibi  in  Anglia  incipiens  hie  pro  magistro  vel  doctore  in 
ilia  facultate  habeatur."  Oxford  was  at  one  time  deserted  by  a  number  of  factious 
students,  who  settled  at  Northampton  and  Stamford  :  hence,  the  reference  to  Stam- 
ford in  the  Oxford  oath.  Calami/'sContin.volA.p.  181, 182.  7 ouZwiw, 2 19, 220, 221. 

f  Mr.  Nicholas  Morton  his  Aitber,  was  ejected  from  the  same  rectory  for  noncon- 
formitv  in  Charles  the  First's  time.     Morton  in  Nottinghamshire  was  the  ancient 


OF   DR.    ISAAC    WATTS.  81 

in  Wadham  College  Oxford,  had  been  celebrated  for  his  ma- 
thematical acquirements  ;  and  the  progress  which  his  pupils 
made  under  his  tuition,  reflects  honour  upon  his  character  and 
endowments.*  The  rules  which  he  drew  up  for  the  observ- 
ance of  his  students,  have  been  preserved  by  Dr.  Calamy,  as 
well  as  a  vindication  of  himself  and  brethren  from  the  charge 
of  perjury,  on  account  of  teaching  university  learning.f  After 
an  engagement  of  nearly  twenty  years  in  the  work  of  educa- 
tion, spies,  informers,  and  prosecutions  in  the  bishop's  court, 
drove  him  over  to  New  England,  where  he  became  pastor  of 
a  church  in  Charlestown,  and  vice-president  of  Harvard 
college. I  Upon  the  removal  of  Mr.  Morton  to  America,  the 
students  he  left  placed  themselves  under  the  care  of  Mr. 
William  Wickens,  Mr.  Stephen  Lobb,  and  Mr.  Francis 
Glasscock.  The  former  ejected  from  St.  Andrew  Hubbard, 
afterwards  preached  to  a  small  congregation  at  Newington 
Green ;    and  was  celebrated  for  an  extensive  acquaintance 

seat  of  the  family  :  here  T.  Morton,  secretary  to  Edward  III.,  resided.  Cardinal 
Morton,  Dr.  Thos.  Morton,  Bishop  of  Durham,  and  Dr.  Richard  Morton,  a  physi- 
cian, were  of  this  family. 

*  List  of  Mr.  Morton's  pupils.  Appendix  A. 

fin  the  Philosophical  Transactions  of  the  Royal  Society,  April  1705,  there  is  a 
treatise  by  Mr.  Morton,  ou  improving  the  county  of  Cornwall,  and  using  sea-sand 
for  manure. 

I  In  the  Collection  of  Papers  relative  to  the  Massachusets-bay  Colony,  there  is 
a  "  Copy  of  a  letter  from  Mr.  Edward  Randolph  to  the  Plight  Hon.  the  Lords  of  the 
Committee  for  Trade  and  foreign  Plantations,"  in  whicli  Mr.  Morton's  arrival  in 
America  is  thus  noticed  :  "  About  two  months  agoe  Mr.  Morton,  an  excommunicated 
minister,  came  hither  from  Nuington  Green ;  he  was  welcomed  by  our  president, 
and  designed  to  be  master-head  of  our  colledge,  but  not  daring  to  proceed  at  first 
by  such  large  steps,  he  is  called  to  be  minister  at  Charlestown,  a  very  good  liveing, 
and  is  ready  at  hand  to  be  president  of  the  colledge."  July  28,  1686.  Again  to 
his  Grace  of  Canterbury  Randolph  writes,  "They  are  all  at  present  more  taken  up 
in  putting  in  one  Morton  of  Neuenton  Green,  a  rank  independent,  to  be  their  pre- 
sident, than  to  shew  any  respect  which  is  due  to  your  gracious  present"  (a  copy  of 
Hammond's  works)  1686.  Eliot's  American  Biog.  Diet.  art.  Morton.  Palmer's 
Noncon.  Mem.  i.  p.  347,  348.  Palmer's  Defence  of  Diss.  Acad.  p.  10.  Vindication 
in  answer  to  Wesley,  p.  52.  Toulmin's  Hist,  of  Dissenters,  p.  232 — 235.  Histo- 
rical Collections  of  Massachusets,  2,  2nd  Series,  1 15.  Original  Papers  of  the 
Hist,  of  Massachusets-bay  Colony,  iii.  p.  545.  551. 


82  LIFE    AND    TIMES 

with  biblical  and  rabbinical  literature.*  Mr.  Lobb  was  pastor 
of  a  church  still  flourishinf^  in  Fetter  Lane,  and  was  favoured 
with  a  very  liberal  education,  his  father,  Richard  Lobb,  Esq. 
having  been  high-sheriff  of  Cornwall,  and  member  of  parlia- 
ment for  St.  Michael  in  that  county,  in  IGoO.f  The  third 
assistant,  Mr.  Glasscock,  was  a  graduate  from  one  of  the 
northern  colleges,  and  became  the  predecessor  of  Dr.  Earle 
in  a  congregation  meeting  in  Drurj  Lane,  and  afterwards  in 
Hanover  Street,  Long  Acre.:]:  These  individuals  were  well 
qualified  to  succeed  Mr.  Morton  in  the  important  office  of 
tutor;  but  upon  their  decease  the  academy  was  broken  up, 
and  the  students  dispersed  to  other  seminaries. 

It  was  with  immediate  reference  to  Mr.  Morton's  academy, 
that  the  Rev.  Samuel  Wesley,  the  father  of  the  well-known 
founder  of  Methodism,  in  the  third  year  of  Watts's  studies, 
wrote  a  pamphlet,  entitled  "  A  Letter  from  a  country  Divine 
to  his  friend  in  London,  concerning  the  Education  of  the 
Dissenters  in  their  private  academies,  in  several  parts  of  the 
Nation."§  In  this  publication  he  strongly  animadverts  upon 
the  political  opinions  of  the  tutors;  and  characterises  the 
academies  as  nurseries  of  sedition,  and  schools  of  vice  and 
irreligion,  a  representation,  which,  at  the  expense  of  the  wri- 
ter's reputation,  was  soon  proved  to  be  a  calumny.  This  tract 
is  said  to  have  lain  in  manuscript  upwards  of  ten  years,  and 
at  last  issued  from  the  press  without  the  author's  name,  and, 
as  some  of  his  biographers  assert,  without  his  knowledge.  At 
the  period  when  it  appeared,  the  civil  power  was  preparing  to 
invade  the  liberties  of  the  dissenters;  and  totally  to  neutralise 
the  toleration  act,  a  bill  was  projected  by  some  bigots  to  the 
establishment,  for  disabling  all  such  ministers  from  preaching 
in  England,  as  should  not  receive  their  education  in  one  of 
the  two  universities.     At  such  a  time  it  is  difficult  to  shield 

*  Palmer's  Noucon.  M.>m.  i.  !)0.  -|-  Toulinin,  240.  +  Toulmin,  219. 

§  London :  Printed  by  R.  Claicl,  at  the  Peacock  in  St.  Paul's  Church-jard, 
1703,  4to. 


OF    DR.    ISAAC    WATTS.  83 

Mr.  Wesley  from  the  charge  of  seeking  to  further  the  designs 
of  tyranny  by  private  slander;  and  endeavouring  to  enlarge  a 
scanty  income*  by  gratifying  the  heads  of  the  church  in  vili- 
fying the  seceders  from  its  communion.  De  Foe  unhesita- 
tingly denounces  him  as  "a  mercinary  renegade,  hired  to 
expose  the  private  academics  of  the  dissenters  as  nurseries  of 
rebellious  principles ;"  and  there  is  too  much  reason  to  fear, 
that  hopes  of  preferment  led  him  to  join  the  party  of  Sache- 
verell  in  the  work  of  abuse  and  defamation. 

This  attack  upon  the  academies  gave  rise  to  a  variety  of 
pamphlets  ;t  and  Mr.  Wesley's  character  for  veracity,  it  must 
be  confessed,  does  not  appear  to  much  advantage.  He  had 
been  treated  by  the  dissenters  with  great  kindness  while  a 
member  of  their  body;  and  though  his  conformity  to  the 
establishment  might  be  the  result  of  conscientious  conviction, 
yet  it  was  ungenerous  to  reflect  upon  his  former  benefactors, 
and  descend  to  downright  calumny.  "  He  might,"  says  one 
of  his  opponents,  "  argue  against  our  principles,  and  endea- 
vour to  convince  us  in  order  to  our  amendment ;  yet  he  might 
not  betray  our  private  converse :  he  might  not  by  artful  and 
false  insinuations  endeavour  to  expose  us  to  contempt.  A 
sense  of  gratitude  ought  to  have  been  expressed  by  a  tender 
regard  to  our  reputation  and  honour.  He  ought  not  to  have 
called  us  in  gross,  a  sort  of  people  who  are  none  of  the  best 
natured  in  the  world,  seeing  that  we  fed  him  with  but  too 
kind  a  hand."    As  to  the  assertion,  that  Mr.  Morton  and  the 

*  Mr.  Southey  iutimates,  that  a  "  farther  and  better  reward"  than  the  rectory  of 
Epworth  given  him  by  Queen  Mary,  and  the  chaplainship  of  a  regiment  by  the 
Duke  of  Marlborough,  "  was  held  out  to  his  expectations."  He  was  invited,  says 
he,  "  to  London  by  a  nobleman,  who  promised  to  procure  him  a  prebend." 

f  "  A  Defence  of  the  Dissenters'  Education  in  their  private  x\cademies  :  In  An- 
swer to  Mr.  W y's  Disingenuous  and  Unchristrian  Reflections  upon   them. 

In  a  Letter  to  a  Noble  Lord.  London  :  and  are  to  be  Sold  by  A.  Baldwin,  at  the 
Oxford  Arms,  Warwick  Lane,  1703,"  4to.  The  Kev.  Samuel  PalmerofSouthwark 
was  the  author  of  this  letter. 

"  A  Defence  of  a  Letter  concerning  the  Education  of  Dissenters  in  their  Private 
Academies  ;  with  a  more  full  and  satisfactory  Account  of  the  same,  and  of  their 
Morals  and  Behaviour  towards  the  Church  of  England  :  being  an  Answer  to  the 


84  LIFE   AND   TiaiES 

dissenting  tutors  taught  principles  opposed  to  monarchy, 
De  Foe,  who  had  been  educated  in  the  same  academy,  re- 
marks, in  his  "  More  Short  Ways  with  the  Dissenters,"  "  The 
author  of  these  sheets  happens  to  be  one  that  had  what  little 
education  he  can  pretend  to,  under  the  same  master  that  gen- 
tleman (Samuel  Wesley)  was  taught  by,  viz.  Mr.  Charles 
Morton  of  Newington  Green;  and  I  have  now  by  me  the 
manuscripts  of  science  which  were  the  exercises  of  his  school, 
and  amongst  the  rest  those  of  politics  in  particular;  and  I 
must  do  that  learned  gentleman's  memory  the  justice  to 
affirm,  that  neither  in  his  system  of  politics,  government,  and 
discipline,  nor  in  any  other  the  exercises  of  that  school,  was 
there  any  thing  taught  or  encouraged  that  was  anti-monar- 
chical, or  destructive  to  the  constitution  of  England;  and 
particularly  among  the  performances  of  that  school,  I  find  a 
declamation  relating  to  the  benefit  of  a  single  person  in  a 
commonwealth,  wherein  it  is  proved  from  history  and  reason, 
that  monarchy  is  best  suited  to  the  nature  of  government  and 
the  defence  of  property."*    A  distinction  might  doubtless  be 

Defence  of  the  Dissenters'  Education.  By  Samuel  Wesley.  Noli  irritare  era- 
hones  ! 

'  The  Kirk's  a  Vixen  ;  don't  anger  her.' 

London,  1704,"  4to. 

"  A  Vindication  of  the  Learning,  Loyalty,  Morals,  and  most  Christian  Behaviour 
of  the  Dissenters  toward  the  Church  of  England.  In  Answer  to  Mr.  Wesley's 
Defence  of  his  Letter  concerning  the  Dissenters'  Education  in  their  Private  Acade- 
mies ;  and  to  Mr.  Sacheverell's  injurious  Reflections  upon  them.  By  Samuel 
Palmer.      London  :  printed  by  J.  Lawrence,  170.3." 

"A  Reply  to  Mr.  Palmer's  Vindication  of  the  Learning,  Loyalty,  Morals,  and 
most  Christian  Behaviour  of  tlie  Dissenters  towards  the  Church  of  England.  By 
Samuel  W^esley.     London,  1707,  4to. 

'  How  long  must  their  false  prophets,  and  dreamers  of  dreams,  abuse  us,  and  we  obliged 
to  hold  our  peace.'    de  foe." 

*  De  Foe  entered  Mr.  Morton's  academy  in  the  year  1675,  and  continued  there 
to  near  1G80.  Wesley  entered  Exeter  college  1684,  as  the  following  extract  from 
the  register  shows  : 

"Deposit  of  caution  money. 
Sept.  26, 
1684.         Mro.  Hutchins  pro 


OP   DR.    ISAAC    AVATTS.  85 

drawn  between  an  absolute  and  a  limited  monarchy ;  princi- 
ples would  be  inculcated  directly  opposed  to  the  former, 
which  Mr.  Wesley  and  the  high-church  divines  of  his  day 
would  interpret  as  anti-monarchical.* 

The  reasons  which  induced  Mr.  Wesley  to  leave  the  dissen- 
ters, are  referred,  by  the  late  biographer  of  his  son,  with  his 
characteristic  want  of  fidelity  and  candour,  to  his  "  happening 
to  fall  in  with  bigotted  and  ferocious  men,  where  he  saw  the 
worst  part  of  the  dissenting  character.  Their  defence  of  the 
execution  of  king  Charles  offended  him,  and  he  was  at  once 
shocked  and  disgusted  by  their  calves-head  club."t  The  only 
authority  cited  for  this  extraordinary  assertion  is,  the  evidence 
of  Samuel  Wesley  the  younger,  a  violent  Jacobite ;  and  Mr. 
Southey  introduces  the  statement  into  his  pages,  as  if  no  sus- 
picion was  to  be  entertained  of  the  truth  .of  the  facts  it  ex- 
presses. It  would  only  have  been  fair,  on  the  part  of  the  bi- 
ographer, to  have  appended  a  note  to  his  page,  to  the  effect, 
that  so  far  from  the  dissenters  as  a  body  approving  the  king's 
death,  they  strongly  condemned  it  ;|  and  that  instead  of  par- 

Samuele  Westley,  paup. 
schol.  de  Dorchester,  3£. 
Ric.  Hutchins. 
Guil.  Crabb." 
Now,  allowiug  two  or  three  years  to  elapse,  from  the  time  Mr.  Wesley  left  Mr. 
Morton,  to  his  entering  himself  at  Exeter  college,  during  which  period  he  became 
a  conformist,  it  will  be  highly  probable  that  he  and  De  Foe  were  coutemporaries 
in  the  academy. 

*The  politics  of  the  Wesley  family  were  of  the  ultra-tory  school.  Though  the 
father  took  the  oath  to  William,  yet  he  was  a  bigoted  episcopalian,  and  during  the 
reign  of  Queen  Anne,  a  flaming  zealot  for  high  monarchical  principles.  The  de- 
fence of  Sacheverell,  usually  attributed  to  Atterbury,  was  reported  to  have  been 
composed  by  him.  The  mother  never  recognised  the  Prince  of  Orange  as  king, 
and  the  sons  seem  to  have  imbibed  her  predilections  against  the  house  of  Nassau 
and  the  Hanoverian  succession,  in  favour  of  the  exiled  family.  Samuel,  the  disci- 
ple of  Atterbury,  was  a  violent  jacobite,  and  severely  attacked  the  Walpole 
administration.  John  seems  to  have  held  the  same  political  opinions  ;  for  Charles, 
writing  to  Samuel  from  Oxford,  in  the  year  1734,  remarks,  "My  brother  has  been 
much  mauled,  and  threatened  more,  for  his  Jacobite  sermon  on  the  11th  of  June." 

f  Southey's  Life  of  Wesley,  i.  6. 

X  The  guilt  of  the  king's  death  has  been  generally  laid  upon  the  presbyterians 


86  LIFE   AND   TIMES 

ticipatiug  in  the  orgies  of  the  30th  of  January,  the  society  by 
whom  they  were  celebrated,  if  it  existed  at  all,  of  which  some 
doubts  have  been  entertained,  consisted  only  of  a  few  profli- 
gate desperadoes,  as  much  connected  with  the  church  of  Eng- 
land, as  with  any  other  religious  party.  The  calves-head 
club  was  a  political  association,  in  which  only  a  few  indivi- 
duals were  concerned,  who  met  on  the  anniversary  of  the 
king's  death,  to  celebrate  the  triumph  of  republican  princi- 
ples and  the  overthrow  of  arbitrary  power.*  The  high 
churchmen,  who  eagerly  embraced  every  opportunity  of 
exciting  public  obloquy  against  the  dissenters,  immediately 
attributed  the  formation  of  this  club  to  them,  and  magnified 
the  evil,  by  representing  it  as  incorporating  the  great  majo- 
rity of  that  class.  This  calumny  was  publicly  and  indignantly 
denied  by  Mr.  Jghn  Shute,  afterwards  Lord  Barringlon,t 
Bradbury,:}:  De  Foe,§  and  several  others ;  and  obtained  credit 
only  among  the  determined  enemies  of  the  sectaries.  His 
lordship  aptly  throws  out  the  hint,  that  if  it  should  appear 
that  any  of  the  members  are  dissenters,  an  assumption  which 
no  circumstance  ever  corroborated,  this  could  no  more  argue 
the  body  to  approve  of  the  king's  execution,  "  than  it  could 
be  concluded  that  all  churchmen  were  Jacobites,  if  it  should 
be  proved  that  some  of  that  body  have,  with  the  like  barbarity, 

and  independents,  but  contrary  to  the  most  explicit  evidence.  Even  Warburtou 
admits  that  "  no  party  of  men,"  as  "  a  religious  body,"  were  the  "  actors  in  this 
tragedy."  Burnett  declares  that  the  presbyterians  were  "every  day  lasting  and 
praying  for  the  king's  preservation."  The  independents  of  Oxford  and  Northamp- 
ton sent  a  memorial  to  general  Fairfax,  protesting  against  all  proceedings  against 
his  majesty's  crown  and  life.  The  truth  is,  that  the  officers  of  the  army  are  alone 
chargeable  with  the  catastrophe,  which  they  hurried  on  from  the  conviction  that 
Charles  would  uever  forgive  those  who  had  overcome  him  in  the  field. 

*"The  Secret  History  of  the  Calves-head  Club  compleat;  or,  the  Republican 
ITumasked :  wherein  is  fully  shown  the  Religion  of  the  Calves-head  Heroes,  iu 
their  Anniversary  Thanksgiving  Songs,  on  3()th  January,  by  them  called  Anthems, 
for  the  years  1693—1699,  &c. ;  fifth  edition,  with  large  additions,  1705." 
Appendix,  B. 

f '  Rights  of  Prot.  Diss,  dedicated  to  the  Queen.'' 

X  Lawfulness  of  Resisting  Tyrants.     Pref.  §  Review,  6,  261. 


OF    DR.    ISAAC    WATTS.  87 

drunk  healths,  and  paid  honours  to  a  couple  of  animals,  for 
occasioning  the  death  of  one  of  the  best  of  princes."*  It  may 
he  true  then,  that  Mr.  Wesley  was  a  member  of  the  calves- 
head  club ;  it  may  be  true,  that  he  frequented  "  the  blind 
alley  near  Moorfields"  on  the  30th  of  January ;  but  it  is  not 
true  that  any  other  cause  besides  his  own  imprudence  intro- 
duced him  into  such  society  ;  it  is  not  true  that  the  scenes  he 
there  witnessed  led  to  his  secession  from  the  dissenters,  for 
they  had  no  more  to  do  with  such  disgraceful  proceedings 
than  their  accusers  ;  so  that  the  only  inference  we  can  derive 
from  the  representation  of  Mr.  Southey,  if  any  credit  is  to  he 
attached  to  it,  is,  that  the  elder  Wesley  associated  with  a  band 
of  profligates  in  his  youth,  and  as  extremes  in  politics,  as  well 
as  in  other  matters,  often  meet,  the  furious  republican  became 
at  last  a  blind  worshipper  of  the  royal  prerogative. 

The  academy  under  the  superintendance  of  Mr.  Rowe,  in 
which  it  was  the  privilege  of  Watts  to  be  placed,  was  founded 
soon  after  Mr.  Morton's  by  the  learned  Theophilus  Gale,  M.  A.f 
This  distinguished  divine  commenced  his  career  as  a  tutor 
soon  after  the  Restoration,  on  account  of  being  then  deprived 
of  considerable  church  preferments.  Two  sons  of  Lord  Whar- 
tonj  were  first  committed  to  his  charge,  and  with  his  pupils 
he  went  upon  the  continent,  where  he  formed  an  intimacy 

*  Rights  of  Prot.  Diss.     Ded.  xx.  xxi. 

f  Palmer  Noncon.  Mem.  1.  143,  244.  Toulmin's  Hist.  243,  244.  Bogue  and 
Bennett,  2.  48,  49.     Wilson.  Diss.  Chur.  3.  161—169. 

%  The  name  of  Philip  Lord  Wharton,  ought  to  be  dear  to  every  dissenter,  as  the 
firm  friend  of  the  persecuted  nonconformists,  affording  their  ministers  an  asylum 
in  his  house,  and  frequently  paying  the  fines  levied  upon  them.  At  Woburn,  in 
Buckinghamshire,  he  was  accustomed  frequently  to  entertain  Dr.  Owen,  Dr.  Man- 
ton,  Mr.  Howe,  and  Mr.  Rosewell.  Dr.  Manton's  preaching  room  in  White-hart- 
yard  was  once  fined  forty  pounds,  and  the  minister  twenty,  which  his  lordship 
paid.  "This  year,"  1694,  says  Calamy,  "died  the  pious  Philip  Lord  Wharton, 
who  left  large  sums  in  his  will  to  religious  and  charitable  uses,  some  of  whicli 
were  generally  said  to  have  been  afterwards  applied  by  his  trustees  to  serve  the 
purposes  of  elections  of  members  to  serve  in  parliament.  He  left  also  some  thou- 
sands of  pounds  to  be  laid  out  in  bibles,  and  other  religious  books,  and  distributed 
among  the  poor,  the  management  whereof  was  reckoned  much  more  unexception- 
able." i.  351.     He  was  a  zealous  parliamentarian,  but  when  the  times  changed. 


88  LIFE  AND  TIMES 

with  the  celebrated  Bochart,  a  professor  and  pastor  at  Caen. 
Soon  after  his  return  to  England,  in  1C65,  he  was  alarmed  on 
approaching-  the  metropolis,  by  the  sight  of  the  terrible  con- 
flagration which  nearly  laid  it  in  ashes  ;  but  he  had  the  satis- 
faction of  finding,  that  the  manuscripts  of  his  works,  which 
he  had  left  in  the  house  of  a  friend,  had  been  preserved  when 
the  building  was  destroyed.  Possessing  a  cultivated  mind 
enriched  with  the  stores  of  ancient  literature,  and  critically 
acquainted  with  the  learned  languages,  his  friends  solicited 
him  to  settle  as  a  professor  of  theology,  which  he  accordingly 
did  at  Newington,  where  he  remained  until  his  death,  in 
1678,  at  the  early  age  of  forty-nine.  His  will  evinced  his 
zeal  for  the  cause  of  learning ;  for  he  left  all  his  real  and 
personal  estate  for  the  education  of  young  men  for  the  minis- 
try, and  bequeathed  his  library,  with  the  exception  of  his 
philosophical  books,  to  Harvard  College  in  New  England.* 

Mr.  Gale  was  succeeded  in  the  academy  by  Mr.  Thomas 
Rowe,  son  of  Mr.  John  Rowe,  M.  A.  ejected  from  Westmin- 
ster abbey,  and  grandson  of  the  excellent  Mr.  John  Rowe  of 
Crediton  in  Devonshire.f  In  the  time  of  the  commonwealth 
Mr.  John  Rowe,  M.  A.  was  much  respected  by  the  leading 

he  was  imprisoned  in  the  tower  for  calling  in  question  the  legality  of  the  long 
parliament  of  Cliarles  II. 

"Thursday  last,"  says  Burton  in  his  diaiy,  "Sir  Thomas  Wharton,  was  here, 
and  told  me  that  the  Tuesday  morning  before,  my  Lord  Wharton's  lady  was  deli- 
vered of  a  son,  which  he  expressed  witli  great  joy."     i.  367. 

This  child  was  Thomas,  under  Mr.  Gale's  care,  who  became  Earl  and  afterwards 
Duke  of  Wharton.  He  was  a  firm  friend  of  tlie  Revolution,  and  was  rewarded  with 
the  Lord  Lieutenancy  of  Ireland  in  1708. 

His  son  Philip  was  the  eccentric  Duke  of  Wharton,  author  of  the  "  True  Briton," 
who  died  in  1731,  when  the  title  became  extinct.     Of  him  Pope  says,  he  died 

"  Sad  outcast  of  each  church  and  state." 

*  Even  the  prejudiced  Oxonian  Wood  describes  Mr.  Gale  as  "a  man  of  great 
reading  ;  well  conversant  with  the  writings  of  the  fathers  and  old  philosophers  ;  a 
learned  and  industrious  person  ;  an  exact  philologist  and  philosopher ;  and  a  good 
metaphysician  and  school  divine."      Wood's  Athena,  vol.  ii.  p.  608. 

f  Life  of  Mr.  John  Rowe  of  Crediton,  by  his  Son,  with  a  Preface  by  Theophilus 
Gale,  1673. 


OF    DR.    ISAAC    WATTS.  89 

political  characters  ;*  and  on  the  occasion  of  the  defeat  of  the 
Spanish  fleet,  Oct.  8,  105G,  he  was  called  to  preach  a  thanks- 
giving sermon  before  the  parliament.f  The  act  of  nniformity 
deprived  him  of  his  station  in  the  church  ;  but  he  continued  to 
preach  to  his  people  in  private  meetings,  as  often  as  he  could 
with  safety,  till  the  time  of  his  death  in  the  year  1677.  His 
eldest  son,  Thomas,  was  born  about  the  year  1657,  and,  in 
conjunction  with  his  younger  brother,  Benoni,  he  was  proba- 
bly educated  under  the  care  of  Mr.  Gale  at  Newington.  He 
entered  upon  the  work  of  the  ministry  at  the  early  age  of 
twenty-one,  being  placed  over  the  congregation  of  whicli  his 
father  had  been  pastor,  which  had  their  place  of  meeting  in 
Girdler's  Hall,  Basinghall  Street.  The  fame  of  the  pupil 
gives  an  interest  to  the  character  of  the  master ;  and  to  the 
honour  of  training  up  for  the  church  such  an  ornament  as 
Watts,  the  name  of  Rowe  is  indebted  for  its  principal  celebrity. 
Between  Watts  and  his  tutor  an  intimate  friendship  was 
soon  formed,  which  existed  until  the  death  of  the  latter,  soon 
after  the  settlement  of  his  pupil  as  a  pastor.  "  Augt.  1705. 
Mr.  Tho.  Rowe,  my  tutor,  dyed."  Mem.  This  event  was 
awfully  sudden :  riding  through  the  city  he  was  seized  with 
a  fit  near  the  monument,  fell  from  his  horse,  and  immediately 
expired.  To  extensive  acquirements,  Mr.  Rov/e  united  a  kind 
disposition  and  attractive  manners,  which  secured  him  the 
esteem  and  affection  of  those  committed  to  his  care.     "  As  a 

*  The  Lord  President  Bradshaw  was  a  member  of  his  chuich,  at  wliose  funeral  he 
preached  a  sermon  on  Isa.  Ivii.  1,  in  which  tlie  Oxford  historian  charges  him  witli 
"  speaking  much  to  the  honour  and  praise  of  that  monster  of  men." 

In  the  Mercuriiis  Politicus  there  is  the  following  article  of  intelligence : 
"Westminster,  February  22.  This  day,  being  the  Lord's  Day,  the  persons  called 
Quakers,  which  were  brought  from  Bristol  with  James  Nayler, — viz.  John  Stranger 
and  Hannah  his  wife,  Martha  Simmons  and  Dorcas  Erbury,  remaining  yet  undis- 
charged, under  the  custody  of  the  sergeant  at-arms,  but  now  somewhat  altered  in 
tlieir  carriage,  went  to  the  abbey,  morning  and  afternoon,  where  they  gave  ear,  ci- 
villy and  attentively,  to  the  sermons  of  Mr.  John  Rowe,  an  eminent  j)reacher, 
whose  spiritual  doctrine  so  far  wrought  upon  them,  that  they  intend  to  hear  him 
again,  which  gives  hopes  that  they  may  be  rectified  in  their  judgment."    No.  350. 

f  This  he  afterwards  printed,  entitled  "  Man's  Duty  in  Magnifying  God's  Work." 

G 


90  LIFE    AND   TIMES 

preacher  his  discourses  were  solid,  judicious,  and  evangelical ; 
his  labours  were  generally  acceptable;  and  he  had  a  good 
congregation  to  the  time  of  his  death."  INIr.  Howe  was  never 
married ;  and  Watts  in  after-life  seems  to  have  thought  a  state 
of  matrimony  ineligible  for  a  tutor.  When  the  scheme  of  Mr. 
Jennings's  academy  at  Kibworth  in  Leicestershire,  drawn  up 
by  Dr.  Doddridge,  as  a  model  for  the  one  he  himself  contem- 
plated, was  placed  before  him,  he  returned  the  manuscript  to 
Mr.  Some,  with  some  observations  appended  to  it,  among 
which  the  following  occurs:  "  Whether  a  person  who  gives 
himself  up  to  the  office  of  a  tutor,  may  not  as  well  continue 
single,  if  he  so  think  fit ;  and  for  himself  and  his  pupils  to 
board  together  in  some  house  fit  for  that  purpose  ?  Then  the 
tutor  would  not  be  encumbered  with  family  cares,  nor  would 
he  appear  interested  in  the  domestic  matters,  so  that  he  could 
decide  any  little  contests  of  that  nature  with  more  universal 
approbation.  This  was  mt/  tutor's  practice;  and,  after  all,  if 
it  be  possible  to  find  a  tutor  so  admirably  qualified  as  the  au- 
thor describes,  it  isjive  hundred  to  one,  if  he  meet  with  the  one 
only  pious,  prudent,  and  invaluable  partner."*  In  the  fol- 
lowing lines  Watts  expresses  his  obligations  to  the  friend  and 
guide  of  his  youth  : 


"TO  THE  MUCH  HONOURED  MR.  THOMAS  ROWE,  THE  DIRECTOR 
OF  MY  YOUTHFUL  STUDIES. 

"free   PniLOSOPHV. 

I. 

"  Custom,  that  tyranness  of  fools, 
That  leads  the  learned  round  the  schools 
In  magic  chains  of  forms  and  rules ! 
My  Genius  storms  her  throne  : 

*  Upon  this  remark  of  Dr.  Watts's,  Doddridge  inserts  the  following  annotation : 
"  In  answer  to  this  terrible  query  I  must  observe,  that  I  know  but  one  family  in 
which  a  tutor  and  his  pupils  could  conveniently  board,  while  I  know  half  a  dozen 
of  the  fair  sex,  who  do  in  the  main  answer  the  necessary  character.     I  shall  proba- 


OF    DR.    ISAAC    WATTS.  91 

No  more,  ye  slaves,  with  awe  profound, 
Beat  the  dull  track,  nor  dance  the  round  ; 
Loose  hands  and  quit  th'  enchanted  ground  : 
Knowledge  invites  us  each  alone. 


II. 


"I  hate  these  shackles  of  the  mind, 

Forg'd  by  the  haughty  wise  ; 
Souls  were  not  born  to  be  confin'd, 
And  led,  like  Sampson,  blind  and  bound  ; 
But  when  his  native  strength  he  found 

He  well  aveng'd  his  eyes. 
I  love  thy  gentle  influence,  Rowe  ; 
Thy  gentle  influence,  like  the  sun. 
Only  dissolves  the  frozen  snow. 
Then  bids  our  thoughts  like  rivers  flow. 
And  choose  the  channels  where  tliey  run." 

That  Watts  applied  himself  to  his  studies  with  no  common 
assiduity,  during  his  residence  in  the  academy,  might  be  in- 
ferred from  his  early  predilection  for  literature  ;  but  the  works 
which  he  soon  afterwards  sent  forth,  abundantly  testify  the 
diligence  he  employed,  and  the  extent  of  his  acquirements. 
His  amiable  character  and  exemplary  conduct,  won  the  es- 
teem of  his  fellow-students  ;*  and  his  tutor  was  accustomed 

bly  remain  single  while  I  reside  here  ;  but  should  providence  remove  mc,  I  shall 
prefer  the  example  of  my  own  tutor,  whose  wisdom  and  happiness  I  knew,  to  that  of 
the  Doctor's,  to  whom  I  am  a  perfect  stranger." 

*  Among  Mr.  Rowe's  students,  some  of  them  Watts's  contemporaries,  may  be 
enumerated, 

Daniel  Neal,  M.  A.  the  distinguished  historian  of  "  New  England"  and  of  the 
"  Puritans."  He  entered  the  academy  in  1696  or  1697,  and,  after  continuing  three 
years,  finished  his  studies  at  Utrecht  and  Leyden. 

.John  Evans,  D.  D.  the  author  of  discourses  on  the  "  Christian  Temper."  Besides 
Mr.  Rowe,  he  studied  under  Mr.  Richard  Frankland  and  Mr.  Timothy  Jallie  in  their 
respective  seminaries. 

Jeremiah  Hunt,  D.  D.  pastor  of  Pinner's  Hall.  He  afterwards  studied  at  Edin- 
burgh and  Leyden  in  Holland  under  the  learned  Spanheim. 

Samuel  Say  of  Westminster,  the  successor  of  Dr.  Calamy. 

John  Wilson,  the  founder  of  the  dissenting  interest  at  Warwick. 


02  LIFE   AND   TIMES 

to  refer  to  his  proficiency,  to  lead  them  to  emulate  his  example. 
"  I  have  been  credibly  informed,"  says  Dr.  Jennings,  "  that 
while  he  resided  in  this  college  of  learning,  his  behaviour  was 
not  only  so  inoffensive,  that  his  tutor  declared  he  never  gave 
him  any  occasion  of  reproof,  but  so  exemplary  that  he  often 
proposed  him  as  a  pattern  to  his  other  pupils  for  imitation." 

Josiah  Hort,  a  fellow-student  of  Watts's,  who  afterwards  conformed,  and  became 
Archbishop  of  Tuam  in  1742. 

John  Hughes,  the  poet,  author  of  the  "Seige  of  Damascus,"  and  several  papers 
in  the  Tatler,  Spectator,  and  Guardian. 


OF    DR.    ISAAC    WATTS.  93 


CHAPTER  IV. 

1690—1693. 
ACADEMICAL  EXERCISES. 


MS.  VOLUME  OF  ESSAYS.  — COLLEGE  DISQUISITIONS.  — "  AN  DEUS  SIT 
VERAX?  AFFIRMATUR."  — "AN  MENS  HUMANA  SIT  IMMATERIALIS  ? 
AFFIRMATUR."— ABRIDGMENT  OF  BOOKS.  — "QUESTIONES  LOGICjE."— 
METHOD  OF  INTERLEAVING.— ENGLISH  DISSERTATIONS.— "WHETHER 
THE  DOCTRINE  OF  JUSTIFICATION  BY  FAITH  ALONE  TENDS  TO 
LICENTIOUSNESS?"  — "WHETHER  SELF-DENIAL  IN  THINGS  IN  THEM- 
SELVES INDIFFERENT  BE  NOT  IN  SOME  CASES  NECESSARY?"— POETI- 
CAL EPISTLE  TO  HIS  BROTHER  ENOCH  -VISIT  TO  SOUTHAMPTON.— 
EARTHQUAKE.  —  LETTER  TO  MR.  RICHARD  WATTS.  —  CLIFFORD'S 
"TREATISE  OF  HUMANE  REASON"  ILLUSTRATED  AND  CORRECTED.— 
WATTS'S  FELLOV.'-STUDENTS:-JOHN  HUGHES,  ESQ.— JOSIAH  HORT, 
ARCHBISHOP  OF  TUAM.— REV.  SAM .  SAY,  OF  WESTMINSTER.— LETTERS. 


Of  all  the  employments  in  which  men  engage,  there  is 
none  so  important  and  responsible  as  that  of  the  sacred  minis- 
try. Besides  the  regular  exhibitions  of  Christian  truth  which 
the  sabbatic  services  demand,  there  is  the  "defence  of  the 
gospel"  against  the  cavillings  of  the  sceptic  and  the  attacks 
of  the  infidel ;  and  occasions  frec^uenlly  occur,  which  require 
a  departure  from  the  ordinary  routine  of  ministerial  engage- 
ment, to  contend  with  the  subtile  casuistries  of  unsanctified 
intellect.  It  is  obvious,  that  a  certain  fitness  and  preparation 
for  such  services  is  necessary ;  that  they  who  would  guard  the 
ark  of  the  Lord,  must  bring  to  their  task,  if  not  polished,  at 
least  well-furnished  minds;  and  be  ready  and  able  to  expose 
the  sophistical  perversions,  and  repel  the  rude  invasions  of  the 


94  LIFE    AND   TIMES 

enemies  of  trath.  It  is  a  vulgar  error  to  suppose,  that  an  un- 
learned ministry  is  that  which  God  particularly  honours; 
that  he  always  chooses  ignorance  and  illiteracy,  to  work  the 
purposes  of  his  will ;  and  employs  the  foolish  things  of  this 
world,  to  confound  the  things  that  are  mighty.  Such  was  in- 
deed the  case  in  that  age  when  the  teachers  of  divine  truth 
were  endowed  with  miraculous  gifts;  but  such  aids  for  the 
increase  of  the  church  are  now  withheld,  and  the  propagation 
of  the  gospel  is  left,  under  the  blessing  of  heaven,  to  the  ope- 
ration of  ordinary  means.  But  divine  inspiration  could  never 
be  pleaded  as  an  excuse  for  human  indolence.  The  directions 
given  by  the  apostles,  with  reference  to  the  formation  of  mi- 
nisterial character,  plainly  inculcate  the  necessity  of  vigorous 
mental  application  ;  and  among  those  employed  by  the  foun- 
der of  Christianity,  to  overturn  the  boasted  philosophy  of 
Gentilism,  there  was  an  Apollos  who  was  an  eloquent  man, 
and  a  Paul  learned  in  all  the  literature  of  his  country.  In  an 
enlightened  age  it  is  especially  important,  that  the  ministers 
of  religion  should  not  be  behind  the  intellect  of  the  times  in 
which  they  live ;  for  useful  and  expedient  it  undoubtedly  may 
be,  to  appreciate  and  improve  discoveries  of  physical  truth,  to 
unfold  the  consistency  of  the  new  lights  that  are  breaking 
upon  us  from  the  natural  world  with  the  disclosures  of  the  re- 
vealed word,  and  to  elevate  the  progress  of  human  science 
into  illustrations  and  arguments  for  the  divinity  of  its  contents. 
We  have  now  to  notice  the  manner  in  which  Watts  prepa- 
red for  the  ministry.  A  manuscript  volume  was  presented 
after  his  decease  to  Dr.  Gibbons,  by  his  brother  Enoch,  con- 
taining a  collection  of  dissertations,  which  are  evidently  his 
academical  exercises.  These  are  in  his  own  handwriting, 
and  consist  of  twenty-two  Latin  essays,  upon  physical,  meta- 
physical, ethical,  and  theological  subjects.  The  theses.  Dr. 
Johnson  remarks,  "  show  a  degree  of  knowledge  both  philo- 
sophical and  theological,  such  as  very  few  attain  by  a  much 
longer  course  of  study."    A  few  specimens  of  his  college  com- 


Oi'    DR.    ISAAC    WATTS.  95 

positions  will  evince  the  diligence  and  improvement  of  the 
student. 


"an  deus  sit  verax?     affirmatur. 

"  Raise  sane  jDroterviae  est  iste  vir  qui  veracitatem  Deo 
eripere  ausit,  et  omnem  rationis  lucem  ejerasse  oporteat,  et 
ipsum  ejerasse  Deum  qui  fidelem  negat :  face  ergo  potius 
quam  fuste  est  opus  in  hac  thesi  tractanda  qua3  penitius  cx- 
plicari  raagis  quam  laboriose  probari  quserit.  Ita  vero  ex- 
plicanda  est,  et  tali  lumine  circumfundenda,  ut  cum  aliquo 
Dei  actu  aut  attribute  ne  quidem  videatur  pugnare.  Ut  pa- 
teat  Dei  veracitas  retegenda  est  Veritas  in  genere,  quae  banc 
ut  speciem  sibi  inferiorem  vendicat.  Notio  veritatis  in  con- 
gruentia  sita  est,  et  concordia  inter  unam  rem  et  aliam.  Sic 
Physica  Veritas  est  conformitas  corporis  cum  principiis  ex 
quibus  ortum  est.  Veritas  apud  T,ogicos  dicitur  cohaerentia 
quae  ideae  mentis  cum  objecto  intercedit.  Veritas  Ethlca  est 
cum  dicta  factis,  et  facta  dictis  conformia  sunt.  Huic  analo- 
gica  est  Dei  veracitas,  ad  eam  enim  attributorum  classem 
redigitur  quae  moralis  dicitur,  quia  virtutes  illis  analogicse 
lege  morali  hominibus  praecipiuntur  ;  quapropter  conformita- 
tem  sermonis  divini  cum  rebus  praeterilis,  prggsentibus,  et  fu- 
turis  Dei  veracitatem  ausim  appeliare,  rebus,  inquam,  prsete- 
ritis,  nunc  temporis,  et  futuris,  sive  eae  sunt  res  gestae,  sive 
propria  decreta,  sive  sint  naturae  rerum  et  essentiae,  sive  futu- 
ra  sibi  efficienda,  seu  permittenda  tantum.  Deum  ergo  ve- 
racem  esse  significat  ipsum  nuUam  unquam  decretorura 
enunciationem,  nullam  narrationera,  nullam  doctrinam,  suis 
decretis,  rebus  gestis,  aut  naturae  rerum  contrariam  protulissc; 
neque  aliquid  unquam  jwllicitum  esse,  aut  minatum,  aut 
praedixissequod  non  suo  tempore  vel  dedit  effectum,  veldabit. 
"  Ut  vero  recte  intelligatur  quod  proposuimus,  nee  sinistre. 
acceplum  sit  par  aut  trias  limitationum  adhibenda  est. 


96  LIFE    AND    TIMKS 

"I.  Si  quanclo  saccr  spiritus  sancti  amanuensis  ccElestes 
tabulas  floribus  interspciserit  rlietoiicis  tales  proj)hetias  sensu 
literali  adimplendas  speraie  ridiculum  esset  et  absurdum. 

"  2.  Si  quando  se  hoc  aiit  illud  vclle  asserit  Deus  quod  non 
tamen  peragit  ista  volitio  a3quivocc  inlelligcnda  est  et  de 
voluntate  legislativa  tantuui. 

"  3.  Si  Deus  aut  pollicealur  quid  se  daturum,  aut  se  puni- 
turum  minctur  tacitis  condilionibus  annexis  f\icile  ipse  a  fal- 
sitatis  siispicioue  purgatur,  licet  promissa  non  peregciit,  si 
conditiones  appensae  desunt.  Quod  ipse  Domiuus  de  se  tes- 
tatur,  Jciem.  xviii.  7,  8,  9,  10.  cujus  verba,  quia  multum  ad 
rem  faciuut,  contracte  recitabo.  '  Quo  memento  eloquar 
contra  geutcni,  me  illam  demoliturum  esse,  si  convertatur 
gens  ilia  a  malo  suo  poenitcbit  quoque  me  ejus  mali  quod 
cogitavi.  Quo  auteni  momento  loquar  de  gcnte,  &c.  me 
aediHcaturum,  si  malum  fecerit,  vicissim  pcenitebit  me  illius 
boui  quod  dixero,  &c.' 

"  4.  Excipias  iterara  Dei  minas  si  quando  ad  plenum  non 
perficiuntur.  Adeo  summc  enim  benignum  est.  Numen, 
adeo  mite  et  creaturse  amans,  ut  vix  possit  manus  ultrices  in 
ejus  cladem  armare.  Nee  tamen  vis  infertur  veracitati,  mime 
enim,  quibus  lex  sancitur,  non  tarn  demonstrant  necessarium 
vindicis  justitiiB  egressum  quatenus  oranes  pajnae  circumstan- 
tias,  quam  meritum  pcence  in  peccante,  et  in  legislatore  puui- 
endi  jus,  Ut  demus  nebulam  hominis  lapsi  iuscitia  esse 
indutam  quo  miniis  egregiara  dictorum  Dei  cum  factis  conso- 
nantiam  perspicue  cernamus  inde  tamen  Deo  quicquid  dcce- 
dere  minim c  sequum  est.  Stat  ac  stabit  aiternum  sacrum 
volumen  veracitate  Dei  utraque  pagina  inscriptam  prseferens; 
ac,  ut  nullum  dctur  verbum,  ratio  humana  abunde  id  suadet. 
Primus  vero  loijuatur  ipse  Deus,  et  se  veracem  pronunciet ; 
imo  audiatis  (re\  ereamini !)  jurantem  Deum,  Psal.  Ixxxix.  35. 
*Semel  juravi  per  sanctitatem  Davidi,  non  mentiar.'  Quid 
magis  sacrum,  quid  magis  trcmendum  quam  Numinis  jus- 
jurandum  ?     lluic   textui   astipulatur    Paiihis  et  confirmat. 


OF    DR.    ISAAC    WATTS.  97 

Heb.  vi.  17.  '  Fidejussit  jurejurando  ut  per  res  imrautabiles 
in  quibus  fieri  non  potest  ut  mentitus  sit  Deus,' 

Sed  ad  artificialia  argumenta  divertamus. 

1.  Divinse  veracitatis  locuples  testis  est  tot  et  tantarum 
iirbium  subversio,  tot  ruiua  populorum,  tot  denique  privatse 
res  gestae,  quarum  prsedictio  mille  ante  annos  extitit.  Hinc 
Dei  verba  autoritas  conciliatur  et  demonstratur  verax  Deus. 

"  2.  Nisi  fidelis  Deus  sit  perit  religio.  Fallaces  flammis 
committantur  scripturas  et  erubescat  longus  interpretum  grex. 
Impostor  Moses  et  David,  falsus  Esaias  et  quotquot  minores 
prophetse.  Redeat  oculis  captus  M^onides,  et  commentitiam 
deorum  turbam  adorabimus.  Absit !  absit !  Deus  sane 
noster  et  unicus  verax  est,  aut  Deus  nulius. 

"  3.  Si  non  effectum  dat  quicquid  prsedixit  Deus,  aut  novit 
se  non  facturum,  aut  uescivit  dum  praedixit.  Si  novit  non 
est  summe  bonus  qui  creaturas  vellet  fallere ;  si  nescivit,  non 
omniscius  est,  nee  quidem  immutabilis.  Est  vero  omniscius, 
et  immutabilis,  et  summa  benignitate  omnes  suae  actiones 
perfusse  sunt.  Nee  possit  fallere,  nee  falli.  Agnoscamus 
ergo  summc  veracem,  et  celebremus  Deum." 


"whether  god  is  FAITHFUL?      AFFIRMED. 

"  That  man  must  be  arrived  at  a  very  unusual  pitch  of 
boldness  indeed,  who  dares  to  rob  God  of  his  veracity,  since 
before  this  he  must  abjure  all  the  light  of  reason,  and  even 
the  Deity  himself. 

"  In  discoursing  upon  our  thesis,  there  is  a  greater  call  for 
definition  than  argument,  as  the  subject  is  of  such  a  nature 
as  to  require  rather  an  accurate  explanation  than  a  laborious 
proof.  Our  business  is  so  to  open  and  represent  the  divine 
veracity,  and  diffuse  such  a  light  over  it,  that  it  may  not  seem 
to  clash  with  any  act  or  attribute  of  Deity. 

"  That  we  may  have  a  clear  conception  of  the  veracity  of 


98  LIFE    AND   TIMES 

God,  let  us  consider  truth  in  general,  under  which  the  divine 
veracity  as  a  particular  species  is  to  ])e  comprehended.  The 
notion  of  truth  lies  in  congruity  or  agreement  between  one 
thing  and  another.  Thus, phi/sical  truth,  is  the  conformity  of 
a  body  with  the  principles  whence  it  originated  ;  lorjical  truth, 
is  the  agreement  of  the  idea  in  the  mind  with  the  object;  and 
ethical  truth,  is  the  harmony  of  our  words  wuth  our  actions, 
and  of  our  actions  wdlh  our  words  ;  analogous  to  which  is  the 
truth  of  God,  for  it  belongs  to  that  division  of  the  divine  attri- 
butes which  is  styled  moral,  because  virtues  analogous  to  these 
attributes  are  by  the  moral  law  required  of  mankind.  Upon 
which  account  I  may  be  bold  to  say,  that  the  conformity  of 
the  word  of  God  with  things  past,  present,  and  to  come,  con- 
stitutes the  idea  of  divine  truth  ;  I  say,  with  things  past, 
present,  and  to  come,  whether  they  are  things  actually  per- 
formed, whether  they  are  particular  decrees,  whether  they  are 
the  natures  and  essences  of  things,  or  whether  they  are  future 
things  to  be  effected,  or  only  permitted.  That  God  is  true, 
therefore,  signifies  that  he  never  issued  any  declaration  of  his 
decrees,  any  history,  any  doctrine  contrary  to  his  decrees,  to 
what  was  done  by  him,  or  to  the  nature  of  things;  and  that 
he  never  at  any  time  promised  any  thing,  or  threatened  any 
thing,  or  predicted  any  thing,  which  in  its  appointed  season 
he  did  not  perform,  or  which  shall  not  be  performed  by  him. 

"  But  that  what  we  jnopose  may  be  rightly  understood,  and 
that  there  may  be  no  mistake  of  our  meaning,  we  shall  lay 
down  two  or  three  limitations. 

"  1.  If  at  any  time  the  inspired  penmen  of  scripture  have 
inserted  into  their  writings  any  flowers  of  rhetoric,  it  would 
be  both  ridiculous  and  absurd  to  expect,  that  prophecies  deli- 
vered in  this  form  should  be  literally  accomplished. 

"  2.  If  at  any  time  God  declares  that  he  wills  this  or  that, 
which  in  the  result  of  all  he  does  not  perform,  this  volition  is 
to  be  understood  with  latitude,  and  only  expressing  his  will 
as  a  legislator. 


OF   DR.    ISAAC    WATTS.  99 

"  3.  If  God  should  promise  that  he  will  confer  any  bless- 
ing, or  should  threaten  that  he  would  inflict  any  punishment, 
in  cases  where  secret  conditions  are  implied,  he  would  be  still 
clear  of  all  imputation  of  falsehood,  though  he  should  neither 
perform  the  promise,  nor  execute  the  punishment,  even  though 
the  conditions  are  not  expressed.  This  God  testifies  concern- 
ing himself,  Jer.  xviii.  7 — 10,  which  passage,  as  it  is  so  much 
to  our  point,  I  will  briefly  recite :  '  At  what  instant  I  shall 
speak  concerning  a  nation  to  pluck  it  up,  if  that  nation  turn 
from  their  evil,  I  will  repent  of  the  evil  that  I  thought  to  do 
unto  them.  And  at  what  instant  I  shall  speak  concerning  a 
nation  to  build  it,  if  it  do  evil  in  my  sight,  then  will  I  repent 
of  the  good  wherewith  I  said  I  would  benefit  them,' 

"  4.  If  God  should  not  fulfil  his  threatenings  to  the  utmost 
extent  of  their  meaning,  he  is  not  for  that  reason  to  be  thought 
unfaithful.  So  superlatively  kind  is  the  Deity,  so  merciful 
and  full  of  love  to  his  creatures,  that  scarce  can  he  call  forth 
his  vengeance  for  their  destruction,  but  still  his  veracity  is 
preserved  inviolable  ;  because  the  threatenings  with  which 
his  laws  are  armed,  do  not  so  much  demonstrate  the  necessary 
egress  of  his  avenging  justice  as  to  all  the  circumstances  of 
punishment,  as  the  desert  of  punishment  iu  the  off"ender,  and 
the  right  of  punishment  in  the  lawgiver. 

"  Should  we  grant,  that  so  great  a  cloud  of  ignorance 
darkens  the  mind  of  man  in  his  fallen  state,  as  to  prevent  in 
some  cases  our  clear  discovery  of  the  perfect  harmony  of  the 
word  with  the  actions  of  the  Deity,  yet  by  no  means  are  we  to 
detract  from  the  honours  of  the  divine  veracity.  The  sacred 
volume  remains,  and  shall  for  ever  remain  inscribed  in  both 
its  parts  with  the  truth  of  God ;  and  even  upon  the  supposi- 
tion that  he  had  not  given  us  his  word,  we  might  be  fully 
satisfied  of  his  veracity  from  human  reason  only. 

"  We  may  observe  ujwn  the  subject,  that  God  himself 
speaks  to  us,  and  asserts  his  own  faithfulness  ;  nay,  we  shall 
hear  him  (and  let  it  be  with  all  becoming  reverence)  swearing 


100  LIFE    AND   TIMES 

by  himself:  Psal.  Ixxxix.  36.  '  Once  have  I  sworn  by  my 
holiness,  that  I  will  not  lie  unlo  David.'  What  can  be  more 
tremendous  than  the  oath  of  God  himself?  The  apostle  Paul 
ag-rees  with  this  text,  and  ratifies  what  it  declares:  Heb.  vi.  17. 
'Wherein  God,  willing  more  abundantly  to  show  unto  the 
heirs  of  promise  the  immutability  of  his  counsel,  confirmed  it 
by  an  oath,  that  by  two  immutable  things,  in  which  it  was 
impossible  for  God  to  lie,  we  might  have  a  strong  consola- 
tion,' &c. 

"  But  let  us  now  attend  to  some  other  arguments,  which 
are  rather  deductions  than  express  declarations.     As, 

"  1.  The  overthrow  of  so  many  and  so  great  cities,  of  the 
destruction  of  so  many  people,  and,  finally,  of  so  many  private 
events  which  have  taken  place,  the  predictions  of  which  pre- 
ceded them  a  thousand  years  before  they  happened,  are  proofs 
of  the  divine  veracity.  By  these  the  authority  of  the  word  of 
God  is  established,  and  they  are  so  many  monuments  of  his 
truth. 

"  2.  If  God  were  not  faithful  farewell  to  all  religion.  Then 
let  the  scriptures  over-run  with  falsehoods  be  thrown  into  the 
flames,  and  let  the  long  train  of  interpreters  be  confounded 
with  shame.  Moses  and  David,  Isaiah  and  all  the  minor 
'prophets  have  deceived  us.     Let  the  blind  Homer  rise  from 

his  grave,  and  we  will  adore  his  romantic  rabble  <^f  gods. 

Perish,  perish  the  thought !     Either  our  God  is  the  only  true 
God,  or  there  is  no  God  at  all. 

"  3,  If  God  does  not  perform  what  he  has  predicted,  he 
either  knew  that  he  would  not  do  what  he  had  foretold,  or  he 
did  not.  If  he  knew  that  he  would  not  do  it,  he  is  not  su- 
premely good  in  thus  deceiving  his  creatures;  if  he  did  not 
know  that  he  would  do  it,  he  is  neither  immutable  nor  omni- 
scient. But  God  is  omniscient  and  immutable,  and  all  his 
actions  are  expressive  of  the  greatest  goodness.  He  can  nei- 
ther deceive  nor  be  deceived.     Let  us,  therefore,  acknowledge 


OF    DR.   ISAAC    WATTS.  lOl 

that  he  is  faithful  in  the  highest  degree,  and  praise  him  ac- 
cordingly." 

II. 

"an  mens  HUMANA  SIT  IMMATERIALIS  ?      AFFIRMATUR. 

"  Miranda  sunt  nee  minus  perniciosa  eorum  nescio  an 
dixerim  philosophorum  deliria,  qui  spiritura  humanum  ma- 
terialem  esse  volunt,  cum  tanta  et  menti  et  sensibus  vel  rap- 
tim  abeuntis  exinde  absurda  occurrent,  et  incommoda  quorum 
pauca  infra  ostendamus ;  at  nominum  definitiones  prius  pro- 
ponenda  sunt,  ne,  sicut  hostibus  in  gratiam  redactis  eorum 
arma  in  se  invicem  vibrata  clangant,  ita  rebus  ipsis  consen- 
tientibus  pugnam  committant  dictiones, 

"  Per  mentem  humanem  intelligo  cogitationem  illam, 
quam  quisque  in  se  experitur,  vel  clariiis  sic,  principium 
illud  internum  omnium  nostrarum  cogitationum,  nostrorum 
appetituum,  et  nostrarum  voluptatum,  cujus  ope  producimus 
omnes  functiones,  quse  aliquam  cogitationem  includunt,  in 
quo,  tanquam  in  primo  suo  subjecto,  omnes  cogitationes 
continentur. 

"  Thesews  nostrae  praedicatum,  viz.  vox  immaterialis  secun- 
do  se  oifert  explicandum.  Omne  illud  immateriale  esse  dico, 
quod  non  est  extensum,  quod  non  habet  partes  extra  partes, 
quoniam  omne  extensum  in  longum,  latum,  et  profundum 
materise  nomen'apud  optimos  obtinuit. 

"  Patefacto  jam  itinere  in  arenam  descendimus.  Sed  O 
quod  et  quanti  me  in  limine  aggrediuntur !  Primo,  occurrit 
Epicurus,  instat  Tertullianus,  urgent  Hohhes  et  ejusdem  sec- 
tatores,  Greeci  et  Barharl,  Ethnici,  et  verse  religionis,  at  pauci 
professores.  Illi  nollent  animos  imraateriales  esse  ne  forte 
fiant  immortales,  et  quo  liberius  peccent  immaterialitatis 
ideam  ex  intellectu  obliterant ;  alii  ad  firmanda  erraticoe  suae 
religionis  dogmata,  alii  autem  ob  ignorantiam,  prsejudicia,  et 


102  LIFE    AND    TIMES 

inconsiderantiam  inter  animam  et  corpus  non  satis  accurate 
distinguunt. 

"  Quod  ad  argumentationem  attinet  spectemus.  Sequen- 
tia  ratiocinia  haec  e  multis  pauca  selegi. 

"1.  Si  corpus  possit  cogitare  cogitatio  est  modus  corpoiis, 
et  a  partium  positione  aut  motCi  pendat.  Qusenam  jam  est 
ista  positio  quae  cogitet  ?  Quae  iigura  ?  Au  e  tribus  an 
quatuor  angulis  constat  ?  Si  autem  in  motu  constare  dicis, 
quisnam  quseso  ille  motus  ?  Nullum  ego  praeter  localera  ag- 
nosco,  et  si  hie  est  cogitatio  tum  quumcunque  corpus  movet 
cogitat.  Merse  sunt  hae  nugae  et  afflatu  rationis  in  nihilum 
reducendae. 

"  2.  Corpus  seu  materia  est,  ut  volunt  philosopbi,  princi- 
pium  passivum;  at  cogitationem  actionem  esse  quis  negat, 
illam  praesertim  cogitationis  speciem  quae  voluntas  dicitur? 
Regeras  forsan  materiem  quidem  inertem  esse,  at  extensionem 
dari  spiritualem  quae  activa  est.  Respondeo,  tecum  alias 
disputationem  ineundam  esse  ut  error  hie  tuus  inter  exten- 
sionem et  materiam  distinguens  revincatur. 

"  3.  Si  corpus  possit  cogitare  cogitatio  est  modus  corporis 
essentialis,  aut  accidentalis.  Non  esscntialis  quia  tunc  inse- 
parabilis  esset  et  omne  corpus  cogitaret.  Nee  accidentalis 
quia  accidens  nee  concipi  potest  sine  subjecto,  nc  prascisiva 
quidem  abstractione,  nam  sic  accidens  conciperetur  sine 
essentia  sua  cujus  esse  est  inesse.  At  conare  jam,  Ad- 
versarie,  nonne  possis  cogitare  de  voluntate  tua,  et  potentia 
teipsum  detcrminandi,  de  gaudio,  amore,  et  affectibus  tuis, 
sine  ulla  perceptione  rei  externa  ?  Possis  certe,  ergo  nee 
cogitatio  est  accidens  corporis. 

"  4.  Illud  est  essentiale  rei  attributum  primarium  et  eam 
constituit  quod  possit  concipi  aliis  proprietatibus  non  concep- 
tis,  aliae  vero  non  sine  illo.  Cogitatio  et  extemlo  tali  modo 
conveniunt  spiritui  et  corpori,  nee  unum  eorum  aliquid  aliud 
prsesupponit  in  quo  fundetur.     Sunt  ergo  essentialia,  et  spe- 


OF    DR.    ISAAC    WATTS.  103 

cierum  propriarum  maxime  diversarum  constitutiva.  Quando 
ergo  bince  essentise  ad  unum  aliquod  simplex  constituendum 
concuiTunt,  tunc  materiam  posse  cogitare  credam. 

"  5.  Postremum  et  grande  arguraentum  cui  succumbet  et 
assentiet  omnis  intellectus  (pi\a\r]0>)9  hoc  modo  proponitur. 
Axioma  est  in  omni  ubique  philosophia  essentiam  ab  opera- 
tionibus  cognosci.  Quales  sunt  operationes,  tale  est  subjec- 
tum.  Mentis  nostras  operationes  sunt  cognitio,  dubitatio, 
affectio,  et  his  similes.  Nunc  quaenam  extensio  cognitioni 
adjungitur  ?  Nee  longitude  certe,  nee  latitudo,  nee  crassities. 
Si  ergo  cognitio,  sen  volitio  est  iramaterialis,  idem  est  subjec- 
tum  cognitionis.  Corpus  nescit  tales  actus  exerere,  nam  sic 
ultra  sphaeram  suas  activitatis  ageret,  itemque  effectus  esset 
nobilior  causa. 

"  Sufficiant  haec,  et  ut  mihi  videntur  sufficiunt  cuivis  non 
pertinaciter  opinioni  alicui  contra  rationem  inhaercnti.  Quod 
siquis  post  haec  omnia  propriam  mentem  materiam  esse  asse- 
ret,  per  me  licet  inter  ista  degat  animalia  quae  gramine  ves- 
cuntur,  philosophorum,  imo  hominum  societate  prorsus 
indignus." 

"whether  the  mind  of  MAN  IS  IMMATERIAL? 
AFFIRMED. 

"  Very  surprising,  and  no  less  pernicious  are,  I  know  not 
whether  I  should  not  call  them,  those  dreams  of  some  philo- 
sophers who  maintain  that  the  mind  of  man  is  material,  as 
the  flagrant  absurdities  and  mischiefs  of  such  a  notion  must 
strike  even  the  most  hasty  observer,  some  of  which  we  may 
point  out  before  we  close  our  discourse. 

"  Previous  to  our  entrance  upon  our  subject  it  is  proper  we 
should  settle  our  terms,  lest,  like  as  enemies  brought  over  to 
our  side  may  fall  out  with  one  another,  our  words  should 
clash,  at  the  same  time  there  is  an  agreement  among  the 
things  themselves. 

"  By  the  mind  of  man  I  understand  that  cogitation  which 


104  LIFE    AND    TIMES 

every  one  feels  within  himself,  or,  to  express  myself  more 
clearly,  that  internal  principle  of  all  our  thoughts,  of  our  de- 
sires, and  of  our  volitions,  to  which  we  owe  all  those  opera- 
tions in  which  any  degree  of  thought  is  concerned,  or  that 
pnnciple  which  as  in  its  prime  subject  includes  all  our 
thoughts. 

"  We  shall  next  attend  to  our  predicate.  I  call  all  that 
hnmaterial  which  is  not  extended,  that  which  has  not  parts 
annexed  to  parts;  for  whatever  has  the  dimension  of  length, 
breadth,  and  thickness,  is  properly  denominated  matter  in  the 
opinion  of  the  best  philosophers. 

"  Having  opened  our  way,  we  now  enter  into  the  field. 
But  what  a  numerous  and  formidable  host  immediately  ap- 
pears in  array  against  us !  First,  Epicurus,  then  Tertullian,* 
next  Hohhes  and  his  followers  oppose  me,  Greeks,  Barbarians, 
Pagans,  and  some,  though  but  a  few,  professors  of  the  true 
religion.  Some  will  not  admit  that  the  mind  of  man  is  im- 
material, lest  the  consequence  should  press  them  that  it  is 
immortal ;  and,  that  they  may  have  no  check  upon  them  in 
their  course  of  sin,  they  exclude  from  the  human  soul  the  idea 
of  immateriality.  Others  adopt  the  error,  that  they  may  by 
it  support  their  mistaken  notions  in  religion.  And  a  third 
sort,  through  ignorance,  prejudices,  and  inconsideration,  do 
not  with  sufficient  accuracy  draw  the  line  between  mind  and 
matter. 

"We  shall  now  consider,  what  arguments  may  be  alleged 
in  proof  of  our  proposition,  that  the  mind  of  man  is  immate- 
rial. I  have  selected  the  following  reasons  out  of  many  that 
might  be  adduced : 

"  1.  If  the  body  is  capable  of  thinking,  thought  is  a  mode 

*  TertuUian's  views  were  exceedingly  confused  upon  this  subject,  and  it  is  hard 
to  deternaiue  whether  he  was  a  materialist  or  not.  In  his  treatise  "on  the  Soul," 
he  maintains  that  the  soul  is  not  material,  and  that  nevertheless  it  is  Iwdy  or 
substance — he  endeavours  to  refute  the  opinion  of  Plato,  who  maintained  its  in- 
corporeity  ;  and  yet  he  goes  on  gravely  to  relate  a  silly  story  of  a  fanatical  sister, 
who  gulled  him  with  a  tale  that  she  had  seen  a  soul.     p.  311. 


OF   DR.    ISAAC    WATTS.  ]05 

of  body,  and  depends  either  upon  the  position  of  its  parts,  or 
upon  motion.  But  what  is  that  position  of  parts  which  thinks  ? 
What  is  its  figure?  Does  it  consist  of  three  or  four  angles? 
Or  if  thinking  depends  upon  motion,  let  me  ask  what  is  that 
motion  ?  I  know  of  no  motion  but  what  is  local ;  and  if  this 
is  thinking,  then,  whenever  a  body  moves  it  thinks.  But 
these  are  mere  bubbles,  which  instantly  dissolve  before  the 
breath  of  reason. 

"  2.  Body  or  matter,  according  to  philosophers,  is  a  passive 
principle;  but  who  is  there  can  deny  but  thiuking  is  an 
action,  and  more  especially  that  kind  of  it  which  is  called 
volition  ?  You  may  perhaps  reply,  that  matter  is  inert,  but 
that  there  is  a  spiritual  extension  which  is  active.  To  which 
I  answer,  that  it  must  be  in  a  manner  different  from  that  of 
reasoning,  by  which  your  error  should  be  combated,  that  of 
distinguishing  between  extension  and  ^natter. 

"  3.  If  body  can  think,  thinking  must  be  either  an  essential 
or  an  accidental  mode.  It  cannot  be  an  essential  mode ;  for 
if  it  were  it  would  be  inseparable,  and  all  bodies  would  think. 
It  cannot  be  an  accidental  mode ;  because  we  can  have  no 
conception  of  an  accident,  no,  not  even  upon  the  most  refined 
abstraction  without  a  subject,  otherwise  an  accident  would  be 
conceived  of  without  its  essence,  when  its  very  being  is  an 
in-being  in  that  essence.  Now  try,  my  adversary,  I  address 
myself  to  you,  whether  you  cannot  think  of  your  will,  of  the 
power  of  determining  yourself,  of  joy,  of  love,  and  your  other 
affections,  without  any  idea  of  any  thing  extended  ?  You 
can  undoubtedly  :  conclude,  then,  that  thought  is  not  an 
accident  of  body. 

"  4.  That  is  an  essential  primary  attribute  of  a  thing,  and 
which  indeed  constitutes  it,  which  may  be  conceived  of  with- 
out other  properties,  at  the  same  time  that  other  properties 
cannot  be  conceived  of  without  an  idea  of  that  attribute. 
Thinking  and  extension  considered  in  this  manner,  agree  the 
one  to  spirit,  the  other  to  body,  nor  does  either  the  one  or  the 


106  LIFE    AND    TIMES 

Other  presui)pose  any  tliin<^  besides  in  which  it  should  be 
founded ;  ili'mk'uuj  and  e.vtenfiion,  therefore,  are  essential  attri- 
butes of  two  particular  kinds  of  beings,  which  are  at  the 
greatest  remove  from  each  other.  Not,  then,  till  these  two 
essences  constitute  one  simple  being,  shall  I  believe  that 
thinking  belongs  to  matter. 

"  5.  The  last  and  grand  argument,  to  which  all  lovers  of 
truth  will  yield  their  assent,  may  be  thus  represented.  It  is 
an  axiom  that  universally  prevails  in  philosophy,  that  an 
essence  may  be  known  by  its  operations,  or  in  other  words,  as 
are  the  operations  such  are  the  subjects.  Now  the  operations 
of  our  minds  are  knowledge^  doubting,  affection,  and  the  like. 
But  what  connexion  has  extension  with  knowledge  ?  Know- 
ledge unquestionably  has  neither  length,  breadth,  nor  thick- 
ness. If,  therefore,  judgment  or  volition  is  immaterial,  its 
subject  is  immaterial  too.  The  body  is  incapable  of  exerting 
such  acts ;  for  it  would  then  go  beyond  the  sphere  of  its  power, 
and  the  effect  would  be  more  excellent  than  its  cause. 

"Let  these  arguments  suffice,  and  to  me  they  appear  suf- 
ficient to  satisfy  any  mind  that  will  not  obstinately  adhere  to 
its  opinion  against  the  force  of  reason.  If  any  person,  after 
all  that  has  been  alleged,  should  still  insist  upon  it,  that  his 
own  mind  is  material,  I  shall  have  no  objection  to  his  turning 
out  among  the  animals  which  graze  the  fields,  as  he  is  utterly 
unworthy  the  society  of  philosophers,  and  indeed  of  mankind." 

One  of  the  methods  which  Watts  adopted  when  a  student 
for  his  own  improvement,  was  to  abridge  the  writers  upon  the 
various  sciences  he  read,  in  order  more  efi'ectually  to  impress 
their  contents  upon  his  memory.  The  adoption  of  such  a  plan, 
though  laborious,  is  attended  with  many  advantages :  when 
the  attention  is  fixed  upon  a  subject,  the  memory  retains  a 
firmer  hold  upon  it ;  and,  generally  speaking,  one  volume  thus 
dissected  and  epitomised,  will  yield  more  real  information  than 
twenty  others  hastily  perused.     "  Shall  I  be  so  free,"  says  he. 


OF    DR.    ISAAC    WATTS.  107 

"  as  to  assure  my  yonnger  friends,  from  my  own  experience, 
that  these  methods  of  reading  will  cost  some  pains  in  the  first 
years  of  your  study,  and  especially  in  the  first  authors  you 
peruse  in  any  science,  or  on  any  particular  subject.  But  the 
profit  will  richly  compensate  the  pains  ;  and,  in  the  following 
years  of  life,  after  you  have  read  a  few  valuable  books  on  any 
special  subject  in  this  manner,  it  will  be  very  easy  to  read 
others  of  the  same  kind,  because  you  will  not  find  very  much 
new  matter  in  them  which  you  have  not  already  examined."* 
Among  the  volumes  which  he  treated  in  this  way,  were  Mr. 
Gale's  "  Court  of  the  Gentiles,"  "  Questiones  Logicse  ut  plu- 
rimum  desumptas  ex  Burgersdicii  Institutionibus,  et  Heere- 
boordii  Commentariis,  1691,  1692;  Logical  Questions,  col- 
lected for  the  greatest  part  from  Burgersdicius's  Institutions 
and  Heereboord's  Commentaries,"  and  "  Sontentiolse  quasdam 
e  Tractatu  Lud.  de  la  Forge  dc  mente  humana  collects,  aut 
patius  Epitome  ejusdem  tractatas,  1601 ;  Some  brief  Opinions 
collected  from  the  Treatise  of  Lewis  de  la  Forge  concerning 
the  Human  Mind,  or  rather  an  Epitome  of  the  work."  The 
manuscript  volumes  containing  these  abridgments,  were  in 
the  possession  of  Mr.  Enoch  Watts,  who  parted  with  them  to 
Dr.  Gibbon  s.f 

There  was  another  plan  practised  by  Watts  in  after-life, 
which  it  is  highly  probable  he  commenced  in  the  years  of  his 
studies  —  interleaving  the  books  he  read,  and  copying  on  the 
blank  pages  extracts  from  other  writers  upon  the  same  topics. 
A  curious  instance  of  his  diligence  in  this  particular  he  left 
behind  him  in  his  Westminster  Greek  grammar,  with  supple- 
mental leaves,  containing  collections  from  the  grammars  of 
Mr.  Leeds  and  Dr.  Busby.  To  the  title  of  the  Westminster 
Greek  Grammar,  that  of  "  Institutio  Graecae  Grammatices 
compendiaria  in  Usum  Regioe  Scholae  Westmonasteriensis" 
is  added, "  cum  notis  mutins  a  grammaticis  Busbeii  et  Leedsii ;" 
in  the  blank  leaf  at  the  beginning  he  observes,  "  Usque  ad 

*  Improvement  of  the  Mind,  part  i.  c.  4.  §  7.  -j-  Gibbons,  p.  59. 


108  LIFE    AND   TIMES 

paginam  75  gTammatices  errores  correxi,  ct  quae  desuerant 
supplcvi,  ]709.  I.  W. ;"  and  iu  the  afore-cited  page,  where 
he  broke  off  his  work,  he  adds,  "  Hue  usque  vulgarem  gram- 
maticam  correxi  secundum  majorem  uKpiteiav  grammaticarum 
Busbeii  et  Leedsii."*  These  plans  for  mental  improvement, 
which  Watts  adopted  at  an  early  period,  and  to  which  he 
steadily  adhered  through  life,  testify  his  anxious  search  after 
knowledge ;  and  well  deserve  the  imitation  of  all  students, 
not  only  for  the  ministry,  but  every  branch  of  philosophy  and 
science.  The  following  golden  rules  embody  his  own  methods : 
"  Where  the  author  is  obscure,  enlighten  him :  where  he  is 
imperfect,  supply  his  deficiencies :  where  he  is  too  brief  and 
concise,  amplify  a  little,  and  set  his  notions  in  a  fairer  view  : 
where  he  is  redundant,  mark  those  paragraphs  to  be  retrench- 
ed: when  he  trifles  and  grows  impertinent,  abandon  those 
passages  or  pages :  where  he  argues,  observe  whether  his  rea- 
sons be  conclusive;  if  the  conclusion  be  true,  and  yet  the 
arguments  weak,  endeavour  to  confirm  it  by  better  proofs: 
wdiere  he  derives  or  infers  any  propositions  darkly  or  doubt- 
fully, make  the  justice  of  the  inference  appear,  and  add 
further  inferences  or  corollaries,  if  such  occur  to  your  mind  : 
where  you  suppose  he  is  in  a  mistake,  propose  your  objections 
and  correct  his  sentiments:  what  he  writes  so  well,  as  to 
approve  itself  to  your  judgment,  both  as  just  and  useful, 
treasure  it  up  in  your  memory,  and  count  it  a  part  of  your 
intellectual  gains."t 

In  the  manuscript  volume  from  which  the  Latin  theses  have 
been  extracted,  there  are  two  English  dissertations,  which  he 
read  at  the  meetings  of  his  fellow-students.  The  first  was 
prepared  according  to  a  note  prefixed  to  it,  for  "our  meeting" 
on  Saturday,  July  1693,  and  is  founded  upon  the  question, 

*  Gibbons,  p.  61.  f  Improvement  of  the  Mind,  part  i.  c.  4. 


OF   DR.   ISAAC    WATTS.  109 


"  WHETHER  THE   DOCTRINE  OF  JUSTIFICATION  BY  FAITH 
ALONE  TENDS  TO  LICENTIOUSNESS? 


"  Man,  by  wilful  sinning  against  an  express  command, 
sullied  the  glory  of  his  innocence,  and  lost  that  inherent 
righteousness  which,  according  to  the  tenor  of  the  first  cove- 
nant, entitled  him  to  the  favour  of  God  and  felicity.  Justice 
requires  satisfaction  for  the  injuries  done  to  its  law,  and  a  per- 
fect obedience  is  necessary  to  procure  a  new  title  to  happiness. 
Fallen  man  is  altogether  unable  either  to  pay  the  debt,  or  to 
work  for  life ;  for  the  loss  of  his  original  righteousness  left  him 
wholly  destitute  of  any  power  to  regain  it.  If  ever,  therefore, 
he  l)e  freed  from  the  curse  of  this  law,  it  is  requisite  that  its 
penalty  be  suffered ;  and  if  ever  he  be  admitted  again  into 
divine  favour,  it  must  be  by  the  imputation  of  the  righteous- 
ness of  another.  Jesus  Christ  has  undertaken  the  cause. 
The  eternal  Son  of  God  became  flesh,  and  tabernacled  among 
us ;  he  bore  the  punishment  which  guilty  man  had  incurred, 
and  fulfilled  the  law  to  which  the  promise  of  life  was  annexed. 
Now,  that  both  his  sufferings  and  his  obedience  are  imputed 
to  us,  in  order  to  acceptance  with  God,  I  shall  at  present  only 
offer  these  two  scriptures : 

"  Gal.  iii.  13:  '  Christ  hath  redeemed  us  from  the  curse  of 
the  law,  being  made  a  curse  for  us.'  What  words  can  be 
more  emphatical  ?  We,  who  must  otherwise  have  been 
accursed  to  eternity,  are  redeemed  therefrom  by  his  being 
made  a  curse  for  us,  the  sentence  of  cursing  being  executed 
upon  him. 

"  The  second  scripture  is  Rom.  v.  19  :  '  As  by  the  disobe- 
dience of  one  many  were  made  sinners,  so  by  the  obedience  of 
one  shall  many  be  made  righteous.'  The  words  in  the  original 
are,  shall  he  cofisfUuted  righteous,  according  to  a  law,  or  cove- 


110  LIFE    AND    TIMES 

nant,  as  I  heard  the  Rev.  Mr.  Alsop*  explain  them,  who  said 
that  he  could  not  tell  any  other  consistent  sense  of  these  words. 

"Thus  briefly  of  the  imputation  of  Christ's  righteousness. 
But  how  comes  it  to  be  imputed  to  us,  or  made  ours  ?  It  is 
answered,  By  faith  alone.  So  the  assembly  of  divines  express 
it  in  their  catechism.  The  perfect  obedience  and  full  satisfac- 
tion of  Christ  are  imputed  to  us  by  God,  and  received  by  faith 
alone.  It  is  faith  alone  receives  this  righteousness.  Good 
works  have  nothing  to  do  in  the  receiving  of  it,  or  in  justify- 
ing us.  Infinite  justice  will  be  satisfied  with  no  less  than 
complete  righteousness ;  and,  therefore,  our  own  broken  and 
imperfect  righteousness  is  insufficient.  Consult  that  text, 
Rom.  iv.  5,  'To  him  that  worketh  not,  but  believeth  on  him 
that  justifieth  the  ungodly,  his  faith  is  counted  for  righteous- 
ness.' Now  it  cannot  be  meant  that  faith  itself  is  imputed  as 
the  matter  of  our  righteousness,  because  faith,  considered  in 
itself,  is  a  good  work  ;  but  what  is  intended,  is  the  object  of 
faith,  namely,  Christ's  righteousness.  The  apostle,  to  avoid 
all  mistakes,  declares,  1st,  negatively,  that  works  are  to  be 
excluded  ;  and,  '2dly,  positively,  that  we  receive  a  righteous- 
ness by  faith, 

"  I  shall  not  insist  further  on  the  proof  of  the  point,  because 
it  seems  to  be  granted  in  the  question ;  yet  so  much  was 
necessary  to  be  premised,  in  order  to  a  regular  procedure. 

This  doctrine  is  the  truth  of  the  gospel  as  it  is  in  Jesus,  and 
the  only  mean  whereby  every  one  of  us  may  be  made  holy 
and  hap])y.  The  devil,  therefore,  has  used  many  artifices  to 
subvert  it,  among  which  this  is  a  principal  one,  namely,  filling 
men's  minds  with  wrong  opinions  concerning  it,  by  repre- 
senting it  as  an  unholy  doctrine  ;  and  this  is  the  common 
prejudice  against  justification  by  the  imputed  righteousness  of 
Christ  received  by  faith  alone,  that  it  gives  liberty  to  men  to 

*  Vincent  Alsop,  M.  A.,  ejected  from  Wilby  in  Nortliainptoushire,  in  1662. 
)Ie  was  one  of  the  predecessors  of  Dr.  Calaniy  at  Westminster.  His  Anti  Soz:o, 
written  against  Sherlock,  procnrcd  iiim  tlie  esteem  and  approbation  of  Dr.  South. 


OF    DR.    ISAAC    WATTS.  HI 

live  loosely  aiiH  sinfully,  as  though  there  were  no  room  for 
good  works  in  our  religion,  if  they  be  not  brought  into  our 
justification.  But  constant  experience  shows  that  this  is  a 
mistake ;  for  they  who  embrace  this  doctrine  are  for  good 
works  as  much  as  any,  and  dare  not  oppose  the  authority  of 
that  Spirit,  who,  by  the  apostle  James,  pronounces  that  faith 
which  is  without  good  works  to  be  dead.  What  we  contend 
for  is  the  right  place,  use,  and  end  of  good  works  in  the  mat- 
ters of  religion,  that  they  may  not  be  substituted  in  the  stead 
of  Christ,  and  the  glory  of  our  salvation  to  be  attributed  to 
ourselves,  against  which  the  scripture  so  often  cautions  us. 

"  I  shall,  in  a  few  words,  give  the  true  place  and  use  of 
holiness. 

"  I.  It  is  a  part  of  our  salvation  purchased  by  Christ.  He 
redeemed  us  not  only  from  wrath  but  from  sin  too:  Tit.  ii.  14, 
where  it  is  said,  '  He  gave  himself  for  us,  that  he  might 
redeem  us  from  all  iniquity.'  Grace  is  glory  begun  :  now 
that  glory  is  the  purchase  of  Christ  none  will  deny. 

"  2.  Holiness  is  the  end  of  our  redemption  and  justification, 
as  appears  in  the  forementioned  text;  'Who  gave  himself  for 
us,  that  he  might  purify  unto  himself  a  peculiar  people  zea- 
lous of  good  works.' 

"3.  The  law  of  creation  obliges  us  to  good  works.  As  we 
are  creatures,  we  are  to  worship  and  honour  our  Maker  by 
obedience. 

"  4.  As  we  are  bought  from  the  prison  of  hell,  we  become 
his  servants  who  paid  a  price  for  us ;  and,  therefore,  we  are 
obliged  to  serve  him:  1  Cor.  vi.  20,  *  Ye  are  bought  witli  a 
price;  therefore,  glorify  God  in  your  body  and  in  your  spirit, 
which  are  God's.' 

"  5,  We  are  to  perform  obedience  to  the  commands  of 
Christ,  in  gratitude  to  him  who  is  our  greatest  Benefactor. 

"  6.  Holiness  is  the  mean  to  prepare  us  for  glory,  though 
not  to  procure  glory  for  us. 


112  LIFE    AND    TIMES 

"  7.  Holiness  is  the  way  to  evidence  our  justification,  and 
give  us  the  assurance  and  comfort  of  it. 

"  We  now  proceed  to  give  some  reasons  to  demonstrate,  that 
justification  by  faith  alone  is  so  far  from  being-  animpediment 
to  a  holy  life,  that  it  is  the  only  true  way  to  promote  it. 

"  1.  Good  works  after  justification  by  faith,  is  the  order  in 
which  God  himself  has  placed  them.  Eph.  ii.  8,  9,  10:  'By 
grace  are  ye  saved  through  faith  ;'  that  is,  you  are  made  par- 
takers of  salvation  in  both  parts  of  it,  the  favour  of  God  and 
his  image,  by  God's  free  gift  or  grace  as  the  principal  cause, 
and  by  faith  as  the  instrument  receiving  it :  '  not  of  works,' 
as  it  follows,  '  lest  any  man  should  boast ;  for  we  are  his  work- 
manship created  in  Christ  Jesus  unto  good  works.'  We  are 
not  united  to  Christ  Jesus  by  having  good  works  created  in 
us,  but  being  in  Christ,  we  are  created  to  good  works.  In 
like  manner.  Tit.  iii.  8,  it  is  said,  '  that  they  which  have 
believed  in  God  might  be  careful  to  maintain  good  works.' 
The  Holy  Spirit  prefaces  it  with  two  notes  of  attention  and 
observation  :  '  This  is  a  faithful  saying,  and  these  things  I  will 
that  thou  affirm  constantly,  that  they  which  have  believed  in 
God  might  be  careful  to  maintain  good  works.' 

"  2.  That  faith  which  justifies,  is  the  necessary  and  imme- 
diate spring  and  origin  of  good  works.  The  first  act  of  faith 
is,  acceptance  of  Christ  to  be  our  way  to  salvation,  to  recon- 
cile us  to  God  by  his  righteousness,  and  make  us  fit  for  his 
enjoyment  by  his  sanctifying  grace.  Faith  trusts  Christ  for 
holiness  and  glory,  and  immediately  upon  this  act  we  are 
justified,  though,  as  Dr.  Goodwin  says,  '  Faith  justifies  pecu- 
liarly as  it  depends  on  Christ  for  his  perfect  righteousness  to 
bring  us  into  the  favour  of  God.'  (Goodwin's  Triumph  of 
Faith,  §  2,  c.  1.)  But  before  this  act  we  could  not  perform 
any  good  work;  for  we  receive  strength  to  do  good  works  by 
this  trusting.  Dependence  on  our  part  derives  the  supply  of 
graces  and  influences  from  the  Spirit  of  God,  without  whom 
we  can  do  nothing.    But  St.  Paul  tells  the  Philippians,  chap. 


OF   DR.    ISAAC    WATTS.  113 

iv.  13,  that  he  could  do  all  things  through  Christ  strengthen- 
ing him.  Now,  that  faith  is  the  mean  to  partake  of  this 
communicated  power,  consult  Mark,  xi.  24 ;  John,  xiv.  13, 14; 
John,  XV.  16;  John,  xvi.  23,  24;  James,  i.  5,  6.  Christ  will 
so  far  honour  our  dependence  on  him,  that  he  condescends  (to 
speak  with  reverence)  to  the  will  of  helievers,*  as  appears  by 
these  texts. 

"3.  The  love  of  Christ,  manifested  in  free  justification 
without  works,  more  effectually  and  sweetly  binds  the  soul  to 
obedience,  than  any  rigid  measures  which  the  fear  of  punish- 
ment can  use.  The  natures  of  believers  are,  as  it  were, 
refined;  they  are  heaven-born,  ing'enuous,  and  easily  wrought 
uiDon  by  love.  It  is  a  common  truth,  that  nothing  is  done  by 
hatred  and  fear,  which  might  not  effectually  and  pleasantly  be 
performed  by  love.  The  effects  of  pure  love  are  exceedingly 
great.  We  seldom,  if  ever,  read  of  any  who,  out  of  a  mere 
fear  of  hell,  would  endure  the  greatest  miseries  of  life.  But 
how  many  thousands,  being  fortified  with  love  to  their  Re- 
deemer, have  joyfully  undergone  severe  torments  rather  than 
part  with  their  obedience  and  holiness,  notwithstanding  they 
hoped  not  to  be  saved  by  them !  Now  the  greater  the  love 
which  is  expressed  towards  us,  the  stronger  are  our  engage- 
ments to  love  again.  Consider,  then,  how  incomparably 
greater  is  that  love  which  appears  in  Christ's  giving  us  him- 
self and  his  righteousness  freely,  and  completing  by  himself 
the  work  of  our  redemption,  than  if  he  had  only  entreated  the 
Father  to  relax  the  first  covenant,  and  put  us  into  a  possibi- 
lity of  acquiring  heaven  by  our  own  obedience.  2  Cor.  v.  14  : 
'  The  love  of  Christ  constraineth  us,  because  we  thus  judge, 
that  if  one  died  for  all,  then  were  all  dead.'  That  love  is  a  far 
more  efficacious  principle  than  fear,  appears  also  from  the  first 
epistle  of  John.  The  whole  letter  of  that  beloved  disciple 
breathes  nothing  but  love  and  holiness.  The  first  is  the  prin- 
ciple of  the  latter.  He  had  learned  and  felt  the  power  of  love 
in  the  bosom  of  his  Jesus,  and  recommended  that  sovereign 


114  LIFE    AND    JJMES 

antidote  against  sin,  that  cordial  to  revive  dying*  holiness,  to 
all  the  followers  of  his  loving  Saviour.  Heaven  is  a  state  of 
most  perfect  holiness,  and  the  immediate  created  principle  of 
it  is  perfect  love,  as  seems  to  be  implied  in  1  John,  iv.  18,  and 
1  Cor.  xiii.  8—13. 

"  4.  The  doctrine  of  perseverance  and  assurance,  for  I  shall 
join  them  both  together  at  present,  are  supported  only  by  this 
doctrine  of  justification  by  faith  alone.  But  these  doctrines 
are  most  effectual  to  promote  holiness ;  therefore,  the  doctrine 
of  justification  by  faith  alone  promotes  holiness.  That  assu- 
rance and  perseverance  depend  only  on  justification  by  faith 
alone  is  sufficiently  proved ;  because,  if  our  obedience  this 
moment  be  sincere  enough  to  justify  us,  our  disobedience  the 
next  moment  may  damn  us,  whereas  faith  once  acted  on 
Christ  aright,  so  justifies  us  that  we  can  never  fall  from  justi- 
fication, as  might  be  proved  from  many  scriptures.  '  I  know 
whom  I  have  believed,'  saitli  the  apostle,  2  Tim.  i.  12.  But 
our  opponents  themselves  grant  this  by  contending  against 
perseverance,  and,  consequently,  assurance,  while  they  hold 
that  works  concur  with  faith  to  our  justification.  It  remains, 
therefore,  only  to  be  proved,  that  assurance  is  the  most  effec- 
tual mean  to  promote  holiness ;  and  this  appears — 

"(1.)  As  an  assurance  of  salvation  keeps  us  from  tempta- 
tions, and  the  victorious  power  of  sin.  How  shall  we  able  to 
comply  with  Satan,  and  obey  that  wretched  spirit,  when  we 
know  that  we  are  Christ's,  and  he  has  purchased  us .''  How 
can  a  man  willingly  defile  that  soul  with  sin,  which  the  blood 
of  Christ  has  washed  into  purity  and  whiteness }  This  would 
be  to  trample  the  blood  of  Christ  under  foot,  the  least  thought 
of  which  startles  a  saint.  In  riiil.  iv.  7,  it  is  said,  '  The  peace 
of  God,  Avhich  passeth  all  understanding,  shall  keep  your 
hearts  and  minds.'  Dr.  Owen,  in  his  Treatise  of  Temptations, 
renders  it,  '  shall  keep  as  a  garrison.'  Now  when  our  minds 
are  preserved  from  being  blinded  by  temptations,  and  our 
hearts  defended  from  their  prevailing  assaults,  surely  we  can- 


OF    DR.   ISAAC    WATTS.  115 

not  fall ;  and  this  is  done  by  this  peace  of  God,  the  peace 
which  God  speaks  to  the  conscience,  and  assurance  of  his 
love. 

"(2.)  Assurance  preserves  repentance  in  continual  exercise, 
and  so  promotes  the  divine  life.  An  assured  person  mourns 
over  and  stabs  his  sins,  because  he  knows  it  is  his  Jesus  whom 
they  have  pierced.  He  revenges  himself  upon  the  crucifiers 
of  his  Lord ;  and  his  hatred  against  sin  is  as  keen  as  his  love 
to  that  God-man,  who  bore  the  punishment  of  it  in  his  stead: 
Zech.  xii.  10. 

"  (3.)  Assurance  of  salvation  will  damp  and  deaden  our  af- 
fections to  the  things  of  this  world.  Col.  iii.  2,  3  :  '  Set  your 
affections  on  things  above,  not  on  things  on  the  earth  ;  for  ye 
are  dead,'  that  is,  to  sin,  '  and  your  life  is  hid  with  Christ  in 
God.'  Honour  and  esteem  among  men,  disgrace  and  private 
reproaches,  riches  and  pleasures,  will  have  less  influence  upon, 
and  less  room  in  our  minds,  when  a  sense  and  certainty  of  the 
enjoyment  of  heavenly  objects  have  already  possessed  them. 
It  is  by  reason  of  the  interest  which  these  earthly  things  have 
in  our  affections,  that  we  are  so  often  captivated  to  sin ;  but, 
when  our  affections  are  dead  to  external  objects,  how  much 
easier  is  a  strict  and  religious  life ! 

" Now  of  all  these  coids  which  bind  the  willing  soul  to 
holiness  and  good  works,  the  doctrine  of  justification  by 
obedience  is  destitute. 

"  5.  The  last  reason  which  1  shall  mention  is,  the  testimony 
and  example  of  saints  who  have  tried  and  practised  according 
to  the  doctrine  of  justification  by  faith  alone,  and  led  most 
holy  lives ;  whereas  they  who  hoped  to  be  saved  by  good 
works,  have  lived  in  the  practice  of  the  greatest  sins.  I  shall 
at  present  instance  only  in  the  Pharisees,  who  trusted  not  to 
the  righteousness  of  Christ,  as  St.  Paul  tells  us,  Rom.  x.  3; 
but,  being  ignorant  of  the  righteousness  of  God,  they  went 
about  to  establish  their  own  righteousness.  Now  of  what 
gross  sins  does  Christ  accuse  the  Pharisees  !    How  black  and 


116  LIFE    AND    TIMES 

deformed  would  their  lives  appear,  if  compared  with  the  lives 
of  the  apostles,  especially  of  St.  l^aul,  who  asserted  the  doc- 
trine of  justification  by  faith  alone  !  The  Pharisees  found  it 
impossible  to  yield  obedience  to  the  divine  law  in  its  spiritu- 
ality, yet  rather  than  forego  their  presumption  of  being  saved 
by  it,  they  confined  it  only  to  outward  acts ;  yet  here  they 
wretchedly  failed  too,  as  appears  by  our  Saviour's  frequent 
reproofs,  and  awful  denunciations  against  them." 

The  other  dissertation  is  stated  to  have  been  prepared  for 
the  meeting  on  Sept.  9,  1693 :  it  considers  the  question, 
"  Whether  self-denial  in  things  in  themselves  indifferent,  be 
not  in  some  cases  necessary  ?"* 

Curing  his  residence  in  the  academy,  Watts  was  accustom- 
ed to  seek  relief  from  his  graver  studies  in  poetical  composi- 
tion ;  having  amused  himself  with  verse,  as  he  hints  in  his 
Miscellanies,  from  fifteen  years  old  to  fifty.  This  practice  he 
recommends  to  the  student  who  has  any  taste  for  it,  in  his 
treatise  upon  the  "  Imj)rovement  of  the  Mind,"  when  fatigued 
with  pursuits  of  a  more  laborious  nature ;  the  mind  "  may  be, 
as  it  were,  unbent,  and  repose  itself  on  the  flowery  meadows 
where  the  muses  dwell."  The  date  of  the  following  epistle  to 
his  brother  Enoch,  shows  it  to  have  been  written  in  the  year 
after  he  came  to  Mr,  Rowe,  when  at  the  age  of  seventeen. 
The  poem  is  in  the  glyconick  measure,  and  is  praised  by  Dr. 
Johnson  for  its  ease  and  elegance. 

"FRATRIS  E.  W.  OLIM  NAVIGATURO.     SejU.  30,  1(]!)1. 

"  I  fclix,  pede  prospcro 
I  Frater,  triibe  piiica 
Siilces  a!quora  coerula 
Pandas  caibasa  flatibus 
Qua;  tiito  reditura  siut. 
Non  te  monstra  nataiitia 
Ponti  carnivor»  incola; 
Piaedeutur  rate  uaufrag^. 

•  Appendix  C. 


OF   DR.    ISAAC    WATTS.  117 

Navis,  tu  tibi  creditnm 
Fiatrem  dimidiuin  mei 
Salvuin  fer  per  iuhospita 
Pouti  regua,  per  avios 
Tractus,  et  liquidum  chaos. 
Nee  te  soibeat  horrida 
Syrtis,  nee  scopulus  minax 
Rumpat  roboreum  latiis. 
Captent  mitia  flamina 
Auteunse ;  et  Zephyri  leves 
Dent  portuin  placidum  tibi. 

Tu,  qui  fluiniua,  qui  vagos 
Fluctus  oceani  regis, 
Et  saevum  Boream  domas. 
Da  fratri  faciles  vias, 
Et  fratrem  reducem  suis." 


"TO  MY  BROTHER  ENOCH  WATTS,  GOING  A  VOYAGE. 

"  Brother,  may  Heaven  vouchsafe  to  bless, 
And  crown  your  voyage  with  success ! 
Go,  in  the  planks  of  pine  immur'd. 
And  from  surrounding  harm  secur'd  ; 
Go,  and  with  sails  expanding  wide. 
With  pleasure  plough  the  placid  tide  ; 
In  safety  wafted  o'er  Ihe  main, 
In  safety  wafted  home  again. 
O  may  no  monster  of  the  flood, 
That  roams  for  prey  and  thirsts  for  blood, 
Seize  you  in  his  tremendous  pow'r, 
And  with  remorseless  jaws  devour. 
While  the  bark,  shiver'd  by  the  blast, 
Strows  with  its  wreck  the  wat'ry  waste ! 

"  My  brother,  trusted  to  thy  care. 
Half  of  myself,  O  vessel,  bear 
Secure  through  Ocean's  wide  domain, 
At  best  a  desert  trackless  plain; 
And  oft,  when  hurricanes  arise, 
In  billows  thund'riug  to  the  skies. 
Safe  from  the  sand's  devouring  heap, 
May'st  thou  thy  wary  passage  keep; 


118  LIFE    AND    TIMES 

Safe  too  from  eacli  tiemeiuloiis  rock, 
Wliere  ships  are  sliatter'd  by  the  shock  : 
May  only  favourable  gales 
Attend  thy  course  and  fill  thy  sails  ; 
And  may  the  zephyr's  softest  wing 
Thee  to  thy  port  serenely  bring ! 

"'I'hou,  who  dost  o'er  the  seas  preside. 
Rouse  them  to  rage,  or  smooth  their  tide. 
Thou,  who  dost  iu  thy  fetters  keep 
The  boisterous  tyrants  of  the  deep. 
To  foreign  climes  secure  convey 
My  brother  through  the  wat'ry  way, 
And  back  conduct  him  o'er  the  main 
']'o  his  dear  shores  and  friends  again  !" 

DR.    GIBBONS. 

In  the  year  1692,  the  second  of  his  academical  life,  young' 
Watts  visited  his  family  and  friends  in  his  native  town. 

"  Paid  a  six-weeks  visit  to  Southa.     1692."* 

The  first  letter  which  he  wrote  home,  after  his  return, 
contained  a  poetical  apology  for  its  delay: 

PREFACE  OF  A  LETTER,  WRITTEN  AUGUST,   1692. 

"  E'er  since  the  morning  of  that  day 
Which  bid  my  dearest  friends  adieu, 
And  rolling  wheels  bore  me  away 
Far  from  my  native  town  and  you ; 
E'er  since  1  lost  through  distant  place 
The  pleasures  of  a  parent's  face, 
This  is  the  first  whose  language  sues 
For  your  release  from  waxen  bands  j 
Laden  with  humble  love,  it  bows 
To  kiss  a  welcome  from  your  hands  : 
Accept  the  duty  which  it  brings, 
And  pardon  its  delaying  wings." 

"  J  692,  Sept.  8th.     At  noon  an  earthquake  all  over  Eng- 
land, and  in  other  nations."t 

*  Watts's  MS.  t  Ibib. 


OF   DR.    ISAAC    WATTS.  119 

This  event  is  thus  noticed  by  Calamy  :  "  On  Sept.  8,  this 
year,  there  was  an  earthquake  in  and  about  the  city  of  London, 
at  mid-day,  which  was  sensibly  perceived  by  most  people.  I 
was  at  that  time  at  Sir  Richard  Levet's,  and  all  in  the  room 
felt  it,  though  I  was  not  sensible  of  it  to  the  same  degree  as 
some  others.  It  was  generally  thought  that  had  it  continued 
much  longer,  it  would  have  done  a  great  deal  of  damage  to 
the  city.  King  William  was  then  in  his  camp  in  Flanders, 
at  dinner,  in  an  old  decayed  house,  which  shaking  very  much, 
and  every  one  apprehending  it  ready  to  fall,  his  majesty  with 
much  ado  was  prevailed  with  to  rise  from  the  table,  and  go 
out  of  the  house,  but  the  surprise  was  soon  over."*  This 
earthquake  did  not  last  above  a  minute,  and  was  attended 
with  no  serious  accident ;  but  another  which  occurred  about 
the  same  period  in  Jamaica,  nearly  destroyed  the  town  of 
Port  Royal,  and  killed  upwards  of  fifteen  hundred  persons.f 

In  the  commencement  of  the  following  year,  the  annexed 
letter  to  his  brother  Richard  was  written,  Avho  was  then 
studying  for  the  practice  of  medicine.  It  contains  a  poem, 
devoted  to  the  sufferings  of  the  Saviour,  as  the  sacrifice  for  the 
sins  of  men,  of  which  only  a  few  lines  have  been  retained. 
The  subject  is  not  treated  with  much  judgment,  of  which  the 
writer  seems  to  have  been  aware,  as  he  apologises  for  an  ap- 
parent "  trespass  on  divinity :"  the  Deity  is  represented  as  if 
actuated  with  the  vindictive  passions  of  a  demon  ;  and  the 
whole  scene  better  accords  with  the  heathen  fable  of  the 
Thunderer  and  Prometheus,  than  with  the  mystery  of  our 
redemption. 

"epistola  Fratri  suo  dilecto  r.  av.  I.  w.    s.  p.  D. 

"Rursum  tuas,  amande  frater,  accepi  literas,  eodem  for- 
tasse  momento,  quo  mece  ad  te  pervenerunt;  idemque  qui  te 

*  Calamy's  Life  and  Times,  i.  326. 

f  Shower's  Practical  Reflections  on  the  late  Earthquakes  iu  Jamaica,  England, 
Sicily,  Malta,  with  a  particular  Historical  Account  of  tliose  and  otlier  Earthquakes. 
12mo.  1693. 


120  LIFE    AND    TIMES 

scribentem  vidit  dies,  meum  ad  epistolare  munus  excitavit 
calamum  ;  non  inane  est  inter  nos  Fratenium  nomen,  unicus 
enim  spiritus  nos  intiis  animat,  agitque,  et  Concordes  in 
ambobus  efficit  motus.  O  utinam  crescat  indies,  et  vigescat 
mutua  charitas !  Faxit  Deus,  ut  amor  sui  nostra  incendat  et 
defaecet  pectora.  Tunc  etenim  et  alternis  purge  amicitise 
flammis  erga  nos  invicem  divinum  in  modum  ardebimus. 
Contemplemur  Jesum  nostrum,  coeleste  illud  et  adoraudum 
exemplar  charitatis.     Ille  est, 

"  Qui  quondam  aeterno  delapsus  ab  aethere  vultus 
Induit  Immanos,  ut  posset  corpore  nostras 
(Heu  miseras  !)  sufFerre  vices ;  spousoris  obivit 
Muuia  et  iu  sese  tabulae  maiedicta  Minacis 
Transtulit,  et  sceleris  poeuas  liomiuisque  reatum. 

Ecce  jacet  desertus  luimi,  diffusus  in  heibam 
Integer,  innocuas  versus  sua  sidera  palmas 
Et  placidum  attolleus  vultum,  nee  ad  oscula  Patris, 
Amplexus  solitosve;  artus  nudatus  amictu 
Sidereos,  et  sponte  siuum  patefactus  ad  iras 
Numinis  armati. 

******* 

"  At  subsidat  pbantasia,  vanescant  imagines ;  nescio  quo 
me  proripuit  amens  Musa.  Volui  quatuor  lineas  pedibus 
astringere,  et  ecce  !  nuraeri  crescunt  in  immensum  ;  dumque 
concitato  Genio  laxavi  frsena,  vereor  ne  juvenilis  impetus 
theologiam  Iseserit,  et  audax  nimis  imaginatio.  Heri  allata 
est  ad  me  epistola  indicans  matrem  meliusculc  se  habere, 
licet  ignis  febrilisnon  prorsus  deseruit  mortale  ejus  domicilium. 
Plura  volui,  sed  turgidi  et  crescentes  versus  noluere  pliu'a,  et 
coarctarunt  scriptionis  limites.  Vale,  amice  frater,  et  in 
studio  pietatis  et  artis  medicoe  strenuus  decurre. 

"  Datum  li  musseo  meo  Londini,  xvto  Kalend.  Febr.  Anno 
Salutis  1693." 


OF   DR.    ISAAC    WATTS.  121 

"a  letter  from  ISAAC  WATTS  TO  HIS  BROTHER 
RICHARD  WATTS,  WISHING  HIM  SAFETY  AND  PEACE 
IN    GOD. 

"  Dear  Brothey, 

"  I  had  a  second  receipt  of  a  letter  from  you  perhaps  in  the 
very  moment  in  which  mine  came  to  hand  ;  and  the  very  day 
in  which  you  was  writing  to  me,  was  the  same  which  awa- 
kened my  pen  to  the  discharge  of  its  epistolary  duty  to  you. 
We  bear  not  the  fraternal  name  in  vain,  for  the  same  spirit 
possesses,  inspires,  and  produces  the  most  harmonious  move- 
ments in  us.  May  our  mutual  affection  every  day  increase 
and  flourish  !  God  grant  his  love  may  purify  and  kindle  our 
souls  !  Thus  shall  we  in  a  divine  manner  burn  with  recipro- 
cal flames  of  friendship.  Let  us  contemplate  our  Saviour, 
that  celestial  and  adorable  example  of  love  : 

"  Tlie  Son  of  God,  descending  from  the  skies, 
Assum'd  an  human  form,  that  in  our  flesh 
He  might  endure  the  agonizing  pains 
Due  to  our  crimes  :  our  surety  he  became, 
Transferring  to  himself  each  baleful  curse 
Of  Heaven's  vindictive,  death-denouncing  law, 
And  made  our  guilt  and  punishment  his  own. 

"See  him,  deserted  on  the  naked  ground. 
And  kneeling  on  the  sod,  extend  his  hands. 
And  lift  his  placid  count'nance  to  the  skies 
With  conscious  innocence,  but  not  t'enjoy, 
As  he  was  wont,  his  heav'nly  Father's  smiles. 
And  kind  embraces.     See  his  godlike  form 
Expos'd  to  night's  cold  blast,  and  see  his  breast 
By  his  own  hands  expanded  to  the  stroke 
Of  Deity  in  arms. 

******* 

"  But  let  fancy,  with  all  its  images,  subside  and  vanish.  I 
know  not  whither  the  impetuous  muse  has  hurried  rae.  I  de- 
signed only  four  lines  in  verse,  and  behold  what  a  number ! 


122  LIFE    AND    TIMES 

While  I  have  indulged  my  rapture,  I  fear  my  juvenile  heat 
and  too  bold  an  imagination,  may  have  made  some  trespass  on 
divinity. 

"  I  received  a  letter  yesterday,  acquainting  me  that  our  mo- 
ther was  somewhat  better,  though  the  fever  has  not  quite  left 
her.  I  intended  to  have  written  more  particularly,  but  the 
swelling  and  growing  verses  have  prevented  me,  and  contract- 
ed the  limits  of  my  letter.  Farewell,  dear  brother,  and  may 
you  make  strenuous  advances  in  the  study  of  religion  and 
medicine !  Given  from  my  study  in  London  on  the  sixteenth 
of  the  Kalends  of  February,  1693." 

Another  specimen  of  Watts's  method  of  illustrating  and 
correcting  the  authors  he  read,  has  been  preserved  by  the 
Rev.  Samuel  Palmer,  which,  though  dated  considerably 
posterior,  may  here  be  inserted,  as  the  pamphlet  containing 
it  is  rare,  and  every  relic  is  interesting.  The  volume  in 
question  is  entitled,  "  A  Treatise  of  Humane  Reason,"  printed 
1675  in  small  l-2mo. ;  in  the  title  he  has  inserted  the  author's 
name,  M.  Clifford,  Esq. ;  and  in  the  blank  leaf  at  the  begin- 
ning he  has  put  his  own  name,  with  the  following  observa- 
tions : 

"  This  book  when  first  published,  did  perhaps  mollify  the 
spirits  of  some  men,  that  were  set  upon  persecution  of  the 
dissenters.  It  has  many  useful  notions  in  it:  but  it  exalts 
reason  as  the  rule  of  religion  as  well  as  the  guide,  to  a  degree 
very  dangerous ;  which  occasioned  some  writings  pro  and 
con  at  that  time. 

"A  book,  called '  Plain  Dealing,'  by  a  scholar  at  Cambridge, 
was  published  in  opposition  to  it,  whose  design  seems  tend- 
ing towards  persecution. 

"An  answer  thereto  came  out  by  one  Albertus  A¥arren, 
called  '  An  Apology  for  the  Discourse  of  Humane  Reason,' 
&c.  12mo.  p.  144.  This  apologizer  is  a  perfect  Hobbist,  his 
style  pretty  smooth,  but   his  sense  exceeding  thin-set,  his 


OF   DR.    ISAAC   WATTS.  123 

thoughts  trivial  and  common,  chiefly  against  persecution ; 
nor  is  there  any  thing-  in  it  worth  the  reading  so  much  as  the 
character  of  Mr.  Chff"ord  * 

"  Another  book,  called '  Observations  upon,'&c.  12mo.  p.  73, 
wherein  our  author  is  charged  with  confusion,  and  some  in- 
consistencies are  proved  upon  him.  But  what  was  truly  va- 
luable in  the  controversy  was  not  much  :  I  have  (here)  all 
that  was  worth  notice  by  way  of  marginal  remarks  with  an  *." 

The  text  of  the  author  in  the  succeeding  passages  is  printed 
in  italics ;  and  appended  are  the  remarks  of  Watts. 

" '  There  heing  so  many  mists  cast  before  me  by  the  errors  and 
deceits  of  others,  that  one  had  great  need  of  a  better  eye-sight 
than  is  left  its  by  the  fall  of  our  first  forefather.^     p.  2. 

"%*  This  sentence,  forced  from  the  author's  pen  by  the 
mere  power  of  truth,  overthrows  many  things  in  his  following 
discourse,  and  should  have  at  least  taught  him  to  mention 
fervent  prayer  to  God,  for  safe  direction  as  a  companion  to 
this  great  guide  reason  in  quest  of  religion. 

"  '  /  cannot  see  how  any  but  God  himself,  can  certainly 
know  that  any  man  is  an  heretic.''     p.  34. 

"  %*  Obj.  But  surely  heresy  must  be  knowable  by  men, 
else  how  can  heretics  be  rejected.''  Tit.  iii.  10.  But  then  this 
rejection  is  not  with  fire  and  sword,  but  only  a  casting  them 
out  of  such  an  ecclesiastical  society. 

'"//(?  who  gave  rides  which  admit  of  so  many  interpreta- 

*  This  character  is  as  follows  : 

"As  to  his  person  'twas  little,  his  face  rather  flat  than  oval,  his  eye  serious, 
countenance  leonine,  his  constitution  cholerick,  sanguine,  tinctured  with  melan- 
choly :  of  a  facetious  conversation,  yet  a  great  humorist :  of  quick  parts,  so  of 
quick  passions,  and  venereal,  thence  lazy  ;  he  was  learned,  very  critical,  positive, 
and  proud,  and  scorned  to  be  rich;  he  had  a  will  to  be  just;  would  drink  to 
excess  sometimes.  His  religion  was  that  of  his  country;  he  was  always  loyal  to 
his  king,  and  a  very  good  poet.  He  died  'twixt  fifty  and  sixty,  at  Sutton's  hospi- 
tal, whose  master  he  then  was  ;  not  much  lamented  by  the  pensioners.  Few  knew 
him  well.  He  was  a  man  strongly  composed;  'tis  questioned  whether  his  virtues 
or  his  vices  were  most.  I  incline  to  the  last ;  yet  he  departed  peaceably  and  pi- 
ously." 


124  LIFE    AND   TIMES 

t'lons,  is  well  contented  that  they  shall  be  interpreted  severally^ 
p.  38. 

"  %*  God,  who  left  his  word  obscure  in  some  circumstan- 
tials of  religion,  foreknew  and  designed  to  permit  various 
interpretations  therein ;  not  that  all  can  be  true,  but  to  try, 
whether,  under  all  this  doubtfulness  in  lesser  matters,  they 
would  all  hold  the  essentials,  and  under  this  difference  of 
opinions  practise  charity. 

"  '  He  bids  you  search ;  tJiere  is,  therefore,  in  man  a  natural 
ability  of  searchinff  spiritual  truths,  and  that  can  be  nothing 
else  but  his  understanding.''     p,  GG. 

"  *-;).*  It  is  granted  that  man  has  a  power  of  searching 
spiritual  truths  necessary  to  salvation,  if  he  use  all  the  helps 
God  has  proposed,  viz.  advice  of  the  learned  and  pious,  scrip- 
ture, and  earnest  prayer,  &c.  But  then  it  is  not  reason  that 
discovers  all  these  spiritual  truths  to  him,  but  only  shows 
where  they  may  be  found,  and  reads  and  receives  them  there. 

"  '  IVe  lay  the  blasphemous  accusation  of  injustice  upon  God, 
if  he  punish  us  for  an  error  which  we  could  not  avoid. ^    p.  67. 

"%*  No  man  shall  be  condemned  but  for  the  sins  of  the 
will :  either  heathens  acting  contrary  to  the  light  of  nature, 
or  those  who  are  born  in  Christian  countries,  for  neglecting 
the  helps  to  knowledge,  or  bribing  their  understandings,  &c. 

"  *  In  this  case  {error  in  judgment)  we  cannot  know  our 
fault ;  and,  therefore,  have  no  means  of  repenting  of  it.''  p.  69. 

"  %*  Therefore  we  grant,  the  condemning  sentence  shall 
not  be  pronounced  on  any  for  mere  invincible  ignorance. 

"  *  Reason  is  to  be  accounted  that  ride  and  guide  we  look 
for,^c:     p.  87. 

"%*  If  this  author  would  be  content  to  exalt  reason  only 
as  a  guide  to  us  in  the  search  after  the  rule  of  religion,  per- 
haps he  might  be  defended  ;  but  to  make  it  the  rule  and  guide 
too,  attributes  more  to  it  than  a  Christian  dares  assent  to." 

The  following  quotation,  explanatory  of  the  views  which 
Watts  entertained  upon  this  point,  then  occurs : 


OF   DR.    ISAAC    WATTS.  125 

"  In  this  matter  reason  is  the  eye,  true  rehgion  is  the  object : 
all  other  helps,  divine  and  human,  are  as  the  light,  as  specta- 
cles, &c.  Now  it  is  impossible  to  see  with  any  thing  but  our 
own  eyes,  i.  e.  our  reason.  Yet  a  clear  light  is  also  necessary, 
without  which  our  eye  cannot  see  the  object,  nor  our  reason 
find  out  the  true  religion." 

At  the  close  of  the  volume  the  following  remarks  are  made 
upon  the  whole : 

"This  discourse  of  human  reason,  contains  many  valuable 
and  bold  truths  of  the  necessity  and  usefulness  of  searching  for 
happiness  by  its  conduct ;  which  if  referred  to  our  search  after 
a  rule  or  superior  guide,  viz.  revelation,  may  be  safely  admit- 
ted ;  (especially  if  he  had  joined  earnest  prayer  to  God  there- 
with.) But  the  bent  and  strain  of  his  discourse,  seems  to  bid 
us  depend  on  human  reason  alone  in  the  search  of  happiness 
itself,  or  heaven  and  salvation ;  and  his  methods  of  reasoning 
are  such  as  would  lead  the  ignorant  and  unwary  into  a  com- 
plete and  sole  dependance  on  reason.  My  sense  on  this  sub- 
ject is  contained  in  these  remarks,  which  especially  refer  to  the 
last  part  of  this  book,  from  p.  80  to  the  end. 

"  It  must  be  granted,  that  men  of  sense  and  learning  and 
inquiry,  are  led  by  reason  to  the  acknowledgment  of  the  divi- 
nity of  scripture ;  deducing  this  conclusion  from  a  hundred 
moral  arguments  and  probabilities,  which  united  amount  to  a 
certainty  and  demonstration.  Thus  by  reason  we  find  out  the 
rule  of  religion  which  is  infallible ;  but  then  our  reason  must 
subject  itself  to  be  guided  by  that  rule  which  is  divine  and 
infallible. 

"  '  Obj.  But  this  rule  so  found  'must  he  interpreted  by  rea- 
son.''    p.  86. 

"  Ans.  In  things  which  are  plainly  and  expressly  asserted 
by  this  rule  of  scripture,  and  that  in  a  sense  which  contradicts 
not  other  parts  of  scripture,  or  natural  light,  our  reason  must 
submit,  and  believe  the  thing,  though  it  cannot  find  \\\e  modus 
or  manner  of  its  being.    So  in  the  doctrines  of  the  trinity  and 


126  LIFE    AND   TIMES 

incarnation,  which  are  above  the  reach  of  our  reason  in  this 
present  state.  But  we  cannot,  nor  must  we  be  led  to,  take  the 
words  of  scripture  in  such  a  sense  as  expressly  and  evidently 
contradicts  all  sense  and  reason ;  as  transubstantiation :  for 
the  two  great  lights  of  God,  reason  and  revelation,  never  con- 
tradict each  other,  though  one  be  superior  to  the  other. 

*' Therefore,  reason  has  a  great  deal  to  do  in  religion,  viz. 
to  find  out  the  rule,  to  compare  the  parts  of  this  rule  with  one 
another,  to  explain  the  one  by  the  other,  to  give  the  gramma- 
tical and  logical  sense  of  the  expressions,  and  to  exclude 
self-contradictory  interpretations,  as  well  as  interpretations 
contrary  to  reason.  But  it  is  not  to  set  itself  up  as  a  judge  of 
those  truths  expressed  therein  which  are  asserted  by  a  supe- 
rior and  infallible  dictator,  God  himself;  but  reason  requires 
and  commands  even  the  subjection  of  all  its  own  powers  to  a 
truth  thus  divinely  attested ;  for  it  is  as  possible  and  as  pro- 
per, that  God  should  propose  doctrines  to  our  understanding 
which  it  cannot  comprehend,  as  duties  to  our  practice  which 
we  cannot  see  the  reason  of ;  for  he  is  equally  superior  to  our 
understanding  and  will,  and  he  puts  the  obedience  of  both  to 
a  trial. 

"Yet  after  all  it  must  be  acknowledged,  that  the  greater 
part  of  mankind,  as  well  as  of  Christians,  have  their  reason  so 
exceedingly  weak,  their  prejudices  so  strangely  strong,  their 
incapacity  to  search  and  to  distinguish  truth  so  great,  that 
there  seems  to  be  a  necessity  of  the  spirit  of  God,  by  power- 
erful  and  secret  influence,  to  lead  those  whom  he  designs  to 
save,  both  to  the  belief  of  the  scriptures  as  the  rule,  and  to 
the  interpretation  of  those  jmrts  of  the  rule  which  are  abso- 
lutely necessary  to  salvation.  And  we  find,  that  the  best 
account  which  most  Christians  can  give,  why  they  believe 
scripture  to  be  the  word  of  God,  and  why  they  believe  this  or 
that  to  be  the  sense  of  scripture,  is,  because  they  have  found 
such  influences  j^roceeding  from  it  on  their  hearts,  to  change 
their  wills  from  sinful  to  holy,  and  turn  their  souls  from  sin 


OF    DR.    ISAAC    AVATTS.  127 

and  the  creature,  and  this  present  world  of  vanity,  to  God, 
and  religion,  and  eternal  things.  And  this  is  most  properly 
called  the  testimony  of  the  spirit,  which  the  protestants  op- 
pose to  the  popish  testimony  of  the  church ;  this  last  being 
external  and  rational  only,  and  built  upon  a  hundred  proba- 
ble circumstances,  which  are  knowable  only  to  the  learned, 
but  the  first  being  inward  and  common  to  all  true  Christians, 
and  by  which  all  must  be  saved. 

"  And  it  may  be  remarked  here,  that  the  reason  why  ra- 
tional and  learned  men  exalt  reason  so  high,  and  make  it  to 
be  their  sole  guide  and  judge  in  things  of  religion,  is,  because 
they  find  their  own  reason  able  to  prove  the  truth  and  divini- 
ty of  scripture  and  the  Christian  religion,  and  to  secure  them 
from  the  follies  and  absurdities  of  Atheism,  Judaism,  Pagan- 
ism, and  Mahometanism.  But  they  cannot  condescend  to 
sympathise  with  the  vulgar,  and  think  how  exceeding  feeble 
and  variable  and  deceivable  are  the  minds  and  reasoning 
powers  of  the  generality  of  mankind,  who  all  have  souls  to 
save;  towards  whose  direction  into  the  truth,  and  security 
and  establishment  therein  unto  salvation,  it  is  very  evident 
something  more  is  needful  than  the  infirm  and  unsteady  fa- 
culties of  nature  ;  and  as  this  author  himself,  by  the  very  force 
of  truth,  thoughtlessly  asserts,  p.  2,  '  One  had  great  need  of  a 
better  eye-sight  than  is  left  us  by  the  fall  of  our  first  forefa- 
ther.' "* 

With  some  of  his  fellow-students  in  the  academy.  Watts 
formed  an  intimate  acquaintance ;  and  some  notices  of  those 
with  whom  he  afterwards  corresponded,  may  not  here  be  un- 
interesting. Mr.  John  Hughes,  Mr.  Samuel  Say,  and  Mr. 
Josiah  Hort,  the  companions  of  his  studies,  were  among  the 
number  of  his  bosom  friends  ;  and  these  individuals  afterwards 
attained  to  considerable  eminence  in  the  literary  and  religious 
world.  Mr.  Hughes  was  born  of  respectable  parentage  at 
Marlborough  in  Wiltshire,  Jan.  9,  1C77;    and  received  his 

♦Palmer's  Notes  upon  Johnson.     Appendix  No.  4. 


1'28  lilFE  AND  TIMES 

education  in  private  schools  in  the  metropolis,  and  under 
Mr.  Rowe.  His  grandfather,  the  Rev.  William  Hughes, 
M.  A.  of  New-Inn  Hall,  Oxford,  was  among  the  numher  of 
ejected  ministers;  and  suffered. confinement  to  his  own  house 
for  several  years  on  account  of  nonconformity.  The  grandson, 
though  educated  for  the  dissenting  ministry,  it  is  probable 
never  preached  in  public ;  and  even  when  under  Mr.  Rowe's 
care,  he  was  induced  to  abandon  his  severer  studies,  to  culti- 
vate music,  poetry,  and  drawing.  Conforming  to  the  estab- 
lishment, the  Lord  Chancellor  Cowper,  in  1717,  appointed 
him  secretary  to  the  commissions  of  the  peace  ;  and  upon  his 
resigning  the  great  seal,  he  was  continued  in  the  same  office, 
owing  to  the  recommendation  of  his  patron.  To  the  Tatler, 
Spectator,  and  Guardian,*  he  was  a  frequent  contributor ;  and 
distinguished  himself  by  several  poetical  pieces,  the  principal 
of  which,  the  "  Seige  of  Damascus,"  was  much  admired  at 
the  time  of  its  publication.  His  character  is  thus  depicted  by 
Dr.  Campbell :  "  His  religion  was  sincere  without  severity, 
his  morals  strict  but  not  austere,  his  conversation  equally  in- 
structive and  pleasant.  To  say  all  of  him  he  deserved  would 
be  a  hard  task.  Let  it  suffice  then — the  man  whom  the 
Bishop  of  Winchesterf  honoured  as  a  friend,  the  man  whom 
Mr,  Addison  admired  as  a  poet,  the  man  whose  goodness  and 
integrity  Mr.  Pope|  had  in  veneration,  could  be  no  ordinary 
man."§  Letters  to  and  from  Mr.  Hughes  will  be  found  in 
the  following  pages ;  but  it  is  probable,  that  after  his  con- 
formity the  correspondence  closed,  though  he  ever  highly 
esteemed  the  companion  of  his  academical  studies.||     After  a 

*  In  the  Tatler  he  wrote  Nos.  6J,  73,  113. 

In  the  Spectator  Nos.  33,  53,  66,  91,  104,  141,  210,  220,  230,  231,  237,  252, 
302,  311,  37.5,  .525,  537,  541,  554. 
In  the  Guardian  No.  37. 

f  Dr.  Iloadley. 

+  Hughes's  Letters,  vol.  i.  pp.  102.  186. 

§  Biographia  Biit.  vol.  iv. 

II  Mr.  Hughes  proved  himself  a  friend  to  religious  toleration  in  "  A  Review  of  the 


OF   DR.    ISAAC    WATTS.  129 

life  of  almost  constant  indisposition,  he  died  from  consumption, 
Feb.  17,  1719,  at  the  early  ag-e  of  forty-two. 

Mr.  Josiah  Hort,  "  the  first  genius  in  the  academy,"  in 
Watts's  estimation,  entered  the  establishment  soon  after  his 
removal  from  Mr.  Rowe's ;  though  the  period  when  he  con- 
formed is  uncertain.  As  early  as  the  year  1708  he  preached 
at  the  archdeacon's  visitation  at  Aylesbury  ;  and  the  discourse 
appears  in  both  the  Dublin  and  London  collection  of  his  ser- 
mons.* After  being-  for  a  short  time  chaplain  to  John 
Hampden,  Esq.  the  member  for  Buckinghamshire,  he  was 
invited  to  accompany  the  Lord  Lieutenant  to  Ireland  in  the 
same  capacity.  The  fifth  sermon  in  Mr.  Hort's  collection,  is 
said  to  have  been  preached  before  his  Grace  the  Duke  of 
Bolton,  Lord  Lieutenant  of  L'eland,  after  the  suppression  of 
the  Preston  rebellion ;  and  it  is  not  unlikely,  from  this  notice, 
that  the  duke  was  his  patron.  He  was  ultimately  advanced 
to  the  bishopric  of  Kilmore  and  Ardagh,  and  in  January, 
1742,  he  succeeded  Dr.  Synge  in  the  archbishopric  of  Tuam 
and  the  united  bishopric  of  Enaghdoen,  with  liberty  to  retain 
his  former  see  of  Ardagh.  An  epigram  inscribed  to  Mr.  Hort, 
among  the  Lyrics,  seems  to  intimate  that  he  participated  in 
the  poetic  inspiration  of  his  fellow-collegians. 

"AN  EPIGRAM  OF  MARTIAL  TO  CIRINUS. 

"Sic  tua,  Cirini,  promas  epigrammata  vulgo 
Ut  meciim  possis,  &c. 

"INSCRIBED  TO  MR.  JOSIAH  HORT.     1694. 

"now  lord  bishop  of  kilmore   in  IRELAND. 

"  So  smooth  your  numbers,  friend,  your  verse  so  sweet. 
So  sharp  the  jest,  and  yet  the  turn  so  neat. 

Case  of  Ephraim  and  Judah,  and  its  Application  to  the  Church  of  England  and 
Dissenters."  This  was  occasioned  by  a  thanksgiving  sermon,  preached  before  the 
queen  at  St.  Paul's,  in  August  170o,  by  Dr.  Willis,  dean  of  Liucolu. 

♦"Sermons  on  Practical  Subjects, by  the  Right  Rev.  Josiah  Hort,  D.D.  late  Lord 
Archbishop  of  Tuam,  Primate  and  Metropolitan  of  Connaught.     London,"  1757. 


130  LIFE    AND    TIMES 

That  with  licr  Arartial,  Rome  would  place  Cirine, 
Home  would  prefer  your  sense  and  thought  to  mine. 
Yet  modest  you  decline  the  public  stage, 
To  fix  your  friend  alouc  amidst  tli'  applauding  age."  Sec. 

Mr.  Samuel  Say,  of  whose  father  some  particulars  have 
already  been  introduced,  was  probably  a  fellow-townsman  of 
Watts,  as  well  as  companion  at  the  academy.  He  was  emi- 
nent while  a  student  for  his  amiable  disposition  and  intellec- 
tual attainments,  and  was  particularly  endeared  to  the  subject 
of  these  pages.  Upon  finishing  his  studies,  he  became  chap- 
lain to  Thomas  Scott,  Esq.  of  Lymiuge  in  Kent ;  he  afterwards 
laboured  at  Andover,  Yarmouth,  Lowestoff,  and  Ipswich ; 
and  finally  succeeded  Dr.  Calamy  at  Westminster,  where  he 
continued  till  his  death.  Mr.  Say,  like  his  friends,  Watts, 
Hughes,  and  Hort,  was  fond  of  music  and  jDoetry ;  and  some 
of  his  poems,  written  in  the  academy,  were  published  after 
his  decease,  in  connexion  with  two  critical  essays,  which 
display  considerable  acumen.*  The  leisure  hours  enjoyed 
by  these  gifted  young  men,  were  spent  in  each  other's  society, 
in  the  task  of  mutual  improvement ;  and  many  of  Watts's 
imitations  of  the  classics,  versions  of  the  psalms,  and  miscel- 
laneous productions,  were  suggested,  conceived,  or  executed 
at  this  period.  The  annexed  correspondence  may  here  pro- 
perly be  introduced,  as  they  not  only  illustrate  the  literary 
character  of  Watts's  friends,  but  throw  light  upon  studies  in 
which  he  participated,  and  tastes  which  he  contributed  to 
excite  and  cherish.  In  the  correspondence  he  himself  appears 
to  have  taken  an  active  part,  though  his  own  letters  I  have 
not  been  able  to  discover. 

*  "  Poems  ou  Several  Occasions ;  and  Two  Critical  Essays,  viz.  The  first  Ou 
the  Harmony,  Variety,  and  Power  of  Numbers,  whether  in  prose  or  verse.  The 
second,  On  the  Numbers  of  Paradise  Lost.  By  Samuel  Say.  London.  1745.  4to." 
The  editor  was  William  Duncombe,  Esq.,  the  brother  in-law  of  Mr.  John  Hughes. 


OF   DR.    ISAAC    WATTS.  131 

"TO  MR.  SAMUEL  SAY.* 

"  London,  Nov.  6,  1(597. 
"Dear  Mr.  Say, 

"  I  must  confess  that  I  took  it  somewhat  unkindly, 
to  be  so  long  neglected  by  an  intimate  friend,  and  one  for 
whom  I  always  had  a  more  than  ordinary  esteem ;  but  it  is 
not  so  enormous  a  crime  but  I  can  pardon  you,  on  condi- 
tion that  you  will  stand  bound  to  your  good  behaviour  for  the 
future.  And  now  perhaps,  by  the  date  of  mine,  you  will  think 
that  I  design  to  be  even  with  you ;  I  hope  that  conjecture 
will  vanish  when  I  tell  you,  that  I  came  last  week  out  of  the 
country.  But,  ceremony  apart,  I  give  you  my  hearty  thanks 
for  your  ingenious  paraphrase,  in  which  you  have  so  gene- 
rously rescued  the  noble  Psalmist  out  of  the  butcherly  hands 
of  Hopkins  and  Sternhold.  Yet  at  the  same  time  you  have 
drawn  a  bill  upon  me,  which  I  fear  I  must  be  forced  to  pay 
as  they  do  exchequer  notes,  that  is,  at  so  much  discount. 
However,  I  hope  I  have  to  do  with  a  merciful  creditor,  who 
will  be  willing  to  compound  the  debt;  and  for  the  coin,  I  as- 
sure you  it  is  the  very  choicest  of  my  bags.  To  leave  this 
metaphorical  strain,  you  have  here  something  in  imitation  of 
an  author  with  whom  I  am  endeavouring  daily  to  grow  more 
acquainted  ;  and  I  cannot  without  ingratitude  omit  this  occa- 
sion of  owning,  that  if  I  have  yet  attained  any  true  taste  of 
him,  it  is  in  a  great  measure  owing  to  your  judicious  conver- 
sation, of  which  I  am  now  so  unhappily  deprived.  Such  as 
it  is,  the  ode  is  yours,  for  I  translated  it  purposely  for  your 
sake  ;  and  I  have  had  such  a  respect  to  your  judgment,  that  I 
have  omitted  no  care  to  make  it  as  perfect  as  I  am  able,  and 
I  am  sure  you  cannot  in  reason  expect  more  from  me.  I 
should  be  very  glad  if  in  your  next  you  will  tell  me  the 
faults  I  have  committed ;  for  it  is  the  first  time  I  have  attempt- 

*  Mr.  Say  was  now  residing  at  Lymingc. 


132  LIFE    AND   TIMES 

eel  the  Pindarical  way.  Mistake  not  this  for  a  compliment; 
for  as  you  are  one  on  whose  judgment  I  can  rely,  so  I  declare 
to  you  that  you  cannot  do  me  a  more  friendly  office.  Ama- 
lasont*  is  not  yet  upon  the  stage,  but  I  suppose  will  be  this 
winter;  I  am  glad  you  continue  to  think  so  favourably  of  it, 
I  mean  with  respect  to  its  morals;  for  I  am  clearly  of  Mons. 
Rapin's  opinion,  that  '  the  reputation  of  being  an  honest  man 
is  to  be  preferred  to  that  of  a  good  poet.'     I  am, 

"  Sir,  your  real  friend, 

"  and  humble  servant, 

"  J.  HUGHES." 
*'T0  MR.  HUGHES. 

"Jan.  11,  1699. 
"  Dear  Sir, 

"  I  am  pleased  to  find  that  you  always  make  choice 
of  worthy  objects  for  your  muse,t  and  take  it  as  an  omen  of 
something  greater  to  follow.  Virgil  in  his  Bucolics  preluded 
to  his  ^neid,  and  first  sung  the  praises  of  Augustus  in 
eclogues,  or  copies  of  verses,  before  he  attempted  an  heroic 
poem.  I  am  satisfied  by  this  specimen,  that  you  will  never 
descend  into  the  rank  of  those  little  souls,  who  make  it  their 
business  only  to  please,  and  have  no  other  way  to  do  that,  but 
by  flattering  men  in  their  vices  and  immoralities.  Virtue,  I 
am  sure,  is  most  for  the  interest  of  mankind;  and  those  poets 
have  ever  obtained  the  most  honour  in  the  world,  who  have 
made  that  the  end  and  design  of  their  works.  A  wanton 
Sappho  or  Anacrcon  among  the  ancients,  never  had  the  same 
applause  as  a  Pindar  or  Alcaeus ;  nor  in  the  judgment  of  Ho- 

*  The  Queen  of  the  Goths,  written  when  Mr.  Hughes  was  nineteen.     It  was- 
neither  printed  nor  brought  upon  the  stage  ;  but  still  exists  in  manuscript. 
f  Alluding  to  Mr.  Hughes's  "  Court  of  Neptune." 


OF   DR.    ISAAC    WATTS.  13.3 

race  did  tliey  deserve  it.  In  the  opinion  of  all  posterity,  a  lewd 
and  debauched  Ovid,  did  justly  submit  to  the  worth  of  a  Vir- 
gil ;  and  in  future  ages  a  Dryden  will  never  be  compared  to  a 
Milton.  In  all  times  and  in  all  places  of  the  world,  the  moral 
poets  have  been  ever  the  greatest,  and  as  much  superior  to 
others  in  wit  as  in  virtue.  Nor  does  this  seem  difficult  to  be 
accounted  for,  since  the  dignity  of  their  subjects  naturally 
raised  their  ideas,  and  gave  a  grandeur  to  their  sentiments. 

"  S.  SAY." 
"  TO  MR.  SAY. 

"  December  26,  1702. 
"Sir, 

"  I  have  inclosed  what  I  mentioned  to  you  when  I 
saw  you  last.  That  incomparable  ode  which  Horace  has  ad- 
dressed to  his  friend  Grosphus,*  I  have  chosen  to  present  to  one 
of  the  best  of  my  friends,  in  as  good  an  English  dress  as  I  am 
capable  of  giving  it.  The  original  is  one  of  those  pieces,  in 
which  Horace  has  shown  himself  so  great  a  master  of  human 
life,  and  given  us  at  once  a  view  of  his  good  sense  and  good 
humour.  And  this  address  is  usual  to  him  ;  for  in  the  gravest 
of  his  odes  he  does  not  seem  to  make  his  remarks  on  life  like 
a  pedant,  to  give  you  a  distaste  to  it,  or  to  fright  you  from 
pleasure,  but  to  invite  you  to  the  true  enjoyment  of  it ;  and 
thus  far  he  was  certainly  right,  though  in  the  choice  of  his 
pleasures  he  was  often  irregular.  In- this,  as  well  as  in  all 
other  respects,  his  moral  odes  are  greatly  superior  to  the  cho- 
russes  in  Seneca's  tragedies;  for  in  the  first  you  have  the  free 
and  unaffected  morality  of  a  gentleman,  but  in  the  latter  the 
splenetic  air  of  a  severe  Stoic.     This  ode  has  been  translated 


*  Horace,  lib.  ii.  od.  16. 


"  Otium  divos  rogat  in  patent! 
Prensus  JEgxo." 


The  translation  may  be  seen  in  Hughes's  poems,  vol.  i.  p.  116. 


134  LIFE    AND   TIMES 

before  more  than  once ;  but  whether  well  or  ill  let  others 
judge ;  I  shall  only  say,  that  I  have  seen  very  few  translations 
of  Horace  that  please  me,  for  most  have  copied  only  his 
thoughts,  without  any  of  his  diction,  which  is  his  principal 
beauty  ;  'tis  that  vivacity  in  his  style,  and  particularly  in  his 
epithets,  which  Petronius  Arbiter  calls  a  curlosa  felicitas,  and 
in  which  no  man  ever  (in  my  opinion)  resembled  him  so  much 
as  Petronius  himself,  whose  prose  is  as  inimitable  as  Horace's 
poetry.  Indeed,  in  the  time  of  Pope  Urban  VIII,  (who  was 
a  poet  himself)  Casimire,  a  Polander  and  a  Jesuit,  wrote 
several  odes  in  imitation  of  Horace,  in  which  there  appears  a 
good  genius ;  but  his  Latin  is  not  pure  ;  and  besides  the  dis- 
advantages of  a  dead  language,  he  is  defective  in  judgment, 
and  his  fancy  is  not  well  governed.  Those  who  have  succeeded 
best  in  their  attempts  on  Horace  in  English,  have  chosen  the 
way  of  paraphrase  as  the  most  proper ;  for  his  sense  is  close 
wrought,  and  would  appear  stiff  and  obscure  in  a  literal  tran- 
slation (if  such  a  one  could  be  made)  and  there  are  many  good 
hints  in  him  worth  the  pursuing.  None  have  pretended  to 
copy  his  numbers;  for  the  Pindaric,  which  seems  the  fittest 
for  us,  and  gives  us  a  greater  liberty  and  variety,  does  not 
answer  the  Latin  measures.  Yet  I  remember  I  once  saw  an 
attempt  to  write  English  sapphics  (but  it  was  never  printed), 
and  Sir  Philip  Sidney  has  composed  hexameters  and  other 
verses  after  the  Latin  measure;  but  they  are  unnatural  to 
our  language,  for  this  reason  chiefly,  because  they  abound  so 
much  in  monosyllables.  The  sapphic  measure  is  indeed  very 
musical,  and  what  Horace  seems  best  to  have  practised,  but 
it  seems  too  soft,  and  fit  only  to  be  employed  on  love  and 
pleasant  easy  subjects  ;  it  is  too  much  confined,  like  the  usual 
measure  of  our  songs ;  and  the  lofty  sense  of  some  of  his  odes 
soars  above  it.  Our  English  Pindaric  is  undoubtedly  more 
majestic,  and  the  various  length  and  shortness  of  the  lines, 
as  well  as  the  mixture  and  returns  of  the  rhyme,  well  chosen ; 
and,  therefore,  as  I  said  before,  it  is  the  most  proper  for  such 


OF    DR.   ISAAC    WATTS,  135 

odes  as  have  anything  of  the  sublime  in  them.  I  wonder 
Horace  did  not  introduce  something  like  it  into  his  language, 
being  so  great  an  admirer  of  Pindar,  and  having  in  other  re- 
spects imitated  him  so  finely,  notwithstanding  his  declaration 
{P'mdarmn  quisquis,  S^c)  that  Pindar  was  inimitable,  in  which 
ode  he  commends  him  in  these  words ; 

'  Laurea  donandus  Apollinari 
Sen  per  audaces  uova  dithyrambos 
Verba  devolvit,  numerisque  fertur 
Lege  soluds.' 

Lib.  iv.  od.  2. 

"  Thus  translated  by  Mr.  Cowley  : 

*  So  Pindar  does  new  words  and  figures  roll, 
Down  his  impetuous  ditliyrambic  tide, 
Which  in  no  channel  deigns  t'abide, 
Which  neither  banks  nor  dykes  control.' 

"  But  this  does  not  answer  to  the  numeris  lege  solutis,  by 
which  Horace  means  only,  that  Pindar's  numbers  were  unli- 
mited, and  not  confined  to  any  set  measure,  in  those  odes  that 
were  called  ditliyrambic,  Avhich  had  the  most  heat  and  fury, 
being  first  invented  in  honour  of  Bacchus.  And  methinks 
Horace  might  sometimes  have  attemjDted  this  ditliyrambic 
measure,  especially  in  that  ode,  '  Quo  me  Bacche  rapis,^  ^'c. 

"  But  to  return  to  the  ode  which  I  have  here  endeavoured 
to  imitate  :  I  have  taken  a  liberty  in  the  paraphrase  ;  the  first 
stanza  is  added,  and  a  simile  or  two ;  but  nothing  more  than 
what  is  agreeable  to  his  sense,  and  what  I  thought  would 
make  him  appear  to  the  best  advantage.  Such  as  it  is.  Sir, 
I  submit  it  entirely  to  your  judgment,  since  it  was  first  at- 
tempted for  your  pleasure.  'Tis  upon  an  agreeable  subject, 
'  tranquillity  ;'  and  if  it  fails  giving  you  any  entertainment,  I 
will  readily  acknowledge  it  to  be  my  own  fault ;  for  I  know 
you  to  be  master  of  so  much  sense,  so  good  a  taste,  and  such 
just  notions  of  human  life,  that  I  am  sure  Horace  must  please 


136  LIFE    AND    TIMES 

you,  if  he  be  not  murdered  in  an  ill  translation.  You  may 
perceive,  Sir,  that  as  I  cannot  think  the  time  long  which  I 
spend  in  your  company,  so  neither  can  I  think  a  letter  long 
which  I  am  writing  to  you ;  but  I  may  be  tempted  to  trespass 
upon  you  in  one  as  well  as  the  other ;  therefore,  I  will  do  as 
persons  should  after  a  tedious  visit,  use  a  short  ceremony  and 
withdraw. 

"I  am.  Sir,  your  very  humble  servant, 

"j.  HUGHES." 

From  the  preceding  correspondence,  a  striking  congeniality 
in  literary  taste  is  evident  between  Watts  and  his  fellow-stu- 
dents. In  the  academy  they  blended  the  cultivation  of  polite 
literature  with  theological  and  scientific  research;  and  the 
composition  of  Latin  verses  seems  to  have  been  a  frequent 
recreation.  But  Watts  did  not  suffer  the  study  of  profane 
antiquity  to  usurp  the  place  of  the  oracles  of  God ;  his  poem 
"  Exercitatio  Cordis  Ccelum  versus,"*  "  the  Excitation  of  the 
Heart  towards  Heaven,"  written  about  this  period,  sufficiently 
proves  that  the  spirit  of  devotion  was  not  neglected  for  the 
genius  of  poetry.  He  seems  to  have  watched  with  a  holy 
jealousy  over  himself,  lest  in  the  gratification  of  a  literary 
taste,  he  should  lose  sight  of  the  all-important  truths  of  reli- 
gion, and  not  connect  the  improvement  of  the  heart  with  the 
cultivation  of  the  mind.  In  this  respect  Mr.  Say  imitated  the 
example  of  his  friend,  and  with  reference  to  both,  in  jjublic 
and  in  private  life,  the  graces  of  the  Christian  were  seen 
united  to  the  attainments  of  the  scholar.f 

*  See  Appendix  D.  f  Appendix  £. 


OF    DR.    ISAAC    WATTS.  1-37 


CHAPTER  V. 

THE  HARTOPP  FAMILY. 
1693—1697. 

JOINS  MR.  ROVVE'S  CIIURCH.-LEAVES  THE  ACADEMY.-AT  HIS  FATHER'S 
HOUSE.  — POEAI.— INVITED  TO  STOKE  NEWIKGTON  AS  A  TUTOR.— 
HARTOPP  FAMII,Y.— EARLY  HISTORY.— RALPH  HARTOPP.— SIR  EDWARD 
HARTOPP,  THE  FIRST  BARONET. —  EDWARD  HARTOPP  KNIGHTED  AT 
BELVOIR  CASTLE.— SIR  JOHN  BORN.-CIVIL  WARS.- RAVAGES  OF  THE 
KINGS  TROOPS.  —  RETIRES  TO  STOKE  NEWINGTON.  — FRIENDSHIP 
WITH  DR.  OWEN.  — CHARACTER.— LADY  HARTOi'P,  GRAND-DAUGHTER 
OF  CROMWELL. —  SIR  NATHANIEL  GOULD.  —  POEM.  —  MRS.  GOULD.— 
LORD  GENERAL  FLEETWOOD.  — RESIDENCE  IN  STOKE  NEWINGTON.— 
CONNEXION  WITH  SIR  JOHN  HARTOPP.— SMITH  FLEETWOOD  AND 
WATTS— YOUNG  HARTOPP.— POEM.— CHARACTER.-- LETTERS. 

The  subject  of  this  memoir  was  never  connected  with  the 
church  at  Southampton,  in  which  his  father  was  a  deacon ; 
and  it  was  not  until  some  time  after  his  departure  from  home, 
that  he  entered  a  rehgious  society.  This  took  place  in  the  year 
1693,  the  third  year  of  his  residence  in  the  academy,  when  he 
joined  himself  to  the  people  of  whom  his  tutor  was  the  pastor. 

"  I  was  admitted  to  Mr.  T.  Rowe's  church Dec.  1693."* 

This  church,  one  of  the  most  ancient  in  the  metropolis,  was 
removed  to  Girdler's  Hall,  Basinghall  Street,  during-  the  pas- 
torship of  Mr.  Rowe,  and  afterwards  to  Haberdashers'  Hall, 
in  the  time  of  the  Rev.  Robert  Wright.  Its  formation  is  at- 
tributed to  the  Rev.  William  Strong,  M.  A.,t  about  the  year 
1650 ;  a  gentleman  whom  the  pitiful  spite  of  the  royalists  has 

*  Watts's  MS. 

f  Hall's  Funeral  Sermon  for  Rev.  Robert  Wright,  p.  23,  note. 

K 


138  LIFE    AND    TIMES 

rendered  famous.  Educated  in  the  university  of  Cambridf^e, 
lie  became  fellow  of  Katlierine-hall,  and  rector  of  More  Cricliel 
in  Dorsetshire,  but  was  obliged  by  the  cavaliers  to  abandon 
his  living-,  and  seek  refuge  in  the  metropolis.*  Here  he  ga- 
thered a  congregation,  which  met  for  worship  in  Westminster 
Abbey,  and  occasionally  held  its  church  meetings  in  the 
House  of  Lords.f  Upon  the  death  of  Mr.  Strong,  in  1C54,  he 
was  interred  in  the  abbey  church,  but  at  the  Restoration  his 
remains  were  exhumed,  an  indignity  which  was  likewise  of- 
fered to  the  bodies  of  Cromwell,  Blake,  and  Pym.l  Major- 
general  Goffe,  one  of  the  king's  judges,  and  several  other 
celebrated  political  characters,  were  members  of  this  church ; 
but  its  association  with  the  name  of  Watts  has  conferred  upon 
it  a  far  higher  honour. 

We  have  now  arrived  at  an  important  period  in  the  life  of 
Watts ;  and  it  is  to  be  regretted,  that  he  has  left  us  no  record 
of  his  views  and  feelings  at  this  critical  era.  The  term  of  his 
academical  life  terminated  at  the  beginning  of  the  year  1694 ; 
and  as  bis  attention  had  been  so  long  directed  to  the  ministry, 
it  might  have  been  expected  that  he  would  at  once  have  en- 
tered upon  its  duties.  In  point  of  intellectual  attainment  and 
religious  experience  he  was  fully  qualified  for  his  work  ;  but 
it  is  a  singular  fact,  that  upwards  of  two  years  elapsed  before  he 
ventured  to  appear  in  public.  He  was  now  twenty  years  of  age, 
sixteen  of  which  had  been  occupied  with  classical  pursuits  and 


*  Neal's  Hist.  iv.  127. 

f  Dr.  Gibbons,  one  of  the  pastors  of  the  church,  relates  meeting  with  an  aged 
woman  in  the  almhouses  near  St.  Clement's  in  the  Strand,  wlio  informed  him  that 
her  husband  was  baptised  in  tiie  liouse  of  peers.      Wilson's  Diss.  Chur.  iii.  149. 

];  The  regular  government  was,  it  seems,  no  admirer  of  the  sentiment,  "  that 
British  vengeance  wars  not  with  the  dead."  The  dean  and  chapter  liad  his  ma- 
jesty's warrant  for  this  degrading  procedure.  Among  those  whose  bodies  they  took 
up  were,  Eliz.  Cromwell,  the  mother  of  Oliver ;  Eliz.  Claypole,  his  daughter ; 
Admiral  Blake;  John  Pym,  M.  P. ;  Sir  W.  Constable;  Dr.  Dorislaus ;  Admiral 
Popham  ;  W.  Stroud,  M.  P.  ;  Colonel  Boscawen  ;  Colonel  Mackworth  ;  T.  May, 
Esq.  the  historian ;  Colonel  Meldrum  ;  Dr.  W.  Twisse ;  Rev.  S.  Marshall ;  and 
Rev.  W.  Strong.     NeaVs  Hist.  iv.  pp.  363,  364. 


OF    DIl.    ISAAC    WATTS.  13.9 

the  studies  connected  with  a  theolog-ical  education.  In  natu- 
ral  philosophy,  the  higher  branches  of  the  mathematics,  and 
the  learning  of  ecclesiastical  antiquity  he  was  well  versed  ; 
among  the  dissenting  communities  he  was  already  known  as 
a  youth  of  great  promise ;  and  his  settlement  with  a  church 
would  doubtless  have  been  speedily  effected,  had  he  been  dis- 
posed to  have  acceded  to  it.  He  observes  in  his  memoranda, 
upon  leaving  Mr,  Rowe's,  "  Dwelt  at  my  father's  house  2 
years  and  ■!."*  It  is  difficult  to  assign  any  other  reasons  for 
this  long  period  of  silence,  than  the  timidity  and  diffidence 
which  strongly  marked  his  character  through  life^  his  com- 
parative youth,  and  a  deep  impression  of  the  importance  of  the 
task  before  him.  Dr.  Gibbons  remarks,  "  He  returned  to  his 
father's  house  at  Southampton,  where  he  spent  two  years  in 
reading,  meditation,  and  prayer:  iu  reading,  to  possess  him- 
self of  ampler  knowledge ;  in  meditation,  by  which  he  might 
take  a  full  survey  of  useful  and  sacred  subjects,  and  make 
what  he  had  acquired  by  reading  his  own ;  and  prayer,  to 
engage  the  divine  influences  to  prepare  him  for  that  work  to 
which  he  was  determined  to  devote  his  life,  and  upon  the 
importance  of  which  he  had  a  deep  sense  upon  his  spirit."t 

A  devout  admiration  of  the  works  of  God,  was  a  prominent 
characteristic  of  the  mind  of  Watts ;  it  might  with  propriety 
be  said  of  him,  that  he  was  never  alone ;  and  at  this  period 
of  his  life  he  was  a  diligent  student  of  natural  phenomena. 
The  universe  presented  to  his  eye  a  varied  manifestation  of 
the  Deity ;  in  the  great  and  in  the  minute  he  loved  to  trace 
the  wonder-working  hand  of  the  Omnipotent ;  and  "  day 
unto  day"  and  "  night  unto  night,"  spake  in  his  ear  of  su- 
preme intelligence  and  power.  During  his  residence  in  his 
father's  house,  his  sister,  Mrs.  Brackstone,  has  related  his 
endeavours  to  inspire  the  younger  members  of  the  family  with 
a  taste  for  similar  pursuits,  and  to  lead  them  to  "  look  through 
nature"  to  the  great  Original.     It  is  probable,  that  some  of 

*  Watts's  MS.  f  Life,  p.  92. 


140  LIFE    AND    TIMES 

the  pieces  afterwards  published  under  the  title  of  "  Miscella- 
nies," Avere  the  fruits  of  the  leisure  enjoyed  at  Southampton. 
The  following  excellent  lines,  from  the  first  number  in  the 
collection,  contain  the  Christian  poet's  tribute  to  the  Author 
of  Nature  : 

"  My  God,  I  love,  and  I  adore  ; 
But  saints  who  love,  would  know  thee  more  : 
Wilt  thou  for  ever  hide,  and  stand 
Behind  the  labours  of  thine  hand  ? 
Thy  hand  unseen  sustains  the  poles, 
On  which  this  huge  creation  rolls : 
The  starry  arch  proclaims  thy  power. 
Thy  pencil  glows  in  every  flower  ; 
In  thousand  shapes  and  colours  rise 
Thy  painted  wonders  to  our  eyes ; 
While  beasts  and  birds  with  labouring  throats, 
Teach  us  a  God  in  thousand  notes. 
The  meanest  pin  in  nature's  frame 
Marks  out  some  letters  of  thy  name  : 
Wliere  sense  can  reach  or  fancy  rove. 
From  hill  to  hill,  from  field  to  grove. 
Across  the  waves,  around  the  sky. 
There's  not  a  spot  or  deep  or  high. 
Where  the  Creator  has  not  trod. 
And  left  the  footsteps  of  a  God."* 

From  the  residence  of  his  father  Watts  was  invited  by  Sir 
John  Hartopp,  Bart,  to  reside  in  his  family  at  Stoke  Newing- 
ton,  near  London,  in  the  capacity  of  tutor  to  his  son.  This 
offer  he  accepted,  and  accordingly  came  to  Newington  in  the 
autumn  of  1696.     "  Came  to   Sir  John  Hartopp's,  to  be  a 

tutor  to  his  son,  at  Newington Oct.  15,  1696."t    In 

this  situation  he  continued  upwards  of  five  years,  procuring 
by  his  pious  and  courteous  behaviour  the  esteem  of  the  baro- 
net's household,  and  the  friendship  of  his  pupil,  which  he 
enjoyed  during  the  remainder  of  his  life.  Sir  John  and  his 
lady  were  members  of  a  dissenting  church,  and  it  is  probable, 

*  Miscellaneous  Thoughts,  No.  1.  f  AA'atts's  MS. 


OF    DR.    ISAAC    WATTS.  141 

that  in  their  family  Watts  was  called  upon  to  perform  the 
duties  of  chaplain.  His  intimate  connexion  with  these  dis- 
tinguished individuals,  to  which  we  are  indebted  for  his  trea- 
tise on  "  Logic,"  and  their  firm  adherence  to  the  cause  of 
nonconformity  when  persecuted  in  high  places,  demand  a 
biographical  notice  in  these  pages.  Should  the  following 
detail  appear  too  minute,  the  reader  will  perhaps  excuse  the 
desire  to  pay  some  respect  to  an  ancient  dissenting  family, 
under  whose  roof  the  persecuted  fathers  of  the  modern  church 
were  often  sheltered,  who  boldly  struggled  against  a  corrupt 
and  tyrannical  court  in  the  full  plenitude  of  its  power,  and 
who  patronised  the  early  life  of  Watts,  honoured  him  with 
their  friendship  for  more  than  half  a  century,  and  erected  a 
monument  to  his  memory,  which  still  rests  upon  his  grave. 

The  Hartopp  family,  or  Hartrupt,  as  it  is  written  in  the 
"  owld  regestre-booke"  of  Dalby  Parva,*  in  Leicestershire, 
was  anciently  of  considerable  consequence  in  that  county, 
having  had  the  manors  of  Buckminster,  Freeby,  Burton 
Lazars,  Little  Dalby,  Welby  and  Braunston  in  the  possession 
of  its  various  branches.  The  first  of  this  name  upon  record 
is  Ralph  Hartopp,  living  in  the  reign  of  Richard  II.,  who 
married  a  daughter  of  Alexander  Mayne.  It  is  probable, 
that  the  family  was  afterwards  seated  at  Braunston,  or 
Braunston  juxta  Belvoir,  as  tradition  points  out  the  site  of  an 
ancient  mansion,  said  to  have  belonged  to  it.f  The  manor  of 
Braunston,  in  the  time  of  Richard  III.,  was  held  by  Walter 
Devereux ;  but  he  being  slain  with  his  master  in  the  battle 
of  Bosworth  Field,  the  estate  was  forfeited  to  the  crown  in  the 

*  "  The  regestre-booke  of  Little  Dalbye  begynneth  in  the  j'eare  of  oure  Salvation, 
one  thousand  five  hundred  fifty  nine,  and  in  the  fyrste  year  of  the  reigne  of  oure 
most  gratious  queue  Elizabeth."     In  the  register  of  baptisms  I  find, 

"Thomas  Hartrupte,  baptised  the  28th  day  of  December,  1(500. 

"  Edwarde  Hartraupe,  the  8th  of  August,  IGOl. 

"Elynor  Hartrupte,  the  daughter  of  Valiutyne  H.  the  loth  of  December,  1604. 

"  Rycharde  Hartrupte,  the  sonne  of  Valintyne,  tlie  18th  of  September,  I60G." 
After  this  period  the  common  orthography  occurs. 

f  Nichols's  Leicestershire,  vol.  ii.  part  1. 


142  tIFE    AND   TIMES 

first  year  of  Henry  VII.,*  and  perhaps  then  granted  to  the 
Hartopps.  A  branch  of  the  family,  under  Valentine  Hartopp, 
appears  to  have  settled  at  Burton  Lazars,  a  small  village  in 
the  neighbourhood  of  INIelton  Mowbray,  the  manorial  property 
of  which  was  purchased  by  his  grandson,  Sir  Thos.  Hartopp, 
in  IGOO.f  Another  branch,  at  the  close  of  the  sixteenth  cen- 
tury, was  seated  at  Little  Dalby  under  William  Hartopp,  and 
a  handsome  house,  built  in  the  reign  of  Elizabeth,  still  re- 
mains. One  of  the  descendants  of  this  gentleman  went  over 
to  the  continent,  and  settled  at  Antwerp.:}: 

The  ninth  in  descent  from  Ralph  Hartopp,  was  Edward  of 
Buckrainster  and  PVceby,  created  a  baronet  by  James  I. 
Dec.  3,  1619,  soon  after  the  institution  of  that  order.  His 
eldest  son,  Edward,  was  knighted  at  Belvoir  Castle,  July  25, 
1634,  during  the  lifetime  of  his  fiither,  upon  the  occasion  of 

*  Lord  Bacon's  Life  of  Henry  "\'1I. 

f  lu  1626  SirTlios.  Hartopp  was  high-sherifFof  the  county,  and  Sir  Henry  Hast- 
ings petitioned  against  him  for  contemptuous  conduct  at  the  late  election.  The 
sheriff' being  called  in,  and  upon  his  knees  acknowledging  his  offence,  and  craving 
pardon  of  the  house,  he  was  discharged  upon  paying  ail  expenses.  Sir  W.  Hartopp, 
his  son,  was  member  for  Leicester  in  1667.  A  satirical  pamphlet  published  that 
year  states,  that  he  had  a  pension  of  £200.  a  j'ear;  was  promised  the  office  of 
clerk  of  the  kitchen  ;  and  that  lie  threatened  to  sue  the  town  for  his  wages,  because 
he  knew  they  wished  to  choose  him  no  more. 

;J:  It  is  related  of  Thomas  Hartopp,  who  resided  in  this  city,  that  being  "  a  gen- 
tleman of  remarkable  strength  and  courage,  upon  witnessing  a  prize  fight  in  which 
the  combatants  did  not  acquit  themselves  to  the  satisfaction  of  the  spectators,  he 
was  so  offended  thereat,  that  he  got  upon  tlie  stage,  and  challenging  them,  encoun- 
tered no  less  than  five,  one  after  another,  whom  lie  entirely  disabled,  whereby  he 
gained  very  great  applause;  and  being  of  a  comely  personage  and  stature,  a  lady 
of  quality  and  fortune  fell  so  mucli  in  lovn  with  him,  that  she  sent  him  word,  she 
was  at  his  service,  if  lie  was  disposed  to  m.arry  ;  and  he  embracing  the  offer  settled 
there,  served  the  king  of  Spain  in  his  armies,  and  his  sou  was  afterwards  a  colonel 
in  the  emperor's  service,  and  governor  of  Liege  in  Brabant,  where  lie  is  buried  in 
the  chapel  of  Tcr  Cluyse  undera  monument  with  the  following  inscription  :  "  Cygist 
niessire  Thouias  Hartopp,  d'ancienne  et  nobie  faniilie  d'Eugleterre;  en  son  vivaut 
colonel  d'uu  regiment  d'infanterie  au  service  de  S.  ISL  Iinperiale  et  Catholique, 
gouvcrneur  de  la  ville  et  dependences  de  Liege.  II  y  deceda  Ic  20  Juin,  1723,  et 
laissa  deux  fitz  de  noble  dame  Marie-Constance  Xan  Hove  sa  compague,  laquelle 
fit  dresser  ce  memoire.  PriezDieu  pour  le  repos  elernel  de  son  ame."  Lc  Grand 
Theatre  de  Brabant,  tom.  ii.  p.  17(5. 


OF    DR.    ISAAC    WATTS.  143 

Charles  the  First's  visit  to  George  the  seventh  earl  of  Rutland  * 
Sir  John  was  the  third  son  of  this  gentleman,  and  succeeded 
him  in  the  baronetage  owing  to  the  death  of  his  two  brothers 
in  their  infancy.  He  was  bora  at  Buclvminster  in  the  year 
1637,  while  his  grandfather  the  first  baronet  was  living,  and 
was  baptised,  according  to  the  register,  Oct.  31,  in  the  same 
year.f  His  mother  was  a  daughter  of  Sir  John  Coke,  of  Mel- 
bourne, in  Derbyshire,  one  of  the  principal  secretaries  of  state 
to  Charles  I.,  in  whose  house  Baxter  planned  his  "Saints' 
Everlasting  Rest."  Notwithstanding  the  honour  conferred 
upon  the  Hartopps  by  this  unfortunate  monarch,  it  is  proba- 
ble that  they  adhered  to  the  cause  of  the  parliament,  in  con- 
nexion with  the  noble  house  of  Rutland.j     The  civil  wars 

*  la  the  Buckminster  Register  there  is  the  following  entry  relating  to  this  Sir 
Edward : 

"  I,  William  Lloyd,  vicar  of  Buckminster,  in  the  county  of  Leicester,  having; 
power,  by  virtue  of  a  statute  in  that  case  made,  to  license  sick  persons  within  my 
parish,  to  eat  flesh  upon  such  days  as  are  prohibited  by  such  statute  ;  do,  by  these 
presents,  license  and  authorise  the  right  worshipful  the  Lady  Frances  Earle,  wife  to 
Sir  Richard  Earle,  Bart.,  and  Mrs.  Anne  White,  wife  to  Thomas  White,  Esq.,  being 
both  in  the  house  of  Sir  Edward  Hartopp,  their  fatiier,  at  Buckminster,  in  the 
county  of  Leicester,  Baronet;  and  being  both  sick  and  weak,  (the  one  miscarrying 
of  a  child,  the  other  lying  in  childbed);  and  also  Thomas  Pacie,  and  Margaret 
Thorpe  (servants  to  the  right  worshipful  Sir  Edward  Hartopp,  Bart.)  being  both  of 
them  sick  of  agues,  to  eat  flesh  during  the  time  of  their  sickness,  for  the  better  and 
more  speedy  recovery  of  their  healths.  Dated  at  Buckminster,  the  '27th  day  of 
April,  1631. 

"WILLIAM  LLOYD." 

Sir  Nathaniel  Powell  obtained  a  license  of  Archbishop  Ju.xon  for  himself,  his 
sons  and  daughters,  and  six  guests  whom  he  should  at  any  time  invite,  to  eat  flesh 
in  Lent,  provided  it  was  done  soberly  and  frugallj',  with  due  grace  said,  and  pri- 
vately, to  avoid  scandal :  thirteen  shillings  and  four-pence  being  paid  to  the  poor 
of  the  parish.     Lysun's  Environs  of  London,  iii.  119. 

f  John,  son  of  Sir  Edward  Hartopp,  Bart.,  and  dame  Mary,  his  wife,  baptised 
Oct.  31,  1637. 

;]:The  Mercurius  Aulicus  contains  the  following  article  of  intelligence,  in  which 
Sir  E.  Hartopp's  name  occurs:  "Colonel  Gervase  Lucas  (governor  of  Belv*oir 
castle  for  the  king)  understanding  that  the  committee  of  Leicester  was  gone  to 
Melton  Mowbray  in  that  county,  to  assesse  the  countrye,  and  gather  up  the  rents 
of  all  such  as  are  not  as  perfect  rebels  as  themselves,  sent  intelligence  to  Sir 
Richard  Byron,  governor  of  Newark,  desiring  him  to  assist  him  with  some  liorse  and 
dragoones,  and  he  made  no  doubt  but  to  give  him  a  very  faire  account  of  the  ser- 


144  LIFE    AND   TIMES 

commenced  soon  after  the  birth  of  vSir  John ;  and  the  neigh- 
bouring- comitry  was  the  scene  of  some  severe  skirmishes.  The 
steeple  of  the  church  at  Buckminster,  which  commands  a  view 
of  the  adjacent  counties,  and,  as  the  inhabitants  report,  can  be 
seen  from  the  German  ocean,  was  used  as  a  watch-tower  in  the 
war  time ;  and  the  remains  of  a  chimney,  with  shutters  to  the 
bell  windows,  indicate  that  a  guard  was  stationed  here  to 
give  notice  of  an  approaching  enemy*  The  king's  garrisons 
at  Newark,  Belvoir  Castle,  and  Burleigh  House,  frequently 
ravaged  this  part  of  the  country ;  and  the  family  estates  most 
likely  suffered  from  the  incursions  of  the  cavaliers.  Sir 
Edward  Hartopp,  the  first  baronet,  died  at  the  commence- 
ment of  Cromwell's  protectorate,  and  was  buried  at  Buck- 
minster; his  son,  the  father  of  Sir  John,  died  a  short  time 
previous  to  the  Restoration ;  and  afterwards  the  family  seem 
to  have  been  located  at  Stoke  Newington  near  London. 

Sir  John  Hartopp,  into  whose  household  Watts  entered  as 
a  tutor,  was  one  of  the  most  eminent  of  the  lay  nonconform- 
ists; and  steadily  adhered  to  the  dissenting  interest  when 
the  throne,  the  church,  and  the  nobility,  were  most  hostile  to 
it.  At  an  early  period  of  his  life  he  cast  in  his  lot  among  the 
independents ;  and  enjoyed  the  friendship  and  correspondence 
of  some  of  their  most  distinguished  leaders.    With  Dr.  Owen 


vice  ;  which  Sir  Richard  very  chearfully  assented  to  (knowing  colonel  Lucas  both 
vigilant  and  faithful)  and,  therefore,  furnished  liim  with  as  many  horse  and  dra- 
goones  as  made  him  a  body  of  three  hundred  in  all.  With  tiiese  ho  marched  away 
on  Sunday  last  in  the  evening,  Nov.  27,  and  was  gotten  to  Melton  Mowbray  next 
morning  by  breake  of  day  ;  whither  he  no  sooner  came,  but  presently  he  entered 
the  town,  and  surprised  the  rebels,  who  were  more  in  number  than  himself;  not  a 
man  escaping  but  one  who  was  coronet  to  Sir  Edward  Hartopp,  nor  any  killed 
save  one  lieutenant,  who  was  stubborne,  and  refused  to  submit  himselfe  to  the 
conqueror."     p.  090. 

*  'I'liis  church  contains  four  large  bells,  which  are  thus  inscribed  : 

1.  "  V.\  dono  Richardi  Hartopp,  armigeri,  1657." 

2.  "(Ji.a  save  his  church,  1(J91." 

3.  "ICIO." 

4.  "Jhci-us  be  oure  spede,  159(5." 


OF    DR.   ISAAC    WATTS.  145 

he  maintained  an  intimate  correspondence ;  and  continued  a 
regular  attendant  upon  his  ministry  and  a  member  of  his 
church  till  death  divided  them.  Many  of  Owen's  manu- 
scripts came  into  his  possession  at  his  decease;  and  were 
contributed  by  him  to  the  complete  collection  of  his  sermons, 
published  in  1721.  He  Avas  three  times  chosen  representa- 
tive in  parliament  for  Leicestershire,  his  native  county ;  he 
was  also  high-sheriff  in  1671 ;  and  disting-uished  himself  by 
his  warm  advocacy  of  the  bill  of  exclusion,  to  prevent  the 
Duke  of  York's  accession  to  the  throne.  Sir  John  was  much 
harassed  by  informers  previous  to  the  Revolution,  and  suffered 
on  account  of  his  religious  principles,  as  the  fines  that  were 
imposed  upon  him  and  a  few  others,  amounted  at  one  time  to 
upwards  of  ^£7,000.*  In  the  Lyrics  there  is  a  Latin  ode  inscri- 
bed to  him,  entitled  " Votum,  seu  vita  in  terris  beata:"  "Ad 
virum  dignissimum  Johannem  Hartoppium,  Baronettum," 
1702.t  His  character  is  thus  depicted  by  Watts,  who  preached 
his  funeral  sermon,  and  who  was  well  qualified  to  bear  testimo- 
ny to  it,  on  account  of  his  long  residence  in  his  house :  "  When  I 
name  Sir  John  Hartopp,"  he  observes  towards  the  close  of  his 
discourse,  "  all  that  knew  him  will  agree  that  I  name  a  gentle- 
man, a  scholar,  and  a  Christian.  He  shone  with  eminence  among 
persons  of  birth  and  title  on  earth ;  while  his  obliging  deport- 
ment and  aflable  temper  rendered  him  easy  of  access  to  all  his 
inferiors,  and  made  him  the  delight  of  all  his  friends.  He  had 
a  taste  for  universal  learning,  and  ingenious  arts  were  his  de- 
lights from  his  youth.  He  pursued  knowledge  in  various  forms, 
and  was  acquainted  with  many  parts  of  human  science. 
Mathematical  speculations  and  practices  were  a  favourite 
study  with  him  in  younger  years,  and  even  to  his  old  age  he 
maintained  his  acquaintance  with  the  heavenly  bodies,  and 
light  and  shade  whereby  time  is  measured.  But  the  book  of 
God  was  his  chief  study,  and  his  divines t  delight.    His  bible 

*Noble's  Mem.  ii.  333—348.  f  Hoia;  Lyr.  lib.  ii. 


146  LIFE    AND   TIMES 

lay  before  him  nig^ht  and  day,  and  he  was  well  acquainted 
with  the  writers  who  explained  it  best.  He  was  desirous  of 
seeing  what  the  Spirit  of  God  said  to  men  in  the  original 
languages;  for  this  end  he  commenced  some  acquaintance 
with  the  Hebrew  when  he  was  more  than  fifty  years  old; 
and,  that  he  might  be  capable  of  judging  of  any  text  in  the 
New  Testament,  he  kej^t  his  youthful  knowledge  of  the  Greek 
language  in  some  measure  to  the  latest  period  of  life.  Among 
the  various  themes  of  Christian  contemplation  he  took  peculiar 
pleasure  in  the  doctrines  of  grace,  in  the  display  of  the  glories 
of  the  person  of  Christ,  God  in  our  nature,  and  the  wondrous 
work  of  redemption  by  his  cross.  He  adored  him  as  his  Lord 
and  his  God ;  and,  while  he  trusted  in  his  righteousness  as 
the  great  Mediator,  and  beheld  him  as  his  crucified  Saviour, 
he  was  ever  zealous  to  maintain  the  honours  due  to  his  divine 
nature  and  majesty. 

*'His  conversation  was  pious  and  learned,  ingenious  and 
instructive.  He  was  inquisitive  into  the  affairs  of  the  learned 
world,  the  progress  of  arts  and  sciences,  the  concerns  of  the 
nation,  and  the  interests  of  the  church  of  Christ,  and  upon 
all  occasions  was  as  ready  to  communicate  as  he  was  to 
inquire.  There  are  many  of  his  friends  who  will  join  with 
me  to  confess,  how  often  we  have  departed  from  his  com- 
pany refreshed  and  advanced  in  useful  knowledge ;  and  I 
cannot  but  reckon  it  among  the  blessings  of  heaven,  when  I 
review  those  five  years  of  pleasure  and  improvement  which  I 
spent  in  his  family  in  my  younger  part  of  life,  and  I  found 
much  instruction  myself  where  I  was  called  to  be  an  instruc- 
tor. His  zeal  for  the  welfare  of  his  country,  and  of  the  church 
of  Christ  in  it,  carried  him  out  to  the  most  extensive  and  toil- 
some services  in  his  younger  and  middle  age.  He  employed 
his  time,  his  spirits,  his  interest,  and  his  riches  for  the  defence 
of  this  poor  nation,  when  forty  years  ago  it  was  in  the  utmost 
danger  of  popery  and  ruin.  His  doors  were  ever  open,  and 
his  carriage  always  friendly  and  courteous,  to  the  ministers  of 


OF   DK.   ISAAC    WATTS.  147 

the  gospel,  though  they  were  distinguished  among  themselves 
by  names  of  different  parties,  for  he  loved  all  who  loved  Jesus 
Christ  in  sincerity.  He  chose  indeed  to  bear  a  part  in  con- 
stant public  worship  with  the  protestant  dissenters,  for  he 
thought  their  practices  more  agreeable  to  the  rules  of  the  gos- 
pel. He  joined  himself  in  communion  with  one  of  their 
churches,  which  was  under  the  pastoral  care  of  the  Rev.  Dr. 
John  Owen,  where  he  continued  an  honourable  member 
under  successive  pastors  to  the  day  of  his  death.  Nor  was 
he  ashamed  to  own  and  support  that  despised  interest,  nor  to 
frequent  those  assemblies,  when  the  spirit  of  persecution  raged 
highest  in  the  days  of  King  Charles  and  King  James  the 
Second.  He  was  a  present  refuge  for  the  oppressed,  and  the 
special  providence  of  God  secured  him  and  his  friends  from 
the  fury  of  the  oppressor.  He  was  always  a  devout  and  dili- 
gent attender  on  public  ordinances  till  the  last  years  of  his 
life,  when  the  infirmities  of  age  coming  upon  him  confined 
him  to  his  private  retirements.  But  if  age  confined  him, 
death  gave  him  a  release.  He  is  exalted  now  to  the  church 
in  heaven,  and  has  taken  his  place  in  that  glorious  assembly, 
where  he  worships  among  them  before  the  throne.  There  he 
has  no  need  to  relieve  his  memory  by  the  swiftness  of  his  pen, 
which  was  his  perpetual  practice  in  the  church  on  earth,  and 
by  which  means  he  often  entertained  his  family  in  the  even- 
ing worship  on  the  Lord's  day  with  excellent  discourses, 
some  of  which  he  copied  from  the  lips  of  some  of  the  greatest 
preachers  of  the  last  age.  There  his  unbodied  spirit  is  able 
to  sustain  the  sublimest  raptures  of  devotion,  which  run 
through  the  worshippers  in  that  heavenly  state,  though  here 
on  earth  I  have  seen  the  pious  pleasure  too  strong  for  him, 
and,  while  he  has  been  reading  the  things  of  God  to  his 
household,  the  devotion  of  his  heart  has  broken  through  his 
eyes,  has  interrupted  his  voice,  and  commanded  a  sacred 
pause  and  silence."* 

*Watts's  Death  and  Heaven. 


148  LIFE    AND   TIMES 

Sir  John  Hartopp  married  Elizabeth,  one  of  the  daughters 
of  the  Lord  General  Fleetwood  ;  and  by  this  lady  he  became 
connected  with  the  family  of  Cromwell.  Besides  Watts's  pupil 
they  had  several  daughters,  and  respecting-  the  death  of  one 
in  infancy,  we  have  a  letter  written  by  Dr.  Owen  to  the 
bereaved  mother.  Their  daughter,  Frances,  married  Sir  Na- 
thaniel Gould,  Knt.,  who  resided  at  Stoke  Newington,  with 
whom  Watts  was  upon  terms  of  intimacy.  This  gentleman 
who  was  a  Turkey  merchant,  and  some  time  governor  of  the 
bank,  is  thus  apostrophised  in  the  Lyrics : 

"  Wheu  Gould  commands  his  ships  to  ruu, 
Aud  search  the  traffic  of  the  sea, 
His  fleet  o'ertakes  the  falling  day, 
And  bears  the  western  mines  away, 
Or  richer  spices  from  the  rising  sun  : 
While  the  glad  tenants  of  the  shore 
Shout,  and  pronounce  him  senator,* 

Yet  still  tiie  man's  the  same  : 
For  well  the  happy  merchant  knows, 
The  soul  with  treasure  never  grows. 

Nor  swells  with  airy  fame. 

"  But  trust  me,  Gould,  'tis  lawful  pride 
To  rise  above  the  mean  control 
Of  flesh  aud  sense,  to  which  we're  ty'd  ; 
This  is  ambition  that  becomes  a  soul. 
We  steer  our  course  up  thro'  the  skies: 

Farewell,  this  barren  land  : 
We  ken  the  hcav'uly  shore  with  longing  eyes, 
Tliere  the  dear  wealth  of  spirits  lies. 
And  beck'ning  angels  stand. "f 

Lady  Hartopp  and  her  daughter,  Mrs.  Gould,  died  within 
a  few  days  of  each  other  in  the  year  1711.  In  his  funeral 
sermon  on  the  occasion.  Watts  pays  the  following  tribute  to 
their  humble  and  unobtrusive  virtues :    "  May  I  be  permitted 

♦  Member  of  parliament  for  a  port  iu  Sussex, 
f  Horae  Lyr.  lib.  ii. 


OF   DR.   ISAAC    WATTS.  149 

here,  "  says  he,"  to  make  a  short  reflection  on  that  mournful 
providence  that  has  joined  two  lovely  relatives  in  death,  and 
given  occasion  for  the  sad  solemnities  of  this  day.  The 
pious  mother  led  the  way  to  heaven  a  few  days  before  the 
pious  daughter  followed,  each  of  them  the  parent  of  a  re- 
putable family,*  and  the  decendants  from  a  progenitor  whose 
name  is  in  honour  among  the  churches.  As  mutual  affection 
joined  their  habitations  in  life,  so  the  care  of  surviving 
friends  has  laid  them  to  rest  in  their  beds  of  earth  together. 
I  wovdd  copy  a  line  from  that  most  beautiful  elegy  of  David, 
and  apply  it  here  with  more  justice  than  the  psalmist  could 
to  Saul  and  Jonathan  :  '  Lovely  and  pleasant  were  tJiey  in 
their  lives,  and  in  death  they  tvere  not  divided.^  Silent  were 
they  and  retired  from  the  world,  and  unknown  except  to 
their  intimate  friends.  Humble  they  were,  and  averse  to 
public  show  and  noise ;  nor  will  I  disturb  their  graves  by 
making  them  the  subject  of  public  praise."t 

The  families  of  Hartopp  and  Fleetwood,  were  connected 
by  a  double  marriage ;  for  whilst  Sir  John  married  a  daughter 
of  the  old  general,  his  sister  Mary  was  united  to  a  son.  A 
commodious  building,  in  Stoke  Newington,  probably  erected 
in  the  early  part  of  the  17th  century,  now  divided  into  two 
dwelHngs,  was  the  general's  property  and  residence ;  and 
here  he  retired  after  the  Restoration,  and  spent  the  remainder 
of  his  days  in  tranquil  privacy.  The  parish  register  contains 
several  entries  respecting  this  family;  and  from  this  it 
appears,  that  his  wife,  the  widow  of  Ire  ton,  and  the  eldest 
,?iiughter  of  Cromwell,  was  interred  in  the  church  in  1681. | 

*  Mrs.  Gould  left  two  daughters:  1.  Mary,  wife  of  Sir  Francis  St.  John  of 
Longthorpe, Northamptonshire,  Bart.,  who  had  issue,  Frances,  unmarried,  and  Mary, 
married  to  Sir  John  Barnard,  of  Brampton,  in  Huntingdonshire.  2.  Elizabeth, 
wife  of  Thomas  Cooke,  Esq.  of  Stoke  Newington,  who  died  without  issue.  To 
Mrs.  Cooke  reference  will  hereafter  be  made. 

f  Watts's  Death  and  Heaven. 

X  "Bridget  Fleetwood  was  interred  in  the  church  of  Newington,  Sept.  o,  1681." 
Par.  Reg. 


150  LIFE    AND    TIMES 

To  Fleetwood  Dr.  Owen  and  Sir  John  Hartopp  appear  to 
have  been  strongly  attached;  and  though  the  royalists  accuse 
him  of  cowardice  and  fanaticism,  yet  cowardice,  as  Mr.  Orme 
remarks,  was  not  a  common  vice  in  the  leaders  of  the  com- 
monwealth,* and  fanaticism  was  in  that  day  always  charged 
upon  those,  who  recognised  the  aid  of  providence  in  the  success 
of  their  exertions.  His  latter  days  were  jnous  and  exemplary, 
and  though  he  suffered  severely  in  declining  life  from  spies 
and  fines,  owing  to  his  nonconformity,  yet  he  remained  stead- 
fast to  the  principles  he  had  so  long  professed.  Neal  remarks, 
soon  after  the  accession  of  James  II.  "great  were  the  oppres- 
sions of  those  who  frequented  the  separate  meetings  in 
several  counties;  the  informers  broke  in  upon  Sir  John 
Hartopp,  and  Mr.  Fleetwood,  and  others  at  Stoke  Newington, 
to  levy  distresses  for  conventicles  :  the  like  at  Enfield,  Hack- 
ney, and  all  the  neighbouring  villages  near  London ."f  Fleet- 
wood died  whilst  Watts  was  in  the  academy,  but  with  the 
family  of  his  son,  Smith  Fleetwood,  Esq.,  he  appears  to  have 
maintained  a  friendly  intercourse.  The  poem  inscribed  "To 
Mr.  C.  and  S.  Fleetwood,"^  undoubtedly  refers  to  the  sons  of 
this  gentleman,  the  great  grandchildren  of  the  Protector. 

From  his  connexion  with  the  Hartopp  family,  Watts  reap- 
ed many  important  advantages.  His  situation  amply  supplied 
all  his  wants;  he  was  introduced  to  a  respectable  circle  of 
acquaintance ;  and  in  the  conversation  and  society  of  the  ba- 
ronet, he  was  furnished  with  an  example  of  piety  and  virtue. 
To  his  pupil  he  was  ever  warmly  attached  ;  and  his  diligent 
attention  to  his  improvement,  is  evident  from  the  scholastic 
works  he  published,  which  were  originally  prepared  for  the 
use  of  his  young  charge.  In  the  dedication  of  his  "  TiOgic" 
to  him,  he  observes,  "  It  is  fit  the  public  should  receive  through 
your  hands  what  was  written  originally  for  the  assistance  of 
your  younger  studies,  and  was  then  presented  to  you.    It  was 

.    *  Orme's  Life  of  Owen,  p.  36L  f  Neal's  Hist,  of  tlie  Puritans,  v.  12. 

J  Horae  Lyr.  lib.  ii. 


OF   DR.    ISAAC    WATTS.  151 

by  the  repeated  importunities  of  our  learned  friend,  Mr.  John 
Earaes,  that  I  was  persuaded  to  revise  the  Rudiments  of 
Logic.  I  will  not  presume  that  this  little  book  is  improved 
since  its  first  composure  in  proportion  to  the  improvements  of 
your  manly  age ;  but  when  you  shall  please  to  review  it  in 
your  retired  hours,  perhaps  you  may  refresh  your  own  me- 
mory in  some  of  the  early  parts  of  learning."  In  a  stanza  of 
one  of  the  lyric  poems  he  thus  mentions  his  pupil : 

"TO  JOHN  HARTOPP,  ESQ. 

"  THE   DISDAIN. 
"  1700. 

"  Hai'topp,  I  love  the  soul  that  dares 
Tread  the  temptations  of  his  years 

Beneath  his  youthful  feet. 
Fleetwood,  and  all  thy  heaveulj'  line, 
Look  through  the  stars,  and  smile  divine, 

Upou  an  heir  so  great. 
Young  Uartopp  knows  this  noble  theme. 
That  the  wild  scenes  of  busy  life. 
The  noise,  th'  amusements,  and  the  strife. 
Are  but  the  visions  of  the  night. 
Gay  phantoms  of  delusive  light. 

Or  a  vexatious  dream."* 

Mr.  Hartopp  married  a  daughter  of  Sir  Joseph  Wolfe  of 
Hackney,  knight  and  alderman  of  London.  He  appears  to 
have  been  treading  in  the  steps  of  his  revered  parents  at  the 
time  of  their  decease,  though  there  is  reason  to  suppose,  that 
his  intercourse  with  the  dissenters  afterwards  was  not  so 
frequent  and  intimate.  But,  both  as  to  his  religious  charac- 
ter and  dissenting  principles,  I  am  unable  to  speak  positively 
after  the  year  1722,  the  time  of  his  father's  decease.  At  this 
period,  in  the  dedication  of  Watts's  "  Death  and  Heaven,"  he 

*  Horag  Lyr.  lib.  ii. 


152  LIFE    AND   TIMES 

thus  refers  to  him  :  "  Forgive  me,  if  I  take  the  Hberty  to  say, 
it  is  with  a  sort  of  fond  pleasure  that  I  have  beheld  your  vic- 
tories over  the  most  dangerous  scenes  and  temptations  of 
youth ;  and  every  step  in  your  progress  towards  perfect  tri- 
umph is  an  addition  to  my  joy.  The  world  and  the  church 
hold  their  eyes  fixed  upon  you ;  and,  perhaps,  the  souls  of 
your  sacred  ancestors  look  down  from  on  high  to  observe  your 
conduct.  You  know  I  pretend  to  no  authority  to  pronounce 
effectual  blessings  upon  you ;  but  you  will  accept  the  sincere 
good  wishes  of  a  man  who  loves  you,  and  is  zealous  for  your 
felicity  in  the  upper  and  lower  worlds.  May  the  best  of  mer- 
cies descend  daily  on  yourself,  your  lady,  and  your  little  off- 
spring. May  the  closet,  tiie  parlour,  and  public  assemblies, 
be  constant  witnesses  of  your  piety ;  and  the  house  where  a 
Sir  John  Hartopp  dwells,  be  a  house  of  prayer  and  of  praise 
in  every  generation.  Such  a  lovely  scene,  with  such  a  long 
and  joyful  prospect,  will  advance  the  satisfactions  of  my  life, 
and  give  pleasure,  even  in  a  dying  hour,  to  him  who  had 
once  the  honour  to  be  your  affectionate  monitor."  No  infor- 
mation further  can  be  gleaned  respecting  him,  except  that  he 
lived  in  comparative  retirement,  and  died  at  Bath  in  the  year 
1762,  being  the  last  of  the  elder  branch  of  the  Hartopps  in  the 
male  line.* 

CORRESPONDENCE. 

The  four  following  letters  are  here  introduced  on  account 
of  their  connexion  with  the  individuals  noticed  in  this  chap- 
ter. The  two  first  are  from  the  Appendix  to  Asty's  Me- 
moirs of  Doctor  Owen,  1721.  Mr.  Asty  was  assisted  in  the 
compilation  by  Sir  John  Hartopp,  and  the  letters  were  pro- 
bably furnished  by  him. 

*He  left  two  daughters:  the  eldest,  Sarah,  married  Joseph  Hurlock,  Esq.  of 
Fort  Marlborough  in  Bencoolen,  whose  only  child,  Anne,  married  Edmund  Cradock 
Eunny,  Esq.,  of  Four-Oaks  Hall,  Warwickshire,  who  assumed  the  name  and  arms 
of  Hartopp  in  1796. 


OF    DE.   ISAAC   WATTS.  153 


"dr.  OWEN  TO  LADY  HARTOPF. 

"  Dear  Madam, 

"  Every  work  of  God  is  good  ;  the  Holy  One  in  the 
midst  of  us  will  do  no  iniquity ;  and  all  things  shall  work 
together  for  good  unto  them  that  love  him,  even  those  things 
which  at  present  are  not  joyotis,  but  grievous ;  only  his  time 
is  to  be  waited  for,  and  his  way  submitted  unto,  that  we  seem 
not  to  be  displeased  in  our  hearts,  that  he  is  Lord  over  us. 
Your  dear  infant  is  in  the  eternal  enjoyment  of  the  fruits  of 
all  our  prayers ;  for  the  covenant  of  God  is  ordered  in  all 
things,  and  sure  :  we  shall  go  to  her,  she  shall  not  return  to 
us.  Happy  she  was  in  this  above  us,  that  she  had  so  speedy 
an  issue  of  sin  and  misery,  being  born  only  to  exercise  your 
faith  and  patience,  and  to  glorify  God's  grace  in  her  eternal 
blessedness.  My  trouble  would  be  great,  on  the  account  of 
my  absence  at  this  time  from  you  both,  but  that  this  also  is 
the  Lord's  doing  ;  and  I  know  my  own  uselessness  wherever 
I  am.  But  this  I  will  beg  of  God  for  you  both :  that  you  may 
not  faint  in  this  day  of  trial ;  that  you  may  have  a  clear  view 
of  those  spiritual  and  temporal  mercies  wherewith  you  are  yet 
entrusted,  all  undeserved ;  that  sorrow  of  the  world  may  not 
so  overtake  your  hearts,  as  to  disenable  to  any  duties,  to  grieve 
the  Spirit,  to  prejudice  your  lives,  for  it  tends  to  death.  God 
in  Christ  will  be  better  to  you  than  ten  children,  and  will  so 
preserve  your  remnant,  and  so  add  to  them,  as  shall  be  for  his 
glory  and  your  comfort;  only  consider,  that  sorrow  in  this 
case  is  no  duty,  it  is  an  effect  of  sin,  whose  cure  by  grace  we 
should  endeavour.  Shall  I  say,  be  cheerful }  I  know  I  may. 
God  help  you  to  honour  grace  and  mercy  in  a  compliance 
therewith.  My  heart  is  with  you,  my  prayers  shall  be  for  you, 
and  am,  &c. 

"  J.  OWEN." 


154  LIFE   AND   TIMES 


"TO  CHARLES  FLEETWOOD,  ESQ. 

"Dear  Sir, 

"  The  bearer  has  stayed  long  enough  with  us,  to 
save  you  the  trouble  of  reading  an  account  of  me  in  my  own 
scribbling;  a  longer  stay  I  could  not  prevail  with  him  for, 
though  his  company  was  a  great  refreshment  to  me.  Both 
you  and  your  whole  family,  in  all  their  occasions  and  circum- 
stances, are  daily  in  my  thoughts;  and  when  I  am  able  to 
pray,  I  make  mention  of  you  all  without  ceasing.  I  find  you 
and  I  are  much  in  complaining:  for  my  part  I  must  say,  and 
is  there  not  a  cause  ?  so  much  deadness,  so  much  unspiritua- 
lity,  so  much  weakness  in  faith,  coldness  in  love,  instability  in 
holy  meditations,  as  I  find  in  myself,  is  cause  sufficient  of 
complaints  ;  but  is  there  not  cause  also  of  thanksgiving  and 
joy  in  the  Lord }  Are  there  not  reasons  for  them  ?  When  I 
begin  to  think  of  them  I  am  overwhelmed ;  they  are  great, 
they  are  glorious,  they  are  inexpressible.  Shall  I  now  invite 
you  to  this  great  duty  of  rejoicing  more  in  the  Lord.?  Pray 
for  me  that  I  may  do  so;  for  the  near  approach  of  my  disso- 
lution calls  for  it  earnestly :  my  heart  has  done  with  this 
world,  even  in  the  best  and  most  desirable  of  its  refreshments : 
if  the  joy  of  the  Lord  be  not  now  strength  unto  it,  it  will  fail. 
But  I  must  have  done.  Unless  God  be  pleased  to  affect  some 
person  or  persons,  with  a  deep  sense  of  our  declining  condi- 
tion, of  the  temptations  and  dangers  of  the  day,  filling  them 
with  compassion  for  the  souls  of  men,  making  them  fervent 
in  spirit  in  their  work,  it  will  go  but  ill  with  us.  It  may  be 
these  thoughts  spring  from  causeless  fears ;  it  may  be  none 
amongst  us  has  an  evil  a  barren  heart  but  myself:  but  bear 
with  me  in  this  my  folly;  I  cannot  lay  down  these  thoughts 
until  I  die ;  nor  do  I  mention  them  at  present,  as  though  I 
should  not  esteem  it  a  great  mercy  to  have  so  able  a  supply  as 


OF    DR.    ISAAC    WATTS.  155 

Mr.  C*,  but  I  am  groaning  after  deliverance  ;  and  being  near 
the  centre,  do  hope  I  feel  the  drawing  of  the  love  of  Christ 
with  more  earnestness  than  formerly  :  but  my  naughty  heart 
is  backward  in  these  compliances.  My  affectionate  service  to 
Sir  John  Hartopp  and  his  lady,  and  to  the  rest  of  your  family 
Avhen  God  shall  return  them  unto  you.     I  am,  &c. 

"  J.  OWEN." 


TO  CHARLES  FLEETWOOD,  ESQ. 


"  Dear  Sir, 


"  Although  I  am  not  able  to  write  one  word  myself, 
yet  I  am  very  desirous  to  speak  one  word  more  to  you  in  this 
world,  and  do  it  by  the  hand  of  my  wife.  The  continuance  of 
your  entire  kindness,  knowing  what  it  is  accompanied  withal, 
is  not  only  greatly  valued  by  me,  but  will  be  a  refreshment  to 
me,  as  it  is  even  in  my  dying  hour.  I  am  going  to  him  whom 
my  soul  has  loved,  or  rather,  who  has  loved  me  with  an  ever- 
lasting love ;  which  is  the  whole  ground  of  all  my  consolation. 
The  passage  is  very  irksome  and  wearisome,  through  strong 
pains  of  various  sorts,  which  are  all  issued  in  an  intermitting 
fever.  All  things  were  provided  to  carry  me  to  London  to-day, 
according  to  the  advice  of  my  physician;  but  while  the  great 
Pilot  is  in  it,  the  loss  of  a  poor  under-rower  will  be  inconsidera- 
ble. Live  and  pray,  and  hope  and  wait  patiently,  and  do  not 
despond;  the  promise  stands  invincible,  that  he  will  never 
leave  us  nor  forsake  us.  I  am  greatly  afflicted  at  the  distem- 
per of  your  dear  lady.  The  good  Lord  stand  by  her,  and 
support  and  deliver  her.  My  affectionate  respects  to  her  and 
the  rest  of  your  relations,  who  are  so  dear  to  me  in  the  Lord. 

*  David  Clarkson,  B.  D.,  chosen  co  pastor  with  Dr.  Owen,  in  July,  1682.  He 
was  a  fellow  of  Clare-Hall,  Cambridge;  tutor  to  Archbishop  Tillotson  ;  and  one  of 
the  ejected  ministers.  He  was  the  author  of  several  learned  works  against 
diocesan  episcopacy,  against  liturgies,  with  some  minor  productions. 


156  LIFE    AND    TIMES 

Remember  your  dving  friend  with  all  fervency.     I  rest  upon 
it  that  you  do  so,  and  am  yours  entirely. 

"August  22,  1683  *  "  j.  owen." 


"TO  SIR  JOHN  HARTOPP. 
My  duty,  my  obligations,  and  my  inclinations. 


do  all  concur  in  the  esteem  I  have  for  you  both ;  and  I  do 
make  mention  of  you  daily  in  my  poor  supplications,  and  that 
with  particular  respect  to  the  present  condition  of  your  lady. 
That  God  who  hath  revealed  himself  unto  us,  as  the  God  who 
heareth  prayer,  will  yet  glorify  his  name,  and  be  a  present 
help  unto  her  in  the  time  of  trouble.  In  the  meantime,  let 
her,  and  you,  and  me,  strive  to  love  Christ  more,  to  abide 
more  with  him,  and  to  be  less  in  ourselves.  He  is  our  best 
friend.  I  pray  God  with  all  my  heart,  that  I  may  be  weary 
of  every  thing  else  but  converse  and  communion  with  him  ; 
yea  of  the  best  of  my  mercies,  so  far  as  at  any  time  they  may 
be  hindrances  thereof.  My  wife  presents  her  humble  service 
unto  your  lady  and  yourself,  as  doth  also.  Sir,  &c. 

"j.  OWEN." 
"  TO  MR.  ISAAC  WATTS. 

"London,  May  30,  1696. 
"  Dear  Sir, 

"  Though  nothing  could  be  more  acceptable  to  me 
than  your  last  letter,  yet  I  wish  you  had  employed  the  former 
part  of  it  on  a  better  subject,  and  not  in  loading  me  with  com- 
pliments as  unexpected  as  undeserved.  The  poison  is  the 
more  dangerous,  because  the  less  suspected;  for  you  have 
shown  such  an  extreme  address,  that  seeming  to  say  little  you 
have  said  all.     I  thought,  after  that  free  confession  I  have 

•  Oweu  died  two  days  after  the  date  of  this  letter,  Aug.  24,  1683. 


OF   DR.    ISAAC    WATTS.  157 

made,  your  friendship  would  have  restrained  you  from  tempt- 
ing ray  vanity  with  such  unnecessary  praises  on  a  trifle  I 
owned  myself  too  much  inclined  to  be  fond  of;  nay,  to  deal 
freely,  I  found  my  infirmity  at  that  time  so  prevailing,  that  I 
could  hardly  persuade  myself  at  first  that  you  complimented. 
But  I  will  leave  this  subject,  since  to  be  over-obstinate  in  re- 
fusing praise,  is  not  always  an  argument  oT  modesty,  any  more 
than  a  man's  declaiming  against  himself  in  company,  only 
because  he  would  be  contradicted.  I  give  you  many  thanks 
for  that  testimony  of  your  gratitude,  as  you  are  pleased  to  call 
it ;  and  though  I  must  own  it  a  little  incorrect,  yet  you  may 
believe  me,  if  I  think  it  has  some  beauties  which  deserve  a 
particular  admiration.  As  for  your  request,  that  I  would 
criticise  on  it,  I  hope  you  will  excuse  me  when  I  have  decla- 
red to  you,  that  I  have  neither  judgment  nor  ill-nature  enough 
for  such  an  undertaking.  Perhaps,  too,  there  is  a  grain  of 
policy  in  the  case,  and  I  am  unwilling  to  destroy  the  good 
opinion  you  seem  to  have  of  my  abilities,  by  putting  me  on 
such  an  attempt.  In  hopes  that  you  will  not  on  your  part 
neglect  this  paper  correspondence  betw^een  us,  nor  fail  to  make 
me  an  expected  return,  I  here  send  you  some  verses,  that  were 
written  some  time  ago,  and  given,  together  with  a  drawing, 
to  a  lady  who  is  a  great  admirer  of  those  two  sister-arts.  I 
should,  perhaps,  discover  too  much  of  my  vanity,  if  I  should 
tell  you,  that  in  some  of  the  lines  I  have  imitated  the  incom- 
parable Waller;  but  a  little  ambition  you  know  is  necessary 
to  poets,  and  though  I  have  reason  enough  to  expect  the 
same  success,  that  Horace  prophesies  of  the  imitators  of 
Pindar,  yet  I  have  sometimes  been  inclined  to  fancy  the  de- 
sign and  some  of  the  verses,  particularly  the  six  last,  not 
altogether  unlike  him. 

"  '  VERSES  PRESENTED  TO  A  LADY  WITH  A  DRAWING  (BY  THE  AUTHOR)  OF  CI  PID. 

"'When  generous  Dido  in  disguise  caress'd 

This  god,  and  fondl}'  clasp'd  him  to  her  breast, 


158  LIFE    AND   TIMES 

Soou  the  sly  urchin  storm'd  her  tender  lieart, 
And  amorous  flames  dispers'd  through  every  part; 
In  vain  she  strove  to  check  the  new-horn  fire, 
It  scorn'd  her  weak  essays,  and  rose  the  higher; 
In  vain  from  feasts  and  balls  relief  she  sought. 
The  Trojan  youth  alone  employ'd  her  thought ; 
Yet  fate  oppos'd  her  unrewarded  care. 
Forsaken,  scorn'd,  she  perish'd  in  despair. 

"  *  No  such  event,  fair  nymph,  you  need  to  fear. 
Smiles,  without  darts,  alone  attend  him  here ; 
Weak,  and  uuarm'd,  not  able  to  surprise. 
He  waits  for  influence  from  your  conqu'ring  eyes. 
Heaven  change  the  omeu,  then,  and  may  this  prove 
A  happy  prelude  to  successful  love !' 

"JOHN  HUGHES.' 


OF   DR.    ISAAC    WATTS.  X09 


CHAPTER  VI. 

1697—1703. 
ASSISTANT  TO  DR.  CHAUNCEY. 


BEGINS  TO  PREACH.— ASSISTANT  TO  DR.  CHAUNCEV.— NOTICES  OF  THE 
CHAUNCEY  FAMILY. —  PERSECUTED  BY  LAUD.  — AVATTS'S  LOVE  OF 
RETIREMENT. —  "HAPPY  SOLITUDE."  — SATIRE  UP<»N  WILLIAM  III.— 
DAVID  POLHILL,  ESQ  —  KENTISH  WORTHIES.  —  PETITION  THE  COM- 
MONS—POETICAL EHSTLE  TO  MR.  POLHILL.  — ILLNESS  OF  WATTS.— 
DEATH  OF  MR.  GUNSTON.  — POEM  TO  HIS  "DEAR  MEMORY."  — VISITS 
TUNBRIDGE  AND  SOUTHAMPTON.  — RETIREMENT  OF  DR.  CHAUNCEY 
FROM  MARK  LANE.  —  PROCEEDINGS  OF  THE  CHURCH.— INVITE  MR. 
BRADBURY  AND  MR.  BEREMAN.— NOTICE  OF  EDWARD  TERRY.— WATTS 
CALLED  TO  THE  CHARGE.  — ORDINATION.  — DEATH  OF  WILLIAM  III.— 
CORRESPONDENCE. 

It  was  upon  his  birth-day,  July  17th,  1698,  when  twenty- 
four  years  of  age,  that  Watts  preached  his  first  sermon, 
while  residing  in  the  family  of  vSir  John  Hartopp.  Upon  a 
visit  soon  afterwards  to  his  friends  at  Southampton,  he 
preached  to  the  congregation  there;  and  so  highly  were  his 
public  labours  appreciated,  that,  during  the  same  year,  he 
was  invited  to  assist  Dr.  Chauncey  at  Mark  Lane.  As  Sir 
John  Hartopp  was  a  member  of  this  church,  it  is  probable 
that  his  influence  was  exerted  upon  this  occasion.  It  seems 
likely,  however,  that  Watts  still  continued  his  connexion  with 
the  baronet's  household,  associating  his  ministerial  exercises 
with  the  instruction  of  his  young  charge. 


160  LIFE  AND  TIMES 

"Began  to  preach  after  I  had  pursued  university  studies 
above  eight  years, July  17,  1698. 

"  Went  to  Southampton,  and  preached  there  several  times, 
in  a  visit  to  my  friends, Aug.  1698. 

"  Preacht  as  Dr.  Chauncey's  assistant,  in  ye  church  at 
Mark  Lane, Feb.  1698-9. 

"  1698-9,  Cousin  John  Chapma.  of  Portsm.  died."* 

Mr.  Watts  was  the  morning  preacher  at  Mark  Lane,  Dr. 
Chauncey  occupying  the  pulpit  himself  in  the  afternoon. 

Dr.  Isaac  Chauncey,  whose  pulpit  Watts  was  called  par- 
tially to  occupy,  though  a  divine  of  respectable  learning,  was 
a  very  unpopular  preacher,  so  much  so  as  to  have  occasioned 
a  considerable  decline  in  the  congregation  over  which  he 
presided.  An  assistant  was,  therefore,  wanted  to  counteract 
the  lethargic  ministry  of  the  pastor;  and  one  of  such  pro- 
mising talents  was  calculated  to  revive  the  drooping  interests 
of  the  church.  The  Chaunceys  were  descended  from  a 
Norman  family  which  came  over  to  England  with  the 
Conqueror;  they  were  seated  at  Yardley-Bury,  in  Hertford- 
shire, in  the  reign  of  Elizabeth  ;  and  subsequently  became  of 
great  note  among  the  puritans  and  nonconformists.  The 
father  of  Dr.  Isaac,  Charles  Chauncey,  B.  D.f  was  appointed 
to  the  Greek  chair  in  the  university  of  Cambridge;  in  1627 
he  became  vicar  of  Ware  in  his  native  county, |  and  was 
the  author  of  the  eV/zt/Jto-ts,  prefixed  to  Leigh's  Critica  Sacra 
upon  the  New  Testament.  Upon  the  publication  of  the  book 
of  Sports,  he  was  ordered  to  desist  from  preaching  on  the  Sun- 
day afternoon,  in  order  to  afford  his  people  an  opportunity  for 
pursuing  their  profane  amusements;  but  opposition  to  these 

*  Watts's  MS. 

f  He  was  fifth  and  youngest  sou  of  George  Chauncey,  Esq.,  and  gi-eat-uncle  to 
Sir  Henry  Chauncey,  Knight,  author  of  "The  Historical  Antiquities  of  Hertford- 
shire."    Biographia  Brit.  iii.  482. 

X  Afterwards  minister  also  at  Marston  Lawrence  in  Northamptonshire.  Pnjnne^s 
Canterburit's  Doome,  p.  U4.     1646. 


