The Works of Isaac Watts: Volume 1 of 9: Sermons

By Isaac Watts

IT was a custom among the ancient Romans, to preserve in wax, the figures of those among their ancestors, who were of noble birth; or had been more nobly advanced to the chair of honour by their personal merits. Sallust relates “that Scipio and other great then, by beholding these likenesses, found enkindled in their breasts, so ardent a thirst after virtue, as could not be extinguished, till, by the glory of their own actions, they had equalled the illustrious objects of their emulation. But it is the happiness of Christians to possess truer notions of virtue, and to be governed by infinitely higher views. We may, however, hence observe the force of example, which is peculiarly operative in those who sincerely love God. They no sooner reflect on the accounts given of such as have been eminent for their piety and zeal, than they become desirous of imbibing the same spirit.

The advantages to be derived from theological biography, are too various to be enumerated; and of such obvious importance, as to supersede all studied encomiums. The sacred scriptures abound with relations of extraordinary occurrences in the lives of men, who were distinguished in their day by their virtues or their crimes: And, as if the Holy Spirit designed to provide for our entertainment, and to gratify our curiosity; there is not a beauty in this species of historical writing, of which we have not some interesting example, in the inspired volume.

Each character is drawn by the hand of impartiality and faithfulness; so that we are in no danger of being deceived by the influence of any of those passions, which so often degrade other relations of the same kind. While compassion tempers the hatred of sin, the love of truth corrects the ardor of private gratitude, the usual partiality of friendship, and the zeal of opinion. Here no excellence, which evidences them to be the Sons of God, is exalted above its intrinsic value; nor is any failing, common to them as the children of Adam, concealed or extenuated.

• Language: English
• Publisher: CrossReach Publications
• Release date: Jan 16, 2019

Book preview

Memoirs of Doctor Watts

IT was a custom among the ancient Romans, to preserve in wax, the figures of those among their ancestors, who were of noble birth; or had been more nobly advanced to the chair of honour by their personal merits. Sallust relates "that Scipio and other great then, by beholding these likenesses, found enkindled in their breasts, so ardent a thirst after virtue, as could not be extinguished, till, by the glory of their own actions, they had equalled the illustrious objects of their emulation. But it is the happiness of Christians to possess truer notions of virtue, and to be governed by infinitely higher views. We may, however, hence observe the force of example, which is peculiarly operative in those who sincerely love God. They no sooner reflect on the accounts given of such as have been eminent for their piety and zeal, than they become desirous of imbibing the same spirit1*.

The advantages to be derived from theological biography, are too various to be enumerated; and of such obvious importance, as to supersede all studied encomiums. The sacred scriptures abound with relations of extraordinary occurrences in the lives of men, who were distinguished in their day by their virtues or their crimes: And, as if the Holy Spirit designed to provide for our entertainment, and to gratify our curiosity; there is not a beauty in this species of historical writing, of which we have not some interesting example, in the inspired volume.

Each character is drawn by the hand of impartiality and faithfulness; so that we are in no danger of being deceived by the influence of any of those passions, which so often degrade other relations of the same kind. While compassion tempers the hatred of sin, the love of truth corrects the ardor of private gratitude, the usual partiality of friendship, and the zeal of opinion. Here no excellence, which evidences them to be the Sons of God, is exalted above its intrinsic value; nor is any failing, common to them as the children of Adam, concealed or extenuated.

Next to these divine records, our esteem is claimed by the many valuable literary monuments which have been raised in all succeeding ages, by the labours of piety and veneration, to the remembrance of those eminent names, whom the unerring Judge of true excellence has delighted to honour.

The lives of men who have made themselves famous in the cabinet, or in the field, may instruct and animate survivors of the same profession: the intrigues of courts, the elevation and the fall of a statesman, the manœuvres of generalship, the decision of a battle, are attended to with a lively avidity by the sanguine politician: But if characters and events in themselves little (if at all) adapted to the great purposes of intellectual and moral improvement, can create such an interest in the worldly mind, with what superior delight and advantage may the subjects of the wisdom that is from above review the lives of those who (whatever inauspicious circumstances may have attached to their origin, or to their condition in life) have exemplified the beauties of unaffected devotion, and shewn the way to true, to substantial happiness, and immortal honour! "Such a man, although the meanest mechanic, who employs his best affections upon the Author of his life and salvation, who loves the good, compassionates the distressed, and breathes peace and good-will to all; who abhors vice, and pities the vicious, who subdues and triumphs over the unruly passions of his fallen nature; such a man (however low his outward condition) is the best patriot, and has more just pretensions to heroism, than he who makes the most glaring figure in the eye of an injudicious world. He is like one of the fixed stars, which through the remoteness of its situation, may be thought very inconsiderable and obscure by unskilful beholders, yet is as truly great and glorious in itself, as those luminaries which, by being placed more commodiously for our view, shine with more distinguished lustre2*."

The christian will here see the excellence of genuine religion, in its influence upon the mind and conduct through every department of life. In the most afflicted state of the Saviour’s empire, he will find some bright examples of decision, unshaken confidence, and undaunted zeal. His faith in the doctrines of the gospel will be confirmed by observing the god-like tempers, and the various lineaments of the divine character produced by the sovereign virtues of those doctrines. In such memoirs, he will learn more perfectly to distinguish between the realities and the shadows of devotion; and to decide more satisfactorily on the state of religion in his own mind; and while tracing the mysterious operations of providence, in advancing the servants of God to prosperity and happiness, by trivial and improbable means, new sources of admiration and pleasure will continually open to his view. Here in the time of difficulty, he may obtain well adapted directions for his conduct; he may meet with salutary caution amidst the allurements of worldly enjoyment; and in the prospect of suffering or dying, he may so far enter into the spirit of the characters he contemplates, as more effectually to secure the dignity of his own.

