Chapter XVI: Summary and Estimate of Prose Writings (3)

We perhaps repeat ourselves in these last remarks, for all
is an illustration of that perspicuity which we mentioned as
Watts’ first characteristic; but in him perspicuity was not
the attribute of a small mind, or a limited range of vision;
perspicuous speech is the natural instrument of perspicuous
thought: how can that man express himself clearly who does
not see clearly? Hence dark language must be the companion
of dark vision; but the perspicuity of a child amongst its
playthings, in its playground or its garden is one thing,
and the perspicuity of the pilot of a vessel, or a gifted
astronomer, is quite another. However wide or vast the subjects
upon which Watts wrote, it seemed he had cleared thought in
his own mind, by the clearness with which speech served him in
making the things in his own mind the property of others; and
upon whatsoever he wrote there was always the same suffusing
light of the devoutness of the spiritual mind. Here is no
flippancy; here are no impertinent epigrams, no hard words
even for opponents; we have to search a long way through his
works before we find an expression of severity, we will not say
of contempt—perhaps there are such—but we are sure they will
only be used of those who, by some abandonment of sentiment,
had separated themselves from the common feeling of mankind.
Yet there was considerable nervousness in his speech, he
was a great preacher, he commanded attention; judging from
the testimony of Johnson, he must have been, to cultivated
minds, one of the most distinguished preachers of his day:
his enunciation was clear, forcible, and distinct, and what
was wanting to an imposing presence was made up from the
earnestness of the manner, the calm luminousness, elevation,
and we would even say, the sustained but subdued vehemence of
his diction. His sermon on the “Reformation of Manners,” to
which Southey has referred, not in his life of Watts but in one
of the volumes of his “Common-place Book,” as “an extraordinary
piece,” is an illustration of this. It was preached at the time
when we were in conflict with Louis XIV. He gives the following
side-glance to the wars in Flanders, and on the borders of the
Rhine, and he refers to the importance, not only of fighting
the enemy abroad, but resisting vice at home. He exclaims, in a
remarkable passage:

“But was there ever any war without danger, or victory
without courage? Besides, the perils you run here are almost
infinitely less than those which attend the wars of nations,
where the cause is not half so Divine. The fields of battle
in Flanders, and almost all over Europe, have drunk up the
blood of millions, and have furnished graves for large armies;
but it can hardly be said that _you_ have hitherto ‘resisted
unto blood striving against sin.’ In a war of more than twelve
years’ continuance (_i.e._, against vice at home) there has
but one man fallen. The providence of God has put helmets of
salvation upon your heads. Some of you can relate wonders of
deliverance to safety when you have been beset by numbers,
and their rage has kindled into resolutions of revenge; the
Lord has taken away their courage in a moment, the ‘men of
might have not found their hands;’ thus He has caused ‘the
wrath of man to praise Him, and the remainder of wrath He hath
restrained.’[55] Read over this psalm, and with Divine valour
pursue the fight. But if your life should be lost in such a
cause as this, it will be esteemed martyrdom in the sight of
God, and shall be thus written down in the book of the wars of
the Lord. Believe me, these red lines will look well in the
records of heaven, when the judgment shall be set, and the
books opened in the face of men and angels.”

_Watts in the pulpit_ ought to furnish the subject for a distinct chapter—it must fall into this feeble attempt to realize the man’s mind in his works. His sermons were evidently carefully prepared and admirably arranged; it was not possible for him to speak without thought, but he used very few notes in the pulpit, preparing carefully so that the mind and memory were fully charged, giving to such a mind as his freedom, instantaneous propriety, and fulness of expression; many men who exhibit fulness of wisdom, both in thought and language, in the study, find all fail them when they come to speak in public. On every hand we hear that this was not the case with Watts, and that his deliverances in public corresponded to his great powers in the study; and his sermons are of that nature that they assure us if the delivery corresponded to the strength of the matter and the felicity and harmony of the composition, they must have been very impressive. As some of the great sermons of Jeremy Taylor appear to have been prepared to preach when he was in exile at the Golden Grove in Wales, in the drawing-room of Lord Vaughan, so some of Watts’ sermons were prepared for delivery at the evening worship at Theobalds; one of the noblest of these is a commanding piece on the Scale of Blessedness, or Blessed Saints, Blessed Saviour, Blessed Trinity. In this subduing sermon occurs one of the passages which excited the wrath of Thomas Bradbury, and to which we have referred. Here it is; the note is evidently intended to justify himself from his coarse assailant, although he does not say so.

A SCALE OF BLESSEDNESS.