OF  DR.   ISAAC   WATTS.  161 

innovations  exposed  him  to  the  vengeance  of  the  haughty- 
Laud;  and  the  puritan  was  twice  summoned  by  the  prelate 
before  the  court  of  high  commission.*  An  ignominious 
recantation  was  there  wrung  from  him  by  his  cruel  oppressors ; 
but  so  deeply  affected  was  he  at  his  sinful  compliance,  that 
he  withdrew  to  New  England,  bewailing  to  the  last  hour  of 
his  life  his  weakness  in  the  hour  of  trial. f  Isaac  Chauncey, 
one  of  the  sons  of  this  good  man,|  appears  in  the  list  of 
ejected  ministers,  being  deprived,  by  the  act  of  uniformity,  of 
the  living  of  Woodborough  in  Wiltshire.  After  his  ejectment 
he  became  pastor  of  a  congregational  church  at  Andover; 
but  subsequently  removed  to  London  with  the  intention  of 

♦Mather's  Hist,  of  New  England,  b.  iii.  p.  134,  135;  Prynne.  Cant.  Doome, 
p.  362;  Rushwortli's  Collections,  vol.  ii.  p.  34.  The  charge  alleged  against  him 
the  first  time,  was,  that  he  had  declared  in  a  sermon,  that  there  was  a  great  increase 
o^ popery,  &c.  in  the  church  :  the  second  time  he  was  prosecuted  for  opposing  the 
railhiff-in  of  the  communion  table  at  Ware.  In  Lieutenant-governor  Hutchinson's 
History  of  Massachuset's  Bay,  there  is  a  letter  of  Mr.  Chauucey's  to  JNIr.  Cotton, 
referring  to  his  troubles,     vol.  i.  2.59. 

f  This  recantation  was  as  follows  :  "  Whereas  I,  Charles  Chauncey,  clerk,  late 
vicar  of  Ware,  in  the  county  of  Hertford,  stand  convicted  *  *  *  * 

I  do  now  before  this  honourable  court,  acknowledge  my  great  offence,  and  protest 
I  am  ready  to  declare  upon  oath,  that  I  am  now  persuaded  in  my  conscience,  that 
kneeling  at  the  communion  is  a  lawful  and  commendable  gesture;  that  the  rail  is 
a  decent  and  convenient  ornament,  and  that  I  was  much  to  blame  for  opposing  it; 
and  do  promise  from  henceforth,  never  by  word  or  deed  to  oppose  that,  or  any  other 
laudable  rites  and  ceremonies  used  in  the  church  of  England. 

"CHARLES  CHAUNCEY." 

In  opposition  to  this  recantation,  his  last  will  and  testament  contained  the  fol- 
lowing declaration  :  "I  do  acknowledge  myself  to  be  a  child  of  wrath,  and  sold 
under  sin,  and  one  who  liatli  been  polluted  with  innumerable  transgressions  and 
mighty  sins  *  *  *  and  especially  my  so  many  sinful  compliances 
ivith,  and  conformifij  unto,  vile  human  inventions,  and  will  worship,  and  hell-bred 
superstitions,  and  other  evil  things  patched  to  the  service  of  God,  with  which  the 
English  mass  book,  I  mean  the  Book  of  Common  Prayer,  is  so  fully  fraught.''^ 
Prynne.  Cant.  Doome,  p.  95.  97.  100;  Rushworth,  vol.  ii.  part  ii.  p.  301.  316; 
Mather.  Hist,  of  New  Eng.  b.  iii.  p.  135. 

Mr.  Chauncey  was  president  of  Harvard  College  from  1654  to  1671. 

J  There  were  six  children  ;  Isaac,  Ichabod,  Barnabas,  Nathaniel,  Elnathan,  and 
Israel,  all  ministers;  the  four  last  in  New  England,  the  two  first  ejected  in  the 
mother  country.  Near  the  town  of  Westborough  (Mass.)  there  was  a  swamp  which 
went  by  the  name  of  Chauncey  Pond,  from  a  report  that  one  of  the  Chaunceys  lost 
his  life  in  it. 


162  LIFE   AND  TIMES 

practising  as  a  physician.  Here,  however,  he  was  called  by 
the  church  in  Mark  Lane  from  his  retirement,  to  succeed 
their  deceased  pastor,  Mr.  Clarkson;  and,  in  the  eleventh  year 
of  his  ministry  among  them,  Watts  was  chosen  to  be  his 
assistant. 

The  conduct  of  Watts  in  the  important  station  he  now 
occupied,  did  not  disappoint  the  sanguine  expectations  of  his 
friends.  If  the  attachment  of  the  people  to  him  is  any 
criterion  to  guide  us,  we  have  abundant  proof,  that,  in  the 
discharge  of  his  ministerial  duties,  he  was  laborious  and 
exemplary.  With  some  it  was  a  matter  of  regret,  that  he 
confined  himself  so  closely  to  his  study,  and  did  not  mingle 
with  society  so  much  as  seemed  desirable.  But  a  natural 
timidity  of  disposition,  and  an  eager  search  after  knowledge, 
contributed  to  foster  a  love  of  retirement,  and,  in  connexion 
with  his  severe  personal  afflictions,  sufficiently  account  for  the 
seclusion  which  in  after-life  he  sought.  His  habits,  health, 
and  natural  temijerament,  unfitted  him  for  much  intercourse 
with  the  bustling  world.  In  large  promiscuous  parties  he 
was  generally  silent;  when  the  eyes  of  strangers  were  upon 
him  he  shrunk  from  the  task  of  putting  himself  forward,  and 
willingly  surrendered  to  others  the  honour  of  leading  the 
evening's  conversation.*  He  had  no  words  to  waste  upon 
the  idle  groups  who  haunted  the  circles  of  fashion;  a  kind  of 
intellectual  avarice  prevented  him  from  casting  his  pearls 
away  with  a  careless  hand  ;  he  was  a  servant  of  the  altar,  not 
the  high-priest  of  the  drawing-room.  An  acute  writer  has 
remarked,  that  it  is  the  province  of  mediocrity  to  talk,  but  of 
genius  to  observe ;  and  it  is  singular  how  many  of  those  with 
*'the  pale  cast  of  thought  upon  their  brow,"  have  been 
defective  in  conversation.  Virgil,  Isocrates,  Descartes, 
Chaucer,  Addison,  and  Goldsmith,  had  no  talent  for  collo- 
quial discourse;  the  intellectual  wealth  they  had  amassed, 
lay  in  solid  bars,  not  in  current  coin.     In  the  circle  of  his 

*  Private  information. 


OF   DR.   ISAAC    WATTS.  163 

own  immediate  friends,  however,  Watts's  social  qualities 
appeared;  the  atmosphere  of  home,  and  the  presence  of  those 
by  whom  he  was  beloved,  seemed  to  remove  his  embarrass- 
ment, excite  the  powers  of  his  mind,  and  awaken  the  sensi- 
bilities of  his  heart ;  and  by  the  household  hearth  he  was  the 
sprightly  companion,  the  imaginative  poet,  and  the  devout 
Christian.  In  a  poem,  entitled  "Happy  Solitude,"  inscribed 
to  Thomas  Gunston,  Esq.  written  soon  after  he  became 
assistant  to  Dr.  Chauncey,  he  seems  to  refer  to  the  complaints 
of  his  friends ;  and  vindicates  the  secluded  life  he  adopted : 

"CASIMIRE,  BOOK  IV.  ODE  12,  IMITATED. 
"  Quid  me  latentem,  (Sfc. 

"  The  noisy  world  complains  of  me, 
That  I  should  shun  their  sight,  and  flee 
Visits  and  crowds  and  company. 
Gunston,  the  lark  dwells  in  her  nest 
Till  she  ascends  the  skies ; 
And  in  my  closet  I  could  rest 
Till  to  the  heavens  I  rise!" 

At  this  period  the  nation  was  torn  by  contending  political 
factions;  and  though  Watts's  habits  and  feelings  kept  him 
aloof  from  the  broils  of  the  times,  yet,  when  the  hero  of  the 
Revolution  was  defamed  by  an  anonymous  libeller,  he  took  up 
his  pen  to  rebut  his  aspersions.  An  infamous  satire,  written 
by  a  nameless  author,  against  William  III.  entitled,  "  Advice 
to  a  Painter,"  being  put  into  his  hands  by  David  Polhill,  Esq. 
he  returned  him  a  poem*  in  answer  to  it.  It  must  be 
confessed,  that  Watts  indulges  in  exaggerated  praise  of  the 
monarch;  the  personal  virtues  and  private  character  of 
William,  will,  by  no  means,  warrant  his  eulogistic  verse :  yet 
a  sufficient  apology  may  be  found  for  the  writer,  in  the 
public  advantages  which  accrued  to  the  dissenters  from  his 

*  Lyrics,  lib.  ii. 


164  LIFE    AND   TIMES 

reign.  The  oppressions  they  had  endured  from  the  Stuart 
family,  and  the  toleration  they  enjoyed  under  their  suc- 
cessors, might  lead  them  to  look  with  a  too"  partial  eye 
upon  their  deliverer,  and,  perhaps,  in  some  instances,  to 
palliate  his  errors  and  excuse  his  failings. 

Mr.  Polhill,  one  of  the  celebrated  "  Kentish  Worthies,"  was 
connected  with'the  family  of  Lord  Deputy  Ireton;  and  Watts 
was  probably  introduced  to  his  acquaintance  through  the  me- 
dium of  Sir  John  Hartopp.  His  grandfather  appears  to  have 
been  a  royalist ;  for,  in  1643,  he  was  imprisoned  by  the  parlia- 
ment. The  father,  Thomas  Polhill,  married  the  eldest  daugh- 
ter of  Ireton,  and  this  connexion,  most  likely,  changed  the 
politics  of  the  family,  as  their  eldest  son  was  distinguished 
for  his  zeal  against  the  exiled  Stuarts,  and  firm  adherence  to 
the  cause  of  William.  He  was  born  in  the  year  1673,  and, 
after  travelling  on  the  continent,  accompanied  by  Dr.  Mead, 
the  celebrated  physician,  he  took  possession  of  the 'family 
estate  at  Ottford,  in  the  county  of  Kent,  where  he  lived 
beloved  by  a  numerous  tenantry,  and  respected  as  an 
upright  and  active  magistrate.  The  disposition  shown  by 
the  parliament  to  thwart  the  measures  of  William  against 
the  designs_of  France,  drew  Mr.  Polhill  from  his  retirement ; 
and,  in  connexion  with  some  others,  he  was  sent  by  the 
Kentish  freeholders,  with  a  petition  to  the  commons,  to  assist 
the  king  with  the  necessary  supplies.*  So  highly  was  the 
house  exasperated  by  the  exercise  of  this  constitutional  right, 
that  Mr.  Polhill  and  his  companions  were  taken  into  custody 

*The  petition  originated  at  the  INfaidstone  quarter-sessions,  April  29,  1701,  and 
was  signed  b^  the  chairman,  the  grand  jury  unanimously,  and  twenty-three  justices 
of  the  peace.  The  deputation  consisted  of  William  Colepeper  the  chairman, 
Thomas  Colepeper,  David  Polhill,  Justinian  Champueys,  and  William  Hamilton, 
Esquires.  On  the  members  for  the  county  hesitating  to  present  the  petition,  on 
account  of  the  violence  of  the  commons,  the  deputies  declared  their  intention 
themselves  of  knocking  at  the  door  of  the  house  ;  and  Mr.  Colepeper  added  in 
language  similar  to  Luther's  well-known  resolve,  that  if  every  tile  upon  the  chapel 
of  St.  Stephen  was  a  devil,  he  would  present  the  petition.  Mr.  Meredith,  one  of 
the  members,  at  last  undertook  the  task. 


OF   DR.   ISAAC    WATTS.  165 

by  the  sergeant-at-arms ;  the  warrant  of  the  speaker  trans- 
ferred them  to  the  prison  at  the  Gate-house;  and  in  the 
course  of  a  furious  debate,  the  confiscation  of  their  estates, 
and  the  infliction  of  a  double  tax  upon  the  county,  was 
advocated.  These  violent  and  ill-judged  measures  only 
rendered  the  deputation  popular,  so  that  their  release  at  the 
termination  of  the  session  was  hailed  by  the  acclamations  of 
assembled  thousands,  and  Mr.  Polhill's  return  to  his  mansion 
at  Ottford  was  most  enthusiastically  welcomed  by  the  sturdy 
yeomanry.  In  several  parliaments  he  was  afterwards  member 
for  the  city  of  Rochester;  and,  on  the  decease  of  Mr.  Topham, 
in  1730,  he  was  appointed  Keeper  of  the  Records  in  the  tower. 
The  spirited  conduct  of  Mr.  Polhill  upon  this  occasion,  drew 
from  Watts's  pen  another  epistle,  when,  upon  the  accession 
of  Queen  Anne,  the  liberties  of  the  country  were  again 
threatened : 

"TO  DAVID  POLHILL,  ESQ. 

"an  epistlk. 

"December,  1702. 
L 

"  Let  useless  souls  to  woods  retreat, 
Polhill  should  leave  a  country  seat 
When  Virtue  bids  him  dare  be  great. 

II. 

"Nor  Kent,*  nor  Sussex*  should  have  charms. 
While  Liberty,  with  loud  alarms. 
Calls  you  to  councils  and  to  arms. 

IIL 

"  Louis,  by  fawning  slaves  ador'd. 
Bids  you  receive  a  baseborn  lord  jf 
Awake  your  cares !  Awake  your  sword  ! 

*  The  counties  where  he  had  country-seats. 

f  The  poet  is  here  guilty  of  injustice  ;  for  the  question  of  the  legitimacy  of  James's 
son,  the  old  Pretender,  has  been  long  set  at  rest.  A  book  was,  however,  reprinted 
at  Cologne,  in  1701,  referring  to  Louis  XIV.,  entitled  "The  Great  Bastard  Protec- 


166  LIFE   AND   TIMfiS 

IV, 
"  Factions  amongst  the  Britons*  rise. 
And  warring  tongues,  and  wild  Surmise, 
And  burning  Zeal  without  her  eyes. 

Y. 

"A  vote  decides  the  blind  debate; 
Resolv'd,  '  'Tis  of  diviner  weight 
To  save  the  steeple  than  the  state.' 

VI. 
"The  bold  machinef  is  form'd  and  join'd, 
To  stretch  the  conscience,  and  to  bind 
The  native  freedom  of  the  mind. 

VII. 
"  Your  grandsires'  shades,  with  jealous  eye. 
Frown  down  to  see  their  ofl'spring  lie 
Careless,  and  let  their  country  die. 

YIII. 
"  If  Treviaij:  fear  to  let  you  stand 
Against  the  Gaul  with  spear  iu  hand. 
At  least  petition§  for  the  land." 

tor  of  the  Little  One."     Various  medals  were  also  struck  in  England  to  counte- 
nance this  calumny,  viz. 

1.  William  III.  habited  as  a  Roman  emperor,  trampling  upon  a  serpent,  and 
supporting  Mary  wearing  the  crowns  of  her  triple  kingdom  ;  her  shield  is  suspend- 
ed from  an  orange  tree,  entwined  with  roses  and  thistles.  In  the  distance  appears 
James  II.,  and  Father  Petre  bearing  away  the  young  prince,  who  is  playing  with  a 
windmill,  (alluding  to  the  report  that  the  young  prince  was  the  son  of  a  miller). 
P.  A.  F.  the  initials  of  the  artist's  name.  Leg.  Deo  Vindice  Justitia  Comite. 
Rev.  Boats  landing  troops  near  a  castle.  Leg.  Contra  Infantem  Perditionis. 
Ex.  Expeditio  Navalis  Pro  Libertatc  Anglia.  MDCLXXXVill.  Diam.  ]|. 
Cah.     Hunter. 

2.  A  French  ship;  Father  Petre  upon  a  lobster  holds  the  young  prince  playing 
with  a  windmill.  Leg.  Allons  Mon  Prince,  Nous  Sommes  En  Bon  Chemiii.  Ex. 
Jac.  Edvard  Supposce  2Q  Juin.  1(588.  Rev.  The  Pretender's  arms;  a  shield, 
bearing  a  windmill;  above,  a  Jesuit's  cap,  whence  depends  a  double  rosary,  inclo- 
sing the  motto  Honi  Soil  Qvi  Bon  y  Pensc :  a  lobster  is  suspended  instead  of  a 
George.  Leg.  Les  Amies  ct  VOrdre  Du  Prctendu  Prince Des  Galles.  Diam.  \^. 
Cab.     Royal. 

*  The  contentions  in  parliament. 

f  The  bill  against  occasional  conformity,  1702. 

X  Mrs.  Polhill  of  the  family  of  the  Lord  Trevor. 

§  Alluding  to  the  former  Kentish  petition. 


OF    DR.   ISAAC    WATTS.  167 

A  threatening  illness  of  five  months,  interrupted  Watts's 
public  labours,  soon  after  his  connexion  with  Dr.  Chauncey, 
at  the  close  of  which  he  visited  his  family  at  Southampton, 
to  try  his  native  air  for  the  recovery  of  his  heaUh,  The  an- 
nexed extract  from  his  MS.  mentions  several  domestic  inci- 
dents ;  his  visits  to  his  friends ;  the  only  record  we  have  of 
this  interesting  period  of  his  life.  Referring  to  his  settlement 
with  Dr.  Chauncey,  he  observes : — 

"  And  a  little  while  after  my  fever  and  weakness  began, 
"  Paid  another  visit  to  Southampton  of  five  weeks, 

July  1,  1699. 

"Another June,  1700. 

"  1699—1700.     Feb.  Mr.  Wm.  Adams  dyed. 
"  1700,  March  30,  Grandmo.  Tan  to. 
"  May  22,  Mr.  John  Poole. 
"Nov.  11,  Mr.  Thos.  Gunston." 

Mr.  Gunston,  whose  death  is  here  recorded,  was  the  much- 
beloved  friend  of  Watts,  in  whose  company  he  spent  some  of 
his  happiest  hours,  and  whose  early  decease  was  a  source  of 
the  most  poignant  grief.  This  gentleman  was  the  brother  of 
Lady  Abney,  and  owned  the  manorial  property  of  Stoke 
Newington.  His  father,  John  Gunston,  Esq.  was  attached  to 
the  cause  of  nonconformity,  and  befriended  many  of  the 
persecuted  ministers  when  exposed  to  the  aggressions  of  arbi- 
trary power.  When  Dr.  Manton  was  imprisoned  in  the  Gate- 
house, for  refusing  the  Oxford  oath,  the  Lady  Broughton,  his 
keeper,  placing  the  keys  at  his  disposal,  allowed  him  an  oppor- 
tunity of  visiting  his  friend  Mr.  Gunston  at  Newington.  The 
mantle  of  the  father  descended  upon  the  son ;  and  owing  to 
his  sincere  piety  and  conscientious  principles,  he  became  the 
bosom  friend  and  confident  of  Watts.  A  row  of  "reverend 
elms"  in  the  neighbourhood  of  the  family  mansion  was  con- 
secrated to  their  friendship.  The  ancient  manor-house,  asso- 
ciated with  the  names  of  Elizabeth  and  her  favourite  Leicester, 


168  LIFE    AND    TIMES 

had  been  just  taken  down ;  and  a  modern  erection  in  its  place 
was  nearly  finished,  -when  Mr.  Gunston  was  taken  away  by 
death.  A  funeral  poem  to  his  "dear  memory"  is  inserted 
among"  the  Lyrics,  evidently  a  hasty  and  irregular  composition, 
which,  if  it  adds  no  reputation  to  the  poet,  evinces  the  sincerity 
of  his  friendship,  and  does  honour  to  the  virtues  of  the  deceased. 
He  says,* 

"  Oft  have  I  laid  the  awful  Calviu  by, 
And  the  sweet  Cowley,  with  impatient  eye, 
To  see  those  walls,  pay  the  sad  visit  there. 
And  drop  the  tribute  of  au  hourly  tear: 
Still  I  behold  some  melancholy  scene, 
With  many  a  pensive  thought,  and  many  a  sigh  between. 
Two  days  ago  we  took  the  evening  air, 
I,  and  my  Grief,"  &c. 

This  poem  was  presented  to  Lady  Abney,  then  the  Lady 
Mayoress,  with  an  introductory  letter. 

The  illness  of  Watts  returned  in  the  summer  of  1701,  and 
from  June  to  November  he  was  wholly  incapable  of  preaching-. 

"Went  to  ye  Bath  by  ye  advice  of  Physicians,  June  9,  1701. 

"  From  ye  Bath  to  Southto July,  1701. 

"  Thence  to  Tunbridge, Sept.  3,  1701. 

"  Returned  to  Newington  Nov.  3,  and  to  preaching  at  Mark 
Lane, Nov.  1701. 

"  So  yt  I  was  detained  from  study  and  preaching  5  mo.  by 
my  weakness.  Except  one  very  short  discourse  at  Southto.  in 
extreme  necessity.  Dr.  Chauncey,  having  left  his  people, 
Aprill,  1701,  and  I  being  returned  to  preach  among  em,  they 
called  me  to  ye  pastoral  office,     ....      Jan.  15,  170^."t 

The  resignation  of  Dr.  Chauncey  was  occasioned  by  his 
unpopularity  as  a  preacher ;  the  introduction  of  controverted 
topics  in  theology  into  the  pulpit,  dissatisfied  his  hearers ;  and 
the  decrease  of  his  congregation,  determined  him  to  quit  the 

"  Lyrics,  lib.  iii.  t  Watts's  MS. 


OF   DR.    ISAAC    WATTS.  169 

ministiy.  In  the  fiery  dispute  which  ensued  upon  reprintino- 
the  works  of  Dr.  Crisp,  he  had  taken  a  prominent  part ;  at- 
tacking- Dr.  WiUiams,  and  the  adherents  of  what  was  called 
the  Neonomian  doctrine,  with  great  asperity.  The  frequent 
references  which  he  made  in  his  sermons  to  this  unhappy  con- 
troversy, the  importance  attached  to  certainly  minor  points 
of  the  Christian  faith,  and  the  acrimony  which  could  stig- 
matize the  impugner  of  Crisp  with  Socinianism,  contributed 
to  render  his  public  exercises,  naturally  dry  and  scholastic, 
still  more  unprofitable  to  his  people.  Another  defect  in  Dr. 
Chauncey's  preaching  was,  his  frequent  dwelling-  on  the  dis- 
cipline of  the  church,  to  the  neglect  of  the  doctrines  of  the 
gospel ;  the  cheering  truths  of  the  Christian  system  were  aban- 
doned for  the  dry  discussion  of  points  of  order ;  and  thus  while 
the  external  arrangements  of  the  tabernacle  were  minutely 
examined,  a  vail  seemed  to  be  cast  over  the  glory  and  myste- 
ries within.  A  ministry  of  such  a  character,  even  when 
seconded  by  a  graceful  diction,  and  attractive  eloquence,  is 
sure  to  disappoint  the  spiritual  worshipper;  it  has  no  power  to 
warm  and  to  refresh  the  heart,  to  excite  and  quicken  the  pul- 
sations of  devotional  feeling;  the  Sun  of  Righteousness  is  de- 
serted, for  those  cold  and  wandering  lights,  which  are  too  feeble 
to  illuminate,  too  sickly  to  cheer,  and  too  vagrant  to  direct.* 
Upon  relinquishing  his  charge  of  the  church  in  Mark  Lane, 
Dr.  Chauncey  was  appointed  to  the  tutorship  of  an  academy 
which  still  exists  at  Homerton.  This  situation  he  filled  with 
credit  to  himself,  and  benefit  to  the  church ;  and  continued 
in  it  till  his  death  in  the  year  1712,  His  successors  in  the 
institution  were  Dr.  Thos.  Ridgley  and  Mr.  John  Eames, 
F.  R.  S.,  of  the  latter  of  whom  Watts  is  reported  to  have  said, 
that  he  was  the  most  learned  man  he  ever  knew.    The  vacancy 

•Dr.  Chauncey  died  Feb.  28,  1712.  Some  notices  of  him,  in  connexion  with 
the  family,  were  drawn  up  by  his  grandson,  entitled,  "  Life  of  the  Rev.  President 
Chauncey,  written  at  the  request  of  Dr.  Stiles,  by  the  Rev.  Dr.  Chauncey  of  Boston, 
May  23,  1768."  It  is  printed  in  the  Collections  of  the  Massachusets  Historical 
Society,     vol.  x.  171. 

M 


170  LIFE    AND   TIMES 

occasioned  by  the  retirement  of  Dr.  Chauncey,  was  not  sup- 
plied until  the  succeeding  year,  and  during  the  greater  part 
of  that  period  Watts  was  unable  through  illness  to  discharge 
any  public  duty.  A  church  meeting  appears  to  have  been 
held  April  15,  1701,  at  which  the  Rev.  William  Bereman,  a 
former  assistant  of  Mr.  Caryl,  and  a  member  of  the  church, 
was  called  upon  to  preside.  This  gentleman  was  requested 
to  preach  during  the  church's  vacancy ;  and  a  call  was  given 
unto  him  to  the  pastoral  office,  but  he  declined  the  invitation, 
probably  owing  to  the  infirmities  of  age.*  In  the  following 
month  an  invitation  to  Mr.  Watts  was  contemplated  ;  but  the 
alarming  indisposition  with  which  he  was  seized  in  June,  de- 
prived his  friends  for  some  time  of  the  hope  of  seeing  him  set- 
tled in  Mark  Lane.  In  September  the  church  invited  the 
Rev.  Thos.  Bradbury,  then  of  Newcastle,  to  the  charge ;  but 
after  the  interchange  of  a  few  letters,  the  negotiation  dropped. 
Mr.  Watts  returned  in  November  with  recruited  health  to  his 
work,  and  the  choice  of  the  church  ultimately  falling  upon 
him,  the  call  of  a  united  and  affectionate  peo^jle,  he  was  in- 
duced to  accept  in  the  following  year. 

"  Accepted  it  March  8,  and  was  ordained  March  18,  1702"t 

This  step  was  not,  however,  taken  without  considerable  hesi- 
tation and  reluctance:  the  frequent  indisposition  to  which  he 
was  subject,  rendered  him  apprehensive  of  being  imcqual  to 
the  proper  discharge  of  the  pastoral  duty ;  and  he  appears  to 
have  submitted  various  plans  to  the  church  for  their  speedy 
settlement  without  him.  In  the  letter  which  contains  his 
final  adhesion  to  their  wish,  he  mentions  three  "reverend 
divines,"  members  of  the  church,  whom  he  had  recommended 
to  their  notice  as  qualified  for  the  vacant  pastorship. 

It  is  probable,  that  two  of  the  ministers,  to  whom  Walts  re- 
fers, were  the  Rev.  Thos.  Bereman,  and  Edward  Terry,  M.A.: 

*  Church  book.  f  Watt's  MS. 


OF   DR.    ISAAC    WATTS.  171 

it  is  certain  that  they  were  members  of  the  church  at  the  time 
of  Dr.  Chauncey's  secession ;  but  who  the  third  individual 
was  does  not  appear.  Mr.  Bereman,  of  whom  but  httle  is 
known,  was  ejected  by  the  Act  of  Uniformity  from  the  lecture- 
ship of  St.  Thomas's,  Southwark :  his  farewell  sermon  to  his 
flock,  from  Acts,  xx.  17,  is  in  the  London  collection.  After  his 
ejectment,  he  became  one  of  the  first  members  of  the  church 
which  Mr.  Caryl  gathered ;  and  being  possessed  of  consider- 
able property  he  declined  taking  a  pastoral  charge,  but  assisted 
occasionally  the  neighbouring  ministers.  Dr.  Calamy  describes 
him  as  "  a  very  pious  and  sober  person,  and  a  good  preach- 
er."* He  continued  a  member  at  Mark  Lane  until  his  death, 
October  7,  1703,  when  his  fortune,  which  was  considerable, 
was  bequeathed  for  charitable  purposes.f  Mr.  Terry  was  the 
son  of  the  Rev.  Edward  Terry,  who  accompanied  Sir  Thomas 
Roe  in  his  embassy  to  the  Great  Mogul ;  and  was  ejected  from 
the  living  of  Greenford  Magna,  in  the  county  of  Middlesex, 
which  his  father  had  occupied.  He  studied  in  University 
College,  Oxford,  where  he  proceeded  M.  A. ;  and  distinguished 
himself  by  a  funeral  oration  which  he  pronounced  at  the  in- 
terment of  the  master  of  his  college,  Dr.  Joshua  Hoyle, 
Regius  Professor  of  Divinity,  and  a  member  of  the  Assembly 
of  Divines,  Mr.  Terry  after  the  Revolution  assisted  Dr. 
Chauncey,  and  continued  in  the  church  until  his  death, 
which  took  place  suddenly,  March  8,  1716.  He  was  blind  for 
some  years  previous  to  his  decease,  but  was  accustomed  to 
employ  persons  to  read  to  him,  in  which  he  took  great  plea- 
sure.J     Dr.  Calamy  describes  him  as  "  of  a  very  mild  dispo- 

*  Calamy's  Account,  p.  25;  Palmer's  Noncon.  Mem.  i.  191. 

f  "This  alms-house,  situate  in  Alms-house  Yard,  iu  Hoxton,  was  built  about  the 
year  1701,  by  Mr.  Baremere  (Bereman)  a  presbyterian  minister,  for  eight  poor 
women,  who  have  only  a  yearly  allowance  of  half  a  chaldron  of  coals  each."  Mait- 
land.  Hist,  of  London.  Palmer  states  this  to  be  incorrect,  that  the  stipend  was 
larger,  and  paid  quarterly.  Noncon.  Mem.  i.  192.  Mr.  Bereman  left  various 
other  charitable  bequests. 

X  Palmer.  Noncon.  Mem.  ii.  447,  448. 


17-2  LIFE    AND   TIMES 

sition,  of  a  blameless  life,  and  very  charitable ;  much  honoured 
for  his  work's  sake,  and  a  lover  of  peace  and  truth,"*  These 
two  valuable  ministers  were  among  Dr.  Chauncey's  people 
at  the  period  of  his  retirement ;  and  when  Walts  speaks  of 
having  proposed  to  the  church  three  reverend  divines,  who 
were  members,  for  their  acceptance,  it  is  not  improbable  that 
his  attention  was  directed  to  them. 

The  views  and  feelings  with  which  ?*Ir.  Watts  entered  upon 
the  pastoral  office,  will  best  appear,  from  the  public  declara- 
tion of  his  accepting  the  call  of  the  church,  which  he  made  at 
his  ordination,  inserted  at  the  close  of  this  chapter.  This 
service  was  conducted  by  the  following  ministers :  Matthew 
Clarke,t  John  Collins,^  Thomas  Ridgley,§  Benoni  Rowe, 
and  Thomas  Rowe,  his  tutor.  Mr.  T.  Rowe  preached  upon 
the  occasion  to  the  people,  from  Jer.  iii.  15 :  "  And  I  will 
give  you  pastors  according  to  mine  heart,  wliicli  shall  feed  you 
with  knowledge  and  understanding!'''  Mr.  William  Pickard, 
a  deacon  of  the  church,  inquired  of  them  respecting  their 
agreement  to  the  call,  which  they  unanimously  affirmed.  It 
is  a  striking  and  singular  coincidence,  that  the  day  on  which 
Watts  accepted  the  pastoral  office,  the  dissenting  churches 
lost  their  tried  friend  and  protector  in  the  person  of  Wil- 
liam III. 

"  1702,  March  8,  Morning,  K.  Wm.  died."|| 

The  health  of  the  king  had  been  long  declining,  but  an  ac- 
cidental fall  from  his  horse,  which  stumbled,  owing  to  some 
earth  which  had  been  loosened  by  a  mole,  accelerated  his 
death.     The  advocates  of  intolerance  embraced  the  opportu- 

*  Wilson.  Diss.  Chur.  i.  292. 

f  Pastor  of  tlie  church  in  Miles  Laue. 

X  Co  pastor  with  the  Rev.  Robert  Bragge  in  Lime  Street,  Paved  Alley. 

§  Pastor  of  an  independant  church  uow  extiuct  in  Thames  Street,  and  one  of  the 
successors  of  Dr.  Chauncey  in  his  academical  duties. 
II  Watts's  MS. 


or   DR.    ISAAC    WATTS,  173 

nily  to  defame  the  character  of  the  departed  monarch  ;  and 
his  decease  was  celebrated  in  various  parties,  with  the  same 
convivial  rites  with  which  the  republicans  are  charged  with 
reference  to  the  execution  of  Charles.  Such  infamous  and 
indecent  proceedings  are  only  calculated  to  rouse  an  indig- 
nant feeling  in  the  minds  of  the  good  and  virtuous  ;  and  to 
these  ribald  jests,  the  highly-coloured  panegyrics  upon  the 
king,  in  which  his  friends  indulged,  may  probably  be  attribu- 
ted. Upon  this  occasion  the  pen  of  Watts  was  not  idle,  and 
an  "  Epitaph  on  King  William  III.  of  glorious  memory,"* 
celebrates  his  worth,  and  the  writer's  gratitude  for  that  happy 
event  which  drove  a  baflQed  tyra\it  from  our  shores. 

CORRESPONDENCE. 
"to  MR.  ISAAC  WATIS. 

"  London,  1G97. 
"  Dear  Sir, 

"  I  cannot  easily  signify  to  you,  with  what  eager- 
ness I  snatch  this  occasion  of  making  the  most  unfeigned 
acknowledgments  for  the  many  obligations  you  have  been 
pleased  to  lay  upon  me ;  a  duty  which  your  modesty  would 
never  permit  me  to  do  in  your  presence,  and  which  my  gra- 
titude, the  best  quality  I  can  boast,  will  not  let  me  omit,  now 
I  have  you  at  this  advantage. 

"  I  know  you  are  in  pain,  for  fear  I  am  preparing  for  you  a 
banquet  of  your  own  praises,  a  food  which  most  other  people 
can  devour  very  heartily,  and  be  in  no  danger  of  a  surfeit; 
and  had  I  any  quarrel  against  you,  I  would  not  desire  a  better 
revenge,  and  yet  would  say  nothing  that  would  look  the  least 
like  flattery  ;  so  that  you  are  now  wholly  at  my  mercy,  and  in 
no  capacity  of  defending  yourself,  or  putting  by  my  passes ; 

*  Lyrics,  lib.  iii. 


174  LIFE    AND   TIMES 

but  since  you  cannot  think  mc  ignorant  of  what  is  so  well 
known  to  all  jour  friends,  and  since  too  you  may  gather  by 
what  I  have  said,  with  reference  to  one  perfection,  your  mo- 
desty, how  well  I  am  acquainted  with  all  the  rest,  I  will  take 
pity  on  you,  and  forbear  so  agreeable  a  subject.  See  here, 
Sir,  what  a  command  you  have  over  me,  when  I  dare  not  so 
much  as  offer  you  your  own,  lest  I  displease  you;  but  am 
forced  to  make  even  this  an  instance  of  the  esteem  I  have  for 
you,  that  I  will  not  tell  you  how  great  it  is.  I  give  you  many 
thanks  for  your  witty  and  diverting  letter ;  you  need  not 
have  used  arguments  to  persuade  me,  that  the  characters  you 
have  drawn  in  it  are  true  copies  of  nature,  for  in  requital  I 
could  send  you  some  of  another  hue,  that  have  fallen  within 
the  circle  of  my  observation,  monsters  so  hideous  and  deform- 
ed, that,  drawn  by  a  poet,  they  would  be  thought  no  less 
extravagant,  than  the  thunder-defying  hero*  of  Statins  before 
the  walls  of  Thebes.  Fools  indeed  (of  whom  you  complain) 
are  a  very  troublesome  sort  of  insects,  but  they  only  buzz 
about  your  ears,  and  never  bite  deep ;  the  villain  is  the  beast 
of  prey,  that  leaps  upon  you  from  his  den,  and  tears  you  in 
pieces.  These  are  the  proper  objects  of  rage,  the  others  of 
contempt;  and  this,  perhaps,  makes  the  difference  between 
the  satires  of  Horace  and  Juvenal,  for  the  first  of  them  only 
rallies,  and  the  latter  declaims.  Do  you  think  you  could 
possess  your  soul  in  patience,  if  you  had  to  do  with  a  fellow, 
who,  under  the  veil  of  a  most  unsuspected  affection,  should  be 
carrying  on  a  plot  for  your  ruin ;  who  should  make  use  of  all 
the  most  endearing  acts  of  friendship,  only  to  cast  a  blind  be- 
fore your  eyes,  and  procure  all  opportunities  to  make  you  a 
sacrifice  to  his  interest  or  revenge  ?  The  footpad,  like  an 
honest  rogue,  bluntly  bids  you  '  stand  and  deliver  ;'  but  some 
there  are  who  will  caress  and  embrace  you,  whilst  their 
thoughts  are  employed  to  swallow  down  your  estate,  if  not 
cut  your  throat;  and  if  they  do  it  but  cleverly  and  with  some 

*  Capaneus. 


OF    DR.    ISAAC    WATTS.  175 

address,  so  as  not  to  fall  within  the  letter  of  the  law,  they  wipe 
their  mouths,  and  pronounce  themselves  harmless; — 'O  vil- 
lain !  villain  !  smilinsr  villain  !'  Think  not  that  I  am  writinjr 
at  random,  for  I  assure  you  I  have  an  original  in  my  eye,  after 
which  I  make  this  picture ;  innumerable  others  there  are  of 
the  same  black  list,  but  with  different  degrees  of  deformity : 
to  be  particular,  there  is  the  physician,  who  purges  you  into 
a  skeleton  with  his  poisonous  doses,  and  calculates  the  time 
of  your  cure  by  the  number  of  his  fees ;  the  man  of  statutes 
and  reports,  who  practises  on  your  estate  as  the  other  does  on 
your  health  : 

*  Sir,  quoth  the  lawyer,  uot  to  flatter  ye, 
You  have  as  good  and  fair  a  battery, 
As  heart  can  wish,  and  need  not  shuine 
The  proudest  man  alive  to  claim  ; 
For  if  it  be  so,  as  you  say, 
Marry,  quoth  1,  you've  got  the  day.' 

Ilt'DIBRAS. 

And  yet,  perhaps,  as  soon  as  you  are  gone,  he  takes  gold  of 
your  adversary  to  betray  your  cause.  There  are  your  states- 
men, too,  who  live  like  fleas  by  sucking  the  blood  of  the  body 
politic :  and  here,  indeed,  the  streams  of  corruption,  that  run 
through  all  our  public  offices,  were  a  large  field  for  satire ;  for, 
if  all  be  true  that  an  honest  bold  fellow  tells  us  in  a  late 
pamphlet,  I  do  not  believe  Rome  was  worse  when  Jugurtha 
said,  that  '  the  city  itself  would  be  set  to  sale,  could  they  hear 
of  a  purchaser.'  It  were  endless  to  enumerate  all  the  particu- 
lar species  of  rogues :  both  court  and  camp  are  filled  with 
them,  and  at  the  exchange  every  day  at  two  you  may  meet 
them  in  swarms.  In  short,  to  say  no  more,  'tis  a  foolish  and 
villanous  world,  and  so  let  us  rub  through  it  as  well  as  we 
can,  remembering  only,  that  some  degrees  of  compliance  are 
requisite  to  carry  us  on  smoothly.  There  is  an  honest  sort  of 
hypocrisy  that  is  the  allowed  language  of  all  mankind,  and 
this  is  no  other  than  a  general  courtesy  of  behaviour,  which 


176  LIFE    AND    TIMES 

will  not  suffer  us  to  speak  truth  at  all  times  and  in  all  places. 
Therefore,  we  must  not  be  more  honest  than  wise,  unless  we 
are  willing  to  be  kicked  about  the  world  like  footballs,  that 
are  suffered  lo  stay  with  nobody.  In  the  meantime  I  think 
myself  happy  in  one  whom  I  dare  call  my  friend,  as  I  hope 
you  will  believe,  on  the  other  hand,  that  I  am 

"  Yours  sincerely,  and  without  reserve, 

"JOHN  hughes/' 

"TO  DAVID  POLHILL,  ESQ. 

"1698. 

"  An  answer  to  an  infamous  satire,  called  'Advice  to  a  Painter  j'  written  by  a 
nameless  author  against  King  William  111.  of  glorious  memory. 

"  Sir, 

"  When  you  put  this  satire  into  my  hand,  you  gave 
me  the  occasion  of  employing  my  pen  to  answer  so  detestable 
a  writing;  which  might  be  done  much  more  effectually  by 
your  known  zeal  for  the  interest  of  his  majesty,  your  counsels 
and  your  courage,  employed  in  the  defence  of  your  king  and 
country  :  and  since  you  provoked  me  to  write,  you  will  accept 
of  these  efforts  of  my  loyalty  to  the  best  of  kings,  addressed  to 
one  of  the  most  zealous  of  his  subjects,  by 

"Sir, 

"  Your  most  obedient  servant, 

"  I.  WATTS." 
"  TO  MR.  ISAAC  WATTS. 

"  Southampton,  March,  1700. 
"  Dear  Brother, 

"  In  your  last  you  discovered  an  inclination  to  oblige 
the  world  by  showing  it  your  hymns  in  print;  and  I  heartily 


OF    DR.    ISAAC    WATTS.  J  77 

wish  as  well  for  the  satisfaction  of  the  public  as  myself,  that 
you  were  something-  more  than  inclinable  thereunto.  I  have 
frequently  importuned  you  to  it  before  now,  and  your  inven- 
tion has  often  furnished  you  with  some  modest  reply  to  the 
contrary,  as  if  what  I  urged  was  only  the  effect  of  a  rash  and 
inconsiderate  fondness  to  a  brother  ;  but  you  will  have  other 
thoughts  of  the  matter  when  I  first  assure  you,  that  that  affec- 
tion, which  is  inseparable  from  our  near  relationship,  would 
have  had  in  me  a  very  different  operation,  for  instead  of  press- 
ing you  to  publish,  I  should  with  my  last  efforts  have  endea- 
voured the  concealment  of  them,  if  my  best  judgment  did  not 
direct  me  to  believe  it  highly  conducing  to  a  general  benefit, 
without  the  least  particular  disadvantage  to  yourself.  This 
latter  I  need  not  have  mentioned,  for  I  am  very  confident 
whoever  has  the  happiness  of  reading  your  hymns  (unless  he 
be  either  sot  or  atheist),  will  have  a  very  favourable  opinion 
of  their  author ;  so  that,  at  the  same  time  you  contribute  to 
the  universal  advantage,  you  will  procure  the  esteem  of  men 
the  most  judicious  and  sensible. 

"  In  the  second  place  you  may  please  to  consider,  how  very 
mean  the  performers  in  this  kind  of  poetry  appear  in  the  pieces 
already  extant.  Some  ancient  ones  I  have  seen  in  my  time, 
who  flourished  in  Hopldns  and  Sternhold's  reign  ;  but  Mason 
now  reduces  this  kind  of  writing  to  a  sort  of  yawning  indiffe- 
rency,  and  honest  Barton  chimes  us  asleep.  There  is,  there- 
fore, great  need  of  a  piece,  vigorous  and  lively  as  yours,  to 
quicken  and  revive  the  dying  devotion  of  the  age,  to  which 
nothing  can  afford  such  assistance  as  poetry,  contrived  on 
purpose  to  elevate  us  even  above  ourselves.  To  what  may  we 
impute  the  prevalency  of  the  songs,  filled  with  the  fabulous 
divinity  of  the  ancient  fathers,  on  our  passions  ?  Is  it,  think 
you,  only  owing  to  a  natural  propensity  in  us  to  be  in  love  with 
fable,  and  averse  to  truth  in  her  native  plainness  ?  I  presume 
it  may  partly  be  ascribed  to  this ;  that  as  romance  has  really 
more  need  of  artifice  than  truth,  to  set  it  off,  so  it  generally 


178  LIFE    AND   TIMES 

has  such  an  abundance  more,  that  it  seldom  fails  of  affecting 
us  by  making  new  and  agreeable  impressions.  Yours  now  is 
the  old  truth,  stripped  of  its  ragged  ornaments,  and  appears, 
if  we  may  say  so,  younger  by  ages,  in  a  new  and  fashionable 
dress,  which  is  commonly  tempting. 

"  And  as  for  those  modern  gentlemen,  who  have  lately  ex- 
hibited their  version  of  the  Psalms;  all  of  them  I  have  not 
seen  I  confess,  and,  perhaps,  it  would  not  be  worth  while  to 
do  it,  unless  I  had  a  mind  to  play  the  critic,  which  you  know 
is  not  my  talent ;  but  those  I  have  read,  confess  to  me  a  vast 
deference  to  yours,  though  they  are  done  by  persons  of  no 
mean  credit.  Dr.  Patrick  most  certainly  has  the  report  of  a 
very  learned  man,  and,  they  say,  understands  the  Hebrew 
extremely  well,  which  indeed  capacitates  him  for  a  translator*, 
but  he  is  thereby  never  the  more  enabled  to  versify.  Tate  and 
Brady  still  keep  near  the  same  pace.  I  know  not  what  sober 
beast  they  ride  (one  that  will  be  content  to  carry  double),  but 
I  am  sure  it  is  no  Pegasus :  there  is  in  them  a  mighty  defi- 
ciency of  that  life  and  soul,  which  is  necessary  to  raise  our 
fancies  and  kindle  and  fire  our  passions,  and  something  or 
other  they  have  to  allege  against  the  rest  of  adventurers ;  but 
I  have  been  persuaded  a  great  while  since,  that  were  David 
to  speak  English,  he  would  choose  to  make  use  of  your  style. 
If  what  I  have  said  seems  to  have  no  weight  with  you,  yet 
you  cannot  be  ignorant  what  a  load  of  scandal  lies  on  the 
dissenters,  only  for  their  imagined  aversion  to  poetry.  You 
remember  what  Dr.  Speed  says : 

'So  far  hath  schism  prevail'^,  they  hate  to  see 
Our  lines  and  words  in  eouplings  to  agree, 
It  looks  too  like  abhorr'd  conformity  : 
A  hymn,  so  soft,  so  smooth,  so  neatly  drest, 
Savours  of  human  learning  and  the  beast.' 

And,  perhaps,  it  has  been  thought  there  were  some  grounds 
for  his  aspersion  from  the  admired  poems  of  Ben.  Keach,  John 
Bunyan,  &c.  all  flat  and  dull  as  they  are ;  nay,  I  am  much  out 


OF    DR.    ISAAC    WATTS.  179 

if  the  latter  has  not  formerly  made  much  more  ravishing-  mu- 
sic with  his  hammer  and  brass  kettle. 

"  Now  when  yours  are  exposed  to  the  public  view,  these 
calumnies  will  immediately  vanish,  which  methinks  should 
be  a  motive  not  the  least  considerable.  And  now  we  are 
talking  of  music,  I  have  a  crotchet  in  my  brain,  which  makes 
me  imagine,  that  as  chords  and  discords  equally  please  heavy- 
eared  people,  so  the  best  divine  poems  will  no  more  inspire  the 
rude  and  illiterate  than  the  meanest  rhymes,  which  may  in 
some  measure  give  you  satisfaction,  in  that  fear  you  discover, 
ne  in  rude  vulgiis  cadant,  and  you  must  allow  them  to  be 
tasteless  to  many  people,  tolerable  to  some,  but  to  those  few 
who  know  their  beauties,  to  be  very  pleasant  and  desirable; 
and,  lastly,  if  I  do  not  speak  reason,  I  will  at  present  take  my 
leave  of  you,  and  only  desire  you  to  hear  what  your  ingenious 
acquaintance  at  London  say  to  the  point,  for  I  doubt  not  you 
have  many  solicitors  there,  whose  judgments  are  much  more 
solid  than  mine.  I  pray  God  Almighty  have  you  in  his  good 
keeping,  and  desire  you  to  believe  me, 

"  My  dear  brother, 

"Your  most  affectionate  kinsman  and  friend, 

"  ENOCH  WATTS." 


"to  LADY  ABNEY. 

"July,  1701. 
"  Madam, 

"  Had  I  been  a  common  mourner  at  the  funeral  of 
the  dear  gentleman  deceased,*  I  should  have  laboured  after 
more  of  art  in  the  following  composition,  to  supply  the  defect 
of  nature,  and  to  feign  a  sorrow ;  but  the  uncommon  conde- 
scension of  his  friendship  to  me,  the  inward  esteem  I  pay  his 

*  Her  brother  Mr.  Gunston. 


180  LIFE    AND   TIMES 

memory,  and  the  vast  and  tender  sense  I  have  of  the  loss, 
make  all  the  methods  of  art  needless,  whilst  natural  grief 
supplies  more  than  all. 

"I  had  resolved,  indeed,  to  lament  in  sig-hs  and  silence, 
and  frequently  checked  the  too-forward  muse  :  hut  the  impor- 
tunity was  not  to  he  resisted  ;  long  lines  of  sorrow  flowed  in 
upon  me  ere  I  was  aware,  whilst  I  took  many  a  solitary  walk 
in  the  garden  adjoining  to  his  seat  at  Newington ;  nor  could 
I  free  myself  from  the  crowd  of  melancholy  ideas.  Your  lady- 
ship will  find,  throughout  the  poem,  that  the  fair  and  unfinish- 
ed building,  which  he  had  just  raised  for  himself,  gave  almost 
all  the  turns  of  mourning  to  my  thoughts ;  for  I  pursue  no 
other  topics  of  elegy  than  v/hat  my  passion  and  my  senses  led 
me  to. 

"  The  poem  roves,  as  my  eyes  and  grief  did,  from  one  part 
of  the  fabric  to  the  other :  it  rises  from  the  foundation,  salutes 
the  walls,  the  doors,  and  the  windows,  drops  a  tear  upon  the 
roof,  and  climbs  the  turret,  that  pleasing  retreat,  where  I  pro- 
mised myself  many  sweet  hours  of  his  conversation  ;  there  my 
song  wanders  amongst  the  delightful  subjects,  divine  and 
moral,  which  used  to  entertain  our  happy  leisure  ;  and  thence 
descends  to  the  fields  and  the  shady  walks,  where  I  so  often 
enjoyed  his  pleasing  discourse ;  my  sorrows  diffuse  themselves 
there  without  a  limit :  I  had  quite  forgotten  all  scheme  and 
method  of  writing,  till  I  correct  myself,  and  rise  to  the  turret 
again  to  lament  that  desolate  seat.  Now,  if  the  critics  laugh 
at  the  folly  of  the  muse,  for  taking  too  much  notice  of  the 
golden  ball,  let  them  consider,  that  the  meanest  thing  that 
belonged  to  so  valuable  a  person,  still  gave  some  fresh  and 
doleful  reflections :  and  I  transcribe  Nature  without  rule,  and 
represent  friendship  in  a  mourning  dress,  abandoned  to  deep- 
est sorrow,  and  with  a  negligence  becoming  woe  unfeigned. 

"  Had  I  designed  a  complete  elegy.  Madam,  on  your  dear- 
est brother,  and  intended  it  for  public  view,  I  should  have 
followed  the  usual  forms  of  poetry,  so  far,  at  least,  as  to  spend 


OF   DR.    ISAAC    WATTS.  181 

some  pages  in  the  character  and  praises  of  the  deceased,  and 
thence  have  taken  occasion  to  call  mankind  to  complain  aloud 
of  the  universal  and  unspeakable  loss :  but  I  wrote  merely  for 
myself,  as  a  friend  of  the  dead,  and  to  ease  my  full  soul,  by 
breathing'  out  my  own  complaints ;  I  knew  his  character  and 
virtues  so  well,  that  there  was  no  need  to  mention  them  while 
I  talked  only  with  myself;  for  the  image  of  them  was  ever 
present  with  me,  which  kept  the  pain  at  the  heart  intense  and 
lively,  and  my  tears  flowing  with  my  verse. 

"  Perhaps  your  ladyship  will  expect  some  divine  thoughts, 
and  sacred  meditations,  mingled  with  a  subject  so  solemn  as 
this  is.  Had  I  formed  a  design  of  offering  it  to  your  hands,  I 
had  composed  a  more  Christian  poem ;  but  it  was  grief  purely 
natural  for  a  death  so  surprising  that  drew  all  the  strokes  of  it, 
and,  therefore,  my  reflections  are  chiefly  of  a  moral  strain. 
Such  as  it  is  your  ladyship  requires  a  copy  of  it ;  but  let  it  not 
touch  your  soul  too  tenderly,  nor  renew  your  own  mournings. 
Receive  it.  Madam,  as  an  offering  of  love  and  tears  at  the  tomb 
of  a  departed  friend,  and  let  it  abide  with  you  as  a  witness  of 
that  affectionate  respect  and  honour  that  I  bore  him  ;  all 
which,  as  your  ladyship's  most  rightful  due,  both  by  merit 
and  by  succession,  is  now  humbly  offered  by, 

"  Madam, 

"  Your  ladyship's  most  hearty 

"  and  obedient  servant, 

"l.  WATTS." 

"Feb.  8,  1702. 

"to  the  church  of  CHRIST  ASSEMBLING  IN 
MARK  LANE,  LONDON.* 

"  Beloved  in  our  Lord, 

"  When  you  first  called  me  to  minister  the  word  of 
God  among  you,  I  took  the  freedom  to  acquaint  you,  that  in 

♦Extracted  from  the  Church  Book. 


182  LIFE    AND   TIMES 

the  chief  doctrines  of  Christianity  I  was  of  the  same  mind 
with  your  former  reverend  pastor,  Dr.  John  Owen,  who  being 
dead  yet  speaketh ;  and  I  have  been  glad  to  find,  by  three 
years'  experience,  that  you  retain  the  same  principles  that  he 
preached  among  you.  Now,  since,  through  your  great  affec- 
tion and  undeserved  respect  to  me,  you  have  thought  fit  to 
call  me  to  the  great  and  solemn  office  of  a  pastor,  I  cannot 
but  take  the  same  freedom  to  hope,  that  you  are  of  one  mind 
with  him  in  the  chief  points  of  church  discipline.  Though  I 
call  no  man  master  upon  earth,  nor  confine  my  belief  to 
the  judgment  of  another,  yet  I  cannot  but  own,  that,  in  the 
study  of  gospel  order,  I  have  found  much  light  and  assistance 
from  his  works,  and  from  those  of  your  late  reverend  pastor, 
Dr.  Isaac  Chauncey  :  but  being  desired  by  you  to  give  some 
hints  of  my  principles  in  writing,  in  order  to  future  satisfac- 
tion, and  continuance  of  peace  and  love  (if  the  Lord  shall  fix 
me  with  you),  I  have  here  briefly  written  a  few  things, 
whereby  you  may  discover  something  of  my  knowledge  in  the 
mind  and  will  of  Christ  concerning  his  churches. 

"1.  I  believe  that  Jesus  Christ,  the  king  of  saints,  has 
given  command  and  power  to  his  saints,  to  form  themselves 
into  spiritual  societies  and  corporations,  for  his  public  gloiy, 
and  their  own  edification. 

"  2.  That  every  society  of  saints,  covenanting  to  walk  with 
God  and  one  another  in  all  the  rules  and  institutions  of  the 
gospel,  is  a  church  of  Christ. 

"  3.  That  every  such  church  has  power  to  increase  its  own 
number  by  the  addition  of  members,  or  to  purge  itself  of  cor- 
rupt members,  before  it  be  organized,  and  made  complete,  by 
having  fixed  officers  among  them. 

"  4.  That  this  society  of  saints  ought  to  look  on  themselves 
more  nearly  united,  and  related  to  one  another,  than  to  other 
Christians ;  and,  consequently,  to  pray  with  and  for  each  other, 
to  visit  one  another,  to  exhort,  comfort,  and  assist  one  another, 
and  to  maintain  such  a  love  and  communion  to  and  with  each 


OF   DR.   ISAAC    WATTS.  183 

Other,  as  that  they  may  look  like  fellow-members  of  the  same 
body. 

"  5.  The  members  of  such  an  incomplete  church,  before  any 
pastor  is  settled  among  them,  may  pray  together,  and  exhort 
one  another  ;  yet  this  church  has  not  power  in  itself  to  admi- 
nister all  ordinances  among  them.  But  when  they  have  cho- 
sen a  proper  officer  to  be  over  them  in  the  Lord,  and  when  he 
is  ordained  by  their  public  call,  his  public  acceiDtance,  and  by 
solemn  separation  of  him  to  tlie  work  by  fasting  and  prayer, 
then  unto  the  officer  is  this  power  committed. 

"  6.  It  follows  thence,  that  though  the  pastor  be  named  or 
chosen  to  this  office  by  the  people,  yet  his  commission  and 
power  to  administer  all  divine  ordinances  is  not  derived  from 
the  people,  for  they  had  not  this  power  in  themselves ;  but  it 
proceeds  from  the  Lord  Jesus  Christ,  who  is  the  only  King  of 
his  church,  and  the  principle  of  all  power ;  and  he  has  ap- 
pointed in  his  word,  that  the  call  of  his  church,  and  solemn 
ordination,  should  be  the  means  whereby  his  ministers  are 
invested  with  this  authority. 

"  7.  That  in  the  ordination  of  a  pastor  to  a  particular  church, 
our  Lord  Christ,  as  the  supreme  Governor  and  Head  of  his 
church,  sets  him  in  an  office  of  spiritual  rule  over  a  wilHng 
people,  who  freely  commit  themselves  to  his  care ;  even  as 
Christ  also,  in  and  by  his  word  and  his  providence,  now  com- 
mits them  unto  his  care  and  charge,  of  which  he  must  give 
an  account. 

"  8.  Hence  it  follows,  that  pastoral  acts,  such  as  teaching, 
feeding,  guiding,  and  overseeing  the  flock ;  exhorting,  re- 
proving, comforting  them ;  are  not  performed  in  the  name  of 
the  people,  but  in  the  name,  stead,  and  place  of  Christ,  by  the 
pastor,  as  his  representative  in  that  church,  and  as  his  am- 
bassador to  it  ;  as  a  shepherd,  in  ruling,  leading,  and  feeding 
his  flock,  acts  not  in  the  name  of  the  sheep,  but  in  the  name 
and  place  of  him  that  owns  them,  and  that  has  committed 
them  unto  his  carej  and,  therefore,  these  pastoral  acts  are  to 


184  LIFE    AND   TIMES 

be  received  by  tbe  people,  as  elotbcd  Avith  the  authority  of  our 
Lord  Jesus  Christ,  so  far  as  they  aj^rce  with  his  mind  and 
will  according  to  these  scriptures:  2  Cor.  v.  20.  'Now,  then, 
we  are  ambassadors  for  Christ,  as  though  God  did  beseech 
you  by  us  :  we  pray  you  in  Christ's  stead,  be  ye  reconciled  to 
God.'  John,  xiii.  20.  '  lie  that  receivelh  wliomsoever  I 
send,  receiveth  me.'  And  this  regard  is  also  due  to  such  acts 
of  the  pastor  from  every  member,  because  they  have  given 
themselves  up  to  him  in  the  Lord. 

"  9.  Yet  I  believe,  that  even  with  regard  to  these  pastoral 
acts,  Christ  has  given  to  his  churches  so  far  a  judgment  of 
discretion,  that  they  are  not  bound  to  submit  blindly  to  the 
government  of  the  pastor,  vmless  he  approve  himself  therein 
to  act  according  to  the  mind  and  will  of  Christ  in  his  word : 
and  it  is  the  neglect  of  this  consideration  that  has  brought  iu 
that  unbounded  authority,  and  usurped  dominion  of  the 
priests,  and  that  implicit  faith  and  blind  obedience  of  the  peo- 
ple, in  the  antichristian  church. 

"10.  I  believe  also,  that  in  all  those  other  exercises  of 
church  order,  which  are  not  merely  acts  of  the  pastor,  but  also 
acts  of  the  church ;  such  as  receiving  and  casting  out  members, 
appointing  places  of  stated  or  occasional  worship,  setting  apart 
days  of  prayer,  and  times  for  church  meetings ;  a  pastor  ought 
to  do  nothing  without  the  consent  of  the  people  :  and  though 
the  wlwle  ofiice  of  a  pastor  herein  lies  not  merely  in  declaring 
the  mind  and  consent  of  the  church,  yet  this  is  part  of  that 
business  and  service  that  he  owcth  to  the  cliurch. 

"11.  That  in  the  admission  of  members  into  the  church,  it 
is  necessary  that  the  people  be  well  satished  with  the  person 
they  receive  into  their  fellowship,  as  well  as  the  pastor  to  re- 
ceive him  into  his  care ;  and  that  the  church  has  liberty  to 
make  objections,  if  they  are  dissatisfied  with  his  fitness  for 
church  communion  :  nor  can  the  pastor  receive  in  any  mem- 
ber, or  cast  out  any  one,  contrary  to  the  mind  of  the  people, 
or  without  their  actual  free  consent. 


OF    DR.    ISAAC    WATTS.  185 

"12.  I  believe,  that  when  the  pastor  admits  a  member, 
upon  the  profession  of  his  faith  and  hope,  and  the  satisfaction 
of  the  church,  he  doth,  in  the  name  of  our  Lord  Jesus  Christ, 
and  by  the  consent  of  the  church,  receive  him  into  fellowship 
with  Christ,  and  with  that  church,  in  all  g-ospel  privileges  and 
ordinances. 

"  13.  The  duties  of  a  pastor  are  chiefly  such  as  these : 
preaching  and  labouring-  in  the  word  and  doctrine ;  praying 
earnestly  for  his  flock  in  public  and  private ;  administering 
the  seals  of  the  covenant  of  grace,  baptism,  and  the  Lord's 
supper;  being  instant  in  season  and  out  of  season,  teaching 
and  exhorting,  comforting  and  rebuking  with  all  long-suffer- 
ing and  doctrine ;  contending  for  and  preserving  the  truth ; 
approving  himself  an  example  to  the  flock;  visiting  the  sick 
and  the  poor ;  praying  with  them  and  taking  care  of  them ; 
making  inquiries  into  the  state  of  his  flock,  especially  as  to 
spiritual  aff"airs ;  endeavouring  to  stir  up  and  promote  religion 
in  their  households  and  families  ;  and  labouring,  by  all  means 
and  methods  of  Christ's  appointment,  to  further  their  faith  and 
holiness,  their  comfort  and  increase :  and  it  is  the  duty  of  the 
people  to  attend  upon  his  ministrations,  to  pray  for  him,  to 
encourage  and  support  him ;  and,  whereinsoever  he  acts 
according  to  the  will  of  Christ,  to  receive  him  with  all  due 
regard. 

"  14.  That  it  is  the  proper  business  of  the  pastor  also,  to 
present  persons  and  cases  to  the  church,  and  to  ask  the  votes 
or  consent  of  the  church,  as  one  that  is  set  to  go  before  the 
flock  ;  except  when  he  is  necessitated  to  be  absent ;  or,  through 
any  indisposition,  incapable  when  present;  or  where  the  pas- 
tor himself  is  so  far  concerned  in  the  case  to  be  proposed,  as 
may  render  it  improper  for  him  to  propose  it. 

"  15.  For  the  better  performance  of  all  these  things,  and  by 
reason  of  the  various  necessities  of  a  church,  other  officers  are 
also  appointed  by  Christ,  of  several  names  in  scripture,  espe- 
cially for  churches  where  the  members  grow  numerous ;  all 

N 


186  LIFE    AND   TIMES 

whose  business  is  to  assist  the  pastor  in  those  affairs  which 
caniiot  so  fully  be  managed  by  himself  alone,  each  of  them 
according  to  their  place,  ofi&ce,  and  business,  which  the  Lord 
has  appointed  them  unto  in  his  word. 

"  Lastly,  That  in  the  management  of  every  affair  in  the 
church  there  ought  to  be  a  spirit  of  gentleness,  meekness, 
lowliness  of  mind,  love,  affection,  and  tenderness ;  both  in  the 
pastor  and  people,  toward  each  other;  for  Jesus,  the  great 
Shepherd  of  his  church,  was  most  humble  and  compassionate, 
most  gentle  and  meek ;  and  his  saints  are  called  his  sheep 
from  their  like  dispositions ;  and  that,  the  edification  of  the 
church  being  one  great  end  for  which  Christ  has  given  this 
office  to  his  ministers,  all  lesser  concerns  and  differences  ought 
to  be  managed  with  a  continual  regard  to  this  great  end,  and 
for  the  public  honour  of  Christ  in  his  churches. 

"  Thus  I  have  given  a  short  account  of  some  of  the  chief 
principles  of  gospel  order.  If  I  am  so  unhappy  in  any  of  my 
expressions  to  be  obscure,  and  to  want  explaining,  I  am  ready 
at  any  time  to  declare  my  meaning,  and  also  to  give  the  rea- 
sons of  my  judgment  on  any  of  the  foregoing  articles,  showing 
that  they  not  only  agree  with  the  judgment  of  your  reverend 
pastors  aforenamed,  but,  which  is  more  considerable,  that 
they  are  all,  in  my  apprehension,  suitable  to  the  will  of  Christ, 
concerning  churches  and  pastors  revealed  in  his  word. 

"  Christian  friends,  dearly  beloved,  I  cannot  but  tell  you, 
that  while  I  have  been  writing  these  articles,  especially  the 
7th,  8th,  and  13th,  I  shrink  at  the  very  thoughts  of  your  call 
of  me  to  so  weighty  an  office  in  the  church  of  Christ,  and  I 
find  such  discouragements  from  the  awfulness  and  greatness  of 
the  work,  that  it  makes  me  cry  out  feelingly,  '  Who  is  suffi- 
cient for  these  things  ?'  And  this  inclines  me  still  to  suspend 
my  answer,  and  to  renew  my  request  to  you  (though  often  in 
vain  renewed)  of  quitting  all  thoughts  of  me,  and  choosing 
one,  whose  gifts,  graces,  and  abilities,  may  be  more  capable 


OF    DR.    ISAAC   WATTS.  187 

of  discharging  so  vast  a  trust,  and  filling  up  the  duties  of  so 
sacred  an  office. 

"  Yours  in  the  service  of  the  gospel, 

"  ISAAC  WATTS." 

"from  THE  REV.  T.  ROWE'S  CHURCH,  TO  J'HE  CHURCH 
OF  CHRIST,  OF  WHICH  THE  REV.  DR.  CHAUNCEY 
WAS    LATELY    PASTOR. 

"  Forasmuch  as  our  dear  brother,  Mr.  Isaac  Watts,  who 
was  with  great  satisfaction  admitted  a  member  amongst  us, 
and  hath  since  walked  as  becomes  the  gospel,  to  the  glory  of 
God,  and  to  the  honour  of  his  holy  profession,  doth  now  de- 
sire his  dismission  from  us,  we  do,  in  compliance  therewith, 
discharge  him  from  his  membership  among  us,  in  order  to  his 
being  received  by  you,  praying  that  his  ministerial  labours, 
and  those  gifts  and  graces  wherewith  the  Lord  Jesus  Christ, 
the  great  head  of  the  church,  hath  been  pleased  so  richly  to 
furnish  him,  may  be  abundantly  blessed,  to  the  conversion  of 
souls,  and  your  edification,  to  whose  grace  and  blessing  we 
do  from  our  hearts  commend  both  him  and  you. 

CtHOMAS  ROWE,  PASTOR, 

"  bubscnbed  with  the  consent  oi  1 

,         ,  ,    ,  <  NATHANIEL  PEACOCK, 

the  church  by  I 

l^JOHN  ANTRIM. 

"Feb.  26,  1702." 


"MR.    WATTS    TO   THE    CHURCH    AT    MARK    LANE. 

"  Brethren, 

"  You  know  what  a  constant  aversion  I  have  had  to 
any  proposals  of  a  pastoral  office  for  these  three  years,  ever 
since  the  providence  of  God  called  me  first  among  you.    You 


188  LTFE    AND    TIMES 

know  also  that,  since  you  have  given  me  a  unanimous  and 
solemn  call  thereto,  I  have  heartily  proposed  several  methods 
for  your  settlement  without  me,  but  your  choice  and  your 
affections  seemed  still  to  he  settled  and  unmoved.     I  have 
objected  warmly  and  often,  my  own  indispositions  of  body, 
which  incapacitate  me  for  much  service,  and  I  have  pointed 
often   to   three   reverend   divhies  that  are    members  of  this 
church,  whose  gifts  might  render  them  more  proper  for  in- 
struction, and  whose  age  for  government.     These  things  I 
have  urged  till  I  have  provoked  you  to  sorrow  and  tears,  and 
till  I  myself  have  been  almost  ashamed.     But  your  perseve- 
rance in  your  choice  and  love,  your  constant  profession  of 
edification  by  my  ministry,  the  great  probability  you  show  of 
building  up  this  famous  and  decayed  church  of  Christ,  if  I 
accept  the  call,  and  your  prevailing  fears  of  its  dissolution  if  I 
refuse,  have  given  me  ground  to  believe  that  the  voice  of  this 
church  is  the  voice  of  Christ  by  you  :  and  to  answer  this  call 
I  have  not  consulted  with  flesh  and  blood:  I  have  laid  aside 
the  thoughts  of  myself  to  serve  the  interest  of  our  Lord.  I  give 
up  my  own  ease  for  your  spiritual  profit  and  your  increase.    I 
submit  my  inclinations  to  my  duty,  and  in  hopes  of  being 
made  an  instrument  in  the  hands  of  Christ  to  build  up  this 
ancient  church,  I  return  this  solemn  answer  to  your  call,  that, 
with  a  great  sense  of  my  own  inability  in  mind  and  body  to 
discharge  the  duties  of  so  sacred  an  office,  I  do,  in  the  strength 
of  Christ,  venture  upon  it,  and  in  the  name  of  our  Lord  Jesus 
I  accept  your  call,  promising  in  the  presence  of  God  and  his 
saints,  my  utmost  diligence  in  all  the  duties  of  a  pastor,  so  far 
as  God  shall  enlighten  and  strengthen  me ;  and  I  leave  this 
promise  in  the  hands  of  Christ  our  Mediator,  to  see  it  performed 
by  me  unto  you  through  the  assistance  of  his  grace  and  Spirit." 


OF   DR.    ISAAC    WATTS.  189 

"TO    MR.    ENOCH    WATTS. 

"  My  dear  brother, 

"  I  send  you  the  following  definitions,  or  perhaps 
rather  descriptions,  according-  to  your  request,  being  the 
shortest  and  most  comprehensive  that  I  can  form  upon  the 

subjects. 

"  Yours  affectionately, 

"  ISAAC  WATTS. 

"The  several  opinions  about  religion,  that  are  this  day  in 
England,  are  as  follow  :  First,  in  respect  of  doctrine ;  Atheists, 
Deists,  Arians,  Socinians,  Quakers,  Papists,  Arminians,  Sab- 
batarians, Anabaptists,  Calvinists,  Baxterians,  and  Antino- 
mians. 

1.    ATHEISTS. 

"  First,  Deny  the  being  of  God.  2d,  Say  that  the  world  is 
eternal,  that  it  had  no  beginning,  and  shall  have  no  end ;  and 
that  as  men  are  continually  born,  and  afterwards  die,  so  suc- 
cessive generations  shall  last  to  eternity.  Others  indeed  there 
are,  who  say  the  world  was  formed  some  thousands  of  years 
ago  by  atoms,  or  little  particles  of  matter  jumping  together  by 
chance,  and  that  these  atoms  shall  after  some  time  fall  to 
pieces  again;  and  afterwards,  it  may  be,  jump  into  new 
worlds — a  very  pretty  conceit '  So  that  they  believe  these 
atoms  to  be  from  eternity  to  eternity.  3d,  Hence  it  follows, 
that  there  is  nothing  in  man  distinct  from  his  body,  and  that 
the  soul  is  nothing  but  fine  spirits,  drawn  from  the  blood,  and 
playing  about  in  the  brain.  4th,  Hence  it  follows,  that  they 
own  no  after  state,  but  as  the  brute  dies  so  dies  the  man,  and 
the  soul  dies  with  the  body.  5th,  As  a  consequence  of  all  this, 
they  think  they  may  indulge  themselves  in  all  manner  of 
pleasures. 


190  LIFE   AND   TIMES 


II.    DEISTS, 


"  First,  They  own  there  is  a  God.  2d,  That  this  God  is  to 
be  worshipped,  i.  e.  by  loving  him,  honouring,  and  having 
awful  thoughts  of  him.  3d,  They  deny  the  scriptures  to  be 
the  word  of  God,  and  so  are  called  Antiscripturists.  4th,  They 
deny  the  Trinity  and  Christ,  and  all  the  methods  of  the  Chris- 
tian religion  that  are  particularly  revealed  in  scripture,  and 
oblige  themselves  only  to  perform  the  duties  of  natural  reli- 
gion, i.  e.  loving  and  honouring  God  in  general,  and  sometimes 
praying  to  him  and  giving  him  thanks,  and  being  honest 
among  men.  5th,  Hereby  they  suppose  they  so  please  God, 
that  they  shall  be  in  an  happy  state  hereafter,  if  there  be  any 
such  thing,  for  some  of  them  doubt  whether  there  be  or  no. 

"III.   ARIANS. 

"  Arians  are  old  heretics,  the  disciples  of  one  Arius,  above 
one  thousand  years  ago,  and  in  our  times  some  men  are  apt 
to  believe  his  errors,  which  are.  First,  That  Christ  is  not  real 
and  true  God,  equal  with  the  Father,  but  only  a  creature  cre- 
ated before  all  things  else,  and  God  made  use  of  him  before 
he  made  the  world.  This  notion  they  build  upon  the  false 
interpretation  of  1  John,  i.  2,  3,  and  Colos.  i.  15,  16.  2d, 
That  Christ  is  called  God  only  in  respect  of  his  office;  that  is, 
his  doing  miracles,  his  instructing  the  world,  and  such  like. 
3d,  They  deny  the  Holy  Spirit  to  be  a  person  in  the  Godhead, 
and  so  overthrow  the  Trinity,  and  hence  they  are  called  Anti- 
trinitarians. 

"  IV.    SOCINIANS. 

"There  was  one  Socinus,  in  Calvin's  time,  who  revived  the 
heresy  of  Arius,  but  explained  it  after  another  manner.  First, 
the  Socinians  deny  Christ  to  be  real  God,  and  yet  they  own 
the  scripture  to  be  the  word  of  God  as  well  as  the  Ariaus. 


OF    DR.    ISAAC    WATTS.  191 

2d,  They  say  Christ  did  not  die  to  satisfy  divine  justice  for  our 
sins,  but  only  to  confirm  the  truth  of  his  doctrine,  and  to  give 
us  a  good  example.  They  deny  a  Trinity  of  persons  in  the 
Deity  ;  they  deny  original  sin,  and  say  that  children  sin  by 
imitation,  not  from  corrupt  nature.  The  foundation  of  their 
errors  is,  that  they  make  reason  the  interpreter  of  scripture, 
and  generally  believe  the  soul  sleeps  with  the  body  till  the 
resurrection. 

"  V.    QUAKERS. 

"  First,  They  did  generally  shake  and  quake  at  their  first  com- 
ing up,  which  was  about  fifty  years  ago,  and  thence  had  their 
name.  2d,  They  deny  all  ordinances,  and  say,  they  are  above 
them.  3d,  They  affirm  perfection  in  this  life,  and  deny  that 
Jesus  Christ,  who  died  at  Jerusalem,  to  be  true  God.  They 
own  a  light  within,  which  they  call  Christ  and  God,  and  say 
it  is  in  every  man  if  he  would  attend  to  it,  and  they  follow 
the  motions  of  this  light  within  in  all  their  actions.  This 
gives  them  the  name  of  Enthusiasts.  Though  they  do  not 
utterly  deny  scripture,  yet  speak  meanly  of  it,  say  it  is  a  dead 
letter,  and  that  they  do  not  need  it,  because  they  have  the 
Holy  Spirit  in  them,  &c.  they  deny  honour,  and  therefore  they 
salute  none.  In  their  first  rise  they  had  a  great  many  mad 
frantic  fits,  and  strange.  They  are  lately  divided  into  two 
sects,  one  of  them  follow  Penn,  of  the  notions  aforementioned, 
the  other  George  Keith  and  Mead;  and  it  is  said,  they  own 
Christ  the  Son  of  God,  satisfaction  by  him,  and  justification 
through  him,  and  are  by  little  and  little  leaving  the  old  Qua- 
kers' principles. 

"VI.    RAPISTS. 

"They  deny  original  sin  in  that  extent  as  Calvinists  own 
it:  also  justification  by  faith  alone,  perseverance,  assurance, 
&c.    They  own  the  doctrine  of  meritorious  works,  tra^lition  of 


192  LIFE    AND   TIMES 

equal  authority  to  scripture,  the  worship  of  God  by  images, 
and  transubstantiation,  the  constant  sacrifice  of  the  mass,  per- 
fection in  this  Hfe,  and  works  of  supererogation,  invocation  of 
saints,  prayer  for  the  dead,  implicit  faith,  or  beUeving  whatever 
the  pope  says,  purgatory,  the  pope's  supremacy  over  the  church, 
seven  sacraments,  and  other  things  contrary  to  the  reformed 
churches. 

"VII.      ARMINTANS. 

"There  was  one  Pelagius  of  old,  that  invented  several  opin- 
ions about  free-will,  and  against  free-grace;  those  that  follow- 
ed him  strictly  were  called  Pelagians ;  those  that  allowed  more 
to  free-grace  were  called  Semi- Pelagians,  almost  the  same  with 
modern  Arminians,  called  also  Remonstrants,  and  by  the  com- 
mon people  Free-willers.  Their  notions  are ;  that  God  elects 
none  to  salvation  but  on  the  account  of  that  faith  he  foresees  in 
them.  2d,  That  faith  and  sincere  obedience  are  made  the 
conditions  of  justification  and  salvation,  just  as  Adam's  perfect 
obedience  would  have  entitled  him  to  eternal  life,  and  so  God 
reputes  this  imperfect  obedience  for  perfect,  having  released 
the  rigour  of  the  law  upon  the  account  of  Christ's  satisfaction, 
that  God  sent  him  to  die  without  any  particular  design  to  save 
any  particular  person  hy  it,  but  only  to  redeem  all  men  in  ge- 
neral, and  now  he  applies  salvation  to  all  that  believe  and  re- 
pent. That  Christ  so  far  redeemed  all  men,  that  none  shall 
be  condemned  for  original  sin ;  nay,  they  are  ready  to  say, 
there  is  no  original  sin,  or  at  least  nothing  in  that  extent,  as 
Calvinists  make  it,  that  a  natural  man  may  use  common  grace, 
so  as  to  attain  saving  grace  and  at  last  salvation.  That  all  the 
grace  that  God  gives  towards  the  conversion  of  a  sinner,  is 
nothing  but  persuading  him  and  enlightening  his  understand- 
ing; but  some  go  farther  and  say,  that  God  gives  some  little 
touches  to  the  will  of  man,  to  move  him  to  believe  and  repent, 
but  all  of  them  say,  that  after  all  a  man  is  left  indifferent. 


OF   DR.    ISAAC    WATTS.  193 

They  say  God  gives  a  believer  grace  enough  to  persevere,  but 
he  may  not  use  it,  and  so  fall.  That  there  is  no  certainty  of 
perseverance  in  this  life,  and  consequently  no  certainty  of 
salvation  without  particular  revelation. 


"VIII.   SABBATARIANS. 

"  There  are  those  who  go  by  the  name  of  Seventh-day -men, 
because  they  suppose  the  Jewish  sabbath  is  not  abolished, 
and  therefore  they  observe  our  Saturday  for  their  sabbath. 
They  are  against  baptizing  infants.  Many  of  them  now  only 
assert  a  happy  state  of  the  church  to  be  expected. 


"  IX.   ANABAPTISTS. 

"  They  differ  not  from  Calvinists  in  their  doctrine,  unless  in 
the  article  of  infant  baptism.  They  generally  deny  any  chil- 
dren to  be  in  the  covenant  of  grace,  and  so  deny  the  seal  of  the 
covenant  to  them.  They  deny  baptism  by  sprinkling  to  be 
real  and  true  baptism.  In  church  government  generally  In- 
dependents. 

"X.    CALVINISTS. 

"  So  called  from  John  Calvin,  a  great  reformer  ;  his  doc- 
trine the  same  with  the  Assembly's  Confession  of  Faith. 


"XI.   BAXTERIANS. 

"  From  Mr.  Richard  Baxter,  whose  design  was  to  reconcile 
Calvin  and  Arminius ;  his  Body  of  Divinity  is  part  of  the  one 
and  part  of  the  other.    The  one  God  has  elected  some  which 


194  LIFE  AND  TIMES 

shall  certainly  be  saved,  and  others  to  whom  the  o^ospel  is 
preached  have  sufficient  grace  given  them ;  that  is,  they  have 
common  grace,  which  if  they  improve  well  they  shall  have 
saving  grace  according  to  Arminius.  They  own,  according  to 
Calvin,  the  merits  of  Christ's  death  to  be  applied  to  believers 
only  ;  but  also  that  all  men  are  in  a  stale  capable  of  salvation. 
Mr.  Baxter  says,  there  may  be  a  certainty  of  perseverance  here, 
and  yet  he  cannot  tell  whether  a  man  may  not  have  so  weak  a 
degree  of  saving  grace  as  to  lose  it  again :  a-kin  to  Arminius. 
"  But  so  long  as  Mr.  Baxter  owns  no  salvation,  but  by  the 
salvation  and  merits  of  Christ,  and  no  application  of  these 
without  believing,  and  no  true  faith  but  what  is  the  gift  of 
God  :  hence  there  is  sufficient  ground  to  believe  that  his 
opinions,  and  his  followers,  who  are  generally  not  so  wide  as 
himself,  are  not  so  exceeding  dangerous  as  some  men  think 
them,  and  we  may  believe  them  true  Christians,  though  they 
may  differ  in  many  things  from  the  confession  of  faith,  and  the 
general  opinions  of  the  reformers  and  reformed  churches. 


"XII.   ANTINOMIANS. 

"Those  called  Antinomians  now-a-days  take  not  so  much 
care  in  expressing  the  Calvinistic  doctrine,  which  most  of  them 
pretend  to  own,  and  so  vent  dangerous  errors  under  such  dan- 
gerous expressions  as  these:  1st,  That  God  sees  no  sin  in  his 
people,  and  therefore  saints  need  not  ask  pardon.  2d,  Christ 
was  a  murderer,  a  blasphemer,  &c.  because  he  had  those  sins 
imputed  to  him.  Christ  believed  and  repented  for  us  as  well 
as  died  for  us.  We  must  not  try  our  assurance  or  the  good- 
ness of  our  estate  by  our  graces  or  sanctification ;  there  is  no 
use  of  the  law  in  driving  a  man  to  Christ,  and  therefore  not 
to  be  preached.  God  loves  a  man  never  the  better  for  holiness, 
nor  an  elect  person  the  worse  for  unholi  ness :  Christ  is  a  be- 
liever's sanctification,  so  far  that  he  need  not  seek  it  in  himself 


OF   DR.    ISAAC    WATTS.  195 

to  evidence  justification :  faith  is  not  so  properly  an  acceptance 
of  Christ  as  an  assurance  that  he  is  ours. 

"  The  several  opinions  about  religion  are,  secondly,  in  re- 
spect of  discipline  and  order.  The  three  chief  in  England  at 
present  are  called  by  the  names  of  Episcopacy,  Presbytery, 
and  Independency. 

"I.    EPISCOPACY. 

"These  are  those  called  Conformists,  or  the  Church  of 
England.  Isl,  They  own  that  a  bishop  is  an  officer  appointed 
by  Christ  to  oversee  churches  and  their  pastors,  and  in  their 
hands  are  placed  the  keys  of  admission  and  excommunication 
of  every  particular  church.  2d,  All  ordination  of  ministers 
ought  to  be  by  bishops.  3d,  That  the  church,  or  these  heads 
of  it,  have  power  to  impose  ceremonies.  4th,  Hence  they 
worship  God  in  a  ceremonious  way ;  as  the  cross  in  baptism, 
bowing  at  the  high  altar,  kneeling  at  the  sacrament,  the  sur- 
plice, and  many  other  things  testify.  5th,  They  not  only  allow 
but  impose  forms  of  prayer,  and  use  little  else.  6th,  Though 
their  great  pretensions  and  chief  subjects  of  their  sermons  be 
peace,  and  love,  and  unity ;  though  they  own  these  ceremo- 
nies to  be  indifferent  in  their  nature,  and  believe  the  dissenters 
worship  God  aright ;  yet  have  they  almost  persecuted  them  to 
death  for  not  conforming.  But  it  is  hoped  this  persecuting 
tenet  does  not  belong  to  their  church,  but  only  was  authorised 
and  encouraged  by  men  of  power. 

"II.    PRESBYTERY. 

"  The  true  and  original  notion  of  Presbytery  is,  that  God 
hath  appointed  a  synod,  or  class,  or  assembly  of  ministers,  or 
elders,  to  be  superior  in  power  and  government  to  any  parti- 
cular church  or  officers  thereof.     2d,  That  these  synods,  or 


19G  LIFE    AND   TIMES 

councils,  have  power  rainisterially  to  determine  controversies 
in  faith  and  discipline,  and  that  any  person  in  a  church  may 
appeal  to  them  for  any  injury  received  from  any  church ;  hut 
this  opinion  is  almost  worn  off  in  England.  The  tenets  of  the 
Presbyterians  of  our  times  and  day  arc:  1st,  That  a  minister 
ought  to  be  ordained  by  the  laying  of  the  hands  of  other  elders 
or  ministers  after  examination,  fasting,  and  prayer.  2d,  That 
a  minister  may  be  ordained  so  as  to  have  power  given  him  to 
administer  ordinances  in  general,  even  before  he  takes  the 
charge  of  the  church  upon  him.  3d,  That  there  is  no  need  of 
any  new  ordination  when  they  are  called  to  a  particular  con- 
gregation. 4th,  That  it  is  the  office  of  a  minister  to  rule  in  the 
church,  and  the  people's  duty  to  consent,  though  generally  the 
minister  will  not  do  any  thing  in  the  church  without  their 
consent.  5th,  If  all  the  church  are  willing  any  church  act 
should  be  done,  yet  it  must  not  be  done  without  consent  of  the 
minister.  This  is  called  the  minister's  having  a  negative 
voice,  but  this  is  contrary  to  rigid  Independents.  6th,  Their 
doctrine  is  generally  Calvinistical,  but  many  of  those  who  are 
called  Presbyterians  have  of  late  years  inclined  more  to  Mr. 
Baxter.  7th,  They  preach,  that  good  knowledge  and  a  sober 
conversation  are  not  sufficient  evidences  of  a  good  state  ;  and 
yet  usually  inquire  no  farther  than  of  the  knowledge  and  con- 
versation of  those  they  admit  into  their  churches ;  hence  it 
follows,  they  are  larger  in  church  discipline  than  Independents. 
8th,  Most  of  them  own  the  office  of  deacons  in  a  church,  but 
generally  deny  any  ruling  elders  distinct  from  ministers,  and 
yet  many  of  them  think  it  convenient  to  choose  two  or  three 
men  of  their  church  to  inspect  the  conversations  of  others. 

"III.    INDEPENDENTS. 

"There  were  some  of  the  Independents  heretofore  called 
Brownists,  some  of  whom  were  very  irregular  in  the  manage- 
ment of  church  affairs,  but  they  are  not  to  be  found  now :  the 


OF   DR.    ISAAC    WATTS.  197 

tenets  of  rigid  Independents  are ;  1st,  That  every  church  hath 
all  the  power  of  governing  itself  in  itself,  and  that  every  thing- 
done  in  a  church  must  be  by  the  majority  of  the  votes  of  the 
brethren.  2d,  That  every  church  has  its  minister  ordained  to 
itself,  and  that  he  cannot  administer  the  ordinances  to  any 
other  people,  and  if  he  preaches  among  others  it  is  but  as  a 
gifted  brother.  But  the  generality  of  Independents  follow 
rather  Dr.  Owen's  notions ;  their  tenets  are  such  as  these : 
1st,  That  the  power  of  church  government  resides  in  the  pas- 
tors and  elders  of  every  particular  church,  and  that  it  is  the 
duty  of  the  people  to  consent;  and,  nevertheless,  because  every 
act  in  a  church  is  a  church  act,  they  never  do  any  thing  with- 
out the  consent  of  the  people,  though  they  receive  no  new 
authority  by  the  people's  consenting.  3d,  They  generally 
think  a  minister  not  to  be  ordained  but  to  a  particular  church, 
though  many  of  them  now  think  that,  by  virtue  of  commu- 
nion of  churches,  he  may  preach  authoritatively,  and  admi- 
nister the  ordinances  to  other  churches  upon  extraordinary 
occasions,  4th,  That  it  is  not  absolutely  necessary  that  a 
minister  be  ordained  by  the  imposition  of  hands  of  other  mi- 
nisters, but  only  requisite  that  other  ministers  should  be  there 
present  as  advisers  and  assistants  when  he  is  ordained  by  the 
church ;  that  is,  set  apart  by  their  choice,  his  acceptance, 
mutual  fasting  and  prayer.  5th,  They  generally  hold  more  to 
the  doctrine  of  Calvin  than  Presbyterians  do.  6th,  They  think 
it  not  sufficient  ground  to  be  admitted  a  member,  if  the  person 
be  only  examined  as  to  his  doctrinal  knowledge  and  sobriety 
of  conversation;  but  they  require  with  all  some  hints,  or 
means,  or  evidences  of  the  work  of  grace  on  their  souls,  to  be 
professed  by  them,  and  that  not  only  to  the  minister  but  to  the 
elders  also,  who  are  joint  rulers  in  the  church.  Though  this 
profession  of  some  of  their  experience  is  generally  made  first 
to  the  minister,  either  by  word  or  writing,  but  the  elders  al- 
ways hear  it,  and  are  satisfied  before  the  person  is  admitted  a 
member.     7th,  These  relations,  which  the  Independents  re- 


\9S  LIFE    AND   TIMES 

quire,  are  not  (as  some  thinlv)  of  the  \vord  or  scripture,  or  time, 
or  place,  or  sermon,  by  which  they  were  converted  ;  for  very 
few  can  tell  this ;  but  only  they  discourse  and  examine  them 
a  little  of  the  way  of  their  conviction  of  sin,  of  their  being 
brought  to  know  Christ;  or  at  least  ask  them  what  evidences 
they  can  give  why  they  hope  they  are  true  believers,  and  try 
to  search  whether  there  be  sincerity  in  the  heart,  as  much  as 
may  be  found  by  outward  profession,  that  they  may,  as  much 
as  in  them  lies,  exclude  hypocrites." 


OF    DR.    ISAAC    AVATTS.  199 


CHAPTER  VII. 

1703—1712. 
FIRST  YEARS  OF  HIS  MINISTRY. 


CHURCH  IN  MARK  LANE.— MR.  CARYL.— DR.  OWEN.  — ILLNESS  OF  WATTS.— 
STATE  OF  THE  MINISTRY  IN  THE  ESTABLISHMENT  AND  AMONG  THE 
DISSENTERS-REMOVES  TO  MR.  HOLLIS'S.— MRS.  OWEN'S  DEATH.— MR. 
PRICE  CHOSEN  ASSISTANT.— DREADFUL  STORM.— COMMEMORATIVE  SER- 
MONS—CONGREGATION REIMOVES  TO  PINNER'S  HALL— ILLNESS  AND 
DEATH  OF  LOCKE.— UNION  OF  ENGLAND  AND  SCOTLAND— MR.  SHUTE 
AND  DE  FOE.— ESSAY  AGAINST  UNCIIARITABLENESS  PUBLISHED.— ANEC- 
DOTE OF  TILLOTSON— PRINTED  A  REFORMATION  SERMON.-ACCOUNT 
OF  THE  SOCIETIES  FOR  REFORMATION  OF  MANNERS.— DELUSIONS  OF 
THE  FRENCH  PROPHETS.— THE  CAMISARS.— NICHOLAS  FATIO,  MAXIMIL- 
IAN MISSON,  AND  ELIAS  MARION— MR.  LACY  AND  SIR  RICHARD  BULKE- 
LEY  JOIN  THE  PROPHETS.— DISAPPOINTED  IN  THE  RESURRECTION  OF 
DR.  EMMS.— MEETING-HOUSE  IN  BURY  STREET  BUILT.— SACHEVEREL 
RIOTS.-MEMORANDA  CONCLUDES.— MR.  SHALLOT.— MRS.  PICKARD.— IN- 
SCRIPTION IN  CHESHUNT  CHURCH.— CORRESPONDENCE. 


The  church  with  which  Watts  was  now  settled,  is  remark- 
able for  the  number  of  ejected  ministers  who  have  presided 
over  it,*  and  the  distinguished  characters  who  have  been  en- 
rolled among  its  members.  It  was  founded  by  the  celebrated 
Joseph  Caryl,  the  author  of  the  voluminous  commentary  on 
the  book  of  Job;  and  consisted  of  some  of  his  former  hearers 
at  St.  Magnus,  of  which  living  the  act  of  uniformity  deprived 
him.f  He  preached  to  them  as  often  as  the  rigour  of  the  times 
would  allow,  sometimes  probably  at  his  own  residence  in  Bury 
Street,  but  afterwards  he  had  a  meeting-house  in  Leadenhall 
Street.     After  the  death  of  Mr.  Caryl,  which  took  place  Fe- 

*  See  Appendix  F.         f  Wilson's  Hist,  of  the  Diss.  Churclies,  vol.  1.  p.  252. 


200  LIFE    AND    TIMES 

bruaiy  5,  1673,  the  church  invited  his  friend,  Dr.  John  Owen, 
to  become  their  pastor,  who  having  a  small  congregation  in 
the  neighbourhood,  both  interests  agreed  to  unite  *  The  first 
time  they  assembled  together  was  on  the  5th  of  June,  in  the 
same  year,  when  Dr.  Owen  preached  to  them  from  Colossians, 
iii.  14 :  "  Jnd  above  all  these  thhirjs!  imt  on  charity,  ich'ich  is  the 
bond  ofperfectnessy  Mr.  Caryl  left  behind  him  one  hundred 
and  thirty-six  communicants;  Dr.  Owen  brought  with  him 
thirty-five;  so  that  the  united  church  consisted  of  one  hun- 
dred and  seventy-one  members.  The  union  of  religion  with 
rank  and  station,  was  not  then  of  such  rare  occurrence  as  at 
the  present.  In  the  list  of  members  of  this  church,  we  find 
the  names  of  Lord  Charles  Fleetwood,  Sir  John  Hartopp, 
Colonel  Desborough,  brother-in-law  to  the  Protector,  Colonel 
James  15erry,  Lady  Abney,  Lady  Hartopp,  Lady  Vere  Wil- 
kinson, Lady  Thompson,  and  the  eccentric  Mrs.  Bendish. 

Nineteen  years  elapsed  from  the  time  of  Dr.  Owen's  death 
to  Watts's  accession  to  the  pastorship ;  and  during  the  close  of 
that  period,  the  church  and  congregation  gradually  declined. 
The  settlement  of  VV^atts  with  them,  whose  character,  piety, 
and  talQuts  were  now  widely  known  and  appreciated,  was 
regarded  by  them  as  an  auspicious  event.  His  immediate 
friends  anticipated  beneficial  results  to  the  cause  of  religion ; 
and  the  people  among  whom  he  was  called  to  labour,  indulged 
sanguine  hopes  of  largely  profiting  by  his  instructions.  But 
Providence  frequently  sees  fit  to  mar  our  expectations,  to  cloud 
our  prospects,  and  to  deprive  us  of  the  objects  of  our  afi"ection- 
ate  solicitude.  It  is  by  this  painful  yet  salutary  discipline, 
that  the  Christian  is  most  effectually  taught  to  withdraw  his 
dependance  from  man,  and  to  place  it  beyond  the  influence  of 
human  vicissitudes.  By  fresh  inroads  of  sickness,  the  newly- 
appointed  pastor  was  disabled  from  the  discharge  of  ministerial 
duty ;  and  the  painful  necessity  was  speedily  imposed  upon 
the  church,  of  providing  him  an  assistant  in  his  labours. 

*  Orme's  Life  of  Owen,  p.  3(52. 


OF    DR.   ISAAC    WATTS.  201 

"Visited my  friends  at  SoutlUo,  July,  1702. 

"  Seized  with  violent  Gaundise  and  cholic  3  weeks  after  my 
return  to  London.  And  had  a  very  slow  recovery — 8  or  9 
Aveeks'  illness.     From  Sept.  8  or  thereabout,  to  Nov.  27  or  8. 

"This  year  (viz.)  1702,  by  slow  degrees  removed  from 
Newington  to  Mr.  Thos.  Hollis's  in  the  Minories."* 

The  commencement  of  Watts's  public  labours  at  Bury 
Street,  leads  me  to  advert  to  the  state  of  the  different  religious 
parties  in  the  nation  at  that  era.  Perhaps  there  has  been  no 
period  since  the  Reformation,  when  the  ministry  of  religion 
in  the  establishment  exercised  so  little  beneficial  influence 
upon  the  people,  as  at  the  accession  of  Queen  Anne.  The 
zeal  which  had  animated  the  puritans  and  the  first  noncon- 
formists, was  contemptuously  denounced  by  the  clergy  as 
fanaticism;  and  nearly  half  a  century  elapsed  before  the 
awakening  voice  of  Whitfield  and  Wesley  roused  any  of  them 
from  their  dream.  The  church,  in  the  language  of  Arch- 
bishop Leighton,  was  "a  fair  carcase  without  a  spirit;"  the 
clergy,  according  to  Burnet,  were  "  the  most  remiss  in  their 
labours,  and  the  least  severe  in  their  lives  of  any  in  Europe." 
Nor  is  this  strong  language  any  violation  of  the  bounds  of 
truth.  The  establishment  was  denuded  of  its  most  illustrious 
worthies,  when  the  Bartholomew  divines,  in  an  evil  day,  were 
cast  forth ;  and  the  spirit  of  piety,  with  very  few  exceptions, 
alike  deserted  the  altar  and  the  pulpit.  The  doctrines  taught 
in  the  liturgy,  homilies,  and  articles  of  the  church  were 
neglected,  perverted,  or  their  meaning  explained  away ;  the 
sermon  on  the  sabbath  was  an  ethical  discourse  or  metaphysic 
disquisition,  bought  of  the  cheapest  vender,  or  pilfered  from 
the  nearest  shelf;  and  the  majority  of  those  who  came  to  pray 
remained  to  sleep.  Aversion  to  Calvinistic  theology,  hateful 
because  the  prevailing  divinity  of  the  commonwealth,  became 
a  test  of  orthodoxy  with  the  episcopal  divines ;  and  many  in 

*  Watts's  MS. 
o 


202  LTFK    AND    TIMES 

consequence  not  only  plunged  direct  into  Arminianism,  but 
some  into  Avianism,  and  almost  all  became  disciples  of  the 
Pelagian  school.  Dr.  Southey  indeed  tells  us,  that  "  from  the 
Restoration  to  the  accession  of  the  house  of  Hanover  the  En- 
jrlish  church  could  boast  of  its  brightest  ornaments  and  ablest 
defenders,  men  who  have  never  been  surpassed  in  erudition, 
in  eloquence,  or  in  strength  and  subtilty  of  mind."  This 
may  be  true  :  but  the  very  powers  with  which  they  were  gifted, 
being  perverted,  occasioned  the  mischief  which  we  lament; 
for,  instead  of  being  employed  in  advocating  the  "  truth  as  it 
is  in  Jesus,"  they  were  engaged  in  reducing  Christianity  to  a 
philosophical  system,  and  converting  religion  into  a  moral 
scheme.  With  all  their  Ciceronian  eloquence  and  Attic 
purity,  they  knew  not  "  the  first  principles  of  the  doctrine  of 
Christ"  —  they  were  the  merest  novices  in  theology  —  apos- 
tles of  natural  religion,  rather  than  preachers  of  the  revealed 
word  —  more  familiar  with  Plato  than  Paul,  with  the  ethics 
of  Seneca  than  with  the  glories  of  the  cross. 

The  state  of  religion  among  the  dissenters,  would  appear  to 
a  superficial  observer  to  have  been  still  flourishing,  though  a 
closer  inspection  would  bring  to  light  in  some  instances  symp- 
toms of  decline  and  decay ;  they  were  hastening  onwards  to 
that  trying  passage  in  their  history,  when  the  Scylla  of  Anti- 
nomianism  threatened  them  on  the  one  hand,  and  the  Cha- 
rybdis  of  Socianian  error  on  the  other.  A  few  churches  were 
infected  with  the  prurient  theology  of  Crisp,  while  the  seeds 
of  speculative  latitudinarianism  were  already  sown.  The 
Independents  were  chiefly  in  danger  from  the  former  evil,  the 
Presbyterians  from  the  latter ;  an  evil  of  far  greater  magnitude 
and  more  deadly  character.  But  neither  errors  had  at  present 
any  extensive  operation,  though  they  were  silently  insinuating 
their  poison,  and  corrupting  the  pure  and  healthy  streams 
that  had  in  so  many  quarters  fertilised  the  land.  It  is  an 
unhappy  circumstance,  but  one  which  the  history  of  religion 
too  plainly  proves,  that  external  prosperity  has  generally  had 


OF    DR.    IS  A  A'!    WATTS.  203 

an  unhappy  influence  upon  it :  its  tone  has  l)cen  debased,  its 
vigour  has  deteriorated,  its  purity  become  alloyed,  -when  iiask- 
ino-  in  the  sunshine  of  a  royal  smile :  in  ease  and  security 
those  energies  have  slumbered  in  the  lap  of  effemination, 
which  have  been  active  at  the  post  of  duty  in  times  of  danger 
and  of  dread.  I  doubt  not  but  the  annals  of  nonconformity 
can  furnish  an  illustration  of  the  truth  of  these  remarks, 
Avithout  giving  an  unqualified  assent  to  the  popular  paradox, 
that  persecution  only  nourishes  that  which  it  is  intended  to 
destroy.  The  change  effected  by  the  reign  of  William  in  the 
civil  condition  of  the  dissenters  ;  the  countenance  given  to 
them  by  the  patriotic  monarch  and  his  far  more  noble-minded 
consort,  had  its  evil  as  well  as  its  good  —  that  laxity  and 
supineness  which  became  so  palpable  and  strongly  marked 
under  the  second  George,  had  iis  commencement,  if  I  mistake 
not,  beneath  the  sceptre  of  Nassau.  The  evil  day  was  put  off 
by  the  tumultuous  reign  of  Anne  ;  the  signs  of  the  times  por- 
tended the  return  of  Stuart  principles  with  the  return  of  Stuart 
blocd  to  the  throne;  and  the  plague  of  Laodicean  apathy, 
which  afterwards  seized  upon  the  churches,  was  delayed  by 
the  threatening  aspect  of  the  political  horizon.  Why  should 
it  not  be  the  case  in  the  moral  as  well  as  in  the  natural  world, 
that  beneficial  effects  are  produced  by  the  instrumentality  of 
agencies  in  themselves  apparently  unkindly  and  destructive  — 
that  storms  should  infuse  a  purer  air,  generate  a  healthier 
atmosphere,  and  disperse  the  fatal  miasms  that  collect  in  the 
stillness  and  tranquillity  of  the  heavens?  It  is  certain,  that 
the  self-devotion  of  Baxter,  the  zeal  and  labours  of  Owen, 
the  winning  sweetness  and  polished  diction  of  Bates,  the  al- 
most more  than  mortal  piety  and  eloquence  of  Howe,  belong 
to  the  era  of  persecution  ;  and  the  cold  philosophy  of  Lardner, 
the  moral  lections  of  Kippis,  the  stiff  and  starched  critical 
essays  of  Benson,  and  the  dry  effusions  of  a  Socinianised 
ministry,  to  the  period  when  "  the  churches  had  rest." 

At  the  opening  of  the  eighteenth  century,  many  of  the  me- 


204  LIFE    AND   TIMES 

tropolitan  dissenting"  ministers  were  worthy  successors  of  the 
illustrious  names,  "  the  chiefs  of  mighty  men"  of  a  former 
age;  they  were  eminent  not  only  for  their  literary  character, 
but  evangelical  piety  and  orthodox  sentiments.  The  principal 
divines  among  the  Presbyterians  were,  Dr.  William  Harris  of 
Jewry  Street — Mr.  Thos.  Reynolds  at  the  Weigh-house,  who 
greatly  distinguished  himself  in  the  trinitarian  controversy  on 
the  orthodox  side  —  Dr.  Grosvenor  of  Crosby  Square  —  Mr. 
B.  Robinson  at  Little  St.  Helen's,  one  of  the  four  authors  of 
the  tract  written  against  the  Arian  scheme  —  Mr.  N.  Taylor 
of  Salter's  Hall,  who  is  eulogised  by  Doddridge  as  the  "dis- 
senting South"  — Dr.  Dan.  Williams  at  New  Broad  Street, 
the  founder  of  the  Red-cross  Street  library — Mr.  John  Shower 
at  the  Old  Jewry — Dr.  E.  Calamy  of  Prince's  Street,  West- 
minster —  and  Mr.  W.  Tong  of  Salter's  Hall,  one  of  the  most 
attractive  preachers  of  his  day  :  among  the  Independents  may 
be  named  Mr.  J.  Collins  and  R.  Bragge,  copastors  at  Lime 
Street,  probably  the  most  numerous  and  opulent  congregation 
in  the  metropolis  —  Mr.  Mat.  Clarke  of  Miles's  Lane,  one  of 
Watts's  most  intimate  friends  —  Dr.  Ridgley  of  the  Three 
Cranes,  Thames  Street —  Mr.  Dan.  Neal  of  Silver  Street,  the 
well-known  historian  —  Mr.  J.  Nesbit  of  Hare  Court  —  Mr. 
Dan.  Burgess  of  New  Court,  a  divine  of  the  old  puritan 
school  —  and  Mr,  T.  Bradbury,  at  this  time  an  assistant  at 
Stepney.  Their  prevailing  mode  of  sermonising  speaks  well 
for  the  intelligence  and  zeal  of  their  congregations  ;  for  assu- 
redly discourses  of  half  the  length  or  half  the  diffuseness, 
would  shake  the  allegiance  of  a  modern  audience.  The  prin- 
cipal fault  of  the  nonconformist  divines  was,  a  disposition  to 
expand  their  subjects  to  their  widest  extent;  not  merely  to 
illustrate  the  general  sentiment  of  the  text,  but  to  eke  out  a 
meaning  from  its  minutest  parts,  and  if  possible  extract  a 
lesson  from  the  most  obstinate  word  and  barren  particle. 
Hence  their  sermons  partook  largely  of  the  prolixity  and  ver- 
boseness  of  the  early  puritans,  though  the  want  of  condensa- 


OF   DR.    ISAAC    WATTS,  205 

tion  was  amply  compensated  by  enlarg-ed  views  of  divine 
truth,  an  extensive  acquaintance  with  theology,  and  a  peculiar 
richness  of  biblical  illustration.  But  an  unhappy  change  was 
at  hand  in  the  history  of  some  of  the  dissenting-  churches; 
when  ministers  and  people  abandoned  the  faith  of  their  fathers, 
and  deserted  the  ark  of  the  covenant  to  seek  after  vanity  and 
lies.  A  metaphysical  and  philosophic  divinity  struck  its  ten- 
drils round  the  hitherto  luxuriant  vine  of  nonconformity ;  the 
high  and  glorious  spiritualities  of  religion  were  stripped  of 
their  distinctive  and  emphatic  character;  the  devotion  of  the 
heart  evaporated  into  an  intellectual  principle ;  and  the  con- 
version of  the  soul  was  frittered  down  into  a  mere  natural 
process  of  mental  enlightenment  and  cultivation. 

It  is  probable  that  up  to  this  period  Watts  had  resided  in 
the  house  of  Sir  John  Hartopp,  at  Stoke  Newington;  but 
finding  the  distance  inconvenient,  he  removed  into  the  city, 
to  be  near  the  scene  of  his  labours.  The  term  of  his  residence 
in  the  baronet's  family  was  upwards  of  six  years,  including 
his  frequent  visits  to  Southampton  and  Tunbridge.  The 
gentleman  with  whom  he  lodged  in  the  Minories,  was  the 
father  of  Mr.  Thos.  Hollis,  the  munificent  benefactor  to  Har- 
vard College,  Massachusets,  who  resided  in  that  part  of  the 
city.  The  important  services  rendered  by  this  family  to  the 
church,  demand  for  them  an  honourable  notice  in  this  place. 
Mr.  Hollis  was  born  in  Sheffield,  and  brought  up  under  the 
ministry  of  Mr.  Fisher,  one  of  the  ejected  ministers  of  that 
town.  Removing  to  London,  where  he  spent  the  remainder 
of  his  life,  he  amassed  considerable  property  by  mercantile 
pursuits,  which  he  liberally  expended  in  supporting  the  inte- 
rests of  religion.  He  built  at  his  own  expense  meeting-houses 
at  Rotheram  and  Doncaster,  with  permanent  benefactions  for 
the  support  of  schools  attached  to  them ;  and  in  Sheffield,  his 
native  town,  the  erection  of  alms-houses  for  the  residence  of 
sixteen  poor  persons,  attested  his  generosity.  Though  a  Bap- 
tist in  sentiment,  he  was  upwards  of  sixty  years  a  member  of 


206  LIFE    AND   TIMES 

the  Independent  church  at  Pinner's  Hall,  and  died  during 
the  pastorate  of  Dr.  Jeremiah  Hunt,  at  an  advanced  age,  in 
the  year  1718  *  Mr.  Thos.  HoUis,  jun.,  a  member  of  the  same 
church  as  his  father,  was  equally  eminent  for  piety  and  libe- 
rality ;  and  Harvard  college  is  indebted  to  him  for  valuable 
donations  of  books,  philosophical  apparatus,  and  the  founda- 
tion of  two  of  its  professorships.f 

"  Mrs.  Owen,  Dr.  Owen's  widow,  died,  Jany.  18,  1703- 4" J 

This  lady  was  the  widow  of  Thomas  D'Oyley,  Esq.  brother 
to  Sir  John  D'Oyley  of  Chiselhampton,  near  Stadhamin  Ox- 
fordshire; and  was  united  to  Dr.  Owen  in  June,  1677.§  She 
was  descended  from  a  family  of  distinction,  at  Kingston-Russel 
in  Dorsetshire,  of  the  name  of  Michel.  The  biographers  of 
Owen  describe  her  as  eminent  for  good  sense,  piety,  and  an 
affectionate  temper.  She  brought  the  doctor  considerable 
property,  which,  in  addition  to  his  own  fortune,  enabled  him 
to  keep  his  carriage  and  country-house  at  Ealing,  near  Acton, 
in  Middlesex,  Avhich  he  made  his  principal  residence.  After 
his  death  she  continued  a  member  of  the  church  in  Mark  Lane 
under  his  successors  Clarkson,  Chauncey,  and  Watts,  the  last 
of  whom  preached  her  funeral  sermon,  on  the  30th  of  Janu- 
ary, 1703.  To  this  lady  Mr.  Gilbert  devotes  the  following 
lines  in  one  of  his  epitaphs  upon  the  doctor  : 

"  Dorothea  vice,  nou  ortu,  opibus,  officiusve,  secunda 
Laboribus,  Morbis,  senioque  ipso  elauguenti 
hidulgentissimam  etiain  se  nutricem  prwstitit." 

"June— Mr.  Sanill.  Price  was  chosen  by  ye  church  to  as- 
sist me,  1703.  "II 

This  gentleman  was  indeed  a  kindred  spirit,  and  in  him 

*  Dr.  Jeremiali  Hunt's  funeral  sermon  for  T.  Hollis. 

I  Crosby'.s  Hist,  of  the  Baptists,  vol.  iv.  p.  229.     Dr.  Colman's  sermon  on  his 
death,  entitled,  "The  Friend  of  Christ  and  his  People."     Boston,  April  1,  1731. 
t  Watts's  M.S.  §  Owen's  Will.  ||  Watts's  MS. 


OF    DR.    ISAAC    WATTS.  207 

Watts  found  an  effective  colleague  and  an  affectionate  friend. 
The  connexion  thus  formed  between  them  subsisted  upwards 
of  forty  years,  and  was  regarded  by  both  parties  as  a  peculiarly 
happy  event.  Mr.  Price  was  a  native  of  the  principality,  and 
received  his  academical  education  under  Mr.  Timothy  Jollie, 
at  Attercliffe  near  Sheffield.  When  chosen  assistant  at  Mark 
Lane,  his  public  services  were  so  acceptable  to  the  congrega- 
tion, that  during  Watts's  alarming  illness,  in  1713,  he  was 
elected  joint-pastor.  Some  further  notices  of  this  excellent 
man  we  shall  then  have  occasion  to  introduce.  The  whole  of 
the  year  1703  appears  to  have  been  one  of  suffering  to  Watts  ; 
in  August  he  was  again  at  Tunbridge  for  the  benefit  of  his 
health ;  and  some  time  probably  elapsed  before  he  was  ade- 
quate to  resume  his  pulpit  labours. 

"  Augt.  I  went  to  Tunbridge,  and  stayd  there  7  weeks, 
with  scarce  any  benefilt.  For  the  waters,  thro'  some  defect  of 
my  stomach,  did  not  digest  well. 

"Dec.  After  having  intermitted,  in  a  great  measure,  a 
method  of  study  and  pursuit  of  learning  4  years,  by  reason  of 
my  great  indisposition  of  body  and  weakness  of  head  (except 
what  was  of  absolute  necessity  for  my  constant  preaching),  and 
being  not  satisfied  to  live  so  any  longer,  after  due  considera- 
tion and  prayer,  I  took  a  boy  to  read  to  me  and  to  write  for 
me,  whereby  my  studies  are  much  assisted,     Dec.  1703. 

"1703,  Nov.  26.  Ffriday  night  and  Saturday  morning, 
the  great  and  dreadful  storm."* 

The  tempest  here  referred  to  filled  the  whole  kingdom  with 
terror,  and  was  the  cause  of  immense  commercial  loss,  and 
many  melancholy  accidents.  It  commenced  between  eleven 
and  twelve  at  night,  and  covered  the  country  with  ruin  be- 
tween the  Loire  in  France  and  the  Trent  in  England,  The 
historians  of  the  times,  give  an  affecting  account  of  the  dismal 
appearance  of  the  district  which  was  subject  to  its  ravages:  — 

•  Watts's  MS, 


208  LIFE    AND    TIMES 

houses  unroofed — steeples  blown  down — stacks  of  corn  scat- 
tered abroad — vessels  dismasted  or  wrecked — and  upwards  of 
eijyht  thousand  persons  drowned.  "  The  wind,"  says  Old- 
mixon,  "  blew  west,  south-west,  and  g-rumbled  like  thunder, 
accompanied  with  flashes  of  lightnini:^.  It  threw  down  seve- 
ral battlements  and  stacks  of  chimneys  at  St.  James's  palace; 
tore  to  pieces  tall  trees  in  the  park ;  and  killed  a  servant  in 
the  house.  The  ji^uard-house  at  Whitehall  was  much  dama- 
ged, as  was  the  banquetting-house.  A  great  deal  of  lead  was 
blown  off  Westminster  abbey ;  and  most  of  the  lead  on 
churches  and  houses  either  rolled  up  in  sheets  or  loosened. 
The  pious  and  learned  prelate,  Dr.  Richard  Kidder,  bishop  of 
Bath  and  Wells,  and  his  lady,  were  killed  by  the  fall  of  part 
of  the  old  episcopal  palace  at  Wells.  The  bishop  of  London's 
sister,  Lady  Penelope  Nicholas,  was  killed  in  a  like  manner 
at  Horseley,  in  Sussex,  and  Sir  John  Nicholas,  her  husband, 
grievously  hurt."*  The  queen  appointed  a  national  fast,  on 
account  of  this  awful  visitation,  stating  in  her  proclamation, 
that  "  we  most  humbly  acknowledge  it  to  be  a  token  of  the 
divine  displeasure,  and  that  it  was  the  infinite  mercy  of  God 
that  we  and  our  people  were  not  thereby  wholly  destroyed."t 
The  dissenting  congregations  appear  to  have  generally  ob- 
served the  day ;  and  for  some  years  afterwards  commemora- 
tive sermons  were  preached  at  the  meeting-house.  Little  Wild 
Street,  J-iOndon.|     The  event  seems  to  have  had  a  beneficial 

*  Oldmixou's  England,  iii.  319. 

f  Upwards  of  800  houses,  400  windmills,  and  ar^OjOOO  timber-trees  were  thrown 
down  ;  100  churches  tinroofed  ;  300  sail  lost  upon  the  coast ;  000  wherries,  barges, 
&c.  destroyed  on  the  'I'hanies;  the  Eddystone  lighthouse,  built  by  VVinstanley, 
was  overtiirown ;  and  1.5,000  slieep,  besides  other  cattle,  perished  by  the  overflow- 
ing of  the  Severn. 

J  See  "An  Exact  Relation  of  the  late  Dreadful  Tempest,  &c.  faithfully  collected 
bj'  an  Ingenious  Hand,  to  preserve  the  Memory  of  so  Terrible  a  Judgment.  Nos 
fdtis  agimur  Variis :  Conlruditur  fatis,"  p.  2i.  "The  Storm,  or  a  Collection  of 
the  most  Remarkable  Casualties  and  Disasters  which  happened  in  the  late  Dread- 
ful Tempest,  both  by  Sea  and  Land,"  8vo.  p.  272.  This  was  written  by  De  Foe. 
The  most  singular  production  relating  to  this  event  is  entitled,  "  A  \^'arning  from 
the  Winds.     A  Sermon  preached  upon  Wednesday,  January  xix.  1703-4."     'J'his 


or   DR.   ISAAC   WATTS.  209 

effect  upon  the  nation ;  attention  was  awakened  to  the  state  of 
public  morals ;  the  strife  of  party  was  hushed  for  a  season  ; 
and  both  in  and  out  of  the  establishment  a  laudable  desire 
was  evinced,  to  make  the  calamity  subserve  to  promote  the 
interests  of  practical  piety. 

"  Visited  my  friends  at  Southto May,  1704. 

"Removed  our  meeting-place  to  Pinner's  Hall,  and  began 
expositions  of  Scripture Jun.  1704. 

"August  31,  1704.     Bro.  Richard  marryd. 

"Joseph  Brandley,  my  first  servt.,  went  away,  Dec.  1704, 
and  Edwd.  Hilchen  came."* 

The  dilapidated  state  of  the  building  in  Mark  Lane,  where 
Watts's  congregation  had  hitherto  assembled,  was  the  occa- 
sion of  its  removal  to  Pinner's  Hall.  This  place  for  more  than 
a  century  was  one  of  the  most  celebrated  meeting-houses 
among  the  dissenters;  here  the  Tuesday  morning  lecture  was 
commenced  at  the  Indulgence  in  1672  ;  and  here  the  first 
names  in  the  annals  of  nonconformity,  Baxter,  Owen,  Bates, 
Manton,  and  Howe,  preached  to  crowded  audiences.  The 
lease  of  Pinner's  Hall  was  held  by  an  Independent  church 
under  Mr.  Wavel ;  but  as  it  was  only  occupied  in  the  forenoon, 
it  was  let  to  various  congregations  for  the  afternoon  service. 
Dr.  Singleton's  people,  who  worshipped  here  a  considerable 
time,  removed  in  1704  to  Lorimer's  Hall,  and  Mr.  Watts's 
congregation  appears  to  have  been  the  next  occupant.  The 
meeting-house,  though  small,  had  six  galleries,  and  was, 
therefore,  capable  of  accommodating  a  considerable  number. 

was  written  by  Joseph  Hussey,  a  minister  at  Cambridge.  He  regards  the  event  as 
a  punishment  inflicted  on  account  of  that  "  general  contempt  in  England,  Tinder 
Gospel  Light,  cast  upon  the  Work  of  the  Holy  Ghost,  as  to  his  Divine  Breathings 
upon  the  Souls  of  Men."  He  connects  with  it  a  "Laborious  Exercitation  upon 
Eph.  ii.  2.  about  the  Airy  Oracles,  Sybils,  Prophetesses,  Idolatry,  and  Sacrifices  of 
the  Elder  Pagan  Times ;  to  defend  this  Text  against  the  common  mistake,  that  the 
Winds  are  raised  by  Satan,  under  the  Divine  Permission."  It  is  a  most  curious, 
learned,  yet  fanciful  performance. 

*  Watts's  MS. 


210  LIFE    AND   TIMES 

It  was  occupied  by  Mr.  Watts's  people  until  the  close  of  the 
year  1708,  when  they  removed  to  a  new  chapel  in  Bury  Street, 
St.  Mary  Axe.  The  lease  of  Pinner's  Hall  expired  in  the 
year  1778;  the  church  became  then  extinct;  and  the  build- 
ing has  since  been  appropriated  to  commercial  purposes. 

The  illness  and  death  of  Locke,  during  the  course  of  this 
year,  were  noticed  by  Watts's  pen.  Perhaps  no  individual  did 
more  in  his  day,  to  advance  the  cause  of  religious  liberty,  and 
to  promote  an  enlightened  toleration,  than  this  distinguished 
philosopher.  The  recent  memorials  of  his  life,  from  the  pen 
of  his  noble  descendant.  Lord  King,  show  him  to  have  been  in 
principle  a  firmer  dissenter  than  is  generally  supposed ;  and 
the  bold  stand  he  made  against  the  bigotry  of  the  times,  might 
well  cause  his  death  to  be  lamented.  There  are  three  poems  in 
the  Lyrics,  entitled  "To  John  Locke  retired  from  Business;" 
"  On  Mr.  Locke's  dangerous  illness  some  time  after  he  had 
retired  to  study  the  Scriptures ;"  and  "  On  Mr.  Locke's  An- 
notations upon  several  parts  of  the  New  Testament  left  behind 
him  at  his  death."  To  this  latter  production  there  is  the  fol- 
lowing note  appended  :  "  Mr.  Locke's  annotations  on  Rom. 
iii.  25,  and  paraphrase  on  Rom.  ix.  5,  have  inclined  some 
readers  to  doubt  whether  he  believed  the  deity  and  satisfaction 
of  Christ.  Therefore,  in  the  fourth  stanza,  I  invoke  Charity, 
that  by  her  help  I  may  find  him  out  in  heaven,  since  his 
notes  on  2  Cor.  v.  ult.  and  some  other  places,  give  me  reason 
to  believe  he  was  no  Socinian,  though  he  has  darkened  the 
glory  of  the  gospel  and  debased  Christianity."*  The  lines, 
for  which  these  words  seem  apologetical,  commence 

"  Sister  of  Faith,  fair  Charity, 
Show  me  the  wondrous  man  on  high. 
Tell  how  he  sees  the  Godhead,  'Three  in  One.'" 

The  latitudinarian  tendency  of  Locke's  creed  is  evident  from 
the  paper  entitled  "  Adversaria  Theologica;"  a  decided  lean- 
ing to  the  Arian  school  appears  in  some  of  his  other  works ; 

»  Hor.  Lyr.  lib.  ii. 


OF    DR.    ISAAC    WATTS.  211 

but  the  above  notices  of  him  are  interesting,  as  they  plainly 
show,  that  the  writer's  own  theological  sentiments  betrayed 
as  yet  no  tinge  of  the  latitudinarianism  of  him  he  panegyrised. 

"  Visited  Southton July,  1705. 

"  Published  my  poems,* Dec.  1705. 

"  Augt.  1705,  Mr.  Tho.  Rowe,  my  Tutor  dyed. 

"Went  to  Southton.  May  18,  1706;  returned  again  with 
butt  small  recruit  of  health,  July  5.  Went  to  Tunbridge 
Aug.  8. 

"  Returned  much  stronger,  Aug.  30. 

"Mr.Benoni  Rowe,  my  intimate  friend,  dyed,  April,  1706.t 

*See  chap.  viii. 

f  Mr.  Benoni  Rowe  was  the  younger  brother  of  Mr.  Watts's  tutor,  and  pastor  of 
the  independent  church  in  Fetter- Lane.  He  is  described  as  possessing  "an  accu- 
rate judgment,  and  a  considerable  stock  of  useful  learning,  to  which  he  joined 
excellent  talents  for  preaching,  and  a  most  lively  and  engaging  conversation." 
Life  of  Mrs.  Rome,  p.  7.  He  was  the  father  of  the  husband  of  the  justly  cele- 
brated Mrs.  Eliz.  Rowe.  Mr.  Watts  is  wrong  as  to  the  date  of  his  death,  which 
took  place  on  the  30th  of  March,  1706.  The  family  vault  of  the  Rowe's  iu  Bun- 
hill  fields,  has  the  following  inscription: 

"  Here  lyeth  the  body  of 

JOHN  ROWE, 

Sometime  Preacher  ia  the  Abbey  of  Westminster, 

Who  died,  October,  xii. 

in  the  5"2nd  year  of  his  age, 

Anno,  1677. 

Near  this  tomb 

Lies  the  body  of  the  late  learned  and  pious 

MR.  THEOPHILLFS  GALE, 

Lender  this  stone  is  the  body  of 

MR.  THOMAS  ROWE, 

The  eldest  son  of  Mr.  John  Rowe, 

Late  Minister  of  the  Gospel  in  London. 

He  departed  this  life  the  xviii.  day  of  August, 

In  the  year  of  our  Lord  1705, 

lu  the  49th  year  of  his  age. 

Here  also  lies  the  body  of 

MR.  BENONI  ROWE, 

Minister  of  the  Gospel  in  London, 

Who  departed  this  life  the  30th  day  of  March, 

In  the  year  of  our  Lord  1706, 

In  the  49th  year  of  his  age." 


212  LIFE   AND   TIMES 

"Bro.  Thomas  marry'd,  May  9th,  1706. 
"  Union  of  Eng.  and  Scot.  May  1,  1707."* 

The  union  of  the  two  kingdoms  here  referred  to,  was  an 
event  in  which  the  dissenters  were  deeply  interested  :  they 
regarded  it  as  necessary  to  secure  to  the  crown  the  protestant 
succession,  and  to  the  country  in  general  the  reformed  inte- 
rest. Their  services  were  frequently  employed  by  the  ministry, 
in  carrying  this  much-opposed  project;  and  Mr.  Shute,  after- 
wards Lord  Viscount  Barrington,  a  name  which  will  frequent- 
ly occur  in  the  following  pages,  was  sent  as  the  representative 
of  the  English  dissenters  into  Scotland  to  negociate,  De  Foe, 
another  nonconformist,  was  also  employed  in  furthering  the 
scheme  ;t  and  a  slight  acquaintance  with  the  history  of  the 
union  is  sufficient  to  show,  that  but  for  the  efficient  support  of 
the  body,  the  measures  of  the  government  would  have  sus- 
tained a  temporary  defeat.  The  ministers  of  the  three  deno- 
minations went  up  with  a  congratulatory  address  to  the  queen, 
and  the  event  was  celebrated  by  a  public  and  general  thanks- 
giving. 

Early  in  the  year  1707,  Mr.  Watts  printed  an  "  Essay 
against  Uncharitableness,  wherein  the  secret  springs  of  that 
Vice  are  traced,  and  the  Mischievous  Effects  of  it  briefly 
surveyed ;  written  to  expose  that  most  Unchristian  Iniquity 
of  Censures,  Church- Anathemas,  on  the  account  of  smaller 
disputables  in  Christianity ."|  "  Publisht  Essay  against 
Uncharitableness,  April,  1707."§  But  one  edition  of  this 
piece  was  published,  though  a  reprint  was  often  called  for: 
it  was    soon  after  incorporated  in  a  larger  work,  entitled, 

♦Watts'sMS. 

f  De  Foe  was  the  author  of  many  appeals  to  the  nation  upon  this  suliject,  and 
illustrated  the  advantages  of  a  union  in  a  tract  founded  upon  the  well-knowa 
northern  proverb  : 

*'  If  Skiddaw  hath  a  cap, 
Scruftel  wotts  full  well  of  that." 

I  Works,  vol.  ii.  pp.  506  — .529.     Leeds  edit.  8vo.  §  Watts's  MS. 


OF   DR.    ISAAC    WATTS.  213 

"  Orthodoxy  and  Charity  united."  The  benevolent  mind 
of  the  writer  witnessed  with  pain  the  dissentions  that  occurred 
among  those  who  held  the  cardinal  truths  of  Christianity ; 
dissentions  about  the  external  ritual  of  devotion,  vestures, 
ceremonies,  forms  of  prayer,  and  the  various  points  which 
separated  the  dissenters  from  the  hierarchy ;  and  he  ardently 
wished  to  see  them  again  united,  if  not  within  the  pale  of  an 
establishment,  at  least  in  charitable  sentiments  and  practices 
towards  each  other.  It  would  have  been  well  for  the  cause 
of  religion,  had  all  nonconformists  and  churchmen  partook  of 
this  kindly  feeling,  overlooked  their  little  differences  and 
petty  jealousies,  and  been  as  united  in  effort  as  they  were 
zealous  in  exertion ;  but,  unhappily,  the  spirit  of  party  was 
allowed  to  predominate,  and  the  momentous  interests  of  the 
truth  were  too  often  sacrificed  to  sectarian  bigotry  on  the  one 
hand,  and  priestly  intolerance  on  the  other. 

Tantaeue  animis  ccelestibiis  iise  ? 

By  orthodoxy  the  author  understands  all  those  doctrines 
which  were  generally  received  and  professed  by  protestants  at 
the  Reformation;  and  he  advocates  the  extension  of  a 
fraternal  love  towards  all  those  who  agree  here,  however 
widely  in  other  respects  they  may  di flier.  The  page  of 
ecclesiastical  history  exhibits  a  dark  record  of  the  evils  of 
intolerance;  the  eastern  and  western  churches  alternately 
anathematised  each  other;  awful  delinquencies  in  j)ractice 
were  venial,  when  compared  with  circumstantial  dififerences 
in  opinion ;  and  the  sword,  the  argument  which  bigotry 
always  employs  when  practicable,  was  drenched  in  blood,  to 
enforce  a  uniformity  in  every  punctilio  of  faith  and  observance. 
The  same  spirit,  though  in  a  modified  degree,  degrades  the 
annals  of  protestant  Christendom ;  a  rail  in  the  sanctuary,  a 
robe  over  the  priest,  or  a  table  position  at  the  communion, 
has  frequently  engendered  irreconcileable  animosity;  and  he 
who  could  not  interpret  the  word  "  church"  with  the  episco- 
palian as  a  diocese,  or  with  the  independent  as  a  company  of 


514  LIFR    AND    TIMES 

faithful  men,  or  with  the  presbyteriaii  as  a  consistory  of  elders, 
has  been  cast  off  as  a  novice  in  theology,  and  a  heretic  in 
religion.  Cicero  notices  and  brands  this  wretched  exclusion- 
ism,  "  vestra  solum  legitis,  vestra  amatis,  caetcros  causa 
incognita  condemnatis."*  In  the  reign  of  Queen  Anne, 
when  Mr.  Watts  published  his  essay,  this  spirit  especially 
characterised  the  high-church  party ;  and  the  object  of  their 
greatest  ambition  seemed  to  be,  to  cripple  the  energies  and 
destroy  the  usefulness  of  the  dissenters.  It  was  a  significant 
reproof  which  Tillotson  gave  to  Beveridge,  who  scrupled  to 
read  the  brief  for  the  relief  of  the  French  protestants,  as 
contrary  to  the  rubric :  "  Doctor,  doctor,  charity  is  above 
rubrics."t 

"Went  to  Southton.  July;  returned  July.  Went  to 
Tunbridge,  Aug.;  returned  Sept.  3. 

"All  this  year  my  health  has  been  increasing, 

"  Published  my  Hymns  and  Spll.  Songs,  July,  1707. | 

"Overturned  in  a  coach  without  hurt,  Oct.  5,  1707."§ 

In  the  autumn  of  this  year,  Mr.  Watts  printed  a  sermon 
preached  at  Salter's  Hall,  before  the  societies  for  the  reforma- 
tion of  manners  in  the  cities  of  London  and  Westminster. 
"  Preached  a  Reformation  Sermo.  and  printed  it,  Oct.  6, 
1707." II  These  societies  were  established  in  the  year  1692, 
under  the  patronage  of  William  III.,  and  were  conducted 
by  both  dissenters  and  churchmen.  They  were  intended  to 
check  the  dissolute  morals  of  the  people;  to  abolish  the 
houses  of  ill  fame  that  swarmed  in  the  metropolis ;  to  provide 
for  the  instruction  of  ignorant  and  vagrant  children ;  and  to 
procure  a  more  decorous  observance  of  the  sabbath.  The  taste 
of  the  age  is  thus  described  by  a  keen  and  accurate  observer 
of  the  times : 

"  One  man  reads  Milton,  forty  Rochester." 

*  "  De  Nat.  Deorum."  f  Birch's  Life  of  Tillotson,  p.  131.  I  See  chap.  viii. 
§  Watts's  MS.         11  Watts's  MS.  Works,  vol.  i.  pp.  625—641.     Leeds  edit.  8vo. 


OF   DR.    ISAAC    WATTS.  215 

The  publication  of  the  Book  of  Sports,  by  James  I.,  and 
the  patronage  extended  to  it  by  his  unfortunate  son,  opened 
the  flood-gates  of  vice  and  irreligion ;  and,  after  the  Restora- 
tion, the  licentiousness  in  which  the  court  of  Charles  II. 
indulged,  to  show  their  contempt  of  fanatical  strictness  and 
puritanical  precision,  lowered  the  national  character,  and  led 
the  people,  influenced  by  the  example  of  their  superiors,  into 
the  grossest  sensuality  and  crime.  It  was  not  until  after  the 
Revolution  that  any  attempt  was  made  by  the  religious 
public  to  stem  the  torrent  of  profligacy ;  for  the  nonconform- 
ists, insecure  and  oppressed  in  the  exercise  of  their  own 
religion,  could  only  mourn  in  secret  over  the  evils  of  the 
times.  The  example  and  influence  of  Queen  Mary  gave  rise 
to  the  first  attempts  to  reform  the  nation ;  in  consequence  of 
an  address  from  the  commons  in  1698,  a  proclamation  was 
issued  for  preventing  and  punishing  immorality  and  profane- 
ness,  and  an  act  of  parliament  was  passed  to  the  same  eff'ect.* 
Mr.  Watts  bears  his  testimony  respecting  the  vicious  lives  of 
his  countrymen;  and  represents  it  as  become  a  common  pro- 
verb abroad,  "he  swears  like  a  Briton;  he  is  as  drunk  as  an 
Englishman;  as  lewd  and  profane  as  a  Londoner."  The 
reformation  societies  were  certainly,  from  the  testimony  of 
contemporary  historians,  instrumental  in  efi"ecting  much  good ; 
many  of  the  asylums  of  vice,  by  their  means,  were  broken  up ; 
and  a  striking  improvement  in  the  public  morals  was  soon 
visible.  "England,"  says  a  writer  in  the  year  1706,  "  bad  as 
she  is,  is  yet  a  reforming  nation.  Let  any  man  look  back  to 
the  days  of  King  Charles  II.,  when  rampant  vice  overran  the 
court,  when  all  sort  of  lewdness  spread  over  the  face  of 
authority.  Let  him  view  the  example  of  the  late  royal  pair; 
let  him  look  into  the  examples  now  reigning,  and  tell  me. 
Is  it  nothing  to  dethrone  the  devil  and  depose  his  ao-ents? 
To  disarm  the  factors  of  hell,  and  banish  rampant  vice?"t 

♦Tindal,  iii.  374. 

f  De  Foe,  Review,  iii.  613,  614.     This  imprudent  man,  but  acute  observer. 


216  LIFE    AND   TIMES 

The  sermon  by  Mr.  Watts  is  founded  upon  an  historical 
passage:  Aaron  and  Hur  holding-  up  the  hands  of  Moses 
when  interceding'  in  behalf  of  Israel  against  Amalek;  from 
which  he  infers  the  duty  of  the  ministry  and  the  community 
at  large,  to  assist  and  support  the  magistracy  in  a  righteous 
administration  of  the  laws.* 

An  extravagant  delusion  agitated  the  nation,  and  especially 
the  religious  world,  about  this  period,  introduced  by  some 
French  emigrants,  who  ])retended  to  possess  the  miraculous 
gifts  of  the  Holy  Spirit,  and  to  be  the  founders  of  a  new  dis- 
pensation of  religion.  The  power  of  working  miracles,  and 
the  gift  of  prophecy,  they  advanced  as  the  credentials  of  their 
divine  mission.  "  This  fancy,"  says  Calamy,t  "  had  been  at 
work  in  France,  in  1703,  and  many  fell  in  with  it.  An  at- 
tempt was  made  to  relieve  and  recruit,  assist  and  supply, 
those  that  were  in  this  way  of  thinking,  when  our  English 
fleet  went  into  the  Mediterranean,  under  the  command  of 
Sir  Cloudesley  Shovel,  in  1704.  These  people  in  France  were 

remarks:  "  I  must  note,  and  I  am  sure  I  do  it  with  a  gieat  deal  of  justice,  that,  in 
the  first  two  years  of  iier  majesty's  reign  (Anne),  when  the  high-flying  party  had 
the  ascendant  over  our  councils,  the  kingdom  of  crime  began,  and  May-poles  and 
play-houses  grew  up  like  churches  at  the  Reformation.  Tliis  gives  ground  to  the 
story  of  an  old  woman,  who,  having  seen  the  music  and  dancing  about  one  of  their 
new  May-poles  on  a  Sunday,  and  remembering  the  blessed  time  when  the  sabbath 
used  to  be  kept  in  that  manner  by  authority,  broke  out  into  this  most  pious  ejacu- 
lation about  it :  '  Good  Lord,  here''s  the  old  religion  come  again!'  " 

*"  An  account  of  the  Societies,  &e.  with  a  Persuasive  to  persons  of  all  ranks  to 
be  diligent  and  zealous  in  promoting  the  execution  of  the  Laws  against  profaweuess 
and  debauchery,  &,c.  1099,  8vo." 

"An  Account  of  the  progress  of  the  Reformation  of  Manners  in  England,  Scot- 
land and  Ireland,  and  other  parts  of  Europe  and  America,  170-1,  4to." 

The  dissenters  took  a  lively  interest  in  the  welfare  of  these  societies,  as  the 
following  imperfect  list  of  published  sermons,  preaelied  in  their  behalf  by  their 
ministers  will  show:  1697,  John  Howe,  John  Shower;  1698,  Dr.  Williams,  Mr. 
Spademan;  1699,  Dr.  Calamy,  Thos.  Reynolds,  Dr.  Oldfield,  Robert  Fleming; 
1700,  Danl.  Mayo,  Timothy  Rogers;  1701,  Mr.  Silvester;  1702,  Dr.  Harris; 
1703,  Mr.  Tong;  1705,  Dr.  Grosvenor;  1706,  Mr.  Billingsley ;  1707,  Dr.  Evans, 
Mr.  Watts;  1708,  Mr.  Bradbury;  17U9,  Mr.  John  Newman;  1711,  Mr.  Matthew 
Clarke;  1713,  Mr.  Jer.  Smith;  171o,  Dr.  Wright;  1716,  Dr.  Jer.  Hunt;  1719, 
Mr.  S.  Rosewell. 

fCal.  Life,  ii.  71,  72,  73. 


OF   DR.   ISAAC    WATTS.  217 

called  Camisars,  and  strange  and  incredible  stories  were  spread 
abroad  concerning  them.  They  were  very  fond  of  prophetical 
impulses,  and  abounded  among  the  new  converts  in  the  Ce- 
vennes,  and  about  Nismes  and  Usez,  and  in  all  those  parts. 
It  was  reported  they  were  there  guilty  of  great  irregularities. 
They  were  vehemently  opposed  and  run  down,  and  at  length 
suppressed  by  the  Mareschals  Montrevel  and  Villars.  Some 
of  them  coming  into  England  in  1706,  with  great  vigour  and 
earnestness  endeavoured  to  spread  their  notions  here,  where 
they  were  but  too  well  entertained.  Their  common  cry 
among  us  was,  that  this  new  prophetic  dispensation  was  to 
be  proclaimed  in  every  nation  under  heaven,  beginning  in 
England,  and  to  be  manifest  over  the  whole  earth  within  the 
short  term  of  three  years."  One  of  the  principal  leaders  of 
these  enthusiasts  was  Mons.  Nicholas  Fatio  Duilier,  a  Swiss, 
spoken  of  by  Burnet  as  an  incomparable  philosopher  and 
mathematician.*  This  learned  fanatic  had  been  professor  of 
mathematics  at  Geneva  ;  he  was  honoured  with  the  friendship 
and  correspondence  of  Sir  Isaac  Newton ;  but  upon  his  arrival 
in  England,  he  associated  with  his  scientific  pursuits  the 
office  of  secretary  to  the  Gallic  school  of  prophecy.  The  other 
abettors  of  tire  novel  faith,  were  Maximilian  Misson,  Elias 
Marion,  and  John  D'Ande,  all  of  whom  were  prosecuted  by 
the  government,  for  disturbing  the  public  tranquillity.  Fatio 
was  sentenced  to  pay  a  fine  of  fifty  marks,  to  stand  in  the 
pillory  at  Charing-cross,  with  the  following  inscription  affixed 
to  his  hat :  "  Nicholas  Fatio  convicted  for  abetting  and  fa- 
vouring Elias  Marion,  in  his  wicked  and  counterfeit  prophe- 

*Mous.  Fatio  was  born  in  1G62;  he  resided  at  Utrecht  as  a  tutor  to  two  young 
gentlemen,  Mr.  Ellys  and  Thornton,  during  Dr.  Calamy's  residence  there  as  a 
student.  He  was  generally  reputed  a  Spinozist;  and  Bishop  Burnet  says  of  him, 
"at  twenty- two  he  was  one  of  the  greatest  men  of  his  age,  and  seemed  to  be  born 
to  carry  learning  some  sizes  beyond  what  it  had  yet  attained."  After  his  prose- 
cution he  retired  to  Worcester,  where  he  died  in  1753,  upwards  of  ninety  years  old, 
to  the  last  believing  in  the  inspiration  of  the  prophets. 

P 


218  LIFE    AND    TIMES 

cies,  and  causing  them  to  be  printed  and  published  to  tenify 
the  queen's  people."* 

"This  year  ye  French  prophetts  made  a  great  noise  in  our 
nation,  and  drew  in  Mr.  Lacy,  Sir  R.  Bulkley,  &c.  200  or 
more  had  ye  agitations,  40  had  ye  inspiration.  Proved  a 
delusion  of  Satan  at  Birmingham,  Feb.  3  or  4,  1707 — 8."t 

Sir  Richard  Bulkeley,  here  mentioned,  was  a  gentleman  of 
considerable  wealth  and  learning,  which  he  employed  in  dis- 
seminating the  notions  of  the  Gallic  prophets.  Being  de- 
formed in  person,  he  fully  expected  under  the  new  dispensa- 
tion to  be  made  straight  in  a  miraculous  way  ;  an  event  which, 
to  his  no  small  mortification  and  disappointment,  did  not  occur 
before  his  death.  He  wrote  in  vindication  of  his  party,  and 
was  answered  by  Calamy  and  Hoadley4  Mr.  Lacy  was  a 
member  of  Dr.  Calamy's  own  congregation  at  Westminster ; 
his  alliance  with  the  enthusiasts  led  him  to  the  most  guilty 
excesses,  and  he  terminated  his  career  of  infatuation  a  grace- 
less debauchee.  After  abandoning  a  faithful  wife  and  a  nu- 
merous family,  he  connected  himself  with  one  of  the  inspired 
sisters,  a  woman  in  low  life,  which  he  blasphemously  repre- 
sented as  quitting  Hagar,  and  betaking  himself  to  Sarah,  by 
order  of  the  Spirit.§  The  whole  imposture  soon  afterwards 
sunk  into  desuetude ;  for,  the  prophets  having  declared  that 

*  Aunals  of  Queen  Anne's  Reign,  vol.  vi.  371.  f  Watts's  MS. 

X  Calamy's  "Caveat  against  the  New  Prophets,  with  a  single  sheet  in  answer  to 
Sir  Richard  Bnlkley's  Remarks  on  the  same.     1708." 

Hoadley's  "  Brief  Vindication  of  the  Ancient  Prophets,  from  the  impntatious  and 
misrepresentations,  &c.  in  a  Letter  to  Sir  Richard  Bulklej^,  Bart.     1709." 

§  Dr.  Calamy  gives  us  a  curious  account  of  the  pretended  "inspirations"  and 
"agitations"  of  this  licentious  knave:  "I  went  into  the  room  where  he  sat,  and 
walked  up  to  him,  and  asked  how  he  did,  and  took  him  by  the  hand  and  lifted  it 
up,  and  it  fell  down  flat  upon  his  knees  as  it  lay  before.  He  took  no  notice  of  me, 
nor  made  me  any  answer;  but  I  observed  the  humming  noise  grew  louder  by 
degrees,  and  the  heaving  in  his  breast  increased,  till  it  came  up  to  his  throat,  as  if 
it  would  have  sntl'ocated  him.  Then  he  at  last  proceeded  to  speak,  or  as  he  would 
have  it  taken,  the  Spirit  spake  in  him.     The  speech  was  syllabical,  and  there  was 


OF   DR.    ISAAC    WATTS.  219 

one  of  their  followers  would  rise  from  the  dead  on  a  specified 
day,  to  confirm  the  truth  of  their  pretensions,  the  non-fulfil- 
ment of  the  prediction  convinced  the  most  credulous  of  the 
jugglery  of  which  they  had  been  the  dupes.  "  May  25,  1708. 
The  Prophetts  disappointed  by  Mr.  Emms  not  rising  fro.  the 
dead."*  As  the  day  fixed  upon  for  the  resuscitation  of  Dr. 
Emms  approached,  so  much  excitement  prevailed  that  guards 
were  stationed  near  the  place  of  his  burial,  to  suppress  tumult 
and  to  prevent  imposture ;  but  the  doctor  slept  soundly 
enough  in  his  grave,  and  another  instance  was  thus  added  to 
the  tens  of  thousands  already  inscribed  on  the  records  of  hu- 
man folly,  how  liable  man  is  to  err,  how  powerful  Satan  is  to 
deceive, 

"  Sister  Sarah  marryed,  Feb.  1707 — 8. 
"Pretender's  invasion  disappointed,  March,  1708.t 
"  Went  to  Southto.  and  afterwards  to  Tunb.  Aug.  2,  1708. 
"Removed   our   meeting-place  to  Bury-Street,  Sept.  29, 
1708."t 

a  distinct  heave  and  breathe  between  each  syllable;  but  it  required  attentiou  to 
distinguish  the  words.     I  shall  here  add  it,  as  far  as  my  memory  serves : 

"'Thou  —  hast — been  —  my — faith-ful — scr-vant; — and — I — have — hon-our-ed 
thee  :  — But — I  —  do  —  not  —  take  —  it — well  —  that  —  thou — slightest  —  and — 
op-pos-est  —  my —  ser-vauts  —  and  —  mes-sen-gers.  —  If —  thou  —  wilt  —  fall  —  in 

—  with  —  these  —  my  — ser-vants,  —  thou  —  shalt  —  do  —  great  —  things  —  in  — 
this  —  dis-peu-sa-tion;  —  and  —  I  —  will — use  —  thee  —  as  —  a — glori  ous — in- 
stru-ment — to  —  my — praise; — and  —  I  —  will  —  take  —  care  —  of — thee  —  and 
thine :  —  but  —  if —  thou  —  go-est  —  on  —  to  —  op- pose  —  my  —  servants,  —  thou 

—  wilt  —  fall  —  un-der  —  my  —  se-vere  —  dis-plea-sure.' 

"When  the  speech  was  over  the  humming  and  heaving  gradually  abated.  I 
again  asked  him  how  he  did.  After  some  time  he  rose  up,  shook  himself,  and 
rubbed  his  eyes,  like  one  just  awaked  out  of  sleep."     Life,  ii.  98. 

*  Watts' s  MS. 

f  Admiral  Fourbin  appeared  off  the  Firth  of  Forth,  at  the  head  of  a  French 
fleet  and  army;  but  finding  an  English  squadron  ready  to  receive  him,  he  steered 
northward  in  order  to  effect  a  landing.  His  attempt  was  defeated  by  a  violent 
tempest,  which  scattered  the  fleet ;  so  that  he  returned  to  Dunkirk  from  whence  he 
embarked,  with  the  loss  of  several  ships,  and  upwards  of  four  thousand  men.  The 
unfortunate  and  unjustly-suspected  Lord  Belhaven  was  arrested  upon  this  occasion 
by  the  government,  and  died  soon  after  his  liberation  on  bail. 

X  Watts's  MS. 


•220  LIFE    AND   TIMES 

Duke's  Place,  l^ury  Street,  St.  Mary  Axe,  the  site  of  Mr. 
Watts's  meeting-house,  was  occupied  previous  to  the  Reforma- 
tion by  the  Priory  of  the  Holy  Trinity,  one  of  the  most  cele- 
brated of  the  metropolitan  ecclesiastical  establishments.*  Its 
founder  was  Matilda,  queen  of  Henry  I,  who  at  the  instiga- 
tion of  Anselm,  archbishop  of  Canterbury,  and  Beaumeis, 
bishop  of  London,  conferred  upon  it  many  important  privi- 
leges. The  prior  was  always  alderman  of  Portsoken-Ward, 
but  generally  appointed  a  substitute  for  the  transaction  of 
temporal  matters.  At  the  dissolution  of  the  monasteries,  this 
priory  was  among  the  first  that  were  seized  by  Henry,  on 
account  of  its  riches,  who  gave  it  to  Sir  Thomas  Audley,  the 
then  speaker  of  the  house  of  commons,  and  afterwards  lord 
chancellor.  He  erected  a  noble  mansion  on  its  site,  and  resi- 
ded in  it  until  his  death,  when  it  descended  to  the  Howard 
family,  by  the  marriage  of  his  daughter  with  the  Duke  of 
Norfolk,  which  gave  to  the  locality  the  name  of  Duke's 
Place.  Sir  Francis  Walsingham,  Sir  Thomas  Wyat,  and  the 
Earl  of  Northumberland,  had  also  houses  in  this  neighbour- 
hood, as  well  as  the  abbots  of  Bury,  from  whom  Bury  Street 
derived  its  name.  In  the  time  of  Oliver  Cromwell,  the  Jews, 
who  now  form  its  principal  inhabitants,  first  settled  in  the 
district.  The  meeting-house  built  here  for  Mr.  Watts's  con- 
gregation, Avhich  still  exists,  is  a  substantial  square  building, 
with  three  galleries  of  considerable  dimensions.  Like  most 
of  the  old  dissenting  chapels,  the  situation  it  occupies  is  cer- 
tainly an  ineligible  one;  but  the  difficulty  of  finding  a  favour- 
able site  in  a  crowded  metropolis,  and  the  necessity  of  retreat- 
ing as  much  as  possible  from  the  inquisitorial  eye  of  prowling 
informers,  may  account  for  the  obscure  recesses  in  which  the 
fathers  of  nonconformity  erected  their  homely  sanctuaries. 
The  expense  of  the  building  was  not  quite  £'.650 ;  a  trifling 
sum  when  compared  with  the  cost  of  the  large  and  elegant 

♦Wilson's  Dissenting  Churches,  i.  251,  quoting  Strype's,  Maitland's  and  Pen- 
nant's Histories  of  Loudon. 


OF   DK.    ISAAC    WATTS.  OOJ 

Structures  of  more  recent  date.  The  original  contract  was 
with  a  Mr.  Charles  Great,  who  leased  a  part  of  his  garden, 
viz.  forty  feet  front,  and  fifty  feet  in  depth,  for  a  term  of  fifty 
years,  at  a  ground  rent  of  twenty  pounds  per  annum.  The 
chapel  was  opened  by  Mr,  Bradbury,  Oct.  3rd,  and  Mr. 
Watts's  people  were  succeeded  in  the  afternoon  at  Pinner's 
Hall,  by  a  Baptist  congregation  under  the  care  of  Mr.  J. 
Maisters. 

"Terrible  long  snowy  winter,  1708 — 9. 

"  Went  to  Southton.  June  —  Tunbridg.  Aug.  1709. 

"Bro.  R.  came  to  settle  in  Londo.  Oct.  7,  1709. 

"  Edward  Hitchin,  my  servant,  went  away  Dec.  31. 

"March  1,  1709 — 10.  The  mob  rose  and  pulled  down 
the  pews  and  galleries  of  6  meeting-houses,  viz.  Mr.  Burgess, 
Mr.  Bradbury,  Mr.  Earle,  Mr.  Wright,  Mr.  Hamilton,  and 
Mr.  Ch.  Taylor,  but  were  dispersed  by  the  guards  under 
Capt.  Horsey  at  1  or  2  in  ye  morning."* 

These  riots  were  occasioned  by  the  impeachment  of  that 
politico-religious  incendiary  Dr.  Sacheverel,  and  occurred  on 
the  second  evening  of  his  trial.  The  toleration  of  the  dissen- 
ters was  a  continual  source  of  vexation  to  this  high  churchman 
and  his  party ;  and  in  the  pulpit  of  St.  Paul's  he  gave  vent  to 
his  displeasure  against  the  government  in  a  seditious  sermon, 
for  which  he  was  prosecuted.  But  this  ill-judged  proceeding 
only  brought  him  into  public  notice,  and  invested  a  contempt- 
ible zealot  with  a  martyr's  sanctity.  So  excited  were  the  po- 
pulace in  his  favour,  that  they  accompanied  him  from  the 
Temple  to  Westminster  Hall  and  back  on  each  day  of  his 
trial,  extolling  his  zeal  for  the  church,  and  vociferating  their 
hatred  to  dissent.  The  evening  in  question  was  illuminated 
with  bon-iires,  made  of  the  pews  and  pulpits  of  demolished 
meeting-houses,  the  mob  shouting  "  High  Church  and  Dr. 
Sacheverel  for  ever !"   Mr.  Daniel  Burgess  and  Mr.  Bradbury 

♦Watts's  MS. 


222  LIFE    AND   TIMES 

were  special  objects  of  enmity,  and  had  their  persons  and 
dwelling-houses  threatened.  The  populace  in  several  parts  of 
the  country  sympathised  with  the  metropolitan  mobs  in  these 
violent  proceedings ;  and  at  Wrexham  Dr.  Daniel  Williams, 
Mr.  Burgess,  and  the  celebrated  Hoadley,  were  buried,  burnt, 
and  drowned  in  effigy.* 

"I  bought  a  horse  for  my  health,  Apll,  1710. 

"  I  rode  down  to  South  ton.  and  back  again,  June ;  and, 
according  to  ye  account  I  kept,  I  rode  above  800  miles  from 
April  10  to  Sept.  28. 

"  I  removed  from  Mr.  Hollis's,  and  went  to  live  with  Mr. 
Bowes,  Dec.  30 ;  and  John  Merchant,  my  servt.  came  to  me. 

"Mr.  Arthur  Shallot  sen.  dyed,  4th  Feb.  1710-11;  and 
Mr.  Tho.  Hunt,  merchant,  and  his  wife  dyed  about  the  same 
time. 

"  Mrs.  Ann  Pickard  dyed  Apll.  7,  1711. 

"  Went  to  Southto.  in  June  —  returned  July. 

"  Went  to  Tunbridge,  Aug.  returned,  being  under  a  disor- 
der of  my  stomach  and  freqt.  pains  of  the  head.  Found  some 
relief  at  Tunbr.  Avaters. 

*  Mr.  Hughes,  Watts's  fellow-student,  draws  a  lively  picture  of  the  metropolis  at 
this  time,  iu  a  poem  entitled,  "Hudibras  imitated.     Written  in  the  year  1710." 

"  O  blessed  time  of  reformation, 

That's  now  beginning  tliiough  the  nation, 

Blaclv  tinkers  bawl  aloud  '  to  settle 

Church-privilege'  for  'mending  kettle;' 

The  oyster-wenches  lock  tlieir  tish  up, 

And  cry,  '  No  presbyterian  bishop  ;' 

Some  cry  tor  '  pt-nal  laws,'  instead 

Of  puddinr,  pies  and  ginger-bread  ,' 

And  some  tor  '  brooms,  old  boots  and  shoes,' 

Uoar  out, '  God  bless  our  commons  house  ;' 

Instead  of 'kitchen  stulT,'  some  cry, 
'  Confound  the  late  whig  ministry  ;' 

Rogues,  that,  like  f  alstaff,  scarce  know  whether 

A  church's  iuside's  stone  or  leather; 

Yet  join  the  parsons  and  the  people. 

To  cry, '  the  church,'  but  mean  '  the  steeple.' 

"If,  holy  mother,  such  you'll  own 
I'or  vour  true  sons,  and  sucli  alone. 
Then  heaven  have  mercy  upon  you, 
lint  the  deil  take  your  beastly  crew." 


OF    DR.    ISAAC    WATTS.  223 

"  My  Lady  Hartopp  dyed,  Nov.  9 ;  and  Mrs.  Gould,  Nov. 
15,  1711."* 

With  this  extract  the  private  memoranda  of  Mr.  Watts 
closes ;  and  it  must  ever  remain  a  subject  of  deep  regret,  that 
he  has  left  us  nothing  further  from  his  own  pen,  relative  to  his 
personal  history  and  public  labours.  Of  Lady  Hartopp  and 
Mrs.  Gould  we  have  already  spoken :  the  other  individuals 
whose  decease  is  here  noticed,  were  among  Mr.  Watts's  reli- 
gious associates  and  friends.  Mr.  Arthur  Shallot  had  the 
honour  to  be  one  of  the  founders  of  the  first  English  charity 
school  in  the  year  1687;  he  was  a  member  of  the  presbyterian 
church  in  St.  Thomas's  Southwark,  under  the  care  of  Mr. 
Nathaniel  Vincent,  and  was  much  beloved  for  his  zeal  and 
liberality.  In  connexion  with  Messrs.  Samuel  Warburton 
and  Ferdinand  Holland,  members  of  the  same  church  with 
himself,  he  erected  a  meeting-house  in  Zoar  Street,  which 
was  occupied  by  a  presbyterian  congregation  from  the  year 
1087  to  1740.  This  place,  which  usually  went  by  the  name 
of  Shallot's  Meeting,  was  afterwards  let  to  a  seceder  from 
Mr.  Wesley's  connexion,!  and  since  his  death,  in  1756,  it  has 
been  converted  into  a  warehouse.  To  Mr.  Shallot  Watts 
inscribed  an  elegy  to  the  memory  of  Mr.  Thos.  Gouge,  J  the 
minister  of  the  Three  Cranes'  meeting,  whom  he  highly 
esteemed  and  reverenced.  It  may  not  be  out  of  place  to 
introduce  here  an  observation  relative  to  this  distingviished 
man,  made  in  conversation  with  Dr.  Gibbons:  —  "Xhe  great- 
est preachers,"  he  remarked,  "  in  my  younger  time,  were  Mr. 
John  Howe,§  and  Mr.  Thomas  Gouge, |1  whose  strength  lay 

*  Watts's  MS.  f  Wesley's  Jouruals,  ii.  p.  30.  %  Horae  Lyr.  lib.  iii. 

§  Mr.  Howe  has  a  niche  in  the  Lyric  temple: 

"Great  man,  permit  tlie  muse  to  climb, 
And  seat  her  at  tliy  feet,"  &c.    Lib.  ii. 

II  This  Mr.  Gouge  must  not  be  confounded  with  the  ejected  minister  of  St. 
Sepulchres  of  the  same  name.  He  was  first  pastor  at  Amsterdam  ;  then  at  the 
Three  Cranes,  from  about  the  Revolution  to  the  year  1700,  when  he  died. 


221  T-IFE    AND   TIMES 

in  the  illustration  of  scripture;  Mr.  Stennet*  was,  in  his 
preaching,  like  a  silver  stream,  which  runs  along  without  bush 
or  stones  to  interrupt  it."  Mrs.  Pickard  was  the  wife  of 
Mr.  Thos.  Pickard,  a  member  and  probably  a  deacon  of  the 
church  in  Bury  Street.  It  was  for  this  gentleman  that  the 
funeral  sermon  was  preached,  which  is  inserted  at  the  close 
of  this  volume.  The  following  inscription  in  Cheshunt 
church,  against  the  south  wall,  relative  to  his  son,  Avas  com- 
posed by  Mr.  Watts : 

"In  memory  of 

THOMAS  PICKARD, 

citizen  of  London,  who  dy'd  suddenly, 

Jan.  29,  A.  D.  1719-20, 

aetat.  50. 

"  A  soul  prepar'd  needs  no  delays, 
The  summons  come,  the  saint  obeys : 
Swift  was  his  flight  and  short  the  road. 
He  clos'd  his  eyes,  and  saw  his  God. 
The  flesh  rests  here  till  Jesus  come. 
And  claims  the  treasure  from  the  tomb." 

Underneath  this  has  been  added  at  a  subsequent  period : 

"  In  memory  also  of 

Sarah  Pickard,  of  Theobalds, 

widow  and  relict  of  the  above-mentioned 

Thomas  Pickard,  and  daughter  of 

Sir  Robert  Jocelyn,  of  Hyde  Hall, 

in  this  county,  Bart. ; 

She  dyed  the  23  of  June,  1759,  aged  86, 

full  of  piety  as  well  as  days." 

*  Mr.  Stennet  was  minister  of  a  Sabbatarian  congregation  in  Devonshire  Square  ; 
he  was  the  grandfather  of  Dr.  Samuel  Stennet. 


OF    DR.    ISAAC    WATTS.  225 


"TO    SARAH    AND    MARY    WATTS.* 

"  Dear  Sisters, 

"  Read  the  love  of  my  heart  in  the  first  line  of  my 
letter  and  believe  it.  I  am  much  concerned  to  hear  of  my 
mother's  continued  weakness.  We  take  our  share  in  these 
painful  disorders  of  nature,  which  afflict  her  whom  we  honour 
and  love.  I  know  also  that  your  hurries  of  business  must  be 
more  than  doubled  thereby ;  but  we  are  daily  leaving-  care 
and  sin  behind  us.  The  past  temptations  shall  vex  us  no 
more :  the  months  which  are  gone  return  not,  and  the  sor- 
rows which  we  hourly  feel  lessen  the  decreed  number.  Every 
pulse  beats  a  moment  of  pain  away,  and  thus  by  degrees  we 
arrive  nearer  to  the  sweet  period  of  life  and  bliss. 

"Bear  up,  my  dear  ones,  through  the  ruflTing  storms 
Of  a  vain  vexing  world,  tread  down  the  cares, 
Those  ragged  thorns  which  lie  across  the  road, 
Nor  spend  a  tear  upon  them.     Trust  me,  Sisters, 
The  dew  of  eyes  will  make  the  briers  grow; 
Nor  let  the  distant  phantom  of  delight 
Too  long  allure  your  gaze,  or  swell  your  hope 
To  dangerous  size.     If  it  approach  your  feet, 
And  court  your  liand,  forbid  th'  intruding  joy 
To  sit  too  near  your  heart.     Still  may  our  souls 
Claim  kindred  with  the  skies,  nor  mix  with  dust 
Our  better-born  affections,  leave  the  globe 
A  nest  for  worms,  and  hasten  to  our  home. 

"O,  there  are  gardens  of  th'  immortal  kind, 
Which  crown  the  heavenly  Eden^s  rising  hills 
With  beauty  and  with  sweets.     No  lurking  mischief 
Dwells  in  the  fruit,  nor  serpent  twines  the  boughs; 
The  branches  bend  laden  with  life  and  bliss 
Ripe  for  the  taste,  but  'tis  a  steep  ascent; 
Hold  fast  the  golden  chaiuf  let  down  from  heav'n, 

*  This  letter,  greatly  enlarged,  is  inserted  in  the  Lyrics.    It  is  addressed  to  Sarissa, 
his  sister  Sarah,  probably  after  the  death  of  his  sister  Mary, 

f  The  gospel. 


•226  LIFE    AND   TIMES 

'Twill  help  your  feet  and  wings.     I  feel  its  force 

Draw  upward:  fastened  to  the  heavenly  gate, 

It  guides  tiie  way  unerring.     Happy  clue 

Through  this  dark  wild!     'Twas  wisdom's  noblest  work. 

All  joiu'd  by  pow'r  diviue,  and  every  link  is  love. 

"  Sisters, 

"  Accept  the  sudden  rapture  kindly.  The  muse  is 
not  awake  every  day.  If  she  has  a  moment's  release  from  the 
lethargy,  see,  'tis  devoted  to  serve  and  please  you. &c. 

"June  15,  1704." 
"to  henry  bendisii,  esq. 

"  With  some  verses  upon  his  marriage. 

"Aug.  24,  1705, 
"  Dear  Sir, 

"  The  following  song  was  yours  when  first  composed  ;* 
the  muse  then  described  the  general  fate  of  mankind,  that  is, 
to  be  ill  matched;  and  now  she  rejoices  that  you  have  escaped 
the  common  mischief,  and  that  your  soul  has  found  its  own 
mate.  Let  this  ode,  then,  congratulate  you  both.  Grow 
mutually  in  more  complete  likeness  and  love ;  persevere  and 
be  happy. 

"I  persuade  myself  you  will  accept  from  the  press  what 
the  pen  more  privately  inscribed  to  you  long  ago ;  and  I  am 
in  no  pain  lest  you  should  take  offence  at  the  fabulous  dress 
of  this  poem ;  nor  would  weaker  minds  be  scandalised  at  it,  if 
they  would  give  themselves  leave  to  reflect  how  many  divine 
truths  are  spoken  by  the  holy  wa'iters  in  visions  and  images, 
parables  and  dreams;  nor  are  my  wiser  friends  ashamed  to 
defend  it,  since  the  narrative  is  grave,  and  the  moral  so  just 
and  obvious. 

"ISAAC   WATTS." 

"The  Indian  Philosopher,  Lyrics,  lib.  ii. 


OF   DR.    ISAAC    WATTS.  227 


"  TO  THE  REV.  JOHN  SHOWER.* 

"  With  an  elegy  upon  tlie  death  of  his  daughter,  Mrs.  Aune  Warner,  who  died  of 
the  small-pox,  Dec.  18,  1707,  at  one  of  the  clock  in  the  morning,  a  few  days 
after  the  birth  and  death  of  her  first  child. 

"  Reverend  and  dear  Sir, 

"  How  great  soever  was  my  sense  of  your  loss,  yet  I 
ditl  not  think  myself  fit  to  offer  any  lines  of  comfort :  your  own 
meditations  can  furnish  you  with  many  a  delightful  truth  in 
the  midst  of  so  heavy  a  sorrow ;  for  the  covenant  of  grace  has 
brightness  enough  in  it  to  gild  the  most  gloomy  providence; 
and  to  that  sweet  covenant  your  soul  is  no  stranger.  My 
own  thoughts  were  much  impressed  with  the  tidings  of 
your  daughter's  death ;  and  though  I  made  many  a  reflection 
on  the  vanity  of  mankind  in  its  best  estate,  yet  I  must  ac- 
knowledge that  my  temper  leads  me  most  to  the  pleasant  scenes 
of  heaven,  and  that  future  world  of  blessedness.  When  I 
recollect  the  memory  of  my  friends  that  are  dead,  I  frequently 
rove  into  the  world  of  spirits,  and  search  them  out  there :  thus 
I  endeavoured  to  trace  Mrs.  Warner;  and  these  thoughts 
crowding  fast  upon  me,  I  set  them  down  for  my  own  enter- 
tainment. The  verse  breaks  off  abruptly,  because  I  had  no 
design  to  write  a  finished  elegy ;  and,  besides,  when  I  was 
fallen  upon  the  dark  side  of  death,  I  had  no  mind  to  tarry 
there.  If  the  lines  I  have  written  be  so  happy  as  to  entertain 
you  a  little,  and  divert  your  grief,  the  time  spent  in  composing 

♦First  pastor  of  the  church  in  the  Old  Jewry,  now  lapsed  into  Socinianism.  He 
was  born  at  Exeter,  and  educated  at  Newiugton  Green  under  Mr.  Morton.  His  first 
sermon  was  preached  in  Mr.  Vincent's  meeting-house  in  Hand-alley,  from  Psalm, 
cxix.  30  :  "I  have  chosen  the  way  of  truth."  He  travelled  abroad  with  Sir  Samuel 
Baruardiston,  and  at  Geneva  contracted  an  intimacy  with  the  learned  Turretin  the 
younger.  Mr.  Shower  afterwards  resided  at  Utrecht  and  Rotterdam,  owing  to  the 
persecution  of  the  dissenters,  with  Mr.  Howe,  Mr.  N.  Taylor,  Sir  Patience  Ward, 
and  M.  Papillon.  He  settled  in  England  soon  after  the  Revolution,  and  died  be- 
loved and  respected,  June  28,  1715. 


228  LIFE    AND   TIMES 

them  shall  not  be  reckoned  among  my  lost  hours,  and  the  re- 
view will  be  more  pleasing  to, 

"  Sir, 

"  Your  affectionate  humble  Servant, 

"  I.  WATTS. 

"  Decern.  22,  1707." 

"to    the    rev.    SAMUEL    SAY.* 

"Dec.  23,  1708. 
"  My  dear  friend, 

"  Whether  I  have  written  to  you  since  I  received 
yours  at  Tunbridge  I  know  not;  for  that  I  now  thank  you, 
yet  I  imagine  that  I  have  already  thanked  you,  and  that  you 
are  in  my  debt.  I  believe  with  you,  that  Mr.  H.'s  insisting  so 
much  on  the  duties  of  morality,  and  pressing  them  upon  the 
motive  of  Christ's  example  above  and  beyond  all  other  mo- 
tives, has  been  a  reason  why  some  persons  have  suspected  him 
of  Socinianizing,  though  he  has  several  times,  in  the  pulpit 
and  in  converse,  exprest  his  sentiments  very  plainly  opposite  to 
Socinus  in  the  great  points  of  controversy.  I  wish  he  had 
always  done  it,  and  talked  with  caution  in  all  places  on  those 
subjects.  He  has  raised  many  scruples  among  many  persons; 
but  I  quash  them  wherever  I  find  them.  Now,  my  dear  friend, 
I  would  lay  aside  all  thought  of  Mr.  H.  in  what  follows.  Let 
me  inquire  of  you,  whether  you  imagine  the  great  and  glorious 
doctrines  of  the  gospel  were  all  contrived,  and  the  affairs  them- 
selves transacted,  merely  to  subserve  a  little  morality ;  whe- 
ther our  great  Tiord  Jesus  Christ  was  incarnate  and  died,  rose 
and  lives,  and  gave  such  a  gospel,  chiefly  that  we  might  be 
just  and  kind  to  our  neighbours  (for  those  two  things  include 
all  moral  duties),  or  rather,  whether  the  honour  of  the  wisdom, 
grace,  and  justice  of  God,  the  glory  of  his  Son  Jesus  Christ, 

*  Mr.  Saj'  was  now  at  J-owestoft  near  Yarmouth. 


OF    DR.    ISAAC    WATTS.  229 

and  the  eternal  enjoyment  of  his  own  love,  which  his  chosen 
ones  obtain  thereby,  be  not  far  the  greater  ends  of  God's  con- 
triving the  gospel,  and  sending  it  among  men ;  and,  conse- 
quently, -whether  these  ought  not  to  be  insisted  on  in  our 
preaching  at  least  as  much  as  morality.  You  know  me  and 
iny  way,  therefore  I  talk  to  you  with  freedom,  and  would 
have  the  very  sense  of  your  soul  on  this  subject.  I  could 
quote  St.  Paul  largely  for  this  purpose,  but  you  know  his 
spirit ;  morality  was  not  the  chief  ornament  of  it. 

"  My  bookseller  urges  me  to  reprint  my  Hymns,  and  talks 
of  another  edition  of  the  Poems,  I  earnestly  beg  you  to  point 
me  those  lines  in  either  which  are  offensive  to  the  weak  and 
pious,  and  shocking  and  disgustful  to  the  polite,  or  obscure  to 
the  vulgar  capacity,  or,  in  short,  whatever  you  think  should 
be  mended,  and  if  you  please  with  your  amendment;  but  I 
entreat  it  especially  for  the  Hymns  in  a  fortnight's  time. 
Farewell,  and  love 

"  Your  affectionate  Brother 

"in  the  gospel, 

"  I.    AVATTS." 
TO    THE    SAME. 

"March  12,  1709. 
"  My  dear  friend, 

"  Your  two  letters  require  a  larger  answer  than  I 
can  now  give,  but  I  am  ashamed  of  so  long  delay.  I  send 
you  my  thanks  for  those  few  remarks  you  were  pleased  to 
make  on  my  Hymns.  I  easily  believe  a  longer  review  of 
them  would  have  afforded  more  numerous  and  more  obvious 
grounds  of  friendly  censure.  The  method  I  took  was,  to  col- 
lect all  the  remarks  together,  that  several  friends  had  made  by 
word  or  letter,  and  got  a  friend  or  two  together,  and  spent  a 
whole  day  in  perusing  and  considering  the  remarks ;  I  agreed 


230  LIFE   AND   TIMES 

to  their  judf^ents  I  think  in  all  things  ;  in  the  whole,  there 
are  near  half  a  hundred  lines  altered,  I  hope  always  for  the 
hetter.  Some  that  were  less  offensive  were  let  pass ;  for  the 
bookseller  desired  I  would  not  change  too  much;  besides 
that  lesser  faults  would  not  be  spied  by  the  vulgar,  nor  much 
offend  the  polite.  But  I  have  added  above  a  hundred,  and 
most  of  them  to  the  First  Book.  I  hope  all  now  more  ap- 
provable,  for  their  chief  design,  than  the  foregoing  edition. 
The  printer,  by  the  cold  weather,  and  by  working  off  a  sup- 
plement of  the  New  Hymns  apart,  has  been  made  so  dilatory, 
that  he  has  not  yet  printed  all  the  First  Book.  If,  therefore, 
you  see  lines  that  are  very  unfit  for  Christian  use,  or  evident- 
ly improper,  or  disagreeable  to  you  in  the  Second  or  Third 
Books,  point  them  out  to  me  in  a  week  or  two,  and  oblige  me 
further. 

"  I  rejoice,  dear  brother,  when  I  find  you  concurring  with 
me  in  the  great  ends  of  Christianity,  (viz.)  the  glory  of  God's 
perfections,  as  being  much  superior  and  infinitely  preferable 
to  our  single  or  social  human  virtues  and  relative  duties  in 
this  mortal  mixed  state.  When  I  used  the  words  (mere  mo- 
rality) I  confined  them  to  this  sense,  though  I  know  the  word 
moral  has  a  larger  extent  Avhen  applied  to  the  law,  Sec.  But, 
vulgarly,  we  mean  by  it  second  table  duties.  Therefore,  we 
have  differed  merely  about  a  word,  and  I  ask  your  pardon  for 
the  occasion.  I  am  of  your  mind  too,  that  moral  relative 
duties,  such  as  justice,  goodness,  truth,  &c.  and  solitary  — 
such  as  sobriety,  temperance,  &c.  should  be  insisted  on,  and 
well  intermingled  with  the  diviner  part  of  the  gospel.  It  is  a 
just  remark,  that  a  minister  in  the  country  knows  the  moral 
character  of  his  hearers  much -better  than  in  the  city:  per- 
haps we  should  have  more  reason  to  be  large  upon  the  second 
table,  did  we  see  so  much  neglect  here  as  you  do  there. 

"  I  have  received  no  notice  from  Mr.  Lewis  about  what 
you  wrote ;  but  I  am  utterly  precluded  long  ago  from  serving 
any  friend,  having  a  near  relation,  for  whom  I  have  engaged 


OF    DR.    ISAAC    WATTS.  231 

Mr.  Shiite's  interest,  whenever  any  such  kind  of  place  falls  ; 
and  I  believe  Mr.  Shute  will  oblige  me.  Farewell,  dear 
friend,  tell  me  when  you  design  this  way.  Last  week  your 
mother  and  family  were  well. 

"  I  am  yours  affectionately, 

"  I,    WATTS." 
TO   THE    SAME.* 

"London,  Nov.  1,  1709. 
"  Dear  Sir, 

"  'Twas  at  Tunbridge  Wells  I  received  your  letter, 
with  "the  account  of  Mr.  Ward's  ordination  at  Woodbridge. 
Just  now  I  read  a  large  narrative,  by  letter,  of  Mr.  Scott's  ordi- 
nation to  his  church.  Your  remarks  on  two  or  three  heads 
give  me  occasion  for  the  same. 

"  You  speak  of  yourself  and  the  rest  of  your  order  as  wanting 
a  name.  I  think  you  are  ministers  of  Christ,  and  ordinary 
evangelists.  A  person  w4iose  gifts  have  been  approved  by  a 
church  of  Christ,  and  its  elders,  who  devotes  himself  solemnly 
and  publicly  to  the  work  of  the  gospel,  who  is  thereupon  sent 
forth  to  preach  by  the  elders  and  brethren  of  a  church,  with 
a  word  of  exhortation  and  prayer,  is,  in  my  opinion,  a  minis- 
ter of  the  gospel,  and  has  not  only  authority  to  preach,  but 
also  to  baptize.  The  Lord's  supper  being  an  ordinance  of 
communion  with  one  another,  &c.  seems  to  require  a  more 
particular  union  and  relation  to  a  single  church :  but  if  any 
are  otherwise  minded,  I  shall  not  be  angry  with  'em.  Note, 
if  there  are  no  elders  in  a  church  which  sends  forth  a  minister, 
it  is  (at  least)  prudentially  necessary  to  have  the  approbation 
and  assistance  of  neighbouring  elders,  if  such  can  be  had. 
But  I  can't  tell  how  to  make  any  thing  necessary  to  consti- 

*It  appears  from  this  Letter,  that  Mr.  Say  had  not  yet  been  ordained  over  any 
particular  church. 


232  LIFE    AND   TIMES 

tute  a  minister  that  involves  a  necessity  of  succession  from 
the  apostles'  days. 

"  The  laying  on  of  hands  can  never  be  proved  from  scrip- 
ture to  be  an  essential  requisite  to  ordination  that  I  can  find, 
nor  that  an  office  is  thereby  ordinarily  conveyed ;  but  it  has 
been  a  sign  in  use  in  all  ages,  agreeably  to,  and  derived  from, 
the  nature  of  things,  when  a  superior  has  prayed  for  a  blessing 
on  an  inferior,  or  when  any  thing  has  been  devoted  to  sacred 
use;  I  could  use  it,  therefore,  on  all  such  occasions,  with 
great  freedom,  or  omit  it,  according  as  might  be  most  agree- 
able to  the  church  where  I  minister ;  and  if  I  were  to  be 
removed  by  providence  twenty  times,  I  could  submit  so  often 
to  the  imposition  of  hands. 

"  I  hear  you  were  at  Mr.  Scott's  public  ordination  ;  I  hope 
all  things  will  succeed  well  there,  and  that  God  will  give  him 
prudence  to  conduct  his  affairs  with  success  to  the  gospel, 
honour  to  God,  and  good  to  souls. 

"  I  shall  be  glad  to  hear  of  your  ministry  being  blest  sensi- 
bly for  conversion.  I  hope  you  health  :  mine  is  as  usual,  my 
head  capable  of  very  little  study ;  and  I'm  like  to  be  deprived 
of  assistance,  Mr.  Hollis  being  not  willing  to  keep  any  servant 
for  me  in  the  house,  having  been,  in  some  instances,  a  little 
incommoded  by  my  servant.  I  owe  you  a  Book  of  Hymns, 
if  you  can  tell  me  how  to  convey  it.     Let  me  hear  from  you 

ere  long. 

"  I  am  yours, 

"  I.    WATTS." 

FROM     MR.     SECKER,    AFTERWARDS    DR.    SECKER,    ARCH- 
BISHOP   OF    CANTERBURY.* 

"Gloucester,  Nov.  18,  1711. 
"Rev.  Sir, 

"  Before  I  give  you  an  account  of  the  state  of  our 

academy,  and  those  other  things  you  desired  me,  please  to 

•This  interesting  letter  was  written  at  the  age  of  nineteen,  by  Mr.  afterwards 


OF    DR.   ISAAC    WATTS.  233 

accept  of  my  hearty  thanks  for  that  service  you  have  done 
me,  both  in  advising  me  to  prosecute  my  studies  in  such  an 
extraordinary  place  of  education,  and  in  procuring  me  admit- 
tance into  it.  I  wish  my  improvements  may  be  answerable 
to  the  advantages  I  enjoy;  but  however  that  may  happen, 
your  kindness  has  fixed  me  in  a  place  where  I  may  be  very 
happy,  and  spend  my  time  to  good  purpose,  and  where,  if  I 
do  not,  the  fault  will  be  all  my  own. 

"  I  am  sensible  how  difficult  it  is  to  give  a  character  of  any 
person  or  thing,  because  the  most  probable  guesses  we  make 
very  often  prove  false  ones.  But  since  you  are  pleased  to 
desire  it,  I  think  myself  obliged  to  give  you  the  best  and  most 
impartial  account  of  matters  I  can. 

"  Mr.  Jones,  then,  I  take  to  be  a  man  of  real  piety,  great 
learning,  and  an  agreeable  temper;  one  who  is  very  diligent 
in  instructing  all  under  his  care,  very  well  qualified  to  give 
instructions,  and  whose  well-managed  familiarity  will  always 
make  him  respected.*  He  is  very  strict  in  keeping  good 
orders,  and  will  effectually  preserve  his  pupils  from  negligence 
and  immorality  ;    and,  accordingly,  I  believe  there  are  not 

Dr.  Seeker,  Bishop  of  Oxford,  and  for  several  years  Arolibishop  of  Canterbury.  He 
was  brought  up  among  the  dissenters,  and  conformed,  according  to  Cularay,  in 
1721.  When  elevated  to  the  archiepiscopal  dignity, "  his  friends  and  dependants," 
says  Archdeacon  Blackbourne,  "  thought  it  necessary  to  represent,  tliat  his  con- 
nexions with  the  dissenters  had  been  extremely  loose  and  unconfined."  Even  the 
candid  Bishop  of  London,  Dr.  Porteus,  his  biographer,  asserts  that  he  never  com 
municated  in  any  dissenting  church.  There  is,  however,  positive  evidence  to  the 
contrary;  for  the  name  of  "Thomas  Seeker"  occurs  in  a  list  of  the  members  of 
Timothy  Jollie's  church,  in  whose  academy  he  was  for  some  time  a  student. 
Seeker,  moreover,  preached  a  probation  sermon  to  a  dissenting  congregation  at 
Bolsover,  in  Derbyshire.  At  this  time  it  is  related,  that,  having  expressed  himself 
to  some  ministers  in  terms  strongly  declaratory  of  his  ambitious  turn  of  mind: 
"Aye,"  said  one  of  them,  "nothing  will  do  for  you.  Seeker,  but  conformity." 
"No,"  replied  Seeker,  with  indignation,  "conform  I  never  can."  From  the  above 
letter,  it  will  be  seen  that  Watts  was  one  of  his  early  patrons. 

*It  is  surely  not  very  creditable  to  the  biographers  of  Seeker,  Dr.  Porteus  and 
Dr.  Stinton,  that  they  merely  mention  his  tutor  as  one  Mr.  Jones.  The  man 
whose  system  of  instruction  is  detailed  in  this  letter,  and  who  educated  Seeker  and 
the  celebrated  Dr.  Butler,  Bishop  of  Durham,  deserved  something  more  than  this 
meagre  notice. 

Q 


234  LIFE   AND   TIMES 

many  academies  freer  in  general  from  those  vices  than  we 
are.  In  particular,  my  bed-fellow,  Mr.  Scott,*  is  one  of 
unfeigned  religion,  and  a  diligent  searcher  after  truth.  His 
g6nteel  carriage  and  agreeable  disposition  gain  him  the 
esteem  of  every  one.  Mr.  Griffith  is  more  than  ordinary 
serious  and  grave,  and  improves  more  in  every  thing  than 
one  could  expect  from  a  man  who  seems  to  be  not  much  under 
forty  J  particularly  in  Greek  and  Hebrew  he  has  made  a 
great  progress,  Mr.  Francisf  and  Mr.  Watkins  are  diligent 
in  study  and  truly  religious.  The  elder  Mr.  Jones, |  having 
had  a  better  education  than  they,  will,  in  all  probability,  make 
a  great  scholar;  and  his  brother  is  one  of  quick  parts. 

"  Our  Logic,  which  we  have  read  once  over,  is  so  contrived 
as  to  comprehend  all  Heereboord,  and  the  far  greater  part  of 
Mr.  Locke's  Essay,  and  the  Art  of  Thinking.  What  Mr. 
Jones  dictated  to  us  was  but  short,  containing  a  clear  and 
brief  account  of  the  matter,  references  to  the  places  where  it 
was  more  fully  treated  of,  and  remarks  on,  or  explications  of, 
the  authors  cited,  when  need  required.  At  our  next  lecture 
we  gave  an  account  both  of  what  the  author  quoted  and  our 
tutor  said,  who  commonly  then  gave  us  a  large  explication  of 
it,  and  so  proceeded  to  the  next  thing  in  order.  He  took  care, 
as  far  as  possible,  that  we  understood  the  sense  as  well  as 
remembered  the  words  of  what  we  had  read;  and  that  we 


*  Afterwards  Dr.  Daniel  Scott,  with  whom  Dr.  Gibbons  was  intimately  acquainted. 
He  was  a  very  learned  and  amiable  man.  After  he  had  studied  under  Mr.  Jones, 
he  removed  to  Utrecht  for  further  education,  where  he  took  the  degree  of  Doctor 
of  Laws,  but  never,  I  believe,  entered  on  the  work  of  the  ministry.  In  the  year 
1711,  lie  published  a  new  version  of  St.  Matthew's  gospel,  with  critical  notes,  and 
an  Examination  of  Dr.  Mills's  various  readings.  He  published  also  in  the  year 
1745,  an  Appendix  to  H.  Stephens's  Greek  Lexicon,  in  two  volumes.  He  dedica- 
ted them  to  Dr.  Seeker  and  Dr.  Butler,  who  had  been  his  fellow-students  at  Mr. 
Jones's. 

f  Not  improbably  Mr.  Henry  Francis,  for  some  time  assistant  iu  London  to  the 
Rev.  Mr,  John  Foxon,  and  afterwards  pastor  of  the  church  at  Southampton. 

X  Mr.  Jeremiah  Jones,  the  learned  author  of  "Anew  and  full  Method  of  settling 
the  Canonical  Authority  of  the  New  Testament." 


OF   DR.   ISAAC   WATTS. 

should  not  suffer  ourselves  to  be  cheated  with  obscure  terms 
which  had  no  meaning.  Though  he  be  no  great  admirer  of 
the  old  logic,  yet  he  has  taken  a  great  deal  of  pains  both  in 
explaining  and  correcting  Heereboord,  and  has,  for  the  most 
part,  made  him  intelligible,  or  shown  that  he  is  not  so. 

"The  two  Mr.  Jones's,  Mr.  Francis,  Mr.  Watkins,  Mr. 
Sheldon,  and  two  more  gentlemen,  are  to  begin  Jewish  an- 
tiquities* in  a  short  time.  I  was  designed  for  one  of  their 
nvimber,  but  rather  chose  to  read  logic  once  more ;  both  be- 
cause I  was  utterly  unacquainted  with  it  when  I  came  to  this 
place,  and  because  the  others  having  all,  except  Mr.  Francis, 
been  at  other  academies,  will  be  obliged  to  make  more  haste 
than  those  in  a  lower  class,  and  consequently  cannot  have  so 
good  or  large  accounts  of  any  thing,  nor  so  much  time  to 
study  every  head.  We  shall  have  gone  through  our  course  in 
about  four  years'  time,  which  I  believe  nobody  that  once 
knows  Mr.  Jones  will  think  too  long. 

"  I  began  to  learn  Hebrew  as  soon  as  I  came  hither,  and 
find  myself  able  now  to  construe,  and  give  some  grammatical 
account  of,  about  twenty  verses  in  the  easier  parts  of  the  bible 
after  less  than  an  hour's  preparation.  We  read  every  day  two 
verses  a-piece  in  the  Hebrew  bible,  which  we  turn  into 
Greek  (no  one  knowing  which  his  verses  shall  be,  though  at 
first  it  was  otherwise).  And  this  with  logic  is  our  morning's 
work. 

"  Mr.  Jones  also  began  about  three  months  ago  some  criti- 
cal lectures,  in  order  to  the  exposition  you  advised  him  to. 
The  principal  things  contained  in  them  are  about  the  Anti- 
quity of  the  Hebrew  Language,  Letters,  Vowels,  the  Incor- 
ruption  of  the  Scriptures,  ancient  Divisions  of  the  Bible,  an 
account  of  the  Talmud,  Masora,  and  Cabala.  We  are  at  pre- 
sent upon  the  Septuagint,  and  shall  proceed  after  that  to  the 
Targumim,  and  other  versions,  &c.     Every  part  is  managed 

*  A  neatly  written  copy  of  Mr.  Jones's  Lectures  on  Jewish  Antiquities,  in  two 
volumes  8vo.,  is  preserved  in  the  Red-cross-street  Library. 


236  LIFE    AND  TIMES 

with  abundance  of  perspicuity,  and  seldom  any  material  thing 
is  omitted  that  other  authors  have  said  upon  the  point,  though 
very  frequently  we  have  useful  additions  of  things  which  are 
not  to  be  found  in  them.  We  have  scarce  been  upon  any 
thing  yet,  but  Mr.  Jones  has  had  those  writers  which  are  most 
valued  on  that  head,  to  which  he  always  refers  us.  This  is 
what  we  first  set  about  in  the  afternoon  ;  which  being  finish- 
ed we  read  a  chapter  in  the  Greek  Testament,  and  after  that 
Mathematics.  We  have  gone  through  all  that  is  commonly 
taught  of  Algebra  and  Proportion,  with  the  six  first  books  of 
Euclid,  which  is  all  Mr.  Jones  designs  for  the  gentlemen  I 
mentioned  above,  but  he  intends  to  read  something  more  to 
the  class  that  comes  after  them. 

"  This  is  our  daily  employment,  which  in  the  morning 
takes  up  about  two  hours,  and  something  more  in  the  after- 
noon. Only  on  Wednesdays  in  the  morning  we  read  Diony- 
sius's  Periegesis,  on  which  we  have  notes  mostly  geographical, 
but  with  some  criticisms  intermixed  ;  and  in  the  afternoon  we 
have  no  lecture  at  all.  So  on  Saturday  in  the  afternoon  we 
have  only  a  thesis,  which  none  but  they  who  have  done  with 
logic  have  any  concern  in.  We  are  also  just  beginning  to 
read  Isocrates  and  Terence,  each  twice  a  week.  On  the  latter 
our  tutor  will  give  us  some  notes  which  he  received  in  a  col- 
lege from  Perizonius.* 

"  We  are  obliged  to  rise  at  five  of  the  clock  every  morning, 
and  to  speak  Latin  always,  except  when  below  stairs  amongst 
the  family.  The  people  where  we  live  are  very  civil,  and  the 
greatest  inconvenience  we  suffer  is,  that  we  fill  the  house  ra- 
ther too  much,  being  sixteen  in  number  besides  Mr.  Jones. 
But  I  suppose  the  increase  of  his  aeademy  will  oblige  him  to 
remove  next  spring.  We  pass  our  time  very  agreeably  be- 
twixt study  and  conversation  with  our  tutor,  who  is  always 
ready  to  discourse  freely  of  any  thing  that  is  useful,  and  al- 

*  Mr.  Jones  was  educated  under  Perizonius,  in  Holland. 


OF   DR.    ISAAC    WATTS. 

lows  us  either  then  or  at  lecture  all  imaginable  liberty  of 
making  objections  against  his  opinion,  and  prosecuting  them 
as  far  as  we  can.  In  this  and  every  thing  else  he  shows 
himself  so  much  a  gentleman,  and  manifests  so  great  an  affec- 
tion and  tenderness  for  his  pupils,  as  cannot  but  command 
respect  and  love.  I  almost  forgot  to  mention  our  tutor's  li- 
brary, which  is  composed  for  the  most  part  of  foreign  books, 
which  seem  to  be  very  well  chosen,  and  are  every  day  of  great 
advantage  to  us. 

"Thus  I  have  endeavoured,  Sir,  to  give  you  an  account  of 
all  that  I  thought  material  or  observable  amongst  us.  As  for 
my  own  part,  I  apply  myself  with  what  diligence  I  can  to 
every  thing  which  is  the  subject  of  our  lectures,  Avithout  pre- 
ferring one  subject  before  another ;  because  I  see  nothing  we 
are  engaged  in,  but  what  is  either  necessary,  or  extremely 
useful  for  one  who  would  thoroughly  understand  those  things 
which  most  concern  him,  or  be  able  to  explain  them  well  to 
others.  I  hope  I  have  not  spent  my  time,  since  I  came  to 
this  place,  without  some  small  improvement  both  in  human 
knowledge,  and  that  which  is  far  better ;  and  I  earnestly  de- 
sire the  benefit  of  your  prayers,  that  God  would  be  pleased  to 
fit  me  better  for  his  service  both  in  this  world  and  the  next. 
This,  if  you  please  to  afford  me,  and  your  advice  with  relation 
to  study,  or  whatever  else  you  think  convenient,  must  needs 
be  extremely  useful,  as  well  as  agreeable,  and  shall  be  thank- 
fully received  by 

"  Your  most  obliged 

"  humble  servant, 

"THOMAS    SECKEK." 


238  LIFE   AND   TIMES 


CHAPTER  VIII. 

HORiE  LYRICS.  — HYMNS  AND  SPIRITUAL 

SONGS. 


REMARKS  ON  SACRED  POETRY.— OPINIONS  OF  DR.  JOHNSON.  — "THE 
FIRST  LYRIC  HOUR."— EXTRACT.— CASIMIRE  SARBIEWSKI.— CRITICISMS 
OF  WATTS  UPON  HIS  POETRY.  —  TRANSLATION  BY  MR.  HEALD.  — THE 
"DACIAN  BATTLE."— FIRST  AND  SECOND  EDITIONS  OF  THE  LYRICS.— 
MISTAKE  OF  TOPLADY.— ALTERATION  OF  THE  100th  PSALM.—  HYMNS 
TRANSFERRED  INTO  WESLEY'S  COLLECTION.— NOTE  TO  THE  EDI- 
TION OF  1763.  — CONGRATULATORY  POEMS  FROM  WATTS'S  FRIENDS.— 
HYMNS.  —  ACCOUNT  OF  THEIR  COMPOSITION.  —  PREVALENCE  OF 
SACRED  SONG. —  HYMNS  OF  THE  EARLY  CHRISTIANS.  —  BOAT-SONG 
ON  THE  SAONE.  —  PLINY.  —  TERTULLIAN.  —  ORIGEN.  —  HILARY.  — 
AMBROSE.  —  PRUDENTIUS.  —  CHRYSOSTOM.  —  MONKISH  HYMNS.  — 
VERSES  SUNG  IN  THE  CATHEDRAL  OF  MANS.  —  ST.  THOMAS 
AQUINAS.  — FUNERAL  DIRGE.  — REFORMATION.— LUTHER.— METRICAL 
VERSION  OF  THE  ACTS.— KENN.— WATTS.— FIRST  AND  SECOND  EDI- 
TIONS.— MONTGOMERY'S  REM ARKS.-DEFECTS.— MODERN  HYMNISTS, 
—  THE  WESLEYS.  — CONCLUSION. 


"Young  man,"  said  Sir  Edward  King  to  Watts  in  early 
life,  "  1  hear  that  you  make  verses  —  let  me  advise  you  never 
to  do  it,  but  when  you  cannot  help  it."  The  poverty  and 
misfortunes  which  have  been  pi-overbially  the  inheritance  of 
genius,  seem  to  justify  the  prudence  of  this  counsel;  and  to 
intimate  that  the  cultivation  of  letters  ought  to  be  the  recrea- 
tion and  not  the  employment  of  life,  the  improvement  of  lei- 
sure and  not  the  business  of  existence.  In  this  light  Mr. 
Watts  always  regarded  his  poetical  attempts;  he  did  not  allow 
them  to  interfere  with  the  higher  duties  of  his  sacred  calling  ; 
they  filled  up  the  hour  of  relaxation,  and  cheered  the  period 
of  nervous  depression,  without  infringing  upon  the  engage- 


OF   DR.   ISAAC    WATTS.  23# 

ments  which  were  incumbent  in  the  season  of  health  and 
strength.  The  great  Milton  was  descending  into  the  grave, 
when  the  author  of  the  Horae  Lyricce  was  born ;  and  though 
the  epic  mantle  of  the  dying  bard  did  not  fall  upon  his  shoul- 
ders, it  is  certain  that  no  one  ever  more  nearly  resembled  him 
in  his  taste  for  devotional  poetry,  and  aspirations  after 

"The  fair  humanities  of  old  religion, 
The  power,  the  beauty,  and  the  majesty." 

The  first  work  that  Mr.  Watts  published  was  the  Horae 
Lyricae,  and,  in  the  opinion  of  Dr.  Johnson,  it  entitled  him  to 
a  honourable  place  in  the  temple  of  the  "  English  Poets." 
This  opinion,  notwithstanding  the  irregularity  and  obvious 
defects  of  many  of  the  compositions,  cannot  justly  be  disputed ; 
and,  according  to  the  award  of  the  great  critic,  the  name  of 
the  author  is  inscribed  with  that  high  and  glorious  priesthood, 
who,  in  the  language  of  their  mighty  leader  in  his  blindness, 

"  Feed  on  thoughts  that  voluntary  move 
Harmonious  numbers." 

Some  of  his  earliest  attempts  in  verse  have  already  been  no- 
ticed. During  his  residence  in  the  academy  and  at  home,  he 
seems  to  have  sedulously  cultivated  this  department  of  litera- 
ture ;  and  many  of  his  pieces  were  privately  circulated  among 
his  friends,  before  they  appeared  from  the  press.  The  publi- 
cation of  the  Lyrics  is  referred  to  in  the  memoranda: 

"  Published  my  Poems,  Dec.  1705."* 

Many  of  them  appear  to  have  been  composed  in  the  year 
1694;  and  some  are  dated  as  early  as  1691.  The  volume  was 
received  with  the  highest  approbation  by  the  religious  public 
in  Great  Britain  and  America;  it  procured  for  its  author  the 
friendship  of  some  of  the  most  eminent  characters  of  the  day  ; 
and  a  second  edition  was  called  for  in  the  year  1709. 

Aristotle  and  Bacon,  the  two  great  masters  of  the  philoso- 

*  Watts' s  IMS. 


2Mi  I-IFE    AND    TIMES 

phy  of  the  ancient  and  modern  world,  ao;ree  in  representing 
poetry  as  being  of  a  more  excellent  nature  than  history ;  the 
latter  assigning  as  his  cause  of  preference,  that  the  poet  pre- 
sents us  with  pure  excellence  and  an  unraingled  grandeur,  not 
to  be  found  in  the  coarse  realities  of  life  or  of  history.  It  is, 
however,  to  be  lamented,  that  poetry  has  been  often  diverted 
from  its  high  and  noble  o£&ce,  and  employed  to  stimulate  the 
passions  of  the  disordered  mind,  and  gratify  the  follies  of  a 
vain  giddy  world.  In  modern  times  especially  it  has  been 
seldom  enlisted  in  the  cause  of  religion ;  and  the  examples  of 
our  elder  poets,  Spencer  and  Milton,  have  been  rarely  imitated 
by  those  who  have  succeeded  to  the  inheritance  of  their  genius. 
"  Great  men,"  says  an  inspired  speaker,  "  are  not  always 
wise ;"  and  this  fact  explains  the  neglect  which  sacred  poetry 
has  received  from  the  master-spirits  of  the  age.  The  unrege- 
nerate  heart  has  no  sympathy  with  "  the  truth  as  it  is  in  Jesus" 
—  its  afiections  pay  no  homage  to  the  beauty  of  holiness  — 
the  theme  that  was  of  old  a  stumbling-block  to  the  refined  and 
polished  Greek,  has  not  lost  a  tittle  of  its  offensiveness  to  the 
natural  man — and  hence,  however  highly  gifted  the  mind 
may  be,  it  is  not  likely  that  genius  should  give  forth  its  inspi- 
ration upon  topics  which  it  may  inwardly  nauseate.  He  who 
is  a  stranger  to  the  influence  of  religion,  will  have  no  delight 
in  the  celebration  of  its  mysteries  —  his  feelings,  hopes,  and 
wishes  will  synchronise  with  the  "things  of  the  world"  —  the 
region  of  spiritual  truth  will  have  no  charms  to  excite,  no  at- 
tractions to  satisfy  the  gross  and  earthly  appetite  —  and  so 
long  as  the  poet's  lips  remain  untouched  by  the  live  coal  from 
off  the  altar,  he  will  not  sing  the  songs  of  Zion  —  the  harp  of 
David  will  slumber  in  neglect  upon  the  willows,  and  the  viol, 
the  tabret,  and  pipe,  be  in  the  feast.  Had  Shakspearc,  Dry- 
den,  and  I'ojie,  known  any  thing  of  the  "  wisdom  that  comcth 
from  above,"  they  would  have  employed  their  powers  in  the 
service  of  ilie  cross  —  their  pages  would  have  been  gilded  with 
the  broad  beams  of  the  Sun  of  Righteousness  —  they  would 


OF   DR.    ISAAC    WATTS.  S41 

have  invested  the  ark  of  faith  with  the  melody  of  song  —  and 
numbers  might  have  been  drawn  in  penitence  and  praise  to 
the  seat  of  mercy,  and  transferred  from  the  earthly  sanctuary 
to  the  heavenly  temple.  Pliny  remarked  of  the  celebrated 
sculptor,  Phidias,  that  in  his  Jupiter  he  had  given  a  new  mo- 
tive to  religion ;  and  the  saying  has  a  most  felicitous  applica- 
tion to  the  author  of  a  devotional  poem. 

There  is  a  passage  in  Dr.  Johnson's  Life  of  Watts,  in  which 
he  propounds  the  singular  and  almost  peculiar  sentiments  he 
entertained  respecting  the  capabilities  of  religious  poetry.  He 
pronounces  Watts's,  "  like  that  of  others,  unsatisfactory  — the 
paucity  of  its  topics,"  he  remarks,  "  enforces  perpetual  repeti- 
tion, and  the  sanctity  of  the  matter  rejects  the  ornaments  of 
figurative  diction  —  it  is  sufficient  for  Watts  to  have  done  bet- 
ter than  others  what  no  tnan  has  done  well."  This  opinion  is 
again  advanced  and  elaborated  by  the  critic  in  his  life  of 
Waller.  That  the  sanctity  of  religion  cannot  be  heightened 
by  human  art  or  effort,  is  readily  acknowledged  ;  but  that  the 
"  ornaments  of  figurative  diction"  cannot  be  employed  to  ad- 
vantage in  its  embellishment  and  illustration,  is  directly  oppo- 
sed to  the  testimony  of  experience.  No  poetry  is  so  devo- 
tional, and  at  the  same  time  so  figurative,  as  that  of  Judea ; 
and  from  the  song  of  Miriam  at  the  Exodus  of  Israel,  to  that 
of  Mary  at  the  advent  of  the  Holy  One,  we  find  religion  and 
verse  happily  and  effectively  united.  The  theme  of  the  He- 
brew bards,  whether  relating  to  the  outpouring  of  divine 
wrath,  or  the  manifestation  of  heaven's  mercy  —  the  sorrows 
of  penitence,  or  the  confidence  of  faith  —  the  progress  of  the 
gospel,  or  the  renovation  of  the  world  — is  always  associated 
with  the  vivid  colouring  of  imagination,  and  frequently  as- 
sumes the  character  of  wild  and  daring  hyperbolism.  "The 
doctrines  of  religion,"  it  is  further  observed,  "  may  indeed  be 
defended  in  a  didactic  poem;  and  he  who  has  the  happy 
power  of  arguing  in  verse  will  not  lose  it  because  his  subject 
is  sacred."     But  matter  of  fact  is  again  opposed  to  the  critic ; 


943  LIFE   AND  TIMES 

for  experience  proves,  that  a  "  happy  power"  of  arg"umentation 
upon  the  evidences  of  Christianity,  may  be  far  more  effective- 
ly displayed  in  prose  than  verse;  and  assuredly  a  metrical 
version  of  the  thirty-nine  articles  or  the  Nicene  creed,  would 
never  be  consulted  but  by  the  curious.  The  psalms  and  pro- 
phecies of  Jewish  literature,  written  under  the  inspiration  of 
heaven,  most  clearly  prove,  that  it  is  not  a  presumptuous 
meddling  to  sing  of  "mercy  and  of  judgment;"  and  he  who 
brings  to  their  perusal,  if  not  a  critical  taste,  at  least  a  devo- 
tional spirit,  will  see  that  the  sanctity  of  religion  is  not  im- 
pinged, but  shadowed  out  to  the  mind's  eye  more  distinctly 
and  palpably  by  an  association  with  poetical  embellishments. 
The  objection  advanced  against  sacred  poetry,  on  account 
of  the  "  paucity  of  its  topics,"  may  be  satisfactorily  refuted  by 
every  Christian,  who  examines  into  his  own  experience,  un- 
folds the  volume  of  revelation,  and  looks  abroad  upon  the  fields 
of  nature.  Instead  of  religion  being  confined  and  limited  in 
its  range,  it  embraces  as  many  subjects  as  the  rays  of  light 
that  are  continually  streaming  around  us,  or  the  moments  that 
compose  the  sum  total  of  our  existence.  To  the  man  of  con- 
templative piety,  the  whole  visible  creation  becomes  one  great 
temple ;  to  him  the  floods  clap  their  hands ;  the  trees  of  the 
field  rejoice  and  are  glad  ;  and  the  mountains  break  forth  into 
singing,  in  adoration  of  the  supreme  Intelligence.  Every  sun 
that  shines,  and  every  star  that  twinkles  —  every  forest  that 
waves,  and  every  ocean  that  roars — every  mountain  that  rises, 
and  every  valley  that  sweeps  —  leads  him  to  the  Creator's 
footstool;  and  from  every  part  of  the  earth's  surface,  there 
ascends,  to  the  eye  of  faith,  a  mystic  ladder  reaching  up  to 
heaven,  and  the  "  Lord  God  is  above  it."  As  Watts  beauti- 
fully sings  in  one  of  his  Lyrics : 

"  What  are  my  eyes,  but  aids  to  see 
The  glories  of  the  Deity 
Inscrib'd  with  beams  of  light 
On  flowers  aud  stars?" 


OF   DR.   ISAAC   WATTS.  243 

Strictly  speaking,  indeed,  a  poet  may  sing  of  nature  with- 
out being  entitled  to  be  considered  a  sacred  poet,  just  as  a 
painter  may  produce  a  landscape  without  ranking  with  scrip- 
ture artists.  But  the  topics  to  which  I  have  adverted,  become 
in  the  hands  of  a  religious  man,  materials  for  the  sublimest 
devotional  poetry  —  they  are  the  types  of  the  Almighty,  to  be 
found  in  glorious  luxuriance  in  every  corner  of  his  creation  — 
and  in  their  contemplation  the  devout  soul  is  elevated  to  an 
intercourse  with  the  great  Invisible.  The  lines  of  Burns  de- 
scriptive of  connubial  love,  exactly  explain  the  communion 
that  subsists  between  the  Christian  and  Jehovah  in  his  works : 

"There's  not  a  bonnie  flow'r  that  springs 
By  fountain,  shaw,  or  green, 
There's  not  a  bonnie  bird  that  sings. 
But  minds  me  of  my  Jean." 

If  from  the  book  of  nature  we  turn  to  the  book  of  God,  the 
marvels  of  near  six  thousand  years  are  presented  to  our  atten- 
tion, each  bearing  a  sacred  impress,  supplying  an  infinite  va- 
riety of  subjects,  adapted  to  the  epic,  tragic,  and  sentimental 
muse.  Religion  embraces  all  the  perfections  and  works  of 
Deity  —  creation,  providence,  and  redemption  —  angelic 
visitations  to  the  tents  of  eastern  patriarchs  —  the  incarnation, 
life,  miracles,  death,  and  resurrection  of  Christ  —  the  gor- 
geous visions  which  flit  like  shadows  in  the  mysterious  twi- 
light of  the  Apocalypse  —  the  solemnities  of  universal  judg- 
ment —  the  glorious  heights  of  heaven  —  and  the  dark  abysses 
of  the  unfathomed  pit.  The  bible  must  become  a  sealed  book 
to  the  Christian,  the  memory  of  his  own  experience  fly  forgot- 
ten as  a  dream,  and  the  bright  and  beautiful  world  become  a 
blank,  before  he  can  complain  of  the  paucity  of  devotional 
topics. 