From the memorials of distinguished men, the student, who is seriously engaged in the pursuit of knowledge, will renew his strength, to surmount the hinderances incident to his labours, while he follows them, whose admired natural abilities have been cultivated to the highest attainable state of perfection, or whose persevering application to the means of improvement has brought to light hidden powers of genius; who were insensible to the baits of pleasure, the contagious example of indolence and vice, and the most discouraging difficulties; who were superior to the obstinate prejudices which often persecute a low origin, the disadvantages of indigence, a sickly constitution, natural impediments, and whatever a supine and grovelling mind would pronounce insuperable. While he keeps such a character in sight, he will assume fresh courage in struggling to useful eminence; and every day his success will be less dubious. The plans they adopted, the various helps of which they availed themselves in their progress, their uniform perseverance, their acquisitions and the application they made of them to the service of the church and of civil society, cannot fail to administer instruction. Every candidate for the work of the sanctuary, who feels as he ought the importance of his designation, and who, having finished his preparatory obligations, will owe much of his best assistance to the light reflected upon him from these luminaries.

Some, if not all, of these advantages, will be obtained from the life of Dr. Watts; if perused with such dispositions, as gave that life all its lustre. What is said of another eminent man, will with equal truth apply to him: As anatomy discovers all the curious contexture of our bodily fabric, so here are vivid representations of faith, love, and an heavenly mind; of humility, meekness, self-denial, entire resignation to the will of God, in their first and continued motions; with whatever parts and principles besides, compose the whole frame of the new creature. Here it is as if we could perceive with our eyes, how the blood circulates in an human body through all the veins and arteries; how the heart beats, the animal spirits fly to and fro, and how each nerve, tendon, fibre, and muscle, performs its several operations. Here it may be seen, how an heart touched from above, works and tends thitherward: how it depresses itself in humiliation, dilates itself in love, exalts itself in praise, submits itself under chastisement, and how it draws in its refreshments and succours as there is need. To many who have seen so amiable a course of life, how grateful will it be to behold the secret motions of those inward latent principles, from whence all proceed! Though others would look no further than the advantages (in external respects) that accrue from it. So some content themselves, to know by a clock the hour of the day, or partake the beneficial use of some rarer engine; the more curious, especially any that design imitation, and to compose something of the same kind, would be much more gratified, if through some pellucid enclosure, they could behold all the inward work, and observe how every wheel, spring, or movement, perform their several parts and offices, towards that common use3*.

But to him whose only object is entertainment, the subsequent Memoirs will afford but little gratification. Extraordinary incidents, and curious anecdotes, are not to be expected in the life of a man, whose excursions were bounded by a few miles in the neighbourhood of the metropolis; who had formed no domestic relations; whose bodily afflictions, often and for long seasons, incapacitated him for every duty, and for every pleasure, but such as were purely intellectual and spiritual; and who, when in health, perhaps rather shunned social intercourse, as incompatible with his literary pursuits and his ministerial obligations. But whoever is capable of appreciating the importance of learning and philosophy, when sanctified by an ardent zeal for the glory of God, by gentleness, humility, and unremitted exertions for the best interests of the world; or whoever possesses the noble ambition of attaining such eminence in wisdom, piety, and usefulness, and of imbibing any degree of that elevation of mind, so conspicuous in this great man, may anticipate more substantial rarities, the zest of which he will never lose, while he needs the aid of instruction, or the animating influence of an example so full of grace and beauty.

Isaac Watts, the eldest of nine children, was born July 17, 1674, at Southampton. If his family connections did not possess the advantages of affluence, they were such as might have secured him against the prejudice usually attached to a low origin, by the pride of fashionable life. But had he descended (as was reported) from a poor mechanic, had his parents lived in the utmost meanness, his name would be pronounced with reverence; his character and writings would be held in the same esteem and admiration by all who are capable of making a just estimate of what is truly valuable in the existence of man. As princely grandeur can never dignify ignorance and vice, so talents, learning, and piety, are not to be degraded by any reverse. His father presided over a boarding-school, at Southampton; of good reputation. He was a man of lively devotion, and a decided non-conformist. But living under a reign, the profligacy of which, gave the stamp of fashion to almost every vice; a reign, the bigotry of which, fixed the odium of fanaticism, hypocrisy, and sedition, upon every avowal of attachment to the pure religion of the cross, he became a considerable sufferer, driven by the persecuting emissaries of the prince of darkness, from the comforts of domestic life, and the enjoyment of his religious privileges, he was doomed to the degradation and hardships of a jail. During his confinement, his wife would often sit on a stone at the door of the prison, with this child of promise at her breast, revolving in deep affliction of mind, the horrors of that tyranny by which they were deprived of their chief earthly protection, and left alone to contend with the buffetings of adversity.

In the morning of life, he gave the most promising indications of a bright and useful day: Before he had well learned to speak, a book was his greatest pleasure, and every little present of money, received additional value in his esteem, as it applied to the gratification of this early propensity. When a child he began to act the part of maturer years, in attention to mental improvement, and in preparation for the service and enjoyment of God. The true principles of wisdom and spiritual understanding, which thus early began to bud, yielded, through every succeeding period of his earthly pilgrimage, a rich variety of fruit, pleasant to the sight, and good for food. Although naturally of a temper remarkable for vivacity, he was a singular exception to the vanity of childhood and youth. The hours devoted by other children to play, he employed in reading, or in composing little poems to gratify the fond expectations of his mother.

In his fourteenth year, he entered upon the studies of the learned languages, under the tuition of Mr. Pinhorn, a minister of the established church, and master of the free grammar-school at Southampton; a man of considerable reputation for learning and respectability of character. Here our young student discovered such avidity of application, and extent of capacity, and so distinguished himself by the ease and celerity of his progress, that all who knew him, anticipated with delight, the perfection he afterwards attained. His whole deportment in this critical period of age, formed a happy contrast with the prevailing spirit of some modern fashionable seminaries, where the seeds of vice find a congenial soil, and often before the age of manhood, produce a copious harvest of personal and relative evils. To prepare himself for usefulness in the world, to secure the approbation of heaven, realize the hopes of his friends, and to reward the labours of his preceptor, by his continual diligence in improving the advantages he enjoyed; in these points was all his ambition concentrated. In the twentieth year of his age, he inscribed a latin ode to Mr. Pinhorn, which is not more honourable, as a tribute of gratitude to the merit of the master, than as a proof uncommon proficiency in the scholar.

His unremitted diligence, and rapid progress at the grammar school, were so conspicuous as to draw upon him the attention of some considerable characters in the town and neighbourhood, engaged by the promising appearances which he made of future celebrity in learning and religion: And with a view to his adoption into the established church, they proposed to support him at one of our English universities. But having studied the principles of non-conformity, on which the sufferings of his father had probably given him some useful lessons; and being satisfied that these principles were most congenial with a kingdom not of this world, he respectfully declined the flattering proposal, and declared his resolution to take his lot with the dissenters.

Thus when youthful vanity and ambition are generally most alive to the allurements of emolument and elevation, he sacrificed the fairest prospects of earthly possessions in order to unite himself with a people, branded with every opprobrious epithet; a people with whom, in place of the ease, riches, and honours of clerical preferment, he must substitute labour for the salvation of souls, and estimate his gains only by his success.

The date of his spiritual life cannot be ascertained, but the fact was indubitable from a very early period: Surely the consideration, that such a christian as Dr. Watts, could make no reference to the particular circumstances of time, place, or means, connected with his first spiritual affections, ought to check the presumption of those, who would limit the operations of grace, to the contracted sphere of their own pre-conceptions. He who condescended to lay aside the scholar and the philosopher, to direct the hosannas of our children, and to provide systems of instruction adapted to their wants and capacities, was himself discriminated in his early childhood, by hatred of evil and love to the ways of God.

When only seven or eight years old, he composed some verses to gratify the wishes of his mother; which, for clear views of scriptural truth, and fervour of devotion, would have done honour to far more advanced age. The natural vivacity of his youth was corrected and improved by a deep sense of religion; convinced that no life can be pleasing to God, that is not useful to man, he sanctified his best days, by a lively and well-tempered zeal to do good. He sought and enjoyed communion with God, in retirement from the world; and displayed, in his uniform deportment, the inseparable connexion subsisting between strict religion and substantial pleasure. In the depth of his humility, in the elevation of his affection, he was superior to most of his contemporaries. Before he attained his twenty-second year, he had composed the greater part of his hymns; in comparison with which, most compositions of the same kind are frigid and lifeless. They may indeed in some instances, be thought too appropriating and extatic for our mixed assemblies, and for the general state of our religious joys: but such objections only confess the sublimity of his devotion; and faithfully applied to the disparity of our resemblance, will excite every sentiment of humility. As he advanced from his childhood in his intimacy with heaven, and in his rapid attainments of that knowledge, which too commonly inflates the mind with pride, he was still further removed from the consciousness of his superiority; and in proportion as he grew in favour with God, his meek and lowly temper rendered him daily a greater favourite with man.

Decided in his views and experience of the doctrines of the gospel, the discipline of the church, and in the choice of his religious connexions, he repaired to an academy in London, in the year 1690, where he prosecuted his studies under Mr. Thomas Rowe, at that time pastor of the independent church-meeting, at Haberdasher’s-Hall. Three years afterward this church had the honour of receiving him as a member. At the academy Mr. Hughes, the poet, Dr. Hort, afterwards archbishop of Tuam, and Mr. Say (the successor of Mr. Ed. Calamy) were his fellow-students; and, as appears by their subsequent correspondence, they entertained a warm friendship for him. Here he appears to have laboured with incessant perseverance; not merely to pass with credit through the routine of academical obligations, but to attain to eminent distinction in the soundest qualifications for future usefulness. Very few, by a much longer course of study, make any near approach to the extent of his acquirements. In diligence he had no equal; in his attainments, he had no competitor; and as his progress in the paths of learning was not dishonoured by an ostentatious vanity, he won the esteem and admiration of all who were connected with him in preparatory studies.