"  How  many  are  thy  thoughts  of  love  ! 
Thy  mercies,  Lord,  how  great ! 
We  have  not  words,  nor  hours  enough, 
Their  number  to  repeat." 


QA4f  LIFE    AND    TIMES 

Johnson's  criticisms  upon  religious  poetry  partake  the 
character  and  tone  of  his  rehgious  experience  —  timorous, 
embarrassed,  and  fearful.  Whatever  his  idea  of  religion  might 
be,  he  appears  to  have  regarded  it  as  something  too  sacred  to 
be  enjoyed;  he  sighed  for  it  at  a  distance,  but  did  not 
approach  to  its  possession ;  he  knew  the  fearfulness  of  the 
stricken  penitent,  but  not  the  confidence  of  the  believer ;  he 
confounded  the  triumph  of  faith,  with  the  bold  impiety  of  pre- 
sumption ;  he  dreaded  jiuritanism,  and  lived  in  gloom.  The 
motive  that  brought  him  to  his  Maker's  footstool,  was  one  of 
fear  not  of  love ;  he  looked  up  to  him  not  as  a  Father  recon- 
ciled, but  as  a  Judge  severe ;  his  religion  was  a  scheme  of 
penance,  not  an  act  of  trust ;  his  devotions  were  the  offspring 
of  a  guilty  conscience,  not  the  grateful  outpourings  of  a  renew- 
ed heart.  The  remarks  upon  sacred  poetry  are  evidently  tinged 
and  impregnated  with  the  religious  horror  that  enwrapped 
his  soul ;  to  decorate  with  the  cadence  of  verse  that  which  had 
been  uttered  by  inspired  lips,  he  regarded  as  amounting  almost 
to  profanity ;  and  hence  he  seems  to  deprecate  the  attempt  as 
an  insulting  rivalry  of  the  all-wise  and  perfect  Mind. 

The  Lyric  Poems  are  divided  into  three  books,  sacred  to 
religion,  friendship,  and  the  memory  of  the  dead.  In  one  of 
Watts's  early  pieces,  published  when  in  the  decline  of  life,  he 
makes  an  interesting  reference  to  his  first  cultivation  of  the 
muse.  It  is  entitled  "  The  First  Lyric  Hour,"  and  is  founded 
upon  one  of  the  odes  of  Casimire,  in  which  the  Polish  poet 
describes  his  first  attempts  on  the  harp,  and  his  commencing 
a  poem  : 

"''I'was  an  unclouded  sky  :  the  day-star  sat 
On  liigliest  noon  :  no  breezes  fann'd  the  grove, 
Nor  the  njusiciaiis  of  the  air  pursu'd 
Their  artless  warbiings ;  while  the  sultry  day 
Lay  all  diffus'd  and  slunib'ring  on  the  bosom 
Of  tlic  white  lily,  the  perfum'd  jonquil, 
And  lovely  blushing  rose.     Then  first  my  harp, 
Labouring  with  childish  innocence  and  joy, 


OP   DR.    ISAAC    AVATTS.  245 

Brake  silence,  and  awoke  the  smiling  hour 
With  infant  notes,  saluting  the  fair  skies, 
(Heaven's  highest  work),  the  fair  enameli'd  meads. 
And  tall  green  shades  along  the  winding  banks 
Of  Avon  gently-flowing.     Thence  my  days 
Commenc'd  harmonious  j  there  began  my  skill 
To  vanquish  care  by  the  sweet-sounding  string. 

"  Hail,  happy  hour  !     O  blest  remembrance,  hail ! 
And  banish  woes  for  ever.     Harps  were  made 
For  heaven's  beatitudes  :  there  Jesse's  son 
Tunes  his  bold  lyre  with  majesty  of  sound. 
To  the  creating  and  all-ruling  Power 
Not  unattentive:  while  ten  thousand  tongues 
Of  hymning  seraphs  and  disbodied  saints. 
Echo  the  joys  and  graces  round  the  hills 
Of  Paradise,  and  spread  Messiah's  name. 
Transporting  bliss  !     Make  haste,  ye  rolling  spheres, 
Ye  circling  suns,  ye  winged  minutes,  haste. 
Fulfil  my  destin'd  period  here,  and  raise 
The  meanest  son  of  harmony  to  join 
In  that  celestial  concert."* 


Watts's  muse  is  ever  the  handmaid  of  devotion ;  he  rarely 
touches  upon  any  topic  which  he  does  not  press  into  its  ser- 
vice; his  poetic  torch  is  kindled  with  the  fire  from  off  the 
altar ;  he  visits  Parnassus,  but  it  is  only  on  his  way  to  Calvary. 
If  he  aims  at  poetical  excellence,  it  is  not  so  much  to  please  as 
to  convert  the  reader ;  his  "  high  endeavour"  is  not  to  gratify 
the  taste,  but  to  amend  the  heart.  The  cheerful  spirit  of  his 
piety  infuses  itself  into  all  his  compositions ;  there  is  nothing 
gloomy  or  melancholic  ;  he  seizes  every  opportunity  of  de- 
parting from  the  scenes  of  common  life,  to  catch  a  glimpse  of 
the  bowers  of  Paradise,  and  to  bask  in  the  glorious  sunshine 
of  heaven. 

*"  Albis  doimiit  in  rosis, 
Liliisque  jacens  et  violis  dies, 

Prima?  cui  potui  vigil 
Somnum  I'ieiia  rumpere  barbito,"  &c. 

Casimire  Od. 


246  LIFE    AND   TIMES 

The  charm  of  Walts's  devotional  poetry  is  its  perfect  sincerity 
—  religion  was  with  him  not  a  theory  but  a  principle,  a  pre- 
dominant and  all-pervading  passion  —  his  numbers  flow  from 
the  heart  and  not  from  the  lip.  Writers  upon  sacred  subjects, 
both  in  poetry  and  prose,  but  more  especially  the  former,  have 
generally  failed,  in  the  absence  of  an  experimental  knowledge 
of  their  theme ;  destitute  of  this,  they  have  lost  themselves  in 
the  opposite  extremes  of  extravagance  and  insipidity.  The 
truths  of  religion  may  be  perfectly  understood  and  symmetri- 
cally arranged,  but,  like  the  bones  in  the  prophet's  vision,  the 
breath  of  heaven  must  come  into  them  before  they  live.  Sin- 
cerity, an  intense  and  life-giving  faith,  is  essential  to  the  cha- 
racter of  a  religious  poet ;  without  it  the  imagination  in  vain 
aspires  after  a  communion  with  the  pure,  the  heavenly,  and 
the  immortal;  the  seraph's  wing  is  wanting  to  raise  it  above 
the  dust  and  darkness  of  an  earthly  sphere.  The  glorious 
outpourings  of  Hebrew  poetry,  are  evidently  the  offspring  of 
sincere  devotion;  a  cloud  of  incense,  rising  from  the  altar  of 
devout  and  grateful  hearts  to  the  throne  of  God,  and  meeting 
with  as  gracious  a  welcome  there,  as  the  ever-ceaseless  cry  of 
"Holy,  Holy,  Holy,"  from  the  ten  thousand  "blessed  voices 
uttering  joy"  in  the  presence-chamber  of  the  Deity. 

To  enter  into  a  minute  examination  of  a  book  so  popular 
and  common  as  the  Horse  Lyricae,  may  now  seem  needless; 
nevertheless  in  a  memoir  of  Watts's  life  and  writings,  some 
critical  notices  of  it  will  be  expected. 

In  general.  Watts,  I  think,  is  happiest  in  his  shorter  poems. 
He  seems  frequently  to  take  up  his  pen  for  amusement,  and 
to  get  tired  if  he  proceeds  beyond  a  certain  distance.  In  his 
longer  pieces  he  wants  strength  of  wing  to  conduct  him  to  the 
end  of  his  journey  with  the  same  vigour  as  he  begins  it ;  his 
flight  is  irregular,  uneven,  and  hurried;  the  commencement 
is  bold  and  sprightly,  and  the  conclusion  tame  and  spiritless. 
The  poem  entitled,  "  Launching  into  Eternity,"  is  an  admir- 
able specimen  of  easy,  flowing  rhythm,  and  appropriate  ima- 


OF   DR.   ISAAC   WATTS.  247 

gery .  In  the  following  well-known  lines,  the  poet  grapples  Avith 
a  higher  theme,  and  does  his  devoir  nobly  : 

"Eternal  Wisdom,  thee  we  praise. 
Thee  the  creation  sings  ; 
With  thy  lov'd  name  rocks,  hills,  and  seas, 
And  heaven's  high  palace  rings. 

"  Thy  hand  how  wide  it  spreads  the  sky. 
How  glorious  to  behold! 
Ting'd  with  a  blue  of  heav'nly  dye. 
And  starr'd  with  sparkling  gold. 

"  There  thou  hast  bid  the  globes  of  light. 
Their  endless  circles  run; 
There  the  pale  planet  rules  the  night. 
The  day  obeys  the  sun. 

"  The  noisy  winds  stand  ready  there. 
Thy  orders  to  obey  ; 
With  sounding  wings  they  sweep  the  air, 
To  inalie  thy  chariot  way. 

"  There,  like  a  trumpet  loud  and  strong. 
Thy  thunder  shakes  our  coast ; 
While  the  red  liyhtnings  wave  along. 
The  banners  of  thine  host." 

Many  of  the  Lyric  poems  are  either  imitations  or  transla- 
tions of  the  odes  of  Casimire  Sarbiewski,  whom  he  designates, 
in  his  preface,  the  noblest  Latin  poet  of  modern  times.* 
Some  of  his  productions  are  indeed  worthy  the  genius  of 
Horace,  though  occasionally  disfigured  with  fanciful  conceits. 
The  copy  of  Casimire's  poems,  in  the  quarto  edition,  which 
was  in  Watts's  library,  came  into  the  possession  of  Dr. 
Gibbons,  who  found  at  the  head  of  the  twenty- ninth  ode  in 

*  Casimire  was  a  Polish  Jesuit,  and  born  in  1547.  Grotius  and  D.  Heinsius 
affirm  him  to  be  equal  to  Horace.  He  was  so  partial  to  Virgil,  that  he  began  to 
imitate  him  in  an  epic  poem,  called  the  "Lesciade,"  in  twelve  books,  but  his  death 
at  Warsaw,  in  1640,  put  a  stop  to  the  work.  His  epigrams  are  much  inferior  to 
his  odes.  The  best  edition  of  his  poems  is  that  of  Paris,  in  1759.  The  Poles 
have  always  been  celebrated  for  their  pure  Latinity,  and,  despite  of  modern  inno- 
vations, the  Miscellanea  Critica  of  the  University  of  Cracow,  still  appears  in  the 
Latin  language.     The  Latin  poetry  of  Szymonowicz,  rivals  that  of  Casimire. 


248  LIFE   AND   TIMES 

the  fourth  book,  entitled,  "Ad  Equites  Polonos,  anno  1630," 
the  following  high  culogium  in  his  hand-writing,  "  Carmen 
sceculare  Horaliano  sublimius."  In  the  Improvement  of  the 
Mind,  we  have  Watts's  judg-ment  of  his  favourite  poet :  "  You 
shall  hear  Altisino  not  only  admire  Casimire  of  Poland,  in 
his  lijrics,  as  the  utmost  purity  and  perfection  of  Latin  poesy, 
but  he  will  allow  nothing  in  him  to  be  extravagant  or  faulty, 
and  will  vindicate  every  line.  Nor  can  I  much  wonder  at  it, 
when  I  have  heard  him  pronounce  Lucan  the  best  of  the 
ancient  Latins,  and  idolize  his  very  -weaknesses  and  mistakes. 
I  will  readily  acknowledge  the  odes  of  Casimire  to  have  more 
spirit  and  force,  more  magnificence  and  fire  in  them,  and  in 
twenty  places  arise  to  more  dignity  and  beauty  than  I  could 
ever  meet  with  in  any  of  our  modern  poets  j  yet  I  am  afraid 
to  say  that  Palla  sutilis  e  Luce,  a  robe  stitched  together  of 
light,  has  dignity  enough  for  the  dress  of  the  Almighty, 
lib.  iv.  ode  7,  1.  37,  or  that  the  man  of  virtue,  lib.  iv.  ode  3, 
1.  44,  under  the  ruins  of  heaven  and  earth  will  bear  up  the 
fragments  of  the  falling  icorld  with  a  comely  wound  on  his 
shoulders. 


■late  riienti 


Subjiciens  sua  colla  ccclo 
Mundum  decoro  vulnere  fulciet; 
luterque  cceH  fragaiiua." 

"Yet  I  must  needs  confess  also,  that  it  is  hardly  possible  a 
man  should  rise  to  so  exalted  and  sublime  a  vein  of  poesy  as 
Casimire,  who  is  not  in  danger  now  and  then  of  such  extra- 
vagances ;  but  still  they  should  not  be  admired  or  defended, 
if  wc  pretend  to  pass  a  just  judgment  on  the  writings  of  the 
greatest  men."  But  few  of  the  odes  of  Casimire  have  been 
translated,  and  the  English  reader  is  principally  indebted  to 
Watts  and  Mr.  Heald  for  an  acquaintance  with  the  Polish 
poet.* 

*  The  annexed  translation,  by  Mr.  Heald,  affords  a  favourable  specimen  of  the 
poetry  of  Casimire. 


OF   DR.   ISAAC   WATTS,  249 

"Ad  Suam  Testudinem. 
Sonori  buci  filia  sutilis, 
Pendebis  alta,  barbite,  populo  ; 
Dum  videt  aer,  et  supinos 
Solicitat  levis  aura  frondes, 
Te  sibilantis  leuior  halitus 
Perflabit  Euri :  me  juvet  interim 
Collum  reclinasse,  et  virenti 
Sic  temere  jacuisse  ripa. 
Eheu!   Serenum  quaj  nebula3  tegunt? 
Repeute  coelum  ?  quis  sonus  imbrium  ? 
Surgamus.     Heu  semper  fugaci 
Gaudia  praBteritura  passu!" 

Lib,  a, 
I. 
"In  the  high-towering  poplar  thus  swinging. 
My  lyre,  hang  suspended  at  ease; 
Thy  strings,  at  wild  intervals,  ringing. 
When  swept  by  the  breath  of  the  breeze. 

II. 

"The  blue  vault  its  full  beauty  displaying. 
Not  a  cloud  the  pure  ether  o'ershades. 
And  in  sighs  his  soft  wishes  betraying. 
The  green  foliage  fond  zephyr  pervades, 

III. 

''Thus  I  leave  thee  to  murmur  and  quiver. 
As  whispers  the  slow-rising  wind; 
While  here,  stretch'd  on  the  banks  of  the  river, 
I  repose,  in  light  slumbers  recliu'd. 

IV. 
"Ha!  along  yon  horizon  dark- scowling. 
What  tempest-fed  shadows  appear! 
Clouds  !  clouds  rise  incessantly  rolling! 

Hark !  the  shower  whistles  loud  on  mine  ear. 


"  O  my  harp  I  my  companion,  my  treasure ! 
Let  us  rise,  let  us  hasten  away; 
'Tis  thus  flies  the  phantom  of  pleasure, 
With  quick-step  ever  hast'ning  away." 
R 


250  LIFE    AND   TIMES 

The  Dacian  Battle  is  one  of  the  longest  of  Watts's  poems ; 
and  is  praised  by  Johnson  for  the  vigorous  and  active  imagi- 
nation which  it  displays.  It  is  a  translation,  with  large  addi- 
tions, of  a  lyric  ode  of  Casimire,  entitled  "  Celebris  Polonorum 
de  Osmano  Turcorum  victoria,  praslio  ad  Chocimum  Dacico 
Anno  Domini  1C21,  Quarto  Non.  Sept.  commisso  parta."* 
An  extract  from  the  original  poem,  will  give  the  reader  some 
idea  of  the  merits  of  the  paraphrase : 

"CASIMIR.  LIB.  IV.  OD.  IV. 
"  (Oalosi  Agricola;  Dacici  cautus  inducitiir. ) 

''  Dives  Galesus,  fertilis  accola 
Galesus  Istii,  dum  sua  Dacicis 
Fatigat  in  campis  aratra 
Et  galeas,  clypeosq  ;  passim,  ac 

"  Magnorum  accrvos  emit  ossium  ; 
Vergente  serum  sub  sole  liesperum 
Fessus  rescdisse,  et  solutos 
Nou  solito  teuuisse  cautii 

"  Fertur  juvencos.     Carpite,  dum  licet, 
Dum  tuta  vobis  otia,  carpite, 
Oblita  jam  vobis  vireta 
Emeriti,  mea  cura,  tauri, 

*  "The  famous  victory  obtained  by  the  Poles  over  Osman,  the  emperor  of  the 
Turks,  in  tlie  Dacian  battle  at  Choczim,  on  the  fourth  of  the  nones  of  September, 
in  the  year  of  our  Lord  1621."  The  authors  of  the  l^niversal  History  give  the 
following  account  of  this  battle  :  —  "  Osman,  the  Turkish  emperor,  perceiving  that 
the  Christian  army  was  increased  daily,  proposed  a  general  attack  on  their  lines  by 
the  28th  of  September,  and  led  his  troops  in  person.  The  janissaries  began  the 
attack  by  break  of  day,  and  fought  with  the  most  desperate  fury  for  twelve  hours, 
fresh  troops  constantly  supplying  the  place  of  the  fatigued,  wounded,  and  slain. 
Ten  times  were  the  Turks  repulsed,  and  as  often  were  they  led  back  to  the  attack 
by  their  bashaws,  who  cliarged  under  the  immediate  eye  of  the  sultan,  and  were 
ambitious  of  distinguishing  themselves.  All  their  efforts  were  fruitless,  the  Poles 
were  impenetrable,  and  the  infidels  were  at  last  forced  to  sound  a  retreat,  after 
having  lost  near  30,000  slain  before  the  intrenchments.  From  the  time  the  two 
armies  had  first  faced  each  other,  the  different  attacks  cost  the  sultan  upwards  of 
60,000  lives,  the  bulk  of  whom  consisted  of  janissaries,  the  flower  of  the  army,  and 
the  bulwark  of  the  Othman  empire.  Disease  and  famine  cooperated  willi  the 
sword,  and  the  Turkish  army,  which  consisted  of  ;300,0()0  men,  was  diminished  to 
half  that  number."     Modern  Univ.  Hist.  vol.  xxxiv.  p.  IS.'i. 


OF   DR.    ISAAC    WATTS.  OqI 

"  Victor  Polouus  dum  posittl  super 
Respirat  hdsta,  sic  etiam  vigil 
Saevusque.     Pi 6  quantis,  Polone, 
Moldavici  tegis  arma  campi 

"  Thracum  rainas  !     Quas  ego  Blstoiuim 
Hie  cerno  strages  ?     Quanta  per  avios 
Disjecta  late  scuta  colleis? 
Quae  Geticis  vacua  arma  truncis  ? 

"Hac  acer  ibat  Sarmata,  (Thracibus 
Captivus  olim  uam  memini  puer) 
Hie  aere  squallenteis  et  auro 
Concanus  explicuit  catervas." 


LITERAL  TRANSLATION  BY  DR.  GIBBONS. 

"  Galesus,  a  ricli  yeoman  on  the  banks 
Where  rolls  the  fruitful  Danube,  tir'd  his  share 
111  ploughing  o'er  his  grounds,  which  oft  upturn'd 
Helmets,  and  shields,  and  heaps  of  mighty  bones ; 
But,  when  the  sun  hung  o'er  the  western  main. 
Relaxing  from  his  toils,  as  fame  reports, 
And  loosing  from  the  yoke  his  weary  bulls, 
He  held  them  pleas'd  with  an  unusual  song  :  — 

<My  fellow-labourers,  my  delightful  care, 
In  safety  now  enjoy  the  sweets  of  peace. 
And  freed  from  labour  at  your  pleasure  rove 
The  smiling  meads,  and  crop  the  flow'ry  food 
So  long  untasted,  while  upon  his  spear 
Leans  the  victorious  Pole,  but  throws  his  eyes 
Watchful  and  fierce  around.     Brave  countrymen. 
What  ranks  of  Thracian  enemies  have  fall'n 
By  your  resistless  swords  !     What  carnage  fill'd 
Moldavia's  fields !     What  piles  of  bucklers  strow'd 
The  pathless  mountains  !     What  huge  armour  lay 
Wide  scatter'd,  of  Mahometan  limbs  despoil'd! 
Here  the  fierce  Sarmatans  (for  while  a  boy 
In  Turkish  slavery  I  mark'd  their  dress). 
And  here  the  Concanans  in  order  rang'd, 
Advanc'd  all  arm'd  in  radiant  brass  and  gold.'" 


252  LIFE    AND   TIMES 

In  comparing  the  first  with  subsequent  editions  of  the 
"Horse  LyricoB,"  considerable  alterations  and  improvements 
will  be  observed.  The  preface,  in  which  Boileau's  opinion  as 
to  the  incompatibility  of  sacred  subjects  with  a  poetic  dress  is 
noticed,  appeared  in  the  second  edition  in  1709;  and  about 
seventy  poems  were  added  to  the  original  collection  during 
the  author's  life-time.  But  the  first  edition  contained  several 
pieces  which  were  afterwards  omitted,  particularly  metrical 
versions  of  the  1st,  3rd,  100th,  and  131st  Psalms,  which  now 
appear  with  some  alterations  in  the  imitations  of  the  Psalms. 
There  was  also  a  sacred  song,  entitled  "  The  Sufferings  and 
Glories  of  Christ,"  which  Watts's  maturer  judgment  led  him 
to  throw  into  a  different  metre,  and  insert  in  the  second  book 
of  the  Hymns.  The  two  first  verses  are  annexed,  as  they 
stood  originally  in  the  Lyrics,  and  as  they  are  remodelled  in 
the  Hymns : 

"  I  long  for  a  concert  of  heavenly  praise. 
To  Jesus  the  God,  the  omnipotent  Sou  ; 
My  verse  should  awake  in  harmonious  lays, 
Could  it  tell  half  the  wonders  which  Jesus  has  done. 

"  1  would  sing  how  he  left  his  own  palace  of  light, 
And  robes  made  of  glory  which  dress'd  him  above  ; 
Yet,  pleas'd  with  his  journey,  how  swift  was  his  flight, 
For  he  rode  on  the  pinions  of  infinite  love." 

Lyr.  edit.  I. 

Toplady,  who  published  a  short  account  of  Dr.  Watts,  sin- 
gularly enough  introduces  this  piece,  word  for  word,  as  it 
appears  in  the  Lyrics,  first  edition;  and  remarks,  "  There  is 
a  hymn  which,  to  the  best  of  my  knowledge,  has  never  yet 
appeared  in  print,  and  which  seems,  from  the  unfinished  state 
in  which  he  left  it,  to  have  been  one  of  the  last  products  of 
his  poetic  pen.  This  little  poem,  whose  authenticity  is  un- 
questionable, and  which,  amidst  all  its  inaccuracies,  is  replete 
with  heavenly  faith  and  poetic  fire,  deserves  to  emerge  from 


OF   DR.    ISAAC    WATTS.  253 

its  long  obscurity.  Though  capable  of  obvious  correction  and 
improvement,  it  shall  be  submitted  to  the  reader  verbatim, 
and  without  a  single  alteration,  exactly  as  it  was  communica- 
ted to  me."     The  verses  are  thus  altered  in  the  Hymns : 

"Now  for  a  tune  of  lofty  praise, 
To  great  Jehovah's  equal  Son  ! 
Awake,  my  voice,  in  heavenly  lays. 
Tell  the  loud  wonders  he  hath  done. 

"  Sing  how  he  left  the  worlds  of  light. 
And  the  bright  robes  he  wore  above ; 
How  swift  and  joyful  was  his  flight 
On  wings  of  everlasting  love." 

Hymns,  lib.  ii.  h.  23. 

The  noble  version  of  the  100th  Psalm,  in  Watts's  imita- 
tions, is  also  an  equally  felicitous  improvement  of  some  jing- 
ling rhymes  which  first  appeared  in  the  Lyrics.  Two  stanzas 
will  exhibit  his  happy  method  of  retouching  his  compositions.* 
Three  noble  poems  have  been  transplanted  from  the  "Horce 
Lyricae"  into  the  hymn-book  of  the  Methodists,  viz.  :  the 
hymns  commencing,  "  Father,  how  wide  thy  glory  shines ;" 

*  In  the  Lyrics,  first  edition. 

"'Twas  God  who  gave  life  to  our  souls  with  a  breath, 
He  fashion'd  our  clay  to  the  figures  of  men  ; 
And  when  we  had  stray'd  to  the  regions  of  death, 
He  redue'd  his  own  sheep  to  his  pastures  again. 

"  We  enter  his  gates  with  hosannahs  and  songs; 
The  arches  resound  with  the  notes  whicli  we  raise; 
Thus  while  our  devotions  are  paid  with  our  tongues. 
Thy  temple  adores  by  repeating  thy  praise." 


Lyr.edit.  \. 


Altered  in  the  Psalms. 

'  His  sovereign  power,  without  our  aid. 
Made  us  of  clay  and  form'd  us  men  ; 
And  when  like  wandering  sheep  we  stray'd. 
He  brought  us  to  his  fold  again. 

'  We'll  crowd  thy  gates  with  thankful  songs, 
High  as  the  heavens  our  voices  raise, 
And  earth,  with  her  ten  thousand  tongues, 
Shall  fill  thy  courts  with  sounding  praise." 


254  LIFE   AND   TIMES 

"  Eternal  Power,  whose  high  abode  ;"  "  He  dies,  the  Friend 
of  sinners  dies."  The  compositions  dedicated  to  "  Divine 
Love,"  have  been  objected  to,  on  account  of  the  association  of 
earthly  passions  with  a  theme  so  sacred ;  but  this  was  not  so 
much  the  fault  of  the  author,  as  of  the  theology  of  the  age  in 
which  he  lived.  In  a  note  appended  to  the  edition  of  173G, 
he  remarks,  by  way  of  apology,  "  Solomon's  Song  was  much 
more  in  use  among  preachers  and  writers  of  divinity  when 
these  poems  were  written,  than  it  is  now,  which  will  afford 
some  apology  for  the  writer  in  his  youngest  years."  Similar 
blemishes  might  be  pointed  out  in  the  devotional  poetry  of  the 
Messrs.  Wesley,  and  in  far  greater  luxuriance  in  the  hymn- 
ology  of  the  Moravians :  indeed,  it  is  impossible  for  a  writer 
to  express  himself  upon  such  a  subject  in  an  evangelical  man- 
ner, without  employing  terms  upon  which  a  vicious  world 
may  put  an  offensive  gloss.  Let  an  individual  sit  down  to  the 
perusal  of  Watts,  with  a  mind  ]5urified  from  earthly  thoughts, 
and  renewed  and  hallowed  by  the  Holy  One,  and  he  will  find 
but  few  passages  which  do  not  give  utterance,  in  strict  accord- 
ance with  the  analogy  of  faith,  to  emotions  which  he  has 
himself  experienced. 

The  lyric  poems  of  Watts  must  be  criticised  with  an  indul- 
gent eye  —  as  the  mere  amusements  of  a  man  of  letters  —  the 
casual  impulses  of  an  imaginative  mind  —  and  not  the  serious 
and  laboured  efforts  of  a  poet.  He  did  not  ''  gird  himself 
up"  to  write  —  his  effusions  did  not  abstract  him  from  the 
world,  and  result  from  daily  and  nightly  invocation  of  ancient 
bards  and  sages — he  was  a  pilgrim  only  to  the  Heliconian 
spring,  and  not  a  dweller  by  the  mountain-fount.  Hence  he 
is  frequently  flat,  prosaic,  and  excessively  slovenly  ;  he  dresses 
up  his  thoughts  like  one  who  is  travelling  post-haste,  and 
cannot  stay  to  put  himself  in  fashionable  trim;  if  he  cannot 
find  a  rhyme  at  once,  he  j)ushes  on  without  one,  with  the 
greatest  nonchalence  as  to  his  lameness.  Notwithstanding 
these  defects  the  "Horse  Lyricae"  has  stood  high  in  public  esti- 


OF    DR.    ISAAC    WATTS.  255 

rnation ;  and  eight  editions  of  it  appeared  before  the  decease 
of  its  author.  Attached  to  the  later  editions  are  several  re- 
commendatory poems,  sent  to  Mr.  Watts  chiefly  in  the  year 
1706,  from  the  following-  individuals  :  Rev.  J.  Standen  ;*  Mr. 
Henry  Grove  ;t  Philomela  ;J  Eusebia;§  and  Brittanicus.|| 

The  success  which  attended  the  publication  of  the  Lyrics, 
determined  Watts  to  prepare  his  Hymns  for  the  press,  and, 
accordingly,  the  first  edition  appeared  in  the  year  1707.  The 
favourable  opinion  which  his  brother  Enoch  expressed  of  them, 
had  considerable  weight  with  him ;  and  in  this  instance  the 
judgment  of  the  critic  was  not  misled  by  the  partiality  of  the 
relative.  Many  of  them  were  composed  during  his  two  years' 
residence  at  his  father's  house,  to  supplant  the  dry  and  pedan- 
tic compositions  then  in  use  in  the  meeting-house  of  his  na- 
tive town.  The  Rev.  John  Morgan  of  Romsey,  Hampshire, 
in  a  letter  to  Dr.  Gibbons,  remarks,  "  The  occasion  of  the 
Doctor's  hymns  was  this,  as  I  had  the  account  from  his  wor- 
thy fellow-labourer  and  colleague,  the  Rev.  Mr.  Price,  in 
whose  family  I  dwelt  above  fifty  years  ago.  The  hymns 
which  Avere  sung  at  the  dissenting  meeting-house  at  South- 
ampton, were  so  little  to  the  taste  of  Mr.  Watts,  that  he  could 
not  forbear  complaining  of  them  to  his  father.  The  father 
bade  him  try  what  he  could  do  to  mend  the  matter.  He  did, 
and  had  such  success  in  his  first  essay,  that  a  second  hymn 
was  earnestly  desired  of  him,  and  then  a  third  and  fourth,  &c. 
till  in  process  of  time  there  was  such  a  number  of  them  as 
to  make  up  a  volume."  The  offence  thus  given  to  his  refined 
taste  and  critical  ear  by  the  homely  psalmody  of  Southampton, 
led  to  the  composition  of  the  Spiritual  Songs ;  and  now, 
wherever  the  praises  of  the  God  of  grace  are  celebrated  in  the 

*  Dissenting  minister  at  Newbury  in  Berkstiire,  afterwards  conformed. 

f  One  of  Watts's  fellow  students,  a  writer  in  the  Spectator. 

'I  Miss  Singer,  afterwards  jNIrs.  Kowe. 

§  Countess  of  Hertford,  afterwards  Duchess  of  Somerset. 

11  Unknown. 


25G  LIFE    AND   TIMES 

costly  sanctuaries  of  Christian  lands,  the  krail  of  the  wander- 
ing Caffre,  and  the  habitation  of  the  far-distant  Polynesian, 
they  are  known,  admired,  and  sung. 

One  of  the  most  pleasing  of  the  Greek  writers,  advances  it 
as  the  sacred  duty  of  mankind,  to  "hymn  the  gods,"  who 
alone  have  endowed  them  with  an  articulate  voice.  This 
maxim  has  met  with  a  universal  recognition  ;  for  all  nations 
acquainted  with  either  poetry  or  religion,  have  songs  and 
verses  devoted  to  the  powers  and  attributes  of  their  divinities. 
The  poetry  and  mythology  of  the  Greeks  were  intimately  con- 
nected ;  the  former  was  the  tongue  of  the  latter ;  it  entered 
deeply  into  the  celebration  of  its  rites,  gave  popularity  to  its 
festivals,  and  immortality  to  its  fictions.  The  hymns  of  Homer 
and  Callimachus  may  have  been  intended  merely  for  indivi- 
dual recitation ;  but  the  choral  song  early  accompanied  the 
sacred  ceremonial,  the  solemn  and  swelling  tone  of  the  dithy- 
rambic  hymns  was  heard  in  the  religious  festivals  of  the 
Athenians,  and  whilst  the  scenic  exhibitions  delighted  the 
sight,  the  junction  of  music  and  verse  ravished  the  ear.  The 
literature  of  the  Orientals  exhibits  the  same  harmony  between 
religion  and  verse,  the  same  union  between  the  "  sons  of  God" 
and  the  "  daughters  of  men  ;"  and  the  Arab  even  now  sits  at 
the  door  of  his  tent,  in  the  evening  hour,  chanting  the  moral 
apothegms  and  luscious  dreams  of  the  followers  of  the  pro- 
phet. It  is,  however,  especially  in  Judea  that  we  see  devo- 
tion and  the  muse  dwelling  together  in  unity  —  tAvin-sisters 
that  God  hath  joined,  going  up  to  his  house  in  company, 
worshipping  hand  in  hand  at  the  throne,  weeping  at  the  altar, 
and  bowing  in  silent  adoration  before  the  glorious  cloud, 
flashing  in  awful  brightness  from  the  holiest  place.  It  is  no 
extravagant  assumption,  that  the  lyre  of  Jubal  was  attuned  to 
the  harmony  of  verse  ;  and  our  great  poet  indulges  the  ima- 
gination, that  the  singing  of  the  birds  in  Paradise  initiated 
our  first  parents  into  the  art  of  sacred  song. 

The  word  vfwo^,  hymn,  is  used  by  the  Greek  writers,  to 


OF    DR.    ISAAC    WATTS.  257 

signify  those  compositions  which  were  sung  in  honour  of  the 
gods ;  and  Gregory  of  Nyssa  defines  it  to  be  a  thanksgiving 
offered  to  God  for  the  blessings  we  enjoy  —  v>i^os  lotIi^  y  eV2 

TOi<t  v7rdpxoy<^tt^  y/nu'  ayaOol^  civaTiOe/iici'ri    rio   Qew   e'i;0»//t<a.*      The 

early  Christian  church  appears  to  have  employed  not  only  the 
Psalter  in  its  religious  services,  but  uninspired  compositions 
upon  sacred  subjects.  The  first  hymns  were,  however,  pro- 
bably of  an  inspired  character,  selected  from  the  pages  of  the 
New  Testament ;  as,  the  songs  of  EUzabeth,  of  Mary,  and  of 
Zacharias,  Luke,  i.  42,  &c.  the  angelic  hymn,  "  Glory  to  God 
in  the  highest,"  &c.  Luke,  ii.  14 ;  the  cherubic  hymn,  "  Holy, 
Holy,  Holy,"  &c.  Rev.  iv.  8  ;  and  the  hymn  of  victory, 
v/Livos  cTTiuiKi'o's,  "  Grcat  and  marvellous  are  thy  works,"  &c. 
Rev.  XV.  3.  To  these  short  yet  splendid  specimens  of  sacred 
song,  the  "Alleluia,"  &c.Ilev.  xix.  6,  was  generally  added  as 
an  accompaniment  ;t  and  Sidonius  Appollinaris,  bishop  of 
Clermont,  relates  that  it  was  frequently  sung  by  the  boatmen 
on  the  Saone.t  To  the  Christian,  hunted  from  city  to  city 
by  an  infuriated  priesthood,  and  often  dragged  to  the  amphi- 
theatre to  suffer  for  his  faith,  the  thrilling  episodes  of  the 
Apocalypse  would  be  singularly  appropriate;  and  many 
doubtless  trod  the  thorny  path  of  martyrdom,  like  Paul  and 
Silas  in  their  dungeon,  glorifying  their  exalted  Saviour  in  the 
lanoruage  of  the  elders  before  the  throne !  At  the  close  of  the 
first  century,  or  the  commencement  of  the  second,  Pliny  relates 
that  the  Christians  met  together  on  a  stated  day  before  it  was 
light,  to  sing  a  hymn  to  Christ,  as  God  ;  Tertullian,  in  the 
third  century,  speaks  of  singing  psalms  as  a  part  of  the  public 
worship  of  the  church ;  and  Origen,  a  little  later,  speaks  of 

*  Greg.  Nys.  in  Ps.alin,  xi. 

f "  Alleluia  novis  balat  ovile  choris."     Paului.  Ep.  ad  Sev.  12. 

t  "  CuiToriim  hinc  clionis  helciaviorum 
Responsantibus  Alleluia  ripis 
Ad  Christum  levat  amuicuiu  celeusma." 

Sid  Alioll.ii.  ep.  10. 


258  LIFE    AND   TIMES 

singing  psalms  and  hymns  to  the  Father  in  Christ,  in  melody, 
metre,  and  vocal  concert.  It  was  common  also  with  many,  in 
their  household  devotions,  in  seasons  of  outward  tribulation 
or  inward  conflict,  to  give  expression  to  their  feelings,  and  to 
seek  to  strengthen  the  weak  hands  and  to  confirm  the  feeble 
knees,  by  having  recourse  to  the  melody  of  sacred  song;  and, 
hence,  TertuUian  refers  to  the  practice  of  private  singing  in 
the  fiimily,  as  an  argument  why  Christians  should  marry 
among  themselves,  in  order  to  perform  this  duty  more  harmo- 
niously. 

It  is  certain  that  uninspired  productions  were  introduced 
into  the  hymnology  of  the  church  at  an  early  period,  though 
since  the  Reformation  some  sects  have  entertained  scruples  as 
to  their  admission.  Several  of  the  fathers  sought  to  edify 
their  flocks  by  supplying  them  with  devotional  poetry ;  and 
instances  are  referred  to  by  Eusebius  in  his  Ecclesiastical 
History,*  of  private  individuals  composing  hymns.  Speaking 
of  the  mode  of  administering  the  Lord's  supper,  TertuUian 
remarks  in  his  Apology,  "  After  water  is  brought  for  the 
hands,  and  lights,  we  are  invited  to  sing  to  God,  according  as 
each  one  can  propose  a  subject  from  the  Holy  Scriptures  or  of 
his  own  composing."t  Hilary  of  Poictiers,  in  the  fourth  cen- 
tury, presented  his  church  with  a  collection  of  hymns ;  and 
the  Milanese  Christians,  about  the  same  period,  were  accus- 
tomed to  assemble  at  night,  to  chant  those  composed  by 
their  bishop  Ambrose.  The  Morning  Hymn  of  the  former, 
and  the  Evening  Hymn  of  the  latter,  are  simple  and  pleasing 
compositions.!     Augustin  describes  the  effect  produced  upon 

♦Euseb.  Hist.  Ecclts.  lib.  ii.  17.  lib.  v.  28.  lib.  vii.  2*. 
t  Apol.c.  39. 

J'I'he  book  of  hymns  attiibiited  to  Hilary,  was  printed  iit  Paris,  Ito.  1 180.    'J'hc 
Morniug  Hymn  is  will  known,  commencing, 

"  Lucis  liugitor  splendiilp, 
Cujus  sfivno  lumiiie." 

To  Ambrose  a  considerable  number  of  liynins  are  attiibnted  ;  but  critics  point  out 


OF   DR.   ISAAC   WATTS.  259 

his  mind  by  the  psalmody  of  the  chmch  :  "  The  hymns  and 
songs  of  the  church,"  says  he,  "moved  my  soul  intensely,  the 
truth  was  distilled  by  them  into  my  heart,  the  flame  of  piety 
was  kindled,  and  my  tears  flowed  for  joy.  This  practice  of 
singing  had  been  of  no  long  standing  at  Milan.  It  began 
about  the  year  when  Justina  persecuted  Ambrose.  The  pious 
people  watched  in  the  church  prepared  to  die  with  their  pas- 
tor. There  my  mother  sustained  an  eminent  part  in  watching 
and  praying.  Then  hymns  and  psalms  after  the  manner  of  the 
east  were  sung,  with  a  view  of  preserving  the  people  from 
weariness,  and  thence  the  custom  has  spread  through  Chris- 
tian churches."*  In  the  fifth  century,  Prudentius  of  Sara- 
gossa  increased  but  did  not  much  enrich  the  sacred  songs  of 
Christendom,  though  the  well-known  passage  in  his  Hymnus 
Epiphaniae,  has  been  often  and  justly  admired.f  Of  the 
poetic  treasures  of  the  eastern  church,  during  the  primitive 
ages,  no  specimen  has  come  down  to  us,  with  the  exception 
of  some  verses  appended  upon  doubtful  authority  to  the  works 


twelve  which  possess  a  stronger  claim  than  others  to  be  of  his  prodnction.  The 
Te  Deum,  once  given  to  him,  is  now  ascribed  to  some  unknown  member  of  one  of 
the  Gallic  churches.     The  following  lines  are  from  the  Evening  Hymn  : 

"Deus  Creator  omiiiura  Artus  solutas  lit  quies 

Polique  rector,  vestiens  Keddat  Ial>oiis  usui. 

Diem  decoro  1  limine,  Mentesque  fessas  al level 

Koctem  soporis  gratia  :  Luctusi^ue  salvat  anxios." 

See  Mr.  Matthias's  "Excerpta  ex  Ilymnis  Antiquis." 

•  August.  Confess,  lib.  ix. 

f  The  subject  is,  a  congratulation  of  the  innocents  slain  by  Herod  : 

"Salvete  flores  Martynini, 
Quos  liicis  ipso  in  limine, 
Clnisti  insecutor  sustulit, 
Ceu  turbo  nascentes  rosns. 

Vos,  prima;,  Clnisti  victiina;, 
Giex  immolatorum  tener, 
Aram  ante  ipsam,  simplices, 
I'aliiiii  et  coronis  luditis." 

Pntden.  Kathemiiinon. 

Bishop  Home  cites  the  passage  in  his  Sermon  on  Innocents'  Day. 


200  LIFE   AND   TIMES 

of  Clemens  Alexandrinus.  When  Chrysostom  occupied  the 
episcopal  throne  of  Constantinople,  the  Arians  were  accus- 
tomed to  parade  the  streets  of  the  city,  singing  hymns  strongly 
tinctured  with  the  peculiarities  of  their  creed ;  upon  which 
the  bishop,  fearing  the  propagation  of  the  heresy,  furnished 
his  choristers  with  some  verses  of  his  own  production,  in  al- 
liance with  the  opinions  of  the  orthodox. 

As  we  advance  to  the  middle  ages,  hymns  multiply  upon  us 
in  abundance.  The  monastic  clergy  sought  to  maintain  their 
hold  upon  the  prejudices  and  affections  of  the  people,  by  im- 
posing devotional  services.  "  The  monasteries  were  schools 
of  devotional  music,  and  many  times  during  the  day  the 
voices  of  the  choir,  were  heard  swelling  from  the  neighbour- 
ing abbey  '  over  some  wide-watered  shore.'  The  labourer  as 
he  woke  with  the  sun  to  his  accustomed  toil,  or  as  in  southern 
climates  he  reposed  from  the  heat  of  the  burning  noon,  or  as 
he  lingered  weary  on  his  return  at  evening  to  his  dwelling ; 
the  traveller  at  midnight — all  were  reminded  of  their  hea- 
venly Father  and  Redeemer,  by  the  solemn  strain  of  the  organ 
from  the  commanding  minster,  or  the  sweeter  and  gentler 
voices  which  pealed  from  the  chapel  of  the  convent."  A 
fragment  of  a  ballad  composed  by  Canute  the  Dane,  as  he 
was  sailing  by  the  abbey  of  Ely,  shows  us  the  monks  practis- 
ing psalmody : 

"  Merry  sang  the  monks  in  Ely, 
When  Canute  the  king  was  sailing  by; 
'Row,  ye  knights,  near  the  land. 
And  let  us  hear  these  monks'  song.' " 

But  the  language  of  the  choristers  was  an  unknown  tongue 
to  the  people ;  they  responscd  to  words  the  meaning  of  which 
they  had  not  the  ability  to  comprehend;  and,  hence,  though 
the  sacred  strain  might  fascinate  the  listening  car,  and  awe 
the  superstitious  mind,  it  had  no  power  to  communicate  reli- 
gious knowledge,  or  excite  devotional  feeling.  Yet  there  is  a 
sweet  simplicity  and  rugged  grandeur  about  some  of  the  old 


OF   DR.   ISAAC   WATTS. 


261 


monkish  verses,  however  grating  Leonine  rhyme  may  be  to 
classical  ears.  A  few  specimens  of  the  hymnology  of  Catho- 
licism may  not  here  be  inappropriate.  The  following  lines  are 
taken  from  a  hymn,  sung  in  the  twelfth  century  in  the  cathe- 
dral of  Mans,  which  Usher  designates  "  rythmos  elegantissi- 
mos."  The  author  was  Hiklebert,  bishop  of  Anomanum  or 
Mans: 


"Extra  portam,  jam  delatum, 
Jam  foetentem,  tumulatura, 
Vitta  ligat,  lapis  urget ; 
Sed,  si  jubes,  hicresurget: 
Jube,  lapis  revolvetur ; 
Jube,  vitta  disriimpetur; 
Exiturus,  nescit  moras; 
Post  quam  clamas  Exiforas 
In  hoc  salo  mea  ratis 
Infestatur  a  piratis : 
Hiuc  assultus,  inde  fiuctus  : 
Hiuc  et  inde  mors  et  luctus. 
Sed  tu,  bone  nauta  !  veni  ; 
Preme  ventos,  mare  leni ; 
Fac  abscedant  hi  piratas. 
Due  ad  portum,  salva  rate." 


"Now  from  house  and  all  things  torn. 
To  his  last  home,  he  is  borne. 
Mouldering  as  all  mortals  must, 
Earth  to  earth,  and  dust  to  dust; 
But  though  dreary  be  the  tomb, 
Thou  canst  dissipate  its  gloom; 
Speak,  the  teeming  dust  shall  hear ; 
Speak,  the  dead  shall  reappear : 
They  shall  little  brook  delay 
When  thou  sayest, '  Come  away.' 

"  On  the  wide  sea  as  I  go, 
Oft  I  meet  the  plundering  foe  ; 
War  above,  the  waves  beneath. 
And  in  all  things  woe  and  death: 
Tiiou  who  rulest  with  thy  will. 
Bid  the  raging  winds  be  still; 
Chase  the  fearful  foe  away ; 
Bring  me  safely  on  my  way; 
And  with  peace  and  plenty  blest. 
Lead  me  to  the  port  of  rest" 


The  annexed  stanzas  are  from  a  hymn  for  the  great  feast 
of  Corpus  Christi,  a  composition  of  St.  Thomas  Aquinas :  — 


'Lauda,  Sion,  Salvatorem, 
Lauda,  dueem  et  pastorem. 

In  hymnis  et  canticis  ; 
Quantum  potes,  tantum  aude. 
Quia  major  omni  laude, 

Nee  laudare  sufficis. 


'With  joyous  hymns,  O  Sion,  sing 
Thy  Saviour,  Shepherd,  Guide,  and  King: 
To  themes  like  this,  to-day,  belong 
The  chiefest  praise  of  sacred  song. 
Too  weak,  though  all  its  skill  be  spent 
On  this  stupendous  argument ! 


•2G-2 


LIFE    AND   TIMES 


"  Bone  pastor,  pauis  vcrc, 
Jesu,  uostri  miserere, 
'J'u,  DOS  parce,  nos  tuere 
Tu  uos  bona  fac  viderc 

In  terra  viventiiun 
Tu  qui  cuncta  scis,  et  vales, 
Qui  nos  pascis  hie  inortales. 
Tuos  ibi  commensales, 
Cohseredes  et  sodales 

Fac  sanctorum  civium." 


"Jesu  !  good  Shepherd,  living  Bread, 
Pity,  protect  us,  watch  and  lead; 
And  stretch  forth  thy  forgiving  hand, 
To  guide  us  to  thy  promis'd  laud. 

"  Thou  by  whose  grace  all  good  is  sent. 
Omniscient  and  Omnipotent ! 
When  life  and  all  its  pangs  are  past. 
Oh,  let  us  join  thy  saints  at  last ; 
To  us,  their  fellow-guests,  be  given 
A  joint  inheritance  in  heaven  !" 


The  hymn  to  the  Holy  Ghost,  for  the  feast  of  Pentecost,  is 
in  a  still  sweeter  and  more  poetic  strain :  — 


*' Veni,  Sancte  Spiritus, 
Et  emitte  coclitus 

Lucis  tujE  radium. 
Veni,  pater  paupeium, 
Veui,  dator  munerum, 

Yeui,  lumen  cordium. 

"Consolator  optime, 
Dulcis  hospes  animae, 

Dulce  refrigcrium ; 
In  labore  rcquies, 
In  ajstu  temperies, 

In  fletu  solatium!" 


"Come,  Holy  Ghost !     One  ray  of  love. 
From  that  pcrrennial  fount  above. 

Shoot  down  into  my  breast ; 
Come,  Father  of  the  fatherless. 
Whom  none,  but  thou,  console  or  bless, 

Hearts'  hope,  hearts'  light, hearts'  rest. 

"Thou  art  our  soul's  most  loving  guest. 
Of  all  her  comforters  the  best. 
Her  stay  and  solace  here  ; 
Rest  to  the  weary  and  the  poor, 
W'ho  suffer  long  and  travail  sore, 
With  none  but  thee  to  cheer  !" 


The  celebrated  dirge  "  in  commemoration  of  all  the  faith- 
ful departed,"  is  known  through  the  medium  of  Roscommon's 
translation :  — 


"Dies  irse,  dies  ilia, 
Solvet  ssEclum  in  favilla. 
Teste  David  cum  Sybilla. 

"  Quantus  tremor  est  futurus, 
Quando  judex  est  venturus, 
Cuncta  stride  discussurus." 


"  The  day  of  wrath,  that  dreadful  day. 
Shall  the  whole  earth  in  ashes  lay, 
As  David  and  the  Sybils  say. 

"  WHiat  horror  shall  invade  the  mind, 
W^hen  the  strict  Judge,  who  would  be  kind. 
Shall  have  few  venial  faults  to  find  !" 


At  the  Reformation  a  new  era  in  the  history  of  religious 
verse  commenced;   the  protestant  leaders  at  once  threw  off 


OF    DR.    ISAAC    AVATTS.  263 

the  bondage  of  antiquated  Latin  rhythm,  and  taught  the  com- 
mon people  to  sing  in  their  own  vernacular  tongue  the  won- 
derful works  of  God.  The  sagacity  of  the  reformers  soon 
discovered  the  potent  influence  of  verse,  with  its  suitable 
melodies,  upon  the  lower  orders  of  society ;  and  those  who  had 
a  poetical  turn,  composed  hymns  and  sacred  ballads,*  which 
were  chanted  by  their  followers  in  the  streets  of  the  German 
cities  and  by  the  w\ay-side.  A  more  effectual  mode  could 
not  easily  have  been  devised,  to  render  the  scripture  history 
familiar  to  the  minds  of  the  people ;  and  the  ear  of  many  a 
passenger  was  doubtless  caught  by  the  inspiring  strain,  and 
led  to  listen  till  the  abominations  of  the  papal  hierarchy  were 
renounced.  Luther  is  said  to  have  heard  a  poor  man  singing 
some  printed  rhymes  under  his  window  in  Wittemberg,  and 
when  upon  inquiry  he  learned  the  name  of  the  author,  he 
burst  into  tears,  and  rendered  thanks  to  God  for  making  such 
humble  expedients  conducive  to  the  propagation  of  truth. 
Before  parting  with  his  family  and  friends  in  an  evening,  he 
usually  sang  a  hymn ;  and  in  his  hours  of  dejection  it  doubt- 
less proved  a  delightful  restorative.  Luther  was  himself  a 
poet  and  musician,  as  well  as  reformer;  and  his  music,  and 
many  of  his  hymns,  still  hold  a  distinguished  place  in  the 
protestant  psalmody  of  the  continent.  That  noble  hymn  and 
tune  of  his,  "  Great  God  !  what  do  I  see  and  hear,"  has  been 
long  introduced  here ;  and  it  will  be  sung  with  solemn  rap- 
ture by  the  faithful  "  looking  for  the  coming  of  the  Son  of 
Man,"  until  the  perfected  church  shall  join  in  the  higher 
anthems  of  the  blessed.  The  prevailing  characteristic  of  his 
mind  was  strength ;  it  was  rugged  and  inharmonious,  yet  full 
of  noble  daring  and  magnanimous  resolve  ;  his  words,  it  has 
been  aptly  said,  were  "half  battles."  His  verse  is  full  of  the 
native  vigour  of  his  soul ;  he  comes  before  us  strong  in  his 


♦The  word  Ballad  was  formerly  used  to  signify  a  religious  song.  In  some  old 
English  translations  of  the  bible,  the  Song  of  Solomon  is  entitled  the  Ballet  of 
Ballets, 


264  LIFE    AND   TIMES 

righteous  cause  ;  impetuous  as  his  own  wild  and  voiceful 
Rhine :  "  High  deeds,  O  Germans,  we  exjsect  from  you," 
was  his  motto. 

As  the  doctrines  of  the  Reformation  were  estabHshed  in 
England,  a  passion  for  religious  versification  was  excited  ; 
the  old  choral  mode  of  worship  was  partially  superseded ;  and 
many  votaries  of  the  muses,  among  the  reformed  ecclesiastics, 
seemed  bent  upon  affording  the  singing  lofts  of  the  churches 
an  unlimited  supply  of  verse,  by  turning  the  whole  bible  into 
metre.  In  King  Edward  the  Sixth's  chapel,  a  metrical  Acts 
of  the  Apostles  was  in  use ;  and  the  royal  ear  was  edified  by 
listening  to  such  inspiring  strains  as  the  following,  sung  by 
the  courtly  choir ! 

"It  chauuced  iu  Icouium, 

As  tliey  oft  tymes  did  use. 
Together  they  into  did  come 
The  siuagoge  of  Jeus. 

"  Where  they  did  preache  and  only  seke 
God's  grace  them  to  atchieve  ; 
That  soe  they  speke  to  Jue  and  Greke, 
That  many  did  bileve."* 

During  the  next  two  centuries,  the  art  of  sacred  song  made 
little  or  no  advances.  Among  churchmen  Sternhold  and  his 
coadjutor  remained  lords  of  the  ascendant;  Avhile  the  noncon- 
formists were  content  with  the  bald  verses  of   Patrick,  or 

*"  The  Actes  of  the  Apostles  translated  into  Englyshe  metre,  and  dedicated  to 
the  kinges  most  excellent  majestye,  by  Cristofer  Tye,  doctor  in  musyke,  and  one  of 
the  geutylmen  of  hys  graces  most  honourable  chappell ;  with  notes  to  eache  chapter 
to  syuge,  and  alsoe  to  play  upon  thclute;  very  necessarye  for  studentes,  after  theyr 
studye,  to  fy le  their  wittes,  and  alsoe  for  all  Christians  that  cannot  synge,  to  read  the 
good  and  godlye  storyes  of  the  lives  of  Christ  his  Apostles."  1553,  printed  by 
William  Serres.  The  fust  fourteen  chapters  only  were  published,  with  a  poetical 
dedication,  "  To  the  vertuous  and  godlye  learned  Pryuce  Edward  the  Sixth,"  in 
which  the  following  stanza  occurs : 

"  Unto  the  text  I  do  not  ad, 
Nor  nathynge  take  awaye; 
And  though  my  style  be  gros  and  bad, 
The  truth  parceyve  ye  may.' 


OF   DR.    ISAAC    AVATTS.  265 

singing  was  altogether  banished  from  their  services,  lest  it 
should  betray  to  the  informer  the  meeting-house,  the  glade  or 
wood,  in  which  the  persecuted  assembled.  It  was  not  until 
the  time  of  Watts,  that  any  collection  of  hymns  appeared 
which  deserved  to  be  tolerated,  either  on  the  ground  of  poeti- 
cal excellence,  or  adaptation  to  the  purpose  of  congregational 
worship.  To  Milton,  indeed,  we  are  indebted  for  a  few  versi- 
fications of  the  Psalms,  which  arc,  however,  unworthy  of  his 
fame ;  to  bishop  Kenn  the  church  must  ever  express  her  obli- 
gations for  three  immortal  hymns  ;  four  more  were  furnished 
by  Addison,  which  shine  among  the  brightest  stars  in  the 
hemisphere  of  devotion :  but  these  were  desultory  attempts, 
and  never  intended  for  the  public  service  of  the  church.  "  Dr. 
Watts,"  as  Mr.  Montgomery  remarks,  "  may  almost  be  called 
the  inventor  of  hymns  in  our  language :  for  he  so  far  departed 
from  all  precedent,  that  few  of  his  compositions  resemble  those 
of  his  forerunners ;  while  he  so  far  established  a  precedent 
to  all  his  successors,  that  none  have  departed  from  it,  otherwise 
than  according  to  the  peculiar  turn  of  mind  in  the  writer,  and 
the  style  of  expressing  Christian  truths  employed  by  the  de- 
nomination to  which  he  belonged."  He  is,  therefore,  with 
propriety  placed  by  the  poet  of  the  Moravians  at  the  head  of 
the  hymuists  of  our  country :  he  may  have  been  equalled, 
and,  in  some  instances,  surpassed  by  others;  but  far  greater 
honour  is  due  to  him  who  invents  the  model,  than  to  him  who 
copies  the  design.  It  is  the  glory  of  Columbus  to  have  first 
crossed  the  Atlantic,  though  many  a  statelier  vessel,  by  a 
shorter  and  a  safer  track,  has  since  performed  the  voyage. 

The  first  edition  of  the  Hymns  has  an  essay  appended  to  it, 
towards  the  improvement  of  psalmody,  or  an  inquiry  how  the 
psalms  of  David  ought  to  be  translated  into  Christian  songs ; 
and  how  lawful  and  necessary  it  is  to  compose  other  hymns, 
according  to  the  clearer  revelations  of  the  gospel,  for  the  use 
of  the  church.     The  volume  contained   two  hundred   and 

twenty  hymns,  including  the  several  doxologies,  reckoning 

s 


•2fi«  LIFE    AND    TIMES 

each  one  of  them  as  a  hymn.     In  Httle  more  than  twelve 
months  this  edition  was  exhausted,  and  a  second  appeared  in 
the  year  1700,  according  to  the  title-page,  corrected  and  much 
enlarged.     In  comparing  the  two  editions,  considerable  alte- 
rations will  be  found  in  several  hymns,  the  suggestions  of 
friends,  and  a  large  addition  of  new  compositions.     The  fol- 
lowing advertisement,  dated    April,   1709,   prefixed  by  Mr. 
Watts,  explains  the  nature  of  the  alterations  introduced :  — 
"  I.  There  are  almost  one  hundred  and  fifty  new  hymns  add- 
ed, and  one  or  more  suited  to  every  theme  and  subject  in  di- 
vinity.     Having  found  by  converse  with  Christians,   what 
words  or  lines  in  the  former  made  them  less  useful,  I  have 
not  only  made  various  corrections  in  them,  but  have  endea- 
voured to  avoid  the  same  mistakes  in  all  the  new  composures. 
And  whereas  many  of  the  former  were  too  particularly  adapted 
to  special  frames  and  seasons  of  the  Christian  life,  almost  all 
which  are  added  have  a  more  general  and  extensive  sense, 
and  may  be  assumed  and  sung  by  most  persons  in  a  worship- 
ping congregation.  2.  About  fourteen  or  fifteen  psalms  which 
■were  translated  in  the  first  edition,  are  left  out  in  this,  because 
I  intend,  if  God  aiford  life  and  assistance,  to  convert  the  big- 
gest part  of  the  book  of  Psalms  into  spiritual  songs  for  the  use 
of  Christians,  yet  the  same  numbers  are  applied  to  the  Hymns, 
that  there  may  be  no  confusion  between  the  first  and  second 
editions."    To  the  seventh  edition,  which  appeared  in  the  year 
1720,  there  is  the  following  note,  "dated  March  3rd. :  "  Since 
the  sixth  edition  of  this  book,  the  author  has  finished  what  he 
had  so  long  promised,  namely,  the  Psalms  of  David  imitated 
in   the  language  of  the   New  Testament,   which  the  world 
seems  to  have  received  with  approbation,  by  the  sale  of  some 
thousands  in  a  year's  time.     There  the  reader  will  find  those 
psalms  which  were  left  out  of  all  the  later  editions  of  these 
hymns  in  their  proper  places.      It  is  presumed,  that  book,  in 
conjunction  with  this,  may  appear  to  be  such  a  provision  for 
psalmody,  as  to  answer  most  occasions  of  the  Christian's  life; 


OF    DR.    ISAAC    WATTS.  267 

and  if  an  author's  own  opinion  may  be  taken,  he  esteems  it 
the  greatest  work  that  ever  he  has  published,  or  ever  hopes  to 
do,  for  the  use  of  the  churches." 

In  eulogising  the  merits  of  Watts's  hymns,  I  may  lay  myself 
open  to  the  charge  of  being  a  partisan  ;  I  prefer,  therefore,  to 
adopt  the  language  of  a  critic,  against  whom  the  plea  of  sec- 
tarian bias  cannot  in  this  instance  be  advanced;  one  whose 
judgment  invests  opinion  with  authority,  and  whose  sincerity 
cannot  be  questioned.  The  author  of  the  "  Christian  Psalmist" 
remarks,  "  Passing  by  Mrs.  Rowe,  and  the  mystical  rhymers 
of  her  age,  we  come  to  the  greatest  name  among  hymn- 
writers  ;  for  we  hesitate  not  to  give  that  praise  to  Dr.  Isaac 
Watts,  since  it  has  pleased  God  to  confer  upon  him,  though 
one  of  the  least  of  the  poets  of  his  country,  more  glory  than 
upon  the  greatest  either  of  that  or  of  any  other,  by  making 
his  '  Divine  Songs'  a  more  abundant  and  universal  blessing, 
than  the  verses  of  any  uninspired  penman  that  ever  lived. 
In  his  '  Psalms  and  Hymns'  (for  they  must  be  classed  toge- 
ther), he  has  embraced  a  compass  and  variety  of  subjects, 
which  include  and  illustrate  every  truth  of  revelation,  throw 
light  upon  every  secret  movement  of  the  human  heart,  whe- 
ther of  sin,  nature,  or  grace,  and  describe  every  kind  of  trial, 
temptation,  conflict,  doubt,  fear,  and  grief,  as  well  as  the  faith, 
hope,  charity,  the  love,  joy,  peace,  labour,  and  patience  of  the 
Christian,  in  all  stages  of  his  course  on  earth ;  together  with 
the  terrors  of  the  Lord,  the  glories  of  the  Redeemer,  and  the 
comforts  of  the  Holy  Spirit,  to  urge,  allure,  and  strengthen 
him  by  the  way.  There  is  in  the  pages  of  this  evangelist,  a 
word  in  season  for  every  one  who  needs  it,  in  whatever  circumr 
stances  he  may  require  counsel,  consolation,  reproof,  or  in- 
struction. We  say  this,  without  reserve,  of  the  materials  of 
his  hymns;  had  their  execution  always  been  correspondent 
with  the  preciousness  of  these,  we  should  have  had  a  Chris- 
tian Psalmist  in  England,  next  (and  that  only  in  date,  not  in 
dignity)  to  the  '  Sweet  Singer  of  Israel.'     Nor  is  this  so  bold 


•268  LIFE    AND    TIMES 

a  word  as  it  may  seem.  Dr.  Watts's  hymns  are  full  of*  the 
glorious  gospel  of  the  blessed  God ;'  his  themes,  therefore,  are 
as  much  more  illustrious  than  those  of  the  son  of  Jesse,  who 
only  knew  *  the  power  and  glory'  of  Jehovah  as  he  had  '  seen 
them  in  the  sanctuary,'  which  was  but  the  shadow  of  the  New 
Testament  church ;  as  the  face  of  Moses,  holding  communion 
with  God,  was  brighter  than  the  veil  he  east  over  it  when 
conversing  with  his  countrymen."* 

That  Watts's  hymns  have  faults,  many  and  grievous  faults, 
Mr.  Montgomery  admits;  their  most  ardent  admirers  too,  in 
the  denomination  where  they  are  regularly  used,  acknowledge 
it;  yet  still  they  are  most  of  them  imperfections  which  might 
naturally  be  expected  to  connect  themselves  with  a  first  hymnic 
enterprise.  His  most  frequent  failings  are  defective  rhythm 
and  prosaic  phraseology  ;  the  want  of  rhymes  between  the 
first  and  third  lines  in  the  quartaiu  measure,  is  sensibly  per- 
ceived, and  occasions  the  hymn  sometimes  to  halt  and  stumble ; 
whilst  the  harmony  and  beauty  of  the  verse  is  too  frequently 
destroyed  by  the  insertion  of  proper  names  and  scripture  refe- 
rences, certainly  out  of  the  pale  of  poetry  and  good  taste. 
These  last  are  indeed  sometimes  put  between  brackets,  and 
may  be  omitted  in  the  singing  without  affecting  the  sense  j 
but  it  would  have  been  better  had  they  been  altogether  ex- 
punged, as  they  offend  the  eye,  spoil  the  programme  of  the 
hymn,  and  often  remain  at  the  disposal  of  our  clerks,  a  race 
not  over-blessed  with  keen  perceptions  and  harmonious  ears. 
Mr.  Watts  seems  to  have  been  sensible,  that  his  rhymes,  as 
Dr.  Johnson  remarks,  were  not  "sufficiently  correspondent," 
as  he  apologises  for  the  defect  in  the  frequent  recurrence  of 
scriptural  and  theologic  terms,  which  admit  but  few  words  to 
chime  with  them.  The  period  when  he  flourished  was  not  so 
nicely  critical  as  the  present;  pure  and  perfect  harmony  was 
not  so  rigidly  required  ;  what  would  now  be  regarded  as  false 
versification,  was  practised  by  the  mighty  masters  of  the  lyre. 

*  Preface  to  Christian  Psalmist,  xix.  xx. 


OF   DR.   ISAAC    WATTS.  269 

The  same  inequality  which  characterises  the  lyric  poems, 
may  be  perceived  in  many  of  the  hymns ;  some  of  them  begin 
well,  often  nobly,  then  become  dull  and  puerile,  and  at  the 
close  recover  their  ground,  and  soar  even  to  a  higher  elevation. 
An  illustration  of  this  occurs  in  two  of  Watts's  finest  compo- 
sitions, which,  though  not  inserted  in  his  collection,  evidently 
partake  the  hymnic  charactei*,  and  have  been  transferred  from 
his  lyrics  into  most  succeeding  selections.  The  first  commences 
in  the  highest  tone  of  sublimity  and  grandeur,  but  indulges  an 
Homeric  nod  in  the  line  printed  in  italics  in  the  second  verse, 
rallies  again  immediately,  and  plies  a  vigorous  wing  unto 
the  close  : 

"Eternal  Power  !   wliose  high  abode 
Becomes  the  grandeur  of  a  God  ; 
Infinite  kngtlis  beyond  the  bounds 
Where  stars  revolve  their  little  rounds. 

"Thee  while  the  first  archangel  sings 
He  hides  his  face  behind  his  wings. 
And  ranks  of  shining  thrones  around 
Fall  rvorshipping  and  spread  the  ground.^' 

The  other  hymn  is  on  the  Resurrection,  and  celebrates  in 
stirring  strains  the  scenes  of  the  cross  and  of  the  deserted 
tomb.  It  opens  with  a  verse  of  stately  and  solemn  magnifi- 
cence, degenerates  in  the  second  into  the  merest  drivelling, 
and  concludes  with  a  picture  evincing  the  most  consummate 
dramatic  art: 

"  He  dies  !  the  Friend  of  sinners  dies  ! 
I-o  !  Salem's  daughters  weep  around  ! 
A  solemn  darkness  veils  the  skies, 
A  sudden  trembling  shakes  the  ground. 

"  Come,  saints,  and  drop  a  tear  or  two 
On  the  dear  bosom  of  your  God ; 
He  shed  a  thousand  drops  for  yon, 
A  thousand  drops  of  richer  blood." 


270  LIFE    AND   TIMES 

Let  it  be,  however,  vemembcvcd,  that  Watts  wrote  without 
a  model ;  that  what  he  has  achieved  is  purely  the  result  of 
inventive  f^enius ;  and  our  surprise  will  be,  not  that  he 
failed  so  often,  but  that  he  accomplished  so  much.  To  suc- 
ceeding' practitioners  he  has  been  a  landmark  and  a  guide ; 
they  have  had  the  benefit  of  his  experience  and  designs,  and 
have  reaped  important  advantages  from  his  successes  and 
mistakes. 

With  all  my  partiality  for  Watts  as  a  writer  of  religious 
song,  I  am  not  insensible  to  the  defective  tone  and  expression 
of  some  of  his  hymns,  which  betray,  more  indeed  in  phraseo- 
logy than  in  spirit,  the  neighbourhood  of  a  hyper-calvinistic 
school.  The  theology  of  his  day  was  of  a  somewhat  different 
mould  to  that  embraced  at  the  present  by  the  majority  of  the 
dissenting  churches  ;  it  had  sterner  features,  and,  at  the  same 
lime,  those  which  were  more  tumid ;  it  spoke  in  severer  ac- 
cents to  the  sinner,  and  in  a  more  glowing  and  mystic  style 
to  the  saint ;  it  delighted  too  much  in  presenting  to  the  one 
the  elements  of  gathering  wrath,  without  a  shelter  from  the 
storm,  and  in  pampering  the  other  with  the  gay  and  ardent 
fancies  of  impassioned  eastern  poetry.  The  Calvinism  of 
Watts  was  of  the  moderate  kind  at  the  close  of  his  career,  so 
much  so  as  to  subject  him  to  the  charge  of  Baxterianism  ;  yet 
still  I  am  by  no  means  certain,  but  that  his  connexion  with 
Dr.  Chauncey,  a  divine  of  the  Crispian  stamp,  might  give  a 
colouring  to  his  creed  in  early  life.  It  would  be  an  unprofita- 
ble task,  to  particularise  the  luscious  phrases  which  savour  of 
the  school  ;  phrases  which  might  easily  be  altered  to  advan- 
tage, and  which  assuredly  ought  to  have  been  long  ago  ; 
Avhich  to  a  mind  like  Watts's  will  bespeak  only  the  triumph 
of  holy  love,  but  which  are  apt  to  convey  to  unhallowed  ima- 
ginations a  licentious  image,  and  thus  degrade  the  Christian's 
fellowship  with  his  Redeemer,  by  an  association  with  terms 
indicative  of  human  fondness  and  familiarity.  The  ardency 
of  pious  affection  is  indeed  apt  to  exjiress  itself  in  the  lau- 


OF   DR.    ISAAC    WATTS.  271 

guage  of  animal  passion  ;  the  heart  in  communion  with  God 
will  not  stay  to  take  the  guage  of  a  fastidious  delicacy  before 
it  gives  utterance  to  its  desires ;  but  it  by  no  means  follows, 
that  what  is  proper  for  the  closet  is  adapted  for  the  sanctuary. 
There  is  another  fault  which  may  be  charged  upon  some  of 
Watts's  compositions,  of  an  opposite  character,  but  which 
proceeded  from  the  same  cause  as  the  one  just  noticed.  There 
is  too  little  of  that  sweet  persuasiveness,  that  melting  tender- 
ness, in  which  the  gospel  addresses  the  sinner;  while  harsh 
expressions  occur,  breathing  a  spirit  of  vindictiveness,  which 
unquestionably  does  not  harmonise  with  the  character  of  that 
God  who  delights  in  merc}^,  and  which  it  borders  upon  down- 
right impiety  to  offer  up  in  praise  to  him.  It  would  be  a  boon 
to  the  dissenting  congregations,  if  some  one,  of  kindred  spirit 
and  competent  ability,  and  such  an  one  doubtless  might  be 
found,  would  give  his  hymns  the  benefit  of  a  careful  correc- 
tion and  revision.  The  productions  of  Charles  Wesley 
have  been  revised  and  expurgated  and  re-revised;  and  the 
memory  and  claims  of  Watts  imperatively  demand  a  similar 
service.* 

While  such  I  honestly  conceive  to  be  the  defects  of  Watts, 
I  am  still  inclined  to  claim  for  him  the  highest  place  among 
the  hymnists  of  our  land.  Many  labourers  have  indeed  since 
appeared  in  the  held,  some  of  undoubted  talent,  and  all  have 
trod  in  his  steps;  yet  his  sacred  songs  remain  as  a  whole  un- 


*  There  have  been  many  professed  improvements  of  Watts  ;  but  none  that  Iiave 
as  yet  come  under  my  notice,  appear  to  have  fulfilled  their  object.  In  the  hands 
of  private  speculators  some  of  his  hymns  have  been  wretchedly  mangled.  A  con- 
siderable number  have  been  inserted  in  the  "Church  Hymn  Book,"  chiefly  used  in 
the  midland  counties  ;  but  the  reverend  compiler  has  not  displayed  much  skill  in 
his  alterations.  The  almost  faultless  imitation  of  the  23rd  Psalm,  in  the  com- 
mon metre,  is  amplified  until  its  beauty  is  completely  frittered  away,  and  the 
imagery  of  the  original,  which  Watts  has  preserved,  is  in  several  instances  changed. 
The  fourth  resolution  of  the  Congregational  Union,  at  their  last  meeting,  was 
the  appointment  of  a  sub-committee,  to  prepare  a  denominational  hymn-book,  as 
a  supplement  to  that  now  in  use  ;  and  to  the  gentlemen  there  specified.  Dr.  Fletcher, 
Rev.  J.  Blackburn,  Mr.  Josiah  Conder,  and  ;Mr.  Henry  Rogers,  the  task  might  safely 
be  confided  of  revising  the  hymns  of  V\'atts. 


27-2  I-Il'E    AND    TIMES 

surpassed  and  unequalled,  and  are  far  more  generally  used  in 
the  services  of  the  church,  than  those  of  any  of  his  successors. 
Charles  Wesley  approaches  the  nearest  to  him,  but  must  yield 
the  palm  for  originality,  catholicity,  and  versatility  of  genius  :* 

—  Doddridge's  hymns  arc  distinguished  by  their  unafl'ecled 
piety,  and  engaging  sweetness ;  but  are  often  faulty  in  their 
poetry,  and  disfigured  by  a  formal  rhetoric  :  —  Newton's  com- 
positions are  clear  and  evangelical  in  their  sentiments;  but 
prosaic,  sometimes  wretched  in  their  construction,  and,  be- 
sides, unfit  for  congregational  use :  —  Cowper's  mighty,  yet 
sorely-crossed  and  troubled  spirit,  produced  some  hymns  in  the 
sunshine  of  his  day,  which  delightfully  embody  the  experience 
of  the  Christian  heart;  some  also  of  high  and  solemn  charac- 
ter, written  in  "  the  twilight  of  departing  reason,"  on  the 
verge  of  "blackness  of  darkness:"  —  Toplady,  -with  all  his 
churlishness,  has  struck  off  tones  from  David's  harp,  not  in- 
ferior in  vigour  and  musical  intonation  to  any  of  his  compeers : 

—  Beddome's  humble  and  unpretending  verse,  barren  in 
poetry,  will  yet  remain,  for  its  instructive  metrical  aphorisms, 
a  lasting  blessing  to  the  families  of  the  righteous :  —  Heber's 
performances  have  probably  been  admired  more,  and  deserve 
it  less,  than  any  of  the  preceding ;  for,  though  arrayed  in  the 
"  purple  and  fine  linen"  of  glittering  diction,  they  are  poor  in 

*In  the  recent  ediLioii  of  Mr.  Wesley's  works,  publislied  by  the  direction  of  the 
conference,  there  is  the  following  notice.  IMr.  John  Wesley  remarks  of  liis  brother 
Charles — "His  least  praise,  was  his  talent  for  poetry;  although  Dr.  Watts  did  not 
scruple  to  say,  'tiiat  single  poem,  Wrestling  Jacob,  is  worth  all  the  verses  whicii 
1  have  ever  written.'  "  Upon  this  the  editor  obsei'ves  in  a  note  —  "The  late  Mr. 
Robert  Hopkins  used  to  say,  that  in  the  early  part  of  his  life  he  was  once  in  com- 
pany with  Mr.  Wesley,  and  several  other  friends,  when  Mr.  AVesley  referred  to  the 
opinion  wiiich  Dr.  Watts  had  expressed  concerning  'Wrestling  Jacob; '  and  added, 
apparently  with  great  emotion,  '()  what  would  Dr.  Watts  have  said,  if  he  had 
lived  to  see  my  brother's  two  exquisite  funeral  hymns,  beginning. 


and 


'  How  happy  every  cliilil  of  grace. 
That  knows  liis  sins  forgiven  ! 

'  Come,  let  \is  join  our  friends  above, 
That  have  obtain'il  the  prize.'" 


]ycsleif^s  Works,  vol.  xiii.  p.   t71. 


OF    DR.   ISAAC    WATTS.  273 

thought  and  defective  in  spirituality :  —  these,  and  many 
others,  whose  names  have  perished,  but  whose  contributions 
to  the  treasury  of  devotion  have  been  preserved,  have  followed 
in  the  track  of  the  nonconformist,  their  pattern  and  their 
guide. 

One  of  Watts's  principal  excellences,  that  which  peculiarly 
fitted  him  for  his  work  as  a  writer  of  hymns,  was  the  variety  of 
his  powers  —  in  this  respect  he  stands  alone  and  unrivalled  — 
surpassed  by  none  of  his  successors.  He  travels  with  the 
Christian  through  the  joys  and  sorrows  of  his  pilgrimage, 
from  the  new-birth  of  spiritual  feeling  and  character,  to  its 
glorious  consummation  in  heaven.  The  different  stages  of 
religious  experience,  from  the  germinating  seed  to  the  full 
corn  in  the  ear:  —  the  various  feelings  which  are  called  into 
operation  in  the  believer's  bosom,  love,  fear,  hope,  faith,  de- 
spondency, and  triumph  :  —  the  events,  of  which  we  either 
have  been  or  shall  be  witnesses,  birth,  bereavement,  sickness, 
recovery,  death  and  judgment :  —  the  progressive  history  of 
the  church,  from  its  first  foundation,  cemented  with  the  blood 
of  martyrs,  to  its  final  glory  celebrated  with  angelic  hymns : 
—  all  are  touched  upon  with  the  inspiration  of  a  poet,  and 
the  devotion  of  a  saint  —  there  is  a  song  for  every  season,  a 
supply  for  every  want.  Mr.  Charles  Wesley  has  indeed  fur- 
nished a  far  greater  mass  of  religious  poetry :  his  productions 
of  this  kind,  are  said  to  amount  to  forty-eiyht  distinct  publi- 
cations, from  the  duodecimo  volume  to  the  pamphlet  of  one  or 
two  sheets  ;  but  there  is  in  this  large  collection  little  variety  of 
manner,  and  less  variety  of  matter.  Many  of  his  pieces  wear 
the  exclusive  aspect  of  the  sectarian ;  he  casts  his  mite  into 
the  treasury  of  a  party ;  he  writes  as  the  "  Poet  of  Methodism," 
not  as  the  servant  of  the  universal  church.  The  paucity  of  his 
topics  produces  frequent  repetition,  a  tiresome  amplification  of 
the  same  thought  and  theme ;  and  though  this  may  be  regard- 
ed an  excellency  or  a  defect,  according  as  the  religious  opinions 
of  his  critic  agree  or  diff'er  from  him,  there  can  be  no  question 


274  LIFE    AND    TIMES 

Lilt  that  the  amount  of  genius  requisite  for  the  composition  of 
such  hymns,  was  far  less  than  that  which  Watts  brought  and 
employed  in  his  task.  The  latter  does  not  follow  the  narrow 
beaten  causeway  of  sectarian  theology ;  his  hymns  are  more 
varied  in  their  character,  and  catholic  in  their  spirit;  indeed, 
while  he  is  every  where  consistent  with  tlie  sentiments  of 
his  own  denomination,  I  know  of  but  few,  if  any,  passages 
which  a  Christian  of  an  opposite  creed  would  hesitate  to 
adopt.  This  circumstance  has  given  to  him  an  extended 
fame,  and  to  his  sacred  lays  a  wide  circulation ;  it  has 
associated  them  with  the  churchman,  the  dissenter,  and 
the  Methodist ;  and  "  every  sabbath,  in  every  region  of 
the  earth,  where  his  native  tongue  is  spoken,  thousands 
and  tens  of  thousands  of  voices  are  sending  the  sacrifices  of 
prayer  and  praise  to  God,  in  the  strains  which  he  prepared 
for  them  a  century  ago."* 


*  In  estimating  the  merits  of  these  two  great  liymnists.  Watts  and  Wesley,  the 
greatest  unquestioiiahly  that  our  country  can  boast,  I  should  not  hesitate  to  ascribe 
to  the  former  greater  skill  in  design,  to  the  latter  in  execution  ;  to  the  former  more 
originality,  to  the  latter  more  polish.  Many  of  Wesley's  flights  are  bold,  daring, 
and  magnificent.  The  spirit  of  the  righteous  man,  resting  secure  amid  the  confla- 
gration of  nature's  elements,  and  "  clapping"  its  "  wings  of  fire,"  is  a  vision  of  sur- 
passing grandeur,  though  the  honour  of  the  suggestion  is,  perhaps,  due  to  Dr. 
Young.     That  fine  hymn,  commencing 

"With  glorious  clouds  eucompass'd  round, 
\\'hoin  arxjeh  dimlij  see," 

isin  the  heightof  sublimity,  though  the  thoughtand  the  expression  belong  loMiltou  : 

"  wlio  sit'st  aljove  these  heavens, 


To  us  invisible  or  dimly  setn." 

The  favourite  couplet, 

"  Enoui;h  for  all,  enoush  for  each, 
linongh  for  ever[mo!e]," 

is  one  of  the  felicitous  expressions  of  Mattliew  Henry.  Sucii  imitations  as  these  are, 
however,  trivial,  and  are  common  with  t!ie  best  writers  ;  but  to  the  German  hynin- 
ology  Wesley  is  under  deep  and  momentous  obligations,  which  literary  justice 
ought  to  have  constrained  him  to  acknowledge,  (iermany  has  long  been  proverbial 
for  tlie  number  and  excellency  of  its  hymns  ;  indeed  1  have  heard  them  estimated 
by  a  competent  judge  at  upwards  of  sixty  thousand,  whereas  our  language  can 
boast  of  little  more  than  two  tiiousand.  The  connexion  of  the  two  brothers  with  the 
Moravians  at  the  commencement  of  their  career,  opened  unto  them  this  rich  mine 


OF   DR.    ISAAC    WATTS.  275 

The  faulty  versification  and  inelegant  construction  of  some 
of  Watts's  hymns,  which  have  been  pointed  out  as  their  prin- 
cipal defects,  would  never  have  occurred  had  they  been  written 
under  the  same  circumstances  as  those  of  his  Arminian  suc- 
cessor. The  former  wrote  principally  in  his  youth,  the  latter 
in  the  full  vigour  of  ripened  manhood ;  to  the  former  hymnic 
composition  was  an  occasional  recreation,  to  the  latter  at  one 
period  it  was  his  chief  employment.  It  is  well  known,  that 
Mr.  C.  Wesley  desisted  from  his  itinerant  ministry,  and  aban- 
doned the  fatiguing  journeys  of  his  brother,  for  an  alternate 
residence  in  London  and  Bristol  —  the  consequence  of  indo- 
lence say  some,  a  just  appreciation  of  his  own  powers  say 
others.  A  considerable  portion  of  his  time  was  now  devoted 
to  poetical  enterprise,  to  which  he  sedulously  directed  his  ta- 
lents; he  measured  the  object  before  him  in  its  height  and 
length,  and  depth  and  breadth,  and  carefully  trained  and  dis- 
ciplined his  spirit  for  his  task  : 

"His  soul  was  like  a  star,  and  dwelt  apart." 


of  devotional  song;  and  some  of  the  brightest  gems  in  the  Wesleyan  collection 
have  been  dug  from  it.  They  are  indeed  most  skilfully  versified  ;  but  the  merit  of 
translation  is  widely  diffeient  to  that  of  original  composition.  Some  of  these  con- 
tinental grafts  have  been  claimed  by  Mr.  Montgomery,  in  his  "  Christian  Psalmist," 
for  the  Moravians  ;  and  Mr.  Watson,  in  his  recent  "Life  of  Wesley,"  acknow- 
ledges the  claim,  yet  pleads  correctly  for  their  being  Wesleyan  not  Moravian 
translations.     Among  these  may  be  mentioned, 

"Thou  hidden  love  of  God,  whose  height;" 

"  Thee  will  I  love,  my  strength,  my  tower;" 

"  Shall  I  for  fear  of  feeble  man  ;" 

"  O  tl>ou  who  earnest  flora  above  ;" 

"  Now  I  have  found  the  ground  wherein  ;" 

"  My  soul  before  thee  prostrate  lies;" 

'•Holy  Lamb,  who  thee  receive." 

In  addition  to  these,  it  appears  from  the  recently  translated  Memoirs  of  Gerhard 
Terstegern,  that  that  splendid  hymn,  "Lo,  God  is  here,  let  us  adore,"  and,  "  Ye 
virgin  souls,  arise,"  belong  to  the  German  stock.  Tlie  two  last  verses  of  the  hymn, 
"  What  shall  we  offer  our  good  Lord,"  commencing,  "  O  multiply  the  sower's  seed," 
are  taken  from  the  Moravian  German  hyinn,  "fligh  on  his  everlasting  throne." 
"  O  God,  my  God,  my  all  thou  art,"  is  from  the  Spanish.  "  Come,  Saviour  Jesus, 
from  above,"  is  from  the  French.  There  are  nine  of  Watts's  compositions  in  the 
collection. 


276  LIFE   AND   TIMES 

But  it  was  otherwise  with  Watts :  none  of  those  who  had 
preceded  him  in  this  species  of  writing  had  attained  any  ex- 
cellence, so  as  to  stimulate  his  genius,  and  call  forth  his  powers ; 
the  hymns  in  use  were  so  miserably  defective,  and  the  task  of 
surpassing  them  so  easy,  that  he  did  not  generally  "  gird  up 
the  loins  of  his  mind."  This  is  to  be  lamented,  as  the  occasion 
of  all  his  blemishes  in  composition.  There  is,  however,  far 
less  appearance  of  effort  in  his  hymns  than  in  AVesley's ;  they 
are  less  strained  and  artificial,  and  bear  in  a  higher  degree  the 
stamp  of  being  the  spontaneous  effusions  of  devotional  feeling. 
One  of  his  highest  achievements  commences,  "  My  God,  the 
spring  of  all  my  joys,"  in  which  he  avails  himself  of  a  beauti- 
ful idea  from  Gray's  "  Fragment  on  A'icissitude :" 

"See  the  wretch  that  long  has  tost 

Oa  the  thorny  bed  of  pain, 
At  length  repair  his  vigour  lost, 

And  breathe  and  walk  again  • 
The  meanest  floweret  of  the  vale, 
The  simplest  note  that  swells  the  gale, 
The  common  sun,  the  air,  the  skies, 
To  him  are  opening  paradise." 

The  sentiment  in  the  concluding  line  is  seized  upon  by  the 
hymnist,  and  skilfully  introduced  in  the  third  verse  of  the 
hymn.  From  Watts,  however,^  the  idea  receives  a  very  dif- 
ferent form  of  presentation ;  it  ceases  to  be  descripfive,  and 
becomes  expcrhnenUd ;  it  expresses  not  a  feeling  that  is  re- 
membered merely,  or  gathered  from  a  process  of  ratiocination, 
but  one  that  is  present  with,  and  pervading  the  regenerated 
soul : 

"The  opening  heavens  around  me  shine 
\\'itli  beams  of  sacred  bliss. 
If  Jesus  shows  his  mercy  mine. 
And  whispers  /  am  his." 

The  hymn  is  almost  without  "  spot  or  blemish,"  if  we  ex- 
cept the  last  line  of  the  fourth  verse,  which  has  certainly  been 


OF   DR.   ISAAC    WATTS.  277 

amended  by  Wesley  ;  for  felicity  of  expression,  strength  and 
tenderness  of  feeling,  and  beautiful  pictorial  truth,  it  has 
never  been  surpassed ;  it  is  a  sublime  communion  with  the 
Deity,  made  visible  by  the  eye  of  faith,  and  brought  near 
with  the  cords  of  love,  giving  birth  to  a  majestic  burst  of  im- 
passioned and  irrepressible  joy  and  triumph. 

Of  all  the  compositions  of  Watts,  his  religious  verse,  inclu- 
ding both  psalms  and  hymns,  have  been  most  widely  circula- 
ted, and  most  eminently  useful.  A  copy  was  taken  into 
Central  Africa  by  Mr.  Anderson,  the  fellow-traveller  and 
brother-in-law  of  the  unfortunate  Mungo  Park,  and  lately 
found  by  the  Landers  at  Youri,  hung  up  in  the  residence  of 
a  chieftain  as  fetishe  or  sacred.  From  his  pulpit  he  instructed 
and  edified  a  numerous  and  attentive  auditory ;  from  his  study 
he  benefitted,  by  practical  and  doctrinal  treatises,  thousands 
who  never  heard  the  sound  of  his  living  voice:  but  from  his 
closet  he  has  given  songs  of  praise  to  the  churches,  which  will 
be  used  in  their  solemn  assemblies  and  private  devotions  till 
time  shall  be  no  more,  and  have  been  employed  by  the  deli- 
vered spirit  soaring  triumphant  over  death  to  its  native  skies. 
They  have  been  instruments  in  the  hand  of  God  of  improving 
the  religious  experience,  and  increasing  the  spiritual  enjoy- 
ments, of  his  people ;  rousing  their  deadened  affections,  en- 
kindling the  almost  extinguished  flame  of  love,  prompting 
the  longings  of  desire,  and  calling  back,  by  the  "  voice  of 
music"  and  the  gushing  of  "  sweet  sound,"  many  a  wandering 
sheep  to  the  fold  of  his  heavenly  Father  and  Redeemer.  When 
the  syrens  of  heathen  mythology  warbled  their  soft  and  sedu- 
cing airs,  to  draw  the  heedless  into  the  gulf  of  unholy  pleasure, 
some  overcame  the  temptation  by  chanting  divine  hymns; 
the  moral  of  the  fable  is  correct  and  apposite;  for,  in  the  ex- 
perience of  the  pious,  the  evil  spirit  has  not  only  been  dispos- 
sessed, but  his  enticements  resisted,  when  melody  has  been 
made  with  heart  and  lip  unto  the  Lord.  Tlie  hymns  of  Watts 
are  purely  spiritual,  eminently  holy  and  divine  in  their  cha- 


278  LIFE    AND    TIMES 

racier ;  they  were  evidently  written  in  the  exercise  of  devout 
and  heavenly  a  flections,  the  words  j^ivc  utterance  to  the  tone 
and  temper  of  the  heart;  there  is  little  of  human  speculation, 
but  much  of  personal  experience ;  they  are  not  dry  and  sap- 
less strains,  but  such  as  "  angels  might  often  delight  to  hear," 
throughout  pervaded  with  the  vital  power  of  godliness;  and, 
hence,  they  have  been  to  the  "  planting  of  the  Lord,"  as  the 
dew,  the  shower,  and  the  sunbeam  to  the  planting  of  man. 
'J'he  mourner  convinced  of  sin,  and  bending  beneath  his  load 
of  guilt,  has  oftentimes  gone  to  the  throne  of  grace,  repeating 
some  stanza  imbued  with  the  spirit  of  melting  penitence  and 
broken-hearted  grief;  the  man  of  many  woes,  over  whom  the 
clouds  of  misfortune  have  gathered,  has  found  a  verse  full  of 
resignation,  hope,  and  confidence,  and  has  sung  of  mercy  in 
the  midst  of  judgment;  the  sufferer,  to  whom  wearisome 
nights  and  days  have  been  appointed,  has  been  carried  for- 
w^ard  by  gleams  of  future  blessedness,  which  brighten  upon 
the  strains  of  Watts,  in  holy  triumph  and  calm  exultation,  to 
the  land  where  the  w^eepers  cease  to  weep  ;  while  thousands 
on  the  verge  of  death's  dark  river,  have  cheered  surviving 
friends  and  sorrowing  relatives,  with  tidings  of  the  "  sweet 
fields  beyond  the  swelling  flood,"  which  have  "  stilled  its 
tossing,  hush'd  its  roar,"  and  which  have  broke  upon  their 
ravished  vision  as  they  entered  into  the  joy  of  their  Lord. 

"  O  let  me  glory !  glory  in  my  choice  ! 
Whom  should  I  sing  but  him  who  gave  me  voice  ! 
This  theme  shall  last,  when  Momer's  shall  decay, 
"When  arts,  arms,  kings,  and  kingdoms,  melt  away  !" 

Note.  Two  statements  have  been  made,  with  reference  to 
Watts's  Hymns,  wdiich  ought  not  to  pass  unnoticed  here, 
though  the  subject  will  be  more  fully  considered  before  this 
volume  closes. 

I.  Expressions  occur  relative  to  the  humanity  of  Christ, 
which  some  pious  persons  have  regarded  with  considerable 


OF    DR.    ISAAC    WATTS.  279 

jealousy  and  alarm.  Sucli  expressions  'dre,  however,  perfectly 
orthodox,  and  would  have  occasioned  no  remark,  but  for  the 
suspicion  which  the  author's  doctrinal  sentiments  at  the  close 
of  his  life  excited.  It  may  be  observed  here,  that,  so  far  as  the 
Hymns  are  concerned,  this  is  completely  a  false  alarm :  the 
divinity  of  the  Saviour  is  asserted  with  the  same  force  and 
peculiarity  as  the  humanity  ;  and  no  line  can  be  adduced,  in 
which  this  momentous  article  of  our  faith  is  impug-ned.  The 
impression  to  the  contrary  has,  however,  gone  forth  in  certain 
quarters,  and  evidently  dictated  the  following-  passage  in  the 
Wesleyan  Magazine  for  December,  1831 :  —  "  Of  late  years 
several  collections  of  hymns  have  been  made  for  the  use  of 
Socinian  congregations;  and  it  is  remarkable,  how  many 
hymns  written  by  orthodox  Christians,  even  by  Watts  and 
Doddridge,  by  a  slight  alteration  have  been  rendered  accepta- 
ble to  men  who  cannot  see  in  Christianity  either  a  divine 
atonement  or  a  sanctifying  spirit.  Great  as  is  the  poetical 
excellence  of  Charles  Wesley's  hymns,  they  are  rarely  found 
in  collections  of  this  nature.  They  are  made  of  too  unbending 
materials  ever  to  be  adapted  to  Socinian  worship.  The  glory 
of  Christ  as  God  incarnate  ;  the  perfection  and  efficacy  of  his 
sacrifice ;  his  intercession  founded  upon  his  atoning  death  — 
these  are  the  lofty  themes  of  his  immortal  songs,  and  are  '  far 
above,  out  of  the  sight'  of  these  grovelling  religionists,  who  can 
see  in  Christianity  little  else  than  a  republication  of  the  law  of 
nature."  Now  upon  this  paragraph  I  have  three  remarks  to 
make: — 1.  That  Watts's  compositions,  with  but  few  excep- 
tions, inserted  in  Socinian  collections,  are  psalms  not  hymns, 
which,  from  their  very  nature,  do  not  celebrate  the  peculiar 
doctrines  of  the  gospel,  because  written  before  the  clearer  dis- 
coveries of  the  New  Testament  were  brought  to  light.  2.  That 
the  topics  mentioned  as  the  subjects  of  Charles  Wesley's 
"  immortal  songs,"  are  precisely  the  same  "  unbending  mate- 
rials" as  are  employed  in  Watts's  hymns.  3.  That  the  pro- 
ductions of  Wesley,  or  any  other  writer,  might,  with  the  same 


280  LIFE    AND   TIMES 

alterations  as  Watts's  have  suffered,  be  adapted  to  the  purpo- 
ses of  Socinian  worship. 

"  The  King  of  gloiy  dies  for  men."     Watts. 
"  God's  well-beloved  dies  for  men."     See. 

"Then  I  can  smile  at  Satan's  rage."     ^Vatts. 
"Then  I  can  smile  at  all  its  rage."     Soc. 

"Th}'  blood  like  wine  adorns  thy  board, 
And  thine  own  flesh  feeds  every  guest."     Watts. 

"His  table  is  divinely  stor'd, 
And  rich  the  food  for  every  guest."     Soc. 

"  Our  faith  adores  thy  bleeding  love, 

And  trusts  for  life  in  one  that  died."     Watts. 
"  We  joy  to  tell  his  matchless  love, 
■\\'e  trust  for  life  in  one  who  died."     Soc. 

The  truth  is,  as  Mr.  Montgomery  testifies,  that  the  song's  of 
Watts  are  full  of  "the  glorious  gospel  of  the  blessed  God;" 
had  this  not  been  the  case,  had  they  synchronised  even  in  the 
slightest  degree  with  the  cold  heartless  dogmas  of  Socinianism, 
they  would  long  ago  have  been  discarded  by  the  tens  of  thou- 
sands who  still  use  them  in  their  devotions. 

II.  It  has  been  asserted,  that  Mr.  Watts,  when  advanced 
in  life,  corrected  and  revised  his  Hymns,  in  accordance 
with  the  change  which  his  views  and  sentiments  on  various 
topics  underwent ;  that  he  left  this  corrected  copy  of  his 
hymn-book  behind  him ;  and  that,  owing  to  the  care  of  his 
friends  for  his  reputation,  it  was  suppressed  and  destroyed. 

The  evidence  upon  which  this  allegation  is  founded,  is  as 
follows : 

1.  The  Rev.  B.  Williams,  in  the  preface  to  his  "Collection 
of  Psalms,"  speaking  of  Watts's  unconfined  charity,  men- 
tions his  "  wish  to  avoid  every  word  in  his  poetical  compo- 
sures, designed  for  public  worship,  which  was  likely  to  give 
the  smallest  offence  to  serious  Christians  of  any  denomina- 
tion:"  he  states,  that  "when  he  found  in  the  latter  part  of 
his  life,  that  he  had  not  been  so  successful,  in  this  respect,  as 


OF   DR.   ISAAC    WATTS.  281 

he  had  aimed  to  be,  he  wished  for  nothing  more  ardently 
than  sufficient  health  and  time,  to  revise  both  his  Psalms 
and  Hymns,  in  order  to  render  them  unexceptionable  to 
every  Christian  professor :"  he  farther  states,  that  this  account 
"  was  received  from  Dr.  Watts  himself,  a  few  years  before  his 
death,  by  the  late  Dr.  Amory,  and  by  him  given  to  one  of 
his  pupils,  who  communicated  it  to  the  editor :"  and  he  also 
says,  that  he  has  good  authority  to  add,  that  the  revisal  so 
fervently  wished  for,  was  undertaken  and  finished,  and 
would  most  certainly  have  been  published,  had  not  the 
author's  death  unhappily  prevented, 

Mr.  Williams's  statement  is  too  loose,  and  his  authority 
too  imperfect,  for  much  weight  or  importance  to  be  attached 
to  it.  It  is  not  very  probable,  that  with  Watts's  knowledge 
of  the  world,  he  should  have  entertained  the  thought  of 
making  his  composures  universally  unexceptionable;  for  the 
alterations  that  would  have  pleased  one  party,  would  have 
offended  another.  Besides,  Mr.  Parker,  his  amanuensis,  dis- 
tinctly disclaimed  any  knowledge  of  the  corrected  copy,  or 
even  the  design  to  revise.  The  Rev.  Samuel  Palmer  states, 
that  he  heard  from  Dr.  Amory  a  conversation  which  took 
place  between  Mr.  Grove  and  Watts,  which  may  explain  and 
correct  the  above  account.  Mr.  Grove  remarked,  that  several 
of  the  hymns  laid  the  stress  of  our  redemjition  on  the  com- 
passion of  Christ,  rather  than  on  the  love  of  God ;  and  ex- 
pressed his  wish  that  he  would  alter  them  in  this  respect, 
and  make  them  more  conformable  to  the  scripture  doctrine. 
Mr.  Watts  replied,  that  he  should  be  glad  to  do  it,  but  it  was 
out  of  his  power ;  for  he  had  parted  with  the  copy-right,  and 
the  bookseller  would  not  suffer  any  such  alteration. 

2.  Mr.  Belsham  next  makes  the  following  statement,  in 
his  "  Memoirs  of  Mr.  Lindsey,"  p.  216  :  "It  is  well  known 
that  this  learned  and  pious  writer  (Watts),  in  the  latter  part 
of  his  life,  receded  very  far  from  those  mystical  opinions 
concerning  the  doctrine  of  the  Trinity,  and  particularly  the 


282  LIFE    AND   TIMES 

person  of  Christ,  which  he  held  in  his  youth.  His  well- 
known  volume  of  Hymns  and  Spiritual  Songs,  so  much  used 
in  Calvinistic  congregations,  was  published  when  he  was 
very  young,  and  contains  many  expressions,  and  many  senti- 
ments, from  which,  though  regarded  by  great  numbers  as  the 
standard  of  Christian  verity,  his  judgment  revolted  in  ma- 
turer  years,  and  which  lie  would  gladly  have  altered^  if  he 
had  been  permitted  by  the  proprietors  of  the  copy-right,  who 
knew  their  own  interest  too  well  to  admit  the  proposed  im- 
provement." 

Mr.  Belsham  cites  no  authority  for  this  declaration ;  and 
I  am  at  a  loss  to  find  any,  except  it  be  the  private  correspon- 
dence, which  took  place  between  Mr.  Watts  and  the  Rev. 
Martin  Tomkins,  of  Hackney.  With  much  that  is  erroneous, 
there  is  some  truth  in  the  passage.  It  appears  that  Mr. 
Tomkins  had  censured  the  doxologies,  at  the  close  of  the 
third  book,  as  unscriptural ;  and  censured  also  the  author  for 
allowing  them  to  remain,  as  inconsistent  with  his  supposed 
later  judgment.  It  is  allowed  by  Mr.  Watts,  that  some 
things  might  be  improved,  but  that  he  had  no  authority  to 
alter,  as  the  copy-right  had  been  sold ;  yet  he  expresses  his 
satisfaction  to  let  the  copy  remain  as  it  was.  If  he  had  been 
as  much  dissatisfied  as  is  stated,  if  he  would  "  gladly,"  as  Mr. 
Belsham  expresses  it,  "have  altered,"  he  might  and  ought 
and  doubtless  would  have  left  a  copy  corrected  according  to 
his  last  sentiments.  But  nothing  of  this  kind  was  found 
among  his  papers  and  manuscripts  after  his  decease.  The 
truth  is,  that  the  corrections  which  he  saw  might  be  made 
were  so  trivial  and  unimportant,  that  he  was  content  to  let 
the  book  remain  as  originally  written. 

The  correspondence  upon  this  subject,  between  Mr.  Tom- 
kins and  Mr.  Watts,  deserves  a  more  lengthened  notice. 

The  Rev.  Martin  Tomkins,  the  friend  of  Lardner,  was 
educated  along  with  him  and  the  celebrated  Daniel  Neale, 
at  Utrecht,  under  Professors  D'Uries,  Grsevius,  and  Burman. 


OF   DR.    ISAAC    WATTS,  283 

On  his  return  to  England  he  became  minister  at  Stoke 
Newington,  from  which  congregation  he  was  dismissed  for 
Arianism,  in  the  year  1718.  Residing  at  Hackney,  he  at- 
tended the  ministry  of  Mr.  Barker,  a  zealous  trinitarian,  but 
was  offended  by  the  doxologies  he  used  at  the  close  of  his 
prayers,  and  especially  those  that  were  sung  from  Watts's 
hymns.  Privately  remonstrating  about  their  use,  without 
effect,  he  published  a  pamphlet  in  the  year  1738,  entitled 
"  A  calm  inquiry,  whether  we  ha\e  any  warrant  from  scrip- 
ture, for  addressing  ourselves,  in  a  way  of  prayer  or  praise, 
directly  to  the  Holy  Spirit,  humbly  offered  to  the  considera- 
tion of  all  Christians,  particularly  of  protestant  dissenters." 
Prefixed  to  this  pamphlet  there  is  a  "Letter  to  the  Rev.  Mr. 
Barker,"  expostulating  with  him  upon  the  subject  of  the 
doxologies,  &c.  He  endeavours  to  prove,  that  "addresses  to 
the  Spirit,  in  prayer  or  praise,  are  unlawful  and  improper ; 
chiefly,  because  we  have  no  warrant  for  them  in  the  holy 
scripture,  which  is  our  only  rule  of  worship,  and  that  no 
other  considerations  ought  to  influence  us  to  the  practice." 
To  corroborate  his  own  views,  he  quotes  frequently  from 
Watts's  works  to  the  effect,  that  "  there  is  in  scripture  no 
express  precept  for  addressing  such  worship  to  the  Spirit" — 
"  nor  any  example  of  it"  —  "  that  there  may  be  two  or  three 
examples  of  it  in  the  writers  of  the  three  first  centuries" — 
"that,  therefore,  this  ought  not  to  be  considered  as  a  necessary 
part  of  Christian  worship" — that  "  he  thought  it  lawful,  be- 
cause the  Spirit  of  God  is  truly  divine"  —  and  "  expedient, 
because  the  omission  of  doxologies  to  the  Spirit,  would  be 
highly  offensive  to  serious  Christians,  who  had  been  accus- 
tomed to  them,  and  injurious  to  their  edification." 

Mr.  Barker  did  not  reply  to  Mr.  Tomkins,  but  Watts 
wrote  the  following  remarks  in  his  own  copy  of  the  pamph- 
let, which  came  into  the  possession  of  the  Rev.  Samuel 
Palmer : 


284  LIFE    AND   TIMES 

"  SENTIMENTS  ABOUT  THE  HOLY  SPIRIT. 

"  To  repeat  in  brief  my  sense  of  this  matter,  it  stands  thus : 
The  Spirit  of  any  being,  in  scripture  phrase,  is  sometimes  used 
for  the  being  itself,  or  it  denotes  its  active  and  operating 
power.  So  an  unclean  or  evil  spirit  is  the  devil,  Luke,  vii. 
21.  Acts,  xix.  15.  Matt.  x.  1 ;  and  is  called  the  spirit  of  an 
unclean  devil,  Luke,  iv.  33.  So  the  Spirit  of  God  sometimes 
means  God  himself.  And,  further,  as  the  spirit  of  a  man  and 
the  spirit  of  a  beast,  denote,  in  scripture  language,  the  prin- 
ciple of  active  power  in  man  and  beast,  why  may  not  the 
Spirit  of  God  have  the  same  signification  ? 

"And  though  God  the  Father  and  his  Spirit  be  the  same 
one  true  God,  yet  they  are  sometimes  distinguished,  and 
sometimes  joined :  Isaiah,  xlviii.  16 ;  '  The  Lord  God  and 
his  Spirit  has  sent  me  !'  Even  the  attributes  of  God  are  dis- 
tinguished from  him,  and  yet  coupled  with  him  in  scripture : 
Is  it  not  foretold  in  Hosea,  concerning  the  latter  days,  that 
men  should  '  fear  the  Lord  and  his  goodness  ?'  Hos.  iii.  5. 
Does  not  Ezekiel  say,  *  blessed  be  the  glory  of  the  Lord !' 
Ez.  iii,  12.  Does  not  Psalm  cv.  4,  direct  us  to  'seek  the 
Lord  and  his  strength;  seek  his  face  evermore?'  Are  not  we 
called  upon  to  trust  in  his  mercy,  as  well  as  in  God  himself? 
Why  may  we  not  then  praise  the  Lord  and  his  goodness,  or 
bless  the  Lord  and  his  strength  ?  Why  should  these  expres- 
sions '  sound  so  oddly'  in  the  ears  of  Christians,  who  read 
those  in  the  bible  so  nearly  like  them  ?  And  why  may  we 
not  say,  'Blessed  be  the  Lord  and  his  Eternal  Spirit?' 
especially  supposing  the  Spirit  of  God  to  be  something  in 
God  of  greater  distinction  than  a  mere  attribute,  and  to  be 
often  represented  in  scripture  in  a  personal  manner." 

These  remarks  were  read  to  Mr.  Tomkins,  who  wrote  a 
reply  to  them,  filling  two  sheets  of  paper,  in  a  small  hand, 
which  also  came  into  Mr.  Palmer's  possession.  The  docu- 
ment is  dated  April  21,   1738.     After  animadverting  upon 


OF   DR.   ISAAC    WATTS.  285 

the  practice  of  doxologising  the  Spirit,  he  comes  at  once  to 
the  point,  and  observes,  "  My  chief  aim  in  all  I  do  upon  this 
subject  is,  the  restoring  of  the  Christian  worship  to  its  primitive 
purity,  and  freeing  it  from  what  I  cannot  but  look  upon  as 
an  unwarrantable  innovation.     And  for  this  purpose  I  would 
make  bold  to  proceed  one  step  further,  and  ask,  lohetlier  you 
710W  approve  of  what  you  have  said  concerning  the  Gloria 
Patri,  in  your  book  of  hymns  ?  and  whether,  upon  your  pre- 
sent notion  of  the  Spirit,  you  can  esteem  some  of  those  doxo- 
logies  you  have  given  us  there,  I  will  not  say,  as  some  of 
'the  noblest  parts  of  Christian  worship,'    (See  Hymn-book) 
but  as  proper  Christian  worship  ?     And  if  not,  whether  you 
may  not  think  it  becoming  in  you,  as  a  lover  of  truth,  and  as 
a  Christiati  minister,  to  declare  as  much  to  the  tvorld ;    and 
not  suffer  such  forms  of  worship  to  be  recommended  by  your 
name  and  authority,  to  the  use  of  the  Christian  church  in  the 
present  time  and  in  future  generations  ?" 

Upon  the  margin  of  this  letter  Mr.  Watts  makes  several 
observations,  and  opposite  to  this  paragraph  he  writes  thus  : — 
^^  I  freely  answer,  I  wish  some  things  were  corrected.  But 
the  question  with  me  is  this :  as  I  wrote  them  in  sincerity  at 
that  time,  is  it  not  more  for  the  edification  of  Christians,  and 
the  glory  of  God,  to  let  them  stand,  than  to  ruin  the  useful- 
ness of  the  whole  book,  by  correcting  them  now,  and,  perhaps, 
bring  further  and  false  suspicion  on  my  present  opinions  ? 
Besides,  I  might  tell  you,  that  of  all  the  works  I  have  written, 
that  particular  copy  is  not  mine  :  I  sold  it  for  a  trifle  to  Mr. 
Lawrence,  near  thirty  years  ago,  and  his  posterity  make 
money  of  it  to  this  day;  and  I  can  scarce  claim  a  right  to 
make  any  alteration  in  the  book  which  would  injure  the  sale 
of  it." 

A  rejoinder  to  this  came  from  Mr.  Tomkins,  dated  Hack- 
ney, July  5,  1738.  In  this  epistle  he  grants,  that  the  doxo- 
logy  which  Mr.  Watts  used  was  not  in  itself  unlawful,  but 
strongly  objects  to  the  propriety  of  it,  and  to  the  principle  on 


286  LIFE   AND   TIMES 

which  he  pleaded  for  it — that  of  complying  with  the  prejudice 
of  many  serious  people.  He  concludes  thus:  —  "Whether 
you  or  I  are  in  the  right ;  whether  your  conduct  in  this  affair, 
or  mine  is  best  approved  of  him  who  is  the  infallible  judge, 
Dies  ultimus  mdicahit.  However  that  may  be,  as  it  is  my 
prayer,  that  we  may,  so  I  bless  God,  I  can  say,  it  is  my  hope, 
that  both  you  and  I  shall  find  mercy  of  the  Lord  in  that  day. 
"  I  am.  Rev.  Sir,  notvrithstanding  any  difference  of  opinion, 
your  sincere  friend 

"  and  humble  servant, 

"  M.  T." 


This  letter  has  one  marginal  note  in  Watts's  hand- writing : 
"  Mr.  Tomkins's  confession  of  my  Doxology  to  the  H.  S.  to  be 
lawful,  yet  not  necessary." 

Upon  the  whole  I  think  it  may  be  concluded,  that  Mr. 
Watts  admitted  that  his  hymns  were  open  to  correction,  to 
accord  them  in  several  instances  with  his  last  sentiments ; 
that  such  corrections  were  not,  however,  in  his  estimation  of 
moment  enough  to  induce  him  to  make  them ;  and  that  the 
report  of  his  leaving  an  altered  copy  of  his  hymn-book  behind 
him,  is  without  any  just  foundation. 

Though  this  note  has  already  exceeded  its  proper  bounds, 
yet  a  further  remark  or  two  is  necessary. 

1.  That  there  is  in  scripture  "  not  any  one  plain  and  express 
instance  of  a  doxology  directly  and  distinctly  addressed  to  the 
Holy  Spirit,"  is  asserted  in  Prop.  20  of  the  "  Christ.  Doc.  of  the 
Trinity,"  and  afterwards  still  more  strongly  in  Diss.  5  of  the 
"  Arian  invited  to  the  Orthodox  Faith."  Admitting  this  state- 
ment, about  which,  however,  some  divines  would  hesitate, 
the  fact  in  itself  proves  nothing.  The  right  of  the  Holy  Spirit 
to  be  addressed  in  words  of  praise  or  prayer,  does  not  depend 
ujDon  example  or  precept,  but  upon  the  scripture  testimony  to 
his  being  a  Divine  Person.     If  this  is  proved,  then  are  our  re- 


OF   DR   ISAAC    WATTS.  287 

gards  justly  due  to  him,  as  an  object  of  trust  and  worship,  of 
praise  and  blessing.  "  In  creation  we  see  him  moving  upon 
the  face  of  chaos,  and  reducing  it  to  a  beautiful  order;  in 
providence  '  renewing  the  face  of  the  earth,'  '  garnishing  the 
heavens,'  and  '  giving  life'  to  man.  In  grace  we  behold  him 
expanding  the  prophetic  scene  to  the  vision  of  the  seers  of  the 
Old  Testament,  and  making  a  perfect  revelation  of  the  doc- 
trine of  Christ  to  the  apostles  of  the  New.  He  '  reproves  the 
world  of  sin,'  and  works  secret  conviction  of  its  evil  and  dan- 
ger in  the  heart.  He  is  the  '  Spirit  of  grace  and  of  supplica- 
tion ;'  the  softened  heart,  the  yielding  will,  all  heavenly  desires 
and  tendencies,  are  from  him."  From  the  general  considera- 
tion of  his  divinity,  joined  to  the  afFectingly  benevolent  and 
attractive  character  which  he  sustains,  the  churches  of  Christ 
in  all  ages  have,  therefore,  associated  the  Spirit  with  the  Fa- 
ther and  the  Son,  in  equal  glory  and  blessing,  honouring  Him, 
in  every  gratulatory  act  of  devotion  and  supplicatory  exercise, 
as  a  Person  in  the  Eternal  Trinity. 

2.  Mr.  Watts  admits  the  practice  of  doxologising  the  Spirit, 
to  have  prevailed  among  the  primitive  Christians  ;  but  there 
are  more  than  "  two  or  three  examples"  of  it,  as  he  asserts  in 
Diss.  5,  in  the  first  three  centuries.  The  relation  of  the  mar- 
tyrdom of  Ignatius,  closes  with  mentioning  "Jesus  Christ 
our  Lord,  by  whom  and  with  whom  all  glory  and  power  be 
to  the  Father,  with  the  Holy  Spirit,  for  ever:"  Epist.  c.  vii. 
The  martyrdom  of  Polycarp  closes  in  like  manner:  "that 
Jesus  Christ  our  Lord  may  also  gather  me  together  with  his 
elect,  to  whom,  with  the  Father  and  the  Holy  Ghost,  be  glory 
for  ever  and  ever :"  Epist.  c.  xxii.  inscrip.  "  But  we  wor- 
ship," says  Justin  Martyr,  "  and  adore  Him  (the  Father),  and 
his  Son,  who  came  out  from  Him,  and  the  prophetic  Spirit :" 
Apolog.  i.  c.  vi.  "  Let  us  give  praise,"  says  Clement  of  Alex- 
andria, "  to  the  only  Father  and  Son,  with  the  Holy  Spirit, 
to  whom  be  glory  now  and  for  ever:"  Fed.  lib.  iii.  p.  21L 
edit.  Oxon.     "  To  Him  (Christ),"  says  Hippolytus,  "be  glory 


288  LIFE   AND   TIMES 

and  strength,  together  with  the  Father  and  the  Holy  Spirit 
in  the  holy  church,  now  and  for  ever  and  for  evermore:" 
Contra  Noetum.  c.  xviii.  vol.  ii.  p.  20.  ed.  Fabricii.  "To  God 
the  Father,"  says  Dionysius  of  Alexandria,  "and  his  Son, 
our  Lord  Jesus  Christ,  with  the  Holy  Ghost,  be  glory  and 
power  for  ever  and  ever  :"  Apud  Basilium  de  Spiritu  Sancto, 
c.  xxix.  vol.  iii.  p.  358.  ed.  Par.  See  also  for  other  doxologies, 
Justin  Mar.  apol.  i.  c.  xvi ;  Clemens  Alex,  fragment,  p.  1019; 
Origen,  in  fine  Expos,  in  Psalmum  x.  Cod.  MS.  Baroce. 
Numb.  335 ;  Julius  Africanus  apud  Basil,  de  Spiritu  S. 
c.  xxix.  vol.  ii.  p.  359;  Hippolytus  Homil.  in  Thcophaueiam, 
c.  X.  vol.  i.  p.  264. 

3.  Mr.  Watts  always  maintained  the  propriety  of  honouring 
the  Spirit  with  express  divine  worship. 

In  his  "  Scrip.  Doct.  of  the  Trinity,"  he  asks,  "  Is  it  proper 
for  us  to  address  ourselves  in  a  way  of  prayer  or  praise,  directly 
to  the  blessed  Spirit,  since  we  can  neither  find  it  plainly  com- 
manded or  practised  in  the  word  of  God  ? 

"  Answer.  I  confess  we  cannot  find  in  scripture  any  such 
positive  and  express  precepts  or  examples  of  petition  and 
praise,  so  directly  addressed  to  the  person  of  the  Holy  Spirit, 
as  there  are  to  the  Father  and  to  the  Son.  Yet,  since  we 
have  proved  before,  that  the  Spirit  hath  real,  true,  and  proper 
communion  in  the  Godhead,  there  is  sufficient  ground,  in  my 
judgment,  to  address  ourselves  to  him  by  way  of  prayer  for  the 
spiritual  mercies  we  want,  and  by  way  of  praise  for  the  bless- 
ings we  receive."  Again,  in  his  "  Arian  invited  to  the  Ortho- 
dox Faith,"  he  remarks,  "  Though  the  scripture  has  not 
taught  us  distinctly  to  offer  praise  and  honour  to  the  Holy 
Spirit,  yet  it  has  taught  us  to  hearken  to  the  voice  of  the 
Spirit,  to  obey  the  Spirit,  to  hope  and  wait  for  the  enlighten- 
ing and  sanctifying  and  comforting  influences  of  the  Spirit, 
and  not  to  resist  him ;  and  since  the  Holy  Spirit  is  true  God, 
I  think  it  follows  by  evident  consequence,  that  we  may  offer 
him  the  sacrifice  of  praise  for  the  blessings  which  he  bestows." 


OF   DR.   ISAAC    WATTS.  289 

This  was  written  after  the  change,  which  his  views  are  suppo- 
sed to  have  undergone,  had  taken  place ;  so  that,  whatever  the 
precise  amount  of  change  might  be,  as  to  the  doctrine  of  the 
Spirit,  it  is  evident,  that  it  was  not  such  as  lowered  the  cha- 
racter of  the  great  Sanctifying  Agent  in  his  estimation,  or 
modified  his  reverence  for  his  ofiice. 


290  LIFE   AND  TIMES 


CHAPTER  IX. 

1712—1720. 
CO-PASTORATE  WITH  MR.  PRICE. 


WATTS'S  FRIENDS.  — LORD  BARUINGTON— SKETCH  OF  HIS  LIFE.  — ANEC- 
DOTES OF  COLLINS— MRS.  BRIDGET  BENDISH —  SINGULAR  CHARAC- 
TER.—HENRY  BENDISH,  ESQ.  — MRS.  ROVVE.— PRIOR  AND  WATTS.— 
RICHARD  CROMWELL. —  DR.  THOS.  GIBSON.  —  ILLNESS  OF  WATTS. — 
POEMS.  — REMARKS  IN  AFFLICTION.  —RECOVERY.  — AT  TUNBRIDGE.— 
ODE  TO  LADY  SUNDERLAND.— TO  AMYNTAS.  — IMPROMPTU.  —  ORDI- 
NATION OF  MR.  PRICE.  — REMOVES  TO  SIR  THOS.  ABNEY'S.— THE 
ABNEY  FAMILY.— EARLY  LIFE  OF  SIR  THOMAS.— PUBLIC  SPIRIT.— LORD 
MAYOR.  — OCCASIONAL  CONFORMITY.— SCHISM  BILL.— DEATH  OF  THE 
QUEEN.  — DR.  BENSON.  — GUIDE  TO  PRAYER  PUBLISHED.— THAMES 
FROZEN  OVER.— CHARACTER  OF  THE  BOOK.— THEOBALDS.— PREACHES 
IN  THE  ABNEY  FAMILY. —  CHESHUNT  CHURCH-YARD.  — LINES  ON  A 
SPOT-DIAL —CONFERENCE  AT  SALTER'S  HALL.  — MATTHEW  HENRY'S 
SERMON.— HIS  CONTINU ATORS.— CORRESPON  DENCE. 


In  the  second  book  of  the  Lyrics  there  are  several  poems 
inscribed  to  particular  friends,  which  throw  considerable 
light  upon  the  connexions  and  private  life  of  the  author. 
To  some  of  them  introductory  letters  are  attached,  which 
appear  to  have  accompanied  the  lines  to  which  they  are 
appended.  Among  the  individuals  thus  enrolled  among  his 
friends  at  this  period,  we  find  the  names  of  Lord  Barrington, 
Mrs.  Bendish,  Miss  Singer,  Richard  Cromwell,  Dr.  Thos. 
Gibson,  William  Blackbourne,  Esq.,  Mr.  Arthur  Shallet, 
Mr.  William  Nokes,  Rev.  John  Shower,  Sir  Nathaniel 
Gould,  Mr.  C.  and  S,  Fleetwood,  David  Polhill,  Esq.,  Henry 


OF   DR.   ISAAC    WATTS.  291 

Bendish,  Esq.,  and  the  celebrated  John  Howe.  A  few 
gleanings  respecting  those  with  whom  Mr.  Watts  was  more 
intimately  associated,  I  shall  here  introduce  as  illustrative  of 
his  personal  history. 

John  Shute,  first  Baron  Barrington  of  Newcastle,  and  Vis- 
count Barrington  of  Ardglass,  in  Ireland,  was  born  at 
Theobalds,  in  Hertfordshire,  in  the  year  JC78.  He  was 
lineally  descended  from  Robert  Shute,  one  of  the  barons  of 
the  exchequer,  in  the  reign  of  Elizabeth,  the  representative 
of  the  Norman  family  of  Shute,  who  possessed  a  castle  with 
territorial  property  in  Normandy  until  the  separation  of  the 
duchy  from  the  English  crown.  At  the  age  of  sixteen  young 
Shute  went  to  study  at  Utrecht,  where  several  of  his  acade- 
mical exercises*  were  printed,  which  are|  highly  commended 
by  Cocceiusf  and  Heinneccius|,  and  several  eminent  writers 
on  the  civil  law.  In  1701  he  began  to  write  in  favour  of  the 
dissenters,  and  published  in  4to.  a  pamphlet  without  his 
name,  entitled,  "  The  Interest  of  England,  considered  in  re- 
spect of  Protestants  dissenting  from  the  Established  Church," 
Two  years  afterwards  appeared  "  The  Rights  of  Protestant 
Dissenters,"  in  two  parts,  which  probably  introduced  him  to 
the  acquaintance  of  Locke,  who  ever  afterwards  honoured 
him  with  his  friendship  and  correspondence.  Upon  the  ill- 
ness of  that  illustrious  philosopher,  in  1704,  Watts  apostro- 
phised his  friend  in  a  poetical  epistle,  and  bade  him  "  wait 
the  prophet's  flight,"  and  seize  "  his  mantle"  as  the  inheri- 
tor of  his  genius. §    In  his  twenty -fourth  year,  Mr.  Shute  was 

*  These  exercises  were, 

1.  Exercitatio  Pliysica  de  Ventis.     Utrecht.     169G,4to. 

2.  Dissertatio  Philosophica  de  Theocratia  Morali.     1697. 

3.  Dissertatio  Philosophica  luauguralis  de  Theocratia  Civili.     1697. 

4.  Oratio  de  Studio  Philosophise  conjuugendo  cum  studio  Juris  Civilis,  habita 
in  inclyti  Academic,  Trajectaua,,  Kaleudis  Junii,  1698. 

f  J.  Gottlieb  Heineccii  Opera.     Ed.  tertia,  Genevse,  1744. 

J  Sam  D.  Cocceii  de  Priuc.     Jur.  Nat.  Diss.  1. 

§  Hora2  LyriccC,  lib.  ii. 


292  LIFE   AND   TIMES 

summoned  before  the  cabinet  of  Queen  Anne,  and  repre- 
sented to  Lords  Somers,  Wharton,  HaHfax,  and  Sunderland, 
the  sentiments  of  the  dissenters  as  to  the  projected  union  of 
Scotland.     To  obtain  the  assistance  of  the  Scotch  presbyte- 
rians  and  the  English  dissenters,  in  carrying  the  measure,  he 
was  employed  by  the  ministry  to  negociate,  for  which  he  was 
appointed  one  of  the  commissioners  of  the  customs.     About 
this  period  Francis  Barrington,  Esq.,  of  Tofts,*  in  Essex,  who 
had   married   his  first  cousin,  left  him  his  estate  in    that 
county,  on  condition  of  his  taking  the  name  and  arms  of 
Barrington ;  and  soon  afterwards  he  was  appointed  secretary 
to  Lord  Wharton,  the  Irish  viceroy .f     In  1711  he  was  de- 
prived of  his  place  in  the  customs  by  the  Tory  administration; 
at  the  accession  of  George  I.  he  rejected  ofl&ce,  but  was 
elected   member    of   parliament    for    Berwick-upon-Tweed ; 
in    1720    he    was    created    an    Irish    peer;    and   in    1723 
his   political  life   closed,   by   being  expelled   the   house    of 
commons  for  his  connexion  with  the  Harburgh  lottery,!  but 
really  on  account  of  the  enmity  of  Sir  Robert  Walpole.     Re- 
tirement was  well  improved  by  Lord  Barrington ;  for  it  pro- 
duced his   "Miscellanea  Sacra,"   in  1725,  and   "An  Essay 
on  the  several  Dispensations  of  God  to  Mankind" — works 
which  have  elevated  him  to  an  eminent  place  among  theolo- 

•  This  gentleman  was  descended  from  the  Plantagenets,  by  the  marriage  of  Sir 
Thos.  Barrington,  with  Winifred,  second  daughter  and  co-heiress  of  Henry  Pole, 
Lord  Montague,  son  of  Sir  Richard  Pole,  K.  G.,  by  Margaret  Plantagenet,  Countess 
of  Salisbury,  sister  and  heiress  of  Edward  Karl  of  Warwick,  and  daughter  of  George 
Duke  of  Clarence,  brother  of  Edward  IV.  and  Richard  III. 

f  Swift,  in  a  letter,  dated  Nov.  30,  1709,  to  Archbishop  King,  observes,  upon  this 
appointment,  "  One  Mr.  Shute  is  named  for  secretary  to  Lord  Wharton  ;  he  is  a 
young  man,  but  reckoned  the  shrewdest  head  in  England,  and  the  person  in 
whom  the  presbyterians  chiefly  confide  ;  and  if  money  be  necessary  towards  the 
good  work  in  Ireland,  it  is  reckoned  he  can  command  as  far  as  100,000  from  the 
body  of  the  dissenters  here.  As  to  his  principles,  he  is  a  truly  moderate  man,  fre- 
quenting the  church  and  the  meeting  inditlerently." 

12/HO.  edit  of  Swift's  TT'or7<«,  1765.  vol.  xiv, 

+  His  son,  the  Bishop  of  Durham,  has  amply  vindicated  him  in  the  life  prefixed 
to  his  edition  of  his  father's  works. 


OF   DR.    ISAAC    WATTS.  293 

gians.*    Descended  from  a  dissenting  family,  his  mother 
being  the  daughter  of  Mr.  Caryl,  he  first  communicated  with 
Mr.  Bradbury,  but  differing  from  him  in  his  sentiments  upon 
the  Trinity,    and   disgusted   with  his   violence   during   the 
Salter's-Hall  debates,  he  left  him  to  join  Dr.  Jeremiah  Hunt's 
church  at  Pinner's  Hall.     His  pastor  was  a  frequent  visitor  at 
his  seat,  at  Tofts,  in  Essex,  and  Mr.  Anthony  Collins,  the 
celebrated  free-thinker,  occasionally  joined  the  literati  assem- 
bled there.     After  dinner  the  Greek  Testament  was  generally 
introduced,  in  order  to  elicit  criticism ;    and  on  one  occasion 
Collins  is  reported  to  have  said,  respecting  the  apostle  Paul, 
"  I  think  so  well  of  him,  who  was  both  a  man  of  sense  and  a 
gentleman,  that  if  he  had  asserted  he  had  worked  miracles 
himself,  I  would  have  believed  him."     Upon  Lord  Barring- 
ton  producing  a  passage  to  that  effect,  the  disconcerted  infidel 
seized  his  hat,  and  hastily  retreated  from  the  company.     At 
another  period  his  lordship  extorted  from  his  guest  the  con- 
fession, that  though  he  cared  little  about  religion  himself,  yet 
he  took  care  that  his  servants  should  regularly  attend  at 
church,  to  prevent  "their  robbing  or  murdering  him."t    The 
intimacy  which  substituted  between  Watts  and  this  distin- 
guished individual,  commenced,  probably,  through  the  medium 
of  Sir  Thos.  Abney,  who  was  his  uncle  by  the  mother's  side. 
Lord  Barrington  died,  after  a  few  hours'  illness,  at  his  seat  at 
Becket,  near  Shrivenham,  in  Berkshire,  Dec.  14,  1734,  in 


*  Besides  the  works  named  above,  Lord  Barrington  wrote,  "  A  Dissuasive 
against  Jacobitism."     1713.     It  reached  a  fourth  edition. 

"  An  Account  of  the  late  proceedings  of  the  Dissenting  Ministers  at  Salter's 
Hall,  &c.,  in  a  Letter  to  the  Rev.  Dr.  Gale ;  with  a  Postscript  to  the  Rev.  Thos.  Brad- 
bury. 1719."  This  gave  rise  to  a  reply  from  Bradbury,  entitled,  "An  Answer  to 
the  reproaches  cast  on  those  Dissenting  Ministers  who  subscribed  their  belief  to 
the  Eternal  Trinity.     In  a  letter  to  John  Barrington  Shute,  Esq.     1719." 

"Letter  to  Protestant  Dissenters,  concerning  their  conduct  in  the  ensuing 
Election."     1722.  8vo. 

t  Biog.  Brit.  vol.  i.  p.  626.  Note  G. 


294  LIFE    AND    TIMES 

his  fifty-sixth  year ;  a  monument  in  the  parish  church  hears 
an  honourahle  inscription  to  his  memory* 

Mrs.  B.  Bendish,  the  eldest  daughter  of  General  Ireton,  by 
Bridget  Cromwell,  the  eldest  daughter  of  the  Protector,  was 
a  singular  and  eccentric  character.  Of  this  masculine  and 
intrepid  woman,  amusing  accounts  have  been  drawn  up  by 
Mr.  Say  of  Westminster,  Dr.  Brooke  of  Norwich,  and  Mr. 
Luson  of  Lowestoff.f  She  is  described  as  inheriting  more  of 
Oliver's  constitution  of  body  and  complexion  of  mind  than 
any  of  his  other  descendants — "  a  person  of  great  presence  and 
majesty,  heroic  courage,  and  indefatigable  industry,  and  with 
something  in  her  countenance  and  manner,  that  at  once 
attracts  and  commands  respect  the  moment  she  appears  in 
company;  accustomed  to  turn  her  hands  to  the  meanest 
offices,  and  even  drudgeries  of  life,  among  her  workmen  and 
labourers,  from  the  earliest  morning  to  the  decline  of  day,  in- 
sensible to  all  the  calls  and  necessities  of  nature,  and  in  a 
habit  and   appearance  beneath   the  meanest  of  them,  and 


*  "  Here  Lies 

The  Right  Hon.  John  Barriugton, 

Viscount  Barriugton  of  Ardglass,  and  Baron  of 

Newcastle, 
In  the  Kingdom  of  Ireland;  his  father  Benjamin 

was 

The  youngest  son  of  Francis  Shute,  of  Upton, 

In  the  county  of  Leicester,  Esqr. 

Who  was  descended  from  Robert  Shute,  of  Hockington, 

In 

The  county  of  Cambridge, 

One  of  the  twelve  Judges  ia 

The  reign  of  Queen  Elizabeth. 

"John  Lord  Barriugton  was  chosen  representative  for  the  town  of  Berwick-upon-^ 
Tweed  in  both  parliaments  of  King  George  I.;  and  died  "Dec.  14,  1734,  in  the 
CtGlh  year  of  his  age;  leaving  by  Anne  his  wife,  daughter  and  coheiress  of  Sir 
William  Daines,  six  sous  and  three  daughters.  He  took  the  name  of  Harrington, 
pursuant  to  the  settlement  of  liis  relation,  Francis  Barriugton,  of  Tofts,  in  tlie 
county  of  Essex,  Esqr.,  and  inherited  the  estate  he  had  in  this  neighbourhood  by 
the  will  of  John  Wildman,  of  Becket,  in  the  county  of  Berks,  Esqr." 

f  Appendix  to  "  Letters  by  several  eminent  Persons  Deceased,"  &c.  vol.  2. 


OF    DR.    ISAAC    WATTS.  295 

neither  suiting  her  character  or  sex".*  Enthusiastically  at- 
tached to  the  memory  of  the  Protector,  she  "  looked  upon 
him  as  the  first  and  greatest  of  mankind,  and  also  as  the  best 
— in  talking  of  herself,  on  the  mention  of  any  good  quality, 
she  would  always  say,  she  learned  it  from  him,  and  would 
add,  that  if  she  had  any  thing  valuable  in  her,  she  owed  it  all 
to  her  grandfather.  In  a  violent  fever,  being  thought  past 
recovery,  and  insensible  to  any  thing  that  might  be  said,  her 
aunt,  Lady  Fauconberg,  and  other  company  being  in  the 
room,  and  her  Ladyship,  though  Oliver's  daughter,  giving 
too  much  way  to  things  said  in  dishonour  of  his  memory  by 
some  present,  to  the  astonishment  of  all  she  raised  herself 
up,  and  with  great  spirit  said,  if  she  did  not  believe  her 
grandmother  to  have  been  one  of  the  most  virtuous  women  in 
the  world,  she  should  conclude  her  Ladyship  to  be  a  bastard, 
wondering  how  it  could  be  possible,  that  the  daughter  of  the 
greatest  and  best  man  that  ever  lived,  could  be  so  degenerate, 
as  not  only  to  sit  with  patience  to  hear  his  memory  so  ill- 
treated,  but  to  seem  herself  to  assent  to  it."t  "  As  the  whole 
of  Mrs.  B.'s  personal  economy  was  not  of  the  common  form, 
her  hours  of  visiting  went  generally  out  of  the  common  sea- 
son. She  would  very  frequently  come  to  visit  at  nine  or  ten 
at  night,  and  sometimes  later  if  the  doors  were  not  shut  up. 
On  such  visits  she  generally  stayed  until  about  one  in  the 
morning.  Such  late  visits  in  those  sober  times,  were  consi- 
dered by  her  friends  as  highly  inconvenient,  yet  nobody  com- 
plained of  them  to  her:  the  respect  she  universally  com- 
manded, gave  her  a  license  in  this  and  many  other  irregulari- 
ties. Mrs.  B.  never  would  suffer  a  servant  to  attend  her  — 
God,  she  said,  was  her  guard,  and  she  would  have  no 
other !  Her  dress  on  these  visits,  though  it  was  in  a  taste  of 
her  own,  was  always  grave  and  handsome.     At  about  one  in 


Mr.  Say.  f  Dr.  Brooke. 


296  LIFE    AND   TIMES 

the  morning,  she  used  to  put  herself  on  the  top  of  her  mare, 
or  into  the  chaise,  and  set  off  on  her  return.  When  the  mare 
began  to  move,  Mrs.  B.  began  to  sing  a  psalm  or  one  of 
Watts's  hymns  in  a  very  loud  but  not  a  very  harmonious 
key."*  The  husband  of  this  lady  was  Thos.  Bendish,  Esq. 
of  Gray's  Inn,  descended  from  the  ancient  family  of  Sir  Thos. 
Bendish,  Bart.,  of  Essex,  ambassador  from  Charles  I.  to  the 
court  of  Turkey.  He  died  in  the  year  1707,  but  his  widow 
survived  him  to  the  year  1728,  residing  chiefly  at  South-town, 
i.  e.  south  of  Yarmouth.  She  was  much  attached  to  Owen  as 
a  divine,  and  Watts  as  a  poet :  the  latter  addressed  to  her  a 
poem,  "  Against  Tears,"  dated  1699,  and  charity  may  indulge 
the  hope,  that  she  is  now  where  eccentricity  and  sorrow  are 
alike  no  more. 

Henry  Bendish,  Esq.,  of  Bedford  Row,  in  the  county  of 
Middlesex,  was  the  second  son  of  the  above.f  He  was  con- 
nected with  Lord  Barrington's  family,  being  united  to  his 
sister  Martha  Shute  in  the  year  1705.  He  appears  to  have 
been  much  esteemed  by  Watts,  as  he  has  preserved  in  his 
Lyrics  some  complimentary  verses  on  his  marriage,  with  a 
prefatory  letter.  His  lady  is  described  as  strongly  resembling 
her  "  noble  brother  in  her  person,  in  her  voice,  in  the  grace 
and  politeness  of  her  address,  and  in  the  strength  and  extent 
of  her  understanding."!  The  name  of  Bendish  became  ex- 
tinct in  the  person  of  her  only  son  Henry,  who  died  at  South- 
town,  unmarried,  in  the  year  1753. 

Miss  Singer,  afterwards  the  celebrated  Mrs.  Rowe,  is  too 
well  known  to  need  any  lengthened  notice ;  but  there  is  one 
circumstance  which  intimately  associates  her  name  with  that 


*  Mr.  Luson. 

f  The  eldest  son  was  Thos.  Bendish,  Esqr.,  of  Colkirk,  in  Norfolk,  described  as 
"an  expensive,  loose  liver,"  who  died  upon  a  family  estate,  in  the  West  Indies. 
He  left  an  only  son,  Ireton  Bendish,  who  iield  a  place  under  the  government,  but 
died  young  and  unmarried  about  the  year  1730. 

1  Mr.  Luson. 


OF   DR.    ISAAC    WATTS.  297 

of  Watts.  The  personal  charms  and  mental  acquirements  of 
this  lady,  procured  her,  previous  to  her  marriage,  a  number  of 
admirers,  and  among  the  rest  the  name  of  the  divine  occurs 
as  one  of  her  suitors.  In  early  life  he  is  said  to  have  formed 
an  attachment  for  Miss  Singer,  and  along  with  the  poet 
Prior  to  have  sought  in  vain  the  honour  of  her  hand.  Mrs. 
Barbauld  may  allude  to  this  circumstance  in  the  following 
lines : 

"Thyune,  Carteret,  Blackmore,  Orrery  approv'd, 
And  Prior  prats'' d,  and  noble  Hertford  lov'd, 
Seraphic  Kenn,  and  tuneful  Watts  were  thine, 
Aud  virtue's  noblest  champions  fill'd  the  line." 

How  far  the  equanimity  of  the  lover  was  ruffled  by  his  dis- 
appointment we  cannot  determine  ;  but  Prior,  his  companion 
in  misfortune,  seems  to  have  conducted  himself  as  became  a 
disconsolate  swain.  In  his  pastoral  on  "  Love  and  Friendship," 
he  says,  addressing  the  unyielding  lady, 

"  But  if  perchance  the  series  of  thy  joys. 
Permit  one  thought  less  cheerful  to  arise, 
Piteous  transfer  it  to  the  mournful  swain. 
Who,  loving  much,  who,  not  belov'd  again. 
Feels  an  ill-fated  passion's  last  excess, 
Aud  dies  in  woe,  that  thou  mayst  live  in  peace."* 

If  Watts's  passion  was  ever  any  thing  more  than  platonic, 
it  afterwards  subsided  into  a  pure  and  sincere  friendship, 
which  subsisted  to  the  gratification  of  both  parties  until  the 
death  of  Mrs.  Rowe.f   Certain  it  is,  that  he  formed  no  second 


*  Prior's  Poems. 

f  The  circumstance  here  referred  to,  seems  to  have  been  noised  abroad,  as  it 
attracted  the  attention  of  Dr.  Young,  who  notices  it  in  his  fifth  satire: 

"What  angels  would  those  be,  who  thus  excel, 
In  theologies,  could  they  sew  as  well ! 
Yet  why  should  not  the  fair  her  text  purs\>e? 
Can  she  more  decently  the  doctor  woo  ? 
U 


298  LIFE    AND   TIMES 

attachment.  He  was,  however,  by  no  means  insensible  to 
the  charms  of  female  society :  he  sung  of  "  mighty  love"  in 
his  poetry,  and  was  half  converted  to  matrimonial  bliss  by  his 
"Indian  Philosopher;"  but  a  salutary  remembrance  of  "  the 
wretched  souls"  "  chained  to  eternal  strife,"  marred  the  gay 
vision  of  imagination.  It  was  the  opinion  of  the  learned 
Sigonius,  and  his  excuse  for  celibacy,  that  Minerva  and 
Venus  could  not  live  together. 

Richard  Cromwell,  the  eldest  son  of  the  Protector,  was 
upon  terms  of  friendly  intercourse  with  Watts ;  and  was  fre- 
quently visited  by  him  in  his  retirement  at  Cheshunt,  where 
he  calmly  spent  an  extended  and  vigorous  old  age.  After 
descending  from  his  transient  elevation,  at  the  Restoration, 
he  passed  several  years  upon  the  continent,  involved  in  pecu- 
niary embarrassments,  but  returned  to  witness  the  second  and 
final  expulsion  of  the  Stuart  race,  and  to  enjoy  a  competent 
estate.  He  resided  for  some  time  in  the  neighbourhood  of 
Romsey,  where  the  pew  in  which  he  used  to  sit  in  the  meeting- 
house is,  I  believe,  still  preserved,  as  a  relic  worthy  of  notice. 
At  Cheshunt  he  occupied  a  house  near  the  church,  courting 
privacy,  but  receiving  the  visits  of  some  select  friends,  among 
whom  was  the  poet  of  the  nonconformists.  Visiting  Mr. 
Howe,  his  former  chaplain,  upon  his  death-bed,  they  con- 
versed upon  the  varied  and  tumultuous  scenes  of  the  past, 
and  both  are  said  to  have  separated  in  tears.  The  enemies  of 
the  name  of  Cromwell,  have  delighted  to  represent  Richard 
as  weak  and  pusillanimous ;  but  for  no  better  reason,  than 
that  he  was  uninfluenced  by  the  selfish  and  sanguinary  am- 


■' Isaac,  a  brother  of  the  canting  strain, 
When  he  has  knock'd  at  his  own  skull  in  vain. 
To  beauteous  Marcia  often  will  repair. 
With  a  dark  text  to  lip;lit  it  at  the  fair. 
O  how  his  piuus  soul  exults  to  find 
Sucli  love  for  holy  men  in  womankind  .' 
riuum'd  with  her  learning,  with  what  rapture  he 
Hanijs  on  her  bloom,  like  an  industrious  bee; 
Hums  round  about  her,  and  w  ith  all  his  power, 
Extracts  sweet  wisdom  from  so  lair  a  flower." 


OF   DR.    ISAAC    WATTS.  209 

bition  of  his  father.  Nature  intended  him  to  occupy  and 
adorn  a  private  station,  and  he  wisely  rejected  the  allurements 
of  the  throne,  and  honourably  and  usefully  sustained  the  cha- 
racter of  an  educated  and  independent  private  gentleman. 
"  He  always,"  says  Noble,  "avoided  speaking  of  the  time  of  his 
elevation ;"  and  Mr.  Watts  asserted,  that  he  never  knew  him 
glance  at  his  former  station  but  once,  and  that  in  a  very  dis- 
tant manner.  His  appearance  is  described  as  grave  and  pre- 
possessing, with  venerable  white  hair,  and  a  polished  and 
insinuating  address. — Thomas  Gibson,  M.D,  physician-gene- 
ral of  the  army,  was  his  son-in-law;  and  to  him  a  poem  is 
addressed  in  the  Lyrics,  entitled  "The  Life  of  Souls."  He 
was  uncle  to  Edmund  Gibson,  bishop  of  London,  the  learned 
editor  of  Camden ;  and  married  the  eldest  daughter  of  the 
ex-protector.  With  his  nephew,  the  bishop,  he  always  pre- 
served a  respectful  and  intimate  correspondence ;  and  left  him 
the  whole  of  his  property  after  the  decease  of  his  widow.  It 
is  probable  that  Dr.  Gibson  was  a  dissenter ;  he  died  in  1722, 
and  lies  interred  in  the  burial-ground  adjoining  the  Foundling 
Hospital,  belonging  to  St.  George  the  Martyr. 

The  malady  with  which  Watts  was  afflicted  in  the  year 
1711,  returned  with  increased  violence  in  the  autumn  of  1712 ; 
and  so  shattered  his  constitution  and  debilitated  his  frame,  as 
wholly  to  suspend  his  public  labours.  In  September  he  was 
seized  with  a  violent  fever,  which  induced  a  state  of  nervous 
agitation  of  the  most  painful  and  distressing  kind ;  and  during 
its  continuance  he  was  frequently  unable  to  recognise  the 
voices  and  features  of  his  friends,  and  lay  apparently  uncon- 
scious of  their  presence,  sympathy,  and  attentions.  At  inter- 
vals, during  the  progress  of  his  complaint,  his  imagination, 
naturally  strong  and  vivid,  was  powerfully  excited ;  reason 
seemed  to  hold  the  sceptre  with  a  trembling  hand ;  and  the 
most  assiduous  friendship  failed  to  chase  the  fancies  and 
chimeras  with  which  the  couch  of  the  invalid  was  haunted. 
His  own  pen  has  strikingly  portrayed  his  sufferings: 


890  LIFE    AND    TIMES 

"  My  frame  of  nature  is  a  rufU'd  sea, 
And  my  disease  the  tempest.     Nature  feels 
A  strange  commotion  to  her  inmost  centre  ; 
The  throne  of  Reason  shakes.     '  Be  still,  my  thoughts  ; 
Peace  and  be  still.'     In  vain  my  reason  gives 
The  peaceful  word;  my  spirit  strives  in  vain 
To  calm  the  tumult,  and  command  my  thoughts. 
This  flesh,  this  circling  blood,  these  brutal  powers. 
Made  to  obey,  turn  rebels  to  the  mind, 
Nor  hear  its  laws.     The  engine  rules  the  man. 
Unhappy  change  !  when  nature's  meaner  springs, 
Fir'd  to  impetuous  ferments,  break  all  order  j 
When  little  restless  atoms  rise  and  reign 
Tyrants  in  sovereign  uproar,  and  impose 
Ideas  on  the  mind  ;  confused  ideas 
Of  nonexistents  and  impossibles. 
Who  can  describe  them  ?     Fragments  of  old  dreams, 
Borrow'd  from  midnight,  torn  from  fairy  fields 
And  fairy  skies,  and  regions  of  the  dead, 
Abrupt,  ill-sorted.     O  'tis  all  confusion ! 
If  I  but  close  my  eyes,  strange  images 
In  thousand  forms  and  thousand  colours  rise, 
Stars,  rainbows,  moons,  green  dragons,  btars,  and  ghosts  ; 
An  endless  medley  rush  upon  the  stage. 
And  dance  and  riot  wild  in  Reason's  court. 
Above  control.     I'm  in  a  raging  storm. 
Where  seas  and  skies  are  blended ;   while  my  soul. 
Like  some  light  worthless  chip  of  floating  cork, 
Is  tost  from  wave  to  wave :  now  high-mounted  on  the  ridge 
With  breaking  floods,  I  drown,  and  seem  to  lose 
All  being ;  now  high-mounted  on  the  ridge 
Of  a  tall  foaming  surge,  I'm  all  at  once 
Caught  up  into  the  storm,  and  ride  the  wind. 
The  whistling  wind  ;  unmanageable  steed. 
And  feeble  rider! " 


Throughout  this  dark  and  trying  period  of  his  life,  Watts's 
mind  experienced  the  support  and  comfort  of  religion ;  and 
it  is  delightful  to  contemplate  the  light  of  his  piety  breaking 
through  the  deep  gloom  of  afflictive  dispensations : 


OF   DR.    ISAAC    WATTS.  301 

"Yet,  gracious  God,  amidst  these  storms  of  nature, 
Thiue  eyes  behold  a  sweet  aud  sacred  calm 
Reign  through  the  realms  of  conscience:    all  within 
Lies  peaceful  and  composed.     'Tis  wondrous  grace 
Keeps  off  thy  terrors  from  this  humble  bosom, 
'I'ho'  stained  with  sins  and  follies,  yet  serene 
In  penitential  peace  and  cheerful  hope  ; 
Sprinkled  and  guarded  with  atoning  blood. 
Thy  vital  smiles  amidst  this  desolation. 
Like  heavenly  sunbeams  hid  behind  the  clouds. 
Break  out  in  happy  momeuts  with  bright  radiance. 
Cleaving  the  gloom  ;  the  fair  celestial  light 
Softens  and  gilds  the  horrors  of  the  storm, 
And  richest  cordials  to  the  heart  conveys, 
O  glorious  solace  of  immense  distress, 
A  conscience  and  a  God !     A  friend  at  home 
And  better  Friend  on  high  !     This  is  my  Rock 
Of  firm  support,  my  Shield  of  sure  defence 
Against 'infernal  arrows." 
*•**♦* 

"O  thou,  all-powerful  Word,  at  whose  first  call 
Nature  arose;  this  earth,  these  shining  heavens, 
These  stars  in  all  their  ranks  came  foi  th,  and  said, 
'  We  are  thy  servants:'  didst  thou  not  create 
My  frame,  my  breath,  my  being,  and  bestow 
A  mind  immortal  on  thy  feeble  creature, 
Who  faints  before  thy  face  ?    Did  not  thy  pity 
Dress  thee  in  flesh  to  die,  that  I  might  live. 
And  with  thy  blood  redeem  this  captive  soul 
From  guilt  and  death  ?    O  thrice  adored  name, 
My  King,  my  Saviour,  my  Immanuel,  say. 
Have  not  thy  eyelids  mark'd  my  painful  toil, 
The  wild  confusions  of  my  shatter'd  powers. 
And  broken  fluttering  thoughts  ?    Hast  thou  not  seen 
Each  restless  atom,  that  with  vexing  influence 
Works  thro'  the  mass  of  man  ?    each  noxious  juice. 
Each  ferment  that  infects  the  vital  humours. 
That  heaves  the  veins  with  huge  disquietude, 
And  spreads  the  tumult  wide?    Do  they  not  lie 
Beneath  thy  view,  and  all  within  thy  reach  ? 
Yes,  all  at  thy  command,  and  must  obey 
Thy  sovereign  touch :    thy  touch  is  health  and  life. 
And  harmony  to  nature's  jarring  strings." 


302  LIFE    AND   TIMES 

Diuiiif?  some  of  his  intervals  of  ease,  his  conversation  with 
his  friends  displayed  his  deep  and  scriptural  piety  —  a  piety 
which  enabled  him  to  kiss  the  hand  that  wounded  and  cast 
down.  "I  know  not,"  he  was  accustomed  to  remark,  "but 
my  days  of  restraint  and  confinement  by  affliction  may  appear 
my  brightest  days,  when  I  come  to  take  a  review  of  them  in 
the  light  of  heaven. "  To  one  of  his  acquaintance  he  observed, 
"  St.  Paul's  thorn  in  the  flesh  was  the  debilitated  state  of  his 
nerves,  occasioned  by  the  overpowering  glories  of  heaven; 
whence  I  conclude,  that  the  apostle  was  in  the  body  when  he 
was  caught  up  into  paradise."*  This  opinion,  though  com- 
pletely conjectural.  Dr.  Gibbons  thinks  admirably  agrees  with 
what  the  apostle  says  concerning  himself,  that  he  was  "  with 
the  Corinthians  in  weakness  and  in /«?«;•  and  in  much  tremb- 
lingP  In  a  letter  to  a  minister  in  affliction  he  thus  expresses 
himself:— "It  is  my  hearty  desire  for  you,  that  your  faith 
may  ride  out  the  storms  of  temptation,  and  the  anchor  of 
your  hope  may  hold,  being  fixed  within  the  veil.  There  sits 
Jesus  our  forerunner,  who  sailed  over  this  rough  sea  before 
us,  and  has  given  us  a  chart,  even  his  word,  where  the 
shelves  and  rocks,  the  fierce  currents  and  dangers,  are  well 
described;  and  he  is  our  pilot,  and  will  conduct  us  to  the 
shores  of  happiness.  I  am  persuaded,  that  in  a  future  state 
we  shall  take  a  sweet  review  of  those  scenes  of  providence, 
which  have  been  involved  in  the  thickest  darkness,  and  trace 
those  footsteps  of  God  when  he  walked  with  us  through  the 
deepest  waters.  I'his  will  be  a  surprising  delight  to  survey  the 
manifold  harmony  of  clashing  dispensations,  and  to  have  those 
perplexing  riddles  laid  open  to  the  eyes  of  our  souls,  and  read 
the  full  meaning  of  them  in  set  characters  of  wisdom  and 

*  The  sentiments  of  divines  vary  as  to  the  adliction  of  Paul ;  whether  an  un- 
ruly lust,  according  to  the  ancient  I,atin  commentators,  or  a  false  teacher,  or  a 
bodily  infirmity.  Wliilby,  Lord  Barrington,  Benson,  and  Macknight,  with  many 
others,  adopt  the  latter  opinion  ;  Baxter  regarded  it  as  a  headache:  and  llie  wis- 
dom of  inspiration  is  here  evident,  in  not  exactly  defining  it,  as  every  Christian 
sulierer  is  now  at  liberty  to  apply  the  case  to  himself. 


OF    DR.    ISAAC    WATTS.  303 

grace."  He  refers  again  to  his  own  peculiar  trials  in  his 
"  Miscellaneous  Thoughts,"  and  displays  the  suhmissive  spirit 
of  the  Christian  character: — "But  has  not  my  spirit  heen 
depressed  by  a  sickly  constitution,  and  confined  to  a  fcehle 
engine  of  flesh  under  daily  disorders  ?  Have  I  not  sustained 
many  sorrows  on  this  account,  and  wasted  some  years  among 
the  infirmities  of  the  body  and  in  painful  idleness  ?  Are  there 
not  several  souls  favoured  with  a  more  easy  habitation,  and 
yoked  with  a  better  partner  ?  Are  they  not  accommodated  with 
engines  which  have  more  health  and  vigour,  and  situated  in 
much  more  happy  circumstances  than  mine  ?  What  then  ? 
Shall  I  repine  at  my  lot  and  murmur  against  my  Creator,  be- 
cause he  has  made  some  hundreds  happier  than  I,  while  I 
survey  whole  nations  and  millions  of  mankind  that  have  not 
a  thousand  part  of  my  blessings?"*  Upon  the  occasion  of  Mr. 
Watts's  illness,  the  members  of  his  church  met  together  fre- 
quently, to  make  prayer  in  his  behalf;  and  after  a  chasm  of 
more  than  four  years  in  the  exercise  of  his  ministry,  he  was 
permitted  to  return  to  his  public  duties.  The  "  Hymn  of 
Praise  for  Recovery"  which  he  wrote,  expresses  the  feelings  of 
a  grateful  heart : 

"Happy  the  man,  that  the  slow  circling  moons 
And  long  revolving  seasons  measure  out 
The  tiresome  pains  of  nature!    Present  woes 
Have  their  sweet  periods.     Ease  and  cheerful  health 
_With  slow  approach  (so  providence  ordains) 
Revisit  their  forsaken  mansion  here, 
And  days  of  useful  life  diffuse  their  dawn 
O'er  the  dark  cottage  of  my  weary  soul. 
My  vital  powers  resume  their  vigour  now  ; 
My  spirit  feels  her  freedom,  shakes  her  wings, 
Exults  and  spatiates  o'er  a  thousand  scenes, 
Surveys  the  world,  and  with  full  strctcli  of  thoui;ht 
Grasps  her  ideas  ;  while  impatient  zeal 
Awakes  my  tougue  to  praise.     What  mortal  voice, 
Or  mortal  hand,  can  reucier  to  my  God 

*  Reliq.  Juv.  No.  5. 


304  LIFE    AND    TIMES 

The  tribute  due  ?    What  altars  sliall  I  raise? 
What  grand  inscription  to  proclaim  his  mercy 
In  living  lines?    Where  shall  I  find  a  victim 
Meet  to  be  ofter'd  to  his  sovereign  love, 
And  solemnize  the  worship  and  the  joy. 
****** 

"Jesus,  great  Advocate,  whose  pitying  eye 
Saw  my  loug  anguish,  and  with  melting  heart 
And  powerful  intercession  spread'st  my  woes 
AVith  all  my  groans  before  the  Father-Uod, 
Bear  up  my  praises  now ;  thy  holy  incense 
Shall  hallow  all  my  sacrifice  of  joy, 
And  bring  these  accents  grateful  to  his  ear. 
My  heart   and  life,  my  lips  and  every  power, 
Snatch'd  from  the  grasp  of  death,  I  here  devote. 
By  thy  bless'd  hands,  an  oftering  to  liis  name." 

Part  of  the  summer  of  1712,  previous  to  his  violent  ilhiess 
in  September,  was  spent  at  Tunbriflge ;  and  here  he  compo- 
sed the  following  lines  in  honour  of  Lady  Sunderland,  who 
was  then  a  visitor  at  the  Wells.  This  lady,  whose  husband 
had  recently  been  dismissed  from  the  councils  of  the  queen, 
was  one  of  the  daughters  of  the  Duke  of  Marlborough,  and 
had  herself  just  withdrawn  from  the  court.  As  the  poem  is 
not  found  in  Watts's  works,  it  is  inserted  here,  together  with 
an  explanatory  letter,  which  he  addressed  to  a  friend : 

"ODE  TO  THE  LADY  SUNDERLAND,   1712. 

"Fair  nymph,  ascend  to  Beauty's  throne, 
And  rule  that  radiant  world  alone  ; 
Let  favourites  take  thy  lower  sphere; 
Not  monarchs  are  thy  rivals  here. 

"  The  court  of  Beauty  built  sublime. 
Defies  all  pow'rs  but  heav'n  and  time; 
Envy,  that  clouds  the  hero's  sky, 
Aims  but  in  vaiu  her  shafts  so  high. 

"  Not  Blenheim's  field,  nor  Ister's  flood. 
Nor  standards  dy'd  in  Gallic  blood. 
Torn  from  the  foe,  add  nobler  grace 
To  Churchill's  house  thau  Spenser's  face. 


OF    DR.   ISAAC    WATTS.  305 

"  The  warlike  thunder  of  his  arms, 
Is  less  commanding-  than  her  charms; 
His  lightning  strikes  with  less  surprise 
Thau  sudden  glances  from  her  eyes. 

"  His  captives  feel  their  limbs  confin'd 
In  iron;  she  enslaves  the  mind: 
We  follow  with  a  pleasing  pain, 
And  bless  the  conqueror  and  the  chaiu. 

"The  Muse  that  dares  in  numbers  do 
What  paint  and  pencil  never  knew. 
Faints  at  her  presence  in  despair. 
And  owns  th'  inimitable  fair." 


"TO  AMYNTAS. 

"Perhaps  you  were  not  a  little  surprised,  my  friend,  when 
you  saw  some  stanzas  on  the  Lady  Sunderland  at  Tunbridge 
Wells,  and  were  told  that  I  wrote  them  ;  but  when  I  give  you 
a  full  account  of  the  occasion  your  wonder  will  quickly  cease. 

"The  Duke  of  Marlborough's  three  daughters,  namely, 
the  Lady  Godolphin,  the  Lady  Sunderland,  and  the  Lady 
Bridgewater,  had  been  at  the  Wells  sometime  when  I  came 
there ;  nor  had  I  the  honour  of  any  more  acquaintance  with 
any  of  them  than  what  was  common  to  all  the  company  in 
the  Wells,  that  is,  to  be  told  who  they  were  when  they  past 
by.  A  few  days  afterwards  they  left  that  j^lace,  and  the 
next  morning  there  was  found  a  copy  of  verses  in  the  coffee- 
house, called  the  'Three  Shining  Sisters,'  but,  the  author 
being  unknown,  some  persons  were  ready  to  attribute  them 
to  me,  knowing  that  I  had  heretofore  dealt  in  rhyme.  I  con- 
fess I  was  ashamed  of  several  lines  in  that  copy.  Some  were 
very  dull,  and  others,  as  I  remember,  bordered  upon  pro- 
faneness. 

"  That  afternoon  I  rode  abroad  as  usual  for  my  health,  and 
it  came  into  my  head  to  let  my  friends  see,  that,  if  I  would 
choose  such  a  theme,  I  would  write  in  another  manner  than 


306  LIFE    AND   TIMES 

that  nameless  author  had  done.  Accordingly,  as  I  wason  horse- 
back, I  began  a  stanza  on  the  '  Three  Shining  Sisters,'  but 
my  ideas,  my  rhyme,  and  the  metre  would  not  hit  well,  while 
the  worHs  ran  in  the  j^lural  number;  and  this  slight  occur- 
rence was  the  real  occasion  of  turning  my  thoughts  to  the 
singular;  and  then,  because  the  Lady  Sunderland  was  ac- 
counted much  the  finest  woman  of  the  three,  I  addressed  the 
verses  to  her  name.  Afterwards,  when  I  came  to  the  coffee- 
house, I  entertained  some  of  my  friends  with  these  lines, 
and  they,  imagining  it  would  be  no  disagreeable  thing  to  the 
company,  persuaded  me  to  permit  them  to  j^ass  through  the 
press.     This  is  the  whole  story,  and  the  real  truth." 

On  reading  the  preceding  lines,  a  divine  composed  the  fol- 
lowing impromptu,  in  which  it  is  difficult  to  say  whether  the 
author  or  the  lady  has  the  greater  compliment: 

"  While  numeroiis  bards  have  sounded  Spenser's  name, 
And  made  her  beanties  heirs  to  lasting  fame. 
Her  memory  still  to  their  united  lays 
Stands  less  indebted  than  to  Watts's  praise. 
What  wondrous  charms  must  to  tliat  fair  be  given, 
Who  mov'd  a  mind  that  dwelt  so  near  to  iieaven  !" 

On  the  3rd  of  March,  1713,  owing  to  Watts's  continued 
affliction,  Mr.  Price,  his  assistant  at  Bury-street,  was  or- 
dained co-pastor  with  him,  at  his  express  recommendation 
and  desire.  The  Rev.  Messrs.  Nesbitt,  Bragge,  ColHns, 
Ridgley,  and  Foxon,  assisted  on  the  occasion.  Mr.  Price  is 
described  as  a  man  of  sound  and  solid  sense,  a  judicious  use- 
ful preacher,  and  eminent  for  his  gift  in  prayer.  He  pos- 
sessed great  sagacity ;  was  very  able,  faithful,  and  ready  to 
advise  and  communicate  his  mind  in  serviceable  hints  and 
cautions  to  his  friends.  His  disposition  was  friendly  and 
peaceable,  and  he  laid  himself  out  to  do  good,  in  which  he 
much  delighted.*    That  Mr.  Watts  highly  esteemed  his  col- 

•  Wilson's  Diss.  Churches,  i.  319. 


OF   DR.   ISAAC    WATTS.  307 

league,  is  evident  from  his  will,  in  which  he  styles  him  his 
faithful  fiiend  and  companion  in  the  labours  of  the  ministry : 
he  mentions  also  a  legacy  which  he  bequeaths  him,  as  only 
a  small  testimony  of  his  great  affection  for  him,  on  account  of 
his  services  of  love,  during  the  many  harmonious  years  of 
their  fellowship  in  the  work  of  the  gospel.  In  the  dedica- 
tion of  one  of  the  volumes  of  sermons  to  his  people,  he  says, 
that  he  could  not  conceal  his  joy,  that  his  kind  and  faithful 
companion  in  the  service  of  their  souls  practises  his  ministry 
with  the  same  views  and  designs  (as  himself),  and  that  he  had 
been  sensibly  owned  and  assisted  of  God,  to  support  and 
build  up  the  church  during  his  long  confinement.  "His 
labours,"  he  adds,  "both  for  you  and  for  me,  shall  ever  endear 
him  both  to  you  and  me."  Mr.  Price  was  the  uncle  of  the 
late  celebrated  Dr.  Richard  Price ;  he  survived  his  colleague 
but  little  more  than  seven  years,  and  died  lamented  by  per- 
sons of  various  persuasions,  April  21,  1756,  having  been  con- 
nected with  the  church  in  Bury-street  almost  fifty-three  years. 
His  remains  lie  entered  in  Bunhill  Fields,  with  an  inscription 
upon  his  tomb-stone,  which  he  himself  dictated  : — "  Here  lies 
the  body  of  Mr.  Samuel  Price,  who  served  with  the  truly  Rev. 
Dr.  Watts,  in  the  gospel,  under  the  character  of  his  assistant 
and  co-pastor  45  years,  to  whose  uninterrupted  goodness  and 
candour  he  has  been  highly  obliged  so  great  a  part  of  his  life. 
He  died  in  hopes  of  being  together  for  ever  with  the  Lord,  the 
21st  of  April,  1756."  Mr.  Price  is  only  known  as  an  author 
by  the  following  sermons  :  —  "To  the  Society  who  support  the 
Morning  Lecture  at  Little  St.  Helen's,  Aug.  1,  1724."  "To 
the  Societies  for  Reformation  of  Manners,  preached  at  Salter's 
Hall,  June  28,  1725."  "Nine  Sermons  in  the  Bury-street 
Collection,  1735."  "A  Charge  at  the  Ordination  of  the  Rev. 
John  Angus,  at  Bishop  Stortford,  1748."  "A  Sermon  on  the 
death  of  Dame  Mary  Abney,  1750." 

The  long  illness  of  Watts  not  only  inspired  his  own  people 
with  a  tender  sympathy  towards  him  ;  but  engaged  the  bene- 


308  LIFE   AND   TIMES 

volent  attention  of  Sir  Thomas  Abney  and  his  lady,  who 
invited  him  to  become  an  inmate  in  their  house.  This  invi- 
tation led  to  a  residence  of  nearly  forty  years  with  this  amiable 
family,  by  whom  he  was  treated  with  the  utmost  kindness  as 
a  friend,  attention  as  an  invalid,  and  respect  as  a  divine.  The 
exact  time  when  this  offer  was  made  and  accepted  I  am  un- 
able to  ascertain,  but  most  probably  it  took  place  in  the  year 
1713  or  1714.  "A  coalition  like  this,"  Dr. Johnson  remarks, 
"  a  state  in  which  the  notions  of  patronage  and  dependence 
were  overpowered  by  the  perception  of  reciprocal  benefits, 
deserves  a  particular  memorial."  The  Countess  of  Huntingdon 
once  told  Mr.  Toplady,  that  when  she  visited  Dr.  Watts  on 
one  occasion  he  thus  accosted  her:  "  Madam,  your  Ladyship 
is  come  to  see  me  on  a  very  remarkable  day."  —  "  Why  is  this 
day,"  she  replied,  "  so  remarkable?"  —  "This  day  thirty  years 
I  came  hither  to  the  house  of  my  good  friend  Sir  Thomas 
Abney,  intending  to  spend  but  one  single  week  under  his 
friendly  roof,  and  I  have  extended  my  visit  to  the  length  of 
exactly  thirty  years." — Lady  Abney,  who  was  present,  imme- 
diately said,  "  Sir,  what  you  term  a  long  thirty-years'  visit,  I 
consider  as  the  shortest  visit  my  family  ever  received."*  The 
obligation  was  doubtless  felt  to  be  mutual ;  and  the  instruc- 
tions and  consolation  derived  from  the  conversation  and  dis- 
courses of  the  invalid  divine,  repaid  the  hospitality  of  his 
hosts.  At  the  morning  and  evening  sacrifice  the  family  were 
favoured  with  the  prayers  and  counsels  of  their  guest,  and 
on  the  evening  of  the  sabbath  he  generally  expounded  and 
preached  to  them.  Dr.  Gibbons  observes,  "  A  gentlewoman 
now  living,  who  is  an  ornament  to  her  sex,  told  me,  that  in 
younger  life,  when  on  a  visit  at  Lady  Abney's,  she  was  taken 
somewhat  ill,  and  was  left  in  the  house  (the  rest  of  the 
family  being  gone  abroad)  with  only  the  doctor ;  and  the 
good  man  improved  the  occasion  to  enter  into  discourse  with 

*  Gospel  Mag.  1776.  p.  41. 


OE    DR.    ISAAC    WATTS.  309 

her,  and  give  her  most  excellent  advices,  of  which  she  has  a 
pleasing  remembrance  to  the  present  day."* 

Having  given  an  account  of  Sir  John  Hartopp  and  his 
connexions,  some  notice  of  Sir  Thomas  Abney  and  his  family 
it  may  here  be  proper  to  introduce. 

Sir  Thomas  Abney  was  the  younger  son  of  James  Abney, 
Esq.  of  Willersley,  u  small  village  in  the  hundred  of  Repton 
and  Gresley  in  Derbyshire.  The  family  was  ancient  and 
respectable,  having  settled  there  in  the  commencement  of  the 
fifteenth  century.  The  parish  church  contains  several  memo- 
rials of  its  early  branches.  The  manor  of  Willersley  originally 
belonged  to  the  abbey  of  Burton,  under  which  it  was  held  in 
the  thirteenth  and  fourteenth  centuries  by  the  family  of  Ing- 
wardby,  the  heiress  of  whom  married  one  of  the  Abneys,  who 
eventually  became  possessed  of  it.  The  manor-house  is  in  the 
form  of  the  letter  H,  and  was  built  in  the  early  part  of  the 
reign  of  Charles  I.  Here  Sir  Thomas  Abney  was  born  in 
January,  1639,  "the  religious  son  of  worthy  and  pious  pa- 
rents." His  mother,  whose  maiden  name  was  Man  waring, 
of  Whitmore  in  Staffordshire,  died  during  his  infancy,  but  his 
father  lived  to  the  advanced  age  of  ninety-four,  serving  the 
office  of  high-sheriff  of  Derbyshire  in  the  year  1656.  His 
elder  brother,  Edward,  became  doctor  of  civil  law,  was 
knighted  at  Whitehall,  April  2,  1673,  and  elected  member 
for  the  borough  of  Leicester  in  the  parliaments  of  1690  and 
1695.t 

Owing  to  the  death  of  his  mother,  and  the  confusion  of  the 
civil  wars,  in  which  the  family  suffered  considerably,  youno- 
Abney  was  placed  under  the  care  of  his  aunt.  Lady  Bromley, 
relict  of  Sir  Edward  Bromley,  one  of  the  barons  of  the  ex- 


*  Gibbons's  Life,  p.  13o. 
f  A   manuscript,  written  in  the  year    1.588,  the  time  of  the  threatened  Spanish 
invasion,  contains  a  list  of  the  gentlemen  in  the  county  of  Derby  who  contributed 
to  the  defence  of  the  nation.     The   name  of  "James  Abney,"   the  grandfather 
of  Sir  Thomas,  occurs,  with  his  contribution,  "  £25." 


BW  LIFE    AND   TIMES 

chequer  during;  the  reigns  of  Elizabeth  and  James  I.  He 
received  the  first  rudiments  of  learning  at  a  school  in  Lough- 
borough, in  the  neighbourhood  where  his  relative  resided. 
Her  pious  instructions,  it  is  believed,  made  early  impressions 
upon  him,  and  were  the  happy  means  of  a  sober  and  religious 
turn  of  mind,  which  continued  through  the  whole  of  his  life. 
Firmly  resolved  on  the  side  of  virtue  and  religion,  he  early 
attached  himself  to  the  dissenting  interest,  and  probably  at- 
tended the  ministry  of  Mi\  Caryl,  whose  daughter  was  his 
first  wife.  With  this  lady  he  lived  in  great  happiness  up- 
wards of  twenty  years  ;  and  in  1700  he  was  united  to  Mrs, 
Mary  Gunston,  the  eldest  daughter  of  John  Gunston,  Esq.  of 
Stoke  Newington.  After  Mr.  Caryl's  death  Sir  Thomas 
became  a  member  of  the  presbyterian  church  in  Silver-street, 
under  Dr.  Thomas  Jacomb  ;  and  with  this  congregation  he 
continued  attached  until  his  decease,  under  the  successive 
ministry  of  John  Howe,  John  Spademan,  Samuel  Rosewell, 
and  Jeremiah  Smith.  Upon  the  death  of  his  father,  the  family 
estates  at  Willersley  came  into  the  possession  of  his  brother. 
Sir  Edward  Abney  ;  but  his  own  means  were  then  ample, 
and  by  his  subsequent  marriage  he  succeeded  to  considerable 
wealth.  In  1C93  he  was  elected  sheriff  of  London  and 
Middlesex;  in  1694  he  was  chosen  alderman  ofVintry  Ward, 
and  knighted  by  King  William  ;  and  in  1700  he  succeeded  to 
the  office  of  lord  mayor,*  some  years  before  his  time.  In  1701 
the  citizens  chose  him  at  that  critical  juncture  to  represent  them 
in  parliament ;  in  1716  he  became  alderman  of  Bridge  Ward 
Without ;  he  was  also  a  director  of  the  bank  from  its  first  in- 
stitution in  1694,  president  of  St.  Thomas's  hospital,  and  for 
some  time  previous  to  his  death  father  of  the  city. 


*  Elkanah  Settle  was  laureate  to  Sir  T.  Abney.  He  was  poet  to  the  city  of 
I.ondon,  and  had  a  pension  for  an  annual  panegyric  to  celebrate  the  festival  of 
tlieir  chief  magistrate : 

"  Settle  tlie  poet,  to  my  Lord  Mayor's  sliow, 
Shall  Diyilen,  Cowley,  anJ  our  Duke  forego." 


OF  DR.  ISAAC  WATTS.  311 

During  his  mayoralty  Sir  Thomas  Abney  rendered  signal 
service  to  the  cause  of  William  ILL;  and  materially  assisted 
to  thwart  the  designs  of  that  faction  who  opposed  the  foreign 
policy  of  the  monarch.  Upon  the  death  of  the  exiled  James, 
the  king  of  France  caused  his  son  to  be  proclaimed  at  St. 
Germains  king  of  Great  Britain,  which  being  a  direct  viola- 
tion of  the  peace  of  Ryswick,  the  Earl  of  Macclesfield  was 
recalled  from  the  French  court,  and  forbid  to  take  any  audi- 
ence upon  his  departure.  War  being  looked  upon  as  unavoid- 
o.ble,  Sir  Thomas  Abney  had  the  courage  to  propose  an 
address  from  the  common  council  to  his  majesty,  signifying 
their  determination  to  support  him  against  France  and  the 
Pretender.  This  address,  though  opposed  by  the  majority  of 
his  brethren  on  the  bench,  was  carried  with  remarkable 
success,  and  transmitted  to  the  king,  who  was  then  on  the 
continent.  When  this  noble  resolution  of  the  city  of  London 
was  known,  it  animated  his  affairs,  and  gave  new  life  to  his 
interest,  both  abroad  and  at  home.  A  considerable  person 
then  living  complimented  the  author  of  this  proceeding, 
assuring  him,  that  he  had  done  more  service  to  the  king  than 
if  he  had  raised  him  a  million  of  money. 

It  was  by  no  means  unusual  at  that  period,  for  the  chief 
magistrate  of  the  city  of  London  to  be  a  dissenter,  though 
such  appointments  were  viewed  with  jealousy  by  the  high- 
church  party.  In  the  year  of  the  Revolution,  Sir  John 
Shorter,*  a  nonconformist,  filled  the  civic  chair;  and  dying 
during  his  mayoralty,  his  place  was  supplied  by  Sir  John 
Eyles,  who  was  of  the  same  religious  persuasion.  Sir 
Humphrey  Edwin,  also  a  pvesbyterian,  was  elected  lord 
mayor,  in  the  year  1697;  and  in  his  time  the  warm  debates 
on  occasional  conformity  commenced.     The  dissenters,  who 

*  Sir  John  Shorter  going  to  proclaim  Bartholomew  Fair,  he  called  as  was  usual 
upon  the  keeper  of  Newgate,  who  entertained  the  chief  magistrate  upon  such  occa- 
sions with  a  taukard  of  wine,  nutmeg,  and  sugar.  The  lid  of  the  tankard  falling 
down  suddenly,  the  noise  startled  his  horse,  which  threw  him  and  caused  his  death 
the  next  day. 


312  LIFE    AND    TIMES 

legally  qualified  themselves  to  occupy  civil  stations,  were 
accustomed  to  attend  one  part  of  the  Sunday  at  church,  and 
upon  the  other  part  to  frequent  their  own  places  of  worship. 
This  practice  had  continued  for  some  years,  without  reprehen- 
sion from  either  party,  when  Sir  H.  Edwin,  imprudently  car- 
ried the  regalia  of  his  office  to  Pinner's  Hall  meeting-house. 
The  church  party  immediately  took  the  alarm  at  this  incautious 
step  ;  and  the  circumstance  of  the  "  ensigns  of  the  august 
corporation,"  heing  carried  to  a  "nasty  conventicle,"*  led  to 
strenuous  and  at  length  successful  attempts  to  bring  in  the 
bill  against  *'  Occasional  Conformity."  The  dissenters  were 
themselves  divided  as  to  its  lawfulness;  and  Mr.  Howe,  Sir 
Thomas  Abney's  pastor,  was  appealed  to  by  De  Foe  to  vin- 
dicate the  practice.  The  following  curious  specimen  of  high- 
church  vituperation,  referring  to  Watts  and  his  patron,  is 
from  one  of  the  popular  pamphlets  of  the  day:  —  "But  a 
lady  (Queen  Anne)  now  sits  on  the  throne,  who  though 
sprung  from  that  blood  which  ye  and  your  forefathers  spilt 
before  the  palace-gates,  puts  on  a  temper  of  forgiveness,  and, 
in  compassion  to  your  consciences,  is  not  willing  that  you 
should  lose  the  hopes  of  heaven  by  purchasing  here  on  earth. 
She  would  have  no  more  Sir  Humphreys  tempt  the  justice  of 
God,  by  falling  from  his  true  ivorship,  and  giving  ear  to  the 
cat-calls  and  hack-pipes  at  PauVs;  would  have  your  Sir 
Thomas'sf  keep  to  their  primitive  text,  and  not  venture  dam- 
nation to  play  at  long-spoon  and  custardX  for  a  transitory 
twelvemonth ;  and  would  have  your  Sir  Tom  sing  psalms  at 
Highgate  Hill,  and  split  texts  of  scripture  with  his  diminutive 
figure  of  a  chaplain, §  without  running  the  hazard  of  qualify- 

•  Dr.  Nichols's  Apparat.  ad  Def.  Eccles.  Angl. 

f  Sir  Thomas  Abney. 

X  Custard  was  a  standing  dish  at  a  lord  mayor's  feast. 

§  Watts. 


OF   DR.    ISAAC    WATTS,  313 

ino-  himself  to  be  called  a  handsome  man,  for  riding  on  horse- 
back* before  the  City  trainbands."t 

In  the  public  events  of  the  year  1714  the  dissenters  were 
deeply  interested,  as  at  one  time  they  threatened  the  total  ex- 
tinction of  their  civil  and  religious  liberties.  The  schism  bill, 
which  rapidly  passed  through,  what  Burnet  terms,  the  worst 
parliament  he  ever  knew,  received  the  royal  assent  on  the 
2oth  of  June ;  and,  but  for  the  gracious  interference  of  provi- 
dence, would  have  closed  every  public  and  private  school  or 
seminary  throughout  the  kingdom,  which  was  unprotected 
by  the  license  of  a  bishop  and  conformity  to  the  liturgy. 
Nonconformists,  who  of  course  could  not  subscribe  to  the 
terms  imposed  by  this  measure,  were,  upon  conviction  of 
keeping  school,  as  "  the  head  and  front  of  their  offending," 
to  be  consigned  to  the  hardships  of  imprisonment.  The 
pagan  classics  were  prohibited  by  the  emperor  Julian  to  his 
Christian  subjects,  as  a  species  of  refined  policy  to  bring  them 
again  within  the  fold  of  Olympian  Jove;  and  the  infidel 
St.  John  seems  to  have  borrowed  from  him  the  idea  of 
making  the  dissenters  ignorant,  as  a  preparatory  step  to  con- 
vert them  to  the  establishment.  By  the  death  of  the  queen, 
August  1,  the  fatal  influence  of  the  schism  bill  \vas  arrested 
on  the  very  day  it  was  to  have  come  into  operation;  and  of 
its  principal  abettors,  Bolingbroke  was  driven  into  exile, 
and  Oxford  was  committed  to  the  tower.  Such  a  striking 
coincidence  could  not  escape  notice  and  acknowledgment 
as  a  remarkable  providence;  and  so  late  as  the  year  1758, 
we  find  the  apathetic  soul  of  Dr.  Benson  warmed  into  trans- 
port, and  almost  converted  to  orthodoxy,  by  its  remembrance. 
"On  the  very  day,"  said  he,  preaching  at  Salter's  Hall,  "that 


*  Before  the  state  coach  came  into  use,  the  lord  mayor  appeared  in  procession 
upon  a  state  horse  :  — 

"  To  ride  the  city  liorse,  and  wear  tlie  chain." 

t  "  The  Shortest  Way  with  the  Dissenters."     1 703.  4to. 

X 


314  LIFE   AND   TIMES 

the  schism  bill  was  to  take  place,  God  once  more  appeared 
for  us,  in  the  most  remarkable  and  distiilguishing  manner; 
took  away  the  life  of  that  princess  who  had  so  far  been 
seduced,  as  causelessly  to  seek  our  destruction;  and  intro- 
duced Kinf^  William's  legacy,  the  amiable  and  illustrious 
House  of  Hanover.  O  that  glorious  first  of  August  !  that 
most  signal  day,  which  ought  never  to  be  forgot !"  The  reign 
of  Queen  Anne,  auspicious  at  its  commencement,  was  most 
inglorious  at  its  close;  lending  herself  to  evil  counsellors,  she 
conspired  against  the  liberties  of  the  subject,  under  a  pre- 
tended zeal  for  the  church  and  the  royal  prerogative;  and  the 
termination  of  her  government  is  disgraced  with  some  of  the 
most  intolerant  measures  that  degrade  the  legislature  of 
Great  Britain.  She  forfeited  the  attachment  of  the  noncon- 
formists and  the  moderate  churchmen,  to  become  the  tool  of 
a  party  in  league  with  her  exiled  brother;  and,  hence,  the 
recantation  which  the  dissenting  poet  made  of  his  panegyrical 
verses.* 

In  the  early  part  of  his  ministry,  Mr.  Watts  delivered  a 
series  of  discourses  upon  prayer  to  a  private  society  of  young 
men,  who  met  together  in  the  vestry  of  his  meeting-house  for 
devotional  exercises.  During  his  illness  he  was  occupied  in 
correcting  and  arranging  them  for  the  press;  and  the  volume, 
entitled  "A  Guide  to  Prayer,"  was  published  in  the  year 
1716.     None  of  his  preceding  biographers  have  been  able  to 

*  In  170o  Watts  sings, 

"  Princess,  the  world  aheaily  owns  thy  name; 
Go  mount  tlie  chariot  of  immortal  fame, 
Jsor  (lie  to  be  renowned." 

In  1721   he  subjoins  his  Paliiiodia  to  the  piece,  and  makes  the  amende  honor- 
able, which  ti'uth  and  justice  demanded:  — 

"  Britons,  forgive  the  forward  muse, 
That  dar'd  pro|ihetic  seals  to  loose. 
Unskill'd  in  fate's  eternal  book, 
And  the  deep  characters  mistook. 
George  is  the  name,  that  glorious  star,- 
Ye  saw  bis  splendours  beaming  far, 
Saw  in  the  east  your  joys  arise, 
When  Anna  sunk  iu  western  skies." 


OF   DR.    ISAAC    WATTS.  315 

ascertain  the  period  when  this  treatise  appeared,  for  the  pre- 
face is  without  any  date;  but  in  accidently  looking  over  a  list 
of  books  in  the  library  of  the  London  Institution,  printed  by 
Mr.  William  Bowyer,  the  most  celebrated  printer  of  the  last 
century,  I  found  Watts's  work,  dated  1716.  Nichols,  who 
gives  the  list,  remarks,  that  this  year,  during  the  severe  frost 
in  January  and  February,  the  river  Thames  became  one  block 
of  ice,  and  shops  of  every  description  were  erected  upon  its 
surface.  Among  the  rest  the  printers  and  booksellers  pursued 
their  professions.  Either  Mr.  Bowyer,  or  his  brother  Jonah, 
the  bookseller,  was  one  of  the  number,  as  the  following  record 
proves : — 

"  In  this  place  Bowyer 
plies;  that's  Liutot's  stand."* 

It  would  be  a  curious  circumstance,  if  any  part  of  Watts's 
volume  made  its  appearance  upon  the  surface  of  Father 
Thames. 

The  "  Guide  to  Prayer"  is  intended  to  assist  the  youthful 
Christian  in  the  performance  of  this  important  part  of  devo- 
tion, by  leading  him  to  avoid  the  incoherent  and  rhapsodical 
style  of  the  enthusiast,  and  the  cold  formality  engendered  by 
a  liturgical  formulary.  One  of  his  predecessors,  Mr.  Clarkson, 
in  a  treatise  abounding  with  valuable  learning  and  cogent 
reasoning,  entitled  "A  Discourse  concerning  Liturgies,"  has 
successfully  shown,  that  no  forms  of  prayer  were  imposed  or 
prescribed  during  the  first  four  centuries,  till  the  state  of  the 
church  was  rather  to  be  pitied  than  imitated;  and  Watts 
expresses  himself  decidedly  hostile  to  their  use,  except  in 
certain  extraordinary  cases.  It  is  very  evident,  that  what  is 
called  the  Lord's  prayer  was  given  to  the  early  disciples,  as  a 
mode  and  not  as  a.  form ;  as  a  directory  suited  to  the  infant  state 
of  Christianity,  and  not  designed  to  be  the  law  and  standard  of 
our  devotions.      The  perpetual  confinement  to  any  formula, 

*  Nichols,  i.  118. 


316  LIFE    Al^D   TIMES 

interferes  with  the  work  of  the  Spirit;  it  tends  to  render 
religious  services  formal  and  mechanical;  and  inverts  *'the 
true  order  of  worship,  making  our  words  regulate  our  de- 
sires, instead  of  our  desires  regulate  our  words."  On  the 
other  hand  Watts  cautions  his  readers  against  the  opposite 
extreme  —  that  of  neglecting  all  preparation  for  pra3'er; 
the  dangerous  delusion  of  the  seventeenth  century,  occasion- 
ed by  a  notion,  that  the  influence  of  the  Spirit  superseded  the 
exercise  of  the  understanding.  At  that  period  the  abuse  of 
the  doctrine  of  divine  influence  was  the  prominent  vice  of 
the  religious  world;  an  ambitious  pietism  prevailed,  which 
asserted  in  the  most  fearless  manner  extravagant  claims  to 
high  supernal  ilhimination ;  and  the  assistance  of  the  intel- 
lectual powers  was  disdained,  as  unnecessary  and  unbecom- 
ing to  him  who  was  supposed  to  hold  the  energy  of  the 
Spirit  in  his  grasp,  and  could  wield  the  omnipotence  of  the 
Eternal  at  will.  The  too  frequent  consequence  of  this  pre- 
sumption was,  the  extinction  of  plainness  and  simplicity  in 
devotion,  and  the  assumption  of  a  rude  and  familiar  demea- 
nour, with  the  use  of  dark  and  mystical  phraseology.  Prayer, 
which  should  be  accompanied  with  the  adoration  of  the 
divine  perfections,  a  deep  gratitude  for  the  blessings  of  this 
life  and  for  the  expectation  of  a  better;  prayer,  which 
should  be  conducted  under  an  awful  sense  of  the  divine  pre- 
sence, the  most  inspiring  of  all  encouragements,  and  the  most 
efficient  of  all  controls;  prayer,  which  ought  to  be,  from  its 
very  nature,  an  acknowledgment  of  our  dependence  upon 
one  who  "knoweth  our  infirmities  before  we  ask,  and  our 
ignorance  in  asking"  —  assumed  the  character  of  demand, 
and  the  professed  petitioner  became,  in  his  own  estimation,  an 
inspired  prophet,  oracularly  unfolding  the  will  and  explain- 
ing the  purposes  of  heaven.  The  simple  language  in  which 
penitence  will  confess  its  guilt,  desire  utter  its  cravings,  and 
faith  indulge  its  confidence,  was  supplanted  by  "  great  swell- 
ing words  of  vanity;"  and  the  tumid  style  of  the  philosophi- 


OF   DR.    ISAAC    WATTS.  ,317 

cal  and  mystic  dreamers  of  the  convent  and  the  hermitage, 
became  the  fashionable  mode  of  spiritual  expression.  It  was, 
however,  little  better  than  "speaking  in  an  unknown  tongue" 
to  the  multitude,  to  address  the  Divine  Being  as  hypostatically 
three  and  essentially  one — as  by  the  plenitude  of  perfection 
in  his  essence  being  self-sufficient  for  his  own  existence  and 
beatitude — as  in  an  incomplex  manner  eminently,  though 
not  formally,  including  all  the  infinite  variety  of  complex 
ideas  in  his  creatures — and  as  gladding  his  people  with  the 
exuberant  profusions  of  his  grace  and  the  sempiternal  efflux 
of  his  glory !  It  would  be  unjust  to  regard  this  as  an  exclu- 
sive feature  of  puritanism;  it  was  the  error  of  the  period  more 
than  of  the  men;  and  the  mightiest  names  that  adorned  the 
great  struggle  for  religion  and  liberty,  were  but  slightly 
tinctured  with  it.  "It  was  common,"  says  Mr.  Orme,*  "to 
others,  as  well  as  to  those  who  are  stigmatised  as  the  sec- 
taries of  the  time.  It  is  impossible,  indeed,  to  produce  the 
prayers  of  churchmen,  as  their  book  admits  neither  of  im- 
provement nor  of  deterioration  from  the  changes  of  human 
society;  but  if  we  may  judge  what  would  have  been  their 
prayers  from  their  sermons,  it  is  not  difficult  to  perceive  that 
even  the  best  of  them  did  not  rank  high  above  the  preachers 
of  the  commonwealth."  There  is  much  truth  in  the  follow- 
ing remarks  of  the  same  writer,  apologetical  for  the  prayers 
of  Cromwell's  chaplains:  "I  am  far  from  thinking  that 
their  minds  were  as  low  and  vulgar  as  the  language  which 
they  employed  would  seem  to  indicate.  They  were  men 
accustomed  to  pray  much ;  this  in  itself  gendered  a  kind  of 
familiar  habit;  and  as  they  were  not  surrounded  by  senti- 
mental religionists  and  fashionable  clergymen,  but  by  per- 
sons of  their  own  spirit  and  sentiments,  tliey  expressed  them- 
selves without  reserve.  High  devotional  ardour  cannot  al- 
ways be  restrained  to  measured  phrases ;  but  those  who  can 

♦Appendix  to  Owen's  Life,  p.  495. 


318  LIFE   AND   TIMES 

make  every  allowance  for  poetical  license  and  scientific  en- 
thusiasm, have  no  charity  for  any  excess  of  feeling  in  which 
religion  is  concerned!"  Those  who  are  not  disposed  to  acqui- 
esce in  these  remarks,  but  unscrupulously  to  condemn  the 
extemporary  prayers  of  the  parliament  divines,  would  do  well 
to  remember,  how  changed  the  morals  of  the  court  and  the 
nation  became,  when  a  printed  formulary  was  forced  upon 
their  observance.  —  "The  Guide  to  Prayer'  may  be  advanta- 
geously consulted  by  the  young  inquirer;  and  even  those  who 
may  object  to  Watts's  plan  of  instruction,  the  churchman  on 
account  of  there  being  too  little  system,  and  the  dissenter  be- 
cause there  is  too  much,  will  yet  agree,  that  his  directions 
display  his  piety  and  desire  to  be  useful. 

The  Guide  to  Prayer  and  the  Imitation  of  the  Psalms  origi- 
nated the  following  sprightly  lines  from  Mr.  Samuel  Wesley, 
which  are  inserted  in  the  duodecimo  edition  of  his  poems : 


«  Form  stiuts  the  spirit,  Watts  has  said, 
Aud  therefore  oft  is  wrong ; 
At  hest  a  crutch  the  weak  to  aid, 
A  cumbrance  to  the  strong. 

"Old  David  both  in  prayer  and  praise, 
A  form  for  crutches  brings  ; 
But  Watts  has  dignified  his  lays. 
And  furnished  him  with  wings. 

"  E'en  Watts  a  form  for  praise  can  choose. 
For  prayer,  who  throws  it  by; 
Crutches  to  walk  he  can  refuse. 
But  uses  them  to  fly." 


In  the  close  of  the  year  1716,  Mr.  Watts  was  with  the  fam- 
ily of  Sir  Thomas  Abney  at  Theobalds,  in  Hertfordshire,  at 
their  country-seat.  The  two  discourses  inserted  in  the  first 
volume  of  his  sermons,  entitled  "Appearance  before  God," 


OF   DR.   ISAAC    WATTS.  319 

were  delivered  by  him  here  at  the  evening  worship,  Nov. 
25th  and  Dec.  9th,  In  the  dedication  of  these  two  sermons 
he  censures  "that  unrighteous  law,"  the  act  against  occa- 
sional conformity,  which  was  now  in  full  operation,  and 
which  was  passed  to  deprive  the  dissenters  who  practised  it 
of  their  civil  offices.  Sir  Thomas  Abney,  Sir  John  Fryer, 
and  several  others,  who  were  magistrates,  were,  however,  anx- 
ious to  escape  such  consequences;  and  took  refuge  from  the 
influence  of  the  measure  in  the  accommodating  scheme  of  Mr. 
Howe.  "Upon  mature  consideration,"  says  Calamy,  "back- 
ed with  the  pressing  importunity  of  several  persons  of  dis- 
tinction in  our  own  nation,  joined  with  the  solicitation  of  the 
Resident  of  Brunswick,  who  took  pains  to  represent  to  them, 
in  the  strongest  manner,  how  far  the  interest  of  his  master 
and  of  the  Hanover  fiimily  depended  upon  their  continuance 
in  their  posts  and  stations,  they  were  prevailed  with  to  keep 
their  stations,  and  content  themselves  with  that  restrained 
way  of  worship  the  law  allowed."  To  secure  the  interest, 
therefore,  of  the  Elector  of  Hanover,  Sir  Thomas  Abuey 
retained  his  office,  abstaining  from  attending  his  own  place 
of  worship,  and  employing  in  his  family  the  ministrations  of 
Mr.  Watts.  But  the  lay  dissenters  would  have  acted  a  much 
more  honourable  and  consistent  part,  had  they  sacrificed  at 
once  worldly  honours  to  maintain  the  rights  of  conscience 
and  display  the  purity  of  their  principles. 

At  Theobalds  many  of  Watts's  happiest  hours  were  spent; 
and  many  of  his  literary  undertakings  were  executed.  It  was 
the  favourite  residence  of  the  crafty  Burleigh;  the  scene  of 
many  of  Elizabeth's  gorgeous  "progresses;"  and  the  site  of 
James's  pleasures  and  death.  In  the  neighbouring  village  of 
Cheshunt  and  its  vicinity,  Lord  Barrington,  Mr.  Pickard,  and 
Richard  Cromwell  were  frequently  resident;  and  many  of 
Watts's  metropolitan  friends  were  accustomed  to  retire  there 
in  the  summer  from  the  confinement  of  the  city.  The 
church  and  church-vard  of  Cheshunt  contain  some  monumen- 


320  LIFE    AND    TIMES 

tal  inscriptions  from  the  pen  of  the  poet;*  and  the  following 
lines  appear  to  have  been  written  upon  a  ceiling  or  spot-dial, 
at  a  western  window  at  Theobalds: 

"  Little  sun,  upon  the  ceiling 
Ever  moving,  ever  stealing 

Moments,  minutes,  hours  away; 
May  no  shade  forbid  thy  shining, 
While  the  heavenly  sua  declining 
Calls  us  to  improve  the  day." 

An  eventful  period  now  arrived  in  the  history  of  protestant 
dissenters,  the  year  1719,  In  which  the  conference  at  Salter's 
Hall  was  held  upon  the  Exeter  trinitarian  controversy. 
This  unhappy  dispute  engaged  the  attention  of  the  London 
ministers:  to  maintain  the  peace  of  the  western  churches  was 
the  ostensible  object  of  their  meeting;  but,  principles  were 
covertly  propagated  in  the  contest,  which  have  proved  de- 
structive to  most  of  the  presbyterian  congregations,  at  that 
time  the  pride  and  glory  of  nonconformity.  The  subject  of 
these  pages  stood  personally  aloof  from  the  fiery  polemics; 
the  arena  of  debate  ill  accorded  with  his  amiable  and  unob- 
trusive temper;  but  his  active  mind  eagerly  fixed  upon  the 
topics  in  dispute,  and  a  change  was  ultimately  eflfected  in  his 
own  doctrinal  views,  which,  though  unwarrantably  magnified 
by  the  Arian  party,  the  Christian  church  can  never  cease  to 
lament.  At  the  period  of  the  Salter's-Hall  debates,  Mr.  Watts's 
opinions  upon  the  trinity  coincided  with  those  now  enter- 
tained by  the  orthodox ;  but  he  was  hurt  by  the  divisions  and 
strife  he  witnessed,  and  his  love  for  peace  led  him  to  endea- 
vour to  conciliate  the  disputants  by  attempting  a  new  expli- 
cation of  the  doctrine.     Here  was  his  error:  he  sought  to  dis- 

*  Thos.  Pickard,  F.sq.  Cliap.  7.     On  the  grave  stone  of  Mr.  John  May,  a  young 
student  iu  divinity,  who  died  after  a  lingering  and  painful  sickaess: 

"So  sleep  tlie  s;\ints,  and  cease  to  jjroun, 

When  sin  and  deatli  liavo  done  tlieir  worst; 
Clirist  hatli  a  j;l()iy  like  liis  own, 
Wliicli  waits  to  clothe  llieir  waking  dust." 


OF   DR.    ISAAC    WATTS.  321 

cover  the  modus  of  the  divine  nature,  which  to  finite  minds  is 
inexplicable;  and,  as  the  inevitable  consequence,  he  plunged 
into  a  labyrinth,  and  became  at  every  step  the  more  involved 
in  uncertainty  and  doubt. 

To  heal  the  breach  which  had  taken  place  between  the 
Exeter  pastors,  who  were  accused  of  Arianism,  and  their  con- 
gregations, a  committee  of  metropolitan  ministers  prepared  a 
paper  of  advices  for  promoting  peace ;  and  a  general  meeting 
of  the  three  denominations  was  convened  at  Salter's  Hall, 
to  deliberate  upon  it.  The  proposal  to  insert  in  it  a  declara- 
tion respecting  the  trinity,  analogous  to  the  first  of  the 
thirty-nine  articles  of  the  church  of  England,  and  the  fifth 
and  sixth  articles  of  the  Assembly's  Catechism,  to  remove  all 
suspicion  as  to  their  own  orthodoxy,  was  strenuously  debated, 
and  ultimately  lost  by  a  minority  of  four  voices.  The  minis- 
ters became  now  divided  into  three  parties:  the  subscribers 
to  a  confession  of  faith,  the  non-subscribers,  and  those  who 
withdrew  or  never  attended  the  assembly.  Mr.  Thos.  Brad- 
bury was  the  leader  of  the  first  party ;  Dr.  Joshua  Oldfield,  the 
second ;  and  Mr.  Watts,  Dr.  Calamy,  Dr.  Marryat,  and  Mr. 
Neale,  were  the  principle  persons  in  the  third.  It  is  not  to  be 
concluded,  that  the  non-subscribers  were  all  of  them  anti-tri- 
nitarians,  though  some  of  them  were  so ;  a  considerable  number 
who  voted  on  that  side,  were  as  orthodox  as  the  other  party,  but 
objected  to  the  proposed  subscription  as  an  infringement  of 
their  Christian  liberty,  and  inconsistent  with  their  principles 
as  dissenters,  to  subscribe  to  any  test  of  sentiment  not  ex- 
pressed in  the  words  of  scripture.  The  inexpediency,  and  in- 
jurious tendency  of  ecclesiastically  sanctioned  and  imposed 
formularies,  expressed  in  the  words  taught  by  man's  wisdom, 
is  readily  admitted ;  but  still  there  are  periods  when  it  is  highly 
expedient  for  both  ministers  and  churches,  to  testify  against 
prevailing  heresy,  by  declarative  summaries  of  their  faith. 
The  wholesome  exercise  of  Christian  discipline,  to  maintain 
the  internal  piety  of  a  church,  is  a  better  safeg^^^id  against 


322  LIFE    AND   TIMES 

corruption  than  a  vaunted  theoretical  orthodoxy ;  yet  at  such  a 
period  as  that  of  the  Salter's-Hall  conference,  when  error  was 
skulking  abroad  in  disguise,  and  the  successors  of  the  Howes 
and  Baxters  of  a  former  age,  were  many  of  them  covertly 
ranged  beneath  the  banners  of  Socinus,  a  public  and  explicit 
avowal  of  doctrine,  not  as  an  imposed  creed,  but  a  voluntary 
confession,  seems  not  only  proper  but  necessary.  Without 
any  compromise  of  principle  as  a  dissenter,  Mr.  Walts  might 
have  joined  the  subscribers;  for  the  independents  have  never 
objected  to  simple  declarations  of  their  belief:  it  is  only  to 
exaction  and  imposition  that  they  are  opposed.  From  the 
beginning  of  their  history,  they  have  been  accustomed  to 
publish  such  statements — hence,  the  Brownist  "  true  confes- 
sion" in  159G — the  platform  of  doctrine  and  discipline  recog- 
nised by  the  New-England  churches,  in  1648 — the  Savoy 
confession,  in  1658 — and  the  declaration  of  faith  and  order, 
recently  issued  by  the  congregational  union  of  England  and 
Wales.  As  an  apology  for  Watts,  it  may  be  observed,  that 
he  was  evidently  not  aware  of  the  extent  of  the  evil  that 
threatened  the  dissenting  churches;  he  was  inclined  to  hope 
the  best  of  the  suspected  party ;  he  was  a  lover  of  peace, 
and,  therefore,  anxious  to  mediate ;  he  might  think  that  har- 
mony was  more  likely  to  be  restored  by  silence  than  by 
interference  —  and,  hence,  he  retired  to  occupy  neutral 
ground. 

The  history  of  this  unhappy  contest  has  been  touched  upon, 
because  I  believe  it  to  have  had  a  powerful  and,  as  it  proved, 
an  unfortunate  influence  upon  the  mind  of  Watts.  He  was 
misled,  with  many  others,  by  a  specious  appeal  to  his  candour 
and  moderation ;  he  sought  to  strike  out  a  new  scheme  of 
explication  to  accommodate  the  rival  disputants,  evidently 
forgetting  the  "length  of  his  line,"  and  the  numberless 
"  depths  in  the  ocean  which  it  cannot  fathom." 

At  this  critical  juncture  it  was  deemed  advisable,  to  reprint 
a  sermon  by  the  excellent  Matthew  Henry,  as  having  a  par- 


or   DR.   ISAAC    WATTS.  323 

ticular  relation  to  the  agitated  state  of  the  religious  world. 
This  is  entitled,  "Disputes  Reviewed,  in  a  Sermon  preached 
at  the  Evening  Lecture  at  Salter's  Hall,  on  Lord's-day,  July 
23,  1710:"  to  the  edition  of  1719  Mr.  Watts  prefixed  a  pre- 
face, full  of  eloquence  and  peaceful  zeal.  "  Surely,"  says  he, 
"  the  design  to  republish  this  useful  sermon  of  the  late  Rev. 
M.  Henry  must  meet  with  a  general  approbation.  In  my 
opinion,"  he  adds,  "  there  has  not  been  a  season  these  twenty 
years  so  inviting  to  the  writers  on  peace  and  union,  and  so 
much  in  want  of  healing  discourses.  Tiiat  great  man  had  a 
most  happy  talent  in  the  practical  way.  His  easy  and  fami- 
liar turns  of  thought  and  language,  insinuate  themselves  into 
the  conscience  with  so  powerful  and  pleasing  a  conviction, 
that  we  cannot  but  delight  in  hearing  ourselves  so  artfully 
reproved,  even  while  we  blush  inwardly  and  own  the  folly 
that  he  corrects."  Mr.  Watts  was  equally  esteemed  by  Mr, 
Henry,  and  in  his  poetical  compositions  he  took  great  delight. 
In  his  Diary  he  remarks,  when  journeying  from  London 
to  Chester,  July  31,  1711,  "Between  Woburn  and  Coventry 
I  read  over  Mr.  Watts's  Horte  Lyricse."  There  has  been 
some  difference  of  opinion  as  to  the  authorship  of  part  of 
the  last  volume  of  Mr.  Henry's  commentary,  but  the  follow- 
ing entry  in  Mr.  Watts's  own  hand-writing,  upon  a  blank  leaf 
at  the  beginning  of  the  last  volume  of  the  copy  in  his  library, 
may  be  adduced  as  valuable  evidence :  "  The  Rev,  Mr. 
Matthew  Henry  before  his  death  had  made  some  small  pre- 
parations for  this  last  volume.  The  epistle  to  the  Romans, 
indeed,  was  explained  so  largely  by  his  own  hand,  that  it 
needed  only  the  labour  of  epitomising.  Some  parts  of  the 
other  epistles  were  done,  but  very  imperfectly,  by  himself;  and 
a  few  other  hints  had  been  taken  in  short-hand  from  his 
public  and  private  expositions  on  some  of  the  epistles. 

"By  these  assistances  the  ministers  whose  names  are  here 
written,  have  endeavoured  to  complete  this  work  in  the  style 
and  method  of  the  author :   viz. 


824  LIFE   AND   TIMES 

"Romans    Mr.  (afterwards  Dr.)  John  Evans.* 

1  Corinthians  ....  Mr.  Simon  IJrowne.f 

2  Corinthians  ....  Mr.  Daniel  Mayo. 

Galatians Mr.  Joshua  Bayes. 

Ephesians     Mr,  Samuel  Rosewell. 

n  ippians  i  -j^j^,  (afterwards  Dr.)  William  Harris. 

Colossians     3 

1  Thessalonians  |^^.  j^^^.^j  ^^^^ 

2  Thessalonians  J 

„.       ,        f  Mr.  Benjamin  Andrews  Atkinson. 

2  limothy     j 

,,,  .,  [  Mr.  Jeremiah  Smith. 

riulemon -> 

Hebrews  Mr.  William  Tong. 

James    Mr.  WiUiam  Wright.| 

1  Peter Mr.  Zech.  Merrill.§ 

2  Peter Mr.  Joseph  Hill. 

1,  2,  3,  John Mr.  John  Reynolds||  of  Shrewsbury. 

Jude Mr.  John  Billingsley. 

Revelations  Mr.  William  Tong." 

•  "The  exposition  on  the  Romans,"  says  Doddridge,  "begun  by  Henry,  and 
finished  by  Dr.  Evans,  is  the  best  I  ever  saw." 

f  Pastor  at  the  Old  Jewry,  a  man  of  high  intellectnal  attainments,  bnt  unhap- 
pily a  victim,  in  the  latter  part  of  his  life,  to  one  of  the  most  extraordinary  phan- 
tasies that  ever  visited  tlie  human  imagination.  He  thought  that  God  had  anni- 
hilated the  thinking  principle  within  him,  tliat  the  rational  soul  iiad  gradually 
perished,  and  that  he  was  degraded  to  the  level  of  tiie  brutes.  Hence,  he  would 
join  in  no  act  of  public  or  private  worship,  looking  upon  himself  no  longer  as  a 
moral  agent.  Yet  strange  to  say,  that  in  this  mood  he  combated  Collins  and 
Woolstou,  wroteon  the  Trinity,  and  compiled  a  dictionary !  See  Adventurer,  No.  88. 

I  It  should  be  Dr.  S.  Wright. 

§  The  editors  of  the  4to  edition,  assign  the  1  Peter  to  Mr.  Merrill,  but  on  what 
ground  does  not  appear.  Mr.  Stedman  also  varies  from  Mr.  Watts  without  any 
explanatory  remark,  attributing  1  Peter  to  "Mr.  Hill,"  and  2  Peter  to  "Mr.  Merrill 
of  Hampstead." 

II  "He  had  made,"  says  Watts,  "the  holy  scriptures  his  study;  and  it  is  evident 
that  he  was  very  capable  of  explaining  the  word  of  God.  Tlie  chief  monument 
of  his  skill  in  this  kind  is,  his  comment  on  the  three  epistles  of  St.  John,  in  that  last 
volume   of  Mr.   Henry's  Exposition  of  the  Bible,  which  was   completed  by  the 


OF    DR.   ISAAC   WATTS.  325 

"Tuesday,  Aug.  ]9,  1712. 
"  Mr.  Spectator, 

"  You  very  much  promote  the  interests  of  virtue, 
Avhile  you  reform  the  taste  of  a  profane  age ;  and  persuade  us 
to  be  entertained  with  divine  poems,  whilst  we  are  distin- 
guished by  so  many  thousand  humours,  and  spht  into  so 
many  different  sects  and  parties ;  yet  persons  of  every  party, 
sect,  and  humour,  are  fond  of  conforming  their  taste  to  yours. 
You  can  transfuse  your  own  relish  of  a  poem  into  all  your 
readers,  according  to  their  capacity  to  receive;  and  when  you 
recommend  the  pious  passion  that  reigns  in  the  verse,  we 
seem  to  feel  the  devotion,  and  grow  proud  and  pleased  in- 
wardly, that  we  have  souls  capable  of  relishing  what  the 
Spectator  approves.  Upon  reading  the  hymns  that  you  have 
published  in  some  late  papers,  I  had  a  mind  to  try  yesterday 
whether  I  could  write  one.  The  114th  psalm  appears  to  me 
an  admirable  ode,  and  I  began  to  turn  it  into  our  language. 
As  I  was  describing  the  journey  of  Israel  from  Egypt,  and 
added  the  Divine  Presence  amongst  them,  1  perceived  a 
beauty  in  this  psalm,  which  was  entirely  new  to  me,  and 
which  I  was  going  to  lose ;  and  that  is,  that  the  poet  utterly 
conceals  the  presence  of  God  in  the  beginning  of  it,  and 
rather  lets  a  possessive  pronoun  go  without  a  substantive, 
than  he  will  so  much  as  mention  any  thing  of  divinity  there. 
"Judah  was  his  sanctuary,  and  Israel  his  dominion  or 
kingdom."  The  reason  now  seems  evident,  and  this  conduct 
necessary :  for,  if  God  had  appeared  before,  there  could  be 
no  wonder  why  the  mountains  should  leap  and  the  sea  retire ; 
therefore,  that  this  convulsion  of  nature  may  be  brought 
in  with  due  surprise,  his  name  is  not  mentioned  till  afterwards; 
and  then  .with  a  very   agreeable  turn  of  thought,    God   is 

labours  of  many  worthy  aud  learned  writers.  There  we  may  read  both  his  know- 
ledge, his  spirit,  his  faith,  and  his  love,  wherein  he  was  ahappy  imitator  of  the  bless- 
ed aud  beloved  disciple."     Preface  to  Reynolds  on  Reconciliation. 


326  LIFE    AND   TIMES 

introduced  at  once  in  all  his  majesty.  This  is  what  I  have 
attempted  to  imitate  in  a  translation  without  paraphrase, 
and  to  preserve  what  I  could  of  the  spirit  of  the  sacred 
author. 

"If  the  following-  essay  be  not  too  incorrigible,  bestow  upon 
it  a  few  brightniugs  from  your  genius,  that  I  may  learn  how 
to  write  better,  or  to  write  no  more. 

"Your  daily  admirer  and 

"  humble  servant,  &c." 

PSALM,  CXIV, 

I. 

"  When  Israel,  freed  from  Pharaoh's  hand. 
Left  the  proud  tyrant  and  his  land, 
The  tribes  with  cheerful  homage  own 
Their  king,  and  Judah  was  his  throne. 

n. 

"Across  the  deep  their  journey  lay, 

The  deep  divides  to  make  them  way  ; 
*The  streams  of  Jordan  saw,  and  fled 

With  backward  current  to  his  head. 

in. 

"  The  mountains  shook  like  frighted  sheep, 
Like  lambs  the  little  hillocks  leap  ; 
Not  Sinai  on  her  base  could  stand. 
Conscious  of  sovereign  power  at  hand. 

IV. 

"  What  power  could  make  the  deep  divide  ? 
Make  Jordan  backward  roll  his  tide  ? 
Why  did  ye  leap,  ye  little  hills  ? 
And  whence  the  fright  that  Sinai  feels  ? 

♦"Jordan  beheld  their  march  and  fled."     See  IVatts^s  Psalms. 


OF   DR.    ISAAC    WATTS.  327 


"Let  every  mountain,  every  flood, 
Retire,  and  know  th'  approaching  God, 
The  King  of  Israel ;  see  him  here  ; 
Tremble,  thou  earth,  adore  and  fear. 

VF. 

"  He  thunders,  and  all  nature  mourns  ; 
The  rock  to  standing  pools  he  turns. 
Flints  spring  with  fountains  at  his  word. 
And  fires  and  seas  confess  their*  Lord." 

"to  the  church  of  CHRIST  MEETING  IN  BURY  STREET, 
OF  WHICH  THE  HOLY  GHOST  HAS  MADE  ME  OVERSEER.f 

"  Dearly  beloved  in  our  Lord, 

"  Grace,  mercy,  and  peace  be  multiplied  to  you,  from 
God  our  Father,  and  our  Lord  Jesus  Christ.  It  has  been  a 
very  sore  aggravation  to  my  long  sorrows,  that  I  have  not  been 
able  to  encourage  your  Christian  visits,  to  converse  with  you 
singly,  to  receive  your  consolation,  and  relate  my  own  expe- 
riences :  nor  have  I  been  capable  to  express  my  constant  con- 
cern for  your  welfare  by  writing  to  you  together  as  a  church, 
which  I  often  designed :  but  you  are  in  my  heart  more  than 
ever.  While  God  chastises  my  former  want  of  zeal  by  silenc- 
ing me  for  a  season,  I  bow  to  his  wisdom  and  holiness,  and 
am  learning  obedience  by  the  things  that  I  suffer,  and  many 
lessons  of  righteousness  and  grace,  which  I  hope  hereafter  to 
publish  among  you.  As  I  have  been  long  pleading  with  him 
for  pardon  of  ray  negligence,  so  I  ask  you  also  to  forgive. 
Long  afflictions  are  soul-searching  providences,  and  discover 
the  secrets  of  the  heart  and  omissions  of  duty  that  were  un- 
observed in  a  day  of  peace.  May  the  blessed  Spirit  reveal  to 
each  of  us  why  he  continues  to  contend  with  us. 

*The. 

f  This  letter  is  endorsed  as  "read  by  Mr.  Scott  to  the  church,  the  oth  of  Novem- 
ber, 1713,  when  almost  all  the  brethren  were  present." 


328  LIFE    AND    TIMES 

"  I  cannot  recl\on  up  all  ray  obligations  to  you  for  your  kind 
supports  of  me  under  my  tedious  and  expensive  sickness,  and 
for  your  continued  and  instant  prayers  for  ray  recovery,  which 
gave  mc  the  first  ground  of  hope  that  I  should  be  restored ; 
which  hope  and  expectation  still  remain  with  me,  and,  I  think, 
are  supported  by  the  word  and  Spirit  of  God.  It  seems  at 
present  to  be  more  needful  for  you  that  I  abide  in  the  flesh ; 
and  I  trust  I  shall  yet  abide?  for  your  furtherance  and  joy  of 
faith,  that  your  rejoicing  may  be  more  abundant  in  Christ 
Jesus  for  rae,  by  my  coming  to  you  again ;  and  while  I  am 
confined  as  the  prisoner  of  God,  I  request  the  continuance  of 
your  supplications  for  patience  and  sanctification,  as  well  as 
health. 

*'  I  rejoice,  also,  to  hear  of  your  union,  your  love,  and  your 
attendance  on  the  worship  of  the  church.  This  has  been  a 
great  comfort  to  my  thoughts  in  the  time  of  my  affliction  and 
absence.  Yet  I  am  in  pain  for  your  edification,  because  you 
have  none  among  you  to  administer  the  special  and  sealing 
ordinances;  and  since  it  is  your  earnest  desire  to  know  my 
opinion  in  that  affair  that  lies  before  you,  I  have  at  several 
seasons  been  enabled  to  write  it  under  these  heads :  namely, 

"  1.  That  there  were  in  the  primitive  churches  several 
preaching  elders,  bishops,  or  overseers. 

"  2.  That  where  their  gifts  were  different,  some  were  called 
pastors,  or  elders  for  exhortation,  to  feed  the  flock,  to  exhort 
the  saints ;  others  were  called  teachers,  or  elders  for  doctrine, 
to  instruct  their  hearers  in  the  principles  of  Christianity  — 
chiefly  the  younger  Christians — and  to  bring  in  new  converts. 
"  3.  The  Scripture  makes  no  difference  nor  subordination 
of  power  betwixt  them  in  the  church ;  but  seems  to  give  all 
elders  an  equality  of  power. 

"  4.  The  Scripture  does  not  determine  when,  or  how  often, 
one  or  other  should  preach  or  administer  holy  ordinances: 
and  yet  it  is  necessary  there  should  be  some  rule  to  decide  it, 


OF   DR.    ISAAC    WATTS.  329 

lest  ambition  or  controversy  should  arise  among  the  elders  in 
this  matter. 

"  5.  Therefore  I  believe  the  church  (to  which  the  light  of 
nature  and  scripture  has  given  all  power  in  things  indifferent 
that  are  necessary  to  be  determined)  has  power  to  appoint  the 
times,  seasons,  and  places  of  their  ministrations. 

"  6.  It  is  for  the  certain  advantage  of  a  church  to  have 
more  elders  than  one  in  it ;  that  may  more  frequently  visit  the 
church  ;  more  fully  take  care  of  them,  and  regularly  adminis- 
ter all  holy  ordinances  :  if  one  or  other  be  sick  or  absent,  may 
also  better  keep  the  church  together,  and  encourage  young 
converts  to  join  themselves  to  it. 

*'  7.  That  it  is  for  the  advantage  of  a  church  to  have  such  an 
elder  chosen  whose  gifts  have  been  tried  and  approved  in  the 
church,  and  been  owned  and  blessed  of  God  for  the  good  of 
souls.     Such  a  one  may  most  likely  please  and  profit. 

"  Now  with  regard  to  our  church  in  particular. 

"1.  It  is  my  opmion,  that,  whether  I  live  or  die,  if  such  an 
elder  be  chosen  by  the  universal  desire  and  voice  of  the  church, 
it  will  be  much  for  their  spiritual  advantage,  in  all  probability. 

"  2.  Whether  I  live  or  die,  if  another  elder  be  chosen  with 
the  desire  of  a  few  persons,  and  the  opposition  of  a  few,  and 
the  bare  cold  consent  in  the  major  part,  it  will  not  be  for  the 
advantage  of  the  church  ;  and  I  am  sure  my  worthy  brother, 
Mr.  Samuel  Price,  on  whom  your  thoughts  are  set,  has  too 
tender  a  sense  of  your  spiritual  interest,  and  too  wise  a  sense 
of  his  own,  to  accept  of  such  an  imperfect  call  to  a  fixed  office 
in  the  church. 

"  3.  If  any  elder  be  chosen  by  a  pretty  general  desire  of  the 
church,  though  not  universal,  it  will  be  for  the  interest  of  the 
church,  if  I  live  and  am  restored  to  your  service ;  and  I  shall 
rejoice  to  have  you  supplied  with  all  ordinances  in  my  ab- 
sence by  a  man  I  can  most  entirely  confide  in ;  and  at  my 
return  I  shall  rejoice  to  be  assisted  in  all  services  to  the  church 


330  LIFE    AND    TIMES 

by  one  whom  I  love  and  esteem  highly  ;  and  I  wrote  as  much 
with  an  eye  to  your  future  benefit  as  to  your  present  want. 

"  4.  If  God,  for  my  sins,  should  refuse  to  employ  me  again 
(for  I  have  justly  deserved  it),  and  if  he  should  deny  the  long 
and  importunate  requests  of  his  people  (for  he  is  a  great  Sove- 
reign), I  trust  he  will  direct  and  incline  your  hearts  to  choose 
and  establish  one  or  more  elders  among  you,  that  may  give 
universal  satisfaction,  and  especially  to  such  as  now  may  be 
less  satisfied,  and  may  be  for  your  future  edification  and  in- 
crease. 

"  5.  If  my  beloved  brother  Price  be  chosen  as  an  elder 
among  you,  I  hope  your  diligent  and  sincere  attendance  on 
his  ministrations  will  give  you  a  more  abundant  sense  of  his 
true  worth,  of  the  exactness  of  his  discourses,  of  the  serious- 
ness of  his  spirit,  and  of  the  constant  blessing  of  God  with 
him  ;  all  which  I  have  observed  with  much  pleasure. 

"  Now  I  have  fully  delivered  my  sentiments  in  this  aff"air, 
and  you  see  how  sincere  and  hearty  I  am  in  it ;  yet  I  will 
give  you  two  reasons  why  I  did  not  think  fit  first  to  propose  it 
to  the  church:  (1.)  Because  it  is  the  proper  business  of  the 
church  to  seek  after  elders  and  officers  for  itself,  from  a  sight 
and  sense  of  their  own  spiritual  interest,  both  as  Christians  and 
as  an  united  body ;  especially  considering  that  the  elder  you 
propose  to  choose  is  not  to  be  my  deputy  or  servant,  but  your 
minister  and  overseer  in  the  Lord  :  (-2.)  Because  I  would  never 
have  any  thing  of  such  importance  done  in  the  church  by  the 
influence  of  my  desire,  without  your  own  due  sense,  and  pros- 
pect of  your  own  edification  and  establishment  as  a  church  of 
Christ.  Nor  would  I  now  influence  you  in  this  afi"air,  unless 
the  judgment  of  your  minds  concur  with  mine  ;  for,  as  I  never 
had  interest  divided  from  the  interest  of  the  church,  so  I  hope 
I  never  shall. 

"  And  now,  brethren  dearly  beloved,  I  entreat  you,  by  the 
love  of  Christ  to  you,  and  by  the  love  you  bear  to  Christ  our 
common  Lord,  that  there  may  be  no  contentions  among  you. 


OF   DR.    ISAAC    WATTS.  331 

I  shall  be  glad  to  find  every  affair  that  belongs  to  the  church 
carried  by  as  many  voices  as  I  trust  I  have  hearts  and  affec- 
tions among  you.  However,  let  every  one  with  freedom  speak 
his  sentiments  as  under  the  eye  of  Christ  the  great  Shepherd, 
without  bias  or  resentment,  and  with  zeal  for  the  church's  in- 
terest. Let  every  thing  that  is  debated  be  with  calmness,  and 
so  much  the  more  in  my  absence;  each  of  you  believing, 
concerning  one  another,  that  you  sincerely  seek  the  honour  of 
Christ  and  the  union  and  peace  of  the  church,  as  I  believe 
concerning  you  all,  Let  each  of  yoii  be  ready  to  lay  aside  his 
own  former  opinions  or  resolutions,  as  you  shall  see  reasons 
arise  for  the  common  welfare.  If  there  should  be  quarrels  and 
janglings,  reflections  and  hard  speeches,  it  would  be  a  grief 
too  heavy  for  me  to  bear,  and  the  most  effectual  way  to  over- 
whelm my  spirit,  and  delay  my  return  to  you  ;  and  as  I  know 
you  have  the  utmost  tenderness  of  my  peace,  you  ought  to  be 
as  tender  of  each  other's  spiritual  advantage,  and  the  union  and 
peace  of  the  body,  and  to  indulge  no  secret  whispers  or  back- 
bitings  that  may  hinder  the  edification  of  your  brethren  by  the 
ministrations  of  the  church. 

"  But  I  will  not  give  myself  leave  to  entertain  such  suspi- 
cions concerning  you,  who  have  so  many  years  walked  toge- 
ther in  constant  love.  I  pray  heartily  that  the  all-wise  God, 
and  Jesus  Christ  our  Lord,  may  preside  in  your  consultations, 
direct  your  hearts,  and  determine  all  things  for  you  ;  that  you 
may  be  established  and  edified,  and  be  a  joy  and  a  blessing 
to  each  other,  as  you  have  been,  and  I  trust  will  be,  to 

^'  Your  most  affectionate  and  afflicted  pastor, 

"  IgAAC  WATTS." 


332  LIFE    AND   TIMES 


FROM   LORD    BARRINGTON. 


"Rev.  Sir,  "London,  Jan.  11,  1718. 

"I  cannot  dispense  with  myself  from  taking  the  first 
opportunity  I  have  of  acknowledging  your  great  favour  in 
assisting  me  so  readily  to  offer  up  the  praise  due  to  Al- 
mighty God,  for  his  signal  mercies  vouchsafed  me  on 
three  several  occasions,  and  of  assuring  you  that  it  Avas 
with  the  utmost  concern  I  understood  that  I  must  not  flatter 
myself  with  the  hopes  of  your  being  with  us  in  this  last.  But 
how  very  obliging  are  you,  who  would  give  yourself  the  trou- 
ble to  let  me  know,  that  though  you  could  not  give  me  the 
advantage  of  your  company  at  Hatton  Garden,  yet  I  should 
not  want  your  assistance  at  a  distance,  where  you  would  ad- 
dress such  petitions  to  heaven  to  meet  ours  as  tend  to  render 
me  one  of  the  best  and  happiest  men  alive.  This  they  will 
influence  me  to  be  in  some  measure,  both  by  their  preva- 
lency  at  the  throne  of  grace,  and  by  instructing  me  in  the 
most  agreeable  manner  what  I  should  aspire  to.  Whilst  I 
read  your  letter  I  found  my  blood  fired  with  the  greatest  am- 
bition to  be  what  you  wish  me.  I  will,  therefore,  carefully 
preserve  it,  where  it  shall  be  least  liable  to  accidents,  and 
where  it  will  be  always  most  in  my  view.  There,  as  I  shall 
see  what  I  ought  to  be,  by  keeping  it  always  before  me,  I 
shall  not  only  have  the  pleasure  of  observing  the  masterly 
strokes  of  the  character  you  wish  me,  but  I  hope,  come  in 
time  to  bear  some  resemblance  to  it. 

"  Whilst  you  were  praying  for  us,  we  did  not  forget  you ; 
nor  shall  I  cease  to  beseech  Almighty  God,  to  make  you  a 
bright  example  of  passive  virtue,  till  he  shall  see  fit  to  restore 
you  to  that  eminent  degree  of  acceptableness  and  service  you 
have  once  enjoyed.     I  am,  Sir, 

"  Your  most  obliged  humble  servant, 

-  "BARRINGTON. 


OF  DR.  ISAAC  WATTS.  333 

"  My  wife  is  very  much  obliged  by  your  civility.  She  has 
desired  a  copy  of  your  letter,  which  she  says  will  be  as  useful 
to  her,  as  it  has  been  entertaining-,  if  it  be  not  her  own  fault. 
Both  our  humble  services  attend  the  good  family  where  you 
are.  I  am  sorry  my  Lady's  cold  is  like  to  deprive  us  of  their 
company  on  Wednesday." 

"to    sir    RICHARD    BLACKMORE,    KNT. 

"Worthy  Sir, 

"  Though  you  have  constrained  me  to  deface  one  of 
the  best  pages  in  my  preface*  by  forbidding  me  the  honour 
of  showing  your  name  to  the  world  there,  yet  I  cannot  deny 
myself  the  pleasure  of  setting  your  name  in  this  blank  leaf, 
Avhere  none  but  yourself  will  be  witness  to  the  high  esteem 
that  I  pay  you.  So  secret  a  gratitude  can  never  offend, 
while  the  honour  you  have  done  me  in  a  late  preface  of  yours 
is  thus  silently  acknowledged  by.  Sir, 

"Your  obliged  humble  servant, 

"ISAAC  watts. 
"Jan  9.  1719." 


*  This  letter  was  written  in  a  presentation  copy  of  the  Imitations  of  the 
Psahns.  Sir  Richard  Blackmore  had  previously  complimented  Mr.  Watts  in  the 
preface  to  a  collection  of  poems,  published  in  the  year  1718.  "Hitherto,"  he 
observes,  "as  I  have  said,  but  few  of  the  wits  of  this  kingdom,  which  abounds  in 
genius  and  poetical  inspiration  above  any  nation  upon  earth,  have  thought  fit  to 
exercise  their  pens  expressly  and  directly  in  cultivating  divine  and  moral  poetry, 
but  only  in  an  allegorical  and  disguising  dress.  Some  persons  of  great  virtue  and 
piety  liave  attempted  it ;  but  these  having  neither  poetical  genius  nor  judgment, 
neither  fertile  imagination,  nor  any  knowledge  of  the  rules  and  spirit  of  poetry,  have 
only  written  indifferent  prose  in  the  poorest  verse;  and  though  they  deserve  the 
honour  of  good  men,  they  must  be  contented  with  the  character  of  bad  poets. 
This,  I  think,  is  a  just  censure  on  the  greatest  part  of  those  who  have  written  reli- 
gious books  in  English  verse;  but  I  except  from  this  number  the  ingenious  Mr. 
Watts,  whose  divine  poetry  is  very  laudable,  and  much  superior  to  all  who  have 
gone  before  him  in  the  lyric  kind." 


884  LIFE    AND    TIMES 


CHAPTER  X. 

IMITATIONS  OF  THE  PSALMS. 


STRUCTURE  OF  THE  PSALMS.— JEWISH  CHOIR  SERVICE.— EVANGELICAL 
APPLICATION  OF  THE  PSALTEH— PARTICULAR  PSALMS  SUNG  BY  THE 
JEWS.  — THE  PSALMODY  OF  THE  PRIMITIVE  CHURCH.  — CORRUPTION 
OF  ITS  RITUAL.  — METRICAL  VERSIONS  OF  THE  SCRIPTURES— INTRO- 
DUCTION OF  PSALM-SINGING  IN  ENGLAND  —VERSION  OF  MAROT.— 
POPULARITY  IN  FRANCE.  —  ADOPTED  BY  CALVIN  AND  BEZA.  —  DE- 
NOUNCED BY  THE  CATHOLICS. -PATRONISED  BY  THE  REFORMED 
CHURCHES.  — THE  TRANSL.ATION  OF  .STERNHOLD,  HOPKINS,  NORTON, 
AND  WISDOME.— ARCHBISHOP  PARKER  AND  KING  JAMES'S  VERSION.— 
WILLIAM  HUNNIS  AND  JOHN  HALL. —  SIR  PHILIP  SIDNEY  AND  THE 
COUNTESS  OF  PEMBROKE.  —  SANDYS.  —  ROUSE.  —  TATE  AND  BRADY.— 
MERRICK— WATTS.— CHARACTER  OF  HIS  VERSION.— THE  29th  PSALM. 
INAPPROPRIATE  METRES.— BISHOP  MANT.  — MARSH.  — I7th  AND  8th 
PSALMS.  —  SIDNEY  VERSION.  —  IDtu  AND  92nd  PSALMS.  —  SANDYS.— 
CONCLUSION. 


The  book  of  Psalms,  the  "flower,"  as  Hooker  calls  it,  "of 
all  things  profitable  in  other  books,"  has  perhaps  been  more 
extensively  used  by  the  church,  in  public  and  private  devo- 
tion, and  more  copiously  illustrated  by  divines,  than  any 
other  part  of  the  sacred  volume.  A  host  of  translators,  para- 
phrasts,  critics,  and  versifiers  have  exercised  their  skill  upon 
it — no  inexpressive  tribute  to  the  intrinsic  excellence  of  its 
contents.  Calvin  describes  it  as  "  the  anatomy  of  all  the 
parts  of  the  mind;"  avwrofi^v  omnium  anhnfc partiiim  ;  and 
Augustine  denominates  it  an  abridgment  of  the  whole 
scripture.  As  prophecies,  many  of  the  psalms  delineate  the 
person  of  the  Messiah,  and  the  glories  of  his  reign,   in   a 


OF   DR.    ISAAC    WATTS.  335 

Striking  and  emphatic  manner — as  hymns  addressed  to  the 
Deity,  they  embody  the  loftiest  sentiments  of  piety  with  the 
purest  spirit  of  devotion — and  as  poems,  they  exhibit  some  of 
the  most  aneient  and  the  most  splendid  specimens  of  poetry, 
that  the  literature  of  ihe  world  can  boast.  In  such  veneration 
were  they  held  in  the  primitive  age  of  the  church,  that  the 
fathers  assure  us,  the  whole  book  w^as  frequently  learned  by 
heart,  and  ministers  of  all  gradations  were  expected  to  repeat 
it  from  memory.  Still  honoured  are  these  invaluable  scrip- 
tures with  the  regards  of  the  pious  of  every  denomination ;  they 
form  words  of  prayer  and  of  praise  for  them  in  retirement  and 
in  the  sanctuary ;  they  are  repeated  without  weariness,  and  are 
in  daily  use,  as  memorials  of  former  mercies  and  supplications 
for  present  blessings. 

The  Psalms,  as  a  collection  of  sacred  odes,  exhibit  almost  all 
the  varieties  of  this  species  of  poetical  writing.  In  some  the  ode 
appears  in  its  simple  form,  a  narrative  of  facts  in  the  private  life 
of  the  psalmist,  or  the  national  history  of  his  country,  but  in 
an  adorned  and  figurative  style.  Some  are  elegiac,  composed 
on  occasions  of  distress  and  mourning,  tender,  plaintive,  and 
pathetic,  celebrating  the  trials  of  the  writer,  the  loss  of  friends, 
the  temptations  of  a  sorely  vexed  and  troubled  spirit.  Some 
are  didactic,  enouncing  the  precepts  of  religion,  grave  max- 
ims of  morality,  for  the  most  part  in  simple  strains,  but  occa 
sionally  adorned  with  figures  of  expression.  Some  and  but  a 
few  are  pastoral,  the  imagery  taken  from  rural  scenes  and 
occupations.  Some  are  dramatic,  consisting  of  dialogues  be- 
tween different  persons,  sometimes  the  psalmist  himself,  the 
chorus  of  the  priests,  and  the  leader  of  the  Levitical  band  ; 
and  sometimes  the  Lord  of  the  Jewish  polity,  the  incarnate 
Saviour,  and  the  grateful  and  rejoicing  church.  The  style  of 
composition  is  of  course  as  varied  as  the  character  and  subject 
of  the  poems:  now  cheerful,  sprightly,  and  triumphant;  now 
stately,  solemn,  and  magnificent;  now  soft,  expressive,  and 
touching".     The  cfreat  characteristic  of  the  ancient  Hebrew 


336  LIFE    AND  TIMES 

poetry,  the  adoption  of  correspondent  versiclcs,  is  seen  in  the 
construction  of  almost  all  the  psalms.  The  period  is  divided 
into  members,  answering  to  one  another,  both  in  sense  and 
sound ;  the  sentiment  expressed  in  the  first,  is  amplified  or 
repeated  in  different  terms  in  the  second ;  yet  never  in  such  a 
manner  as  to  enfeeble  the  style,  and  weaken  its  energy. 

The  psalms  are  all  of  them  lyric  poems,  that  is,  intended  to 
be  accompanied  with  music,  and  the  peculiarity  in  their 
structure  which  has  been  noticed,  probably  arose  from  the 
Jewish  mode  of  alternate  singing.  The  temjjle  choir,  we 
know,  was  divided  into  twenty-four  courses;  and  each  band 
of  singers  took  up  the  strain  in  its  turn,  and  thus  answered 
alternately  to  one  another.  For  instance :  when  one  party 
began  the  psalm  thus,  "Sing  unto  the  Lord  a  new  song;" 
the  corresponding  versicle  was  taken  up  by  the  chorus  or 
semi-chorus,  "  Sing  unto  the  Lord,  all  the  earth  :"  the  one 
band  proceeded,  "Sing  unto  the  Lord  and  bless  his  name;" 
the  other  replied,  "  Show  forth  his  salvation  from  day  to  day." 
The  musical  poetry  of  the  Jews  became  thus  divided  into  a 
succession  of  strophes  and  antistrophes  correspondent  to  each 
other  —  a  method  of  composition  which,  becoming  familiar, 
insensibly  spread  from  their  hymns  to  their  other  poetical 
writings.  But  the  psalms  were  not  only  accompanied  with 
vocal  music ;  instrumental  music,  which  has  been  employed 
in  the  religious  services  of  all  nations,  which  was  introduced 
into  the  sacred  ceremonials  of  the  Greeks,  was  cultivated  by 
the  Jews  for  the  same  purpose  at  the  earliest  period  of  their 
history :  the  song  of  Moses  and  INIiriam,  after  the  deliverance 
of  the  children  of  Israel  from  Egypt,  was  accompanied  with 
the  timbrel;  the  silver  trumpets  were  ordered  to  be  sounded, 
in  the  solemn  days,  over  the  burnt  offerings ;  and  many  other 
instruments  were  added  by  David  to  the  Jewish  ritual.  In 
his  time  there  were  three  masters  who  presided  over  the 
band  of  music  ;  and  at  their  head  one  chief  musician  or  mas- 
ter of  the  whole  choir.     That  females  were  admitted  into  the 


OF    DR.    ISAAC    WATTS,  337 

temple  choir,  is  strenuously  denied  by  the  Jewish  writers; 
but  the  case  of  the  three  daughters  of  Heman,  who  were  *'for 
song-  in  the  house  of  the  Lord  with  cymbals,"  makes  it 
evident  that  women  were  thus  employed.  This  part  of  their 
devotional  service  the  Jews  usually  performed  in  a  standing- 
posture  ;  "  the  Levites  stood  with  the  instruments  of  David ;" 
a  jaractice  which  has  been  followed  in  most  Christian  congre- 
gations. The  choir  service  was  suited  to  the  genius  of  Juda- 
ism, a  religion  full  of  splendid  external  rites;  and  it  must 
have  been  an  imposing  and  overpowering  spectacle,  when 
"the  trumpeters  and  singers  were  as  one,  to  make  one  sound 
in  praising  and  thanking  the  Lord,"  the  glorious  cloud  filled 
the  house  —  a  sight  only  inferior  to  the  "  hundred  forty  and 
four  thousand,"  "on  mount  Sion,"  "harping  with  their 
harps." 

The  propriety  of  introducing  the  Jewish  psalmody  into 
Christian  worship,  has  been  disputed  on  the  ground,  that  it 
is  preferring  the  "veil  of  Moses"  to  the  clearer  discoveries  of 
the  "latter  days."  But  it  is  evident,  that  besides  the  literal 
or  primary  meaning  of  the  psalms,  a  considerable  number, 
perhaps  the  majority,  are  susceptible  of  the  double  sense ; 
that  they  were  originally  composed  and  sung,  as  "shadows  of 
good  things  to  come;"  and  upon  this  principle  the  objection 
referred  to  falls  to  the  ground.  It  is  difficult  to  conceive 
that  the  Jews  would  have  admitted  them  to  their  daily  wor- 
ship, would  have  given  them  such  prominence  in  their  public 
devotions,  or  that  their  authors  would  have  delivered  them  to 
the  church  for  such  a  purpose,  had  not  their  typical  character 
been  distinctly  understood  on  botli  sides.  Sometimes  the 
spiritual  sense  only  discovers  itself  at  intervals,  and  seems 
with  difficulty  to  break  through,  like  light  struggling  with 
clouds,  and  beaming  forth  in  sudden  flashes  upon  the  sight ; 
at  other  times,  on  the  contrary,  it  displays  itself  prominently, 
shining  w'ith  strong,  steady,  and  unbroken  lustre  through  the 
Avhole  piece,  pressing  each  word  and  j)hrase  into  its  service, 


338  LIFE    AND   TIMES 

and  throwing  the  letter  completely  into  the  shade.  Some- 
times the  two  senses  appear  equally  pervading-  the  body  of  the 
composition,  distinct  and  yet  harmonious,  perfectly  analogous 
in  every  lineament  and  feature,  mutually  corresponding  and 
mutually  illustrative,  until  the  theme  leaves  its  earthly  con- 
nexion, and,  fully  purified  from  every  impress  of  mortality, 
ascends  far  above  "mortal  ken,"  and  vanishes  in  the  full 
brightness  of  heaven.  We  may  not,  then,  be  directly  concern- 
ed with  the  person  who  appears  upon  the  page  of  the  poem, 
but  we  are  with  the  illustrious  individual  he  shadows  forth ; 
we  celebrate  the  extraordinary  depressions,  trials,  exaltation, 
and  victories,  not  of  a  monarch  who  died  three  thousand 
years  ago,  but  of  the  King  of  Sion  who  still  lives  and  reigns : 
and  thus  the  psalms,  by  this  application,  expressly  authorised 
by  the  evangelical  writers,  cease  to  be  the  exclusive  property 
of  the  Jew,  and  become  the  common  treasure  of  the  church. 
It  is  vain  to  ask,  what  we  have  to  do  with  the  affairs  of 
David  or  of  Israel,  the  ark  or  the  temple,  Sion  or  Jerusalem, 
the  sacrifice  of  lambs  or  of  goats,  the  enemies  of  the  ancient 
faith,  Moab,  Edom,  and  Philistia — the  temple  has,  indeed, 
vanished  from  its  site,  the  ark  disappeared,  the  law  been  abol- 
ished never  to  be  restored,  Sion  trampled  under  foot  by  the 
haughty  Turk,  and  Moab  and  his  people  perished  from  the 
nations — but  though  "old  things  have  passed  away,"  there 
still  remains  a  spiritual  temple,  ark,  and  sacrifices,  spiritual 
victories  over  spiritual  enemies,  a  Jerusalem  below  and  above, 
which,  under  their  old  names  but  with  new  associations,  may 
be  celebrated  in  our  devotions  before  God.  Congregations  are 
not,  however,  adepts  in  theology  ;  and,  hence,  if  the  productions 
of  the  inspired  psalmists  arc  to  be  sung  by  them,  close  trans- 
lation should  not  be  attempted,  the  New-Testament  interpre- 
tation of  typical  expressions  should  be  given,  and  the  evan- 
gelic sense  made  plain  to  the  simplest  understanding.  This 
was  Watts's  plan ;  and  the  application  of  the  Psalms  in  this 
manner  in  Christian  worship,  gives  them  an  incalculable 


OF    DR.    ISAAC    WATTS.  .339 

advantage  over  any  fresh  compositions  however  skilfully 
executed  :  they  keep  alive  in  our  remembrance  the  deliver- 
ances of  ancient  days,  and  the  mercies  of  former  times ;  they 
illustrate  the  progressive  history  of  the  church,  and  the  con- 
nexion between  the  old  and  the  new  dispensation ;  they  ad- 
vance the  experience  of  the  past,  to  guide  the  conduct  and 
correct  the  errors  of  the  present;  and  they  tend  to  increase 
our  faith,  to  confirm  our  confidence,  and  excite  our  hopes, 
by  bringing  before  us  what  our  "fathers"  tell,  the  "elders" 
teach,  and  the  "years  of  many  generations"  testify. 

But  though  the  singers  of  Israel  may  thus  be  introduced 
into  Christian  sanctuaries,  there  does  not  seem  much  propriety 
in  admitting  the  Psalms  indiscriminately,  as  has  generally 
been  done,  into  our  religious  services.  If  it  is  proved,  that 
they  were  all  originally  written  for  musical  recitation,  it  re- 
mains to  be  proved,  that  they  were  all  designed  for  congrega- 
tional worship,  and  all  adopted  by  the  Jews  in  the  temple 
ritual.  Those  who  affirm  this  to  have  been  the  case,  have  to 
assign  a  reason,  which  it  is  difficult  to  do,  why  the  prophecies 
of  David  should  be  sung  in  the  synagogue,  to  the  exclusion 
of  those  of  Isaiah  or  Jeremiah,  or  the  song  of  Deborah,  which 
wear  the  same  poetic  dress.  Some  of  the  Psalms  are  so 
obviously  unfitted  for  congregational  worship,  as  to  render  the 
conclusion  probable,  that  only  a  selection  was  employed  from 
the  general  body  of  Hebrew  devotional  poetry.  Lightfoot, 
with  his  usual  learning,  has  endeavoured  to  ascertain  what 
compositions  were  commonly  used  by  the  Jews  in  their  public 
religious  services,  assigning  from  the  Gemara  some  fanciful 
reasons  for  the  selection.  On  the  first  day  of  the  week  they 
sang  the  24th  psalm;  "The  earth  is  the  Lord's  and  the  ful- 
ness thereof:"  on  the  second  day  they  sang  the  48th  ;  "  Great 
is  the  Lord,  and  greatly  to  be  praised  in  the  city  of  God:" 
on  the  third  the  82nd;  "God  standeth  in  the  congregation  of 
the  mighty:"  on  the  fourth  the  94th;  "O  Lord  God,  to 
whom  vengeance  belongeth:"   on  the  fifth  the  81st;  "Sing 


340  LIFE    AND   TIMES 

aloud  unto  God  our  strength :"  on  the  sixth  the  93rd;  "The 
Lord  reigneth,  he  is  clothed  with  majesty :"  on  the  sabbath 
the  9-2nd,  entitled,  a  psalm  for  the  sabbath  day ;  "  It  is  a  good 
thing,  to  give  thanks  unto  the  Lord."  Besides  these  psalms, 
which  were  sung  each  recurring  week  in  the  temple,  particu- 
lar compositions  were  appointed  for  the  different  festivals 
during  the  year.  Thus  on  the  first  day  of  the  year,  the  feast 
of  trumpets,  the  81st  psalm  was  sung;  "Sing  aloud  unto 
God:"  and  at  the  evening  sacrifice  the  29th;  "Give  unto 
the  Lord,  O  ye  mighty."  On  the  first  day  of  the  feast  of 
tabernacles  the  105th;  "O  give  thanks  unto  the  Lord:"  on 
the  second  the  29th,  as  on  the  feast  of  trumpets:  on  the 
third  the  50th;  "The  mighty  God,  even  the  Lord,  hath 
S])oken  :"  on  the  fourth  the  94th,  as  in  the  regular  weekly 
service  on  that  day  :  on  the  fifth  the  95th;  "  O  come,  let  us 
sing  unto  the  Lord:"  on  the  sixth  the  80th;  "  Give  ear,  O 
Shepherd  of  Israel :"  on  the  seventh  the  82nd;  "  God  standeth 
in  the  congregation."  The  fifth  verse  of  the  47th  psalm, 
"  God  is  gone  up  with  a  shout,"  was  used  at  the  removal  of 
the  ark ;  the  135th  and  136th,  at  the  dedication  of  the  temple; 
and  the  97th,  98th,  99th,  and  100th,  on  occasions  probably 
of  solemn  national  thanksgiving.  At  the  feast  of  the  pass- 
over  the  lesser  Hallel  was  sung,  consisting  of  the  six  short 
psalms  from  the  113th  to  the  118th.  In  addition  to  the  psalms 
here  specified,  there  are,  doubtless,  many  more  in  the  Psalter 
which  were  in  common  use  among  the  Jews  at  the  hour  of 
sacrifice,  in  the  religious  festival,  or  at  periods  of  general  and 
solemn  convention.  The  authors  of  most  of  our  metrical  ver- 
sions have,  however,  proceeded  upon  the  assumption,  that  the 
Psalter  was  the  hymn-book  of  the  Jewish  church  ;  and  they 
have,  hence,  injudiciously  endeavoured  to  introduce  it  as  a 
whole  into  the  service  of  Christian  congregations.  The  mistake 
of  our  modern  psalmists  is,  indeed,  rectified  by  the  parish  clerk, 
for  many  of  the  psalms  are  never  sung;  but  the  principle  upon 


OF   DR.    ISAAC    WATTS.  341 

which  they  have  proceeded  is  objectionable,  as  it  devotes  them 
to  a  purpose  for  which  it  is  highly  probable  they  were  never 
intended,  and  originally  never  used. 

The  foregoing  remarks  upon  the  general  structure  of  the 
psalms,  and  their  use  in  the  Jewish  church,  have  been  elici- 
ted by  Watts's  labours  in  this  department  of  sacred  song ;  and, 
in  order  to  appreciate  his  undertaking,  it  will  be  necessary 
briefly  to  review  the  modern  history  of  psalmody,  and  com- 
pare his  attempt  with  the  eff"orts  of  his  predecessors. 

From  the  scanty  gleanings  that  antiquity  furnishes  upon 
the  psalmody  of  the  primitive  church,  it  is  impossible  to  ascer- 
tain at  what  period  the  whole  psalter  was  adopted  as  a  devo- 
tional formulary  in  her  services,  or  what  degree  of  musical 
intonation  was  given  to  it.  In  celebrating  the  last  supper,  the 
Saviour  sung  a  hymn  with  his  disciples,  the  Hallel,  consisting 
of  six  psalms ;  but  the  word  Yjuvrjaavie^  may  merely  mean  a 
kind  of  recitative  reading  or  chanting.*  When  Peter  and 
John  were  delivered  from  the  council,  the  second  psalm  was 
evidently  sung  by  the  multitude,  or  repeated  with  some  con- 
siderable inflection  of  the  voice.f  In  the  Corinthian  church, 
in  the  days  of  the  apostle,  we  are  told  that  "each  one 
had  a  psalm,"J  which  may  imply  that  a  selection  merely 
was  then  in  use.  The  73rd  was  the  morning,  and  the  141st 
the  evening  psalm  of  the  early  Christians  ;§  and  they  are 
admirably  adapted  to  the  times  of  fiery  trial  in  which  they 
lived,  when  "troubled  on  every  side"  themselves,  they  "saw 
the  wicked  in  prosperity."  The  manner  in  which  the  psalms 
were  used,  varied  in  diff"erent  places :  sometimes  they  were 
simply  read  by  one  person,  the  rest  of  the  congregation  listen- 
ing in  silence; II  in  the  church  of  Alexandria,  in  the  time  of 

*Matt.  xxvi.  30.  f  Acts,  iv.  24—30.  +  1  Cor.  xiv.  26. 

§  Bingham  Antiq.  lib.  xiv. 

II  "Absque  eo,  qui  dicturus  iu  medium  psalmos  surrexerit,  cuncti  sediiibus 
humillimis  insidentes,  ad  vocem  psalleutis  omni  cordis  intentione  depeudeut." 
Cassian  Instit.  ii.  12. 


342  LIFE    AND   TIMES 

Athanasius,  the  reader  spoke  them  with  a  slight  flexure  of 
the  voice;*  in  the  church  of  Hippo  they  were  sung  with 
some  accompaniments,  but  Augustine  was  dissatisfied  with 
the  phm,  and  wished  to  adopt  the  Alexandrian  method ;  in 
the  cathedral  of  Milan  a  mode  of  alternate  singing  was  in- 
troduced, and  Ambrose  compares  the  voice  of  the  multitude, 
as  they  took  up  the  response,  to  that  of  many  waters.f  The 
people  were,  however,  gradually  deprived  of  any  participation 
in  this  part  of  the  public  service,  which  was  assigned  exclu- 
sively to  the  choir;  and  the  antiphonal  manner  of  singing  be- 
came general,  in  which  one  half  of  the  choir  repeated  verse 
for  verse  after  the  other.  A  high  authority  was  pleaded  for 
this  practice ;  for  Socrates  reports,  that  the  martyr  Ignatius  was 
favoured  with  a  vision  of  the  heavenly  world,  and  heard  the 
angels,  in  the  antiphonal  manner,  celebrating  the  praises  of 
the  Trinity.!  Instrumental  mnsic  seems  to  have  been  gene- 
rally discarded  by  the  early  church ;  its  introduction  was  the 
corruption  of  a  later  age,  when  even  a  puritan  could  say, 

"But  let  my  due  feet  never  fail. 
To  walk  the  studious  cloyster's  pale, 
And  love  the  high  emhowed  roof, 
■\\'ith  antique  pillars  massy  proof, 
And  storied  windows  richly  dight. 
Casting  a  dim  religious  light ; 
There  let  the  pealing  organ  blow, 
To  the  full-voic'd  clioir  below, 
In  service  high,  and  anthems  clear. 
As  may  with  sweetness  through  mine  ear. 
Dissolve  me  into  ecstasies, 
And  bring  all  heaven  before  mine  eyes." 


*"Tam  modico  flcxu  vocis  faciebat  sonare  lectorcm  psalmi,  ut  pronuncianti 
vicinior  csset  quam  cauenti."     August.  Conf.  x.  33. 

f  "  Responsoriis  psalmorum,  cantu  virorum,  mulierum,  virgiuum,  parvulorum, 
consouans  undarum  fragor  resultat."     Hcxam,  lib.  iii.  c.  v. 

X  Socrat.  Hist.  Eccles.  lib.  vi.  c.  viii. 


OF    DR.    ISAAC    WATTS.  343 

The  disciples  of  Pythagoras  resorted  to  instrumental  music 
early  in  the  morning-,  to  dissipate  the  dulness  of  the  mind ; 
but  the  ancient  fathers  regarded  it  as  a  typical  Jewish  insti- 
tute, abrogated  by  the  gospel,  and  tending  rather  to  captivate 
the  senses  than  suitably  dispose  the  soul,  to  divert  the  atten- 
tion from  the  words  to  the  sound.  The  bewitching  innovation, 
however,  once  introduced  was  soon  universally  established, 
and  the  corruption  of  the  church's  ritual  kept  pace  v/ith  the 
decline  of  its  piety.  Simple  melody  was  succeeded  in  the  first 
instance  by  the  light  airs  of  the  Greek  and  Roman  theatre; 
abstruse  harmonical  proportion  was  then  studied,  and  gradu- 
ally took  possession  of  nearly  the  whole  service;  for  not  only 
the  psalmodical,  but  the  supplicatory  parts,  with  the  aj^point- 
ed  epistle  and  gospel,  were  sung  not  in  mere  intonation  or 
chant,  but  elaborate  canon.  In  the  twelfth  century,  and  with 
little  alteration  till  the  Reformation,  the  church  music  was 
extremely  intricate;  the  composers  seem  to  have  bade  defi- 
ance to  syllabic  order  and  metrical  arrangement,  rendering 
the  terms  meant  to  be  expressed  unintelligible,  by  each  part 
enouncing  different  words  at  the  same  time.*  "The  kind  of 
music,"  says  Erasmus,  "introduced  into  divine  worship,  is 
such  that  we  are  not  able  to  understand  distinctly,  nor  have 
those  who  sing  it  leisure  to  attend  to  what  they  sing;  the  tin- 
kle of  the  words  is  all  that  strikes  the  ears,  and  soothes  them 
with  a  transient  and  slightly  pleasurable  sensation ;  with  this 
they  are  so  much  deliglited  that  the  monks  do  nothing  else, 
especially  among  the  Britons,  "f 

The  composition  of  metrical  versions  or  paraphrases  of  diffe- 

*  A  curious  example  of  this  exists,  or  recently  existed,  in  the  library  of  the  cathe- 
dral at  York  —  a  breviary  or  missal,  containing  the  genealogy  of  the  first  chapter  of 
Matthew  set  to  music;  and  which,  if  performed  in  canon  according  to  the  custom  of 
the  age,  would  present  the  following  absurd  combination  :  the  bass  would  be  holding 
forth  the  existence  of  Abraham ;  while  the  tenor,  in  defiance  of  nature  and  chro- 
nology, would  be  employed  in  begetting  Isaac;  the  counter-tenor,  Jacob;  and  the 
treble,  Joseph  and  all  his  brethren  ! 

t  Erasmi.  Aunot.  in  xiv.  cap.  19  v.  prim.  Epist.  ad  Corinthios. 


344  LIFE    AND    TIMES 

rent  parts  of  the  scriptures,  was  a  frequent  employment  of  the 
northern  ecclesiastics  in  the  early  and  middle  ages.    This  plan 
was  adopted  in  imitation  of  the  old  Teutons,  who  were  accus- 
tomed to  record  their  domestic  and  national  transactions  in 
verse.     Many  of  the  Saxon  clergy,  and  afterwards  the  W  al- 
denses,  attempted  these  poetical  paraphrastic  translations,  to 
assist  the  memory,  to  supply  some  holy  strain  for  the  recluse 
monk  or  pilgrim  traveller  to  chant,  and  to  be  sung  at  the 
evening  entertainment  by  the  minstrels  to  the  harp,  instead  of 
the  "  fairy  legend  and  the  gay  romaunt."     In  the  l^odleian 
library  there  is  a  production  of  this  kind,  a  paraphrase  of  the 
Gospels  and  the  Acts,  written  in  the  Saxon  character,  without 
rhyme,  in  imitation  of  the  most  common  species  of  the  Latin 
tetrameter  iambic.     In  the  library  of  Corpus  Christi  college, 
Cambridge,  there  is  a  version  of  the  Psalms,  in  English  metre, 
but  in  the  northern  dialect  of  the  twelfth  century,  a  transla- 
tion as  close  as  verse  will  allow  of  the  Gallican  edition  of 
Jerome's  Latin  version.     It  was  not,  however,  until  the  Re- 
formation, that  metrical  versions  of  the  Psalms  were  attempted 
with  reference  to  the  public  service  of  the  church.     The  royal 
commission,  to  reform  the  ecclesiastical  law,  appointed  in  the 
reign  of  Henry  VIII.  and  executed  in  the  days  of  his  son, 
condemned  the  old  choral  mode  of  worship  ;*  and  the  leading 
reformers  at  once  abandoned  it  for  congregational  psalmody. 
Elizabeth,  indeed,  whose  hatred  of  puritanism  and  prejudices 
in  favour  of  the  renounced  religion  were  strong,  continued  to 
patronise  the  cathedral  music,  but  the  psalmodical  was  not 
interdicted,  and  it  was  speedily  introduced  into  most  churches. 
The  new  morning  prayer  began  at  St.  Antholin's,  London, 
when  a  psalm  was  sung  in  the  Geneva  fashion,  all  the  con- 
gregation, men,  w^omen,  and  boys,  singing  together.     Bishop 
Jewel  remarks,  that  "  the  singing  of  psalms,  begun  in  one 
church  in  London,  did  quickly  spread  itself,  not  only  through 
the  city,  but  in  the  neighbouring  places,  sometimes  at  Paul's 

*  Ref.  Leg.  Eccles.  c.  v,     Andrew's  Hist,  of  Great  Britain,  vol.  i.  p.  231. 


OF    DR.    ISAAC    WATTS.  345 

Cross  six  thousand  people  singing  together."  The  first  in- 
stance, however,  in  our  country  on  record,  is  undoubtedly  the 
following  during  the  reign  of  Edward  VI. :  —  "  On  March 
15,  1550,  M.  Vernon,  a  Frenchman  by  birth,  but  a  learned 
protestant,  and  parson  of  St.  Martin's,  Ludgate,  preached  at 
St.  Paul's  Cross  befoie  the  mayor  and  aldermen,  and  after 
sermon  done  they  all  sung  in  common  a  psalm  in  metre,  as  it 
seems  now  was  frequently  done,  the  custom  being  brought  to 
us  from  abroad  by  the  exiles."*  The  joractice  of  the  primitive 
church  was  thus  revived,  the  people  were,  as  Seeker  expresses 
it,  "  restored  to  their  rights,"  and  taught  to  sing  as  well  as 
pray,  "not  with  the  heart  only,  but  with  the  understanding 
also."  Hence,  arose  an  imperious  necessity  for  metrical  ver- 
sions of  the  Psalms ;  for  the  old  music  being  too  complicated 
to  be  easily  learnt,  the  words  must  be  reduced  to  a  regular 
rhythm,  in  order  to  be  attuned  to  simpler  strains.  "Every 
thing  contributed  to  endear  the  book  of  Psalms  to  the  early 
reformers ;  not  merely  as  it  formed  a  part,  and  a  most  impor- 
tant part,  of  the  long-sealed  word  of  God ;  not  merely  as  its  deep 
and  thrilling  expressions  of  repentance,  its  splendid  amplifica- 
tions of  the  power  and  glory  of  God,  its  energy,  its  sublimity, 
its  heartfelt  tenderness,  captivated  their  excited  feelings  ;  not 
merely  for  one  or  all  these  reasons  did  it  cleave  to  their  me- 
mory, and,  when  associated  to  their  national  airs,  take  root,  as 
it  were,  in  the  depth  of  their  hearts :  but  it  was  still  farther 
endeared  by  temporary  circumstances.  Much  which  would 
have  been  inapplicable  to  the  church  in  a  state  of  peace, 
became,  or  appeared  to  be,  strictly  appropriate  in  the  hour  of 
persecution  and  distress.  All  those  poems  which  represented 
the  chosen  people,  or  the  individual,  in  the  lowest  state  of 
oppression  and  misery,  faithfully  and,  as  it  were,  prophetically 
described  their  own  condition.  The  hunted  Hugonot,  or  he 
that  was  condemned  under  the  bloody  statute  of  the  Six  Arti- 

*  Nichols's  Progress  of  Queeu  Elizabeth,  vol.  i.  p.  54,  in  a  kiud  of  diary  taken 
from  Strype. 

Z 


3i6  LIFE    AND   TIMES 

cles,  beheld  himself  in  David  fleeing  as  a  bird  to  the  hills,  or 
betrayed  by  his  own  familiar  friend." 

The  singing  of  the  psalms  in  rhythm,  though  designated  by 
Heylin  "  a  presbyterian  trick,"  had  a  Catholic  origin.  The 
first  attempt  at  a  metrical  version  was  made  by  Clement  Marot; 
and  is  deserving  of  particidar  notice,  not  on  account  of  its 
intrinsic  excellence,  but  owing  to  the  patronage  of  Calvin 
and  Beza,  and  its  adoption  into  the  ritual  of  the  reformed 
churches.  Marot  was  born  in  the  year  1495,  and  was  a  na- 
tive of  Cahors,  in  Qaerci,  near  Toulouse ;  like  his  father,  Jean 
Marot,  he  became  valet  de  chambre  to  Francis  I. ;  and  also 
page  to  Margaret  of  France,  wife  of  the  duke  of  Alengon.  He 
was  the  favourite  bard  of  the  king;  his  pastorals,  ballads, 
fables,  elegies,  epigrams,  and  poetical  translations,  became  po- 
pular throughout  France,  and  won  for  their  author  the  title  of 
"  prince  of  poets  and  poet  of  princes."  Accompanying  his 
master  to  the  battle  of  Pavia,  in  15'2l,  he  was  wounded  and 
made  prisoner;  and  on  his  return  to  Paris,  he  was  accused  of 
heresy,  and  thrown  into  prison.  Being  brought  before  the 
Lieutcnnnt-cr'nninel,  he  was  reminded  of  the  gay  and  dissolute 
chansons  he  had  taught  the  court;  reproached  for  the  licen- 
tious character  of  his  productions;  and  all  that  was  granted 
him,  owing  to  his  earnest  solicitations,  was  a  removal  from 
the  unwholesome  prison  of  Chatelet  to  that  of  Chartres. 
During  his  imprisonment  he  wrote  his  Enfer,  a  severe  and 
caustic  satire,  and  completed  a  revision  of  the  famous  Roman 
de  la  Rose.  On  the  return  of  Francis  from  Spain,  he  regain- 
ed his  liberty,  bat  was  obliged  to  flee  to  Geneva,  and  from 
thence  repaired  to  Turin,  where  he  died  in  poverty  in  the 
year  1544* 

It  was  at  the  instigation  of  the  learned  Vatablus,  professor 
of  Hebrew  in  tlie  university  of  Paris,  that  Marot  began  his 
task  of  versifying  the  psalms.  The  professor,  along  with 
Francis  Melin  de  S.  Gelays,  assisted  him  in  his  translations; 

*  Walton's  Hist,  of  English  Poetry,  vol.  iii.  161—1(33. 


OF   DR.    ISAAC    WATTS.  347 

for  they  are  said  to  be  "  traduitz  en  rithme  Frangais  selon  la 
verit6  Hebraique."  The  first  edition  contained  only  thirty 
psalms,  and  was  dedicated  to  Francis,  with  the  following 
compliment : 

"  Dieu  le  donna  aux  peuples  Hebraiques 
Dieu  te  devoit,  ce  peuse-je,  aux  Galliques." 

In  producing  his  version  he  intimates  that  he  had  received 
assistance : 

"par  les  divius  espiits 
Qui  out  sous  toy  Hebrieu  laugage  apris, 
Nous  sout  jettes  les  Pseaumes  en  lumiere 
Clairs,  et  au  sens  de  la  forme  premiere." 

The  royal  dedication  is  followed  by  another,  "Aux  dames 
de  France."  Warton  observes,  that  Marot  seems  anxious  to 
deprecate  the  raillery  which  the  new  tone  of  his  versification 
was  likely  to  incur,  and  is  embarrassed  to  find  an  apology  for 
turning  saint.  The  introduction  of  metrical  psalmody  he 
describes  as  bringing  again  the  golden  age  : 

"O  bien  heureux  qui  voir  pourra 
Fieurir  le  temps,  que  I'ou  orra 
Le  laboureur  S.  srt  charrue, 
Le  chanetier  parmy  la  rue, 
Et  Partisan  eu  sa  boutique 
Avecques  un  Pseaume  ou  cautique 
En  sou  labeur  se  soulager ; 
Heureux  qui  orra  le  bergcr 
Et  la  bergere  en  bois  estans 
'  Faire  que  rochers  et  estangs 

Apres  eux  chanteut  la  hauteur 
Du  saint  nom  de  leurs  Createur. 

"  Commeneez,  dames,  commeucez 
Le  siecle  dore  !  avancez  ! 
En  chantant  d'um  cueur  debouuaire 
Dedans  ce  saint  cancionnaire.  " 

"  Tluice  happy  tliey,  who  may  behold 
And  listen,  in  that  age  of  gold  ! 
As  by  the  plough  tlie  labourer  stays. 
And  carman  mid  the  public  ways. 


348  LIFE    AND    TIi^lF.S 

Aud  tradesman  in  his  shop,  shall  swell 

Their  voice  in  psalm  or  canliele, 

Singing  to  solace  toil;  again, 

From  woods  shall  come  a  sweeter  strain  ! 

Shepherd  and  shepherdess  shall  vie 

In  many  a  tender  psalmody, 

And  the  Creator's  name  prolong 

As  rock  and  stream  return  their  song ! 

"Begin,  then,  ladies  fair!  begin 
The  age  renew'd  that  knows  no  sin  ; 
And  with  light  heart  that  wants  no  vving, 
Sing!  from  this  holy  song  book  sing!"* 

Marot  declares  in  the  spirit  of  religious  gallantry,  that  his 
design  is  to  add  to  the  happiness  of  his  fair  readers,  by  substi- 
tuting divine  hymns  in  the  place  of  amorous  ditties;  to  inspire 
their  hearts  with  a  passion  in  which  there  is  no  torment;  to 
banish  that  fickle  and  fantastic  deity  cupid  from  the  world; 
and  to  fill  their  apartments  with  the  praises  of  the  true 
Jehovah.  Nor  did  he  labout  in  vain  ;  for  the  book  was  sold  so 
rapidly,  that  the  printers  could  not  supply  the  public  with 
copies.  At  the  court  each  of  the  princes  aud  nobility  selected 
a  psalm,  and  sung  it  to  the  ballad  tune  that  each  preferred. 
The  dauphin,  prince  Henry,  who  delighted  in  hunting,  was 
fond  of  Alnsi  qiCon  o'lt  le  cerf  hriiire ;  As  the  hart  imnteth 
after  the  water-hrooks,  which  he  sung  when  going  to  the 
chase.  The  queen's  favourite  was,  Ne  veuUles  pas,  O  sire ! 
Me  reprendre  en  ton  ire;  O  Lord!  rebuke  me  not  in  thy 
wrath,  which  she  sung  to  a  fashionable  jig.  Madame  de 
Valentinois,  was  partial  to  Dufond  de  ma  pensee ;  From  the 
depth  of  my  heart.  Antony  king  of  Navarre  sung,  Reveiiye 
moy,  jyreii  le  querclle ;  Stand  itp,  O  Lord,  to  revenge  my 
quarrel,  to  the  air  of  a  dance  of  Poitou. 

After  his  removal  to  Geneva,  Marot  completed  twenty 
more  psalms,  which,  with  the  former  thirty,  and  eight  whose 
translators  were  never  known,  were  printed  in  1542,  at  Rome, 

*Les  Oeuvres  de  Clement  INIarot  de  Cahors,  valet  de  chambre  du  roy,  &.c. 
A  Lyon,  15.51.      12mo. 


OF    DR.     ISAAC    WATTS.  .349 

by  Theodore  Drust,  a  German,  printer  in  ordinary  to  the 
pope.  This  edition  was  in  the  Gothic  character,  in  octavo. 
The  remaining"  psahns  were  soon  after  versified  by  Beza,*  and 
were  as  favoVirably  received  as  Marot's,  nntil  the  productions 
of  both  were  interdicted  by  the  catholic  authorities,  on  account 
of  the  patronage  given  to  them  by  the  reformed.  The  doc- 
tors of  the  Sorbonne  took  the  alarm,  and  issued  their  fulmiua- 
tions  against  them  ;  and  psalm-singing  began  to  be  considered 
by  the  papal  party,  as  an  infallible  sign  of  Lutheranism. 
The  cardinal  of  Lorraine  was  particularly  zealous  in  pro- 
moting a  crusade  against  the  new  psalmody ;  every  artifice 
was  adopted  to  induce  the  court  of  Francis  to  renounce  the 
"  holy  song-book ;"  and  the  ecclesiastic  went  so  far  as  to  re- 
flect upon  the  gallants  and  ladies,  for  preferring  the  composi- 
tions of  the  Hebrew  bard,  to  the  amatory  elegancies  of 
Horace.  The  zeal  of  the  catholics  only  increased  the  attach- 
ment of  the  protestants;  they  taught  the  psalms  to  their 
children,  appended  them  to  their  catechisms,  and  adopted 
them  in  their  worship;  and  Marot's  metrical  version  was  at 
once  introduced  by  Calvin  into  his  own  congregation  at 
Geneva.  They  cheered  their  social  assemblies,  and  were  com- 
monly heard  in  the  streets;  the  husbandmen  sung  them  in 
the  fields,  the  boatmen  on  the  Rhine  and  Rhone,  the  Flemish 
weavers  at  their  looms,  and  the  artificers  of  Flanders  became 
noted  for  their  skill  in  psalmodical  performances.  Bayle  cal- 
culates, that  ten  thousand  copies  set  to  music  were  printed 
and  circulated.  The  music  of  Marot's  psalms,  was  chiefly 
borrowed  from  the  airs  of  ballads  popular  with  the  French 
peasantry  ;  on  which  account  Florimond  de  Remond  objected 
to  them,  but  the  Sieur  de  Pours  replied,  that  what  used  to 
belong  to  "profane  songs,  was  now  separated  from  them,  and 
become  in  a  measure  sanctified."  A  revised  version  of  Marot, 
having  become  necessary,  it  was  commenced  by  M.  Conrart, 

*Les  Pseaumes  de  David  mis  eu  rime  Tranyoise,  Par  Clement  Marot  et  Theo- 
dore Beze.     Sedan,  1630.     8vo. 


350  LIFE    AND    TIMES 

and  completed  by  M.  dc  la  l^astidc,  and  soon  adopted  in 
Geneva,  Hesse  Cassel,  and  by  the  German  protestants  in 
general.* 

The  success  which  attended  the  continental  psalmodists,  in- 
duced many  of  the  protestants  in  England  to  imitate  their 
example ;  and  it  was  the  ambition  of  Sternhold  to  become 
the  reforming  poet  of  the  court  of  Edward.  Previous  to  his 
attempt,  however,  two  brothers  in  Scotland,  John  and  Robert 
Weddcrburn,t  versified  a  number  of  the  psalms,  which  were 
used  by  the  reformed  in  the  north,  until  superseded  by  the 
English  version.  Like  Marot,  Sternhold  was  a  layman,  a 
servant  of  the  court ;  and  appears  from  the  title-page  of  his 
production,  which  has  been  continued  in  all  the  printed 
copies,  to  have  undertook  his  translation  to  supplant  the  love- 
ditties  and  licentious  sonnets  of  the  courtiers — a  design  which 
Antony  Wood  testifies  was  but  partially  accomplished.  He 
lived  to  complete  but  fifty-one  of  the  psalms,  which  were 
printed  with  a  dedication  to  the  king,  in  1549,  under  the 
title,  "All  such  Psalms  of  David  as  Thomas  Sternholde,  late 
grome  of  the  king's  majestyes  robes,  did  in  his  lyfe-time 
drawe  into  Englyshe  metre."  Of  his  clerical  successor,  Hop- 
kins, who  versified  fifty-eight  more,  very  little  is  known,  but 
Warton  pronounces  him  the  "better  poet"  —  a  fact  which 

*  Mai'ot  and  Beza's  Psalms  were  translated  into  Low-Dutcli  metre,  by  Peter 
Datlien,  about  the  year  1.500,  the  first  pastor  of  the  reformed  church  at  Frankfort.- 
on-the-Maine.  He  adapted  them  to  the  Frencli  tunes  and  measure,  and  dedicated 
them  to  all  the  Belgic  congregations  and  pastors  "groaning  under  the  cross." 
A  new  Dutch  translation  of  the  Psahns,  and  the  songs  of  the  bible  in  metre,  was 
undertook  by  Philip  de  .Maruix,  lord  of  Sainte  Algedonda.  Zamosky,  a  Bohemian, 
produced  the  Pjsne  Duchownj,  or  spiritual  songs;  whilst  one  of  his  countrymen, 
Stryc,  attempted  the  Psalms,  a  version  of  tiie  highest  merit,  Zalmowe  Sw.  Dawida 
w  ryhmy  Ceske  uwedene,  l.jOO,  first  edit..  At  Madrid  the  Psalms  iu  metre 
appeared  in  Latin,  IfiOO,  12mo.  the  work  of  Louis  Crucius,  a  Lisbon  Jesuit. 
Bernard  Woiewodka,  of  Cracow,  printed  them  iu  Polish  metre,  at  Brescz,  a  loyal 
city  of  Lithuania,  about  tlie  year  L5(io,  at  the  same  press  from  which  the  bible  of 
Pinckzovian  protestants  issued,  under  the  auspices  of  Prince  Radzivil. 

f  The  Wedderburns  were  the  chief  authors  of  "  Gude  and  Godly  ballates, 
changed  out  of  prophane  songs,  for  avoyding  of  sin,  harlotrie,"  &.c.  written  to 
spread  the  reformed  opinions  in  Scotland,  and  exceedingly  popular  iu  its  da}'. 


OF    DR.    ISAAC    WATTS.  351 

shall  not  here  be  questioned,  as  the  task  of  comparing  the 
two  venerable  worthies  would  be  rather  an  unedifying  one. 
Whittingham,  the  friend  of  Calvin,  the  successor  of  Knox  at 
Geneva,  and  afterwards  dean  of  Durham,  contributed  his 
mite  to  the  work,  and  versified  five  other  psalms,  with  the  de- 
calogue, and  several  creeds  which  he  sung  in  his  own  church.* 
Norton  a  barrister,  according  to  the  Oxford  biographer  "a  bold 
and  busy  Calvinist,"  the  translator  of  the  reformer's  "Insti- 
tutes," furnished  twenty-seven  more;  Wisdome,  archdeacon  of 
Ely,t  translated  the  twenty-fifth  psalm  ;  and  the  eight  others 

*The  hymns  which  follow  the  singing  psalms  in  the  old  version,  were  also 
Whittiugham's  compositions.     The  followiug  are  specimens  of  the  talent  of  this 

rhymer  of  creeds  : 

"  The  Father  God  is,  God  the  Son, 
God  Holy  Ghost  also  ; 
Yet  are  there  not  three  Gods  in  all, 
But  one  God  and  no  mo." 

Aihanasiun  C. 
"  From  there  shall  he  come  for  tojudge 
All  men,  both  dead  and  quick ; 
I  in  the  Holy  Ghost  believe. 
And  church  tliat's  catholick." 

Apostolic  C. 

fin  the  olden  time  there  was  a  very  popular  prayer  inserted  at  the  end  of  the 
old  version,  a  translation  of  Luther's  hymn  upon  the  same  occasion,  and  intended  to 
be  sung  in  the  church,  for  which  we  are  indebted  to  the  archdeacon.  The  com- 
mencing stanza  is, 

"  Preserve  us.  Lord,  by  thy  dear  Word, 
From  Pope  and  Turk  defend  us.  Lord  .' 
Which  both  would  thrust  out  of  tliy  throne, 
Our  Lord  Jesus  Christ  thy  dear  Sou|."' 
The  bones  of  Wisdome  were  laid  in  peace  in  Carfax  church;  but  his  rest  was 
disturbed  by  the  jovial  Corbet,  bishop  of  Norwich,  the  opponent  of  his  metropolitan, 
the  Calvinist  Abbot,  the  slave  of  Laud,  and  the  boon  companion  of  King  James. 
He  invokes  the  ghost  of  the  archdeacon  to  assist  him  in  composing  a  puritanical 
hymn ;    he  then  advises  him  to  steal  back  again  to  his  tomb  for  fear  of  being 
entrapped  by  his  old  enemies  the  Pope  and  Turk : 

"  Thou  once  a  body,  now  but  ayre. 
Arch-botcher  of  a  psalm  or  prayer. 

From  Carfax  come! 
And  patch  us  up  a  zealous  lay, 
With  an  old  ever  and  for  ay, 
Or  all  and  some. 
"  Or  such  a  spirit  leud  me. 
As  may  a  hymn  down  send  me. 

To  purine  my  braiiie  : 
But,  Roberte,  looke  behind  thee, 
Lest  Turk  or  Pope  do  find  thee, 
And  go  to  bed  againe," 

Poems  nritien  bij  the  Right  Reverend  Dr.  Richard  Corbet, 
late  Bishop  of  Norwich.    London,  1647.  duod.  p.  44. 


352  LIFE    AND    TIMES 

which  comi)letetl  the  series,  were  contiibutccl  by  authors  now 
unknown.  The  whole  was  published  in  15()-2,  and  attached 
to  the  Book  of  Common  Prayer,  under  the  title,  "The  whole 
Books  of  Psalmes,  collected  into  English  metre,  by  T.  Stern- 
hold,  J.  Hopkins,  and  others,  conferred  with  the  Ebrue,  with 
apt  notes  to  sing  them  withal."  Whatever  might  be  the  merits 
of  this  production,  considering  the  time  of  its  appearance,  it  is 
to  the  disgrace  of  the  church,  and  the  detriment  of  religion, 
that  after  the  lapse  of  nearly  three  centuries  it  should  still  be 
retained  in  her  services.  In  those  who  regard  antiquity  as  ex- 
cellence, and  use  as  authority,  it  may  find  patrons;  but  its 
most  zealous  advocates,  in  i:)ointing  out  its  occasional  beauties, 
have  always  been  at  fault,  after  that  oasis  in  the  desert,  the 
0th  and  10th  verses  of  the  18th  psalm.  Perhaps  Sternhold's 
versification  of  this  passage  is  better  than  any  other,  superior 
to  the  classic  Buchanan,  and  infinitely  preferable  to  Tate  and 
Brady;  but  it  is  a  solitary  instance  of  success,  and  a  critic 
might  cavil  at  the  line,  "  And  bow'd  the  heavens  high,"  as 
well  as  at  the  fanciful  distinction  drawn  between  cherubs  and 
cherubims : 

"  He  bowed  the  heavens  also,  and  came  down ;  and  dark- 
ness was  under  his  feet. 

"And  he  rode  upon  a  cherub  and  did  fly;  yea,  he  did  fly 
upon  the  wings  of  the  wind. 

"  He  made  darkness  his  secret  place ;  his  pavilion  round 
about  were  dark  waters  and  thick  clouds  of  the  skies, 

"At  the  brightness  that  was  before  him,  his  thick  clouds 
passed,  hail-stoncs  and  coals  of  fire." 

STERNIIOLD. 

"The  Lord  descended  from  above,  and  bow'd  the  heavens  iiigh  ; 

And  underneath  his  feet  he  cast  the  darkness  of  the  sky; 

On  cherubs  and  ou  cherubims  full  royally  he  rode; 

And  ou  the  wings  of  mighty  winds  came  flying  all  abroad. 


OF    DR.    ISAAC  WATTS.  353 

"  And,  like  a  den,  most  dark  he  made  his  hid  aud  secret  place  : 

With  waters  black  and  airy  clouds,  encompassed  he  was; 

At  his  bright  presence  did  thick  clouds  in  haste  away  retire, 

Aud  in  the  stead  thereof  did  come  hailstones  and  coals  of  fire." 


ARCHBISHOP  PARKER. 

"The  heavens  full  lowe  he  made  to  bowe, 
And  downe  dyd  he  ensue  ; 
And  darkness  great  was  undersete 
llis  feet  in  cloudy  hue. 

<«  He  rode  on  bye,  and  dyd  so  flye 
Upon  the  cherubims; 
He  came  in  sight  and  made  his  flight 
Upon  the  wyng  of  wynds. 

"The  Lord  from  heaven  sent  down  his  leaven, 
And  thund'red  tlience  in  ire; 
He  tliunder  cast  in  wondrous  blast, 
With  hayle  and  coales  of  fyre." 


SIR  PHILIP  SIDNEY. 

"  He  bowed  the  heavens,  aud  from  the  bow'd  heavens  did  descend 
With  hugy  darkues,  which  aboute  his  feete  did  wend. 

"The  cherubims  their  backs,  the  windes  did  yield  their  wings, 
To  beare  his  sacred  flight;  in  secrete  place  then  clos'd  ; 
About  which  he  dimme  cloudes,  like  a  paviilion  brings 
Cloudes,  even  of  waters  darke,  and  thickest  aire  compos'd ; 
But  streight  his  shining  eyes  this  misty  masse  disclos'd: 
Then  haile,  then  firie  coales,  then  thund'red  heav'niy  Sire, 
Then  spake  he  his  lowd  voice,  then  hailstones,  coles  and  fire." 


TATE  AND  BRADY. 

"The  chariot  of  the  King  of  kings 
Which  active  troops  of  angels  drew, 
On  a  strong  tempest's  rapid  wings, 
With  most  amazing  swiftness  flew.' 


354  LIFE    AND    TIMLS 


WATTS. 

"  When  Cod,  our  leader,  shines  iu  arms, 
AV'hat  mortal  heart  can  bear 
'I'lie  thunder  of  his  loud  alarms, 
The  light'uiug  of  his  spear? 

"He  rides  upon  the  winged  wiud. 
And  angels  in  array, 
In  millions  wait  to  know  his  mind, 
And  swift  as  flames  obey." 

Nothing  can  surpass  the  native  dignity  and  simphcity  of 
the  original ;  the  figure  of  the  winds  being  the  servants  of  the 
Deity,  and  carrying  him  in  his  progress  of  inspection  and 
superintendence  through  the  universe,  is  a  favourite  one  with 
the  Hebrew  bards  —  "lie  maketh  the  clouds  his  chariot,  and 
walketh  upon  the  wings  of  the  wind."  Sternhold,  it  has 
been  asserted,  wrote  all  the  ivinch,  instead  of  m'ujUUj  icinds.) 
which,  if  true,  is  certainly  preferable  to  the  alteration.  Tate 
and  Brady  attempt  to  improve  upon  the  psalmist;  but  the 
mention  of  "  active  troops"  drawing  the  "  chariot,"  robs  the 
whole  scene  of  its  majesty,  and  ])laccs  before  us  the  descend- 
ing King,  driving  his  team  of  angels.  Watts's  plan  allowed 
him  liberties  with  the  sacred  text,  which  the  others  could  not 
employ ;  but  he  paints  the  picture  with  considerable  dignity, 
though  the  s[)lendid  original  must  cast  into  the  shade  every 
imitation.  The  poetry  of  most  nations  is  largely  indebted  to 
the  sacred  volume ;  and  this  striking  representation  has  been 
frequently  imitated  by  our  poets,  who  have  sung  of 

"Nature's  King,  who  oft 
Amid  tempestuous  darkness  dwells  alone, 
And  on  the  wings  of  the  careering  winds 
Walks  dreadfully  serene." 

Thomson,  ]yiHter.  I.  199. 


OF    DR.    ISAAC    WATTS.  .355 

The  next  version  of  the  Psahns,*  was  by  no  less  a  person 
than  the  second  protestant  archbishop  of  Canterbury,  Matthew 
Parker,  which  was  printed  in  4to.  about  the  year  1567,  under 
this  title,  "  The  whole  Psalter  translated  into  English  metre, 
which  contayneth  an  hundredth  and  fifty  psalmes.  The  first 
Qiiinquagene.  Quonium  omnis  terras  deus,  psallite  sapienter. 
Ps.  xiv.  47.  Imprinted  at  London,  by  John  Dave,  dwelling- 
over  Aldersgate,  beneath  St,  Martyn's.  Cum  privilegio  per 
decennium."  The  archbishop  aspired  to  the  character  of 
musician  as  well  as  poet,  and  accompanied  his  work  with 
eight  tunes,  and  a  metrical  preface,  detailing  the  power  of 
sacred  song: 

"  The  psalmist  staj-de  with  tuned  songe,  the  rage  of  minds  agast. 

As  David  did  with  harpe  among  to  Sanle  in  fury  cast, 

With  golden  stringcs  such  harmonie  his  harpe  so  sweet  did  wrest, 

That  he  relieved  his  phrenesie  whom  wicked  sprites  possesst." 

The  extreme  rarity  of  this  book,  together  with  the  fact, 
that,  though  proceeding  from  the  head  of  the  church,  it 
did  not  supersede  the  production  of  the  groom  of  the  king's 

*The  labours  of  William  Hunnis,  a  gentleman  of  the  chapel  under  Edward  VI. 
and  Elizabeth,  should  not  be  passed  over  without  some  notice.  In  1550  he 
printed  a  number  of  the  psalms  under  the  title,  "Certayne  Psalmes,  chosen  out  of 
the  Psalter  of  David,  and  drawen  forth  into  Euglysh  metre,  by  William  Hunnis, 
servant  to  the  Ryght  Honourable  Syr  William  Harberd,  Knight.  Newly  collected 
and  imprinted."  He  was  also  the  author  of  "Seven  Sobs  of  a  Sorrowful  Soul  for 
Sin,  comprehending  the  seven  Penitential  Psalms  in  metre." 

In  1550  John  Hall,  or  Hawle,  a  surgeon  at  Maidstone  in  Kent,  published 
"Certayne  chapters  taken  out  of  the  Proverbes  of  Solomon,  with  other  chapters  of 
the  Holy  Scripture,  and  certayne  Psalmes  of  David,  translated  into  English  metre, 
by  John  Hall."  There  is  an  edition  in  quarto,  dedicated  to  King  Edward  VI.  with 
this  title:  "The  Psalmes  of  David,  translated  into  English  metre,  by  T.  Sternhold, 
Sir  T.  Wyat,  and  William  Hunnis,  with  certaiue  chapters  of  the  Proverbes,  and 
select  Psalmes,  by  John  Hall." 

Interesting  notices  of  the  history  of  psalmody  may  be  found  in  Bingham's 
Antiquities  of  the  Church;  Warton's  History  of  English  Poetry,  vol.  iii.;  Strype's 
Life  of  Archbishop  Parker,  lib.  iii.  and  iv. ;  Nouveau  Dictionaire  Historique,  vol.  vi. ; 
Art.  Marot  in  Bayle's  Gen.  Diet.;  Sir  John  Hawkins's  History  of  Music,  vol.  iii. ; 
Works  of  William  Mason,  vol.  iii.;  Todd's  Observations  upon  Sternhold  and 
Hopkins,  and  others;  A  Preparation  to  the  Psalter,  by  George  Wyther,  1619. 


356  LIFE    AND   TIMES 

robes,  afford  sufficient  evidence  that  it  had  no  pretensions  to 
excellence.  The  attempt  of  the  archbishop  was  followed  by 
that  of  King  James  I.  who  had  the  ambition  to  be  thought  a 
poet  as  well  as  philosoi)her,  and  to  provide  psalms  as  well  as 
sports  for  his  subjects :  he  lived,  however,  only  to  complete 
part  of  his  design,  w^hich  was  printed  under  the  sanction  of 
his  successor,  a  version  remarkable,  says  Grainger,  for  its  flat 
simplicity  and  unmeaning  expletives  *  A  host  of  names  must 
be  passed  over — statesmen,  bishops,  cavaliers,  and  roundheads. 
Lord  Bacon,  Sir  John  Denham,  bishops  Hall,  King,  and 
Patrick,  Withers,  Herbert,  Donne,  and  Blackmore — the  ver- 
sions of  some  of  these  individuals  were  respectable,  but  the  mass 
sinks  far  below  mediocrity.  The  labours  of  Sir  Philip  Sidney, 
and  his  accomplished  sister,  the  Countess  of  Pembroke,  are, 
however,  deserving  of  notice,  though  time  has  rendered  them, 
as  to  any  practical  purpose,  almost  useless.  For  nearly  two 
centuries  and  a  half  their  joint  production  quietly  slept  in 
manuscript,  and  is  even  now  comparatively  unknown,  only  a 
small  edition,  of  two  hundred  and  fifty  copies,  having  issued 
from  the  Chiswick  press,  in  1823.  This  version  has  many 
passages  of  great  merit  and  beauty;  it  displays  frequently  a 
striking  felicity  of  expression  ;  the  rhythm  of  the  lines  is  ex- 
ceedingly easy  and  musical;  and  many  psalms  are  rendered 
with  a  nerve  and  energy,  quite  refreshing,  after  the  tame  and 
spiritless  attempts  that  preceded  it.  The  fine  gold  is,  indeed, 
mixed  up  with  much  dross,  but  besides  its  irregular  metre, 

*  Tl)e    following  is  a  specimen  of  this  royal   production,  and  certainly  when 
placed  in  juxtaposition  with  Hopkins,  the  subject  must  yield  to  the  monarcii : 

PSALM,  Ixxiv.  11. 

"  VVliy  withdrawest  tbou  thy  hand,  even  thy  right  hand  :'  )iluck  it  out  of  thy  hosom." 
JAMES  I. 

"  Why  dost  tlioii  tlms  witlidraw  thy  hand,  e'en  thy  right  hand  restrain  ? 

Out  of  thy  bosom  for  our  good  drawe  back  the  same  againe." 

HOPKINS. 

"Why  doost  withdrawe  thy  liand  aback,  and  liide  it  in  tliy  lappe? 

O  pluck  it  out,  and  be  not  slack  to  give  thy  foes  a  rappe." 


OF    DR.    ISAAC    WATTS.  357 

its  faults  are  chiefly  those  which  characterise  the  poetry  of  the 
Elizabethian  age;  false  antitheses,  fanciful  conceits,  quaint 
and  occasionally  uncouth  phraseology.  The  commencement 
of  the  45th  psalm  displays  considerable  skill  in  versification  ; 
to  use  a  poet's  phrase,  the  "numbers  come,"  and  produce  that 
intuitive  music  which  only  accomplished  minds  can  command : 

"ERUCTAVIT  COR  MEUM. 

"My  harte  endites  au  argument  of  worth, 

The  praise  of  him  that  doth  the  scepter  swaye ; 

My  tongue  the  pen  to  paynt  his  praises  forth, 
Shall  write  as  swift  as  swiftest  writer  may, 
Tiien  to  the  king  these  are  the  words  I  say; 

Fairer  art  thou  than  sonnes  of  mortall  race. 
Because  high  God  liath  blessed  thee  for  ay, 

Thie  lipps,  as  springs,  doe  flowe  with  speaking  grace. 

"Tliie  honors  sword  gird  to  thy  mightie  side, 

O  thou  that  dost  all  things  in  might  excel! ; 
With  glory  prosper,  on  with  triumph  ride, 

Since  justice,  truth,  and  meekness  with  thee  dwell. 

Soe  that  right  hande  of  thine  shall  teaching  tell. 
Such  things  to  thee  as  well  may  terror  bring. 

And  terror,  such  as  never  erst  befell 
To  mortall  miudes,  at  sight  of  mortall  king."* 

Among  the  poets  of  the  seventeenth  century,  there  is  a  name 
almost  "  unknown  to  fame,"  that  of  George  Sandys,  whose 
psalms  have  never  been  surpassed  for  closeness  of  the  version 
and  poetical  beauty.  He  employs  chiefly  the  trochaic  coup- 
let, in  which  he  has  been  followed  by  Mr.  Montgomery,  the 
most  simple  of  our  lyric  measures,  but  one  of  the  most  beauti- 
ful, and  best  adapted  for  psalmody  :  Sandys  rarely  fails  when 
he  uses  this  measure ;  but  he  becomes  flat  and  tame  when  he 
adopts  a  more  involved  metre.  His  name  is  seldom  seen  in 
any  of  our  selections,  probably  owing  to  the  want  of  that  exact 
metrical  precision,  the  fault  of  his  day,  which  is  so  requisite  in 

*  Sir  P.  Sidney  and  the  Countess  of  Pembroke's  version,  &c.  Whittingham,  1823. 


358  LIFE    AND    TIMES 

verses  intended  to  be  sung  to  simple  tunes.  The  translation 
of  Rouse,*  the  elegant  paraphrases  of  Addison,  must  be  passed 
over,  with  the  attempts  of  many  others  to  accomplish  the  high 
emprise.  What  is  commonly  called  the  New  Version,  that  of 
Tate  and  Brady,  requires  some  notice,  not  on  account  of  any 
superior  merit,  but  because  sanctioned  by  the  royal  authority 
to  be  used  in  churches.  Of  the  authors  we  know  nothing, 
save  what  Johnson  tells  us  of  Brady's  translation  of  the  ^neid, 
that  when  dragged  into  the  world,  it  did  not  live  long  enough 
to  cry.  A  better  fate  attended  his  undertaking  in  honour  of 
David  than  of  Virgil,  though  one,  perhaps,  not  more  deserved; 
for,  notwithstanding  a  few  exceptions,  the  book,  as  a  repre- 
sentation of  the  Hebrew  psalmists,  can  scarcely  be  tolerated. 
It  has  none  of  the  dignity,  animation,  and  fire  of  the  inspired 
text;  the  same  spirit  is  breathed  into  compositions  differing 
widely  in  their  character;  and  the  choral  song  of  the  church, 
the  lo  Triumphe  of  the  Jew,  is  rendered  after  the  same  like- 
ness, and  receives  the  same  sort  of  treatment,  as  the  didactic 
ode  and  the  mournful  elegy.  If,  struck  with  the  beauty  of  the 
original,  the  coadjutors  attempt  to  transfer  it  to  the  picture, 
the  imagery  is  sure  either  to  be  barbarously  clipped  or  ampli- 
fied, forming  a  collection  of  those  amhitiosa  ornamenta,  which 
may  please  a  vitiated  taste,  but  will  disgust  a  correct  judg- 
ment:  the  C7th,  19th,  and  J39tli  psalms  are  among  the  best 
versions  in  the  volume.  Since  that  period,  the  names  of  Watts, 
Merrick,  Bishop,  Mant,  Marsh,  Montgomery,  Lord  Byron, 
and  Sir  Walter  Scott,  occur,  as  those  who  have  entered  the 
lists;  and  if  complete  success  has  not  been  attained  by  any, 

*  The  parliament  of  1013  lecoinmeiided  tlie  Westminster  assembly  of  divines,  to 
propose  a  version  of  the  psalms  iu  the  place  of  Sternhold  ;  the  assembly  corrected  and 
improved  Rouse's  production,  and  sent  it  up  to  the  commons  with  the  following 
uotice:  "Whereas  the  honourable  house  of  commons,  by  an  order  bearing  date 
Nov.  20,  1643,  have  recommended  the  psalms,  published  by  'Mr.  Rouse,  to  the 
consideration  of  the  assembly  of  divines,  the  assembly  has  caused  them  to  be 
carefully  perused,  and,  as  they  are  now  altered  and  amended,  do  approve  them, 
and  humbly  conceive  they  may  be  useful  and  prolitablc  to  the  church,  if  they  be 
permitted  to  be  publicly  sung." 


OF   DR.    ISAAC    WATTS.  359 

an  almost  hopeless  expectation  now,  it  has  not  been  owing  to 
the  want  of  competition  or  talent,  but  to  the  pecnliar  genius  of 
Hebrew  poetry,  which  disdains  the  shackles  of  English  metre. 
Merrick's  version  was  popular  in  its  day,  and  has  been  much 
praised  for  its  elegance  and  smoothness;  but  it  is  too  evident- 
ly polished  into  harmony  by  art  and  labour  to  please.  What- 
ever might  be  his  Hebrew  scholarship,  he  had  nothing  beyond 
that  in  common  with  the  Hebrew  muse ;  his  was  not  a  kin- 
dred spirit ;  he  could  neither  rise  to  its  elevation,  nor  grasp  its 
breadth,  nor  explore  its  depth.  We  look  in  vain  for  the  lofty 
and  bold  conce^jtions  of  the  psalmist;  all  is  flat,  languid, 
and  insipid ;  the  "  high  hills"  become  table-lands,  the  ever- 
lasting mountains  hide  their  diminished  heads,  and  the  lofty 
cedars  are  paired  down  into  trim  hedge-rows. 

The  version  of  Watts,  to  which  we  have  now  arrived,  left 
the  works  of  his  predecessors  at  an  immense  distance.  Trans- 
lation, indeed,  was  not  his  object,  but  free  imitation  ;  and 
with  peculiar  felicity,  in  many  instances,  has  he  caught  the 
spirit  of  his  model,  and  made  David  sing  the  song  not  only  of 
Moses  but  of  the  Lamb.  He  brought  to  his  task  no  inconsi- 
derable amount  of  qualification  —  a  critical  acquaintance  with 
the  inspired  originals,  fervent  piety,  facility  of  versification, 
and  poetical  taste.  It  has  been  justly  said,  that  in  "  catching 
the  spirit  of  the  text,  no  writer  has  been  on  the  whole  so 
happy;  and  his  metrical  version,  free  and  imperfect  as  it  pro- 
fessedly is,  and  faulty  iu  many  respects,  is,  nevertheless,  the 
most  instructive  commentary  on  the  Psalms  that  we  possess. 
Nor  has  any  single  work  so  powerfully  contributed  to  promote 
the  cuUivalion  of  sacred  poetry."*  In  judging  of  the  merits  of 
his  production,  we  must  consider  the  object  at  which  he  aimed ; 
not  to  give  a  representation  of  the  psalms  as  poetry,  but  to 
adapt  them  for  Christian  worship,  a  purpose  which  limited 
him  in  his  metres,  and  frequently  obliged  him  to  sacrifice  the 

♦Eclectic  Review,  vol.  xxiii.  No.  1,  to  whose  valuable  labours  I  am,  in  several 
instances,  indebted. 


\ 


3G0  LIFE    AND   TIMES 

graces  of  style,  ornaraeut,  and  expression.  His  work  soon 
became  popular  in  his  own  denomination,  upwards  of  four 
thousand  being  sold  the  first  year ;  it  was  gradually  admitted 
into  most  of  their  places  of  worship,*  an  honour  which  it  still 
retains.  But  meagre  praise,  notwithstanding,  have  the  la- 
bours of  the  nonconformist  received  from  churchmen  :  Bishop 
Home  mentions  Merrick  and  Ogilvie,  but  overlooks  the  ver- 
sion of  the  dissenter ;  and  Bishop  Mant,  though  evidently 
indebted  to  it,  maintains  the  same  profound  sileuce.f 

Pie  who  undertakes  a  metrical  version  of  the  Psalms,  should 
first  sit  down  and  carefully  examine  the  structure  and  charac- 


*Mr.  Bradbury,  indeed,  sternly  refused  it  his  favour,  opposed  its  use  in  his  con- 
gregation, and  at  the  lecture  at  Pinner's  Hall.  The  baptists,  however,  soon  began 
to  use  Watts's  psalms,  in  connexion  with  their  own  selections.  A  curious  contro- 
versy once  agitated  this  body,  as  to  the  propriety  of  singing  at  all  in  worship;  a 
practice  which,  at  one  period,  they  generally  omitted.  Mr.  Keach  was  the  lirst 
who  bi;oke  the  ice;  he  began  to  introduce  singing  at  the  ordinance  ;  after  a  strug- 
gle of  six  years,  it  was  added  to  the  devotions  of  thanksgiving  days;  and  after 
fourteen  years  more  of  perseverance  and  debate,  it  was  permitted  at  the  close  of 
each  service  on  the  sabbath,  that  those  who  chose  it  might  withdraw,  and  not  have 
their  ears  offended  by  the  sound.  The  church,  however,  divided,  and  the  inharmo- 
nious formed  a  new  society,  which  still  flourishes  in  Mays  Pond.  Isaac  Marlowe 
fiercely  opposed  Mr.  Keach,  designating  the  practice  as,  "error,  apostacy,  human 
tradition,  prelimited  forms,  mischievous  error,  carnal  worship."  'J'he  heats 
excited  by  the  controversy,  led  tiie  General  Assembly,  held  in  London,  May  ^^,  1692, 
to  interfere;  and  it  was  decided,  that  both  parties  had  been  guilty  of  personalities  ; 
that  both  were  to  call  in  their  books,  and  that  the  members  of  the  churches  were 
to  be  requested  not  to  buy,  give,  or  disperse  any  of  them  any  more. 

-}•  That  the  Quarterly  Review  should  not  have  the  magnanimity  to  give  Watts 
liis  due,  might  be  expected;  but  that  it  should  be  so  obtuse  as  to  issue  the  follow- 
ing criticism,  is  passing  strange:  "It  is  the  most  ungracious  and  unwelcome 
part  of  our  present  task,  to  speak  unfavourably  of  the  well-meant  contributions  of 
good  men  to  the  cause  of  Christian  piety,  especially  when  they  are  still  popular 
with  a  large  class  of  the  community.  Wc  do  not  object  to  Watts  that  his  psalms 
are  not  literal  versions,  which  he  did  not  intend  them  to  be;  but  we  cannot  help 
suspecting,  that  the  attachment  of  the  better  educated  among  the  dissenters  to 
this,  which  is,  we  believe,  generally  their  hymn-book,  partakes  of  that  feeling  from 
which  many  pious  members  of  the  church  adhere  to  old  Sternhold  and  Hopkins." 
Notwithstanding  this,  it  is  curious  to  observe  one  of  Watt's  versions,  "Before 
Jehovah's  awful  throne,"  inserted  in  Mr.  Murray's  late  edition  of  Heber's  hymns. 
It  has,  however.  Anon,  for  its  signature  !  Was  the  editor  really  ignorant  of  the  au- 
thor of  this  noble  poem  ?  or  did  he  think  that  the  pastor  of  Bury-Street  was  not 
proper  company  for  the  Bishop  of  Calcutta  ? 


OF    DR.    ISAAC    WATTS.  361 

ter  of  the  poems,  the  events  they  celebrate,  anrl  the  occasions 
on  which  they  were  written.  Though  they  all  come  under 
one  general  appellation,  yet,  imperfect  as  is  our  acquaintance 
with  the  nature  of  Hebrew  verse,  it  is  easy  to  perceive  that 
their  metrical  structure  in  the  original  varies.  Some  are 
acrostic  poems  ;  in  some  the  parallelisms  are  more  prominent 
than  in  others ;  whilst  not  a  few  seem  to  have  been  intended 
for  different  modes  of  musical  recitation.  Style  and  metre, 
then,  are  not  to  be  taken  at  random,  but  to  be  selected  with 
careful  discrimination,  as  the  tone  and  measure  best  adapted 
to  give  to  the  English  version  an  analogical  dress  to  that 
which  the  Hebrew  text  wears.  Many  of  our  translators 
have  failed  from  the  want  of  a  just  apprehension  of  this  im- 
portant point :  they  have  versified  the  triumphal  ode  with  the 
same  form  of  stanza  as  the  plaintive  elegy ;  and,  consequently, 
the  measure  is  frequently  as  inappropriate  to  the  psalm,  as  the 
couplets  of  Hudibras  would  be  to  the  Iliad.  The  correspon- 
dence of  Watts  with  his  friends,  shows  how  anxious  he  was 
about  his  metres ;  though  not  always  happy  in  his  choice,  yet 
he  is  so  generally ;  and  his  failures  result  from  his  being  obli- 
ged to  adopt  that  measure  which  was  most  suited  to  a  simple 
regular  congregational  tune,  rather  than  that  best  adapted  to 
express  the  spirit  and  poetical  beauty  of  the  composition. 
The  29th  psalm  has  been  versified  in  almost  all  kinds  of 
stanza,  and  a  few  specimens  will  show  how  completely  its 
dignity  has  been  sacrificed  by  inappropriate  metre.  The  psalm 
is  one  of  David's,  and  was  sung  by  the  Jews  on  the  second 
day  of  the  feast  of  tabernacles.  It  is  a  contemplation  of  the 
power  and  majesty  of  Jehovah  •  and  "  it  is  enough  to  say  of 
it,"  remarks  Lowth,  "  that  the  sublimity  of  the  matter  is  per- 
fectly equalled  by  the  unafi"ected  energy  of  the  style."  The 
antithetical  balance  of  line  against  line  is  preserved  through- 
out ;  nor  does  the  collocation  of  the  same  or  equivalent  terms 
enfeeble  the  poem : 


A  a 


3C-2  LIFE    AND   TIMES 

1.  "  Give  unto  the  Lord,  C)  ye  mighty. 

Give  unto  the  Lord  glory  and  strength. 

2.  Give  unto  the  Lord,  the  glory  due  unto  his  name; 
Worship  the  Lord  in  his  glorious  sanctuary. 

3.  The  voice  of  the  Lord  is  upon  the  waters  : 
The  God  of  glory  thundereth  ; 

The  Lord  is  upon  many  waters. 

4.  Tlie  voice  of  the  Lord  is  in  power. 

The  voice  of  the  Lord  is  full  of  majesty  : 

5.  The  voice  of  the  Lord  breaketh  the  cedars  : 
Yea,  the  Lord  breaketh  the  cedars  of  Lebanon : 

fi.     He  maketh  them  also  to  skip  like  a  calf, 
Lebanon  and  Sirion  like  a  young  unicorn." 


THE  SIDNEYS. 

"  Affcrtc  Domino. 

"  Ascribe  unto  the  Lord  of  light, 
Ye  men  of  power,  even  by  birth-right, 
Ascribe  all  glory,  and  all  might. 

"  Ascribe  due  glory  to  his  name  ; 
And  in  his  ever  glorious  frame 
Of  sanctuary  doe  the  same. 

"  His  voice  is  on  the  waters  found. 
His  voice  does  threat'ning  thunders  sound. 
Yea,  through  the  waters  doth  resound. 

"  By  voice  of  high  Jehova  we 
The  highest  cedars  broken  see. 
E'en  cedars  which  on  Liban  be. 

"  His  voice  doth  flashing  flames  divide  ; 
His  voice  have  trembling  deserts  tride ; 
E'en  desertes,  where  the  Arabs  bide." 

BUCHANAN. 

4.  Vox  dignitatis  plena,  nee  irrita^ 
Unquam  ad  patrandum  jussa  potentiaj 

5.  Nudare  cedris  seu  Libanum  jurat, 
Celsasque  ventis  sternere  fraxinos  : 


OF   DR.    ISAAC    WATTS.  363 

6.  Seu  vincta  saxis  saxa  revellere, 
Notisque  montes  sedibus  erutos 
Versare,  taurum  ut  veina  per  avia 
Vexat  juventae  laeta  protervitas 

7.  Ad  vocisictuin  niibibus  exsilit 

8.  Elisusiquis;  tesqua  Arabum  tremnnt; 

9.  Fera;  pavescnnt ;  ante  diem  fluunt 
Partus  acerbi ;  robora  couciduut. 

SANDYS. 

"From  a  dark  and  show'ring  cloud. 
On  the  floods  that  roar  aloud, 
Hark !  his  voice  with  terror  breaks : 
God,  our  God  in  thunder  speaks ; 
Powerful  is  his  voice  on  high. 
Full  of  power  and  majesty." 

TATE  AND  BRADY. 

"'Tis  he  that  with  amazing  noise 

The  wat'ry  clouds  in  sunder  breaks  ; 
The  ocean  trembles  at  his  voice. 

When  he  from  heaven  in  thunder  speaks. 
How  full  of  power  his  voice  appears  ! 

With  what  majestic  terror  crovvn'd! 
Which  from  the  roots  tall  cedars  tears, 

And  strews  their  scatter'd  branches  round." 

WATTS. 

"  Give  to  the  Lord,  5'e  sons  of  fame. 
Give  to  the  Lord,  renown  and  pow'r; 
Ascribe  due  honors  to  his  name. 
And  his  eternal  might  adore. 

"The  Lord  proclaims  his  pow'r  aloud. 
Over  tlie  ocean  and  the  laud; 
His  voice  divides  the  wat'ry  cloud. 
And  lightnings  blaze  at  his  command. 

"He  speaks,  and  tempests,  hail  and  wind, 
Lay  the  wide  forest  bare  around ; 
The  fearful  hart,  and  frighted  hind. 
Leap  at  the  terror  of  the  sound. 


364  LIFE   AND   TIMES 

"To  Lebanon  he  turns  his  voice, 
And  lo,  the  stately  cedars  break ; 
The  mountains  tremble  at  the  noise. 
The  valleys  roar,  the  deserts  quake." 

BISHOP  MANT. 

"The  voice  of  the  Lord  the  darkness  divides. 
And  deals  forth  his  fire  in  ariowy  flakes: 
The  voice  of  Jehovah  the  wilderness  chides, 
Jehovah  of  Kadesh  the  wilderness  shakes. 

"The  voice  of  the  Lord  speeds  the  hind  to  her  throes; 
The  voice  of  the  Lord  smites  the  oak  to  the  ground  ; 
The  forest  dismantled  his  majesty  shows, 
And  all  in  his  temple  his  praises  resound. 

"Jehovah  is  set  o'er  the  water-flood  high, 
Jehovah  is  King  till  existence  shall  cease; 
Jehovah  his  people  with  strength  shall  supply, 
Jehovah  shall  visit  his  people  with  peace." 

MARSH. 

"The  voice  of  Jehovah  the  tall  cedar  breaks; 
At  the  voice  of  Jehovah  all  Lebanon  shakes; 
Like  heifers  the  cedars  of  Lebanon  bound, 
And  like  bullocks  in  Sirion  they  tempest  the  ground." 

It  is  impossible  to  do  justice  to  this  psalm  in  a  rhythmical 
version ;  it  will  no  more  endure  such  fetters  than  Samson  the 
withes  of  the  Philistines ;  but  perhaps  of  all  the  metres  select- 
ed, Walts's  lonf^  measure  is  best  {idapted  to  its  majestic  charac- 
ter. The  Sidney  version  is  very  pleasing ;  Buchanan  is  cold 
and  classic;  Sandys  is  manly  and  spirited;  Tate  as  usual  dif- 
fuse and  aflccted  ;  Watts  sinks  below  his  general  standard,  but 
is  respectable;  the  Bishop  and  Mr.  Marsh  have  completely 
failed,  and  assuredly  in  bad  taste  have  "Sternhold  himself 
out-Sternhold-ed." 

The  17th  psalm  is  extremly  well  done  by  Watts;  though  a 


OF   DR.    ISAAC    WATTS.  365 

free  imitation,  he  realises  and  embodies  the  feelings,  purpose, 
and  hopes  of  David  better  than  any  of  his  rivals ;  and,  in  com- 
parison with  his  spirited  production,  the  versions  especially  of 
Tate  and  Mant  are  execrable  ditties.  The  eighth  psalm,  evi- 
dently written  by  the  royal  poet  when  gazing-  upon  the  bril- 
liant sky,  the  moon  and  the  stars  of  an  eastern  heaven,  he 
has  versified  in  three  different  measures,  and  in  each  instance 
successfully,  with  the  exception  of  a  few  lines,  keeping  in 
mind  the  evangelical  application  the  psalm  has  received  in 
the  New  Testament.  The  Sidney  version,  of  which  an  ex- 
tract is  annexed,  with  all  its  quaintness,  displays  consider- 
able energy ;  Bishop  Mant's  is  also  one  of  his  best. 

"DOMINE  DOMINUS  NOSTER. 

"  When  I  upon  the  heav'iss  do  look, 
Which  all  from  thee  their  essence  took; 

When  moon  and  stars  my  thoughts  beholdeth, 

Whose  life  no  life  but  of  thee  holdeth  : 

Then  thiiick  I:  Ah,  what  is  this  man, 
Whom  that  greate  God  remember  can  ! 

"Thou  under  his  doiiiinion  plac't 
Both  sheep  and  oxen  wholly  hast : 
And  all  the  beastes  for  ever  breeding, 
Which  in  the  fertil  fields  be  feeding. 
The  bird,  free-burgesse  of  the  aire, 
'J'he  fisli,  of  sea  the  native  heire  ; 
And  what  things  els  of  waters  traceth 
The  unworn  pathes,  his  rule  embraceth. 

O  Lord,  tliou  ruls't  our  mortal  lyne, 

How  through  the  world  thy  name  doth  shine  !" 

The  19th  psalm  has  been  often  attempted,  notwithstanding 
"the  stone  of  stumbling"  which  occurs  in  the  seventh,  eighth, 
and  ninth  verses,  the  terror  of  all  versifiers.  Watts  interprets 
the  psalm  jDrophe  tic  ally,  and  his  paraphrase  furnishes  a  beau- 
tiful hymn,  and  a  most  instructive  exposition.  In  the  pastoral 
poem,  "  the  Lord  is  my  Shepherd,"  he  has  been  equally 
happy  in  each  of  his  three  versions,  though  perhaps  his  com- 


366  LIFE    AND    TIMES 

mon  measure  Is  the  closest  to  the  text,  and  the  general  favou- 
rite. This  psalm  seems  to  present  little  difficulty  to  the  metrical 
translator,  its  imagery  is  rural,  its  style  simple  and  unaffected; 
and  yet  the  compass  of  our  devotional  poetry,  excepting  Watts 
and  Addison,  presents  but  few  instances  of  even  tolerable  suc- 
cess. The  02nd  psalm,  the  production  of  an  anonymous  author, 
was  the  sabbath-day  song  of  the  Jewish  church :  the  com- 
mencement of  Watts's  paraphrase  is  very  beautiful,  "Sweet  is 
the  work,  my  God,  my  King;"  but  Sandys,  in  this  instance, 
bears  away  the  palm. 

THE  SIDNEYS. 

"  Bomtm  est  confiteri. 

"O  lovely  thing, 
To  sing  and  praises  frame 
To  thee,  O  Lord,  and  thy  high  uame ; 
With  early  spring 
Thy  boniity  to  display, 
Thy  truth  when  night  hath  vauquisht  day, 
Yea  soe  to  sing, 
That  teu-striug'd  instrument, 
With  lute,  and  harp,  and  voice  consent. 

"For,  Lord,  my  mind 
Thy  works  with  wonders  fill ; 
Thy  doings  are  my  comfort  still. 
What  witt  can  find 
How  bravely  thou  hast  wrought, 
Or  deeply  sound  thy  shallow 'st  thought?" 

SANDYS. 

"Thou,  who  art  enthron'd  abovie, 
Thou,  by  whom  we  live  and  move, 
O  how  sweet  and  excellent, 
'Tis  with  tongue  and  heart's  consent, 
Thaukful  hearts,  and  joyful  tongues. 
To  renown  thy  name  in  songs; 


OF   DR.    ISAAC    WATTS.  367 

"  Wlieu  the  morning  paiuts  the  skies, 
When  the  sparkling  stars  arise, 
Thy  high  favours  to  rehearse. 
Thy  firm  faith  in  grateful  verse. 
From  thy  works  my  joy  proceeds: 
How  1  triumph  in  thy  deeds  1 
Who  thy  wonders  can  express  ? 
All  thy  thoughts  are  fathomless."* 

The  attempt  to  make  the  Psalms  Christian  in  tenor  and 
spirit,  which  was  Watts's  grand  aim,  may  be  regarded  as 
entirely  new.  Luke  Milbourne,  Darby,  and  Patrick,  do 
indeed,  depart  occasionally  from  the  literal  sense ;  but  the 
breaking  forth  of  evangelical  light  is  rare,  "  like  angels'  visits, 
few  and  far  between."  Admirably  has  he  succeeded  in  liis 
task  as  a  whole,  though  many  instances  of  failure  might  easily 
be  pointed  out.  His  psalms  form  a  useful  commentary.  He 
takes  us  from  the  temple  upon  the  "  holy  mountain,"  to  the 
church  built  upon  the  "  foundation  of  apostles  and  prophets, 
Christ  Jesus  being  himself  the  chief  corner-stone ;"  and  shows 
to  the  thoughtful  mind  how  the  "latter  house"  exceeds  the 
*'  former"  in  glory.  The  fugitive,  penitent  and  helpless,  is 
taught  to  flee  not  to  the  "horns  of  the  altar,"  but  to  the 
"  throne  of  grace,"  and  to  take  refuge  not  in  the  blood  of  bulls 
or  goats,  but  in  that  "new  and  living  way"  which  has  been 
opened  by  the  incarnate  Saviour.  He  has  erred,  indeed,  in 
versifying  the  psalter  indiscriminately,  and  attempting  to 
adapt  the  whole,  with  few  exceptions,  for  congregational  use. 
The  didactic  poems  are  not  appropriate  for  praise ;  the  elegiac 


*  The  104th  psalm  has  been  explained  by  the  editor  of  Marvell's  ^^'orks,  Captain 
Edward  Thompson,  as  tlie  production  of  the  honest  and  upright  patriot;  the 
editor  likewise  claims  for  Marveil,  Addison's  hymns  in  the  Spectator,  and  the 
elegiac  ballet  of  William  and  Margaret,  by  Mallet.  Nichols  calls  this  charge  of 
plagiarism  a  ridiculous  one.  The  fact  seems  to  be,  that  the  person  into  whose 
hands  Marvell's  MS.  poems  came  copied  into  the  volume  various  prciductions  of 
other  authors  as  they  appeared.  This  volume  came  into  the  Captain's  possession, 
who  had  not  sagacity  enough  to  perceive  the  circumstance.  Dove's  Life  of 
Marveil,  Gent.  Mag.  vols.  xlvi.  xlvii. 


368  LIFE    AND    TIMES 

are  more  suited  to  the  closet ;  it  is  only  those  that  are  general  — 
that  are  applicable  to  the  majority — that  should  be  introduced 
in  public.     The  contrition  of  the  lapsed  though  penitent  mo- 
narch, for  his  awful  crime  —  the  sorrow  of  his  over-burdened 
heart,  when  driven    from  his  royal  city  and  hunted  on  the 
mountains  —  the  weight  of  anguish  he  felt,  on  account  of  the 
treachery  of  his  friend  and  minister  —  beautiful  and  unrivalled 
poems  as  they  may  be,  are  only  fit  for  individual  use,  are  fo- 
reign to  the  local  interests  and  circumstances  of  the  solemn 
assembly.     Watts  seems  to  have  felt  this :  "  There  are  several 
songs,"  he  observes,  "  of  this  royal  author,  that  seem  improper 
for  any  person  besides  himself;"    yet  out  of  the  one  hundred 
and  fifty  psalms  he  has  only  omitted  twelve.     Hence,  there 
are  some  of  them  that  are  never  sung,  and  many  more  out  of 
which  only  a  stanza  or  two  can  be  employed.    Another  and  a 
serious  defect  is,  the  occurrence  of  harsh  expressions  —  phrase- 
ology which  seems  to  appeal  to  angry  and  vindictive  passions — 
and  to  give  utterance  to  feelings  incongruous  with  the  pure 
and  heavenly  emotions  which  influence  the  spiritual  worship- 
per.    In  the  pulpit  it  might  be  explained,  that  the  spiritual 
enemies  of  the  Christian  are  intended,  the  world,  the  flesh, 
and  the  devil ;    that  the  denunciation  is  frequently  nothing 
more  than  a  prophetic  announcement ;  and  that  the  Hebrew  is 
often  equally  capable  of  a  future  as  well  as  an  imperative  sig- 
nification :  but  these  considerations  will  only  present  them- 
selves in  the  fervour  of  singing  to  the  pious  and  intelligent. 
To  excel  Watts,  however,  as  a  Christian  psalmist,  would  be 
no  trifling  achievement:  the  qualifications  requisite  for  the 
task,  are  rarely  found  united  —  scholarship,  poetry,  and  devo- 
tion.    All  these  are  indispensable  to  the  individual  who  would 
do  justice  to  these  sublime  compositions :  he  must  be  a  scho- 
lar, or  he  will  not  perceive  the  terseness,  energy,  and  vigorous 
simplicity  of  the  originals;  a  poet,  or  he  will  not  catch  the 
spirit  of  the  eastern  bards  ;  a  devout  man,  or  he  cannot  give 
expression  to  what  he  does  not  understand. 


OF   DR.   ISAAC   WATTS.  369 

The  dissenting  congregations  are  under  immense  obligations 
to  Watts,  for  the  strains  he  has  composed  for  their  public  as- 
semblies and  social  meetings.  Previous  to  the  introduction  of 
his  Imitations,  the  sound  of  the  gospel  proceeded  from  the 
pulpit,  but  the  praises  of  the  Jew  ascended  from  the  hearers ; 
the  worshippers  seemed  to  localise  themselves  in  Judea — to  re- 
trace some  two  or  three  thousand  years  of  the  world's  history — 
and  withdraw  from  the  "  hght  that  lightens  the  Gentiles,"  to 
join  their  ''  fathers  who  were  under  the  cloud."  It  was  no 
uncommon  thing,  if  the  minister  and  the  people  were  not 
prone  to  retrospection  —  if  the  retrograde  movement  was  disli- 
ked—  for  some  six  or  seven  verses  to  be  selected  from  as  many 
different  psalms,  a  stanza  culled  here  and  there,  in  order  to  com- 
pound one  evangelical  hymn.  The  demands  of  a  few  sabbaths' 
services,  thus  put  the  whole  book  in  requisition  ;  and  it  neces- 
sarily occurred,  that  the  fragments  were  often  joined  together 
without  the  slightest  connexion,  presenting  indeed  a  body, 
but  without  form,  proportion,  or  symmetry.  The  days  on 
which  the  ordinance  of  the  Lord's  supper  recurred,  brought 
with  them  the  never- failing  repetition  of  the  23rd  or  118th 
psalms,  slight  as  are  the  passages  which  can  be  construed 
into  references  to  the  solemn  festival.  The  composition  of  the 
Psalms  and  Hymns  was,  thus,  an  invaluable  acquisition  ;  and 
though  the  altered  circumstances  of  the  church  have  created 
fresh  wants,  and  a  rigid  confinement  to  them  would  be  im- 
proper where  it  can  be  avoided,  yet  the  step  from  Patrick  to 
Watts  was,  indeed,  a  leap  "  over  many  a  gulf  between." 


370  LIFE   AND  TIMES 


CHAPTER  XI. 

1720—1726. 
DISPUTE  WITH  MR.  BRADBURY. 


SOUTH-SEA  COMPANY.  — PLAGUE  AT  MARSEILLES.  — AURORA  BOREALIS. 
—  "SOKGS  FOR  CHILDREN:"  — THEIR  POPULARITY  :— DR.  JOHNSON'S 
REMARKS:  — INSTANCES  OF  USEFULNESS:  —  ARIAN  EDITION,  BY  MRS. 
BARBAULD.— INSCRIPTION  AT  BROADSTAIRS.— "  ART  OF  READING  AND 
WRITING."  — ILLNESS.— VOLUME  OF  "  SERMONS."— "  CHRISTIAN  DOC- 
TRINE OF  THE  TRINITY."— THREE  " DISSERT ATIONS."-DEATH  OF  ISIR 
THOMAS  ABNEY:- OF  SIR  JOHN  HARTOPP:— FUNERAL  SERMONS.— PRO- 
FESSORS FRANK  AND  RAMBACH. —"DEATH  AND  HEAVEN."— LAST 
WORDS  OF  REV.  SAMUEL  ROSEWELL.  —  SERMONS  ON  "CHRISTIAN 
MORALS"— "LOGIC:"— OPINIONS  OF  SECKER,  BARRINGTON,  AND  JOHN- 
SON.—DISPUTE  WITH  MR.  BRADBURY:— ITS  CAUSES:— EXTRACTS  FROM 
THEIR  CORRESPONDENCE:— DISLIKES  WATTS'S  PSALMS:— CONDUCT  AT 
PINNER'S  HALL.  — LORD  BARRINGTON'S  ELECTION.  —  MINOR  PUBLICA- 
TIONS—CORRESPONDENCE. 


The  formation  and  proceedings  of  the  South-Sea  Company, 
engaged  the  attention  of  the  nation  during  the  years  1720 
and  1721.  "Clergy  and  laity,  whigs  and  tories,  churchmen 
and  dissenters,  statesmen  and  ladies,  turned  stock-johhers ;" 
every  mind  seemed  tainted  with  avarice,  and  all  classes  were 
occupied  with  golden  prospects  and  elysian  dreams.  But, 
like  the  Trojan  horse,  what  was  ushered  in  and  received  with 
such  acclamations  of  joy,  was  contrived  for  treachery  and 
instrumental  of  ruin.  Gay  and  Pope  among  the  poets,  and 
Chandler  among  the  dissenting  ministers,  suffered  severely  by 
the  prevailing  mania;  the  latter,  having  lost  the  whole  of  his 
wife's  fortune,  established  a  bookseller's  shop  in  the  Poultry, 


OF    DR.    ISAAC    WATTS.  371 

to  assist  his  scanty  salary  *  Dr.  Calamy  congratulates  him- 
self upon  raising  the  money  for  his  new  meeting-house  at 
Westminster,  at  this  period,  when,  dazzled  with  imaginary 
riches,  the  people  were  unusually  liberal  in  their  contribu- 
tions.f  These  years  of  national  infatuation  and  calamity,  are 
noticed  by  Watts  in  an  English  and  two  Latin  epigrams : 

"  'Tis  said,  the  citizens  have  sold 
Faith,  truth,  and  trade  for  South-Sea  gold; 
'Tis  false!  for  those  that  know  can  swear, 
All  is  not  gold  that  glisters  there. ";[: 

The  breaking  out  of  the  plague  at  this  time,  with  its  awful 
ravages  in  Marseilles,  "  when  nature  sickened,  and  each  gale 
was  death,"  was  calculated  to  sober  the  minds  of  men,  and  to 
check  their  quixotic  schemes  for  wealth.  Though  measures 
were  adopted  by  the  government  to  prevent  the  introduction 
of  the  contagion  into  this  country ;  yet  the  apprehension  of  it 
happily  led  many  to  serious  concern,  and  with  the  pious  clergy 
and  the  dissenting  ministry,  it  became  a  "labour  of  love,"  if 
not,  like  "  Marseilles'  good  bishop,"  to  serve  their  flocks  in  the 
midst  of  the  pestilence,  yet  to  prepare  them  for  its  expected 
approach.  A  lecture  was  established  every  Wednesday  by 
the  latter,  with  reference  to  this  event,  which,  after  the  origi- 
nal cause  had  ceased,  was  carried  on  at  Fetter  Lane,  as  an 
anti-arian  lecture.  It  was  upon  this  occasion  that  Mr.  Brad- 
bury preached  his  course  of  sermons  upon  the  "  Power  of 
Christ  over  Plagues  and  Health."^     To  add  to  the  apprehen- 

*  Gay,  who  lost  his  all,  found  an  asylum  in  the  Duke  of  Queensbury's  mansion : 
Pope,  who  did  not  risk  so  much,  soon  remedied  his  losses  ;  and  Chandler's  shop 
was  only  kept  open  two  or  three  years. 

f  Cal.  Life.  ii.  442. 

X  Reliq.  Juv.  No.  69. 

§  Neal's  Sermon  on  the  "  Christian's  duty  and  interest  in  a  time  of  public 
danger,  preached  at  Wapping,  Oct.  27,  being  a  time  of  solemn  prayer  on  account 
of  the  plague."  This  sermon  is  in  the  library  of  Queen's  College,  Cambridge. 
Guyse's  "  Sermon  on  the  Plague  at  Marseilles,  Amos,  iv.  12." 


372  LIFE   AND   TIMES 

sions  of  the  nation  at  this  period,  the  evenings  of  February, 
1721,  were  brilliantly  illuminated  by  the  aurora  borealis,  and 
the  harmless  meteor  was  converted  into  a  dire  prognostic,  and 
interpreted  by  some  theological  alarmists  as  a  forerunner  of 
the  final  day.* 

The  period  in  the  life  of  Walts,  upon  which  we  are  now 
entering,  was  one  of  continued  bodily  suffering,  yet  extraordi- 
nary mental  exertion.  It  is  probable,  though  the  exact  time 
is  uncertain,  that  one  of  the  most  pleasing  and  useful  of  his 
publications  appeared  about  the  year  1720 — "Divine  and 
Moral  Songs,  for  the  use  of  Children."  Several  of  these 
pieces  had  been  previously  circulated  in  manuscript;  the 
hymn  commencing,  "Hush,  my  babe,  lie  still  and  slumber," 
was  an  early  composition ;  and  it  was  owing  to  the  earnest 
wishes  of  intimate  friends,  that  the  collection  was  formed  and 
printed.  This  humble  and  unpretending  performance  speedi- 
ly obtained  an  unwonted  popularity;  edition  after  edition 
rapidly  issued  from  the  press  in  England  and  America ;  and 
translations  have  since  appeared  in  many  of  the  European 
and  trans-atlantic  languages.  The  number  of  copies  that 
have  been  circulated  throughout  the  world,  must  amount  to 
many  millions;  upwards  of  thirty  editions,  in  this  country, 
are  regularly  kept  in  print ;  and,  upon  a  moderate  computa- 
tion, the  average  annual  sale  in  England  only  cannot  be  less 
than  eighty  thousand.  It  was  stated  some  years  ago  upon 
authority,  that  two  institutions,  the  Society  for  Promoting 
Religious  Knowledge  among  the  Poor,  and  the  Religious 
Tract  Society,  had  distributed  upwards  of  one  hundred  thou- 

*  "  I  would  ask,"  says  Mr.  Moyle  to  one  of  liis  correspondents,  "  the  grave  divine 
you  mention,  wliat  warrant  he  has  for  this  conceit  from  sciipture,  where  we  are 
told  more  than  once  that  tlie  day  of  the  Lord  shall  come  as  a  thief;  tliat  is,  with- 
out giving  any  warning  at  all.  I  might  tell  iiim,  that  a  superstitious  observation 
of  signs  in  tlie  heavens,  is  condemned  in  tiie  Old  Testament  as  a  rag  of  heathenism, 
and  a  kind  of  idolatry.  Tpon  tiie  whole  matter,  I  am  apt  to  think,  that  the  brains 
of  this  divine  are  as  full  of  vapours,  as  the  air  liatii  been  of  late,  and  that  they  have 
produced  the  same  effect  in  his  head,  viz.  new  light,  and  set  him  a  prophecying." 
Works  of  Waller  Moyle,  Esq.  i.  3G8— 371. 


OF   DR.     ISAAC   WATTS.  373 

sand.  It  is  an  honourable  distinction,  that  the  most  popular 
books  in  the  English,  and  probably  in  any  other  language,  have 
proceeded  from  the  pens  of  nonconformists.  In  proof  of  the 
accuracy  of  this  statement,  there  need  only  be  instanced  the 
"  Pilgrim's  Progress"  of  Bunyan ;  the  "  Saint's  Rest"  of  Baxter ; 
the  "Rise  and  Progress  of  Religion"  of  Doddridge;  the  "Di- 
vine Songs"  of  Watts ;  and  the  "  Robinson  Crusoe"  of  De  Foe. 
Wherever  the  English  name  is  known,  and  its  language  has 
penetrated,  these  productions  have  travelled,  the  heralds  of 
the  literature  and  religion  of  the  country  of  their  birth. 

Of  the  merit  of  the  Divine  Songs  a  very  high  opinion  has 
been  entertained,  of  which  their  extensive  dispersion  affords 
evident  proof.  The  writer,  with  singular  felicity,  adapts 
himself  to  the  feeble  capacity  of  childhood ;  his  rhymes  pre- 
sent a  rare  combination  of  the  simple,  the  useful,  and  the 
attractive;  and,  perhaps,  no  equal  instance  can  be  found  in  our 
literature,  of  the  truths  of  religion,  the  duties  of  morality,  and 
the  spirit  of  poetry,  being  so  admirably  accomodated  to  an  in- 
fantine comprehension.  It  is  no  slight  praise  to  have  expounded 
the  sublimest  lessons  of  philosophy  to  the  educated,  and,  at  the 
same  time,  to  have  put  into  "  the  mouths  of  babes  and  suck- 
lings," such  plain  and  beautiful  effusions.  Dr.  Johnson's 
striking  eulogy  should  not  be  withheld:  "For  children,"  he 
remarks,  "he  condescended  to  lay  aside  the  scholar,  the 
philosopher,  and  the  wit,  to  write  little  poems  of  devotion, 
and  systems  of  instruction,  adapted  to  their  wants  and  capaci- 
ties, from  the  dawn  of  reason  through  its  gradations  of 
advance  in  the  morning  of  life.  Every  man  acquainted  with 
the  common  principles  of  human  action,  will  look  wath  vene- 
ration on  the  writer,  who  is,  at  one  time,  combating  Locke,  and 
at  another,  making  a  catechism  for  children  in  their  fourth 
year.  A  voluntary  descent  from  the  dignity  of  science,  is, 
perhaps,  the  hardest  lesson  that  humility  can  teach."*  In 
such  compositions  as  the  following,    "Whene'er  I  take  my 

*  Johnson's  Life  of  Watts. 


374  LIFE    AND   TIMES 

walks  abroad;"  "My  God,  who  makes  the  sun  to  know;" 
"Lord,  how  delightful  'tis  to  see;"  "And  now  another  day  is 
gone;"  "'Tis  the  voice  of  the  sluggard;"  "How  fair  is  the 
rose,"  &c.,  we  see  genius  and  devotion  coining  down  to  the 
level  of  the  most  juvenile  understanding.  Had  Watts  written 
nothing  beside,  his  name  would  have  lived  for  ever;  they 
form  one  of  the  most  precious  boons  which  the  church  of 
Christ  has  ever  received  from  the  hands  of  uninspired  man;  and 
they  will  be  repeated  by  the  seed  of  the  righteous  on  earth, 
until  they  hear  and  learn  the  songs  of  the  blessed  in  heaven. 

Many  of  the  correspondents  of  Watts  refer  to  the  happy 
influence  of  his  Songs  upon  the  minds  of  children ;  and  seve- 
ral striking  testimonies  to  this  effect  are  upon  record.  A 
Welch  divine  observes,  "  I  have  seen  the  sweet  delight  and 
joy  with  wdiich  they  have  been  read  by  many  of  the  young. 
On  the  hearts  of  five  children  in  my  own  connexions,  they 
have,  by  the  blessing  of  God,  made  deep  impressions ;  and 
one  of  these  the  other  day  died  comfortably,  repeating  them  a 
few  minutes  before  his  departure."  A  religious  periodical 
relates  the  following  affecting  instance  of  the  conversion  of  a 
mother :  "  A  poor  wretched  girl,  religiously  educated,  but  now 
abandoned  to  misery  and  want,  with  an  illegitimate  child, 
was  struck  wdth  horror  at  hearing  this  infant  daughter  repeat, 
as  soon  as  she  could  well  speak,  some  of  the  profane  language 
she  had  taught  her  by  example.  She  trembled  at  the 
thought,  that  she  was  not  only  going  to  hell  herself,  but  lead- 
ing her  child  thither.  She  instantly  resolved  the  first  six- 
pence she  could  procure,  should  purchase  Watts's  Divine 
Songs,  of  which  she  had  some  recollection,  to  teach  her  infant 
daughter.  She  did  so;  and,  on  opening  the  book,  her  eye 
caught  the  following  striking  stanza : 

'  Just  as  the  tree  cut  dowu,  that  falls 
To  uorth  or  southward,  there  it  lies; 
So  man  departs  to  heav'n  or  hell, 
Fix'd  ia  the  state  whereiu  he  dies.' 


OF   DR.    ISAAC    WATTS.  375 

She  read  on;  the  event  ended  in  her  conversion,  and  she 
lived  and  died  an  honourable  professor  of  religion."*  Thou- 
sands and  tens  of  thousands  of  others,  have  recurred  in  after 
years  to  these  lessons  of  their  childhood ;  and  not  a  few  have 
traced  to  the  impressions  made  by  their  means  their  direc- 
tion to  the  paths  of  virtue  and  religion. 

An  edition  of  the  Songs  for  Children,  revised  and  altered, 
was  published  anonymously  in  the  year  1785,  and  generally 
attributed  to  the  celebrated  Mrs.  Barbauld.  The  design  of 
the  accomplished  editor  was,  to  accommodate  Watts's  little 
work  to  the  principles  of  Unitarianism,  in  order  to  prepare  it 
for  circulation  among  the  juvenile  members  of  that  body. 
After  a  compliment  to  the  author  for  his  pleasing  versification, 
she  remarks  in  the  prefiice,t  that  "  Doctor  Watts's  little  book 
has  been  considered  as  very  defective,  or  rather  erroneous,  by 
great  numbers  of  serious  Christians;  for  though  it  has  been 
very  credibly  reported,  and  generally  believed,  that  he  chan- 
ged many  of  his  religious  principles  before  his  death ;  never- 
theless there  are  retained  in  his  book  some  particular  doctrines 
and  phrases,  which  his  better  judgment  would  probably  have 
corrected  or  expunged.  But,  be  this  as  it  may,  the  present 
editor  has  judged  it  expedient  to  make  many  alterations  in 
both  these  respects.  It  has  been,"  she  further  remarks,  "her 
principal  design  to  confine  all  the  ascriptions  of  praise  and 
thanksgiving  to  the  one  only  living  and  true  God,  to  whom 
alone  all  praise  and  thanksgiving  are  most  justly  due."  It 
will  only  be  necessary  to  observe  here,  that,  whatever  change 
Watts's  religious  opinions  underwent,  it  was  not  such  as  to 
interfere  with  the  sentiments  expressed  in  his  Songs,  much 
less  to  sanction,  in  the  slightest  degree,  the  alterations  and 
omissions  of  the  arian  editor.  The  hymns  entitled,  "  Praise 
to  God  for  Redemption,"  and,  "The  Hosanna,  or  Salvation 
ascribed  to  Christ,"  are  omitted  in  the  spurious  edition ;  and 

*  Evang.  Mag.  vol.  xii.  p.  288.  f  Pref.  dated  Nov.  17,  1785. 


376 


LIFE    AND   TIMES 


the  doxologies  of  Dr.  Samuel  Clarke,  are  inserted  in  the 
j)lace  of  those  of  Watts.  A  few  specimens  of  tliis  so-called 
improved  version  the  reader  may  be  curious  to  see : 


ORIGINAL  EDITION. 

SONG  VII.  VERSE  G. 
"Here  would  I  leain  liow  Christ  lias  dy'd, 

To  save  my  soul  from  hell; 
Not  all  the  books  on  earth  beside, 
Such  heavenly  wonders  tell." 

SONG  IX.  VERSE  4. 
"Dear  Lord,  this  book  of  thine 

Informs  me  where  to  go 
For  grace,  to  pardon  all  my  sin 

And  make  me  holy  too." 

VERSE  5. 
"  Here  I  can  read  and  learn, 

How  Christ  the  Son  of  God 
Did  undertake  our  great  concern  ; 

Our  ransom  cost  liis  blood." 

VERSE  6. 

"  And  now  he  reigns  above, 
He  sends  his  Spirit  down. 
To  show  the  wonders  of  his  love. 
And  make  his  gospel  known." 


ARIAN  EDITION. 


"  Here  would  I  learn  how  .Tesus  dy'd, 
To  prove  his  (josiivl  true ; 
Not  all  the  books  on  earth  beside, 
•   E'er  so  much  yood  can  do." 


"  0  God!  thy  book  so  good. 

Informs  me  what  to  do  ; 
Besides  the  hno7vhdf)e  of  thy  word, 

Jt  makes  me  holy  too." 


"Here  I  can  read  and  learn, 
How  Christ  the  Son  of  God 
Has  undertook  our  great  concern. 
And  scaVd  it  with  his  blood." 


"But  God  still  reigns  above, 
And  sends  his  Spirit  down, 

To  show  the  wonders  of  his  love 
And  make  the  gospel  known." 


SONG  XVII.  VERSE  2. 

".Tesus  who  reigns  above  the  sky, 
And  keeps  the  world  in  awe. 

Was  once  a  child  as  young  as  I, 
And  kept  his  Father's  law." 

SONG  XXVII.  VERSE  4. 

"With  thoughts  of  Christ  and  things 

divine, 
Fill  up  this  foolish  heart  of  mine; 
That,  hoping  pardon  through  his  blood, 
I  may  lie  down  and  wake  with  God." 


"  Jesus  who  lives  above  the  sky. 
Beloved  of  h  is  God, 
Tho'  once  a  child  as  young  as  I, 
He  kept  his  Father's  word." 


"  With  thoughts  of  Christ  and  things 
divine. 
Employ  this  foolish  heart  of  mine  ; 
That,  hoping  pardon  through  his  word, 
1  may  lie  down  and  wake  with  God." 


OF   DR.   ISAAC    AVATTS.  377 

This  production  gave  rise  to  severe  animadversions;  and  a 
small  jDamphlet,  exposing  the  unwarrantable  liberties  taken 
by  the  editor,  appeared  under  the  following  singular  title:  — 

"A  Letter  to  the  Rev.  Mr. ,  or  a  Gnat  disturbing  the 

Little  Arian  Foxes  among  the  Vines ;  and  part  of  the  Remains 
of  Dr.  Watts  cleared  of  a  few  Leaves  and  Rags  of  Arianism."* 

*The  following  incident  connected  with  these  Songs,  related  by  a  correspondent 
of  the  Protestant  Dissenters'  Magazine,  maj'  not  be  unworthy  of  preservation.  He 
notices  a  striking  affinity  between  Watts's  metrical  version  of  the  Comaiandmeiits, 
and  an  old  inscription,  now  probably  erased,  upon  the  walls  of  the  meeting-house 
at  Broadstairs  in  Kent,  which  he  concludes  to  have  been  the  original  of  the  poet's 
composition.  The  meeting-house  in  question  is  part  of  an  old  catholic  chapel, 
formerly  dedicated  to  the  Virgin,  and  held  so  sacred,  that  all  vessels  passing  within 
sight  of  it  lowered  their  sails,  in  token  of  veneration.  A  pious  man,  named  Josiah 
Culmer,  fitted  up  the  place  for  worship  among  the  dissenters  in  the  year  1691, 
and  inscribed  the  walls  with  texts  of  scripture  and  the  following  verses,  which  Watts 
has  evidently  abridged  and  modernised : 

"THE  TEN  COMMANDMENTS. 

"  1.  Have  tliou  no  other  God  but  me. 

2.  Unto  no  image  bow  tby  knee. 

3.  Take  not  the  name  of  God  in  vain. 

4.  Do  not  the  sabbath  day  profane. 

5.  Honour  thv  father,  mother  too. 

6.  Take  heed  that  thou  no  murder  do. 

7.  From  whoredom  keep  thy  body  clean. 

8.  Steal  not  although  thy  state  be  mean. 

9.  Bear  not  false  witness,  shun  that  blot. 
10.  What  is  thy  neighbour's  covet  not." 
"These  sacred  words  in  these  ten  lines. 

Are  strings  of  pearls  and  golden  mines  ; 

Or  heaven  transcrib'd,  wherein,  no  doubt, 

God's  mind  to  men  is  copy'd  out. 

Bless  God,  my  soul,  that  thus  hath  given, 

In  this  thy  pilgrimage  to  heaven. 

Such  sight  and  guidance;  but  withal 

Bless  God  for  Christ  that  kept  them  all: 

Refuse  not  that  which  conscience  bids  thee  choose, 

And  choose  not  that  which  conscience  says  refuse." 

The  good  man  who  put  up  this  inscription,  little  imagined  in  what  perilous  cir- 
cumstances he  might  perchance  place  his  pastor.  Dr.  Clarke  of  St.  Albans  rallies 
Doddridge  in  one  of  his  letters,  about  losing  the  cliance"  of  an  invitation  to  Hert- 
ford, by  having  the  commandments  in  humble  prose  upon  the  walls  of  his  meeting- 
house at  Kibworth  :  "  stumbling-blocks  and  superstitious  customs,"  says  he,  "  which 
are  very  offensive  to  your  Christian  brethren.  It  is  no  wonder  you  are  thought  a 
legal  preacher,  when  you  have  the  ten  commandments  painted  upon  the  walls  of 
your  chapel.  Besides,  you  have  a  clerk,  it  seems,  so  impertinent  as  to  say  'Amen' 
witii  an  audible  voice.  'O  temporal  O  mores  !'  that  such  a  rag  of  popery  should 
ever  be  tolerated  in  a  congregation  of  protestant  dissenters." 

Bb 


378  LI  IE    AND   TIMES 

The  summer  of  17-20  was  spent  by  Watts  at  Theobalds; 
and  here  he  finished  his  "  Art  of  Reading  and  Writing  English/' 
the  preface  of  which  is  dated  July  31st,  the  same  year.  The 
work  of  education  has  since  made  such  rapid  advances,  and 
scholastic  exercises  have  been  so  multiplied  and  improved, 
that  this  little  treatise  has  now  become  obsolete,  and  all  that 
is  valuable  in  it  may  be  found  incorporated  with  more  effi- 
cient elementary  systems.  The  plan  laid  down  in  this  piece, 
was  originally  formed  for  the  instruction  of  the  three  daughters 
of  Sir  Thos,  Abney,  whose  education  Watts  superintended,  as 
a  grateful  acknowledgment  of  the  favours  he  received  from  the 
family.  It  is,  therefore,  dedicated  to  his  "  Honoured  young 
Friends,"  whom  he  addresses  in  the  matronly  style  of  the  last 
century,  as  Mrs.  Sarah,  Mrs.  Mary,  and  Mrs.  Elizabeth.  The 
institution  of  a  charity-school  at  Cheshvmt,  under  the  patronage 
of  the  Abneys,  was  the  immediate  cause  of  its  publication,  being 
a  suitable  formulary  to  put  into  the  hands  of  the  children.  Since 
the  year  1716,  when  Mr.  Watts  was  restored  from  four  years  of 
sickness  and  confinement,  his  health  had  continued  precarious ; 
and  frequent  affliction  considerably  entrenched  upon  his  pub- 
lic labours.  For  some  time  it  appears  that  he  had  been  often 
unable  to  preach,  and  when  he  did  appear  in  the  pulpit,  his 
exertions  were  followed  by  such  weakness  and  pain,  that  he 
was  obliged  to  retire  immediately  to  bed,  and  have  his  room 
closed  in  darkness  and  silence.  Not  only  was  he  incapacita- 
ted for  regular  public  ministration,  but  for  the  private  duties  of 
the  pastoral  office ;  and  though  his  place  was  ably  supplied  by 
Mr.  Price,  yet  his  comparative  retirement  was  a  source  of  anx- 
iety to  himself,  and  of  sorrow  to  his  flock.  In  such  circum- 
stances, to  supply  his  lack  of  service  he  was  induced  to  pre- 
sent his  people  with  a  volume  of  sermons  from  the  press,  that 
they  might  read  in  their  families  those  truths  which  they  had 
heard  with  so  much  delight  from  his  lips.  The  volume  is 
dedicated  "To  the  Church  of  Christ  assembling  in  Bury- 
Street,"  and  dated  at  Theobalds,  Feb.  21,  17-21.     "It  often 


OF    DR.    ISAAC    WATTS.  379 

grieves  me,"  he  observes,  "to  think  how  poor,  feeble,  and  short, 
are  my  present  labours  among  you;  and  yet  what  days  of  faint- 
ness  I  generally  feel  after  every  such  attempt,  so  that  I  am 
continually  prevented  in  my  design  of  successive  visits  to  you, 
by  the  want  of  active  spirits,  while  I  tarry  in  the  city ;  and 
yet  if  I  attempt  to  stay  a  week  or  ten  days  there,  I  find  a  sen- 
sible return  of  weakness,  so  that  I  am  constrained  to  retire  to 
the  country  air."*  To  be  hindered  from  meeting  his  people 
in  the  sanctuary  was  a  painful  deprivation  ;  but  he  had  a  place 
in  their  hearts,  and  experienced  their  kindest  attentions. — "  I 
think,"  says  he,  "I  can  pronounce  it  with  great  sincerity,  that 
there  is  no  place,  nor  company,  nor  employment,  on  this  side 
heaven,  that  can  give  me  such  a  relish  of  delight,  as  when  I 
stand  ministering  holy  things  in  the  midst  of  you.  It  is  in 
the  service  of  your  souls,  that  I  have  spent  the  best  period  of 
my  life,  ministering  the  gospel  among  you.  Two-and-twenty 
years  are  now  expired  since  you  first  called  me  to  this  de- 
lightful work ;  and  from  that  time  my  care  and  labours,  my 
studies  and  prayers,  have  been  employed  in  your  behalf.  I 
trust  they  have  been  accepted  with  God,  and  through  his 
almighty  blessing  have  obtained  some  success.  As  to  their 
acceptance  with  you,  I  have  too  many  and  plain  evidences  to 
admit  a  doubt  of  it;  which  I  have  often  thankfully  acknow- 
ledged to  God  and  you.  Your  forward  kindness  hath  always 
forbid  my  requests;  nor  do  I  remember  that  you  ever  gave  me 
leave  to  ask  any  thing  for  myself  at  your  hands,  by  your  con- 
stant anticipation  of  all  that  I  could  reasonably  desire."  The 
discourses  which  he  presented  to  his  people,  are  fourteen  in 
number,  chiefly  remarkable  for  a  rich  display  of  evangelical 
truth  and  Christian  experience.  They  contain  many  happy 
illustrations,  and  pointed  appeals  to  the  conscience,  and  are  ex- 
pressed in  a  plain  and  perspicuous  style.  He  seems  ever  to 
keep  in  mind  the  maxim, 

*  Preface  to  vol.  i.  of  "Sermons  on  Various  Subjects,"  12mo.  first  edit.  1721. 


380  LIFK    AND    TIMES 

"Smooth  be  your  style,  and  plain,  and  natural, 
To  stiike  the  sous  of  Wapping  or  Whitehall." 

An  occasional  redundancy  of  expression  and  prolixity  in  ar- 
ranj^ement,  will  be  overlooked  in  the  striking  and  impassioned 
exhibitions  of  scripture  truth,  with  which  the  volume  abounds. 

Two  more  publications  appeared  in  1721:  "The  Christian 
Doctrine  of  the  Trinity,  or  Father,  Son,  and  Spirit,  three  Persons 
and  one  God,  asserted  and  proved;  with  their  Divine  Rights 
and  Honours  vindicated  by  plain  Evidence  of  Scripture,  with- 
out the  Aid  and  Incumbrance  of  Human  Schemes."  This  was 
followed  by  three  of  the  seven  dissertations  which  constitute 
"The  Arian  invited  to  the  Orthodox  Faith."  These  works  are 
mentioned  in  the  order  in  point  of  time  in  which  they  were 
published ;  but  our  notices  of  them  are  deferred  to  the  chapter 
which  will  reviev.^  the  other  writings  of  the  author  upon  the 
same  subject. 

The  year  1722  was  one  of  peculiar  affliction  to  Watts,  for  he 
lost  his  kind  and  beneficent  patron,  Sir  Thos.  Abney,  who  died 
on  the  22nd  of  February,  in  the  eighty-third  year  of  his  age. 
In  a  paper,  entitled  the  "Honourable  Magistrate,"  inserted  in 
the  "  Miscellanies,"  he  has  left  the  following  testimony  to  his 
virtues:  —  "  He  never  aimed  at  superiority  over  his  neighbours, 
though  by  the  bounty  of  providence  he  grew  richer  than  they. 
He  had  the  universal  respect  due  to  goodness,  long  before  he 
was  made  great;  and  when  his  fellow-citizens  voted  him  into 
power  and  honour,  he  surveyed  the  province  with  a  just  reluc- 
tance, and  shrunk  away  from  grandeur;  nor  could  any  thing 
overcome  his  sincere  aversion,  but  a  sense  of  duty  and  hopes  of 
public  service. 

"  He  passed  through  the  chief  offices  of  the  city,  and  left  a 
lustre  upon  them  by  the  practice  of  such  virtue  and  such  piety 
as  the  chair  of  honour  has  seldom  known :  those  who  have  at- 
tended that  court  since  the  year  of  his  magistracy,  search  the 
register  backward  for  twenty  annual  successions,  and  confess 


OF   DR.    ISAAC    AVATTS.  381 

he  has  had  no  rival."*  Sir  Thomas's  funeral  sermon  was  preach- 
ed by  Mr.  Jeremiah  Smith,  one  of  the  joint  pastors  at  Silver- 
Street,  and  published  under  the  title  of  "The  Magistrate  and 
the  Christian."  To  this  was  appended  a  few  memorials  of  his 
life  by  Mr.  Smith,  and  an  elegiac  poem  by  Watts,  written  at 
the  request  of  Lady  Abney,  "The  nation,"  says  the  preface  to 
the  elegy,  "  mourns  a  good  man  lost  from  the  midst  of  us,  a 
public  blessing  vanished  from  the  earth. — The  city  mourns 
the  loss  of  a  most  excellent  magistrate,  a  sure  friend  to  virtue, 
and  a  guardian  to  the  public  peace. — The  church  of  Christ 
mourns  a  beautiful  pillar  taken  from  the  support  and  orna- 
ment of  the  temple."t  The  commencement  of  the  beautiful 
ode  of  Horace  to  Virgil,  on  the  death  of  Quintilius  Varus,  "de 
morte  Quintilii  Vari,"|  forms  an  appropriate  motto  to  the  piece, 
the  word  Abneium  being  inserted  in  the  place  of  Quintilium. 
On  the  1st  of  April,  in  the  same  year.  Sir  John  Hartopp  like- 
wise terminated  a  long  and  honourable  career,  at  the  advanced 
age  of  eighty-five.  He  was  buried  in  the  church  at  Stoke  New- 
ington ;  and  his  funeral  sermon  was  preached  by  Mr.  Watts, 
April  1 5th,  in  the  meeting-house  of  that  place.  This  good  man 
was  signally  favoured  by  providence.  Born  at  a  period  when 
civil  war  was  unfurling  its  sanguinary  banner,  he  not  only 
outlived  the  oppressions  of  the  Stuarts,  and  witnessed  the  estab- 
lishment of  religious  liberty  under  William,  but  beheld  the 
machinations  of  its  enemies  finally  defeated  by  the  settlement 
of  the  Hanoverian  family  upon  the  throne.  Among  his  papers, 
some  of  Dr.  Owen's  sermons  were  found,  which  he  had  taken 
down  in  short-hand  as  they  were  delivered :  several  of  them 
appear  to  have  been  preached  at  ordinations,  and  a  few  others 
atStadhamin  Oxfordshire,  between  theyears  1669  and  1682. § 

*  Miscell.  No.  14. 

t  Reliq.  Juv.  No.  55. 

I  Hor.  lib.  i.  od.  24. 

§  Sir  John  appears  to  have  accompanied  the  doctor  in  several  of  his  excursions. 
Chiselhamptoii  near  Stadham,  was  the  residence  of  Sir  John  D'Oyley,  whose  bro- 
ther's widow  Owen  married. 


38-2  LIFE    AND    TIMES 

These  were  published  in  1756,  entitled  "Thirteen  Sermons, 
preached  on  Various  Occasions,  by  the  reverend  and  learned' 
John  Owen,  D.D.  of  the  last  age,"  to  which  an  advertisement 
is  appended,  stating,  that  "  to  be  fully  satisfied  they  are  gen- 
uine, Mrs.  Cooke,*  of  Stoke  Newington,  by  this  means  informs 
the  reader,  that  her  pious  grandfather,  vSir  John  Hartopp,  Bart. 
wrote  them  in  short-hand  from  the  doctor's  own  mouth,  and 
then  took  the  pains  to  transcribe  them  into  long-hand,  as  think- 
ing them  worthy  of  being  transmitted  down  to  posterity." 
The  year  preceding  his  death,  Sir  John  assisted  in  compiling 
memoirs  of  Owen,  drawn  up  principally  by  Mr.  Asty,  pastor 
of  the  church  in  Rope-Makers'  Alley,  and  perfixed  to  a  folio 
volume  of  sermons  and  tracts,  which  was  dedicated  to  the  baro- 
net.f  The  death  of  such  men  as  Abncy  and  Hartopp  was  a 
heavy  loss  to  the  dissenting  interest,  on  account  of  their  private 
worth  and  public  spirit;  but  their  kindness  to  Watts  will  keep 
their  names  in  remembrance  by  the  church  of  Christ — a  kind- 
ness shown  without  exacting  obsequious  submission  or  dis- 
playing the  usual  pride  of  patronage. 

The  funeral  sermon  which  Watts  preached  for  his  early  pa- 
tron, was  founded  upon  Heb.  xii.  23,  "the  spirits  of  the  just 
made  perfect;"  and  forms  the  second  of  the  two  discourses 
which  he  j)ublished,  entitled  "Death  and  Heaven,  attempted 
in  two  funeral  discourses  in  memory  of  Sir  John  Hartopp  and 
his  lady  deceased."  These  appeared  in  July,  17-22,  with  a  de- 
dication to  his  former  pupil,  who  now  succeeded  to  his  father's 
title  and  estates.  It  would  be  a  sufficient  proof  of  the  value 
and  usefulness  of  this  production  to  state,  that  it  was  a  favou- 
rite book  with  the  amiable  Doddridge,  his  solace  at  Lisbon  when 
in  declining  health,  soothing  him  under  the  prospect  of  being 


*  Mrs.  Cooke,  second  daughter  of  Nathaniel  Gould,  Esq.,  and  Frances  Hartopp, 
and  wife  of  Thomas  Cooke,  Esq.,  some  time  governor  of  the  bank.  She  died  in 
17G.T,  aged  63,  at  Stoke  Newington. 

f  Entitled  "  A  Complete  Collection  of  the  Sermons,  &c."  The  preface  was  w  rittcu 
by  Mattliew  Clarke,  Thomas  Bradbury,  and  Tliomas  Ridgley,  D.D. 


OF    DR.    ISAAC    WATTS.  ,383 

buried  on  a  foreign  strand.  Its  popularity  carried  it  through 
several  editions  during  the  life-time  of  the  author,  and  led  to 
its  circulation  in  America  and  on  the  continent.  Professor 
Frank  was  so  much  pleased  with  it,  that  he  engaged  a  person 
to  translate  it  into  German,  which  appeared  after  his  death 
at  Halle  in  Saxony,  in  the  year  1727,  with  a  recommendatory 
preface  by  Professor  llambach,  his  successor  in  the  divinity 
chair.*  The  plan  of  the  latter  discourse,  and  many  of  its  lead- 
ing features,  are  drawn  from  an  ingenious  treatise,  published 
by  a  nameless  author  in  1683,  entitled  "The  Future  State,  dis- 
playing the  progressive  Knowledge  of  the  Blessed  in  Heaven." 
An  edition  of  this  little  work  was  published  in  France  in  1700, 
and  a  German  translation  appeared  at  Frankfort  ad  Majnum, 
with  a  preface  by  Dr.  Pritius,  Both  of  Watts's  sermons 
abound  with  passages  of  considerable  beauty;  a  vein  of  ardent 
piety  runs  throughout;  the  style  is  more  than  usually  sprightly 
and  vivacious;  the  fancy  of  the  writer  is  evidently  on  the  wing, 
and  his  imagination  excursive,  yet  it  does  not  attract  from 
the  highway  of  truth,  nor  betray  into  error  and  inconsist- 
ence. It  has,  indeed,  been  objected,  that  some  of  his  views  of 
the  station,  employment,  and  happiness,  of  perfected  spirits  are 
not  expressly  sanctioned  by  the  sacred  page ;  yet  they  harmo- 
nise with  the  general  tenor  of  its  brief  and  brilliant  revelations, 
and  are  certainly  supported  by  the  inferential  evidence  of  the 
scriptures.  Though  inspired  truth  maintains  a  dignified  re- 
serve with  reference  to  the  future — though  it  seeks  not  to  gra- 
tify the  longings  of  the  ambitious,  or  the  fretful  impatience  of 
the  curious — though  it  sympathises  in  all  its  details  with  that 
secresy  which  sits  awful  mistress  of  the  creation  around  us — 
yet  hints  are  thrown  out  which  we  may  follow  and  improve, 
without  incurring  the  charge  of  being  wiser  than  what  is  writ- 


*  Professor  Rambach  is  known  as  the  author  of  a  series  of  discourses  on  the 
Passion,  preached  during  Lent,  at  Jena  and  Halle,  in  1721  and  1722.  They  were 
published  in  1730,  and  translated  into  English  in  1763.  An  abridged  edition  was 
published  by  J.  Gray,  of  York,  in  1819. 


384  LIFE    AND   TIMES 

ten.  The  landscape  may  have  the  mists  and  shadows  of  the 
morning  twilight  upon  it,  hut  the  gleams  of  light  that  perforate 
the  covering,  and  open  a  passage  for  our  vision,  enahle  us  to 
form  some  idea  of  the  scenery  upon  which  the  darkness  rests. 
It  requires,  indeed,  a  steady  hand  to  throw  the  sounding  line 
over  the  battlements  of  the  present;  a  matured  judgment  to 
know  how  far  to  proceed  and  when  to  stop;  yet  excursive  as 
Watts's  attemjit  undoubtedly  is,  in  no  instance  does  he  tres- 
pass upon  forbidden  ground,  or  violate  the  boundary  that  sepa- 
rates faith  from  presumption.  His  views  of  the  administration 
of  future  glory  being  proportioned  to  individual  attainment — 
of  heaven  being  a  state  of  constant  improvement — are  generally 
held  by  the  orthodox.  The  same  progression  that  marks  the 
character  and  experience  of  the  Christian  on  earth,  will  doubt- 
less attend  him  beyond  the  grave,  and  accompany  him  in  his 
passage  through  eternity;  he  will  go  from  "strength  to 
strength"  before  "God  in  Zion,"  as  well  as  during  his  journey 
to  the  "holy  mountain ;"  and  be  ever  advancing  to  an  increased 
likeness  to  Jehovah,  in  knowledge,  purity,  and  glory,  inbound- 
less  progression  and  infinite  approximation,  discovering  at 
every  step  some  new  tract  of  moral  and  intellectual  splendour, 
of  unpierced  and  unapproached  light,  yet  to  be  attained.  "In 
the  world  of  spirits  made  perfect,"  he  observes,  "David  and 
Moses  dwell :  both  of  them  were  trained  up  in  feeding  the 
flocks  of  their  fathers  in  the  wilderness,  to  feed  and  to  rule  the 
nation  of  Israel,  the  chosen  flock  of  God  :  and  may  we  not  sup- 
pose them  also  trained  up  in  the  arts  of  holy  government  on 
earth,  to  be  the  chiefs  of  some  blessed  army,  some  sacred  tribes 
in  heaven  ?  They  were  directors  of  the  forms  of  worship  in  the 
church  below  under  divine  inspiration ;  and  might  not  that  fit 
them  to  become  leaders  of  some  celestial  assembly,  when  a 
multitude  of  the  sons  of  God  above  come  at  stated  seasons  to 
]nesent  themselves  before  the  throne  ?"  We  know  for  certain 
that  there  are  gradations  of  rank  and  authority  among  the 
angels  that  "excel  in  strength,"  thrones  and  dominions,  priu- 


OF    DR.    ISAAC    WATTS.  385 

cipalities  and  powers ;  and  the  same  may  be  predicated  of  glo- 
rified saints,  not  merely  upon  the  ground  of  analogy,  but  upon 
the  scripture  testimony  that  assigns  to  the  possessor  of  ten 
talents  rule  over  ten  cities,  and  of  five  talents  over  five  cities. 

From  the  grave  of  Abney  and  Hartopp,  Watts  was  called  to 
the  sick-bed  of  the  Rev.  Samuel  Rosewell,  the  pastor  and  inti- 
mate friend  of  his  deceased  patron.  The  father  of  this  excel- 
lent man  was  the  Rev.  Thos.  Rosewell,  celebrated  for  his 
trial  for  high  treason  before  the  infamous  Jefferies,  and  un- 
just condemnation  in  the  reign  of  Charles  If.  The  son  was  one 
of  the  pastors  at  Silver-Street,  and  was  confined  to  his  chamber 
by  his  last  illness  at  the  time  of  Sir  Thomas  Abney's  death. 
When  informed  of  it  he  exclaimed,  "  Well,  I  shall  soon  go  after." 
An  interesting  account  of  his  conversation  when  visited  by 
Watts,  we  have  in  one  of  the  sermons  which  the  latter  preached 
at  Bury-Street: — "  Come,  my  friends,"  says  he,  "  come  into  the 
chamber  of  a  dying  Christian;  come,  approach  his  pillow  and 
hear  his  holy  language :  '  I  am  going  up  to  heaven,  and  I  long  to 
be  gone,  to  be  where  my  Saviour  is. — Why  are  his  chariot  wheels 
so  long  in  coming  ? — I  hope  I  am  a  sincere  Christian,  but  the 
meanest  and  the  most  unworthy. — I  know  I  am  a  great  sinner, 
but  did  not  Christ  come  to  save  the  chief  of  sinners? — I  have 
trusted  in  him,  and  I  have  strong  consolation.— I  love  God,  I 
love  Christ. — I  desire  to  love  him  more,  to  be  more  like  him, 
and  to  serve  him  in  heaven  without  sin. — Dear  brother,  I  shall 
see  you  at  the  right  hand  of  Christ. — There  I  shall  see  our 
friends  that  are  gone  a  little  before,'  (alluding  to  Sir  T.  Abney.) 
— '  I  go  to  my  God  and  to  your  God,  to  my  Saviour  and  to  your 
Saviour.'  These,"  observes  Watts,*  "are  some  of  the  dying 
words  of  the  Rev.  Mr.  S.  Rosewell,  when  with  some  other  friends 
I  went  to  visit  him  two  days  before  his  death,  and  which  I 
transcribed  as  soon  as  I  came  home  with  their  assistance." 

The  health  of  Mr.  Watts  improved  during  the  year  1722; 

*  Sermous. 


38G  LIFE   AND   TIMES 

he  preached  at  times  to  his  own  people,  and  engaged  in  seve- 
ral occasional  services;  hut  he  was  not  able  regularly  to  occupy 
the  pulpit  at  Bury-Strect.     He  required  frequent  intervals  of 
retirement  and  rest;  and  again,  therefore,  he  resorted  to  publi- 
cation, to  compensate  for  the  interruptions  of  his  public  min- 
istry.    The  "glorious  and  controverted  doctrine,"  as  he  terms 
it,  of  the  trinity,  at  first  engaged  his  thoughts;  but  his  friends 
wisely  advised  him  to  undertake  the  easier  and  more  useful 
task  of  transcribing  some  of  his  discourses  for  the  press.    The 
favourable  reception  which  his  first  volume  had  met  with, 
having  reached  a  second  edition,  encouraged  the  undertaking, 
and  another  accordingly  appeared  in  March,  1723.     Literary 
exertion  must  have  been  a  painful  and  laborious  effort,  as  he 
states  that  his  health  only  allowed  him  a  few  hours  for  study 
in  a  week;  but  such  a  mind  as  his  could  not  remain  inactive. 
"My  slow  returns  of  health,  and  want  of  capacity  to  fulfil  my 
weekly  ministrations  in  the  church  where  God  has  placed  me, 
is  another  constraining  motive  to  attempt  their  edification  in 
this  manner.    I  give  thanks  to  my  God,  who  has  blest  this  last 
year  with  some  growing  measures  of  strength  for  their  service. 
I  know  they  join  their  prayers  with  me  for  my  perfect  recov- 
ery; and  I  long  and  wait  daily  for  the  pleasure  of  constant 
labour  amongst  them.     My  duty  demands  this,  and  their  love 
deserves  it  at  my  hands.     And  since  I  must  not,  I  cannot,  be 
quite  idle  in  my  retiring  days,  I  thought  of  employing  the 
press  again  for  the  service  of  their  souls,  to  make  some  com- 
pensation for  the  inconstancy  of  my  public  ministry."     The 
volume  contained  sixteen  discourses,  the  first  five  devoted  to 
Christian  doctrine,  and  the  rest  to  Christian  morals.  The  same 
excellences  and  defects  which  characterise  the  former  sermons, 
may  be  pointed  out  here :  they  are  evangelical  in  sentiment,  plain 
in  style,  and  practical  in  their  design ;  but  marked  with  that  dif- 
fuseness  and  prolixity,  though  to  a  less  extent,  that  was  noticed 
in  their  predecessors.    The  mode  of  sermonising  common  at  the 
commencement  of  the  last  century,  would  be  a  severe  trial  to  the 


OF    DR.    ISAAC    WATTS.  387 

patience  of  a  modern  audience;  the  divines  of  that  day  in  prepa- 
ring' for  the  pulpit,  seem  to  have  acted  upon  the  assumption,  that 
their  hearers  desired  to  have  the  entire  subject  in  hand  spread 
out  before  them,  with  all  its  relations,  inferences,  and  improve- 
ments prominently  displayed;  and,  hence,  any  one  of  the  ser- 
mons of  Flavel,  Henry,  Owen,  and  Watts,  might  with  very  few 
additions  be  readily  converted  into  a  theolog-ical  treatise.  The 
Countess  of  Hertford  mentions  a  pleasing-  instance  of  the  util- 
ity of  the  volume  upon  Christian  morals:  a  man  who  had 
been  for  twenty  years  "a  bad  husband,  and  a  notorious  drunk- 
ard," was  by  reading  them  reformed,  and  converted  to  a  course 
of  life  the  very  opposite  of  his  previous  conduct. 

The  well-known  treatise  on  Logic  appeared  in  the  year  1724 ; 
a  treatise  which  was  soon  sanctioned  by  the  imprimatur  of  the 
learned  world ;  and  which,  while  it  raised  the  fame  of  the  writer, 
contributed  more  than  any  other  work  of  its  day,  to  rescue 
the  science  from  that  disrepute,  into  which  the  quibbling  of 
the  schools  had  brought  it.  The  object  which  Watts  contem- 
plated was  indeed  a  magnificent  one — to  expound  the  laws  of 
thought— to  facilitate  the  detection  of  fallacy — to  define  the 
mental  process  which  must  take  place  in  all  correct  reasoning 
— to  furnish  a  test  to  try  the  validity  of  an  argument,  to  analyse 
the  elements  of  which  it  is  composed,  and  ascertain  the  basis 
upon  which  it  is  built — an  object  which  the  professed  cham- 
pions of  dialectics,  have  too  often  abandoned  for  the  display  of 
frivolous  subtilties  and  sophistical  disingenuousness.  Perhaps 
the  plan  which  he  sketched  out,  is  too  vast  and  comprehensive 
to  be  prosecuted  with  complete  success — perhaps  it  was  an 
error  to  suppose,  that  a  system  could  be  constructed  to  effect 
all  the  purposes  proposed,  definite  in  itself  and  yet  universally 
applicable — perhaps  in  aiming  at  too  much  he  is  in  danger  of 
leading  us  only  to  empty  generalities — yet  the  attempt  was  in 
the  highest  degree  useful,  to  counteract  the  prc'judices  which 
the  perverters  of  logical  science  had  excited  against  it,  and  to 
introduce  sounder  views  upon  the  subject.     It  has  been  the 


888  LIFE    AND    TIMES 

fate  of  dialectics,  since  the  days  of  Zeno  the  Eleactic,  who 
furnished  the  erotetic  mode  of  disputation  t/jaiTz/o-t?,  Euchd  of 
Megava,  and  Archytas,  to  whom  the  invention  of  the  categories 
is  attributed,  to  experience  either  gross  perversion  or  almost 
total  neglect ;  its  utility  has  either  been  unwarrantably  mag- 
nified or  unduly  contemned;  the  ancients  who  followed  Aris- 
totle were  guilty  of  the  former  error,  the  moderns  have  been 
of  the  latter.   Intellectual  vanity  led  many  of  the  early  patrons 
of  logic  to  elevate  their  favourite  study  into  something  pro- 
foundly mysterious;  to  involve  it  in  obscurity  and  mist,  in  order 
to  give  undue  importance  to  their  own  attainments;  and  thus 
to  sacrifice  the  value  of  the  science  at  the  shrine  of  vulgar 
admiration.     In  the  hands  of  the  schoolmen  it  degenerated 
into  a  mere  ait  of  wrangling,  a  kind  of  gladiatorial  exhibition 
with  subtle  fallacies  and  refined  distinctions ;  while  many  of 
the  studious  recluses  of  the  middle  ages  applied  it  to  physical 
discoveries,  and  attempted  to  investigate  the   wide  field  of 
nature  by  the  aid  of  the  syllogism.     This  absurd  misapplica- 
tion deprived  the  "Queen  of  Arts"  of  the  popular  favour; 
the  censures  of  Bacon  and  Locke  almost  banished  her  from  the 
schools;   while  the  mention  of  the  Scholastic,  Ramist,  Semi- 
Ramist,  Cartesian,  Wolfian,  and  Kantian  dialectic,  the  nice 
distinctions  of  the  Arabians  and  Latins,  Scotists,  Thomists, 
Realists,  and  Nominalists,  operated  to  inspire  the  prayer  of  St. 
Ambrose,  A  Dialectica  Arisfotelis  libera  nos,  Domine.  Yet  logic 
rightly  understood,  and  confined  within  the  limits  of  its  legiti- 
mate domain — the  investigation  of  the  canons  of  thought,  and 
the  application  of  these  laws  to  intellectual  acts — is  a  most 
important    branch  of  study,  and  highly    serviceable  to  the 
cause  of  truth.     An  individual  may  indeed  attain  considerable 
argumentative  skill,  who  has  never  studied  a  system ;  but  to 
deny  its  utility  on  this  ground,  would  be  just  as  absurd  as  to 
deny  the  utility  of  a  grammar,  from  the  circumstance  that  many 
write  and  speak  correctly  who  have  never  learnt  its  rules. 
The  "Logic"  of  Watts  was  originally  written  for  the  assist- 


OF    DR.    ISAAC    WATTS.  389 

ance  of  his  pupil,  young  Hartopp,  to  whom  it  is  dedicated ; 
and  was  published  at  the  importunity  of  Mr.  John  Eames,  the 
preface  being  dated  "London,  August  24,  17-24."  In  the  dis- 
senting academies  it  was  soon  adopted  as  a  text-book,  as  well 
as  used  in  the  national  colleges ;  and  many  flaltering  testimo- 
nies, as  to  its  merit,  were  received  by  the  author  from  some 
of  the  most  distinguished  men  of  the  day.  Dr.  Seeker,  when 
bishop  of  Oxford,  wrote  to  him,  stating  that  it  was  by  no 
means  the  only  piece  he  had  written  read  in  the  university 
with  high  esteem ;  and  Lord  Barrington  remarks,  "  I  intend, 
as  some  have  done  Erasmus  or  a  piece  of  Cicero,  to  read  it 
over  once  a  year."  Dr.  Johnson  observes,  "  Of  his  philoso- 
phical pieces,  his  '  Logic'  has  been  received  into  the  universi- 
ties; and,  therefore,  wants  no  private  recommendation.  If  he 
owes  part  of  it  to  Le  Clerc,  it  must  be  considered,  that  no  man 
who  undertakes  merely  to  methodise  or  illustrate  a  system, 
pretends  to  be  its  author."  The  accuracy  of  some  of  his  defi- 
nitions has  been  questioned,  but  the  substantial  utility  of  the 
work  is  not  deteriorated  by  them ;  the  elementary  principles  of 
the  science  are  propounded  and  its  remote  deductions ;  and  the 
manual  adapts  itself  to  students  of  all  classes,  from  the  unin- 
structed  tyro  to  the  advanced  logician.  The  tutors  of  our  acad- 
emies, have  ever  properly  regarded  the  cultivation  of  accurate 
principles  of  reasoning,  as  a  necessary  branch  of  ministerial 
education.  Truth  will,  indeed,  always  prevail  where  the  advan- 
tages are  equal,  but  error  has  not  unlVequently  obtained  a  par- 
tial triumph  owing  to  the  unskilfulness  of  those  who  have  con- 
tended with  it.  A  correct  display  of  the  doctrines  of  the  faith, 
may  be  made  without  the  aid  of  dialectics ;  but  the  gordian 
knot  which  Hume  constructed  in  his  Essay  on  Miracles,  could 
only  have  been  unravelled  by  a  logician. 

One  of  the  most  painful  passages  in  the  life  of  Watts  now 
occurred — an  unhappy  dispute  with  the  celebrated  Rev.  Thos. 
Bradbury.  This  gave  rise  to  a  long  epistolary  war,  in  the  year 
1725,  in  which  considerable  warmth  was  displayed  by  both 


390  LIFE    AND    TIMES 

parties.  Controversy  is  unfriendly  to  the  interests  of  religion  ; 
it  has  too  often  lost  its  humble  and  unobtrusive  character  when 
brought  upon  the  theatre  of  debate ;  and  not  unfrequently  a 
conscientious  difference  of  opinion  has  engendered  private  feuds 
and  personal  altercation.  Between  Watts  and  Bradbury  an 
intimate  friendship  was  formed  soon  after  their  settlement  in 
the  metropolis:  to  Bradbury  he  addressed  a  poem,  entitled 
"Paradise,"  in  1708,  and  during  the  same  year  he  invited  him 
to  preach  at  the  opening  of  the  Bury-Street  meeting-house. 
But  the  character  of  this  popular  preacher  by  no  means  syn- 
chronised with  that  of  Watts :  his  temperament  was  ardent  and 
impetuous;  he  was  fond  of  witticisms  in  the  pulpit;  and  loved 
to  meet  error,  not  with  the  legitimate  weapons  of  reason  and 
scripture,  but  with  stinging  irony  and  cutting  lampoons.  A 
manuscript  account  of  the  London  ministers,  laments  that  he 
had  not  "as  much  judgment  as  quickness  of  wit,  and  as  much 
temper  as  zeal."  Honest  and  fearless  in  advocating  the  cause 
of  truth,  he  was  the  dread  of  tories  and  Jacobites  ;*  an  unyield- 
ing champion  for  the  divinity  of  his  Master  during  the  arian 
controversies ;  but  unfortunately  his  zeal  was  unaccompanied 
with  suavity  of  manner,  and  his  irresistible  inclination  to  sati- 
rise frequently  involved  him  in  disputes  with  his  brethren. 

It  is  well  known,  that  in  several  sermons  at  Bury-Street,  as 
well  as  in  various  publications,  which  will  hereafter  be  noticed, 
Watts  indulged  his  fancy  in  explaining  the  doctrine  of  the 
trinity  in  a  way  which  gave  offence  to  the  orthodox.  The 
meetings  at  Salter's  Hall  upon  the  arian  controversy,  had  given 
rise  to  no  little  animosity  among  the  dissenting  ministers ;  and 
the  rigid  zeal  for  orthodoxy  which  Bradbury  displayed  upon 

*  Queen  Anne  is  said  to  have  attempted  to  silence  "bold  Bradbury"  by  the 
offer  of  a  bishopric.  Mr.  Secretary  Harley  was  the  negociator ;  but  the  mitre  could 
not  tempt  the  sturdy  dissenter  from  his  principles.  A  scheme  for  his  assassina- 
tion which  failed,  was  planned  by  the  Jacobites.  When  going  up  with  a  congra- 
tulatory address  to  George  I.,  a  nobleman,  referring  to  the  cloaks  which  the 
ministers  wore,  accosted  him  with,  "  Pray,  Sir,  is  this  a  funeral  ?"  "  Yes,  my  Lord," 
replied  Bradbury;  "it  is  the  funeral  of  the  Schism  Bill,  and  the  resurrection  of 
Liberty." 


OF    DR.    ISAAC    WATTS.  391 

that  occasion,  roused  him  to  oppose  the  views  of  his  fiiend. 
At  Salter's  Hall  both  Watts  and  his  colleague,  Mr.  Price, 
refused  to  divide  with  his  party ;  and  this  circumstance  might 
contribute  to  embitter  his  mind  against  them.  But  his  mode 
of  attack  was  exceedingly  injudicious  :  the  pulpit  at  Pinners' 
Hall  was  made  the  vehicle  of  ill-timed  railing ;  and  the  friend 
of  his  early  years  Avas  represented  as  a  traitor  to  the  faith,  and 
a  disciple  of  Socinus.  Such  treatment  was  calculated  to 
ruffle  and  to  excite  the  mind  of  Watts ;  and  it  is  not  to  be 
wondered  at,  if  in  the  correspondence  which  ensued  he  em- 
ployed some  strong  and  severe  expressions.  It  is  readily  ac- 
knowledged, that  he  had  laid  himself  open  to  animadversion ; 
but  there  was  no  foundation  for  the  charge  of  his  opponent, 
that  he  designed  "  to  have  the  divinity  of  his  Saviour  evapo- 
rate into  an  attribute,  and  his  humanity  to  be  different  from 
the  nature  that  he  represented."*  Had  Mr.  Bradbury  in  a 
serious  and  candid  manner  opposed  what  he  considered  un- 
scriptural  in  the  views  of  his  friend,  without  descending  to 
personal  invective,  the  church  might  have  been  spared  the 
painful  spectacle  of  beholding  two  of  its  brightest  ornaments 
engaged  in  angry  disputation. 

The  correspondence  is  too  lengthy  and  too  personal  to 
find  a  place  in  these  pages,  but  some  extracts  may  be  adduced 
to  show  its  general  tenor.  In  a  letter  dated  Lime- Street, 
Nov.  1,  1725,  Watts  observes,  "  On  Friday  night  last,  my 
worthy  friend  and  neighbour,  Mr.  Caleb  Wroe,t  called  on  me 
at  Theobalds,  and  desired  me  to  convey  the  inclosed  papers 
to  you,  with  his  humble  thanks  for  the  share  you  have  given 
him  in  the  late  legacy  entrusted  with  you ;  and  he  entreats 
that  you  would  be  pleased  to  pay  it  into  the  hands  of  this  mes- 

*   Letter  to  Brad. 

f  Mr.  Wroe  was  a  member  of  Cheiys's  Coffee  House  Club,  in  Bow-laue,  a 
society  of  ministers,  who  met  on  a  'J'hursday,  and  formed  a  design  of  compo- 
sing a  concordance  to  the  scriptures.  Dr.  Obadiah  Hughes,  Dr.  Jer.  Hunt,  and 
Dr.  Lardner  were  also  members. 


39-2  LIFE    AND    TIMES 

sengcr,  that  I  may  letuvu  it  to  him  ;  and  I  cannot  but  join 
my  unfeigned  thanks  with  his  that  you  are  pleased  to  remem- 
ber so  valuable  and  pious  a  man  in  your  distributions,  whose 
circumstances  are  by  no  means  above  the  receipt  of  such  cha- 
ritable bequests,  though  his  modesty  is  so  great  as  to  prevent 
him  from  sueing  for  an  interest  in  them.  But  while  I  am 
acknowledging  your  unexpected  goodness  to  my  friend,  per- 
mit me,  Sir,  to  inquire  into  the  reason  of  your  conduct  to- 
ward m}self  in  so  different  a  manner.  It  is  true  I  live  much 
in  the  country,  but  I  am  not  unacquainted  with  what  passes 
in  town.  I  would  now  look  no  further  backward  than  your 
letter  to  the  board  at  Lime-Street,  about  six  months  ago, 
where  I  was  present:  I  cannot  imagine  what  occasion  I  had 
given  to  such  sort  of  censures,  as  you  pass  upon  me  there, 
among  others  which  you  are  pleased  to  cast  upon  our  worthy 
brethren:  nor  can  I  think  how  a  more  pious  and  Christian 
return  could  have  been  made  by  that  board  at  that  time,  than 
to  vote  a  silence  and  burial  of  all  past  contests,  and  even  of 
this  last  letter  of  yours,  and  to  desire  your  company  amongst 
us  as  in  times  past.*  As  a  brother  I  entreat  you  to  consider, 
whether  all  this  wrath  of  man  can  work  the  righteousness  of 
God.  Let  me  entreat  you  to  ask  yourself,  what  degrees  of 
passion  and  personal  resentment  may  join  and  mingle  them- 
selves with  your  supposed  zeal  for  the  gospel.  Jesus  the 
Searcher  of  Hearts  knows  with  what  daily  labour  and  study, 
and  with  what  constant  addresses  to  the  throne  of  grace, 
I  seek  to  support  the  doctrine  of  his  deity  as  well  as  you,  and 
to  defend  it  in  the  best  manner  I  am  capable  of;  and  shall  I 
tell  you  also  that  it  was  your  urgent  request  among  many 

*  Mr.  Bradbury  seems  to  have  doubted  this  fact ;  but  in  a  subsequent  letter  he 
is  assured,  "if  you  do  not  believe  that  there  was  a  vote  passed  at  the  board,  that 
your  company  should  be  desired  as  in  times  past,  and  that  all  these  late  contests 
should  be  buried,  ask  your  good  friend,  Mr.  Horrocks,  who  came  immediately  from 
the  board  into  our  house,  and  conversed  freely  with  me  about  it,  acknowledging 
that  the  greatest  part  of  hands  were  held  up  for  that  question,  and  remarking  one 
or  two  that  were  not  held  up." 


OF   DR.    ISAAC    WATTS.  393 

Others,  that  engaged  me  so  much  further  in  this  study  than  I 
at  first  intended.  If  I  am  fallen  into  mistakes,  your  private 
and  friendly  notice  had  done  much  more  toward  the  cor- 
rection of  them  than  puhlic  reproaches." 

To  this  letter  Bradbury  sent  a  rejoinder,  dated  Charter- 
House,  Dec.  23,  1725:  "  I  was  in  great  hopes  to  have  pre- 
vented both  you  and  myself  the  trouble  we  may  find  in  an 
answer  to  your  letter,  by  conveying  my  thoughts  in  a  free  dis- 
course with  your  brother  [Richard  Watts,  M.D.],  which  yes- 
terday I  had  an  opportunity  of  doing.  I  read  him  part  of 
your  letter,  and  assured  him  as  I  went  along  that  I  was  far 
from  deserving  the  hard  opinion  you  had  conceived  of  me. 
But  he  was  pleased,  in  a  language  which  I  thought  it  below 
both  him  to  give  and  me  to  take,  to  convince  me,  that  he  was 
no  proper  messenger  of  my  vindication  to  you."  He  goes  on 
reiterating  his  charge  of  heresy  :  "  I  heard  and  saw  the  holy 
Sir  John  Hartopp,  with  tears  running  down  his  cheeks, 
lament  your  opposition  to  Dr.  Owen,  which  he  imputed  to  an 
instability  in  your  temper,  and  a  fondness  for  your  own  inven- 
tions." The  heavy  accusation  implied  in  this  passage  was 
keenly  felt  by  Watts ;  hence,  he  observes,  in  a  letter  dated 
Lime-Street,  March  15,  1726,  "as  for  my  attempts  to  main- 
tain the  new  and  essential  deity  of  Jesus  Christ  and  the 
Holy  Spirit,  I  have  often  examined  my  own  heart,  and  am 
not  conscious  to  myself,  that  the  pride  and  fondness  of 
novelty  has  led  me  into  any  particular  train  of  thoughts ;  and 
I  beg  earnestly  that  he  that  knows  all  things  would  search 
and  try  me  in  this  respect.  My  only  aim  has  been  to  guard 
this  doctrine  against  the  objections  and  cavils  of  men,  and  to 
set  it  in  the  most  defensible  light ;  and  if  I  can  see  that 
done  in  any  other  form,  I  shall  rejoice  to  bury  all  my  papers 
in  oblivion,  or,  if  you  please,  to  burn  them  all.  My  weak- 
nesses of  nature  are  so  many,  and  perpetually  recurring,  that 
I  am  often  called  to  look  into  the  other  world,  and  would  not 
dare  to  write  any  thing  that  might  derogate  from  the  divine 


39i  MFE    AND   TIMES 

ideas  which  scripture  ascribes  to  God,  my  Saviour  and  my 
Sauctifier,"  The  following  passage  in  a  postscript  will  be 
read  with  interest : — "  You  tell  me  that '  the  plain  drift  of  this 
whole  imagination,  viz.  of  resembling  the  being  of  God  by  the 
soul  of  man,  is  to  destroy  a  Trinity  of  Persons.'  Now  I  have 
often  freely  declared,  and  still  declare,  that  I  allow  the  greatest 
distinction  possible  between  the  sacred  Three  in  the  divine 
nature,  which  does  not  arise  to  three  distinct  conscious  minds 
or  spirits.  Make  it  as  great  as  you  will  short  of  this,  and  I 
acquiesce  in  it.  But,  then,  since  three  distinct  conscious 
minds  is  the  true  idea  of  three  proper  literal  persons,  whatso- 
ever falls  short  of  this  can  be  but  an  analogical  personality  ; 
yet  if  any  man  will  call  this  a  proper  divine  personality,  though 
it  is  but  similar  to  human  personality,  I  will  not  contend  about 
words  and  names.  And  whereas  I  have  sometimes  called  the 
Word  and  Spirit,  in  the  divine  nature,  two  distinct  powers  or 
principles  of  operation  in  the  godhead,  yet  I  have  in  many 
places  told  what  I  mean,  viz.  that  the  idea  of  distinct  powers 
or  ])rinciples  of  operation,  being  the  greatest  distinction  that 
we  can  conceive  in  one  spirit,  it  is  the  nearest  analogical  idea 
of  the  sacred  Three  that  I  can  arrive  at,  always  supposing  there 
may  be  some  unknown  distinctions  in  the  divine  nature 
greater  than  the  ideas  we  have  of  the  powers  or  faculties  in  the 
soul  of  man.  If  I  have  either  given  you  or  any  one  else  occa- 
sion to  understand  me  in  a  diiferent  sense  from  what  I  now 
declare,  I  should  be  glad  to  retrieve  any  such  mistake  of  my 
meaning." 

Another  ground  of  difference  between  these  two  eminent 
men,  was  the  publication  of  the  Psalms  and  Hymns.  It  appears 
that  Watts  had  mentioned  originally  his  design  to  Bradbury,  of 
composing  a  version  of  the  Psalms,  and  was  encouraged  in  his 
intention  by  him  ;  but  upon  its  publication,  after  their  misun- 
derstanding had  probably  commenced,  he  severely  attacked  the 
production  in  conversation  and  from  the  pulpit.  Not  only  did  he 
continue  to  use  Dr.  Patrick's  version  in  his  own  congregation ; 


OF   DR.   ISAAC    WATTS.  395 

but,  in  deference  to  his  prejudices,  the  compositions  of  Watts 
were  not  introduced  at  Pinner's  Hall,  where  he  lectured,  until 
after  his  death.     It  is  said,  that  an  unlucky  clerk,  on  one  occa- 
sion, having  stumbled  upon  one  of  Watts's  stanzas,  Bradbury 
got  up  and  reproved  him  with,  "  Let  us  have  none  of  Mr.  Watts's 
whims."     In  objecting  to  allow  the  metrical  version  of  Watts 
to  be  sung  in  his  congregation,  he  was  by  no  means  alone, 
though  none  of  his  brethren  imitated  him  in  his  rude  and  un- 
manly attacks.     He  appears  to  have  regarded  it  as  a  presump- 
tuous meddling  with  the  sacred  text,  a  supplanting  of  the  word 
of  God  with  the  words  of  man,  to  alter  and  accommodate  the  lan- 
guage of  David  to  the  clearer  light  of  the  gospel  dispensation. 
Hence,  bespeaks  of  the  Imitations  as  "  mangling,"  "  garbling," 
and  "  transforming"  the  songs  of  Sion ;  as  an  attempt  to  "rival" 
it  with  the  psalmist,  as  to  which  is  to  be  considered  henceforth 
the  "sweet  singer  of  Israel ;"  a  design  of  which  Watts  will  at 
once  be  acquitted  by  every  candid  mind.     The  charge  was, 
however,   preferred  against  him  by  more  than  one  of  his 
brethren,  and  he  thus  replies  to  it  in  a  letter  to  Bradbury, 
January  14,  1726:    "You  tell  me  that  I  rival  it  with  David, 
whether  he  or  I  be  the  sweet  psalmist  of  Israel :    I  abhor  the 
thought;  while  yet,  at  the  same  time,  I  am  fully  persuaded, 
that  the  Jewish  psalm-book  was  never  designed  to  be  the  only 
psalter  for  the  Christian  church.     W^e  may  borrow  many  parts 
of  the  prayers  of  Ezra,  Job,  and  Daniel,  as  well  as  of  David, 
yet  if  we  take  them  entire  as  they  stand,  and  join  nothing  of 
the  gospel  with  them,  I  think  few  of  them  will  be  found  pro- 
per prayers  for  a  Christian  church ;  and  yet  I  think  it  would 
be  very  unjust  to  say,  'we  rival  it  with  Ezra,  Job,'  &c.    Surely 
their  prayers  are  not  best  for  us,  since  we  are  commanded  to 
ask  every  thing  in  the  name  of  Christ.     Now  I  know  no  rea- 
son why  the  glorious  discoveries  of  the  New  Testament  should 
not  be  mingled  with  our  songs  and  praises  as  well  as  with 
our  prayers.     I  give  solemn  thanks  to  my  Saviour  with  all 
my  soul,  that  he  hath  honoured  me  so  far  as  to  bring  his  name 


396  MFE    AND   TIMES 

and  gospel  in  a  more  evident  and  express  manner  into  Chris- 
tian psalmody." 

A  third  ground  of  difference  was  Watts's  friendship  with 
Lord  Barrington,  and  his  interference  in  behalf  of  his  lordship's 
election  as  member  for  Berwick-upon-Tweed.  That  town  con- 
tained a  considerable  number  of  dissenters,  and  the  influence 
of  a  few  of  the  metropolitan  ministers  was  employed  to  promote 
the  return  of  such  a  firm  friend  to  the  cause  of  nonconformity. 
This  was  for  the  second  parliament  in  the  reign  of  George  I.; 
and  Messrs.  Neal,  Nesbit,  and  Clark,  with  Watts,  wrote  strong- 
ly recommending  Lord  Barrington  to  the  electors.  This  noble- 
man had  been  an  intimate  friend  of  Bradbury's,  and  a  member 
of  his  congregation ;  but  owing  to  his  violence  at  Salter's  Hall, 
and  a  difference  of  opinion  in  that  controversy,  he  connected 
himself  with  Dr.  Hunt  at  Pinner's  Hall,  whose  ministry  he 
afterwards  attended.  The  encomiums  passed  upon  him  might 
be  galling  to  Mr.  Bradbury,  but  they  were  such  as  the  ser- 
vices he  had  rendered  to  the  state  demanded ;  and  Watts  was 
perfectly  justified  in  recommending  to  the  dissenting  interest 
at  Berwick  an  individual  of  whom  the  body  had  reason  to  be 
proud.  "When  I  knew,"  says  Bradbury  in  a  letter,  dated 
Charter-Square,  March  7,  1726,  "  that  Messrs.  Nesbit,  Clark, 
Neal,  and  Raper,  had  writ  to  Berwick  in  recommendation  of 
Lord  Barrington  and  Mr.  Neville,  my  correspondent  told  me 
that  Mr.  Watts  had  sent  them  a  letter  of  the  most  extravagant 
encomiums  that  ever  were  heard;  and  that  you  represented 
Lord  Barrington  as  something  more  than  a  man."  To  this 
Watts  replied,  Lime-Street,  March  15,  "I  am  well  assured 
that  as  in  those  days  I  spent  almost  all  my  time  at  Theobalds, 
under  much  weakness,  so  I  wrote  nothing  but  what  with  up- 
rightness and  honesty  of  heart  I  designed  for  the  service  of 
the  dissenting  interest ;  and  declared  at  the  same  time,  that  T 
was  no  partisan  of  my  Lord  liarrington's  in  that  subscribing 
contest  (at  Salter's  Hall) ;  however  in  my  judgment  I  thought 


OF   DR.   ISAAC    WATTS.  397 

him  a  very  fit  representative  for  a  town  which  had  many  dis- 
senters in  it." 

It  is  obvious  that  long  before  the  parties  came  to  an  open 
rupture,  the  harmony  that  once  subsisted  between  them  had 
ceased ;  the  bitter  altercations  upon  the  Arian  heresy  widened 
the  breach  ;  and  a  few  years  afterwards  Watts  took  up  the  pen 
to  expostulate.  A  lengthened  correspondence  ensued,  but  no 
satisfactory  result  was  obtained,  and  in  the  course  of  a  few 
months  the  subject  appears  to  have  dropped  by  mutual  consent. 
A  smart  repartee  is,  however,  upon  record  with  reference  to  this 
controversy.  At  the  Red-Cross-Street  Library,  when  a  number 
of  ministers  were  met  together,  Mr.  Watts  having  something 
to  propose  rose  up  to  speak,  but  owing  to  the  feebleness  of  his 
voice  it  was  with  difficulty  that  he  could  make  himself  heard. 
Upon  this  Mr.  Bradbury  called  out  to  him — "Brother  Watts, 
shall  I  speak  for  you?"  to  which  he  significantly  replied, 
"Brother  Bradbury,  you  have  often  spoken  against  me."  If 
in  reviewing  now  this  painful  dispute,  an  impartial  observer 
has  occasion  to  blame  the  one  party,  for  the  absence  of  that 
charity  that  "hopeth  all  things;"  he  will  also  remember,  that 
there  was  cause  for  animadversion,  with  reference  to  the  other, 
in  a  partial  deviation  from  the  orthodox  doctrine,  and  a  prone- 
ness  to  torture  the  mystery  of  godliness  into  a  congruity  with 
new  schemes  and  explications.  The  spirit  which  Watts  mani- 
fested during  this  unfortunate  altercation,  will  be  best  seen 
from  the  following  extracts: — -"It  has  always  been  a  painful 
and  grievous  thing  to  me,  to  hold  a  contest  with  any  person 
living,  much  more  with  one  for  whom  I  have  had  so  sincere 
an  esteem,  more  especially  since  my  constitution  and  my 
spirits  are  much  broken  by  long  illness.  If,  therefore,  the  tem- 
per of  your  mind  continues  the  same  as  runs  through  a  good 
part  of  your  two  letters  to  the  board  and  me,  I  can  neither 
desire  nor  expect  a  return  to  this  paper ;  nor  am  I  willing  by 
any  means  to  carry  on  such  an  epistolary  contention.  If  you 
think  fit  to  talk  with  me  on  any  of  these  heads,  in  a  spirit  of 


398  LIFE    AND    TIMES 

meekness,  I  am  very  ready  to  give  you  further  satisfaction 
about  any  of  them." — "Let  us  examine  concerning  what  is 
past,  and  let  us  take  care  for  the  time  to  come,  that  what  we 
write  or  print  with  regard  to  our  brethren,  be  expressed  in 
such  language  as  may  dare  appear  and  be  read  by  the  light 
of  the  last  conflagration,  and  the  splendour  of  the  tribunal  of 
our  returning  Lord." 

The  year  1725  produced  several  minor  publications :  "  The 
Knowledge  of  the  Heavens  and  the  Earth  made  easy ;" 
"Prayers  composed  for  the  Use  and  Imitation  of  Children;" 
"A  Discourse  on  the  Education  of  Children  and  Youth ;"  and 
the  second  part  of  the  Dissertation  on  the  Trinity,  or  "The 
Arian  invited  to  the  Orthodox  Faith."  These  various  produc- 
tions, some  of  them  rather  voluminous,  evidence  the  uncom- 
mon industry  of  the  writer,  and  are  monuments  as  well  of  his 
benevolence  and  piety.  A  hint  is  thrown  out  in  one  of  his 
prefaces,  that  some  "  particular  friends"  imagined  his  time 
employed  in  too  mean  a  service ;  but  he  nobly  replies,  that 
"nothing  is  too  mean  for  a  servant  of  Christ,  if  he  may  thereby 
promote  the  honour  of  his  Master."  The  first  of  these  pieces, 
"  The  Knowledge  of  the  Heavens  and  the  Earth,"  though  con- 
taining much  accurate  information,  has  been  long  since  super- 
seded by  more  complete  synopses  of  astronomical  and  geographi- 
cal science.  It  appears  to  have  been  submitted  to  the  inspection 
of  Mr.  John  Eames,*  F.R.S.  to  whom  the  treatise  is  dedicated. 

*  "Mr.  Eames,"  says  Mr.  Wilson,  "was  a  native  of  London,  and  received  liis  clas- 
sical Itarning  at  Merchant  Taylor's  School.  He  afterwards  pursued  a  course  of 
academical  studies,  with  a  view  to  the  Christian  ministry;  yet  he  never  preached 
but  one  sermon,  when  he  was  so  exceedingly  agitated  and  confused,  that  he  was 
scarcely  able  to  proceed.  There  was  also  unhappilj'a  great  defect  in  his  organs  of 
speech,  and  his  pronunciation  was  exceedingly  harsh,  uncouth,  and  disagreeable. 
These  circumstances  discouraged  him  from  renewing  the  attempt;  so  that  quitting 
the  pulpit  entirel}',  he  devoted  himself  to  the  instruction  of  young  men,  whose  edu- 
cation for  the  ministry  among  Protestant  dissenters  was  patronised  and  assisted  by 
the  Independent  fund.  His  department  included  the  languages,  mathematics,  moral 
and  natural  philosophy.  Mr.  Eames  was  a  man  of  extensive  learning,  and  a  uni- 
versal scholar.  His  scientific  learning  procured  him  the  acquaintance  and  friend- 
ship of  Sir  Isaac  Newton,  to  whom  he  was  on  some  occasions  singularly  useful. 


OF   DR.    ISAAC    AVATTS.  399 

The  preface  is  dated  "Theobalds  in  Hertfordshire,  June  11, 
1725,"  and  a  note,  dated  "August  20,"  is  appended  to  it  by 
Mr.  Earaes,  stating-  that  but  very  few  alterations  had  been 
made  in  the  work.  The  Prayers  for  Children  furnish  another 
proof  of  the  writer's  kindly  regard  for  the  young,  and  of  his 
truly  catholic  spirit ;  for  whilst  on  the  one  hand,  he  would  not 
with  the  churchman  impose  forms  of  devotion  as  necessary,  he 
did  not  with  a  superstitious  abhorrence  blindly  reject  their  aid 
as  sinful.  The  Discourse  on  the  Education  of  Children  is  an 
admirable  manual  for  parental  guidance,  and  contains  all  that 
is  valuable  in  more  recent  treatises,  but  with  a  greater  promi- 
nence given  to  moral  and  religious  culture.  It  was  in  such 
employments  as  these  that  Watts  especially  delighted;  and 
though  partially  superseded  by  more  modern  efforts  of  Chris- 
tian philanthropy  and  zeal,  yet  his  works  are  still  in  use,  and 
will  be  remembered  to  his  immortal  honour.  His  praise  is  de- 
servedly in  all  the  churches,  who,  having  given  lessons  to 
ripened  manhood  and  to  hoary  age,  has  taught  thousands  and 
tens  of  thousands  of  the  young,  to  draw  nigh  to  the  throne  of 
grace  with  the  voice  of  prayer  and  the  song  of  thanksgiving. 

FHOM  THE  REV.  JOSEPH  STAN  DEN.* 

"  Newbury,  May  26,  1721. 
"  Dear  Sir, 

"  I  have  more  thanks  to  offer  than  a  man  of  your 
generous  spirit  will  be  persuaded  to  receive  for  all  the  favours 
you  have  been  pleased  to  confer  on  me,  than  whom  none  can 

Sir  Isaac  introduced  him  to  the  Royal  Society,  of  which  he  became  a  member,  and 
he  was  employed  to  prepare  and  publish  an  abridgement  of  their  transactions." 
Diss.  C'hur.  ii.  73,  note. 

Mr.  Eames  died  suddenly,  June  29,  1714.  "  What  a  change,"  said  Watts  to  Dr. 
Gibbons,  "  did  he  experience — but  a  few  hours  between  his  lecturing  to  his  pupils, 
and  his  hearing  the  lectures  of  angels  !" 

*  This  gentleman  was  a  dissenting  minister  at  Newbury,  Berkshire.  He  after- 
wards entered  the  Church  of  England,  and  continued  his  ministry  either  in  the 
same  town  or  its  immediate  neighbourhood.  Mr.  Standen  wrote  some  lines  addressed 


400  LIFE    AND   TIMES 

more  value  them,  though  few  can  less  deserve  them.  I  know 
an  hearty  acknowledgment  and  continual  gratitude  (which  I 
am  sure  I  cannot  be  without)  is  a  better  return  than  a  multi- 
tude of  words.  I  am  very  particularly  obliged  to  you,  Sir, 
for  your  last  invaluable  present.  May  that  excellent  book* 
(through  the  divine  blessing)  answer  the  design  of  the  author, 
and  the  end  which  the  several  subjects  so  naturally  lead  to ; 
that  profane  and  unthinking  men  may  no  longer  make  a  jest 
of  their  own  reason,  while  they  banter  the  inward  testimony 
which  an  improved  Christian  has  for  the  truth  of  his  religion  ; 
that  mankind  may  more  value  those  noble  faculties  by  which 
they  are  distinguished  from  the  brutes,  and  that  supernatural 
grace  by  which  alone  at  last  they  can  be  distinguished  from  the 
devils ;  that  they  may  seek  help  from  God  rather  than  crea- 
tures, and  not  only  spread  their  sorrows  before  the  God  of  all 
consolation,  but  their  sins  before  him,  who  can  abundantly 
pardon ;  that  there  may  be  fewer  instances  of  persons  in  whom 
man  may  think  he  sees  all  the  beauty  of  an  angel  without, 
while  the  all-seeing  God  knows  there  is  the  hideous  deformity 
of  a  devil  within,  and  that  the  world  may  be  brought  to  so 
just  and  reasonable  a  taste  and  judgment,  as  not  to  think  that 
the  former  makes  amends  for  the  latter ;  that  the  hidden  life 
of  Christians  may  be  their  better  part,  and  that  they  may  more 
place  their  felicity  in  nearness  to  the  great  Author  of  it,  and 
may  be  more  ambitious  of  rising  by  the  heavenly  scale  of  tru  e, 
than  the  earthly  one  of  imaginary  blessedness,  and  so  may 
every  day  grow  more  fit  for  a  solemn  appearance  before  God 
both  in  this  and  the  other  world ! 

"  I  had  the  happiness  to  see  your  good  father  three  weeks 


to  the  author  of  the  "Horse  Lyricac,"  April  17,  1706,  which  are  generally  printed 
with  the  Lyric  Poems.  At  tlie  time  when  he  couformed,  several  others  adopted 
the  same  course  ;  as  Butler,  who  became  bishop  of  Durham  and  the  autlior  of  the 
"Analogy,"  Seeker,  Seager,  Hasset,  Bellamy,  Briscoe,  Billie,  and  the  two  Jacombs. 
Calamy^s  Life  and  Times,  vol.  ii.  501. 

*  The  first  volume  of  Sermons. 


OF  DR.  ISAAC  WATTS.  401 

ago  at  Southampton ;  and  Mrs.  Watts,  your  mother,  was  then 
so  well  as  to  appear  abroad.  I  hope  they  will  both  live  some 
years  the  longer,  being  supported  with  the  joy  of  having  such 
a  son.  I  saw  the  dear  Sarissa*  too,  whose  temper  and  spirit 
I  am  satisfied  you  are  pleased  with.   • 

"  Shall  we  never  see  you  at  Newbury  ?  Nobody  (hardly 
Sarissa  herself,  had  she  been  in  my  case)  could  more  regret 
your  passing  by  without  my  snatching  a  look  or  two  at  you. 
It  will  (I  confess)  more  show  my  respect  to  Mr.  Watts,  if  I  go 
to  Southampton  on  purpose  to  meet  him  for  an  hour  or  two, 
and  that  I  beg  you  will  permit  me  to  do  by  letting  me  have 
timely  notice  of  your  being  there,  as  (if  I  mistake  not)  some- 
body told  me  you  intended  this  summer. 

"  I  have  not  the  honour  to  know  Sir  Thomas  and  his  family, 
but  cannot  forbear  congratulating  them  on  the  happiness  of 
your  company,  which,  in  my  opinion,  is  a  greater  honour 
than  titles  and  coronets. 

"  I  beg  again  a  line  from  you,  and  pray  give  me  some  hopes 
that  you  will  admit  me  to  an  interview  with  you  at  Southamp- 
ton, which  will  be  a  greater  satisfaction  than  you  imagine  to, 

"  Dear  Sir, 

"  your  most  obliged  friend, 

"  and  most  obedient  servant, 

"j.  STANDEN." 
FROM  LORD  BARRINGTON. 

"  Gerard-Street,  July  8,  1721. 
"  Rev.  Sir, 

"  I  am  obliged  to  you,  that  you  would  take  the  trou- 
ble to  acquaint  me  with  Mrs.  Oakes's  distress  ;  and  the  rather, 

*  Sarah,  Mr.  Watts's  sister. 


402  LIFE   AND   TIMES 

because  you  have  been  the  first  from  whom  I  have  learned  the 
deplorable  state  of  her  affairs :  she  has  never  acquainted  me 
with  them  herself,  nor  by  any  other  friend  than  by  you.  She 
sent  to  me,  indeed,  to  desire  me  to  lend  her  two  guineas,  to 
buy  some  tea  in  order  for  sale,  she  having  been  disappointed 
in  some  monies  she  expected  to  receive,  which  I  refused  her. 
But  instead  of  acquainting  me  or  any  other  of  our  family  with 
her  necessities,  she  and  her  daughter  seemed  rather  to  conceal 
them.  I  know  not  what  she  has  said  to  you,  to  induce  you  to 
use  some  expressions  in  your  letter.  But  you  see  by  this  how 
little  my  honour,  as  you  express  yourself,  can  be  really  touched 
by  her  difficulties,  whatever  they  be,  since  she  has  not  thought 
fit  to  acquaint  me  with  them,  till  I  received  the  favour  of  yours. 
And  though  I  doubt  not  but  Sir  Thomas  Abney,  on  his  noti- 
fying of  her  extreme  want  to  you,  took  care  to  relieve  her,  yet, 
since  I  received  yours,  I  have  sent  her  something  for  imme- 
diate relief. 

"  I  have  always  been  desirous  to  relieve  her  since  her  hus- 
band's death  in  the  most  effectual  manner.  I  thought  that 
would  not  be  by  my  allowing  her  a  pension,  or  using  any  in- 
terest I  could,  or  she  could,  with  other  friends  to  do  the  like, 
imagining  they  would  be  soon  weary  of  it ;  but  rather,  to  raise 
a  sum  of  money  to  put  her  in  a  way  to  maintain  herself.  She 
told  me  Sir  Thomas  Abney  was  of  the  same  opinion,  and 
thought  that  her  selling  tea,  coffee,  &c.  would  be  a  proper  way 
for  her  to  engage  in,  and  would  concur  with  me  in  helping  her 
to  a  sum  of  money  to  set  her  up.  I  desired  her  to  tell  Sir 
Thomas  I  would  give  my  proportion,  and  desired  him  to  name. 
She  told  me  he  said  I  must  name  first.  After  that  I  named 
twenty  pounds ;  she  then  told  me  Sir  Thomas  said,  I  must  pay 
it  before  he  would  give  any  thing,  I  told  her  I  was  willing 
to  give  my  money,  but  thought  it  would  be  of  no  use  unless 
Sir  Thomas  would  give  in  proportion,  because  I  knew  if  I  did 
it  would  be  money  flung  away ;  for  twenty  pounds  would  not 
be  sufficient  to  lay  in  a  stock  to  support  a  trade,  but  fifty 


OF    DR.    ISAAC    WATTS.  403 

pounds  would.  However,  she  afterwards  told  me  that  Sir 
Thomas  would  not  do  any  thing,  nor  say  what  he  would  do, 
till  I  had  paid  the  money.  In  confidence  that  a  proportion- 
able allowance  would  have  been  made  by  that  family,  I  gave 
her  my  money  ;  twenty  pounds  she  had  from  me.  She  had  a 
great  deal  before.  She  had  also  five  pounds,  I  think,  from 
my  brother  Bendysh,  and  five  pounds  they  procured  her  from 
another  friend.  And  I  must  say,  that  I  take  the  loss  of  all  this 
money,  besides  credit  that  I  have  given  her  for  six  pounds' 
[worth]  of  tea,  and  five  pounds  since  my  brother  Bendysh  has 
advanced  her,  to  be  all  owing  to  her  not  having  that  propor- 
tionable support  that  induced  us  all  to  give  her  what  we  have. 

"  She  is  my  relation,  but  neither  she  nor  any  of  her  family 
have  pretended  much  friendship  or  good-will  to  me  or  mine. 
Her  and  their  friendships  have  been  much  more  elsewhere 
than  with  us.  I  do  not  think  this  a  reason  for  me  to  abandon 
her  in  her  distress ;  but  sure  this  is  a  very  strong  reason  for 
others  related  to  her  in  blood,  to  co-operate  with  me  in 
supporting  her  and  my  uncle  Grey.  I  am  sure  my  family 
have  suffered  a  great  deal  more  by  that  family  than  Sir  Thomas 
Abney's  has  done ;  and  I  neither  have  been,  nor  am  wanting 
to  my  uncle  Grey  nor  to  Mrs.  Cakes. 

"  I  like  the  scheme  you  propose  in  relation  to  Mrs.  Oakes's 
family  very  well,  and  shall  be  very  ready  to  contribute  ray 
share  and  proportion  to  it  with  Sir  Thomas  Abney  ;  though  I 
have  expenses  of  the  same  kind  with  him,  in  respect  of  three 
families  that  I  represent,  and  expenses  of  a  very  public  nature 
too.  I  shall  be  very  glad  that  those  who  are  more  capable  of 
executing  that  scheme,  will  see  it  performed,  and  will  be  pleas- 
ed to  let  me  know  my  quota,  which  shall  be  cheerfully  and 
thankfully  complied  with  by.  Reverend  Sir, 

"Your  most  humble  faithful  servant, 

"  BARRINGTON." 