From the first general incorporation of the dissenting interest, by the rigid persecutions of the hierarchy after the restoration of Charles II. the body of non-conformists have always deemed it an important object, to provide a succession of ministers competently qualified with divine and human knowledge. Deprived of the splendid advantages of Oxford and Cambridge, they have endeavoured, and with no inconsiderable success, to supply the necessities of their churches, by seminaries of a more private and humble kind. In every dissenting academy, founded on evangelical principles, satisfactory evidence is always required, that the candidates for admission have experienced the power of religion upon their hearts, that they have suitable dispositions for the reception of knowledge, and that they are possessed of qualifications adapted to the service of the church. During their academical residence, vigilant attention is paid to maintaining inviolate the honours of practical godliness; and that residence would, in any instance, be terminated by an act of immoral or scandalous conduct. In the whole course of study, supreme homage is paid to the Word of God; and languages and sciences are pursued with a constant reference to the increase of divine wisdom, and general usefulness. When these advantages are duly considered, dissenters have good reason to be thankfully reconciled to their exclusion from the noble endowments, the magnificent libraries, and the splendid honours of those universities. One of the best scholars and ablest writers Oxford has produced, has made the following candid remarks on this subject:

"I believe it to have been a very happy circumstance for Mr. Secker4*, that he was educated in a dissenting academy, and under so good a tutor. I attribute much of his future eminence to this circumstance, as well as to the connection he fortunately formed there, that purity, that dignity, that decency of character, which enabled him to fill the great offices of the church with singular weight and efficacy. Educated in a dissenting persuasion, and under dissenting tutors, he had paid less attention to polite letters, and more to divinity, than is usually bestowed by students in the universities. Young men in Oxford and Cambridge, frequently arrive at an age for orders, and become successful candidates for them, who have studied scarcely any other divinity, than such as is to be found in Ovid’s Metamorphosis, and Tooke’s Pantheon. Few regularly-bred divines, as they are termed, apply themselves to divinity at so early an age; and, indeed, through the defect of a knowledge, and of a taste for it, in youth, many, after obtaining orders, still continue to study, if they study at all, theology of Athens and Rome. But the dissenters study divinity at an early age, and if they had united the study of the belles lettres with it in due proportion, I believe their divines would have made a still more honourable appearance than they have done, though they are, and ever have been, highly respectable5‡."

What Mr. Watts was as a student, the testimony of his tutor sufficiently evinces: He never, Mr. Rowe declared, gave him any occasion for reproof; but was so exemplary, that he often proposed him as a pattern for the imitation of other pupils. The great ends of his studies were fixed, and the subjects of them were substantial, he well knew the value of his opportunities, nor was he at any loss as to the best means of improving them. No time was given to vain amusements, or to unnecessary indulgencies. The seasons of rest and exercise (so essential to health) were curtailed, and so passionately was he devoted to the increase of his knowledge, that he either laid the foundation of disorders, which imbittered his future life, or, if latent, armed them with the power which resisted all medical skill. The operations of his own mind, his reading, his observation, and his social intercourse were all made subservient to the great designs of his station. With the hands of a Midas, he had the art of turning whatever he touched into gold: the treasures of knowledge, both philosophical and theological, opened to the world, so early after he left the academy, shew the intenseness of his application, and the capaciousness of his mind during his residence there. The most important works in every science engaged his attention; and as he had no tedious hours to amuse, nor any fugitive curiosity to gratify, his reading uniformly promoted the increase of his mental riches. He did not rove about in the fields of science to gather withering flowers, but the precious fruits wherewith the mower filleth his hand, and he that bindeth sheaves his bosom. To impress upon his memory the most important and interesting parts of the books he read, it was his custom, to make judicious abridgements; and that he might compose and digest the sentiments and arguments of his authors, in order to render each in succession instrumental to the confirmation and enlargement of his views, his principal books were interleaved.

The long silence of this excellent and accomplished youth, after he left the academy, as to the primary object of all his studies, the preaching of the gospel, affords considerable scope for conjecture: He was twenty years old when he returned from London to Southampton; there he remained two years; after which he went to reside in the family of Sir John Hortopp, as tutor to his son, where he continued two years longer.

It is true he was but still a youth diffident of himself and deeply affected with the importance of the ministry, under a sense of his insufficiency and trembling lest he should go to the altar of God uncalled. But after sixteen years spent in classical studies, after uncommon proficiency in other parts of learning connected with the work of the ministry, with every qualification for the sacred office, living at a time when his public services were peculiarly needed and when he was known and spoken of as promising celebrity in whatever profession he might chuse, that with all these advantages he should continue in retirement, is a fact difficult to account for, and for which only his extreme diffidence can afford any apology.

But whatever were his reasons for so long a silence, his time was wisely improved; he gave himself up to reading, meditation, and prayer; and in the family of his patron, besides discharging the duties of a tutor, he was employed in several of his most useful and popular works, particularly his Logic, Astronomy and Geography.

In the family of Sir John, he appears to have enjoyed, whatever was most congenial with his views in friendship and devotion: his testimony in his sermon on the death of Sir John is highly honourable to his virtue and to the mingled respect, sorrow and gratitude of the preacher.

While he was increasing his mental treasures by study, and familiarising the importance of these treasures to his pupil, he enjoyed opportunities of conversing with the wise, the learned, and the devout, here his thirst after knowledge increased daily and his ambition for usefulness. The advantages of his situation, like the beams of light, fell upon an object capable of reflecting them; and to this part of his life, may be ascribed much of that superiority, by which he was afterwards distinguished in the church; which still animates us in his writings, and which amidst all the caprice of taste, or the revolutions of opinions, will endear and perpetuate his remembrance.

On his birth-day 1698, he preached his first sermon; "Probably considering that as the day of a second nativity, by which he entered into a new period of existence." Sometime in the course of this year he was chosen assistant to Dr. Isaac Chauncy, pastor of the Independent church then meeting in Mark-lane, and such was his acceptance and success, that in January 1701–2, he succeeded Dr. Chauncy in the pastoral office. The day on which he accepted his invitation to this charge was distinguished by an event peculiarly interesting to the friends of religious liberty. The death of King William III. brought a cloud over the prospects of the dissenters; which in the close of the succeeding reign, was ready to burst in showers of calamity, and which was only dispelled, by the critical interposition of divine providence in the death of queen Anne.

Mr. Watts, who had not entered upon the service of God without duly counting the cost, was not to be discouraged by difficulties, nor deterred by opposition. He had engaged in a sacred work, where the harvest is great, and the labourers are but few; while he had left the field of ambition, where the labourers are many, and the harvest not worth carrying away.6* His views were directed to right objects, his principles invigorated his exertions, and the power with which he was endowed from on high, enabled him to speak with irresistible wisdom. The same month in which he assented to the unanimous call of the church, he was solemnly set apart to the important relationship; and never did any young man assume the pastoral office with higher qualifications, with deeper humility, or with more ardent desires for the eternal welfare of men. His public declaration of acquiescence in the choice of the church (of which some abstracts are here subjoined) while it illustrates the truth of these observations, will gratify every reader of spiritual discernment.

"Brethren,

You know the constant aversion I have had to any proposals of a pastoral office for these three years. You know also, that since you have given me an unanimous call thereto, I have proposed several methods for your settlement without me, but your choice and your affections seemed to be still unmoved. I have objected my own indisposition of body, and I have pointed to three divines, members of this church, whose gifts might render them more proper for instruction, and their 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 perseverance in your choice, your constant profession of edification by my ministry, the great probability you shew me of building up this famous and decayed church of Christ, 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; 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 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 his name 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.

These professions and promises were followed by corresponding diligence and holy zeal. The number and variety of his writings, the frequency and excellence of his preaching, his exact attention to the spiritual affairs of his flock by domestic visits, when not confined by illness, shew the intenseness of his industry, and a laborious piety, as uncommon to others as they were honourable to himself. The younger members of his church were peculiarly interested in his affection and zeal. For them he was always forming plans of religious improvement, and when he could no longer be useful to them in the pulpit, he was solicitous for them in his afflicting confinement. To promote their prosperity and happiness in the momentous concerns of a future world, he formed a society from this class of his charge, for prayer and spiritual conference. In this society the substance of his Guide to Prayer was originally delivered.

In visiting the families of his congregation, he was always careful to leave a savour of divine truth upon their minds; and as his own piety was cheerful, he endeavoured to diffuse its benign influences wherever he went: Walking or riding, in company or in retirement, he was either improving himself or others. He was never so much at home as in his study, nor ever more in his element than when engaged in performing the works of mercy and the labours of love.

His tempers were such as became his character, and secured to him the veneration and esteem of those who most materially differed from him in points of faith. To say he had his imperfections is only to assert, that he was a man and not an angel. If his natural tempers were hasty, and he occasionally expressed himself with a keenness bordering on resentment, he was habitually meek and lowly.

With a mind eminently susceptible of the emotions of friendship and gratitude, he was superior to the contracted views, and the untempered zeal of the bigot. It was not only in his book but in his mind that orthodoxy was united with charity. He knew how to sustain injurious treatment without retaliating. His meekness of opposition was remarkable, and the good he performed was unclouded by pharisaical ostentation. His popularity was duly tempered by his low opinion of himself, and his afflictions were sanctified by patient submission to the unerring will of heaven. The love of money in a minister of Christ, he looked on with contempt and detestation. A third part of his income he devoted to the purposes of charity, and when he was incapable of his public labours he refused to receive his salary. "Happy will be that reader whose mind is disposed, by his writings, to copy his benevolence to man and his reverence to God.

In company he assumed no superiority, nor could any wise and good man feel his superiority with other sentiments than such as were mutually honourable. His conversation betrayed none of the weakness of egotism, nor the malevolence of detraction. He could be entertaining without levity, and serious without austerity. With a natural easy flow of thought he combined aptness, purity, and elegance of expression; so affable and engaging was his deportment wherever he went, that the enquiring virtuous mind was always gratified, while the gay and thoughtless were fixed in attentive veneration, and so conspicuously were the beauties of sincerity delineated in his social character that he was not more admired as a man of talents and learning, than he was sought, loved and trusted as a faithful friend.

As a preacher, Dr. Watts ranks with the most eminent: His published sermons afford a happy specimen of the spirit which pervaded his pulpit exercises. Here is no trimming, no disguise of sentiment, all is transparent and clear as crystal. He thought with the humility that becomes a fallible man, but he spoke with all the perspicuity, decision, and boldness, of an honest man. What is said of Mr. Philip Henry is not less applicable to him. He was admired and loved, because, though so excellent a scholar and so polite an orator, he became so profitable and powerful a preacher, and so readily laid aside the enticing words of man’s wisdom, which were so easy to him. While he avoided whatsoever could disgust the learned and polite he was equally cautious not to soar above the illiterate. In his sermons dignity and simplicity are so conspicuous that every one sees he only wished to gain access to the passions through the medium of the understanding. Sometimes he thought he descended too low in accommodating his style to ignorance and dulness of apprehension. In his discourse on Humility, represented in the character of St. Paul, he makes this apology for descending to familiar and low scenes of life. "I almost reprove myself here, and suspect my friends will reprove me too 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 representations do; and since this iniquity often betrays itself in these trivial instances, it is better perhaps to set them forth in their full and proper light, than that the guilty should never feel a reproof, who, by the very nature of their distemper, are unwilling to see or learn their own folly, unless it is set in a glaring view7*.