404  LIFE    AND   TIMES 

"  P.  S.  The  reason  why  I  would  not  lend  her  two  guineas, 
for  the  belter  carrying  on  of  her  trade,  was,  that  I  thought  if 
she  had  such  a  fund  of  credit,  she  would  never  keep  within 
any  bounds, 

"  My  humble  service  and  my  lady's  attend  Sir  Thomas,  my 
Lady  Abney,  and  Mrs.  Gunston." 

FROM  LADY  MARY  LEVETT.* 

"March  10,  1722. 
"Sir, 

"  This  presents  with  grateful  acknowledgments  for 
your  book  and  picture  ;  both  are  worthy  of  a  better  place  than 
I  have  to  put  them  in.  I  did  not  receive  them  till  last  Monday. 
So  far  as  I  have  looked  into  your  book,t  I  have  reason  to  be- 
lieve that  the  method,  together  with  the  spirit  and  temper,  is 
best  suited  to  convince  of  error,  and  establish  in  the  most  im- 
portant articles  of  Christianity,  and  hope  the  divine  blessing 
will  by  these  your  labours  produce  these  happy  effects.  I 
have  been  much  concerned  for  the  death  of  Sir  Thomas  Abney, 
at  a  juncture  when  his  zeal  as  a  magistrate,  and  his  prayers 
as  a  good  Christian,  are  so  much  wanted.  I  beg  my  service 
to  Lady  Abney  ;  tell  her  I  sympathise  with  her,  for  though 
Sir  Thomas  was  full  of  years,  and  nature  was  spent,  yet  to  lose 
such  a  husband,  parent,  and  master  must  be  matter  of  deep 
sorrow  :  one  every  way  so  fit  for  heaven  must  be  a  diffusive 

*  The  relict  of  Sir  William  Levett,  Alderman  of  London.  To  tliis  lady 
Calamy  dedicated  his  three  sermons  at  Salter's  Hall,  entitled,  "  God's  concern  for 
his  glory  in  the  British  isles,  and  the  security  of  Christ's  church  from  the  gates  of 
Hell."  She  was  an  intimate  friend  of  his  mother's,  and  was  with  her  when  she 
died  at  Bath  while  on  a  visit.  The  doctor  in  his  dedication  notices  her  "  ladyship's 
remarkable  steadiness  in  opposition  to  ecclesiastical  impositions,  joined  with  a 
visible  concern  for  real  holiness,  a  catholic  spirit,  and  a  hearty  affection  to  all 
without  distinction  that  are  for  pure  and  uudefiled  religion."  She  died  soon 
after  the  date  of  this  letter.  "Oct.  15,  (1722.)  Died  my  good  friend,  the  Lady 
Levett,  at  Bath."     Cal.  Life  and  Times,  vol.  ii.  463. 

f  "Christian  Doctrine  of  the  Trinity." 


OF   DR.   ISAAC    WATTS.  405 

blessiiif^  to  our  earth.  But,  however,  her  ladyship  is  not  un- 
acquainted with  her  duty,  or  an  experimental  benefit  by  a  due 
submission  to  the  darkest  dispensations.  She  knows  the  God 
who  sends  —  the  errand  —  and  tendency  of  afflictions.  And 
here  I  cannot  but  say,  I  am  more  apt  to  pity  a  carnal  wretch 
under  afflictions  than  a  pious  soul ;  the  one  is  so  hardened  that 
he  usually  either  contemns  or  reproaches  God,  or  studies  in- 
direct methods  to  relieve  himself;  whilst  the  other  is  more 
solicitous  to  have  trouble  sanctified  than  removed.  Happy  is 
my  lady  in  such  a  disposition,  and  in  having  you.  Sir,  to  men- 
tion her  complaints  to,  and  ask  your  advice  and  prayers  !  That 
you  may  have  confirmed  health  of  body,  and  growing-  degrees 
of  a  prosperous  soul,  and  abundant  success  in  your  ministerial 
labours,  is  the  wish  of.  Sir, 

"  With  great  respect,  your  servant, 

"MARY  LEVETT." 
TO  THE  REV.  HUBERT  STOGDON.* 

"  Sir, 

"  1  take  it  as  a  piece  of  peculiar  respect,  that  you 
should  make  a  present  to  me  of  your  letter  in  manuscript,t 
and  deny  yourself  the  satisfaction  of  your  designed  publica- 

*This  gentleman  was  the  son  of  the  Rev.  Robert  Stogdon,  and  grandson  by  the 
mother's  side  of  the  Rev.  Francis  Hubert,  ejected  by  the  Act  of  Uniformity  from 
a  living  in  Wiltshire.  He  was  one  of  those  who  unfortunately  departed  from  the 
faith  of  their  fathers  by  adopting  the  Arian  scheme,  though  in  early  life  he  was 
heard  to  inveigh  warmly  against  the  opinions  of  Whiston  and  Dr.  Clarke.  When 
about  to  propose  himself  for  ordination  before  the  united  ministers  of  Devon  and 
Cornwall,  his  altered  principles  naturally  created  a  prejudice  against  him,  and  he 
withdrew  from  being  a  candidate.  He  afterwards  resided  with  Mr.  Billingsley,  at 
Ashwick  in  Somersetshire,  to  whose  congregation  he  preached  for  some  years.  Mr. 
Stogdon,  though  an  anti  peedobaptist,  took  the  charge  of  a  pasdobaptist  congregation 
atTroubridge  in  Wiltshire,  in  the  year  1724,  where  he  died  Jan.  2,  1728.  Dr.  Totil- 
■niin  in  Mon.  liepos.  February  and  March,  1809. 

f  This  was  a  narrative  detailing  the  progress  of  Mr.  Stogdon's  inquiries,  which  re- 
sulted iu  his  change  of  religious  sentiment.  Dr.  Toulmin  of  Birmingham  had  it  in 
his  possession,  but  it  was  lost  by  lending  it  to  a  friend. 


406  LIFE    AND   TIMP:S 

tion  ;  and  that  merely  upon  the  slight  notice  given  you  by  my 
bookseller  of  some  further  dissertations  which  I  design  to  pub- 
lish on  the  doctrine  of  the  trinity.  If  you  think  I  have  delayed 
too  long  to  make  my  acknowledgments  to  you,  yet  I  am 
persuaded  you  will  imagine  it  a  sufficient  excuse  when  I 
tell  you,  that  the  day  before  I  received  your  manuscript  I  had 
a  large  pamphlet  put  into  my  hands,  in  answer  to  my  little 
book  of  the  trinity,  which  was  published  three  days  after,  and 
which  you  may  easily  suppose  has  busied  my  thoughts,  and 
employed  the  few  hours  of  health  which  I  enjoy. 

"I  thankfully  receive,  Sir,  the  great  candour  and  respect  with 
which  your  epistle  treats  me,  and  make  this  free  confession  to 
you,  that  the  greatest  part  of  your  manuscript  speaks  much  of 
my  sense  and  thought  concerning  the  doctrine  of  charity ;  and 
if  those  arguments  had  been  published  alone  to  the  world, 
and  concluded  with  that  most  solemn  and  pious  account  of 
your  friend  in  the  three  last  pages,  without  any  regard  to  my 
book,  I  would  assure  you.  Sir,  you  should  have  found  no  an- 
swer from  me,  for  I  confess  I  cannot  refute  them. 

"  I  might  also  tell  you  that  there  is  some  truth  in  this  para- 
graph of  yours,  (viz.)  '  In  short  you  seem  to  me  to  have  re- 
solved to  offend  the  one  party  as  little  as  could  possibly 
consist  with  pleasing  the  other,  and  keeping  your  conscience 
between  both ;  though  you  durst  never  say  expressly,  that 
your  notion  of  the  trinity  is  necessary  to  salvation,  &c.  Yet 
you  convey  your  charity  with  such  a  secret  hand,'  &c. 

"  Truly,  Sir,  I  think  this  is  but  an  observance  of  the  rule 
of  the  great  apostle  (1  Cor.  x.  3-2,  33),  '  Give  none  offence, 
neither  to  the  Jews,  nor  to  the  Gentiles,  nor  to  the  church  of 
God;'  neither  to  the  zealous  Athanasians,  nor  to  the  Arians, 
nor  to  the  pious  Christians  of  any  party  whatsoever.  As  there 
are  some  seasons  wherein  that  advice  of  the  apostle  is  neces- 
sary (Rom.  xiv.  22),  ^  Hast  thou  faith?  have  it  to  thyself  be- 
fore God ;""  so  there  are  some  seasons  also,  wherein  a  parallel 


OF    DR.    ISAAC    WATTS.  407 

advice  is  as  proper  ;    '  Hast  thou  charity  ?    Hate  it  to  thyself 
before  God.''     But  I  hope  the  seasons  are  growing  to  an  end. 

"  Surely,  Sir,  you  know  so  well  the  present  temper  of  many 
Christians,  that  it  is  necessary  for  any  man  that  would 
attempt  to  enlarge  their  charity,  that  he  should  make  it  ap- 
pear first  that  he  himself  is  sound  in  the  faith  according  to 
their  judgment  of  things.  Till  this  is  done,  whatever  he  shall 
say  upon  the  principles  and  duties  of  love,  will  be  vain  and 
insignificant ;  for  they  imagine  that  the  author  hath  need  of 
charity  for  himself,  and  therefore  he  bespeaks  it.  Now  since 
I  am  well  satisfied  in  the  general  doctrine,  that  true  and 
proper  godhead  is  ascribed  to  our  Lord  Jesus  Christ  and  the 
Holy  Spirit  in  many  places  of  scripture,  I  was  willing  first  to 
make  that  appear  with  such  strength  and  evidence  as  I  could 
in  a  few  plain  pages,  and  set  what  I  think  is  truth  in  the  most 
convincing  light,  though  I  am  doubtful  of  the  common 
schemes  of  explication.  And  I  thought  it  enough  in  that 
book  to  lay  down  some  principles  and  foundations  of  charity, 
without  drawing  out  the  inferences  at  large.  The  247th  page 
of  my  book  expresses  the  same  sentiments  with  the  21st  and 
22nd  propositions,  even  though  your  notions  of  communion  in 
or  with  godhead  may  not  arise  so  high  as  mine  do. 

*'  If  I  have  in  any  expressions  betrayed  an  uncharitable  spirit, 
I  hope  the  world  will  forgive  what  I  myself  do  not  approve,  and 
wdll  understand  those  words  in  a  sense  no  more  severe  than 
what  I  had  when  I  wrote  them,  which  I  shall  show  immedi- 
ately. And  as  I  hope  I  have  been  enabled  to  do  something 
in  that  book  towards  the  establishment  of  the  truth ;  so,  if  I 
can  find  that  the  world  will  hear  it,  I  trust  God  will  enable 
me  to  do  some  further  service  in  the  propagation  of  charity  in 
due  time,  I  have  some  dissertations  of  that  kind  by  me  at  pre- 
sent; but  I  would  willingly  delay  and  manage  my  publication 
of  them  in  such  a  manner,  that  they  might  have  the  best  in- 
fluence upon  those  pious  souls  whose  charity  is  too  narrow. 
And  I  pray  God  to  direct  and  guide  my  thoughts  and  deter- 


408  LIFE    AND    TIMES 

minatioiis  for  this  purpose.  In  the  pursuit  of  this  design,  if  I 
should  ever  have  occasion  to  cite  some  pages  of  yours  here- 
after, as  received  in  a  private  letter  from  an  unknown  hand, 
I  persuade  myself  that  you  will  be  pleased  to  see  it  used  in 
so  happy  a  design  ;  but  I  can  determine  nothing  yet. 

"  And  now,  Sir,  I  have  spoken  my  sentiments  of  charity  with 
so  much  freedom,  give  me  leave  also  to  add,  that  if  our  Lord 
Jesus  Christ  be  the  true  God,  or  has  the  fulness  of  the  god- 
head dwelling  bodily  in  him,  so  as  to  make  one  complex  per- 
son, or  principle  of  action  and  passion,  as  I  verily  believe  he 
has ;  then  I  do  not  think  it  a  matter  of  small  importance  whether 
we  believe  his  godhead  or  no.  Though  my  charity  can  ex- 
tend itself  towards  persons  who  arc  humble  and  sincere  in  their 
search,  and  pray  earnestly  for  divine  assistance,  even  to  such 
persons  as  you  describe  in  the  end  of  your  letter;  yet  I  think 
they  ought  to  have  a  most  solemn  awe  upon  their  own  spirits, 
lest  they  should  degrade  that  glorious  person  from  his  oneness 
w^ith  the  Father  in  true  godhead,  whom  so  many  ages  of 
Christians  have  believed  to  be  truely  one  with  God,  according 
to  his  own  expression,  '  I  and  the  Father  are  one?  And  in  my 
opinion  the  glory  of  his  mediation,  the  all-sufficience  of  his 
atonement,  the  almighty  prevalence  of  his  intercession,  his 
power  to  send  the  Holy  Spirit,  and  to  govern  the  known  and 
unknown  worlds,  depend  upon  his  divinity,  or  the  union  of  the 
man  Jesus  to  the  eternal  godhead,  constituting  one  person  or 
one  complex  principle  of  action.  It  awakens,  therefore,  a  sort 
of  religious  horror,  when  some  persons  seem  to  take  pleasure 
in  a  contemptuous  debasing  of  the  character  of  our  blessed 
Lord,  and  roundly  assert  that  Christ  is  but  a  mere  creature, 
and  that  he  is  called  God  only  for  the  same  reason  that  angels 
or  magistrates  are  called  gods,  or  as  the  devil  himself  is  called 
the  god  of  this  world.  I  wish  these  things  were  laid  to  heart 
by  all  who  profess  sober  and  pious  inquiries  into  the  truth. 

"I  own,  Sir,  I  find  nothing  like  this  sort  of  language  in  your 
letter. 


OF   DR.   ISAAC    WATTS.  409 

"  But  there  are  two  or  three  things  in  your  epistle  which  I 
parlicuhirly  take  occasion  to  remark,  partly  to  declare  my 
agreement  with  you,  and  partly  to  show  my  different  thoughts. 
"You  observe.  Sir,  that  I  use  the  words  necessary  honours, 
and  due  honours,  paid  to  the  Son  and  Spirit,  in  such  a  cautious 
manner,  as  though  I  did  not  mean  them  explicative  of  each 
other,  hut  in  a  different  sense,  p.  245  and  246.  Indeed,  Sir, 
you  are  perfectly  in  the  right ;  for  I  cannot  call  all  those  hon- 
ours which  are  due  to  our  Lord  Jesus  Christ,  as  he  has  com- 
munion in  the  divine  nature,  to  be  necessary  to  our  salvation, 
and  it  is  obvious  enough  to  every  thoughtful  reader. 

"  You  observe  again,  Sir,  and  you  own  that  you  are  a  little 
warm  there,  that  I  levelled  that  text,  2  Pet.  ii,  1,  against  my 
brethren,  which  my  conscience  tells  me  does  not  belong  to 
them,  (viz.)  damnahle  heresies,  denying  the  Lord  that  bought 
them.  And  you  say,  that  it  stands  in  my  book  temptingly 
offering  itself  to  that  unrighteous  service.  Now,  Sir,  I  dare 
freely  confess,  that  I  do  not  believe  that  scripture  particularly 
refers  to  those  that  deny  the  godhead  of  Christ,  but  probably 
to  those  who  deny  him  as  a  holy  governor  of  his  people,  or  at 
least  in  general  to  those  that  deny  him  in  any  of  those  powers, 
properties,  offices,  or  characters,  the  belief  of  which  is  necessary 
to  salvation ;  and  I  wish  upon  second  thoughts  that  I  had  so 
explained  it. 

"  But,  however,  without  such  a  paraphrase,  I  think  I  hare 
not  given  such  just  reason  as  you  suppose,  to  apply  it  directly 
and  peculiarly  to  those  that  deny  the  deity  of  Christ;  for 
when  the  first  part  of  my  book  is  spent  in  proving  the  deity 
of  Christ  and  the  Spirit,  the  second  part  of  my  book  in  prov- 
ing their  personality,  and  the  third  or  last  part,  in  proving 
their  several  offices  and  relations  in  which  they  stand  to  us ; 
and  upon  a  recapitulation  I  make  this  conclusion,  that  there 
are  such  things  as  damnable  heresies  when  persons  deny  the 
Lord  that  bought  them ;  this  should  with  much  more  justice 
be  referred  to  the  denial  of  all  or  any  of  the  preceding  pro- 

Dd 


410  LIFE    AND   TIMES 

perlies,  characters,  or  offices  of  Christ,  the  belief  of  which  is 
necessary  to  salvation,  and  not  merely  confined  to  the  doctrine 
of  his  deity. 

"You  ask  me,  Sir,  how  we  shall  know  a  seeming  contradic- 
tion from  a  real  one.  I  reply,  that  by  a  seeming  contradiction 
I  mean  that  which  at  first  sight  appears  so,  but  after  due  in- 
spection and  inquiry  cannot  be  plainly  and  clearly  proved  to 
be  a  contradiction.  And  whatever  you  may  imagine  con- 
cerning some  of  the  known  and  common  schemes  of  explica- 
tion of  the  doctrine  of  the  trinity  (which  yet  I  can  by  no  means 
give  up),  yet  I  entreat  you  to  believe,  that  there  is  or  may  be 
some  uncommon  or  unknown  scheme  of  explication  which 
may  not  be  a  contradiction  ;  and  I  cannot  part  with  this  doc- 
trine, -which  seems  to  me  so  plainly  revealed  in  scripture,  till 
the  doctrine  itself  be  either  directly  disproved  from  the  word  of 
God,  or  till  all  possible  schemes  of  explication  (both  known 
and  unknown)  are  either  actually  refuted  or  precluded. 

"  I  further  add,  that  if  ever  my  book  of  the  trinity  should 
live  to  another  edition,  I  should  make  you  sensible  that  I  lie 
ever  open  to  conviction,  and  should  make  some  corrections,  for 
which  you  and  others  have  given  me  proper  hints  and  just 
occasion,  and  for  which  I  return  my  acknowledgments. 

"  To  conclude.  Sir,  the  civility  and  reasoning  of  your  letter 
deserve  a  larger  and  better  answer  than  my  want  of  health 
and  many  other  necessary  engagements  will  at  present  allow ; 
and  if,  besides  all  the  candour  of  your  writing,  you  allow  me  to 
suppose  that  yourself  are  the  person  described  in  the  three  last 
pages  of  your  epistle,  my  esteem  and  respect  for  you  is  doubled. 
That  God  would  send  [guide]  you  and  me  and  every  inquiring 
Christian  into  the  firm  belief  of  all  important  truths,  and  the 
constant  practice  of  holiness  and  love,  is  the  hearty  prayer  of, 
Sir, 

"  Your  humble  servant, 

"I.  w. 

"August  4,  1722." 


OF   DR.    ISAAC    WATTS.  411 

"  P.  S.  I  do  not  forbid  a  prudent  communication  of  this 
letter ;  yet  I  entreat  you  would  admit  no  copy  of  it,  but  treat 
it  as  I  do  your  MSS.  according  to  our  Saviour's  rule,  Matt, 
vii.  12." 

TO   THE    REV.    SAMUEL   ROSEWELL. 

"  Dear  Brother  Rosewell, 

"  Your  most  agreeable  and  divine  conversation  two 
days  ago,  so  sweetly  overpowered  my  spirits,  and  the  most  af- 
fectionate expressions  which  you  so  plentifully  bestowed  on 
me,  awakened  in  me  so  many  pleasing  sensations,  that  I 
seemed  a  borderer  on  the  heavenly  world  when  I  saw  you  on 
the  confines  of  heaven,  and  conversed  with  you  there.  Yet  I 
can  hardly  forbear  to  ask  for  your  stay  on  earth,  and  wish  your 
service  in  the  sanctuary,  after  you  have  been  so  much  within 
view  of  the  glorious  invisibilities  which  the  gospel  reveals  to 
us.  But  if  that  hope  fail,  yet  our  better  expectations  can  never 
fail  us.  Our  anchor  enters  within  the  veil,  where  Jesus  our 
forerunner  is  gone  to  take  our  places :  Heb.  vi.  ult.  May 
your  pains  decrease,  or  your  divine  joys  overpower  them  ! 
May  you  never  lose  sight  of  the  blessed  world,  and  of  Jesus  the 
Lord  of  it,  till  the  storm  is  passed,  and  you  are  safely  arrived. 
And  may  the  same  grace  prepare  me  for  the  same  mansions, 
and  give  you  the  pleasure  of  welcoming  to  those  bright  re- 
gions 

"  Your  affectionate  and  unworthy 

"  Friend  and  brother, 

"  IS.  WATTS. 

"  Lime-Street,  7th  April,  1722. 
"  Just  going  to  Theobalds. 

"  P.  S.  Our  family  salute  you  :  they  were  much  afi"ected, 
pleased,  and  edified  with  their  late  visit.  Grace  be  with  you 
and  all  your  dear  relations.     Amen." 


412  LIFE    AND   TIMES 

TO  MRS.  ROSEWELL  * 

"  Madam, 

"  When  nature  has  vented  itself  a  little,  and  poured 
out  its  first  sorrows,  it  is  proper  then  to  apply  the  means  of 
consolation.     The  skilful  surgeon  will  let  a  fresh  wound  bleed 
a  little  before  he  binds  it  up,  and  thereby  prevents  inward 
disorders,  and  makes  surer  work  in  healing  it  up.  Your  griefs 
have  had  their  loose,  and  the  floods  have  almost  overwhelmed 
you.     It  is  time  now.  Madam,  to  stop  the  current,  and  raise 
your  head  above  the  waves.  It  is  time  to  fix  your  thoughts  on 
all  the  cheerful  and  suppoiting  circumstances  that  attend  a 
mournful  providence.     My  dear  brother  Rosewell  was  a  zea- 
lous servant  of  Christ  in  his  church  on  earth,  and  he  has  called 
him  to  a  better  and  nobler  service  in  heaven.     Behold  him 
as  living  on  high,  and  forget  him  in  his  dying  agonies.     Be- 
hold him  released  from  every  pain,  nor  let  fancy  entertain  you 
with  the  echo  of  his  ancient  groans.     "  Old  things,"  with 
him,  "are  past  away;  behold  all  things  are  become  new!" 
He  is  where  he  long  wished  to  be,  and  we  hope  to  meet  him 
there  when  our  race  is  finished.     O  that  we  may  be  as  ready 
to  go,  and  long  after  that  state  with  the  same  warm  affections  ! 
But  you  are  left  mourning  here,  a  sorrowful  widow  in  the 
midst  of  helpless  children.     Well ;  The  Father  of  the  father- 
less is  a  kind  title  which  God  has  assumed  for  their  sakes ; 
and  he  is  the  Husband  and  Judge  of  the  widow.     Faith  can 
realize  such  words  as  these,  and  turn  them  into  food  and  cor- 
dials in  a  sinking  and  fainting  hour.     Nor  is  there  a  want 
which  you  can  complain  of,  nor  a  sorrow  which  you  can  feel, 
but  there  is  a  blessed  word  of  supply  and  comfort  to  answer  it 
in  the  book  of  God.     May  the  blessed  Spirit  lead  you  to  that 


*  This  lady  was  the  daughter  of  Richard  Barrett,  Esq.,  and  survived  her  hus- 
band until  the  year  1762,  when  she  died  at  Hackney,  aged  7.5. 


OF   DR.    ISAAC    WATTS.  410 

living  spring  of  consolation,  and  give  you  a  divine  relish  of 
those  waters  of  life.  It  was  a  pleasurable  sympathy  of  pain 
that  I  felt  in  my  last  visit  to  my  dying  brother  Rosewell.  I 
mourned  to  see  so  useful  a  man  so  near  to  the  grave  of  silence. 
But  the  pleasures  with  which  I  received  the  grasp  of  his 
friendly  hand,  and  his  assurances  of  his  meeting  me  at  the 
right  hand  of  Christ,  wrought  a  sort  of  mixture  of  passions 
within  me,  and  I  wept  at  once  for  sorrow  and  joy.  Good  man  ! 
How  he  reviewed  the  foundations  of  his  hope  !  And  searched 
and  felt  them,  as  it  were,  on  all  sides,  to  see  that  they  were 
strong  and  divine  !  And  which  of  us  shall  ever  arrive  safe  at 
heaven,  if  he  could  miss  the  way  ?  Which  of  us  can  raise  a 
juster  and  a  firmer  expectation?  View  him  then.  Madam,  in 
his  Father's  house,  in  the  gardens  of  Paradise,  waiting  for 
your  ascent  thither,  and  for  the  company  of  those  young 
plants*  which  he  left  behind,  till  they  shall  grow  into  trees  of 
righteousness,  and  are  fit  to  be  transplanted  into  the  same 
garden  of  God  on  high.  May  the  dews  of  heaven  fall  hourly 
on  the  stock  and  branches  ;  and  may  you  all  be  kept  under 
the  providential  and  gracious  care  of  his  God  and  your  God 
in  this  dangerous  wilderness,  till  he  shall  call  you  to  his  more 
immediate  presence ! 

"  Yours  in  the  bonds  of  the  gospel, 

"  I.  WATTS. 

"Lime-Street,  May  24,  1722." 

FROM    LORD    BARRINGTON. 

"  Tofts,  Jan.  23,  1724. 
"Rev.  Sir, 

"  I  returned  you  my  thanks  for  the  kind  present  of 
your  Logic  soon  after  I  received  it.     I  can  now  do  it  on  much 

*  Mr.  Rosewell  left  two  children  j  one  of  them,  Mrs.  Susannah  Girle,  was  living 
at  Hackney  in  1802. 


414  LIFE   AND   TIMES 

better  grounds,  for  since  I  have  read  it  (which  from  the  scene 
of  sorrow  and  business  I  have  lately  been  in,  I  have  not  been 
able  to  do  till  within  these  few  days)  I  do  not  barely  thank 
you  for  the  civility  of  your  present,  or  only  for  the  satisfaction  I 
have  received  on  reading  a  book  finely  written  on  a  noble  and 
useful  subject,  or  for  the  profit  I  have  reaped  by  it,  but  for 
a  book  by  which  I  expect  not  only  the  youth  of  England, 
but  all,  who  are  not  too  lazy  or  too  wise  to  learn,  will  be 
taught  to  think  and  write  better  than  they  do,  and  thereby 
become  better  subjects,  better  neighbours,  better  relatives, 
and  better  ChristianSo  As  far  as  wrong  reasoning  helps  to 
spoil  each  of  these  (and  a  great  way  every  one  who  will  re- 
flect must  see  it  goes  towards  it),  so  far  will  putting  us  in  a 
right  way  of  thinking  help  to  mend  us.  I  think  your  book 
so  good  an  help  to  us  this  way,  that  I  shall  not  only  recom- 
mend it  to  others,  but  use  it  as  the  best  manual  of  its  kind 
myself,  and  intend,  as  some  have  done  Erasmus  or  a  piece 
of  Cicero  for  another  purpose,  read  it  over  once  a  year. 

"  I  am.  Sir, 

"  Your  most  faithful  humble  Servant, 

"  BARRINGTON." 


FROM   THE    SAME. 

"  Becket-house,  Aug.  18,  1724. 
"Rev.  Sir, 

"  I  am  very  much  obliged  to  you  for  the  trouble  you 
have  had  in  the  affair  of  Mr.  Tindall ;  and  to  Mr.  Gunstone 
for  the  trouble  he  has  given  himself  to  recommend  Mr.  Tin- 
dall to  Mr.  Blood  worth.  I  beg  you  will  accept  of  my 
acknowledgments,  and  render  them  acceptable  to  Mr.  Gun- 
stone. 


OF   DR.    ISAAC    WATTS.  415 

"  I  have  sometimes  had  great  hopes  of  bemg  someways 
useful  iu  the  world.  That  prospect  has  been  a  darling  plea- 
sure to  me.  I  think  I  see  it  closed,  and  I  hope  I  submit  as 
I  ought.  I  am  not  worthy  of  such  an  honour.  Perhaps  the 
world  is  not  fit  to  be  served.  I  assure  you  since  I  see  my 
way  barred  by  Providence,  and  not  by  myself,  I  am  not  only 
contented,  but  happier  than  I  ever  have  been  in  my  life.  I 
could  bear  a  bustle  in  the  hopes  of  doing  good,  but  I  never 
loved  it.  I  always  loved  retirement ;  and  since  I  see  so  little 
an  opening  to  usefulness,  I  truly  taste  and  enjoy  my  retreat. 
I  take  some  care  of  my  health,  which  a  fatiguing  life  had 
very  much  impaired.  I  take  some  small  care  of  my  affairs; 
I  enjoy  my  family  and  my  friends  ;  and  I  liave  a  good  deal 
of  time  to  look  into  my  bible ;  and  I  hope  I  do  not  only  find 
infinitely  more  benefit,  but  more  entertainment,  from  convers- 
ing with  Matthew,  Mark,  Luke  and  John,  Paul  and  Peter, 
James  and  Judges,  than  ever  I  did  with  ministers  of  state  or 
courtiers,  or  any  of  the  men  of  the  world  :  and  I  read  profane 
authors  purely  in  subservience  to  the  sacred  ones.  I  have  in 
the  neighbourhood  three  or  four  friends,  with  whom  I  can 
talk  with  great  satisfaction  of  these  matters.  I  only  wish  you 
near  me,  and  in  the  state  of  health  I  enjoy.  If  you  hare  not 
read  Dr.  Cheyne's  Essay  of  Health  and  Long  Life,  I  hope 
you  will.  I  have  a  great  opinion  of  his  rules,  in  nervous 
cases  especially.  I  heartily  wish  you  a  degree  of  health 
equal  to  the  inclinations  you  have  to  make  use  of  it. 

"  My  wife  is  to  Lady  Abney  and  yourself,  as  I  am,  a  most 
faithful  humble  servant. 

"  BARRINGTON." 


41G  LIFE    AND   TIMES 


"  Reverend  Sir, 


FROM  THE  SAME. 

"  Tofts,  June,  1725. 


"Yesterday  I  received  the  favour  of  yours  of  the  2d 
and  10th  instant;  I  had  before  received  your  second  part, 
which  happened  thus  —  I  had  bought  your  first  part  before  I 
received  the  favour  of  your  order  for  it;  I  gave  it  away 
the  other  day  to  a  friend,  and  so  sent  that  order  for  the  first 
part  to  your  bookseller,  before  I  had  happened  to  hear  your 
second  part  was  come  out :  he  sent  me  your  second  part  by 
virtue  of  your  order  for  the  first.  I  sat  down  yesterday  and 
to-day  to  read  it,  but,  before  I  was  got  far,  have  been  pre- 
vented from  the  instruction  and  the  pleasure  I  propose  to  my- 
self in  getting  through  it. 

"  However  I  may  happen  to  difi'er  from  the  sentiments,  yet 
I  see,  by  reading  as  far  as  I  am  got,  that  it  has  and  will  greatly 
add  to  the  high  esteem  and  regard  I  have  had  for  you  ever 
since  our  acquaintance ;  and,  indeed,  I  must  think  very  ill  of 
myself  if  it  do  not.  For  what  is  there  more  valuable  among 
mankind,  than  the  most  ardent  love  of  truth ;  the  most  diligent 
and  impartial  inquiry  after  it;  the  greatest  frankness  in  pro- 
fessing our  opinions  about  it  for  the  good  of  the  world,  and 
our  becoming  an  example,  as  well  as  an  advocate  for  the  bear- 
ing with  the  different  sentiments  that  are  the  necessary  results 
of  free  inquiry }  All  these,  the  noblest  dispositions  of  the 
mind,  you  must  convince  every  one  you  possess  in  the  highest 
degree;  and  are,  at  the  same  time,  an  instance  of  paying  a 
superior  homage  to  truth,  as  not  only  to  sacrifice  the  ease  and 
esteem  that  follows  thinking  with  the  herd,  but  your  own  late 
and  avowed  sentiments  to  her  sovereign  authority.  It  is 
Avithout  the  least  mixture  of  a  compliment  that  I  assure  you, 
I  value  a  drachm  of  this  heavenly  temper  beyond  all  the  ortho- 
doxy or  truth  in  the  world.     The  cursed  spirits  know  more 


OF   DR.   ISAAC   WATTS.  417 

truth  than  all  of  us  put  together ;  but  their  want  of  the  love 
of  it,  renders  them  odious  to  God  and  dangerous  to  us :  and 
the  love  of  it  in  us,  is  the  love  of  God,  who  is  Truth,  and 
hateth  none  but  him  that  loveth  and  maketh  a  lie.  And  the 
sovereign  love  of  truth  must  include  in  it  the  supreme  love  of 
virtue  and  piety,  which  are  founded  in  truth  and  in  truth  alone. 
And  what  then,  besides  this,  can  possibly  render  us  amiable 
to  our  Maker,  or  to  those  amongst  us  who  propose  the  judg- 
ments he  makes  of  things  as  the  standard  of  ours?  This, 
however,  I  am  sensible,  may  be  said  of  him  that  writes  on  any 
subject  with  that  happy  temper  and  disposition  that  appears 
in  what  I  read  on  that  important  subject  of  your  Dissertations. 
But  I  will  add,  therefore,  what  can  be  so  worthy  of  a  Christian 
and  a  divine,  as  to  borrow  your  own  thought  and  expression, 
(for,  I  think,  there  cannot  be  a  more  beautiful  one)  "as  to 
endeavour  that  the  object  of  our  worship  may  not  answer  the 
inscription  on  the  Athenian  altar  ?"  I  shall  be  heartily  sorry 
to  hear  that  any  of  your  friends  should  discourage  a  temper 
that  can  best  fit  us  either  for  the  duties  and  enjoyments  of  this 
life  or  a  better.  If  we  were  all  in  a  right  cue,  we  should  all 
of  us  propose  you  as  a  pattern  in  our  search  after  truth,  and 
our  professions  of  it ;  but  this  is  not  to  be  expected ;  censures 
will  come  from  all  who  do  not  pay  a  like  ready  and  cheerful 
obedience  to  truth  with  yourself:  arm  your  mind  then  against 
them.  Those  that  censure  you  here,  must  acquire  the  temper 
they  cannot  bear  in  you,  before  they  can  relish  heaven  itself, 
as  you  will.  Whilst  they  censure  you  then,  pity  them !  If 
you  have  any  mistakes,  your  openness  to  conviction  will  soon 
set  them  right,  when  your  heart  shall  be  irradiated  with  the 
morning  star.  But  their  eyes  are  to  be  opened  and  fortified, 
before  they  will  be  able  to  receive  the  fall  pleasure  and  bene- 
fit of  the  land  of  light  and  vision.  Forgive  these  overflowings 
of  my  heart,  which  I  see,  on  looking  back  on  them,  have  run 
into  too  great  length,  whilst  I  am  talking  to  one  who,  I  am 
satisfied,  can  sufi'er  for  the  truth  as  well  as  write  and  act  for  it. 


418  LIFE    AND   TIMES 

May  the  God  of  truth  bless,  accept,  and  support  you,  and  all 
you  do  and  bear  for  its  sake. 

"  I  have  only  just  room  to  return  my  most  hearty  thanks  to 
yourself  and  Mr.  Price,  for  the  respect  you  have  shown  to  my 
recommendation  of  the  case  of  Berwick,  unless  I  would  make 
you  pay  more  than  as  much  again  as  they  deserve.  I  am  to 
him  and  you,  therefore,  without  adding  a  word  more,  Reve- 
rend Sir,  a  most  faithful  and  most  humble  servant. 

"barrington." 


OF   DR.   ISAAC   WATTS.  419 


CHAPTER  XII. 

1726—1731. 
DEATH  OF  GEORGE  THE  FIRST. 


DEATH  OF  THE  KING:  — SERMON  AT  BURY-STREET.  — CORONATION  OF 
GEORGE  II.— PREVALENCE  OF  SUICIDE:  — PUBLICATION  OF  THE  "  DE- 
FENCE."—SERMON  BY  MATTHEW  HENRY.  —  DEATH  OF  MATTHEW 
CLARKE:  — HIS  CHARACTER.  — DR.  MATHER  BYLES  :  — POEM.  — THIRD 
VOLUME  OF  "SERMONS."— ASSOCIATION  OF  DISSENTING  MINISTERS: 
—MINUTES  OF  MEETING.— DIPLOMA  :— VERSES  BY  DR.  EARLE.— "ESSAY 
ON  CHARITY  SCHOOLS."— ORIGIN  OF  GRAVEL-LANE  SCHOOL  —THE 
SCHOOLS  OF  THE  ESTABLISHMENT.  — DR.  GIBSON. —  SOUTHAMPTON 
AFFAIRS.— INSTITUTION  OF  DODDRIDGE'S  ACADEMY.— "CATECHISMS." 
—TREATISE  BY  REYNOLDS— "CAVEAT  AGAINST  INFIDELITY."— DEISTI- 
CAL  CONTROVERSY.— THE  DUNCIAD:— REMONSTRANCE  WITH  POPE.— 
TREATISE  ON  THE  "PASSIONS."  — "SCRIPTURE  HISTORY."  —  DOD- 
DRIDGE—HARVEY.— BROADHURST— COUNTESS  OF  HERTFORD.— COR- 
RESPONDENCE. 


By  the  death  of  George  I.  in  the  year  1727,  on  his  journey 
to  Hanover,  the  dissenters  lost  a  firm  friend  and  benefactor ; 
but  happily  the  liberal  and,  at  the  same  time,  vigorous  policy  he 
had  adopted,  was  pursued  by  his  successor.  The  disputes  be- 
tween the  Hanoverians  and  the  Jacobites,  which  had  distracted 
the  nation  in  his  reign,  began  now  gradually  to  subside;  the 
fall  and  banishment  of  Atterbury  had  paved  the  way  for  the 
overthrow  of  high-church  principles;  and  churchman  and 
dissenter,  Watts  and  Seeker,  Doddridge  and  Warburton,  were 
frequently  seen  engaged  in  literary  and  Christian  intercourse. 
The  decease  of  the  late  monarch  and  the  accession  of  his  son, 
were  improved  by  Watts  at  Bury-Street,  June  18th,  from 
Isaiah,  v.  12 :  "  And  the  harp  and  the  viol,  the  tahret  and  pipe, 


420  LIFE    AND   TIMES 

and  wine  are  hi  their  feaats  :  hut  they  regard  not  the  work  of 
the  Lord,  neitlier  consider  the  operation  of  his  hands.''''  This 
sermon  was  printed  at  the  request  of  the  congregation,  under 
the  title  of  "  The  Religious  Improvement  of  Public  Events." 
If  the  eulogy  pronounced  upon  the  first  George  cannot  be 
maintained  from  his  private  character,  it  was  at  least  richly- 
merited  by  his  public  conduct.  The  preacher  referred  his 
people  to  former  times,  when  they  had  to  apprehend  the  do- 
minance of  popish  darkness  and  tyranny  upon  the  death  of 
many  of  their  princes ;  and  he  congratulated  them  upon  "  the 
peaceful  and  regular  succession  of  a  protestant  heir  to  his 
Father's  throne  —  a  blessing,"  said  he,  "as  hath  not  been 
known  in  Great  Britain  for  a  hundred  years  past."*  There 
was  occasion  then  for  the  "  harp  and  the  viol"  to  be  in  their 
"feasts;"  but  he  cautioned  them  against  the  crime  of  the 
Jews,  who  allowed  festivity  to  supersede  devotion,  and  forgot 
the  providence  of  God  in  their  hours  of  joy.  The  coronation 
of  George  II.,  October  11,  of  the  same  year,  drew  from  the 
pen  of  Watts  a  commemorative  ode,  which  has,  however,  little 
besides  its  loyalty  to  recommend  it.f  "  Wednesday,  Oct.  1 1," 
says  Calamy,  "  the  king  and  queen  were  crowned  at  West- 
minster in  great  pomp  and  state ;  the  procession  to  and  from 
the  abbey  upon  that  occasion,  of  which  I  was  a  spectator,  was 
very  magnificent.  Dr.  Potter,  Bishop  of  Oxford,  preached 
the  coronation  sermon  from  2  Chron.  ix.  8."J  The  dissenting 
ministers  in  the  metropolis  were  introduced  to  the  royal  pres- 
ence by  the  Vice  Chamberlain  Earl  Stanhope;  and  a  con- 
gratulatory address  upon  the  occasion  was  read  by  Mr.  after- 
wards Dr.  John  Evans. 

A  painful  subject  had  presented  itself  to  the  attention  of 

*  Tlie  last  instance  of  this  kind,  lie  observes,  was  when  Charles  I.  succeeded 
his  father  James  I. ;  and  indeed  was  the  only  one  except  when  Edward  VI.  came 
to  the  crown. 

f  Miscel.  No.  ~1. 

X  Cal.  Life  and  Times,  ii.   500. 


OF    DR.    ISAAC    WATTS.  421 

Watts  duriug  the  preceding  year,  and  drawn  him  away  from 
his  ordinary  studies  —  the  practice  of  suicide,  of  which  many- 
melancholy  instances  had  occurred.  The  ruin  and  distress 
Avith  which  most  parts  of  the  kingdom  had  been  visited  in 
consequence  of  the  South-Sea  delusion,  largely  contributed  to 
the  increase  of  this  fearful  crime ;  for  the  bills  of  mortality 
for  1725  report  fifty -nine  cases  in  the  metropolis,  besides 
seventy-four  persons  drowned,  and  forty-three  found  dead,  the 
cause  of  whose  fate  was  uncertain.  The  topic  was  sufficiently 
important  and  distressing  to  awaken  the  solicitude  of  the 
friends  of  religion  throughout  the  nation ;  and  in  the  early 
part  of  the  year  1726,  "A  Defence  against  the  Temptation  to 
Self-murder,"  by  Mr.  Watts,  made  its  appearance,  dated  "  Lon- 
don, January  28."  The  principal  arguments  of  this  treatise 
were  originally  drawn  up  in  a  private  letter  ;  and  an  unhappy 
individual  who  contemplated  suicide,  being  diverted  from  it 
by  its  perusal,  the  writer  was  induced  to  make  it  public  in  the 
hope  of  profiting  others.  He  investigates  the  causes  in  gen- 
eral of  such  fatal  occurrences  —  dissipation,  pride,  and  gam- 
bling ;  and  endeavours  to  present  suitable  dissuasives  to  arrest 
the  tempted  victim  in  his  career.  The  volume  is  divided  into 
six  sections,  viz. — the  unlawfulness  of  self-murder  displayed— 
the  folly  and  danger  of  it  —  the  motives  to  it  examined  and 
answered  —  means  of  security  against  the  temptation  —  admo- 
nitions to  those  who  have  been  rescued  from  it  —  and  cau- 
tions against  all  approaches  to  it,  as  intemperance,  duelling, 
&c.  The  increase  of  commercial  speculation,  and  in  conse- 
quence the  more  frequent  occurrence  of  blighted  hopes  and 
changing  fortunes,  have  of  late  years  alarmingly  multiplied  this 
crime ;  and  it  may  be  doubted  whether  the  charity  of  modern 
juries  is  serviceable  to  the  public  morals,  in  attributing  to 
temporary  insanity  what  might  often  be  more  correctly  traced 
to  mortified  pride  and  disappointed  ambition.  In  Paris, 
owing  in  a  great  measure  to  the  impunity  which  attends  this 
practice,  the  number   of  persons   taken   out   of  the  Seine 


422  LIFE    AND   TIMES 

amounts  to  a  frightful  sum ;  and  it  is  a  singular  instance  of 
taste,  that  the  average  numher  in  summer  far  exceeds  that  in 
the  winter,  on  account  of  the  warmer  temperature  of  the 
stream.  "  The  supreme  Governor  of  all  things,"  says  Cicero, 
"forbids  us  to  depart  hence  without  his  order;  and  though 
when  the  divine  providence  does  itself  offer  us  a  just  occasion 
of  leaving  this  world,  a  wise  man  will  then  depart  joyfully,  yet 
he  will  not  be  in  such  haste  as  to  break  his  prison  contrary  to 
law,  but  will  go  as  a  prisoner  when  dismissed  by  the  magistrate 
or  lawful  power."* 

A  sermon  of  the  excellent  Matthew  Henry's,  edited  by 
Watts,  was  published  in  1726,  entitled  "  Separation  without 
Rebellion."  It  was  preached  at  the  ojoening  of  the  new 
meeting-house  in  Crook  Lane,  Chester,  August  8,  1700,  from 
Joshua,,  xxii.  22, 23  :  "  The  Lord  God  of  gods,  the  Lord  God 
of  gods  he  knoweth,  and  Israel  he  shall  know,  if  it  be  in 
rebellion  or  if  in  transgression  against  the  Lord  —  that  we 
have  built  us  an  altar."  Mr.  Henry  evidently  intended  this 
sermon  for  publication,  as  he  kept  a  copy  of  it  "fairly  tran- 
scribed,"! which  was  found  among  his  manuscripts.  The 
reason  why  its  appearance  was  delayed  during  his  life,  Mr. 
Palmer  conjectures^  to  be  "his  great  solicitude  to  avoid 
giving  offence  to  any  members  of  the  established  church"  in 
the  city  where  he  ministered.  Mr.  Watts  wrote  a  commen- 
datory preface  to  this  interesting  relic  of  his  friend.  The 
sermon  may  be  found  in  Henry's  Miscellaneous  Works ;  and 
furnishes  a  "  fair  specimen  of  the  writer's  candour,  ability, 
and  moderation,  and  is  well  calculated  not  only  to  instruct 


*  Tusc.  Quest,  lib.  i. 

f  "It  cannot  be  said  of  Mr.  Henry,"  says  his  biographer,  "as  of  Caspar 
Bartliius,  that  on  account  of  the  neatness  of  his  hand  the  first  copy  required  no 
transcript;  both  he  and  the  printer  might  rather  have  adopted  such  Calligraphic 
regrets  as  those  expressed  by  Dr.  Parr."  See  the  characters  of  the  late  J.  C.  Fox, 
i.  p.  9.     William's  Life  of  Henry,  Note  0. 

X  Palmer's  Mem.  of  Heury   p.  13. 


OF   DR.    ISAAC    AVATTS.  423 

those  unacquainted  with  English  nonconformity,  but  to  con- 
found prejudice,  whether  it  arise  from  education,  ignorance, 
or  pride."* 

Another  of  Mr.  Watts's  friends  was  numbered  with  the 
dead  in  the  course  of  this  year — the  Rev.  Matthew  Clarke,  of 
Miles's  Lane  meeting,  by  whom  he  was  highly  respected  and 
beloved.  During  a  dangerous  illness,  nearly  twenty  years 
before,  Mr.  Clarke  desired  that  his  friend  might  be  sent  for  to 
pray  with  him,  apprehending  that  his  end  was  near.  Mr. 
Neal  observes  that  "  that  excellent  person  observed  in  him  a 
sweet  calmness  and  composure  of  mind,  a  firm  and  steady  re- 
liance upon  the  merits  of  Christ  alone  for  his  salvation,  and  a 
humble  resignation  of  himself  to  the  will  of  God  whether  for 
life  or  death.  He  then  assisted  him  in  his  devotions,  and  as  a 
person  departing  out  of  the  world,  recommended  him  to  the 
mercy  of  our  Lord  Jesus  Christ  unto  eternal  life."t  In  his 
last  affliction  Mr.  Clarke  removed  to  Stoke-Newington,  for 
the  benefit  of  the  country  air,  and  here  he  was  visited  by  Mr. 
Neal  and  several  of  his  ministerial  acquaintance.  The  divi- 
sions among  his  brethren,  occasioned  by  the  trinitarian  contro- 
versy, wounded  the  spirit  of  this  good  man,  and  excited  pain- 
ful apprehensions  that  the  vital  power  of  religion  would 
disappear  from  the  churches.  On  the  morning  of  the  earthly 
sabbath,  March  26th,  he  commenced  the  heavenly  rest.  A 
neat  monument  at  the  east  end  of  Bunhill  Fields,  marks  the 
place  of  his  interment  and  witnesses  the  friendship  of  Watts, 
who  honoured  his  virtues  in  an  elegant  Latin  inscription.  His 
biographer  ranks  him  among  the  best  and  most  useful  divines 
of  the  age  in  which  he  lived;  and  the  hand  that  traced  his 
portrait  upon  his  tomb,  exhibits  him  as  not  only  faithful  and 
laborious,  but,  which  was  not  always  the  case  at  that  period, 

*  Williams's  Life.  p.  180. 

f  Neal's  Memoirs  of  the  Rev.  M.  Clarke,  p.  27, 


424  LIFE   AND   TIMES 

"inter  Theologormn  dissldia,  Moderatus et  Paclflcus ^  among 
the  controversies  of  divines,  Moderate  ahcays  and  PaciJicJ^ 

The  literary  labours  of  Watts  were  now  not  only  appreciated 
in  his  own  country,  but  his  name  was  popular  upon  the  con- 
tinent and  in  America;  his  theological  works  were  widely  cir- 
culated among  his  countrymen  across  the  Atlantic  ;  and  his 
Hymns  and  Psalms  were  gradually  coming  into  use  among 
the  New-England  churches.f  A  tribute  of  respect  was  paid 
to  his  genius  and  piety  by  one  of  the  Boston  divines,  in  some 
verses  which  may  here  properly  be  introduced.  The  author  was 
Dr.  Mather  Byles,  pastor  of  one  of  the  churches  in  that  city. 

"TO  TPIE  REV.  MR.  WATTS  ON  TIIS  HOR/E  LYRICS. 

"Feh.  1,  1727. 
I. 
"  Say,  smiling  muse,  what  heav'nly  strain 
Forbids  the  waves  to  roar, 
Comes  gently  gliding  o'er  the  main. 
And  charms  our  list'ning  shore  ? 

II. 

"  Wliat  angel  strikes  the  trembling  strings? 
And  whence  the  silver  sound? 
Is't  from  the  heights  where  Gabriel  sings? 
'  t  '  Or  Watts  on  lower  ground  ? 

III. 
"  'Tis  thine,  seraphic  Watts!   thy  lyre 
Plays  soft  along  the  floods; 

*  The  parents  of  both  Watts  and  Clarke,  were  tasting  the  cup  of  sorrow, 
at  the  period  when  tiie  cliildren  were  born.  Witness  with  reference  to  the  one, 
the  prison  at  Southampton,  and  as  it  respects  the  other,  a  solitary  house  on 
Leicester  Forest,  where  his  father,  the  ejected  clergyman  of  Narborough,  was 
compelled  to  retire  by  the  violence  of  persecution,  the  scene  of  the  birth  and 
childhood  of  his  sou.     The  inscription  speaks  of  him,  as 

"Patris  venerandi  lllius  oognominis 
Nee  ipse  minus  venerandus." 
A  sou  bearing  the  name 
Of  his  venerable  father, 
Nor  less  venerable  himself. 

f  Appendix  G. 


OF   DR.   ISAAC   AVATTS.  425 

Thy  notes  the  answ'iing  hills  inspire, 
And  bend  the  waving  woods. 

IV. 

"  The  deserts,  fiU'd  with  vital  strains, 
A  smiling  verdure  show; 
Wiiile  whisp'ring  o'er  the  fertile  plains. 
The  tuneful  breezes  blow. 

V. 

"  Such  artful  sounds,  such  flowing  grace, 
E'en  the  rough  rocks  regale; 
And  flow'ry  joy  spreads  o'er  the  face 
Of  ev'ry  laughing  vale. 

VI. 

"And  thou,  my  soul,  the  transport  own, 
Fir'd  with  immortal  heat ; 
While  dancing  pulses  driving  on, 
In  cheerful  motions  beat. 

VII. 

"Long  as  the  sun  shall  rear  his  head. 
And  chase  the  flying  glooms. 
When  from  the  ocean's  eastern  bed. 
The  gallant  bridegroom  comes ; 

VIII, 

*'  Long  as  the  dusky  ev'ning  flies. 
And  sheds  a  doubtful  light. 
Till  shadows  thick'ning  round  the  skies, 
Vest  half  the  globe  with  night, 

IX. 

"O  Watts!  thine  heav'iily  lays  so  long, 
Shall  ev'ry  bosom  fire; 
And  ev'ry  muse,  and  ev'ry  tongue, 
To  epeak  thy  praise  conspire  : 

X. 

"  When  thy  fair  soul  shall  on  the  wing 
Of  shouting  seraphs  rise. 
Then  with  superior  sweetness  sing 
Amid  thy  native  skies: 

E  e 


426  LIFE    AND   TIMES 

XI. 

"  Still  as  thy  gentle  numbers  flow, 
Melodious  and  divine, 
Angels  above  and  saints  below 
The  deathless  chorus  join  : 

XII. 

"  To  our  far  shore  the  sound  shall  roll. 
As  Philomela*  sung, 
And  east  to  west,  and  pole  to  pole, 
Th'  eternal  tune  prolong." 

The  only  production  of  this  year  was  a  third  vohime  of 
Sermons,  Avhich  appeared,  March  25th,  desig'ned  for  the 
sabbath-evening  worship  in  famihes.  At  that  period  the 
majority  of  the  dissenting  meeting-houses  were  only  open 
in  the  morning  and  afternoon ;  the  evening  was  generally 
devoted  to  catechetical  exercises  and  domestic  instruction. 
In  the  fifth  edition  of  the  Sermons,  the  three  volumes  in 
12mo.  were  reduced  into  two  in  8vo.  and  the  prefaces  were 
abridged  and  united.  Several  of  the  discourses  in  the  last 
collection,  are  beautiful  meditations  upon  the  right  improve- 
ment of  the  death  of  friends  and  kindred,  originally  addressed 
to  the  mourning  family  of  Mrs.  Abney,  and  largely  amplified 
when  delivered  from  the  pulpit. 

It  was  at  this  period  that  the  dissenting  ministers  in  the 
metropolis  formed  themselves  into  a  voluntary  association,  in 
order  to  promote  the  interests  of  their  body.  They  had  fre- 
quently united  to  preserve  their  religious  liberties  from  the 
aggressions  of  arbitrary  power,  and  in  their  collective  capacity 
on  various  occasions  had  addressed  the  throne ;  but  no  society 
had  been  regularly  formed  for  the  purpose  of  mutual  advice 
and  co-operation.  A  meeting  of  the  three  denominations  was 
accordingly  held  at  the  George,  in  Ironmonger  Lane,  July  11, 
1727,  the  Rev.  Mr.  Boyce  in  the  chair,  when  several  resolu- 
tions were  passed,  which  formed  into  a  body  all  approved  min- 

*  Mrs.  Rone. 


OF   BR.     ISAAC    WATTS.  427 

isters,  whether  presbyterian,  independent,  or  baptist,  living 
within  ten  miles  of  the  cities  of  London  and  Westminster.  It 
was  also  agreed  that  a  committee  should  be  chosen  to  conduct 
the  affairs  of  the  general  body,  consisting  of  seven  presbyteri- 
ans,  six  independents,  and  six  baptists.  At  the  first  meeting 
Mr.  Watts  was  not  present,  but  at  a  second,  on  the  25th  of 
September,  Avhen  the  Rev,  Mr.  Asty  presided,  his  name  in 
connexion  with  some  others  in  addition  occurs.  The  commit- 
tee appointed  to  represent  the  congregational  ministers  consist- 
ed of  Messrs.  Ridgley,  Watts,  Bradbury,  Hurrion,  Lowman, 
and  Asty. 

A  meeting  of  congregational  ministers,  twenty-nine  in  num- 
ber, was  held  at  Mr.  Watts's  meeting-house,  Dec.  5,  1727, 
when  he  presided.  The  proceedings  of  this  meeting  are  thus 
reported  in  the  minutes : 

"  All  the  minutes  of  this  book  being  first  read  over,  and  the 
design  of  this  meeting  represented,  there  was  a  considerable 
debate  about  the  rule  or  method  by  which  the  list  of  the  con- 
gregational ministers  should  be  settled.  The  two  most  consid- 
erable opinions  proposed  and  urged  were  these :  1.  That  those 
only  should  be  accounted  congregational  ministers  who  some- 
how or  other  manifested  their  agreement  to  the  Savoy  Confes- 
sion of  faith  and  order  of  congregational  churches.  2.  That 
the  rule  by  which  the  ministers  were  admitted,  Sept.  25th,  to 
give  their  vote  for  the  choice  of  the  committee,  should  be  the 
rule  by  which  the  list  of  the  congregational  ministers  should 
be  determined  and  settled,  viz.  those  who  had  been  known 
and  approved  preachers,  and  chose  to  be  ranked  among  the 
congregational  ministers,  and  did  not  design  to  vote  in  the 
body  of  the  Presbyterian  or  Baptist  ministers.  After  much 
time  spent,  and  many  arguments  on  both  sides,  it  was  agreed 
nem.  con.  that  the  rule  by  which  the  ministers  were  determi- 
ned to  have  a  vote  for  choosing  a  committee  of  a  third  body 
of  protestant  dissenters,  on  Sept.  25th  last,  be  followed  in  ad- 
mitting any  minister  into  the  list  of  that  body,  to  vote  with  it 


428  I.TFE    AND   TIMES 

on  political  occasions  for  one  year,  i.  c.  till  Michaelmas  next. 
Note.  It  was  called  a  third  body,  because  some  present  were 
very  desirous  to  exclude  the  term  congregational  out  of  the 
whole  question,  unless  the  first  rule  were  followed,  and  the 
congregational  ministers  distinguished  by  agreeing  to  the 
Savoy  Confession.  Night  coming  on,  and  the  ministers  with- 
drawing themselves,  those  of  the  other  opinion  permitted  the 
question  to  be  put  in  this  form,  rather  than  break  up  the 
assembly  and  do  nothing."  The  leaven  of  antinomianism 
was  now  spreading  in  the  metropolis  ;  and  certain  ministers 
who  wished  to  be  ranked  with  the  congregationalists,  enter- 
taining latitudinarian  principles,  of  course  objected  to  the 
Savoy  Confession  as  a  test  of  admission,  because  opposed  to 
their  views  —  hence,  the  conclusion  that  was  resorted  to. 

The  eminent  services  which  Watts  had  rendered  to  religion 
and  literature,  had  long  attracted  the  notice  and  called  forth 
the  approbation  of  scholars  at  home  and  abroad ;  and,  in 
addition  to  the  marks  of  respect  he  privately  received  from 
them,  he  was  honoured  in  1728  by  the  universities  of  Edin- 
burgh and  Aberdeen,  with  a  diploma  of  Doctor  of  Divinity. 
Never  was  academical  distinction  more  properly  bestoAved: 
it  was  wholly  unsolicited  on  his  part,  and  we  may  gather 
from  his  modest  and  unobtrusive  character,  wholly  unex- 
pected. "  Academical  honours,"  says  Dr.  Johnson,  "  would 
have  more  value  if  they  were  always  bestowed  with  equal 
judgment."  "Learned  seminaries,"  Toplady  remarks, 
"  would  retrieve  the  departing  respectability  of  their  diplomas, 
were  they  only  presented  to  ([  will  not  say  such  men  as  Dr. 
Watts,  for  few  such  men  are  in  any  age  to  be  found),  but  to 
persons  of  piety,  orthodoxy,  erudition,  and  virtue."  "The 
presenting  of  such  titles,"  observes  Erasmus  Middleton,  "  to 
])eople  who  either  can  pay  for  them,  or  whose  silly  vanity 
prompts  them  to  have  their  names  ushered  in  with  a  sound, 
without  any  just  qualification  in  the  world  beside,  exposes  the 
honours  of  a  university  to  contempt,  and  the  persons  who 


OF   DR.    ISAAC    WATTS,  409 

bear  them  to  ridicule.  The  name  of  Doctor,  though  it  cannot 
make  a  man  intuitively  learned  or  wise,  should  give  the  world 
a  just  expectation  not  to  find  him  at  least  weak  or  illiterate." 
Several  of  Watts's  brethren  in  the  metropolis  were  diplo- 
mated  at  the  same  time;  as  Mr.  Jabez  Earle,  Mr.  John 
Evans,  Mr.  William  Harris,  Mr.  John  Comyng,  and  Mr. 
Zephaniah  Marryat.  This  event  gave  rise  to  the  following 
humorous  lines,  sent  by  Dr.  Earle,  to  his  friend  Harris : 

"  Since  dunces  now  are  doctors  made, 
As  well  as  men  of  skill ; 
What  does  the  title  signify  ? 
I'll  tell  thee,  honest  Will. 

"  The  same  as  trappings  to  a  horse. 
Which,  be  he  fleet  or  jade. 
Not  for  his  own,  but  rider's  sake. 
So  wondrous  fine  is  made. 

"So  when  our  universities, 
Doctorial  honours  give, 
'Tis  not  our  merits  they  declare, 
But  their  prerogative," 

Dr.  Watts  once  more  appeared  before  the  public  as  the 
friend  of  education,  and  published  "  An  Essay  towards  the 
encouragement  of  Charity-Schools,  particularly  among  pro- 
testant  dissenters,  1728."  This  was  the  substance  of  a  sermon 
preached  before  the  managers  of  one  of  these  institutions,  pro- 
bably the  one  kept  in  Crutched  Friars,  Aldgate,  as  it  was  print- 
ed at  the  request  of  several  gentlemen  connected  with  it.  It  is 
true,  with  reference  to  these  benevolent  establishments,  as  it  is 
with  almost  every  other  method  of  usefulness  now  in  operation, 
that  the  dissenter  has  led  the  way  for  the  churchman,  and  pro- 
voked him  by  example  to  "labours  of  love."  In  adoptingmeans 
for  the  education  of  the  poorer  classes,  the  establishment  has  but 
followed  in  the  track  of  the  nonconformity  she  so  indignantly 
spurned  from  her  pale  ;  and  whilst  this  fact  ought  not  to  be 
advanced  to  encourage  the  spirit  of  party,  it  ought  not  to  be 


430  LIFE    AND    TIMES 

concealed,  as  an  evidence  of  the  superior  practical  utility  of  a 
voluntary  Christian  association  to  that  of  an  endowed  corpo- 
ration. The  first  English  charity-school  was  founded  among 
the  dissenters  in  Gravel  Lane,  South wark,  in  1087,*  as  an 
antidote  to  the  school  of  one  Poulter,  a  Jesuit,  who  instructed 
the  children  of  the  poor  gratis.  This  was  duiing  the  serai- 
popish  reign  of  James,  when  protestantism  was  threatened  by 
a  catholic  monarch,  and  the  principles  of  his  creed  w^ere  in- 
dustriously disseminated  by  Jesuitical  emissaries.  The  dis- 
senters commenced  their  school  with  forty  children,  but  these 
soon  increased  to  one  hundred  and  thirty,  who  were  admitted 
w^ithout  distinction  of  parties  and  denominations,  and  taught 
reading,  writing,  arithmetic,  and  the  principles  of  religion, 
according  to  the  Assembly's  Catechism.f 

In  his  Essay  Dr.  Watts,  whose  candour  cannot  be  impeach- 
ed, gives  us  the  following  account  of  the  progress  of  these 
institutions  in  the  church  and  among  the  dissenters :  "  Many 
others  were  formed  by  persons  of  the  established  church,  to 
which  several  dissenters  subscribed  largely.  But  at  last  they 
found,  by  sufficient  experience,  that  the  children  were  brought 
up  in  too  many  of  these  schools  in  principles  of  disaffection  to 
the  2)rescnt  government,  in  bigotted  zeal  for  the  icord  CHURCH, 
and  with  a  violent  enmity  and  malicious  spirit  of  persecution 
against  all  whom  they  loere  taught  to  call  Presbyterians^ 
though  from  many  of  their  hands  they  received  their  bread 
and  clothing.     It  was  time,  then,  for  the  dissenters  to  with- 


*  Yet  the  National-School  Society,  for  promoting  the  education  of  the  poor  in 
the  principles  of  the  established  church,  in  their  annual  report  say,  tiiat  the  "first 
English  charity-school  was  opened  in  Westminster,  in  1698."  In  thus  contend- 
ing for  the  honour  of  the  estabiishmtMit,  the  truth  of  history  is  unwittingly 
violated ;  for  eleven  years  before,  the  Southwark  presbyterians  founded  theirs. 
Mattliew  Henry  observes,  in  his  private  MS.  "  1  went  early,  January  1,  1712 — 13, 
to  Gravel  Lane,  in  Southwark,  Mr.  Marriott's  meeting-place,  where  there  has 
been  a  charity-school  for  twenty-five  years"  [answering  to  1(387],  "  there  I 
preached  an  anniversary  sermon,  on  Prov.  iii.  9:  'Honour  the  Lord  with  thy 
substance.'     A  collection  was  made,  amouuting  to  £35." 

+  See  Charity-School  Sermons,  by  Read,  Chandler,  and  Neal. 


OF   DR.    ISAAC    WATTS.  431 

draw  that  charity  which  was  so  abused ;  aud  since  the  favour 
of  our  rulers  gives  us  leave  to  educate  children  according  to 
our  sentiments  and  the  dictates  of  our  consciences,  some  ge- 
nerous spirits  amongst  us  have  made  attempts  of  this  kind, 
and  employ  their  bounty  in  the  support  of  a  few  such  schools. 
And  as  we  hope  this  charity  will  be  acceptable  to  God  and 
useful  to  mankind,  so  we  are  well  assured  it  will  be  a  sensible 
service  to  the  present  government,  which  has  no  friends  in  the 
world  more  sincere  and  more  zealous  than  the  protestant  dis- 
senters."* That  the  grave  charge  here  brought  by  Watts 
against  the  charity-schools  of  the  establishment,  that  of  propa- 
gating disaffection  to  the  Hanoverian  succession  and  senti- 
ments friendly  to  the  exiled  Stuarts,  was  not  unfounded,  is 
candidly  acknowledged  by  Dr.  Gibson,  Bishop  of  London. 
"  This  is,"  says  he,  "  a  very  heavy  objection  indeed,  that  in 
many  of  the  charity-schools  the  children  are  trained  up  to  dis- 
affection to  the  government,  and  it  is  a  point  that  the  govern- 
ment is  nearly  concerned  to  look  after,  since  it  is  to  little 
purpose  to  subdue  and  conquer  the  present  ill  humours,  if  a 
succession  of  disaffected  persons  is  to  be  perpetually  nursing 
up  in  our  schools."  After  this  his  lordship  adds,  "  that  there 
is  not  at  present  the  like  ground  to  complain  of  disaffection  as 
there  was  some  years  ago;"  yet  he  acknowledges,  "that 
while  the  protestant  succession  remained  doubtful,  and  no 
stone  was  left  unturned  to  defeat  it,  some  persons  who  had 
their  views  a  different  way,  that  is,  Jacobites,  endeavoured  to 
get  the  management  of  these  schools  into  their  hands,  and  to 
make  them  instrumental  in  nourishing  and  spreading  an 
aversion  to  the  protestant  settlement."  The  attempt  to  convey 
a  political  bias  to  the  popular  mind  under  the  mask  of  charity, 
was  happily  discovered ;  and  the  exposure  served  to  place  in  a 
stronger  light  the  claims  of  the  dissenters  to  the  gratitude  of 


Essay.  Works,  vol.  iv.  o"27,  8vo.  edit. 


432  LIFE   AND   TIMES 

the  monarch  as  his  staunchest  adherents,  and  to  his  protection 
from  the  repeated  persecutions  of  the  dominant  hierarchy. 

But  few  memorials  of  the  personal  history  of  Dr.  Watts  at 
this  period  can  be  collected;  his  time  was  spent  principally 
between  London  and  Theobalds,  chiefly  in  his  study;  and 
though  he  was  associated  with  his  brethren  in  many  of  their 
transactions,  yet  he  seems  to  have  avoided  as  much  as  consis- 
tent with  duty,  from  weakness  and  perhaps  from  inclination, 
the  distractions  of  public  life.  He  was  in  correspondence  at 
this  time  with  the  Rev.  Mr.  Francis,  and  probably  with  his 
aged  father,  concerning  the  dissenting  interest  at  Southampton. 
The  congregation  there  had  been  long  under  the  care  of  Mr. 
Boler,  but  growing  infirm  Mr.  Francis  removed  from  Girdler's 
Hall  in  the  city  to  be  co-pastor  with  him.  Several  lettere 
passed  between  Dr.  Watts  and  this  gentleman,  which  I  have 
not  been  able  to  discover;  but  in  them  he  persuades 
his  continuance  at  Southampton,  and  expresses  himself  in 
terms  of  the  warmest  affection  and  esteem. 

The  institution  of  an  academy  in  the  midland  districts  of  the 
kingdom,  was  the  subject  of  anxious  deliberation  during  the 
year  1728.  Upon  the  death  of  Mr.  Jennings  in  1723,  the 
academy  under  his  care  at  Hinckley,  in  Leicestershire,  was 
dissolved ;  and  to  repair  the  loss  sustained  by  the  dissenting 
interest,  a  proposal  was  made  to  revive  it  under  the  direction 
of  Mr.  afterwards  Dr.  Doddridge.  This  excellent  man  was 
then  commencing  his  career  at  Kibworth,  a  small  village  in 
the  same  county  ;  and  his  eminent  acquirements,  as  well  as 
his  knowledge  of  Mr.  Jennings's  plan  of  education,  whose 
pupil  he  had  been,  pointed  him  out  as  a  proper  person  to  un- 
dertake the  charge.  A  letter  detailing  the  course  of  study 
pursued,  from  the  pen  of  Doddridge,  was  taken  up  to  town 
by  Mr.  Some  of  Harborough,  and  submitted  to  the  inspec- 
tion of  Dr.  Watts,  for  the  purpose  of  indirectly  ascertaining  his 
opinion  upon  the  project.  This  letter  was  returned  to  the 
country  with  some  observations  by  the  Doctor,  from  which  he 


OF   DR.   ISAAC    WATTS.  433 

seems  to  have  entered  cordially  into  the  plan.  At  this  period 
Doddridge  was  a  comparative  strang-er  to  Watts :  the  former 
remarks  in  a  postscript  to  the  Rev.  Matthew  Clarke,  Nov.  17, 
1725,  "Mr.  Watts  will  be  glad  to  hear  that  Mrs,  Jennings  is 
well.  He  hardly  remembers  that  he  ever  saw  me,  otherwise  I 
should  be  very  glad  to  send  my  respects  to  him;  for  I  have 
received  so  much  entertainment  and  advantage  from  his  wri- 
tings, that  I  cannot  but  have  an  affection  for  his  person,  and 
should  think  myself  happy  if  providence  should  ever  give  me 
an  opportunity  of  cultivating  an  acquaintance  with  him." 
The  private  approval  of  Dr.  Watts  having  been  obtained,  and 
the  public  sanction  of  a  general  meeting  of  ministers  at  Lutter- 
worth, April  10th,  1729,  Doddridge  commenced  his  labours  as 
a  theological  tutor,  which  brought  him  into  frequent  corres- 
pondence with  the  subject  of  this  memoir. 

It  must  have  been  towards  the  close  of  the  year  1728,  that 
Dr.  Watts  published  his  "  Book  of  Catechisms."  In  1727  a 
request  was  made  to  him  by  Sir  Gilbert  Elliot,  to  undertake 
the  composition  of  a  catechism;  in  April,  1728,  we  find  him 
writing  to  Mr.  Say  in  answer  to  a  similar  wish,  that  several 
schemes  were  already  drawn  out  for  the  purpose ;  and  in  1729 
a  discourse  on  catechetical  instruction  appeared,  connected 
with  a  second  edition  of  the  catechisms. 

The  attention  paid  by  the  early  nonconformists  to  the  scrip- 
tural instruction  of  the  young  was  most  exemplary,  and 
formed  in  some  cases  the  most  laborious  part  of  pastoral  duty. 
Of  the  Rev.  John  Ratcliffe,  pastor  of  the  presbyterian  church, 
Jamaica  Row,  Rotherhithe,  from  1705  to  1708,  his  biogra- 
pher relates,  "  He  entirely  devoted  every  Monday,  from  five 
in  the  morning  to  eight  at  night,  for  the  several  parts  of  the 
work.  His  catechumens  were  young  persons  of  all  parties, 
without  any  distinction  of  denominations,  if  they  were  but 
willing  to  receive  the  benefit  of  his  assistance.  Certain  hours 
in  the  morning  were  taken  up  in  hearing  the  younger  children 
recite  the  answers  of  the  Assembly's  Catechism;    those  ot 


434  LIFE   AND   TIMES 

some  further  standing  being  employed  to  hear  them,  and 
others  to  take  care  to  preserve  order,  and  an  exact  account  of 
every  one's  proficiency  and  behaviour.  Mr.  Ratcliffe  after- 
wards spent  two  hours  in  examining  those  that  were  more 
grown,  upon  the  parts  and  sense  of  an  answer,  or  more 
frequently  upon  a  text  of  scripture,  which  he  closed  with 
some  practical  inferences  from  the  subject  before  them,  a 
pathetical  exhortation  suited  to  the  capacities  and  temptations 
of  children,  and  an  earnest  prayer  for  them.  After  dinner 
the  time  was  filled  up  till  five  with  some  profitable  and  free 
conversation,  and  the  evening  was  spent  in  like  endeavours 
for  the  good  of  the  other  sex.  The  numbers  thus  instructed 
were  no  less  than  ten  thousand,  within  the  eight  years  he  was 
employed  in  it.  Sometimes  there  have  been  no  less  than  two 
thousand  present  on  a  day."*  The  catechism  chiefly  in  use 
among  the  dissenters,  was  that  drawn  up  by  the  assembly  of 
divines  at  Westminster;  but  both  in  sentiment,  style,  and 
language,  this  formulary  is  obviously  unfitted  for  children. 
Easier  exercises  had,  indeed,  been  prepared  by  Owen, 
Bowles,  Gouge,  M.  Henry,  Noble,  Cotton,  and  others;  but 
these  were  not  sufficiently  general  and  popular,  to  render 
Watts's  labours  unnecessary.  The  collection  of  catechisms 
which  he  furnished,  contains  "  The  Child's  First  and  Second" 

—  "The  Assembly's  Shorter  Catechism,  with  Explanations" 

—  "A  Preservative  from  the  vSins  and  Follies  of  Childhood, 
drawn  up  in  the  way  of  Question  and  Answer"  —  "The 
Catechism  of  Scriptural  Names"  — "  The  Historical  Cate- 
chism"—  and  "  A  Large  Collection  of  Remarkable  Scriptural 
Names."  Several  of  these  pieces  have  obtained  an  extensive 
circulation,  and  the  first  especially  is  an  established  favourite 
in  the  schools  and  families  of  dissenters.  In  the  year  1729, 
a  second  edition  of  them  appeared,  collected  into  one  volume, 
to  which  a  judicious  essay  was  attached,  "On  the  way  of 

*  Wilson's  Hist,  of  Diss.  Chnr.  iv.  355. 


OF    DR.   ISAAC    WATTS.  435 

Instruction  by  Catechisms,  and  of  the  best  manner  of  com- 
posing them." 

In  1729  appeared  "A  Practical  Discourse  of  Reconcilia- 
tion between  God  and  Man,  by  the  late  learned  and  pious 
Mr.  John  Reynolds."  To  this  was  prefixed  a  recommenda- 
tory preface  by  Dr.  Watts,  dated,  "London,  Oct.  19,  1728."* 
This  "great  and  excellent  man,"  as  he  terms  him,  poet, 
divine,  and  scholar,  resided  a  considerable  period  at  Shrews- 
bury, and  removed  to  London  in  the  year  1718.  He  was  the 
author  of  many  ingenious  and  useful  works,  a  contributor  to 
the  Occasional  Papers,  and  one  of  Matthew  Henry's  continu- 
ators.f  In  his  preface  Dr.  Watts  criticises  the  various 
productions  of  his  friend ;  and  observes  with  reference  to  the 
treatise  he  edited,  "  whosoever  can  read  it  through  with  an 
attentive  mind,  and  yet  after  all  can  obstinately  refuse  to  be 
reconciled  to  the  God  of  heaven,  has  just  reason  to  fear  that 
the  '  god  of  this  world  has  blinded  their  eyes,'  and  hardened 
their  hearts,  in  order  to  prevent  their  acceptance  of  this  great 
salvation."  The  Doctor's  pen  was  employed  upon  several 
other  performances  of  Mr.  Reynolds.  His  "Compassionate 
Letter  to  the  Poorer  part  of  the  Christian  World"  he  revised, 
divided  it  into  sections,  and  omitted  in  one  of  the  last  editions, 
the  word  "poorer"  in  the  title-page,  thinking  it  of  universal 
adaptation.  A  Latin  epitaph  on  "Bigotry,"  inserted  in 
the  Occasional  Papers,  No.  6,  vol.  iii.  he  also  translated,  and 
transferred  it  to  his  own  Miscellaneous  Thoughts. | 

The  benevolence  of  Watts's  character,  and  the  usefulness  of 
his  life,  did  not  secure  him  from  the  derision  of  the  wits,  and 
the  censures  of  the  critics.  In  an  early  edition  of  the  Dunciad, 
his  name  was  introduced,  in  connexion  with  that  of  the  elder 
Wesley,  the  rector  of  Epworth.  The  circumstances  which 
led  to  his  being  honoured  with  a  niche  in  the  temple  of  the 

*  This  Preface  is  not  inserted  in  Watts's  Works. 

f  See  p.  324. 

X  Miscell.  Thoughts,  No.  20. 


486  LIFE    AND   TIMES 

"Mighty  Mother"  have  not  transpired.  The  line  which 
stands  at  present  thus, 

"  Well  purg'd  ;  and  worthy  Withers,  Quarlcs,  aud  Brome," 

appeared  in  a  surreptitious  edition  as  follows : 

"Now  all  the  suflering  brotherhood  retire, 
Aud  'scape  the  martyrdom  of  jakes  aud  fire; 
A  gothic  library  of  Greece  and  Rome 
Well  purg'd ;  aud  worthy  W^esley,  Watts,  and  Brome." 

Dr.  Watts  remonstrated  with  the  author;  and  his  name  with 
that  of  Wesley's  was  deprived  of  the  undesirable  distinction. 
"I  never  offended  Mr.  Pope,"  he  observed,  "but  have  always 
expressed  my  admiration  of  his  superior  genius.  1  only  wished 
to  see  that  genius  employed  more  in  the  cause  of  religion,  and 
always  thought  it  capable  of  doing  it  great  credit  among  the 
gay  or  the  more  witty  part  of  mankind,  who  have  generally 
despised  it,  because  it  hath  not  always  been  so  fortunate  as  to 
meet  with  advocates  of  such  exalted  abilities  as  Mr.  Pope 
possesses,  and  who  were  capable  of  turning  the  finest  exertions 
of  wit  and  genius  in  its  favour."  This  remonstrance  had  its 
desired  effect,  and  the  writer  no  longer  sat  in  the  seat  of  the 
Dunces.  The  elder  Wesley's  name  was  probably  omitted 
owing  to  the  interposition  of  his  son  Samuel,  who  corresponded 
with  Pope,  and  was  highly  esteemed  by  him.  The  above 
information  was  derived  by  Mr.  Nichols  from  the  Rev.  Mr. 
Lamb  of  Dorchester,  who  received  it  from  Mr.  Price,  Dr. 
Watts's  colleague.* 

In  February,  1729,  the  diligence  of  Watts  was  again  appa- 
rent in  the  publication  of  a  "  Caveat  against  Infidelity,  or  the 
danger  of  apostacy  from  the  Christian  faith."  The  materials 
of  this  treatise  were  collected  in  the  year  17'22,  and  designed 
as  an  antidote  to  the  loose  and  dangerous  sentiments  then 
propagated  by  the  enemies  of  truth.  The  writer  contents  him- 

Nichols,  vol.  V.  218,  210. 


OF   DR.   ISAAC    WATTS.  437 

self  with  assuming  a  defensive  attitude ;  his  object  being-  to 
guard  the  friends  of  religion,  and  not  to  assail  the  advocates  of 
infidelity.  Hence,  he  does  not  prominently  introduce  the  evi- 
dences of  the  Christian  faith,  but  notices  the  specious  and 
sophistical  opinions  by  which  it  is  often  indirectly  impugned : 
he  does  not  contend  with  the  confirmed  unbeliever,  but  reasons 
with  the  doubting  Christian.  The  volume  is  divided  into  five 
sections :  On  the  necessary  Articles  of  Christianity  —  Consi- 
derations to  prove  the  Doctrine  —  Various  Queries  and  Ob- 
jections of  the  Deists  answered  —  General  Exhortations  to 
Christians — Preservatives  against  Apostacy  from  the  Faith 
of  the  Gospel.  The  value  of  this  volume  has  been  deteriorated 
by  the  luminous  defences  of  more  modern  divines  ;  it  cannot 
either  be  compared  with  the  learned  eff"orts  of  many  of  the 
writer's  brethren  in  the  ministry  ;  yet  still  to  the  particular 
class  to  which  it  was  directed,  the  foundation  of  whose  faith 
had  been  shaken  but  not  destroyed,  it  was  calculated  to  be 
useful.  The  deistical  controversy  was  much  agitated  at  the 
commencement  of  the  eighteenth  century ;  and  the  dissenters 
sent  forth  a  goodly  host  of  combatants  into  the  field.  Collins, 
Tindal,  Woolston,  Morgan,  andDodwell,  appeared  on  the  side 
of  infidelity  ;  and  Leland,  Chandler,  Lardner,  Browne,  Rey- 
nolds, and  Doddridge,  for  the  cause  of  truth.  The  adversaries 
of  religion  in  that  day,  excepting  a  few  persons  of  learning 
and  ingenuity,  were,  however,  widely  different  to  those  who 
are  now  found  in  the  ranks  of  infidelity  :  they  were  "  men  of 
wit  and  pleasure  about  town,"  imposing  upon  the  ignorant 
and  unwary  by  flippant  declamation  and  shallow  philosophy. 
Some  divines  of  the  establishment  were  for  checking  their 
career  by  the  aid  of  the  civil  magistrate ;  but  against  the  pro- 
secution of  Woolston  the  dissenting  ministers  strongly  though 
ineffectually  protested.  Whatever  evils  might  be  enumerated 
as  the  consequence  of  freedom  of  religious  discussion ;  far 
greater  might  be  advanced  resulting  from  the  exercise  of  a 
spiritual  despotism.     Truth  is  too  potent  to  court  the  aid  of 


438  LIFE    AND   TIMES 

civil  enactments  and  penal  laws,  to  skulk  from  the  fair  field 
of  debate  behind  the  ma^^isterial  chair,  and  contend  with  its 
thousand  foes  by  incarceration  and  line,  instead  of  by  calm 
and  deliberate  inquiry.  The  deistical  controversy  of  the  last 
century  was  a  signal  benefit  to  the  cause  which  was  assailed  ; 
it  has  enriched  our  theology,  illustrated  the  resources  we  com- 
mand, shown  the  strength  of  those  foundations  upon  which 
our  hopes  repose,  and  unveiled  Christianity  to  the  confusion  of 
the  sceptic,  exhibiting-  the  majesty  of  truth  and  reflecting  the 
benignity  of  heaven. 

The  next  work  that  comes  under  our  notice  is  entitled 
"  The  Doctrine  of  the  Passions  explained  and  improved ;  or,  a 
brief  and  comprehensive  scheme  of  the  natural  affections  of 
mankind,  and  an  account  of  their  names,  nature,  appearances, 
eflfects,  and  different  uses  in  human  life."  The  character  of 
the  treatise  may  be  gathered  from  this  full  and  descriptive 
title  —  the  writer  investigates  the  nature  of  the  mental  affec- 
tions —  their  general  design  and  use  —  the  circumstances  that 
most  powerfully  influence  them;  as,  natural  constitution,  cli- 
mate, season,  employment,  health  or  sickness  —  and  some 
admirable  rules  for  their  government  and  regulation  are  pro- 
posed at  the  close.  Descartes  divides  the  primary  passions 
into  six — admiration,  love,  hatred,  desire,  joy,  and  sorrow  — 
by  no  means  an  accurate  distribution :  Dr.  Watts,  who  has 
evidently  well  studied  his  treatise,  divides  them  into  three  — 
admiration,  love,  and  hatred — minutely  examining  their  sev- 
eral modifications  and  derivatives.  The  subject  has  a  most 
important  practical  bearing  upon  man  in  his  social,  civil,  and 
personal  relations ;  and  the  work  in  question  deserves  the  se- 
rious and  attentive  perusal  of  every  one  anxious  to  perform 
his  part  aright  upon  the  great  theatre  of  public  life,  within  the 
range  of  immediate  neighbourhood,  and  in  the  privacy  of  the 
domestic  circle.  The  happiness  of  individuals  has  often  been 
infringed,  and  the  comfort  of  families  sacrificed,  where  one 
mind  has  undergone  no  proper  training — where  the  early 


OF   DR.    ISAAC    WATTS.  439 

ebullitions  of  passion  have  met  with  no  check —  the  capricious 
will  encountered  no  rein  —  and  the  character  left  to  grow  up 
and  be  confirmed  in  its  native  wildness  and  instability.  To 
be  proficient,  however,  in  the  art  of  self-government,  Dr.  Watts 
Avell  knew  that  the  aids  of  religion  are  indispensable ;  that 
divine  grace  alone  can  implant  a  permanent  and  enlightened 
moral  principle;  a  princij^le  of  guidance  and  control,  "the 
spirit  of  power  and  of  a  sound  mind,"  achieving  the  mastery 
of  self,  and  conquering  the  appetites  and  propensities  of  car- 
nal nature.  It  is  when  the  gospel  comes  not  in  word  only  to 
the  ear,  but  in  power  to  the  heart,  that  the  axe  is  laid  to  the 
root  of  the  tree,  instead  of  pruning  a  few  of  its  excrescences; 
the  display  of  unhallowed  tempers  is  then  succeeded  by  the 
attractive  beauty  of  holiness ;  and  the  every-day  actions  of 
life  are  ordered  by  the  calm  decisions  of  the  judgment,  and  not 
by  the  sudden  impulses  of  unbridled  feeling. 

The  Doctrine  of  the  Passions  originally  appeared  in  outline, 
as  an  introduction  to  the  "Discourses  on  the  Love  of  God,  and 
the  use  and  abuse  of  the  passions  in  religion."  Both  subjects 
appearing  to  the  author  capable  of  considerable  expansion,  he 
enlarged  his  plan,  and  the  contents  of  the  volume  were  am- 
plified into  two  separate  treatises.  The  latter  work  arose  from 
the  declining  state  of  religion,  and  the  growing  deadness  of  the 
churches  to  its  vital  influence:  it  was  designed  to  vindicate  the 
affectionate  Christian,  to  reprove  the  formalist,  and  to  show 
that  the  gospel,  as  Cudworth  remarks,  is  not  merely  "a  letter 
without  us,  but  a  quickening  spirit  within  us."  Dr.  Watts 
was  an  attentive  observer  of  the  signs  of  the  times ;  not  only 
did  the  spiritual  prosperity  of  his  own  people  lie  near  his  heart, 
but  his  expansive  charity  led  to  a  lively  concern  for  the  im- 
provement of  others;  and  he  could  not  witness  symptoms  of 
degeneracy,  without  attempting  to  correct  the  evil  and  avert 
the  calamity.  The  excitement  produced  by  the  political 
changes  of  the  seventeenth  century,  had  a  powerful  and,  in 
many  instances,  an  unfortunate  influence  upon  various  religious 


440  LIFE    AND   TIMES 

classes  of  the  period.  Some  Aveak,  yet  dreamy  and  ardent 
spirits,  belonging  to  the  successful  party,  in  the  intoxication 
of  the  moment,  were  led  to  interpret  their  triumphs  as  plain 
and  unequivocal  signs  of  heavenly  approbation.  The  judg- 
ment of  God  was  seen  in  the  routing  of  a  cavalier,  and  the 
special  interposition  of  Providence  in  the  victory  of  a  round- 
head ;  the  turbulence  of  human  passion  was  mistaken  for  the 
fervour  of  devotion;  and  the  high  eminences  of  spiritual  attain- 
ment were  awarded  to  those  who  connected  the  most  extrava- 
gant displays  of  animal  feeling  with  the  profession  and  exer- 
cises of  piety.  A  different  error  was  introduced  by  the  resto- 
ration of  the  monarchy  and  the  settlement  of  the  national  con- 
vulsions. The  state  of  vninatural  excitement  which  subsisted 
during  the  commonwealth,  was  followed  by  one  of  lamentable 
depression ;  and  the  evil  that  resulted  from  enthusiastic  perver- 
sions, w^as  equalled  if  not  surpassed  by  that  which  sprung 
from  a  drowsy  supineness.  A  large  body  among  the  dissenters, 
and  nearly  the  whole  of  the  establishment,  agreed  in  reducing 
the  elements  of  religion  to  a  few  cold  theorems  and  formal 
observances ;  the  expression  of  a  joy  that  is  unspeakable  and 
full  of  glory,  was  denounced  as  a  relic  of  former  fanaticism ; 
and  Christian  experience,  condemned  as  the  offspring  of  vision- 
ary minds,  was  banished  from  the  pale  of  cultivated  and  polite 
society.  Syllogistical  reasoning  usurped  the  place  of  the  doc- 
trine of  Christ,  and  dry  and  jejune  disputes  were  heard  instead 
of  the  whole  counsel  of  God.  Dr.  Watts  observed  with  pain 
this  new  divinity  dominant  in  the  church,  and  engrafted 
among  the  presbyterians,  and  to  counteract  the  growing  evil 
he  produced  the  work  now  under  review.  No  one  was  better 
qualified  for  such  a  task ;  his  unexceptionable  personal  piety, 
his  calm  and  dispassionate  judgment,  his  knowledge  of  the 
human  heart,  and  of  the  state  of  the  religious  world,  eminently 
fitted  him  for  a  work  which  the  circumstances  of  the  church 
so  loudly  demanded.  He  shows  that  godHncss  has  not  only 
an  outward  form  but  an  inward  power  — that  pious  aflfections, 


OF    DR.    ISAAC    WATTS.  441 

impugned  by  philosophy  as  a  weakness,  are  the  peaceable 
fruits  of  righteousness  —  that  to  excite  is  the  use,  to  govern  the 
abuse  of  the  passions  in  religion  —  and  that  pure  and  unadul- 
terated Christianity,  dwells  semi-distant  from  the  frigid  zone 
of  formality  as  well  as  from  the  tropic  climes  of  fanaticism. 

Another  publication  of  Dr.  Watls's  appeared  in  the  year 
1 730 ;  "  A  Short  View  of  the  whole  Scripture  History,  illustrated 
with  Remarks  on  the  Laws,  Government,  &c.  of  the  Jews." 
This  was  written  in  the  way  of  question  and  answer,  and  in- 
tended as  a  kind  of  sequel  to  the  catechisms.  Lord  Barrington 
had  such  a  high  opinion  of  this  work,  that  he  promised  the 
author  in  one  of  his  letters  to  keep  a  copy  of  it  in  his  own 
study,  and  to  leave  it  in  his  nursery,  hall,  and  parlour.  To 
form  a  proper  estimate  of  Watts's  labours,  we  must  constantly 
keep  in  mind  the  time  in  which  he  lived.  The  press  now 
teems  with  religious  exercises  and  popular  theology  for  the 
young,  and  little  effort  would  be  necessary  to  construct  an 
educational  formulary,  having  such  multifarious  works  to  use. 
But  it  was  widely  different  a  century  ago:  there  had  been 
then  comparatively  few  labourers  in  the  field ;  there  was  but 
little  stock  in  hand  that  was  available;  and  the  amount  of 
time  and  labour  required  in  the  composition  of  these  lessons 
of  instruction,  was  far  greater  than  at  first  sight  may  appear. 

It  was  at  this  period  that  Dr.  Watts's  acquaintance  com- 
menced with  the  amiable  and  accomplished  Countess  of  Hert- 
ford, celebrated  for  her  literary  acquirements  and  fervent 
piety.  This  lady,  the  friend  of  Mrs.  Rowe,  and  the  patron  of 
the  poet  Thomson,  was  the  daughter  of  the  Hon.  Mr.  Thynne, 
brother  to  Viscount  Weymouth.  She  married  Algernon,  Earl 
of  Hertford,  son  of  Charles  Seymour,  Duke  of  Somerset,  who, 
uniting  in  his  own  person  the  blood  and  the  possessions  of  the 
illustrious  houses  of  Percy  and  Seymour,  was,  perhaps,  the 
greatest  subject  this  country  has  ever  seen  by  hereditary  right. 
He  was  summoned  to  parliament  during  his  father's  life-time 
as  Baron  Percy,  in  17-2-2  ;  was  created  Earl  of  Northumber- 

Ff 


442  LIFE    AND   TIMES 

land  and  Earl  of  Egremont,  each  with  a  special  limitation, 
and  became  Duke  of  Somerset  upon  his  Other's  demise,  Dec.  'i, 
1748.  He  died  Feb.  9,  1750,  when  the  titles  of  Earl  of  Hert- 
ford, and  Baron  Beauchamp  of  Hache,  and  Seymour  of  Trou- 
bridge,  became  extinct.  His  lady  survived  him,  and  died 
July  7,  1754.  She  appears  to  have  possessed  an  elegant  and 
cultivated  mind,  and  to  have  gladly  exchanged  courtly  splen- 
dour for  her  favourite  literary  pursuits  and  devotional  exercises. 
Thomson  thus  apostrophises  her  in  his  Spring : 

"  O  Hertford,  fitted  or  to  shine  in  courts 
With  unaffected  grace,  or  walk  the  plain, 
With  innocence  and  meditation  join'd 
In  soft  assemblage,  listen  to  my  song, 
Which  thy  own  season  paints,  when  nature  all 
Is  blooming  and  benevolent,  like  thee." 

In  a  collection  of  letters,  published  by  Mr.  Hull  in  two  vo- 
lumes, from  distinguished  persons,  there  are  eleven  written  by 
the  countess.  Mr.  Shenstone  justly  says  in  the  preface,  that 
"  there  are  discernablc  in  them  a  perfect  rectitude  of  heart, 
delicacy  of  sentiment,  and  a  truly  classic  ease  and  elegance  of 
style."  The  correspondence  of  Watts  with  this  lady,  illustri- 
ous by  birth,  by  native  talent,  by  elegant  acquirements,  and 
unaffected  piety,  cannot  now  be  recovered  ;  but  many  of  her 
letters  to  him  are  inserted  in  this  volume  from  Dr.  Gibbons, 
with  additions  furnished  from  other  sources.  Those  written 
at  the  close  of  life  are  tinged  with  melancholy,  owing  to  the 
death  of  her  only  son  at  Bologna.  The  countess  never  reco- 
vered the  stroke  given  to  her  health  and  spirits  by  that  event; 
her  time,  chiefly  spent  with  her  daughter  in  the  halls  and 
castles  of  the  Percys,  was  devoted  to  retirement  and  prayer ; 
affording  the  gay  world  an  example,  how  the  mind  loatlies  its 
vanities  under  the  pressure  of  earthly  calamity. 

Besides  the  accession  of  so  valuable  a  friend  as  the  countess, 
the  acquaintance  which  had  commenced  between  Dr.  Watts 


OF    DR.   ISAAC    WATTS.  443 

and  Doddridge,  throug-h  corresponding  about  the  academy, 
was  ripening  into  a  firm  and  intimate  attachment.  Writing 
to  Mrs.  Owen,  at  whose  house  the  latter  met  with  the  lady 
afterwards  his  wife,  he  makes  the  doctor  one  of  his  referees, 
as  to  his  character  and  prospects.  But  whilst  these  eminent 
men  were  thus  cultivating  that  intercourse,  so  valued  by  both 
in  after-life,  two  individuals  were  removed,  whose  loss  AVatts 
sincerely  and  deeply  lamented.  The  one  was  Mr.  Samuel 
Harvey,  the  assistant  minister  at  Crutched-Fryars,  to  whose 
"  pious  memory"  he  dedicates  an  epitaph  in  his  Miscellanies  ;* 
and  the  other  was  Mr.  Edward  Broadhurst  of  Birminghamf, 
to  whose  "  marble"  he  was  called  to  contribute  an  inscription. 


FROM  SIR  GILBERT  ELIOTT,  BART. 

"London,  Jan.  21,  1726. 

"  Reverend  Sir, 

"My  wife  w^as  favoured  with  yours  of  the  14th 
instant.  I  return  a  thousand  thanks  for  the  obliging  expres- 
sions of  your  concern  for  us,  and  particularly  for  your  Chris- 
tian sympathy  in  comforting  my  wife  upon  the  melancholy 
occasion  of  my  terrible  misfortune  and  greatest  unhappiness. 
I  took  the  first  opportunity  I  could  to  kiss  your  hands,  grati- 
tude and  inclination  equally  engaging  me  to  it.  I  propose 
to  wait  ujjon  you  when  you  come  to  town.  In  the  mean 
time,  give  me  leave  to  put  you  in  mind  of  the  request  I  made 
you  some  time  since,  about  a  catechism  of  natural  religion, 
which  is  a  subject  untouched,  and  would  be,  T  am  persuaded, 
of  singular  use.  I  must  tell  you  what  brought  this  to  my 
memory :  I  was  reading  the  other  day  in  the  fourth  volume 
of  Monsieur  Saurin's  Sermons,   '  Sur  les  t ravers  de  Vesinit 

*MiscflI.  No.  70. 

f  A  very  valuable  minister  and  tutor,  bora  in  Derbyshire,  and  removed  by  death 
ill  the  39Lh  year  of  his  age.     July  21,  17;30.     Misccil.  No.  70. 


444  LIFE    AND   TIMES 

Hmnain^  page  338;  these  arc  his  words:  *■  Comhien  peu  y 
en  a-t-il  qui  aient  Part  et  mi-me  temps  V'lntention  de  propor- 
tionncr  la  f aides  enfans  u  leitr  age^  li'exigeant  qii'ds  ne  croisent 
a  Viige  de  dix  ans  que  ce  qiCils  penrent  concevoir  a  cet  age-la^ 
et  qi^ils  ne  croient  a  Vdge  de  quinze  ce  qiCils  peuvent  concevoir 
a  Page  de  quinze,  et  ainsi  dii  reste?  Comhien  peu  de  Catc- 
chismes,  oh  cette  gradation  d'annees  et  de  capacite  soit  ohservee, 
et  oil  Pon  ne  propose  d^abord  les  verites  les  plus  ahstruses  da 
Christianisme  T  I  hope  this  was  a  happy  providence,  direct- 
ing me  to  address  you  as  the  gentleman  in  the  world  tliat  I 
believe,  without  flattery,  to  be  most  capable  of  so  necessary 
and  useful  a  work.  I  hope  for  a  favourable  answer,  and 
should  be  glad  to  know  when  you  come  to  town. 

"  My  most  humble  service  attends  my  lady  Abney,  Mrs. 
Gunston,  and  the  young  ladies.  I  am  with  most  sincere 
esteem.  Reverend  Sir,  your  most  aff"ectionate  humble  servant, 

"  GILB.  ELIOTT." 
TO   MRS.   ROSEWELL.* 

"  Madam, 

"  When  you  peruse  the  Sermons  on  Death,  guard 
your  heart  from  too  painful  impressions:  I  would  not  open 
the  wounds  that  have  been  made,  but  attempt  to  pour  the 
balm  of  the  gospel  into  them.  You  will  find  something  in  the 
eleventh  discourse  borrowed  from  the  dying  bed  of  my  depart- 
ed friend  and  brother.  It  may  pain  you  a  little,  but  I  trust  it 
will  please  you  more.  May  all  grace  be  with  you  and  yours 
here  and  hereafter. 

"  I  am.  Madam, 

"  Your  most  obedient  servant, 

"  I.   WATTS. 
"March  6,  1726." 

*  With  a  copy  of  the  third  volume  of  Sermons. 


OF    DK.    ISAAC    WATTS.  445 

FROM    MR.    ROBERT    PORTER  * 

"Oct.  29,  17-26. 

"Sir, 

"  When  I  took  leave  of  you  in  England,  I  had  no 
small  honour  done  me  in  being  desired  to  write  to  Mr.  Watts. 

"  I  have  seen  but  very  little  of  Holland,  and,  consequently, 
am  capable  of  giving  but  a  very  little  account  of  the  country  ; 
and,  indeed,  there  are  not  a  great  number  of  things  observable 
in  the  Provinces.  I  was  much  pleased  at  Delft  with  the  mag- 
nificent tomb  of  William  Maurice,  Prince  of  Orange,  which 
really  is  no  common  monument:  this  I  think  Misson  has 
given  an  account  of.  What  they  have  erected  for  Van  Trompe 
has  likewise  in  it  a  great  deal  of  propriety  to  the  subject  of  it. 
I  cannot  help  taking  notice  here  of  the  absurdity  of  Sir 
Cloudesley  Shovel's  in  Westminster  Abbey,  who  is  figured  in 
an  easy  careless  posture  like  a  beau ;  whereas  Trompe,  on  the 
contrary,  lies  with  his  head  upon  a  cannon.  The  stadt-house 
at  Delft  has  written  over  the  door, 

'  Hsec  domus  amat,  punit,  conservat,  honoiat, 
Nequitiem,  pacem,  sceleia,  jura,  probos.'f 

"As  soon  as  you  enter  there  hangs  depending  from  the  ceil- 
ing a  tub  without  a  bottom,  decreasing  gradually  to  the  top 
which  is  likewise  open .  This  is  put  over  persons  who  have  com- 
mitted crimes,  and  with  this  (their  heads  appearing  out  above) 
they  are  condemned  to  walk  along  the  streets.  At  Haerlem 
I  saw  the  books  which  the  citizens  say  were  first  printed ;  and 
according  to  them  (for  Mentz  is  a  rival  in  this  point),  Cos- 

*  This  gentleman  was  a  student  of  medicine,  a  member  of  Dr.  Watts's  church, 
and  afterwards  a  physician  in  London. 

+  "This  house  hates  vice,  loves  peace,  swift  vengeance  flings 
Impai'tial  upon  malefactors'  hearts  ; 
To  laws  insulted  timely  succour  brings. 
And  glory  round  the  brows  of  Virtue  sheds." 


446  LIFE    AND    TIMES 

tevas,  their  townsman,  fust  invented  this  art*  The  house 
Avhere  he  lived  is  now  little  better  than  a  petty  stationer's. 
The  college  of  physicians  have  erected  a  statue  (such  as  it  is) 
to  his  memory  in  their  physic-garden,  and  behind  upon  the 
pedestal  are  these  lines  : 

'  Costerus  cirra  rediiiiitus  tempora  lauro 

Quisquis  ades,  quare  conspicatur,  habe. 
Hajc  propria  heroum  fuit  olim  gloria,  quorum 

Vel  gestis  Celebris  vita  vel  arte  fuit. 
Inveiito  diu  gesta  sue,  servavit,  et  artes, 

Quis  neget  hunc  tantuin  bis  meruisse  Deus.'f 

"  This  good  precaution  the  states  of  Holland  have,  that  every 
night  a  watch  is  placed  upon  the  church  or  stadt-house,  that 
he  may  thus  overlook  the  town,  and  discover  any  fire  that 
might  break  out,  and  as  a  proof  of  his  watching  he  is  obliged 
to  sound  a  trumpet  every  hour.  At  some  distance  from  Ley- 
den  is  a  very  neat  pesthouse  kept  in  that  order  to  be  ready  at 
an  hour  or  two's  warning,  if  any  such  calamity  should  hap- 
pen. Dr.  Boerhaave  has  a  very  distinct  way  of  teaching,  but 
has  not  an  equal  gaiety  in  his  dress  with  an  English  physi- 
cian. He  was  first  designed  for  the  ministry,  and  has  a 
brother  of  that  profession,  who  was,  on  the  contrary,  designed 

*  Laurence  Coster — TNIr.  Koiiig,  a  member  of  the  Dutch  Society  of  Sciences,  has 
devoted  much  time  and  industry  to  prove,  that  the  first  attempts  were  made  by 
Coster  about  the  year  1-120.     Tlie  books  referred  to  are  kept  iu  the  Stadthouse. 

+  "  See  Coster  here  with  laurels  deck'd, 
Ask  you  the  cause  of  such  respect  ? 
If  thus  of  old  their  heads  were  crown'd, 
For  hold  heroic  deeds  renown'd, 
Or  theirs  wlio  with  superior  mind 
Disclosed  some  art  to  bless  mankind  ; 
M'hat  power  divine  but  will  bestow 
A  double  wreath  to  srace  his  brow, 
Whose  wondrous  skill  to  deeds  and  arts 
Eiernity  of  fame  imparts  .'" 

Besides  this  monument  there  is  a  statue  of  him  set  him  up  in  the  street  before 
the  house  in  which  lie  resided;  the  statue  is  nine  feet  higli,  placed  upon  a  pedes- 
tal, upon  whicli  Coster  on  one  side  is  represented  carving  letters  upon  the  bark  of 
trees,  aud  on  the  other  working  in  a  printing  ofiicc. 


OF    DR.    ISAAC    WATTS.  447 

for  physic;  this  gentleman  has  an  impediment  in  his  speech, 
and  the  people  don't  greatly  admire  him,  but  the  doctor  con- 
stantly, when  his  brother  ])reaches  in  the  town,  goes  to  hear 
him.  These  trifling  remarks,  Sir,  can  give  you  but  small 
entertainment:  I  wish  I  could  have  the  honour  to  afford  you 
more  in  the  remaining  part  of  this  letter. 

"I  wonder,  amidst  all  the  studies  which  employ  our 
thoughts,  we  take  not  more  notice  of  those  miracles  which 
present  themselves  to  our  view  in  the  lower  rank  of  creation. 
Were  these  attended  to,  they  would  prodigiously  enlarge  our 
minds,  and  give  us  far  more  exalted  ideas  of  the  supreme 
being.  Perhaps  it  might  almost  puzzle  Mr.  Derham,  were 
the  question  asked,  whether  his  quadrant  or  microscope,  whe- 
ther a  star  or  an  insect,  has  given  him  greater  surprise  or  satis- 
faction. But  man  stalks  heedless  and  thoughtless  along 
amidst  a  world  of  beings  which  surround  him  on  every 
side,  and  because  they  occur  frequently  to  his  sight  he  takes 
no  regard  of  them.  If  I  might  be  allowed.  Sir,  the  presump- 
tion of  presenting  you  what  I  have  frequently  thought  on 
this  subject,  I  would  say,  we  may  as  rationally  find  footsteps 
of  Divinity  in  the  most  abject  reptile  upon  the  ground  as  in 
the  sun  himself.  How  wonderful  must  be  the  contrivance  in 
the  legs  of  a  scolopendra  !*  How  inexpressibly  curious  must 
be  the  structure  of  those  muscles  which  move  its  unnumbered 
joints !  Or  to  carry  this  still  farther,  how  amazingly  small 
must  the  nerves  be  which  convey  the  spirits  to  actuate  those 
muscles  in  such  a  regular  succession  !  And  I  question  not  but 
the  limbs  of  every  insect  are  composed  of  such  constituent 
parts,  adapted  to  the  nature  of  the  creature,  as  answer  to  the 
connexion  of  the  bones  in  the  human  body,  attended  with  all 
the  supplement  of  cartilages  or  epiphysis.  All  animals  as 
they  fall  below  each  other  in  the  scale  of  existence  have  their 
organs  suitably  prepared ;  nor  is  there  more  wisdom,  no  nor 

*  An  insect  of  a  very  slender  and  long  body,  very  smooth,  and  of  a  yellowish 
or  reddish  colour,  furnished  with  a  vast  number  of  legs,  and  having  a  clefted  tail. 


448  LIFE    AND    TFiMES 

power,  evinced  in  the  formation  of  an  elephant  than  of  an 
Ichneumon. 

"It  may  not  be  nnpleasing  to  reflect  a  little  on  the  ])ercep- 
tions  with  which  animals  seem  furnished.  And  I  am  apt  to 
think  a  pile  of  building  to  some  may  appear  a  level  plain  ;  nor 
can  I  yet  find  sufficient  reason  for  the  contrary.  There  is  no 
difference  in  their  velocity  in  ascending  a  brick-wall,  or  tra- 
versing the  flat  surface  of  the  ground,  and  they  will  mount  or 
run  down  a  perpendicular  height  with  equal  swiftness,  intre 
pidity,  and  unconcern. 

"  As  to  the  degree  of  their  sense  of  pain,  it  seems  plain  from 
what  I  have  said  concerning  the  formation  of  their  parts ;  and 
Shakspeare  sure  is  in  the  right  wdien  he  says, 


The  beetle  that  we  tread 


upon 


lu  corporal  sufferance  feels  a  pang  as  great 
As  when  a  giant  dies.' 

"  However,  I  think  it  barbarous  to  take  a%vay  the  life  of  any 
animal  (but  what  we  are  necessitated  to),  and  that  from  an  os- 
tentation of  the  superiority  of  human  power,  especially  con- 
sidering the  short  duration  of  time  they  enjoy  among  us  is  the 
whole  of  their  life,  and  that  they  have  no  future  existence. 
Mr.  Locke,  I  remember,  in  his  Treatise  of  Education,  advises 
parents  to  let  their  children  have  as  many  birds,  squirrels,  &c. 
as  they  will ;  for  he  thinks  the  care  they  take  of  them  will 
give  a  tincture  of  humanity  to  their  minds.  And,  by  the  way, 
Leonardo  da  Vinci,  the  famous  Florentine  painter,  could  not 
bear  to  see  a  bird  even  confined  in  a  cage,  and,  as  he  walked 
along  the  streets,  would  purchase  them,  and  set  them  at  li- 
berty. 

"  It  is  observable,  that  the  Supreme  Being  has  given  them 
such  perceptions  as  are  suited  to  the  functions  of  their  lives, 
and  the  different  places  of  their  residence.  A  bee  is  in  its 
element  while  hovering  over  a  parterre,  and  a  charnel-house 
is  the  ])aradiscof  a  toad.     To  some  the  most  loathsome  stench 


OF   DR.    ISAAC    WATTS.  449 

is  a  perfume,  and  others  nauseate  the  most  grateful  odour ; 
it  is  the  happiness  of  these  to  lie  basking  in  the  noon-day 
sun,  of  those  to  hug  themselves  in  dust  and  obscurity. 

"The  most  trivial  thing  in  nature  may  entertain  a  specula- 
tive mind  with  many  an  agreeable  meditation.  What  wonder- 
ful art  appears  in  a  bird's  nest !  How  contemptible  is  the  very 
mention  of  it,  and  yet  what  great  sagacity  appears  in  its  make ! 
Not  only  every  species  composes  them  of  different  materials, 
and  in  a  peculiar  plan,  but  each  constantly  presents  the  same 
form,  and  invariably  keeps  to  one  model.  Mr.  Addison  has 
observed  this  before  me,  but  there  are  two  other  considerations 
which  fall  under  this  head  that  gentleman  has  not  noticed. 
One  is  the  strength  and  firmness  with  which  those  little 
buildings  (if  I  may  so  call  them)  are  made.  A  piece  of  ar- 
chitecture founded  on  a  rock  is  not  more  seciu-e  than  the  basis 
of  a  bird's  nest,  which  is  so  intricately  interwoven  with  the 
branches  of  a  tree.  An  oak  may  be  riven  with  lightning  or 
torn  up  with  a  hunicane  before  the  storm  shall  be  able  to  dis- 
lodge the  nest. 

"  The  other  consideration  is,  they,  whose  young  can  bear 
the  severity  of  the  cold,  or  where  they  would  perish  by  being 
exposed  to  the  severity  of  the  weather,  accordingly  provide  for 
their  offspring.  A  crow  brings  up  its  little  family  upon  the 
summit  of  an  elm,  while  a  sparrow  nurses  her  tender  progeny 
within  the  close  recess  of  a  house-ridge. 

"  The  organs  of  sight  in  some  can  endure  and  take  delight 
in  the  effulgence  of  the  sun,  and  others  cannot  bear  the  light ; 
therefore  a  lark  never  builds  in  a  barn,  nor  an  owl  in  a  corn- 
field. 

"  Is  it  not  remarkable,  that  among  all  insects  the  bee  and 
the  pismire  should  be  so  regardful  of  futurity,  and  show  such 
indefatigable  industry  in  laying  up  their  winter's  provision  ? 
And  if  the  entrance  of  an  hive  is  guarded  by  proper  centinels 
to  prevent  a  foreigner's  admission  to  the  community,  could  we 
discover  the  passage  to  the  subterraneous  kingdom  of  ants, 


450  LIFE    AND   TIMES 

possibly  we  might  find  the  hke  policy  used  by  them,  and  tlio 
same  outguards  posted  before  their  separate  states.  Those  ani- 
mals, whose  life  is  determined  to  a  short  period,  discover  none 
of  this  care ;  for  in  them  it  would  not  only  be  useless  but  bur- 
densome :  or,  as  Mr.  Cowley  expresses  it, 

'Wisely  the  ant  against  poor  winter  lioards 
The  stock  which  summer's  wealth  affords  ; 
In  grasshoppers,  that  must  at  autumn  die. 
How  vain  were  such  an  industry  !' 

''The  Supreme  Being  has  exerted  an  infinite  benevolence 
towards  every  individual  of  his  creatures,  and  has  made  the 
lives  of  all  easy  and  pleasant  to  themselves.  In  those  which 
amphibiously  search  their  food  by  land  and  water,  how  must 
it  have  obstructed  their  flight  if  that  element  had  adhered  to 
the  feathers  of  water-fowl !  Where  the  necessity  of  their 
lives  confines  them  to  places  which  must  otherwise  have  been 
destructive  to  them,  how  has  their  Maker  sufficiently  guarded 
them  from  those  injuries!  'God,'  says  Boerhaave,  'lest 
fishes  should  be  affected  by  the  salt  water  which  surrounds 
them,  has  placed  innumerable  glands  in  their  skins  wdiicli 
secrete  an  oil.'  He  has  left  no  creature  unguarded  from  and 
exposed  to  the  inclemency  of  the  weather,  but  each  carries 
with  itself  a  sufficient  shelter  from  the  cold.  Nay  this,  in 
those  of  the  same  species,  is  proportioned  according  to  the 
difference  of  the  climate  they  inhabit :  the  skin  of  hares  is 
remarkably  thicker  in  the  northern  than  the  southern  parts  of 
England. 

"  I  think  this  moral.  Sir,  may  naturally  be  drawn  from 
what  I  have  mentioned.  If  the  Supreme  Being  has  shown 
such  extensive  benevolence  towards  this  inferior  rank  of  his 
creation,  and  if  he  has  given  them  all  satisfaction  and  plea- 
sure in  their  own  momentary  life,  what  ruiknown  and  superior 
joy  must  he  have  reserved  for  man,  whose  existence  is  not 
confined  to  time  and  this  world,  but  whose  duration  he  has 


OF    DR.    ISAAC    WATTS.  451 

designed  shall  measure  with  eternity  !  And,  on  the  contrary, 
how  dreadful  will  be  the  effects  of  his  vengeance  on  those  in- 
corrigible wretches  who  take  no  care  to  please  him,  and  live, 
as  it  were,  in  defiance  of  his  wrath,  when  they  shall  have  an 
angered  Omnipotence  by  which  to  be  punished,  and  an  ever- 
lasting state  in  which  to  endure  those  punishments  !  TJiese 
are  but  a  small  part  of  his  works;  hut  the  thunder  of  his  power 
who  can  understand ! 

"  Sir,  as  soon  as  I  was  settled  here  I  wrote  to  my  mother, 
to  desire  Mr.  Price  at  the  close  of  the  then  next  succeeding 
sacrament,  to  offer  up  my  thanks  to  God  for  my  safe  arrival 
here;  but  I  find  she  had  anticipated  me  herein,  and,  before 
that  letter  came,  had  already  sent  to  him  on  that  account. 
You  will  please,  Sir,  to  present  my  humble  service  to  him,  in 
whose  and  in  your  own  prayers  I  beg  I  may  be  remembered, 
and  hope  I  shall  ever  be  enabled  so  to  behave  myself,  that 
through  me  no  scandal  shall  fall  on  the  profession  I  have 
made,  or  on  the  religion  of  my  Saviour.     I  am,  Sir, 

"  Your  most  obliged 

"  And  most  humble  Servant, 

"R.    PORTER. 

"  Sir,  you  will  believe  me  when  I  say  I  shall  be  glad  to  re- 
ceive a  letter  from  Mr.  Watts.  If  you  can  ever  find  leisure 
for  this,  I  hope  it  will  come  safe  to  me  at  Mr.  John  Frasen- 
burgh's,  upon  the  Long  Bridge  in  Leyden,  Holland," 

TO   THE    REV.    SAMUEL    SAY. 

"  Dear  Brother, 

"  I  hoped  to  have  heard  some  word  from  you  ere  I 
sent  this  book,  which  I  think  I  promised  you  in  my  last.  It 
is  no  charge  to  you  I  presume  to  receive  what  I  send  this  way, 


452  LIFE    AND   TIMES 

Otherwise  I  fear  lest  the  gift  be  not  worth  the  carnage.  If 
3'ou  think  one  of  these  manuals  may  be  useful  for  your  daugh- 
ter, I  send  one  to  her.  The  other  is  at  your  disposal.  I 
would  become  all  to  all,  and  even  as  a  child  to  children,  that 
by  any  means  I  might  save  some.  Farewell,  dear  brother, 
and  continue  to  love 

"  Your  affectionate  friend  and  servant, 

"  I.    WATTS. 

"  My  salutations  attend  Mrs.  Say. 
"  Lirae-Strcet,  in  London, 
"Feb.  iid.  1727." 

FROM   THE    REV.    DANIEL   MAYO.* 

"  Kingston,  Feb.  29,  1727. 

"  Rev.  and  dear  Sir, 

"  I  find  in  your  last  a  fresh  specimen  of  your  hum- 
bleness and  goodness,  and  subscribe  to  your  prudent  advice, 
and  the  rather,  because,  as  T  promised  you,  I  am  willing  you 
should  judge  what  is  fit  for  me  to  do  in  the  troublesome  af- 
fair, as  a  kind  friend  to  both  parties  you  are  engaged  with. 

"  I  have  herewith  sent  you  a  copy  of  a  letter  I  have  by  this 
post  sent  to  Sir  G.  E.,  in  which  I  have  endeavoured  to  sup- 
press such  thoughts  as  will  arise  when  I  think  of  the  strong 
temper  and  carriage  of  some  persons  in  this  whole  affair ;  but 

*  This  gentleman,  the  son  of  the  Rev.  Richard  Mayo,  one  of  tlie  ejected  ministers, 
was  the  pastor  of  a  dissenting  church  upwards  of  thirty-five  years  at  Kingston- 
upon-Thames.  After  the  death  of  Matthew  Henry  he  preached  at  Hackney  two 
sabbaths  in  the  month,  where  the  Oravel-pit  meeting-house,  now  occupied  by  Dr. 
Pye  Smith's  congregation,  was  built  for  him.  He  afterwards  removed  to  Silver- 
Street,  upon  the  decease  of  Mr.  Jeremiah  Smith,  -where  he  finished  his  labours, 
June  13,  1733,  aged  61  years.  Mr.  Mayo  divided  with  the  subscribing  ministers 
during  the  Saiter's-Hall  controversy.  He  was  educated  in  Holland  under  the  cele- 
brated Professor  Witsius,  and  published  during  his  residence  there  a  Latin  thesis 
upon  miracles. 


OF    DR.    ISAAC    WATTS.  453 

perhaps  you  may  think  a  word  or  two  might  yet  have  been 
spared.  Whether  I  should  have  omitted  any  words  I  will 
not  be  positive,  but  the  things  intended  thereby  I  am  sure 
should  be  thought  on  by  him,  and  they  will  be  thought  on 
with  a  becoming  temper  if  he  be  what  I  gladly  hope  he  is. 

"  I  am,  Sir,  your  most  obliged  friend  and  humble  servant, 

"  DANIEL  MAYO. 

"  P.  S.  I  design  to  wait  on  you  in  Lime-Street  on  Satur- 
day at  about  five  o'clock." 

TO    SIR    G.    E. 

"  Kingston,  Feb.  29,  1727. 
"  Sir, 

"  If  you  had  written  to  me  yourself  I  should  not  have 
delayed  an  answer  so  long  as  since  the  time  I  received  a  letter 
from  your  son  Charles :  by  what  I  read  therein  and  hear  from 
other  hands,  it  appears  how  highly  you  resent  some  unguard- 
ed expressions  of  mine  in  private  conversation,  which  I  am 
persuaded  have  been  represented  to  you.  What  the  words 
were,  as  I  cannot  exactly  remember,  so  I  am  confident  no  one 
that  heard  them  can  take  upon  himself  to  repeat  upon  oath  ; 
but  this  I  am  sure  of,  they  did  not  proceed  from  malice  in  my 
heart,  nor  were  spoken  with  design  to  calumniate,  falsify  any 
person  living  or  dead :  nor  do  I  believe  any  one  of  the  hearers 
(not  he  in  particular  that  related  them)  did  in  the  least  suspect 
or  imagine  any  such  thing.  For  this  I  appeal  to  every  one 
then  present. 

"  If  I  had  an  opportunity  of  giving  you  a  true  and  full  in- 
formation of  the  whole  matter,  in  the  presence  of  the  Reverend 
Mr.  Watts,  or  the  whole  company  in  which  I  then  was,  I 
believe  yourself  would  not  think  my  ofi"ence  deserves  so  many 
and  such  severe  accusations  and  menaces  as  are  in  your  son's 


454  LIFE   AND   TIMES 

letter.  God  and  my  conscience  acquit  me  of  the  guilt  of  ma- 
lice and  enmity,  &c.  which  I  am  there  charged  with ;  and 
upon  consultation  with  the  learned  in  the  law,  I  fear  no  ill 
consequence  as  to  myself  by  any  legal  prosecution ;  which, 
however,  for  many  reasons  very  obvious  to  every  body,  I  think 
ought  not  to  be  commenced  nor  threatened. 

"Though  I  cannot  remember  exactly  the  words  spoken, 
and  never  shall  make  any  confession  of  particular  words  said 
to  be  spoken  by  me,  nor  own  such  guilt  as  I  know  myself  to  be 
(I  had  almost  said  perfectly)  free  from ;  yet  as  I  have  at  all 
times,  when  this  matter  hath  been  mentioned,  readily  acknow- 
ledged, so  I  now  in  this  manner  own  to  you,  I  was  in  the 
wrong  to  say  what  I  said,  because  I  impertinently  talked 
about  what  did  not  concern  me ;  and  I  am  truly  sorry  for 
what  was  said,  especially  considering  how  it  hath  been  repre- 
sented and  resented ;  and  so  far  as  you  are  or  can  be  justly 
offended  thereby,  I  very  freely  ask  your  pardon.  I  do  most 
sincerely  wish  you  and  all  yours  prosperity  in  this  world,  and 
eternal  happiness  in  the  next,  and  remain,  Sir,  yours  in  all 
good  offices  you  will  please  to  accept  of. 

"  D.  M." 


FROM    SIR   GILBERT    ELIOTT,    BART. 

"Epsom,  March  4,  17-27. 
"  Reverend  Sir, 

"  I  have  your  favour  of  the  first  instant,  to  which  I 
had  made  an  immediate  return,  but  business  prevented.  Mr. 
Mayo  has  written  to  me,  which  I  told  you  I  could  not  accept 
as  a  reparation  for  the  injury ;  but  such  a  letter,  so  void  of 
manners,  so  full  of  Jesuitical  evasions,  I  should  have  believed 
it  dated  from  the  Sorbonne,  if  it  had  been  polite  enough. 
Since  he  will  not  make  the  acknowledgment  before  the  com- 
pany where  he  uttered  the  slander,  there  is  no  more  to  be  said. 


OF  DR.  ISAAC  WATTS.  455 

Forgive  me,  dear  Sir,  to  appeal  to  you,  for  the  healing  proposal 
I  made  in  justification  of  my  conduct,  if  necessity  require  it. 
A  missive  apology  is  properly  an  expedient  or  palliative  cure 
in  no  manner  equal  to  the  present  case  ;  and  I  do  assure  you, 
I  demand  nothing  of  him  but  what  conscience  and  honour 
would  both  oblige  me  to,  was  I  in  his  situation,  I  cannot  but 
give  you  one  passage  in  the  words  of  his  letter :  '  I  freely  ask 
your  pardon,  which  I  think,  by  the  laws  of  Christ,  I  have  as 
much  reason  to  expect  to  receive  as  give,  where  it  is  needful 
for  me,  or  where  I  am  obliged  to  ask  it.'  I  must  observe,  to 
take  the  coherence  and  structure  of  his  letter,  it  is  asking  par- 
don for  nothing,  a  mere  evasion.  But  if  I  understand  the  law 
of  our  blessed  Lord,  no  man  can  expect  pardon  for  injury  to 
his  neighbour,  if  he  be  capable  to  make  full  restitution  in  a 
proper  manner,  and  refuse  to  do  it.  I  am  sure  I  have  great 
reason  to  ask  pardon  of  you,  for  the  trouble  and  interruption  I 
have  given  on  this  melancholy  occasion,  and  to  return  you  a 
thousand  thanks  for  all  your  civilities  and  favours. 

"  My  most  respectful  services  ever  attend  my  Lady  Abney, 
the  young  ladies,  and  Mrs.  Gunston.     I  am, 

"  Reverend  and  dear  Sir, 

"Your  most  affectionate  humble  servant, 

"gilb.  eliott." 


TO  MR.  SAY  AT  IPSWICH. 

"Dear  Bra, 

"  Mr.  Ashurst  informed  me  some  weeks  since  he  saw 
you  at  Ipswich,  and  you  gave  him  reason  to  expect  your  com- 
pany a  day  or  two  at  Hedingham  Castle  when  I  was  there. 
I  am  arrived  here  this  day,  and  hope  to  spend  all  next  week 
there  ;  if  your  affairs  permit  you  to  fulfil  your  promise,  I  know 
it  will  not  be  disagreeable  to  Mr.  Ashurst,  and  I  am  persua- 


45G  LIFE    AND  TIMES 

ded  your  company  will  be  acceptable  to  the  Lady  Abney,  &c. 
And  if  you  will  share  a  bed  with  me  for  a  night  or  two,  you 
will  be  a  very  agreeable  companion  to  your  old  friend  and 
brother  and  humble  servant, 

"  I.    WATTS. 

"  Hedingham  Castle,  Augt.  10th,  1727." 


TO   THE    REV.   SAMUEL   SAY. 

"  Dear  bro.  Say, 

"  I  repeat  my  sincere  thanks  for  your  kind  visit  at 
Hedingham  Castle.  I  wish  your  situation  of  affairs  had  not 
forbid  your  longer  stay.  Distance  and  absence  of  body  in  this 
incarnate  state  forbids  the  pleasures  of  conversation  to  intellec- 
tual minds  that  dwell  in  them.  Writing  is  a  relief,  but  still  a 
slow  way  of  communication.  May  God  keep  our  hearts  still 
pointing  heavenward,  where  the  sweetest  society  shall  never 
be  interrupted  by  such  avocations  as  disturb  us  here  ! 

"This  only  tells  you  that  I  have  sent  last  week  a  small 
packet  for  you  to  Mrs.  Porter's.  When  you  receive  it,  you 
will  please  to  inform 

"  Your  most  affectionate  brother, 

"  and  humble  servt., 

"  T.    WATTS. 

«  Sep.  12th,  1727. 

"  My  salutations  attend  Mrs.  Say. 

FROM    SIR   GILBERT   ELIOTT,   BART. 

"Epsom,  Nov.  8,  1727. 
«  Rev.  Sir, 

"  I  proposed  myself  the  pleasure  of  seeing  you  be- 
fore this,  but  several  unexpected  accidents  have  preventedm  e  ; 


OF    DR.    ISAAC    WATTS.  457 

and  as  I  do  not  know  when  I  shall  enjoy  so  great  a  satisfac- 
tion, I  take  this  opportunity  to  renew  my  old  request,  that 
you  would  be  so  good  and  charitable  as  to  oblige  the  world 
with  a  short  catechism,  in  a  plain,  easy,  intelligible  way, 
adapted  to  the  several  ages  and  capacities  of  children.  Give 
me  leave  to  be  importunate  in  my  request,  because  it  would 
be  of  great  use  to  a  society  that  I  have  some  concern  in.  It 
would  look  like  flattery  and  not  sincere  friendship,  was  I  to 
tell  you  what  a  general  and  deserved  applause  your  writings 
meet  with.  Sure  this  is  a  great  encouragement ;  let  me  use 
it  as  an  argument  to  undertake  so  useful  and  beneficial  a  work, 
which  seems  to  be  reserved  by  Providence  for  your  happy  ge- 
nius and  extensive  capacity.  It  was  no  small  pleasure  to  hear 
upon  the  road  by  Mr.  Touge  of  your  health,  which  I  hope 
and  wish  you  may  still  long  enjoy  to  be  continued  as  a  fur- 
ther blessing  in  your  day  and  generation.  My  respectful 
services  attend  Lady  Abney  ;  I  hope  she  will  be  my  advocate 
in  this  cause,  and  use  her  interest  with  you  in  my  favour.  I 
should  be  extremely  glad  to  hear  of  your  welfare,  as  being 
with  a  sincere  esteem,  Rev.  and  dear  Sir, 

"  Your  most  affectionate  humble  Servant, 

"GILB.  ELIOTT." 
TO   THE    REV.    SAMUEL    SAY. 

"Apl.  11th,  1728. 
"  Dear  Sir, 

"Your  letter  dated  from  Feb.  10th  to  March  5,  af- 
forded me  agreeable  entertainment,  and  particularly  your 
notes  on  the  2nd  psalm,  in  which  I  think  I  concur  in  senti- 
ment with  you  in  every  line,  and  thank  you.  The  epipho- 
nema  to  the  16th  psalm  is  also  very  acceptable;  and  in  my 
opinion,  the  Psalms  ought  to  be  translated  in  such  a  manner 
for  Christian  worship,  in  order  to  show  the  hidden  glories  of 

that  divine  poesy. 

G  g 


458  LIFE    AND   TIMES 

"  I  beg  leave  only  to  query  about  the  Sheol  in  Ps.  16,  whether 
that  phrase  of  not  seeing  corrnpt'ion,  ought  to  be  applied  to 
David  at  all,  since  Peter,  Acts,  ii.  31,  and  Paul,  Acts,  xiii.  36, 
secra  to  exclude  him.  And  though  I  will  not  say,  that  your 
sense  of  the  soul,  i.  e.  the  life,  may  answer  the  Hebrew  man- 
ner of  reduplication  of  the  same  thing  in  other  words ;  yet,  as 
David  sometimes  speaks  of  the  soul  as  a  thing  distinct  from 
the  body,  why  may  not  the  soul  be  taken  so  in  this  place,  and 
Sheol  signify  Hades,  the  state  of  the  dead  ? 

"  I  am  glad  my  little  prayer-book  is  acceptable  to  you  and 
your  daughter.  I  perceive  you  have  been  also  (among  many 
others)  uneasy  to  have  no  easier  and  plainer  catechism  for 
children  than  that  of  the  Assembly.  I  had  a  letter  from  Lei- 
cestershire the  very  same  day  when  I  received  yours  on  the 
same  subject;  and  long  before  this,  a  multitude  of  requests 
have  I  had  to  set  my  thoughts  at  work  for  this  purpose.  I 
have  designed  it  these  many  years.  I  have  laid  out  some 
schemes  for  this  purpose:  and  I  would  have  three  or  four 
series  of  catechisms  as  I  have  of  prayers.  I  believe  I  shall 
do  it  ere  long  if  God  afford  health.  But,  dear  friend,  forgive 
me  if  I  cannot  come  into  your  scheme  of  bringing  in  the  creed; 
for  'tis  in  my  opinion  a  most  imperfect  and  immethodical 
composition,  and  deserves  no  great  regard,  unless  it  be  to  put 
it  at  the  end  of  the  catechism  for  form's  sake,  together  with 
the  Lord's  prayer  and  ten  commandments,  as  is  done  in  the 
Assembly's  catechism.  The  history  of  the  life  and  death  of 
Christ  is  excessively  long  in  so  short  a  system ;  and  the  design 
of  the  death  of  Christ  (which  is  the  glory  of  Christianity)  is 
utterly  omitted.  Besides,  the  operations  of  the  Spirit  are  not 
named.  The  practical  articles  are  all  excluded.  In  short, 'tis 
a  very  mean  composure,  and  has  nothing  \s\\XQh\e,  praeter  mille 
annos.  My  ideas  of  these  matters  run  in  another  track,  which, 
if  ever  I  have  the  happiness  to  see  you,  may  be  matter  of 
free  communica  tion  between  us. 

*'I  am  sorry  I  forgot  to  put  up  the  coronation  ode  in  my 


OF    DR.    ISAAC    WATTS.  459 

packet.  I  will  count  myself  in  debt  till  I  have  an  occasion 
to  send  you  something  more  valuable  along  with  it.  Two 
days  (ago),  I  published  a  little  essay  on  charity-schools,  my 
treatise  of  education  growing  so  much  longer  in  my  hands 
than  I  designed.  If  it  were  worth  while  to  send  such  a  trifle 
you  should  have  it.  In  the  mean  time  I  take  leave,  and  with 
due  salutations  to  yourself  and  yours, 

"  I  am 

"  Your  affectionate  brother  and  servant, 

"  T.  AVATTS." 
FROM    PROFESSOR    GREENWOOD,    A.M.* 

"Harvard  College,  Sept.  12,  1728. 
"  Rev.  Sir, 

"  Yours  of  the  10th  of  May  last  I  received  this 
week,  together  with  the  generous  present  of  the  second 
edition  of  your  Astronomy  and  Geography,  and  your  Prayer- 

*Hollisian  Professor  of  Mathematics  and  Philosophy  in  Harvard  College,  New 
England.  When  tidings  of  Mr.  Hollis's  death  (see  page  20.j)  reached  America, 
Mr.  Greenwood  read  to  the  students,  April  7,  a  philosophical  discourse  concerning 
the  mutability  and  changes  of  the  material  world,  which  he  thus  introduced  : 
"  You  cannot  expect  that  I  should  go  on  in  the  ordinary  course  of  my  lectures 
at  this  time,  regardless  of  that  great  change  tiiat  has  passed  upon  the  religious  and 
most  generous  founder  thereof.  I  have  thought  it  more  proper  to  turn  my  thousiits 
upon  this  mournful  occasion,  to  the  mutability  and  changes  of  the  material  world." 
After  treating  of  the  resurrection  of  the  body,  and  the  immortality  of  the  soul,  he 
remarks,  "If  this  be  so,  witii  what  comfort  and  hope  may  we  survey  the  relics  of 
departed  pious  friends!  Tiiey  have  ended  one  course  of  change  to  begin  another; 
they  have  borne  their  fruit  in  this  world,  and  returned  to  their  seed  that  they  may 
spring  up  the  sooner  in  another,  productive  of  other  good  fruit.  And,  as  iu  the 
vegetable  kingdom,  it  is  with  a  superior  pleasure  and  expectation  that  we  consider 
the  revival  of  such  plants  as  have  always  been  distinguished  by  the  plenty  and 
delicacy  of  their  fruit ;  so,  with  earnest  desires  and  hopes,  we  should  wait  for  the 
day  when  we  shall  behold  the  resurrection  of  such  as  have  distinguished  themselves 
by  acts  of  charity  and  bounty.  And  with  such  expectations  and  hopes,  nature 
itself  will  allow  me  to  bid  a  solemn  farewell  to  the  remains  of  that  unparalleled 
benefactor  to  this  society,  Thomas  Hollis,  Esq.,  who  has  laid  the  foundation  of 
this  and  other  philosophical  and  mathematical  exercises," 


460  LITE    AND   TIMES 

book  for  the  assistance  of  children.  It  is  an  undeserved 
honour  you  do  rae  in  your  correspondence,  and  I  acknow- 
ledge myself  under  the  strongest  obligations  of  gratitude  and 
all  possil)le  returns.  Those  I  have  shown  your  Prayer-book 
to,  are  very  well  pleased  with  the  design  and  performance ; 
and  some  have  told  me,  that,  were  it  not  that  we  are 
suspicious  of  novelties,  they  would  encourage  the  reprinting 
of  it  among  us.  Your  Astronomy  and  Geography  is  highly 
Avorthy  the  esteem  our  students  have  of  it,  and  if  there  are 
enough  in  the  country  to  be  purchased,  I  propose  this  fall  to 
make  it  the  vade  mecum  in  those  studies. 

"  Could  I  obtain  treatises  on  all  the  mathematical  sciences, 
which  are  proper  for  the  education  of  divines,  written  with 
such  a  freedom  and  ease  of  expression,  as  well  as  perspicuity 
of  thought,  it  would  exceedingly  facilitate  the  business  of 
professing  the  mathematics,  «Scc. 

"It  is  our  most  hearty  prayer  that  God  would  confirm  your 
health  still  more  and  more,  and  give  an  opportunity  to  go  on 
as  you  have  so  excellently  done  in  your  Logic,  Geography 
and  Astronomy,  to  show  us  what  studies  you  pursued,  and  in 
what  method,  in  order  to  arrive  at  that  perfection  we  admire 
in  your  theological  tracts. 

"  I  have  sent  you  inclosed  a  small  book  of  sermons,  which 
were  preached  among  us  upon  the  death  of  his  late  majesty,  and 
the  accession  of  the  present  king  to  the  throne,  which,  being 
very  much  admired  among  us,  I  have  thought  they  might 
not  be  unacceptable  to  you.     I  am,  with  the  utmost  respect, 

"  Your  obliged  humble  servant, 

"  ISAAC  GREENWOOD. 

"Please  to  present  my  humble  service  to  the  Rev.  Mr. 
Price,  your  colleague." 


OF   DR.   ISAAC   WATTS.  461 


Dr.  Watts's  Remarks  upon  the  scheyne  of  Mr.  Jennings's  Plan 
of  Education,  drawn  out  hy  Doddridge,  with  the  Annota- 
tions of  the  latter. 

FROM   A   MANUSCRIPT   BY    DR.    WATTS. 

"Upon  reading  the  whole  of  this  letter,  I  am  sensibly 
struck  with  the  following  thoughts : 

"  1.  How  wonderful  and  extraordinary  a  man  was  the  late 
Mr.  John  Jennings !  The  little  acquaintance  I  had  with 
him  made  me  esteem  and  love  him  ;  but  my  love  and  esteem 
were  vastly  too  low  for  so  sublime  and  elevated  a  character. 
The  world  and  the  church  know  not  the  dimensions  of  that 
mournful  vacancy  which  they  sustain  by  his  death. 

"  2.  How  necessary  it  is  that  two  persons  at  least  should  be 
engaged  to  fill  up  all  the  parts  of  that  office,  which  the 
ingenious  writer  of  this  letter  has  made  to  devolve  upon  one. 
The  diversity  of  genius,  the  variety  of  studies,  the  several 
intellectual,  moral,  and  pious  accomplishments,  the  constant 
daily  and  hourly  labours  necessary  to  fulfil  such  a  post,  can 
hardly  be  expected  from  any  one  person  living. 

"  3.  Yet  if  there  be  one  person  capable  of  such  a  post, 
perhaps  it  is  the  man  who  has  so  admirably  described  this 
scheme  of  education ;  and  as  he  seems  to  have  surveyed  and 
engrossed  the  whole  comprehensive  view  and  design,  together 
with  its  constant  difficulties  and  accidental  embarrassments, 
and  yet  supposes  it  to  be  practicable,  I  am  sure  I  can  never 
think  of  any  person  more  likely  to  execute  it  than  himself; 
although  if  an  elder  person  joined  with  him,  for  the  reputation 
of  the  matter,  at  least,  it  would  be  well.  The  beauties  and 
cougruities  of  the  scheme  are  so  many  and  various,  that,  if  I 
should  have  made  my  remarks  upon  them,  as  I  have  done 
(en  passant)  upon  some  little  improbables,  I  must  have  filled 
a  quire  instead  of  a  sheet  of  paper. 


462  LIFE    AND   TIMES 

"  Remarks. 

"  1.  Why  oratory  once  a  week  in  the  second  half  year,  and 
not  cultivated  a  little  towards  the  end  of  the  course,  when  the 
pupil  should  be  taught  to  preach  ?* 

"  2.  Why  not  render  the  Greek  authors  into  Latin,  and 
then  into  English  ?t 

"  3.  If  in  the  first  half  year  popular  arguments  were 
turned  into  an  algebraic  form,  would  it  be  amiss,  in  the 
second  or  third  half  year,  to  turn  the  same  into  a  logical 
form  ?J 

"4.  Upon  the  whole  I  cannot  but  think  Mr.  Jennings's 
mode  of  treating  logic  in  a  strict  mathematical  way,  is  very 
improper;  and  though  I  mightily  approve  of  many  things  in 
his  third  book  of  logic,  and  of  the  perpetual  references  to 
various  authors  which  the  pupil  may  read  in  private,  yet  I 
have  given  my  best  sense  of  the  form  of  logic  in  what  I  have 
written. § 

"  5.  I  do  not  think  so  universal  a  contempt  should  be 
poured  on  the  ontological  part  of  the  old  systems  of  logic  as 
some  have  done:  human  nature  is  ever  ready  to  turn  into 
extremes.  I  wish  there  were  a  good  system  of  ontology, 
treating  of  its  absolute  and  relative  affections,  so  far  as  is 
useful,  set  in  a  good  light,  and  regular  short  method.  || 

*  "  I  think  that  provided  for  in  the  Lectures  on  the  Art  of  Preaching  referred  to 
the  sixth  or  seventh  half  year. 

+  "I  acknowledge  it  to  be  the  best  way,  ami  intend  it. 

X  "Whether  by  logical  he  meant  syllogistic. —  If  it  be  only  analytic  and  syn- 
thetic, it  is  what  we  did  at  Mr.  Jennings's,  and  I  am  sorry  that  I  omitted  to  men- 
tion it. 

§  "It  is  with  due  deference  to  the  superior  judgment  of  Dr.  Watts,  that  I  still 
think  that  Mr.  Jennings's  method  of  treating  logical  and  ethical  subjects  of  all 
others  tiie  most  proper  for  academical  lectures.  Yet  I  am  highly  sensible  of  the 
value  of  the  doctor's  Logic,  which  will  afford  me  an  opportunity  of  enriching  my 
tutor's  system  with  some  of  the  finest  references. 

II  "  I  highly  approve  of  the  addition  proposed  ;  and  would  earnestly  entreat  the 
doctor  to  prepare  a  few  lectures  on  that  subject,  for  which  I  will  not  fail  to  make 
room  in  my  intended  course. 


OF   DR.    ISAAC    WATTS.  463 

"6.  Though  there  may  be  some  good  hints  lost  for  want  of 
transcribing;  and  yet  I  hardly  think  it  necessary  to  copy  out 
every  academical  exercise,  as  it  would  fill  up  time  which 
might  be  better  employed* 

"  7.  One  thing,  I  think,  was  very  useful  in  the  academy 
where  I  was  educated;  and  that  was,  that  plain  easy  books 
of  practical  divinity,  such  as  Grotius  de  Veritate  Rel.  Chr., 
&c.  were  recommended  to  the  pupils  to  be  read  in  their  own 
closets  on  Saturdays,  from  the  very  beginning  of  their  studies. 
For  this  purpose  our  tutor  never  read  lectures  on  Saturdays ; 
and,  indeed,  when  all  is  done,  it  is  a  good  acquaintance  with 
practical  divinity  that  will  make  the  best  Christians  and  the 
best  ministers.f 

"  8.  You  will  have  many  lads  coming  from  grammar 
schools;  and  as  many  such  scholars  will  not  be  fit  to  enter 
upon  your  academical  course  with  proper  advantage,  should 
not  the  perfection  of  the  studies  of  grammar,  algebra,  and 
geometry,  be  the  business  of  your  first  half  year.? J 

"  9.  Are  the  hands  of  enemies  so  effectually  chained  up 
from  offering  us  any  violence,  that  they  cannot  indict  or 
prosecute  you  under  the  pretence  that  your  academy  is  a 
school  ?"§ 


♦  "I  should,  therefore,  incline  to  find  out  a  medium,  and  the  plain  shorthand, 
which  is  one  of  the  first  things  I  should  teach,  would  do  much  to  obviate  the 
objection. 

f  "  I  acknowledge  this  to  be  a  useful  hint;  and  hope  my  pupils  will  allow  some 
time  to  practical  writers  every  day  as  I  have  done,  unless  when  accidentally  pre- 
vented, for  more  than  ten  years. 

;J:  "I  propose  that  the  perfection  of  these  studies  should  be  the  employment  of 
the  first  year. 

§  "  I  know  not  how  it  may  be  in  other  places,  but  about  us  I  cannot  discern  so 
much  fury  in  the  clergy  ;  nor  do  1  imagine  they  could  make  any  thing  of  a  prose- 
cution. It  was  once  attempted  to  the  shame  of  the  undertakers,  with  regard  to 
Mr.  Matthews  of  Mount  Sorrel." 

Dr.  Doddridge  soon  had  occasion  to  change  his  opinion,  and  to  experience 
something  of  tlie  "  fury"  which  his  candour  would  not  allow  him  to  apprehend. 
The  Rev.  Mr.  Wills,  of  Kingsthorpe,  a  small  village  in  his  neighbourhood,  full  of 
the  divine  rigiit  of  kings  and  priests,  remonstrated  at  his  intruding  within  the  pre- 


464  LIFE   AND   TIMES 

FROM  THE  COUNTESS  OF  HERTFORD. 

"Grosvenor  Street,  Feb.  23,  1729. 
"Sir, 

"  I  could  not  have  been  so  long  without  making 
my  acknowledgments  for  the  favour  of  your  excellent  and 
obliging  letter,  had  not  my  Lord  Hertford's  illness  in  a  long 
and  severe  fit  of  the  gout  confined  me  to  a  continual  atten- 
dance to  his  chamber.  He  is  now,  I  thank  God,  on  the  re- 
covery, though  not  yet  able  to  walk  without  the  help  of 
crutches, 

"  Our  human  state  is  indeed  liable  to  many  inconvenien- 
ces ;  we  are  loaded  with  bodily  infirmities,  and  tormented  with 
passions ;  but  a  few  circling  years  will  clear  the  prospect,  and  we 
shall,  through  the  grace  of  God,  be  relieved  from  all  the  pains 
and  sorrows  which  vex  us  here.  My  health  has  been  very  uncer- 
tain all  this  winter:  at  the  beginning  of  it  a  violent  rheumatism 
confined  me  to  my  bed  and  chamber  for  some  weeks;  and  I  am 
at  present  very  much  disordered  by  a  very  severe  cold,  which  has 
lasted  me  more  than  a  fortnight,  and  is  rather  worse  than  it  was 
at  first.  My  Lord  and  my  daughter  assure  you  of  their  sincere- 
est  regards.  I  am  truly  concerned  to  hear  that  you  have  been 
so  ill,  but  I  hope  you  will  enjoy  a  more  confirmed  state  of 
health  for  the  future,  that  you  may  pass  your  pilgrimage  here 
with  as  little  uneasiness  as  mortality  will  admit  of. 

"  Governor  Shute*  brought  me  your  picture,  which  I  shall 
always  set  a  high  value  upon,  as  I  shall  do  on  every  thing  that 
reminds  me  of  so  worthy  a  friend. 

cincts  of  his  parish  to  preach;  and  Chancellor  Reynolds  verified  Dr.  Watts's 
anticipation,  by  attempting  to  put  down  his  academy.  An  act  still  remained  on 
the  statute-book  respecting  schoolmasters,  the  13th  of  Cliarles  II.,  which  the  tolera- 
tion act  had  not  noticed,  and  a  prosecution  was  commenced  to  enforce  its  penalties. 
But,  happily  a  member  of  the  house  of  Brunswick  was  upon  the  throne,  and 
George  II.  issued  a  nolo  prosequi  for  the  protection  of  the  defenceless  noncon- 
formist. 

*  Mr.  Shute  was  the  brother  of  Lord  Barrington,  and  Governor  of  Massachusetts 
from  17IG  to  1730. 


OF   DR.    ISAAC    WATTS.  465 

"  I  will  not  trouble  you  any  longer  at  present,  than  to  beg 
to  be  remembered  in  your  prayers,  that  I  may  lead  a  life  of 
holiness  for  the  few  remaining  years  that  may  yet  be  left  me. 

"  I  am,  with  sincere  friendship, 

"  Sir,  your  most  humble  servant, 

"  F.  HERTFORD." 
FROM   THE    REV.    PHILIP   DODDRIDGE,   D.D. 

"  Harborough,  Nov.  8,  1729. 
"Rev.  Sir,  "" 

"  The  great  regard  I  have  for  your  judgment,  and 
my  confidence  in  your  generous  and  most  obliging  friendship, 
engages  me  to  beg  the  favour  of  your  advice  in  a  very  impor- 
tant affair,  with  which  I  am  exceedingly  embarrassed. 

"  I  have  now  before  me  an  unanimous  and  most  pressing 
invitation  to  Northampton,  accompanied  with  all  the  circum- 
stances of  seriousness,  zeal,  and  affection,  which  is  possible 
for  a  plain  honest  people  to  express.  You  know.  Sir,  that  it 
is  a  very  large  congregation,  and  though  their  sentiments  be 
much  narrower  than  I  could  wish,  which  alarms  some  of  my 
wisest  friends  in  these  parts,  yet  I  am  ready  to  hope  I  might 
have  a  comfortable  settlement  amongst  them,  and  a  fair  pros- 
pect of  considerable  usefulness,  with  the  blessing  of  God 
attending  my  labours.  They  are,  indeed,  a  people  of  a  very 
low  taste  as  any  I  ever  met  with,  which  is  a  circumstance  I 
own  disagreeable  to  me,  but  which,  if  it  were  the  only  objec- 
tion, might  well  give  way  to  the  solemn  arguments  on  the 
contrary  side. 

"But  the  greatest  difficulty  of  all,  is  that  which  relates  to 
my  scheme  for  academical  education.  I  have  been  preparing 
for  the  business  of  a  tutor  several  years ;  I  am  now  entered 
upon  it,  and  find  it  a  delight  rather  than  a  fatigue.  On  the 
whole  I  have  reason  to  believe,  and  it  is  the  judgment  of  Mr. 


466  LIFE    AND    TIMES 

Some,  Mr.  Saunders,  and  several  of  my  other  friends  in  these 
parts,  that  my  designs  for  education  are  as  likely  to  succeed 
as  any  others  which  I  can  form  for  the  service  of  the  church, 
since  my  intimate  acquaintance  with  Mr.  Jennings's  method 
may  give  me  advantages  above  others  who  are  vastly  my 
superiors  in  genius  and  learning.  Besides  that,  I  am  under 
such  obligations  to  my  pupils  and  their  friends,  as  would 
make  it  highly  indecent  for  me  to  lay  aside  the  business  till 
their  course  be  dispatched. 

"  The  people  at  Northampton  do  indeed  freely  offer  to 
admit  of  my  going  on  with  this  employment  amongst  them. 
But,  allowing  it  were  possible  to  do  something  that  way,  it  is 
apparent  that  many  great  advantages  must  be  resigned  which 
I  am  very  loath  to  quit.  The  prudence  of  Mrs.  Jennings  and 
her  generous  friendship,  which  makes  this  family  far  more 
agreeable  to  my  pupils  than  any  other  which  I  could  offer 
them  in  exchange.  The  temper  of  the  dissenters  in  these 
parts,  which  cheerfully  allows -innocent  freedoms,  which  to 
such  young  students  should  not  be  denied.  The  great  leisure 
I  have  for  study,  while  all  the  care  of  the  people  lies  on  INIr. 
Some,  and  the  countenance  which  his  name  gives  to  my 
scheme,  besides  the  much  greater  and  more  important  advan- 
tage I  receive  from  his  most  intimate  friendship  and  daily 
conversation.  While  I  am  here  I  consider  myself  as  still  in 
a  course  of  education,  and  hope,  if  God  spare  my  life  to  the 
end  of  these  four  years,  to  have  made  some  considerable 
improvements  in  my  academical  scheme,  and  to  be  in  many 
other  respects  abundantly  fitter  for  public  service  than  I  now 
am.  If  I  go  to  Northampton,  I  may  indeed  spare  a  few 
hours  every  day  to  read  and  explain  Mr.  Jennings's  lectures 
to  one  class  at  a  time ;  but  I  shall  have  very  little  opportunity 
of  increasing  my  own  slock,  which  is  yet  but  very  small.  I 
can  never  expect  a  flourishing  academy,  for  provisions  are 
very  dear  there,  and  many  other  circumstances  make  it  an 
inconvenient  situation  for  young  students;  and,  at  present, 


OF   DR.    ISAAC    WATTS.  467 

my  engaging  in  such  a  variety  of  business,  might,  perhaps, 
shock  my  constitution,  and  much  more  probably  expose  me 
to  the  censure  of  the  world,  as  guilty  of  inexcusable  rashness 
and  aiTOgancy.  Mr.  Some  and  Mr.  Saunders  do  not  think  it 
prudent  to  oppose  my  going ;  but  I  am  confident  they  would 
neither  of  them  be  thoroughly  pleased  with  it.  I  was  very 
unwilling  to  determine  the  affair  absolutely  till  I  had  con- 
sulted with  you.  I  beg  your  speedy  answer,  and  desire  that 
you  would  please  to  communicate  this  to  Dr.  Hunt,  Mr.  Neal, 
Mr.  Jennings,  Mr.  Jolly,  Mr.  Anther,  and  any  other  friend 
whom  you  may  think  proper.  I  have  just  been  writing  to 
Dr.  Wright  about  it,  and  should  be  glad  if  you  had  an  oppor- 
tunity of  talking  over  the  business  with  him.  I  beg  a  parti- 
cular remembrance  in  your  prayers,  and  humbly  hope  that 
God  will  direct  me  to  what  will  be  most  for  his  glory,  and  the 
good  of  his  church,  to  the  service  of  which  I  have  devoted  my 
life,  and  all  my  little  capacities  and  opportunities  of  useful- 
ness. I  cannot  conclude  without  returning  my  hearty  acknow- 
ledgments to  good  Dr.  Watts  for  his  many  favours.  I  assure 
you.  Sir,  that  T  have  the  most  tender  and  respectful  sense  of 
them,  and  shall  rejoice  in  every  opportunity  of  cultivating  a 
further  friendship  with  you,  as  one  of  the  greatest  honours 
and  pleasures  of  my  life. 

"  I  am.  Reverend  Sir, 

"Your  most  obliged  humble  Servant, 

"p.  DODDRIDGE." 


468  LIFE    AND   TIMES 

FROM   THE    SAME. 

"  Harborough,  Nov.  22,  1729. 
"Rev.  Sir, 

"  I  hope  you  will  pardon  the  liberty  I  take  of  re- 
minding you  of  a  letter  I  wrote  to  you  a  fortnight  ago,  to  beg 
the  favour  of  your  advice  in  the  present  circumstance  of 
my  affairs.  I  would  by  no  means  urge  you  to  any  thing 
which  would  be  an  inconvenience  to  you ;  but  as  it  is  high 
time  the  business  should  be  determined,  and  many  ill  conse- 
quences may  follow  on  keeping  it  longer  in  suspense,  I  ex- 
pect your  answer  with  some  impatience.  I  fear,  lest  in  this 
sickly  season,  some  illness  should  have  prevented  your  wri- 
ting. I  heartily  pray  for  the  continuance  of  that  life  and 
health  which  is  so  important  to  the  church  and  the  world ; 
and  am,  with  much  greater  respect  than  I  can  express, 

"Reverend  Sir, 

"  Your  most  obliged  and  affectionate  Servant, 

"p.  DODDRIDGE. 

"P.  S.  Mr.  Joseph  Saunders  (brother  to  Mr.  J.  Saunders  of 
Kettering)  and  one  of  my  pupils,  is  a  man  of  so  good  a  genius 
and  so  excellent  a  character,  that  I  conceive  very  delightful 
hopes  with  regard  to  him.  His  circumstances  are  narrow, 
and  those  of  his  excellent  brother  are  at  present  much  per- 
plexed. His  coming  to  me  has  prevented  his  having  an  ex- 
hibition from  either  of  the  funds,  which  makes  me  the  more 
solicitous  to  do  him  what  service  I  can,  by  recommending 
him  to  my  friends.  If  it  lies  in  your  way.  Sir,  to  give  any 
assistance  towards  his  education,  I  should  take  it  as  a  parti- 
cular favour,  and  I  hope  you  would  have  a  great  deal  of  reason 
to  be  thoroughly  satisfied  in  having  chosen  a  very  worthy  ob- 
ject of  regard." 


OF    DR.   ISAAC    WATTS.  469 

FROM  THE  HON.  JONATHAN  BELCHER.* 

"Whitehall,  Jan.  8,  1730. 
"  Reverend  Sir, 

"  I  believe  you  will  find  among-  your  last  year's 
New-England  letters,  one  that  came  by  me  from  my  esteemed 
friend  the  Rev.  Mr.  Colman ;  and  I  think,  sometime  in  April 
last,  I  had  the  pleasure  of  waiting  on  you  at  my  Lady  Abney's, 
and  afterwards  of  seeing  you  at  Tunbridge,  since  which  I  had 
promised  myself  the  satisfaction  of  a  more  particular  personal 
acquaintance  with  Dr.  Watts ;  but  the  sovereign  God  (in 
whose  hands  our  times  are)  having  lately  confined  you  at 
Theobalds,  and  called  me  to  an  affair  of  life  that  engrosses 
much  of  my  time  to  be  in  readiness  to  look  homeward  early 
in  the  spring;  I  say,  these  things  have  debarred  me  of  that 
satisfaction  and  happiness  I  have  so  much  desired.  In  New 
England  I  have  often  regaled  myself  with  your  ingenious 
pieces,  and  I  can  assure  you  (without  a  compliment)  all  Dr. 
Watts's  works  are  had  in  great  esteem  and  honour  amongst 
us.  It  was  with  uncommon  concern  I  observed  your  weak 
tender  state  of  health  the  last  Lord's  day ;  and  although,  as 
you  very  excellently  set  forth  to  us,  '  that  the  God  of  Nature 
can  make  new  vessels,  and  the  God  of  Grace  can  fill  them  with 

*  Mr.  Belcher  was  appointed  Governor  of  New  England  in  1730,  and  continued  in 
that  station  until  the  year  1740.  He  was  a  native  of  the  Massachusetts,  where  his 
father  was  a  wealthy  merchant.  After  an  academical  education  in  his  own  country, 
he  came  over  to  Europe,  was  twice  at  Hanover,  and  was  introduced  to  the  court 
there  when  the  Princess  Sophia  was  the  presumptive  heiress^  to  the  British  crown. 
The  gracefulness  of  his  person,  his  talents,  and  property,  procured  him  considerable 
notice.  He  lived  in  great  state,  was  hospitable,  fond  of  splendid  equipages,  and 
of  an  aspiring  turn  of  mind.  In  his  government  he  was  a  stickler  for  the  preroga- 
tive of  the  crown  ;  and,  in  the  estimation  of  the  people,  was  indifferent  to  the  liber- 
ties of  the  subject.  He  was  accused  of  being  attached  to  the  episcopal  clergy,  and 
of  conspiring  with  them  against  the  congregational  interest  in  Massachusetts  and 
New  Hampsiiire.  His  high  spirit,  his  want  of  suavity  of  manner,  procured  him 
many  enemies ;  and  the  charge,  as  it  was  made  by  anonymous  parties,  was  proba- 
bly without  any  foundation. 


470  LIFE   AND   TIMES 

treasure,  and  although  the  apostle  tells  us  we  have  this  trea- 
sure in  earthen  vessels,  that  the  excellency  of  the  power  may 
be  of  God,  yet  Christ's  ministers  are  the  salt  of  the  earth,  and 
how  beautiful  are  the  feet  of  them  that  preach  the  gospel  of 
peace,  and  bring  glad  tidings  of  good  things  !  And  when 
Christ  fills  his  vessels  with  precious  treasures,  and  makes  his 
ministers  burning  and  shining  lights,  God's  people  will  sorrow 
most  of  all  to  hear  the  ministers  tell  them,  they  fear  they  shall 
see  their  faces  no  more.'  But  I  hope  it  may  stand  with  the 
holy  will  of  God  to  restore  and  confirm  your  health,  that  his 
church  may  have  Dr.  Watts  long  in  store,  still  to  go  on,  by 
the  grace  and  assistance  of  your  ascended  Lord,  in  multiply- 
ing the  seals  of  your  ministry  to  his  honour  and  glory,  and 
the  eternal  happiness  of  those  whom  you  shall  turn  from  the 
error  of  their  ways ;  and  then  those  sons  and  daughters  you 
have  here  begotten  in  Christ,  will  serve  as  sparkling  gems,  to 
give  lustre  to  that  crown  of  righteousness  which  God,  the 
righteous  Judge,  will  fix  on  your  head  in  the  great  day  of  his 
appearance.     Amen.     God  grant  it  may  be  so  ! 

"  And  now.  Sir,  since  it  has  pleased  the  all-wise  God  (in 
his  providence)  to  remove  me  from  one  ordination  of  life  to 
another,  and  to  a  station  where  I  must  stand  in  a  glaring 
light,  exposed  to  the  view  of  the  whole  world,  and  every  one 
will  think  himself  entitled  to  be  my  censor  rnoriim,  to  subject 
my  words  and  actions  to  his  ill-natured  cavils  and  criticisms ; 
I  am  sensible,  great  is  the  burthen  and  duty  of  the  place  with 
which  the  king  has  honoured  me.  I,  therefore,  desire  you  to 
join  with  me,  while  I  bow  my  knees  to  the  God  of  all  grace 
and  wisdom,  that  he  would  give  me  a  wise  and  understanding 
heart,  to  discern  between  good  and  bad,  and  to  know  how  to 
go  out  and  in  before  his  people.  Every  day  fills  my  soul  with 
care  and  solicitude,  that  I  may  discharge  my  trust  to  the 
honour  of  God,  the  good  of  his  people,  and  my  own  comfort 
and  credit.  When  I  consider  how  ungratefully  and  unprofit- 
ably  I  have  lived  to  God  and  man,  it  is  with  shame  that  I  tell 


OF   DR.    ISAAC    WATTS.  471 

you,  I  am  this  day  entered  into  the  forty-ninth  year  of  my  age. 
My  days  are  swifter  than  a  post,  and  short  (perhaps  very  short) 
the  race  I.  have  to  run  :  may  I  then  double  my  diligence  for  the 
honour  and  service  of  God  and  man,  and  so  as  may  most  of  all 
promote  my  own  eternal  happiness. 

"  You  will  pardon  me  for  the  freedom  I  have  taken  with  a 
gentleman,  more  a  stranger  than  I  could  wish,  and  believe  me 
to  be,  with  great  esteem  and  respect,  Reverend  Sir, 

"  Your  most  obedient  and  humble  servant, 

"  JONA.  BELCHER. 

"  p.  S.     My  service  to  the  Rev.  Mr.  Price." 


472  LIFE   AND   TIMES 


CHAPTER  XIII. 

1731—1736. 
STATE  OF  DISSENTERS. 


THE  FIRST  NONCONFORMISTS  .—DECLENSION  OF  THEIR  SUCCESSORS.— 
METROPOLITAN  DISSENTERS.— THE  "INQUIRY"  BY  STRICKLAND 
GOUGH— DODDRIDGE'S  "FREE  THOUGHTS."— STATE  OF  NORTHAMP- 
TONSHIRE.—THE  "HUMBLE  ATTEMPT"  TOWARDS  REVIVAL.-CCJNTRO- 
VERSY  BETWEEN  WHITE  AND  TOWGOOD.  — THE  "STRENGTH  AND 
WEAKNESS  OF  HUMAN  REASON."  — "  PHILOSOPHICAL  ESSAYS."  — 
REMARKS  OF  DR.  JOHNSON.— DEATH  OF  MISS  ABNEY.— VISITED  BY 
DODDRIDGE.— HOPKINS'S  BENEFACTION.— MR.  COWARD.— BURY-STREET 
LECTURE:— NEAL'S  PREFACE:— SERMON  ON  BAPTISM.— NORFOLK  CON- 
TROVERSY.—LETTER  FROM  DR.  GIBBONS.— COWARDS  ACADEMY.— 
«  RELIQUIAE  JUVENILES."— THE  "REDEEMER  AND  SANCTIFIER."— CON- 
NEXION WITH  THE  "GENTLEMAN'S  MAGAZINE."-CORRESPONDENCE. 


We  have  now  advanced  midway  into  what  may  be  called 
the  second  age  of  nonconformity.  Seventy  years  had  elapsed 
since  its  founders  began  to  assert  its  principles,  and  to  suffer 
for  its  sake.  The  cause  they  espoused  in  their  day  widely 
extended  itself ;  the  bush  which  the  flame  could  not  consume 
covered  the  land  with  its  offshoots ;  and  whatever  remained  of 
the  piety  of  the  first  reformers,  was  found  in  the  bosom  of 
their  churches.  But  religion  did  not  flourish  among  them 
under  a  tolerant  government  with  the  same  vigour,  as  when 
"  troubled  on  every  side"  by  the  executives  of  despotic  power. 
The  unfavourable  change  which  commenced  soon  after  the 
"  fathers  fell  asleep,"  has  been  already  noticed  ;  their  doctri- 
nal views  were,  in  many  instances,  abandoned  by  their  de- 


OF   DR.   ISAAC   WATTS.  473 

scendants ;  and  as  the  truth  departed  from  the  pulpit,  its  vital 
and  practical  influence  disappeared  from  the  people.  The 
first  nonconformists  were  Calvinists  in  sentiment ;  they  zea- 
lously testified  against  the  semi-pelagianism  which  had  crept 
into  the  establishment ;  and  with  a  fervour  and  laboriousness 
worthy  of  apostolic  times,  preached  "  Christ  Jesus  the  Lord." 
A  more  palatable  creed  was  craved  after  by  those  of  their  suc- 
cessors, whom  education  merely  had  made  dissenters ;  and  it 
is  remarkable,  that  those  who  departed  from  the  faith,  with 
scarcely  one  exception,  pursued  the  same  track.  Arminianism, 
which,  under  the  powerful  advocacy  of  the  Wesleys,  won  its 
tens  of  thousands  of  converts,  was  the  first  step  of  congrega- 
tional decline ;  the  second  stage  was  Arianism  ;  and  the  third 
andfinal  lapse  was  into  Socinianism.  The  consequences  of  this 
apostacy  were  soon  apparent  in  empty  meeting-houses,  and 
wholly  extinguished  interests ;  the  error  carried  the  chill  of 
death  along  the  path  it  travelled ;  but  happily  it  was  confined 
to  the  Presbyterians  and  Baptists,  and  did  not  extend  its  ra- 
vages to  the  Independents.  The  latter  body  remained  unin- 
fected with  the  new  theology,  and  though  a  spiritual  lethargy 
had  fastened  upon  some  of  the  churches,  there  were  many 
flourishing  amid  surrounding  barrenness  and  decay.  In  the 
metropolis  the  number  of  places  of  worship  belonging  to  the 
Presbyterians  and  Independents,  amounted  in  1695  to  fifty- 
seven  ;  in  1730  there  were  fifty-eight,  but  many  of  these  had 
been  enlarged,  so  as  to  accommodate  about  four  thousand 
additional  hearers.  It  is  estimated  that  the  inhabitants  of  the 
city  had  increased  one-sixth  part  during  this  period ;  so  that 
in  proportion  to  the  population,  the  dissenters  had  positively 
retrograded. 

The  unsatisfactory  state  of  the  dissenting  interest,  elicited 
considerable  inquiry  as  to  the  causes  of  its  decline  ;  many 
mourned  in  secret  over  the  melancholy  fact ;  others  attempted 
to  point  out  the  means  of  revival  from  the  press.     In  the  year 

1730  Mr.  Strickland  Gough,  a  young  minister  who  afterwards 

H  h 


474  LIFE    AND   TIMES 

coiiformecl,  published  a  pamphlet,  entitled  "  An  Inquiry  into 
the  Causes  of  the  Decay,"  &c. ;  but  unevangelical  himself  in 
his  views,  he  overlooks  the  true  source  of  the  evil,  and  con- 
tends for  an  external  reformation,  without  touching  the  seat  of 
the  disease.     An  anonymous  author  appeared  in  answer  to 
Mr.  Gough  in  a  small  treatise,  entitled  "  Free  thoughts  on  the 
most  probable  means  of  reviving  the  dissenting  interest,  occa- 
sioned by  a  late  inquiry  into  the  causes  of  the  decay" — after- 
wards ascertained  to  be  the  first  production  of  Doddridge's 
pen.     His   intelligent  mind  and  evangelical  spirit  at   once 
perceived  the  reason  why  religion  drooped  in  the  localities 
Mr.  Gough  pointed  out  —  the  apathy  of  the  ministry  in  some 
instances,  and  their  lamentable  theological  errors  in  others ; 
and  he  expresses  his  conviction,  that  nothing  but  the  plain, 
experimental,  and  aflfectionate  proclamation  of  the  doctrines 
of  the  gospel,  can  preserve  a  congregation  from  decay,  or  re- 
vive it  in  decline.     It  was  only,  however,  in  particular  dis- 
tricts, that  decreased  numbers  and    diminished  spirituality 
appeared :  of  one  of  the  midland  counties,  Northamptonshire, 
Doddridge  testifies,  "  I  know  that  in  many  of  the  congrega- 
tions the  number  of  dissenters  is  greatly  increased  within 
these  twenty  years ;  and  the  interest  continues  so  to  flourish, 
that  I  am  confident  some  of  our  honest  people,  who  converse 
only  in  their  own  neighbourhood,  will  be  surprised  to  hear  of 
an  inquiry  into  the  causes  of  its  decay."     It  was  chiefly  in 
London  and  in  the  West  of  England  that  Arianism  found  an 
entrance  :  but  as  the  irruption  of  a  tempest  is  often  narrow  in 
its  span,  while  it  is  lengthened  in  its  course;  so  was  it  with 
the  inroad  of  heresy,  and  numerous  and  flourishing  commu- 
nities existed  on  either  hand  of  its  line  of  desolation. 

The  Independent  churches  could  boast  a  goodly  number  of 
faithful  ministers,  who  laboured  zealously  for  the  advance- 
ment of  true  religion,  witnessed  with  painful  anxiety  the 
signs  of  deterioration,  and  applied  themselves  from  the  pulpit 
and  the  press,  to  "  strengthen  the  things  that  were  ready  to 


OF    DR.    ISAAC    WATTS.  475 

die."     The  excellent  Mr.  Some  of  Harborougli  published  a 
sermon  with  this  design  in  1730;  and  in  March,  in  the  fol- 
lowing year,  Dr.  Walts  sent  forth  his  "Humble  Attempt 
towards  the  revival  of  practical  religion  among  Christians." 
This  treatise  is  divided  into  two  parts :  an  address  to  ministers, 
founded  on  Col.  iv.  17,  "Take  heed  to  the  ministry  which 
thou  hast  received;"    and  an  address  to  the  people,   from 
Matt.  V.  57,  "  What  do  ye  more  than  others."     The  former 
part  was  drawn  up  for  the  ordination  of  Mr.  John  Oakes, 
over  the  church  at  Cheshunt,  November  1-2,  1720;  but  being 
prevented  by  illness  from  attending,  he    was   requested  to 
publish  what  he  had  intended  to  deliver  :  the  latter  part  is  the 
substance  of  several  sermons  preached  at  Bury  Street.     This 
publication  obtained  an  unexpected  notoriety,  as  it  originated 
an  able  controversy  upon  the  principles  of  nonconformity.    In 
exhorting  the  dissenting  body  to  increased  purity  of  life  and 
more  active  exertion.  Dr.  Watts  assumed  the  fact,  that  they 
were  favoured  with  superior  advantages,  for  the  cultivation  of 
personal  religion,  than  the  members  of  the  establishment  — 
that  they  were  not  so  much  in  danger  of  substituting  the  out- 
ward forms  of  religion  for  the  power — that  they  were  freed 
from  the  inventions  of  men  and  the  imposition   of  human 
ceremonies  in  divine  worship  —  that  they  were  not  confined 
to  a  perpetual  repetition  of  set  forms  of  prayer  —  that  they 
had  the  choice  of  their  own  ministers  —  that  the  communion 
of  their  churches  was  kept  more  pure  and  free  from  the  ad- 
mission of  scandalous  and  unworthy  members  —  and  from 
these  considerations  he  argues  their  obligation  to   improve- 
ment in  proportion  to  their  privileges.  Though  the  writer  had 
no  design  whatever  to  provoke  a  controversy  ;  though  his  aim 
was  rather  to  expose  the  faiHngs  of  his  own  denomination, 
than  those  of  the  dominant  hierarchy  ;  yet,  as  the  positions 
which  he  assumed  involved  all  the  main  points  at  issue  be- 
tween the  dissenters  and  the  establishment,  it  was  hardly  to 
be  expected  that   they  would  be  suffered   to  pass   current 


476  LIFE    AND   TIMES 

in  silence.  A  champion  for  tlie  national  chnrcli  appeared  in 
the  person  of  the  Rev.  John  White,  B.  D.  fellow  of  St.  John's 
college,  Cambridge,  and  vicar  of  Ospring  in  Kent,  who 
published  "Letters  to  a  Gentleman  dissenting  from  the 
Church  of  England."  In  his  first  letter  he  asserts  the 
superiority  of  his  own  comiliunion  to  any  scheme  of  dissent; 
and  in  the  two  succeeding  ones,  assails,  with  some  asperity, 
those  who  seceded  from  it.  Dr.  Watts  does  not  appear  to 
have  taken  any  notice  of  his  opponent;  but  Micaiah 
Towg-ood,  a  minister  in  the  West  of  England,  accepted  the 
challenge  he  gave,  and  produced  "The  dissenting  Gentle- 
man's Letter  to  Mr.  White."  It  is  foreign  to  our  present 
purpose  to  trace  the  history  of  this  controversy  ;  several  pieces 
appeared  on  both  sides ;  but  the  vicar  was  plainly  no  match 
for  the  Exeter  pastor.  Though  Towgood  was  one  of  those 
who  departed  from  the  doctrinal  sentiments  of  the  first 
nonconformists,  yet  he  explains  the  principles  and  vindicates 
the  reasons  of  their  secession  with  great  ability;  his  wit, 
his  acuteness,  his  pungent  reasoning  will  always  please ;  and 
his  volume  is  still  read  with  interest,  Avhilst  the  work  of  his 
antagonist  has  sunk  into  oblivion. 

Dr.  Watts,  though  never  in  the  possession  of  robust  health, 
was  now  enjoying  an  interval  of  comparative  vigour,  one  of 
the  few  bright  and  sunny  periods  that  mark  his  often  clouded 
career.  Besides  engaging  in  arduous  literary  employment  at 
home,  he  was  able  to  attend  to  his  pastoral  duties  abroad,  and 
the  strength  with  which  he  was  favoured  was  carefully 
expended  for  his  people's  benefit.  He  appears  to  have 
occupied  his  pulpit  regularly  during  the  year  1731,  and  in 
April  and  December  he  preached  the  sermons  forming  the 
first  part  of  the  "  Evangelical  Discourses."  His  indefatigable 
mind  was  next  employed  on  the  deistical  controversy;  and 
in  the  same  year  that  produced  the  attempt  to  rouse  the 
dissenters  from  their  lethargy,  his  work  on  "The  Strength 
and  Weakness  of  Human  Reason,"  appeared  anonymously. 


OF    DR.    ISAAC    WATTS.  477 

This  imjjortant  topic  is  argued  at  considerable  length,  in 
conversation  at  four  conferences,  between  Logisto,  an  inquir- 
ing deist,  Pithander,  a  Christian,  with  Sophronius,  as 
moderator.  "  If,"  as  Dr.  Johnson  remarks,  "  the  writer  is 
unhappy  in  coining  names  expressive  of  his  characters,  he 
manages  the  discussion  with  his  usual  ability  and  tact."  The 
sufficiency  of  the  light  of  nature,  in  the  discovery  of  truth 
and  the  search  after  happiness,  was  loudly  asserted  by  the 
philosophical  oracles  of  the  time;  the  volume  of  inspiration 
was  thrown  aside  as  a  complete  work  of  supererogation  ;  and 
the  proper  cultivation  of  the  intellectual  faculty,  maintained 
to  be  alone  requisite  to  meet  all  the  exigencies  of  man.  In 
opposition  to  these  views,  the  necessity  of  a  divine  revelation 
is  ably  argued  and  satisfactorily  proved  in  Watts's  treatise; 
deism  is  chased  through  its  various  subterfuges;  and  reason 
shown,  from  the  history  of  human  opinion,  to  be  a  weak  and 
erring  faculty,  utterly  inadequate  to  find  out  the  mind  of  the 
Most  High,  and  ascertain  the  knowledge  of  his  will.  We 
have  the  page  of  history,  to  which  the  appeal  can  be  made, 
to  ascertain  what  the  unaided  powers  of  the  human  mind 
have  been  able  to  discover  of  moral  and  religious  truth.  The 
possession  of  the  greatest  talents  has  been  no  security  from 
the  grossest  errors;  though  endowed  with  the  most  transcen- 
dant  mental  qualities,  men  have  still  remained  perplexed 
with  doubt,  involved  in  uncertainty,  and  degraded  by  super- 
stition. Many  among  the  wisest  of  the  ancients  made  not 
even  the  remotest  approximation  to  some  of  the  most 
important  truths  recognized  now  by  natural  religion;  they 
were  deluded  with  the  most  trifling  fancies  ;  and  wasted  their 
"strength"  upon  "that  which  proliteth  not."  And  yet  the 
masters  of  the  Grove,  the  Portico,  and  the  Lyceum,  were  not 
inferior  in  intellectual  ability  to  the  mighty  names  of 
Cudworth,  Clarke,  Cumberland,  Wilkins,  and  WoUaston; 
they  had  the  same  natural  phenomena  to  behold,  and  the 
same  providential  administration  to  reason  from;  and  their 


478  LIFE    AND   TIMES 

argumentative  powers  were  disciplined  by  the  same  processes 
of  mathematical  and  dialectic  science.  Modern  philosophers 
indeed,  professedly  following  the  same  guide,  throwing  aside 
the  volume  of  revelation,  have  pretended  to  surpass  them  in 
moral  and  religious  discovery  j  hut  it  has  not  been  owing  to 
their  superior  mental  vigour,  but  because  of  the  intervening 
communications  of  divine  truth ;  their  best  views  have 
emanated  from  the  fountain  of  scripture;  the  light  that 
breaks  forth  in  their  works  is  a  reflection  from  the  lamp 
of  inspiration.  It  has  been  objected  to  Watts's  work,  that  he 
has  made  his  deist  a  feeble  reasoner,  that  he  is  too  soon  and 
too  easily  convinced  by  his  antagonist,  and  pays  too  much 
deference  to  the  opinions  of  the  moderator;  but  the  argu- 
ments of  Logisto  are  carefully  selected  from  the  leading 
writers  on  the  deistical  side,  and  he  does  not  yield  the  victory 
to  his  opponent,  but  at  the  point  where  legitimate  controversy 
ends  and  sophistical  cavil  commences. 

A  production  of  a  different  character,  the  "  Philosophical 
Essays,"  with  the  "  Scheme  of  Ontology,"  was  published  in 
June,  1732.  Some  of  these  metaphysical  disquisitions  are 
evidently  founded  upon  the  doctrines  of  Des  Cartes,  whose 
Principia  Dr.  Watts  attentively  read  whilst  a  student  in  the 
academy.  He  was  in  early  life  a  disciple  of  the  fanciful,  yet 
ingenious  French  philosopher,  adopting  and  expanding  his 
doctrine  of  spirits,  but  resigning  his  system  of  the  material 
world  at  the  feet  of  Newton.  The  reputation  of  Des  Cartes  is 
sullied  by  the  charge  of  constructing  the  ground-work  of 
modern  scepticism,  though  certainly  undesignedly  on  his  part; 
but  to  him  the  honour  in  some  degree  belongs,  of  pointing 
out  the  road  to  true  philosophy  by  reason  and  experiment  — 
a  path  which  Gassendas,  Bacon,  and  Boyle,  soon  afterwards 
so  successfully  pursued.  It  has  been  observed  by  Mr.  Dyer, 
that  Dr.  Watts,  in  his  first  essay,  confounds  the  idea  oi  space 
with  that  of  empty  space;  and  does  not  consider,  that  though 
space  might  be  without  matter,  yet  matter  being  extended, 


OF   DR.   ISAAC   WATTS.  479 

cannot  be  without  space.  In  the  third  essay  concerning  the 
origin  of  our  perceptions  and  ideas,  he  notices  the  strange 
opinion  of  Malebranchc,*  whose  mystical  philosophy  it  is 
difficult  to  understand,  that  we  see  all  our  ideas  in  God ;  and 
explains  at  length  the  Cartesian  doctrine,  which  has  been 
embraced  by  Locke  and  most  modern  metaphysicians.  This 
theory  supposes,  that  our  ideas  originate  in  sensation  and 
reflection,  to  which  Watts  adds,  rather  needlessly,  a  third 
source,  viz.  abstraction ;  for  as  he  grants  that  the  materials 
of  the  latter  are  derived  from  the  two  former,  it  cannot  properly 
be  reckoned  a  third  primary  source.  Some  writers,  as  Brown,t 
maintain  that  we  have  all  our  ideas  from  sensation ;  and  this 
must  be  admitted,  if  his  definition  of  the  word  idea  is  correct, 
which  he  supposes  a  representation  of  some  sensible  object 
laid  up  in  the  imagination.  The  fourth  essay  is  on  innate 
ideas :  and  here  the  masterly  reasoning  of  Locke  is  followed, 
but  cautiously  guarded,  it  being  granted  that  there  are  certain 
circumstances,  in  which  it  is  impossible  for  the  mind  to  avoid 
receiving  certain  ideas,  and  assenting  to  certain  propositions, 
the  necessary  consequence  of  its  constitution  ^  a  position 
which  Locke  himself  seems  to  admit,  under  the  name  of 
innate  practical  principles.  Though  an  ardent  admirer,  Dr. 
Watts  was  not  a  servile  follower  of  the  great  modern  philoso- 
pher :  indeed,  one  design  of  the  philosophical  essays  is,  to 
point  out  his  fallacies,  correct  his  mistakes,  and  guard  the 
unwary  against  the  errors  into  which  they  might  be  led  by  a 
blind  deference  to  his  authority.  In  the  inquiry,  whether  the 
soul  always  thinks,J  he  takes  the  affirmative  side  of  the  ques- 
tion, in  opposition  to  him ;  and,  by  a  train  of  beautiful  and 
conclusive  reasoning,  confutes  a  notion  which  would  go  far  to 
destroy  the  lofty  distinction  between  mind  and  matter. 
Locke's  notion  as  to  the  2^rinclpium  mviduatlonls,  that  perso- 

*La  Recherche  de  la  Verite,  lib.  iii.  part  ii.  c.  vi. 

f  Brown's  Procedure  of  the  Understanding,  p.  55,  &c. 

X  Essay  5. 


480  LIFE    AND   TIMES 

nal  identity  consists  in  a  continued  consciousness  of  the  same 
actions,  and  not  as  Watts  defines  it,  in  the  same  intelligent 
substance  or  conscious  mind,  the  same  soul  united  to  the  same 
body,  is  ably  combated.*  But  the  charm  of  these  philoso- 
phemes  is,  the  lessons  of  practical  piety  which  they  inculcate, 
and  the  modest  spirit  in  which  they  are  conducted.  "  Every 
art,"  says  he,  "  puzzles  my  reasonings  and  baffles  all  my 
science."  His  disquisitions  have  all  of  them  an  important 
moral ;  he  finds  some  truth  to  humble  and  instruct  in  his 
most  severe  and  abstruse  inquiries  ;  and  culls  many  a  flower 
from  the  barren  fields  of  metaphysical  speculation.  Justly 
does  Dr.  Johnson  remark,  "  Whatever  he  took  in  hand  was, 
by  his  incessant  solicitude  for  souls,  converted  to  theology.  As 
piety  predominated  in  his  mind,  it  is  diffused  over  his  works : 
under  his  direction  it  may  be  truly  said,  theologiae  phUosophia 
ancillatur,  philosophy  is  subservient  to  evangelical  instruc- 
tion; it  is  difficult  to  read  a  page  without  learning,  or,  at 
least,  wishing  to  be  better.  The  attention  is  caught  by  indi- 
rect instruction ;  and  he  that  sat  down  only  to  reason,  is  on  a 
sudden  compelled  to  pray." 

On  the  2nd  of  April,  1732,  Dr.  Watts  preached  a  funeral  ser- 
mon for  Miss  Sarah  Abney,  the  eldest  daughter  of  Sir  Thomas, 
who  died  March  20th,  which  he  wrote  out  in  manuscript,  and 
presented  to  the  sorrowing  mother  and  the  two  surviving  sisters. 
Of  this  young  lady  he  gives  a  high  character :  —  "  Religion 
was  her  early  care,  a  fear  to  offend  God  possessed  and  govern- 
ed her  thoughts  and  actions  from  her  childhood,  and  heavenly 
things  were  her  youthful  choice.  She  had  appeared  for  some 
years  in  the  public  profession  of  Christianity,  and  maintained 
the  practice  of  godliness  in  the  church  and  the  world  ;  but  it 
began  much  more  early  in  secret.  Her  beloved  closet  and  her 
retiring  hours  were  silent  witnesses  of  her  daily  converse  with 
God  and  her  Saviour."  Among  her  papers  were  found  recollec- 
tions of  the  sermons  she  had  heard,  and  a  journal  of  her  religious 

*  Essay  12. 


OF  DR.   ISAAC   WATTS.  481 

experience.  She  was  attacked  by  malignant  fever,  accompa- 
nied with  delirium,  but  previous  to  her  decease  she  had  many 
lucid  intervals,  in  which  she  humbly  yet  confidently  expressed 
her  trust  in  Christ  and  hope  of  heaven.  Part  of  the  139th 
psalm  was  frequently  repeated  by  her,  and  the  paraphrase  of 
the  1 7th  faltered  from  her  lips  just  before  they  were  closed  by 
death. 

During  the  summer  of  1733  Dr.  Watts  was  with  the  Abney 
family  at  Theobalds,  where  in  July  he  was  favoured  with  the 
company  of  Dr.  Doddridge.  In  the  correspondence  of  the 
latter  the  following  notices  of  this  visit  occur  :  —  "  I  go  this 
evening  to  Theobalds  by  Lady  Abney's  invitation."  — "Pray 
tell  Mrs.  Tingey  that  I  have  spoken  to  Dr.  Watts  on  her  ac- 
count, who  unha^jpily  forgot  her  case,  though  I  had  given  it 
in  writing;  but  he  hopes  to  have  an  opportunity  of  introduc- 
ing it  before  all  the  legacy  is  distributed,  and  faithfully  pro- 
mises he  will  do  it  if  he  can."  —  "I  have  been  at  Theobalds, 
where  Dr.  Walts  and  the  family  are  very  well."  The  legacy 
here  referred  to,  was  probably  that  of  the  "dying  Hopkins" 
whom  Pope  satirised,*  in  the  distribution  of  which  Dr.  Watts 
had  a  share.  The  "  Gentleman's  Magazine,"  which  was 
then  commencing,  has  preserved  the  following  memorial  of 
this  benefaction:  —  "April  25th,  1732,  John  Hopkins,  Esq., 
died,  at  his  house  in  Broad-street,  worth  £.300,000,  bequeath- 
ing £.500  to  be  distributed  by  Dr.  Calamy,  Dr.  Watts,  Dr. 
Evans,  and  Dr.  Wright,  to  poor  widows  of  dissenting  minis- 
ters ;  and  £.1,000  to  poor  dissenting  ministers  in  the  country, 
not  exceeding  £.10  each."t  There  was  also  a  bequest  of 
£.100,  to  repair  the  wall  of  and  make  a  gateway  to  the 
burial-place  of  the  dissenters,  near  Sherbourne,  Dorset. 
Mrs.  Tingey,  for  whose  case  Doddridge  solicited  the  interest 
of  his  friend,  was  the  widow  of  the  Rev.  Thos.  Tingey,  his 
predecessor  at  Northampton,  afterwards  pastor  of  the  church 

*  Mor,  Ess.  iii.  85.  +  Gent.  Mag.  ii.  725. 


482  LIFE    AND   TIMES 

in  Fetter  Lane,  a  man  of  "  uniform  piety,"  cut  off  in  the 
vigour  of  life,  in  the  year  1729.* 

Among  the  influential  lay  dissenters  in  the  metropolis  at 
this  period,  was  William  Coward,  Esq.,  with  whom  Dr.  Watts 
was  brought  into  frequent  intercourse.  This  gentleman  had 
been  a  merchant  in  the  city,  but  was  then  living  in  retirement 
at  Walthamstow.  Tenacious  of  his  own  opinions,  and  singu- 
lar in  his  habits,  it  is  said  that  he  would  never  allow  the  door 
of  his  mansion  to  be  opened  to  any  visitor,  however  pressing 
the  emergency,  after  eight  o'clock  in  the  evening;  but  his 
eccentricities,  and  they  were  neither  few  nor  slight,  were 
counterbalanced  by  his  sterling  virtues.  With  unwearied  as- 
siduity he  assisted  the  metropolitan  and  country  ministers  in 
their  benevolent  exertions ;  his  enterprising  spirit  led  him  to 
design  and  promote  various  plans  of  usefulness ;  and  his 
princely  fortune  was  liberally  expended  in  supporting  the 
interests  of  religion.  A  course  of  sermons  was  preached  at  the 
Bury-street  meeting-house,  in  the  year  1733,  at  his  request 
and  under  his  patronage.  The  ministers  employed  in  the 
service  were  Dr.  Watts,  Dr.  John  Guyse,  Dr.  David  Jen- 
nings, Mr.  Price,  Mr,  Neal,  and  Mr.  Hubbard.  These  ser- 
mons were  intended  to  be  printed  at  the  termination  of  the 
course;  and  accordingly  they  appeared  in  two  volumes,  in  the 
year  1735,  under  the  title  of  "  Faith  and  Practice,  represented 
in  fifty-four  sermons  on  the  principal  heads  of  the  Christian 
Religion."  Nine  of  the  discourses  in  this  collection  are  by 
Dr.  Watts :  the  preface  and  the  dedication  are  from  the  pen  of 
Mr.  Neal,  who  stipulated  in  his  agreement  with  Mr.  Coward, 
that  this  task  should  be  committed  to  him.  He  observes, 
with  reference  to  himself  and  colleagues,  "  We  are  conscious 
to  ourselves,  that  our  aim  has  not  been  to  seek  our  own  ho- 
nour or  interest,  nor  to  flatter  the  humours  and  gratify  the 
passions  of  any  of  the  divided  parties  of  Christians;  but  to 
teach  the  plain  doctrines  of  our  divine  religion  as  we  receive 

*  llidgley's  Sermou  on  his  dcatli. 


OP  DR.  ISAAC  WATTS.  483 

them  from  the  bible,  and  to  exhort  mankind  to  the  zealous 
practice  of  piety,  virtue,  and  goodness,  upon  evangelical 
principles."  Of  the  merit  of  these  lectures  Dr.  Doddridge 
has  observed,  "  I  cannot  recollect  where  I  have  seen  a  set  of 
important  thoughts  on  such  various  and  weiglity  subjects 
more  judiciously  selected,  more  accurately  digested,  more 
closely  compacted,  more  accurately  expressed,  or  in  a  few 
words  more  powerfully  enforced,  than  I  have  generally  found 
in  these  sermons."  This  work  rapidly  passed  through  several 
editions,  confirming  the  justness  of  the  encomium;  the  repu- 
tation of  its  authors  as  scholars  and  theologians,  was  a  suffi- 
cient guarantee  for  its  excellence  and  orthodoxy ;  and  it  is 
still  deservedly  esteemed  as  a  compendium  of  sound  doctrinal 
and  practical  divinity.  In  its  adaptation  to  the  errors  of  the 
times,  it  was  peculiarly  valuable ;  establishing  the  divine 
origin  of  Christianity  against  the  bold  aggressions  of  infidel 
philosophy  —  expounding  its  fundamental  truths  to  the  over- 
throw of  Socinian  hypotheses  —  and  asserting  its  practical 
tendency  in  opposition  to  the  licentious  perversions  of  Antino- 
mian  delusion. 

The  sermon  on  "  Christian  Baptism,"  in  the  Bury-street 
collection,  contains  a  candid  statement  of  the  sentiments  of 
the  denomination  to  which  Dr.  Watts  belonged,  as  to  the 
proper  subjects  for  that  ordinance,  and  the  mode  of  its  admi- 
nistration. But  certain  zealots  for  immersion,  eager  to  plead 
the  authority  of  a  name  so  distinguished,  have  given  a  most 
unfair  interpretation  to  some  paragraphs  in  the  discourse. 
Mr.  Ivimey  also,  the  highly  respected  historian  of  the  English 
Baptists,*  appears  inclined  to  claim  him  as  a  proselyte;  for  he 
observes,  that  "  he  was  not  very  zealous  for  sprinkling,"  nor 
"  remarkably  tenacious  for  infants  being  the  proper  subjects  of 
baptism."  Dr.  Watts's  views  upon  this  controverted  subject 
will  be  best  explained  in  his  own  words:  "The  Greek  word 

*  Ivimey.  Hist,  of  Eng.  Bajitists.  iii.  p.  224.  note 


484  LIFE    AND   TIMES 

*  baptizo'  signifies  to  '  wash'  any  thing  properly  by  water 
coming  over  it."  After  mentioning  what  "  learned  men  have 
argued"  in  proof  of  this  assertion,  he  pleads  for  the  manifesta- 
tion of  Christian  charity  among  those  who  agi-ee  in  so  many 
important  particulars  and  differ  only  in  trifles.  "  Our  brethren 
who  reject  infant  baptism,  as  well  as  we  who  practise  it,  all 
agree  in  a  belief  of  the  sacred  institution  of  this  ordinance,  and 
in  a  reverence  for  it ;  we  all  agree  that  children  should  be 
devoted  to  God,  and  should  be  partakers  of  all  the  utmost 
privileges  into  which  the  Scripture  admits  them,  and  that 
they  should  grow  up  under  all  possible  obligations  to  duty ; 
and  since  each  of  us  desires  to  find  out  the  will  of  Christ,  and 
to  practise  accordingly,  it  is  a  most  unreasonable  thing  we 
should  be  angry  with  each  other."  In  reply  to  the  question, 
"  Who  are  the  subjects  of  this  ordinance  of  baptism,  or  to 
whom  is  it  to  be  administered?"  he  states,  "The  first,  the 
most  proper,  or,  at  least,  the  most  evident  subjects  of  it,  are, 
persons  who  confess  their  sins,  and  profess  to  repent  of  them, 
and  who  accept  of  the  grace  and  salvation  offered  in  the  gos- 
pel ;  but  in  the  Christian  church  from  its  early  ages,  and  we 
think  from  the  apostles'  time,  it  hath  been  the  custom  also 
to  baptise  the  infant  children  of  professed  Christians;  and 
though  there  be  no  such  express  and  plain  commands  or  ex- 
amples of  it  written  in  the  scriptures  as  we  might  have  expect- 
ed, yet  there  are  several  inferences  to  be  drawn  from  what  is 
written,  which  afford  a  just  and  reasonable  encouragement  to 
this  practice,  and  guard  it  from  the  censure  of  superstition 
and  will-worship."  The  views  of  Dr.  Watts  were  plainly 
those  of  the  Psedobaptists  in  general ;  he  regarded  believing 
adults,  who  had  not  been  baptised  before,  as  proper  subjects 
for  the  ordinance  as  well  as  the  children  of  believers ;  and  he 
was  zealous  for  sprinkling,  not  as  an  exclusive  mode  of  bap- 
tism, but  as  the  mode  most  suitable  for  its  ministration,  which 
propriety  and  decency  seem  alike  to  suggest.  In  the  year 
1782  several  pamphlets  were  published  upon  the  baptist  con- 


OF    DR.    ISAAC    WATTS.  485 

trovei'sy  by  the  Rev.  John  Carter,  of  Mattishall  in  Norfolk, 
and  the  Rev.  Wilham  Richards,  of  Lynn.  In  one  of  his 
pamphlets  Mr.  Richards  asserted,  in  reference  to  sprinkling 
not  being  the  proper  mode  of  baptism,  that  "  Dr.  Watts  told 
his  friend  Mr.  G.  [meaning  Dr.  Gibbons],  that  he  vs^ished 
infant  baptism  was  laid  aside."  This  assertion  occasioned  a 
letter  from  Dr.  Gibbons  to  Mr.  Carter,  of  which  the  following 
is  an  extract  :* 

"  London,  June  22,  1782. 

"Reverend  Sir, 

"  I  find  it  has  been  asserted  in  a  publication,  that 
Dr.  Watts  declared  to  me  (for  I  am  said  to  be  the  person  re- 
ferred to,  though  only  the  initial  letter  of  my  name,  and  not 
my  name  at  length,  is  printed),  that  he  wished  'infant  baptism 
was  laid  aside.'  It  is  not  a  little  disagreeable  to  me,  that  what 
I  mentioned  casually  in  conversation,  without  the  least  appre- 
hension I  should  hear  of  it  again  in  the  public  manner  I  have 
done,  should  have  come  into  the  press,  and  thence  communi- 
cated to  the  world.  But  as  this  has  been  the  case,  it  may  not 
be  improper,  nay  it  may  have  become  necessary,  for  me  to  give 
a  plain  account  of  the  matter,  which  I  shall  do  with  the 
strictest  regard  to  truth,  and  without  the  least  tincture  of  par- 
tiality. 

"  The  doctor  and  myself  were  one  day,  perhaps  two  or 
three  years  before  his  decease,  in  a  free  converse  together, 
when  (I  cannot  recollect  how  the  subject  was  introduced)  he 
expressed  himself  to  this  purpose :  that  he  had  sometimes 
thought  of  a  compromise  with  our  Baptist  brethren,  by  their 
giving  up  their  mode  of  baptism,  immersion,  on  the"  one  side, 
and  our  giving  up  the  baptism  of  infants  on  the  other,  as  he 
had  not  observed  any  benefit  arising  from  the  administration 
of  the  ordinance  to  them.     This  was  the  whole,  from  what  I 

*  Ivimey.  iii.  222. 


48G  LIFE   AND   TIMES 

remember,  the  doctor  said  upon  the  point;  which,  in  my 
opinion,  falls  much  short  of  a  declaration  from  him,  that  he 
wished  infant  baptism  to  be  laid  aside."  It  would  be  highly 
desirable,  for  the  sake  of  peace  and  the  manifestation  of  Chris- 
tian charity,  if  the  Baptists  and  Independents  were  to  merge 
into  one  body,  as  there  is  no  difference  between  them  as  to 
doctrine  or  discipline,  but  upon  the  one  point  of  baptism :  Dr. 
Watts  would,  it  appears,  have  conceded  the  baptism  of  infants^ 
if  the  other  party  would  have  given  up  the  immersion  of 
adults;  but  no  reason  exists,  why  the  object  should  not  be 
effected  without  any  such  compromise,  and  these  two  power- 
ful sections  of  the  church  be  blended,  each  attending  to  its 
own  peculiarities  of  observance,  and  tolerating  one  another  in 
love.  It  may  be  hoped,  from  the  recent  infusion  of  liberal 
feeling  into  many  of  the  Baptist  churches,  from  the  rapid 
abandonment  of  the  odious  practice  of  close  communion,  that 
the  time  is  not  far  distant  when  a  comprehension  will  be  ac- 
complished, and  "  Ephraim  shall  not  envy  Judah,  and  Judah 
shall  not  vex  Ephraim." 

Mr.  Coward's  friendship  for  Dr.  Watts,  and  attachment  to 
the  dissenting  interest,  have  already  been  mentioned;  and 
during  the  year  1734,  among  his  other  labours  of  love,  the 
scheme  of  a  college  for  the  education  of  young  men  for  the 
ministry  was  proposed  by  him.  The  seat  of  this  institution  he 
designed  to  have  been  at  Walthamstow,  where  he  resided ; 
and  the  professorship  of  divinity  he  offered  to  Dr.  Doddridge, 
whom  he  warmly  solicited  to  remove  from  Northampton  to 
take  the  charge.  Dr.  Watts  was  deeply  interested  in  this 
design  ;  his  influence  over  Mr.  Coward  was  employed  to 
induce  him  to  change  various  parts  of  his  scheme ;  and  it  was 
owing  partly  to  his  advice,  that  the  property  he  designed  for 
the  academy  was  vested  in  the  hands  of  trustees.  In  several 
instances  in  which  large  benefactions  had  been  left  by  will  to 
the  dissenting  interest,  tedious  and  expensive  litigations  had 
been  instituted  by  interested  parties,  and  the  designs  of  the 


OF   DR.    ISAAC    WATTS.  487 

testator  had  been  often  by  this  means  defeated.  Mr.  Coward 
devoted  upwards  of  twenty  thousand  pounds  to  the  benevolent 
object  he  contemplated ;  and  these  large  funds  have  since  been 
faithfully  appropriated  to  fulfil  the  wishes  of  the  donor.  He 
designed  to  furnish  the  dissenters  with  a  learned  ministry,  to 
supply  to  them  in  some  degree  the  advantages  of  the  two  na- 
tional universities,  which  were  closed  against  them  by  intole- 
rant subscriptions  ;  he  evidently  wished  also  to  provide  them 
with  an  orthodox  ministry,  and,  hence,  enjoined  it  upon  all  his 
lecturers,  to  make  Christ  the  prominent  theme  of  their  dis- 
courses, and  to  educate  the  students  in  the  principles  of  the 
Assembly's  Catechism.  To  give  full  and  entire  eflfect  to  his 
wishes  in  this  respect,  to  expend  the  property  of  the  founder 
in  instilling  those  religious  views  and  principles  which  he 
sanctioned,  has  been  carefully  observed  in  the  appointment  of 
tutors  and  trustees :  Dr.  Doddridge  was  the  first  tutor.  Dr. 
Watts  was  one  of  the  first  trustees.  The  academy  was  first 
placed  at  Northampton,  and  after  subsequent  removals  to 
Daventry,  and  again  to  Northampton,  where  it  was  dissolved 
on  account  of  the  Arianism  of  its  tutor,  it  was  re-established 
at  Wymondley,  where  for  several  years  it  has  flourished.* 
Mr.  Coward  died  in  1738,  leaving  behind  him  this  monu- 
ment of  his  benevolence,  which  has  supplied  the  dissenting 
churches  with  a  number  of  useful  ministers,  and  which, 
under  the  direction  of  its  present  president,  the  Rev.  T. 
Morell,  is  likely  to  prove  a  still  more  extensive  blessing. 

In  March  1734  a  collection  of  early  compositions  was  pub- 
lished, under  the  title  of  "  Reliquiae  Juveniles  ;  or.  Miscella- 
neous Thoughts,  in  prose  and  verse,  on  natural,  moral,  and 
divine  subjects,  written  chiefly  in  younger  years."  This  small 
volume  is  dedicated  to  the  Countess  of  Hertford,  whose  per- 
mission the  author  appears  to  have  requested.  Of  this  work, 
familiar  to  most  religious  readers,  it  is  enough  to  say  with  one 

*  The  academy  is  about  to  be  removed  to  London. 


488  LIFE    AND   TIMES 

of  his  biographers,  "  many  of  the  pieces  arc  highly  beautiful ; 
some  few  are  on  literary  subjects,  but  the  far  greater  part 
contain  the  effusions  of  piety  from  the  lips  of  a  man  of  genius. 
They  ought  to  form  part  of  the  library  of  every  young  person 
of  taste  and  seriousness."*  Soon  afterwards  the  treatise  on 
the  "  Sacrifice  of  Christ,  and  the  Operations  of  the  Spirit" 
appeared,  probably  in  1735,  as  a  presentation  copy  is  ac- 
knowledged by  Bishop  Gibson  in  that  year.  This  is  a  con- 
versation j^iece,  and  was  published  anonymously,  with  a  view 
to  recover  those  who  had  fallen  into  error,  and  to  establish 
those  who  were  wavering  upon  these  important  points  of  the 
Christian  faith.  Dr.  Watts  was  grieved  to  see,  as  he  re- 
marks, "  a  new  sort  of  Christianity"  published  and  propaga- 
ted, referring  to  the  defection  of  his  presbyterian  brethren ; 
some  had  already  discarded  the  necessity  of  a  Redeemer  to 
atone,  and  a  Sanctifier  to  renew;  and  had  abandoned  the 
peculiar  truths  of  the  gospel  for  the  cold  and  cheerless  dogmas 
of  natural  religion.  His  treatise  is,  therefore,  an  attempt  to 
contend  for  the  "  faith  delivered  to  the  saints,"  and  proclaim- 
ed with  such  success  from  the  pulpits  of  the  first  nonconform- 
ists; he  states  the  inefficiency  of  human  means  to  counteract 
the  evils  and  to  meet  the  exigencies  of  the  fall ;  and  the  ne- 
cessity of  that  provision  which  the  gospel  exhibits,  for  the 
judicial  destitution  of  man  in  the  atonement  of  Christ,  and  for 
his  moral  destitution  in  the  influence  of  the  Holy  Spirit. 

At  the  close  of  this  year,  a  correspondence  commenced  be- 
tween Dr.  Watts  and  Edward  Cave  Esq,  the  proprietor, 
printer,  and  probably  the  original  editor  of  the  Gentleman's 
Magazine.  This  i)eriodical  which  was  then  in  its  infancy, 
was  fast  rising  in  public  estimation ;  and  its  respectable  pub- 
lisher, to  encourage  the  correspondents  to  his  miscellany,  pro- 
posed rewards  for  the  best  poetical  contributions  upon  certain 
given  subjects.  The  first  subject  proposed  was  in  the  year  1733, 
on  her  Majesty's  Grotto,  and  the  poems  written  by  the  contend- 

*  Memoirs  prefixed  to  practical  works,  27. 


OF    DR.    ISAAC    WATTS.  489 

ing  parties,  were  inserted  in  several  numbers  for  that  year,  and 
afterwards  published  in  a  pamphlet  entitled  "The  Contest." 
The  prizes  appear  to  have  been  adjudged  upon  this  occasion  by 
a  number  of  individuals  selected  by  the  editor.  In  the  following 
year  the  person  fixed  upon  as  the  poetical  arbitrator  was  Dr. 
Watts;  and  he  accordingly,  though  with  some  hesitation,  un- 
dertook the  office  of  literary  judge.  The  subject  proposed  was 
astronomy,  upon  which  four  poems  were  written.  In  a  letter 
to  Mr.  Cave  Dr.  Watts  adjudged  the  prize  with  so  much 
candour  and  good-nature,  that  the  poets,  though  proverbially 
a  sensitive  race,  cheerfully  acquiesced  in  his  decision.  This 
task  was  afterwards  performed  by  Dr.  Johnson,  who  remarks 
in  a  letter  to  the  publisher— "as  to  the  prize  poems,  a  back- 
wardness to  determine  their  degrees  of  merit  is  not  peculiar 
to  me.  You  may  if  you  jalease  still  have  what  I  can  say ; 
but  I  shall  engage  with  little  spirit  in  an  affair,  which  I  shall 
hardly  end  to  my  own  satisfactio:n,  and  certainly  not  to  the 
satisfaction  of  the  parties  concerned." 


FROM    LORD    BARRINGTON. 