But as his great aim was to be understood, and to supply his hearers with suitable matter for holy meditation in private; as he watched for souls like one that was to give an account, a divine solemnity accompanied all he said. The frivolous, jocular disposition of some modern pulpit orators, never degraded his character, never insulted the decency of public worship, or mocked the expectations of the devout mind. Where is the expression that could raise the faintest blush upon the cheek of modesty, or irritate the risibility of the most puerile?

In his personal appearance there was little that could interest the admirers of external comeliness. He was low of stature, and his bodily presence was weak; yet there was a certain dignity in his countenance, and such piercing expression in his eyes, as commanded attention and awe. His manner was animated; but not boisterous; the self-possession he enjoyed was inspired by confidence in God; and therefore, discovered nothing but respect and affection for his hearers. When Dr. Gibbons asked him, if he did not find himself sometimes too much awed by his auditory, he replied, That when such a gentleman, of eminent abilities and learning, has come into the assembly, and taken his eye, he felt something like a momentary tremor, but that he recovered himself by remembering what God said to the Prophet Jeremiah, Be not dismayed at their faces, lest I confound thee before them. In preparation for his ministry, he wrote and committed to memory, the leading features of his cursory sermons; the rest he trusted to his extemporary powers, and the promised assistance of the Holy Spirit; and he never failed to acquit himself with credit. "His reading had made him a full man, conference a ready man, writing an exact man8‡," and his free access to the fulness of Christ made him an essentially profitable man. At the conclusion of weighty sentences it was his custom to pause, that he might quicken the attention and more solemnly impress the realities of the gospel upon the mind. He had cultivated with care and singular success the graces of language. The correctness of his pronunciation, the elegance of his diction, and the grandeur of his sentiments, obtained him an uncommon share of popularity. I once mentioned, says Dr. Johnson, the reputation which Mr. Foster had gained by his proper delivery to my friend Mr. Hawkesworth, who told me, that in the art of pronunciation he was far inferior to Dr. Watts.

His ambition of usefulness was confined to no time or place; such was his love to the Head of the church, and his compassion for the fallen children of men, that he was eager to seize every opportunity of glorifying him, and administering the word of salvation to them, as the subsequent anecdote, communicated by Mr. Kingsbury, of Southampton, to Dr. Gibbons, will testify: —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 the Doctor 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 behind him.

Soon after he had entered upon his pastoral labours, he was visited with illness, which threatened all the sanguine hopes of his people with an early period to his usefulness. His confinement was long, his recovery slow, and his constitution considerably impaired. Under these circumstances, the Rev. Samuel Price was chosen to assist him in the duties of his office. However, his exertions were renewed with his strength, and his sufferings enabled him to preach more than ever to the instruction and delight of his hearers. In the prosecution of his various plans of usefulness, he met with no material interruption till September, 1712, when he was seized with a fever of such violence, that it brought a debility upon his nerves, for which time afforded no remedy, and which entirely laid him aside from the exercise of his ministry more than four years. How inscrutable are the dispensations of providence, when men who, for disseminating the doctrines of the cross, possess the first qualifications, are laid aside or cut off in the flower of their age, while others, far below mediocrity, live till they become useless and burdensome!

Of the affectionate solicitude of his people for the restoration of his health he was honoured with the best evidence by their unceasing prayers to God for him in this season of trouble. Particular days were set apart for this purpose, in which many of his brethren in the ministry united as men deeply impressed with the importance of his life; and their prayers were answered. Mr. Price, his assistant, was now, at Mr. Watts’s own desire, elected to be joint pastor with him; and he was accordingly ordained to this office, March 3, 1713. Between these two fellow-labourers there subsisted, till death, an inviolable friendship. The amiable subject of our memoirs speaks of Mr. Price as his faithful friend and companion in the ministry; and mentions a legacy that he leaves 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. When the preachers of religion, whether they sustain such immediate relationship or not, thus live superior to the meanness and guilt of depreciating and envying each others reputation, talents, and services in the church; when the despicable spirit of competition, and variance, of cold civility, and jealousy is absorbed in brotherly love, and in generous exertions for the just honour of each other, then they will furnish an effectual confutation to the ignorant clamours of infidelity against priest-craft, and as was the case with these two excellent men, the friendship they exercise will return seven-fold into their own bosoms.

The afflicting state to which Mr. Watts was reduced by this sickness, inspired his friends with a tender and becoming sympathy, and particularly engaged the benevolent attention of Sir Thos. Abney, at that time an alderman of London, and afterwards one of its representatives in parliament: A man of eminent piety and zeal, a blessing to his country and the church of God. He died in the year 1722, deeply regretted by all the friends who were contemporary with him and acquainted with his worth, and no less respectfully remembered wherever the works of Dr. Watts are read, by the monuments of his friendship for the author; a friendship pure and uniform, without the usual pride of patronage, or the obsequiousness of timid submission. In this family he found an asylum from the anxieties of dependence, and that still more endeared by the perception of reciprocal benefits. Here he experienced all the tenderness and care that the languishing state of his health required.

Whatever riches and munificence could supply, or respect and affection suggest to alleviate these painful vicissitudes, he enjoyed to the full extent of his wishes, and to the happy event of his introduction into this benevolent family may be ascribed the prolongation of a life the value of which may be estimated by the many excellent works which he published, during his long residence with them. The same respect and friendship shewn him by Sir Thomas Abney were perpetuated by his lady and their daughter till his days were numbered and finished. Lady Abney died about a year after him. She was endowed with every virtue essential to an illustrious example.

The following anecdote, communicated to the late Mr. Toplady by the Countess of Huntingdon, will serve to confirm what is said of the happy terms upon which he lived with this house. The Countess being on a visit to Dr. Watts at Stoke-Newington, was thus accosted by him: Your ladyship is come to see me, on a very remarkable day. Why is this day so remarkable? answered the Countess. This very day thirty years, replied the Doctor, I came to the house of my good friend Sir Thomas Abney, intending to spend but a single week under his friendly roof: and I have extended my visit to the length of thirty years: Lady Abney who was present, immediately said, Sir what you term a long thirty years visit I consider as the shortest visit my family ever received. His gratitude, in the review of his obligations during a thirty-six years residence with her ladyship, is strongly marked in a passage of his will, where he speaks of the generous and tender care shewn him by her ladyship and her family in his long illness, many years ago when he was capable of no service, and also her eminent friendship and goodness during his continuance in the family ever since.

The various stories circulated of his strange nervous affections, or rather it should be said, of his intellectual derangement, appear to have been the fabrications of the designing, and only to have obtained belief with the credulous. I take upon me, and feel myself happy, says his biographer and friend, Dr. Gibbons, to aver, that these reports were utterly false, and I do this from my own knowledge of him for several years, and some of them the years of his decay; from the express declaration of his amanuensis, who was ever with him, and above all from that of Mrs. Elizabeth Abney, who lived in the same family with him thirty-six years.

But his constitution was broken, and his nervous system considerably disordered and debilitated, by the frequent and heavy strokes of illness, and his intense exertions of mind, especially in his youth9*. He was for several years together greatly distressed with insomnia, or continued wakefulness. Very often he could obtain no sleep for several nights successively except such as was forced by medical preparations; and not unfrequently even opiates lost their virtue, and only served to aggravate his malady. It is wonderful how, with such a weak frame and so many shocks rapidly succeeding each other, he was able to maintain such equanimity of temper, and vigour of intellect: The state of his mind through all the decays of nature, his humble confidence and his joy gave the decisive stamp of reality to his hopes and exemplified the sublime attainments of which we are capable in this vale of imperfection and sorrow. His superiority to the pressures of sickness, and his triumphant assurance of the love of God are beautifully expressed in his own devout soliloquy which he entitles Thoughts and Meditations in a long sickness, 1712–1713.

Yet, gracious God, amidst these storms of nature,

Thine eyes behold a sweet and sacred calm

Reign through the realms of conscience. All within

Lies peaceful, all compos’d. ’Tis wondrous grace

Keeps off thy terrors from this humble bosom.

Though stain’d 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 heav’nly sun-beams hid behind the clouds,

Break out in happy moments, 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. Rise, my soul,

Put on thy courage. Here’s the living spring,

Of joys divinely sweet and ever new.

A peaceful conscience, and a smiling heav’n.

The two universities of Edinburgh and Aberdeen in the year 1728 severally conferred on him unsolicited and without his knowledge, the degree of doctor in divinity. This academical honour was never better bestowed or received with less vanity; and happy would it have been for such seminaries had titles of this sort never been disgraced by any thing mercenary in their source or by ignorance or superciliousness in their subjects. In this case the honour was reciprocal, so far as a diploma may be allowed to bear any proportion to poignancy of genius, highly cultivated understanding, the richest talents of the head, added to the most amiable virtues of the heart.

Although a non-conformist from principles and uniformly such in practice, he held a friendly correspondence with some of the first characters in the established church. Among these were Secker, archbishop of Canterbury, Gibson, bishop of London; Hort, archbishop of Tuam, and many others of elevated rank and eminent literary reputation. Their letters10* to him are written in an uncommon strain of veneration and esteem, and although many expressions occur which bear too near an affinity to the language of flattery, those who knew the man and were benefited by his writings may be allowed some latitude beyond what is common in such cases.

If, while the deadly night shade of infidelity is diffusing its poison through our country, churchmen and dissenters, especially the clergy and those who entertain the same views of the faith that was once delivered to the saints, could agree thus to differ, and lay aside all intemperate zeal for and against the modes and forms of religion; would they mutually cherish brotherly love and unite as far as possible to aid each others exertions in the common cause; what a mighty change would soon be produced in the state of religion, and what sources of pleasure they would daily open to the advocates of the truth?

Mental light has no immediate or necessary dependance upon exterior circumstances, nor can it be confined within the bounds of any denomination, so like that glorious element its progress is irresistible, and must be unbounded in its dominion. Here superstition has no influence, bigotry has no power; and although we cannot accurately pronounce the Shibboleth and Sibboleth of different parties, we may yet unite our prayers and our zeal where, as the candidates for eternal life, we are all one. As we often perceive in chemical experiments that two things the most hostile by nature, and most averse to unite, by the addition of a third become perfectly miscible, so by a spirit of true piety and candour poured out upon both, we should see conformists and non-conformists extend to each other the right hand of fellowship and unite in every office of friendship and in all the obligations of their religious characters. May the auspicious period soon dawn when Ephraim shall not envy Judah, and when Judah shall not vex Ephraim.

Let us no more contend, nor blame

Each other, blamed enough elsewhere, but strive,

In offices of love, how we may lighten

Each other’s burden in our share of woe11†.