"  Becket-house,  Feb.  4,  1731. 
"Rev.  Sir, 

"  At  last  I  have  received  the  kind  present*  you  so 
long  since  ordered  me.  I  have  read  it  over,  and  looked  over 
some  parts  of  it  again ;  I  shall  lay  it  in  my  nursery,  hall,  and 
parlour,  and  keep  it  in  my  study.  I  think  it  a  book  that 
will  be  very  instructive  and  entertaining  to  people  of  all  ages 
and  conditions.  You  know  I  am  very  much  for  the  whole 
bible's  being  looked  through,  and  not  one  part  of  it  only,  or 
even  the  New  Testament  alone  in  prejudice  of  the  rest.  I 
think  you  have  done  very  good  service  in  giving  us  the  apo- 
cryphal history,  as  a  part  of  the  account  of  God's  transac- 

*  The  View  of  the  whole  Scripture  History. 
I  i 


400  LIFE    AND    TIMES 

tions  with  his  people.  But,  after  saying  this,  I  must  own  to 
you  I  could  have  wished  you  had  made  your  sections,  especi- 
ally at  the  beginning-,  not  barely  as  historical  ones,  but  with 
a  view  to  the  different  dispensations  of  God  to  mankind  (T 
mean  in  that  part  of  the  book  before  the  law),  though  still 
preserving  the  order  of  the  Bible.  The  breaks  that  arise 
from  that  consideration,  are  what  are  most  likely  to  lead  us 
into  the  true  knowledge  of  the  Bible.  Without  them  the  his- 
tory of  the  Bible  will  be  little  more  than  the  amusement  of 
other  histories.     I  am,  Sir, 

"  Your  very  faithful  humble  servant, 

"  BARRINGTON." 
FROM    THE    BISHOr    OF    LONDON.* 

"Whitehall,  April  30,  1731. 
«  Good  Sir, 

"  I  was  solicitous  to  know  the  writer  of  a  book 
which  came  to  me  with  an  anonymous  letter,  because  I  was 
very  much  pleased  with  the  performance.  The  reasonings  are 
clear  and  strong;  and  the  manner  of  writing  serious  and 
truly  Christian.  You  judge  very  right  of  what  I  mean  by  the 
insufficiency  of  reason  to  be  a  guide  in  religion ;  and  it  is 
strange,  how  the  person  who  has  written  against  my  Second 
Letter,t  should  understand  me  in  any  other  sense,  when  he 
knew  I  was  writing  against  those  who  assert  such  a  suffi- 
ciency of  reason  as  renders  revelation  needless ;  and  when  I 
had  guarded  against  all  misconstructions,  by  distinguishing 
between  reason  in  a  state  of  innocence  and  in  a  state  of  cor- 
ruption ;  and  took  the  estimate  of  wdrat  it  can  do,  from  what 
in  fact  it  has  done. 

"Since  you  are  resolved  that  the  author  of  the  'Strength  and 
Weakness  of  Human  Reason'  shall  continue  unknown,  I  will 

*   E       dinuud  nibson,  D.D.  f  Second  Pastoral  Letter. 


OF    DR.    ISAAC    WATTS.  491 

punctually  comply  with  your  direction  in  that  particular,  till 
you  shall  think  fit  to  discharge  me  from  the  obligation  you 
have  laid  me  under.  But,  in  my  own  private  judgment,  I 
cannot  think  the  reasons  you  mention  for  your  continuing  un- 
known of  weight  enough  to  hinder  the  doing  justice  to  your- 
self. 

"I  am,  Sir, 

"  Your  assured  friend  and  servant, 

"EDM.  LONDON." 


FROM  THE  COUNTESS  OF  HERTFORD. 

"May  17,  1731. 
"Sir, 

"  I  am  afraid  you  will  think  me  very  ungrateful  for 
the  favour  you  have  done  me  in  sending  me  your  excellent 
book;*  for  such  I  may  justly  call  it,  since  I  never  read  any  thing 
written  with  more  piety,  or  founded  upon  juster  principles. 
If  you  design  one  for  Mrs.  Rowe,  be  so  good  as  to  send  it  to 
me,  and  I  will  convey  it  to  her  as  soon  as  I  get  to  Marlborough, 
which  I  hope  to  do  next  week.  I  should  not  have  been  silent 
thus  long,  but  I  have  been  of  late  a  perfect  nurse ;  for  the  old 
servant  who  bred  me  up,  and  whom  I  now  look  on  as  a 
mother,  was  so  ill  about  a  fortnight  since  that  she  was  given 
over  for  many  days  together;  and,  however  it  might  sound  to 
the  fashionable  part  of  the  world,  I  dare  own  to  you,  that  it 
was  a  great  affliction  to  me,  and  hindered  me  from  doing 
every  thing  but  trying  to  contribute  what  lay  in  my  power 
(by  my  care  and  prayers)  to  her  recovery.  As  soon  as  she 
grew  a  little  better  my  Lord  fell  into  a  severe  fit  of  the  gout, 
and  is  not  yet  able  to  set  his  feet  to  the  ground,  and  I  can 

*  Pi-ubably  the  "  Huiiible  Attempt,"  &c. 


49-2  LIFE    AND   TIMES 

seldom  be  long  enough  out  of  his  room  to  write  a  letter :  this 
I  hope  will  plead  my  excuse,  since,  whatever  I  may  appear  to 
be,  you  may  be  assured  I  am  in  reality  with  the  sincerest  es- 
teem, 

"Your  most  obliged  friend 

"and  faithful  servant, 

"F.  HERTFORD." 


FROM  THE  REV.  P.  DODDRIDGE,  D.  D. 

"May,  1731. 
"  Reverend  Sir, 

"  I  very  willingly  comply  with  the  request  of  my 
good  friend,  Mr.  Hawtyn,  in  writing  to  you  by  him,  as  it 
gives  me  an  opjiortunity  of  introducing  to  your  knowledge  a 
person  very  much  esteemed  by  us  in  these  parts,  on  account 
of  his  genius,  learning,  piety,  and  conduct,  and,  at  the  same 
time,  of  paying  my  respects  to  Dr.  Watts;  with  what  sincere 
reverence  and  aflection  I  do  it,  I  hope.  Sir,  I  need  not  tell 
you  at  large.  I  cannot  but  think,  that  whenever  T  have  been 
so  happy  as  to  see  and  converse  with  you,,  my  countenance 
must  have  discovered  the  inward  pleasure  that  was  diffusing 
itself  over  my  mind  on  such  an  occasion.  I  am  deei:)ly  sensi- 
ble of  the  favour  which  you  have  done  me  in  joining  with 
some  other  friends  in  recommending  me  as  a  tutor  at  your 
board.  I  do  not  impose  upon  myself,  my  conscience  witnesses 
for  me  in  the  sight  of  God,  that  the  hopes  of  usefulness,  ra- 
ther than  the  prospects  of  any  worldly  advantages,  have  en- 
gaged me  to  undertake  the  work.  And  I  persuade  myself 
that  your  prayers  are  sometimes  concurring  with  mine,  that 
the  great  Author  of  knowledge  and  of  grace  may  impart  to 
me  all  that  furniture  of  both  kinds  which  such  a  station  re- 


OF    DR.    ISAAC    WATTS.  493 

quires,  and  may  succeed  my  attempts  for  the  edification  of  his 
church  and  the  glory  of  our  common  Lord,     Till  heaven  is 
enriched  by  your  removal  thither,  I  hope,  Sir,  to  find  in  you 
a  counsellor  and  a  friend,  if  God  should  continue  my  life ; 
and  I  cannot  but  admire  the  goodness  of  Providence  in  ho- 
nouring me  with  the  friendship  of  such  a  person.     I  can 
truly  say,  your  name  was  in  the  number  of  those  which  were 
dearest  to  me  long  before  I  ever  saw  you.     Yet  since  I  have 
known  you,  I  cannot  but  find  something  of  a  more  tender 
pleasure  in  the  thought  of  your  successful  various  services  in 
the  advancement  of  the  best  of  causes,  that  of  real,  vital, 
practical  Christianity.     What  happened  under  my  observa- 
tion a  few  days  ago,  gave  me  joy  with  regard  to  you,  which  is 
yet  so  warm  in  my  mind  that  I  hope,  Sir,  you  will  pardon  ray 
relating  the  occasion  of  it.     On  Wednesday  last  I  was  preach- 
ing in  a  barn  to  a  pretty  large  assembly  of  plain  country  people, 
at  a  village  a  few  miles  off.     After  a  sermon  from  Hcb.  vi.  12, 
we  sung  one  of  your  hymns  (which,  if  I  remember  right,  was 
the  cxl.  of  the  second  book) ;    and  in  that  part  of  the  worship  I 
had  the  satisfaction  to  observe  tears  in  the  eyes  of  several  of 
the  auditory,  and  after  the  service  was  over  some  of  them  told 
me  that  they  were  not  able  to  sing,  so  deeply  were  their  minds 
affected  with  it,  and  the  clerk,  in  particular,  told  me  he  could 
hardly  utter  the  words  of  it.     These  were  most  of  them  poor 
people  who  work  for  their  living.     On  the  mention  of  your 
name,  I  found  they  had  read  several  of  your  books  with  great 
delight,  and  that  your  Hymns  and  Psalms  were  almost  their 
daily  entertainment.     And  when  one  of  the  company  said, 
'  What  if  Dr.  Watts  should  come  down  to  Northampton  ?' 
another  replied  with  a  remarkable  warmth,  '  The  very  sight 
of  him  would  be  like  an  ordinance  to  me.'     I  mention  the 
thing  just  as  it  was,  and  am  persuaded  it  is  but  a  familiar 
natural  specimen  of  what  often  occurs  amongst  a  multitude 
of  Christians  who  never  saw"  your  face.     Nor  do  I,  by  any 
means,  intend  it  as  a  compliment  to  a  genius  capable  of  en- 


494  LIFE    AND    TIMES 

tertaining  by  the  same  compositions  the  greatest  and  the 
meanest  of  mankind ;  but  to  remind  you,  dear  Sir,  (with  all 
the  deference  and  humility  due  to  a  superior  character)  how 
much  you  owe  to  Him  who  has  honoured  you  as  the  instru- 
ment of  such  extensive  service.  Had  Providence  cast  my  lot 
near  you,  I  should  joyfully  have  embraced  the  most  frequent 
opportunities  of  improving  my  understanding  and  warming 
my  heart  by  conversing  with  you,  which  would  surely  have 
been  greatly  for  my  advantage  as  a  tutor,  a  minister,  and  a 
Christian.  As  it  is,  I  will  omit  none  which  may  fall  in  my 
way ;  and  when  I  regret  it  that  I  can  enjoy  no  more  of  you 
here,  will  comfort  myself  with  the  thoughts  of  that  blessed 
state  where  I  hope  for  ever  to  dwell  with  you,  and  to  join  with 
you  in  sweeter  and  sublimer  songs  than  you  have  taught  the 
church  below.  It  is  my  desire  and  my  expectation,  that 
these  and  your  other  writings  may  be  transmitted  to  the  re- 
motest generations,  and  that  thousands  yet  unborn  may  have 
eternal  reason  to  be  thankful  for  them.  And  it  is,  I  hope,  a 
desire  animated  by  a  higher  principle  than  that  sincere  affec- 
tion, gratitude,  and  respect  with  which  I  am,  dear  and  ho- 
noured Sir, 

"  Your  most  obliged,  humble  servant, 

"  p.  DODDRIDGE. 

"  P.  S.  My  most  humble  service  attends  Lady  Abney,  and 
her  most  agreeable  family,  Avith  Mr.  Price,  Mr.  Neal,  Mr. 
Jennings,  Mr.  Anther,  &c." 


OF    DR.     ISAAC    WATTS,  4^5 


FROM  THE  COUNTESS  OF  HERTFORD. 


"  Sir, 


"  Marlborough,*  Aug.  3,  1731. 


"  I  hope  you  have  before  this  time  heard  that  Mrs. 
Rowe  has  received  your  book,  which  I  took  care  to  have  safely 
delivered  to  her.  I  assure  you  it  has  been  my  companion  in 
many  of  my  evening  walks;  and  the  moderation  with  which 
you  treat  our  way  of  worship,  ought,  in  my  opinion,  to  en- 
gage the  leading  people  of  our  church  to  judge  with  equal 
candour  of  yours,  and  then  methinks  there  would  be  little 
cause  for  separation,  since  we  all  acknowledge  one  Shepherd. 
The  summer  is  almost  past,  and  we  have  seen  very  little  of  it, 
since  I  think  we  have  scarce  been  able  to  leave  off  fires  for 
above  three  days  together.  I  have  a  cough  which  still  hangs 
upon  me,  but  I  hope  air  and  exercise,  with  the  blessing  of 
God,  will  soon  remove  it.  I  am  with  a  very  sincere  esteem. 
Sir, 

"  Your  most  faithful  friend  and  servant, 

"F.  HERTFORD. 

"  My  Lord  and  my  young  people  send  their  services  to  you. 
I  assure  you  my  little  boyf  is  grown  a  great  proficient  in 
your  Songs  for  Children,  and  sings  them  with  great  pleasure." 

*  At  this  place  the  Earl  of  Hertford  had  a  country-seat,  a  large  mansion  com- 
menced by  the  first  Duke  of  Somerset  of  the  Seymour  family.  It  occupied  the  site 
of  the  ancient  castle,  but  has  since  been  converted  into  an  inn.  In  a  grotto  by 
the  old  keep  Mrs.  Rowe  wrote  her  "Friendship  in  Death,"  and  Thomson  also  com- 
posed here  a  great  part  of  his  "  Seasons."  The  poet,  however,  is  said  to  have  pre- 
ferred the  society  of  the  Earl  and  his  jovial  companions  to  that  of  the  Countess,  and 
to  have  left  with  no  little  reluctance  tiie  festive  board  and  its  accompaniments,  for 
the  silent  grotto  and  poetical  inspiration. 

f  George  Lord  Viscount  Beauchamp. 


496  LIFE    AND    TIMES 

FROM  THE    REV.   MESSRS.  HUNT,    DRAKE,   P.  DODDRIDGE. 

"Olney,  Feb.  23,  1732. 
"  Rev.  Sir, 

"As  you  have  already  been  informed  of  some  cir- 
cumstances relating  to  the  dissenting  interest  here  at  Olney, 
and  were  so  good  as  to  appear  ready  to  espouse  the  cause  of 
your  friends  here,  we  think  it  proper  to  address  ourselves  to 
you,  with  this  account  of  the  present  state  of  things  amongst 
them,  which  we  desire  you  would  please  to  communicate  to 
the  board,  with  our  most  humble  service  to  the  gentlemen 
there. 

"We  suppose  it  is  not  unknown  to  many  of  them,  that 
most  of  the  dissenters  in  this  town  have  for  some  time  been 
extremely  fond  of  lay  preachers  in  the  Antinomian  strain,  and 
have  entertained  very  strong  prejudices  against  all  the  regular 
ministers  in  these  parts ;  nevertheless,  there  are  a  few  amongst 
them  who  are  persons  of  great  candour  and  good  sense,  as 
well  as  eminent  piety ;  these  have  invited  us  over  to  preach  a 
lecture  here  once  a  month,  and  we  have  each  of  us  taken  our 
turns  according  to  the  advice  of  Dr.  Watts  and  some  other 
friends  in  town.  We  have  found  a  very  numerous  auditory, 
and  apprehend,  by  the  most  moderate  calculation,  it  must 
amount  to  near  five  hundred  people.  A  great  many  of  these  are 
churchmen,  who  express  very  high  satisfaction  in  what  they 
hear;  and,  indeed,  considering  the  character  of  the  clergyman 
of  the  town  on  the  one  hand,  and  that  of  many  of  his  people  on 
the  other,  it  seems  probable  that  several  of  them  would  come 
over  to  the  dissenters  if  a  regular  minister  were  fixed  here, 
and  some  of  them  have  not  scrupled  expressly  to  declare  it. 
The  dissenters  seem  all  satisfied,  many  of  them  much  pleased; 
and  we  hope  a  fiirther  acquaintance  with  our  brethren  and 
their  labours,  may  remove  remaining  prejudices,  and  bring 
many  to  a  better  temper:  on  all  these  accounts  we  think  it  a 
desirable  tliinff  that  the  lecture  should  still  be  supported;  but 


OF   DR.    ISAAC    WATTS.  497 

the  number  of  our  practical  friends  here  is  so  very  small,  that 
it  would  be  loo  burthensome,  were  it  to  lie  on  them  alone  to 
uphold  it.  We  can  truly  say,  we  know  not  any  lecture  to 
which  an  exhibition  is  granted,  where  the  auditory  is  so  nu- 
merous, and  the  prospects  of  usefulness  seem  more  encoura- 
ging. Nor  are  we  without  our  hopes,  that  the  continuance 
of  this  lecture  may  be  the  means  of  fixing  a  regular  minister 
here  at  length,  which  would  be  a  great  satisfaction  to  us,  as 
we  hope  it  might  greatly  conduce  to  the  advancement  of  the 
truth  as  it  is  in  Jesus,  and  the  glory  of  God  in  the  salvation 
of  souls.  One  thing  more  we  take  leave  to  add,  that  though 
our  preaching  here  has  been  evidently  in  the  Calvinistical 
strain,  and  we  judged  it  prudent  at  our  first  appearance  here 
to  declare  our  sentiments  very  freely  and  expressly  in  that  re- 
spect, yet  we  do  not  find  it  has  given  any  disgust  to  those  of 
our  hearers  who  statedly  attend  at  church. 

"  We  cannot,  dear  Sh',  conclude  this  address  to  you,  without 
assuring  you  that  it  is  matter  of  abundant  joy  to  us,  that  the 
great  Lord  of  the  church  is  pleased  to  continue  your  life, 
health,  and  extensive  usefulness.  We  cannot  express  our 
gratitude  to  you  for  your  many  important  services  to  the 
public,  or  our  thankful  sense  of  that  friendship  with  which 
you  are  pleased  to  honour  us.  We  have  no  end  in  the  propo- 
sal we  now  make,  but  the  promoting  that  cause  of  truth  and 
holiness,  peace  and  love,  in  which  you  have  been  so  faithfully, 
so  warmly,  and,  through  grace,  so  successfully  engaged. 
We  promise  ourselves  a  share  in  your  remembrance  at  the 
throne  of  grace;  and  are,  with  sincere  respect, 

"Reverend  and  dear  Sir, 

"  Your  most  obliged  humble  servants, 

"W.  HUNT, 
"J.  DRAKE, 
"  P.    DODDRIDGE." 


498  LITE    AND    TIMES 

rUO.M  THE  BISHOP  OF  LONDON. 

"Whitehall,  March  7,  173-2. 

"  Good  Sir, 

"I  thank  you  heartily  for  your  late  kind  present;* 
but,  as  the  course  of  my  life  has  led  me  into  studies  of  another 
kind,  I  am  sensible  I  cannot  profit  so  much  by  it  as  others 
will  do  whose  thoughts  have  been  more  employed  in  that  way. 

"It  is  certainly  a  very  laudable  exercise  of  the  mind,  especi- 
ally as  you  apply  it  throuf^hout  to  the  good  of  religion ;  and 
what  you  have  published  will,  I  doubt  not,  be  of  great  use  to 
the  growing  generation,  by  leading  them  into  a  just  way  of 
thinking  and  reasoning.  One  thing  I  wonder  at,  and  that  is, 
how  a  mind  that  thinks  so  closely,  can  at  the  same  time  frame 
itself  to  that  easy  and  familiar  way,  which  appears  in  some 
of  your  other  writings.  I  commend  you  and  your  labours  to 
the  divine  care  and  direction,  and  remain  with  great  truth, 

"Sir, 

"Your  very  faithful  friend  and  servant, 

"EDM.  LONDON." 
FROM  ZABDIEL  BOYLSTON,  M.  D.f 

"Boston,  N.E.  Aug.  1-2,  1732. 
"  Rev.  Sir, 

"  The  repeated  and  undeserved  favours  you   have 
done  me,  have  laid  me  under  such  obligations  as  I  am  at  pre- 

*  The  Logic. 

•f-  This  excellent  man,  one  of  the  most  eminent  of  the  l>oston  physicians,  was 
the  object  of  virulent  persecution,  on  account  of  being  the  first  to  commence 
inoculating  the  small  pox  in  that  town.  It  was  brought  into  tlie  harbour  by  the 
Saltortugas  fleet,  in  April,  l72-i,  and  raged  uitli  awful  violence  for  several  months. 


OF    DR.    ISAAC    AVATTS.  499 

sent  unable  to  discharge;  and  my  long  silence  savours  so  much 
of  ingratitude,  that  had  I  not  a  long  indisposition  of  body, 
viz.  a  convulsive  asthma,  which  has  torn  me  down  for  five  or 
six  years  past,  to  have  pleaded  for  me,  I  must  have  been 
without  excuse. 

"  I  thankfully  accept  the  present  of  your  extraordinary  per- 
formances, viz.  fourteen  sermons  on  various  subjects,  that  on 
king  George's  death,  your  four  catechisms,  and  an  humble 
attempt  to  revive  religion,  &c.  All  which,  and  indeed  every 
piece  which  drops  from  your  golden  pen,  meet  a  joyful  accept- 
ance in  general  from  those  who  see  them  here  in  New  Eng- 
land as  Avell  as  those  at  home.  May  your  shining  gifts  and 
graces  be  increased,  your  very  valuable  useful  life  and  health 
be  preserved,  and  your  pious  endeavours  be  more  and  more 
successful  in  the  work  of  the  Lord  to  which  you  are  called ! 

"  Your  concern  to  find  out  the  donor  of  a  handful  of  cran- 
berries sent  you  some  years  past,  and  the  repeated  acknow- 
ledgment of  so  small  a  present,  surprises  me,  considering 
your  public  and  extraordinary  labour  in  studying,  preaching, 
writing,  conversing,  visiting,  &c.  in  your  weak  state  of  health. 
That  you  should  regard  such  a  trifle,  or  the  unworthy  giver,  is 
but  agreeable  to  your  uncommon  goodness  and  gratitude  to  all. 

"  I  am  sorry  I  cannot  at  present  inform  you  of  the  success 
of  our  later  practice  of  inoculating  the  small-pox.  Although 
our  physicians  generally  came  into  it,  at  a  time  when  they 


Dr.  Cotton  Mather  recominended  the  physicians  to  inoculate,  but  they  all  declined 
it  except  Dr.  Boylston.  To  show  the  confidence  he  had  of  success,  he  began  with 
his  own  children  and  servants.  Many  sober  pious  people  were  struck  with  horror, 
and  were  of  opinion,  that  if  any  of  his  patients  should  die  he  ought  to  be  treated 
as  a  murderer.  The  vulgar  were  enraged  to  that  degree,  that  his  family  were 
hardly  safe  in  the  house,  and  he  often  met  with  affronts  and  insults  in  the  streets. 
The  faculty  convened  by  the  justices  of  the  peace  resolved,  "  that  the  continuing 
the  operation  among  us,  is  likely  to  prove  of  the  most  dangerous  consequence." 
Dr.  Mather's  nephew,  the  Rev.  Mr.  Walter,  who  was  privately  inoculated,  had  a 
hand  grenade  thrown  into  his  house.  Boylston,  however,  persevered  in  spite  of  all 
opposition,  and  at  the  date  of  this  letter  it  seems  that  the  physicians  had  come  over 
to  his  views.  He  wrote  a  work,  detailing  the  success  of  his  practice,  which  was 
published  soon  afterwards. 


500  LIFE    AND   TIMES 

found  it  their  interest  so  to  do,  yet  they  have  decHned  giving 
the  public  an  account,  notwithstanding  they  succeeded  well 
therein.  However,  if  it  may  please  God  to  restore  my  health, 
I  intend  to  collect  their  number  and  success,  with  my  own, 
which  will  amount  to  hundreds,  and  give  them  the  public, 
though  it  may  be  thought  too  late. 

"  The  bearer,  Mr.  Joseph  Baxter,  is  a  young  gentleman  of 
so  much  worth  as  will  in  my  opinion  recommend  him  to  all. 
He  has  behaved  so  well  here,  that  we  hope  he  may  at  least 
meet  with  the  common  civilities  abroad.  He  was  designed 
for  the  pulpit,  and  preached  some  years ;  but  the  organs  of 
speech  in  him  proving  weak,  and  his  voice  low,  about  a  year 
past  he  altered  his  profession,  and  became  a  pupil  to  me,  and 
has  been  industrious  and  made  a  considerable  progress  in  the 
practice  of  physic  and  surgery,  and  now  comes  to  London  to 
inform  himself  further  in  the  cure  of  diseases,  in  order  to 
serve  his  country  better  at  his  return.     I  am.  Rev.  Sir, 

"  Your  most  humble 

"  And  most  obliged  servant, 

"  ZA.  BOYLSTON." 


FROM  THE  HON.  JONATHAN  BELCHER. 

"Boston,  Oct.  20,  173-2. 
"  Rev.  and  dear  Sir, 

"  In  August  last  I  had  the  favour  of  yours  of  the 
fourth  of  May,  with  your  lamentation  on  the  death  of  that  ex- 
cellent Christian,  Mrs.  Sarah  Abney.  God  indeed  in  his 
unerring  wisdom  orders  every  thing  at  the  best  time,  yet,  to 
speak  after  the  manner  of  men,  her  death  was  untimely  to  the 
world,  and  uncommonly  so  to  those  who  were  happy  in  her 
relation  and  acquaintance.     She  seemed  to  be  seasoned  with 


OF    DR.   ISAAC    WATTS,  501 

a  peculiar  modesty,  grace,  and  piety,  and  her  conversation 
discovered  a  good  knowledge  of  the  world  and  things.  But, 
dear  Doctor,  I  must  not  excite  you,  or  any  of  her  surviving 
friends,  to  new  grief.  I  doubt  not  but  she  has  dropped  anchor 
within  the  veil.  May  God  of  his  infinite  mercy  enable  us  to 
follow  her  in  imitation  of  the  holy  Jesus ! 

"I  heartily  condole  with  you  and  his  bereaved  flock,  in 
the  death  of  Dr.  Calamy,*  who  was  a  faithful  labourer  in 
his  Master's  vineyard,  and  I  doubt  not  is  entered  into  the  joy 
of  his  Lord. 

"  I  know,  Sir,  the  station  in  which  God  has  set  me  is  sur- 
rounded with  snares  and  difficulties,  and  requires  great  care 
and  thought:  bow  then  your  knees  with  mine  to  the  fountain 
of  grace  and  wisdom,  that  I  may  so  conduct  my  administra- 
tion, as  most  of  all  to  advance  the  honour  of  God,  with  the 
welfare  and  happiness  of  his  people;  then  shall  I  at  last  be 
able  to  give  up  a  joyful  account  of  the  talents  committed  to 
my  trust. 

"May  the  God  of  the  spirits  of  all  flesh  restore  your  health, 
and  strengthen  your  tender  crazy  constitution ;  and  may  the 
great  Head  of  the  church  replenish  you  continually  with  the 
effusion  of  his  Holy  Spirit,  for  the  better  edification  of  the  body 
of  the  church,  and  at  last  receive  you  to  the  general  assembly 
and  church  of  the  first-born,  and  the  spirits  of  just  men  made 
perfect. 

"This  is,  and  shall  be,  the  hearty  prayer  of.  Sir, 

"Your  affectionate  friend, 

"And  very  humble  servant, 

"j.  BELCHER." 

*  "  1732,  June  3,  Edmund  Calamy,D.D.  a  dissenting  minister  in  Westminster." 
Obituary,  Gent.  Mag.  ii.  826. 

"  A  few  days  before  his  death  he  plainly  appreliended  that  his  end  was  near,  and 
did  in  a  particular  manner  pray  for  a  blessing  upon  his  wife  and  children,  that 
were  about  him,  and  then  took  his  leave  of  them,  and  hardly  ever  had  the  use  of 
his  reason  afterwards."  Funeral  Sermon  by  Rev.  D.  Mayo,  dedicated  to  Sir  Wil- 
liam Ellys, 


50-2  LIFE    AND    TIMES 


"Sir, 


FROM  SAMUEL  HOLDEN,  ESQ.* 

"Carpenter's-Hall,  Dec.  28,  1733. 


"The  papers  you  communicated  contain  two  stories 
remarkably  sad  and  profane,  though  I  fear  there  are  but  too 
many  instances  of  the  hke  nature. 

"Mr.  Chandler  told  me  one  which  happened  at  a  coffee- 
house where  he  was  present.  A  person  came  in  retching  and 
straining  as  though  he  wanted  to  vomit.  He  was  asked  what 
ailed  him.  He  replied,  he  had  been  the  day  before  at  the 
sacrament  to  qualify  himself,  and  that  he  should  never  be 
easy  till  he  got  the  d d  bread  and  wine  off  his  stomach. 

"  How  those  who  have  it  in  their  power  to  remove  the  occa- 
sions of  such  horrid  impieties  (and  yet  continue  them  for  se- 
cular ends),  can  answer  it  to  the  great  Judge  of  all,  must  be 
left  to  their  own  consciences,  if  they  have  any. 

"My  respects  wait  upon  yourself  and  the  good  family. 

"I  am.  Sir, 
"Your  most  humble  and  affectionate  servant, 

"SAMUEL  HOLDEN." 

FROM  THE  BISHOP  OF  LONDON. 

"  Whitehall,  Jan.  2-2,  1731. 
"Good  Sir, 

"Since  I  received  the  favour  of  your  prescntf  it  has 
become  part  of  my  Sunday's  exercise,  and  I  have  now  read  it 

*  Dr.  Benjamiu  Colmau,  of  Boston  in  New  England,  preached  and  published  a 
funeral  sermon  for  this  gentleman,  in  which  are  contained  several  extracts  from  his 
letters  to  the  doctor,  which  show  Mr.  Ilolden  to  have  been  a  man  of  considerable 
abilities  and  eminent  piety.  He  was  cliairmau  of  the  committee  of  protestant 
dissenters  in  London. 

f  Discourses  on  the  Love  of  God,  &.c.  2nd  edit. 


OF   DR.    ISAAC    WATTS.  503 

over  with  pleasure,  and  I  hope  not  without  profit.  The  new 
notion  that  has  prevailed  among  us  of  late  years,  that  the 
Christian  religion  is  little  more  than  a  good  system  of  moral- 
ity, must  in  course  draw  on  a  disregard  to  spiritual  exercises, 
which  calls  on  all  serious  Christians  to  do  all  that  is  in  their 
power  to  raise  and  keep  alive  a  spirit  of  devotion  and  piety 
in  this  lukewarm  and  degenerate  age.  I  pray  God  to  give  a 
hlessing  to  your  labours  in  this  way,  and  remain  with  great 

respect, 

"Sir, 

"Your  faithful  friend  and  servant, 

"EDM.  LONDON." 


Sir, 


FROM  THE  COUNTESS  OF  HERTFORD. 

"Grosvenor  Street,  Feb.  9,  1734. 


"The  fresh  proof  of  friendship  you  design  to  give  me, 
is  as  agreeable  to  me  as  it  must  be  to  receive  any  instance  of 
kindness  and  approbation  from  those  we  sincerely  esteem. 
Since  you  allow  me  to  object  to  any  thing  in  the  dedication,* 
I  will  trespass  so  far  upon  your  good-nature  as  to  beg  you 
will  leave  out  whatever  may  imply  my  attempting  to  write 
poetry ;  but  if  there  be  any  among  the  things  you  have  of 
mine  which  you  think  worth  placing  among  yours,  I  shall 
have  just  cause  to  be  pleased  at  seeing  them  come  abroad  in 

*  This  was  the  dedication  of  the  "  Reliquiae  Juveniles,"  which  was  submitted  to  the 
Countess's  inspection,  and  doubtless  altered  in  accordance  with  her  request; 
for  though  it  abundantly  evinces  the  partiality  of  the  friend,  and  eulogises  her 
poetic  taste,  there  is  no  express  mention  of  her  poetical  attempts.  The  above  let- 
ter is  an  interesting  document,  as  it  not  only  intimates  the  Doctor's  possessing 
some  of  her  Ladyship's  compositions,  but  places  beyond  doubt  the  authorship  of 
the  four  poems  inserted  in  the  63rd  Number  of  the  Miscellanies.  These  are  intro- 
duced in  an  epistle  to  Philomela,  the  name  by  which  Mrs.  Rowe  was  distinguish- 
ed, and  are  expressly  attributed  to  Eusebia,  the  title  which  the  Countess  herself 
selects  as  a  cognomen.  The  paper  is  entitled  "Piety  in  a  Court,"  and  is  found- 
ed upon  the  well-known  lines, 

"The  court's  a  golden,  but  a  fatal  circle." 


501  LIFE   AND   TIMES 

such  compauy,  if  you  will  have  the  g-oodness  to  conceal  my 
name  cither  under  that  of  Eusebia  or  a  Friend ;  a  title  which 
I  shall  think  myself  happy  to  deserve.  My  Lord  and  the 
children  assure  you  of  their  services  and  kind  wishes,  and  I 
am  with  great  truth  and  regard, 

"Your  most  obliged 

"and  faithful  humble  servant, 

"r.  HERTFORD," 


FROM   THE    SAME. 

"April  8,  1734. 


"Sir, 


"  I  have  received  the  book  to  which  you  had  the  par- 
tiality to  prefix  my  name.  This  public  mark  of  your  friend- 
ship, and  the  kind  opinion  you  express  of  me,  would  be  in 
danger  of  giving  me  a  self-satisfaction  which  1  have  no  title 
to,  if  a  crowd  of  frailties  and  defects,  which  are  too  frequently 
reminding  me  how  far  I  am  from  meriting  your  esteem,  did 
not  hinder  me  from  giving  way  to  a  complacence  which 
would  be  criminal  unless  my  life  were  more  perfect. 

"I  have  gone  almost  half  through  the  book,  from  which  I 
have  received  the  pleasure  your  writings  never  fail  to  give 
me,  a  pleasure  attended  by  profit  and  reason, 

"I  am,  Sir,  with  the  truest  friendship, 

"Your  most  obliged  and  faithful  servant, 

"F.    HERTFORD. 

"My  Lord  and  our  young  people  send  services  to  yon." 


OF   DR.    ISAAC    WATTS.  505 


FROM   THE    BISHOP   OF   LONDON. 

"Fulham,  July  14,  1734. 
*'  Good  Sir, 

"  I  return  you  my  hearty  thanks  for  your  late  valua- 
ble present,  which  has  given  me  both  pleasure  and  profit;  and 
I  am  satisfied  it  will  give  the  same  to  every  honest  mind  that 
attends  to  it.  Only  I  am  somewhat  afraid,  that  the  first  part 
to  sect.  14,*  though  laid  out  with  great  exactness,  yet,  being 
also  abstracted  and  philosophical,  may  discourage  persons, 
who  are  not  accustomed  to  close  thinking,  from  going  on  to 
that  part  which  more  immediately  relates  to  practice,  and 
which  throughout  is  very  plain  and  edifying. 

"  You  will  pardon  the  freedom  I  take,  and  believe  me  to 
be,  with  great  truth  and  respect, 


"  Your  very  faithful  friend  and  servant, 

"EDM.    LONDON." 
TO  WILLIAM  DUNCOMBE,  ESQ.f 

"From  Lady  Abney's  at  Newington,  Nov.  1,  1734. 

"Sir, 

"Your  present  of  a  ticket,  which  entitles  me  to  Mr. 
Hvighes's  poems,  was  an  agreeable  surprise.  IMy  acquaint- 
ance and  intimacy  with  that  ingenious  gentleman,  was  in  the 

*  Doctrine  of  the  Passions.  2nd.  edit. 

f  This  gentleman  was  a  younger  son  of  John  Dnncombe,  Esq.,  of  Stocks  in 
Hertfordshire.  lie  was  born  in  1(590,  and  married  in  172(>  the  only  sister  of  Mr. 
John  Hughes.  He  collected  and  published  his  brother-in-law's  poems,  in  two 
volumes    12mo.,  upon   his  decease,  assisted  chiefly  by  the  MSS.  of  Alexander 

K  k 


50(5  LTFF,    AND    TIMKS 

younc^cv  years  of  life  fhiefly  :  our  later  situations  in  the  world 
divided  us  so  fiir  as  to  prevent  frequent  conversaiion,  though 
not  to  destroy  mutual  esteem.  Your  lady  I  believe  I  have 
seen  as  a  child  in  some  of  my  ancient  visits  to  Mr.  John 
Hur^hes,  when  his  brother  Jabez  was  a  litde  boy,*  Whde  I 
write  thus,  mcthinks  I  recall  youth,  and  revive  some  buried 
ideas.  But  eternity  lies  before  me,  and  appears  in  a  much 
nearer  view.     May  1  be  found  ready  for  the  important  sum- 


mons 


I     *     *     *     * 


"I  have  seen  the  French  *Alhaliah't  long  ago,  and  by 
your  translation  now  enjoy  the  English ;  but  a  man  of  my 
character  must  not  too  much  indulge  what  relates  to  the  mod- 
ern stage,  because  of  its  vicious  entertainments.  It  is  my 
opinion,  that  dramatic  poesy  might  have  been  useful  to  many 
happy  purposes,  had  it  always  been  kept  within  the  bounds 
prescribed  by  virtue  and  religion,  as  Racine  has  done.  But, 
as  you  say  from  Horace  concerning  yourself, '  Quid  vcnim  atq; 
dccens  euro,  ci  rogo,  et  omnis  in  hoc  sum,''  so  I  must  say  (at 

Strahan,  Esq.,  the  translator  of  the  JEne'id.  Some  pathetic  verses  are  prefixed  to 
the  edition  by  Miss  Cowper,  afterwards  Mrs.  Madan,  Mr.  John  Bunce,  and  Mr. 
Lewis  Duncorabe.  He  died  Feb.  2(3,  17G9,  aged  7'j.  Several  of  the  most  eminent 
characters  in  the  literary  world  were  among  his  friends  and  correspondents  :  Mr. 
Pope,  Alexander  Bayne,  Esq.,  professor  of  the  municipal  law  in  the  university  of 
Edinburgh,  Dr.  llundle,  Bishop  of  Derry,  Thomas  Southerne,  Esq.,  Mrs.  Rowe, 
Archbishop  Herring,  and  Christopher  Pitt,  Esq.,  the  translator  of  Virgil.  Mrs. 
Duncombe  died  in  173o — (i,  leaving  an  only  son,  the  Rev.  John  Buncombe,  M.A. 
one  of  the  six  preachers  in  Christ  Church,  Canterbury',  the  Editor  of  the  "  Letters 
of  several  eminent  persons  deceased." 

*  Mr.  Jabez  Hughes  was,  like  his  brother,  a  votary  of  the  muses,  and  an  excellent 
scholar.  He  published  in  1714  a  translation  of  "The  Rape  of  Proserpine,"  from 
Claudian;  and  "The  story  of  Sextus  and  Erictho,"  from  Lucan's  Pharsalia,  lib.  vi. 
iu  8vo.  A  reprint  of  these  translations,  with  notes,  appeared  in  12mo.  in  1723. 
In  1717  he  also  published  a  translation  of  Suetonius's  "Lives  of  the  Twelve 
Caesars;  "  and  several  novels  from  the  Spanish  of  Cervantes  were  inserted  by  him 
in  "The  Select  Collection  of  novels  and  histories,"  printed  by  Watts,  1729.  He 
died  .Ian.  17,  1731,  in  the  Kith  year  of  his  age.  A  volume  of  his  "Miscellanies 
in  verse  and  prose"  was  published  in  1737.  His  widow  accompanied  the  lady  of 
Governor  Byng  to  Barbadoes,  and  died  there  in  1740. 

t  One  of  Racine's  plays  translated  by  Mr.  Duncombe,  aud  printed  by  Watts 
in  1723. 


OF    DR.    ISAAC    AVATTS.  50f 

least  since  my  last  published  miscellanies),  '  Nunc  itaque  et 
versus  et  ceetera  ludicra  pono.^ 

"Mr.  Samuel  Say,  of  whom  you  write,  was  an  old  intimate 
of  Mr.  John  Hug-hes,  at  the  same  time  with  me,  being  all 
fellow-students  together  in  logic  and  philosophy.  He  is  very 
lately  fixed  in  London,  a  minister  to  that  congregation  which 
was  lately  under  the  care  of  the  Rev.  Dr.  Calamy. 

"With  all  due  salutations 

"I  am,  &c. 

"l.  WATTS  " 

FROM  EDWARD  CAVE,  ESQ.* 

"St.  John's  Gate,  Dec.  16,  17.34. 

"Reverend  Sir, 

"  As  a  stranger  I  ought  to  make  some  apology  for 
giving  you  this  trouble;  but  your  good-nature  will  excuse  my 
presumption,  and  your  known  attachment  to  the  belles  let- 
tres  is  encouragement  enough  to  expect  your  attention  to 
what  is  offered  you  by  one  who  is  a  well-wisher  to  the  sciences. 
"  The  undertaker  of  the  '  Gentleman's  Magazine,'  a  monthly 
book,  which  you  have  possibly  heard  of  (I  dare  not  presume 
it  has  merit  enough  to  deserve  a  place  in  your  library),  for  the 
entertainment  of  his  readers,  and  as  a  spur  to  ingenuity, 
annually  proposes  a  subject  to  exercise  the  wits  of  the  age, 
and  to  spirit  emulation  annexes  a  prize  to  the  best  perform- 

*  This  gentleman  is  better  known  under  his  assumed  name  of  Sylvauus  Urban. 
He  commenced  the  Gentleman's  INIagaziue  in  1731,  and  by  that  fortunate  specu- 
lation amassed  a  large  fortune.  With  this  periodical  Dr.  Johnson  was  connected 
from  1 738  to  17  13.  His  first  contribution  was  an  alcaic  ode,  which  appeared  March, 
1738.  Jlr.  Cave  died  January  lOtI),  1754,  leaving  beliind  him  the  reputation  of 
being  a  worthy  and  benevolent  man.  His  attention  to  his  magazine  was  so  unre- 
mitting, that  Johnson  was  apt  facetiously  to  remark,  that  he  never  looked  out  of 
the  window  but  with  a  view  to  its  improvement. 


508  LIFE    AND   TIMES 

ances.  The  first  subject  of  this  kind  he  offered  the  public  was 
on  her  Majesty's  Grotto,  and  the  poems  wrote  thereon  were 
inserted  in  several  magazines  in  the  year  1733,  and  published 
in  a  separate  pamphlet,  called  'The  Contest;'  and  the  prizes 
were  adjudged  according  to  the  impartial  opinion  of  some 
gentlemen  who  were  so  kind  as  to  undertake  that  office. 

"The  subject  given  out  for  a  prize  for  the  year  1734  was 
Astronomy.  Four  poems  have  been  wrote  upon  it,  Avhich 
you  will  find  p.  503,  562,  563,  564;  and  the  prize  being  to 
be  determined  this  month,  three  of  the  writers,  the  fourth  is 
unknown  to  us,  unanimously  refer  the  decision  to  your  judg- 
ment and  determination,  declaring  their  entire  satisfaction  in 
your  opinion,  to  whomsoever  it  shall  give  the  preference  :  only 
please  to  observe,  there  are  two  degrees  of  merit ;  the  first  is 
entitled  to  the  best  prize,  the  other  to  the  second  best.  If 
you  will  be  so  good  as  to  comply  with  their  request,  they  will 
esteem  it  as  a  peculiar  favour,  and  you  will  also  hereby  oblige 
him,  who  is,  with  true  respect  and  very  great  esteem,  your 
humble  servant, 

"EDWARD  CAVE." 


TO  EDWARD  CAVE,  ESQ. 

"N —on,  Dec.  26. 


'  Sir, 


"Though  I  have  sported  with  rhyme  as  an  amuse- 
ment in  the  younger  years  of  life,  and  published  some  reli- 
gious composures  to  assist  the  worship  of  God,  yet  I  never  set 
myself  up  among  the  numerous  competitors  for  a  poet  of  the 
age,  much  less  have  I  presumed  to  become  their  judge. 

"'Tis  too  great  a  honour.  Sir,  you  have  conferred  upon  me 
to  place  me  in  that  situation,  when  I  find  myself  so  utterly 
unfit  to  execute  such  an  office ;  and  if  I  ever  had  been  blessed 
with  a  capacity  of  this  kind,  yet  there  is  a  certain  limit  and 


OF    DR.    ISAAC    AVATTS.  509 

period  to  all  mortal  powers.  The  g-ay  colours  of  imagery,  and 
the  sprightly  relish  of  verse,  die  away  and  vanish  in  my  ad- 
vancing age ;  for  I  have  almost  left  off  to  read  as  well  as  to 
write  that  which  once  was  so  engaging.  One  ought  to  pre- 
serve a  quick  sense  of  beauties  and  blemishes,  and  an  elegant 
taste  of  sentiment  and  language,  in  order  to  pass  a  judgment 
on  the  labours  of  the  muses.  I  acknowledge  your  civility,  Sir, 
and  the  respect  of  the  gentlemen  who  have  done  me  this  hon- 
our. I  wish,  in  return,  I  could  adjudge  the  prizes  to  every 
one  of  them,  for  all  have  their  peculiar  merit. 

"The  first  has  many  delightful  couplets  in  the  description 
of  nature,  but  perhaps  it  dwells  too  long,  for  so  short  a  poem, 
on  the  natural  influences  of  the  heavenly  bodies,  which  is  the 
proper  subject  of  another  science ;  and  it  omits  too  great  a 
part  of  the  theme  which  was  proposed  to  the  candidates,  i,  e. 
Astronomy.  Had  the  elegant  author  enlarged  upon  astro- 
nomic subjects,  his  genius  would  have  come  nearer  to  the 
prize;  and  yet  I  must  confess  also  he  has  several  agreeable 
thoughts  and  lines  concerning  Venus,*  the  Polar  stai',t  and 
the  art  of  Navigation  derived  from  Astronomy,  both  which 
last  are  too  much  neglected  and  almost  forgotten  by  the  other 
three. 

"  The  second  author  will  forgive  me  if  I  think  the  preface 
of  twenty  lines  too  long  for  the  poem  which  follows  it,  and 


"t'y  gay,  N 
ilver  my,  > 
in  the  day.    * 


"  But  see  how  gentle  Vesper,  sweetly  gay. 
Leads  tlie  fair  evening  with  its  sil 
Now  nihls  the  uii;l)t,  now  iislters  in  the  day. 
M'hen  Luna  sinks  beneath  tlie  western  main, 
0"er  other  lands  and  unknown  worhls  to  reign, 
Thy  lustre,  friendly  star,  supplies  Iht  place. 
We  scarce  complain  we  want  her  fuller  face." 

'The  I'olar  star  eternally  remains 
fixt  to  the  north,  on  the  celestial  plains ; 
The  wandering  mariner's  unerring  guide. 
When  toss'd  in  tempests  on  the  swelling  tide  ; 
M  hen  raging  winds  across  the  billows  roar. 
And  heave  the  beaten  ship  from  shore  to  shore, 
He  views  his  compass  with  observing  eye, 
The  magnet  rearing  to  the  polar  sky  ; 
Guided  by  this  a  certain  course  he  forms, 
Tluo'  thickest  darkness  and  thro'  lierceststoims.' 


510  LIFE    AND    TIMES 

adds  but  thirty-one  lines  to  it ;  yet  there  are,  I  think,  several 
good  verses  in  it,  and  particularly  the  description  of  the  moon 
and  earth  mutually  eclipsing  each  other,*  is  a  part  of  astro- 
nomic science  mentioned  in  this  poem  only.  I  could  wish 
the  third  and  fourth  had  touched  upon  ecHpses  and  the  art  of 
sailing  more  expressly ;  for  I  am  sure  these  would  afford 
various  and  happy  ideas  for  the  muse  to  illustrate  with  her 
ornaments. 

"  I  persuade  myself  the  authors  of  the  two  first  will  yield 
up  the  prizes  to  the  two  latter,  wherein  the  several  themes  of 
astronomy  are  more  particularly  kept  in  sight  all  the  Avay,  nor 
are  the  proper  beauties  of  poetry  omitted. 

"  And  what  shall  I  say.  Sir,  to  these  two  ?  If  I  must 
speak  my  opinion,  the  beginning  of  the  fourth  pleases  me 
best,  and  the  latter  end  of  the  third  ;  though  I  confess  the 
conclusion  of  all  four  of  them  happily  derives  honour  to  the 
Creator  from  these  sublime  works  of  his  hands.  In  fine,  I 
am  ready  to  cry  out  with  Palsemon  in  Virgil,  '  Non  nostrum 
inter  vos  tantas  componere  Lites?  Methinks  I  could  wish  the 
beauties  of  them  both  united ;  for  I  am  ready  to  think  some- 
times the  third  exceeds,  and  sometimes  the  fourth.  The 
fourth  seems  to  me  to  have  the  greatest  variety  of  thoughts, 
yet  I  cannot  say,  in  the  main,  that  they  are  described  in  bet- 
ter verse  than  the  third.  He  must  be  a  nicer  judge  than  I  who 
determines  the  prize  between  these  two." 

The  conclusion  of  this  letter  is  wanting,  but  Mr.  Cave  adds, 
"The  learned  gentleman,  after  making  some  judicious  inqui- 


'Hcre  smoothly  i;liilin^  tliroiinh  tlie  lovely  tlirong, 
The  earth  appears  to  roll  her  orb  along ; 
One  even  course,  tier  poles  inclin'd,  she  keeps, 
And,  softly  spinning  on  her  axle,  sleeps. 
Soinetimi'slicr  interposing  orb  is  seen 
To  sliaile,  in  dark  eclipse,  the  night's  fair  queen ; 
So,  in  her  turn,  the  correspondent  moon 
Opposes  her  dark  orb,  and  veils  the  sun. 
I.o  :  how  she  fills  her  silver  horns  with  light. 
And  with  reflected  glory  nigus  by  night; 
\\  hilo  all  the  stars  that  gild  heaven's  azure  road, 
Uais'd  liy  a  hand  divine  seem  worthy  ol'a  tiod  .'" 


OF    DR.    ISAAC    WATTS.  511 

lies,  why  several  curious  sentiments  relating-  to  the  subject 
were  omitted,  which  too  he  supposes  (and  rightly)  may  be 
found  in  Astropiiirs  [the  assumed  name  of  one  of  the  candi- 
dates] larger  poem,  leaves  the  matter  to  a  superior  determina- 
tion ;  but  the  two  persons  concerned,  perfectly  satisfied  in  his 
judgment,  do  not  desire  any  further  application,  having,  as 
they  are  intimate  friends,  compromised  the  matter.  Never- 
theless, since  it  is  such  a  nice  point,  and  lies  between  the  same 
persons  who  shared  the  prizes  last  year,  when  the  decision 
was  declared  almost  equally  puzzling-,  we  have  assigned  them 
now  as  we  then  did,  both  prizes  of  the  first  rate." 


FROM  THE  BISHOP  OF  LONDON. 

"Whitehall,  Jan.  19,  1735. 
"  Good  Sir, 

"  I  thank  you  very  heartily  for  the  book*  I  lately 
received,  and  which  I  have  read  with  great  satisfaction  and 
delight.  The  seeing  so  shameful  a  departure  from  true 
Christianity  on  the  two  points  which  are  the  subject  of  your 
book,  has  long  been  a  sensible  concern  and  grief  to  me,  and 
especially  when  I  see  it  countenanced  and  propagated  by 
many  who  call  themselves  Christians,  but  arc  in  reality  little 
more  than  deists;  for  if  the  great  work  of  our  redemption, 
and  the  blessed  fruits  of  it,  are  to  be  laid  aside,  I  cannot  see 
that  the  name  of  Christian  signifies  much.  You  have  set  this 
matter  in  so  clear  a  light,  and  worked  up  the  whole  in  so 
agreeable  a  manner,  that  I  hope,  by  the  blessing  of  God,  it 
will  have  great  effect;  and  it  would  have  had  greater,  if  you 
had  set  your  name  to  it.  To  deal  clearly  with  you,  I  have 
thought  for  some  time  that  those  doctrines,  and  others  of  the 
same  kind,  have  received  a  grievous  wound  from  the  indiife- 
rence  about  them  (to  say  no  worse)  which  some  dissenting 

♦The  "Redeemer  and  Saivclifier." 


512  LIFE   AND   TIMES 

ministers  have  discovered  of  late;  and  the  wound  is  the 
deeper,  because  hitherto  the  dissenters  were,  without  excep- 
tion, zealous  for  them,  and  the  present  manifest  abatement  of 
that  zeal  in  some  of  their  leading  men,  will  be  reckoned  an 
evidence  of  their  present  conviction,  that  their  doctrines  are 
either  false,  or  at  least  of  small  moment.  Forgive  me  if  I  add, 
that  I  think  due  care  has  not  yet  been  taken  to  satisfy  the 
world,  that,  notwithstanding  the  defection  of  some  dissenters, 
there  are  many  among  them,  and  those  of  great  note,  who  are 
not  in  the  least  tainted  with  the  modern  notions,  but  adhere 
steadfastly  to  the  true  doctrines  of  the  gospel,  as  delivered  to 
us  by  Christ  and  his  apostles.  I  am,  with  great  truth  and 
esteem,  Sir, 

"  Your  very  faithful  friend  and  servant, 

"EDM.  LONDON." 


TO  A  FRIEND. 

"Stoke  Newington,  near  London,  Jan.  21,  1735. 


"  Sir, 


"  Your  letter,  dated  about  the  middle  of  October, 
should  have  been  answered  long  ago,  had  I  not  been  withheld 
from  my  study  by  long  illness ;  nor  am  I  yet  fully  recovered. 
I  take  pleasure.  Sir,  to  find  your  honest  inquiries  after  truth, 
and  that  you  are  not  willing  cither  to  put  off  your  childx-en,  or 
to  be  contented  yourself,  with  a  mere  set  of  words,  instead  of 
clear  and  intelligible  doctrines. 

"  I  will,  therefore,  write  you  my  thoughts  in  a  few  lines,  of 
that  impotcncy  and  inability  of  man  to  believe  and  repent,  and 
return  to  God,  which  arises  from  the  fall,  and  which  is,  I  think, 
the  best  and  the  only  way  to  secure  our  thoughts  from  run- 
ning into  the  extremes  of  Antinomian  opinions  on  the  one 
side,  or  Arminian  on  the  other. 


or   DR.    ISAAC    WATTS.  513 

"  This  impotency,  though  it  may  be  called  natural,  or  rather, 
uative,  as  it  comes  to  us  by  nature  in  its  present  corrupted 
state,  yet  it  is  not  a  want  of  natural  powers,  either  of  under- 
standing or  will,  to  know  or  choose  that  which  is  good ;  for  if 
there  were  not  natural  powers  sufficient  for  this  purpose,  I  do 
not  see  how  men  could  be  charged  as  criminals,  in  not  receiv- 
ing the  gracious  offers  of  the  gospel.  This  impotence,  there- 
fore, is  what  our  divines  usually  call  a  moral  impotence,  i.  e. 
their  mind  will  not  learn  divine  things,  because  they  shut  their 
eyes ;  they  will  refuse  the  proposals  of  grace,  they  shut  it  out 
of  their  hearts,  they  have  a  delight  in  sin,  and  dislike  to  Christ 
and  his  salvation  ;  they  have  a  rooted  obstinacy  of  will  against 
the  methods  of  divine  mercy,  and  against  the  holiness  which  is 
connected  with  happiness.  And  yet  this  moral  impotency  is 
described  in  scripture  by  such  methods  as  represent  us  '  blind,' 
or  '  dead  in  sin,'  and  that  we  can  no  more  change  our  nature, 
than  the  Ethiopian  can  change  his  skin,  or  the  leopard  his 
spots;  and  the  reason  of  these  strong  expressions  is,  because 
God  knows  this  natural  aversion  to  grace  and  holiness  is  so 
strong  and  rooted  in  their  hearts,  that  they  will  never  renounce 
sin  and  receive  the  salvation  of  Christ,  without  the  powerful 
influence  of  the  Sj)irit  of  God,  even  that  same  Spirit  which 
can  cure  those  who  are  naturally  blind,  or  can  raise  the  dead. 

"  Now  that  this  weakness  of  man  to  do  that  which  is  good 
is  a  moral  impotence,  appears  by  the  moral  remedies  which 
are  applied  to  cure  it :  viz.  commands,  promises,  threatenings, 
which  sort  of  methods  would  be  useless  and  ridiculous  to  ap- 
ply to  natural  impotence  ;  that  is,  to  make  the  blind  see,  or 
the  dead  arise.  It  must  be  conducted,  therefore,  that  man  has 
a  natural  ability,  i.  e.  natural  powers,  to  do  what  God  requires, 
but  at  the  same  time  such  a  native  aversion  of  will,  that  he 
will  never  do  it  without  divine  grace.  Thus  there  is  a  fair 
way  laid  for  the  necessity  of  divine  grace,  and  yet  at  the  same 
time  a  just  foundation  laid  for  the  condemnation  of  impeni- 
tent sinners.     I  have  spoken  more  largely  to  this  subject  in 


614  MTE    AND    TIMES 

the  eleventh  of  the  Buvy-strcet  Sermons,  which  were  pub- 
lished last  year  in  two  volumes  octavo. 

"  May  the  wisdom  and  grace  of  our  Lord  Jesus  Christ  di- 
rect you  to  walk  in  a  safe  way  to  eternal  life,  and  to  lead  your 
children  therein !  at  the  same  time  assuring  you,  that  the 
happening  to  take  a  little  different  turn  of  thought  in  some 
of  the  diiEcult  inquiries,  is  not  of  so  vast  importance  as  some 
persons  would  make  it  to  be,  with  respect  to  our  salvation, 
provided  we  do  but  maintain  a  constant  dependence  upon  the 
grace  of  the  Spirit  of  God  in  all  our  duties  to  assist  us,  and 
on  the  perfect  righteousness  or  obedience  and  sufferings  of 
Christ,  as  our  atonement  for  sin,  and  the  only  effectual 
ground  of  our  acceptance  with  God.  I  am,  Sir,  under  fre- 
quent returning  weaknesses,  rendered  unable  to  write  much, 
and,  therefore,  subscribe 

"  Your  friend  and  humble  servant, 

"  I.  WATTS." 
FROiM  THE  SECOND  LORD  BARRINGTON.* 

"  Eecket-housc,  Feb.  2-2,  1735. 
"Rev.  Sir, 

"  My  lady  begs  you  to  accept  through  my  hands  her 
best  thanks  for  your  last  kind  letter  to  her.  She  is  fully  sen- 
sible of  the  favour  you  do  her,  both  by  the  handsome  manner 
in  which  you  speak  of  her  deceased  Lord,  and  the  excellent 
motives  you  propose  for  her  consolation. 

f  William  Wildman  "N'isconiit  Barrin2;ton  was  in  his  eighteenth  year  wlieii  ho 
succeeded  to  his  father's  title  aud  estates,  and  when  tlie  above  letter  was  written. 
He  took  a  prominiMit  part  in  politics,  and  held  various  ofiices  under  the  govern- 
ment. In  1740  he  became  member  for  I5erwick.  He  was  master  of  the  great 
wardrobe  in  1754;  Secretary  at  War  in  17.55;  Chancellor  of  the  Exchequer  in 
17G1  ;  Treasurer  of  the  Navy  in  1762;  and  reappointed  Secretary  at  War  in  17(i5. 
He  quitted  the  House  of  Commons  in  May  177H,  and  the  War  Office  in  December. 
He  became  joint  Postmaster-general  in  I78l,  and  died  I'eb.  '.i,  1793. 


OF    DR.    ISAAC    AVATTS,  515 

"  Give  me  leave,  Sir,  to  return  you  my  thanks  for  your  kind 
wishes  on  my  account.  My  late  clear  father  was  often  com- 
mending me  in  a  manner  far  above  what  I  any  ways  deserved, 
and  for  which  I  esteem  myself  entirely  indebted  to  his  pater- 
nal fondness.  But,  if  I  was  to  have  chosen  to  whom  I  would 
have  been  so  commended,  it  should  have  been  to  Dr.  Watts  at 
Lady  Abney's.  I  esteem  it  incumbent  on  me  to  come  up  as 
far  as  I  am  able  to  his  account  of  me,  which  I  shall  endea- 
vour to  do  by  the  closest  imitation  of  his  bright  example. 

"  The  desire  you  express  of  having  my  father's  head  among 
your  collection  of  learned  men,  is  worthy  of  a  person  who  had 
so  long  an  intimacy  and  friendship  with  him.  I  am  sensible, 
that  if  all  the  world  had  the  same  regard  and  so  quick  a  re- 
membrance of  men  of  merit  as  yourself,  a  picture  would  be 
entirely  superfluous.  Yet  if  you  think,  that  from  the  inspec- 
tion of  the  late  Lord  Barrington's  picture,  any  may  be  induced 
to  follow  the  pattern  of  virtue  and  self-denial  he  has  set,  it 
may  be  easily  done.     I  am  in  a  very  particular  manner,  Sir, 

"  Your  most  humble  servant, 

"  BARRINGTON." 


FROM  EDWARD  CAVE,  ESQ. 

"St.  John's  Gate,  March  11,  1735. 
"  Reverend  Sir, 

"  I  am  commissioned  by  the  gentlemen  who  are 
candidates  for  the  prize,  to  return  you  their  most  grateful 
acknowledgments,  for  the  pains  you  have  so  kindly  taken  in 
discussing  their  respective  claims.  They  did  not  expect  so 
learned  and  critical  a  dissertation  on  their  several  pieces, 
whose  merit,  they  imagined,  was  far  from  entitling  them  to 
so  great  an  honour.  But  since  you  have  condescended  in  so 
polite  and  candid  a  manner,  to  examine  their  several  pretcn- 


616  LIFE    AND    TIMES 

sioiis  to  the  prize,  it  is  the  least  part  of  their  gratitude  to  de- 
clare their  unanimous  satisfaction  in  your  opinion  of  their 
deserts,  and  accordingly  have  amicably  adjusted  the  difference 
betwixt  themselves. 

"  With  regard  to  what  you  have  added  in  the  postscript  to 
your  letter,  I  must  allow.  Sir,  there  has  been  too  much  reason 
for  the  censure  you  have  passed  on  the  magazine ;  but  it  shall 
be  my  future  care  to  let  nothing  pass  of  that  kind ;  and  to 
convince  the  world  I  am  much  belter  pleaseJ  with  ingenuity 
of  a  more  serious  turn,  I  have  proposed  a  considerable 
reward  for  poems  on  five  sublime  subjects,  on  which,  if  it 
suited  your  leisure,  and  you  have  not  taken  an  absolute  leave 
of  the  muses,  I  should  be  proud  of  a  poem  from  Dr.  Watts* 

"  I  must  own  myself  tardy  in  not  paying  you  my  respects 
till  now  ;  but  multiplicity  of  business,  and  a  great  deal  of 
illness,  has  been  the  reason,  which  I  trust  your  goodness  will 
take  as  an  excuse  for  a  neglect  not  intended  by  your  very 
humble  servant, 

"  EDW.  CAVE." 


FROM  THE  COUNTESS  OF  HEUTFORD-t 

"  Sir, 

"  I  am  extremely  concerned  that  I  cannot  have  the 
pleasure  of  seeing  you  on  Thursday,  since  I  think  it  very  long 

*The  following  advertisement  appears  in  tlie  Gentleman's  Magazine  for  July, 
1734,  with  reference  to  tliis  prize:  "  Be  it  known  to  all  men  by  these  presents, 
that  the  sum  oi  fifty  pouiuls  will  be  given  to  the  person,  who  shall  make  the  best 
poem,  Latin  or  English,  on  Liff,  Death,  Judgment,  Heaven  and  Hell,  viz.  all  the 
said  subjects  jointly,  and  not  any  single  one  independent  of  the  rest. — London, 
July  31,  173  L  I  promise  to  pay  to  the  author  of  the  best  poem,  on  or  to  his  or  her 
order,  the  sum  of  fifty  pounds,  according  to  the  intent,  sense,  and  meaning  of  the 
above  advertisement.  . 

"SYLVAN US  URHAN. 

"  P.S.  This  reward  will  be  punctually  paid  by  I'.dward  Cave  at  St.  John's  (iate, 
or,  in  case  of  his  demise,  be  made  payable  out  of  £.100  claim  on  the  Assurance 
Office  in  llatton  Garden." 

f  There  is  no  date  to  this  letter,  but  the  doctor  has  written  on  the  back  of 
it  "April,  1735." 


OF   DR.    ISAAC    WATTS.  517 

since  I  had  that  satisfaction,  which  I  assure  you  I  wish  for 
much  oftener  than  I  enjoy  ;  but  it  is  my  lot  at  present  to  be 
in  waiting,*  and  besides  my  Lord  has  been  laid  up,  and  still 
is  so  with  a  most  severe  fit  of  the  gout,  so  that  what  time  I 
can  spare  from  my  attendance  on  the  Queen  is  passed  by  his 
bed's  side.  If  he  is  able  to  be  lifted  into  the  coach  he  talks  of 
leaving  London  next  week.  We  have  had  an  unpleasant 
winter;  for,  betwixt  illness  and  accidents,  there  has  scarce 
been  a  week  in  which  the  whole  family  was  well  enough  to 
go  out.  I  have  for  my  own  particular  case  suffered  extremely, 
first  from  an  intermitting  fever,  which  lasted  a  long  time,  and 
since  that  from  a  bruise  I  got  on  horse-back  by  a  wagon, 
which  crushed  my  stirrup-leg  in  so  sad  a  manner,  that,  though 
it  is  more  than  seven  weeks  ago,  I  have  still  great  trouble 
with  it.  My  Lord  and  ray  young  people  assure  you  of  their 
hearty  compliments.  I  hope  you  will  be  so  good  as  to  re- 
member me  in  your  prayers,  and  believe  me,  as  I  am  with 
great  truth  and  esteem, 

"  Your  most  obliged  humble  servant, 

"  F.  HERTFORD." 
TO  WILLIAM  DUNCOMBE,  ESQ. 

"Newington,  May  23,  1735. 
"  Sir, 

"Your  letter,  and  the  present  of  Mr.  Hughes's 
'  Works,'  were  joyfully  received  by  me  the  next  day  after  I 
saw  you.  Methinks  I  see  the  very  man,  my  old  acquaintance, 
there,  with  his  temper  and  softness,  his  wit  and  sprightly 
genius,  spreading  almost  over  every  page.  'Twas  well  Tele- 
machus  took  Mentor  with  him,  when  he  ventured  into  Ca- 
lypso's island,  painted  by  such  a  pencil,  while  the  goddess 

*  Lady  of  the  Bed-chamber  to  Queen  Caroline. 


§18  LITE    AND   TIMES 

was  dressed  by  such  a  poet,  and  she  and  her  nymph  Eucharis 
had  airs  and  sonnets  given  them  by  such  a  master  in  music. 
"  But  my  sorrow  freshens  and  renews  upon  my  heart,  that 
such  a  genius  did  not  Uve  to  write  more  moral  and  divine 
odes  in  advanced  years,  to  be  a  counterpoise  to  all  the  charms 
of  pleasure,  and  youth,  and  beauty,  which  his  younger  poetry 
indulged.  Yet  it  must  be  confessed,  I  can  find  nothing  that 
is  an  offence  to  virtue  and  piety,  so  far  as  I  have  perused, 
which  amounts  to  more  than  half.  The  Christian  scheme 
has  glories  and  beauties  in  it,  which  have  superior  power  to 
touch  the  soul,  beyond  all  the  gods  and  heroes  of  the  heathen 
heaven  or  elysium.  I  should  have  been  much  pleased  to  see 
so  fine  a  pen  employing  its  art  on  such  themes.  Mr.  Pope's 
'  Messiah'  always  charms  me.  I  speak  not  now  of  Mr. 
Hughes's  odes  '  On  the  Creator  of  the  world,'  the  '  Ecstasy,' 
&c.  because  I  have  read  them  long  ago :  these  have  so  much 
dignity  in  them,  that  I  wished  for  more  of  the  same  kind. 
Pray  tell  me,  Sir,  when  I  shall  be  so  happy  as  to  see  you 
next,  whether  Sir  R.  Blackmore's  preface  to  his  'Alfred' 
does  not  convince  you,  that  a  Christian  poet  has  happier  ad- 
vantages than  a  pagan  ?  His  prefaces  are  certainly  better  in 
their  kind  than  his  poems,  as  several  gentlemen  of  good  taste 
have  acknowledged.  And  why  should  not  some  great  genius 
seize  those  advantages,  and  leave  old  Homer  no  longer  right 
to  the  supreme  laurel  ? 

"  ]5ut  I  forget  myself  and  my  years,  though  when  I  am 
upon  such  a  subject,  rejiivenescit  calamus  renucnt'ihus  annis. 

"  I  am.  Sir, 

"Your  obliged  huml)lo  servant, 

"I.  WAITS." 


OF   DR.    ISAAC    WATTS.  519 

FROM   THE    HON.   JONATHAN    BELCHER. 

"Boston,  Oct.  24,  1735. 

«  Worthy  Sir, 

"  In  June  last  Mr.  Boylstone  brought  me  your 
obliging  letter  of  '2nd.  of  May.  I  again  thank  you  for  your 
prayers  and  good  wishes  for  me  in  the  weight  of  the  govern- 
ment. It  shall  be  my  study  to  be  faithful  to  my  master,  and 
with  a  tender  eye  to  keep  inviolate  all  the  liberties  of  my  dear 
country,  and  such  a  practice  I  think  very  compatible.  I  was 
sorry  to  hear  of  the  death  of  the  late  ingenious  and  religious* 

.  I  looked  on  him  as  a  part  of  our  glory  and 

defence ;  but  what  shall  we  say,  the  '  residue  of  the  spirit  is 
with  God  ?  Ashur  shall  not  save  us,  neither  will  we  ride  on 
horses ;  and  cease  ye  from  man  whose  breath  is  in  his  nos- 
trils, for  wherein  is  he  to  be  accounted  of?'  God's  church  and 
people  shall  be  safe  here  and  safe  for  ever;  while  their  faith 
is  fixed,  trusting  in  the  Lord,  they  shall  be  as  Mount  Zion, 
which  cannot  be  removed  but  abideth  for  ever.  I  have  from 
others  the  same  account  you  give  me  of  the  declining  state  of 
the  health  of  my  predecessor,  Governor  Shute,  for  whom  I 
have  a  great  esteem,  as  a  gentleman  of  great  virtue  and  inte- 
grity :  'his  days  have  filled  up  the  age  of  a  man,  whose 
strength  is  not  the  strength  of  stones,  nor  his  flesh  of  brass.' 
We  must  all  cry  out  at  last,  '  Corruption,  thou  art  my  father ! 
O  worm,  thou  art  my  sister  and  mother !'  but  happy,  thrice 
happy  shall  they  be,  who,  when  this  corruptible  shall  put  on 
incorruption,  and  this  mortal  shall  put  on  immortality,  shall 
be  able  to  triumph  over  the  last  enemy  of  mankind,  and  say, 
*  O  death!  where  is  thy  sting?  O  grave!  where  is  thy  vic- 
tory ?'  This  I  hope  will  be  the  portion  of  my  worthy  friend. 
Colonel  Shute,  who,  I  doubt  not,  in  God's  best  lime,  will 

*  Prooaoly  Lord  Barringtou. 


520  LIFE    AND   TIMES 

come  to  his  grave  in  full  age,  like  as  a  shock  of  com  cometh 

in  his  season.     Fa.vit  Dens. 

*'  I  ask  leave  to  condole  with  the  lion.  Lady  Abney  on 
the  death  of  Mrs,  Gunston,  and  to  congratulate  her  on  the 
mercy  of  God  in  her  own  recovery.  May  she  live  long  in 
good  health,  a  still  more  extensive  blessing  to  her  family 
and  this  unworthy  Avorld  ! 

*'  I  thank  you,  Sir,  very  heartily  for  your  share  of  the  fifty- 
four  discourses  delivered  at  Mr.  Coward's  lecture,  the  two 
volumes  being  sent  me  by  my  excellent  friend  Dr.  Guyse. 

"  I  pray  God  to  pour  out  upon  you  and  upon  your  brethren 
more  and  more  of  his  Holy  Spirit.  That  you  may  be  faithful 
to  your  great  Lord  and  Master,  even  unto  death,  and  then 
receive  the  crown  of  life,  is  the  prayer  of, 

"My  dear  friend, 

"  Your  most  obliged  and  most  humble  servant, 

"J.  BELCHER." 


OF    DR.    ISAAC    WATTS.  521 


CHAPTER  XIV. 

1736 1739. 

STOKE   NEWINGTON. 


TENDENCY  OF  WATTS'S  MIND.  — SITUATION  AT  LADY  ABNEY'S.  — HIS 
STUDY.  — INSCRIPTIONS.  — HOUSE  AT  STOKE  NEWINGTON.— EMBEL- 
LISHMENTS.—ILLNESS.— NIGHT  STUDIES.— DR.  OWEN.-DEATII  OF  MRS. 
ROWE.  — "DEVOUT  EXERCISES."— HER  CHARACTER.— WORK  ON  "HU- 
MILITY."—OPINION  OF  BISHOP  GIBSON.  — NEW-ENGLAND  REVIVAL.— 
PRESIDENT  EDWARDS'S  NARRATIVE —PREFACE.— WATTS  AND  GUYSE.— 
"HOLINESS  OF  TIMES  AND  PLACES."  — TIME  FOR  CELEBRATING  THE 
LORD'S  SUPPER.  — RISE  OF  METHODISM. —SENTIMENTS  OF  THE  DIS- 
SENTERS.—OPINIONS  OF  BARKER,  DODDRIDGE,  AND  WATTS.  — INTER- 
VIEW WITH  WHITFIELD.— CORRESPONDENCE. 


The  biography  of  Watts  has  been  hitherto  a  detail  of  lite- 
rary labours ;  few  incidents  occurred  to  disturb  the  calm  and 
even  flow  of  his  history ;  and  little  presents  itself  to  interest 
those  who  are  fond  of  novelty  and  eager  for  excitement.  "  The 
life  of  a  scholar,"  says  Goldsmith,  "seldom  abounds  with  ad- 
venture —  his  fame  is  acquired  in  solitude."  That  retirement 
which  is  indispensable  for  literary  pursuits,  deprives  those 
who  would  .distinguish  themselves  by  intellectual  exertion  of 
the  opportunity,  and  often  of  the  inclination,  to  mingle  promi- 
nently in  the  active  concerns  of  life.  In  the  language  of 
Milton  they  must  shut  themselves  up 

"  In  some  high  lonely  tower, 
Where  they  may  oft  outwatch  tlie  bear 
With  thz-ice-great  Hermes." 
Ll 


522  LIFE    AND   TIMES 

The  studious  are  seldom  practical  men  :  years  of  patient  de- 
votion to  abstruse  pursuits,  unfit  them  for  the  tumult  of  a  bus- 
tlinf^  world ;  or  the  sensitiveness  which  usually  accompanies 
the  liighcr  endowments  of  genius,  leads  them  to  recoil  from  a 
contact  with  the  prejudices  and  passions  of  mankind ;  or  the 
timidity  which  is  the  usual  product  of  long  habits  of  seclusion, 
causes  them  to  shun  those  engagements  which  induce  promi- 
nence and  notoriety.  The  tendency  of  Watts's  mind  was 
towards  a  life  of  retirement ;  this  disposition  was  strengthened 
by  the  ill  health  to  which  he  was  subject ;  but  when  sum- 
moned to  the  post  of  duty,  he  never  failed  to  tear  himself  from 
his  beloved  solitude,  to  meet  the  task  that  was  assigned  unto 
him.  And  when  free  from  the  attacks  of  his  complaint,  the 
duties  that  devolved  upon  him  were  many  and  arduous.  Be- 
sides his  regular  ministry  at  Bury  Street,  he  had  an  extensive 
correspondence  at  home  and  abroad  to  maintain;  he  was 
intimately  connected  with  the  various  plans  of  usefulness  that 
were  formed  among  the  dissenters ;  in  the  concerns  of  New 
England  he  took  a  prominent  part ;  and  he  was  frequently 
called  to  the  discharge  of  extraordinary  ministerial  services. 
In  the  midst  of  such  avocations,  and  a  constant  martyr  to 
disease,  to  produce  such  a  number  of  important  works,  em- 
bracing a  range  of  subject  so  extended,  evinces  an  industry 
and  application  rarely  equalled,  never  surpassed.  What  is 
said  of  Gallus  in  Cicero's  treatise  on  Old  Age,  was  often  true 
with  reference  to  Watts  at  the  commencement  of  his  career  — 
when  he  sat  down  to  write  in  the  morning,  he  was  surprised 
by  the  evening;  and  when  he  took  up  his  pen  in  the  evening, 
he  was  surprised  by  the  appearance  of  the  morning. 

It  was  the  happiness  of  Dr.  Watts  to  be  placed  in  circum- 
stances the  most  favourable  for  the  gratification  of  his  taste 
and  genius:  he  had  none  of  the  anxieties  of  domestic  life, 
with  a  large  share  of  its  comforts  :  the  kind  attentions  of  Lady 
Abncy  anticipated  all  his  wants,  and  afforded  every  facility 
for  the  prosecution  of  his  studies.     Under  her  roof  he  pursued 


OF    DR.    ISAAC    WATTS,  523 

the  "  noiseless  tenor  of  his  way,"  a  blessing-  to  the  family, 
the  church,  and  to  the  world,  repaying  the  regard  of  his  host- 
ess with  his  prayers  and  counsels.  In  doing  good  he  was 
truly  in  labours  more  abundant ;  he  was  constantly  on  the 
watch  for  opportunities  of  usefulness ;  and  suffered  no  occa- 
sion of  advancing  the  cause  of  his  divine  Master  to  escape 
him  unimproved.  The  end  at  which  he  aimed  iu  his  nume- 
rous writings  was  not  to  procure  applause,  or  to  relieve  his 
readers  of  a  vacant  hour;  but  to  communicate  a  medicine  to 
the  mind  diseased,  to  vindicate  Christianity  from  the  asper- 
sions of  shallow  philosophers  and  licentious  wits,  and  assert 
the  great  principles  of  virtue  and  religion  in  a  degenerate  age. 
At  the  entrance  of  his  study,  on  the  outside,  appeared  the  fol- 
lowing lines  of  Horace,  denouncing  the  faithless  friend,  printed 
and  hung  up  in  a  frame  : 

"  Absentem  qui  rodit  amicum 
Qui  non  defendit,  alio  culpaute  ;  soliitos 
Qui  captat  risus  hominum,  faniamq  ;  dicacis, 
Fingere  qui  non  visa  potest,  comniissa  tacere 
Qui  nequit,  hie  uiger  est;  huuc  tu,  Romane,  caveto." 

Sat.  4.  1.  SI. 

The  spaces  in  the  study  where  there  were  no  shelves,  were 
abundantly  covered  with  prints  of  considerable  persons, 
mostly  divines.  On  one  side  of  the  large  and  high  pannel 
over  the  fire-place  an  inscription  from  Horace  was  hung  up 
among  the  portraits : 

"Locus  est  pluribus  umbris." 

On  the  other  side  of  the  pannel  there  was  another  inscription, 
encircled  with  portraits,  soliciting  an  addition  to  his  illustrious 
shades : 

"Quis  me  doctorum  propria  dignabitur  umbra." 

The  house  at  Stoke  Newington  in  which  Lady  Abney  re- 


524  LIFE    AND    TIMES 

sided,  and  which  was  occupied  by  her  surviving  daughter* 
until  the  year  1782,  still  retains  some  interesting  memorials 
of  Dr.  Watts.  There  is  a  costly  apartment,  called  the  painted 
room,  a  curious  specimen  of  the  taste  of  the  age  in  which  it 
v/as  arranged.  The  mouldings  are  gilt,  and  the  whole  of  the 
pannels  on  the  sides  are  painted  with  subjects  taken  from 
Ovid.  On  the  window-shutters  are  some  pictorial  decorations, 
which  are  supposed  to  have  been  added  by  Watts's  pencil. 
These  consist  of  the  emblems  of  Death  and  Grief,  together 
with  the  arms  of  Gunston  and  Abney,  evidently  alluding  to 
their  lamented  decease.  The  contrast  between  these  mourn- 
ful emblems  and  the  other  embellishments  of  the  room,  is 
strongly  marked.  Dr.  Watts  frequently  employed  his  pencil 
in  his  leisure  hours  ;  and  some  of  his  paintings,  the  heads  of 
Democritus,  Heraclitus,  Aristotle,  and  Alexander,  are  said  to 
have  been  executed  with  considerable  taste  and  skill.  In  the 
grounds  attached  to  the  manor-house  the  stately  "  elms"  still 
remain,  which  are  mentioned  in  his  poems  as  the  scene  of 
friendly  intercourse  with  their  beloved  owner.f  Associations 
of  a  pleasing  and  profitable  kind,  connect  themselves  with  a 
spot,  the  residence  for  so  many  years  of  so  much  piety  and 
genius ;  the  devout  mind  is  humbled  by  a  sense  of  its  own 
deficiencies,  and  excited  to  emulate  the  example  of  eminent 
attainment  placed  before  it;  and  the  prayer  is  prompted  in 
the  heart  of  the  Christian  visiter,  that  as  "  the  harvest"  is  still 
"  plenteous,"  more  such  labourers  may  be  sent  forth  by  the 
Lord  of  the  harvest. 

The  infirmities  of  age  began  now  rapidly  to  advance  upon 
Dr.  Watts  ;  he  already  trembled  beneath  the  weight  of  years; 

*  Of  this  lady  the  late  Dr.  Winter  was  accustomed  to  relate  an  anecdote  of  his  early 
life  with  great  glee.  Dressed  in  the  costume  of  a  belle  of  George  the  First's  reign, 
with  formidable  hoop  and  all  the  appurtenances  of  the  ancien  regime,  her  appear- 
ance betokened  considerable  antiquity.  On  being  introduced  to  her  presence  the 
boy  was  abashed  ;  but  tiie  good  dame,  by  way  of  being  familiar,  condescended  to 
inquire  how  old  he  thought  she  was.  The  awe- struck  youngster,  eyeing  the 
venerable  figure  before  him,  replied,  "Madam,  nine  hundred  >/cars  ! 

f  Brown's  Stoke  Ncwington. 


OF   DR.    ISAAC    WATTS.  525 

while  his  attenuated  frame,  and  the  tremulous  hand  with 
which  he  seems  to  have  written  his  letters,  bespoke  "  the 
shadows  lengthening^  as  the  day  declines."  The  year  1736 
was  one  of  retirement  from  public  labour  on  account  of  illness, 
which  originated  the  hymn  entitled  "  Complaint  and  Hope 
under  great  pain."  The  effects  of  intense  mental  application 
appeared  in  a  broken  constitution  and  completely  disordered 
and  debilitated  nervous  system.  The  sufferer  was  greatly 
distressed  by  insomnia,  or  continual  wakefulness.  For  several 
nights  successively  he  could  obtain  no  sleep,  except  such  as 
was  forced  by  medical  preparations ;  and  even  the  strongest 
opiates  lost  their  virtue  by  repeated  use,  and  only  served  to 
aggravate  his  malady.  In  one  of  his  sermons  he  recurs  to  his 
youthful  studies  ;  and  attributes  his  weakened  frame  and  fre- 
quent attacks  of  illness,  to  the  laborious  exertions  of  his  early 
life.  "  Midnight  studies,"  he  remarks,  "  are  prejudicial  to 
nature :  a  painful  experience  calls  me  to  repent  of  the  faults 
of  my  younger  years,  and  there  are  many  before  me  have  had 
the  same  call  to  repentance.  Wearing  out  the  lightsome 
hours  in  sleep,  is  an  unnatural  waste  of  sunbeams.  There  is 
no  light  so  friendly  to  animal  nature  as  that  of  the  sun."* 
Diligence  is  commendable  in  every  student,  but  many  have 
fallen  victims  to  their  ardour  for  literary  renown  ;  and  an  early 
death  or  a  premature  old  age  has  been  the  result  of  their 
severe  yet  injudicious  economy.  "  Dr.  Owen,"  Watts  ob- 
served upon  one  occasion,  "  was  accustomed  to  say,  that  he 
would  gladly  part  with  ail  the  learning  he  had  acquired  by 
sitting  up  late  at  study  in  younger  life,  if  he  could  but  regain 
the  health  he  had  lost  by  it."  In  seasons  of  sickness,  when 
incapable  of  public  service,  Dr.  Watts  refused  to  take  his 
salary  from  the  church,  saying  that  as  he  could  not  preach  he 
had  no  right  to  it.  But  his  people,  to  their  honour,  did  not 
listen  to  such  a  proposal,  as  so  much  of  the  church's  increase 
was  owing  to  his  labours,  and  so  great  a  portion  of  his  life  had 

*  Ser.  XV.  vol.  ii. 


526  LIFE   AND   TIMES 

been  spent  in  its  service.  Mr.  Price  too  joined  with  them  in 
opposinj^the  wishes  of  his  colleague,  at  the  same  lime  that  he 
admired  the  delicacy  of  feeling  that  prompted  him  to  decline 
his  income. 

In  the  commencement  of  the  year  1737  the  circle  of  Watts's 
intimate  acquaintance  was  broken  by  the  death  of  Mrs.  Rowe, 
whose  piety,  talents,  and  amiable  qualities  caused  her  loss  to 
be  universally  deplored.      She   died  suddenly,    on    Sunday 
morning,  Feb.  20th,  leaving  in  her  cabinet  letters  for  the 
following  friends,    whom  she   held   in    high   esteem :    Dr. 
Watts,  the  Countess  of  Hertford,  Mr.  James  Theobald,  the 
Earl  of  Orrery,  and  her  mother-in-law,  Mrs.  Sarah  Rowe. 
The  doctor's  letter  w^as  accompanied  with  the  manuscript  of 
her  "  Devout  Exercises"  in  several  loose  papers,  which  she 
requested  him  to  publish,  after  having  subjected  it  to  a  careful 
revision.     These  devotional  meditations  w^ere  published  in  the 
September  following,  with  a  preface  written  by  himself,  and 
a  dedication  to  the  Countess,  as  an  "  intimate  friend"  of  the 
deceased.     Daring  an  intimacy  of  nearly  thirty  years,  he  had 
enjoyed    ample    opportunities  of  estimating  the  merits   and 
defects  of  Mrs.  Rowe ;  and  the  opinion  of  her  character,  ex- 
pressed in  his  prefatory  letter,  is  remarkably  just  and  dispas- 
sionate.    Far  from  joining  with  her  admirers,  who  almost 
elevated  her  into  a  divinity,  he  yet  meets  the  severe  animad- 
versions of  her  impugners ;  and  finds  an  apology  for  the  trans- 
ports and  raptures  which  marked  her  experience  in  an  ardent 
temperament  and  vivacious  imagination.     The  frigid  calcula- 
ting formalist,  familiar  with  the  theory,  but  strange  to   the 
power  of  godliness  —  the   worldling,  upon  whose  heart  no 
spark  of  devotion  has  yet  fallen  —  may  turn  from  her  pages 
Avith  disgust,  or  by  an  unwonted  stretch  of  candour  regard 
her  as  an  amiable  visionary  ;  but  he  who  has  been  warmed 
by  the  same  heavenly  fire,  will  be  able,  in  some  degree,  to 
sympathise  with  her  devout  aspirations.     "  It  was  much  the 
fashion,"   says   Watts  in   his   preface,    "even    among   some 


or   DR.   ISAAC    WATTS.  527 

divines  of  eminence  in  former  years,  to  express  the  fervours 
of  devout  love  to  our  Saviour  in  the  style  of  the  Song  of  Solo- 
mon ;  and  I  must  confess,  that  several  of  my  composures  in 
verse,  written  in  younger  life,  were  led  by  those  examples 
unwarily  into  this  tract."  It  may  be  questioned,  whether 
such  a  mode  of  expressing  religious  feelings,  the  natural  pro- 
duct of  an  eastern  clime,  is  judicious;  for  men  of  corrupt 
minds,  in  an  earlier  period,  "  turned  the  grace  of  God  into 
lasciviousness ;"  and  an  impure  imagination  and  an  unsanc- 
tified  heart,  will  connect  carnal  and  sensual  ideas  with  the 
employment  of  such  imagery.  Be  it,  however,  remembered, 
that  the  taste  of  the  age  in  which  Mrs.  Rowe  lived  was  essen- 
tially vitiated  ;  the  adoption  of  a  tumid  passionate  style  was 
necessary  to  pamper  the  popular  appetite;  and,  hence,  the 
sickly  sentimentalism  of  Sterne,  and  the  bloated  effusions  of 
Hervey,  which  are  now  justly  discarded,  were,  at  a  period 
not  much  posterior,  not  only  tolerated  but  admired.  Her 
mind  was  tinctured  not  only  by  the  prevailing  taste,  but  by 
the  mystical  writers  she  had  read ;  but  he  -who  on  this 
ground  alone  would  unsparingly  condemn  her  compositions, 
gives  ample  room  for  others  to  suppose,  that  he  is  a  stranger 
to  the  "  devout  exercises"  in  which  she  delighted — that  he 
has  light  but  not  love  —  and  that  however  clear  his  head,  his 
heart  is  cold, 

A  few  months  previous  to  the  publication  just  noticed,  Dr. 
Watts  sent  forth  a  treatise  entitled  "  Humility  represented  in 
the  character  of  St.  Paul,"  dated  from  his  retreat  at  "  New- 
ington,  March  25."  It  consists  of  various  papers  which  he 
tells  us  had  lain  by  him  in  his  desk  for  several  years.  The 
tract  is  founded  upon  Ephesians,  iii.  8,  "less  than  the  least  of 
all  saints  ;"  and  exhibits  in  an  impressive  manner,  the  advan- 
tages invariably  attendant  upon  the  cultivation  of  a  similar 
temper  to  that  which  the  passage  expresses.  Though  written 
in  an  exceedingly  plain  and  homely  style,  it  is  by  no  means 
deficient  in  striking  remark,  and  lively  delineation  of  charac- 


528  LIFE    AND    TIMES 

tcr.  Bishop  Gibson  commends  it  for  its  fidelity,  point,  and 
individuality,  for  which  the  author  had  thought  it  necessary 
to  apologise.  The  habit  of  generalising  has  been  in  every  age 
the  besetting  sin  of  the  ministry  ;  and  the  fastidious  politeness 
of  modern  times,  has  rendered  it  too  much  a  characteristic  of 
the  pulpit  addresses  of  the  present  day.  To  illustrate  impor- 
tant axioms  in  morals  and  religion  by  the  events  of  domestic 
life  ;  to  descend  from  general  exhibitions  to  the  delineation  of 
individual  character,  in  the  way  the  bishop  approved,  would 
shock  the  taste  and  alarm  the  sensitiveness  of  a  fashionable 
audience,  and  sound  harsh  and  inviduous  to  "ears  polite." 
And  yet  to  "  declare  the  whole  counsel  of  God,"  it  is  necessa- 
ry to  advance  painful  and  unpalatable  truths ;  and  much 
more  efi&cient  and  useful  would  the  ministry  be,  if  less  defe- 
rence was  paid  to  the  prejudices  of  hearers,  and  more  attention 
to  the  treatment  which  their  circumstances  demand.  A  maxim 
of  Christian  morals  may  frequently  be  best  enforced  by  the 
miseries  attendant  upon  its  neglect;  and  no  ideal  representa- 
tion, no  declamatory  harangue,  is  so  directly  calculated  to 
convince  as  those  illustrations  which  come  home  to  the  con- 
sciences and  every-day  experience  of  an  auditory.  In  clear 
and  evangelical  exposition  of  truth  the  present  age  may  per- 
haps exceed  any  of  the  preceding ;  but  in  its  plain  and  pointed 
application  to  the  state  and  character  of  the  individual  it  is 
lamentably  deficient.  The  skilful  operator  is  often  obliged  to 
probe  the  wound  in  order  to  cicatrise  and  heal ;  and  he  who 
would  be  a  physician  to  the  souls  of  men,  must  unveil,  ex- 
amine, and  expose  the  foulness  of  the  stain  he  would  remove. 
The  attention  of  Dr.  Watts  was  powerfully  arrested  at  this 
period  by  an  extraordinary  revival  of  religion  in  New  Eng- 
land, of  which  he  was  informed  by  his  trans-atlantic  corres- 
pondents. A  small  district  of  about  thirty  miles'  compass,  on 
the  banks  of  the  river  Connecticut,  containing  twelve  or  four- 
teen towns  and  villages,  was  the  scene  of  one  of  the  most  re- 
markable out-pourings  of  the  Holy  Spirit  since  the  apostolic 


OF   DR.    ISAAC    WATTS.  529 

age,  during  which  multitudes  of  young  and  old  were  brought 
under  a  serious  concern,  and  turned  to  the  Lord  with  "weep- 
ing and  with  supplication."  In  the  town  of  Northampton, 
favoured  with  the  ministry  of  that  master  in  moral  and  me- 
taphysical science,  Jonathan  Edwards,  the  "  cloud"  arose,  at 
first  little  as  "  a  man's  hand,"  but  which,  gradually  spreading 
over  New  Hampshire  and  the  Massachusetts,  descended  in 
showers  of  holy  influence  upon  the  churches  embosomed  in 
their  tracts  of  wood  and  wilderness.  For  several  months  the 
sanctuaries  were  unable  to  contain  the  crowds  that  thronged 
unto  them ;  the  houses  of  the  ministers  were  besieged  with 
contrite  and  anxious  inquirers;  and  every  day  witnessed 
some  thoughtless  prodigal  reclaimed  or  hardened  heart  sub- 
dued. The  expatriated  puritans  compelled  by  persecution  to 
seek  a  quiet  home  and  peaceful  altar  across  the  waters,  had 
diligently  "sowed,"  and  their  descendants  now  "entered  into 
their  labours :"  the  devotion  of  the  pilgrim  fathers  was  re- 
warded, and  their  prayers  were  answered  in  abundant  bless- 
ings upon  their  children.  The  season  of  heavenly  light  and 
hallowed  influence  which  visited  the  western  wilds,  was  not 
evanescent  as  the  early  dew :  for  several  successive  years, 
under  the  ministry  of  Gilbert  Tennant,  Whitfield,  and  others, 
the  power  of  divine  truth  was  exemplified  in  awakening 
numbers  of  the  most  careless  and  profane.  The  tidings  of 
colonial  revival  speedily  reached  the  mother  country,  and 
elicited  various  opinions  as  to  its  cause,  its  permanence,  and 
its  merits.  By  the  wisdom  of  this  world  it  was  pronounced 
the  result  of  enthusiastic  excitement  —  a  cold  and  heartless 
philosophy  attributed  it  to  the  influence  of  social  sympathy  — 
men  of  tasfe  and  refinement  formed  an  unfavourable  judgment, 
from  the  occasional  irregularities  that  marked  its  progress  — 
whilst  not  a  few  in  professedly  religious  circles  treated  it  as 
the  offspring  of  error  and  extravagance.  But  the  spiritual 
phenomena  exhibited  were  loo  extraordinary  to  be  accounted 
for  upon  natural  principles  ;  and  the  chief  actors  in  the  work 


530  LIFE    AND   TIMES 

were  men  too  intellectually  acute  to  be  themselves  deceived, 
and  far  too  upright  to  propagate  deception.  Dr.  Watts,  there- 
fore, hailed  it  as  an  instance  of  gracious  visitation  from  on 
high —  from  contention  and  decline  at  home,  he  gladly  turned 
to  the  brighter  prospect  that  opened  in  the  aboriginal  forests 
of  America  —  and  attentively  traced  the  rise  and  watched  the 
progress  of  the  "  time  of  refreshing."  He  wrote  to  his  friend 
Dr.  Colman  of  Boston  for  information,  who  forwarded  his 
wishes  to  Mr.  Williams,  a  minister  in  the  neighbourhood 
where  the  revival  commenced.  This  application  coming  under 
the  notice  of  Mr.  Edwards,  produced  his  "  Faithful  Narrative 
of  the  surprising  work  of  God,  in  the  conversion  of  many  hun- 
dred souls  in  Northampton  and  the  neighbouring  towns  and 
villages  of  New  Hampshire,"  which  he  sent  as  a  letter  to  Dr. 
Colman.  Mr.  Edwards  observes,  "  Having  seen  your  letter  to 
my  honoured  uncle  Williams  of  Hatfield,  of  July  20,  wherein 
you  inform  him  of  the  notice  that  has  been  taken  of  the  late 
wonderful  work  of  God  in  this  and  some  other  towns  in  this 
covmtry,  by  the  Rev.  Dr.  Watts  and  Dr.  Guyse  of  London, 
and  the  congregation  to  which  the  last  of  these  preached  on  a 
monthly  day  of  solemn  prayer  ;  as  also  of  your  desire  to  be 
more  perfectly  acquainted  with  it,  by  some  of  us  on  the  spot ; 
and  having  been  since  informed  by  my  uncle  Williams,  that 
you  desire  me  to  undertake  it,  I  would  now  do  it  in  as  just 
and  faithful  a  manner  as  in  me  lies." 

The  manuscript  of  Mr.  Edwards's  narrative  was  sent  by 
Dr.  Colman  to  England,  and  published  under  the  direction 
of  Dr.  Watts  and  Dr.  John  Guyse  in  the  year  1737.  The 
editors  remark  in  their  preface, 

"The  friendly  correspondence  which  we  maintain  with  our 
brethren  of  New  England,  gives  us  now  and  then  the  plea- 
sure of  hearing  some  remarkable  instance  of  divine  grace  in 
the  conversion  of  sinners,  and  some  eminent  examples  of 
piety  in  that  American  part  of  the  world.  But  never  did  we 
hear  or  read,  since  the  first  ages  of  Christianity,  any  event  of 


OF  DR.  ISAAC  WATTS.  531 

this  kind  so  surprising  as  the  present  narrative  hath  set  hefore 
us.  The  Rev.  and  worthy  Dr.  Colman  of  Boston,  had  given 
us  some  short  intimations  of  it  in  his  letters ;  and  upon  our 
request  of  a  more  large  and  particular  account,  Mr.  Edwards, 
the  happy  and  successful  minister  of  Northampton,  which 
was  one  of  the  chief  scenes  of  these  wonders,  drew  up  this 
history  in  an  epistle  to  Dr.  Colman.  There  were  some  useful 
sermons  of  the  venerable  and  aged  Mr.  Wm.  Williams  pub- 
lished late  in  New  England,  which  were  preached  in  that 
part  of  the  country  during  this  season  of  the  glorious  work  of 
God  in  the  conversion  of  men,  to  which  Dr.  Colman  sub- 
joined a  most  judicious  and  accurate  abridgment  of  this  epis- 
tle ;  and  a  little  after,  by  Mr.  Edwards's  request,  he  sent  the 
original  to  our  hands,  to  be  communicated  to  the  world  under 
our  care  here  in  London.  We  are  abundantly  satisfied  of  the 
truth  of  this  narrative,  not  only  from  the  pious  character  of 
the  writer,  but  from  the  concurrent  testimony  of  many  other 
persons  in  New  England;  for  this  thing  was  not  done  in  a 
corner." 

The  cheering  facts  which  the  "Narrative"  records,  form  by 
no  means  an  isolated  instance  of  religious  revival.  The  suc- 
ceeding history  of  the  western  continent,  furnishes  us  with 
similar  plenteous  communications  of  heavenly  influence,  pro- 
ducing a  deep  and  general  concern  in  behalf  of  spiritual  and 
eternal  things.  In  our  own  days  such  exhibitions  of  divine 
grace  have  been  witnessed,  and  the  testimonies  of  men  the 
most  intelligent,  and  widely  removed  from  enthusiasm,  have 
been  forwarded  to  our  shores,  recounting  what  God  hath 
wrought.  It  seems  as  though  such  occui'rences  were  intend- 
ed in  the  divine  administration  signally  to  own  and  bless  the 
piety  and  devotedness  of  the  early  settlers.  They  were  "some 
of  the  best  people,  of  the  best  nation  on  the  face  of  the  earth, 
and  in  its  best  age" — they  took  joyfully  "the  spoiling  of 
their  goods"  at  home  to  promote  the  interests  of  true  religion, 
and  banished  themselves  beyond  the  bounds  of  civilisation, 


532  LIFE   AND   TIMES 

rather  than  yield  their  consciences  to  the  yoke  of  spiritual 
tyranny — and  though  many  died  of  the  hardships  of  exile, 
with  no  shelter  but  the  forest,  yet  their  "  labour  has  not  been 
in  vain  in  the  Lord."  The  fruit  has  been  gathered,  the  har- 
vest has  been  reaped  by  their  posterity ;  and  the  ark  of  hberty 
and  religion,  which  they  transported  to  a  foreign  soil  to  pre- 
serve inviolate,  has  been  handed  down  to  their  children's 
children. 

In  January,  1738,  Doddridge  was  in  London,  procuring 
subscriptions  for  his  "  Family  Expositor ;"  and  in  February 
he  paid  a  visit  to  Lady  Abney  and  Dr.  Watts  at  Newington. 
The  latter  was  now  engaged  in  preparing  his  discourses  on 
"  The  Holiness  of  Times,  Places,  and  People,"  which  appeared 
in  the  month  of  May,  which  Doddridge  mentions  with  ajjpro- 
balion  in  a  letter  to  his  friend  Dr.  Clark  of  St.  Albans.*  In 
the  summer  he  assisted  at  the  ordination  of  the  Rev.  Samuel 
Snashall,  at  Stoke  Newington,  and  gave  the  charge  to  the 
minister.  Dr.  Gibbons  observes,  "  I  well  remember  that  the 
minister  who  prayed  over  Mr.  Snashall,  before  the  doctor 
gave  the  charge,  made  use  of  this  expression,  '  Lord,  we  re- 
member our  faults  this  day.'  The  doctor  took  notice  of  it  as 
falling  from  the  lips  of  his  reverend  brother,  and  approved  and 
adopted  if  into  his  preface  to  his  charge  in  the  easiest  and 
happiest  manner.  Such  was  his  ready  and  immediate  com- 
mand of  thought  and  language."  "  The  Holiness  of  Times, 
Places,  and  People,"  consists  of  five  essays  upon  the  follow- 
ing important  topics  :  "The  Perpetuity  of  the  Sabbath,  and 
the  observation  of  the  Lord's  Day"  —  "  Of  the  Time  of  Day 
for  administering  the  Lord's  Supper"  —  "  The  Holiness  of 
Places  of  Worship"  —  "  The  Jewish  Worship  and  the  Chris- 
tian compared" — "  The  HoHness  of  the  Jewish  and  Christian 
C!hurches  considered  and  compared." 

The  first  essay  originated  with  a  discourse  on  the  same 

♦Dated,  "Newport  Pagnel,  June  23,  1738." 


OF    DR.    ISAAC    WATTS.  533 

subject,  printed  in  the  Bury-street  collection  *  It  considers 
the  obligation  of  a  sabbatical  institution  upon  Christians, 
which  it  establishes  by  the  same  line  of  argument  as  is  usually 
employed  by  divines.  The  seventh  day  was  hallowed  by 
divine  appointment  at  the  close  of  the  creation ;  its  sanctity 
was  strongly  marked,  previous  to  the  promulgation  of  the  law, 
by  suspending  the  supply  of  manna ;  it  was  afterwards  em- 
bodied in  that  great  epitome  of  religious  and  moral  duty 
written  upon  the  tables  of  stone ;  it  formed  a  part  of  the  poli- 
tical law  of  the  people  who  recognised  Jehovah  as  their  politi- 
cal head ;  it  was  sanctified,  when  changed  by  apostolic  autho- 
rity to  the  first  day  of  the  week,  in  the  practice  of  all  the  pri- 
mitive churches ;  and  these  incidental  circumstances,  in  the 
absence  of  an  explicit  injunction,  are  advanced  as  irresistibly 
determining  in  favour  of  the  institute. f  The  loose  and  in- 
cautious statements  of  episcopal  writers  upon  this  subject,  the 
non-observation  of  the  day  of  rest  by  the  court  in  the  time  of 
the  Stuarts,  introduced  a  laxity  of  manners  among  the  people, 
and  led  them  to  convert  the  sacred  festival  into  a  civil  holi- 
day. Many  of  the  nonconformist  divines  took  up  the  pen  to 
correct  the  mischievous  errors  of  Heylin,  and  counteract  the 
still  lingering  spirit  of  the  Book  of  Sports ;  and  their  treatises 
still  remain  among  the  most  valuable  in  the  library  of  English 
theology,  in  defence  of  the  perpetuity  and  sanctity  of  the  sab- 
bath. The  second  essay,  on  the  time  for  administering  the 
Lord's  supper,  was  written  about  the  year  1710  ;J  and  arose 
from  some  religious  scruples  which  one  of  the  hearers  at 
Bury  Street  entertained,  about  receiving  the  communion  at 

*  "The  Lord's  Day,  or  Christian  Sabbath.     Gen.  ii.  3." 

f  Two  appendices  are  added  to  this  essay.  The  first  contains  an  extract  from 
Lord  King's  "Inqniry  into  the  Primitive  Churches;"  and  the  second,  some  addi- 
tional remarks,  strengthening  the  inferential  proof  of  the  Sabbath  being  of  divine 
obligation.  This  question  has  of  late  been  set  at  rest  by  many  excellent  produc- 
tions; and  especially  Dr.  Wardlaw  has  most  triumphantly  refuted  the  objections 
of  the  anti  sabbattarians,  in  his  "Discourses  ou  the  Sabbath.     1832." 

J  See  preface. 


531  LIFE    AND   TIMES 

noon,  according  to  the  custom  of  many  churches.  He  argues, 
that  where  the  time  of  any  duty  has  been  expressly  instituted, 
it  ought  to  be  punctually  obeyed ;  but  that  it  by  no  means 
follows,  that  every  circumstance  of  time  or  place,  which  at- 
tended any  part  of  worship  in  which  the  apostles  or  Christ 
himself  engaged,  must  be  observed  also  wdienever  we  perform 
it.  We  are  under  as  much  obligation  to  partake  of  the  Lord's 
supper  only  in  a  "  city,"  "  in  a  large  upper  room  furnished,"* 
observing  the  Jewish  posture  of  sitting  at  table,  as  to  receive 
it  in  an  evening.  The  practice  of  the  primitive  churches  va- 
ried upon  this  point ;  sometimes  the  sacrament  was  celebra- 
ted "  horis  ante  lucanis,"  before  break  of  day ;  Paul  at  Troas 
"  broke  bread"  when  it  was  past  midnight  ;t  but  the  proper 
season  for  its  performance  is  doubtless  that  which  is  most 
convenient  to  the  parties  engaged  in  it.|  The  third  disserta- 
tion is  the  substance  of  a  sermon  preached  at  Wapping,  Oct. 
20th,  1737,  at  the  opening  of  Mr.  Jennings's  meeting-house. 
The  fourth  and  fifth  contrast  the  economy  and  advantages  of 
the  Jewish  and  Christian  churches.  —  These  essays  contain  a 
very  valuable  and  practical  exhibition  of  evangelical  truth ; 
they  discover  the  writer's  extensive  acquaintance  with  the  sa- 
cred page  and  both  ancient  and  modern  divinity ;  and  the 
just  remarks  and  happy  illustrations  with  which  the  volume 
abounds,  render  its  perusal  pleasing  and  profitable,  and  add 
considerably  to  the  reader's  stock  of  theological  knowledge. 
We  have  seen  Dr.  Watts  rejoicing  in  the  spiritual  prosper- 


*  Mark,  xiv.  15,  16.  f  Acts,  xx.  7. 

J  President  Clianncey  thought  the  Lord's  Supper  should  be  in  an  evening.  In 
the  records  of  Harvard  college,  there  is  the  following  memorandum: 

"At  a  meeting  of  the  Honourable  and  Reverend  Overseers  of  the  college,  Mr. 
Mather  and  Mr.  Norton  were  desired  by  the  overseers  of  the  college,  to  tender 
unto  the  Reverend  Mr.  Charles  Chauncey  the  place  of  President,  with  the  stipend 
of  one  hundred  pounds  per  annum,  to  be  paid  out  of  the  country  treasury;  and 
withal  to  signify  to  him,  that  it  is  expected  and  desired,  that  he  forbear  to  dissemi- 
nate or  publish  any  tenets  concerning  immersion  in  baptism,  and  celebration  of 
the  Lord's  Supper  at  evening,  or  to  expose  the  received  doctrine  therein." 

Collections  of  the  Massachusetts  Historical  Society,  \.  175. 


OF    DR.    ISAAC    WATTS.  535 

ity  of  the  American  colonies :  a  striking  change  was  now  at 
hand  in  the  moral  and  religious  state  of  his  own  country. 
The  Methodists  were  beginning  to  attract  public  notice  by  the 
holy  lives  and  abundant  labours  of  the  Wesleys;  the  popu- 
lace of  the  metropolis  was  flocking  to  Kennington  Common  and 
Moorfields,  to  be  roused  from  its  slumber  by  the  powerful 
voice  of  Whitfield;  and  that  glorious  ministry  was  commenc- 
ing in  the  "highways  and  hedges,"  which,  though  opposed 
by  the  cold  advocates  of  order,  and  scowled  upon  by  selfish 
bigots,  has  proved  such  a  signal  blessing  to  the  nation. 
Various  representations  have  been  given  of  the  disposition  of 
the  dissenters  towards  the  distinguished  leaders  of  the  rising 
sect.  The  ardour,  the  disinterestedness,  the  desire,  and 
unremitting  exertions  to  win  souls  displayed  by  them,  com- 
manded the  admiration  and  won  the  love  of  such  men  as 
Watts,  Doddridge,  and  others;  but  in  many  instances 
their  co-operation  was  forfeited  by  the  want  of  a  conciliating 
spirit,  and  the  good-will  they  tendered  was  lost  by  causeless 
and  imprudent  reflections.  When  their  churches  were  de- 
nounced as  companies  of  banded  formalists — when  their  min- 
istry was  proclaimed,  as  feeding  the  flock  with  husks  instead 
of  salutary  food — it  is  not  surprising  if  the  majority  kept  aloof 
or  retired  disgusted  by  the  exhibition  of  so  much  censorious- 
ness.  Whitfield,  especially  in  middle  age,  saw  the  error  into 
which  he  had  been  betrayed  by  youthful  intemperance,  and 
in  the  spirit  of  a  Christian  publicly  acknowledged  it.  But 
notwithstanding  such  unhappy  circumstances.  Dr.  Watts, 
Dr.  Doddridge,  Mr.  Barker,  and  other  eminent  ministers, 
exemplified  the  charity  that  "hopeth  all  things,"  and  witness- 
ed with  intense  interest  and  joy  the  good  that  was  accom- 
plished, however  imperfect  they  might  deem  the  instruments. 
The  latter  in  a  private  letter  remarks,  "  I  have  heard  a  little 
of  Count  Zinziudorf,  but  not  a  full  and  satisfactory  account ; 
but  this  I  am  sure  of,  that  if  Satan's  kingdom  falls,  and  that 
of  our  Lord  rises,  if  the  one  lessens  and  the  other  extends, 


53G  LIFE   AND   TIMES 

therein  do  I  rejoice,  and  will  rejoice,  whoever  is  the  instru- 
ment, and  whatever  the  means,  and  in  what  place  soever 
Providence  opens  the  road.  By  what  you  say  of  that  noble 
person,  I  suppose  you  are  well  satisfied  he  is  a  Christian  re- 
formed from  popery  as  well  as  impiety,  and  zealous  for  the 
truths  and  laws  of  Christ.  I  still  think  the  Methodists  sin- 
cere ;  I  hope  that  they  do  good,  and  that  some  may  be  re- 
formed, instructed,  and  made  serious  by  their  means.  I  saw 
Mr.  Whitfield  preaching  on  Keunington  Common  last  week 
to  an  attentive  multitude,  and  heard  much  of  him  at  Bath ; 
but  supposing  him  sincere,  and  in  good  earnest,  I  still  fancy 
that  he  is  but  a  weak  man — much  too  positive,  says  rash 
things,  and  is  bold  and  entliusiastic.  I  am  most  heartily  glad 
to  hear  of  piety,  prayer,  reformation,  and  every  thing  that 
looks  like  faith  and  holiness,  in  the  north  or  south,  the  east 
or  the  west,  and  that  any  real  good  is  done  any  where  to  the 
souls  of  men  ;  but  whether  the  Methodists  are  in  a  riglit  way, 
whether  they  are  warrantable  in  all  their  conduct,  whether 
jjoor  people  should  be  urged  (through  different  persons,  suc- 
cessively) to  in  ay  from  four  bi  the  morning  till  eleven  at  night, 
is  not  clear  to  me ;  and  I  am  less  satisfied  with  the  high  pre- 
tences they  make  to  the  Divine  influence.  I  think  what  Mr. 
Whitfield  says  and  does  comes  but  little  short  of  an  assump- 
tion of  inspiration  or  infiiUibility,"  In  the  sentiments  here 
expressed  Dr.  Doddridge  fully  coincided ;  with  the  Wesleys, 
AVhitfield,  and  Zinzindorf  he  had  personal  interviews ;  but 
the  extravagances  which  were  tolerated  by  their  followers  at 
last  grieved  his  candid  mind.  "I  had,"  he  says  in  one  of  his 
letters,  "great  expectations  from  the  Methodists  and  Moravi- 
ans; I  am  grieved  from  my  very  heart  that  so  many  things 
have  occurred  among  them,  which  have  been  quite  unjustifia- 
ble; and  I  assure  you  faithfully,  they  are  such  as  would  have 
occasioned  me  to  have  dropped  that  intimacy  of  correspond- 
ence which  I  once  had  with  them.  And  I  suppose  they  have 
also  produced  the  same  sentiments  in  the  Archbishop  of  Can- 


OF    DR.    ISAAC    AVATTS.  537 

terbury,  who  to  my  certain  knowledge  received  Count  Zin- 
zindorf  with  open  arms,  and  wrote  of  his  being  chosen  the 
Moravian  bishop,  as  what  was  done  'plaudente  toto  coelesti 
choro.' "  It  is  highly  probable  that  Dr.  Watts  sympathised 
with  his  friends  in  their  views  of  the  zealous  itinerants;  he 
saw  much  to  hope  and  much  to  fear  from  their  conduct ;  and 
whilst  their  inexperience  and  rashness  led  him  to  treat  them 
with  cautious  reserve,  he  rejoiced  inasmuch  as  Christ  was 
preached.  I  know  not  whether  either  of  the  Wesleys  came 
into  personal  contact  with  him,  but  Whitfield  sought  his 
friendship,  and  visited  him  previous  to  his  second  voyage  to 
America.  He  took  occasion  to  correct  his  errors,  and  point 
out  the  dangers  to  which  he  was  exposed ;  to  guard  against 
interpreting  mental  impression  as  the  voice  of  God,  and  mis- 
taking animal  excitement  for  the  influence  of  devotion ;  advice 
which  the  young  apostle  received  with  candour,  and  regret- 
ted at  a  later  period  that  he  had  not  sooner  followed. 

FROM  THE  REV.  GEORGE  THOMSON.* 

"St.  Ginny's,  Jan.  17,  1730. 
"  Poet,  Divine,  Saint,  the  delight,  the  guide,  the  wonder 
of  the  virtuous  world  ;  permit.  Rev.  Sir,  a  stranger  unknown, 
and  likely  to  be  for  ever  unknown,  to  desire  one  blessing  from 
you  in  a  private  way.  'Tis  this,  that  when  you  approach  the 
throne  of  grace,  and  lift  up  holy  hands,  when  you  get  closest 
to  the  mercy-seat,  and  wrestle  mightily  for  the  peace  of  .Jeru- 
salem, you  would  breathe  one  petition  for  my  soul's  health. 
In  return  I  promise  you  a  share  for  life  in  my  unworthy 
prayers,  who  honour  you  as  a  father  and  a  brother  (though 
differently  ordered),  and  conclude  myself 

"  Your  affectionate  humble  servant, 

"  GEORGE  THOMSON. 

*  This  gentleman  was  living  in  1780,  though  deprived  of  sight. 

M  m 


538  LIPE    AND    TIMES 

"  P.  S.  If  you  can  forgive  my  freedom,  and  find  a  few  mi- 
nutes' leisure  to  ascertain  me  of  your  kind  design  to  oblige, 
to  make  me  happy,  direct  to  George  Thomson,  Vicar  of  St. 
Ginny's,  near  Camelford,  in  Cornwall." 


TO  THE  REV.  SAMUEL  SAY. 

"  Newington,  Jan.  28,  1736. 
"  Dear  Sir, 

"  If  you  desire  me  to  do  any  thing  for  you  which 
you  could  not  do  yourself,  you  know  that  I  am  ever  ready  ; 
but  when  you  ask  me  to  correct  a  copy  of  verses,  you  ask  me 
to  teach  Quintilian  to  correct  an  oration  of  one  of  his  Roman 
pupils,  or  to  instruct  Horace  to  write  lyrics.  Alas !  my  friend, 
I  am  grown  into  years,  and  though  part  of  the  critic  lives, 
yet  the  poet  is  almost  expired.  Old  age  can  find  fault  where 
it  cannot  mend.  Yet  friendship  prevails,  and  overrules  my 
reasonings,  and  constrains  me  to  attempt  what  you  desire.  I 
have  sent  you  a  short  sketch  of  what  may  be  much  improved 
by  your  review. 

"  I  am,  &c. 

"  I.  WATTS." 


FROM  THE  REV.  BENJAMIN  COLMAN,  D.  D.* 

"  Boston,  Feb.  12,  1736. 
"  Reverend  Sir, 

"  In  one  of  your  last  to  me  you  express  yourself  as 
greatly  pleased  with  the  account  I  gave  you  of  the  great  and 
good  disposition  found  in  a  tribe  of  Indians  on  our  south- 

*This  very  emiueut  divine  was  educated  at  Harvard  college.  He  came  over  to 
England  in  1692,  and  having  been  ordained,  returned  to  the  charge  of  one  of  the 
churches  (called  the  New  Church)  in  Boston.  He  coiresponded  with  Dean,  after- 
wards Bishop,  Kennut,  and  received  his  degree  from  the  university  of  Edinburgh, 


OF   DR.   ISAAC   WATTS.  539 

western  borders,  at  Honstatonock,  to  receive  the  gospel.  I 
send  you  by  this  ship,  and  to  Dr.  Harris,  Dr.  Guyse,  Mr. 
Neal,  and  others,  the  sermon  preached  at  Mr.  Sargeant's* 
ordination,  to  which  some  account  of  this  work  of  God  is  pre- 
fixed, and  therein  two  letters  to  me,  to  which  I  refer  you. 
Since  which  I  have  a  third  letter,  in  which  Mr.  Sargeant  ex- 
presses himself  thus  to  me  : 

"  '  Sir,  I  doubt  not  but  God  in  his  infinite  mercy  hears  the 
prayers  of  good  men  daily  put  up  to  him  for  success  in  the 
cause  of  Christ,  in  which  I  have  the  honour  to  be  engaged. 
In  their  favour,  next  to  the  blessing  of  God  on  my  endeavours, 
I  seem  to  enjoy  the  pleasures  of  society  in  the  deepest  solitude. 

"  '  I  wish  I  were  worthy  the  love  of  so  excellent  a  man  as 
the  Rev,  Dr.  Watts,  whom  all  the  world  admire  and  love. 
And  if  I  may  be  thought  to  deserve  in  any  measure  the  good 
opinion  of  the  world,  it  is  not  a  little  owing  to  the  doctor's  in- 
genious writings,  which  have  the  force  to  charm  minds  to  the 
love  of  piety  and  virtue,  and  infuse  something  of  his  own  spi- 
rit into  his  readers. 

" '  I  have  always  endeavoured  to  lead  our  Indians  by  the 
easiest  steps  into  knowledge.     I  had  no  thoughts  of  my  first 


in  conjunction  with  Professor  Wigglesworth.  Upon  Whitfield's  visit  to  Georgia, 
he  invited  him  to  Boston,  and  gave  him  the  use  of  his  pulpit.  Dr.  Colman  wrote 
"A  Narrative  of  the  Method  and  Success  of  Inoculating  the  Small-pox  in  New 
England,  with  a  Reply  to  the  objections  made  against  it  from  Principles  of  Con- 
science." This  was  published  by  Mr.  Neal  in  London,  and  attracted  the  attention 
of  the  Prince  and  Princess  of  Wales,  who  invited  the  editor  to  an  interview.  In 
a  Sketch  of  eminent  ministers  in  New  England,  by  the  Rev.  John  Barnard,  Dr. 
Colman  is  described  as  "a  most  gentlemanly  man,  of  polite  aspect  and  conversa- 
tion, very  extensive  erudition,  great  devotion  of  spirit  and  behaviour,  a  charming 
and  admired  preacher,  extensively  serviceable  to  the  college  and  country,  whose 
works  breathe  his  exalted,  oratorical,  devout,  and  benign  spirit:  an  excellent  man 
in  spirit,  in  faith,  in  holiness,  and  charity."  Collections  of  the  Historical  Society\ 
Boston,  X.  169.  —  Dr.  Chauncey,  in  a  letter  to  Dr.  Stiles,  says  of  him,  "His 
character  would  have  been  greater,  could  it  have  been  said  that  he  exceeded  as 
much  in  strength  of  reason  and  firmness  of  mind,  as  in  many  other  good  qualities." 
He  died,  after  a  useful  and  blameless  life,  in  the  year  1747,  aged  73.  His  life  was 
published  by  his  son  Turell,  8vo.  1749. 

*See  Correspondence  to  Chap.  XVII. 


540  LIFE    AND   TIMES 

discourse  to  them,  that  it  would  be  ever  read  by  any  but  my- 
self; but  had  I  tried  to  mend  it,  it  may  be  I  should  have 
made  it  worse. 

"  '  God  pleases  to  crown  our  endeavours  with  unexpected 
and  surprising  success.  I  have  baptised  almost  forty  persons, 
infants  and  adults.  I  hope  the  adults  have  a  pretty  good 
understanding  of  the  main  and  fundamental  doctrines  of  the 
holy  religion  into  which  they  have  been  baptised.  I  always 
endeavour  to  possess  their  minds  with  a  most  serious  sense  of 
what  they  are  about  when  they  enter  themselves  the  disciples 
of  Christ.  Their  whole  hearts  seem  to  be  engaged  in  the  mat- 
ter ;  and  I  have  reason  to  think,  that  the  imperfection  of  their 
knowledge  is  made  up  by  the  zeal  and  integrity  of  their  in- 
tentions. Those  that  have  been  baptised  have  behaved  them- 
selves very  well,  though  they  have  several  times  been  tempted 
to  exceed  the  rules  of  temperance  with  the  offers  of  strong 
drink,  which  used  to  be  their  beloved  destruction.  They 
seem  to  be  surprised  with  the  change  they  find  in  themselves  ; 
and,  after  their  manner,  express  the  difference  between  their 
former  and  present  state,  by  infancy  and  manhood,  dreaming 
and  being  awake,  darkness  and  light,  and  the  like  metaphors. 
I  pray  God  that  the  day-star  that  seems  risen  in  their  hearts, 
may  shine  more  and  more  to  the  perfect  day.  I  have  two 
Indian  lads  live  with  me,  and  have  £.3  in  money,  which 
I  design  to  spend  on  them  (i.  e.  by  subsisting  them),  and  by 
their  assistance  to  get  the  language.  Pray  for  me,  and  for 
our  new  proselytes,  and  the  whole  tribe,  and  may  the  blessing 
of  the  charitable  descend  on  you,  &c. 

"  '  December  26,  1735.  JOHN  sargeant.' 

"  Mr.  Sargeant  had  not  been  ordained  four  months  when 
he  wrote  this  letter.  I  have  sent  him  some  of  Mr.  Holden's 
money  for  his  subsisting  the  Indian  lads,  ten  pounds  ;  and  he 
shall  have  more  if  he  needs.  His  work  and  prayers  are  a  good 


OF    DR.    ISAAC    WATTS.  541 

return.  You  see,  Sir,  how  you  are  loved  up  in  our  woods, 
and  what  excellent  men  live  there,  and  what  good  things  are 
doing  there.  As  it  rejoiced  Mr.  Sargeant  there  to  hear  of 
your  joy  in  them,  so  it  will  refresh  you,  Sir,  in  the  midst  of 
London,  to  hear  from  him. 

"  My  packet  now  comes  to  Mr.  Coram,*  at  the  navy  office ; 
he  will  safely,  and  without  charge,  convey  it  to  you.  He  is 
one  of  the  trustees  for  Georgia,  and  has  brought  me  into  some 
correspondence  with  the  Earl  of  Egremont,  and  the  Rev.  Mr. 
Smith  of  Aldgate,  and  now  also  with  the  Rev.  Mr.  Winder  of 
Liverpooljt  who  by  his  letter  appears  to  be  a  very  superior 
person.  Mr.  Coram  has  a  vast  zeal  for  our  missionaries  in 
the  east  on  Dr.  Williams'sJ  foundation.  But  the  prospect  is 
poor  there.  If  it  continue  so  unprofitable,  and  the  door  opens 
above  Honstatonock,  as  seems  likely,  I  tell  our  governor  we 
must  needs  remove  those  missionaries  thither. 

"  And  now  I  have  named  his  Excellency,  I  will  add,  that 
he  never  has  said  any  thing  of  your  leaving  your  poem  to 
him  out  of  your  Miscellaneous  Thoughts.  I  am  sorry  you 
thought  there  was  reason  to  do  it.  If  I  am  able  to  judge,  he 
is  an  upright  and  fervent  man  to  do  good.  He  is  the  father 
of  the  Honstatonocks,  and  tender  of  Mr.  Sargeant  as  of  his 
eye.     His  heart  is  much  with  God  and  for  him.     I  will  take 

*  Captain  Coram. 

f  The  Rev.  Thos.  Winder,  D.  D.  author  of  "  A  Critical  and  Chronological  His- 
tory of  the  Rise,  Progress,  Declension,  and  Revival  of  Knowledge,  chiefly  Reli- 
gious :  in  two  periods.  1.  The  Period  of  Tradition  from  Adam  to  Moses.  2.  The 
Period  of  Letters  from  Moses  to  Christ."  This  was  published  in  1745  in  two 
volumes  quarto,  under  tlie  editorial  inspection  of  his  learned  friend  Dr.  Reuson,  of 
Poor  Jewry  Lane.     Some  memoirs  of  Dr.  Winder's  life  are  appended  to  it. 

I  Dr.  Williams,  among  his  numerous  benefactions,  left  a  legacy  for  the  support 
of  two  missionaries  to  the  Indians  in  America.  The  incorporated  society  in  London, 
for  propagating  the  gospel  in  New  England  and  the  parts  adjacent,  iiad  the  ma- 
nagement of  this  fund.  Their  commissioners  in  Boston  appointed,  at  the  recom- 
mendation of  Mr.  BrainerdjMr.  Elihu  Spencer  to  labour  among  the  Indians  of  the 
Six  Nations.  He  was  accordingly  ordained,  and  usefully  employed  among  the 
Oneidas,  about  one  hundred  and  seventy  miles  beyond  Albany. 


542  LIFE    AND   TIMES 

leave  to  comrauuicate  to  you  some  lines  he  has  lately  wrote 
to  me,  that  I  may  restore  him  in  your  thoughts  if  need  be. 

"  'January,  1735—6. 

"'Great  are  my  desires  to  serve  my  Creator  and  Redeemer 
in  my  public  and  private  life.  Dear  Sir,  I  entreat,  I  charge 
and  require  you  to  wrestle  Avith  God,  that  I  may  be  always 
faithful  and  upright  before  him.' 

"  '  February  7, . 

"  '  As  the  recess  of  the  general  assembly  and  the  winter 
season  give  me  some  little  ease,  I  cannot  employ  myself  better 
to  my  satisfaction,  than  to  inquire  into  the  duty  I  owe  to  my 
God  and  Saviour.  These  are  admirably  set  before  me  in  your 
letters,  &c.  But,  O  Sir,  in  what  a  glaring  light  has  God  set 
me !  How  has  he  encompassed  me  with  innumerable  bless- 
ings, health,  affluence,  honour,  &c.  !  And  now  to  be  taken 
from  the  sheepfolds,  &c. !  How  grateful,  vigilant,  and  pros- 
trate ought  I  to  lie  at  his  feet,  on  whose  shoulders  the  govern- 
ment is  laid,  that  in  the  whole  of  my  administration  I  may 
advance  his  glory  !  wherein  I  am  sure  I  shall  best  of  all  honour 
the  king  and  serve  his  people,'  &c.  &c. 

"I  thought.  Sir,  there  could  be  no  like  effectual  way  to 
show  you  the  true  worth  and  spirit  of  our  excellent  governor, 
than  by  such  a  transcript,  which  I  send  you  in  a  confidence 
of  secresy,  that  can  only  excuse,  if  it  may  at  all  justify,  what 
I  do.  And  after  all  my  heart  smites  me,  as  David's  did  him, 
when  he  cut  off  the  skirts  and  saved  his  father's  life. 

"The  spring  is  now  coming,  and  the  ships  from  sea  appear 
then,  as  the  birds  out  of  the  wood.  Then  we  look  out  to  see  and 
read  you  again,  to  receive  new  bounties  and  blessings.  But 
good  and  bad  is  mixed  in  this  life,  and  we  seldom  hear  from 
our  living  friends,  but  we  hear  of  some  dead.  May  you  still 
live  by  the  will  of  God,  and  love  and  pray  for  your  affectionate 

"BENJ.  COLMAN. 


OF    DR.    ISAAC    AVATTS.  543 

"  P.  S,  We  have  had  a  strange  fever  that  seizes  the  throats 
of  our  children,  in  New  Hampshire,  this  winter,  and  carries 
them  oiT  suddenly ;  sweeps  houses  ;  so  that  from  week  to  week 
we  hear  of  three  buried  together  by  one,  and  three  by  another ; 
some  have  buried  their  all,  and  some  their  five  or  six.*  It  is 
new,  and  no  means  safe  as  yet ;  our  eyes  are  up  to  God,  and 
have  kept  a  day  of  prayer  through  the  province  to  make  inter- 
cession.    *  Spare  thy  people,  O  Lord !'  " 


FROM  MR.  ELISHA   WILLIAMS.f 

"New  Haven,  May  24,  1736. 
"Rev.  Sir, 

"I  have  now  before  me  yours  of  May  13th,  1735,  for 
which  as  well  as  the  two  volumes  of  sermons  sent  therewith 
to  the  college,  my  grateful  acknowledgments  on  my  own  ac- 
count, as  well  as  in  behalf  of  the  college  corporation,  you 


*  The  Rev.  Jabez  Fitch,  of  Portsmouth,  New  Hampshire,  published  an  account 
of  this  fatal  disorder,  as  it  appeared  in  that  province,  for  fourteen  months,  prior 
to  July  25,  1736.  He  also  published  two  sermons  from  Jeremiah,  xiv.  8,  9,  de- 
signed to  lead  the  people  to  a  religious  improvement  of  the  throat  distemper. 

f  This  gentleman  was  the  rector  of  Vale  college,  at  New  Haven,  in  Connecticut, 
from  the  year  1726  to  1739.  He  resigned  the  office  owing  to  ill  health,  but  became 
chaplain  to  a  regiment  sent  from  New  England  against  Cape  Breton  in  the  year 
174.5,  when  that  important  place  surrendered  to  the  British  arms.  After  this,  when 
an  expedition  was  concerted  against  Canada,  and  a  regiment  of  a  thousand  men 
was  raised  by  his  majesty's  order  for  the  purpose,  he  was  appointed  by  the  General 
Assembly  to  be  the  chief  colonel,  which  office  he  accepted,  and  was  in  readiness  to 
have  gone  upon  tiie  service,  when  orders  came  from  Great  Britain  for  disbanding 
the  troops  designed  for  the  expedition.  He  came  to  England  to  solicit  the  pay- 
ment of  the  regimeutin  January,  1749 — 50,  and  did  not  leave  it  till  August,  1751. 
During  this  time  Dr.  Cibbons  had  a  particular  and  intimate  acquaintance  with 
him,  and  so  had  Dr.  Doddridge,  who  in  a  letter  to  a  friend  gives  this  account  con- 
cerning him  :  "  I  look  upon  Colonel  Williams  to  be  one  of  the  most  valuable 
men  upon  earth:  he  has  joined  an  ardent  sense  of  religion,  solid  learning,  con- 
summate prudence,  great  candour,  and  sweetness  of  temper,  and  a  certain  noble- 
ness of  soul  capable  of  contriving  and  acting  the  greatest  things  without  seeming 
to  be  conscious  of  having  done  them." 


544  LIFE    AND   TIMES 

might  justly  have  expected  before  this  time;  yet,  when  I 
have  informed  you  that  my  friend  at  Boston,  into  whose 
hands  your  packet  was  put  to  convey  it  to  me,  happened  to 
send  it  by  one  who  left  it  in  the  country  at  some  distance 
from  ]5oston,  where,  notwithstanding  all  the  care  I  could  pos- 
sibly take,  it  lay  till  this  spring,  and  then  was  carried  back  to 
Boston  for  conveyance  hither,  and  but  two  days  ago  came  to 
my  hands,  you  will  not.  Sir,  interpret  it  as  a  neglect  of  duty 
that  our  thanks  reach  you  no  sooner. 

"Though  I  have  had  so  little  time  to  think  on  what  you  laid 
before  me  in  yours  relating  to  those  philosophical  inquiries, 
yet  I  durst  not  omit  this  first  opportunity  of  transmitting  this 
to  Boston,  and  the  rather,  expecting  it  may  reach  the  hands 
of  Mr.  Hooker,  an  ingenious  and  hopeful  young  gentleman 
educated  at  this  college,  now  sailing  for  London,  who  intends 
to  do  himself  the  honour  of  waiting  on  yourself,  if  God  shall 
give  him  leave,  and  so  I  hope  this  may  safely  reach  you  by 
him.  Since  the  thesis  I  sent  you  was  not  unacceptable,  I 
venture  to  offer  you  the  last. 

"The  state  of  religion  in  the  nation  seems  very  lamentable 
according  to  your  account  of  it,  and,  considering  the  light  and 
means  they  have,  it  is  amazing,  and  a  very  strong  evidence 
of  the  dreadful  depravation  of  human  nature,  and  so  of  some 
of  those  truths  they  so  earnestly  oppose.  As  those  volumes  of 
sermons  you  were  pleased  to  send  us  were  doubtless  very  sea- 
sonable where  they  were  preached,  wherein  several  truths 
were  fairly  cleared  which  had  been  suffering  from  various 
quarters,  so  they  are  indeed  seasonable  in  this  country,  and  I 
cannot  sufficiently  express  my  thankfulness  to  God  and  to 
you  for  them  on  account  of  the  youth  who  are  here  educated. 

"I  am  obliged,  in  thankfulness  to  God,  to  own  that  your 
sermons  have  done  great  service  to  our  youth,  as  I  hope  those 
now  sent  will,  which  I  purpose  shall  be  read  in  the  college- 
hall  every  Sabbath  evening,  as  yours  and  some  others  have 
been,  that  they  may  be  made  the  more  extensively  beneficial. 


OF    DR.    ISAAC    WATTS.  545 

"I  sometime  since  informed  you  I  hoped  your  Catechisms 
for  youth  would  have  an  impression  in  this  country,  and 
should  when  accomplished  have  offered  one  to  your  accept- 
ance had  there  not  been  the  mistake  of  copying  after  the 
first  edition  instead  of  your  corrected  one,  which  I  trust  will 
be  mended  when  it  receives  a  second  edition,  which  I  wish 
for  ;  and  my  father  (who  wrote  the  preface  to  it)  lately  telling 
me  Mr.  S.  Mather*^  of  Boston  had  acquainted  him  he  had 
sent  you  one  of  them,  I  thought  it  not  amiss  to  inform  you 
how  the  mistake  came.  The  ministers  in  the  county  of 
Hampshire  devolved  the  caro  of  printing  it  on  one  of  their 
number,  who  told  me  he  had  your  corrected  edition,  I  having 
seasonably  observed  to  him  the  necessity  of  putting  such  a 
one  into  the  printer's  hands,  and  that  if  he  had  not  one  I 
would  furnish  him,  and  upon  his  telling  me  so  I  took  no  fur- 
ther care  of  the  matter  till  it  was  too  late  to  help  his  mistake. 

"  Since  the  advancement  of  Christ's  kingdom  is  always  your 

*  Son  of  Dr.  Cottou  Mather,  and  She  author  of  his  life,  to  the  English  abridg- 
ment of  which  Dr.  Watts  wrote  a  preface.  We  have  interesting  memoirs  of  the 
Wesley  family  :  a  memoir  of  the  Mather  family  is  a  desideratum,  and  would  be  a 
valuable  addition  to  the  library  of  Christian  biography.  The  great  grandfather  of 
the  Mr.  S.  Mather  mentioned  above,  was  the  Rev.  John  Cotton,  who  was  pastor,  in 
conjunction  with  Mr.  Wilson,  of  tiie  first  church  in  Boston.  The  name  of  the  city 
initil  his  arrival  in  1634,  had  been  among  the  Indians  .S7(a?i>wM<,  afterwards  among 
the  early  settlers  Tri-mountain,  from  its  three  hills,  but  changed  to  Boston,  ia 
honour  of  the  place  of  the  same  name  in  Lincolnshire,  where  Mr.  Cotton  had  ex- 
ercised his  ministry.  Dr.  Cotton  Mather  tells  us,  that  the  gathering  of  the  second 
church  in  Boston,  was  "very  much  against  the  interest  of  Jlr.  Cotton,  his  worthy 
grandfatlier ;  but  his  name  was  John,  and  he  reckoned  his  joy  fulfilled  in  this,  that 
in  his  own  decrease  the  interest  of  Christ  would  increase  ;  and,  therefore,  with  ex- 
emplary self  denial,  he  set  himself  to  encourage  the  foundation  of  this  church. 
And  that  it  pleased  the  Lord  so  to  order  it,  that  his  self  denial  should  turn  out  to 
some  account  in  the  opportunities  which  that  ve7-y  church  had  given  to  his  children 
to  glorify  the  Lord  Jesus  Christ  in  the  conduct  of  it.  His  son-in-law  (Increase 
]\lather)  for  more  than  thrice  ten  years,  and  his  grandson  (Cotton  Mather)  for 
more  than  twice  seven  years,  being  the  minister  of  the  gospel  in  that  iwi-y  church, 
accommodated  with  happy  opportunities  to  serve  their  generation."  Eccles.Hist, 
of  Massachusetts  in  Histtirieal  Collections,  x.  27.  1  know  not  whether  Mr.  Samuel 
Matiier  succeeded  his  father  in  the  same  church,  called  the  North  Church,  but  he 
was  a  minister  many  years  in  Boston,  and  became  doctor  of  divinity.  His  great 
uncle,  the  Rev.  Nathaniel  Mather,  was  pastor  of  the  Independent  church  in  Paved 
Alley,  Lime  Street,  London,  to  whose  memory  Dr.  \^'atts  has  inscribed  an  epitaph. 


54G  LIFE    AND   TIMES 

rejoicing,  it  will  not  be  disagreeable  to  you  if  I  should  ac- 
quaint you  that  there  has  been  a  remarkable  revival  of  religion 
in  several  parts  of  this  country,  in  ten  parishes  in  the  county 
of  Hampshire,  in  the  Massachusetts  province,  where  it  first 
began  a  little  more  than  a  year  since,  and  in  near  twenty  pa- 
rishes of  this  colony.  It  has  not  been  equal  in  them  all, 
though  in  all  the  Spirit  of  God  has  appeared  remarkably 
poured  out  on  many  old  professors,  but  especially  on  the  ri- 
sing generation.  In  several  towns  it  was  very  general,  and 
a  serious  thorough  concern  was  stirred  up  in  them  to  make  a 
business  of  religion,  so  as  to  bespeak  the  special  hand  of  God 
therein.  I  will  only  instance  in  one  town,  Hatfield.*  There 
appeared  a  great  concern  upon  the  minds  of  many  in  one  part 
of  the  town  at  once.  Children  from  ten  to  twelve  years  of  age 
of  their  own  accord  (and  without  the  knowledge  of  elder  peo- 
ple), assembled  to  read  and  pray  by  themselves,  while  others 
who  were  elder  did  the  like  (though  in  this  practice  the  chil- 
dren were  first).  The  other  part  of  the  town  observed  this, 
and  rather  wondered  what  had  happened  to  them  than  thought 
of  any  such  thing  themselves,  and  the  looser  among  them  ri- 
diculed it,  but  in  a  few  days  they  were  awakened  themselves, 
and  the  concern  became  so  general  that  it  seemed  almost  the 
universal  cry  (among  the  unconverted)  what  they  should  do  to 
be  saved ;  so  that  they  applied  to  their  minister  in  numbers 
every  day  from  morning  till  night  with  their  difficulties  for  his 

*  A  small  town  in  Hampshire,  upon  the  river  Connecticut.  The  minister  here 
was  the  father  of  the  writer  of  tliis  letter,  the  uncle  of  President  Edwards,  and  tlie 
son-in-law  of  Mr.  Stoddard  of  Northampton.  Dr.  Chauncey  remarks,  in  his  "Sketch 
of  Eminent  ^Ten,"  "  I  have  read  all  Mr.  Stoddard's  writings,  but  was  never  able  to 
see  in  them  that  strength  of  genius  some  have  attributed  to  him.  IMr.  Williams  of 
Hatfield,  his  son-in-law,  I  believe  to  have  been  the  greater  man,  and  I  am  ready  to 
think  greater  than  any  of  his  own  sons,  though  they  were  all  men  of  more  than 
common  uiider>tandiug.  Rector  \\'illiams  and  his  brother  Solomon  I  give  the  pre- 
ference to  the  other  sons."  In  his  "Faithful  Narrative,"  speaking  of  tiie  revival, 
Mr.  Edwards  observes,  "  It  began  also  to  be  manifest  in  the  south  part  of  Hatfield, 
in  a  place  called  the  Hill,  and  liie  whole  town,  in  the  second  week  in  April,  seemed 
to  be  seized,  as  it  were,  at  once  with  concern  about  the  things  of  religion ;  aud  the 
work  of  God  has  been  great  there." 


OF   DR.   ISAAC   WATTS.  547 

direction  and  help.  The  issue  has  been,  that  many  are  hap- 
pily converted,  some  children  under  ten  years  of  age,  many  of 
whom  surprise  us  with  their  })iety  and  understanding  in  reli- 
gion. There  is  a  universal  reformation  of  manners,  there  are 
frequent  meetings  for  reading  and  praying  kept  up  in  several 
parts  of  the  towns,  the  most  engaged  attention  on  the  ministry, 
and  the  conversation  of  people  is  much  turned  from  worldly 
concerns  to  those  of  a  religious  nature,  and  their  religion 
seems  to  be  a  real  living  principle  within  them.  After  this 
manner  has  the  work  been,  and  is  still  going  on  in  some  pla- 
ces. This  mercy  has  also  reached  some  of  the  Indians,  especi- 
ally a  tribe  of  them,  to  whom  Mr.  Sargeant,  lately  a  tutor  at 
this  college,  a  learned  pious  man,  has  gone,  and  entirely  de- 
voted himself  to  serve  the  interest  of  Christ  among  them,  and 
since  last  October  has  baptised  fifty  infants  and  adults,  of 
whom  he  says  he  has  reason  to  hope  they  will  live  worthy  the 
profession  they  have  made;  that  they  seem  surprised  at  the 
change  they  feel  in  themselves,  and  compare  their  former 
state  of  heathenism  to  a  dream,  and  their  Christianity  to  their 
being  awake ;  their  heathenism  to  the  darkness  of  the  night, 
their  Christianity  to  the  brightness  of  the  day  :  these  and  such 
like  metaphors  they  use  to  express  the  difference  between 
their  former  and  present  state.  Would  to  God  this  blessing 
might  be  extended  not  only  through  our  land  and  nation  but 
the  whole  world ! 

"  We  have  just  received  the  unwelcome  news,  that  the  par- 
liament has  rejected  the  application  of  the  protestant  dissenters 
to  have  the  corporation  and  test  acts  repealed.  I  had  hoped 
by  this  time  that  the  just  notions  of  liberty  had  so  far  pre- 
vailed in  the  nation,  as  to  have  delivered  as  good  subjects  as 
any  the  king  has  from  a  part  at  least  of  that  persecution  they 
had  long  felt.  Are  the  adversaries  of  truth  and  liberty  still 
so  strong  as  to  discourage  any  further  attempt  ? 

"Forgive  all  the  trouble  of  this  tedious  letter,  and  be  pleas- 
ed to  accept  of  our  sincere  and  affectionate  regards,  and  of  the 


548  LIFE    AND    TIMES 

humble  duty  of  our  tutors  and  Mr.  Hubbard,  and  allow  me  to 
subscribe  myself,  Reverend  Sir, 

"Your  most  obliged  and 

"Very  humble  servant, 

"ELISHA  WILLIAMS." 
FROM  THE  HON.  JONATHAN  BELCHER. 

"Boston,  Nov.  29,  1736. 
"  Dear  Sir, 

"  In  June  last  came  to  my  hand  your  favour  of  the 
28th  of  February,  when  I  was  sorry  to  find  Mr.  Belcher  dis- 
appointed of  the  pleasure  of  your  conversation  in  the  city  by 
your  confinement  at  Newington,  where  I  hope  he  soon  wait- 
ed on  you.  I  desire  to  own  it,  with  the  humblest  and  highest 
sense  of  gratitude  to  my  gracious  God  and  Father,  that  I 
have  continued  accounts  of  my  son's  sobriety  and  diligence ; 
and  I  am  the  more  pleased  with  what  I  formerly  wrote  him 
on  the  score  of  his  standing  a  candidate,  since  you  fully  agree 
with  me  in  those  sentiments;  yet,  as  I  then  hinted,  if  God 
spares  his  life,  and  opens  a  fair  door,  I  should  be  pleased  he 
might  find  a  seat  in  St.  Stephen's  chapel  at  the  next  election ; 
but  that  is  at  a  great  distance,  and  it  is  not  worth  while  to  be 
anxious  about  it. 

"  From  the  arrival  of  one  ship  after  another,  1  find  Gover- 
nor Shute  gradually  decaying ;  may  his  last  days  be  his  best, 
and  when  numbered  and  finished  may  he  receive  a  crown  of 
life. 

"  Governor  Holden  gives  me  the  account  of  the  miscarriage 
of  the  repeal  t)f  the  test:  considering  how  cold  the  ministry 
were  in  the  matter,  it  is  a  pity  the  attempt  was  made  yet ; 
when  it  will  be  a  convenient  season  it  is  hard  to  say. 

"  My  best  respects  always  wait  on  the  good  Lady  Abney. 


OF   DR.    ISAAC    WATTS.  549 

"  I  thank  your  kind  condolence  on  the  death  of  my  late  dear 
sister  Oliver,  \vho  did  worthily  in  her  generation,  and  T  doubt 
not  but,  through  the  mercy  of  God  in  Christ,  she  is  become  a 
member  of  the  '  general  assembly  and  church  of  the  first-born, 
and  now  lives  with  the  spirits  of  the  just  men  made  perfect.' 
I  am  much  pleased  with  your  ingenious  little  book,  'The  Re- 
deemer, Sanctifier,'  &c.  and  sorry  there  should  be  occasion  for 
it  in  this  part  of  the  world,  '  God  planted  this  world  with  a 
noble  vine,  wholly  a  right  seed  ;'  and  justly  now  complains, 
'  How  art  thou  turned  into  the  degenerate  plant  of  a  strange 
vine !  And  how  is  the  gold  become  dim  !  How  is  the  most 
fine  gold  changed !  Yet  I  will  not  despond,  for  the  residue 
of  the  Spirit  is  with  God,  and  he  can  revive  his  work  in  the 
midst  of  the  years,'  This  we  must  always  pray  for  in  the  name 
of  his  well-beloved  Son,  our  exalted  Redeemer  and  powerful 
Intercessor. 

"  I  thank  you  very  kindly  for  your  good  wishes  to  my  go- 
vernment, to  myself,  and  to  my  family, 

"  I  am  now.  Sir,  with  a  faint  voice  and  with  a  trembling 
hand,  to  acquaint  you  of  the  death  of  my  late  dear  wife,  on 
the  6th  ult,  God  has  removed  the  desire  of  my  eyes  with  a 
stroke ;  she  who  had  been  the  faithful  divider  of  all  my  cares, 
and  the  doubler  of  all  my  joys.  I  desire  now  to  remember, 
that  '  affliction  does  not  spring  out  of  the  dust,'  nor  '  does  God 
willingly  afflict  or  grieve  the  children  of  men ;'  I  would,  there- 
fore, bow  down  and  adore,  and  say, '  I  have  sinned,  what  shall 
I  do  unto  thee,  O  thou  preserver  of  men  ?'  And  '  wherefore 
doth  a  living  man  complain  .?  A  man  for  the  punishment  of 
his  sins  ?'  Especially  since,  in  this  judgment,  God  gives  me 
great  reason  to  sing  of  mercy ;  for  she  had  the  full  use  of  her 
reason  till  the  last  moment,  and  died  in  great  peace  and  sere- 
nity ;  and  while  I  tell  you  some  of  her  last  expressions,  you 
will  charitably  hope  so.  She  died  on  the  Wednesday,  and 
on  the  Monday  before,  as  I  was  sitting  with  her  on  the  bed, 
I  said  to  her,  '  My  dear,  you  draiv  nigh  to  the  grave.''     She 


550  LIFE    AND   TIMES 

replied,  '/  knoiv  /7,  my  dear.''  I  then  said,  "7«s  a  great  work 
to  die.''  She  answered,  '  So  it  is,  but  Christ  .Testis  died  for  the 
chief  of  sinners,  or  I  shoidd  die  without  hope.""  She  then 
went  on  ;  ^  He  is  an  almighty  Saviour,  and  saves  to  the  utter- 
most those  that  come  unto  him;  therefore.,  m,y  dear,  I  am  not 
afraid  to  die.''  And  again,  with  a  loud  voice,  she  said,  '//i?  is 
a  lovely  Saviour,  and  I  love  him  with  my  whole  soul;  and 
coidd  not  love  him,  if  he  had  not  loved  me  Jirst.^  She  has 
trod  the  dark  valley,  whether  I  must  soon  follow  her;  and 
the  voice  of  God  to  me  in  this  providence  is,  '  Be  you,  there- 
fore, ready  also.'  Let  me,  then,  Sir,  ask  you  to  join  your 
prayers  to  mine,  that  by  the  assistance  of  the  Holy  Spirit  of 
God  I  may  '  stand  with  my  loins  girt,  and  my  light  burning, 
that  whenever  the  Son  of  Man  comes  I  may  enter  into  the 
joy  of  my  Lord.'  May  you  and  I  meet  and  dwell  for  ever 
there,  through  infinite  riches  of  grace  and  mercy,  in  Jesus 
Christ!    Amen.     Reverend  Sir, 

"  Your  assured  friend 

"  And  most  obedient  servant, 

"j.    BELCHER. 

"P.  S.    Your  packets  under  my  care  were  all  carefully 
delivered." 

FROM    THE    REV.    FREDERIC    MICHAEL    ZIEGENHAGEN.* 

"Kensington,  Oct.  29,  1736. 
"  Rev.  Sir, 

"  Your  very  kind  letter  of  the  23rd  instant,  together 
with  three  books  of  the  late  Rev.  Mr.  John  Jennings'sf  Dis- 

*Tliis  gentleman  was  chaplain  to  George  II.  minister  of  the  German  chapel  at 
St.  James's  upwards  of  fifty-three  years,  and  died,  bearing  an  excellent  character, 
January  2ith,  1776. 

f  Mr.  J.  Jennings  was  pastor  at  Kibworth  and  Hinckley  in  Leicestershire,  the 
tutor  of  an  academy,  and  died  at  the  latter  place  in  the  year  1722.  He  was  the 
author  of  another  .small  treatise  on  "Preaching  Christ,"  to  whichDr.  Watts  wrote  a 
preface.     Appendi.x  H. 


OF    DR.    ISAAC    WATTS.  551 

courses  concerning  evangelical  and  experimental  preaching 
came  safe  to  my  hands,  Oct,  26,  I  heartily  thank  you,  dear 
Sir,  as  well  as  the  Rev.  Mr,  David  Jennings,*  for  so  agreeable 
a  present,  and  more  especially  for  the  care  and  pains  both  of 
you  have  been  at,  either  in  translating  or  revising  and  publish- 
ing the  late  Professor  Frauck's  epistle  on  the  same  subject,  I 
shall  not  fail  to  acquaint  the  son  of  that  good  man,  the  present 
professor  Frank,  with  your  particular  esteem  for  and  love  to 
the  memory  of  his  father,  and  by  the  first  opportunity  also 
transmit,  according  to  your  direction,  two  copies  of  the  said 
discourses  to  Halle.  In  the  mean  time  I  dare  assure  you  this 
fresh  instance  of  your  pious  desire  to  promote  the  interest  of 
true  Christianity  will  certainly  be  acknowledged  with  praise 
to  the  Lord,  and  endear  your  name  to  very  many  who  wish 
well  to  the  cause  of  Christ  in  Germany.  May  the  Lord  be 
pleased  to  awaken  by  this  little  book  the  whole  order  of  men 
who  pretend  to  be  ministers  of  Christ  and  the  gospel,  and 
nevertheless  have  been  too  negligent,  if  not  ashamed  to  preach 
Christ  or  the  gospel,  that  they  may  recover  themselves  out  of 
the  snare  and  deceit  they  most  unhappily  are  fallen  into,  that 
for  the  future  they  may  not  preach  themselves,  but  Christ 
Jesus  the  Lord,  and  especially  him  crucified,  who  alone  is 
made  of  God  unto  us  wisdom,  and  righteousness,  and  sancti- 
fication,  and  redemption. 

"  As  to  your  kind  invitation  to  come  and  dine  with  you  on 
a  Tuesday  in  Aldermanbury  I  very  thankfully  accept  of  it, 
but  must  beg  leave  to  defer  it  a  time  longer,  till  the  arrival  of 
three  missionaries  for  the  protestant  mission  in  the  East  Indies 
at  Tranquebar,  who  are  expected  from  Halle  the  middle  of 
December  next,  and  will  certainly  be  very  glad  to  have  the 
happiness  to  get  acquainted  with  good  and  pious  men,  and 
particularly  with  the  author  of  that  excellent  book  called 


*  Brother  of  the  preceding,  and  pastor  of  the  church  iu  Gravel  Lane,  Wapping, 
one  of  Watts's  most  esteemed  friends. 


552  LIFE    AND    TIMES 

'  The  Redeemer  and  Sanctifier,'  and  I  do  not  question  that 
your  goodness  will  grant  ihcra  a  friendly  access  and  conversa- 
tion. My  most  humble  service  to  my  Lady  Abney  and  her 
family.     I  remain,  with  much  sincerity  and  esteem,  reverend 

Sir, 

"  Your  affectionate  brother 

"And  humble  servant, 

"  TRED.  MICH.  ZIEGENIIAGEN." 
FROM  THE  REV.  BENJAMIN  COLMAN,  D.  D. 

"  Boston,  Dec.  17,  1736. 
"  Rev.  and  dear  Sir, 

"  Your  favours  of  September  last  found  mc  confined 
to  my  chamber,  under  the  asthmatic  oppression  of  a  very 
great  cold  and  cough,  which  has  been  very  heavy  upon  me  by 
night,  but  by  day  I  have  had  more  ease.  I  have  not  been  out 
of  my  doors  these  thirty  days,  but  only  to  preach,  and  am  much 
enfeebled  and  wasted ;  but,  I  thank  God,  this  last  week  I  am 
something  amended.  My  tender  constitution  from  my  youth 
feels  the  advancesofage  sooner  and  stronger  than  many  others; 
yet  I  have  seen  others,  seemingly  stronger,  breaking  sooner  in 
all  their  powers :  and  what  am  I  that  I  should  be  spared  ? 
The  Lord  quicken  me  in  my  work,  and  prepare  me  for  my 
change. 

"  Your  picture  for  the  college,  and  the  books  for  Mr.  Sar- 
geant,  came  safe  to  me,  and  I  have  given  the  good  captain  a 
receipt  for  them,  in  acknowledgment  of  his  care.  I  have  wrote 
to  Mr.  President*  and  Mr.  Sargeant,  and  given  them  an  ac- 

*  The  Rev.  Benjamin  Wadsworth.  He  succeeded  President  Leveret  in  the 
charge  of  Harvard  college,  in  the  year  1724.  He  graduated  in  1()90,  and  in  con- 
nexion with  the  Rev.  Thomas  Foxcroft  became  pastor  of  the  Old  Church  in  Boston. 
"  These  are  reckoned,"  says  Neal,  "  the  most  narrow  iu  their  principles,  and  to 
approach  nearest  the  Browuists."  Hist,  of  New  Enylund,  ii.  589.  Mr.  Wads- 
worth  is  described  as  of  "  good  learning,  most  pious,  humble  and  prudent,  an 
excellent,  plain,  pathetical  prcaclier."  llvv.  John  Barnard  in  Hist.  Coll.  x.  169. 
He  died  in  the  i'ollowing  year,  and  was  succeeded  by  President  llolyoke. 


OF    DR.    ISAAC    WATTS.  553 

count  of  your  kindness,  and  the  words  you  have  written  re- 
specting both.  But  there  is  such  a  wilderness  between  us  and 
Mr.  Sargeant,  that  I  fear  whether  the  books  will  get  to  him 
till  the  spring ;  and  Mr.  President  has  not  yet  got  a  safe  hand 
to  send  for  your  picture,  which  will  be  very  welcome  to  the 
college,  as  I  am  sure  your  soul  in  its  various  forms  has  been. 

"  I  sometimes  wonder  that  my  packets  last  were  so  long  in 
their  way  to  you  ;  but  Mr.  Coram  lets  me  know  from  Bristol, 
that  he  had  been  long  from  home,  which  accounts  in  part  to 
me  for  the  reason. 

"  Although  the  difference  that  has  been  at  Springfield*  and 
Boston,  has  wounded  and  weakened  the  hearts  of  some  of  us 
there  and  here,  yet,  thanks  be  to  God,  the  good  fruits  of  the 
Spirit  there  abide ;  and  I  send  you  an  extract  of  a  long  letter, 
and  another  to  Dr.  Guyse,  from  the  Rev.  Mr.  Edwards  of 
Northampton,  relating  to  that  work,  which  will  gratify  both 
you  and  him  in  the  general  account  given  ;  and  you  may  make 
what  use  of  it  you  please  for  the  good  of  others.  The  whole 
of  his  letter  to  me  is  eight  sheets,  in  writing;  and  whether  it 
will  be  best  to  print  it  all  I  am  in  doubt,  considering  the  taste 
of  the  present  day ;  yet  I  find  Mr.  Edwards  is  not  altogether 
pleased  with  the  liberty  we  have  taken  of  so  general  an  ex- 
tract. If  it  be  not  printed  here  in  the  whole,  as  a  proposal  is 
made  by  the  bookseller,  I  think  to  send  over  to  Dr.  Guyse  and 
you  the  manuscript,  with  Mr.  Edwards's  leave,  and  I  think 
nothing  less  was  his  meaning  in  his  labour  of  writing  it ;  and 


*  A  town  upon  the  river  Connecticut,  founded  by  William  Pynclion,  Esq.  called 
after  a  place  of  the  same  name  in  Essex,  near  to  which  he  had  a  mansion.  Spring- 
field was  nearly  destroyed  by  the  Indians  under  the  famous  Sachem  Philip.  "  I 
suppose,"  says  Mr.  Edwards,  "  we  have  been  the  freest  of  any  part  of  the  land  from 
unhappy  divisions  and  quarrels  in  our  ecclesiastical  and  religious  affairs,  till  the 
late  lamentable  Springfield  contention."  "  The  contention,"  he  adds,  "  relates  to 
the  settlement  of  a  minister  there,  which  occasioned  too  warm  debates  between 
some,  both  pastors  and  people,  that  were  for  it,  and  others  that  were  against  it,  on 
account  of  their  different  apprehensions  about  his  principles,  and  about  some  steps 
that  were  taken  to  procure  his  ordination." 

N  n 


554  LIFE    AND   TIMES 

then  it  will  be  yours  to  use  as  you  may  judge  best  for  the 
service  of  souls. 

"I  suppose  you  have  my  sermon  on  the  Rev.  Mr,  Stod- 
dard's* decease,  who  was  an  eminent  father  in  our  churches ; 
and  it  will  please  you  to  see  the  piety,  labours,  and  success  of 
his  grandson  and  successor,  who  is  risen  up  as  Elisha  in  the 
spirit  of  Elias,  to  do  greater  things,  through  the  special  grace 
of  God  in  him  and  with  him. 

"  The  Rev,  Mr,  Williams,  to  whose  pious  and  plain  sermons 
the  letter  aforesaid  is  an  appendix,  is  now  seventy  years  old, 
and  has  been  the  father  of  that  country  since  Mr.  Stoddard's 
decease;  a  man  eminent  for  meekness  of  wisdom,  apostolic 
love  and  charity,  devotion,  public  and  private,  admirable  in 
the  flow  of  his  prayers,  and  the  humblest  saint  in  the  whole 
province.  God  has  blessed  him  with  four  sons ;  one  presi- 
dent of  Yale  College,  two  superior  in  the  ministry  among  us, 
the  youngest  one  of  our  court.  Our  visit  last  year  to  Spring- 
field was  a  great  wound  to  his  soul. 

"  I  heard  lately  from  Mr.  Sargeant,  that  his  Indians  grow 
uneasy  about  townships  laid  out  about  them,  to  his  great  dis- 
couragement. Not  able  to  wait  on  the  governor  I  wrote  to 
him,  and  he  laid  my  letter  before  the  court;  and  he  satisfies 
me,  in  a  line,  that  the  court  will  take  effectual  care  to  make 
the  tribe  easy.  The  Dutch  traders  do  all  they  can  to  infuse 
jealousies  into  the  Indians  of  our  design  to  make  a  property 
of  them,  but  as  yet  in  vain. 

"The  state  of  our  province  is  greatly  embarrassed  about  the 
paper  currency.     The  court  called  us  to  a  day  of  prayer  with 

•  The  Rev.  Solomon  Stoddard,  born  at  Boston  in  the  year  1643,  He  graduated 
at  Harvard  in  1662,  commenced  his  ministry  in  his  native  city,  but  removed  for 
tl)e  benefit  of  his  health  to  Barbadoes,  where  he  spent  two  yearrs.  He  afterwards 
settled  at  Northampton,  a  town  on  the  Connecticut,  as  the  successor  of  the  Rev, 
Eleazer  Mather,  the  first  minister,  and  was  ordained  Sep.  11,  1672.  After  labour- 
ing for  nearly  sixty  years  he  was  removed  by  deatli,  Y^'h.  11,  1728,  and  was  suc- 
ceeded by  his  colleague  and  grandson.  President  Edwards.  He  iiad  extraordinary 
success  in  his  ministry,  and  was  accustomed  to  say,  that  he  had  enjoyed  five  har- 
vests, referring  to  seasons  of  religious  revival. 


OF    DR.    ISAAC    WATTS.  555 

them  in  the  council  chamber ;  we  kept  it  with  much  appear- 
ance of  the  presence  of  God  with  my  brethren  in  their 
prayers.  I  preached  from  Zech.  vii.  8,  9;  and  the  court 
ordered  the  printing?  of  it.  The  governor  sent  me,  for  my 
subject,  Hosea,  x.  12 ;  so  I  made  it  my  appHcalion.  We 
are  at  our  wit's  end,  and  yet  had  we  honour  and  honesty,  and 
humihty  enough,  with,  indeed,  righteousness  and  compas- 
sion to  ourselves  mutually,  our  way  is  plain;  to  cashier  our 
finery,  pride  and  vanity,  and  live  within  ourselves ;  and  one 
fifty  years'  good  and  just  management  would  bring  back  the 
silver  which  the  last  fifty  years'  extravagance  has  sent  away 
to  you,  to  whom  we  ought  to  pay  our  debts,  and  live  on  the 
rest. 

"Captain  Coram's  letter  is  not  yet  come  to  me;  I  am  glad 
you  answered  him  as  you  did.  The  commissioners  have  seen 
good  (Di-.  Sewal*  and  I  dissenting)  to  dismiss  Messrs.  Sue- 
comb  and  Parker  from  their  stations,  in  March  next,  without 
any  certainty  of  another  door  opening  for  them.  This  trou- 
bles me;  but  the  governor  and  all  the  gentlemen  voted  it 
after  a  long  debate ;  so  unprofitable  has  their  present  station 
and  labours  proved.  I  doubt  whether  it  will  not.  appear 
sudden  to  the  honourable  society  at  Ediuburgh.f 

"  As  to  Mr.  Mason  and  his  Indian,  who  I  hear  is  dead ; 
his  visit  to  London  did  not  at  all  please  the  governor  and 
commissioners  here,  and  so  we  told  him  by  a  vote  before  lie 

*The  Rev.  Joseph  Sewal,  D.  D.  pastor  of  the  Old  South  Cliurch  in  Boston.  lie 
was  the  son  of  Judge  Sewal,  one  of  those  who  presided  at  the  trials  of  tiie  New- 
England  witches  at  Salem  in  1692.  Mineteen  of  these  unfortunate  individuals  were 
executed,  among  whom  was  the  Rev.  George  Burroughs,  formerly  minister  of  Salem. 
It  is  needless  to  remark,  that  these  were  the  victims  of  popular  frenzy,  and  were 
convicted  upon  the  most  flimsy  evidence.  The  affair  lay  heavily  upon  the  con- 
sciences of  some  of  those  engaged  in  it.  Judge  Sewal,  in  a  full  assembly  on  a 
fast-day,  at  the  South  Meeting  in  Boston,  delivered  in  a  paper  to  be  read  before  all 
the  people,  acknowledging  that  he  had  fallen  into  some  errors  in  tlie  trials  at  Salem, 
and  begging  the  prayers  of  the  congregation,  that  the  guilt  of  such  miscarriages 
might  not  be  imputed  to  the  country,  or  to  him,  or  to  his  family.  The  judge  re- 
mained standing  while  this  paper  was  read. 

■{■The  society  in  Scotland  for  promoting  Christian  knowledge. 


556  LIFE    AND    TIMES 

went.  I  am  sorry  I  did  not  {^ivc  you  an  account  of  his 
voyage.  When  he  told  the  commissioners  of  it,  who  had 
employed  him  seven  years  before  as  school- master  to  the 
Mohrags,  near  New  London,  I  said  to  him  at  the  board, 
that  the  first  thought  occurring  to  me  upon  his  motion  was, 
that  it  might  affect  the  civil  liberties  of  the  colony  of  Connec- 
ticut. I  hinted  this  to  the  Rev,  Mr.  Adams,*  pastor  of  the 
church  in  New  London,  and  he  sent  my  hint  to  the  govern- 
ment there,  w^iich  immediately  alarmed  them,  brought  me 
their  thanks,  and  their  application  to  the  commissioners, 
with  papers  and  deeds ;  whereby  it  plainly  appeared  to  us, 
that  under  the  pretence  of  the  government  injuring  the  Indi- 
ans in  their  land,  Mr.  Mason  was  invading  them  for  himself, 
by  an  old  deed  given  in  times  of  distress  by  their  ancestor 
Uncast  to  Mr.  Mason's  grandfather,  to  secure  them  at  that 
threatening  juncture ;  which  obligation  the  Indians  thought, 
from  their  father's  account  to  them,  had  at  the  time  been  con- 
celled  and  burnt.  However,  the  government  have  no  doubt 
instructed  their  agent  on  this  point;  and  as  Mr.  Mason  had 
only  asked  of  me  a  letter  to  Mr.  Holden,  I  let  him  know"  I 
should  write  in  his  disfavour,  and  so  I  did ;  and  Mr.  Holden 
in  his  last  told  me  he  had  heard  nothing  of  him.     The  com- 


*The  Rev.  Eliphalet  Adams  graduated  at  Harvard  college  in  IGDl,  mentioned 
in  Barnard's  Sketch  as  "  a  great  Hebrician." 

f  Uncas,  the  sachem  of  the  Mohegans,  was  hated  and  envied  by  the  Naragansets, 
for  liis  attachment  to  tlie  English,  and  llie  distinguished  favours  shown  him  in 
return.  In  1638,  having  entertained  some  of  the  Peqnods  after  the  war  with  them, 
and  fearing  he  had  given  offence,  he  came  to  the  governor  at  Boston,  and  brought 
a  present,  which  was  at  first  refused,  but  afterwards  the  governor  being  satisfied  that 
he  had  no  designs  against  the  English,  it  was  accepted  ;  and  he  promised  to  submit 
to  such  ciders  as  he  should  receive  from  the  English  concerning  the  Pequods,  and 
also  concerning  the  Naragansets,  and  his  behaviour  towards  them,  and  concluded 
his  speech  with  these  words  :  "  This  heart"  (laying  his  hand  upon  his  breast.)  "  is 
not  7niue  but  yours.  Command  me  any  difficult  service,  and  I  will  do  it :  I  hare 
710  men  hut  they  arc  all  yours.  I  will  never  believe  any  Indian  ayainst  the  Eni/lish 
any  more."  He  was  dismissed  with  a  present,  went  home  joyful,  carrying  a  letter 
of  protection  fur  himself  and  men  through  the  English  plantations  ;  and  never  was 
engaged  in  hostilities  against  any  of  the  colonics,  although  he  survived  Philip's 
war,  and  died  a  very  old  man  after  the  year  1680. 


OF    DR.    ISAAC    WATTS.  557 

missioners  here,  I  suppose,  will  not  employ  him  again  if  he 
returns;  and  I  see  nothing  but  distraction  and  confusion  to 
himself  and  family  in  his  present  voyage;  and  I  could  not 
wish  him  God-speed. 

"You  are  pleased  to  say,  Sir,  'Alas!  that  the  Hollis's*  are 
all  dead,'  and  then  name  two  yet  alive,  with  your  prayers 
'that  the  good  spirit  of  their  ancestors  might  rest  upon 
them.'  I  am  glad  I  can  now  inform  you,  that  your  prayer 
is  answered  m  Mr.  Isaac  Hollis,  on  whom  I  have  drawn,  in 
the  last  ship,  by  his  order,  for  sixty  pounds  sterling,  for  the 
histruction,  clothmg,  and  lodging  of  twelve  Indian  boys  at 
Honstatonock,  and  from  year  to  year  he  promises  the  continu- 
ance of  that  support;  for  which  God  lengthen  out  his  life, 
heart,  and  ability  :  may  it  be  his  blessed  will.  The  merchants 
here  have  his  name  and  bills  now,  so  that  it  can  no  longer  be 
a  secret.  Five  or  six  years  ago  I  refused,  to  his  dis])leasure, 
a  settlement  of  twenty  pounds  sterling  per  annum  for  a  fourth 
missionary  to  the  east ;  but  I  told  him  I  must  be  equally  for 
him,  if  he  held  me  wise  and  faithful,  and  pointed  him  to 
other  services,  which  he  regarded  not ;  but  now  I  think  all 
his  pious  intention  answered  under  Mr.  Sargcant,  and  he  has 
proceeded  as  you  now  hear. 

"I  had  your  'Redeemer  and  Sanctifier'  before,  and  have 
given  what  you  now  sent  to  my  colleague,  Mr.  Cooper ;t  but 
there  are  two  things  you  have  printed  I  have  not,  but  have 
read,  and  made  an  abstract  of  one,  because  I  owned  it  not, 
which  is  on  the  Human  Will. 

*  See  pp.  '205,  20t>. 
f  The  Rev.  William  Cooper,  ordaiued  co  pastor  with  Dr.  Coiinan  at  the  age  of 
twenty- three.  He  was  elected  to  the  presidency  of  Harvard  college,  but  his  mo- 
desty led  him  to  decline  the  appointment.  Dr.  Chauncey  says,  "he  was  a  good 
preacher,  eminently  gifted  in  prayer,  and  a  man  of  good  understanding,  though 
not  endowed  with  a  great  deal  of  learning."  Dr.  Cohnan,  who  preached  his  funeral 
sermon,  observes,  "  He  cultivated  learning  as  a  religious  duty,  and  his  talents,  as 
well  as  his  usefulness,  maintained  a  visible  progress,  till  his  graces  were  ripened  iu 
glory.  I  ought  to  thank  God  if  I  have  contributed  to  form  him  for  his  eminent  ser- 
vices :  thus  a  torch  may  be  lighted  at  a  farthing  candle."  Mr.  Cooper  died  in 
1713  iu  his  fiftieth  year. 


558  LIFE    AND   TIMES 

"  My  respects  to  Mr.  Roffey.*  Entreat  Dr.  Guyse,  who  has 
not  wrote  to  me,  to  accept  of  wliat  I  here  write  as  to  himself. 

"  Our  governor  has  lately  huricd  the  wife  of  his  youth 
with  great  magnificence ;  her  funeral  sermon  will  be  out  this 
week,  by  Mr.  Prince,t  and  no  doubt  will  come  to  you ;  he 
has  behaved  on  the  occasion,  in  privacy  and  openly,  w'ilh  a 
most  Christian  temper,  and  been  openly  insulted  for  it  by 
some  hidden,  but  I  hope  impotent  malice.  He  has  always 
immediately  been  acquainted  with  all  you  send  to  him  for 
others,  and  takes  great  pleasure  in  any  office  from  Dr.  Guyse : 
his  nephew  here  is  married,  tell  him,  and  set  up  his  trade  in 
Boston,  and  I  hope  does  well,  and  two  days  ago  I  called  to 
see  if  he  had  any  letter  from  his  uncle.  I  am  glad  to  hear 
that  the  compassionate  address  to  the  Christian  World,  is  Mr. 
Reynolds's,  an  admirable  man,  and  soon  ripe  for  heaven  ;  we 
reprinted  it  here,  and  knew  not  whence  it  was. 

"The  glass  of  your  picture  is  not  broken,  and  just  now  Mr. 
AppletonJ  came  in  and  has  taken  it  with  him  to  Cambridge: 

♦William  Roffey,  Esq.  of  London. 

f  The  Rev.  Thos.  Prince  graduated  iu  the  year  1707  at  Harvard,  and  after  spend- 
ing some  time  in  England  he  became  Dr.  Sewal's  colleague  at  the  Old  South 
Church  in  Boston.  He  is  chiefly  known  as  an  author  by  his  "  Christian  History" 
and  "  Chronological  History  of  New  England."  The  first  volume  of  the  latter 
work  was  published  in  1736,  commencing  with  the  Creation,  and  containing  but 
ten  years  of  the  annals  of  New  England.  The  public  was  disgusted,  and  Mr. 
Prince  suspended  his  labours.  The  materials  he  had  collected  he  left  by  will  to  the 
care  of  the  Old  South  Church,  and  they  were  deposited  iu  an  apartment  of  the  meet- 
ing-house, where  they  lay  neglected  and  in  confusion  from  17.39  to  1773.  In  1774 
they  were  arranged,  but  in  the  following  year  the  British  troops  took  possession  of 
Boston,  and  converted  the  elegant  building  into  a  military  riding  school.  Jfany  valu- 
able manuscripts  were  then  destroyed.  Mr.  Prince  died  in  17;j8  at  the  age  of  72. 
"  He  possessed  all  the  intellectual  powers  in  a  degree  far  beyond  what  is  common. 
He  may  be  justly  characterised  as  one  of  our  great  men  ;  though  he  would  have 
been  much  greater,  had  he  not  been  apt  to  give  too  much  credit,  especially  to  sur- 
prising stories.  He  could  easily  be  imposed  on  this  way.  Another  imperfection 
that  was  really  hurtful  to  him  was,  a  strange  disposition  to  regard  more,  in  multi- 
tudes of  instances,  the  circumstances  of  things,  and  sometimes  minute  and  trifling 
ones,  than  the  things  themselves.  1  could  from  my  own  acquaintance  with  him 
give  many  instances  of  this.  But  these  weaknesses  notwithstanding  he  deserves  to 
be  remembered  with  honour."     Dr.  Channcci/  in  Hist.  CvU.  x.  161. 

|.  The  Rev.  Nathaniel  Appleton,  1).  D.  son  of  Colonel  John  Appleton  of  Ipswich. 


OF   DR.   ISAAC   WATTS.  559 

he  thanks  you  for  the  respectful  mention  you  make  of  his 
sermon.  We  have  a  new  church  building  in  Boston  ;  many 
of  my  hearers  go  off  to  it:  one  Mr.  Hooper  from  Edinburgh, 
an  admirable  preacher,  is  like  to  be  settled  there,  but  he  has 
brought  no  certificates ;  he  came  over  to  be  tutor  to  a  young 
gentleman. 

"This  comes  by  Mr.  J.  Boylston,  eldest  son  of  Dr.  Boyl- 
ston,  who  tells  me  he  has  heretofore  waited  on  you ;  I  pray 
God  to  prosper  and  bless  him. 

"God  has  pleased  to  put  me  again  into  mourning:  my 
dear  grandson,  the  only  branch  of  my  beloved  Tural,  is  in 
the  grave  with  his  mother.  A  dark  and  pleasant  tomb,  where 
my  midnight  thoughts  too  often  are.  It  has  helped  to  bring 
me  downwards :  God  give  me  consolation  to  see  them  in  hea- 
ven. Pray  for  my  only  surviving  daughter :  she  has  a  poeti- 
cal turn  too,  I  wish  only  it  were  as  magnetically  turned  on 
heaven,  as  her  sister's  was ;  I  am  in  hopes  of  it,  for  she  is 
truly  virtuous.     Forgive  a  father  to  a  i'riend  if  on  a  sudden  he 

doze  a  little. 

"  Your  loving  Brother, 

"ben.  colman." 

from  the  countess  of  hertford. 

"April  13,  1737. 
"  Sir, 

"  I  would  sooner  have  thanked  you  for  the  favour  of 
your  letter,  and  the  book  which  I  received  just  after,  but  de- 
layed it  till  I  could  get  time  to  finish  the  inclosed  lines  which 
I  began  soon  after  Mrs.  Rowe's  death,  but  had  not  leisure  to 
proceed  with  them  till  after  my  Lord's  return  to  London, 
whither  he  and  my  daughter  went  last  week.     He  was  taken 

"An  upright,  faithful,  excellent  preacher,  though  much  wanting  in  correctness,  and 
a  man  of  very  considerable  powers,  and  has  been  of  great  service  to  the  college 
by  his  wise  endeavours  to  promote  its  good.  He  deserves  to  be  remembered  with 
honour."     Dr.  Chauncey  in  Hist.  Coll.  x.  158. 


560  LIFL    AND    TI31ES 

while  lie  was  here  wiih  a  violent  pain  in  his  stomach  and 
bowels,  which,  whether  it  were  gout  or  cholic,  reduced  him 
very  low,  and  alarmed  me  extremely;  but  I  bless  God  he  is 
now  in  perfect  health  again,  and  I  hear  has  recovered  his 
good  looks  entirely.     I  am  myself  much  better  than  I  was  in 
the  winter,  bating  a  shortness  of  breath,  which  makes  them 
judge  my  continuance  in  the  country  absolutely  necessary. 
I  must  now  thank  you  for  your  excellent  discourse  on  Humi- 
lity, which  I  have  read  %vith  great  pleasure,  and  I  hope  I 
shall  receive  profit  from  the  just  manner  in  which  you  have 
treated  so  useful  a  subject.     I  must  also  repeat  my  gratitude 
for  your  book  on  the  '  Strength  and  Weakness  of  Human  Rea- 
son.'    I  never  read  any  thing  more  entertaining  and  instruc- 
tive.    I  should  be  very  happy  if  I  could  flatter  myself  that  I 
had  goodness  enough  to  make  my  life  as  useful  as  the  bene- 
volence and  charity  of  your  temper  incline  you  to  think  it 
may.     I  beg  the  favour  of  you  not  to  give  any  copy  of  the 
inclosed  verses,  fur  I  would  wish  my  excursions  of  this  kind 
to  be  a  secret  from  every  body  but  you,  and  a  friend  or  two 
more,   who  know  that  I  do  not  aim  at  the  character  of  a 
genius  by  any  attempts  of  this  nature,  but  am  led  to  them 
merely  to  amuse  a  leisure  hour,  and  speak  the  sentiments  of 
my  heart.     I  have  no  company  at  present  but  my  son,  his 
tutor  being  gone  to  London  about  business;  but  I  do  not 
mention  this  as  a  mortification.     I  am  afraid  the  decline  of 
years,  and  the  languishing  state  of  health  I  have  laboured 
under  for  some  time,  make  it  rather  necessary  for  me  to  en- 
deavour to  find  arguments  to  reconcile  myself  to  the  variety 
of  company  to  which  my  station  and  the  occupation  I  am  at- 
tached to  in  a  court  require  me  to  accommodate  myself.     I 
am.  Sir,  with  the  sincerest  esteem  and  regard, 

"  Your  most  obliged, 

"  And  faithful  humble  servant, 

"  F.  HERTFORD." 


OF    DR.    ISAAC    WATTS.  561 

FROM  THE  BISHOP  OF  LONDON. 

"Whitehall,  April  23,  1737. 
"  Good  Sir, 

"  I  have  perused  your  discourse  upon  Humility  with 
much  satisfaction,  and  I  hope  with  profit  to  myself;  if  not,  I 
am  sure  it  is  my  own  fault.  There  was  no  occasion  to  make 
the  apology  (p.  5-2)  for  descending  to  the  lowest  scenes  of  life.* 
It  is  a  fault  both  in  preaching  and  writing  upon  practical 
subjects,  when  we  keep  too  much  to  general  reasonings,  and 
do  not  bring  down  our  doctrines  to  common  life,  which  are 
best  remembered,  and  take  the  fastest  hold  upon  the  minds 
and  consciences  of  our  hearers  and  readers. 

"  I  wish  you  a  full  enjoyment  of  health,  that  you  may  be 
able  to  proceed  in  your  good  designs  for  the  benefit  of  reli- 
gion, and  am  with  great  truth  and  esteem.  Sir, 

"Your  faithful  friend  and  servant, 

"  EDM.  LONDON." 
FROM  THE  COUNTESS  OF  HERTFORD. 

"  Hermitage  on  St.  Leonard's  Hill,  May  2,  1737. 
"  Sir, 

"  I  return  you  my  thanks   for   the  epigramf  you 
were  so  good  as  to  send  me,  and  should  think  myself  very 

*Tlie  household  tyrant,  fretting  and  fuming  over  a  spoiled  dinner,  or  a  blun- 
dering domestic,  comes  under  the  writer's  lash  ;  and  he  thus  apologises  for  intro- 
ducing an  everyday  scene  from  common  life  :  "  I  almost  reprove  myself  here,  and 
suspect  my  friends  will  reprove  me,  for  introducing  such  low  scenes  of  life  and  such 
trivial  occurrences  into  a  grave  discourse.  I  have  put  the  matter  into  the  balances 
as  well  as  I  can,  and  weighed  the  case,  and  the  result  is  this  :  general  and  distant 
declamations  seldom  strike  the  conscience  with  such  conviction  as  particular  re- 
presentations do;  and  since  this  iniquity  often  betrays  itself  in  tliese  trivial  in- 
stances, it  is  better  perhaps  to  set  them  forth  in  their  iull  and  proper  light,  than 
that  the  guilty  should  never  feel  a  reproof,  who,  by  the  very  nature  of  their  dis- 
temper, are  unwilling  to  see  or  learn  their  own  folly,  unless  it  is  set  in  a  glaring 
view."      Nvte  to  Humil.  Represented.    Tl  or/w.  ii.  p.  391. 

f  See  "  Remnants  of  Time,"  &c.  No.  6. 


562  LIFE    AND   TIMES 

happy  if  any  thing  of  mine  could  deserve  to  show  the  joy  I 
should  feel  in  being  able  to  imitate  Mrs.  Rowe  in  the  small- 
est instance.  I  have  only  two  meditations  of  hers,  which  she 
gave  me  with  the  strongest  injunctions  not  to  let  any  body 
see  them  lest  they  should  be  thought  too  rapturous;  but,  as  I 
conclude  she  would  not  have  included  you  among  those  from 
whom  she  meant  they  should  be  concealed,  I  will  have  them 
copied  if  you  desire  it. 

"I  thank  God  all  my  family  except  myself  are  in  perfect 
health,  and  I  am  myself  much  better  than  in  the  winter,  only 
that  I  have  still  a  shortness  of  breath,  which  makes  walking 
up  stairs  or  any  ascent  very  painful  to  me ;  but  as  I  have  a 
better  appetite  I  have  recovered  some  of  my  flesh,  and  a  little 
of  my  natural  colour.  My  Lord  and  Betty  are  in  London, 
so  that  my  son  and  his  governor  are  my  only  companions  at 
present;  but  we  pass  our  time  agreeably  enough  between 
reading,  walking,  and  such  other  amusements  as  the  place  in 
which  we  are  and  the  season  of  the  year  afford  us.  We 
have  been  lately  reading  Leonidas,*  in  which  I  think  there 
are  many  fine  thoughts;  but  I  hear  the  town  are  much  divided 
in  their  sentiments  about  it,  since  one  part  of  them  are  for 
preferring  it  to  Milton,  and  others  for  levelling  it  to  the  low- 
est rank  of  poetry.  I  confess  neither  of  these  appear  to  me  a 
just  representation  of  it.  If  you  have  read  it  I  shall  be  glad 
to  know  your  thoughts  of  it. 

*The  Leonidas  by  Glover  nas  published  in  1737,  and  though  very  favourably 
received,  its  reputation  has  since  greatly  declined.  By  the  party  in  opposition 
to  the  court  it  was  extolled  to  the  skies,  and  its  author  regarded  as  another  Milton. 
Lyttleton,  who  then  headed  the  opposition,  in  a  periodical  paper,  entitled  "  Com- 
mon Sense,"  eulogised  it  under  the  signature  of  "  PhiloMusanis,"  but  another  wri- 
ter as  severely  animadverted  upon  it  in  the  "  Weekly  ^liscellany,"  iniderthe  signa- 
ture of  "Miso-Musajus."  The  poem  is  characterised  by  a  bold  spirit  of  liberty, 
which  rendered  it  a  favourite  with  tlie  opposition  party;  but  the  style  is  prosing 
and  familiar,  and  bears  no  marks  of  a  vigorous  and  creative  imagination.  It  was 
of  Glover,  who  was  a  citizen  of  London,  that  Thomson  remarked,  "  He  write  an 
epic,  wlio  never  saw  a  mountain!"  The  Leonidas,  however,  went  through  three 
large  editions  in  the  years  1737  and  1738;  but  it  is  upon  his  "Hosier's  Ghost" 
that  Glover's  fame  must  rest. 


OF   DR.    ISAAC    WATTS.  56S 

"I  own  I  find  a  pleasure  in  thinking  that  I  perceive  dawn- 
ings  of  an  honest  heart  and  tolerable  reasoning  in  Lord 
Beauchamp,  and  his  governor  and  I  flatter  ourselves  that  we 
see  a  clearness  of  judgment  and  distinctness  of  ideas  in  the 
themes  he  composes,  which  are  infinitely  the  favourite  part 
of  his  studies,  and  always  performed  with  good-humour, 
though  he  is  obliged  to  write  them  in  three  languages,  English, 
Latin,  and  French.  He  is  by  no  means  good  at  getting 
things  by  heart,  for  which  reason  Mr.  Dalton*  is  very  favour- 
able in  his  impositions  of  that  kind,  which  he  seldom  gives 
him,  and  in  small  quantities.  Now  I  have  said  so  much  of 
ray  son,  I  should  be  unjust  to  his  sister  if  I  did  not  tell  you 
that  I  have  the  happiness  to  see  her  a  very  good-natured, 
sensible  young  woman,  with  a  sincere  sense  of  religion  and 
virtue,  and  the  same  observance  from  affection  to  my  Lord 
and  me  at  almost  one-and-twenty  years  old  that  she  had  in 
her  earliest  childhood.  You  see,  Sir,  I  take  the  privilege  of 
a  friend,  and  flatter  myself  that  you  will  not  be  tired  with  a 
detail  of  my  family  comforts,  for  the  enjoyment  of  which  I 
hope  I  am  thankful  as  I  ought  to  be,  and  most  particularly  so 
that  my  Lord  is  so  entirely  recovered  as  to  allow  me  to  hope 
his  children  will  long  have  the  blessing  of  the  tenderest  father, 
and  myself  of  the  best  husband  I  ever  saw.  You  will  forgive 
the  length  of  this  letter,  and  believe  me  with  the  truest  esteem, 
Sir, 

"  Your  most  obliged 

"  And  faithful  humble  servant, 

"  F.  HERTFORD." 


*  His  tutor,  afterwards  Dr.  Dalton.  The  Biog.  Britt.  says,  that "  a  bad  state  of 
healtli  preveuted  him  from  attending  his  pupil  on  his  travels  abroad,  and  saved 
liim  the  mortification  of  being  an  eye  witness  of  his  death." 


564  LIFE    AND    TIMES 


FROM  Tin:   SAME. 

"Mavlborougli,  Julv  13,  1737. 
"Sir, 

"Nothing-  but  my  own  very  bad  state  of  health,  and 
the  confinement  I  have  had  with  my  Lord,  who  is  just  recover- 
ing from  a  severe  fit  of  the  gout,  should  so  long  have  hinder- 
ed me  from  acknowledging  the  receipt  of  your  lette*,  and  the 
papers  inclosed  with  it,  particularly  the  letter  which  you  were 
so  good  as  to  design  to  prefix  to  Mrs.  Howe's  Meditations. 
I  can  with  the  strictest  truth  affirm,  that  I  do  not  know  any 
distinction  upon  earth,  that  I  could  feel  a  truer  pleasure  in 
receiving  were  I  deserving  of  it ;  but  as  I  am  forced  to  see 
how  much  I  fall  below  the  idea  which  the  benevolence  of 
your  nature  has  formed  of  me,  it  teaches  me  to  humble  my- 
self by  that  very  incident  which  might  administer  a  laudable 
pride  to  a  more  worthy  person.  If  I  am  constrained  to'ac- 
knowledge  this  mortifying  truth,  you  may  believe  there  are 
many  people  in  the  world  who  look  upon  me  with  more  im- 
partial eyes  than  self-love  will  allow  me  to  do ;  and  others, 
who  perhaps  think  I  enjoy  more  of  this  world's  goods  than  I 
either  merit,  or  than  falls  to  the  common  lot,  look  at  me  with 
envious  and  malignant  views,  and  are  glad  of  every  oppor- 
tunity to  debase  me  or  those  who  they  believe  entertain  a 
favourable  opinion  of  me.  I  would  hope  that  I  have  never 
done  any  thing,  wilfully  I  am  sure  I  have  not,  to  raise  any 
such  sentiments  in  the  breast  of  the  meanest  person  upon 
earth;  but  yet  experience  has  convinced  me  that  I  have  not 
been  happy  enough  to  escape  them.  For  these  reasons,  Sir, 
I  must  deny  myself  the  pleasure  and  the  pride  I  should  have 
in  so  public  a  mark  of  your  friendship  and  candour,  and  beg, 
that  if  you  still  design  me  the  honour  of  joining  any  address 
to  me  with  those  valuable  remains  of  Mrs.  Rowe,  that  you 
will  either  retrench  the  favourable  expressions  you  intended 


OF    DR.    ISAAC    WATTS.  5G5 

to  insert,  or  else  give  me  no  other  title  at  the  top  of  it  than  that 
of  a  friend  of  yours  and  hers,  an  appellation  which,  in  tlie 
sincerity  of  my  soul,  I  am  prouder  of  than  I  could  be  of  the 
most  pompous  name  that  human  grandeur  can  lay  claim  to. 
My  Lord  and  his  children  desire  me  to  assure  you  of  their 
service  and  best  wishes.  I  inclose  you  a  copy  of  the  letter 
which  Mrs.  Rowe  left  for  me,*  and  am  glad  of  every  oppor- 
tunity to  repeat  that  I  am  with  the  greatest  esteem,  Sir, 

"Your  most  obliged 

"And  faithful  humble  servant, 

"F.  HERTFORD." 

*The  following  is  an  exact  copy  of  Mrs.  Rowe's  letter,  transcribed  froin  Lady 
Hertford's  own  hand-writing : 

"  TO  THE  RIGHT  HONOURABLE  THE  COUNTESS  OF  HERTFORD. 

"  Madam, 

"  This  is  the  last  letter  you  will  ever  receive  from  me,  the  last  assurance  I 
shall  give  you  on  earth  of  a  sincere  and  steadfast  friendship  ;  but  when  we  meet 
again  I  hope  it  will  be  in  the  heights  of  immortal  love  and  ecstas_y.  Mine  perhaps 
may  be  the  first  glad  spirit  to  congratulate  your  safe  arrival  on  the  happy  shores. 
Heaven  can  witness  how  sincere  my  concern  for  your  happiness  is,  Tiiither  I  have 
sent  my  ardent  wishes  that  you  may  be  secured  from  the  flattering  delusion  of  the 
world,  and,  after  your  pious  example  has  been  longa  blessing  to  mankind,  mayyou 
calmly  resign  yoin'  breath,  and  enter  the  confines  of  unmolested  joy  ! 

"  I  am  now  taking  my  farewell  of  you  here,  but  it  is  a  short  adieu,  for  I  die  with 
full  persuasion  that  we  shall  meet  again.  But,  O,  in  what  elevation  of  happiness  ! 
in  what  enlargement  of  mind,  and  perfection  of  every  faculty  !  What  transporting 
reflections  shall  we  make  on  the  advaut;!ges  of  which  we  shall  feel  ourselves  eter- 
nally possest ! 

"To  him  that  loved  us  and  washed  us  from  our  sins  in  his  own  blood  we  shall 
ascribe  immortal  glory,  dominion,  and  praise  for  ever.  This  is  all  my  salvation, 
and  all  my  hope.  That  name  in  whom  the  Gentiles  trust,  in  whom  all  the  fami- 
lies on  earth  are  blessed,  is  now  my  glorious,  my  unfailing  confidence ;  in  his  me- 
rits alone  I  expect  to  stand  justified  before  infinite  purity  and  justice.  How  poor 
were  my  hopes  if  I  depended  on  those  works,  which  my  own  vanity  or  the  partiality 
of  men  have  called  good,  and  which,  if  examined  by  Divine  Purity,  would  prove 
perhaps  but  specious  sins  !  The  best  actions  of  my  life  would  be  found  defective, 
if  brought  to  the  test  of  that  unblemished  holiness  in  whose  sight  the  heavens  are  not 
clean.  Where  were  my  hopes  but  for  a  Redeemer's  merits  and  atonement !  How 
despeiate,  how  luidone  my  condition  !  With  the  utmost  advantage  I  can  boast, 
1  should  start  back  and  tremble  at  the  thoughts  of  appearing  before  the  unblemish- 
ed Majesty.     O  Jesus,  what  harmony  dwells  in  thy  name  !     Celestial  joy  and  im- 


566  LIFE    AND   TIMES 

FROM   THE    HON.   JONATHAN    BELCHER. 

"Boston,  Aug.  1,  1737. 

"  My  much  esteemed  Friend, 

"  Your  religious  kind  letter  of  the  3d  of  March,  and 
2nd  of  April,  I  have  read  once  and  again  with  much  plea- 
sure, and  they  are  now  open  before  me  for  an  answer,  which 
I  return  with  the  most  sensible  gratitude,  for  the  great  respect 
and  honour  you  do  to  the  memory  of  my  late  dear  Mrs. 
Belcher,  as  well  as  for  the  ingenious,  pious  hints  you  suggest 
for  my  profitable  reflection  and  meditation.  She  was.  Sir, 
much  my  crown  and  glory,  and  I  have  great  reason  to  believe 
from  the  course  of  her  life,  as  well  as  from  her  serenity  at 
death,  that  my  irreparable  loss  is  her  eternal  gain.  I  may 
and  ought  to  mourn  ray  own  loss,  even  to  the  latest  period  of 
life;  and  the  voice  of  God  to  me  in  this  melancholy  providence 
is,  that  I  be  '  working  out  my  salvation  with  fear  and  tremb- 
ling,' and  then  I  shall  not  mourn  for  myself,  '  as  one  with- 
out hope.'  God  has  done  his  pleasure,  at  which  I  dare  not 
murmur,  but  would  lie  prostrate  in  the  dust  before  him,  for 
my  sins  have  exceeded.  How  dreadful  must  the  case  of  that 
man  be,  who  has  not  a  God  to  repair  to,  when  such  scenes  are 
drawn  for  his  entertainment !  Dear  Sir,  the  prayer  you  have 
offered  for  the  watchful  eye  of  providence  and  grace  to  guard 

mortal  life  are  in  the  sound.  Let  angels  set  thee  to  their  golden  harps  ;  let  the 
ransomed  nations  for  ever  magnify  thee! 

"What  a  dream  is  mortal  life  !  What  shadows  are  the  objects  of  sense!  All 
the  glories  of  mortality,  my  mnch-beloved  friend,  will  be  nothing  in  your  view  at 
the  awful  hour  of  death,  when  you  must  be  separated  from  the  whole  creation,  and 
enter  on  the  borders  of  the  immaterial  world. 

"  Something  persuades  me  tliat  this  will  be  my  last  farewell  in  this  world.  Heaven 
forbid  that  it  should  be  an  everlasting  parting  !  May  that  Divine  Protection,  whose 
care  I  implore,  keep  you  steadfast  in  the  faith  of  Christianity,  and  guide  your  steps 
in  the  strictest  paths  of  virtue  !  Adieu,  my  most  dear  friend,  till  we  meet  in  the 
paradise  of  God. 

"  ELIZADETII  ROWE." 


OF   DR.   ISAAC    WATTS.  567 

me  in  my  separated  state  of  solitude,  is  the  highest  instance 
of  your  love  and  friendship;  and  I  doubt  not  but  that 
(through  the  powerful  intercession  of  the  great  Mediator) 
'  your  prayer  will  come  before  God  as  incense,  and  the  lift- 
ing up  of  your  hands  as  the  evening  sacrifice.' 

"  I  was  glad  to  find  my  son  had  (though  late)  done  his 
duty,  in  paying  his  just  regards  to  his  father's  friend  at  New- 
ington ;  and  I  thank  you  from  the  bottom  of  my  heart,  for 
your  kind  concern  towards  him.  I  know  he  lives  in  an  age 
and  place,  and  in  an  employment,  that  continually  environ 
him  with  a  numerous  variety  of  snares  and  temptations;  and 
that  nothing  less  than  the  matchless  powerful  influences  of 
the  grace  of  God  are  able  to  keep  him ;  and  to  the  grace  of 
God  I  desire  to  commend  him,  and  thereto  leave  him;  nor 
am  I  without  encouragement  so  to  do,  and  to  give  praise  to 
God  for  ever  and  ever,  while  I  hear  he  yet  saves  him  from 
any  open  flagrant  vices. 

"  It  is  my  duty,  and  has  been  my  pleasure  (during  his  dis- 
tance from  me),  to  be  his  monitor  on  his  birth-day,  by  telling 
him  he  was  born  to  die ;  and  I  take  the  freedom  to  inclose 
you  what  I  now  write  to  him  on  that  head,  which  you  will 
read,  seal,  and  let  it  find  the  way  to  his  chambers,  not  taking 
notice  to  him,  at  any  time,  that  you  have  read  it ;  but  what 
I  design  in  it  is,  that  (in  your  conversation  and  letters,  when 
you  will  please  so  to  honour  him),  you  would  now  and  then 
harp  upon  the  same  string,  and  you  will,  doctor,  forgive  this 
trouble,  when  you  consider  the  ineradicable  2x0/57?)  implanted 
by  the  God  of  nature  in  us  fathers. 

'  Omnis  in  Ascanio  chari  stat  cura  parentis.' 

"  I  pray  you  to  make  my  most  respectful  compliments  to 
the  excellent  Lady  Abney,  to  whom  I  am  highly  obliged  for 
her  condolence  and  kind  wishes, 

"I  thank  you  for  your  two  books ;  that  on  Humility  I  have 
twice  run  over,  and  am  much  pleased.     Methinks  a  man 


668  LIFK    AND    TIMES 

that  loves  this  world,  or  a  better,  should  rejoice  to  shine  in 
that  virtue.  What  says  Solomon?  'Before  honour  is  humi- 
lity.' And  what  says  St.  Peter.?  'God  resisteth  the  proud, 
but  giveth  grace  to  the  humble.'  I  have  not  quite  got 
throu"-h  your '  Strength  and  Weakness  of  Human  Reason,'  but 
am  o-reatly  gratified,  so  far  as  I  am  gone ;  and  when  you  are 
pleased  to  oblige  the  world  with  any  thing  new,  I  shall  be 
o-lad  to  have  it  as  a  strength  and  ornament  to  my  small  col- 
lection. And  I  am  also  to  beg  your  picture,  one  of  which 
graces  our  college  library. 

"The  several  packets  committed  to  my  care,  found  the 
way  to  their  owners,  I  ask  your  acceptance  of  our  last  elec- 
tion sermon,  preached  by  the  reverend  and  pious  Mr.  Loving; 
and  of  a  grammar  lately  put  out  by  one  of  the  sons  of  our 
college. 

"  Mr.  Belcher  sent  me  a  copy  of  your  letter  to  him,  of  the 
19th.  of  Jan.  last,  from  Newington,  respecting  the  epitaph  he 
had  prepared  for  the  tomb  of  his  late  dear  mother.  Your 
frankness  and  freedom  with  him  is  such  a  test  of  your  sincere 
regard  to  his  honour,  as  I  cannot  enough  thank  you  for,  and 
with  such  a  grateful  sense  does  he  represent  it  to  me.  I 
approve  your  corrections  in  general,  and  like  your  last  thought 
of  saving  the  whole,  the  first  part  to  be  on  the  top  stone  of 
the  tomb,  the  two  other  parts  to  be  on  the  two  sides.  I  by  no 
means  like  the  word  harr'd ;  for  the  dust  of  the  saints  is  not 
imprisoned,  but  only  rests  from  its  labour.  Poets,  they  say, 
must  be  born  so,  which  I  am  sure  I  was  not;  therefore,  you 
must  pardon  the  blunder,  if  I  think  the  two  first  lines  might 
run  thus : 

'Peaceful  withiu  this  silent  shrine's  preserv'd, 
Awhile  that  sacred  dust  which  augels  guard.' 

When  with  your  kind  help  he  has  made  the  matter  perfect, 
I  shall  be  expecting  it  for  inscription. 

"  Reverend  and  dear  Sir,  I  wish  above  all  things  that  '  thou 


OF    DR.    ISAAC    WATTS.  569 

mayst  prosper  and  be  in  health,  even  as  thy  soul  prospereth.' 
Thus  I  am, 

"  Your  friend  and  servant, 

"J.  BELCHER." 
FROM    THE    COUNTESS    OF   HERTFORD. 

"Marlborough,  August  17,  1737. 
"  Sir, 

"  The  sincere  esteem  I  have  for  you  makes  it  very 
difficult  for  me  to  oppose  any  thing  you  desire,*  and  it  is 
doubly  so  in  an  instance  where  I  might  have  an  opportunity 
of  indulging  so  justifiable  a  pride  as  I  should  feel  in  letting 
the  public  see  this  fresh  mark  of  your  partiality  to  me ;  but  as 
I  am  apprehensive  that  the  envy  such  a  distinction  would 
raise  against  me  might  draw  some  vexation  with  it,  I  hope 
you  will  have  the  goodness  to  change  the  dedication  into  a 
Letter  to  a  Friend,  without  giving  me  any  other  appellation. 
"  I  have  been  so  ill  as  to  keep  my  chamber,  and  almost  my 
bed,  since  I  received  the  first  of  your  letters,  and  my  Lord  has 
had  a  return  of  the  gout.  Nothing  else  should  have  made 
me  so  long  delay  owning  the  receipt  of  it,  and  assuring  you 
that  I  am  with  the  greatest  esteem.  Sir, 

"  Your  most  obliged  humble  servant, 

"F.    HERTFORD." 
FROM   THE    SAME. 

"October  27,  1737. 
"  Sir, 

"  I  should  sooner  have  thanked  you  for  Mrs.  Rowe's 
Meditations,  which  you  were  so  good  as  to  send  me,  but  that 

*  That  Mrs.  Rowe's  "  Devout  F.xercises"  might  be  inscribed  to  her. 
O  o 


570  J-IFE    AND   TIMES 

I  had  a  mind  to  read  them  carefully  over  first.  You  have  in 
your  preface  taken  the  kindest  and  most  judicious  care  to 
excuse  some  expressions  in  them,  which  I  must  confess 
appear  to  me  to  stand  in  need  of  some  apology ;  but  upon  the 
whole  I  think  there  are  several  excellent  sentiments  in  them, 
which  I  think  cannot  fail  of  doing  good,  especially  to  those 
who,  by  their  acquaintance  with  her,  know  how  sincerely  they 
came  from  her  heart.  Lady  Betty  returns  her  thanks  for  the 
book  you  sent  her,  and  says  she  shall  always  value  it  as  being 
written  by  Mrs.  Rowe,  and  as  a  mark  of  your  kind  regard  to 
herself.  I  have  many  acknowledgments  to  make  you  for 
the  honour  you  have  done  me  in  your  dedication,  which  by 
your  kindness  in  suppressing  my  name  gives  me  an  unmixed 
pleasure,  by  affording  me  the  satisfaction  of  receiving  such  a 
mark  of  your  j  ardality  without  the  hazard  of  raising  the 
public  envy. 

"  My  Lord  and  my  son  present  their  services  to  you,  and  I 
am  with  the  sincerest  gratitude  and  esteem,  Sir, 

"  Your  most  faithful  humble  servant, 

"  F.   HERTFORD." 
FROM    THE  REV,  F    M.  ZIEGENHAGEN. 

"  Kensington,  Nov.  30,  1737. 
"  Dear  and  Rev.  Sir, 

"  Your  kind  letter  of  Nov.  SSth  with  the  little  book* 
annexed  to  it,  lays  me  imder  a  new  obligation,  and  I  sincerely 
wish  to  be  able  and  to  have  an  opportunity  to  acquit  the  same. 
I  think  I  foresaw  what  you  were  pleased  to  object  against  the 
encomiums,  however  well  deserved,  and  no  doubt  well  meant, 
bestowed  upon  you  and  your  writings  by  Mr.  Korthold  and 
the  Abbot  Steinmetz.     Perhaps  you  will  be  the  more  inclined 

*  The  treatise  on  "  Humility  Repieseuted,"  &c. 


OF    DR.    ISAAC    WATTS.  57l 

to  excuse  the  liberty  both  of  them  have  taken  in  acquainting- 
the  public  with  your  character,  when  I  beg  leave  to  tell  you, 
that  probably  neither  of  them  was  aware  that  any  thing 
published  in  the  German  language  would  be  translated  into 
English,  or  come  to  your  knowledge;  for  Mr.  Korthold's 
translation  of  Mr.  Benson's  Vindication  of  Prayer  has  not 
been  sent  over  as  yet,  although  it  came  out,  for  aught  I  know, 
a  year  ago:  and  as  to  the  abbot's  Preface,  the  translating  of 
it  was  purely  a  motion  and  resolution  of  my  own,  in  order  to 
show  my  great  esteem  and  respect  I  justly  owe  you.  This  is 
really  the  case,  I  believe,  why  these  gentlemen  did  express 
their  sentiments  concerning  Dr.  Watts  and  his  writings  so 
full  and  freely,  and  no  doubt  they  would  be  sorry  to  hear 
they  had  given  the  least  offence  to  a  man  they  value  so  much: 
the  preventing  of  which  is  the  true  reason  why  I  trouble  you 
with  the  forementioned  circumstances.  T  agree  entirely  with 
you,  that  it  is  more  safe  to  have  low  thoughts  of  ourselves 
and  our  abilities  than  great  ones.  Highmindedness,  and 
more  especially  spiritual  pride,  is  the  nearest  image  of  the 
fallen  angels,  and  an  infallible  way  to  lose  all  and  every 
grain  of  grace,  the  favour  of  God,  and  the  glory  that  is 
promised  to  the  faithful  servants  of  God.  But,  however  low 
and  mean  we  have  reason  to  think  of  ourselves,  this  makes  no 
law  to  others  to  think  so  too;  nor  can  their  liberality  in 
speaking  to  our  praise,  considered  in  itself,  be  blamed :  the 
instance  we  have  of  this,  Matt.  xi.  7 — 11,  compared  with 
John,  i.  27,  is  clear. 