"Such characters as Dr. Watts still live and flourish in our churches: (I adopt the words of a late acute writer). It would be easy to give a long list of names from the dawn of the reformation to this day: but I sacrifice the pleasure of doing so to the modesty of my friends. This however, I will venture to say, and no man shall stop me of this boasting, we have in our churches now exact copies of our ancient models. The prophets, do they live for ever? Yes they do. The spirit of Elijah rests upon Elisha! The grave solidity of Cartwright and Jacob seemed to reside in our Owens and Goodwins and Gills. The vivacity of Watts and Bradbury and Earle lives in others, whom I dare not name. The patient laborious Fox, the silver Bates, the melting Baxter, the piercing Mead, the generous Williams, the instructive Henry, the soft and candid Doddridge, Ridgley, and Gale, and Bunyan and Burgess, in all their variegated beauties yet flourish in our pulpits exercising their different talents for mutual edification. We have Barnabas the son of consolation, and Boanerges the thunderer, still.—Ye servants of the Most High God, who shew unto us the way of salvation! Peace be within the walls of your churches, and prosperity within your dwelling houses12*."

One great man after celebrating the just praises of Dr. Watts’s talents, after acknowledging he was such as every christian church would rejoice to adopt, descends to the miserable littleness of cautioning the world against his non-conformity, as if that were a diminution of his literary, or a blot upon his theological reputation. A melancholy proof how far a philosophic mind may sometimes be debased by a churlish bigotry; the very spirit that gave birth to all the persecutions which harrassed and oppressed the present established church when she dissented from the church of Rome, and to which we may ascribe all the animosities which divide and degrade those who only deviate in questions of a circumstantial discipline since that period. In Dr. Watts were combined all the excellencies which form a complete reverse of a party zealot, and if a meek and lowly mind could shield the memory of any man from the envenomed influence of this passion, his non-conformity had never been mentioned but with a view of recommending the virtues by which he so greatly adorned it.

As an author no man’s posthumous claim upon the gratitude of the church and of his country, can be urged with a more imperative tone: The natural strength of his genius, which he cultivated and improved by a very considerable acquaintance with the most celebrated writers, both ancient and modern, had enriched his mind with a large and uncommon store of just sentiments, and useful knowledge of various kinds. His soul was too noble and large, to be confined within narrow limits, he could not be content to leave any path of learning untried, nor rest in a total ignorance 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.

Though that which gave him the most remarkable pre-eminence was the extent and sublimity of his imagination: how few have excelled, or even equalled him in quickness of apprehension, and solidity of judgment: and having also a faithful memory to retain what he collected from the labours of others, he was able to pay it back again into the common treasury of learning with a large increase. It is a question whether any author before him ever appeared with reputation on such a variety of subjects, as he has done, both as a prose-writer, and a poet. However this we 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 translated into such a variety of languages; many of which will remain more durable monuments of his great talents, than any representation we can take of them, though it were to be graven on pillars of brass13†.

His excellent friend, Dr. Doddridge, in his dedication of his Rise and Progress of Religion in the Soul, congratulates him, "that while condescending to the humble work of forming infant minds to the first rudiments of religious knowledge by his various Catechisms and Divine Songs, he was also daily reading lectures of logic and other useful branches of philosophy to studious youth, and this not only in private academies but in the most celebrated seats of learning, not merely in Scotland, and in our American colonies, where for some peculiar considerations it might be most naturally expected, but, through the amiable candour of some excellent men and accomplished tutors, in our English universities too. And that he was also teaching hundreds of ministers and private christians by his sermons, and other theological tracts, so happily calculated to diffuse through their minds that light of knowledge, and through their hearts that fervour of piety, which God had been pleased to enkindle in his own. And as to my certain knowledge your compositions have been the singular comfort of many excellent christians on their dying beds, for I have heard stanzas of them repeated from the lips of several, who were doubtless in a few hours to begin the song of Moses and the Lamb, so I hope and trust, that, when God shall call you to that salvation for which your faith and patience have so long been waiting, he will shed around you the choicest beams of his favour, and gladden your heart with consolations like those which you have been the happy instrument of administering to others."

Dr. Johnson, whom no one here will suspect of partiality, and whose decisions in such case no one will dispute, acknowledges that few books had been perused by him with greater pleasure, than Watts’s Improvement of the Mind, of which he says, 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 highest degree useful and pleasing. Whoever has the care of instructing others may be charged with deficience in his duty if this book be not recommended.

Of his Logic, which soon obtained considerable celebrity at home and abroad, Lord Barrington speaks in the following terms of high encomium:

I returned you my thanks for the kind present of your Logic soon after I received it. I can now do it on much better grounds, for since I have read it, I do not barely thank you for the civility, or 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 christians; for as wrong reasoning helps to spoil each of these, 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 recommend it to others, but use it as a manual of its kind myself, and intend, as some have done Erasmus or a piece of Cicero, for another purpose—to read it over once a year.

The author of the Meditations among the Tombs, and the Dialogues between Theron and Aspasio, in a letter of acknowledgment for the present of his discourses on the glory of Christ, says—To say your works have long been my delight and study, the favourite pattern by which I would form my conduct and model my style, would only be to echo back in the faintest accents what sounds in the general voice of the nation. Among others of your edifying compositions, 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 devotion with harmony.

The Countess of Hertford, afterwards Duchess of Somerset, writes to him in a strain of peculiar admiration and thankfulness, on reading his Theological Works. "Almost all the hours I passed alone, I have employed in reading your works, which for ever represent to my imagination the idea of a ladder or flight of steps, since every volume seems to rise a step nearer to the language of heaven, and there is a visible progression 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