"The  present  of  your  Catechisms  is  really  very  agreeable 
to  me,  and  I  thank  you  heartily  for  it. 

"Having  received  letters  this  day  se'nnight  from  Ebcnezer 
in  the  new  colony  of  Georgia,  where  some  of  the  Saltzburgh- 
ers,*  driven  out  from  their  own  native  country,  are  settled; 

♦The  protestants  in  the  archbishopric  of  Saltzbiirgh  l>eing  inhumanly  ex- 
pelled by  tlie  catholic  authorities  in  the  year  17.32,  many  of  them  found  an  asy- 
lum in  the  American  plantations.     The   hardships   they  endured    excited   the 


57Q  lAFE    AND    TIMES 

and  finding  to  my  own  great  grief  and  sorrow,  that  their 
present  circumstances  are  very  distressed  and  deplorable,  not 
having  given  them,  when  the  letters  came  away,  the  land 
which  was  promised  them,  and  suffering  in  every  respect 
great  poverty  and  hardships,  I  am  resolved  to  acquaint  all  my 
friends  I  have  a  particular  confidence  in,  with  the  distress 
this  Christian  and  truly  good  people  are  in  at  this  time. 
Their  pious  and  indefatigable  minister,  the  Rev.  Mr. 
Boltzius,  acquaints  the  Rev.  Mr.  Urlspurger,  at  Augsburg, 
and  myself,  that  any  old  rag  thown  away  in  Europe  is  of 
service  to  them:  for  instance;  old  shoes,  stockings,  shirts,  or 
any  thing  of  wearing  apparel  for  men  or  women,  grown  peo- 
ple or  children. 

"  Wherefore,  dear  Sir,  if  Baron  Oxie's  supposition,  that  you 
have  some  hundreds  of  friends  at  your  disposal,  be  true,  per- 
haps you  might,  by  the  blessing  of  God,  be  an  happy  instru- 
ment to  get  here  and  there  something  of  old  clothes  for  them 
to  cover  their  nakedness.  Some  well-disposed  persons  in 
Germany  have  hitherto  sent  them  through  my  hands  at 
several  times  considerable  benefactions,  and  more  especially 
have  agreed  among  themselves  to  contribute  a  certain  sum  of 
money  for  the  buying  of  linen  cloth;  and  by  the  last  ship 
which  sailed  from  hence  the  6th  of  this  month  for  Georgia, 
there  were  actually  sent  them  fifteen  pieces  of  linen,  for 
shirts,  aprons,  caps,  &c.  I  must  needs  own,  if  the  good 
providence  of  God  had  not  raised  them  such  kind  benefactors, 
I  am  afraid  there  would  have  been  very  few  of  them  yet 


sympathy  of  the  English  public,  and  large  sums  were  raised  by  voluntary  sub- 
scription, as  well  as  a  parliamentary  grant  of  £.10,000,  to  relieve  their  suStrings. 
The  march  of  the  exiles,  amounting  to  20,()78,  in  the  depth  of  winter,  will  long  be 
remembered  in  Germany.  Many  perished  for  want  of  food  and  clothing,  having 
been  obliged  to  leave  their  goods  behind  them.  The  Count  of  Stolberg  Warne- 
gerode  gave  a  dinner  to  about  900  in  his  palace  ;  the  Duke  of  Brunswick  liberally 
entertained  others  j  the  Leipsic  clergy  met  some  of  the  wanderers  at  the  city 
gates  singing  Luther's  hymns.  "Account  of  the  Sufferings  of  the  persecuted 
Protestants  in  the  Archbishopric  of  Saltzburgh,  with  their  reception  in 
several  Imperial  Cities." 


OF   DR.    ISAAC    WATTS.  573 

alive.  If  the  journal  sent  by  Mr,  Boltzius  was  not  in  the 
German  language,  I  should  not  fail  to  communicate  it  to  you, 
and  am  pretty  sure  that  the  reading  of  it  would  as  well 
edify  as  raise  your  compassion  to  them.  Your  goodness  lets 
me  hope  you  will  kindly  pardon  the  length  of  this  letter,  and 
the  freedom  used  in  laying  before  you  the  misery  and  calamity 
of  the  poor  Saltzburghers  at  Ebenezer.  May  the  Lord  give 
us  grace  at  all  times  to  fulfil  the  good  pleasure  of  his  will !  I 
am,  with  great  sincerity  and  esteem,  Rev.  Sir, 

"Your  affectionate  brother, 

"And  humble  servant, 

"  FRED.  MICH.  ZIEGENHAGEN." 


FROM  THE  SAME, 

"Kensington,  Dec,  9,  1737. 
"Rev.  and  Dear  Sir, 

"  I  return  you  many  thanks  for  your  kind  letter  of 
December  6,  which  came  not  to  my  hands  till  just  now  at 
six  o'clock  at  night,  else  I  should  not  have  failed  to  have  an- 
swered it  sooner.  The  readiness  you  show  in  assisting  the 
poor  Saltzburghers,  yea,  your  well  receiving  the  mentioning 
them  and  their  circumstances  in  my  last  letter,  give  me  great 
satisfaction.  What  you  are  pleased  to  mention  of  an  appli- 
cation made  to  you  in  behalf  of  the  Saltzburghers,  three  years 
ago,  by  three  ministers  of  the  Church  of  England,  viz.  in  the 
name  of  the  Society,  is  all  fact,  and  I  myself  remember  the 
thing  very  well;  but  I  never  heard  the  reason  why  the  appli- 
cation had  no  success,  and  am  almost  apt  to  question  whether 
the  gentlemen  commissioned  with  that  affair  made  their 
report  to  the  '  Society  for  Promoting  Christian  Knowledge,' 
agreeable  to  what  I  find  in  your  letter.     N.B.  The  other 


674  LIFE    AND    TIMES 

Society,  called  '  The  Incorporated  Society  for  Foreign  Parts,' 
that  is  to  say,  for  the  West  Indies,  have  done  nothing  for,  or 
have  any  thing  to  do  with,  the  Saltzburghers  in  Georgia. 

"  But  to  come  to  the  main  point  upon  which  you  are  so 
good  as  to  desire  my  answer.  The  case  stands  thus :  when 
the  said  '  Society  for  Promoting  Christian  Knowledge,'  after 
having  read  the  accovmts  of  the  sufferings  of  the  Saltzburgh- 
ers, which  were  sent  me  from  Germany,  and  by  me  commu- 
nicated to  them,  did  agree  to  have  the  same  published  in 
English,  in  order  to  raise  a  collection  for  the  benefit  of  the 
persecuted  Saltzburghers  in  general ;  they  appointed  at  the 
same  time  six  trustees  for  receiving  all  the  charities  of  that 
branch,  and  among  the  rest  I  myself  was  one  of  them,  as  you 
will  find  in  the  first  account  of  the  suff'erings  of  the  Saltz- 
burghers published  by  the  society.  The  office  of  a  trustee 
laid  me  under  an  obligation  to  report  to  the  Society  w^hat 
money  I  received  from  benefactors  here  in  England,  and  so  I 
did  report  it,  except  the  money  that  was  put  into  my  hands 
for  particular  uses,  and  desired  to  be  sent  to  Germany  by 
myself:  for  instance  ;  the  money  for  the  Saltzburghers  £.67 
collected  by  the  Rev.  Mr.  Burroughs,  a  minister  of  the  Bap- 
tist persuasion,  who  preached  two  sermons  upon  that  charity, 
also  the  money  that  was  or  is  still  sent  me  from  Germany  for 
those  Saltzburghers  who  are  gone  to  Georgia,  I  never  was 
obliged  to  make  a  report  of  it  to  the  Society,  and  never  did. 

"  The  reason  of  this  difl"erence  I  suppose  you  apprehend 
very  easily.  I  have  sent,  thank  God,  every  year  charitable 
contributions  to  Ebenezer,  and  given  directions  to  the  Rev. 
Mr.  ]5oltzius  how  it  is  to  be  applied.  Sometimes  the  bene- 
factors signify  expressly  to  me  for  what  use  they  design  their 
charity,  either  for  the  relief  of  the  sick,  or  old  people,  or  for 
widows  and  orphans,  or  for  maintaining  some  poor  children, 
or  for  instructing  some  negroes,  or  for  the  poorest  among  them 
to  buy  shoes,  stockings,  shirts,  &c. ;  but  sometimes  they  leave 


OF    DR.    ISAAC    WATTS.  575 

it  to  the  discretion  of  Mr,  Boltzius  to  apply  the  money  to  the 
best  advantage  of  the  Sahzburghers. 

"  All  this  I  do  in  my  private  capacity  without  acquainting 
the  Society  with  particulars  either  from  whence  the  money 
comes  or  for  what  particular  use  it  is  designed.  Neither  do 
they  desire  it,  being  sensible  that  the  miserable  condition  the 
Sahzburghers  are  in  is  more  fully  known  to  me  than  to  them- 
selves. As  to  my  former  office  of  trustee,  I  think  it  is  quite  at 
an  end,  not  having  here  in  England  in  more  than  two  years' 
time  received  the  least  benefaction  for  the  Saltzburghers,  the 
thing  being  now  dead. 

"  Wherefore,  dear  Sir,  if  the  Lord  blesses  your  good  inten- 
tion and  intercession  in  behalf  of  the  Saltzburghers,  and  sends 
them  by  your  means  some  seasonable  help,  it  will  be  an  ad- 
ditional kindness  if  you  will  be  at  the  trouble  to  specify  in 
what  manner  it  is  to  be  applied,  and  I  shall  be  very  punctual 
in  every  respect  agreeable  to  your  order  and  direction,  and 
send  your  charity  by  the  first  ship  to  Mr.  Boltzius  at  Ebene- 
zer;*  and  I  am  well  assured  that  the  administration  of  this 
service  not  only  will  supply  the  want  of  the  saints  (and  I  hope 
many  of  them  really  are  such),  but  will  be  abundant  also  by 
many  thanksgivings  to  God,  and  by  their  prayers  for  you, 
good  Sir,  and  all  their  benefactors.  May  the  Lord  give  us 
grace  to  do  whatever  is  pleasing  to  him  !  I  remain  with  sin- 
cere esteem,  Rev.  Sir, 

"  Your  most  obliged  humble  servant, 
"  And  brother  in  the  Lord, 

"  FRED.  MICH.  ZIEGENIIAGEN." 

*  £.33,000  was  raised  in  London  for  the  relief  of  the  Saltzburghers.  Of  Ebene- 
zer,  their  settlement  in  Georgia,  Whitfield  thus  writes  in  1738  :  "Their  lands  are 
improved  surprisingly  for  the  time  they  have  been  there,  and  I  believe  they  have 
far  the  best  crop  of  any  in  the  colony.  They  are  blest  with  two  such  pious  minis- 
ters as  I  have  not  often  seen.  Tiiey  have  no  courts  of  judicature  ;  but  all  little 
differences  are  immediately  and  implicitly  decided  by  their  ministers,  whom  they 
look  upon  and  love  as  their  fathers." 


576  LIFE    AND    TIMES 

FROM  THE    HON.  J.  BELCHER. 

"December  10,  1737. 
"Dear  Sir, 

"The  seventh  current  came  to  my  hand  your  favour 
of  the  13th  of  October,  for  which  you  have  my  kindest  thanks. 

"Mr.  Loving's  sermon  is  allowed  by  those  who  have  the 
best  sense  of  religion,  to  be  full  of  excellent  advice  to  rulers 
and  people ;  and  1  humbly  pray,  that  by  the  influences  of  that 
God  who  has  honoured  him  to  be  an  overseer  of  one  of  his 
flocks,  we  may  for  the  future  live  and  act  more  to  his  glory ! 
And  I  am  here  again  thankful  for  your  prayers  to  heaven  on 
my  behalf. 

"The  acceptance  of  my  picture  is  a  token  of  your  respect, 
and  so  is  the  present  of  yours  to  me,  which  I  hope  to  receive 
by  one  of  the  spring  ships,  with  Mr.  Edwards  of  Northamp- 
ton's narrative,  printed  by  yourself  and  Dr.  Guyse  at  London, 
of  the  wonderful  things  wrought  by  the  Spirit  of  God  on  the 
hearts  of  our  people  in  the  county  of  Hampshire. 

"You  will,  Sir,  oblige  one  of  your  constant  readers  and 
hearty  well-wishers,  to  let  me  have  any  thing  new  with  which 
you  oblige  the  world. 

"It  is  very  kind  of  pious  Lady  Abney  to  allow  me  a  share 
in  her  good  wishes.  She  is  making  haste  to  a  better  world, 
and  at  her  great  change  will  come  to  the  grave  in  full  age, 
'as  a  shock  of  corn  comes  in  its  season.'  In  the  mean  time, 
I  wish  her  length  of  days  Avith  health  and  comfort. 

"That  you  may  be  continued  a  burning  and  shining  light, 
by  which  many  souls  may  be  guided  to  the  regions  of  eternal 
day,  and  there  be  witnesses  to  that  crown  of  life  which  you 
shall  receive  from  your  Lord  and  Master,  in  testimony  of  your 
fidelity,  is,  and  shall  be,  the  prayer  of, 
"Rev.  Sir, 
"Your  obliged  friend,  and  most  obedient  servant, 

"j.  BELCHER." 


"  Sir, 


OF   DR.    ISAAC    WATTS.  577 

FROM  THE  COUNTJESS  OF  HERTFORD. 

"St.  Leonard's  Hill,  June  6,  1738. 


"I  had  the  pleasure  on  Saturday  to  receive  the 
book,*  and  the  kind  letter  you  were  so  good  as  to  send  me. 
I  dare  say  I  shall  go  through  the  book  with  a  great  deal  of 
pleasure.  I  have  already  read  part  of  it,  and  find  nothing  as 
yet  to  give  me  any  apprehensions  that  I  shall  find  it  dry  or 
unpleasant.  I  am  sure  the  subject  is  of  importance,  and  is 
rendered  most  particularly  so  at  this  time,  when  the  polite 
part  of  the  world  look  on  the  sabbath  as  an  old-fashioned  in- 
stitution, from  which  they  would  gladly  be  released.  I  inclose 
you  some  verses  which,  though  perhaps  not  strictly  right  as 
to  the  rules  of  poetry,  I  believe  you  will  excuse  for  the  piety 
of  the  sentiments.  They  were  sent  me  by  a  friend  of  mine 
who  lives  at  Gloucester,  and  she  says  were  written  by  a  young 
gentleman  there.f 

*  The  discourses  on  the  "  Holiness  of  Times,  Places,  and  People." 
f  The  verses  are  entitled  "  Returning  to  God,"  and  are  as  follow : 

"  All-gracious  God,  my  best  retreat, 
A  wounded  soul  lestore: 
Unnumber'd  are  my  sins  and  great, 
Thy  tender  mercies  more : 

"  Receive  a  wand'ring,  wanton  son, 
Unworthy  of  the  name, 
Who  bends  before  thine  awful  throne, 
O'erwheim'd  with  guilt  and  shame. 

"  Long-wean'd  from  heav'n  by  earthly  joys 
I've  fix'd  my  Canaan  here. 
Quitting  for  present  empty  toys 
My  bright  reversion  there. 

"  Like  Noah's  restless  dove  I've  flown 
Around  the  delug'd  ball, 
But,  all ;  what  rest  can  there  be  known, 
Where  sin  has  cover'd  all  ? 

"  Then  let  me  to  my  ark  return, 
Where  peace  and  comfort  reign. 
With  holy  flames  here  let  me  burn, 
Nor  wish  to  cool  again. 


578  LIFE    AND   TIMES 

"  I  thought  it  very  long-  since  I  had  heard  from  you,  and 
should  without  ceremony  have  written  again,  but  I  have  la- 
boured under  a  very  painful  disorder  in  my  head  and  face, 
which  has  of  late  made  writing  very  difficult  to  me.  I  thank 
God  it  is  now  a  little  better,  though  so  far  from  well  as  to 
hinder  me  of  the  pleasures  of  riding  and  walking,  to  which 
the  season  of  the  year  would  naturally  invite  me,  and  which 
are  generally  more  beneficial  to  my  health  than  any  medicine 
in  the  dispensary.  But  I  ought  not  to  repine  at  these  little 
inconveniences  which  are  so  far  less  afflicting  than  I  deserve, 
while  I  have  the  blessing  to  see  my  Lord  and  my  children 
enjoy  a  perfect  state  of  health ;  for  though  I  doubt  I  must 
never  hope  to  see  my  Lord  able  to  walk  again,  he  is  otherwise 
in  as  good  health  and  spirits  as  ever  he  was  since  I  knew  him. 
He  and  my  daughter  are  this  day  going  to  London  to  stay 
till  Thursday  or  Friday,  but  my  son  and  I  remain  here. 
They  all  assure  you  of  their  best  wishes.  It  is  comfortable 
to  find,  that  there  are  still  enough  of  such  well-disposed 
minds  as  to  encourage  Mrs.  Rowe's  Meditations,  which  cer- 
tainly breathe  as  sincere  a  spirit  of  piety  as  can  be  met  with 
in  any  writing.     I  am  afraid  I  have  tired  you  with  this  long 


'  With  sin  and  toil,  ye  misers  blind, 
Your  idol,  gold,  procure, 
Here  I  sliall  nobler  treasure  find, 
from  moth  and  rust  secure. 

■  While  sensual  joy  vain  fools  inflames 
With  gay  delusive  show, 
Grant  me,  ()  God,  those  blissful  streams 
That  from  thy  presence  flow ; 

'If  worth  and  beauty  claim  my  heart, 

What's  fair  and  good  like  thee? 

If  kindest  love  my  soiil  ran  move, 

What  love's  like  thine  to  me? 

'  I  burn,  descending  from  tlie  skies. 
Swift  flames  dissolve  my  soul ; 
IMy  pow'rs  in  sacred  raptures  rise. 
And  soar  above  the  pole. 

'  Adieu,  vain  earth,  vain  thoughts,  depart. 
Delusive  dreams,  farewell ; 
Such  trifling  guests  must  leave  that  heart. 
Where  God  vouchsafes  to  dwell." 


OF   DR.    ISAAC    WATTS.  579 

letter,  and  indeed  the  pain  of  my  eyes  reminds  me,  that  it  is 
time  to  conclude  it,  by  assuring  you  that  I  am  with  the  great- 
est esteem.  Sir, 

"  Your  most  obliged  humble  servant, 

"  F.  HERTFORD." 


FROM  THE   SAME. 

"  St.  Leonard's  Hill,  Aug.  8,  1738. 
"  Sir, 

"  I  would  much  sooner  have  thanked  you  for  the 
favour  of  your  last  letter,  but  have  been  hindered  by  my  at- 
tendance on  my  Lord  in  a  severe  fit  of  the  gout,  though,  I 
thank  God,  it  has  been  only  in  his  limbs,  and  not  affected 
either  his  head  or  stomach. 

"  I  think  every  body  must  wish  a  muse  like  Mr.  Pope's 
were  more  inclined  to  exert  itself  on  divine  and  good-natured 
subjects ;  but  I  am  afraid  satire  is  his  highest  talent,  for  I  think 
his  '  Universal  Prayer'  is  by  no  means  equal  to  some  other  of 
his  works ;  and  I  think  his  tenth  stanza*  an  instance  how 
blind  the  wisest  men  may  be  to  the  errors  of  their  own  hearts  ; 
for  he  certainly  did  not  mean  to  imprecate  such  a  proportion 
of  vengeance  on  himself,  as  he  is  too  apt  to  load  those  with 
whom  he  dislikes ;  nor  would  he  wish  to  have  his  own  fail- 
ings exposed  to  the  eye  of  the  world  with  all  the  invective 
and  ridicule  with  which  he  publishes  those  of  his  fellow- 
creatures. 

"  I  have  lately  met  with  some  riddles  which  we  think 
pretty  enough  in  their  way,  and  as  I  remember  you  once  told 

*  "  Teach  me  to  feel  another's  woe, 

To  liide  the  fault  I  see  ; 

That  mercy  1  to  others  show, 

That  mercy  show  to  me." 


580  LIFE    AND   TIMES 

nie  you  thought  them  tolerable  amusements,  I  will  inclose 
you  one  or  two  of  them,  and,  if"  they  do  not  displease  you, 
can  furnish  you  with  a  few  more,  which  we  do  not  think  bad 
ones.  My  Lord  and  our  young-  people  assure  you  of  their  ser- 
vices.    I  am,  Sir,  with  the  sincerest  esteem, 

"  Your  most  faithful  humble  servant, 

"  F.  HERTFORD." 


OF    DB.    ISAAC    WATTS.  581 


CHAPTER  XV. 

TRINITARIAN  CONTROVERSY. 


INTRODUCTORY  REMARKS.  — WORKS  OF  WHISTON  AND  CLARKE.  — THE 
"CHRISTIAN  DOCTRINE  Of  THE  TRINITY:"— OPPOSED  BY  MR.  TOM- 
KINS:— HIS  "SOBER  APPEAL  TO  A  TURK  OR  INDIAN."  — THE  "ARIAN 
INVITED  TO  THE  ORTHODOX  FAITH."  — ANCIENT  AND  MODERN  ARI- 
ANISM.— DISSERTATION  ON  THE  DIVINITY  OF  CHRIST— THE  UNEON 
OF  THE  DIVINE  AND  HUMAN  NATURES— THE  WORSHIP  PAID  TO 
CHRIST— DIFFERENCE  ON  THIS  POINT  BETWEEN  THE  ANCIENT  AND 
MODERN  ARIANS.- SECOND  PART  OF  THE  DISSERTATIONS.— ON  THE 
LOGOS.  — THE  DOCTRINE  OF  THE  HOLY  SPIRIT.— ON  THE  MEANING 
OF  THE  TERM  PERSON  IN  THE  CONTROVERSY.  — OPINIONS  OF  HOWE, 
DR.  WALLIS,  AND  DR.  HOPKINS.— RELINQUISHES  THE  SUBJECT— THE 
"USEFUL  AND  IMPORTANT  QUESTIONS"  PUBLISHED.  — ON  THE  TITLE, 
"SON  OF  GOD."— ON  THE  KNOWLEDGE  OF  THE  DISCIPLES  AS  TO  THE 
DIVINITY  OF  CHRIST— THE  IMPORTANCE  OF  SCHEMES  OF  EXPLICA- 
TION.-WORK  ON  THE  "GLORY  OF  CHRIST."— THE  PRE-EXISTENCE  OF 
HIS  HUMAN  SOUL  — SECOND  EDITION  OF  THE  "SOBER  APPEAL."— 
SUMMARY  Of  WATTS'S  SCHEME. 


Among  the  doctrines  of  holy  writ,  there  are  none  which 
have  attracted  greater  attention,  and  occasioned  warmer  con- 
troversies, than  that  of  the  Trinity.  Sentiments  inimical  to 
it  were  propagated  in  the  early  ages,  which,  though  opposed 
by  civil  authority,  and  persecuted  with  the  sword,  obtained 
the  support  of  a  formidable,  and  sometimes  dominant  party 
in  the  church,  and  only  sank  into  oblivion  when  they  lost  the 
charm  of  novelty,  or  when  a  general  indifference  to  religion 
ensued.  Anti-trinitarianism  revived  soon  after  the  reforma- 
tion, and  was  industriously  disseminated  by  the  Polish  Socini- 
ans;  but,  as  a  spectre  from  the  tomb,  it  found  no  favour  in  the 


582  LIFE    AND    TIMES 

eyes  of  the  multitude;  and  during  the  continuance  of  the  early 
Stuarts  upon  the  English  throne,  and  the  reign  of  presbyteri- 
anism  under  the  Commonwealth,  its  adoption  was  punished 
as  one  of  the  highest  civil  offences.  The  diffusion  of  more 
enlightened  views  of  religious  liberty,  allowed  of  propagan- 
dism  with  impunity  —  an  opportunity  which  the  disciples  of 
heterodoxy  did  not  neglect,  A  discussion  arose  in  the  estab- 
lishment, as  to  the  true  mode  of  explication  with  reference  to 
the  doctrine  ;  and  Dr.  South  and  Dr.  Sherlock  were  employ- 
ed in  explaining  what  both  would  have  confessed  in  calmer 
moments  to  be  inexplicable.  This  drew  forth  the  energies  of 
Howe,  whose  "  Letters"  are  evidently  the  production  of  a 
master  mind,  and  which  served  to  confound  the  Unitarian,  to 
rebuke  the  dogmatist,  and  to  establish  upon  the  basis  of 
scripture  this  important  article  of  our  faith.  But  the  example 
of  these  great  names  \vas  interpreted  as  sanctioning  a  perni- 
cious practice  — their  authority  was  pleaded  by  every  inquisi- 
tive theologue  ambitious  of  discovering  the  secret  of  the 
divine  existence  —  and  without  a  tittle  of  their  learning  or 
self-control,  which  would  at  once  have  checked  the  attempt, 
a  few  restless  spirits  pushed  across  the  limits  of  legitimate 
inquiry,  and  boldly  entered  the  region  of  boundless  and  im- 
pertinent speculation.  The  consequences  of  such  a  rash  ad- 
venture may  be  easily  anticipated.  The  truth  was  disfigured 
by  human  fancies,  until  every  lineament  of  its  original  form 
was  destroyed  —  the  attention  being  diverted  from  the  realities 
of  religion  and  occupied  with  subtle  conjectures,  induced  in- 
difference to  its  practical  influence  —  and  many  who  left  the 
haven,  high  with  hope  and  confident  in  expectation  of  return- 
ing laden  with  spiritual  and  intellectual  treasure,  foundered 
in  the  sea,  and  were  lost  in  the  depths  of  anti-christian  error. 
The  mathematical  professor  in  the  university  of  Cambridge, 
Whiston,  was  the  first  avowed  advocate  of  arianism  of  any  note 
in  this  country;  and  his  heresy,  after  a  toleration  of  some  length, 
lost  him  his  chair.  But  the  establishment  cherished  in  its  bosom 


OF    DR.    ISAAC    WATTS.  ^    583 

a  more  dexterous  champion,  Dr.  Samuel  Clarke,  whose  semi- 
arianism  was  allowed  by  the  convocation  after  some  scruple 
to  pass  current.  It  was  the  writings  of  this  clever  disputant 
that  infused  the  poison  among  the  dissenters ;  and  thus  the 
establishment,  fenced  round  as  its  orthodoxy  is  with  the  au- 
thority of  creeds,  and  protected  by  the  anathemas  of  councils, 
was  the  fountain  from  whence  that  error  proceeded,  which 
carried  the  streams  of  spiritual  desolation  and  death  wherever 
it  was  embraced.  The  presbyterians  of  the  western  counties, 
were  the  first  among  the  nonconformists  who  departed  from 
the  faith— the  children  of  those  who  caused  the  Long  Parlia- 
ment to  enact  a  statute,  inflicting  death  upon  any  denier 
of  the  atonement,  the  deity  of  the  Son,  and  the  Holy  Spirit. 
The  conduct  of  Dr.  Watts  at  this  momentous  juncture,  when 
the  conference  at  Salter's  Hall  was  commenced,  has  already 
been  mentioned  —  the  effect  which  the  debates  had  in 
unhinging  his  mind,  and  directing  his  attention  to  the  inves- 
tigation of  the  point  in  dispute,  has  been  hinted  at — we  have 
now  to  accompany  him  in  his  inquiries,  to  ascertain  the 
sentiments  which  he  at  last  embraced. 

The  result  of  his  first  examination  of  this  important 
subject,  he  gave  to  the  public  in  the  year  1722,  under  the 
title  of  "The  Christian  Doctrine  of  the  Trinity."  This  is  an 
able  and  orthodox  essay,  exhibiting  the  scripture  evidence  of 
the  doctrine  in  a  lucid  and  forcible  manner,  and  plainly  demon- 
strating by  an  appeal  on  all  points  to  the  law  and  to  the  testi- 
mony the  futility  of  the  anti-trinitarian  dogmas.  He  adopts  the 
analytical  mode  of  investigation;  elucidates  the  evidence  of 
divine  truth  by  a  series  of  twenty-two  propositions;  and 
shows  the  sentiments  of  the  inspired  writers  to  be  at  the 
antipodes  of  Socinian  and  Arian  hypothesis.  The  creeds  of 
the  church  are  carefully  avoided  by  the  author— the  writings 
of  the  fathers  are  not  quoted— the  preponderance  of  human 
authority  is  not  considered— his  object  is  not  to  ascertain 
what  councils  have  decreed,  but  what  the  sacred  oracles  have 


584  LIFE    AND    TIMES 

declared.  lu  the  eighteenth  proposition  he  refers  to  the 
pre-existence  of  Christ's  human  soul,  as  an  opinion  not  to  be 
"rashly  rejected"  —  as  calculated  to  remove  some  difficulties 
connected  with  his  appearances  previous  to  his  incarnation — 
as  afiFording  an  easy  solution  of  some  obscure  and  doubtful 
texts;  but  he  seems  by  no  means  fully  satisfied  with  the 
notion,  and,  hence,  merely  proposes  it,  without  interweaving 
it  with  his  argument.  In  an  incautious  passage  respecting 
addressing  the  Spirit  with  divine  honours,  he  remarks, 
"  Since  we  find  so  great  a  silence  in  scripture  of  any  express 
precepts  or  patterns  of  prayer  or  praise,  directed  distinctly  to 
the  person  of  the  blessed  Spirit,  let  us  not  bind  it  upon  our 
own  consciences,  nor  upon  others,  as  a  piece  of  necessary 
w^orship,  but  rather  practise  it  occasionally  as  prudence  and 
expedience  may  require."  Dr.  Watts  is  here  at  variance 
with  himself;  for  having  proved  in  his  eighth  proposition 
the  personality  and  divinity  of  the  Spirit — having  cited  some 
instances  of  divine  worship  being  paid  to  him  in  the  scrip- 
tures*— it  is  inconsistent  to  speak  of  their  "great  silence" 
upon  the  subject,  and  illogical  to  allow  to  prudential  consid- 
erations greater  force  than  their  authoritative  sanction.  With 
these  exceptions  I  know  of  nothing  in  the  treatise  likely  to 
oflFend  the  most  rigid  orthodoxy — the  practical  influence  of 

*  The  "  instances  cited"  are  taken,  1 .  From  the  words  in  which  the  ordinance  of 
baptism  is  prescribed  :  Matt,  xxviii.  19.  Dr.  Wardlaw  and  the  orthodox  divines 
interpret  this  form  in  the  same  manner,  not  only  as  signifying  initiation  into  the 
faith  and  profession  of  the  Christian  doctrine,  and  particularly  of  that  scheme  of 
redemption,  in  which  the  Father,  the  Son,  and  the  Holy  Spirit  are  ever  represented 
as  fulfilling  their  respective  parts,  but  involving  in  it,  at  the  same  time,  an  act  of 
solemn  worship  to  each  of  the  divine  Persons  mentioned.  Wa)-dl.  Dis.  x.  2.  The 
second  instance  is  taken  from  the  apostolic  prayer  iii  2  Cor.  xiii.  14,  in  which  the 
Spirit  is  joined  with  the  Father  and  the  Son  in  equal  sovereignty  and  power. 

The  Rev.  John  Hurrion,  one  of  Watts's  ojiponents,  in  his  Sermons  preached  at 
the  Merchant's  Lecture  at  Pinner's  Hall  in  1729,  1730,  1731,  published  after  his 
death  by  Dr.  Abraham  Taylor,  adduces  Cant.  iv.  IG,  as  another  instance !  "  Awake, 
O  North  wind,  and  come  thou.  South,  and  blow  upon  my  garden."  Because  the 
Spirit  in  scripture  is  often  compared  to  the  n-ind,  he  interprets  this,  with  Ainsworth, 
Piscator,  Durham,  and  the  old  divines,  as  an  invocation  of  him —  to  awake  from 
the  stormy  North  to  blast  the  corruptions  of  the  church  —  to  come  from  the  suuny 


or    DR.    ISAAC    WATTS,  585 

the  doctrine  in  leading  us  to  adore  the  Father  of  all  good,  to 
trust  in  the  satisfaction  of  the  Son,  and  implore  the  hallowing 
influences  of  the  Spirit,  is  clearly  stated  —  and  the  work  de- 
serves to  rank  among  the  best  of  the  theological  performances 
our  old  divinity  has  furnished. 

At  a  period  when  the  trinitarian  doctrine  was  the  subject  of 
so  much  discussion  —  when  a  powerful  party,  both  as  to  num- 
ber and  talent,  avowedly  opposed  it  —  it  was  hardly  to  be 
expected  that  Dr.  Watts's  publication  should  escape  without 
animadversion.  So  satisfied  was  he  with  the  evidence  he  had 
adduced  from  the  sacred  page,  that  he  had  remarked  in  his 
book,  "I  think  the  plain  and  express  scriptures  sufficiently  dis- 
tinguish three  personal  agents— a  Turk  or  an  Indian  that  reads 
them  without  any  prepossession,  would  certainly  understand 
most  of  them  so."  This  observation  meeting  the  eye  of  a 
champion  for  Arianism,  he  sent  forth  an  anonymous  rejoinder, 
entitled  "  A  Sober  Appeal  to  a  Turk  or  an  Indian,  concerning 
the  plain  sense  of  Scripture  relating  to  the  Trinity,  being  an 
answer  to  Mr.  I.  Watts's  late  book."  This  was  the  production 
of  the  Rev.  Martin  Tomkins,  formerly  mentioned  as  ejected 
by  the  dissenting  congregation  at  Stoke  Newington,  on 
account  of  his  Arian  sentiments.  It  displays  considerable 
controversial  dexterity ;  but  it  neither  meets  the  argument 
fully  or  fairly,  and  its  expositions  of  scripture  are  in  the  highest 
degree  forced  and  unnatural.  Admitting  the  supreme  autho- 
rity of  revelation,  he  enters  within  the  precincts  of  the  sacred 
pale,  and  attempts  to  wrest  from  Dr.  Watts  the  passages 
cited  in  support  of  the  trinitarian  doctrine.     And  if  it  is  al- 

South  to  cherish  wich  gentle  gales  aud  baliny  breezes  the  pUiutiiig  of  the  Lord  ! 
Psalm,  cxliii.  10  is  also  cited,  "Thy  Spirit  is  good;  lead  me  into  tlie  land  of  up- 
rightness ;"  and  Leusden's  rendering  Spiritns  titus  bonus  deducat  me  in  terra 
recta,  "Let  tliy  good  Spirit  lead  me  in  a  right  land,"  whicli  is  strangely  tortured 
into  a  prayer  to,  as  well  as  for,  the  Holy  Spirit. 

Such  far  fetched  expositions  render  no  service  whatever  to  the  doctrine  in  ques- 
tion. The  argument  is  simple.  'I'he  riglitof  the  Spirit  to  divine  worship  is  founded 
upon  his  divine  character,  and  not  upon  scripture  practice  or  prtcept.  Any  proof 
of  the  latter  is  superfluous  if  the  former  is  established. 

Pp 


58«  LIFE    AND    TIMES 

lowable  to  violate  the  recognised  canons  of  criticism  —  to  ex- 
tract from  the  original  text  a  desired  meaning  by  unauthorised 
glosses  and  conjectural  emendation  —  to  adopt  an  alteration 
without  the  support  of  a  single  manuscript  or  version  —  wo 
may  admit  that  the  effort  did  not  altogether  fail.  But  the 
arbitrary  freedoms  of  polemical  theology  will  not  be  received 
as  evidence  at  the  tribunal  of  the  dispassionate  critic.  A 
slight  subjection  to  this  ordeal  would  show  the  unwarrantable 
license  which  the  author  of  the  "  Sober  Ap])eal"  assumes,  and 
the  lofty  and  impregnable  position  occupied  by  the  work  which 
he  endeavours  to  controvert.  An  instance  occurs  in  the  ren- 
dering of  Rom.  ix.  5 :  "Of  whom,  as  concerning  the  flesh, 
Christ  came,  who  is  over  all,  God  blessed  for  ever ;"  which 
Mr.  Tomkins,  following  Enjedin,  Emlyn,  and  others,  trans- 
lates, "  Of  whom  is  the  Christ,  according  to  the  flesh.  He 
who  is  God  over  all  be  blessed  for  ever."  Regarding  the  latter 
clause  of  the  passage  as  a  doxology,  and  putting  a  full-point 
after  cupKa,  the  force  of  this  striking  testimony  to  the  supreme 
divinity  of  the  Messiah  is  completely  neutralised.  But  when 
it  is  considered,  that  the  new  reading  is  entirely  conjectural — 
that  it  violates  the  usages  of  Greek  construction- — that  it  ren- 
ders the  limiting  clause,  "  according  to  the  flesh,"  an  unmean- 
ing and  impertinent  parenthesis — that  it  is  proposed  by  an 
interested  party,  for  no  better  assignable  reason,  than  that 
Paul's  amanuensis  was  a  blunderer  in  punctuation* —  it  will 
be  deemed  an  obvious  presage  of  a  bad  cause,  to  have  recourse 
to  such  an  expedient.  It  is  not,  however,  my  object  to  vindi- 
cate or  refute  Dr.  Watts's  sentiments,  but  to  explain  them ; 
and  the  work  of  his  opponent  may  be  dismissed  with  the  re- 
mark, that  its  style  is  courteous,  its  spirit  candid,  and  though 
it  elicited  no  direct  reply,  it  appears,  from  the  references  to  it 
in  subsequent  publications,  to  have  met  with  an  attentive  pe- 
rusal. 

Dr.  Watts  next  produced  "  The  Arian  invited  to  the  Ortho- 

*Mr.  Eelsham's  Calm  Inqiiiiy,  p.  224. 


OF  DR.  ISAAC  WATTS.  587 

dox  Faith  ;  or,  a  plain  and  easy  method  to  lead  such  as  deny 
the  proper  Deity  of  Christ  into  the  belief  of  that  great  article," 
which  appeared  in  the  year  1724.  This  work  consists  of  three 
dissertations,  chiefly  occupied  with  establishing  the  divinity 
of  our  liord,  with  occasional  notices  of  the  "  Sober  Appeal." 
Tlie  orthodox  faith,  the  faith  of  the  church  from  the  primitive 
times,  he  defines  to  be,  that  explication  of  the  trinitarian  doc- 
trine which  supposes  the  divine  nature  to  be  but  one  nume- 
rical essence  —  that  this  essence  is  the  same  in  the  Father,  the 
Word,  and  the  Spirit  —  that  these  three  are  so  far  distinct  as 
to  lay  a  foundation  for  the  scriptures  to  speak  of  them  in  a  per- 
sonal manner — that  they  are  not  so  far  distinct  as  when  we 
speak  of  three  men  or  three  angels — and  that  in  the  person  of 
Christ  there  are  two  distinct  natures,  God  and  man  united. 
The  Arian  scheme,  as  promulged  by  its  subtle  founder,  held 
for  its  leading  tenet,  that  Christ  was  a  creature  —  a  glorious 
and  exalted  creature  indeed,  but  still  as  much  inferior  to  the 
true  and  eternal  God  as  a  creature  is  to  the  Creator  —  that  he 
was  produced  in  a  peculiar  manner  anterior  to  the  creation  of 
the  world  —  and  that  he  alone  proceeded  immediately  from 
God,  whilst  all  other  things  were  produced  mediately  by  him. 
Modern  Arianism,  as  expounded  by  its  distinguished  advocate, 
Dr.  Samuel  Clarke,  is  a  refinement  of  the  ancient  doctrine  — 
he  held  that  there  is  one  Supreme  Being,  who  is  denomina- 
ted the  Father,  and  two  subordinate,  derived  and  dependent 
beings  —  he  did  not,  however,  conceive  the  Son  to  be  a 
creature,  but  something  midway  between  a  created  and  a  self- 
existent  nature.  To  both  these  classes  Dr.  Watts  addressed 
himself  in  this  work,  to  lead  them  by  "slow  and  easy  steps" 
into  the  orthodox  doctrine  —  a  noble  and  elevated  object, 
the  entertainment  of  which  marks  a  benevolent  mind,  though 
the  expectation  of  success,  by  the  method  he  pursued,  betrays 
a  temperament  far  too  sanguine. 

In  the  first  dissertation  he  advances  a  number  of  queries, 
founded  upon  the  propositions  of  the  "  Christian  Doctrine," 


588  LIFE    AND    TIMES 

in  behalf  of  the  divine  nature  of  Christ.  There  is  little  of  what 
is  speculative  here  introduced,  with  the  exception  of  his  fa- 
vourite notion  of  the  pre-existence  of  our  Lord's  human  soul, 
which  will  hereafter  be  considered.   In  the  second  dissertation 
he  pursues  the  same  interrogative  style,  and  discusses  the 
union  of  the  divine  and  human  natures  in  the  Saviour's  per- 
son. The  truth  and  certainty  of  the  hypostatic  union  he  argues 
from  scripture ;  its  possibility  and  consistency  with  reason  he 
proves  from  various  human  analogies ;  and  expresses  an  ap- 
proval of  the  opinion  of  Nestorius,  who  acknowledged  two 
persons  in  our  Lord  mystically  and  more  intimately  united 
than  any  analogy  within  our  observation  can  explain.     This 
is  obviously  neither  the  general  sense  of  the  church,  nor  the 
true  sense  of  scripture,  which  harmonises  with  the  decree  of 
the  Chalcedonian  council,  asserting  one  person,  but  in  the 
unity  of  persons  two  natures.     The  third  dissertation  is  the 
most  elaborate  one,  and  the  most  valuable ;  it  treats  of  the 
worship  of  Christ  being  founded  on  his  godhead  —  a  position 
advanced  in  the  "  Christian  Doctrine,"  which  its  Arian  critic 
was  at  great  pains  to  overthrow.     Dr.  Watts  proceeds  upon 
these  incontrovertible  principles :  that  religious  worship  is  a 
divine  honour  —  that  God  has  assumed  religious  worship  to 
himself  in  his  word  as  his  own  peculiar  prerogative,  and  with 
the  severest  penalties  has  forbid  it  to  be  paid  to  any  infe- 
rior being  —  that  religious  worship  is  attributed  to  our  Lord 
Jesus  Christ  both  in  prophecy,  in  precept,  and  in  example  in 
scripture  —  and  thence  it  is  inferred,  that  true  godhead  be- 
longs to  him.     The  author  of  the  "  So1)cr  Appeal"  does  not 
attempt  to  controvert  these  principles,  but  to  exhibit  the  in- 
ference as  erroneous :  he  allows  that  religious  worship  is  and 
ought  to  be  paid  to  Christ,  though  in  his  estimation  only  a 
creature :  he  does  not,  with  the  modern  Socinians,  attempt  by 
unscholarly  criticism  to  pervert  the  passages  wdiich  inculcate 
and  exemplify  the  practice  ;  but  to  avoid  the  consequences  of 
his   admission,    he   supposes  the   first   commandment  to  be 


OF    DR.    ISAAC    WATTS.  589 

repealed  under  the  New  Testament,  and  the  worship  of  th« 
creature,  though  of  an  inferior  kind,  not  to  be  interdicted. 
Even  Arius  himself  and  Socinus  did  not  depart  in  tliis  respect 
from  the  faith  and  practice  of  the  universal  church,  but  taught 
their  followers  to  "  honour  the  Son"  with  acts  of  adoration, 
whilst  they  disclaimed  his  divinity.  On  this  ground  the  fa- 
thers justly  charged  the  former  with  restoring  idolatry,  and 
supporting  the  pagan  polytheism  —  a  charge  advanced  by 
Watts,  and  most  triumphantly  established  by  Waterland. 
Mr.  Tomkins,  to  escape  from  such  a  conclusion,  has  recourse 
to  the  sophistical  distinction  of  inferior  and  superior  worship, 
embraced  by  the  papists  to  excuse  their  adoration  of  saints 
and  angels  ;  a  distinction  sanctioned  by  Dr.  Clarke,  to  recon- 
cile homage  to  the  Saviour  with  his  semi-arian  scheme ;  but 
a  distinction  upon  which  the  scripture  is  silent,  and  which 
reason  utterly  repudiates.  "Worship  was  paid  to  Christ  by 
his  immediate  followers,  and  it  is  ascribed  to  him  in  the  scenic 
representations  of  the  Apocalypse  ;  but  no  variation  in  quality, 
no  diti'erence  of  kind,  no  degrees  of  high  and  low,  supreme 
and  inferior,  ultimate  and  mediate,  are  hinted  at;  and  the 
fact  yields  irrefragable  evidence,  that  the  object  of  the  lowly 
reverence  of  earthly  and  heavenly  intelligences,  is  truly  a 
divine  personage. 

The  second  part  of  this  work  appeared  in  the  year  1725, 
containing  four  "  Dissertations  relating  to  the  Christian  Doc- 
trine of  the  Trinity."  He  here  departs  from  the  sentiments 
expressed  in  his  first  publication  ;  he  finds  that  Jewish  idioms 
will  allow  him  to  explain  the  personal  representations  of  the 
Spirit  by  the  prosopopseia  ;  and  while  he  maintains  the  lite- 
ral deity  of  the  Word  and  Spirit,  he  advocates  a  figurative 
personality.  The  general  senses  of  the  term  Logos,  the 
Merara  of  the  Chaldee  paraphrasts,  and  its  application  to 
Christ,  are  the  subjects  of  the  first  dissertation,  or  the  fourth 
numbering  from  the  former  volume.  In  this  inquiry  he  dis- 
plays an  extensive  range  of  reading,  appealing  to  the  apocry- 


890  I'TFE    AND    TIMES 

phal  writers,  llic  Targumists,  Philo,  and  the  Fathers,  and 
citing  the  works  of  Allix,  Owen,  and  Lightfoot,  to  ascertain 
the  judgment  of  the  Jewish  church.  Three  interpretations 
have  been  put  upon  the  expressions  of  Philo  with  reference 
to  the  exalted  and  mysterious  being  who  appears  so  promi- 
nently in  his  pages  —  the  Arian,  which  supposes  him  to  speak 
of  an  exalted  creature,  a  kind  of  demi-god,  who  governs  the 
world  under  the  flirection  and  as  the  representative  of  the 
Deity;  the  Sabellian,  according  to  which  the  essential  wisdom 
of  God,  an  emanation  of  the  divine  nature,  is  meant;  and  the 
Trinitarian,  which  introduces  a  true  subsistence  in  the  god- 
head, as  the  illustrious  person  intended.  These  expositions 
are  not  satisfactory  to  Dr.  Watts ;  and  he  brings  forward  the 
pre-existent  human  soul  of  Christ,  a  glorious  super-angelic 
S])irit,  having  communion  with  divinity,  as  best  answering  to 
the  Logos  of  the  Jew.  This  opinion  is  suggested  in  the 
"  Christology"  of  Mr.  Robert  Fleming  ;  it  is  held  by  most  of 
those  who  claim  for  the  human  soul  of  Christ  an  ante-mun- 
dane existence  ;  but  it  has  only  a  fanciful  conjecture  for  its 
basis.  That  Philo  and  the  Hellenists  invest  the  Logos  with 
a  real  personality,  in  a  manner  more  obvious  and  distinct  than 
can  be  found  in  the  writings  of  Plato  —  that  his  expressions 
are  clearly  indicative  of  a  divine  person  possessing  divine 
attributes  and  performing  divine  works  —  are  conclusions 
verified  by  competent  authorities,  though  there  may  be  no 
evidence  for  interpreting  this  hypostatical  term,  as  intended 
to  point  out  a  distinct  person  in  the  nature  of  deity.  The 
contrarieties  apparent  in  the  doctrine  of  Philo  and  the  Helle- 
nizing  Jews  respecting  the  Logos;  the  supreme  and  subordi- 
nate characters  and  titles  under  which  he  is  represented,  are 
thus  illustrated  and  reconciled  at  the  conclusion  of  the  disser- 
tation : —  "If  I  might  venture  into  a  comparison  upon  this 
occasion,  I  would  liken  the  writings  of  the  ancients  concern- 
ing the  Logos,  to  a  mine  of  rich  metal,  where  two  travellers 
taking  up  the  ore,  find  some  brighter  and  some  baser  proper- 


OF   DR.   ISAAC    WATTS.  &M 

ties  in  the  mass.  One  of  them  asserts  that  the  metal  is  all 
silver,  and  he  gives  the  most  favourable  and  exalted  turn 
that  he  can  to  the  coarser  phenomena  of  lead  which  discover 
themselves  there.  The  other  sinks  and  beclouds  the  brighter 
phenomena  of  silver,  till  he  has  construed  the  whole  mine  into 
lead.  Here  it  is  possible  that  a  less  knowing-  traveller  may 
come  by,  and  happen  to  make  such  an  experiment  on  the 
mingled  mass,  as  discovers  that  there  is  both  silver  and  lead 
united  in  the  same  ore :  by  this  means  the  different  properties 
appear  to  belong  to  the  different  metal,  and  the  contenders 
are  reconciled." 

The  fifth  dissertation  is  devoted  to  the  doctrine  of  the 
Holy  Spirit,  to  whom  he  assigns  a  literal  divinity, 
but  a  figurative  personality.  That  there  are  many  passages  in 
which  the  term  occurs,  when  merely  an  influence,  a  gift  or 
grace  is  intended,  no  judicious  trinitarian  will  deny ;  but 
there  are  many  others  which  are  absurd  and  unintelligible 
upon  our  author's  hypothesis,  in  which  the  Spirit  is  mention- 
ed in  such  a  manner  that  the  boldest  flights  of  poetry  will 
not  explain,  invested  in  the  plainest  prose  with  all  the  attri- 
butes of  distinct  personality.  Wisdom  may  be  personified  in 
the  writings  of  Solomon,  and  charity  in  the  writings  of  Paul ; 
but  nothing  can  be  more  unhappy  than  the  attempt  to  resolve 
the  personal  acts  attriljuted  to  the  Holy  Ghost  into  a  rhetorical 
figure.  As  to  the  doctrine  of  the  procession  of  the  Spirit 
from  the  Father  and  the  Son  in  the  essence  of  deity,  and  the 
notion  of  spiration,  or  the  manner  in  which  the  procession  is 
effected,  we  may  agree  with  him  in  regarding  them  as  the 
refinements  of  the  schoolmen,  resting  upon  no  very  obvious 
scriptural  authority.  —  The  sense  in  which  the  term  person 
ought  to  be  used  in  the  controversy  is  discussed  in  the  sixth 
dissertation.  He  defines  the  distinctive  character  of  a  person 
to  be  "the  application  of  the  personal  pronouns,  /,  thou,  he: 
these  three  pronouns  being  frequently  applied  in  scripture  to 
the  Father  and  the  Son,  and  the  pronoun  he  to  the  blessed 


592  LIFK    AND   TIMES 

Spirit ;  we,  therefore,  call  them  tlirec  persons."  But  then  he 
pleads  for  the  term  not  heinj^  understood  in  exactly  the  same 
sense,  and  including'  precisely  the  same  ideas,  as  when  we  call 
three  men,  or  three  angels,  three  distinct  persons.  The  ortho- 
dox trinitarian  will  not  object  to  this  admission ;  for  to  retain 
the  literal  and  philosophical  sense,  must  necessarily  lead  to 
the  absurdities  of  tritbeism.  "  The  word  person,"  Howe 
observes,  "  must  not  be  taken  to  signify  the  same  thing  when 
spoken  of  God  and  of  ourselves."  Dr.  Wallis  in  his  Letters 
makes  no  scruple  to  say,  that  the  word,  when  applied  to  the 
distinctions  in  the  divine  nature,  is  metaphorical,  analogical, 
and  figurative.  To  the  same  effect  Dr.  Hopkins  states,  that 
"  it  must  be  carefully  observed,  that  when  this  word  is  applied 
to  Father,  Son,  and  Holy  Ghost,  it  does  not  import  the  same 
distinction  which  is  expressed  by  it  when  applied  to  men.  It 
means  nothing  inconsistent  with  the  highest  perfection,  or 
with  these  three  being  really  and  perfectly  one  God.  Nor  is 
it  pretended,  that  this  word  when  used  in  this  instance  can 
be  so  defined  as  to  give  any  clear  and  adequate  idea  of  a  sub- 
ject so  mysterious  and  infinitely  incomprehensible."  But 
while  we  may  agree  with  these  divines  in  rejecting  the  strict 
philosophical  sense  of  the  term,  as  applied  to  the  trinity  in  the 
godhead ;  it  is  obvious  that  its  interpretation  in  a  political 
and  metaphorical  sense,  falls  far  short  of  its  precise  import. 
That  to  which  those  acts  are  attributed,  and  those  modes  of 
speech  applied,  which  usually  characterise  personality,  must 
be  something  more  than,  as  Dr.  Watts  supposes,  a  mere  pro- 
perty or  power ;  and,  hence,  we  conclude,  that  though  the 
Father,  the  Word,  and  the  Spirit  are  not  separate  existences, 
yet  there  is  such  a  positive  distinction  between  them,  and  at 
the  same  time  such  a  real  union,  as  only  the  common  ex- 
pression, three  persons  in  one  God,  can  adequately  express. 

Upwards  of  twenty-one  years  elapsed  before  Dr.  Watts 
published  again  upon  this  subject.  The  reason  of  this  long 
suspension,  and  the  circumstances  which  led  him  at  length  to 


OF   DR.   ISAAC   WATTS.  593 

break  silence,  have  not  been  disclosed.  Various  causes  might 
operate  to  induce  him  to  abandon  his  labours  ;  the  judicious 
advice  of  friends,  or  a  wish  to  avoid  angry  controversy,  or  the 
coldness  with  which,  notwithstanding  his  popularity  as  a  wri- 
ter upon  other  topics,  the  public  received  his  works.  One  of 
his  opponents.  Dr.  Abraham  Taylor,  states,  that  an  impres- 
sion of  five  hundred  of  the  second  part  of  his  Dissertations, 
had  not  in  the  course  of  three  years  been  sold.  Had  he  writ- 
ten as  a  party  man,  there  might,  and  probably  would  have 
been,  a  different  result ;  but  he  occupied  the  unenviable  post 
of  moderator  ;  he  placed  himself  between  the  arian  and  trini- 
tarian  champions  ;  and,  as  he  did  not  succeed  in  pleasing 
either,  he  forfeited  the  patronage  of  both.  With  great  justice, 
referring  to  his  own  case,  he  was  accustomed  to  say,  "  A  mo- 
derator is  sure  to  get  a  box  on  both  ears." 

In  174G  the  "  Useful  and  Important  Questions  concerning 
Jesus  the  Son  of  God  freely  proposed"  appeared,  but  without 
the  name  of  the  author.  There  is  little  of  what  is  new  in  this 
work  ;  it  is  founded  upon  the  doctor's  former  writings  ;  and 
consists  of  an  amplification  and  proof  of  some  sentiments 
which  he  had  before  expressed.  Its  contents  may  be  gather- 
ed from  the  titles  of  the  several  questions :  1.  "  What  is 
the  meaning  of  the  name  Son  of  God,  as  given  to  Christ  in 
the  New  Testament,  where  the  belief  of  it  is  necessary  to  sal- 
vation ?"  2.  "  Did  the  disciples  of  Christ  fully  believe  that 
he  was  the  true  God  during  his  life-time,  or  not  till  after  his 
death  and  resurrection  ?"  3.  "  Could  the  Son  of  God  pro- 
perly enter  into  a  covenant  with  his  Father,  to  do  and  suffer 
what  was  necessary  to  our  redemption,  without  a  human 
soul  ?"  4.  "  Is  the  Godhead  of  Christ,  and  the  Godhead  of 
the  Father,  one  and  the  same  Godhead?"  5.  "Is  there  an 
intimate  union  between  the  Lord  Jesus  Christ  and  God  the 
Father?"  6.  "Is  Christ  the  express  image  of  God  the  Fa- 
ther in  the  human  nature  or  in  the  divine?"  7.  "Are  the 
worship  of  God  and  his  Son  Jesus  Christ  consistent  with  one 


594  LIFE    AND    TIMES 

another?"  8.  "What  is  the  worship  paid  to  our  blessed 
Saviour,  who  is  the  ima<^c  of  God  ?"  An  examination  of 
these  inquiries  would  exceed  my  limits,  and  involve  repeti- 
tion :  a  few  remarks  uj)on  the  first  and  second  is  all  that  will 
be  necessary. 

The  title  so  frequently  occurring;  in  scripture,  the  Son  of 
God,  discussed  in  the  lirst  question,  he  interprets  as  pointing 
out  the  miraculous  conception  and  mediatorial  character  of 
Christ,  without  any  express  reference  to  his  divine  nature. 
The  former  part  of  this  position  will  at  once  be  granted  :  the 
latter  is  open  to  many  serious  objections.  It  is  contrary  to  the 
sense  of  the  Jews  in  our  Lord's  time,  who  evidently  regarded 
the  designation  as  distinctive  of  divinity  ;  and,  hence,  treated 
its  attribution  by  him  as  blasphemy.  The  title  is  introduced 
in  several  passages  with  such  solemnity  and  emphasis,  as  to 
exclude  the  idea  of  its  being  a  mere  appellative  of  the  human 
nature;  and  in  the  testimonies  of  Nathaniel  and  Peter,  it 
plainly  occurs  as  a  distinction  peculiarly  divine,  an  antithesis 
being  strongly  marked  by  both  between  the  official  character, 
"  the  Christ,"  "  the  King  of  Israel,"  and  the  personal  dignity, 
"  the  Son  of  the  living  God."  Many  eminent  divines,  both 
among  the  ancients  and  the  moderns,  have,  however,  agreed 
with  Watts  in  restraining  the  term  entirely  to  an  official  sig- 
nificancy,  an  opinion  which  has  been  recently  agitated  by 
Dr.  A.  Clarke,  and  which  Dr.  Wardlaw  appears  to  sanction. 
That  the  doctrine  of  the  divine  Sonship  is  not  fundamental, 
that  the  belief  of  it  is  not  "necessary  to  salvation,"  a  branch 
of  inquiry  which  the  question  embraces,  its  principal  advo- 
cates, even  the  cautious  W  aterland,  allow ;  but  that  the  con- 
clusions logically  deduced  from  its  denial  would  trench  upon 
doctrines  pronounced  fundamental  by  the  orthodox  of  all 
ages,  there  is  great  reason  to  apprehend.  —  The  fact  which 
the  second  question  is  intended  to  prove — namely,  that  the 
apostles  had  clearer  views  of  the  divinity  of  their  Master  after 
his  death  than  during  his  life,  will  readily  be  conceded ;  but 


OF   DR.    ISAAC    AVATTS.  595 

it  is  susceptible  of  a  different  and  more  correct  solution  than 
that  which  is  given  in  the  inquiry.  It  was  not  the  result  of 
clearer  evidence  being  imparted,  it  was  not,  as  it  is  remarked, 
because  "  the  beams  of  his  Godhead  did  not  discover  them- 
selves in  a  triumphant  and  convincing  light  during  the  days 
of  his  humiliation"  — the  very  opposite  of  this  appears  to  have 
been  the  case  —  and  their  slowness  of  heart  to  believe,  their 
oft  recurring  doubts  and  perplexities,  whilst  yet  disciples, 
must  be  attributed  to  the  want  of  that  Spirit  of  truth  which 
was  afterwards  communicated,  and  which  eflectually  dispelled 
their  hesitation,  confirmed  their  faith,  and  led  them  into  all 
truth.  The  object  which  the  writer  had  in  view  in  the  dis- 
cussion of  this  point  is  not  very  apparent.  If  it  is,  as  I 
strongly  suspect,  to  lower  the  importance  of  believing  in  our 
Lord's  divinity  —  to  prove  the  harmlessness  of  loose  and  un- 
settled notions  with  reference  to  it,  "  the  apostles  being,"  he 
observes,  "  in  a  state  of  grace  and  salvation  before  there  is  any 
sufficient  evidence  of  their  faith  therein"  —  to  show  that  the 
doctrine  is  not  so  fundamental  as  the  orthodox  maintain  — 
the  fact  makes  equally  against  the  atonement,  the  intercession, 
and  each  branch  of  the  mediatorial  economy ;  so  that  every 
thing  valuable  in  Christianity  would  cease  to  be  important 
and  fundamental  with  it.  Such  a  conclusion  as  this  no  one 
would  more  strongly  condemn  than  Dr.  Watts ;  yet  it  is  as 
fairly  drawn  from  his  premises  as  his  own  inference,  if  rightly 
understood,  and  must  stand  or  fall  with  it.  But  it  is  easy  to 
perceive  that  his  premises  are  not  tenable;  for  the  assertion  is 
perfectly  gratuitous,  that  the  apostles  were  in  a  saved  state 
previous  to  their  faith  in  Christ  as  a  divine  person  ;  it  is  as 
much  as  saying,  that  they  were  believers  and  unbelievers  at 
the  same  time.  The  experience  of  the  disciples  during  the 
ministry  of  their  Lord,  partook  of  mingled  light  and  shade, 
hope  and  fear,  confidence  and  doubt;  but  there  were  periods 
of  unclouded  sunshine,  of  clear  and  joyous  insight  into  the 
native  dignity  of  his  character,  when  noble  confessions  of  his 


596  LIFE    AND   TIMES 

divine  majesty  broke  from  their  lips  and  won  his  approval. 
No  argument  can  then  be  drawn  from  their  case,  to  soften 
and  extenuate  the  indulgence  of  latitudinarian  sentiments; 
there  is  no  parallel  between  the  hesitations  of  the  disciple, 
however  frequent,  and  the  settled  unbelief  of  the  Arian  — 
but  there  is  a  "  great  gulf"  indeed  between  a  mind  in  which, 
in  the  infancy  of  Christianity,  faith  and  doubt  might  contend 
for  the  mastery,  and  one  in  which,  under  its  full  maturity, 
infidelity  is  dominant  towards  its  peculiar  and  leading  doc- 
trines. 

The  next  publication  that  comes  under  review,  is  an  Essay 
appended  to  the  "  Questions,"  on  "  The  true  importance  of 
any  human  schemes  to  explain  the  sacred  doctrine  of  the 
Trinity."  It  is  argued,  that  no  such  scheme  is  necessary  to 
salvation  —  that  it  may  yet  be  of  great  use  to  the  Christian 
church — but  that  all  such  explications  should  be  proposed 
with  modesty  to  the  world,  and  never  enforced  upon  the  con- 
science. As  to  any  explication  of  the  doctrine,  it  is  one  of  the 
"  secret  things"  which  God  has  reserved  unto  himself  —  he 
has  here  held  back  "  the  face  of  his  throne,  and  spread  his 
cloud  upon  it"  —  and  as  it  savours  largely  of  intellectual  pride 
and  vanity  to  attempt  to  remove  the  obscurity  in  which  di- 
vine wisdom  has  seen  good  to  involve  it ;  so  every  scheme  of 
solution  must  be  attended  with  uncertainty,  and  can  only  be 
rendered  obligatory  by  the  most  intolerable  dogmatism.  But 
as  to  the  doctrine  itself,  the  simple  fact  of  its  revelation  proves 
its  importance  —  ascertain  it  to  be  a  truth  of  scripture,  and 
its  reception  or  rejection  ceases  to  be  a  matter  of  indifference, 
and  becomes  a  matter  of  responsibility.  Its  opponents  have 
loudly  asserted,  that,  admitting  its  truth,  the  dogma  is  one  so 
purely  speculative,  as  to  serve  no  purpose  whatever,  in  either 
morals  or  religion  ;  but  such  a  statement  proceeds  upon  false 
principles.  Revelation  is  not  a  needless  though  liberal  over- 
flowing of  the  divine  intelligence  — it  has  not  been  made  for 
the  mere  purpose  of  display  — every  particle  is  connected  with 


OF    DR.    ISAAC    WATTS.  597 

a  moral  end,  and  to  accomplish  its  object  nothing  is  wanting-, 
nothing  is  superfluous.  Dr.  Priestley  allows,  that  the  doctrine 
may  be  necessary  to  explain  some  particular  texts:  a  confes- 
sion which,  however  short  of  what  truth  might  demand, 
stamps  it  with  the  highest  character  of  importance.     But  the 
denial  of  it,  pushed  to  its  consequences,  would  necessarily 
overthrow  the  atonement  and  the  whole  mediatorial  scheme, 
and   thus  give  a  stab   to  the  vitals  of  Christianity.     What 
measure  of  speculative  error  may  comport  or  be  incongruous 
with  the  existence  of  real  piety,  it  becomes  not  human  falli- 
bility to  decide.     Injury  has  been  done  to  the  cause  of  truth 
by  the  intemperate  zeal  of  its  advocates,  who  have  made  a 
man  an  offender  for  a  word,  and  denounced  as  an  Arian  he 
who  did  not  bow  implicitly  to  the  creed  of  Athanasius,  and 
hesitated  to  subscribe  to  what  he  conscientiously  might  deem 
was  tritheism.  That  there  have  been  men  of  unexceptionable 
piety,  who  have  entertained  latitudinarian  opinions  upon  the 
Trinity  —  opinions,  as  to  their  tendency,  pregnant  with  the 
utmost  danger  —  cannot  be  disputed,  and  Dr.  Watts  is  him- 
self an  instance.*     But  the  danger  is,  that  when  speculation, 
however  undesignedly,  trespasses  upon  forbidden  ground,  and 
errors  of  minor  importance  are  imbibed,  they  are  apt  to  gene- 
rate others  of  greater  magnitude ;  and  the  remote  consequences 
that  have  followed  upon  trivial  departures  from  the  truth, 
seem  to  justify  the  alarm  and  jealousy  which  such  deviations 
generally  create.     Dr.  Watts  would  have  witnessed  an  illus- 
tration of  this,  had  his  life  been  spared  a  little  longer :  he 
would  have  seen  the  semi-arians,  to  whom  the  kindness  of  his 
nature  led  him  to  stretch  out  the  hand  of  charity,  pass  swiftly 
down  the  stream  of  error,  and  launch  out  into  the  ocean  of 

*  Of  Thomas  Firmii),  unquestionably  aSocinian,  even  Wesley,  who  published  his 
life,  candidly  acknowledged,  "I  was  exceedingly  struck  at  reading  the  following 
life,  having  long  settled  it  in  my  mind,  that  the  entertaining  wrong  notions  con- 
cerning the  Trinity  was  inconsistent  with  real  piety.  But  I  cannot  argue  against 
matter  of  fact.  I  dare  not  deny  that  Mr.  Firniin  was  a  pious  man,  although  his 
notions  of  the  Trinity  were  quite  erroneous."     Arminian  Mag. 


598  LIFE    AND    TIMES 

Socinian  heterodoxy.  It  is  bat  justice,  however,  to  add,  that 
whilst  he  pleads  for  kindness  and  brotherly  love  towards  those 
who  dissented  from  the  orthodox  doctrine,  whilst  he  treats  as 
unscriptural  and  presumptuous  their  exclusion  by  any  sect 
from  communion,  he  ever  supposes  a  life  of  holy  obedience 
and  practice,  of  conformity  to  the  divine  will,  trust  in  the 
atonement,  and  dependence  upon  the  Spirit's  influence,  to 
exist. 

In  the  latter  end  of  the  year  1746  Dr.  Watts  published  his 
last  work  in  the  controversy,  entitled  "  The  Glory  of  Christ  as 
God-Man  displayed."  This  is  considered  in  three  discourses, 
upon  the  visible  appearances  of  Christ  as  God  before  his  in- 
carnation —  the  extensive  powers  of  his  human  nature  in  its 
present  glorified  state— and  the  ante-mundane  existence  of  his 
human  soul.  The  whole  work  is  an  elaborate  endeavour  to 
establish  the  latter  position,  the  author's  favourite  sentiment, 
which  he  regarded  as  one  of  the  main  pillars  of  the  indwelling 
scheme,  the  grand  pmiacea  for  all  the  difficulties  of  the  tri- 
nitarian  doctrine.  The  notion  is  not  new.  If  it  is  not  ex- 
pressed, as  some  imagine,  in  the  Shepherd  of  Hernias,  it  was 
undoubtedly  held  by  Origen,  who  supposed  that  "  the  soul  of 
the  Son  in  its  perfection  was  in  God  and  his  fulness,  and 
coming  out  thence,  when  he  was  sent  by  the  Father,  took  a 
body  of  Mary."  Among  the  moderns  who  have  professed  and 
defended  it,  are  Bishops  Burnet,  Gastrell,  and  Fowler,  Dr. 
H.  More,  Dr.  T.  Goodwin,  and  Dr.  T.  Bennet,  Mr.  Fleming 
and  Mr.  Hussey. 

It  is  argued,  that  actions  and  services  are  represented  as 
being  performed  by  Christ,  previous  to  his  incarnation,  which 
seem  "  too  low  for  the  dignity  of  pure  Godhead.  Does  it  not 
seem,"  sayshe,  "more  congruous,  thatahuman  soul  should  ani- 
mate that  human  body  which  eat  and  drank  with  Abraham  un- 
der a  tree,  and  should  actuate  those  human  limbs  when  a  man 
wrestled  with  Jacob  ?  Is  it  not  beneath  the  grandeur,  de- 
cency, and  dignity  of  the  supreme  Majesty  of  heaven,  to  sup- 


OF    DR.    ISAAC    WATTS.  599 

ply  the  place  of  such  a  human  soul  for  the  purposes  or  actions 
of  animal  nature  }  And  that  the  great  and  eternal  God  him- 
self, in  an  immediate  manner,  should  converse  in  so  human 
and  familiar  a  way  as  this  angel  did  with  several  of  the  pa- 
triarchs ?"  The  reason  is  not  stated,  why  these  offices  are 
"  too  low"  for  Deity,  and  the  bare  assertion  seems  like  dicta- 
ting the  divine  procedure,  and  defining  the  bounds  of  decorum 
for  the  high  and  lofty  One.  But  our  author  loses  sight  of  his 
own  theory  ;  for  if,  as  he  supposes,  the  human  soul  of  Christ 
had  intimate  communion  with  the  divine  nature  in  its  pre- 
existent  state,  the  Godhead  was  as  much  a  party  in  these 
transactions,  as  though  exclusively  animating  the  visible 
shape  that  appeared.  The  argument,  if  it  has  any  force, 
might  be  employed  by  infidel  philosophy  with  advantage 
against  the  doctrine  of  providence  and  the  scheme  of  redemp- 
tion; for,  that  a  sparrow  should  not  fall  or  a  leaf  wither 
without  the  observance  of  the  Infinite  —  and  especially  to  be 
manifest  in  the  flesh  —  to  travel  through  the  short  span  of 
mortal  life  — •  to  be  familiar  with  hunger  and  thirst,  fatigue 
and  tears,  pain  and  death  —  in  short,  every  fact  upon  which 
the  display  of  pardoning  love  to  the  sinner  is  founded,  might 
be  dismissed  as  improbable,  if  man  is  to  judge  what  is  "  too 
low"  or  what  is  fitting  for  an  association  with  the  divine  dig- 
nity. For  the  other  reasons  advanced  in  favour  of  this  singu- 
lar notion,  I  must  refer  the  reader  to  the  work  itself,  as  they 
are  not  of  sufficient  weight  to  deserve  examination  here.  The 
opinion  has  to  contend  with  insuperable  difficulties  —  the 
scriptures  are  completely  silent  with  reference  to  it — and 
their  general  tenor  is  directly  opposed  to  such  a  conclusion. 
It  remains  to  be  explained,  how  Christ,  with  any  propriety, 
can  be  called  the  Son  of  Man,  if  his  human  spirit  was  formed 
ages  before  man  was  created  —  how  he  can  be  the  second 
Adam,  if  the  principal  part  of  his  humanity  existed  before  the 
first —  how  it  can  be  said,  that  "  he  took  not  on  him  the  na- 
ture of  angels,"  if  in  a  glorious  arch-angelic  nature  he  had 


GOO  LIFE    AND   TIMES 

being  before  the  world  began.  That  there  is  a  real  relation- 
ship between  his  humanity  and  ours,  whereby  he  can  sympa- 
thise with  the  infirmities  of  his  people,  is  a  doctrine  which 
we  think  the  scriptures  plainly  teach  —  thus  he  is  our  "  elder 
brother,"  "  he  was  made  in  all  things  like  unto  his  brethren," 
whereby  "  he  that  sanctifies  and  they  that  are  sanctified"  be- 
come "  all  of  one"  —  and  as  these  statements  are  at  variance 
with  Dr.  Watts's  hypothesis,  it  must  be  discarded  as  a  mere 
human  fancy. 

A  second  edition  of  the  '•  Sober  Appeal  to  a  Turk  or  an 
Indian"  appeared  in  the  year  1748,  with  considerable  en- 
largements ;  but  Dr.  Watts  had  now  done  with  controversy, 
and  was  about  to  exchange  a  state  of  doubt  and  uncertainty, 
for  the  full  and  unclouded  revelations  of  truth.  It  is  probable, 
therefore,  that  the  work  of  his  old  antagonist  was  not  allowed 
to  intrude  into  the  chamber  of  death.  His  occasional  notices 
of  Mr.  Tomkins's  performance  are  here  replied  to  ;  his  later 
publications  are  also  animadverted  on  in  the  notes  ;  and  some 
remarks  upon  his  three  first  Dissertations  are  added  at  the 
close.  A  passage  in  the  postscript  contains  an  error  of  some 
importance,  as  it  makes  him  give  up  his  former  opinions  as  to 
a  modal  distinction  in  the  essence  of  Deity  :  —  "  Dr.  Watts," 
it  is  observed,  "  in  his  late  treatise,*  gives  up  the  more  com- 
mon notion  of  three  modes,  relations,  or  the  like,  called  three 
persons,  in  the  one  individual,  self-existing  essence ;  as  also 
the  notion  of  three  distinct  intelligent  beings,  however,  ne- 
cessarily united  together ;  and  seems  persuaded,  that  there  is 
no  other  way  of  accounting  for  the  ascribing  of  supreme 
Deity  to  Christ,  but  by  making  the  one  self-existing  essence 
and  the  man  Christ  Jesus  one  complex  person,  a  notion  as 
should  seem  lately  devised  by  himself."t  However  true  the 
middle  section  of  this  sentence  may  be,  the  former  and  the 

♦"Useful  and  Important  Questions,"  ice. 
f  Sober  Appeal,"  &:c.  p.  289. 


OF    DR.    ISAAC    WATTS.  601 

latter  parts  are  certainly  incorrect :  after  a  careful  examina- 
tion of  the  work  referred  to,  I  can  find  no  authority  for  either 
statement.  He  expressly  speaks  of  such  distinctions  existing 
in  the  divine  nature,  as  lay  a  foundation  for  the  revelation  of 
the  Deity  under  three  personal  characters  ;  and  of  one  of  these 
distinctions,  a  denomination,  or  relation,  or  principle,  being 
made  manifest  in  the  flesh.  Strictly  speaking,  then,  he  did 
not  altogether  fall  in  with  the  indwelling  scheme  —  he  did 
not,  as  that  scheme  supposes,  found  the  divinity  of  Christ 
upon  the  indwelling  of  the  whole  Godhead  in  the  humanity  — 
he  well  knew  the  consequences  charged  by  the  orthodox  upon 
the  doctrine  of  the  Patripassians  in  this  respect  —  and,  hence, 
to  avoid  them,  he  struck  out  into  the  middle  path  opened  by 
Sabellius,  that  one  of  the  mysterious  and  indefinable  distinc- 
tions in  the  divine  essence,  an  emanation,  or  principle,  or  vir- 
tue, was  united  to  our  human  nature.  I  know  that  a  correct 
theologian  will  see  at  once  that  he  does  not  escape  from  the 
difficulty  ;  that  he  admits  a  distinction  without  a  difference  ; 
that  his  notion  is  substantially  the  same  as  that  which  makes 
the  Father  to  become  incarnate,  to  suffer  and  die — for  he  ac- 
knowledges no  subsistance  in  the  Deity  separate  from  the 
Father ;  but  Dr.  Watts  did  not  see  this  result  so  inevitable, 
as  some  of  those  who  have  opposed  his  scheme,  and  justice 
to  his  sentiments  requires  that  this  should  be  stated.  It  is 
certainly  surprising  that  Mr.  Palmer  of  Hackney,  his  admirer 
and  able  apologist,  should  fall  into  the  same  mistake  as  Mr. 
Tomkins,  and  represent  him  as  maintaining  no  distinctions  in 
the  Deity,  a  circumstance  which  may,  perhaps,  be  accounted 
for  by  his  misinterpreting  some  obscure  phrases,  and  in  some 
measure  by  the  fact,  that  the  opinion  itself  coincided  with  his 
own  theological  views. 

The  whole  of  Dr.  Watts's  publications,  with  reference  to 
the  Trinity,  have  now  been  noticed ;  and  we  may  concisely 
state  the  scheme  which  he  proposed  and  advocated.  He  sup- 
poses the  term  person,  in  its  philosophical  sense,  to  be  strictly 

Qq 


C02  LIFE    AND   TIMES 

applicable  to  the  Father,  au  intellij^ent,  voluntary  agent  — 
that  in  a  figvu'ative  sense  alone  it  is  applicable  to  the  Son  and 
to  the  Spirit,  who  may  more  appropriately  be  styled  powers 
or  properties  —  that  the  Word  is  a  cognoscitive,  or  an  intelli- 
gent volitive  power,  and  the  Spirit  an  active  or  an  intelligent 
effective   power — that  the  Deity,  therefore,  consists  of  one 
philosophical  person  and  two  divine  properties,  analogous  to 
the  mind  and  will  in  man  —  that  a  trinity  in  the  essence  of 
deity  exists,  but  that  the  distinction  is  merely  modal — that 
the  Godhead  of  Christ  is  founded  upon  his  union  to  some  par- 
ticular power  of  the  divine  nature,  and  not  to  a  distinct  per- 
son in  that  nature  —  and  that  this  union  commenced  previous 
to  his  appearance  on  earth,  his  human  soul  having  been  pre- 
existent,  and  having  had  communion  with  divinity  before  the 
foundation  of  the  world.     Such  is  the  scheme  elaborated  with 
no  little  care,  and  patience,  and  erudition,  which  its  author 
fondly  thought  would  remove  all  difficulties,  overthrow  the 
barrier  between  the  Athanasian  and  the  Arian,  heal  the  con- 
tentions of  the  church,  and  still  the  strife  of  ages.     In  its 
general  outline  it  is  closely  allied  to  the  doctrine  taught  in 
the  early  ages  by  the  Patripassians,  who  allowed  only  a  nomi- 
nal distinction  to  exist  in  the  divine  nature,  or,  as  the  Sabel- 
lians  explained  it,  three  denominations  in  one  hypostasis; 
thus  denying  the  personality  of  the  Word  and  the  Spirit,  and 
holding  them  to  be  mere  functions,  virtues,  or  emanations. 
The  conclusion  to  which  this  notion  inevitably  leads  is,  that 
incarnation,  suffering,  and  death,  may  as  properly  be  predica- 
ted of  the  Father  as  the  Son ;  nay,  upon  the  assumption  of  a 
nominal  distinction  only,  all  the  acts  of  the  Son  become  the 
acts  of  the  Father ;    and,  hence,  he  sends  himself  into  the 
world,  he  prays  to  himself,  he  satisfies  himself,  he  mediates 
and   intercedes    with    himself  —  a   conclusion   fatal  to    the 
scheme,  but  necessarily  deduced  from  it,  whether  it  appears 
under  the  auspices  of  Sabellius  or  in  the  pages  of  Watts.     I 
cannot  dismiss  this  subject  w^ithout  remarldng  upon  the  li- 


OF   DR.   ISAAC   WATTS.  60S 

berties  taken  with  the  sacred  page  in  these  speculations,  and 
the  dangerous  principles  of  interpretation  adopted.  If  the 
ascription  of  personal  acts  to  the  Son  in  his  divine  nature, 
and  the  use  of  personal  pronouns,  in  the  gravest  and  most 
solemn  history  in  the  world,  may  be  explained  away  by  the 
prosopopoeia,  language  loses  its  significancy,  and  may  be 
pressed  into  the  service  of  any  figment.  An  objector  might 
readily  prove  the  impersonality  of  the  Father,  resorting  to  the 
same  license.  It  is  acutely  remarked  by  Dr.  Abraham  Tay- 
lor, "  It  is  a  very  strong  and  convincing  evidence  of  the  Fa- 
ther's real  personality,  that  the  scripture  represents  him  as  a 
person,  and  ascribes  personal  acts  to  him;  but  if  any  one 
should  take  it  into  his  head  to  deny  that  the  Father  is  a  real 
person,  and  should  only  allow  him  a  figurative  personality,  I 
cannot  see  how  he  can  be  confuted  upon  Mr.  Watts's  hypo- 
thesis;  for  as  the  Son  and  Spirit  are  not  real  but  figurative 
persons,  according  to  him,  notwithstanding  they  are  repre- 
sented under  personal  characters,  I  know  not  how  the  Fa- 
ther's having  personal  actions  ascribed  to  him,  can  prove  him 
to  be  a  real  person,  any  more  than  the  other  two." 

We  have  now  traced  Dr.  Watts  through  his  various  wri- 
tings, "  sounding  on  a  dim  and  perilous  way,"  to  the  close  of 
the  year  1746.  This  was  but  a  short  time  prior  to  his  death; 
so  that  the  sentiments  which  have  been  recapitulated,  were 
those  which  his  maturity  of  intellect  sanctioned,  and  which  he 
carried  to  his  grave.  It  has  indeed  been  asserted,  that  at  the 
close  of  life  his  opinions  underwent  a  change;  that  his  last 
thoughts  were  completely  Unitarian ;  and  his  full  conversion 
has  been  introduced  Avith  no  little  parade  in  Socinian  works 
and  periodicals.  That  the  writers  considered  this  as  an  un- 
doubted fact  I  do  not  question  ;  that  the  zeal  of  party  render- 
ed them  not  over-scrupulous  as  to  its  evidence  may  be  as- 
sumed :  but  that  rumour,  with  her  hundred  tongues,  has  in 
this  instance  calumniated  the  memory  of  the  great  and  good, 
sufficiently  appears  from  the  preceding  review.     The  fact  is, 


G04  LIFE    AND   TIMES 

that  his  sentiments  remained  fixed  after  first  publishing,  in 
1725,  his  views  of  the  indwelling  scheme;  that  for  the  last 
twenty-three  years  of  his  life,  they  experienced  no  alteration  ; 
and  that  the  preceding  pages  exhibit  to  its  full  amount  his 
departure  from  the  orthodox  faith.  To  pronounce  him, 
therefore,  an  Unitarian,  in  the  sense  in  which  the  term  is 
commonly  understood,  is  unwarrantable  and  unjust.  Dr. 
Lardner,  with  whom  this  allegation  originated,  might  regard 
it  as  a  legitimate  inference  from  his  views ;  but  it  is  not  a 
fair  and  equitable  principle,  to  determine  the  sentiments  of  an 
individual  by  what  party  prejudice  is  pleased  to  infer.  With 
equal  propriety  might  every  Athanasian  be  proclaimed  a  poly- 
theist;  and  those  who  approve  the  modal  definition  of  the 
word  person  in  the  Trinity,  be  held  up  as  Unitarians  likewise. 
But  would  not  such  men  as  Dr.  Wallis,  Baxter,  Dr.  South, 
the  authors  of  the  Oxford  decree,  which  pronounced  the  sys- 
tem of  the  latter  to  be  the  orthodox  doctrine  of  the  church  of 
England,  Tillotson,  Doddridge,  and  the  late  Dr.  Williams, 
who  all  favoured  the  idea  of  a  modal  personality,  have  reject- 
ed the  title  with  indignation  ?* 

The  writings  of  Dr.  Watts  upon  the  trinitarian  controversy 
illustrate  his  mental  activity,  his  boundless  desire  after  truth, 
his  resolution  to  grapple  with  the  most  tremendous  difficulties 
in  its  attainment,  while  his  expectation  of  seeing  this  "glory 
of  the  Lord"  with  "  open  face"  in  the  present  state,  evidences 
a  singular  defect  of  judgment.  He  seems  to  have  interpreted 
the  Saviour's  promise  of  the  Spirit,  to  "  guide  into  all  truth," 
in  the  most  absolute  and  unqualified  sense,  as  referring  not 
only  to  all  saving  knowledge,  but  to  every  topic  of  theological 
and  philosophical  inquiry.  But  it  is  obviously  only  his  office 
here,  to  make  us  "  wise  unto  salvation,"  and  to  reveal  no 
more  of  the  ways  of  God  than  what  is  necessary  for  that  pur- 
pose. Hence,  the  disclosures  of  holy  writ,  full  and  ample  as 
they  are  upon  all  those  subjects  which  involve  our  personal 

*  Appendix  I. 


OF    DR.    ISAAC    WATTS.  605 

interests,  seldom  touch  upon  mere  extraneous  themes ;  and  to 
teach  us  that  humility  and  modesty  becoming  our  condition, 
they  condescend  not  to  reconcile  the  views  they  exhibit  with 
our  conceptions.  We  are  to  receive  each  announcement  upon 
the  faith  that  it  is  God's  testimony,  without  requiring  that 
divine  truth  should  be  brought  down  to  our  own  alphabet. 
Thus  the  nature  of  the  Deity,  infinitely  transcending  the  com- 
bined comprehension  of  the  human  intellect,  is  made  known 
to  us  "  as  it  is,"  one  God  in  trinity  and  trinity  in  unity  —  but 
the  secret  is  not  explained — all  is  mystery  and  incompre- 
hensibleness  —  and  every  attempt  to  render  the  mystery  con- 
ceivable by  the  human  mind  must  in  the  nature  of  things  be 
abortive.  It  is  the  duty  of  man  to  discern  the  limitations  put 
upon  his  mental  capacity,  and  reverently  to  keep  within  his 
prescribed  circle  —  to  ascertain,  in  this  respect,  the  "  bounds 
of  his  habitation"  —  and  not  to  strive  vainly  to  surmount  the 
barrier  "fixed  by  a  perpetual  decree,"  within  which  the  tide 
of  legitimate  inquiry  is  to  be  confined.  This  is  the  rock  upon 
which  Dr.  Watts  splits :  he  endeavours  to  reconcile  what  to 
human  wit  is  irreconcileable  —  to  explain  what  is  inexplica- 
ble —  to  make  the  existence  of  the  Supreme  Intelligence  in 
its  mode  plain  and  palpable  to  a  finite  intellect  —  and  not  to 
receive  the  plain  doctrine  of  scripture,  that  there  is  in  the  di- 
vine nature  a  strict  unity  and  a  three-fold  personality,  without 
ascertaining  the  why,  the  how,  and  the  wherefore.  In  vain 
he  speaks  of  consulting  the  oracles  of  God  in  the  spirit  of 
prayer,  humility,  and  submission,  to  remove  the  difficulties 
which  he  meets  with  —  to  make  the  crooked  straight  to  man's 
hoodwinked  mind,  and  the  rough  places  plain  to  his  intellec- 
tual vision  :  this  is  not  their  object :  they  reveal  for  the  exer- 
cise of  faith  —  to  solve  for  the  gratification  of  curiosity  would 
be  to  defeat  in  part  their  professed  design.  An  opportunity 
by  searching  "  to  find  out  God,"  is  scarcely  consistent  with 
humility  to  expect,  or  the  dignity  of  Divinity  to  grant.  That 
he  entered  upon  the  inquiry  with  the  purest  motives,  and  was 


606  LIFE    AND   TIMES 

led  to  it  with  the  most  benevolent  aim,  every  one  must  grant 
—  he  devoted  himself  to  his  task  with  a  sanctity  of  feeling 
and  a  holy  determination  of  purpose  which  we  respect  and 
admire,  however  much  we  may  regret  the  subject  upon  which 
his  energies  were  exhausted.  It  was  not  a  love  of  subtle  dis- 
putation, but  a  pure  and  disinterested  wish  to  do  good,  to  heal 
the  distractions  of  the  church,  by  discovering  the  regions  of 
unclouded  truth,  that  led  him  to  venture  beyond  his  depth, 
and  boldly  enter  the  wide  ocean  of  infinite  being. 


or   DR.    ISAAC    WATTS,  607 


CHAPTER  XVI. 

1739—1745. 
WATTS  IN  DECLINING  LIFE. 


AT  TUNBRIDGE:— ILLNESS  AND  RECOVERY.-THE  "WORLD  TO  COME:"— 
REMARKS  UPON  IT— ESSAY  ON  "CIVIL  POWER:"  — ITS  SINGULAR 
SCHEME.— "SELF-LOVE  AND  VIRTUE."— "  RUIN  AND  RECOVERY:"— CON- 
TROVERSY ON  THE  DOCTRINE:— DR.  TAYLOR,  DEI.  RIDGLEY,  MR.  HEB- 
DEN,  MR.  J.  WESLEY,  AND  PRESIDENT  EDWARDS— EXTENT  OF  THE 
ADAMIC  CURSE.— SINGULAR  OPINION  CONCERNING  INFANTS —SPREAD 
OF  ANTINOMI.VNISM:-CURIOUS  NOTICES  OF  IT— MR.  JOSEPH  WIL- 
LIAMS.—HIS  LETTER. —  "QUESTIONS  FOR  STUDENTS."— DECLINING 
HEALTH— "IMPROVEMENT  OF  THE  MIND:"— OPINIONS  OF  DR.  JOHN- 
SON AND  ROBERT  HALL:  — SECOND  PART.  —  MR.  NEAL'S  LETTER. — 
"HARMONY  OF  ALL  RELIGIONS."— DODDRIDGE'S  "RISE  AND  PROGRESS 
OF  RELIGION:"— WATTS  RECOMMENDS  IT  IN  HOLL.AND— OPINIONS  ON 
BLAIR'S  "  GRAVE."-CORRESPONDENCE. 


In  resuming  the  narrative  of  Watts's  life,  we  find  little  be- 
sides the  productions  of  his  pen  to  notice.  He  kept  no  diary 
of  the  events  that  checquered  his  lengthened  pilgrimage ;  he 
neglected  from  principle  tojournaHsehis  thoughts  and  feelings, 
aspirations  and  fears;  he  wished,  as  he  often  remarked,  to  live 
in  his  works,  not  in  the  pages  of  a  biographer.  The  modesty 
which  dictated  this  procedure  is  to  be  admired  and  regretted  ; 
for  some  memorial  from  his  own  pen,  of  his  engagements, 
connexions,  and  experience,  would  not  only  have  tended  to 
private  edification,  but  would  have  thrown  some  valuable 
light  upon  the  history  of  our  churches.  At  this  period  the 
serious  apprehensions  of  those  around  him  were  excited  by 
his  evidently  fast  decaying  frame.     In  some  of  the  Countess 


008  LIFE    AND    TIMES 

of  HcitforcVs  letters  she  seems  to  have  been  anticipating  the 
termination  of  his  career ;  and,  indeed,  forty  years  of  ceaseless 
mental  labour  might  have  exhausted  the  energies  of  a  far 
more  robust  constitution  than  he  possessed.  The  greater  part 
of  the  year  1739  was  spent  in  extreme  debility  and  suffering. 
His  disorder  was  paralytic.  In  August  he  was  advised  to  try 
the  waters  and  air  of  Tunbridge,  but  was  wholly  incapable  of 
any  public  exertion.  Mr.  Barker,  writing  to  Dr.  Doddridge, 
Sept.  14,  observes,  "  I  spent  the  last  month  at  Tunbridge 
Wells,  where  I  had  the  pleasure  of  Dr.  Watts's  company 
during  some  part  of  the  time ;  but  he  would  not  preach,  and  in- 
deed has  not  done  so  since  his  return,  and  is  not  any  better  for 
the  air  or  water  of  that  place."  His  recovery  was  a  subject  of 
public  prayer  with  many  of  the  metropolitan  and  country 
churches;  and  towards  the  close  of  the  year  his  health  and 
spirits  were  in  a  great  degree  restored.  "  I  read,"  says  Dodd- 
ridge, in  November,  to  his  friend  Dr.  Samuel  Clark,  "  Dr. 
Watts  on  the  future  state  with  a  great  deal  of  pleasure,  in 
my  last  journey  from  Northampton  to  Berkshire,  in  July ;  and 
I  am  glad  to  hear  that  the  excellent  author  is  on  the  recover- 
ing hand.  The  hint  you  gave  me  in  your  letter,  was  the 
means  of  my  engaging  the  repeated  prayers  of  our  brethren 
for  him  in  our  day  of  fasting  and  prayer."  The  prayers  of 
the  dissenting  churches  were  indeed  peculiarly  due  to  him 
who  had  so  largely  assisted  them  in  their  praises.  •  > 

The  work  on  the  future  state  here  referred  to,  is  the  well- 
known  "  World  to  Come,"  a  series  of  invaluable  discourses 
on  the  scripture  doctrine  of  reward  and  punishment.  Care- 
fully abstaining  from  the  vanity  of  human  speculation  — 
avoiding  the  inquiries  that  marked  his  "  Death  and  Heaven," 
which,  however  innocent,  arc  still  not  directly  authorised  by 
revelation — he  attempts  to  unfold  the  discoveries  which  the 
gospel  brings  to  light,  and  to  place  in  the  most  impressive 
manner  before  the  reader  the  solenni  sanctions  they  give  to 
the  practice  of  virtue  and  religion.     In  this  and  similar  com- 


OF    DR.    ISAAC    WATTS.  609 

positions,  we  may  trace  the  spiritual  and  heavenly  temper  of 
the  writer,  and  the  daily  preparation  in  which  he  lived  for  his 
own  rapidly  approaching  change.  He  made  himself  familiar 
with  the  future  —  with  the  servant  of  Elijah  he  was  ever  in- 
tently looking  towards  heaven  —  and  his  mind  expanded  in 
satisfaction  and  swelled  into  triumph  in  the  prospect  of  its 
imposing  realities.  But  the  hope  he  expresses  never  savours 
of  presumption,  or  his  confidence  of  pride.  He  remembers 
the  exhibitions  of  nature's  infirmity  and  human  sinfulness 
which  the  past  presents ;  and  as  the  "  unprofitable  servant" 
he  casts  himself  upon  the  merits  of  his  Saviour  for  acceptance. 
Some  of  the  discourses  in  this  work  were  composed  upon  oc- 
casions of  bereavement,  and  addressed  to  the  Abney  family. 
The  sixth,  on  the  vain  refuge  of  sinners,  was  sketched  out  on 
the  rocks  near  Tunbridge  Wells  in  the  year  1729.  All  the 
topics  introduced  are  of  the  utmost  moment,  and  are  discuss- 
ed in  a  manner  calculated  to  alarm  the  careless,  arouse  the 
supine,  and  cheer  the  sorrow-stricken  believer. 

The  "  World  to  Come"  first  appeared  in  two  volumes  oc- 
tavo, but  the  second  was  not  published  until  the  year  1745: 
the  introductory  treatise,  on  the  separate  state  of  souls  after 
death,  printed  anonymously  at  an  earlier  period,  was  append- 
ed to  the  first  volume.  The  sermon  on  the  "end  of  time" 
has  been  often  printed  separately  as  a  tract ;  it  has  been  trans- 
lated into  most  European  languages ;  and  a  large  edition  in 
modern  Greek,  from  th'e  Scio  college  press,  is  now  circulating 
in  the  Levant.  Of  all  the  prose  works  of  Dr.  Watts,  none  have 
perhaps  been  more  useful  than  this ;  it  has  led  many  to  seri- 
ous concern  by  its  impressive  and  affecting  appeals ;  and  the 
last  moments  of  the  timid  Christian  have  been  cheered  by  its 
delightful  exhibitions  of  "  the  recompense  of  the  reward." 
Justly  may  it  be  said  of  the  author,  that  it  was  good  for  him 
that  he  was  afflicted ;  the  heat  of  the  furnace  might  be  keenly 
felt,  but  the  influence  of  the  fire  refined  and  purified;  with 
Baxter  he  sought  consolation  amidst  present  trouble  in  medi- 


CIO  LIFE    AND    TIMES 

tilting  upon  the  Saints'  everlasting  Rest ;  and  ever  honoured 
by  the  church  ought  both  their  names  to  be,  who  have  opened, 
what  under  the  divine  blessing  their  writings  have  often 
proved  to  be,  "  a  well  of  water  springing  up  to  everlasting  life." 
Ill,  depressed,  and  suffering  from  extreme  physical  debility, 
as  Dr.  Watts  was  at  the  commencement  of  the  year  1739,  we 
find  him  entering  upon  one  of  the  most  debatable  topics,  and 
publishing  in  March  his  "  Essay  on  Civil  Power  in  things 
sacred."  In  this  cautious  production  the  doctrine  of  toleration 
is  discussed  with  great  moderation  and  candour ;  and  the 
leading  principles  of  religious  liberty  are  very  satisfactorily 
explained  and  defended.  The  writer  endeavours  to  confine 
civil  government  to  its  legitimate  domain,  viz.  civil  affairs  — 
to  assert  the  claims  which  its  enactments  have  in  this  respect 
upon  the  obedience  of  the  subject —  to  prove  magisterial  in- 
terference in  religious  matters,  to  be  an  unjust  and  unauthori- 
sed usurpation  —  and  to  show  that  Christianity  achieved  its 
proudest  triumphs  when  unallied  with  human  power,  and  free 
from  the  beggarly  elements  of  this  world,  it  went  forth  with 
nothing  but  that  moral  energy  with  which  it  was  invested  by 
its  divine  Founder.  Its  early  diffusion  was  not  effected  by  the 
aid  and  interposition  of  civil  authority  — it  met  with  its  most 
deadly  opposition  —  the  natural  prejudices  of  the  Jew,  philoso- 
phic pride  and  imperial  power,  were  brought  to  bear  upon  it — • 
and  yet  it  made  its  way,  and  went  forth  from  conquering  to 
conquer.  History  is  full  of  instructive  lessons  of  the  evils  re- 
sulting from  connecting  the  church  with  the  throne,  and  em- 
ploying the  secular  arm  to  enforce  the  adoption  of  its  creeds 
and  dogmas.  Civil  government,  indeed,  in  his  first  section, 
he  recognises  as  an  ordinance  of  God,  necessary  to  preserve 
the  just  liberties  and  peace  of  mankind  from  invasion  and  in- 
jury ;  and  to  pay  prompt  and  implicit  obedience  to  its  legisla- 
tion he  upholds  as  the  duty  of  every  individual.  But  to  render 
unto  Caesar  the  things  that  are  God's  —  to  place  the  conscience 
under  the  control  of  human  authority  —  he  distinctly  disclaims 


OF   DR.    ISAAC    WATTS.  611 

as  one  of  the  inventions  of  men.  The  subjection  to  "  higher 
powers,"  which  the  scriptures  inculcate  —  the  obedience  to 
magistrates,  which  the  apostles  enjoin  — is  in  secular  and  not 
in  religious  matters,  for  this  very  obvious  reason,  that  the  ma- 
gistracy was  pagan  when  such  precepts  were  first  given.  "  The 
province  of  the  magistrate,"  says  Sir  Henry  Vane,  "  is  the 
world  and  man's  body,  not  his  conscience  or  the  concerns  of 
eternity."  The  professed  design,  however,  of  Dr.  Watts  in  his 
essay  is,  to  inquire  whether  there  might  not  be  an  established 
religion  consistent  with  the  just  liberties  of  mankind,  and 
practicable  under  every  form  of  civil  government ;  an  object 
which,  as  expounded  in  the  treatise,  may  be  regarded  as  a 
harmless,  but  not  very  feasible  speculation.  He  thinks  that 
officers  might  be  appointed  by  the  state,  to  explain  the  laws 
and  the  great  duties  of  morality ;  that  such  officers  labouring 
for  the  national  weal,  should  be  paid  out  of  the  national  ex- 
chequer ;  that  to  secure  the  attendance  of  the  people  upon 
these  teachers  of  natural  religion,  a  fine  might  be  levied  upon 
absentees;  for  "I  fear,"  he  remarks,  "it  will  hardly  be 
esteemed  a  sufficient  penalty,  that  persons  by  neglect  will  con- 
tinue ignorant  of  the  laws  moral  and  civil ;"  and  that  the 
magistrate,  at  the  conclusion  of  such  services,  might  appoint 
the  "  celebrations  of  his  own  peculiar  religion  to  follow,  pro- 
viding the  people  have  notice  of  it,  and  as  many  as  please  are 
permitted  to  depart  without  penalty  or  reproach." 

The  scheme  laboriously  drawn  out,  of  which  this  is  an  out- 
line, however  fair  and  goodly  it  might  appear  to  its  projector, 
is  liable  to  several  fatal  objections  —  its  utter  insusceptibility 
of  establishment,  and  the  scanty  prospect  of  an  experiment 
yielding  any  benefit  commensurate  with  the  evils  which  it 
would  inflict.  Plausible  in  theory  it  would  soon  be  found 
mischievous  in  practice,  at  variance  with  the  first  principles 
of  civil  and  religious  freedom.  Besides,  all  the  advantages 
which  could  possibly  be  supposed  to  flow  from  such  an  insti- 
tute, might  be  obtained  in  another  and  wholly  unexceptionable 


612  LIFE   AND   TIMES 

way  —  a  national  system  of  education,  which  would  embrace 
elementary  knowledge  in  morals  as  well  as  the  common 
branches  of  learning" ;  securing  the  respect  of  the  people  by 
its  proffered  benefits,  and  not  compelling  their  adoption  by 
the  penahies  of  the  statute  book.  Strictly  speaking,  the 
estabUshment  which  Dr.  Watts  sketches,  cannot  be  styled 
rehgious  —  it  is  purely  civil  —  connected  with  no  forms  of 
worship  or  exposition  of  doctrine,  but  enouncing  those  duties, 
a  breach  of  which  is  cognizable  by  the  laws  of  the  realm. 
Notwithstanding  the  visionary  end  aimed  at  in  the  essay,  the 
reader  will  find  in  it  many  valuable  hints ;  a  firm  and  un- 
flinching advocacy  of  the  right  of  private  judgment;  and  an 
exhibition  of  those  enlightened  views  of  toleration,  which 
won  for  the  Independents  the  applause  of  Hume,  and  which 
have  adorned  the  history  as  they  marked  the  rise  of  the  deno- 
mination. Along  with  this  treatise  Dr.  Colman  of  Boston 
acknowledges  the  reception  of  another,  entitled  "  Self-love 
and  Virtue  reconciled  only  by  Religion,"  which  probably, 
therefore,  appeared  about  the  same  time.  A  purely  specula- 
tive question  is  discussed  in  this  pamphlet,  whether  the  rules 
.  of  virtue  and  our  obligations  to  practise  them,  are  eternal  and 
immutable  in  themselves,  or  dependent  upon  the  will  and 
appointment  of  God.  The  latter  part  of  this  proposition  is 
maintained;  for  though  reason  may  discover  some  of  the 
boundaries  between  good  and  evil,  yet  the  divine  authority, 
and  the  revelation  of  reward  and  punishment,  are  necessary 
to  induce  the  practice  of  the  one  and  the  avoidance  of  the 
other.  A  mystical  divinity  has,  indeed,  preached  up  the  fig- 
ment, that  virtue  should  be  embraced  without  any  regard  to 
these  impressive  sanctions,  simply  because  of  its  inherent  ex- 
cellency ;  and  a  deistical  philosophy  has  stigmatised  such  mo- 
tives as  selfish  and  mercenary,  beneath  the  dignity  of  a  wise 
man,  who,  as  the  ancient  Stoics  reported,  is  happy  even  in 
Phalaris's  bull :  but  experience  amply  proves,  that  the  ab- 
stract propriety  of  moral  duties,  their  eternal  fitness,  are  con- 


OF   DR.   ISAAC    WATTS.  013 

siderations  which  go  little  way  towards  recommending  them 
to  the  observance  of  a  fallen  and  deteriorated  nature. 

During  the  period  devoted  to  this  chapter  the  work  on  the 
"  Ruin  and  Recovery  of  Mankind"  made  its  appearance,  and 
probably  in  May,  1740.  The  doctrine  of  the  primitive  inno- 
cence of  man,  his  fall,  and  the  subsequent  depravity  of  his 
posterity,  is  the  subject  of  this  volume.  On  the  importance 
of  maintaining  the  degeneracy  of  human  nature,  as  a  theolo- 
gical and  practical  question,  a  strong  opinion  is  expressed, 
rightly  regarding  it  as  one  of  the  essentials  of  religion,  and 
the  foundation  upon  which  the  temple  of  Christian  truth  is 
built.  The  Deistical  and  Socinian  representation  of  man,  as 
born  into  the  world  pure  and  upright,  dimmed  by  no  cloud  of 
sin  and  shame,  is  not  only  an  injurious  but  a  fatal  error  j  it 
may  be  flattering  to  his  pride,  but  its  reception  is  ruinous  to 
his  interests ;  for  until  a  belief  obtains,  that  he  has  gone  astray, 
a  fugitive  from  God,  there  will  be  neither  solicitude  nor  exer- 
tion to  return.  Upon  this  hypothesis,  the  whole  scheme  of 
revelation  becomes  superfluous,  and  is  reduced  to  a  needless 
display  of  means,  an  exhibition  of  useless  instrumentality  j 
for  if  our  common  nature  is  not  corrupt,  provision  for  its  pu- 
rification is  not  necessary  —  if  it  is  not  "  dead  in  trespasses  and 
in  sins,"  the  agent  whose  office  is  to  quicken  and  revive  is 
not  requisite.  But  in  opposition  to  this  dream  of  proud  phi- 
losophy, the  testimonies  of  divine  truth,  of  human  experience, 
of  daily  observation,  and  of  impartial  history,  are  brought 
forward,  furnishing  irresistible  evidence,  that  the  seeds  of  sin 
are  sown  with  the  stamina  of  our  being,  and  that  depraved 
propensities  are  coeval  with  the  commencing  term  of  mortal 
life.  The  attention  of  theologians  was  called  to  this  subject 
by  the  dangerous  speculations  of  the  latitudinarian'  divines, 
in  whose  writings  the  doctrine  was  scouted  as  a  relic  of  the 
dark  ages,  as  one  of  the  demon-haunting  terrors  invented  by 
ancient  priestcraft,  unworthy  of  any  serious  notice  from  per- 
sons of  intellect  and  refinement.     Dr.  Ridgley,  in  1 725,  pub- 


614  LIFE    AND    TIMES 

lished  "  The  Doctrine  of  Original  Sin  considered,  the  sub- 
stance of  two  sermons  at  Pinner's  Hall;"  and  in  1731  he 
recurred  to  the  subject  in  his  valuable  Body  of  Divinity, 
broachinj^,  however,  some  singular  sentiments.  Mr.  Hebden, 
of  Suffolk,  also  contributed  some  able  pieces ;  but  the  work 
of  Dr.  John  Taylor,  very  improperly  styled  "The  Scripture 
Doctrine  of  Original  Sin  proposed  to  free  and  candid  Exami- 
nation," soon  afterwards  drew  forth  the  most  considerable 
writers  on  the  orthodox  side.  Taylor,  it  is  well  known,  was 
a  convert  to  the  theology  of  the  Racovian  Catechism ;  from 
his  elegant  chapel  in  Norwich*  the  plain  and  homely  truths 
of  the  gospel  had  been  dismissed ;  and  no  antiquated  and 
illiberal  insinuations  against  the  native  dignity  of  humanity 
offended  the  ears  of  the  fashionable  audience  he  addressed. 
He  pronounces  the  common  opinion  "  one  of  the  greatest  ab- 
surdities in  all  the  system  of  corrupt  religion  ;"  he  animad- 
verts upon  several  parts  of  Dr.  Watts's  treatise  in  a  Supple- 
ment; and  attributes  the  gloomy  colours  in  which  he  por- 
trayed mankind,  to  his  retirement  from  the  world  engendering 
a  melancholy  and  nervous  temperament.  To  measure  his 
strength  with  such  an  antagonist,  learned  and  ingenious  as  he 
was,  was  not  upon  such  a  question  a  very  arduous  task  ;  but 
inclination  and  age  alike  forbade  it ;  and  the  labours  of  his 
friends  rendered  it  the  less  necessary.  In  a  second  edition  of 
the  "Ruin  and  Recovery"  he  notices  most  of  the  objections 
advanced  by  Dr.  Taylor,  repeats  and  strengthens  his  own  po- 
sitions, and  warns  his  opponent  (in  the  case  of  whose  pupils 
it  was  exemplified)  of  the  danger  of  running  into  deism.     Dr. 

*The  splendour  of  Dr.  Taylor's  meeting  house  attracted  the  notice  of  Wesley, 
who  has  commemorated  his  visit  by  a  description  of  it:  "Wednesday,  Dec.  23, 
1757.  I  was  shovvn  Dr.  Taylor's  new  meeting-house,  perhaps  the  most  elegant 
one  in  Europe.  It  is  eight  square,  built  of  tiie  finest  brick,  with  sixteen  sash 
windows  below,  as  many  above,  and  eight  sky-lights  in  the  dome,  which  indeed  are 
purely  ornamental.  The  inside  is  finished  in  the  highest  taste,  and  is  as  clean  as 
any  nobleman's  saloon.  The  communion  table  is  fiue  mahogany  ;  the  very  latches 
of  the  pew  doors  are  polished  brass.  How  can  it  be  thought  that  the  old,  coarse 
gospel  should  fiud  admission  here  !"     Journals,  vol.  iii.  315. 


OF    DR.    ISAAC    WATTS,  615 

David  Jennings  replied  to  the  Norwich  divine,  and  Mr.  John 
Wesley  also  in  one  of  the  best  and  most  laboured  of  his  con- 
troversial performances;  but  President  Edwards,  in  1758, 
completely  demolished  his  theories  in  his  posthumous  work, 
"  The  great  Christian  Doctrine  of  Original  Sin  defended." 

It  was  the  intention  of  Dr.  Watts  in  his  work,  not  so  much 
to  establish  the  inherent  depravation  of  our  nature  to  be  a 
truth  of  scripture,  as  to  grapple  with  its  difficulties;  to  con- 
sider the  awful  questions  which  connect  themselves  with  the 
introduction  of  moral  evil,  its  permission  under  a  benevolent  and 
holy  administration,  and  its  transmission  to  all  the  descend- 
ants of  the  primal  pair.  Upon  these  topics  much  important 
matter  is  collected,  and  many  apparent  contrarieties  are  re- 
conciled, though  the  judgments  of  God  must  remain  un- 
searchable to  human  littleness  and  infirmity.  In  defining 
the  moral  state  consequent  upon  the  fall,  he  cautiously 
avoids  the  injudicious  language  of  some  divines,  who  have 
employed  terms  which  the  advocates  of  original  innocence 
have  seized  upon,  to  found  a  charge  of  making  God  the  author 
of  sin.  It  is  more  consonant  with  the  scripture  statements, 
to  represent  the  depravity  of  man  as  a  positive  evil,  resulting 
from  his  privation  of  holy  principles — "  a  depravation,"  as  it 
has  been  expressed,  "arising  from  a  deprivation" — rather  than 
an  effect  proceeding  from  any  direct  infusion  of  corrupt  dispo- 
sitions.* In  considering  the  transmission  of  an  evil  nature 
from  parents  to  children,  he  supposes  the  soul  to  be  of  im- 
mediate creation,  and  not  ex  trachice ;  and  enters  into  an 
elaborate  inquiry,  how,  formed  as  it  must  be  innocent 
because  formed  by  God,  it  becomes  corrupt.  There  is  less 
difficulty  connected  with  the  theory  of  traduction,  though 
many  have  been  scared  from  adopting  it  by  the  frightful  cry 
of  materialism.  But  such  a  consequence  cannot  fairly  be 
deduced  from  it;  for  the  notion  of  the  generation  of  the  soul, 

*  Quest,  iii. 


GIG  LIFE    AND    TIMES 

does  not  imply  its  production  out  of  nothing,  but  simply,  as 
in  the  case  of  the  body,  a  disposal  of  its  substance*  The 
extent  of  the  Adamic  curse  is  discussed  at  length,  a  subject 
about  which  theologians  have  widely  differed.  Pelagius  who 
has  been  followed  by  the  modern  Socinians,  held  that  Adam 
was  created  mortal,  and  that  the  only  penalty  inflicted  upon 
him,  was  his  banishment  from  the  garden  of  terrestrial  delight. 
The  opinion  of  such  Arminians  as  Whitby  is,  that  man's 
offence  subjected  him  and  his  descendants  to  mortality  ;  and 
at  the  same  time  operated  unfavourably  upon  their  moral 
character,  yet  not  so  much  so,  as  to  produce  a  depravation  of 
nature.  Most  Calvinistic  writers  agree,  that  the  consequen- 
ces of  the  fall  include  temporal,  spiritual,  and  eternal  death ; 
the  doctrine  of  the  Augsburg  confession,  and  of  most  of  the 
reformed  churches.  Bishop  Law  maintains,  that  the  curse 
meant  an  entire  destruction,  rather  than  a  perpetual  punish- 
ment ;  an  annihilation  of  the  soul,  and  a  resolution  of  the 
body  into  its  original  dust;  an  opinion  which  Bishop  Bull 
and  Mr.  Hallet  seem  also  to  have  entertained.  Dr.  Watts 
proposes  his  sentiments  hypothetically,  but  appears  to  favour 
the  idea,  that  the  death  threatened  extended  to  the  utter  ex- 
tinction of  being,  and  was  arrested  in  consequence  of  the  co- 
venant of  mercy  that  was  graciously  proposed.  But  the  use 
of  the  word  "  death"  in  scripture  is  against  this  hypothesis ; 
for  the  passages  where  it  occurs,  referring  to  the  soul,  plainly 
imply  a  state  of  conscious  punitive  infliction.f  —  The  case  of 
those  who  die  in  infancy  is  the  subject  of  a  long  dissertation, 
which  will  be  regarded  as  the  most  defective  part  of  Dr. 
Watts's  volume.  He  argues,  that  the  divine  conduct,  with 
reference  to  children,  in  the  instances  of  it  upon  record,  seems 
to  identify  them  with  their  parents  :  thus  the  family  shares  in 
the  curse  or  blessing  pronounced  upon  its  head  —  the  children 
of  Adam  are  doomed  to  natural  death  along  with  him —  the 

•  Quest,  vi.  7.  f  Quest,  ix.  11. 


OF   DR.    ISAAC    WATTS.  617 

seed  of  Abraham  participate  in  the  patriarch's  blessing  —  the 
young  buds  suffer  excision  from  the  "  good  olive  tree"  with 
the  larger  branches  :  hence,  he  concludes,  that  those  dying  in 
infancy  are  not  exempt  from  the  original  curse,  the  provision 
from  which  the  parents  do  not  accept.  But  he  interprets 
this  curse  as  signifying  a  deprivation  of  all  existence,  to  save 
himself  from  a  harsh  conclusion  ;  and  thus  supposes,  that 
whilst  the  infants  of  believers  who  die  are  saved  by  virtue  of 
the  covenant  of  grace,  those  of  the  wicked  fall  into  a  state  of 
annihilation.  A  similar  but  hardly  so  intelligible  a  notion  is 
advanced  in  the  scheme  of  Dr.  Ridgley,  who  supposes  the 
infants  of  unbelievers  to  sink  into  a  state  of  stupor,  and  to 
exist  in  everlasting  insensibility.  Both  these  eminent  men 
have  remained  almost  singular  in  their  opinions,  at  variance 
as  they  are  with  the  sensibilities  of  our  nature,  and  resulting 
from  very  imperfect  and  mistaken  views  of  what  are  commonly 
called  the  doctrines  of  Calvinism.  It  is  far  more  consonant 
with  the  statements  of  the  New  Testament,  the  conduct  of 
our  Lord,  who  took  little  children  "in  his  arms  and  blessed 
them,"  and  the  infinite  value  of  the  atonement,  to  suppose 
that  they  all  "  enter  into  life"  through  "  Him  that  died."  The 
declaration,  that  "  of  such  is  the  kingdom  of  heaven,"  opens  by 
implication  this  encouraging  view ;  words  which  were  spoken 
respecting  those  who  evidently  belonged  to  strangers  to 
Christ  and  his  disciples;  and  which,  whether  interpreted 
of  the  kingdom  of  grace  or  glory,  intimate  that  the  "free 
gift"  is  bestowed  upon  them  "  to  justification  of  life,"  There 
may  be,  as  some  imagine,  a  difficulty  in  placing  all  infants 
who  die  upon  the  same  level,  in  admitting  no  distinction 
in  favour  of  the  "seed  of  the  righteous,"  to  whom  sueh 
extensive  promises  are  made;  but  even  the  supposition,  that 
some  distinction  will  be  made,  or  that  the  offspring  of  un- 
believers enter  upon  a  new  state  of  trial,  is  more  congruous 
with  our  notions  of  the  divine  wisdom  and  goodness^  than  the 


GIS  LIFE    AND   TIMES 

theory  which  consigns  them  to  annihilation.*  The  views  of 
Dr.  Watts,  as  developed  in  this  work,  respecting  the  provi- 
sion made  for  human  recovery,  it  may  not  be  uninteresting 
to  notice.  He  thinks  the  doctrine  of  the  particular  election 
of  persons  to  eternal  life,  supported  by  "  plain,  and  express, 
and  unanswerable  texts;"  and  necessary  to  vindicate  the 
divine  Being  from  the  charge  of  proposing  at  such  a  vast  ex- 
pense a  method  of  salvation,  yet  leaving  it  utterly  uncertain 
whether  any  saving  effect  in  any  single  instance  is  to  be 
produced  by  it.  But  he  does  not  confine  the  extent  of  the 
atonement  within  this  limit ;  he  departs  from  the  common 
Calvinistic  scheme  of  his  day  upon  this  point,  and  seems 
inclined  to  halt  midway  under  the  standard  of  Baxter.  Form 
the  dignity  of  the  person  and  character  of  Christ,  from  the 
unlimited  calls  and  offers  of  the  gospel,  and  from  conside- 
rations relative  to  the  divine  equity,  he  argues  strongly,  that 
God  is  "the  Saviour  of  all  men,"  though  "especially  of  them 
that  believe"  —  that  a  conditional  salvation  has  been  thus 
provided  for  all  —  that  this  is  offered  to  them  in  the  gospel — • 
and  that  all  legal  difficulties  have  been  removed  out  of  the 
way  of  their  pardon  as  sinners.  "  I  cannot  see,"  he  remarks, 
"  any  reason  why  the  strictest  Calvinist  should  be  angry,  that 
the  all-sufficient  merit  of  Christ  should  overflow  so  far  in  its 
influence,  as  to  provide  conditional  salvation  for  all  mankind, 
since  the  elect  of  God  have  that  certain  and  absolute  sal- 
vation which  they  contend  for  secured  to  them  by  the  same 
merit ;  nor  indeed  can  I  conceive  why  the  Remonstrant  should 
be  uneasy  to  have  pardon  and  salvation  absolutely  provided 
for  the  elect,  since  all  the  rest  of  mankind,  especially  such  as 
hear  the  gospel,  have  the  same  conditional  salvation  which 
they  contend  for  sincerely  proposed  to  their  acceptance."t 

Few  of  the  works  of  Dr.  Watts  had  the  good  fortune  to 
escape  animadversion;  wedded  servilely  to  no  party  creed, 
he  seldom  wrote  without  giving  offence  either  to  the  sceptical 

•  Quest,  xvi.  f  Quest,  xiii. 


OF    DR.    ISAAC    AVATTS.  619 

or  the  reputed  orthodox.  He  refused,  at  the  instigation  of  the 
latter  class,  to  plunge  into  the  depths  of  the  supra-lapsarian 
scheme,  which  Dr.  Gill  was  now  expounding  to  delighted 
multitudes;  and  they  frequently  turned  their  artillery  against 
him,  because  he  would  not  become  more  Calvinistic  than 
Calvin.  Mr.  Brine  wrote  against  him  in  a  pamphlet  enti- 
tled, "  The  certain  Efficacy  of  the  Death  of  Christ  asserted, 
in  answer  to  a  book  entitled  'The  Ruin  and  Recovery  of 
Mankind,  by  Isaac  Watts,  D.D.' "  The  author  of  this 
critique  was  a  disciple  of  the  high  doctrinal  school,  in  early 
life  one  of  Gill's  favourite  pupils,  and  afterwards  his  intimate 
friend:  in  his  apprehension,  therefore,  the  divines  of  Dr. 
Watts's  class  were  radically  unsound ;  the  iraddresses  to  sin- 
ners were  so  many  attempts  to  break  in  upon  the  unity  of 
the  divine  plan,  their  dialect  was  Arminian,  their  doctrine 
was  rebellion  against  God's  decrees. 

The  poison  of  Antinomianism  was  now  spreading  in  the 
dissenting  congregations ;  and  though  the  error  was  chiefly 
confined  to  opinion,  yet  it  soon  engendered  in  many  instances 
a  fearful  laxity  of  morals.  The  views  which  actuated  the  Pres- 
byterians in  going  over  to  Arianism,  were  too  subtle  and  refined 
to  be  embraced  or  understood  by  the  many;  but  the  Antino- 
mian  heresy  was  a  bait  exactly  suited  to  the  popular  appetite, 
and  it  was  eagerly  swallowed  by  the  multitude.  In  the 
preface  to  his  second  volume  of  Sermons,  as  far  back  as  the 
year  1723,  we  find  Watts  admonishing  a  certain  class,  who 
he  apprehended  would  knit  their  brows,  and  throw  the  book 
aside  as  a  piece  of  "dull  morality;"  and  he  embraced  the 
opportunity  of  reminding  such  persons  of  the  intimate  con- 
nexion which  exists  between  the  faith  they  so  loudly  magni^ 
fied,  and  the  works  they  were  apt  to  despise.  During  the 
following  twenty  years  the  obnoxious  tenet  appears  to  have 
obtained  in  several  places  a  firm  footing;  the  peace  of  the 
churches  was  fatally  disturbed ;  and  the  minister  who  re- 
fused to  introduce  into  his  pulpit  the  cant  phraseology  of  the 


620  I-ITE    AND    TIMES 

party,  was  anathematised  as  an  Arminian.  Dr.  Watts,  in 
common  with  many  others,  made  a  stand  against  the  spread- 
ing heresy :  the  necessity  of  repentance  as  the  duty  of  the 
sinner,  and  the  pursuit  of  holiness  as  incumbent  upon  the 
believer,  were  prominently  preached;  and  the  favourite 
dogmas  of  the  supra-lapsarians,  which  they  would  have  fain 
believed  were  integral  branches  of  Calvinism,  were  indig- 
nantly disclaimed  as  parasitical  plants.  The  correspondence 
of  Dr.  Doddridge  presents  us  wifh  some  curious  notices 
relative  to  this  subject:  writing  from  Loudon  he  observes,  "  I 
had  several  orthodox  spies  to  hear  me  this  morning,  and  they 
observed  with  great  amazement,  that  I  urged  my  hearers  to 
endeavour  to  get  an  interest  in  Christ.  This  it  seems  is 
Arminianism."  Dr.  Jennings  queries  in  the  following  man- 
ner about  his  suitableness  for  Nottingham,  to  which  place 
he  had  been  invited: — "  Whether  Dr.  Doddridge  or  an  angel 
was  to  preach  moderate  Calvinism,  those  who  are  disposed 
to  send  to  Taunton  for  a  minister  would  not  despise  him? 
This  I  have  observed  in  London  amongst  persons  of  pretty 
much  the  same  taste  (as  I  imagine)  with  a  party  at  Notting- 
ham :  since  even  Dr.  Watts  has  openly  opposed  the  modern 
fashionable  scheme,  he  is  spoken  of  with  great  contempt,  and 
his  genius  is  said  to  be  quite  sunk."  The  Rev.  Hugh 
Farmer  writes  of  Mr.  Coward: — "He  begins  to  think  Dr. 
Watts  a  Baxterian,  and  is  almost  come  to  an  open  rupture 
with  him."  These  notices  bring  to  remembrance  the  ortho- 
dox lady,  whose  zealous  exclamation  Dr.  Calamy  records : 
"  What  Mr.  Sprint !  old  Mr.  Sprint !  Alas,  he  is  a  Baxterian  ! 
he  is  a  middle- way  man!  he  is  an  occasional  conformist!  he 
is  neither  fish  nor  flesh !"  Where  a  fondness  for  the  dangerous 
doctrine  obtained,  that  the  moral  law  is  not  obligatory  upon 
the  Christian,  that  the  glory  of  the  present  dispensation  con- 
sists in  his  being  unshackled  by  the  precepts  of  its  founder, 
practical  religion  gradually  disappeared,  and  was  succeeded 


OF    DK.    ISAAC    WATTS.  621 

by  pride,  ccnsoriousness,  and  conduct  inimical  to  the  power 
and  purity  of  the  g"ospel. 

Mr,  Williams  of  Kidderminster,  trembling-  for  the  ark  of 
God,  wrote  a  pamphlet  upon  the  divisions  that  occurred  in 
the  churches,  traced  the  spirit  of  dissension  to  lis  orig-in,  and 
endeavoured  by  a  pious  and  pointed  remonstrance  to  arrest 
the  tide  of  discord,  and  still  the  tumult  it  occasioned.  This 
was  placed  in  the  hands  of  Dr.  Watts  for  revision,  and  pub- 
lished in  1740,  entitled  "The  Principal  Causes  of  some  late 
divisions  in  Dissenting  Churches  traced  to  their  origin,  in  a 
Letter  from  a  Dissenter  in  the  Country."  From  men  of  cor- 
rupt minds,  disposed  to  convert  the  liberty  of  the  gospel  into 
an  act  of  indemnity  for  depraved  indulgence,  it  is  cheering 
to  turn  to  contemplate  such  a  character  as  that  of  Joseph 
Williams  —  a  man  who  eminently  "  walked  with  God,"  bene- 
fitting the  church  by  his  ardent  devotion,  and  commanding 
the  respect  of  the  world  by  his  stern  integrity.  Mourning 
over  the  fall  of  some  of  his  brethren,  and  the  declension  of 
others,  he  hailed  with  holy  joy  the  introduction  of  the 
Methodists  into  his  native  town ;  and  justly  does  Wesley  say 
of  him  in  his  journal,  "  I  know  not  of  what  denomination  he 
is,  nor  is  it  material,  for  he  has  the  mind  which  was  in 
Christ."  The  "Questions  proper  for  Students  in  Divinity," 
were  drawn  up  by  Dr.  Watts  about  this  time,  and  printed  at 
the  request  of  Dr.  Doddridge  for  the  use  of  his  pupils.  His 
connexion  with  the  academy  of  his  friend  as  one  of  its 
earliest  promoters,  and  as  a  trustee  with  Mr.  Coward's  bene- 
faction for  the  education  of  ministerial  candidates,  produced 
this  catalogue  of  useful  and  solemn  inquiries.  They  are  ad- 
dressed to  the  conscience,  to  discover  whether  the  springs  of 
action  are  legitimate  or  improper;  whether  the  motives 
are  evangelical  or  impure;  and  whether  the  desire  to  enter 
so  responsible  an  office,  originates  in  a  thirst  for  distinction, 
a  fondness  for  publicity,  a  wish  to  display,  or  proceeds  from 
a  sincere  love  to  Christ  and  an  ardent  love  for  souls.     The 


62-2  LIFE    AND    TIMES 

(luestions  also  tiike  cognizance  of  the  student's  improvement 
in  spiritual  attainment  and  theological  knowledge,  the  econo- 
mical expenditure  of  time,  the  outward  deportment  becoming 
a  station  so  sacred  and  so  exposed  to  public  view,  and  the 
daily  growth  of  the  mind  in  the  virtues  of  the  Christian,  the 
acquirements  of  the  scholar,  and  the  diligence  becoming  a 
messenger  of  mercy,  "  the  legate  of  the  skies."  Every  study 
in  our  academies  should  be  furnished  with  a  copy  of  these 
interrogatives ;  they  should  lie  npon  the  desk  of  every  minis- 
ter, to  be  proposed  in  the  hour  of  silence  and  solitude,  when 
duty  summons  the  awakened  spirit  to  the  tribunal  of  an  invi- 
sible judge,  and  the  trial  of  self  with  all  its  feelings,  motives, 
and  designs  is  commenced. 

It  is  observed  by  Mr.  Roffey  in  a  letter  to  Doddridge, 
dated  June  15,  1740,  "  Dear  Dr.  Watts  is  but  indifferent,  and 
lam  afraid  that  his  usefulness  will  be  less  and  less.  So  burn- 
ing and  shining  a  light  in  the  sanctuary,  though  not  extin- 
guished, yet  grown  dim,  calls  for  deep  humiliation."  But 
though  "  in  age  and  feebleness  extreme,"  the  production  of 
the  following  year  showed  that  his  mental  vigour  w^as  unim- 
paired ;  and  that  he  who  had  been  so  long  the  light  and  honour 
of  the  dissenting  churches,  had  neither  exhausted  the  resour- 
ces of  his  intellect,  nor  were  its  gifts  diminished  in  their  value. 
The  "  Improvement  of  the  Mind"  was  published  in  1741,  a 
work  to  which  the  youth  of  England  are  under  lasting  obliga- 
tions, and  which  ranks  among  the  most  useful  in  its  literature. 
The  germ  of  this  work  is  in  the  treatise  on  Logic,  at  the  close 
of  which  he  hints  the  necessity  of  another  volume  applying 
the  rules  and  practically  developing  the  maxims  he  there  ad- 
vanced. Such  a  composition  he  appears  to  have  contemplated 
for  some  time  ;  it  gradually  progressed  as  health  and  opportu- 
nity allowed  ;  "  now  and  then,"  he  remarks,  "  it  spread  itself 
into  branches  and  leaves  like  a  plant  in  April,  and  sometimes 
it  lay  by  without  growth  like  a  vegetable  in  the  winter,"  He 
seems,  after  all  his  labour,  to  have  regarded  this  treatise  as  an 


OF   DR.    ISAAC    WATTS.  623 

incomplete  performance,  as  falling  short  of  his  original  design, 
and  he  would  probably  have  kept  it  still  longer  from  the  press 
but  for  the  admonitions  of  advanced  age  and  increased  infir- 
mity.    In  his  own  modest  and  beautiful  language  he  observes, 
"  I  shall  be  sufficiently  satisfied  with  the  good-humour  and 
lenity  of  my  readers,  if  they  will  please  to  regard  these  papers 
as  parcels  of  imperfect  sketches,  which  were  designed  by  a 
sudden  pencil,  and  in  a  thousand  leisure  moments,  to  be  one 
day  collected  into  landscapes  of  some  little  prospects  in  the 
regions  of  learning  and  in  the  world  of  common  life,  pointing 
out  the  fairest  and  most  fruitful  spots,  as  well  as  the  rocks  and 
wildernesses  and  faithless  morasses  of  the  country."  To  guide 
into  the  paths  of  wisdom  human  and  divine,  was  the  office 
which  Dr.  Watts   most  loved,  and  for  which  he  was  fully 
qualified:  his  labours  in  this  respect  have  not  been  unappre- 
ciated ;  he  received  the  thanks  of  those  in  his  own  day  whose 
approbation  the  virtuous  desire,  and  the  extensive  use  whicli 
has  been  made  of  his  work  is  at  once  its  best  eulogy  and  his 
just  reward.     A  book  so  well  known  it  is  unnecessary  to  ana- 
lyse, and  after  the  decision  of  two  of  the  greatest  men  of  their 
age  in  its  favour,  Dr.  Johnson  and  the  late  Robert  Hall,  it 
would  be  presumption    to  criticise.      The  former    remarks, 
"  Few  books  have  been  perused  by  me  with  greater  pleasure 
than  his  '  Improvement  of  the  Mind,'  of  which  the  radical 
principles  may  indeed  be  found  in  Locke's  '  Conduct  of  the 
Understanding,'  but  they  are  so  expanded  and  ramified  by 
Watts,  as  to  confer  upon  him  the  merit  of  a  work  in  the  high- 
est degree  useful  and  pleasing.      Whoever  has  the  care  of 
instructing  others,  may  be  charged  with  deficience  in  his  duty 
if  this  book  is  not  recommended."  Mr.  Hall,  with  the  modesty 
sp  characteristic  of  him,  gives  his  testimony  as  follows:  — "I 
very  highly  approve  of  Dr.  Watts's  works  in  general,  and  par- 
ticularly that  on  the  'Improvement  of  the  Mind.'     The  book 
needs  no  recommendation  ;  it  may  be  considered  as  an  Eng- 
lish classic,  which  it  would  be  nearly  as  absurd  for  any  living 


G24  LIFE    AND   TIMES 

author  to  recommend,  as  the  papers  of  Addison  or  the  poetry 
of  Milton.  It  has  ah-eady  received  the  most  distinguished 
applause  from  Johnson  in  the  most  popular  of  all  his  works. 
This  applause  is  fresh  in  the  memory  of  every  man  of  reading. 
What  consummate  vanity  would  it  betray  in  me,  to  add  my 
recommendation  to  a  work  which  has  received  the  imprimatur 
of  that  great  dictator  in  the  republic  of  letters !" 

The  second  part  of  the  "  Improvement  of  the  Mind"  is  ob- 
viously inferior  to  the  first,  which  may  be  owing  to  its  being  a 
posthumous  publication,  only  partially  corrected  and  revised 
by  its  author.  The  manuscripts  which  he  designed  for  the 
press,  but  did  not  live  to  publish,  he  committed  in  his  will  to 
the  care  of  Dr.  Jennings  and  Dr.  Doddridge,  who  found 
among  them  this  supplemental  treatise,  accompanied  with  the 
following  notice  :  —  "  Though  this  book,  or  the  second  vo- 
lume of  the  '  Improvement  of  the  Mind,'  is  not  so  far  finished 
as  I  could  wish,  yet  I  leave  it  among  the  number  of  books 
corrected  for  the  press ;  for  it  is  very  easy  for  any  person  of 
genius  and  science  to  finish  it,  and  publish  it  in  a  form  sufii- 
ciently  useful  to  the  world.'  The  editors  nominated  made 
but  few  additions  or  alterations  in  the  work,  which  appeared 
in  1751,  the  last  literary  engagement  of  the  lamented  Dodd- 
ridge, executed  but  three  months  before  he  departed  to  a 
more  southern  climate,  to  return  no  more  to  his  native  shores. 
In  his  correspondence  there  is  an  interesting  letter  from 
Nathaniel  Neal,  Esq.,  with  reference  to  it. 

In  the  following  year  he  produced  the  "  Harmony  of  all 
Religions  which  God  ever  prescribed  to  men,  and  all  his  Dis- 
pensations towards  them."  This  is  a  judicious  and  useful 
treatise,  the  production  plainly  of  "a  man  of  one  book,"  one 
who  has  attentively  studied  not  only  the  letter  of  scripture  bj^it 
its  spirit,  the  connexion  of  its  several  parts,  and  the  liarmony 
of  the  whole.  It  is  designed  to  show,  that  God's  dealings 
with  the  human  family  have  been  substantially  the  same 
under  every  dispensation ;  that  he  has  ever  regarded  them  as 


OF    DR.    ISAAC    WATTS.  625 

fallen  creatures ;  and  proposed  the  same  restorative  scheme, 
though  having-  in  diflferent  ages  a  different  form  of  presenta- 
tion. He  shows,  that  in  the  earliest  times  "  the  shadow"  of 
the  "  good  things  to  come"  was  revealed  —  that  the  great 
doctrine  of  pardon  by  faith  in  the  atonement  was  the  lesson 
taught  the  fathers  by  the  sacrificial  knife  and  patriarchal 
altar  —  that  the  necessity  of  regenerating  grace,  self-denial,  a 
sober  and  mortified  life,  was  preached  unto  them  by  Abra- 
hamic  circumcision  and  Jewish  washings  —  and  that  as 
Moses,  Elias,  and  Christ  met  in  friendly  converse  upon  the 
mount  of  transfiguration,  debating  the  high  mysteries  of  the 
faith ;  so  do  the  great  principles  of  their  several  economies 
associate  and  harmonise,  inculcating  in  emblem,  figure,  or 
plain  announcement,  the  same  fundamental  doctrine,  that 
"  no  man  cometh  unto  the  Father"  but  by  Him  who  has 
made  "  one  sacrifice  for  sins."  He  notices  at  some  length  the 
cardinal  truth  of  the  gospel,  the  doctrine  of  justification  by 
faith,  what  Luther  styled  the  great  evidence  of  a  standing  or 
falling  church,  ''  ortlculus  stantis  et  cadentis  Ecclesiee.^''  The 
antinomian  perversion  of  this  article,  one  of  the  leading  errors 
of  the  time,  is  carefully  discriminated  and  guarded  against: 
"  Let  it  be  always  remembered,"  says  he,  "  as  under  all  for- 
mer dispensations,  so  under  the  Christian,  that  this  faith  can 
never  justify  us  if  it  be  a  dead  faith,  that  is,  such  a  faith  as 
producelh  no  good  works,  that  is,  where  there  is  time  and  op- 
portunity for  them."  It  is  granted,  that  our  obedience  at  the 
best  is  too  defective  to  become  a  righteousness  sufficient  to 
justify  ;  "  yet  reason  itself  constantly  assures  us,  that  God  is 
too  wise  and  holy  a  being,  to  pardon  and  accept  or  justify  any 
creature  who  continues  in  constant  and  wilful  disobedience. 
Tfiis  would  be  a  mere  prostitution  of  his  grace  to  the  service 
of  sin  and  the  encouragement  of  farther  disobedience.  This 
Avould  be  to  make  God  the  patron  of  iniquity  and  Christ  the 
minister  of  sin."  By  the  publication  of  these  sentiments  Dr. 
Watts  gave  offence  to  the  hyper-calvinists,  who  replied  by 


6-26  LIFE    AND    TIMES 

representing  his  "  genius  as  sunk,"  and  his  judgment  grown 
dim  by  infirmity;  but  uninfluenced  in  his  purpose  by  evil  re- 
port, he  unsparingly  condemned  both  from  the  pulpit  and  the 
press  a  notion  dishonourable  to  the  divine  character,  and  sub- 
versive of  the  purity  of  the  gospel.*  The  ordinary  Christian 
will  find  much  to  edify  in  this  theological  tract ;  it  exhibits 
the  succession  and  coherence  of  the  divine  dealings  ;  the  first 
faint  intimation,  the  gradual  opening,  and  the  full  disclosure 
of  the  redeeming  plan ;  and  the  lofty  transactions  of  the  final 
day,  when  every  man  shall  be  judged  according  to  the  econo- 
my under  which  he  lived. 

Early  in  the  year  1742  Dr.  Watts  was  corresponding  with 
the  Rev.  Robert  Blair,  D.D.  of  Athelstaneford,  in  East 
Lothian,  the  author  of  the  highly  popular  poem  entitled  the 
"  Grave."  An  acquaintance  had  subsisted  for  some  time  be- 
tween them,  marked  by  mutual  instances  of  literary  civilities. 
When  Blair  was  pressed  by  his  friends  in  vScotland  to  publish 
his  poem,  he  wrote  to  Stoke  Newington  for  an  opinion  respect- 
ing its  merits,  forwarding  the  manuscript  for  perusal.  *'  Yes- 
terday," says  he,  "  Feb.  24,  I  had  a  letter  from  the  Doctor, 
signifying  his  approbation  of  the  piece  in  a  manner  most 
obliging.  A  great  deal  less  from  him  would  have  done  me  no 
small  honour.  But  at  the  same  time  he  mentions  it  to  me, 
that  he  had  offered  it  to  two  booksellers  of  his  acquaintance, 

*  Mr.  Ivimey  relates  the  following  alteration  of  a  verse  iu  one  of  Watts's  psalins 
which  he  heard  iu  cue  of  the  temples  of  high  Calvinism  : 

"  He  raised  me  from  the  tieeps  of  sin, 
The  gates  of  gapini;  hell, 
And  fix'd  my  standing  more  secure 
Than  Hwas  before  I  fell." 

This  representation  not  suiting  the  notions  of  the  learned  clerk,  he  palmed  the 
following  savoury  morsel  upon  either  David  or  his  \ersifier: 

"  And  fix'd  my  standing  most  secure 
In  Christ  before  I  fell." 

The  important  personage  who  perpetrated  this  amendment  of  the  text,  most  likely 
did  not  explain  the  consistency  between  his  most  secure  foundation  and  the  sub- 
sequent catastrophe ! 


OF    DR.    ISAAC    WATTS. 

who,  he  tells  me,  care  not  to  run  the  risk  of  publishing  it. 
They  scarcely  thinking",  considering  how  critical  an  age  we 
live  in,  that  a  person  living  three  hundred  miles  from  London, 
could  write  so  as  to  be  acceptable  to  the  fashionable  and  po- 
lite." The  poem,  notwithstanding,  was  placed  in  the  hands 
of  Doddridge,  and  was  soon  afterwards  published  ;  and  pub- 
lic opinion  has  since  amply  justified  the  favourable  sentiments 
expressed  by  both.  It  is  much  to  be  regretted  that  Blair's 
letters  to  Dr.  Watts  have  not  been  preserved,  as  they  would 
have  thrown  light  upon  the  character  of  that  amiable  and  in- 
teresting man,  of  whom  but  little  is  known. 

One  of  the  greatest  services  rendered  to  the  religious  pub- 
lic by  Dr.  Watts,  was  suggesting  the  idea  and  forming 
the  scheme  of  that  highly  popular  and  useful  practical  trea- 
tise, "The  Rise  and  Progress  of  Religion  in  the  Soul."  The 
design  of  this  work  was  one  of  liis  benevolent  projects ;  its 
plan  was  drawn  out  by  him  ;  and  but  for  his  growing  infirmi- 
ties he  would  have  executed  it.  But  compelled  to  abandon 
his  purpose,  he  relinquished  the  task  to  Doddridge,  who,  after 
some  hesitation,  yielded  to  his  importunity,  and  completed  the 
performance  in  a  manner  so  acceptable  and  beneficial  to  the 
world.  The  latter  observes  in  a  letter  to  Dr.  Clark  of  St. 
Alban's,  Dec,  15,  1743,  "  I  am  hard  at  work  on  my  book  of 
the  '  Rise  and  Progress  of  Religion,'  which  Dr.  Watts  is  im- 
patient to  see,  and  I  am  eager  to  finish,  lest  he  should  slip 
away  to  heaven  before  it  is  done."  A  few  days  previous  he 
had  heard  from  Mr.  Neal  the  following  statement  relative  to 
his  venerable  friend :  "  Dr.  Watts  has  been  brought  very  low 
with  a  cholicky  disorder,  which  seized  him  last  week,  but  I 
hear  he  is  now  something  better  again."  The  deep  anxiety 
which  Watts  felt  for  the  success  of  this  production,  appears 
from  his  letters :  it  had  long  been  one  of  his  favourite  theolo- 
gical speculations :  the  composition  of  a  work  detailing  the 
production  and  growth  of  spiritual  feeling  in  the  heart  and  its 
outward  manifestations,  he  looked  upon  as  likely  to  be  of  the 


628  LIFE    AND   TIMES 

greatest  practical  utility.  lu  one  of  his  letters  to  Doddridge, 
Sept.  13,  1744,  he  remarks,  "  I  long  to  have  your  'Rise  and 
Progress  of  Religion'  appear  in  the  world.  I  wish  my  health 
had  been  so  far  established,  that  I  could  have  read  over  every 
line  with  the  attention  it  merits  ;  but  I  am  not  ashamed  by 
what  I  have  read,  to  recommend  it  as  the  best  treatise  on  prac- 
tical religion  which  is  to  be  found  in  our  language,  and  I  pray 
God  that  it  may  be  extensively  beneficial."  Again  says  he, 
"  Since  you  were  pleased  to  read  me  some  chapters  of  the 
*  Rise  and  Progress,'  I  am  the  more  zealous  for  its  speedy 
conclusion  and  publication,  and  beg  you  would  not  suffer  any 
other  matters  to  divert  your  attention,  since  I  question  whe- 
ther you  can  do  any  thing  more  necessary."  December  14th 
he  writes  as  follows  :  "  I  thank  you  that  your  heart  is  so  much 
set  upon  the  book  I  recommended  you  to  undertake :  I  long 
for  it,  as  I  hope  it  will  be  a  means  of  great  usefulness,  and 
shall  be  glad  to  see  the  first  ap])earanccs  of  it ;  and  hope  that 
by  that  time  I  shall  be  able  to  read  a  little  more."  When  his 
wishes  were  accomplished  by  one  so  admirably  qualified  for 
the  undertaking  he  had  suggested,  he  wrote  to  several  foreign 
correspondents,  to  promote  the  circulation  of  the  work.  His 
own  character  had  long  been  known,  and  his  reputation  as 
an  author  established,  among  the  divines  in  Holland  and  the 
Low  Countries ;  most  of  his  devotional  and  practical  pieces 
had  been  translated;  and  M.  Tinon,  a  bookseller  in  Amster- 
dam, applied  to  him  for  a  voucher,  as  to  the  ability  and  ortho- 
doxy of  Doddridge.  This  of  course  was  transmitted  through 
the  Rev.  David  Longueville,  minister  of  the  English  church 
in  that  city ;  and  with  the  sanction  of  his  name,  not  only  the 
Rise  and  Progress,  but  most  of  the  productions  of  the  same 
pen,  soon  afterwards  appeared  in  the  Dutch  and  French  lan- 
guages. 

It  appears  from  many  of  Dr.  Watts's  letters  written  about 
this  period,  not  inserted  in  this  volume,  that  for  several 
months  at  a  time  he  was  confined  to  his  room  by  weakness 


OF    DR.    ISAAC    WATTS.  629 

and  suffering'.  It  was  only  very  occasionally  that  be  could 
engage  in  any  public  exercises  on  the  sabbath ;  his  appear- 
ance in  the  pulpit,  however  grateful  to  his  congregation,  was 
but  rarely  enjoyed.  The  following  are  extracts  from  his 
letters  in  the  Doddridge  correspondence:  "Dec.  21,  1741. 
Your  last  supposes  that  Mr.  Neal  and  I  have  been  at  the 
fund ;  alas.  Sir,  we  have  neither  of  us  been  there  these  many 
months,  and,  therefore,  I  have  transmitted  to  Mr.  Jennings 
that  part  of  your  letter  which  relates  to  it.  I  thank  God  I 
was  in  the  pulpit  last  Lord's-day,  but  for  only  thirty-two 
minutes,  which  almost  overset  me;  so  that  my  capacities  of 
that  kind  still  run  exceedingly  low:  may  they  be  increased 
through  your  prayers  if  God  please  to  hear  and  answer  them." 
"Feb.  24,  1743.  That  day  on  which  I  sent  my  last  letter  to 
you,  I  was  seized  with  something  of  a  paralytic  disorder, 
which  though  it  soon  went  off,  has  left  various  nervous  dis- 
orders behind  it,  so  th{it  I  was  confined  to  my  chamber  till 
this  day."  "March  31,  1743.  In  answer  to  your  very  kind 
and  long  letter  which  gave  me  great  pleasure,  I  am  forced  to 
write  but  a  few  lines,  because  my  disorder  of  the  want  of 
sleep  continues  with  me,  and  still  confines  me  to  my  chamber, 
and  keeps  me  under  great  weakness.  Alas,  Sir,  though  I 
should  take  much  pleasure  in  one  half  hour's  conversation 
with  you  on  the  subjects  we  should  delight  to  talk  of,  yet 
my  health  is  so  low,  that  I  can  by  no  means  desire  it,  not 
being  capable  of  receiving  the  advantages  of  it  by  reason  of 
much  weakness."  "Dec.  14,  1743.  Your  letter  so  full  of 
sincere  affection  and  the  warmest  expression  of  love,  was  re- 
ceived this  morning.  I  thank  God  I  am  so  far  recovered 
from  that  severe  and  dangerous  illness,  which  seized  me  a 
fortnight  ago,  that  I  can  sit  in  my  chamber  and  dictate  this 
letter.  If  God  raise  me  up  to  any  usefulness  I  am  cheerfully 
ready ;  if  not,  I  cheerfully  resign  every  thing  that  is  mortal 
at  his  order," 


C30  LIFE    AND    TIMES 

FROM  TflE  COUNTESS  OF  HERTFORD. 

<'Sir,  "Jan.  17,  1739. 

"  I  am  truly  sorry  you  complain  of  any  decay ;  but 
I  am  sure  if  you  have  any  it  must  be  bodily,  and  has  no  other 
effect  than  that  which  both  Mr.  Waller*  and  yourself  have  so 
happily  described,  as  'letting  in  light  upon  the  soul.' 

"  I  never  read  any  thing  in  my  life  that  pleased  me  better 
than  your  meditations  on  Revelations  10th,  and  I  hope  I  shall 
not  only  delight  in  reading  the  words,  but  lay  the  substance 
of  it  to  my  heart,  to  which  end  allow  me  to  beg  your  prayers 
as  an  assistance. 

"  My  dear  Lord's  state  of  suffering  (for  he  is  again  confined 
to  his  bed  by  the  gout),  gives  me  little  opportunity  and  less 
inclination  to  lose  much  time  in  the  gay  amusements  which 
are  apt  to  divert  other  people  from  the  thoughts  of  their  disso- 
lution ;  but  I  am  not  sure  that  a  life  of  care  and  anxiety  has 
not  as  bad  an  effect  by  fixing  the  mind  too  attentively  on  the 
present  gloom,  which  obscures  every  cheerful  ray  which  would 
otherwise  enliven  one's  spirits. 

"  I  wush  I  had  any  thing  to  send  more  worth  your  reading 
than  the  following  verses  ;  but  I  have  so  little  leisure  that  I 
can  scarce  get  time  to  write  letters  to  the  few  friends  I  cor- 
respond with.  These  lines  were  written  one  morning  in 
October  as  I  was  sitting  in  a  bow-window  in  my  chamber  at 
St,  Leonard's  Hill,  which  looks  on  a  little  grove  in  the  gar- 
den, and  beyond  has  an  extensive  view  of  the  forest. 

"  How  lately  was  j'on  russet  grove 
The  seat  of  harmony  and  love  ! 


•  "  The  soul's  dark  cottage  battei'd  and  decay'd  ; 

Lets  in  new  light  through  chinks  that  time  has  made: 

Sti'onger  by  weakness,  wiser  men  become, 

As  they  draw  near  to  their  eternal  home: 

Leaving  the  old,  both  worlds  at  once  they  view 

That  stand  upon  the  threshold  of  the  new."  waller. 

Dr.  Watts's  Hor.  Lyr.  "A  Sight  of  Heaven  in  Sickness." 


OF    DR.    ISAAC    WATTS.  631 

How  beautious  all  the  sylvan  scene  ! 

The  flowers  how  gay,  the  trees  hpw  green  ! 

But  now  it  no  such  charms  cau  boast : 

Its  music  gone,  its  verdure  lost; 

The  changing  leaves  fall  fast  away, 

And  all  its  pride  is  in  decay  ; 

Where  blossoms  deekt  the  pointed  thoru 

Now  hangs  the  wintry  drop  forlorn  ; 

No  longer  from  the  fragrant  bush 

Odours  exhale,  nor  roses  blush ; 

Along  the  late  enamel'd  mead 

No  golden  cowslip  lifts  its  head ; 

Scarce  can  the  grass  its  spires  sustain, 

Chill'd  by  the  frost,  or  drench'd  with  rain. 

Alas — just  thus  with  life  it  fares:  ") 

Our  youth  like  smiling  spring  appears,    V 

Allied  to  joy,  imbroke  with  cares;  \ 

But  swiftly  fly  those  cheerful  hours. 
Like  falling  leaves,  or  fading  flowers; 
We  quickly  hasten  to  decline. 
And  ev'ry  sprightly  joy  resign. 
Then  be  our  heart  prepar'd  to  leave 
Those  joys,  nor  at  their  absence  grieve  ; 

Sublimer  pleasures  let  us  prove. 
And  fix  our  thoughts  on  those  above ; 

By  the  bright  eye  of  sacred  trath. 
Review  the  dangers  of  our  youth  ; 
Think  how  by  turns  wild  passions  rag'd. 
By  calm  reflection  now  assuag'd  ; 
And  bless  the  gentle  ev'niug  hour. 
When  reason  best  exerts  its  pow'r. 
And  drives  those  tyrants  from  our  breast. 
Whose  empire  they  too  long  possest : 
Devotion  comes  with  grace  divine. 
Around  them  heavenly  glories  shine 
While  ev'ry  gloom  their  rays  dispel. 
And  banish  the  deceits  of  hell. 
Ambition  now  no  more  aspires. 
Contentment  mod'rates  our  desires ; 
From  envy  free  we  can  behold. 
Another's  honours,  or  his  gold; 
Nor  jealousy  our  rest  alarms. 
No  longer  slaves  to  mortal  charms; 


itn,      ^ 


G32  LIFE    AND   TIMES 

A^■ith  Prudence  Patience  comes  along, 
Who  smiles  beneath  oppressive  wrong 
If  then  such  peaceful  heav'nly  guests 
Age  introduces  to  our  breasts, 
Can  we  his  soft  approaches  fear, 
Or  heave  a  sigh,  or  drop  a  tear. 
Because  our  outward  forms  decay, 
And  time  our  vigour  steals  away  ? 
Should  we  regret  our  short-liv'd  bloom 
Which,  could  it  last  us  to  the  tomb, 
Must  quickly  there  to  dust  consume 
If  thus  life's  progress  we  survey. 
View  what  it  gives,  what  takes  away, 
We  shall  with  thankful  hearts  declare, 
It  leaves  us  all  that's  worth  our  care. 

"  I  am  importuned  by  a  very  valuable  old  woman,  who  is 
declining  apace,  to  beg  your  prayers.  She  took  me  from  my 
nurse,  and  if  I  have  any  good  in  me  I  owe  it  to  her.  She  was 
trusted  by  my  mother  with  the  care  both  of  my  sister  and  my- 
self, and  has  lived  with  me  ever  since.  But  now,  though  past 
seventy,  she  cannot  meet  death  without  terror  ;  and  yet  I  be- 
lieve I  may  venture  to  answer,  that  she  has  always  lived  under 
the  strictest  sense  of  religion  ;  but  lowness  of  spirit  joined  to 
many  bodily  infirmities,  will  shed  darkness  on  the  most  cheer- 
ful minds,  and  hers  never  was  of  that  cast.  I  fear  she  has 
very  few  months  (if  weeks)  to  come  on  earth,  and  a  notice  that 
you  will  grant  her  request  would  make  her  I  believe  pass  them 
with  more  comfort. 

"  I  am  forced  to  take  another  page  to  assure  you  of  my 
Lord's  compliments,  and  those  of  my  young  people :  the  two 
latter  are  very  well.  I  have  no  other  view  in  sending  the 
above  verses,  but  to  prove  that  my  confidence  in  your  friend- 
ship has  received  no  alteration  from  the  length  of  time  which 
has  passed  since  I  had  an  opportunity  of  assuring  you  in  per- 
son with  how  true  a  regard  I  am,  Sir, 

"  Your  most  faithful  humble  servant, 

"F.    HERTFORD." 


Sir, 


OF  DR.   ISAAC   WATTS.  633 

FROM  THE  COUNTESS  OF  HERTFORD. 

"Windsor  Forest,  May  19,  1739. 


"  I  would  sooner  have  expressed  my  concern  for 
your  illness  had  I  been  free  from  complaint  myself.  I  have 
been  afflicted  for  some  weeks  with  a  pain  in  my  jaws  and 
face,  which  is  yet  very  little  better,  and  really  disheartens 
me  from  doing  any  thing.  My  Lord  and  Betty  are  in  town, 
as  is  my  son's  governor  on  account  of  a  violent  rheumatism, 
so  that  he,  and  I,  and  a  young  gentleman  three  or  four  years 
older  than  himself,  live  here  in  perfect  solitude.  Our 
amusement  within  doors  is  at  present  Rapin's  History  of 
England  in  English,  which  they  abridge  as  they  go  along; 
I  work  or  draw  while  they  read  aloud,  and  we  do  not  seem 
tired  of  our  way  of  life. 

"  Your  good  prayers  for  poor  Rothery  have  met  with  unex- 
pected success.  She  is  so  much  recovered  that  I  begin  to 
think  she  will  get  entirely  well,  and  if  she  does  I  think 
nothing  of  that  kind  has  since  I  can  remember  looked  more 
like  a  miraculous  operation  of  the  healing  power  of  the 
Almighty. 

"  I  hope  the  same  divine  mercy  will  long  preserve  you  a 
blessing  to  the  age,  and  that  you  will  find  your  strength  re- 
turn with  the  warm  weather. 

"  My  son  assures  you  of  his  kindest  wishes  and  services,  and 
I  am  sure  the  other  branches  of  my  family  would  do  the 
same  if  they  were  here. 

"  I  hoped  every  week  (of  late)  for  the  publication  of  the  ser- 
mons you  were  so  good  as  to  say  you  intended  me.  I  find 
Mr.  Grove's  are  going  to  be  published  by  subscription.  I 
have  sent  to  town  to  desire  that  my  name  may  be  added  to 
the  list. 

"  I  have  just  had  the  oddest  pamphlet  sent  me  which  I  ever 


(j34  LIl'E    AND   TIMES 

saw  in  my  life,  called  'Amusemens  Philosophiques  sur  le 
Language  des  Betes.'  It  was  burnt  by  the  hands  of  the 
common  executioner  at  Paris,  and  the  priest  who  wrote  it 
banished  till  he  made  a  formal  retraction  of  it;  and  yet  I  think 
it  very  plain  by  the  style,  that  the  man  was  either  in  jest  or 
crazed.  It  is  by  no  means  wanting  of  wit,  but  extremely  far 
from  a  system  of  probability.  I  will  now  only  recommend 
myself  to  your  prayers,  and  subscribe  myself,  Sir, 

"  Your  most  obliged  and  faithful  Servant, 

"  F.    HERTFORD." 


FROM   THE    SAME. 

"Marlborough,  June  7,  1739. 
"  Sir, 

"  You  will  have  great  reason  to  think  me  very  un- 
grateful for  your  kind  present  to  my  son, an  d  very  indifferent 
in  regard  to  your  health,  till  I  have  told  you  what  has  so  long 
hindered  my  returning  you  thanks  for  the  one,  and  assuring 
you  of  my  concern  for  the  other.  I  have  been  since  I  received 
yours  afflicted  with  a  pain  in  my  head,  which  was  almost 
ready  to  deprive  me  of  my  eye-sight.  It  lasted  four  or  five 
days,  and  as  soon  as  it  was  over,  we  prepared  to  remove 
hither,  where  we  have  only  been  three  days.  These  have  been 
the  impediments  which  have  kept  me  silent  at  a  time  when  I 
had  the  strongest  inclination  to  inquire  after  you,  and  assure 
you  of  my  sincerest  wishes  and  prayers  for  your  perfect  re- 
covery. 

"  I  have  the  pleasure  of  finding  my  garden  extremely  im- 
proved in  the  two  years  I  have  been  absent  from  it.  Some 
little  alterations  I  had  ordered  are  completed.  The  trees 
which  I  left  small  ones,  are  grown  to  form  an  agreeable 
shade,  and  I  have  reason  to  bless  God  for  the  pleasantness  of 


OF  DR.  ISAAC  AVATTS.  635 

the  place  which  is  allotted  me  to  pass  many  of  my  retired 
hours  in.  May  I  make  use  of  them  to  fit  me  for  my  last,  and 
that  I  may  do  so  allow  me  to  beg  the  continuation  of  your 
prayers. 

"My  poor  old  woman  has  got  hither  contrary  to  her  own 
and  all  our  expectations.  She  has  the  deepest  gratitude  for 
your  goodness  to  her,  and  begs  you  will  accept  her  thanks. 
She  is  still  very  weak,  and  I  fancy  will  hardly  get  over  the 
autumn.  My  Lord  and  Betty  desire  to  assure  you  of  their 
compliments.     I  am,  Sir,  with  the  truest  esteem, 

"Your  most  faithful  humble  servant, 

"F.    HERTFORD." 


FROM   THE    SAME. 

"June  10,  1739. 
"Sir, 

"Though  I  troubled  you  with  a  letter  so  lately,  I 
cannot  dispense  with  my  impatience  to  thank  you  for  the 
valuable  present  you  have  made  me  of  one  of  the  best  books 
I  ever  saw.*  I  received  it  only  on  Friday  night,  but,  as  the 
goodness  of  Providence  has  allowed  me  many  hours  of  leisure 
and  retirement,  I  have  had  time  enough  to  read  so  much  of 
it  as  gives  me  the  highest  veneration  for  its  author.  I  hope 
God  will  grant  me  grace  not  only  to  read  it,  but  to  endeavour 
after  the  piety  it  dictates,  which  is  delivered  in  such  a  manner 
as  both  to  convince  the  reason,  and  touch  the  heart.  I  have 
forgot  whether  in  any  of  my  later  letters  I  ever  named  to  you 
a  little  book  newly  translated  from  the  Italian  by  the  same 
Mrs.  Carter  who  has  a  copy  of  verses  printed  in  the  begin- 
ning of  Mrs.  Rowe's  Works  occasioned  by  her  death.    The 

*  "  Discourses  on  the  World  to  Come." 


686  I'IFE   AND   TIMES 

book  she  has  now  translated  is  Sir  Isaac  Newton's  Doctrine 
of  Light  and  Colours  made  easy  for  the  Ladies.  My  daughter 
and  I  have  both  read  it  with  great  pleasure,  and  flatter  our- 
selves that  we  at  least  understand  some  parts  of  it.  She  joins 
with  her  father  and  brother  in  their  assurances  of  esteem  and 
good  wishes  toward  you,  and  I  hope  you  are  convinced  that 
on  both  those  subjects  you  may  equally  depend  upon  the  sin- 
cerity of,  Sir, 

"Your  most  obliged 

"  and  faithfully  affectionate  servant, 

"F.    HERTFORD." 


FROM   THE    SAME. 

"Marlborough,  July  30,  1739. 


"Sir, 


"  I  would  much  sooner  have  written  to  you  to  thank 
you  for  the  favour  of  your  last  letter  had  I  enjoyed  more 
leisure;  but  I  have  had  a  friend  with  me  this  last  month 
who  has  engrossed  a  good  many  of  those  hours  which  I  used 
to  employ  in  writing  to  my  correspondents.  She  is  a  very 
pious  and  religious,  as  well  as  agreeable  woman,  and  has 
seen  enough  of  the  world  in  her  younger  years  to  teach  her 
to  value  its  enjoyments,  and  fear  its  vexations  no  more  than 
they  deserve,  by  which  happy  knowledge  she  has  brought 
her  mind  and  spirits  to  the  most  perfect  state  of  calmness  I 
ever  saw,  and  her  conversation  seems  to  impart  the  blessing 
to  all  who  partake  of  her  discourse.  By  this  you  will  judge 
that  I  have  passed  my  time  very  much  to  my  satisfaction 
while  she  was  with  me;  and,  though  I  have  not  written  to 
you,  you  have  shared  my  time  with  her,  for  almost  all  the 
hours  I  passed  alone  I  have  employed  in  reading  your  works. 


OF   DR.    ISAAC    WATTS.  637 

which  for  ever  represent  to  my  imagination  the  idea  of  a  lad- 
der or  flight  of  steps,  since  every  vohime  seems  to  rise  a  step 
nearer  the  language  of  heaven,  and  there  is  a  visible  progres- 
sion toward  that  better  country  through  every  page ;  so  that 
though  all  breathe  piety  and  just  reason,  the  last  seems  to 
crown  the  whole,  till  you  shall  again  publish  something  to 
enlighten  a  dark  and  obstinate  age,  for  I  must  believe  that 
the  manner  in  which  you  treat  divine  subjects  is  more  likely 
to  reform  and  work  upon  the  affections  of  your  readers  than 
that  of  any  other  writer  now  living.  I  hope  God  will  in 
mercy  to  many  thousands,  myself  in  particular,  prolong  your 
life  many  years.  I  own  this  does  not  seem  a  kind  wish  to 
you ;  but  I  think  you  will  be  content  to  bear  the  infirmities  of 
flesh  some  years  longer,  to  be  an  instrument  in  the  hands  of 
God  toward  the  salvation  of  your  weak  and  distressed  bre- 
thren. The  joys  of  heaven  cannot  fade,  but  will  be  as  glori- 
ous millions  of  ages  to  come  as  they  are  now ;  and  what  a 
moment  will  the  longest  life  appear  when  it  comes  to  be  com- 
pared with  eternity  ?  My  Lord  desires  to  assure  you  of  his 
regards  and  best  wishes.   I  am.  Sir,  with  the  truest  veneration, 

"  Tour  most  faithful  humble  sei'vant, 

^'  F.  HERTFORD." 


TO  THE  BISHOP  OF  LONDON. 

"  Tunbridge  Wells,  Aug.  15,  173L. 
"  My  Lord, 

"  The  very  kind  and  condescending  reception  you 
were  pleased  to  give  to  the  last  book  which  I  published,  de- 
mands my  first  acknowledgment;  and  it  persuades  me  that 
your  Lordship  much  approves  of  our  plain  and  warm  manner 
of  preaching,  and  our  endeavours  to  make  the  great  doctrines 


638  LIFE   AND   TIMES 

of  the  gospel  to  reach  the  hearts  and  consciences  of  those  that 
hear  us. 

**  And  I  am  called  again  to  be  thankful  to  your  Lordship  for 
the  honour  you  did  me  in  ordering  your  late  Pastoral  Letter 
into  my  hands.  Your  Lordship  has  so  seasonably  and  so  hap- 
pily cautioned  your  flock  against  that  lukewarmness,  which  in 
limes  of  peace  is  ready  to  overspread  all  the  professors  of 
Christianity,  as,  I  hope,  under  the  concurring  influences  of 
divine  grace,  will  have  a  blessed  effect  upon  the  people  under 
your  care.  I  hope,  also,  the  clergy  under  your  inspection  will 
not  think  themselves  neglected  in  your  Lordship's  discourse, 
and  will  not  only  apply  themselves  with  all  holy  zeal  and  fer- 
vency to  warn  their  hearers  of  this  danger,  but  set  themselves 
to  root  it  out  from  the  tribe  of  Levi  as  well  as  the  rest  of  the 
tribes  of  our  Israel,  and  that  every  one  among  the  priesthood 
may  be  burning  and  shining  lights,  and  powerful  examples 
among  the  people, 

"  Your  Lordship's  distinction  of  the  extraordinary  and  the 
ordinary  influences  of  the  Holy  Spirit  is  so  very  necessary, 
that  I  think  the  New  Testament  cannot  be  understood  without 
it;  and  I  wish  Mr.  Whitfield  would  not  have  risen  above  any 
pretences  to  the  ordinary  influences,  unless  he  could  have 
given  some  better  evidences  of  it.  He  has  acknowledged  to 
me  in  conversation,  that  it  is  such  an  impression  upon  his  own 
mind  that  he  knows  to  be  divine,  though  he  cannot  give  me 
any  convincing  proof  of  it.  I  said  many  things  to  warn  him 
of  the  danger  of  delusion,  and  to  guard  him  against  the  irre- 
gularities and  imprudences  which  youth  and  zeal  might  lead 
him  into,  and  told  him  plainly,  that  though  I  believed  him 
very  sincere  and  desirous  to  do  good  to  souls,  yet  I  was  not 
convinced  of  any  extraordinary  call  he  had  to  some  parts  of 
his  conduct ;  and  he  seemed  to  take  this  free  discourse  in  a 
very  candid  and  modest  manner. 

"  I  own  with  your  Lordship,  that  so  large  and  general  a 
charge  as  he  lays  upon  the  clergy  of  the  established  church, 


or    DR.   ISAAC    AVATTS.  639 

it  is  impossible  for  him  to  knoiv  certainly  whether  it  is  true  or 
not;  and,  therefore,  these  censures  are  by  no  means  justifiable. 
But  if.  your  Lordship  will  permit  me  to  say,  that  your  Lord- 
ship's excellent  cilation  of  some  pages  of  your  Charge  to  those 
of  your  diocese  is  no  sufficient  refutation  of  the  censure.  That 
very  Charge  was  put  into  my  hands  at  least  twelve  years  ago 
in  Essex,  and  it  was  the  first  thing  that  wrought  in  ray  heart 
a  reverence  and  veneration  for  your  Lordship.     I  think  no 
man  could  give  better  advice;  and  I  persuade  myself,  all  the 
best  of  the  dissenters,  and  I  think  far  the  greatest  part  of  them, 
must  have  approved  it  with  honour.     But  I  cannot  but  sup- 
pose your  Lordship  is  so  well  acquainted  with  the  lower  clergy 
of  England,  as  to  know  that  not  a  great  many  of  them  preach 
according  to  those  admirable  directions.     If  they  did  I  easily 
imagine  there  would  be  no  dissenters  in  many  parishes  in 
England  where  now  they  abound.     It  is  not  the  differences 
of  ordination  and  ceremony,  no,  nor  the  imposition  of  them 
without  warrant,  that  are  so  well  understood  as  to  create  a 
large  separation  on  those  accounts  merely.    But  it  is  the  want 
of  such  preaching  as  your  Lordship  recommends,  that  makes 
many  persons  of  serious  religion  uneasy,  that  they  find  not 
such  edification  for  their  souls  under  the  parochial  clergy  in 
many  towns  and  villages.    Nor  do  I  think  your  Lordship  and 
the  rest  of  your  brethren  the  bishops,  can  do  any  thing  so  ef- 
fectual to  lessen  the  separation,  and  to  make  all  the  Whitfields 
less  regarded  and  less  dangerous  to  the  church,  as  to  induce 
the  ministers  under  your  care  to  preach  and  converse  among 
their  people  with  that  evangelical  spirit,  that  zeal  for  the  ho- 
nour of  God  and  success  of  the  gospel,  and  with  that  compas- 
sion for  the  souls  of  men,  that  your  Lordship  so  much  approves 
and  advises  in  your  pious  and  excellent  Charge. 

*'  Forgive  me,  my  Lord,  I  entreat  you  to  forgive  me,  if  my 
zeal  for  such  preaching  as  your  Lordship  prescribes,  has  car- 
ried me  out  so  far  as  to  forget  myself  and  the  person  to  whom 


640  LIFE   AND   TIMES 

I  write,  as  to  say  any  thing  unbecoming  the  lower  station  of, 
my  Lord, 

"  Your  Lordship's  most  obliged, 

"  and  faithful  humble  servant, 

"  ISAAC  WATTS." 

FROM   THE   REV.   BENJAMIN    COLMAN,   D.D. 

"Boston,  Aug.  20,  1739. 
"  Rev.  and  dear  Sir, 

"  I  have  your  new  and  great  favour  of  June  Cth, 
with  your  packets  for  Harvard  and  Yale  colleges,  which  I  have 
forwarded.  My  last  to  you  was  a  packet  by  Capt.  Marrier, 
which  he  promised  to  see  delivered  at  your  friend's  house 
near  the  Exchange;  in  it  was  half  an  ounce  of  gold,  in  rings, 
to  pay  for  your  kind  advance  of  Mrs.  Rowe's  first  volume  and 
her  pictures  to  me,  with  which  you  greatly  obliged  me.  Please 
to  reserve  enough  of  the  said  money  to  pay  for  the  whole  sub- 
scription to  Dr.  Doddridge's  volumes,  if  you  have  not  done  it 
before;  and  as  I  have  left  it  to  you  to  buy  me  what  pleases 
you  best,  with  what  is  left  of  my  money,  so  I  readily  suppose 
you  will  send  me  the  'Discourses  of  Preaching  Christ,'  which 
the  prints  tell  me  you  '  desire  always  to  have  at  your  right 
hand.'* 

"  Mr.  President  Williams  has  been  followed  this  year  with 
a  dreadful  headache,  which  has  greatly  endangered  the  loss  of 
his  sight,  but  through  the  favour  of  God  he  is  much  restored, 
yet  often  thinks  he  must  leave  New  Haven,  and  live  farther 
from  the  sea  air,  to  which  he  imputes  the  pains  of  his  head, 
finding  them  return  with  the  bleak  sea  winds.  He  is  a  most 
valuable  man,  and  his  sickness  or  retirement  would  be  a 
great  loss  to  us. 

*  From  Dr.  Watts's  Preface. 


OF  DR.   ISAAC   WATTS.  641 

"  Our  dear  Mr.  Mather*  has  also  suffered  much  this  year 
and  last  by  sickness ;  with  great  constancy  he  went  through 
much  incision  on  his  face,  and  is  now  recovering  from  a  slow 
burning  fever,  very  distressing.  I  preached  for  him  last 
week,  and  found  the  '  World  to  Come'  on  his  table,  but  his 
eyes  not  able  then  to  look  into  it. 

"  How  much  do  I  rejoice,  my  dear  brother,  in  your  recovery, 
so  far  as  to  write  again  at  large  to  your  friends,  and  to  send  us 
new  fruits  of  your  labour.  We  are  a  great  expense  to  you 
from  year  to  year,  and  I  am  ready  to  blush  at  the  great  charge 
you  are  put  to  by  your  correspondence  here  with  so  many  of 
us ;  but  you  gladly  spend,  and  are  spent,  for  the  benefit  of 
many,  at  home  and  abroad.  The  Lord  render  you  a  full  re- 
ward in  the  comfort  of  your  soul,  for  its  travail  for  us  in  the 
way  to  your  crown. 

"  How  pleasant  is  it  to  see  you  finishing  your  course  with 
the  present  subject,  '  The  World  to  Come  !'  '  The  End  of 
Time  !'  '  The  Watchful  Christian  !'  &c.  and  how  pleasant 
also  is  it  to  receive  your  promise,  by  the  will  of  God,  of  more 
on  the  same  head  :  a  harvest  to  you,  I  trust,  living  and  dying. 
You  do  well  to  wear  and  work  out,  and  to  come  to  your  grave 
as  a  shock  of  corn  in  its  season.  And  I  thank  God,  who 
strengthens  your  hands,  and  encourages  your  heart,  by  the 
very  great  acceptance  he  gives  to  your  works,  which  I  read 
with  pleasure,  in  the  account  of  the  multipUed  editions  of 
them.  This  last  year,  at  my  motion,  two  of  our  booksellers 
reprinted  your  Songs  for  Children,  an  edition  of  two  or  three 
thousand,  I  think ;  and  your  Hymns  are  just  now  out  of  the 
press,  and  your  Treatise  of  Prayer  in  it.  I  know  not  whether 
you  reckon  our  editions  here  any  thing,  but  we  do. 

"  There  is  a  motion  lately  come  to  us  at  Boston,  from  the 
presbytery  from  Pennsylvania  and  New  York,  for  a  new  college 
to  be  built  in  those  parts,  the  churches  there  multiplying,  and 

*Dr.  Cotton  Mather,  of  the  Old  North  Church. 


642  LIFE    AND   TIMES 

the  people  finding  it  so  far  from  home  to  send  their  children 
to  Yale,  which  is  next  to  them  :  but  the  rumours  of  war  will 
be  like  to  retard  this  great  affair ;  for  as  we  here  have  promis- 
ed them  our  assistance,  so  they  propose  to  send  over  one  of 
their  number  to  London  or  Edinburgh. 

"  The  'Essay  on  Civil  Power  in  Things  Sacred'  I  take  to  be 
your  own,  by  the  preface  and  two  first  sections.  I  think  what 
is  said,  sect.  3,  to  be  absolutely  necessary  to  the  being  of  a 
Christian  state,  and  that  the  laws  of  a  land  should  enjoin 
strictly  and  peremptorily  the  worship  and  swearing  by  the 
one  only  Lord  God;  and  that  they  that  deny  him,  and  would 
swear  by  any  idol  god,  should  not  be  acknowledged  as  sub- 
jects of  the  state.  I  cannot  think  there  may  be  heathens, 
serving  several  gods,  and  yet  useful  members  of  a  state ;  they 
must  be  dreadful  snares  and  pests  to  the  places  where  they 
dwell,  and  fatal  to  them,  as  God  warned  his  Israel  of  old.  I 
fear  also  the  appointment  and  support  of  preachers  of  natural 
religion,  and  the  laws  of  the  land,  with  a  command  to  people 
to  attend  them,  and  on  the  Lord's  day  in  particular,  would 
soon  turn  out  the  requisite  sanctification  of  it  in  private  and 
public :  if  one  day  rather,  the  first  of  each  term,  from  county 
to  county,  were  the  times  assigned  for  people's  information, 
methinks  it  would  better  serve  the  end  proposed ;  yet  not  so 
fully  I  acknowledge :  neither  is  this  information  so  necessary 
as  preaching  the  word  of  life  to  their  souls.  The  honour  of  the 
Lord's  day,  and  means  of  grace,  forbid  the  intrusion  of  other 
authorised,  civil,  and  moral  public  teachers.  Our  government 
have  lately  recommended  to  ministers,  to  read  a  very  pious 
proclamation  for  the  better  observation  of  the  Lord's  day, 
which  I  gladly  did ;  but  some  of  our  churches  here  would  not 
come  into  it :  the  brethren  in  one  of  them  spoke  openly  against 
it,  and  prevented  it,  with  the  liking,  I  fear,  of  the  pastor, 
when  he,  however,  proposed  it.  There  would  presently  be  an 
end  of  religion,  if  the  sacredness  of  the  sabbath  be  not  kept 
up  and  maintained. 


OF   DR.   ISAAC   WATTS.  643 

"  Sect.  6,  &c.  seem  to  leave  things  too  loose,  and  give  room 
to  unsettle  what  God  has  settled.  The  rights  of  government 
itself,  and  so  the  liberties  of  the  people,  must  be  judged  of  by 
the  word  of  God,  and  submitted  to  it.  There  is  no  light  in  us 
but  by  this  law ;  we  do  well  to  take  heed  to  it  as  a  light  that 
shines  in  a  dark  place  ;  the  rights  of  conscience  are  best  judg- 
ed of  by  it ;  the  magistrate  is  to  govern,  and  the  subject  to 
obey  by  scripture  light,  which  is  for  conscience'  sake  toward 
God.  We  are  as  much  the  people  of  God  by  our  profession  of 
the  gospel,  rulers  and  ruled,  as  the  Jews  were.  We  are  a 
holy  nation,  a  royal  priesthood,  a  peculiar  people,  believers 
are  so  truly,  the  professor  declares  it  of  himself.  The  Romish 
apostacy  is  only  a  defection  from,  and  rebellion  against  this 
royal  and  perfect  law  of  liberty,  'the  glorious  liberty  of  the 
sons  of  God,'  bound  up  by  the  divine  will,  just  as  all  heaven 
and  angels  are. 

"  I  thank  you,  Sir,  for  the  other  essay,  '  Self-love  and  Vir- 
tue reconciled  only  by  Religion,'  which  the  catalogue  gives 
leave  to  ascribe  to  you.  The  argument  in  the  whole  of  it 
appears  to  me  strong  and  right,  and  of  great  importance. 

"  I  return  to  your  '  End  of  Time,'  &c.  I  think  you  never 
wrote,  nor  did  I  ever  read  discourses  more  adapted  to  young 
and  old,  high  and  low.  In  such  a  flame  one  would  wish  to 
expire :  I  am  ready  to  say  on  it,  '  It  is  finished  !  Yet  may 
you  live  to  add  more.' 

"  Our  ships  of  war  are  fitting  out  for  the  Spanish  coast. 
War  will  break  our  correspondence  by  the  caption  of  letters 
and  packets :  it  may  be  my  last  to  you  may  not  have  arrived, 
with  the  gold  in  it;  I  pray  you  to  advise  me,  that  I  may  not 
lie  in  debt. 

"  My  weak  heart  misgives  me  when  I  think  of  our  own 
divisions,  and  the  united  powers  of  Spain  and  France.  If  our 
God  and  Saviour  were  not  so  dreadfully  neglected  and  defied, 
more  were  with  us  than  with  them.  I  fear  a  swarm  of  priva- 
teers upon  our  merchandise,  and  the  transport  of  popery  across 


G44  LIFE   AND   TIMES 

the  Channel,  or  round  about,  in  the  person  of •*  but 

God  has  not  forsaken  us  in  times  past,  though  we  always  him. 

"  I  sent  you  the  vote  of  our  court  in  form  of  a  brief.  We 
have  had  our  collections  in  part,  and  find  we  shall  have  mo- 
nies. Our  congregation  contributed  eighty  pounds.  Connec- 
ticut gave  some  hundreds.  A  great  many  five  and  six  pounds 
will  make  a  sum.  We  are  proposing  the  surplus  for  the  foun- 
dation of  a  fund,  for  the  support  of  the  gospel  in  poor  places  in 
all  limes  to  come.  Please  to  inform  Mr.  Holden,  that  I  hope 
we  shall  not  again  lie  in  debt  to  him. 

"  I  entreat  you.  Sir,  to  inform  me  by  the  first  opportunity, 
of  the  foundation  of  your  London  fund,  and  how  it  is  sup- 
ported and  endowed,  by  whom,  and  to  whom,  and  what  ac- 
count is  rendered  of  it  to  the  contributors.  We  would  form 
ourselves  by  you.  I  depend  on  Drs.  Harris,  Guyse,  and  you, 
to  give  me  the  information  and  direction  that  may  be  necessa- 
ry.    I  have  promised  our  churches  to  ask  it  of  you. 

"  We  were  obliged  to  drop  our  motion  by  an  adjournment, 
sine  die,  about  using  a  new  version  of  the  psalms,  finding 
our  peace  endangered.  Mr.  Cooper  has  not  effected  this  ver- 
sion in  above  twenty  psalms,  I  think. 

"  The  heat  of  summer  has  revived  me  ;  the  cool  of  autumn 
I  now  feel,  Sept.  22.  I  missed  one  ship  after  I  had  wrote  the 
other  pages,  which  has  brought  me  to  this  date. 

"  Mercy  and  peace  be  with  you.  Salute  my  dear  friends. 
Their  and  your  prayers  I  ask.  We  have  a  long  coast  on  the 
sea ;  abundance  of  great  and  small  craft  with  merchandise 
and  provisions,  and  a  vast  border  of  new  feeble  towns  along 
our  inland  woods;  a  natural  fortification  for  the  Indians,  east 
and  west,  all  Frenchified  and  Popish :  may  the  Lord  God  of 
our  fathers  be  a  wall  of  fire  round  about  us. 

*'  We  can  never  fortify  ourselves  without  breaking  in  upon 
the   king's  instructions  and  prohibition  to  our  government 

♦The  Pretender, 


OF    DR.   ISAAC    WATTS.  645 

about  emission  of  bills  ;  we  must  fortify  immediately,  or  we 
betray  the  king's  province  into  the  hands  of  his  enemies.  1 
have  dared,  for  once,  to  say  to  the  governor,  '  As  God  dispen- 
sed with  his  first  and  perpetual  law,  in  cases  of  necessity  and 
mercy,  verily  our  good  king  will,  with  his  instructions  and 
order,  on  so  apparent,  instant,  and  urgent  a  necessity.'  The 
government  has,  from  year  to  year,  told  the  court  of  our 
wretched  condition  ;  but  neither  would  they  petition  the  king 
to  remit,  as  to  his  instruction,  for  a  limited  sum  of  thirty  thou- 
sand pounds  per  annum,  nor  could  the  government  dare  to 
raise  more  than  just  to  defray  the  annual  charges  of  the  govern- 
ment ;  nor  could  he  alone  bear  the  charge  of  obtaining  the 
king's  leave,  not  a  letter  being  able  to  get  to  Whitehall  with- 
out too  many  guineas  for  a  private  purse.  But  I  must  break 
oflF,  and  subscribe,  dear  Sir, 

"  Your  brother  and  servant, 

"  BENJ.  COLMAN." 


FROM  THE  BISHOP  OF  LONDON. 

"Fulham,  Aug.  21,  1739. 
"  Good  Sir, 

"  I  received  the  favour  of  your  letter,  and  am  glad 
to  find  that  you  think  the  cautions  which  I  have  given  against 
lukewarmness  may,  by  the  blessing  of  God,  be  of  some  ser- 
vice to  religion.  There  is,  without  doubt,  great  need  to 
awaken  people  out  of  that  unhappy  state  ;  and  the  labouring 
to  do  it  is  what  may  truly  be  called  the  chief  part  of  the  mini- 
sterial office.  But  though  we  may  hope  that  there  are  few 
who  wholly  neglect  the  work,  we  must  never  expect  that  it 
will  be  done  by  all  with  equal  zeal  and  life.  When  you 
speak  of  the  way  of  preaching  among  the  dissenters,  you  will 
not  expect  it  from  me  to  believe,  that  all  the  preachers  do  it 


G4G  LIFE   AND   TIMES 

with  the  same  force  and  energy  that  Dr.  Watts  has  done,  and 
still  does,  and  I  pray  God  he  may  long  continue  to  do. 

"  After  I  had  given  directions  to  ray  clergy,  and  put  them 
into  the  hands  of  every  particular  incumbent,  I  think  I  could 
say  no  less,  than  that  I  hoped  they  were  not  unmindful  of 
them,  unless  I  knew  the  contrary. 

"  It  is  a  great  misfortune  to  the  church  of  England,  that  in 
market  towns,  where  there  is  the  greatest  need  of  able  minis- 
ters, there  is  usually  the  meanest  provisions  for  them ;  which 
gives  great  advantage  to  the  preachers  of  other  denominations, 
and  may,  in  some  places,  be  the  occasion  of  particular  people 
choosing  to  resort  to  them,  rather  than  to  the  church.  This 
may  sometimes  happen  either  through  the  want  of  vigour  and 
earnestness  in  the  delivery,  or  through  an  unhappiness  of 
voice,  and  sometimes  by  not  preaching  so  frequently  upon 
points  purely  Christian  as  the  person  could  wish  ;  cases  to  be 
much  lamented  when  they  do  happen,  but  not  to  be  prevented 
or  wholly  remedied  by  the  utmost  care  and  endeavour  that  a 
bishop  can  use,  unless  he  had  the  appointment  of  them. 

"  It  had  been  happy  for  Mr.  Whitfield,  if  he  had  taken  the 
wise  advice  and  cautions  you  gave  him.  But,  from  the  time 
that  men  imagine  themselves  to  be  singled  out  by  God  for 
extraordinary  purposes,  and  in  consequence  of  that  to  be 
guided  by  extraordinary  impulses  and  operations,  all  human 
advice  is  lost  upon  them.  However,  as  God  knows  how  to 
bring  good  out  of  evil,  I  will  hope  that  these  extravagances 
of  theirs  may  be  the  occasion  of  some  good  in  the  event,  if 
they  do  not  get  too  much  head.  I  am,  with  great  aflfection 
and  esteem, 

"  Sir,  your  very  faithful  servant, 

*'  EDM.  LONDON." 


Sir, 


OF    DR.    ISAAC    AVATTS.  647 

FROM  THE  COUNTESS  OF  HERTFORD. 

"Marlborough,  Sept.  10,  1739. 


"  I  am  extremely  glad  to  find  that  you  have  still  a 
reserve  of  writings  which  the  world  may  at  some  time  or  other 
hope  to  see;  for  without  the  least  flattery  (a  vice  T  would 
always  avoid,  and  more  particularly  on  so  important  an  occa- 
sion), it  is  my  opinion  that  God  has  in  a  very  extraordinary 
manner  blessed  your  endeavours  to  the  advancement  of  piety. 
I  cannot  help  mentioning  one  instance  of  it  to  you,  which  has 
fallen  within  my  own  knowledge,  of  a  person  who,  after  hav- 
ing drunk  extremely  hard,  and  made  a  very  ill  husband  for 
upwards  of  twenty  years,  has  within  this  year  and  a  half  en- 
tirely changed  his  course  of  life,  and  is  now  as  sober  a  man, 
and  as  good  a  husband,  as  is  possible,  and  he  himself  says, 
that  his  reformation  has  been  entirely  owing  to  reading  your 
three  volumes  of  Sermons,  which  were  printed  some  years 


smce. 


"  I  must  beg  you  to  direct  your  next  letter  to  me  at  St. 
Leonard's  Hill ;  for  we  remove  thither  (if  it  please  God)  the 
day  after  to-morrow  for  about  two  months.  My  Lord  and 
my  son  assure  you  of  their  sincere  regards,  as  I  am  sure  Betty 
would  do  were  she  with  me,  but  she  is  still  in  Yorkshire.  I 
will  not  add  any  more  at  present  than  to  desire  the  continu- 
ance of  your  prayers,  and  assure  you  that  I  am  with  a  real 
veneration  and  friendship.  Sir, 

"  Your  most  affectionate 

"  and  faithful  humble  servant, 

"  F.  HERTFORD." 


648  LIFE    AND    TIMES 

FROM  THE  ARCHBISHOP  OF  YORK. 

"Downing  Street,  Westminster,  Oct.  16,  1739. 

"  Reverend  Sir, 

"  I  have  received  your  favour  of  the  lOih  of  this 
month,  and  have  great  pleasure  in  observing,  that  my  small 
benevolence  to  Mr.  Leland*  will  be  doubled  to  the  good  man 
by  your  leave  to  find  its  way  to  him  through  the  hands  of  so 
valuable  a  friend. 

"  On  that  account  also  it  is,  that  I  take  the  liberty  to  ask 
the  further  favour  of  knowing  from  you,  if  the  good  man's 
papers  have  escaped  the  flames,  and  that  we  may  yet  hope  to 
see  the  reply  which  we  have  heard  he  was  preparing  to  a 
second  volume  not  long  since  published  by  the  shameless 
enemy  of  the  person  and  doctrine  of  our  blessed  Saviour. 

"  May  the  good  God  of  heaven  and  earth  support  and  assist 
us  all  in  our  just  endeavours  to  repel  with  vigour  the  virulent 
and  impious  assaults  on  the  whole  fabric  of  our  common  faith  ; 
and  to  detect  with  temper  the  fallacious  and  unmanly  arts 
employed  by  the  modern  adversaries  of  our  holy  religion  with 
a  degree  of  boldness  and  inveteracy  not  to  be  equalled  by 
those  of  any  age  that  I  have  read  of  since  the  days  of  Julian 
the  Apostate. 

"  Give  me  leave  to  return  to  you  in  kind  all  your  good 
wishes  to  me,  together  wdth  the  true  esteem  and  sincere 
respect  of, 

"  Reverend  Sir,  your  faithful 

"  and  obliged  humble  servant, 

"  LAU.  EBOR." 


*The  Rev.  John  Leland,  D.  D.  a  dissenting  minister  at  Dublin,  and  the  emi- 
nent author  of  the  "View  of  Deistical  Writers,"  and  the  "Advantage  and  Neces- 
sity of  the  Christian  Revelation." 


OF    DR.    ISAAC    AVATTS.  649 


FROM  THE  HON.  J.  BELCHER, 

"Boston,  Oct.  20,  1739. 

"  Rev.  Sir, 

"  In  August  last  came  to  hand  your  kind  letter  of 
the  Gth  of  June,  which  grieved  me  with  the  account  you  gave 
me  of  a  paralytic  disorder  which  had  lately  visited  you.  Our 
times  are  in  God's  hands.  The  sands  run  low  in  your  glass 
and  mine.  Oh !  that  I  could  realise  it  as  I  ought,  then  I 
should  stand  with  my  loins  girt  and  my  light  hurning,  and 
ready  to  depart  at  whatever  hour  the  Lord  shall  come.  I 
oflFer  up  my  sincere  praises  to  the  God  of  all  grace  and  mercy, 
who  still  saves  and  has  so  much  restored  you.  May  your  life 
and  health  be  precious  in  his  sight,  and  your  usefulness  in 
your  Master's  service  be  extended  even  to  old  age ! 

*'  Not  long  after  I  wrote  you  of  the  affairs  of  my  govern- 
ment, the  clouds  returned  after  the  rain,  and  things  are  not  so 
placid  and  easy  as  I  could  wish.  I  desire  to  be  patient  and 
submissive  to  the  dispensations  of  God's  wise  and  holy  provi- 
dence. It  is  easy  with  him  to  say,  '  And  at  evening  time  it 
shall  be  light.'  I  thank  you  for  the  present  of  your  last  book, 
which  Dr.  Sewal  borrowed  before  I  could  get  through  it: 
the  others  were  delivered  as  you  desired.  Please  to  make  my 
best  regards  acceptable  to  the  worthy  Lady  Abney,  and  be- 
lieve me,  Sir,  with  entire  esteem, 

"  Your  friend  and  most  obedient  servant, 

"J.  BELCHER." 


Tt 


650  LIFE    AND   TIMES 


FROM  THE  COUNTESS  OF  HERTFORD. 


"Sir, 


"  London,  Nov.  28lh,  1739. 


"  I  am  very  much  ashamed  when  I  consider  how 
long  I  have  been  indebted  to  you  for  the  favour  of  a  letter ; 
but  since  that  time  I  have  had  my  heart  full  of  care  and  my 
hands  full  of  business.  When  I  received  yours  my  Lord  was 
laid  up  with  a  severe  fit  of  the  gout,  which  did  not  permit  me 
to  leave  Windsor  forest  (whither  we  are  to  return  no  more)  till 
the  thirteenth  of  this  month.  When  I  first  came  to  town  I 
had  the  disagreeable  news  of  my  daughter's  being  ill  in 
Yorkshire ;  but,  I  thank  God,  she  is  now  well  again,  and  I 
expect  her  in  town  next  week.  Besides  all  this,  I  have  been 
busy  in  getting  some  things  ready  to  go  down  into  Bucking- 
hamshire, to  a  house  which  my  Lord  has  bought  there  of  my 
Lord  Bathurst,  and  where  we  are  to  go  to-morrow  morning 
to  pass  there  three  or  four  days.  It  is  the  place  which  Mr. 
Pope,  in  one  of  his  letters  to  Mr.  Digby,  calls  my  Lord  B.'s 
extravagant  hergerie.  The  little  paddock  in  which  it  stands 
perfectly  answers  that  title.  The  house  is  old,  but  very  con- 
venient, and  large  enough ;  and  what  makes  it  very  agreeable 
to  me,  though  within  ten  miles,  it  looks  as  if  it  were  an  hun- 
dred from  London.  '  The  Life  of  God  in  the  Soul  of  Man'  is 
a  book  which  I  have  had  and  admired  above  these  twelve 
years.  Nothing  can  breathe  a  truer  spirit  of  piety.  My  Lord 
and  son  desire  to  assure  you  of  their  services  and  best  wishes, 
and  I  am,  with  a  very  sincere  regard,  Sir, 

"  Your  most  faithful 

"  and  obliged  humble  servant, 

"F.  HERTFORD." 


OF    DR.    ISAAC    WATTS.  651 

FROM  THE  REV.  BENJAMIN  COLMAN,  D.  D. 

"  Boston,  January  16,  1740. 
"  Rev.  and  clear  Sir, 

*'  A  week  is  past  since  your  letter  and  packet  of 
Sept.  17,  and  another  of  Oct.  12,  arrived  together  by  Captain 
Forbes.  I  thank  you  for  the  books  bought,  and  the  account 
given  of  them.  I  find  it  exact  and  judicious.  I  could  not 
bear  to  read  Thomson  through  now  I  have  him  :  I  thank  you 
for  not  buying  the  second  volume :  he  studies  obscurity,  and 
labours  in  intricacy,  while  Somerville's  chain  is  smooth  as  an 
eagle's  soaring.  All  of  Young's  pleases,  edifies,  and  surprises. 
Mr.  Law  on  Perfection  is  not  equal,  I  think,  to  his  Serious 
Call,  which  I  had  seen  before.  I  present  you  now  with  our 
Boston  edition  of  your  Hymns,  and  Guide  to  Prayer,  done 
well  for  us.  My  '  Withered  Hand,'  that  little  sermon  is  like 
to  be  of  some  use  here,  and  is  in  the  press  again,  together  with 
a  little  book  of  four  sermons  on  the  '  Incomprehensibleness  of 
God.' 

"  Mr.  Whitfield  arrived  some  months  past  at  Philadelphia, 
where,  and  through  the  Jerseys  and  at  New  York,  he  preached 
daily  to  incredible  multitudes  with  great  eloquence  and  zeal, 
as  a  good  judge  there  writes  me. 

"  He  has  pleased  to  send  me  a  letter,  and  ask  a  correspon- 
dence with  me.  He  was  shown  at  New  York  a  letter  of  mine, 
which  named  him  with  respect,  but  wherein  I  happened  to 
say,  '  he  is  but  a  young  divine :'  his  sermon  of  Justification 
led  me  to  say  so.  '  You  said  right.  Sir,'  says  he  to  me  ;  '  I 
am  but  a  novice  in  the  things  of  God ;  I  can  only  say  I  desire 
to  know  the  whole  will  of  God,  that  I  may  communicate  it 
to  others.  Christ  is  so  good  a  Master  that  I  would  have  all 
men  drawn  after  him.  He  is  pleased  to  let  me  experience  daily 
the  teachings  of  his  blessed  Spirit,  and  to  show  me  the  riches, 


65-2  LIFE    AND    TIMES 

freeness,  and  eternal  duialion  of  his  love.  Pray  that  I  may 
be  able  to  see  all  things  clearly.' 

"America  is  like  to  do  him  much  honour,  as  you  will  see 
by  the  prints  from  New  York  and  rhiladelphia  here  inclosed. 
And  it  is  a  most  happy  prospect  to  me,  in  favour  of  many  a 
poor  soul  through  the  colonies  of  Maryland,  Virginia,  and 
North  Carolina,  that  he  is  gone  preaching  the  gospel  through 
them  and  j)raying,  in  his  way  to  Georgia.  He  proposes  to 
see  Boston  in  his  return  to  Europe  about  June  next,  by 
God's  will ;  and  our  town  and  country  stand  ready  to  receive 
him  as  an  angel  of  God.  Indeed,  ministers  and  people,  all  but 
his  own  church,  speak  of  him  with  great  esteem  and  love : 
he  seems  spirited  from  on  high  in  an  extraordinary  manner, 
assisted  and  prospered. 

"  Mr.  Holden  sent  me  over  his  Journals  and  Answer  to  the 
Bishop  of  London.  I  read  there  of  his  calling  in  to  see  you 
as  he  passed  through  Newington ;  but  neither  you  nor  Dr. 
Guyse  have  said  a  word  to  me  of  him,  nor  do  I  find  how  the 
dissenting  ministers  stand  affected  to  him  ;  it  may  be  prudent 
in  them  to  be  silent:  but,  in  what  of  mercy  or  judgment, 
God  may  mean  this  rise  of  the  Methodists  to  the  glory  of  the 
church,  or  the  nation  in  general,  time  must  show.  I  shall  be 
glad  of  your  thoughts  of  this  matter. 

"  As  to  the  account  I  sent  you  of  the  story  from  Mrs,  Rowe's 
own  mouth,  I  leave  it  to  Mr.  Rowe  to  make  what  use  of  it 
he  pleases,  and  am  far,  I  assure  you,  from  affecting  to  have  it 
inserted  at  large  in  my  words,  or  as  from  me.  The  more  I 
consider  her  beauteous  life  and  works,  the  more  I  admire  the 
grace  of  God  which  preserved,  animated,  and  honoured  her 
so.  But  it  is  a  pleasure  to  me  that  you  have  named  me  to 
the  Honourable  Lady  Hertford  on  the  occasion,  whom  I  love 
in  the  truth  for  her  love  to  Mrs.  Rowe,  and  her  most  endear- 
ing returns  of  high  affection.  Such  beauteous  souls  are 
formed  and  shown  for  the  love  and  esteem  of  all  the  ends  of 
the  earth.     Mrs.  Rowe's  hiding  that  secret  from  Lady  Hert- 


OF    DR.    ISAAC    AVATTS.  653 

ford,  seems  almost  a  prohibition  from  her  of  telling-  it  to  the 
world ;  or,  if  the  world  now  hears  of  it,  the  silence  of  her 
after-years  about  it  may  give  it  a  double  force  and  edge  upon 
the  ingenious  and  pious  part  of  mankind. 

"  Mr.  Sargeant  goes  on  with  great  pleasure  in  his  work ; 
and  Providence  has  sent  up  a  worthy  gentleman  with  his 
family  to  him,  whose  discreet  and  very  amiable  daughter  he 
has  married. 

"I  am  sorry  to  hear  of  your  continued  low  state  of  health, 
and  tliat  you  think  it  proceeds  from  a  shock  of  the  paralytic 
kind;  but  the  Lord,  whose  you  are,  when  on  earth  healed 
the  sick  even  of  the  palsy!  may  he  receive,  support,  refresh 
the  soul,  and  prolong  the  life  and  service  of  my  beloved 
friend.  Let  not  my  correspondence  with  you  be  a  burthen 
and  oppression,  I  hope  God  will  yet  give  you  health  to  add 
to  your  last  songs  on  death  "  the  world  to  come." 

"  I  have  had  some  revival  the  summer  past,  and  the  winter 
has  not  hitherto  broken  it ;  indeed,  it  has  begun  in  a  manner 
but  this  week,  and  earth  and  sky  are  alike  dazzling  bright, 
a  serenity  which  you  (our  revered  mother  isle)  are  altogether 
a  stranger  to;  it  braces  up  also  our  nerves,  and  makes  the 
old,  whom  it  does  not  kill,  think  themselves  hale  again  for  a 
season. 

"  I  have  wrote  to  the  ministers  of  Connecticut  of  the  packet 
for  them,  which  you  have  committed  to  Mr.  Cox's  care,  that 
they  may  write  to  his  indolent  shopkeeper  here,  whom  I  call 
so  as  I  find  him,  on  his  going  off  to  London,  and  now  on  his 
return;  for  by  him  I  sent  for  some  books,  and  at  the  end  of 
two  months  after  his  arrival  here  heard  nothing  of  his  bring- 
ing any,  though  his  money  lay  ready ;  and  now  two  months 
more  are  gone,  and  not  a  word  from  him,  so  I  suppose  he 
bought  none,  or  has  sold  them  to  another.  I  have  sent  my 
friends  the  rules  of  the  Salisbury  library. 

"  I  thank  you.  Sir,  for  your  free  and  kind  advice  to  Mr. 
Hilhouse,  by  his  messenger  Mr,  Mason,  and  have  informed 


654  LIFE    AND    TIMES 

the  gentlemen  of  Connecticut  of  it,  to  whom  (with  us)  it  is 
very  agreeable. 

*'Anfl  as  to  your  question,  why  we  give  rings  at  funerals, 
and  have  plate  in  our  houses,  when  we  have  no  silver  and 
gold  currency  among  us  as  a  medium  of  trade.  I  must  first 
own,  that  Boston  has  always  been  too  expensive  in  funerals, 
and  also  in  vessels  of  plate  in  the  house.  A-la-mode  and 
lutestring  scarfs  were  our  mourning  twenty  years  ago,  we 
reformed  to  rings  which  were  about  half  the  expense.*  Our 
people  expect  a  great  deal  of  labour  from  their  ministers  when 
their  families  are  sick,  and  have  it;  and  the  richer  in  return 
give  us  a  ring.  The  gold  the  mean  while  is  only  matter  of 
trade  and  merchandise  in  the  goldsmith's  shop  among  us, 
like  other  goods;  and  as  to  the  silver,  it  is  bought  up  by 
the  merchants  to  make  returns  to  you,  to  pay  debts  or  buy 
more  goods  from  you ;  and  if  one  or  two  hundred  thousand 
pounds  in  silver  or  gold  were  brought  in  among  us  to-morrow, 
we  owe  it  to  you,  and  ought  to  remit  it  presently,  or  to  make 
gain  of  it,  or  purchase  what  we  need  from  you,  we  send  it  to 
you.  It  is  true.  Sir,  as  you  say,  a  public  self-denial  in  these 
instances  would  soon  mend  the  matter  with  us,  that  is,  in 
half  a  century  it  would  do  it,  for  so  long  the  want  of  it  has 
been  bringing  us  into  these  circumstances,  and  as  long  there 
have  not  been  wanting  public  and  private  warnings  of  the 
wrong  and  injurious  step.  But,  beside  the  private  spirit  of 
traffic,  wherein  every  one  is  apt  to  look  to  himself  first,  we 
have  abundance  of  strangers  from  you  and  other  places,  who 
look  only  to  themselves  and  employers,  and  what  will  make 
the  easiest  and  best  returns ;  and  buy  up  the  silver  and  gold, 

*  President  Edwards,  in  a  note  to  Rrainerd's  Journal,  observes,  "when  Mr. 
Braiuerd  was  at  TSoston,  sick,  nigh  unto  death,  it  was  with  reluctance  he  thought 
of  dyinp:  in  a  place  where  funerals  are  often  attended  with  pom])  and  shon\  which 
(especially  on  occasion  of  his  own)  he  was  very  averse  to  any  appearance  of.  How- 
pver  it  pleased  Cod  to  order  the  event  so  as  to  gratify  his  desire,  which  he  has  ex- 
pressed, of  getting  back  to  Northampton,  with  a  view  particularly  to  a  more  silent 
iind  private  burial.      Works,  vol.  iii.  307. 


OF   DR.    ISAAC    WATTS.  655 

and  wanting  often  to  return  presently  themselves,  will  give 
sixpence  in  an  ounce  more  for  one,  and  so  in  proportion  for 
the  other;  and  our  merchants  are  hereby  forced  to  do  the 
same,  or  give  up  the  staple  metal  into  their  hands.  How  to 
extricate  ourselves  is  difficult,  and  to  preach  self-denial  to  the 
merchant  is,  alas !  too  much  in  vain. 

"  War  is  proclaimed,  and  our  Americans  are  much  spirited 
for  it;  but  our  poor  province  is  left  defenceless  and  naked  by  sea 
and  land,  the  instruction  from  the  king  to  our  governor  tying 
up  his  hands,  and  our  representatives  tying  up,  therefore,  theirs. 
If  France  goes  into  the  war,  down  will  come  the  Indians,  we 
may  fear,  on  our  wide-extended  borders :  there  is  not  a  fort  in 
any  good  repair  or  furniture,  nor  a  soldier  or  officer  to  be  paid ; 
and  the  same  on  our  coasts.  God  can  protect  us,  but  surely  he 
expects  we  use  the  means  of  common  prudence ;  but  we  have 
not  self-denial  enough  to  stoop  one  to  another  in  an  exigence, 
or  to  the  king  for  self-preservation.  We  need  the  more  of  the 
pity  and  prayers  of  our  friends  ;  but  how  can  we  pray  in  faith, 
save  in  the  pity  that  is  infinite  to  pardon,  and  heal  ns,  and 
save  us  ?  When  nearest  at  the  throne  of  grace,  bear  us  on 
your  heart,  and  him  in  particular  who  is,  under  the  strictest 
bands  of  friendship  and  gratitude, 

^'  Sir,  your  affectionate  brother  and  servant, 

"  BENJ.  COLMAN. 

"  P.  S.  If  we  hear  not  from  one  another  as  we  expect,  we 
must  look  that  vessels  and  letters  will  sometimes  fall  into  the 
hands  of  enemies." 


656  LIFE    AND   TIMES 

FROM  THE  REV.  P.  DODDRIDGE,  D.D. 

"  Maidwell,  April  23,  1740. 
"  Rev.  and  dear  Sir, 

"  Mr.  Gill*  returns  to  you  and  the  other  gentlemen 
concerned  with  you  in  Mr.  Coward's  trust,  his  humble  ser- 
vices and  thanks  for  the  permission  you  have  given  him  to 
settle  for  awhile  with  Mr.  Flower,t  who,  if  our  information 
be  right,  is  a  very  serious  and  hopeful  young  gentleman,  who 
sincerely  aims  at  the  support  of  religion  in  his  heart  and 
family  by  the  proposal  he  has  made  to  our  young  friend.  I 
have  acquainted  our  friends  at  Buckingham  with  the  result, 
and  renewed  the  assurance  of  my  sincere  desire  to  serve  them 
on  any  future  occasion,  though  I  confess  I  am  much  at  a  loss 
for  the  means  to  do  it  at  present. 

"  I  shall  recommend  Mr.  French:!:  to  Messrs.  Jennings  and 
Bradbury,  and  hope  their  interest  concurring  with  yours  at 
the  board,  will  procure  him  an  exhibition.  His  exemplary 
piety  is  what  I  chiefly  regard.  Unsanctified  genius  and 
learning  have  almost  undone  us.  I  bless  God  many  serious 
young  men  are  now  intending  for  the  ministry ;  and  I  am,  at 
my  own  charges,  bringing  up  some  at  school  with  a  view  to 
it.  I  hope  to  be  able  to  recommend  some  to  the  fund  and  to 
Mr.  Coward's  list,  in  whose  characters  you  will  have  great 
satisfaction ;  and  I  shall  beg  leave  to  lodge  in  your  hand, 
about  Michaelmas  next,  a  memorial  of  several  such;  for 
though  I  know  they  are  more  than  you  can  immediately  ad- 
mit, it  may  be  useful  in  directing  you  hereafter.  I  know.  Sir, 
you  will  pardon  my  freedom  in  doing  it.  I  claim  nothing  at 
all  but  only  to  be  credited  in  the  account  I  give,  in  which  I 

*Mr.  Jeremiah  Gill's  name  occurs  in  the  list  of  Dr.  Doddridge's  students,  under 
the  year  1737. 

f  Mr.  Freeman  Flower,  of  Gainsborough. 

\  Mr.  John  Freucli  is  mentioned  in  the  academical  list  for  17-10. 


OF   DR.   ISAAC    WATTS.  657 

will  be  careful,  and  I  hope  you  will  not  doubt  my  integrity. 
If  you,  Sir,  and  the  other  gentlemen  of  the  board,  or  of  Mr. 
Coward's  trust,  find  other  more  deserving  and  necessitous 
persons,  I  shall  rejoice  to  see  their  cases  preferred  even  to  those 
I  have  most  warmly  recommended. 

"  As  for  Mr.  C.  B.'s  '  Distortion  of  Mind,'  as  you,  dear  Sir, 
with  your  usual  felicity  of  language,  express  it,  I  apprehend 
it  first  arose  from  ungoverned  love.  Necessity  was  a  fine 
excuse  for  that.  Love  produced  indolence,  neglect  of  study, 
and  the  succeeding  genealogy,  I  fear,  was  chat,  disputation, 
indevotion,  pride,  and  error.  I  write  this  with  grief  of  heart. 
God  shows  me  by  such  instances,  how  little  success  my  best 
endeavours  can  produce  ;  for,  it  is  certain,  I  have  always  had 
a  peculiar  tenderness  for  this  unhappy  lad,  and  yet,  after  all, 
see  him  in  a  great  measure  spoiled  and  ruined  under  my 
most  affectionate  care.  Yet  I  am  not  altogether  without  hopes 
as  to  his  recovery.  I  entirely  agree  with  you.  Sir,  that  argu- 
ment in  such  cases  too  eagerly  pursued,  often  irritates  the 
spirits,  and  makes  young  imaginations  more  quick  and  vigo- 
rous in  defending  their  errors.  I  hope  I  have  done  my  duty  ; 
for  I  have  stated  what  appears  to  me  the  truth  with  the  utmost 
evidence  I  could  give,  and  have  referred  him  to  the  best  wri- 
ters I  know  in  defence  of  it.  I  have,  especially  in  devotional 
lectures,  and  in  our  daily  expositions  of  scriptures,  most  affec- 
tionately, and  often  with  many  tears,  represented  the  impor- 
tance of  adhering  to  the  simplicity  of  the  gospel  with  steadi- 
ness and  zeal,  and  of  maintaining  that  holy  and  watchful 
course  of  walking  with  God,  which  was  the  glory  of  our  pious 
forefathers,  and  is,  I  am  sure,  the  greatest  safety  of  their  de- 
scendants. To  all  this  I  have  added,  as  soon  as  I  heard  of  his 
defection,  personal  admonition,  earnest  prayer  to  God  for  him, 
and  sometimes  with  him  and  a  friend  or  two  more,  in  which, 
so  far  as  I  could  do  it  without  insinuating  any  suspicions  of 
him,  I  have  recommended  him  to  God  even  ^vith  paternal 
affection.     If  after  all  this  he  turns  out,  with  all  his  excellent 


658  LIFE    AND   TIMES 

and  popular  talents,  an  Arian,  a  Socinian,  or  a  Pelagian,  I 
hope  I  may  say,  '  I  have  delivered  my  own  soul ;'  and  I  hope 
neither  you,  dear  Sir,  nor  your  worthy  associates,  nor  God, 
to  whom  I  am  to  give  up  a  much  more  awful  account,  will 
on  this  head  condemn  me  as  having  betrayed  my  trust.  Yet 
I  am  not  utterly  hopeless  as  to  him.  He  expressed  a  very 
pious  turn  of  mind  in  his  last  prayer  which  I  heard,  and  I 
have  seen  some  recovered  who  have  fallen  lower  than  he.  I 
wish  that  when  he  returns  he  may  strengthen  his  brethren, 
and  so  much  the  rather,  as  he  has  been  too  successful  in  his 
endeavours  to  corrupt  some  of  them,  I  have  wrote  the  larger 
on  this  head,  both  to  engage  your  prayers,  and  that  it  may 
remain  as  a  kind  of  apology  for  me  in  other  cases  of  this  kind, 
which  to  be  sure  will  occur  where  freedom  of  inquiry  is  allow- 
ed.* I  bless  God  that,  on  the  other  hand,  I  have  the  pleasure 
to  see  one  of  the  greatest  enemies  to  the  gospel  that  ever  came 
under  my  care,  surprisingly  transformed  by  divine  grace  into 
a  steady  patron  and  bright  ornament  of  it.  A  happy  turn  of 
which,  if  I  have  the  lionour  of  your  company  in  July,  I  will, 
if  God  permit,  more  particularly  inform  you  of. 

"  Our  humble  services  attend  good  Lady  Abney,  Miss,  and 
Dr.  Watts. 

*'  It  will  be  a  sad  disappointment  to  me  to  miss  you  this 
vacation  ;  on  which  account  I  likewise  beg  you  would  please 
to  inform  me  some  time  before  you  set  out,  and  indeed,  if  pos- 
sible, before  the  19th  of  May,  how  your  journey  is  projected, 
that  I  may  order  my  affairs  so  as  to  have  more  than  a  transient 
sight  of  you  :  this  is  with  mo  a  very  serious  affair.  My  ser- 
vices, such  as  they  are,  will  be  at  your  command  one  Lord's- 


*The  above  interesting  notice  relates  to  the  Rev.  Charles  Bulkier,  grandson  of 
Matthew  Henry.  He  came  into  the  academy  in  the  year  1736,  and  in  1710  settled 
for  a  short  time  at  Wclford  in  Northamptonshire.  Removing  to  London  he  joined 
the  General  Baptists,  and  was  baptised  by  immersion,  imbibing  at  the  same  time 
the  heterodoxy  which  distinguished  that  body.  He  died  in  his  78th  year,  April 
15,  1797.     A  sketch  of  his  life  and  character  was  published  by  ISIr.  John  Evans. 


OF   DR.    ISAAC    WATTS.  659 

day  morning,  if  you  please  to  accept  of  them.    I  know  nobody 
who  has  more  right  to  command  them. 

"  I  must  conclude  this  letter  with  an  extract  from  one  which, 
by  last  post,  I  received  from  my  worthy  friend  and  quondam 
pupil,  Mr.  Simon  Reader,*  of  Wareham  : — '  I  entreat  your 
interest  to  obtain  the  assistance  of  the  Independent  fund  for 
Mr.  Jacob  Chapman  of  Bere  Regis,  near  Wareham :  they 
cannot  maintain  a  minister  without  this  assistance,  and  have 
been  accustomed  to  receive  it  till  Candlemas,  1738-9,  when, 
upon  Mr.  Coade's  removal,  Mr.  Chapman  came  thither. 
Application  has  been  made  in  Mr.  Chapman's  favour,  par- 
ticularly to  Dr.  Guyse  ;  but  it  seems  the  doctor  has  received 
some  prejudice  against  him,  for  he  has  intimated  that  a  con- 
fession of  his  faith  would  be  expected  previous  to  any  assis- 
tance, which  is  thought  to  be  an  unusual  severity.  I  am 
(continues  Mr.  Reader)  intimately  acquainted  with  Mr. 
Chapman,  and  am  satisfied  that  he  is  a  very  serious  gentle- 
man, and,  which  I  think  deserves  peculiar  regard,  God  has 
crowned  his  ministry  with  success,  particularly  with  respect 
to  two  persons  in  my  congregation,  whom  I  have  reason  to 
believe  savingly  converted  by  means  of  his  occasional  dis- 
courses: one  of  them  has  been  very  useful  in  advancing 
religion  among  the  young  people  here.  This  is,  I  think,  of 
greater  importance  than  an  exact  conformity  to  any  set  of 
notions  how  just  soever.  And  there  is  little  foundation  for 
the  prejudices  that  have  been  entertained  against  Mr.  Chap- 
man ;  for  he  is  by  no  means  in  those  unhappy  sentiments 
which  have  prevailed  in  some  parts  of  the  West.  I  have 
with  great  pleasure  heard  him  preach  on  subjects  which  are 
the  peculiar  glory  of  the  gospel ;  and  I  am  very  well  assured, 
that,  with  regard  to  his  sentiments,  he  is  better  qualified  to 
receive  the  assistance  of  the  funds  than  some  to  whom  it  is 
given.  Upon  these  accounts.  Sir,  I  hope  you  will  use  your 
endeavours  to  obtain  it  for  him,  and  I  hope  it  will  be  granted ; 

•Minister  and  Tutor  at  Wareham. 


660  LIFE    AND   TIMES 

if  not,  he  must  be  obliged  to  remove ;  and  in  such  ease,  as 
the  civcumstances  of  the  congregation  now  are,  there  is  very 
great  danger  of  its  ruin.' 

"  Thus  far  ray  friend  Reader.  I  have  nothing  farther  to 
add  on  this  subject,  being  entirely  a  stranger  to  the  gentleman 
in  question.  How  far  it  may  be  proper  to  insist  on  the  con- 
fession required,  I  pretend  not  to  judge.  I  hope  all  wise  and 
Christian  methods  will  be  taken  to  prevent  the  gi'owth  of 
error,  without  laying  a  snare  for  the  consciences  of  men,  or 
depriving  the  church  of  the  services  it  so  much  needs,  merely 
on  account  of  a  different  idea  affixed  to  some  human  phrases. 
I  leave  you  and  my  worthy  fathers  and  brethren  to  act  as  God 
shall  direct  you,  and  conclude  with  telling  you,  that  Newport 
and  Welford  are  just  now  agreed  in  giving  Mr.  Webb,  a  very 
plain  spiritual  preacher,  whom  I  am  now  sending,  on  an  una- 
nimous invitation,  to  both  their  places.  I  suppose  he  will 
prefer  the  latter,  and  what  will  then  be  done  for  Newport  I 
know  not.  I  fear  these  repeated  disappointments  will  shock 
the  interest  there.  However,  to  prevent  its  ruin  I  have  ven- 
tured, in  a  very  critical  conjuncture  of  affairs,  to  buy  the  place, 
and  hope  to  be  able  when  I  see  you  to  give  you  such  an  account 
of  the  reason  of  doing  it,  as  shall  not  only  engage  your  appro- 
bation, but  also  your  assistance  in  making  up  the  deficiency 
of  what  they  can  do  towards  paying  for  it.  Excuse  the  length 
of  my  letter :  I  have  taken  some  scraps  of  lime  in  a  visit  to 
Mrs.  Scawen,*  from  whose  house  I  write  to  dispatch  it,  and 
add  her  very  affectionate  services  (as  she  is,  indeed,  an  ex- 
cellent woman!  with  those  of  Col.  Gardiner  (whose  indisposi- 
tion prevented  his  meeting  me  here  according  to  appointment), 
and  of,  reverend  and  dear  Sir,  your  greatly  obliged  and  most 
respectful  brother  and  servant, 

"  p.  DODDRIDGE. 

*  Onlv  dau^liter  of  Ladv  Russell. 


OF   DR.    ISAAC    WATTS.  661 

"  P.  S.  We  rejoice  abundantly  in  your  health,  and  ear- 
nestly pray  it  may  long  continue. 

"Hearing  that  Dr.  Watts,  your  brother  (to  whom  my 
humble  service),  had  thoughts  of  quitting  business,  and  retir- 
ing from  London  to  a  greater  distance,  I  have  sent  to  tempt 
him  into  Northamptonshire.  '  If  you  have  not  yet  read  Count 
Zinzindorf's  sermons,  I  beg  you  would  do  it,  and  give  me  your 
thoughts  upon  them:  there  are  many  Christian  notions  in 
them,  and  a  multitude  of  expressions  which  astonish  rather 
than  edify  me.  I  hope  it  may  in  part  be  owing  to  the  unskil- 
fulness  of  the  translator  :  my  great  veneration  for  the  author 
makes  this  very  grievous  to  me. 

"  Could  you,  dear  Sir,  tell  me  how  and  where  I  might 
procure  charity  for  a  worthy  family  in  great  distress  ?  I  beg 
if  you  have  access  to  any  such,  you  would  direct  me  where  to 
lodge  a  memorial  in  their  favour :  it  will  secure  many  prayers 
in  favour  of  all  concerned  in  obtaining  it. 

*'  The  report  of  Carter  is  too  true.  He  has  resided  in  town 
a  year,  seldom  coming  near  me.  He.  is  a  pupil  of  Messrs. 
Emlyn,  Taylor,  Foster,  &c.  and  has  been  their  professor  here 
for  some  time.  Hinc  illse  lachrymae !  How  sad  a  loss  of  one 
of  the  best  furnished  lads  I  ever  bred  !  But  love  and  melan- 
choly did  the  business,  and  gave  him  up  bound  into  the 
Philistines'  hands.  I  am  thankful,  however,  that,  though  he 
be  something  blinded,  he  has  not  yet  attempted  to  pull  down 
any  temple.  He  is  really  a  valuable,  upright,  devout  man, 
prays  incomparably,  writes  finely,  has  a  charming  voice,  an 
admirable  method,  and  wants  nothing  but  orthodoxy  and 
wisdom." 


66-2  LIFE    AND   TIMES 

FROM   THE    HON.   JONATHAN    BELCHER, 

"Boston,  May  20,  1741. 
"Rev.  and  dear  Sir, 

"  I  am  ashamed  to  look  over  the  date  of  your  kind 
letter  of  the  4th  of  May  last,  which  came  to  my  hands  the  1st  of 
November  following,  yet  I  can  rely  on  your  goodness  for  pardon 
in  owning-  it  so  late ;  while  you  consider  how  much  I  am  en- 
grossed in  the  care  of  two  of  the  king's  provinces,  sometimes 
1  fear  too  much  to  the  neglect  of  the  great  business  of  the 
King  of  kings;  and  yet  I  would  humbly  hope  I  have  an  eye 
to  his  glory  in  the  whole  of  my  administration.  'Man  is 
born  to  trouble  as  the  sparks  fly  upwards  ;'  and  even  this 
determination  of  the  great  Governor  of  the  world  is  designed 
in  mercy  to  mankind.  What  says  the  wise  preacher,  '  In 
the  day  of  adversity  consider,'  and  his  pious  father,  'Before 
I  was  afflicted  I  went  astray.'  If  the  fruit  of  our  troubles  be 
'  that  our  ways  please  the  Lord,  he  will  make  even  our  ene- 
mies to  be  at  peace  with  us.'  May  the  holy  and  eternal 
Spirit  of  God  take  the  full  possession  of  my  heart,  that  this 
may  become  my  case,  through  the  riches  of  mercy  in  Jesus 
Christ.  He  that  said  to  the  foaming  billows,  '  Peace  be  still,' 
and  it  was  so,  can  disconcert  all  faction  and  opposition,  can 
scatter  every  cloud,  and  bid  the  shades  of  night  fly  before  the 
springing  day  and  rising  sun.  A  governor  must  endeavour 
to  mail  himself  with  patience,  Sasvis  esse  tranquillum  in  undis. 
I  desire  to  be  'in  subjection  to  the  Father  of  Spirits,'  and  to 
have  faith  in  him,  and  this  constant  conclusion  in  myself, 
that  all  the  carvings  of  his  providence  to\vards  me,  are  best 
for  me. 

"  I  again  greatly  rejoice  in  the  favour  of  God,  in  so  well 
restoring  you  after  such  a  threatening  stroke;  but  I  rejoice 
still  more  in  your  humble  and  pious  submission,  while  you 
can  say  'you  are  waiting  his  will  to  be  employed  here,  or  to 


OF    DR.    ISAAC    WATTS.  663 

be  called  away  hence  at  what  hour  he  pleases.'  Oh,  Sh-,  how 
thankful  must  the  Christian  be  that  has  thus  got  upon  the 
last  round  of  the  ladder!  My  greatest  gratitude  flies  into 
your  bosom,  in  return  for  all  your  prayers  and  good  wishes  to 
me  and  to  my  family ;  as  to  myself  I  am  just  at  the  heels  of 
sixty ;  my  few  remaining  moments  are  crowded  into  a  narrow 
compass;  'my  days  are  swifter  than  a  post  or  weaver's  shuttle; 
they  will  soon  be  extinct,  and  the  grave  be  ready  for  me.'  Oh  ! 
then  may  I,  by  the  sovereign  powerful  grace  of  God,  double 
my  diligence,  that  I  may  be  ready  when  my  Lord  shall  call. 
I  entreat  and  (as  the  duty  of  your  function  requires),  I  charge 
you  when  you  kneel  before  the  throne  of  God  and  the  Lamb 
(in  secret)  not  to  forget  me;  for  an  alluring  world,  and  a 
tempting  devil  are  never  weary  of  their  attacks.  I  am 
greatly  obliged  to  the  excellent  Lady  Abney,  to  whom  you 
will  present  my  humble  respects.  Happy  she  who  has 
turned  her  widowed  state  into  an  everlasting  match  with  the 
glorious  bridegroom  of  the  church  of  God.  By  the  last  ship, 
I  covered  to  my  son  a  letter  for  you,  from  our  dear  friend 
Dr.  Colman,  wherein  I  doubt  not  he  has  given  you  an 
account  of  the  outpourings  of  the  Spirit  of  God  in  a  wonder- 
ful measure,  of  late,  in  this  and  the  neighbouring  provinces : 
to  his  name  alone  be  the  glory.  I  am,  Sir,  with  the  most 
perfect  esteem  and  friendship, 

"  Yours,  &c.. 


J.    BELCHER. 


"  P.  S.     When  you  favour  the  world  with  any  new  publi- 
cation, let  me  partake." 


604  LIFE    AND   TIMES 


FROM  THE  BISHOP  OF  LONDON. 

"Fulham,  June  G,  1741. 
«  Good  Sir, 

'*  I  am  much  obliged  to  you  for  your  kind  remem- 
brance of  me,  and  particularly  for  the  late  present  of  your 
book.*  It  found  me  engaged  in  a  particular  business  that 
has  been  upon  my  hands  some  time,  so  that  I  have  not  yet 
been  at  leisure  to  peruse  it.  But  I  have  seen  enough  to  satisfy 
me  of  the  serviceableness  of  it  towards  replenishing  the  mind 
with  useful  knowledge  and  true  wisdom,  and  how  well  the 
rules  laid  down  for  that  end  are  calculated  for  the  general 
improvement  of  all,  whether  learned  or  unlearned,  who  will 
attend  to  them  and  be  conducted  by  them.  But  while  you 
are  teaching  others  how  to  employ  their  thoughts  wisely  and 
usefully,  you  must  be  so  just  to  yourself,  as  not  to  stretch  your 
own  beyond  your  strength,  but  to  take  the  warning  which 
age  and  infirmities  give  us,  to  slacken  and  moderate  our  pace. 
Under  this  restraint  I  heartily  wish  you  a  successful  progress 
in  your  further  designs  for  the  service  of  religion,  and  remain 
with  great  truth  and  esteem,  Sir, 

"  Your  faithful  friend  and  servant, 

"  EDM.  LONDON." 
FROM  THE  BISHOP  OF  OXFORD.f 

"  Cuddesden,  near  Oxford,  June  19,  1741. 
"  Sir, 

"  I  am  extremely  obliged  to  you  for  the  agreeable 
present  of  your  book,  J  which  is  peculiarly  well  adapted  for  the 

•  The  "  Improvement  of  the  Mind."  f  Dr.  Seeker. 

+  The  "Improvement  of  the  Mind." 


OF    DR.    ISAAC    WATTS.  665 

direction  and  improvement  of  students  in  the  university,  where 
your  Logic  is  by  no  means  the  only  piece  of  yours  that  is  read 
with  high  esteem, 

"  You  have  been  a  dihgent  promoter  of  useful  and  espe- 
cially religious  knowledge,  of  Christian  faith  and  Christian 
morals.  On  these  accounts  I  have  always  respected  you,  from 
the  time  that  I  had  so  many  years  ago  the  advantage  of  your 
conversation,  and  always  rejoiced  in  the  just  honour  that  has 
been  universally  paid  you  ;  and  as  this  opportunity  of  ex- 
pressing my  regard  gives  me  much  pleasure,  so,  if  the  favour 
of  letting  me  see  you  next  winter  will  not  be  inconvenient  to 
youj  it  will  be  a  great  satisfaction  to, 

"  Sir,  your  affectionate  humble  servant, 

"tho.  oxford." 


FROM    THE    BISHOP   OF   LONDON, 

"Fulham,  July  12,  1742. 
"  Good  Sir, 

"  I  desire  you  to  accept  ray  hearty  thanks  for  your 
kind  and  valuable  present,*  which  was  part  of  my  employ- 
ment yesterday,  and  this  day  I  am  setting  out  on  my  visita- 
tion of  Essex  and  Hertfordshire.  It  is  written  with  great 
clearness  and  strength,  and  whoever  peruses  and  attends  to  it 
will  find  much  light  from  it  in  reading  several  of  the  epistles 
of  St.  Paul.  I  am  glad  to  find  that  you  have  no  difficulty  in 
making  him  the  writer  of  the  epistle  to  the  Hebrews  (which 
I  took  some  pains  to  clear  in  my  third  pastoral  letter),  and 
that  you  carry  on  the  gradual  opening  of  the  gospel  dispen- 
sation by  him  and  the  other  apostles  to  the  times  after  our 
Saviour's  ascension. 

"  The  method  you  take  of  reducing  the  matter  to  be  treated 

*  "Harmony  of  all  Religions." 
V  u 


666  XIFE    AND   TIMES 

of  into  chapters  and  paragraphs  of  no  great  length,  keeps 
every  thing  clear  and  distinct,  and  1  wish  it  were  observed 
by  all  other  writers. 

"  As  I  take  it  for  granted  you  have  by  you  other  discourses 
unpublished,  I  hope  God  will  give  you  health  and  strength 
to  revise  them  if  needful,  and  then  to  publish  them  for  the 
service  of  religion,  which  is  the  sincere  wish  of,  Sir, 

"  Your  very  faithful  friend  and  servant, 

*'£DM.   LONDON," 


FROM  THE  BISHOP  OF  OXFORD. 

"Cuddesden,  Sept.  14,  1743. 
"  Sir, 

"  I  heartily  thank  you  for  your  obliging  letter,  and, 
had  I  known  that  you  had  printed  a  sermon  on  the  subject* 
I  should  not  have  failed  to  enrich  my  own  from  it.  I  hope 
the  things  I  have  said  in  favour  of  our  charity-schools  are  true. 
I  hope  the  Christians  of  this  nation  in  general  are  grown  much 
milder  towards  each  other;  and  I  am  sure  we  have  great  need 
to  gain  in  this  virtue  what  we  lose  in  others,  and  become  a 
more  united  body  as  we  become  a  smaller,  which  I  apprehend 
we  do.  But  '  Fear  not,  little  flock.'  May  God  direct  and 
bless  us  all  in  our  poor  endeavours  to  serve  him !  May  he 
give  you  every  needful  support  under  your  long  sickness,  and 
restore  you  speedily  to  your  former  usefulness,  if  it  be  his  holy 
will !     I  am  with  great  esteem.  Sir, 

"  Your  affectionate  and  faithful  humble  servant, 

"THO.  OXFORD." 

*  "Essay  towards  the  Encouragement  of  Charity-schools." 


OF    DR.    ISAAC    WATTS.  667 

FROM  THE  ARCHBISHOP  OF  TUAM  * 

"Dublin,  Dec.  15,  1743. 

"  Rev.  Sir, 

"  I  am  brouglit  into  the  circumstances  of  an  insolvent 
debtor,  who  is  afraid  to  see  the  face  of  his  creditor;  and  yet  it 
is  not  through  idleness  or  disregard  that  I  remain  so  long  in 
my  friend's  debt  for  his  kind  letter  of  the  last  summer,  but  I 
am  really  oppressed  with  letter-writing  and  business  of  various 
kinds,  some  of  my  own,  but  more  of  other  persons,  some  pri- 
vate, but  more  public,  both  ecclesiastical  and  secular,  which 
are  incident  to  my  station. 

"  However,  I  have  at  last  found  a  spare  hour  for  thanking 
you  for  the  present  of  your  book,  which  ought  more  properly 
to  be  done  by  ray  wife,  who  presently  laid  hands  upon  it,  and 
took  it  into  her  own  library.  She  is  much  taken  with  the 
vein  of  piety  which  breathes  in  your  works,  and  buys  them  up. 

"  I  am  truly  concerned  for  your  insomnie,  which  I  suppose 
proceeds  from  weak  nerves.  If  you  could  ride  an  easy  pad, 
increasing  your  journey  every  day  from  one  to  four  or  five 
miles,  as  your  strength  would  permit,  I  should  hope  for  some 
good  effect,  as  the  lassitude  occasioned  by  that  exercise  would 
incline  you  more  naturally  to  rest  than  the  use  of  drugs. 

"  I  bless  God  T  enjoy  good  health,  which  enables  me  to  go 
through  much  business;  but  I  have  for  many  years  been 
going  down  the  hill,  and,  if  the  doctrine  of  gravitation  takes 
place  in  the  life  of  man,  the  motion  must  accelerate  as  I  come 
nearer  the  bottom.  Your  case  is  the  same,  tliough  more  ag- 
gravated by  distempers.  God  grant  we  may  be  useful  while 
we  live,  and  may  run  clear,  and  with  unclouded  minds,  till 
we  come  to  the  very  dregs  ! 

"  I  send  you  my  visitation  charge  to  my  clergy  of  Tuam. 

*  Dr.  Josiah  Hort.     See  p.  129. 


668  LIFE    AND   TIMES 

The  former  part  is  a  copy  of  my  charge  to  the  clergy  of  Kil- 
more  and  Ardagh,  which  being  of  general  use  I  saw  no  oc- 
casion to  change.  The  latter  part  is  new,  and  I  submit  it 
to  your  judgment.     I  am.,  dear  Sir, 

"  Your  old  friend,  and  affectionate  servant, 

"  JOSIAH  TUAM." 


OF   DR.    ISAAC    WATTS.  669 


CHAPTER  XVII. 

1745—1748. 
THE  REBELLION. 

PATRIOTISM  OF  WATTS.  —  FAVOURABLE  CONDITION  OF  THE  DISSEN- 
TERS.—POLICY  OF  THE  GOVERNMENT.  — CONDUCT  OF  DODDRIDGE.— 
CIRCULAR  OF  THE  COMMITTEE  OF  THE  THREE  DENOMINATIONS.— 
STATEMENT  OF  DR.  SOUTHEY  REFUTED.  —  THE  "WORLD  TO  COME," 
SECOND  VOLUME.  — SINGULAR  OPINION  OF  MR.  BOURN.  — DR.  T.  BUR- 
NET.—SECICER.  —"  ORTHODOXY  AND  CHARITY."—  SENTIMENTS  WITH 
REFERENCE  TO  DEATH.— DOMESTIC  CALAMITY.  —  DR.  DODDRIDGE.— 
MR.  BARKER.  —  REPORTED  DERANGEMENT:  —  CONTRADICTED  BY  DR. 
GIBBONS:— A  NERVOUS  DISORDER :  — CONDUCT  OF  DR.  RICHARD 
WATTS:— REFERENCES  TO  THE  RUMOUR— ESSAY  ON  THE  "FREEDOM 
OF  THE  WILL."— "EVANGELICAL  DISCOURSES."— "  RATIONAL  FOUNDA- 
TION OF  A  CHRISTIAN  CHURCH."- VISITED  BY  THE  SPEAKER,  MR. 
ONSLOW.— CORRESPONDENCE. 

The  attachment  of  Dr.  Watts  to  the  righteous  cause  of 
freedom  has  been  repeatedly  mentioned  in  this  volume ; 
many  of  his  devotional  and  moral  poems  were  composed  to 
celebrate  the  triumph  of  its  principles;  in  the  hour  of 
national  emergency,  therefore,  his  exertions  with  those  of  his 
brethren  were  not  wanting  to  support  the  reigning  dynasty. 
The  writers  of  the  establishment  who  have  noticed  his  life, 
have  done  honour  to  his  loyalty  whilst  they  have  condemned 
his  nonconformity.  Grateful  for  the  liberties  which  his 
country  and  especially  his  fellow  dissenters  enjoyed,  he 
piously  records  the  events  by  which  they  were  secured  as 
among  "the  mighty  acts  of  the  Lord."  The  seventy-fifth 
Psalm  is  an  instance  of  his  patriotic  devotion.     His  congre- 


670  LIFE    AND   TIMES 

g-ation  was  frequently  excited  to  gratitude  by  being  reminded 
of  the  opj)ressions  the  fathers  endured,  and  the  privileges  the 
children  enjoyed.  Compared  with  his  own  ancestors  he 
lived  at  a  period  peculiarly  auspicious ;  the  storms  which 
raged  during  his  infancy  were  stilled  before  he  could  be  fully 
sensible  of  their  violence ;  he  had  the  report  of  the  sorrows 
his  family  had  endured  without  their  painful  experience. 
Frequently  during  the  long  course  of  his  ministry  hostility 
was  both  threatened  and  feared ;  clerical  bigotry  vented  its 
spleen  against  him  in  intemperate  pamphlets ;  but  the 
designs  which  the  spirit  of  party  conceived,  and  which  the 
insolence  of  power  was  to  execute,  were,  by  the  kind  interpo- 
sition of  providence,  blasted  in  their  budding-.  It  was  justly 
observed  by  Sir  Conyers  Joceyln,  conversing  with  Dr.  Gib- 
bons about  Mr.  Baxter  and  Dr.  Watts,  "The  latter  went  to 
heaven  upon  a  bed  of  down  in  comparison  of  the  former." 
For  nearly  half  a  century  the  churches  of  the  nonconformists 
had  enjoyed  peace  within  their  borders ;  the  exactions  which 
the  magistracy  and  clergy  would  have  imposed  were,  with 
few  exceptions,  discountenanced  by  the  court;  and  in  every 
instance  the  attempt  to  invade  the  territory  of  dissent  was 
steadily  opposed  by  the  Hanover  family.  The  events  of  the 
memorable  Forty-five  made  the  policy  of  this  conduct  appa- 
rent. When  the  government  threw  around  an  eye  of  jealousy 
and  alarm  —  when  an  enemy  had  penetrated  into  the  heart 
of  the  kingdom,  and  some  decisive  success  was  alone  wanting 
to  call  forth  a  host  of  Jacobites  from  their  hiding-places  — 
no  apprehension  was  felt  respecting  the  sentiments  and 
conduct  of  the  dissenters.  The  sufferings  of  their  fathers  had 
associated  in  their  minds  the  name  of  Stuart  with  a  persecu- 
ting church  and  an  intolerant  throne;  and  as  the  reigning 
monarch  had  conciliated  their  affections  by  protecting  their 
liberties,  they  at  once  devoted  their  energies  to  stem  the  tide 
of  invasion.  The  biographer  of  Doddridge  remarks,  "  When 
a  regiment  was  raising  in  Northamptonshire,  to  be  under  the 


OF   DR.    ISAAC    WATTS.  671 

Command  of  the  Eavl  of  Halifax,  he  wrote  many  letters  to  his 
friends  in  that  county  and  neighbourhood  to  further  the  design. 
He  went  among  his  own  people  to  encourage  them  to  enlist, 
and  had  the  pleasure  to  find  many  of  them  engaging  cheerfully 
in  the  cause.  He  drew  up  and  printed  at  his  own  expense  a 
friendly  letter  to  the  private  soldiers  of  a  regiment  of  foot, 
which  was  one  of  those  engaged  in  the  glorious  battle  of 
Culloden."*  Dr.  Watts  was  too  feeble  to  imitate  the 
example  of  his  friend,  but  his  heart  was  with  him,  and  the 
circumstances  of  the  nation  formed  a  subject  of  his  correspon- 
dence with  the  Bishop  of  London.  The  committee  of  the 
three  denominations  in  London  addressed  a  circular  letter  to 
the  members  of  their  persuasion  throughout  the  kingdom, 
calling  upon  them  for  a  proof  of  their  attachment  to  the 
government  at  a  juncture  so  critical.f  So  utterly  untrue  is 
the  representation  of  an  historian  of  the  present  day,  that 
political  disaffection  has  ever  been  the  fruit  of  religious  non- 
conformity, and  that  the  principles  of  dissent  necessarily  tend 
to  place  its  advocates  on  the  side  of  faction.  "The  principle 
of  nonconformity,"  says  he,  "in  religion  is  very  generally  con- 
nected with  political  discontent ;  the  old  leaven  is  still  in  the 

*  Orton's  Life  of  Doddridge,  p.  208. 
f  A  copy  of  this  letter  appeared  in  the  public  journals  of  the  period  : 

"Sir, 

"The  Committee  of  the  Protestant  Dissenters,  in  and  about  London, 
having  taken  into  their  consideration  the  present  dangerous  situation  of  ailairs  in 
these  kingdoms,  by  reason  of  the  unnatural  rebellion  raised  against  his  miijesty 
King  George,  in  favour  of  a  popish  pretender,  supported  by  France,  the  avowed 
enemy  of  this  country,  have  unanimously  come  to  the  following  resolution,  that  is 
to  say,  that  it  be  recommended  to  the  body  of  dissenters  to  express  their  utmost 
zeal  and  readiness  tp  join  with  any  number  of  his  majesty's  subjects,  to  support 
his  person  and  government,  in  the  present  time  of  danger,  in  any  legal  way  that 
shall  be  thought  most  effectual.  I  am,  therefore,  directed  by  the  said  committee  to 
communicate  to  you  the  above  resolution,  and  they  earnestly  desire,  that  you 
would  use  the  utmost  influence  with  ail  your  friends,  to  induce  them  to  act  in  the 
most  zealous  manner  agreeable  thereto.     By  order  of  the  committee. 

"Sept.  28,  1745. 

"  BENJAMIN  AVERY,  Chairman," 


(j72  LIFE    AND    TIMES 

mass,  and  whenever  there  is  thunder  in  the  atmosphere  it 
begins  to  work.  In  the  time  of  the  American  war  they  were 
wholly  with  the  Americans;  and  during  the  French  Revolu- 
tion their  wishes  were  not  with  the  government,  nor  their 
voice  with  the  voice  of  the  country."*  These  are  the  only 
instances  which  Dr.  Southey  advances  to  support  his  extra- 
ordinary statement:  of  the  former  it  is  enough  to  say,  that 
posterity  will  record  the  fact  to  the  honour  of  the  dissenters, 
that  they  were  the  followers  of  Chatham ;  the  latter  may 
be  safely  contradicted,  if  it  is  meant  to  imply  an  approval  of 
the  atrocities  with  which  the  event  was  accompanied.  The 
conduct  of  the  party  here  maligned  during  the  Forty -five, 
the  Irish  rebellion,  and  the  threatened  French  invasion, 
might  be  appealed  to,  to  prove  that  no  such  systematic  effu- 
sion of  traitorous  feeling  as  is  supposed  has  marked  their 
history ;  and  the  conduct  of  the  party  who  claim  the  historian 
for  their  champion,  with  reference  to  the  Catholic  Relief  Bill 
and  the  Reform  Act,  might  be  adduced  in  evidence,  that 
"  ilieir  wishes  were  not  with  the  government,  nor  their  voice 
with  the  voice  of  the  country." 

Early  in  this  year  of  national  turmoil  the  second  volume 
of  the  "  World  to  Come"  appeared,  containing  six  discourses. 
The  necessary  preparation  for  the  future  —  the  freedom  of  the 
heavenly  state  from  all  pain  —  the  foretastes  of  it  with  which 
believers  are  favoured —  the  joy  of  the  resurrection  morn  to 
them  —  and  the  state  and  punishment  of  the  wicked,  are  the 
subjects  which  the  writer  discusses.  The  persuasives  to  a 
holy  life  drawn  from  its  present  and  future  advantages,  and 
the  dissuasives  from  an  opposite  course  gathered  from  the 
character  and  consequences  of  sin,  are  urged  upon  the  rea- 
der's attention  in  a  highly  impassioned  manner,  displaying  a 
style  unenfeebled,  and  an  imagination  as  strong  as  in  its  youth- 
ful vigour.  He  discusses  the  doctrine  of  future  punishment, 
all  the  "sad  variety  of  hell,"  poena  damni  and  poena  sensiis, 

*Southcy's  Colloquies  on  the  "  Progress  aiul  Prospects  of  Society."  vol.  ii.  4J, 


OF    DR.    ISAAC    WATTS.  673 

in  an  uncompromising-  but  affectionate  spirit,  asserting  in  all 
their  force  and  peculiarity  the  awful  statements  of  scripture, 
yet  widely  removed  from  that  harsh  and  vengeful  tone  with 
which  the  subject  is  sometimes  treated.  The  duration  of  the 
future  penalties  of  sin  had  long  been  a  point  of  controversy, 
and  in  fact  it  occasioned  one  of  the  theological  wars  of  the 
last  century.  A  middle  scheme,  between  the  commonly 
received  opinion  and  that  of  the  final  restorationists,  was 
maintained  by  Mr.  Bourn  in  his  letter  to  Dr.  Chandler  — 
that  the  wicked,  after  undergoing  a  condemnation  proportion- 
ed to  their  guilt,  shall  be  punished  by  an  utter  extinction  of 
being  —  a  notion  which  has  been  advocated  by  other  writers, 
but  which  certainly  cannot  claim  the  slightest  authority  in 
scripture.  Many  of  those  who  held  these  milder  views,  as 
they  were  called,  of  the  question,  yet  acknowledged  the  public 
proclamation  of  them  dangerous  to  the  cause  of  virtue,  and, 
as  a  matter  of  policy,  refrained  from  it  —  a  consideration 
which  tells  powerfully  against  the  soundness  of  their  opinions. 
Hence,  Dr.  T.  i3urnet,  who  held  the  temporary  duration  of 
future  punishment,  in  his  Latin  treatise  "On  the  state  of  the 
dead  and  those  who  rise  again,"  advises  the  use  of  the  com- 
mon doctrine  and  the  common  language  to  ministers,  and 
curiously  enough  in  a  note  observes,  "  Whosoever  shall  tran- 
slate these  sentiments  into  our  mother  tongue,  I  shall  think  it 
was  done  with  an  evil  design  and  to  bad  purpose."  This 
caution  would  not  have  been  given,  nor  the  sentiment  to 
which  it  refers  have  been  imbibed,  had  the  scriptures  been 
recognised  as  the  sole  interpreter  of  the  divine  conduct;  but 
there  is  no  security  against  error,  when  the  judgment  upon 
such  a  topic  is  influenced  in  its  decisions  by  what  the  weak- 
ness of  human  passion  will  suggest.  Those  who  submit  their 
understandings  to  the  word  of  God,  conscious  of  their  littleness 
of  grasp  and  dimness  of  vision,  will  receive  with  joy  the  reve- 
lation of  eternal  life  to  the  faithful,  and  with  reverent  awe 
the  annunciation  of  everlasting  destruction  to  the  impenitent. 


G74  LIFE    AND   TIMES 

There  is,  however,  a  mode  of  representation  employed,  with 
respect  to  this  doctrine,  which  is  highly  objectionable,  and 
unhappily  not  uncommon  in  the  pulpit,  and  the  only  tendency 
of  which  is  to  harden  tlie  heart  and  confirm  the  mind  in  its 
infidelity  to  it.  It  is  when  the  character  of  judge  is  assumed 
by  the  preacher,  who  forgets  that  he  is  himself  a  criminal ; 
when  a  severe  and  exulting  tone  is  given  to  the  denunciation ; 
and  when  a  fact,  which  ought  to  wring  the  heart  with  unut- 
terable tenderness  and  compassion  towards  the  sinful  souls  of 
men,  is  enounced  with  voice  and  look  and  gesture  only  befit- 
ting an  ebullition  of  the  malign  passions.  The  intonation  of 
the  ancient  Sybil  is  not  necessary  to  show  the  fidelity  of  the 
Christian  minister;  the  "  whole  counsel  of  God"  is  to  be  de- 
clared, but  the  declaration  should  be  made  with  that  pathos 
and  solemnity  becoming  a  divine  testimony,  and  a  subject  in 
which  eternal  interests  are  involved.  Dr.  Watts  was  entirely 
free  from  the  defect  here  pointed  out ;  and  to  him  Bishop 
Seeker  awards  the  praise  of  having  written  in  a  strong  and 
awful,  yet  compassionate  and  good  natured  manner. 

Another  work  appeared  about  the  same  period,  "  Ortho- 
doxy and  Charity  united ;  in  several  reconciling  Essays  on  the 
law  and  gospel,  faith  and  works."  This  is  an  attempt  to 
unite  those  who  hold  the  important  doctrines  of  the  gospel, 
but  differ  upon  minor  points ;  to  illustrate  the  evil  conse- 
quences of  altercation  respecting  minute  and  trivial  peculiari- 
ties of  faith  or  discipline ;  and  to  gather  within  the  bounds  of 
Christian  love  all  true  believers  in  the  Saviour,  without  limit- 
ing the  flow  of  kindly  feeling  to  a  perfect  conformity  with 
our  views.  It  is  addressed  to  the  "  moderate  men  among 
those  who  are  called  Calvinists,  and  those  that  are  named 
New-Methodists:"  as  for  "the  high-fliers"  of  both  parties  he 
discards  them  as  incorrigible  offenders.  He  anticipates  in 
his  preface  a  Socinian  objection  to  his  book,  that  no  attempt 
is  made  to  plead  the  cause  of  those  who  deny  the  atonement, 
and  to  procure  for  them  a  share  of  fraternal  regard;    but  a 


OF   DR.    ISAAC    WATTS.  675 

proper  answer  to  this  is  given,  that  the  doctrine  is  not  one  of 
the  lesser  things  of  the  Christian  system,  but  a  fundamental 
principle,  the  denial  of  which  is  subversive  of  its  whole  genius 
and  design.  The  substance  of  the  gospel  treated  of  in  the 
first  essay,  is  defined  to  embrace  the  great  truths  of  the  fall 
and  depravity  of  our  nature  —  the  propitiatory  work  of  Christ 
—  divine  influence  —  the  necessity  of  repentance  and  faith  — 
and  the  constant  practice  of  a  holy  life.  Those  who  agree 
here  are  united  in  the  essential  articles  of  religion,  and  assur- 
edly ought  not  to  be  at  variance  in  spirit.  But  questions  as 
to  the  logical  relations  of  different  parts  of  divine  truth  — 
whether  the  gospel  is  an  absolute  promise  or  a  conditional 
covenant  —  whether  the  law  ought  to  be  proclaimed,  or  free 
grace  alone  exhibited,  have  kept  their  respective  advocates  at 
a  distance,  and  separated  as  with  walls  of  triple  brass  the 
several  parties  to  which  they  have  belonged.  The  Calvinist 
has  raised  the  frightful  cry  of  legality  against  the  Arminian, 
and  the  latter  has  retorted  with  the  charge  of  licentiousness 
upon  the  former.  His  own  opinion,  as  to  which  is  the  "more 
excellent  way,"  the  writer  does  not  attempt  to  conceal,  but 
he  is  not  betrayed  into  either  dogmatism  or  invective;  he 
admits  the  possibility,  that  his  conclusion  though  honest  may 
be  erroneous  ;  and,  hence,  he  pleads  for  the  extension  of  the 
hand  of  fellowship  to  those  who  hold  the  Head,  but  on  other 
points  conscientiously  differ  from  our  views.  The  spirit  in- 
culcated in  this  treatise  he  remarkably  exemplified  in  prac- 
tice ;  no  religious  disputant  was  ever  more  free  from  sectarian 
virulence;  "it  was  not  only  in  his  book,"  says  Dr.  Johnson, 
"  but  in  his  mind  also,  that  orthodoxy  and  charity  were 
united." 

Dr.  Watts  was  now,  as  he  affectingly  expresses  it  in  one  of 
his  letters,  on  "  the  borders  of  life."  To  prepare  himself  as  well 
as  others  for  such  a  situation  had  been  the  great  end  of  his 
existence :  its  arrival  was,  therefore,  a  welcome  event.  The 
views  with  which  he  contemplated  his  approaching  dissolu- 


LIFE    AND   TIMES 

tion  may  be  gathered  from  his  writings  at  this  period :  there 
is,  if  I  mistake  not,  much  of  his  own  conduct  and  experience 
embodied  in  his  "World  to  Come."  An  ardent  admirer  of 
nature,  he  sought  improvement  from  her  various  changes, 
and  reaped  spiritual  advantage  from  her  beautiful  though 
silent  phenomena.  "Do  I  observe,"  says  he,  "the  declining 
day,  and  the  setting  sun,  sinking  into  darkness?  So  declines 
the  day  of  life,  the  hours  of  labour,  and  the  season  of  grace : 
O  may  I  finish  my  appointed  work  with  honour  ere  the  light 
is  fled !  May  I  improve  the  shining  hours  of  grace  ere  the 
shadows  of  the  evening  overtake  me,  and  my  time  of  working 
is  no  more !  Do  I  see  the  moon  gliding  along  through  mid- 
night, and  fulfilling  her  stages  in  the  dusky  sky  ?  This 
planet  also  is  measuring  out  my  life,  and  bringing  the  num- 
ber of  my  months  to  their  end.  May  I  be  prepared  to  take 
leave  of  the  sun  and  moon,  and  bid  adieu  to  these  visible 
heavens,  and  all  the  twinkling  glories  of  them !  These  are 
all  but  the  measurers  of  my  time,  and  hasten  me  on  towards 
eternity." 

He  dwells  with  peculiar  pleasure  upon  the  thought  of  death 
as  a  short  and  peaceful  sleep,  and  the  grave  as  a  place  of 
repose.  Such  imagery  teaches  us  that  subjection  to  mortality 
will  be  but  temporary.  Slumber  may  steal  over  the  frame  of 
man  in  the  eventide,  and  it  may  seal  up  his  senses  in  forget- 
fulness ;  but  the  morning  brings  with  it  the  dissolution  of  the 
spell,  and  the  restoration  of  the  frame  to  activity  and  con- 
sciousness !  "  Why,  O  my  fearful  soul,"  he  observes,  "shouldst 
thou  be  afraid  of  dying }  Why  shouldst  thou  be  frighted  at 
the  dark  shadows  of  the  grave,  when  thou  art  weary  with 
the  toils  and  crosses  of  the  day  }  Hast  thou  not  often  desired 
the  shadow  of  the  evening,  and  longed  for  the  bed  of  natural 
sleep,  where  thy  fatigues  and  thy  sorrows  may  be  forgotten 
for  a  season }  And  is  not  the  grave  itself  a  sweet  sleeping- 
place  for  the  saints,  wherein  they  lie  down  and  forget  their 
distresses,  and  feel  none  of  the  miseries  of  human  life,  and 


OF   DR.    ISAAC   WATTS.  677 

especially  since  it  is  softened  and  sanctified  by  the  Son  of 
God  lying-  down  there  ?  Why  shouldst  thou  be  afraid  to  lay 
thy  head  in  the  dust  ?  It  is  but  entering  into  God's  hiding- 
place,  into  his  chambers  of  rest  and  repose." 

The  domestic  happiness  which  he  had  so  long  enjoyed, 
rarely  disturbed  except  by  the  recurrence  of  personal  affliction, 
experienced  interruption  from  another  quarter — the  miscon- 
duct of  some  of  his  relatives  —  in  the  year  1746,  This  cir- 
cumstance, whatever  might  be  its  specific  nature,  was  very 
painfully  felt:  it  destroyed  for  a  season  his  equanimity: 
unused  to  such  a  trial,  and  in  a  state  of  great  debility,  his 
mind  seems  to  have  sunk  for  a  time  under  the  shock,  and 
with  difficulty  to  have  recovered  its  balance.  By  the  kind 
prudence  of  Lady  Abney  many  of  the  particulars  of  this 
unhappy  affair  were  concealed  from  him.  In  August,  while 
under  the  pressure  of  this  calamity,  Dr.  Doddridge  visited 
Stoke  Newington,  and  gives  the  following  painful  description 
of  his  aged  friend:  —  "  His  nephew,  once  so  great  a  favourite, 
has  done  something  to  vex  him,  and  his  poor  weak  spirits 
cannot  bear  it ;  so  that  he  is  quite  amazed,  and  even  stupified 
with  it  to  such  a  degree  as  hardly  to  take  notice  of  any  thino- 
about  him;  insomuch  that,  though  he  knew  my  chief  reason 
of  coming  from  Bath  was  to  sec  him,  he  hardly  took  any 
notice  of  me ;  and  instead  of  those  tears  and  embraces  with 
which  he  has  often  dismissed  me,  parted  with  me,  though 
probably  for  the  last  time,  as  coldly  as  he  did  with  young 
Mr.  Lavington,  who  happened  to  be  here,  and  who  is 
entirely  a  stranger  to  him.  This  really  astonished  me  and 
grieved  me  exceedingly."  But  the  cloud  that  lowered  in 
threatening  blackness  over  his  mind  had  been  removed  when 
in  the  February  of  the  following  year  Mr.  Barker  wrote  to 
Doddridge  as  follows :  —  "  The  behaviour  of  Dr.  Richard 
Watts  and  the  wretch  Brackstone  towards  Dr.  Isaac  Watts,  is 
a  most  marvellous,  infamous,  enormous  wickedness.  Lady 
Abney,  with  inimitable  steadiness  and  prudence,  keeps  her 


678  LIFE    AND    TIMES 

friend  in  peaceful  ignorance,  and  his  enemies  at  a  becoming 
distance;  so  that  in  the  midst  of  this  cruel  persecution  of  that 
righteous  man,  he  lives  comfortably;  and  when  a  friend  asks 
him  how  he  does,  answers,  '  Waiting  God's  leave  to  die.' " 
That  he  sometimes  felt  impatience  under  his  heavy  afflictions, 
is  but  saying  that  he  was  human :  it  was,  however,  in  his 
case  more  infirmity  than  error,  induced  by  purely  physical 
causes.  "Sometimes,"  says  he,  "I  have  been  ready  to  say 
within  myself,  '  Why  is  my  life  prolonged  in  sorrow?  Why 
are  my  days  lengthened  out  to  see  further  wretchedness? 
Methinks  the  grave  should  be  ready  for  me  and  the  house 
appointed  for  all  the  living.  What  can  I  do  further  for  God 
or  for  men  here  on  earth,  since  my  nature  pines  away  with 
painful  sickness,  my  nerves  are  unstrung,  my  spirits  dissi- 
pated, and  my  best  powers  of  acting  are  enfeebled  and 
almost  lost?  Peace,  peace,  O  thou  complaining  spirit. 
Dost  thou  know  the  counsels  of  the  Almighty,  and  the  secret 
designs  of  thy  God  and  thy  Saviour?  He  has  many  deep 
and  unknown  purposes  in  continuing  his  children  amidst 
heavy  sorrows,  which  they  can  never  penetrate  or  learn  in 
this  world.  Silence  and  submission  become  thee  at  all 
times.' " 

Much  misapprehension  has  existed  with  reference  to  the 
state  of  Dr.  Watts's  mind  in  his  latter  days.  Stories  of  his 
strange  nervous  affections,  his  wild  and  extraordinary  fancies, 
amounting  to  intellectual  derangement,  have  been  circulated 
both  in  print  and  by  common  rumour.  To  give  a  narrative 
of  these  reveries  with  one  of  his  biographers  would  be  a 
worthless  task,  especially  as  the  whole  account  is  directly  con- 
tradicted by  Dr.  Gibbons.  "  How  it  came  to  pass,"  says  he, 
"I  know  not,  but  that  it  has  so  happened  is  certain,  that  re- 
ports have  been  raised,  propagated,  and  currently  believed, 
concerning  the  Doctor,  that  he  has  imagined  such  things 
concerning  himself,  as  would  prove,  if  they  were  true,  that  he 
sometimes  lost  possession  of  himself,  or  suffered  a  momentary 


OF   DR.    ISAAC    AVATTS.  679 

eclipse  of  his  intellectual  faculties.  But  I  take  upon  me, 
and  feel  myself  happy  to  aver,  that  these  reports  were  utterly 
and  ahsolutely  false  and  groundless ;  and  I  do  this  from  my 
own  knowledge  and  observation  of  him  for  several  years,  and 
some  of  them  the  years  of  his  decay,  when  he  was  at  the 
weakest;  from  the  express  declaration  of  Mr.  Joseph  Parker, 
his  amanuensis  for  above  twenty  years,  and  who  was  in  a 
manner  ever  with  him ;  and  above  all  from  that  of  Mrs. 
Elizabeth  Abney,  the  surviving  daughter  of  Sir  Thomas  and 
Lady  Abney,  who  lived  in  the  same  family  with  him  all  the 
time  of  the  Doctor's  residence  there,  a  period  of  no  less  than 
thirty-six  years.     Can  any  evidence  be  more  decisive  ?" 

The  evidence  of  these  persons  must  be  preferred  to  that  of 
certain  vague  statements  which  have  continually  changed 
their  colouring  as  they  have  floated  on  their  course;  state- 
ments originally  jsropagated  by  an  unknown  party,  founded 
upon  no  data,  and  confirmed  by  no  responsible  authority. 
As  the  fabrications  of  the  idle  or  the  designing,  the  relations 
in  question,  therefore,  deserve  no  notice.  It  is  at  the  same 
time  highly  probable,  that  as  Dr.  Watts  was  subject  to  a  ner- 
vous disorder,  this,  aggravated  by  the  decays  of  nature,  might 
occasionally  induce  that  morbid  state  of  mind,  which  usually 
manifests  itself  either  in  an  unnatural  elevation  or  a  corres- 
ponding depression.  This  supposition  is  strongly  confirmed 
by  Dr.  Doddridge's  affecting  description  of  him  beneath  the 
stroke  of  calamity  —  the  picture  of  one  sufi'ering  under  an  ex- 
treme degree  of  hypochondriacisra.  Cases  of  this  kind  are  by 
no  means  uncommon,  and  may  co-exist  with  a  perfect  sanity 
of  the  intellectual  powers.  The  derangement  of  the  mental 
economy  by  which  they  are  characterised,  is  the  effect  of  a 
diseased  nervous  system ;  and  when  the  physical  causes  are 
counteracted  or  cease  to  operate,  the  mind  preserves  its  equi- 
librium, its  tone  of  health  and  vigour. 

The  temporary  derangement  attributed  to  him,  and  stated 
so  frequently  as  an  undoubted  truth,  was  then  nothing  more 


G80  LIFE    AND    TIMES 

than  a  high  degree  of  nervous  irritability,  in  connexion  with 
great  bodily  weakness  and  frequent  disease.  That  it  occa- 
sioned alarm  and  anxiety  in  the  minds  of  his  friends,  it  is 
only  natural  to  conceive ;  but  the  report  of  his  complaint,  like 
all  other  reports,  became  gradually  magnified  the  further  it 
removed  from  its  source.  The  retirement  in  which  his  last 
days  were  spent  —  seldom  seen  in  public,  and  rarely  visited 
but  by  those  who  were  intimate  with  him — might  be  con- 
strued to  sanction  the  most  unfavourable  conclusion.  But 
that  which  gave  most  currency  to  the  rumour,  was  the  in- 
judicious and  weak  conduct  of  some  of  his  former  admirers, 
who  eagerly  caught  at  the  plea  of  mental  distemper,  to  apolo- 
gise for  the  supposed  heterodoxy  of  his  sentiments  upon  the 
trinity,  and  to  excuse  the  high  esteem  they  had  once  expressed 
for  the  idol  they  now  abandoned.  To  account  still  further  for 
the  credit  which  this  story  has  obtained  it  may  be  remarked, 
that  a  dark  suspicion  rests  upon  the  memory  of  his  brother. 
Dr.  Richard  Watts,  and  his  nephew,  "the  wretch"  Brack- 
stone,  that  for  interested  purposes  they  assisted  to  strengthen 
and  circulate  it,  and  to  confirm  it  by  their  own  fabrications. 
These  efforts  were  happily  frustrated,  and  the  vagaries  they 
attempted  to  palm  upon  this  holy  and  devoted  man,  Ijefore 
the  respectable  testimony  of  Lady  Abney,  the  family,  and 
Dr.  Gibbons,  fall  to  the  ground.  It  must  have  been  painful 
for  him  to  discover,  that  an  impression  had  been  made  upon 
the  public  disadvantageous  to  his  mental  character  —  that  the 
soundness  of  his  intellect  was  in  any  quarter  suspected  —  and 
yet  that  he  had  some  intimation  that  this  was  the  case,  may 
be  gathered  from  the  following  passages.  In  the  preface  to 
his  "  Ruin  and  Recovery,"  he  remarks,  "  It  is  by  no  means 
true,  which  some  have  wmglned,  that  a  retirement  from  the 
world,  and  dwelling  much  among  my  own  solitary  thoughts 
and  old  authors,  have  led  me  into  these  melancholy  and  dismal 
apprehensions  of  mankind.^^  Again,  in  the  preface  to  the 
"  Useful  and  Important  Questions,"  it  is  observed,  "  He  takes 


OF    DR.    ISAAC    WATTS.  G81 

the  freedom  to  say,  these  papers  are  the  product  of  that  part 
of  Hfe,  when  his  poivers  of  mind  and  body  were  infidl  vigour T 
But  in  the  publications  of  his  dechne  he  nobly  refuted  the 
calumnious  representations  of  his  enemies  :  among  these  may 
be  found  some  of  his  most  learned,  abstruse,  and  imaginative 
performances ;  furnishing  incontestible  evidence  that  his  mind 
was  not  impaired,  for  though  occasionally  affected  and  borne 
down  by  the  infirmities  of  its  companion,  yet  it  quickly  re- 
gained its  former  elevation,  and  triumphed  with  untired  wing 
over  the  difficulties  of  its  progress.  His  nervous  paroxysms 
were  severe  and  distressing,  but  short  in  their  duration  and 
infrequent  in  their  occurrence ;  they  were  momentary  obscu- 
rations of  the  brightness  of  his  genius,  like  clouds  that  swiftly 
flit  across  the  luminary  of  day,  without  injuring  the  face  of 
the  orb  or  stealing  a  beam  from  his  effulgence. 

Though  in  his  seventy -second  year  the  aged  invalid  again 
took  ujD  his  pen,  anxious  to  improve  every  moment  for  the 
benefit  of  others.  But  his  remaining  productions  offer  little 
that  calls  for  elucidation  or  remark.  lu  1746  he  published 
an  "  Essay  on  the  Freedom  of  Will  in  God  and  in  Creatures," 
in  which  he  argues  in  behalf  of  a  liberty  of  indifference, 
adopting  the  Arminian  view  of  the  subject.  This  piece, 
which  was  published  anonymously,  is  chiefly  remarkable  for 
having  called  forth  the  powers  of  President  Edwards,  and 
producing  his  noble  work  in  refutation  of  it.  His  American 
friend  and  correspondent  evidently  suspected  him  to  be  the 
author  of  the  essay,  and  the  authority  of  his  name  procured  it 
that  share  of  his  attention  which  its  intrinsic  merits  would 
probably  have  failed  to  attract.  The  volume  of"  Evangelical 
Discourses"  appeared  in  the  commencement  of  1747,  when 
"  under  very  declining  circumstances  of  life,"  with  an  "  Essay 
on  the  Powers  and  Contests  of  Flesh  and  Spirit"  appended  to 
it.  This  is  dedicated  to  the  church  in  Bury  Street,  and  may 
be  regarded  as  their  pastor's  farewell  benediction.  Among 
his  affectionate  advices  on  an  occasion  so  solemn  he  says, 


G8-2  I,IFE    AND    TIMES 

"  Continue  to  be  of  one  mind  :  live  in  peace  :  be  careful  to 
practise  all  the  duties  of  holiness  and  righteousness:  keep 
close  to  God  by  humble  fervent  prayer  and  dependence  ;  seek 
his  face  for  direction,  and  a  blessing  in  all  your  affairs."  He 
acknowledges  with  gratitude  the  great  harmony  which  had 
subsisted  for  more  than  forty-three  years  between  him  and 
his  worthy  colleague,  Mr.  Price,  and  with  the  utmost  confi- 
dence resigns  his  charge  entirely  to  his  care.  "  There,"  he 
remarks,  speaking  of  "  that  blessed  book"  from  which  he  had 
so  often  discoursed  to  them,  "  all  my  hopes  of  eternal  life  are 
fixed,  and  in  this  hope  I  trust  all  of  you  will  be  found  walking 
steadfastly  in  the  same  faith,  by  the  same  rule,  till  you  are  at 
length  made  happy  partakers  of  the  same  salvation."  His 
last  work  is  *'  The  Rational  Foundation  of  a  Christian 
Church,"  dated  from  "  Stoke  Newington,  March  25,  1747." 
This  is  designed  to  state  and  enforce  the  nature,  duties,  and 
advantages  of  church  membership,  the  obligations  of  believers 
to  unite  in  particular  societies,  and  the  terms  of  communion  : 
it  contains  also  three  discourses  on  the  pattern  for  a  dissenting 
preacher,  the  office  of  deacons,  and  invitations  to  Christian 
fellowship.  There  is  much  valuable  and  important  matter 
in  this  last  treatise,  which  deserves  to  rank  among  the  best 
of  his  practical  pieces:  it  proves  in  an  able  and  judicious 
manner  the  necessity  and  benefits  of  social  religion;  and 
states  in  a  candid  spirit  those  principles  of  chvu'ch  government 
and  ecclesiastical  discipline  which  the  scriptures  appear  to 
support  either  by  direct  or  inferential  evidence. 

Thus  one  year  and  eight  months  before  his  decease  Dr. 
Watts  terminated  the  toils  of  authorship.  His  time  was  now 
spent  in  devotional  exercises,  occasional  correspondence, 
arranging  his  papers,  and  receiving  the  visits  of  a  few  of  his 
most  intimate  friends.  The  Right  Hon.  Arthur  Onslow, 
Speaker  of  the  House  of  Commons,  who  was  on  terms  of  cour- 
teous intercourse  with  the  leading  dissenting  ministers, 
sought  an  interview  with  him  in  his  decline.     Dr.  Gibbons 


OF    DR.    ISAAC    WATTS.  683 

relates  this  circumstance,  honourable  to  both  parties,  as  fol- 
lows :  "  Not  long  before  his  death,  taking  with  him  Dr.  Jabez 
Earle  and  Dr.  Joseph  Stennett  in  his  coach,  he  made  a  visit 
to  Dr.  Watts  at  Stoke  Newington,  for  the  purpose  of  gratifying 
himself  with  the  sight  of  so  great  and  good  a  man,  whom  he 
held  in  the  highest  esteem,  and,  I  might  truly  say,  above  the 
common  rank  of  mortals.  The  Speaker  declared  to  me,  that 
when  he  saw  him  he  thought  he  saw  a  man  of  God ;  and  in 
the  last  visit  but  one  I  made  Mr.  Onslow,  for  I  had  the  ho- 
nour of  an  intimacy  with  him,  he  mentioned  the  affair  afresh, 
and  devoutly  cried  out,  '  My  soul  where  his  now  is !'  " 


FROM  THE  BISHOP  OF  LONDON. 

"  Whitehall,  March  2,  1745. 
"  Good  Sir, 

"  I  send  this  with  my  sincere  thanks  for  the  valua- 
ble present*  which  I  have  lately  received  from  you.  I  have 
already  perused  part  of  it,  and  find  much  satisfaction  in  ob- 
serving the  true  spirit  of  piety  and  zealous  concern  for  souls 
which  appear  in  every  page.  God  knows  the  present  degene- 
racy and  lukewarmness  among  Christians  stand  in  great  need 
of  such  awakenings  as  to  their  future  state  ;  and  as  it  is  the 
duty  of  us  all,  in  our  several  stations,  to  use  our  best  endea- 
vours for  that  end,  so  I  heartily  wish  and  pray,  that  you  in 
particular,  who  have  it  so  greatly  at  heart,  may  be  blessed 
with  health  and  strength  to  pursue  and  perfect  all  your  de- 
signs in  that  way. 

"  I  am,  Sir, 

"  Your  very  faithful  friend  and  servant, 

"EDM.  LONDON." 

*The  "World  to  Come,"  Second  Part. 


C84  LIFE    AND   TIMES 

FROM    THK    BISHOP    OF    OXFORD. 

"St.  James's,  Westminster,  March  20,  17-45. 
"  Sir, 

"  I  heartily  thank  God  that  he  hath  restored  you  to 
a  better  state  of  health,  and  should  not  have  permitted  your 
letter,  which  brought  me  that  good  news,  to  continue  un- 
answered so  long,  if  more  than  ordinary  business  had  not 
sometimes  put  it  out  of  my  power,  and  sometimes  out  of  my 
thoughts,  to  make  you  my  acknowledgments  for  it.  The 
civilities  for  which  you  thank  me  are  no  more  than  a  very 
imperfect  return  of  justice  for  the  great  services  you  have 
done  to  religion ;  and  you  have  made  a  valuable  addition  to 
them  in  the  book  you  have  now  been  pleased  to  send  me,* 
particularly  by  what  you  have  written  in  so  strong  and  awful, 
yet  so  compassionate  and  good-natured  a  manner,  in  defence 
of  the  scripture  doctrine  concerning  the  duration  of  future 
punishments. 

"  I  pray  God  to  continue  you  long  in  a  capacity  of  being 
still  farther  useful,  and  am  with  great  regard,  Sir, 

"Your  obliged  humble  servant, 

"tho.  oxford." 

from  the  rev.  john  serge ant.f 

"  Stockbridge,  Nov.  8,  1745. 
"  Rev.  Sir, 

"  By  the  favour  of  the  Rev.  Dr.  Colman  of  Boston 
I  was  some  months  ago  informed,  that  by  your  kind  and  cha- 
ritable interposition  a  collection  of  money  was  put  into  his 

*  The  "  World  to  Come,"  Second  Part, 
f  Mr.  Sergeant  was  long  employed  as  a  missionary  among  the  Indians,  under  the 
patronage  of  the  Society  in  Scotland  for  promoting  Christian  Knowledge,  and  the 
Coi-poration  of  Harvard  College.   At  Stockbridge,  the  seat  of  his  labours,  his  minis- 


OF    DR.    ISAAC    WATTS.  685 

hands,  to  forward  the  design  of  a  more  effectual  method  of 
educating-  the  Indian  children,  which  instance  of  your  benefi- 
cence, though  late,  I  now  acknowledge  with  great  pleasure 
and  thankfulness.  From  the  too  little  success  of  the  ordinary 
means  of  instruction  and  cultivation,  the  necessity  of  some 
such  method  appears  more  and  more  every  day.  The  most 
promising  hopes  we  have  are  frequently  blasted,  and  national 
ill  habits  still  prevail  against  all  the  opposition  we  can  make, 
and  the  rising  generation  too  easily  learn  to  tread  in  the 
wrong  steps  of  those  who  go  before  them.  All  their  seeming 
repentance  and  resolutions  of  amendment  are  weak  and  inef- 
fectual, and  rarely  sufficient  to  withstand  the  force  of  national 
custom  and  too  general  example.  Where  idleness  is  a  national 
habit,  vice  in  every  shape,  it  is  to  be  feared,  will  always 
prevail  with  fatal  success.  The  grace  of  God  can  indeed 
overcome  all  opposition,  and  without  his  blessing  the  best 
means  will  prove  ineffectual;  but  yet  the  means  are  to  be 
used,  and  it  is  a  divine  observation,  '  Train  up  a  child  in  the 
way  he  should  go,  and  when  he  is  old  he  will  not  depart  from 
it;'  and  in  universal  experience  it  is  found,  that  open  and 
scandalous  wickedness  will  be  predominant  where  national 
customs  are  not  corrected  by  early  discipline.     The  truth  is, 

try  was  particularly  useful.  One  of  the  young  Indians  he  had  instructed,  named 
John  Wauwaumpequunuauut,  acted  for  some  time  as  Brainerd's  interpreter.  In  the 
journal  of  that  indefatigable  man  Mr.  Sergeant  is  frequently  mentioned.  They 
.studied  the  Indian  tongue  together,  Kaunaumeek,  where  Braineid  was  stationed, 
being  only  twenty  miles  from  Stockbridge.  Upon  his  removal  to  the  Forks  of  the 
Delaware,  his  Indians  left  their  settlement  to  be  under  Mr.  Sergeant's  care, 
"Spent  some  time,"  says  he  in  his  journal,  "in  visiting  friends,  and  discoursing 
with  my  people  (who  were  now  moved  down  from  their  own  place  to  Mr.  Ser- 
geant's), and  found  them  very  glad  to  see  me  returned.  Was  exercised  in  my 
mind  with  a  sense  of  my  own  unworthiness. 

"Lord's  Day,  April  29th.  Preached  for  Mr.  Sergeant  both  parts  of  the  day, 
from  Rev.  xiv.  4.  These  are  they  whieh  were  not  defiled,  A'c.  Enjoyed  some 
freedom  in  preaching,  though  not  much  spirituality.  In  the  evening  my  heart 
was  in  some  measure  lifted  up  iu  thankfulness  to  God  for  any  assistance."  There 
is  a  letter  from  President  Edwards  to  the  Honourable  Thomas  Hubbard  of  Boston, 
relative  to  the  Indian  school  at  Stockbridge,  printed  in  the  Collections  of  the  Mass. 
Historical  Societ}'^,  x.  142 — 1.54. 


686  T.Il'K    AM)    TIMKS 

we  seem  to  labour  almost  in  vain,  unless  we  can  have  the 
entire  framing  of  their  young  ones  in  a  well-ordered  school, 
where  industry  and  a  regular  manner  of  life  may,  by  ex- 
ercise as  well  as  instruction,  be  made  habitual.  Nor  is  it 
easy  for  those  who  converse  only  with  the  politer  part  of 
mankind  to  form  any  just  notion  of  the  degeneracy  of  those 
who  are  brought  up  in  the  wild  woods,  and  seem  to  learn 
their  manners  from  the  beasts  they  hunt  in  the  forests. 

"As  the  design  I  have  proposed  is  disinterested  in  its  inten- 
tion, I  hope  it  appears  so  to  the  world,  and  that  in  due  time 
that  gracious  Providence  which  provides  for  all  will  give  it 
effect.  Your  kind  notice  of  it  and  encouragement  to  it  is  a  good 
omen  of  success.  Your  former  beneficence  has  not  I  hope 
been  without  some  good  effect.  Your  Catechisms  are  taught 
among  us,  and  have  learned  to  speak  Indian. 

"I  long  to  see  this  proposed  method  of  education  put  into 
execution.  Till  that  is  done  we  have  but  a  dull  prospect  of 
success  in  all  wo  can  do  for  so  wild  and  wandering  a  people. 
It  would,  I  believe,  meet  with  some  encouragement  in  these 
parts  if  the  wars  were  happily  ended.  In  the  present  situa- 
tion of  affairs  it  is  not  thought  adviseablc  to  expend  any 
money,  if  we  had  enough  to  lay  a  foundation.  If  matters 
may  so  be  prepared  now  that  we  may  be  ready  to  enter  upon 
the  execution  of  this  design,  as  soon  as  it  may  be  thought 
convenient  and  safe  to  do  it,  it  will  be  a  great  satisfiiction  to 
me.  Indeed  we  seem  to  gain  ground  so  slowly  in  the  present 
method,  that  my  resolution  sometimes  almost  fails  me,  for  the 
expense  and  pains  of  their  conversion  seem  almost  labour  lost, 
so  ineffectual  their  repentance  and  resolutions  have  hitherto 
appeared.  Of  some  few  indeed,  I  thank  God,  I  hope  better 
things.  Towards  them  all  it  is  my  heart's  desire  and  prayer 
to  God,  that  they  may  be  saved,  and  my  constant  grief  that 
there  are  no  more  of  whom  I  can  hope  well ;  and  if  the  method 
proposed  for  their  better  education  (if  ever  it  be  put  into  exe- 
cution) does  not  prove  more  effectual,  we  must  I  think  con- 


OF    DR.    ISAAC    WATTS.  (587 

elude  this  people  to  be  under  some  strange  and  awful  curse  of 
heaven ;  but  till  we  have  tried  all  that  is  in  the  power  of  hu- 
man means  to  do,  we  ought  not  perhaps  to  desert  them  as  in- 
corrigible. If  it  shall  please  the  great  Saviour  of  the  world 
to  make  me  instrumental  to  bring  them  into  the  fellowship 
of  the  saints,  and  to  the  fulness  of  the  stature  of  perfect  men 
in  Christ,  I  shall  esteem  myself  both  honoured  and  happy. 

"As  your  piety  has  already  moved  you  to  do  something  for 
us,  I  hope  in  the  midst  of  your  other  concerns  you  will  still 
remember  this  affair,  and,  as  you  have  opportunity,  recom- 
mend it  to  the  notice  and  countenance  of  gentlemen  of  for- 
tune and  piety. 

"I  heartily  congratulate  you,  or  the  world  rather,  upon  the 
recovery  of  your  health,  so  as  not  to  be  only  able  to  preach, 
but  to  prepare  and  put  things  to  the  press,  which  I  hope  will 
be  the  means,  by  the  blessing  of  God,  to  propagate  that  piety, 
goodness,  and  candour,  which  appear  with  so  amiable  a  lustre 
in  your  writings,  from  which  (I  speak  it  with  thankfulness 
to  God,  and  to  you  his  instrument)  I  myself  and  many  others 
have  reaped  so  much  benefit.  When  I  hear  of  any  thing  of 
Dr.  Watts's  coming  abroad,  I  am  impatient  till  I  have  read 
it :  nor  will  you,  I  hope,  account  it  a  flattery  that  I  say  with 
many  others,  that  I  never  read  any  thing  of  yours  without 
being  made  wiser  and  I  hope  better.  That  candour  which 
shines  in  your  writings  is  extremely  wanted  in  this  day,  at 
least  in  this  part  of  the  world  ;  and,  though  I  compliment 
myself  in  saying  it,  it  is  what  gives  me  a  peculiar  relish  for 
your  books,  that  with  the  strongest  sentiments  of  piety  to 
God  there  is  always  joined  the  most  extensive  cliaiity  to  men, 
and  an  happy  freedom  from  the  bigotry  of  party  opinions, 
two  things  I  hardly  know  how  to  separate  from  the  notion  of 
a  truly  Christian  temper.  I  earnestly  recommend  myself  to 
your  prayers,  and  am  with  great  respect 

"Your  most  obliged  humble  servant, 

"JOHN  SERGEANT." 


688  LIFE    AND    TIMES 

N. B.     On  the  outside  of  this  letter  there  is  the  following: 

"  Sir, 

"Two  or  three  days  past  I  wrote  to  you.  This  I 
cover  from  Mr.  Sergeant,  and  it  breathes  his  pious  soul,  and 
will  increase  your  esteem  of  him,  as  it  does  mine. 

"  Your  affectionate  brother  and  servant, 

"benjamin  colman." 

from  the  bishor  of  london. 

"Whitehall,  Nov.  29,  1745. 
"  Good  Sir, 

"I  am  obliged  to  you  for  your  favourable  accept- 
ance of  my  Pastoral  Letter.  The  two  things  that  may  be 
fairly  pleaded  in  its  favour  are,  that  it  was  seasonable  and 
w'ell  meant. 

"  If  it  please  God  to  deliver  us  once  more  from  the  terrible 
judgment  of  popery,  there  will  be  a  necessity  of  reviewing 
the  laws  against  it,  and  removing  all  appearances  of  rigour 
beyond  what  is  apparently  necessary  to  our  own  future  pre- 
servation. And  when  that  is  done,  I  think  it  may  be  very 
right  to  enjoin  the  publication  of  them  in  the  way  you  men- 
tion. At  the  same  time,  it  will  be  highly  fit  to  oblige  papists 
to  renounce  all  such  principles  as  are  destructive  of  civil 
society  and  of  the  government  under  which  they  live. 

"I  heartily  wish  you  abetter  state  of  health;  and,  consi- 
dering the  great  good  you  are  doing  out  of  the  pulpit,  you 
may  very  well  excuse  yourself  from  going  into  it,  under  a 
decay  of  strength,  and  with  evident  prejudice  to  your  health. 
I  am  with  great  truth, 
"Sir, 

"  Your  faithful  friend  and  servant, 

"EDM.    LONDON." 


Ol<'    DR.    ISAAC    AVATTS.  689 

TO   THE    KEV.   PHILIP    DODDRIDGE,    D.D. 

"Stoke  Newiugton,  Dec.  14,  1745. 
"  Dear  Sir, 

"I  do  not  remember  that  I  have  yet  given  you 
thanks  for  your  Ordination  Sermon  at  Norwich,  with  the 
charge  given  to  Mr.  Tozer,*  both  of  which  are  very  pleasing 
to  me;  and  also  the  guard  which  you  give  to  Mr.  Tozer 
against  pernicious  errors,  though  you  express  it,  perhaps,  too 
tenderly.  I  am  again  engaged  to  thank  you  for  your  funeral 
sermon  for  the  brave  Colonel  Gardiner;  but  you  give  me  hopes 
to  see  a  much  larger  account  of  that  great  and  good  man's  life 
and  conduct. 

"  I  would  hope  the  rebellion  is  near  to  its  end ;  and  every 
day  we  expect  some  decisive  stroke. 

"  I  should  be  glad  if  I  could  inform  you  of  my  better 
health,  for  I  cannot  yet  read  or  write  but  in  a  very  imperfect 
manner.  May  God  long  preserve  your  great  usefulness, 
though  I  cannot  but  fear  your  accepting  too  many  trusts  will 
too  much  embarrass  you,  without  a  proportionable  advantage. 

"  May  the  wisdom  and  grace  of  God  be  ever  with  you,  is 
the  hearty  prayer  of.  Sir, 

"Your  affectionate  brother  and  humble  servant, 

"  I.  WATTS." 
FROM  THE  COUNTESS  OF  HERTFORD. 

"Percy  Lodge,  Nov.  15,  1747. 
"Reverend  Sir, 

"  The  last  time  I  troubled  you  with  a  letter,  was  to 
return  you  thanks  for  your  book  on  '  The  Glory  of  Christ,'  a 
subject  which  can  never  be  exhausted,  or  ever  thought  of  with- 

*  Ordained  co  pastor  with  the  Rev.  Thos.  Scott  over  a  congregatioual  church  in 
Norwich  in  June,  1745. 


690  LIFE    AND    TIMES 

out  calling  for  all  the  praise  which  our  hearts  are  capable  of  in 
our  present  imperfect  state.  My  gratitude  to  you  is  again 
awakened  by  the  obligation  I  am  under  (and,  indeed,  the 
whole  Christian  church)  to  you  for  giving  Dr.  Doddridge  the 
plan,  and  engaging  him  to  write  his  excellent  book  of  the 
'Rise  and  Progress  of  Religion  in  the  Soul.'  I  have  read  it 
with  the  utmost  attention  and  pleasure,  and  I  would  hope 
with  some  advantage  to  myself,  unless  I  should  be  so  un- 
happy as  to  find  the  impression  it  has  made  on  my  heart  wear 
off  like  the  morning  dew  which  passeth  away,  which  God  in 
his  mercy  avert. 

"If  you  have  a  correspondence  with  him,  I  could  wish 
you  would  convey  my  thanks  to  him,  and  the  assurance  that  I 
shall  frequently  remember  him  in  my  humble  (though  weak) 
addresses  to  the  throne  of  Almighty  Grace  (and  which  I 
know  myself  unworthy  to  look  up  to  any  otherwise  than 
through  the  merits  and  sufferings  of  our  blessed  Saviour), 
that  he  may  go  on  to  spread  the  knowledge  and  practice  of 
his  doctrine,  and  that  he  may  add  numbers  to  the  church, 
and  finally  hear  those  blessed  words,  '  Well  done,  thou  good 
and  faithful  servant,  enter  thou  into  thy  Master's  joy.' 

"I  cannot  help  mentioning  to  you  the  manner  of  this  book 
falling  into  my  hands,  as  I  think  there  was  something  provi- 
dential in  it.  About  four  months  ago  my  poor  Lord  had  so 
totally  lost  his  appetite,  that  his  physician  thought  it  neces- 
sary for  him  to  go  to  Bath.  I  was  not  a  moment  in  doubt 
whether  I  should  attend  him  there,  because  I  knew  it  was 
my  duty,  and  besides  I  could  not  have  been  easy  to  be  absent 
when  1  hoped  my  care  might  be  of  some  use ;  yet  I  under- 
took the  journey  with  a  weight  upon  my  spirits,  and  a 
reluctance  which  is  not  to  be  described,  though  I  concealed 
it  from  him.     Since  the  (jreat  affWction^'  with  which  it  pleased 

*  The  Countess  appears  to  liave  felt  severely  tlie  death  of  her  son,  to  which  she 
here  refers.  When  Duchess  of  Somerset  she  speaks  of  him  in  a  letter,  dated  l7o4, 
as  "promising  all  that  the  fondest  wishes  of  the  fondest  parents  could  hope;  an 


OF  DR.  ISAAC  WATTS.  691 

Almighty  God  to  visit  me  by  the  death  of  a  most  vahiable 
and  only  son,  I  found  myself  happiest  in  almost  an  entire 
retreat  from  the  world ;  and  being-  of  a  sudden  called  into  a 
place  where  I  remembered  to  have  seen  the  utmost  of  its 
hurry  and  vanity  exerted,  terrified  my  imagination  to  the  last 
degree,  and  I  shed  tears  every  time  I  was  alone  at  the 
thoughts  of  what  I  expected  to  encounter ;  yet  this  dreaded 
change  has,  by  the  goodness  of  God,  proved  one  of  the  happi- 
est periods  in  my  life,  and  I  can  look  back  upon  no  part  of  it 
with  greater  thankfulness  and  satisfaction.  I  had  the  comfort 
to  see  my  Lord  Hertford  recovering  his  health  by  the  use  of 
those  waters  as  fast  as  I  could  hope  for.  I  found  it  was  no 
longer  necessary  (as  formerly,  to  avoid  giving  offence)  to  be 
always  or  frequently  in  company ;  I  enjoyed  the  conversation 
of  two  worthy  old  friends  whom  I  did  not  expect  to  meet 

honour  to  his  family,  au  ornament  to  his  country ;  with  a  heart  early  attaclied  to 
all  the  duties  of  religion  and  society ;  with  the  advantage  of  strong  and  unin- 
terrupted health  joined  to  a  form  which,  when  he  came  into  Italy,  made  him  more 
generally  known  by  the  name  of  the  'English  angel'  than  by  that  of  his  family.  1 
know  this  account  may  look  like  a  mother's  fondness  ;  perhaps  it  was  too  much 
so  once;  but,  alas!  it  now  only  serves  to  show  the  uncertainty  and  frailty  of  all 
human  dependence.  This  justly  beloved  child  was  snatched  fiom  us  before  we 
could  hear  of  his  illness  :  that  fatal  disease,  the  smallpox,  seized  him  at  Bologna, 
and  carried  him  oft' the  evening  of  his  birth  day,  Sept.  11,  1741,  on  which  he  had 
completed  nineteen  years.  Two  posts  before  I  had  a  letter  from  him,  written  with 
all  the  life  and  innocent  cheerfulness  inherent  to  his  nature  ;  the  next  but  one 
came  from  his  afflicted  governor,  to  acquaint  his  unhappy  father  that  he  had  lost 
the  most  dutiful  and  best  of  sons,  the  pride  and  hope  of  his  declining  age.  He 
bore  the  stroke  like  a  wise  man  and  a  Christian,  but  never  forgot  nor  ceased  to  sigh 
for  it.  A  long  series  of  pain  and  infirmity,  which  was  daily  gaining  ground,  showed 
me  the  sword  which  appeared  suspended  over  my  head  by  an  almost  cobweb  thread 
long  before  it  dropped."  Alluding  to  the  death  of  both  her  husband  and  son, 
she  observes,  writing  to  Lady  I.uxborough,  Sept.  9,  I7i>0,  "You  are  very  obli- 
ging in  the  concern  you  express  for  the  scenes  of  sorrow  I  have  passed  through. 
I  have  indeed  suiibrtd  deeply;  but,  when  I  consider  it  is  the  will  of  God,  who 
never  chastises  his  poor  creatures  but  for  their  good,  aud  reflect  at  the  same  time 
how  unworthy  I  was  of  these  blessings  which  1  now  lament  the  loss  of,  I  lay  my 
hand  upon  my  mouth,  and  dare  not  repine,  but  hope  I  can  with  truth  appeal  to 
him  in  the  following  words :  Questo  atiano  ei  su  che,  nou  si  oppone  al  suo  santo 
voler  :  ch'io  gemo  e  gli  offero  tutti  i  gemiti  miei  ch'io  rango  et  in  tanto  benedico  il 
suonome  in  mezzo  del'  pianto."  "Such  sorrow  is  sent  that  none  may  oppose  his 
holy  will.  Let  me  sigh,  and  offer  up  all  my  sighs  to  him  !  Let  me  mourn,  aud  iu 
the  mean  time  bless  his  name  in  the  midst  of  my  sorrow  !" 


692  LIFE    AND    TIMES 

there ;  and  had  an  opportunity  of  renewing  my  acquaintance 
with  Lady  Huntingdon,  and  admiring  that  truly  Christian 
spirit  which  seems  to  animate  the  whole  course  of  her  life  ; 
and  as  I  seldom  went  out  I  read  a  great  deal,  and  Frederick, 
the  bookseller,  used  to  send  the  new  books  which  he  received 
on  the  wagon  nights,  of  which  I  kept  what  I  chose,  and  sent 
back  the  rest.  One  night  he  sent  me  an  account  of  some  re- 
markable passages  relating  to  the  Life  of  Colonel  Gardiner; 
as  I  had  known  this  gentleman  in  his  unconverted  state,  and 
often  heard  with  admiration  the  sudden  and  thorough  change 
of  his  conduct  for  many  years,  it  gave  me  a  curiosity  to  read  a 
book  which  seemed  to  promise  me  some  information  upon  that 
subject.  I  was  so  touched  with  the  account  given  of  it,  that 
I  could  not  help  speaking  of  it  to  almost  every  body  I  saw ; 
among  others,  the  dowager  Lady  Hyndford  came  to  make  me 
a  visit  in  the  morning,  and  as  I  knew  she  was  of  his  country, 
and  had  lived  much  in  it,  I  began  to  talk  to  her  of  the  book, 
and  happened  to  name  the  author.  Upon  which  she  said  she 
would  believe  whatever  he  wrote,  for  he  was  a  truly  good 
man,  and  had  wrote  upon  the  *  Rise  and  Progress  of  Religion 
in  the  Soul,'  in  a  manner  which  she  was  sure  would  please 
me.  She  gave  me  the  title  in  writing,  and  I  bought  the  book 
the  day  before  I  left  Bath.  I  have  now  been  at  home  three 
weeks,  and  have  already  had  the  pleasure  to  engage  several 
others  to  read  it,  who  1  hope  will  think  of  it  as  I  do.  I  would 
not  wish  to  trouble  you  to  write  to  me  yourself,  but  a  letter 
from  your  amanuensis  to  let  me  know  how  you  enjoy  your 
health,  and  whether  you  arc  still  carrying  on  some  work  of 
your  pen,  to  the  glory  of  our  great  Master,  w^ould  be  a  very 
sincere  pleasure  to  me.  Let  me  beg  to  be  remembered  in 
your  prayers,  for  I  am  every  day  more  sensible  of  the  imper- 
fection of  my  own,  and  yet  I  hope  my  heart  is  sincere  in  its 
desire  that  it  may  be  brought  to  a  perfect  conformity  and  sub- 
mission to  the  will  of  my  heavenly  Father. 

"  My  Lord  Hertford  always  mentions  you  with  regard,  and 


OF    DR.    ISAAC    WATTS.  693 

will  be  glad  of  your  acceptance  of  the  assurance  of  his  friend- 
ship. 

"  I  am,  with  an  aifectionate  esteem,  Sir, 

"  Your  most  faithful  and  obliged  humble  servant, 

"  HERTFORD." 


FROM  THE  SAME. 

"Percy  Lodge,  Dec.  3,  1747. 
"  Sir, 

"  I  have  received  the  valuable  book*  you  was  so 
good  as  to  send  me,  and  though  I  have  from  some  necessary 
interruptions  been  able  to  read  only  about  half  of  it,  I  am  so 
much  pleased  with  those  admirable  discourses,  that  I  cannot 
be  easy  any  longer  to  defer  my  sincere  thanks  for  the  satisfac- 
tion I  have  already  received  from  them. 

"  It  is  much  to  be  lamented  that  the  modern  preachers  in 
our  church  indulge  themselves  and  their  hearers  with  cold, 
though  well-penned,  essays  of  morality,  as  it  were  forgetting 
that  the  only  anchor  of  our  salvation  is  the  merits  of  Jesus 
Christ,  who  laid  down  his  life  to  redeem  us  from  the  slavery 
of  sin  and  Satan.  It  is  by  this  fashionable  way  of  preaching 
that  I  am  afraid  many  serious  people  are  led  into  the  unhappy 
mistake  of  trusting  to  their  own  righteousness,  and  find  it  a 
hard  lesson  to  rank  themselves  with  the  sinners  of  this  world. 

"  My  Lord  desires  to  assure  you  of  his  sincere  regards,  and 
I  am  with  the  most  cordial  esteem  and  gratitude,  Sir, 

*'  Your  most  obliged  and  faithful  humble  servant, 

"F.  HERTFORD. 

*'  Sir  Hugh  Smithson  and  Lady  Betty  have  been  in  town 
some  time,  but  I  will  let  them  know  your  kind  remembrance 
of  them." 

*  The  "  Evangelical  Discourses." 


G94  LIFE    AND    TJMES 

FROM  THE  REV.  JAMES  HERVEY. 

"  Weston  Favell,  Dec.  10,  1747. 
"  Rev,  and  dear  Sir, 

*'  Pardon  me  if  I  take  leave  to  interrupt  your  impor- 
tant studies  for  the  j^ood  of  mankind,  or  suspend  for  one  mo- 
ment your  delightful  communion  with  the  blessed  God.  I 
cannot  excuse  myself  without  expressing  my  gratitude  for  the 
present  by  your  order  lately  transmitted  from  your  bookseller,* 
which  I  shall  always  value,  not  only  for  its  instructive  con- 
tents, but  in  a  very  peculiar  manner  for  the  sake  of  the  author 
and  giver. 

"  To  tell  you,  worthy  Doctor,  that  your  works  have  long 
been  my  delight  and  study,  the  favourite  pattern  by  which  I 
would  form  my  conduct  and  model  ray  style,  would  be  only 
to  echo  back  in  the  faintest  accents  what  sounds  in  the  gene- 
ral voice  of  the  nation.  Among  other  of  your  edifying  com- 
positions I  have  reason  to  thank  you  for  your  Sacred  Songs, 
which  I  have  introduced  into  the  service  of  my  church  ;  so 
that  in  the  solemnities  of  the  sabbath,  and  in  a  lecture  on  the 
week-day,  your  muse  lights  up  the  incense  of  our  praise,  and 
furnishes  our  devotions  with  harmony. 

"  Our  excellent  friend,  Dr.  Doddridge,  informs  me  of  the 
infirm  condition  of  your  health,  for  which  reason  I  humbly 
beseech  the  Father  of  Spirits,  and  the  God  of  our  life,  to  re- 
new your  strength  as  the  eagle's,  and  to  recruit  a  lamp  that 
has  shone  with  distinguished  lustre  in  his  sanctuary ;  or,  if 
this  may  not  consist  with  the  counsels  of  unerring  wisdom,  to 
make  all  your  bed  in  your  languishing,  softly  to  untie  the 
cords  of  animal  existence,  and  enable  your  dislodging  soul  to 
pass  triumphantly  through  the  valley  of  death,  leaning  on  your 
beloved  Jesus  and  rejoicing  in  the  greatness  of  his  salvation. 

*The  Discourses  "  On  the  Glory  of  Christ,  as  God-Man." 


OF    DR.    ISAAC    WATTS.  695 

"  You  have  a  multitude  of  names  to  bear  on  your  breast, 
and  mention  with  your  hps,  when  you  approach  the  throne 
of  grace  in  the  beneficent  exercise  of  intercession;  but  none  I 
am  sure  has  more  need  of  such  an  interest  in  your  supplica- 
tions, none  I  believe  can  more  highly  esteem  it,  or  more  ear- 
nestly desire  it,  than,  dear  Sir, 

*'  Your  obliged  and  affectionate  humble  servant, 

"JAMES  HERVEY." 


GOG  LIFE    AND   TIMES 


CHAPTER  XVIII. 

1748. 
DEATH  AND  CHARACTER. 


STATE  OF  MIND.  —  REMARKS  OF  DR.  GIBBONS.  — CONVERSATION  WITH 
LADY  ABNEY,  MR.  PARKER,  AND  DR.  STENNET.  — REPORTED  INTER- 
VIEW WITH  MR.  WHITFIELD  FALSE.  — THE  AUTUMN  OF  1748.  — MR. 
PARKER'S  LETTER  TO  DR.  DODDRIDGE:  — TO  MR.  ENOCH  WATTS.— 
VARIOUS  PARTICULARS.  — DEATH  OF  DR.  WATTS.  — FUNERAL  IN  BUN- 
HILL  FIELDS:— ORATION  BY  DR.  CHANDLER.— DR.  GROSVENOR.— MONU- 
MENTAL INSCRIPTION.  — FUNERAL  SERMON  BY  DR.  JENNINGS.  — PER- 
SONAL APPEARANCE:  — ANECDOTE.— CHARACTER  AS  A  WRITER:— DR. 
JOHNSON'S  ESTIMATE.-CHARACTER  AS  A  PREACHER :— SUPERIOR  TO 
DR.  FOSTER.  — USEFUL  TO  HIS  FATHER'S  SERVANT.  — HIS  CONVERSA- 
TION—HIS PERSONAL  CHARACTER.  — REMARKS  OF  DR.  KNOX:  — DR. 
JOHN  MILNER.  — LINES  BY  REV.  MOSES  BROWNE  AND  REV.  BENJAMIN 
SOWDEN. 


The  closing  scene  of  Dr.  Watts's  life  was  worthy  of  his 
long  and  honourable  career.  While  he  exhibited  the  sus- 
taining influence  of  religion  by  his  patient  submission  to 
painful  chastisement,  he  exemplified  its  sublime  and  exhila- 
rating hopes  by  his  joyful  confidence  in  the  prospect  of  death. 
As  his  day  was  eminently  bright  and  useful,  so  the  evening 
was  remarkably  serene  and  happy.  With  a  mind  perfectly 
composed  he  contemplated  his  approaching  dissolution ;  with- 
out the  least  anxiety  he  conversed  about  the  event  to  those 
around  him,  and  calmly  awaited  the  stroke  that  might  be 
daily  expected.  In  "  full  age  and  hoary  holiness"  he  was 
ripe  for  the  tomb  and  ready  for  the  skies. 

"  I  never  could  discover,"  says  Dr.  Gibbons,  "  though  I 
was  frequently  with  him,  the  legist  shadow  of  a  doubt  as  to  his 


OF    DR.    ISAAC    WATTS. 

futuve  everlasting  happiness,  or  any  thing  that  looked  like  an 
unwillingness  to  die.  How  have  I  known  him  recite  with  a 
self-application  those  words  in  Heb.  x.  36;  'Ye  have  need 
of  patience,  that  after  ye  have  done  the  will  of  God  ye  may 
receive  the  promise  !'  And  how  have  I  heard  him,  upon 
leaving  the  family  after  supper  and  withdrawing  to  rest,  de- 
clare with  the  sweetest  composure,  that  if  his  Master  were  to 
say  to  him  he  had  no  more  work  for  him  to  do,  he  should  be 
glad  to  be  dismissed  that  night !  I  once  heard  him  say,"  he 
remarks  further,  "  with  a  kind  of  impatience,  perhaps  such  as 
might  in  some  degree  trespass  upon  that  submission  we  ought 
at  all  times  to  pay  to  the  divine  will,  '  I  wonder  why  the 
great  God  should  continue  me  in  life,  when  I  am  incapable 
of  performing  him  any  further  service.'  "*  The  exhaustion 
of  his  animal  spirits  might  prompt  such  an  expression  of 
feeling  as  this ;  but  notwithstanding,  Dr.  Jennings  observes 
in  his  funeral  sermon,  "  the  active  and  sprightly  powers  of 
his  nature  failed  him  for  two  or  three  years  before  his  decease, 
his  trust  in  God  through  Jesus  the  Mediator  remained  unsha- 
ken to  the  last."t 

To  Lady  Abney  and  the  members  of  the  family  he  would 
frequently  say,  "  I  bless  God  I  can  lie  down  with  comfort  at 
night,  not  being  solicitous  whether  I  awake  in  this  world  or 
another."  And  again,  "  I  should  be  glad  to  read  more,  yet 
not  in  order  to  be  confirmed  more  in  the  truth  of  the  Christian 
religion,  or  in  the  truth  of  its  promises,  for  I  believe  them 
enough  to  venture  an  eternity  on  them."  When  he  was  almost 
worn  out  and  broken  down  by  his  infirmities  he  observed,  in 
conversation  with  a  friend,  that  he  remembered  an  aged  mi- 
nister used  to  say,  that  the  most  learned  and  knowing  Chris- 
tians, when  they  come  to  die,  have  only  the  same  plain  promi- 
ses of  the  gospel  for  their  support,  as  the  common  and  unlearned; 
"  and  so,"  said  he,  "  I  find  it.     They  are  the  plain  promises  of 


*  Gibbons's  Life.  f  Jennings's  Sermon,  p.  33. 

Y  y 


098  LIFE    AND   TIMES 

the  gospel  which  are  my  support,  and  I  bless  God  they  are 
plain  promises,  which  do  not  require  much  labour  or  pains  to 
understand  them ;  for  I  can  do  nothing  now  but  look  into  my 
bible  for  some  promise  to  support  me,  and  live  upon  that." 
When  he  found  his  spirit  tending  to  impatience,  and  ready 
to  complain,  he  would  thus  check  himself:  "The  business 
of  a  Christian  is  to  bear  the  will  of  God  as  well  as  to  do  it.  If 
I  were  in  health  I  could  only  be  doing  that,  and  that  I  may 
do  now.  The  best  thing  in  obedience  is  a  regard  to  the  will 
of  God,  and  the  way  to  that  is  to  get  our  inclinations  and 
aversions  as  much  mortified  as  we  can."  The  following  ex- 
pressions were  minuted  down  by  Mr.  Parker  from  his  lips : 
"  I  would  be  waiting  to  see  what  God  will  do  with  me.  It  is 
good  to  say  as  Mr.  Baxter,  '  What,  when,  and  where  God 
pleases.'  If  God  should  raise  me  up  again  I  may  finish  some 
more  of  my  papers,  or  God  can  make  use  of  me  to  save  a  soul, 
and  that  will  be  worth  living  for.  If  God  has  no  more  ser- 
vice for  me  to  do,  through  grace,  I  am  ready.  It  is  a  great 
mercy  to  me  that  I  have  no  manner  of  fear  or  dread  of  death  : 
I  could,  if  God  please,  lay  my  head  back  and  die  without  ter- 
ror, this  afternoon  or  night.  My  chief  supports  are  from  my 
view  of  eternal  things,  and  the  iuterest  I  have  in  them :  I 
trust  all  my  sins  are  pardoned  through  the  blood  of  Christ.  I 
have  no  fear  of  dying;  it  would  be  my  greatest  comfort  to  lie 
down  and  sleep  and  wake  no  more." 

Dr.  Stennett  called  upon  him  a  few  months  before  his  death, 
when  his  discourse  was  most  devout  and  heavenly,  and  he  par- 
ticularly spoke  of  our  dependence  on  Christ,  observing,  that 
"if  we  parted  with  him  what  would  become  of  our  hopes.''" 
About  the  same  time,  or  nearer  his  dissolution,  Dr.  Gibbons 
came  into  his  study,  found  him  alone,  and  sat  down  for  con- 
versation with  him.  With  high  pleasure  he  spoke  concerning 
the  scripture  method  of  salvation.  Not  a  word  did  he  say  of 
what  he  had  been  or  had  done  in  life,  but  his  soul  seemed  to 
be  swallowed  up  with  gratitude  and  joy  for  the  redemption  of 


OF   DR.    ISAAC    WATTS.  699 

sinners  by  Jesus  Christ.  "  I  have  reason  to  regret,"  he  states, 
"  that,  upon  leaving  his  company,  I  did  not  commit  to  writing 
the  very  words  in  which  he  expressed  himself,  but  my  recol- 
lection sufficiently  serves  me  to  authenticate  this  anecdote ;  and, 
perhaps,  in  all  his  days  he  was  never  in  a  frame  of  mind  in 
which  he  more  fully  answered  the  description  of  the  apostle 
Peter,  when  he  says,  referring  to  our  Lord  Jesus  Christ  (1  Pet. 
i.  8),  '  Whom,  having  not  seen,  ye  love ;  in  whom,  though 
now  ye  see  him  not,  yet  believing,  ye  rejoice  with  joy  un- 
speakable and  full  of  glory.'  " 

When  confined  to  his  room,  no  more  to  leave  it  but  for  the 
grave.  Dr.  Gibbons,  who  visited  him,  relates,  "  I  found  him 
exceedingly  weak  and  low,  the  lamp  of  life  very  feebly  glim- 
mering in  its  last  decay,  but  he  was  still  in  the  perfect  pos- 
session of  his  understanding.  He  told  me,  in  answer  to  my 
inquiry  whether  he  had  any  pain  in  his  body,  that  he  had 
none,  and  acknowledged  it  as  a  great  mercy.  To  my  second 
question,  how  it  was  with  his  soul,  whether  all  was  comfortable 
there,  he  replied,  it  was,  and  confessed  it  to  be  a  great  mercy."* 

The  autumn  of  1 748  found  him  reduced  to  a  state  of  great 

*  There  is  a  relation  in  Toplady's  Narrative,  concerning  the  last  hours  of  Dr. 
Watts,  which  Dr.  Gibbons  pronounces  a  fabulous  story.  It  is  to  tiie  eftect,  that 
"little  more  than  half  an  hour  before  Dr.  Watts  expired  he  was  visited  by  his  dear 
friend,  Mr.  Whitfield.  The  latter  asking  him  how  he  found  himself,  the  dying 
Doctor  answered,  '  Here  am  I,  one  of  Christ's  waiting  servants.'  Soon  after 
a  medicine  was  brought  in,  and  Mr.  Whitfield  assisted  in  raising  him  up  upon 
the  bed,  that  he  might  with  more  conveniency  take  the  draught.  On  the  Doctor's 
apologising  for  the  trouble  he  gave  Mr.  Whitfield,  the  latter  replied  with  his 
usual  amiable  politeness,  'Surely,  my  dear  brother,  I  am  not  too  good  to  wait  on  a 
waiting  servant  of  Christ.'  Soon  after  Mr.  Whitfield  took  his  leave,  and  often 
regretted  since  that  he  had  not  prolonged  his  visit,  which  he  would  certainly  have 
done  could  he  have  foreseen  that  his  friend  was  but  within  half  an  hour's  distance 
from  the  kingdom  of  glory."  "The  whole  of  tiiis  story,"  says  Gibbons,  "is  fictitious; 
for  Mr.  Whitfield  never  visited  the  Doctor  in  his  last  illness  or  confinement,  nor 
had  any  conversation  or  interview  with  him  for  some  months  before  his  decease. 
It  were  to  be  wished  that  greater  care  was  practised  by  the  writers  of  other  persons' 
lives,  that  illusions  might  not  take  place  and  obtain  the  regards  of  truth,  and 
lay  historians  who  come  after  them  under  the  unpieasing  necessity  of  dissolving 
their  figments,  and  thereby  in  consequence  evincing  to  the  world  how  little  credit 
is  due  to  their  relations." 


700  LIFE    AND   TIMES 

feebleness,  accompanied  with  much  pain  of  body.  His  last 
illness  commenced  in  the  early  part  of  November,  and  confin- 
ed him  to  his  chamber  for  about  three  weeks.  During  this 
period  he  was  able  to  sit  up  almost  every  day  three  or  four 
hours,  but  had  only  strength  to  express  himself  at  intervals. 
Lady  Abney  and  Mr.  Parker,  his  amanuensis,  assiduously 
attended  his  dying  bed,  in  tears  on  account  of  their  loss,  in 
joy  anticipating  his  gain.  On  the  morning  of  Monday,  No- 
vember the  2 1st,  he  wanted  much  to  get  up,  but  an  hour  ex- 
hausted him,  and  he  lay  down  again  for  the  last  time.  His 
physician,  Dr.  Clark,  was  with  him  the  next  day,  and  re- 
marked to  the  family  that  he  was  going  off  apace. 

"  Through  the  goodness  of  God,"  Mr.  Parker  writes  to  Dr. 
Doddridge,  Nov.  22nd,  "  he  lay  tolerably  easy,  and  fell  into  a 
doze,  in  which  he  spent  the  night.  He  would  not  receive  any 
cordial,  but  half  a  spoonful  once  or  twice ;  took  no  notice  of 
any  body,  yet  answered  rationally  when  any  question  was 
asked.  I  fulfilled  your  request  last  night  at  five  o'clock  ;  he 
took  notice  of  it,  but  in  such  broken  language  that  I  cannot 
inform  you  in  what  manner.  I  never  knew  his  mind  any 
other  than  calm  and  peaceful;  and  so  it  will  remain,  I  trust, 
to  the  time  of  his  departure,  which  we  think  must  take  place 
in  a  few  hours,  at  least  before  it  is  possible  this  can  reach  your 
hands.  And  I  doubt  not  he  will  have  a  triumphant  entrance 
into  the  heavenly  kingdom  of  his  Lord  and  Saviour  Jesus 
Christ,  after  almost  fifty  years  of  painful  yet  delightful  and 
successful  labour  for  the  gospel  of  Christ,  and  in  the  seventy- 
fifth  of  his  age. 

"  I  can  say  no  more,  only  I  would  request  a  letter  from  you 
to  my  Lady,  who  cannot  but  be  much  affected,  as  we  all  are, 
upon  this  melancholy  occasion.  I  should  be  thankful  if  you 
would  put  up  one  petition  for  me,  who  am  so  soon  to  be  be- 
reaved of  the  best  of  masters  and  kindest  of  friends,  whom  I 
have  served  upwards  of  twenty-one  years,  and  have  it  now  to 


OF   DR.    ISAAC    WATTS.  701 

bewail  that  I  have  improved  no  more  by  such  an  uncommon 
favour  of  Providence." 

On  Thursday  the  24th  he  wrote  to  Mr,  Enoch  Watts  at 
Southampton  as  follows :  —  "I  wrote  to  you  by  the  last  post 
that  we  apprehended  my  master  very  near  his  end,  and  that 
we  thought  it  not  possible  he  should  be  alive  when  the  letter 
reached  your  hands  ;  and  it  will  no  doubt  greatly  surprise  you 
to  hear  that  he  still  lives.    We  ourselves  are  amazed  at  it.   He 
passed  through  the  last  night  in  the  main  quiet  and  easy,  but 
for  five  hours  would  receive  nothing  within  his  lips.     I  was 
down  in  his  chamber  early  in  the  morning,  and  found  him 
quite  sensible.     I  begged  he  would  be  pleased  to  take  a  little 
liquid  to  moisten  his  mouth,  and  he  received  at  my  hand  three 
tea-spoonfuls,  and  has  done  the  like  several  times  this  day. 
Upon  inquiry  he  told  me  he  lay  easy,  and  his  mind  was  peace- 
ful and  serene,  I  said  to  him  this  morning,  that  he  had  taught 
us  how  to  live,  and  was  now  teaching  us  how  to  die  by  his 
patience  and  composure,  for  he  has  been  remarkably  in  this 
frame  for  several  days  past.     He  replied,  '  Yes.'     I  told  him 
I  hoped  he  experienced  the  comfort  of  these  words,  '  I  will 
never  leave  thee,  nor  forsake  thee.'      He  answered,  '  I  do.' 
The  ease  of  body  and  calmness  of  mind  which  he  enjoys  is  a 
great  mercy  to  him  and  to  us.    His  sick  chamber  has  nothing 
terrifying  in  it.     He  is  an  upright  man,  and  I  doubt  not  but 
his  end  will  be  peace.     We  are  ready  to  use  the  words  of  Job, 
and  say,  '  We  shall  seek  him  in  the  morning,  but  he  shall  not 
be.'     But  God  only  knows,  by  whose  power  he  is  upheld  in 
life,  and  for  wise  purposes  no  doubt.     He  told  me  he  liked  I 
should  be  with  him.     All  other  business  is  put  off,  and  I  am 
in  the  house  night  and  day.     I  would  administer  all  the  relief 
that  is  in  my  power.     He  is  worthy  of  all  that  can  be  done  for 
him.     I  am  your  very  faithful  and  truly  afflicted  servant, 

"JOSEPH  PARKER." 


702  LIFE    AND    TIMES 

The  next  day,  Friday,  Nov.  SSth,  in  the  afternoon,  aged 
seventy-four  years,  four  months,  and  eight  days,  Dr.  Watts 
bid  farewell  to  the  abodes  of  mortality,  and  peacefully  resigned 
his  spirit  into  the  hands  of  his  Creator.*  The  intelligence 
was  communicated  to  his  brother  Enoch  by  Mr.  Parker  :  — 
"  Nov.  26th.  At  length  the  fatal  news  is  come.  The  spirit 
of  the  good  man,  my  dear  master,  took  its  flight  from  the  body 
to  worlds  unseen  and  joys  unknown,  yesterday  in  the  afternoon, 
Avithout  a  struggle  or  a  groan.  My  Lady  Abney  and  Miss 
Abney  are  supported  as  well  as  we  can  reasonably  expect.  It 
is  a  house  of  mourning  and  tears,  for  I  have  told  you  before 
now,  that  we  all  attended  upon  him  and  served  him  from  a 
principle  of  love  and  esteem.  May  God  forgive  us  all  that 
we  have  improved  no  more  by  him  while  we  enjoyed  him !" 

Dr.  Gibbons  remarks,  "  May  I  take  the  liberty  of  adding, 
that  I  saw  the  corpse  of  this  excellent  man  in  his  coffin,  and 
observed  nothing  more  than  death  in  its  aspect.  The  counte- 
nance appeared  quite  placid,  like  a  person  fallen  into  a  gentle 
sleep,  or  such  as  the  spirit  might  be  supposed  to  leave  behind 
it  upon  its  willing  departure  to  the  celestial  happiness." 

Dr.  Watts  in  his  willf  directed,  that  his  remains  should  be 
interred  in  Bunhill  Fields,  deep  in  the  earth,  among  the  relics 
of  many  of  his  pious  fathers  and  brethren,  whom  he  had 
known  in  the  flesh,  and  with  whom  he  wished  to  be  found  in 
the  resurrection.  He  ordered  that  the  ceremony  should  be 
performed  with  as  little  show  as  possible,  and  expressly  en- 
joined no  rings  to  be  given.  In  order  that  his  grave  might 
read  a  lecture  of  that  moderation  which  his  life  had  exempli- 
fied and  his  pen  had  advocated,  he  desired  that  his  funeral 


♦The  event  is  thus  recorded  in  the  Gent.  Mag.  "Nov.  2.5,  Isaac  Watts,  D.  D. 
a  truly  ingenious  and  accomplished  person,  as  well  in  polite  literature  as  divinity 
and  the  sciences,  of  which  iiis  writings  as  well  poetical  as  prosaic  abundantly 
testify,  and  no  less  exemplary  for  candour,  piety,  and  solid  virtue.  He  was  a 
a  dissenting  minister,  but  honoured  by  all  parties."     Obit. 

f  Appendix  J. 


OF    DR.    ISAAC    WATTS  703 

should  be  attended  by  two  Independent  ministers,  two  Pres- 
byterian, and  two  Baptist. 

On  Monday,  Dec.  5th,  the  body  was  laid  in  its  final  resting- 
place,  in  the  presence  of  an  immense  number  of  spectators. 
The  oration  at  the  tomb  was  delivered  by  the  Rev.  Samuel 
Chandler,  D.  D.  and  afterwards  printed.  "  We  here  commit 
to  the  ground,"  said  the  speaker,  "  the  venerable  remains  of 
one  who,  being  intrusted  with  many  excellent  talents  by  Him 
who  is  the  giver  of  every  good  and  perfect  gift,  cheerfully  and 
unweariedly  employed  them  as  a  faithful  steward  of  the  mani- 
fold grace  of  God  in  his  Master's  service,  approving  himself 
as  a  minister  of  Christ  in  much  patience,  in  afflictions,  and 
distresses,  by  pureness,  by  knowledge,  by  long-suffering,  by 
kindness,  by  love  unfeigned,  by  the  word  of  truth,  by  the  ar- 
mour of  righteousness,  by  honour  and  dishonour,  by  evil  re- 
port and  good  report;  and  who,  amidst  trials  from  within  and 
from  without,  was  continued  by  the  kind  providence  of  God, 
and  the  powerful  supports  of  his  grace,  to  a  good  old  age, 
honoured  and  beloved  by  all  parties,  retaining  his  usefulness 
till  he  had  just  finished  his  course,  and  being  at  last  favoured, 
according  to  his  own  wishes  and  prayers,  with  a  release  from 
the  labours  of  life  into  that  peaceful  state  of  good  men  which 
commences  immediately  after  death.  O,  how  dehghtful  is 
that  voice  from  heaven  which  has  thus  pronounced,  '  Blessed 
are  the  dead  who  die  in  the  Lord  :  Yea,  saith  the  Spirit,  that 
they  may  rest  from  their  labours,  and  their  works  follow  thetn !' " 

In  returning  from  the  funeral  Dr.  Benjamin  Grosvenor  was 
accosted  by  a  friend  as  follows :  "  Well,  Doctor,  you  have 
seen  the  end  of  Dr.  Watts,  and  must  soon  follow  him.  What 
think  you  of  death  ?"  "Think  of  it  V  replied  he ;  "why  when 
death  comes  I  shall  smile  on  him,  if  God  smile  on  me." 

To  prevent  the  laboured  panegyric  that  partial  friends  might 
have  inscribed  upon  his  tomb-stone,  Dr.  Watts  composed  his 


704  LIFE    AND   TIMES 

own  humble  epitaph.    This  appears  upon  a  handsome  mo- 
nument over  his  grave : 

"  Isaac  Watts,  D.  D.  pastor  of  a  church  of  Christ  in  Lon- 
don, successor  to  the  Rev,  Mr.  Joseph  Caryl,  Dr.  John  Owen, 
Mr.  David  Clarkson,  and  Dr.  Isaac  Chauncey,  after  fifty  years 
of  feeble  labours  in  the  gospel,  interrupted  by  four  years  of 
tiresome  sickness,  was  at  last  dismissed  to  his  rest  — 

"  In  uno  Iesu  omnia. 

"  2  Cor.  V.  8.  Absent  from  the  body,  and  present  with  the 
Lord. 

"  Col.  iii.  4.  When  Christ,  who  is  my  life,  shall  appear, 
then  shall  I  also  appear  with  him  in  glory." 

"  This  monument,  on  which  the  above  modest  inscription 
is  placed,  by  order  of  the  deceased,  was  erected,  as  a  small 
testimony  of  regard  to  his  memory,  by  Sir  John  Hartopp, 
Bart.,  and  Dame  Mary  Abney."  There  is  also  a  monument 
to  his  memory  in  Westminster  Abbey. 

As  no  directions  were  given  by  Dr.  Watts  with  reference  to 
his  funeral  sermon,  Mr.  Price,  his  colleague,  was  requested  to 
undertake  that  service,  but  his  feelings  would  not  allow  him 
to  venture  upon  it ;  and  Dr.  David  Jennings  was,  therefore, 
solicited  to  improve  the  event.  On  Monday,  Dec.  11th,  he 
preached  to  the  congregation  of  the  deceased  in  Bury  Street, 
from  Heb.  xi.  4 :  "By  it,  he  being  dead,  yet  speaketh"  —  a 
discourse  which  was  printed  at  the  request  of  the  bereaved 
church.  "  It  is  with  peculiar  propriety,"  says  the  preacher, 
"  that  these  words  may  be  applied  to  the  present  occasion,  and 
I  may  say,  'This  day  is  this  scripture  fulfilled  in  your  ears;' 
for  he,  whose  death  we  are  now  called  to  improve,  may  be 
considered  as  yet  speaking  to  you,  not  only  by  the  example  of 
his  life,  the  instructive  remembrance  of  which  will,  I  hope, 


OF    DR.    ISAAC    WATTS.  705 

be  always  dear  to  you,  but  also  by  his  many  excellent  wri- 
tings ;  on  account  of  which,  if  I  am  not  greatly  deceived,  the 
same  thing  will  be  said  of  him  in  far-distant  ages  that  is  said 
of  Abel  in  our  text,  that  '  he,  being  dead,  yet  speaketh.'  While 
he  is  now  celebrating  the  honours  of  God  and  of  the  Lamb,  in 
the  new  songs  of  heaven,  how  many  thousands  of  pious  wor- 
shippers are  this  day  lifting  up  their  hearts  to  God  in  the  sa- 
cred songs  that  he  taught  them  upon  earth!  Though  his 
'  voice'  is  not  any  longer  heard  by  us,  yet  his  *  words,'  like 
those  of  the  day  and  night,  are  '  gone  out  to  the  end  of  the 
world.'  America  and  Europe  still  hear  him  speak,  and  it  is 
highly  probable  they  may  continue  to  do  so  till  Europe  and 
America  shall  be  no  more." 

The  personal  appearance  of  Dr.  Watts  was  not  such  as  to 
command  attention ;  though  by  no  means  disagreeable,  it  was 
certainly  not  prepossessing.  His  stature  was  beneath  the 
common  standard,  perhaps  not  above  five  feet,  or  at  most  five 
feet  two  inches,  but  without  any  thing  like  a  deformity  in  his 
frame.  His  body  was  spare  and  lean,  his  face  oval,  his  nose 
aquiline,  his  complexion  fair  and  pale,  his  forehead  low,  his 
cheek  bones  rather  prominent.  The  expression  of  his  coun- 
tenance was  heavy  in  the  absence  of  any  exciting  cause  :  an 
indifferent  spectator  would  never  have  singled  out  the  man  of 
genius  in  the  crowd.  His  eyes  were  small  and  grey,  and,  when 
attentive  or  eager,  piercing  and  expressive.  The  anecdote  is 
well  known,  that  being  once  in  a  coffee-room  with  some 
friends,  he  over-heard  a  gentleman  remark  contemptuously  of 
his  appearance,  "  What !  is  that  the  great  Dr.  Watts  ?"  With 
admirable  presence  of  mind  and  great  good-humour  he  turned 
round  and  repeated  one  of  his  own  stanzas  : 

"Were  I  so  tall  to  reach  the  pole, 
Or  grasp  the  ocean  with  a  spau, 
1  must  be  measur'd  by  my  soul  — 
The  mind's  the  standard  of  the  man." 

But  whatever  might  be  his  personal  deficiencies,  they  were 


706  LIFE    AND    TIMES 

amply  compensated  by  his  intellectual  acquirements.  The 
natural  strength  of  his  genius  he  cultivated  and  improved  by 
an  extensive  range  of  reading  and  close  application  to  study. 
He  had  all  the  qualifications  which  usually  insure  success  in 
the  acquisition  of  knowledge.  His  judgment  was  exact,  his 
taste  discriminating,  his  industry  indefatigable,  his  memory 
retentive.  He  once  repeated  to  Dr.  Gibbons,  when  in  ad- 
vanced life,  some  verses  from  Juvenal  with  the  readiness  of  an 
Etonian  —  a  writer  he  acknowledged  he  had  not  read  since 
his  younger  days.  In  fine,  the  close  thinking  of  the  philoso- 
pher, was  united  to  the  rich  fancy  of  the  poet  and  the  sober 
and  devout  views  of  the  divine.  "  Though  that  which  gave 
him  the  most  remarkable  pre-eminence,  was  the  extent  and 
sublimity  of  his  imagination  ;  yet  how  few  have  excelled  or 
even  equalled  him  in  quickness  of  apprehension  and  solidity 
of  judgment!" 

As  a  writer  no  man  has  a  greater  posthumous  claim  upon 
the  respect  of  his  countrymen  and  the  gratitude  of  the  church. 
In  little  more  than  forty  years  he  produced  fifty-two  distinct 
publications,  some  of  them  voluminous,  and  all,  with  one  or 
two  exceptions,  the  result  of  great  labour.  It  is  not,  however, 
upon  any  one  production  of  surpassing  excellence  that  Dr. 
Watts's  fame  as  an  author  rests  :  his  name  derives  its  chief 
distinction  from  the  versatility  of  his  genius,  and  the  variety 
of  his  attainments.  His  soul  was  too  large  and  noble  to  be 
confined  within  narrow  limits.  He  could  not  be  content  to 
leave  any  path  of  learning  untried,  nor  to  rest  in  total  igno- 
rance of  any  science,  the  knowledge  of  which  might  be  for 
his  own  improvement,  or  might  in  any  way  tend  to  enlarge 
his  capacity  of  being  useful  to  others.  Hence,  he  investigated 
theology  in  all  its  branches  —  he  examined  nature  in  all  her 
works  —  and  he  pursued  philosophy  to  her  profoundest  mys- 
teries. He  has  written  for  childhood,  youth,  maturity,  and 
hoary  hairs  —  he  has  instructed  the  sage,  the  Christian,  and 
the  "  multitude  who  keep  holy  day"  —  he  has  benefitted  all 


OF   DR.    ISAAC    WATTS.  707 

ages,  and  been  taught  to  speak  in  almost  all  languages.  "  I 
question,"  says  Dr.  Jennings,  "  whether  any  author  before 
him  did  ever  appear  with  reputation  on  such  a  variety  of  sub- 
jects as  he  has  done,  both  as  a  prose  writer  and  as  a  poet. 
However,  this  I  may  venture  to  say,  that  there  is  no  man  now 
living  of  whose  works  so  many  have  been  dispersed  both  at 
home  and  abroad,  that  are  in  such  constant  use,  and  transla- 
ted into  such  a  variety  of  languages  ;  many  of  which,  I  doubt 
not,  will  remain  more  durable  monuments  of  his  great  talents, 
than  any  representation  I  can  make  of  them,  though  it  were 
to  be  given  on  pillars  of  brass."  The  estimate  of  his  literary 
character  by  Dr.  Johnson  is,  upon  the  whole,  as  just  as  it  is 
beautiful :  "  Few  men  have  left  behind  such  purity  of  charac- 
ter, or  such  monuments  of  laborious  piety.  He  has  provided 
instruction  for  all  ages,  from  those  who  are  lisping  their  first 
lessons  to  the  enlightened  readers  of  Malbranche  and  Locke ; 
he  has  left  neither  corporeal  nor  spiritual  natures  unexamined ; 
he  has  taught  the  art  of  reasoning  and  the  science  of  the  stars. 
His  character,  therefore,  must  be  formed  from  the  multiplicity 
and  diversity  of  his  attainments,  rather  than  from  any  single 
performance;  for  it  would  not  be  safe  to  claim  for  him  the 
highest  rank  in  any  single  denomination  of  literary  dignity ; 
yet  perhaps  there  was  nothing  in  which  he  would  not  have 
excelled,  if  he  had  not  divided  his  powers  to  different  pur- 
suits." 

As  a  preacher  he  ranked  high  among  his  contemporaries; 
his  printed  discourses  establish  his  claim  to  eminence  in  this 
respect.  He  carefully  adapted  himself  to  the  meanest  capa- 
city, yet  never  in  such  a  way  as  to  offend  the  educated  and 
refined.  There  was  always  a  rich  vein  of  good  sense  and 
profitable  instruction  in  his  sermons,  adorned  with  occasional 
gleams  of  vivid  imagination.  Though  the  antinomians 
raised  against  him  the  senseless  cry  of  legality,  yet  he  pro- 
claimed with  unabated  earnestness  the  duties  as  well  as  the 
blessings  of  the  gospel,  and  advanced  the  threatenings  of  the 


708  LIFE    AND    TIMES 

Lord  with  the  free  offers  of  his  grace.  He  ever  kept  in 
mind  the  great  object  of  his  office,  "  to  feed  the  church  of 
God"  —  not  to  amuse  the  idle,  to  please  the  curious,  or  to 
gratify  the  learned.  "  It  is  no  wonder,"  say  Dr.  Jennings, 
"that  a  man  so  richly  furnished  with  gifts  and  graces,  was 
an  admired  preacher:  when  he  spoke  such  strains  of  truly 
Christian  eloquence  flowed  from  his  lips,  and  these  so  ap- 
parently animated  with  zeal  for  God  and  the  most  tender 
concern  for  souls  and  their  everlasting  salvation,  as  one 
would  think  could  not  be  easily  slighted  or  resisted."  He 
had  a  highly  respectable  and  very  numerous  auditory.  The 
congregation  at  Bury  Street,  which  was  small  at  the  com- 
mencement of  his  ministry,  increased  considerably  under  his 
care,  and  many  additions  were  made  to  the  church  of  those 
who  were  "  his  glory  and  joy." 

In  the  pulpit  he  had  none  of  the  advantages  of  imposing 
person,  commanding  voice,  or  elegant  gesticulation.  It 
might  truly  be  said,  that  his  bodily  presence  was  weak.  He 
made  use  of  little  or  no  action.  His  voice  was  rather  too  fine 
and  slender,  but  regular,  audible,  and  musical.  But  in  spite 
of  his  low  stature  his  appearance  when  preaching  is  said  to 
have  been  remarkably  dignified :  his  manner  was  unaffectedly 
grave  and  solemn.  He  seldom  quoted  poetry,  a  habit  gene- 
rally characteristic  of  indolence  or  mental  poverty.  His 
enunciation  was  distinct,  accurate,  and  easy,  always  pleasing 
by  its  cadence,  but  impressive  when  the  subject  required  it. 
"I  once,"  says  Dr.  Johnson,  "mentioned  the  reputation 
which  Mr.  [Dr.]  Foster  had  gained  by  his  proper  delivery  to 
my  friend  Dr.  Hawkesworth,  who  told  me  that  in  the  art 
of  pronunciation  he  was  far  inferior  to  Dr.  Watts."  His 
general  mode  of  sermonising  was  to  prepare  an  outline  of  his 
subject,  which  he  took  with  him  into  the  pulpit,  and  trusted 
to  his  extemporary  powers  to  fill  up  the  sketch.  In  early 
life  he  prepared  with  greater  care,  and  almost  entirely  pre- 
composed  his  discourses.     At  the  close  of  his  sentences,  when 


OF   DR.    ISAAC    WATTS.  ^D^ 

any  thing  more  than  ordinarily  important  was  treated  of,  he 
frequently  paused  a  little,  to  give  his  hearers  opportunity  for 
reflection.  With  a  boundless  fertility  of  imagination,  and 
complete  command  of  language,  he  was  never  hurried,  seldom 
vehement.  He  maintained  a  perpetual  control  over  himself 
and  his  subject.  In  younger  life  his  periods  were  prolix 
and  involved,  his  style  was  too  diffuse  and  luxuriant,  but 
these  defects  by  a  little  care  and  attention  he  at  length  con- 
quered. 

Dr.  Gibbons  says,  "I  once  asked  him  whether  in  his 
preaching  he  did  not  find  himself  sometimes  too  much  awed  by 
his  auditory.  He  told  me,  that  when  such  a  man,  mentioning 
a  gentleman  of  eminent  abilities  and  learning,  has  come  into 
the  assembly,  and  taken  his  eye,  that  he  has  felt  something 
like  a  momentary  tremor  upon  him,  but  that  he  recovered 
himself  by  remembering  what  God  said  to  the  prophet  Jere- 
miah, chap.  i.  17:  'Be  not  dismayed  at  their  faces,  lest  I 
confound  thee  before  them.'  In  prayer  it  might  perhaps 
be  truly  said,  that  he  excelled  himself.  It  was  throughout 
an  address  to  Deity,  not  in  florid  expressions,  but  in  easy  and 
unadorned  language,  and  rather  short  and  weighty  periods. 
There  was  an  extent  in  his  addresses  to  Deity,  which  com- 
prehended every  proper  subject,  and  at  the  same  time  such  a 
brevity,  though  not  so  as  to  be  disagreeably  or  affectedly  sen- 
tentious, in  the  representation  of  each  of  them,  that  at  the  con- 
clusion of  his  prayer  a  hearer  might  find  himself  at  a  loss  to 
conceive  what  more  or  less  could  have  been  said.  The  like 
pauses  between  sentence  and  sentence  were  observed  by  him 
in  prayer  which  he  observed  in  preaching,  if  they  were  not 
rather  longer." 

"  To  stated  and  public  instruction  he  added  familiar  visits 
and  personal  application,  and  was  careful  to  improve  the  op- 
portunities which  conversation  offered  of  diffusing  and  in- 
creasing the  influence  of  religion."*    When  visiting  his  people 

*  Dr.  Johnson. 


710  LIFE   AND   TIMES 

in  the  discharge  of  pastoral  duty,  he  usually  took  with  him  a 
number  of  religious  tracts,  to  present  to  the  younger  members 
of  their  families.  The  Rev.  Mr.  Kingsbury  of  Southampton 
related  the  following  to  Dr.  Gibbons,  as  he  received  it  from 
the  mouth  of  the  son-in-law  of  the  person :  —  "  Mr.  Richard 
Ellcock  was  a  servant  in  old  Mr.  Watts's  family.  Dr.  Watts 
going  to  London  after  the  last  time  of  his  visiting  his  father  at 
Southampton,  Richard  Ellcock  was  ordered  to  go  with  him  a 
day's  journey.  The  Doctor  entered  into  serious  discourse  with 
him,  which  made  a  deep  and  lasting  impression  on  his  heart, 
and  was  the  means  of  his  sound  and  saving  conversion.  After 
he  came  to  London  he  wrote  to  his  father,  recommending  the 
servant  to  his  particular  regard,  for  that  he  doubted  not  he 
would  make  an  eminent  Christian ;  and  so  he  lived  and  died, 
leaving  an  honourable  character  for  piety  and  uprightness  be- 
hind him.     This  is  attested  by  many." 

Fond  of  studious  retirement,  and  devoted  to  his  books,  in 
the  early  part  of  his  career  he  seldom  went  much  abroad. 
Aflfliction  afterwards  frequently  rendered  it  impossible.  But 
in  his  seasons  of  health  and  vigour,  when  thrown  into  com- 
pany, and  drawn  out  in  conversation,  his  society  was  always 
interesting  and  profitable.  His  conversation  was  such  as  in 
all  respects  became  the  man  of  wisdom  and  the  man  of  God. 
As  he  never  discovered  any  thing  like  a  high  opinion  of  him- 
self, so  neither  did  he  show  any  disposition  to  traduce  or  de- 
preciate others.  He  had  his  opponents,  and  those  who  en- 
deavoured to  represent  him  in  the  most  disadvantageous  light; 
but  it  was  never  observed,  however  much  their  treatment 
might  be  felt,  that  it  drew  from  him  any  unkind  reflections, 
any  hostile  remarks.  In  his  common  conversation  he  never 
appeared  to  be  at  any  loss  for  thought  or  expression.  "  Indeed, 
no  person,"  says  Dr.  Gibbons,  "with  whom  I  was  ever  ac- 
quainted, spoke  with  more  ease,  readiness,  and  elegance  than 
he  did ;  and,  as  his  discourse  flowed  like  a  clear  full  stream 
from  an  inexhaustible  fountain,  so  it  was  very  instructive  and 


OF    DR.    ISAAC    WATTS.  711 

entertaining.  I  have  collected  some  proofs  of  this  kind,  the 
much  greater  part  of  which  are  taken  from  the  register  of  my 
own  memory  : — He  observed,  '  I  could  wish  young  ministers 
in  the  country  might  be  allowed  by  their  people  to  read  apart 
of  Mr.  Henry's  exposition  of  the  bible,  or  repeat  a  sermon 
from  some  good  author,  one  part  of  the  Lord's  day,  as  it  is  cer- 
tainly too  much  for  them  to  compose  two  sermons  a  week  so 
early  in  life. — One  of  the  darkest  mysteries  in  providence  is, 
that  God  should  suffer  a  worthless  and  wicked  man  to  have 
the  absolute  dominion  over  nations  of  mankind. — Never  mind 
spoiling  a  well-turned  period  if  you  may  but  have  the  hope  of 
reaching  a  conscience.  Polished  and  harmonious  language 
is  oftentimes  like  oil  flowing  smoothly  over  marble,  which 
leaves  no  traces  behind  it. — Poor  mankind  are  like  feeble  riders 
set  on  wild  horses.  The  multitude  go  in  a  track,  non  qua 
eundum  est,  sedqua  itur,  not  where  they  should  go,  but  where 
others  go.  —  I  had  rather  be  the  author  of  Mr.  Baxter's  Call 
to  the  Unconverted,  than  the  author  of  Milton's  Paradise  Lost. 
—  It  seems  quite  reasonable  and  fit,  that  there  should  be  a  ge- 
neral difi'usion  and  reign  of  the  gospel,  and  that  for  some  con- 
siderable continuance  before  the  end  of  time,  as  there  has  been 
such  a  general  dominion  of  sin  and  misery  for  so  many  ages 
in  our  world.  —  It  is  an  excellent  observation  of  Thomas  a 
Kempis,  that  it  does  not  require  much  ingenuity  to  be  a 
Christian.  —  Should  a  heathen  be  convinced  of  his  sins,  hum- 
bly and  penitentially  confess  them  before  God,  and  implore  his 
mercy,  he  would,  in  my  opinion,  be  accepted  of  him,  as  he 
was  prepared  for  receiving  grace,  and  only  wanted  the  object 
of  faith  to  be  revealed  to  him.  —  I  look  upon  the  apostle  Paul 
and  Cicero  to  be  the  greatest  geniuses  that  ever  appeared  in 
our  world.  —  Dr.  Owen  excelled  as  an  experimental,  and  Mr. 
Baxter  as  a  practical  divine.'  When  speaking  of  that  passage 
in  Job,  xli.  18,  where  it  is  said  of  the  crocodile,  that  '  his  eyes 
are  like  the  eye-lids  of  the  morning,'  '  In  the  morning,'  said 
he,  '  you  may  sometimes  observe,  upon  the  edge  of  the  hori- 


712  LIFE    AND   TIMES 

zon,  a  blight  opening  of  the  day,  and  above  it  a  black  scowl- 
ing cloud.  The  bright  opening  of  the  day  is  not  unlike  an 
eye,  and  the  incumbent  cloud  is  not  unlike  an  eye-lid ;  and, 
hence,  the  poetic  ground  for  the  expression.  —  In  that  cartoon 
of  Raphael's,  where  St.  Paul  is  represented  preaching  at 
Athens,  the  apostle  is  drawn  stretching  out  his  hands  to  their 
utmost  length  towards  heaven,  while  the  people  are  held  in 
the  most  devout  and  deep  attention  below :  I  will  tell  you,' 
said  the  Doctor, '  what  St. Paul  is  saying —  Behold,  he  comes !' 
— Of  Young's  Night  Thoughts  he  pleasantly  observed,  that 
they  had  too  much  of  the  darkness  of  the  night  in  them." 

His  character  displayed  numerous  and  striking  excellences. 
Though  his  temper  was  naturally  hasty,  and  rendered  him 
quick  of  resentment,  yet  he  so  far  mastered  his  passions  as  to 
be  gentle,  modest,  and  inoffensive  in  his  established  practice. 
His  great  sensibility  made  it  impossible  for  him  not  to  feel 
poignantly  when  maligned  and  misrepresented,  as  was  fre- 
quently the  case ;  but  though  he  might  occasionally  express 
himself  sharply,  he  never  cherished  malevolence  or  harboured 
ill-will.  To  the  tale  of  sorrow  he  was  ever  alive;  his  soul 
sympathised  with  the  distresses  of  others,  and  was  attracted 
by  the  "  still  sad  music  of  humanity."  During  his  residence 
in  the  Abney  family  he  constantly  devoted  a  fifth  (Dr.  John- 
son says  a  third)  part  of  his  income,  which  was  seldom  more 
than  an  hundred  a  year,  to  charitable  purposes.  Dr.  Jennings, 
who  knew  him  well,  gives  the  following  rapid  sketch  in  his 
funeral  sermon :  "  It  is  hard  to  say,  what  grace  or  virtue  was 
most  conspicuous  in  him,  and  most  characteristic  of  him. 
Pure  and  undissembled  piety  was  the  settled  habit  and  con- 
stant dress  of  his  mind.  And  though  he  loved  and  enjoyed 
much  retirement,  yet  did  he  not  thereby  contract  any  thing 
of  an  affected  stiffness  or  monkish  austerity ;  but,  on  the  con- 
trary, the  satisfaction  and  pleasure  that  he  found  in  commu- 
nion with  God  in  solitude,  made  him  more  easy  and  cheerful 
in  his  converse  with  men,  and  seemed  to  enlighten  his  very 


OF   DR.    ISAAC    AVATTS.  713 

countenance.  His  humility  was  like  a  deep  shade,  if  I  may  so 
express  it,  that  set  off  his  other  graces  and  virtues,  and  made 
them  shine  with  a  brighter  lustre.  Hence,  flowed  that  con- 
descension and  goodness,  that  humanity  and  kindness,  which 
could  not  but  endear  him  to  all  who  had  the  pleasure  of  con- 
versing with  him,  and  which  rendered  him  venerable  in  a 
much  higher  degree  than  all  the  honours  he  received  from  the 
world.  In  close  connexion  with  this  were  to  be  seen  his 
candour  and  charity,  for  which  he  was  remarkably  eminent. 
The  love  that  glowed  in  his  heart  to  his  Saviour,  constrained 
him  cordially  to  embrace  all  whom  he  esteemed  to  be  his  ge- 
nuine disciples;  and  no  party  names,  nor  variety  of  senti- 
ments in  matters  of  doubtful  disputation,  nor  of  practice  in 
modes  of  worship,  could  divide  him  in  affection  from  such  as 
he  had  reason  to  hope  loved  our  Lord  Jesus  Christ  in  sincerity. 
Accordingly  he  maintained  a  free  and  friendly  correspondence 
with  Christians  of  different  parties  and  denominations. 
Though  he  judged  the  principles  of  the  moderate  noncon- 
formists most  favourable  to  Christian  liberty  and  the  rights  of 
conscience,  and  their  forms  of  worship  most  agreeable  to  the 
simplicity  of  the  gospel ;  yet  he  had  a  high  veneration  for  the 
persons  and  writings  of  many  in  the  established  church,  as 
many  of  them,  both  in  higher  and  lower  stations,  had  for  him 
and  his  writings.  And  I  speak  it  to  the  distinguished  honour 
and  praise  of  some  very  reverend  personages  of  that  commu- 
nion, as  well  as  to  his,  that  they  frequently  presented  him 
with  their  works  and  accepted  of  his  in  return ;  on  which,  as 
well  as  on  other  occasions,  very  serious  and  affectionate  letters 
have  passed  between  them,  for  the  strengthening  of  each 
other's  hands  in  the  cause  of  our  common  Christianity."* 

The  following  extracts  will  serve  further  to  illustrate  his 
character,  and  show  the  high  esteem  in  which  he  was  held 
by  his  contemporaries  of  every  communion. 


*  Funeral  Sermon,  29 — 31. 
Z  z 


714  LIFE    AND    TIMES 

Dr.  Vicesimus  Knox,  in  his  Christian  Philosophy,  has  the 
following  remark  concerning  him  :  "  For  my  own  pari,"  says 
he,  "I  cannot  bnt  think  this  good  man  approached  as  nearly 
to  Christian  perfection  as  any  mortal  ever  did  in  this  sublu- 
nary state;  and,  therefore,  I  consider  him  as  a  better  inter- 
preter of  the  Christian  doctrine  than  the  most  learned  critics, 
who,  proud  of  their  reason  and  their  learning,  despised  or 
neglected  the  very  life  and  soul  of  Christianity,  the  living, 
everlasting  gospel,  the  supernatural  influence  of  divine  grace : 
and  be  it  ever  remembered,  that  Dr.  Watts  was  a  man  wdio 
studied  the  abstrusest  sciences,  and  was  as  well  qualified  to 
become  a  verbal  critic,  or  a  logical  disputant  on  the  Scrip- 
tures, as  the  most  learned  among  the  doctors  of  the  Sor- 
bonne,  or  the  greatest  proficients  in  polemical  divinity.     I 
mention  this  circumstance  for  the  consideration  of  those  who 
insinuate  that  the  doctrines  of  grace  cannot  be  entertained 
but  by  ignorant,  as  well  as  fanatical  persons,   by  persons 
uninitiated  in  the  mysteries  of  philosophy." 

Dr.  John  Milner,  the  author  of  a  sermon  entitled 
"  The  Rest  and  Reward  of  good  men  at  Death,  preached  at 
Peckam,  Surry,  Dec.  11,  1748,  being  the  next  Lord's  Day 
after  the  interment  of  that  eminent,  faithful,  and  useful  min- 
ister of  Jesus  Christ,  Dr.  Isaac  Watts,"  expresses  himself 
thus  in  a  prefatory  letter  to  a  friend :  "  Whilst  Dr.  Watts 
lived,  he  was  an  honour  to  the  dissenters.  His  uncommon 
genius,  his  polite  taste,  his  pious  and  useful  labours,  should 
endear  his  memory  to  those  who  had  the  credit  and  benefit 
of  them.  A  weak  constitution  too  often  confined  him  from 
appearing  in  active  life,  yet  this  he  compensated  by  his  dili- 
gence in  the  contemplative.  lie  did  not  retreat  to  indolence 
and  ease,  under  the  favour  of  an  honourable  friendship,  but 
fully  employed  himself  in  finishing  those  plans  he  designed 
for  the  good  of  mankind.  The  number  of  his  works  just 
published,  and  those  he  left  behind  him  in  manuscript,  show 
that  he  was  diligent  in  his  retirement,  and  animated  in  his 


or    DR.    ISAAC    WATTS,  715 

compositions  by  generous  and  social  affections.  His  works 
generally  met  with  acceptance,  as  he  wrote  with  ease  and 
elegance,  and  could,  from  the  richness  of  his  imagination,  en- 
liven the  most  common  subjects,  and  add  a  lustre  to  the  most 
interesting.  His  charity  was  very  extensive  to  honest  men 
in  different  sentiments  from  himself.  He  firmly  adhered  to 
what  he  took  to  be  truth,  and  as  freely  condemned  error;  but, 
at  the  same  time,  was  ready  to  make  allowance  for  human 
weakness,  and  to  consider  the  different  sentiments  among 
Christians,  if  they  did  not  eclipse  the  distinguishing  glories  of 
our  holy  religion,  and  destroy  its  practical  power  and  influ- 
ence, I  say  he  could  consider  them  as  monuments  of  our 
imperfection,  and  trials  of  our  charity  to  one  another." 

Towards  the  close  of  his  letter  Dr.  Milner  adds,  "  Such 
Avas  Dr.  Watts's  Christian  temper,  that  it  disposed  him  to 
friendship  with  persons  of  different  denominations.  Such 
were  his  abilities  and  labours,  that  he  has  acquired  to  his 
name  a  kind  of  immortality  on  earth.  His  name  will  be 
mentioned  with  respect  while  true  vital  religion  preserves  its 
authority  amongst  us,  while  liberty  and  the  gospel  shall  be 
the  honour  of  Great  Britain.  When  we  come  to  instruct  our 
young  friends  at  home,  or  to  praise  God  in  our  public  assem- 
blies, the  name  of  this  excellent  man  will  be  repeated,  who 
has  furnished  us  with  such  agreeable  helps  for  both ;  neither 
will  his  name  or  worth  be  unknown  to  the  schools  of  philo- 
sophy."* 


♦Funeral  Sermon.  Pref.  iii.  iv.  vi.  Dr.  Doddridge,  in  a  letter  to  Dr.  Samuel 
Clarke,  observes,  "  I  am  much  better  pleased  with  Mr.  Miluer's  Funeral  Sermon 
for  Dr.  Watts  than  with  Mr.  Jennings's.  Mr.  Gibbous's  Elegiac  Poem  has  un- 
doubtedly some  very  striking  beauties,  but  I  think  it  had  been  better  had 
Gabriel  spoken  less."  The  poem  referred  to  is  dedicated  to  Lady  Abney,  and  cer- 
tainly has  no  claim  to  attention  but  as  a  memorial  of  friendship.  Raphael  is 
the  chief  spokesman,  but  the  whole  angelic  host  is  introduced  descending  to  listen 
to  Watts's  "tuneful  praises,"  and  wondering 

"  Hiiw  a  spirit,  cramp'd  in  clay, 
Can  rival  tlieir  ilevotion  aiitl  their  bliss." 


71G  MFE    AND    TIMES 

To  the  preceding  testimonies,  the  two  following  poetical 
pieces  are  worthy  of  being  added : 


TO  THE  MEMORY  OF  THE  REV.  DR.  ISAAC  WATTS : 


By  the  Rev.  Moses  Browne,  Vicar  of  Olney,  Buckinghamshire,  a  name  well  known  by  its 
connexion  with  those  of  C'owper,  Scott,  and  Newton. 

"Thy  funeral  honours  weeping  friends  have  paid : 
Peace  to  thine  hallow'd  dust,  paternal  shade ! 
Our  thoughts  those  mournful  images  employ, 
O  lately  ours,  whom  angels  now  enjoy  ! 


The  archangel  in  his  speech  addresses,  I  suppose,  Dr.  Gibbons,  who  had  .seated 
himself  on  Parnassus  to  inhale  the  breezes  of  the  poetic  mount,  and  catch  inspi- 
ration for  the  task  of  embalming  the  virtues  of  his  friend  in  immortal  verse.  Tiie 
divine  at  once  concedes  the  point  of  precedence  to  his  illustrious  visiter,  who 
thus  commences  his  lay  : 

"  I  was  the  guardian-angel  of  the  saint. 
That  crowns  thy  numbers,  from  his  na'.al  day 
Till  death's  o'erwhelmning  shadow  clos'd  his  sight. 
I  watch'il  him  in  the  various  tracks  of  life, 
His  public  labours,  anil  retiring  hours; 
And  half-sustain'd  him  in  the  dangerous  field 
Of  southing  flatteries  and  infernal  storms; 
And  when  his  fated  sands  of  time  were  run, 
1  spread  my  starry  pinion,  and  convey'd 
His  spirit,  tow'ring  from  its  ruin'd  earth, 
In  glorious  triumph  through  the  roads  of  light, 
To  take  its  dwelling  in  congenial  skies: 
And  now  commission'd  from  the  Throne,  I  come 
T'  unveil  the  heavenly  treasures  of  his  breast. 
And  kindle  thine  ambition's  strong  resolve, 
To  heir  a  sacred  portion  of  his  soul. 
Be  all  attention  to  my  just  applause. 
And  stamp  his  living  image  on  thy  heart." 

The  doctor  accordingly  remains  during  this  interesting  tvtc  a  tele,  all  eye  and  car 
to  the  angel ;  and  Raphael  thus  finishes  his  song  : 

*'  These  were  his  honours  ;  but  should  I  atlempt, 
Distinct  to  count  them  o'er,  their  train  would  rise 
Like  stars  that  gild  the  unclouded  arch  of  heaven, 
Or  beams  that  dart  from  tlie  meridian  sun: 
And  why  sluiuld  1  recite  what  thou  hast  seen 
Refulgent  from  the  life?  and  life  should  leave 
Th'  eternal  stamp  on  thy  receptive  mind." 


OF   DR.   ISAAC    WATTS.  717 

Still  flows  the  tear,  which  wisdom  bids  us  blame  ; 

Self-love  its  weakness  hides  with  sorrow's  name  : 

For  thee  so  blest  in  life,  in  death  so  blest, 

Should  ev'ry  tear  be  dry'd,  and  plaint  supprest, 

Faith  should  her  triumph  o'er  weak  sense  display: 

Death  was,  dear  saint,  thy  coronation-day. 

Shall  saints  above  their  acclamations  show. 

And  sadness  damp  the  pomp  from  saints  below? 

Souls  of  one  temper,  one  fraternal  race, 

One  in  communion,  tho'  disjoin'd  in  space; 

Yet  these,  so  happy  now,  their  toils  and  fears 

Once  knew,  bewilder'd  in  this  vale  of  tears, 

Known  too  by  thee,  how  late  1  while  here  below, 

O  gentle  shade,  just  freed  from  mortal  woe. 

How  vast  thy  transient  change  ! — I  see  thee  now — 

Light  robes  thy  form,  and  glory  wreaths  thy  brow  : 

And  hark  !  I  hear  thee.     O  thy  tuneful  tongue  ! 

Round  the  Lamb's  blissful  throne  thou  breath'st  his  song. 

Rest  in  thy  bliss. ^-Be  ours  thy  life's  essay, 

Thy  bright  example  leading  all  tiie  way. 

Thy  labour'd  volumes  noblest  fame  shall  give. 

And  through  each  age  for  its  instruction  live  : 

In  ev'ry  character  thy  merits  shine, 

Admir'd  in  each — saint,  poet,  sage,  divine: 

To  thee  heav'n's  largest  trust  of  talents  fell. 

So  humbly  all  possess'd,  and  us'd  so  well ! 

"  Adieu — till  thy  short  sleep  be  past— ^adieu  ! 
Hope  keeps  assur'd  thy  waking  hour  in  view  : 
Our  eyes,  which  sorrowing  o'er  thy  lifeless  dust. 
Saw  the  base  earth  receive  its  precious  trust. 
Again  shall  view  from  that  dishonouring  bed. 
View  thee  in  vernal  glories  lift  thy  head, 
Mark  thy  bright  way  and  see  thee  radiant  rise, 
Fair  as  a  sun,  to  gild  eternal  skies," 


ON  THE  DEATH  OF  THE  REV.  DR.  WATTS: 
By  the  Rev.  Benjamin  Sowden,  Minister  of  the  English  Church  at  Rotterdam. 


"From  earth  remov'd,  in  ev'ry  virtue  warm, 
Adieu  !  bright  seraph  in  an  human  form  ; 
Whose  noblest  lot  indulgent  heaven  assign'd 
Whate'er  could  charm,  or  edify  mankind  : 


718  LIFE    AND    TIMES 

Whom  true  poetic  talents  largely  blest, 
Whose  tuneful  vein  not  hoary  age  suppress'd; 
He,  like  some  dying  swan,  bcueatli  the  reeds 
Of  rivers  gliding  through  delightful  meads, 
In  sweetest  notes  resigii'd  his  parting  breath, 
And  sunk  melodious  in  th'  embrace  of  death. 

"His  muchlov'd  muse,  Urania,  heav'nly  maid, 
With  artless  grief  bewails  her  fav'rite  dead. 
Her  bosom  heaving  with  incessant  sighs. 
Stream  the  big  sorrows  from  her  melting  eyes. 
Whose  graceful  orbs,  sufi'us'd  their  brilliant  pow'r. 
Look  faint,  as  sun-beams  shining  thro'  a  show'r. 
No  more  with  harmony  divine  she  sings. 
Nor  airs  celestial  warble  on  her  strings  : 
'■  Her  once  enchanting  lyre,  relax'd  and  broke. 

Hangs  now  neglected  on  the  blasted  oak. 
While,  in  the  gloom  of  willows  which  o'erlook 
The  sable  waters  of  yon  silent  brook, 
Whose  leaden  stream  ne'er  mantles  to  the  wind, 
Fix'd  in  dumb  sadness,  on  her  arm  reclin'd, 
W^ith  cheek  all  wan,  and  wild  dishevel'd  hair. 
She  lies  a  breathing  statue  of  despair. 

"Not  causeless  anguish  this — her  darling  thou, 
Illustrious  shade !  while  resident  below  : 
While  green  in  youth  she  prompted  thee  to  raise 
In  her  exalted  numbers  virtue's  praise, 
To  strike  with  matchless  skill  the  vocal  lyre. 
And  kindle  in  thy  breast  Pindaric  fire. 
Oh  lost  too  early,  tho'  thy  life  was  long  ? 
Who  now  shall  rise  reuown'd  in  Lyric  song  ? 
The  harlotries  of  vice  with  verse  control. 
And  pour  instruction  o'er  the  raptur'd  soul  ? 

"Nor  weeps  o'er  Watts  the  Lyric  Muse  alone. 
Fair  Science  hears  her,  and  returns  the  groan : 
Beneath  you  yew-tree's  melancholy  shade. 
On  the  cold  ground  her  form  divine  is  laid  : 
Pensive  and  pale  her  speaking  looks  express 
Be3'oud  the  force  of  words  a  vast  distress  : 
So  the  fond  mother  mourns  her  infant  trust. 
Her  blooming  ofl'spring  mingled  with  the  dust. 

"Well  might  thou  weep,  Parnassian  virgin  !  well 
Lament  to  think  in  Watts  what  learning  fell : 


OF    DR.    ISAAC    WATTS.  719 

Nurs'd  by  thy  care,  aud  traiu'd  beneath  thy  wing. 

He  drank  deep  draughts  of  knowledge  from  thy  spring, 

And,  when  possess'd  of  an  extensive  share, 

Rejoic'd  to  lead  his  fellow  mortals  there  : 

He  broke  the  subtle  cobwebs  of  the  schools, 

Freed  the  j'ouug  genius  from  unmeaning  rules, 

Led  Reason  safely  thro'  th'  illusive  maze. 

Where  wide  from  truth  bewitcliing  Fancy  strays. 

Small  was  his  stature,  but  his  manly  soul 

Could  grasp  the  globe,  and  reach  the  distant  pole. 

With  ease  the  vivid  planets'  course  could  trace, 

Thro'  their  wide  orbits  in  the  fields  of  space. 

But  not  the  graces  science  can  impart 

Vied  witii  his  moral  excellence  of  heart : 

There  unaffected  goodness  reign'd,  and  tlience 

Rnsh'd  the  strong  tide  of  warm  benevolence  ; 

Easy  of  access,  in  the  social  hour 

Censure  grew  dumb,  and  envy  ceas'd  to  lour, 

Surpris'd  to  hear  his  copious  accents  flow. 

Wise  without  art,  aud  learn'd  without  the  show. 

"  Say,  ye  his  flock,  his  late  peculiar  care. 
For  whom  he  wrestled  oft  in  fervent  pray'r ; 
What  transports  ran  thro'  all  your  mental  frame. 
Whene'er  he  made  redeeming  love  his  theme  ! 
When  he  proclaim 'd  deliverance  from  sin 
How  eagerly  ye  drank  the  music  in  ! 
But,  when  he  chang'd  the  tender  scene,  and  show'd 
Th'  awakeu'd  anger  of  an  awful  God, 
Full  in  your  ears  all  Sinai's  terrors  rung, 
Flash'd  from  his  eye-balls,  thundered  from  his  tongue  : 
>\ gainst  himself  his  conscience  rous'd  in  arms. 
The  daring  sinner  trembles  at  tli'  alarms. 
Just  are  the  tears  to  such  a  pastor  giv'n. 
Who  taught  at  once,  and  led  the  way  to  hcav'n. 
Whose  life  enforc'd  the  rules  he  urg'd  on  you, 
And  was  himself  the  great,  good  man  he  drew." 

These  memoirs  cauuot  close  more  appropriately  than  with 
the  words  of  the  Roman  historian,  the  eulogy  of  the  best 
author  upon  the  best  governor  of  Britain:  —  "  Whatever  we 
loved  in  thee,  whatever  we  admired  in  thee,  continues,  and 
will  continue,  in  the  memories  of  men,  the  revolutions  of  ages, 


720  LIFE    AND   TIMES   OF   DR.   ISAAC    WATTS. 

and  the  annals  of  time.  Many,  as  being  inglorious  and 
ignoble,  are  buried  in  oblivion ;  but  Watts  shall  live  to  all 
posterity,  for,  as  the  Greek  poet  has  it,  'Virtue  is  beyond 
the  reach  of  Fate,'  " 


N.B.  Dr.  Watls''s  Senion  on  the  death  of  Mr.  Pickard,  mentioned  Page  224,  is  omitted,  on 
account  of  this  volume  having  already  extended  beyond  the  limits  oriyiually  inteiuled.  It  has 
been  forwarded  to  the  Congregational  Magazine,  and  inserted  August,  1834. 


APPENDIX. 


A 

Mr.  Morton,  p.  81. 

A  list  of  Mr.  Morton's  students  is  given  by  Dr.  Toulmin  at  the  close  of  his 
History  of  the  Protestant  Dissenters.  It  is  much  to  be  regretted  that  the  records 
of  the  early  dissenting  academies  have  not  been  more  carefully  preserved. 

B. 

The  Calves'-head  Club,  page  86. 

The  work  referred  to,  entitled  "  The  Secret  History,"  &c.,  rapidly  passed 
through  several  editions,  with  some  variations  in  the  title.  It  consists  of  impro- 
bable stories,  dull  poetry,  low  wit,  and  the  common  cant  of  the  times,  dealt  out 
in  very  coarse  language.  It  was  patronised  by  Sacheverell,  Leslie,  and  Luke 
Milbourne,  "a  clergyman  of  yearly  fame."  In  all  probability  it  was  manufac- 
tured by  Ned  Ward,  the  author  of  the  "  Loudon  Spy,"  who  kept  a  public-house 
in  the  skirts  of  the  city,  and  devoted  his  powers  to  the  service  of  the  high  party. 

C. 

Dissertation  on  Self-denial,  page  116. 
Dr.  Gibbons  gives  this  paper  at  length  in  his  Memoirs  of  Watts,  p.p.  49 — 58. 

D. 
Excitatio  Cordis  Caiuiti  vcjsiis,  page  136, 
Is  translated  by  Dr.  Gibbons,  and  inserted  in  the  Memoirs. 

E. 

Rev.  Samuel  Say,  page  136. 

In  the  "  Letters  of  John  Hughes,  Esq.  and  other  eminent  Persons,"  there  is  one 
from  Mr.  Say  to  Mr.  Duncombe,  containing  a  Latin  version  of  the  introduction  to 
Paradise  Lost. 

Mr.  Say  also  wrote  in  the  Gentleman's  Magazine  an  article,  entitled  "The  Resur- 
rection illustrated  by  the  changes  of  the  Silkworm,"  and  some  remarks  upon 
Auditor  Benson's  edition  of  Johnston's  Psalms.  Soon  after  his  death  his  papers 
were  arranged  and  published  in  a  quarto  volume,  under  the  title  of  "Poems  on 
Several  Occasions :  and  Two  Critical  Essays,  viz.  the  first  on  the  Harmony, 
Variety,  and  Power  of  Numbers,  whether  in  prose  or  verse  ;  the  second  on  the 
Numbers  of  Paradise  Lost:  by  Samuel  Say,  Loud.  1745."  The  editor  of  this  pos- 
thumous publication  was  William  Duncombe,  Esq. 


7-22 


APPENDIX. 


Pastors  of  Bury  Street,  page  199. 

Mr.  Wilson  gives  the  following  plan  of  the  predecessors  and  successors  of  Dr. 
Watts  at  Bury  Street.     Those  marked  with  *  were  ejected  ministers. 


Names. 

*  Joseph  Caryl,  M.  A 

*  William  Bearmau    

*  John  Owen,  D.  D 

*  Robert  Ferguson 

*  David  Clarkson,  B.D 

*  Isaac  Loeifs,  M.  A 

*  Isaac  Chauncey,  M.  D.    . . 

*  Edward  Terry,  M.  A 

Isaac  Watts,  D.  D 

Samuel  Price 

f  Meredith  Townshend'. . . . 
I  Sam.  Morton  Savage,  D.D. 

Tliomas  Porter     

Josiah  Thompson    

§  Thomas  Beck 


As  Pastors. 


From 
1G60 

1673 

1G82 

1G8 

1687 

1702 
1713 

17.J3 


1788 


To 
1673 

1683 

1687 
1689 
1702 

1748 
17o6 

1787 


18 


As  Assistants. 
From 


10 
16 


16 

1698 

1703 

1742 

1717 

17 

176.3 


G. 

First  version  of  Psalms  in  New  England,  page  424. 

Mr.  Neal  observes  in  his  History,  "  One  of  the  first  books  printed  (at  Harvard 
College)  was  'A  New  Version  of  David's  Psalms ;'  the  ministers,  it  seems,  were  not 

+  Mr.  Townshend  settled  afterwards  at  Hull,  and  removed  finally  to  Stoke  Newington.  He 
was  higlily  esteemed  by  the  church  in  Bury  Street  for  his  talents  and  piety. 

i  Mr.  Savage  was  the  direct  lineal  descendant  of  John  Savage,  the  first  Earl  of  Rivers  of  that 
family:  he  never  claimed  the  title,  which  consequently  became  extinct.  Owing  to  Dr.  Watts's 
encouragement  and  assistance,  to  whom  he  had  introduced  himself  by  a  letter,  he  became  a 
student  under  Mr.  Eames;  afterwards  a  tutor  in  connexion  with  Dr.  David  Jennings,  which 
olBce  he  resigned,  along  witli  his  pastoral  charge,  to  spend  the  evening  of  his  days  in  retirement. 

i  Mr.  Beck,  who  is  still  living,  has  withdrawn  from  Bury  Street.  The  chapel  having  been 
closed  for  some  time,  was  enlarged  and  re-opened,  Sept.  2i),  1829,  by  the  Rev.  Henry  Heap,  the 
present  minister.  It  contains  now  a  monument  to  the  memory  of  Watts,  with  the  following 
inscription:  "This  tablet  was  erected  when  the  chapel  was  enlarged  in  Sept.  M.D.C.C.C-X.X.l.X., 
by  the  chnich  and  congregation,  under  the  pastoral  care  of  the  Hev.  Henry  Heap,  as  a  tribute  of 
their  high  veneration  and  sincere  regard  for  the  inestimable  character  of  this  eminent  man  of 
God  and  incomparable  sweet  singer  of  Israel,  whose  praise  is  in  all  the  churches. 


"The  Righteous  shall  be  in  everlasting  Remembrance.    Psalm,  cxii.  6." 


APPENDIX.  723 

satisfied  with  Sternhold  and  Hopkins,  not  so  much  on  account  of  their  poetry, 
as  because  they  had  perverted  the  text  in  a  great  many  places ;  they  resolved, 
therefore,  on  a  new  version,  and  committed  the  care  of  it  to  some  of  the  chief 
divines  in  the  country,  among  whom  were  the  Rev.  Mr.  Eliot  of  Roxbury,  Mr. 
Mather  of  Dorchester,  and  Mr.  Wells,  who,  having  compared  their  several  per- 
formances together,  printed  the  whole  at  Cambridge,  in  the  year  1640.  When 
the  book  was  published  it  did  not  satisfy  the  expectations  of  judicious  men,  for 
being  composed  by  persons  of  a  different  genius  and  capacity,  it  was  far  from 
being  of  a  piece  ;  and  was,  therefore,  after  some  time,  committed  to  one  hand  to  be 
corrected,  and  made  a  little  more  uniform.  Mr.  Henry  Dunstar,  President  of  the 
College,  was  the  man  chosen  to  this  work,  who  with  the  assistance  of  Mr.  Richard 
Lyon,  tutor  to  Sir  Henry  Mildmay's  son,  then  boarding  in  his  house,  reduced  it  to 
the  form  in  which  it  appears  at  present."  Hist,  of  New  Enyland,  i.  188.  This 
version  and  other  subsequent  attempts,  were  superseded  in  that  country  soon  after 
Mr.  Neal  wrote  by  Dr.  Watts's  Imitations. 

H. 

Prefaces,  page  550. 

Besides  the  Prefaces  to  the  works  of  others  mentioned  in  this  volume.  Dr.  Watts 
wrote  the  following : 

To  the  Life  of  the  Rev.  Mr.  Thomas  Halyburton. 

To  Ten  Sermons  preached  before  and  after  the  celebration  of  the  sacrament  of 
the  Lord's  Supper :  to  which  are  added  Two  Sermons  preached  upon  occasion  of 
the  Death  of  a  Friend.     By  the  Rev.  T.  Halyburton. 

To  the  Rev.  Mr.  Bourne's  volume  of  Prayers  for  Families. 

To  an  Abridgment  of  the  Rev.  Dr.  Cotton  Mather's  Life,  by  Dr.  David 
Jennings. 

To  Dr.  Samuel  Clarke's,  of  St.  Alban's,  Collection  of  Scripture  Promises. 

To  the  Remains  of  the  Rev.  John  Mason  of  Water  Stratford. 

To  the  Rev.  Mr.  Steele's  Religious  Tradesman. 

An  ode  was  published  in  the  time  of  Queen  Anne,  by  S.  Cobb,  M.  A.,  entitled 
the  "  Female  Reign,"  alluding  to  Horace,  B.  iv.  Od.  14,  attempted  in  the  style  of 
Pindar,  occasioned  by  the  wonderful  success  of  her  majesty's  arms  and  her  allies. 
"Tiiis  poem,"  says  Dr.  Watts,  (in  a  note  on  the  title-page  of  the  copy  he  gave 
Dr.  Gibbons  not  many  years  before  his  death,  with  his  emendations)  "in  my 
opinion,  is  the  truest  and  best  Pindaric  I  ever  read,  yet  I  thought  some  parts  of 
it  were  capable  of  improvement ;  I  have,  therefore,  taken  some  pains,  and  much 
liberty  with  it,  to  form  it  entirely  to  my  taste."  The  ode  with  the  alterations  in- 
serted in  it,  and  the  original  words  of  Mr.  Cobb  placed  at  the  foot  of  every  stanza, 
the  altered  lines  of  which  are  marked,  Dr.  Gibbons  has  printed  at  length. 
Memoirs,  p.  27G. 


724  APPENDIX. 


Last  Sentiments  of  Dr.  lVfl«s  tipon  the  Trinity,  page  604. 

As  much  misapprehension  has  existed  upon  this  subject,  it  may  be  proper  to 
examine  briefly  the  evidence  upon  which  his  reported  change  of  opinion  rests.  It 
will  be  found  that  there  is  not  the  sliglitest  reason  to  suppose  that  his  views 
altered  in  his  latter  years ;  but  that  the  amount  of  his  departure  from  the  senti- 
ments of  the  orthodox  is  fully  expressed  in  his  printed  works.  The  Rev.  S. 
Merrivale  of  Exeter  writes  to  Dr.  Priestley  at  Leeds  as  follows  : 

"What  I  mentioned  to  Mr.  Aikin  concerning  Dr.  Watts  I  had  from  Dr.  Lard- 
ner,  who  told  it  me  as  a  thing  known  to  few,  though  without  enjoining  me  to  se- 
cresy.  Having  mentioned  in  the  course  of  my  correspondence  with  the  latter,  the 
difficulty  of  fixing  my  sentiments  with  regard  to  the  person  of  Christ,  though  I  had 
formerly  thought  the  doctrine  of  his  pre-existence  sufficiently  proved  by  Dr.  Clarke, 
Dr.  Watts,  and  others,  he  replies  :  — '  1  think  Dr.  Watts  never  was  an  Arian,  to  his 
honour  be  it  spoken.  When  he  first  wrote  of  the  Trinity,  I  reckon  he  believed 
three  equal  persons  ;  but  in  the  latter  part  of  his  life,  for  several  years  before  his 
death,  and  before  he  was  seized  with  an  imbecility  of  his  faculties,  he  was  an 
Unitarian.  How  he  came  to  be  so  I  cannot  certainly  say,  but  I  think  it  was  the 
result  of  his  own  meditation  on  the  Scriptures.  He  was  very  desirous  to  promote 
that  opinion,  and  wrote  a  great  deal  upon  the  subject;  but  his  papers  fell  into 
good  hands,  and  they  did  not  think  them  fit  for  publication  !'  "  According  to  this 
statement  Dr.  Watts  became  an  Unitarian  "several  years  before  his  death." 
Now  it  is  an  undeniable  fact,  that  his  two  most  voluminous  works  upon  the  Trinity 
and  the  person  of  Christ,  were  published  within  one  year  and  a  half  o(  his  decease: 
it  is  incredible,  therefore,  that  his  Unitariauism  should  not  have  appeared  in  these 
productions,  especially  as  Dr,  Larduer  states,  "  he  n-as  very  desirotis  to  -promote 
that  opinion." 

Mr.  Merrivale  writes  again  to  Dr.  Priestley,  "  As  there  seemed  some  ambiguity  in 
the  word  Unitarian,  though  I  knew  veiy  well  in  how  strict  a  sense  the  Doctor 
(Lardner)  generally  used  it,  and  beiug  aware  that  Dr.  Watts  in  his  later  publica- 
tions quite  gave  up  the  notion  of  a  three-fold  Deity,  (though  he  contended 
earnestly  for  the  pre-existence  of  Christ's  human  soul  originally  possessed  of 
powers  superangelical,  on  which,  however,  he  is  silent  in  his  'Solemn  Address  to 
the  Deity,')  I  begged  leave  to  be  informed  whether  in  his  unpublished  papers 
he  had  appeared  to  have  given  up  that  point;  in  answer  to  which  Dr.  Lardner 
wrote  : 

"  '  I  question  whether  you  have  any  where  in  print  Dr.  Watts's  last  thoughts  upon 
the  Trinity.  They  were  known  to  very  few.  My  nephew  Neal,  an  understanding 
gentleman,  was  intimate  with  Dr.  Watts,  and  often  with  the  family  where  he  lived. 
Sometimes  in  an  evening,  when  they  were  alone,  he  would  talk  to  his  friends  in 
the  family  of  his  new  thoughts  concerning  the  person  of  Christ,  and  their  great 


APPENDIX.  725 

importauce;  and  tliat  if  he  should  be  able  to  recommend  them  to  the  world,  it 
would  be  the  most  considerable  thing  that  ever  he  performed.  My  nephew,  there- 
fore, came  to  me  and  told  me  of  it,  and  that  the  family  was  greatly  concerned  to 
hear  him  talk  so  much  of  the  importance  of  these  sentiments.  I  told  my  nephew 
that  Dr.  Watts  was  in  the  right  in  saying  they  were  important;  but  I  was  of 
opinion  that  he  was  unable  to  recommend  them  to  the  public,  because  he  had 
never  been  used  to  a  proper  way  of  reasoning  on  such  a  subject.  So  it  proved. 
My  nephew  being  the  executor  had  the  papers,  and  showed  me  some  of  them. 
Dr.  Watts  had  written  a  good  deal,  but  they  were  not  fit  to  be  published.  Dr, 
Watts's  last  thoughts  were  completely  Unitarian.'  " 

This  letter  is  exceedingly  vague  aud  unsatisfactory,  and  is  destitute  of  that 
accuracy  and  precision  by  which  Dr.  Lardner's  writings  are  generally  characterised. 
It  contains  a  positive  assertion  that  Dr.  Watts  was  an  Unitarian,  but  no  proof  of 
the  fact,  and  not  even,  as  Mr.  Merrivale  desired,  a  definition  of  the  term.  Had  he 
renounced  the  idea  of  Christ's  pre-existence,  Dr.  Lardner  would  have  observed  it 
in  the  papers  to  which  he  had  access,  and  would  readily  have  communicated  it  to 
his  correspondent.  But  he  shuffles  at  the  question  proposed  to  him,  and  his 
silence  may  safely  be  regarded  as  a  proof  that  Dr.  Watts  had  not  given  up  that 
point,  and  that,  therefore,  he  could  not  be  justly  pronounced  an  Unitarian  in  the 
common  acceptation  of  the  term. 

"Mr.  Merrivale,"  as  Mr.  Palmer  remarks,  "might  properly'  have  asked  the 
Doctor  further,  whether  any  thing  appeared  in  Dr.  Watts's  papers  to  prove  that 
he  had  given  up  his  former  opinion  concerning  the  personal  union  of  Jesus  Christ 
with  Deity,  so  as  at  last  to  consider  him  as  being  merely  one  of  the  human  race, 
who  had  no  more  claim  to  Divinity  than  Moses  or  any  of  tlie  propliets  or  apostles. 
I  would  further  ask,"  says  he,  "whether  it  appeared  in  these  unpublished  papers, 
that  he  had  renounced  and  approved  the  doctrine  which  he  had  ail  his  days  so 
strenuously  maintained,  of  the  atonement  for  sin  by  the  death  of  Christ.  If  he 
had  become  a  'complete  Unitarian,'  aud  had  he  been  '  very  desirous  to  promote  that 
opinion,'  he  would  have  been  very  explicit  in  renouncing  his  former  opinions  on 
these  points,  and  very  full  in  stating  his  objections  against  them :  indeed,  as  an 
honest  man,  he  should  have  given  positive  orders  to  his  executors  to  publish  what 
he  had  written  on  these  his  new  sentiments ;  which  it  is  plain  from  his  will  he 
did  not.  If  any  thing  of  this  kind  had  appeared  in  his  manuscripts,  certainly 
Dr.  Lardner  must  have  known  it,  and  would  have  been  very  ready  to  have 
acquainted  his  inquiring  correspondent  with  it." 

The  following  is  a  list  of  Dr.  Watts's  MSS.  referred  to  by  Dr.  Lardner.  The 
papers  were  disposed  of  in  covers  or  cases  under  these  titles,  viz. 

I.  Psalmody. 

II.  Of  the  Trinity:  a  Modest  Defence  of  Inquirers  into  Truth. 

III.  Two  Essays  on  the  Lord's  prayer. 

IV.  Essays  aud  Remarks  on  Texts  of  Scripture:   1.  The  Words  in  which  we 


726  APPENDIX. 

should  confess  our  Faith.     2,   The  Diamond  Painted.     3.  Of  Catechisms.     4.  A 
Case  of  Conscience.     5.  Figure  of  a  Cherub. 

V.  Essays  relating  to  the  Trinity,  viz.  An  luquiiy  into  the  Scriptural  Represen- 
tation of  the  Father,  the  Word,  and  the  Spirit.  2.  Of  the  proper  Athanasian 
scheme  of  the  Trinity.  3.  The  Holy  Spirit  the  true  God.  4.  The  ill  effects  of 
incorporating  the  divine  doctrine  of  the  Trinity  with  the  human  explications  of  it. 

VI.  Remnants  of  Time  employed,  in  prose  and  verse  ;  or,  Short  Composures  on 
Various  Subjects,  viz.  1.  Of  Human  Knowledge,  and  the  various  kinds  of  it.  2.  The 
Kahe  reformed  in  the  House  of  Mourning.  3.  An  Apology  for  enlarging  Dr. 
Younifs  description  of  the  Peacock,  'i.  Justice  and  Grace.  5.  Bills  of  Exchange. 
6.  The  ever-blessed  God.  7.  Vanity  inscribed  on  all  Things.  8.  The  Day  of 
Grace.  9.  God  and  Nature  unsearchable.  10.  The  Repeal.  11.  The  Saints 
nnhnon-n  in  this  World.  \2.  Complaint  and  Hope,  a  Poem.  13.  Heathen  Poesy 
Christianised.  14.  General  Song  of  Praise  to  God.  15.  To  Amyntas,  an  Ode  to 
Lady  Sunderland.  16.  To  Philanthropus.  17.  The  Windmills.  18.  A  Sinner 
tempted  to  despair.  \9.  Redemption,  a  Poem.  20.  Of  Coufiuementto  setForms 
of  Worship.     21.  Appendix  to  foregoing  essay. 

VII.  A  Faithful  Inquiry  after  the  ancient  and  original  Doctrine  of  the  Trinity 
taught  by  Christ  and  his  Apostles  :  in  two  Parts.  The  first  part  inquires  so  far 
as  is  necessary  to  salvation.  The  second  part  so  far  as  may  improve  our  Christian 
knowledge  and  establish  our  faith  ;  and  the  objections  of  both  are  answered  in  a 
plain  and  easy  manner,  derived  only  from  the  word  of  God. 

VIII.  The  Improvement  of  the  Mind,  Second  Part. 

The  preceding  pieces  marked  in  italics  were  published  in  the  first  edition  of 
Dr.  Watts's  works,  in  1753,  under  the  care  of  Dr.  Jennings  :  the  remaining  manu- 
scripts were  destroyed.  It  was  not  because  these  papers  contained  any  renuncia- 
tion of  former  sentiments  that  they  were  suppressed  ;  but  because  both  Dr.  .Jen- 
nings and  Mr.  Neal,  with  whom  also  Dr.  Larduer  concurred,  judged  them  not  worthy 
of  publication.  It  is  much  to  be  regretted  that  this  step  was  taken  ;  for  it  gave 
rise  to  unfounded  rumours  as  to  the  contents  of  the  manuscripts,  which  their  pre- 
servation would  at  once  have  contradicted. 

Tiiat  the  destroyed  papers  expressed  the  same  views  of  the  deity  of  Clirist  and 
the  Spirit  as  the  published  pieces,  and  contained  nothing  further  heretical,  appears 
from  the  following  considerations : 

1.  The  time  of  their  composition.  This  was  evidently  several  years  before  the 
decease  of  the  author.  In  proof  of  this  there  is  a  letter  written  by  Dr.  Jennings  to 
Dr.  Doddridge,  in  which  he  says,  "  I  believe  we  shall  not  have  near  so  much  trouble 
in  publishing  the  Doctor's  manuscripts  as  I  expected  when  he  acquainted  me  with 
the  design  of  committing  them  in  part  to  my  care,  which  was  three  or  four  years 
ago ;  for  since  then  he  has  published  most  of  the  manuscripts  he  designed  for  the 
press,  so  that,  as  I  learn  from  Mr.  Parker,  there  is  little  if  any  thing  more  remaining 
of  that  sort  than  the  second  part  of  the  '  Improvement  of  the  Mind.' "  The  sup- 
pressed papers  were,  then,  composed  at  least /our  years  before  Dr.  Watts's  death  j 


APrENDlX.  7-27 

for  Dr.  Jennings  was  informed  of  their  being  committed  to  his  care  "three  or  f out- 
years  ago,'"  (1748):  now,  as  the  "Useful  and  Important  Questions,"  and  the 
"  Glory  of  Christ  as  God-Man,"  were  published  only  one  year  and  a  half  before  his 
decease,  it  is  not  to  be  supposed  that  the  unpublished  papers  should  have  contained 
any  thing  materially  different  from,  much  less  contrary  to  these  two  treatises,  pub- 
lished at  least  two  years  after  the  former  were  written.  It  is  utterly  incredible,  that 
what  was  printed  in  1716,  should  materially  differ  from  what  was  written  in  1744. 
If  he  was,  as  Dr.  Lardner  asserts,  "a  complete  Unitarian,"  and  "desirous  to  pro- 
mote that  opinion"  in  1744,  he  would  most  certainly  have  seized  the  opportunity 
to  propagate  his  new  opinions  when  he  was  actually  publishing  two  voluminous 
works  two  years  afterwards. 

2.  In  the  titles  of  the  unpublished  papers,  in  the  preceding  list,  there  is  no  ap- 
pearance of  any  design  to  propose  and  defend  any  new  sentiments;  there  is  no 
intimation  that  any  novel  dogmas  are  discussed ;  the  phraseology  is  exactly  such  as 
if^he  meant  only  to  illustrate  and  maintain  his  former  opinions. 

3.  There  is  the  most  satisfactory  evidence,  that  it  was  the  design  of  the  suppressed 
manuscripts  to  vindicate  Dr.  Watts's  views  maintained  in  his  printed  works,  and 
not  to  propose  any  new  tenets. 

The  manuscript  mentioned  in  the  List  No.  VII,  "  A  Faithful  Inquiry  after  the 
ancient  and  original  Doctrine  of  the  Trinity,''  ^c,  was  actually  printed  in  174.5, 
while  the  author  was  living,  but  for  certain  reasons  suppressed:  a  copv  of  this 
VERY  PIECE  has,  however,  been  recovered,  and  a  new  edition  published  in  1802. 
Tiie  discoverer  and  editor  of  the  tract,  Mr.  Gabriel  Watts,  (no  relation  of  the  Doc- 
tor's), gives  the  following  information  respecting  it : 

"The  copy  from  which  this  is  taken,  was  accidentally  found  in  a  collection  of 
old  books,  in  a  bookseller's  shop  in  Southampton,  in  the  year  I7<J6.  Tiie  author's 
name,  &c.  with  the  date  1745,  were  written  at  the  bottom  of  the  title-page.  It  is 
probable  that  this  copy  had  formed  a  part  of  a  collection  of  books  belonging  to 
some  member  of  the  author's  family  who  resided  at  Southampton,  which  had  re- 
cently been  exposed  to  sale  ;  for  in  a  blank  leaf  of  a  small  work  which  was  lying 
by  it,  was  written,  apparently  in  his  own  hand, '  To  my  dear  Sister  Mrs.  Mary 
Watts.'  It  appears,  from  internal  evidence  and  collateral  circumstances,  to  be  the 
work  of  that  eminent  and  popular  author  whose  name  it  bears.  Its  similarity  in 
style  and  sentiment  to  his  other  trinitarian  tracts,  together  with  the  remarkable 
caution,  diffidence,  and  perplexity  of  mind,  which  are  observable  in  it,  and,  above 
all,  the  unaffected  humility  and  piety  which  pervade  the  whole,  mark  it  emphati- 
cally as  his  own." 

The  editor  observes  further,  "  In  a  blank  leaf  of  the  original  work  was  written  in 
a  fair  hand  the  following  sentence  verbatim :  '  The  Doctor  printed  off  only  fifty 
copies  of  this  work,  and  showed  them  to  some  friends,  who  all  persuaded  him  that 
it  would  ruin  his  character  in  his  old  age,  for  publishing  such  dotage,  and  at  length 
he  was  prevailed  on  to  burn  them ;  so  the  whole  impression  of  fifty  was  destroyed 


728  APPENDIX. 

without  publicatiou,  except  this  single  copy  of  it,  which  by  aa  accident  escaped  the 
flames.' " 

We  have  now,  then,  the  means  of  ascertaining  whether  Dr.  Laidner's  representa- 
tion of  Dr.  Watts's  sentiments  from  his  unpublished  papers,  was  well  founded  or 
not.  The  manuscript  of  tiiis  curious  piece,  let  it  be  remembered,  was  among  the 
manuscripts  which  the  executors  destroyed.  From  the  following  extracts  it  will  be 
seen,  that  the  suppressed  papers  assert  precisely  the  same  doctrines  that  the  author 
had  for  years  maintained,  and  that  he  expresses  himself  in  the  same  characteristic 
manner.  He  here  asserts  the  pre-existence  of  Jesus  Christ  —  his  intimate  union 
with  Deity  —  and  his  atonement  for  the  sins  of  men  —  sentiments  decidedly  adverse 
to  the  Unitarian  scheme.  He  also  asserts  the  doctrine  of  the  Trinity,  which 
Unitarians  deny  in  every  form  of  it. 

"  Of  Jesus  Christ  the  Son  of  God. 

"He  was  born  as  a  man  here  on  earth,  he  lived  and  died  as  a  man,  having  a 
human  body  with  a  rational  soul ;  yet  it  must  be  acknowledged,  that  there  is  some 
part  of  the  constitution  of  the  complete  person  ofour  Lord  Jesus  Christ  which  existed 
through  all  ancient  ages,  for  he  had  a  (jlory  with  the  Father  before  the  foundation 
of  the  world.  God  the  Father  created  the  world  by  Jesus  Christ:  by  him  all 
things  mere  created.  He  had  an  existence,  therefore,  early  enough  to  create  this 
world,  and  to  enter  into  councils  of  peace  with  God  the  Father  for  the  reconciliation 
of  fallen  man  to  God. 

"  It  is  evident,  also,  that  he  is  often  called  God  in  scripture  {John,  i.  1,  &c.) ;  and 
since  he  is  true  God  as  well  as  man,  we  have  plain  directions  from  scripture  to 
suppose,  that  this  second  person,  or  this  man  Christ  Jesus,  has  the  true  Godhead 
luiited  to  him,  or  dwelling  in  him,  in  a  peculiar  manner;  so  that  they  are  often  re- 
presented as  one  complex  person.  It  may  properly  be  called  a  personal  union, 
since  many  personal  actions  are  ascribed  to  these  two  Spirits,  the  human  and  the 
divine  united.  He  is  said  to  have  all  the  fulness  of  the  Godhead  dtvelliny  bodily 
in  him.  He  is  called  God  manifest  in  the  flesh.  He  is  of  the  race  of  the  Jews 
concerning  the  flesh,  and  he  is  also  God  over  all  blessed  for  ever :  Rom.  ix.  .5.  Id 
the  Old  Testament,  as  well  as  in  the  New,  he  is  called  both  God  and  man.  Isa.  ix.  6  : 
a  child  born,  a  songicen,  yet  called  the  Mighty  God.  And  Jer.  xxiii.  6  :  the  Lord 
our  righteousness  ;  and  Emmanuel,  or  God  leilh  us. 

"  The  benefits  which  we  are  to  receive  from  Jesus  Christ,  are  pardon  of  sin  through 
his  full  atonement,  of  satisfaction  for  which  the  dignity  of  his  person  is  sufficient,  as 
he  is  one  with  God.  Tlie  dignity  of  this  union  spreads  itself  over  all  that  Christ 
did  and  suffered,  and  makes  it  divine  and  all  sufficient.  This  union  enables  him 
to  raise  his  church  out  of  this  world,  to  change  the  hearts  of  men  and  turn  them  to 
himself ;  to  give  his  presence  to  his  people  in  their  worship  ;  to  preserve  his  church 
from  all  their  enemies,  to  rule  and  govern  the  nations,  to  raise  the  dead,  and  to 
judge  the  world. 

"  The  duties  we  are  required  to  perform  to  him  are,  to  honour  him  as  we  honour 


APPENDIX.  729 

the  Father ;  to  trust  in  him  ;  to  obey  him  ;  to  pray  to  him  as  dyiug  Stephen  did, 
'  Lord  Jesits,  receive  my  spirit,'  or  as  Paul,  2  Cor.  xii.  8 ;  to  give  praises  to  him 
and  doxologies,  as  Paul  often  does,  and  as  the  whole  creation  does.  Rev.  v.  12,  13, 
^  Every  creature  in  heaven  and  earth  said,  Blessiny,  and  honour,  and  (/lory,  and 
■power  be  to  him  that  siltcth  upon  the  throne  and  to  the  Lamb,  for  ever  and  ever  J' 

" Sect.  111.     0/ the  Holy  Trinity. 

"The  doctrine  of  the  blessed  Trinity,  or  of  the  Father,  the  Son,  and  the  Holy 
Ghost,  with  their  peculiar  characters  and  offices,  is  a  special  doctrine  of  the  Chris- 
tian religion.  This  sacred  Three  in  the  Trinity  are  plainly  represented  in  scrip- 
ture, and  have  been  generally  represented  by  Christian  writers,  like  three  persons, 
or  three  distinct  personal  agents,  as  acting  different  parts  and  sustaining  difFerent 
characters  in  the  affairs  of  our  salvation  ;  and  yet  it  seems  to  be  abundantly  evi- 
dent also  in  scripture,  that  they  are  all  Three  represented  as  having  fr«e  andprojJer 
Deity  some  way  belonging  to  them,  and  that  the  names,  titles,  attributes,  and  ope- 
rations of  Godhead  are  ascribed  to  the  Three  in  the  Old  Testament  and  in  the  New. 
This  is  the  substance  of  the  doctrine  itself,  as  revealed  in  the  Bible,  and  the  writers 
on  the  Trinity  have  so  often  proved  it,  that  I  need  not  repeat  the  proofs  here.  Yet 
there  are  sufficient  guards  in  the  New  Testament,  that  the  ancient  doctrine  of  the 
eternal  tmity  of  God  must  have  no  inroad  made  upon  it  by  Christianity." 

These  extracts  will  sufficiently  establish  the  coincidence  between  the  suppressed 
manuscripts  of  Dr.  Watts  and  his  printed  treatises ;  and  show  how  little  ground  any 
zealous  Unitarians  have  to  triumph  in  the  fond  supposition,  that  they  have  the 

GREAT  AND  GOOD  DR.  WATTS  ON  THEIR  SIDE. 

See  "  Dr.  Watts  no  Socinian.  A  Refutation  of  the  Testimony  of  Dr.  Lardner, 
as  brought  forward  in  the  Rev.  T.  Belsham's  Memoirs  of  the  late  Rev.  Theophilus 
Lindsey,  'That  Dr.  Watts's  last  Sentiments  were  completely  Unitarian,'  in  a 
series  of  Letters  to  the  Rev.  Joseph  Smith,  of  Manchester.  By  Samuel  Palmer. 
'Your  glorying  is  not  good :'   1  Cor.  v.  6." 


J. 

WILL  OF  DR.  WATTS, 

Extracted  from  the  Registry  of  the  Prerorjative  Court  of  Canterbury. 

"This  is  the  last  will  aud  testament  of  me,  ISAAC  WATTS,  of  Stoke  Newington, 

in  the  county  of  Middlesex,  doctor  in  divinity,  made  this  twenty-third  day  of  July, 

in  the  year  of  our  Lord  one  thousand,  seven  hundred,  and  forty-six.   And,  First,  as 

becomes  a  professor  and  preacher  of  the  Christian  faith,  I  resign  my  soul  to  God 

who  gave  it,  hoping  for  his  mercy  through  the  obedience,  death,  and  intercession 

of  Jesus  Christ,  his  Son,  my  Lord  and  Saviour,  knowing  in  whom  I  have  believed  ; 

and  my  body  I  leave  to  be  committed  to  the  grave  with  as  little  funeral  show  and 

pomp  as  possible,  humbly  expecting  a  joyful  resurrection,  according  to  the  promi- 

A  a  a 


730  APPENDIX. 

ses  of  the  blessed  gospel.     And  as  for  the  worldly  estate  that  God  hath  given  me, 
I  direct  the  disposal  of  it  in  the  following  manner: — I  will  that  all  my  debts  and 
funeral  expenses  be,  in  the  first  place,  fully  paid  and  satisfied  ;  and  I  desire  that 
Lady  Abney,  of  Newington  aforesaid,  and  Mrs.    Elizabeth  Abney,  her  daughter, 
will  accept  of  twenty  guineas  a-piece  for  mourning,  with  my  most  grateful  acknow- 
ledgment of  the  generous  and  tender  care  shown  me  by  her  ladyship  and  her  family 
in  my  long  illness  many  years  ago  (when  1  was  capable  of  no  service),  and  also  of 
her  eminent  friendship  and  goodness  during  my  continuance  in  the  family  ever 
since.     I  also  desire  Lady  Abney  and  Miss  Abney  to  accept  of  such  books  and 
pamphlets  out  of  my  library  as  they  shall  think  proper  for  their  own  use,  and 
of  all  the  paintings,  prints,  tables,  maps,  and  mathematical  instruments  of  every 
kind  which  belong  to  me;  and  also  of  such  household  goods  or  furniture  which  I 
shall  be  possessed  of  at  the  time  of  my  decease  that  her  Ladyship  may  think  con- 
venient should  remain  in  her  house.     In  the  next  place  I  declare  it  to  be  my  will, 
that  such  debts  as  shall  be  owing  to  me  at  the  time  of  my  decease  be  with  all  con- 
venient dispatch  got  in,  and  received  by  my  executors ;  and  that  such  of  the  lega- 
tees, hereinafter  named,  as  may  be  indebted  to  me,  do  respectively  discharge  those 
debts  to  my  estate  before  they  respectively  receive  their  legacies.     And  although 
the  providence  of  God  hath  blessed  my  brother  Dr.  Richard  Watts  with  wealth 
and  plenty  above  the  rest  of  my  relations,  yet,  to  testify  my  sincere  good-will  to 
him  and  his  family,  I  give  to  my  said  brother  fifty  pounds,  and  to  his  wife  and 
daughter  the  sum  of  ten  guineas  apiece  for  mourning.     Item  :    I  give  to  my  bro- 
ther Enoch  Watts,  and  my  sister  Sarah  Brackstone,  and  to  the  survivor  of  them, 
his  or  her  executors  and  administrators,  eight  hundred  and  eighty  pounds,  being 
all  my  share  and  interest  in  the  capital  stock  of  the  Bank  of  England  :  and  I  give 
the  said  Enoch  Watts  the  further  sum  of  fifty  pounds.  I  give  one  thousand  pounds, 
being  all  my  share  and  interest  in  the  three  per  cent  annuities  of  the  year  1726,  to 
my  nephew  Joseph  Brackstone,  and  my  three  nieces  Mary,  Sarah,  and  Martha,  the 
children  of  my  sister  Sarah  Brackstone,  to  be  equally  divided  between  them,  share 
and  share  alike :  provided  that  if  any  or  either  of  them  my  said  nieces  die  in  my  life- 
time without  issue,  that  then  the  share  or  shares  of  him,  her,  or  them  so  dying, 
shall  go  to  the  survivor  or  survivors  of  them ;  but  if  any  or  either  of  them  die  in  my 
lifetime  leaving  issue,  that  then  the  share  or  shares  of  her  or  them  so  dying  shall 
go  to  her  or  their  respective  issue.     I  give  to  my  executors,  hereinafter  named, 
one  hundred  and  fifty  pounds'  stock,  part  of  my  share  and  interest  in  the  capital 
stock  of  the  South  Sea  Company,  in  trust,  to  pay  the  dividends  thereof  to,  or  permit 
the  same  to  be  received  by,  my  niece,  Mary  Chaldecott,  of  Lincoln,  for  and  during 
the  term  of  her  natural  life,  for  her  separate  use  ;  and  the  receipts  of  the  said  Mary 
Chaldecott  only,  whether  under  coverture  or  not,  to  be  a  suflicient  discharge  to  my 
executors  for  the  same :  and  from  and  after  the  decease  of  the  said  Mary  Chalde- 
cott, I  give  the  said  one  hundred  and  fifty  pounds,  South-Sea  Stock,  to  my  nephew 
Thomas  Watts,  of  Chichester,  his  executors  and  administrators,  for  his  and  their 
own  use.     I  also  give  to  my  said  uephew  Thomas  Watts  one  hundred  and  fifty 


APPENDIX.  731 

pounds  South-Sea  Stock,  further  part  of  my  share  and  interest  in  the  capital  stock 
of  the  said  company,  to  and  for  his  own  use,  to  be  transferred  to  him  withiu  three 
months  after  my  decease.  And  1  give  to  the  said  Mary  Chaldecott  the  further  sum 
of  twenty  pouuds.  Item  :  I  give  to  my  dear  and  faithful  friend,  and  companion  in 
the  labours  of  the  ministry,  Mr.  Samuel  Price,  twenty  pouuds,  and  the  further  sum 
of  ten  pounds  for  mourning,  as  a  small  testimony  of  my  great  affection  for  him  on 
account  of  ail  his  services  of  love  during  the  many  harmonious  years  of  our  fellow- 
ship in  the  work  of  the  gospel ;  and  if  he  had  wanted  it  I  would  have  given  him  ten 
times  as  much.  I  give  to  my  honoured  and  worthy  friend.  Sir  John  Hartopp,  Bart, 
ten  guineas  for  mourning.  I  give  to  Mrs  Jane  Davenport  (Lady  Abney's  own  ser- 
vant), ten  pounds,  and  to  her  sister  Anne  five  pounds.  And  I  give  the  further  sum 
of  twenty  pounds  to  and  amongst  the  rest  of  Lady  Abney's  menial  or  household  ser- 
vants who  shall  have  lived  a  year  with  her  ladyship  before  my  decease,  to  be  dis- 
tributed amongst  them  in  such  proportions  as  Lady  Abney  shall  tiiink  fit.  I  give 
to  my  trusty  and  diligent  servant,  Joseph  Parker,  fifty  pounds,  and  all  my  wearing 
apparel  of  every  kind.     I  give  to  Mr.  Samuel  Price,  Mr.  George  Streatfield,  Mr. 

Thomas  Hart,  Mr.   Nathaniel    Field,    Mr.  John   Woodcock,  and    Mr.   ■ 

Jacobson,  or  to  such  of  them  as  shall  be  living  at  the  time  of  my  decease,  the  sum 
of  one  hundred  pouuds,  in  trust,  that  they  or  the  survivors  or  survivor  of  them  dis- 
pose of  fifty  pouuds,  part  thereof,  within  five  years  after  my  decease,  amongst  such 
poor  persons  of  the  congregation  meeting  in  Bury  Street,  in  such  proportions  as 
they  shall  think  fit;  and  the  fifty  pouud.s,  residue  of  the  said  sum  of  one  hundred 
pounds,  I  desire  may  be  applied  for  or  towards  securing  that  meeting-house  for  the 
use  of  the  said  congregation  for  a  further  term  of  years  beyond  the  present  lease. 
But  if  the  said  last  mentioned  fifty  pounds  is  not  or  cannot  be  laid  out  for  the  pur- 
pose afore-mentioned  within  the  space  of  five  years  after  my  decease,  then  I  direct 
that  the  same,  as  soon  as  conveniently  may  be  after  the  expiration  of  sucii  five  years, 
be  disposed  of  and  distributed  in  like  manner  as  1  have  directed  touching  tlie  first- 
mentioned  fifty  pounds.  Item  :  I  give  the  sum  of  twenty  pouuds  to  poor  Protestant 
dissenting  ministers,  to  be  distributed  at  the  discretion  of  my  executors  and  of  Mr. 
Samuel  Price.  I  give  seven  pounds  to  poor  Protestant  dissenters  of  the  town  of 
Southampton,  five  pouuds,  part  thereof,  to  be  distributed  at  the  discretion  of  my 
afore-named  brother  and  .sister,  Enoch  Watts  and  Sarah  Brackstone,  and  two  pouuds, 
residue  thereof,  at  the  discretion  of  the  Rev.  Mr.  Francis,  the  dissenting  minister 
there.  I  also  give  the  like  sum  of  seven  pounds  to  poor  persons  of  the  same  town, 
who  usually  worship  God  in  the  Church  of  England,  to  be  distributed  at  the  discre- 
tion of  my  said  brother  and  sister,  Enoch  Watts  and  Sarah  Brackstone,  and  of  my 
good  cousin  Richard  Tanton,  Esq. ;  but  I  desire  no  part  of  the  two  last-mentioned 
charitable  legacies  may  be  given  to  such  persons  as  do  not  statedly  attend  on  public 
worship,  unless  prevented  by  bodily  indisposition.  I  give  to  my  executors  the  sum 
of  fifty  pouuds,  to  be  laid  outbj'  them  after  the  rate  of  ten  pounds  a-year,  witli  the 
approbation  of  Mr.  Samuel  Price  and  Mr.  David  Jennings,  in  buying  such  books  as 
follows,  viz.  Scripture  History,  Revival  of  Religion,  The  Redeemer  and  Sanctifier, 


732  APPENDIX. 

The  Ruiu  and  Recovery  of  Man,  Orthodoxy  and  Charity,  Tlie  Harmony  of  Religions, 
Questions  for  Students,  Dr.  Mather's  Life  abridged,  with  Mr.  Jennings's  Of  Preach- 
ing Christ,  Dr.  Doddridge's  Sermon,  preaclied  October  15, 1741,  his  Rise  and  Pro- 
gress of  Religion  and  Family  Expositor,  to  be  lent  or  given  to  youth  educating  for 
the  ministry  of  the  gospel  amongst  the  Protestant  dissenters,  at  the  discretion  of 
my  said  executors,  and  of  the  said  jNIr.  Price  and  Mr.  Jennings  ;  and  it  is  my  request, 
that  the  said  books  be  at  first  only  lent  to  read,  and  not  absolutely  given  to  such 
students  till  the  aforenamed  distributors,  or  some  of  them,  or  the  tutor  who  has  the 
care  of  their  education,  are  or  is  satisfied  that  the  students  have  carefully  perused 
the  same,  and  are  likely  to  make  good  use  of  them.  I  give  ten  pounds  to  the  Orphan 
House,  near  Halle  in  Germany,  now  or  lately  under  the  care  of  Professor  Frank,  to 
be  paid  to  Mr.  Michael  Ziegenhagau,  the  German  minister  at  Kensington  or  near 
St.  James's.     And  1  also  give  ten  pounds  to  the  Society  in  Scotland  for  the  Propa- 
gating of  Christian  Knowledge  in  the  Islands  and  Highlands,  to  be  paid  to  the  trea- 
surer or  secretary  for  the  time  being  of  the  Corresponding  Society  or  members  iu 
London.     Item  :   after  Lady  Abney  and  Miss  Abney  have  made  such  choice  as  is 
before  mentioned,  I  empower  Mr.  Samuel  Price  and  Mr.  David  Jennings  to  choose 
any  book  or  books  in  my  library,  for  their  own  respective  uses,  to  the  value  of  forty 
shillings  to  each  person,  and  also  two  or  three  volumes  of  the  pamphlets  iu  blue  co- 
vers, whether  bound  or  unbound  ;  and  all  the  rest  of  my  library,  together  with  such 
presses  or  cases  in  my  study  as  belong  to  me,  1  give,  together  with  my  books,  to  my 
three  nieces,  daughters  of  my  sister  Sarah  Brackstone,  to  be  equally  divided  between 
them  share  and  share  alike.    And  as  to  all  the  copies  of  books  that  have  been  printed 
by  me  in  my  lifetime  (not  having  sold  or  disposed  of  any  of  them,  except  my  book 
of  Hymns  and  Spiritual  Songs),  I  have,  by  a  deed  or  writing  executed  by  me  or 
which  I  intend  to  execute,  directed  the  disposition  of  them,  which  disposition  I 
hereby  ratify  and  confirm.     Item  :  as  to  all  my  household  goods  and  furniture  that 
Lady  Abney  or  Miss  Abney  shall  not  choose  to  keep  (if  any  such  there  be),  I  give 
the  same  to  my  brother  Enoch  Watts  for  his  own  use.     And  as  to  ail  my  manu- 
scripts of  every  kind,  I  give  the  same  to  the  afore-named  Mr.  Jennings  and  the 
Reverend  Dr.  Philip  Doddridge,  in  order  that  they  may  publish  such  of  them  as  I 
shall  by  any  paper  or  memorandum  signify  my  desire  should  be  published ;  and 
as  to  the  remainder,  either  to  publish  or  suppress  them,  as  they  shall  judge  best. 
Uut  I  desire  that  such  as  shall  be  published  may  have  the  attestation  of  their  names 
prefixed,  to  satisfy  the  world  they  are  genuine  :  and  I  empower  my  executors  to 
make  them  such  acknowledgment  and  recompense  out  of  my  estate  for  their  trouble 
iu  revising  aud  publishing  such  manuscripts  as  they  shall  think  proper.     And  all 
the  rest  and  residue  of  my  estate,  of  what  nature  or  kind  soever,  not  hereinbefore  or 
by  the  deed  or  writing  last  mentioned  disposed  of,  I  give  to  my  afore-named  nephew 
Joseph  Brackstone,  and  my  three  nieces,  Mary,  Sarah,  and  Martha,  the  daughters 
of  my  said  sister  Sarah  Hria:kstouc,  and  over  and  above  what  I  have  before  given 
them,  to  be  equally  divided  between  them  share  and  share  alike.    Provided,  never- 
theless, that  if  any  or  either  of  my  said  uoices  die  in  my  lifetime  without  issue, 


APPENDIX.  733 

that  then  the  share  or  shares  of  her  or  them  so  dying,  shall  go  to  the  survivors  or 
survivor  of  them  my  said  nieces ;  but  if  any  or  either  of  them  my  said  nieces  die 
in  my  lifetime  leaving  issue,  that  then  the  share  or  shares  of  her  or  them  so 
dying,  shall  go  to  his,  her,  or  their  issue  respectively.  And  I  appoint  my  brother 
Enoch  Watts,  and  Mr.  Nathaniel  Neal,  executors  of  this  my  last  will  and  testa- 
ment j  and  I  desire  Mr.  Neal  will  accept  of  twenty  guineas  as  an  acknowledgment 
for  his  trouble  as  one  of  my  executors. — IN  WITNESS  whereof,  I,  the  said  Isaac 
Watts,  have  to  this  my  last  will  and  testament,  contained  in  three  sheets  of  paper, 
set  my  hand  and  seal,  viz.  my  hand  at  the  bottom  of  each  of  the  two  preceding 
sheets,  and  my  hand  and  seal  to  this  last  sheet,  the  day  and  year  first  above  written. 

"  ISAAC  WATTS. 

"Signed,  sealed,  published,  and  declared  by  the  above-named  testator,  Isaac 
Watts,  as  and  for  his  last  will  and  testament,  in  the  presence  of  us,  who,  at  his 
request  and  in  his  presence,  have  subscribed  our  names  as  witnesses  thereto. 

"GEORGE  GRAY, 

"JNO.  WRIGHT, 

"  THOMAS  HEACOCK. 

"I,  ISAAC  WATTS,  give  and  bequeath  to  my  brother  Enoch  Watts  and 
sister  Sarah  Brackstone,  and  to  the  survivor  of  them,  the  additional  twenty  pounds 
capital  Bank  Stock,  by  me  purchased  since  the  signing  and  sealing  of  my  last 
will  and  testament,  as  above.  Witness  my  hand  this  second  day  of  April,  one 
thousand,  seven  hundred,  and  forty-seven. 

"ISAAC  WATTS. 

"  I  hereby  revoke  and  annul  the  legacy  of  fifty  pounds  by  me  given  to  my 
brother  Richard  Watts,  in  my  last  will,  dated  27th  July,  1746,  and  instead 
thereof  I  give  hitn  ten  pounds ;  and  also  I  give  unto  my  sister  Sarah  Brackstone 
the  sum  of  forty  pounds,  besides  what  is  above  given  her,  because  she  most  needs 
it,.  And  ^I  confirm  and  ratify  all  and  every  other  part  of  my  said  will  and  testa- 
ment.    Dated  at  Stoke  Newington,  the  third  day  of  April,  17'17. 

"ISAAC  WATTS. 

"  Witnessed  by  "  ELIS  NEAL, 

"H.  NEAL. 

"  I  give  all  my  capital  Stock  in  tiie  Bank  of  England,  at  the  time  of  my  decease, 
to  my  brother  Enoch  'Watts  and  sister  Sarah  Brackstone,  and  the  survivor  of 
them  J  and  I  appoint  this  a  codicil  to  my  last  will.     November  17th,  1747. 

"  ISAAC  WATTS. 

"Witness  "THOMAS  HEACOCK, 

"JOSEPH  DRAKE. 


734  APPENDIX. 

"  Proved  at  London  with  three  codicils,  sixth  day  of  December,  one  thouftand, 

seven  hundred,  and  forty  eight,  before  the  Worshipful  Kobert  Chapman,  Doctor  of 

Laws  and  Surrogate,  by  the  oaths  of  Enoch  Watts  and  Nathaniel  Neai,  the  executors 

named  in  the  said  will,  to  whom  administration  was  granted,  having  been  first 

sworn  duly  to  administer. 

"CHARLES  DYNELEY, 

"JOHN   IGGULDKN,  ^  Deputy  Registers." 

"CHARLES 


RLES  DYNELEY,         ^ 

N   IGGULDKN,  (.  Deput 

RLES  BEDFORD,  ) 


FINIS. 


PRINTED    DY    THOMAS    lUCHARDSON,    DERBY. 


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