“Can we ever imagine that Moses the meek, the friend of God,
who was, as it were, His confidant on earth, His faithful
prophet to institute a new religion, and establish a new
Church in the world, who, for God’s sake, endured forty years
of banishment, and had forty years’ fatigue in a wilderness;
who saw God on earth face to face, and the shine was left upon
his countenance: can we suppose that this man has taken his
seat no nearer to God in Paradise than Samson and Jephthah,
those rash champions, those rude and bloody ministers of
Providence?[56] Or can we think that St. Paul, the greatest
of the apostles, ‘who laboured more than they all,’ and ‘was
in sufferings’ more abundant than the rest; who spent a long
life in daily services and deaths for the sake of Christ, is
not fitted for, and advanced to a rank of blessedness superior
to that of the crucified thief, who became a Christian but a
few moments at the end of a life of impiety and plunder? Can I
persuade myself that a holy man, who has known much of God in
this world, and spent his age on earth in contemplation of the
Divine excellences, who has acquired a great degree of nearness
to God in devotion, and has served Him, and suffered for Him,
even to old age and martyrdom, with a sprightly and faithful
zeal: can I believe that this man, who has been trained up all
his life to converse with God, and is fitted to receive Divine
communications above his fellows, shall dwell no nearer to God
hereafter, and share no larger a degree of blessedness, than
the little babe who has just entered into this world to die out
of it, and who is saved, so far as we know, merely by spreading
the veil of the covenant grace, drawn over it by the hand of
the parent’s faith? Can it be that the Great Judge who ‘cometh
and His reward is with Him, to render to every one according
to his works,’ will make no distinction between Moses and
Samson, between the apostle and the thief, between the aged
martyr and the infant, in the world to come? And yet, after
all, it may be matter of inquiry, whether the meanest saint
among the sons of Adam has not some sort of privilege above any
rank of angels by being of a kindred nature to our Emmanuel, to
Jesus the Son of God.”

And the following is a fine passage on the Trinity, which may be read with pleasure, although some years after he says that “it is a warmer effort of the imagination than riper years would indulge. What distinctions there may be in this one Spirit I know not; I am _fully established in the belief of the Deity of the Blessed Three_, though I know not the manner of the explication.”

THE TRINITY.

“The Father is so intimately near the Son and Spirit, that no
finite or created natures or unions can give a just resemblance
of it. We talk of the union of the sun and his beams, of a
tree and its branches: but these are but poor images and faint
shadows of this mystery, though they are some of the best that
I know. The union of the soul and the body is, in my esteem,
still farther from the point, because their natures are so
widely different. In vain we search through all the creation to
find a complete similitude of the Creator.

“And in vain may we run through all parts and powers of
nature and art, to seek a full resemblance of the mutual
propensity and love of the Blessed Three towards each other.
Mathematicians, indeed, talk of the perpetual tendencies and
infinite approximations of two or more lines on the same
surface, which yet never can entirely concur in one line: and
if we should say that the Three Persons of the Trinity, by
mutual indwelling and love, approach each other infinitely in
one Divine nature, and yet lose not their distinct personality,
it would be but an obscure account of this sublime mystery.
But this we are sure of, that for three Divine Persons to be
so inconceivably near one another in the original and eternal
spring of love, goodness, and pleasure, must produce infinite
delight. In order to illustrate the happiness of the Sacred
Three, may we not suppose something of society necessary to
the perfection of happiness in all intellectual nature? To
know and be known, to love and to be beloved, are, perhaps,
such essential ingredients of complete felicity that it cannot
subsist without them. And it may be doubted whether such mutual
knowledge and love, as seems requisite for this end, can be
found in a nature absolutely simple in all respects. May we
not then suppose that some distinctions in the Divine Being
are of eternal necessity, in order to complete the blessedness
of Godhead? Such a distinction as may admit, as a great man
expresses it, of delicious society. ‘We, for our parts, cannot
but hereby have in our minds a more gustful idea of a blessed
state, than we can conceive in mere eternal solitude.’

“And if this be true, then the three differences, which we call
personal distinctions, in the nature of God, are as absolutely
necessary as His blessedness, as His being, or any of His
perfections. And then we may return to the words of my text,
and boldly infer, that if the man is blessed who is chosen by
the free and sovereign grace of God, and caused to approach,
or draw near Him, what immense and unknown blessedness belongs
to each Divine Person, to all the Sacred Three, who are by
nature and unchangeable necessity so near, so united, so much
one, that the least moment’s separation seems to be infinitely
impossible, and, then we may venture to say, it is not to be
conceived: and the blessedness is conceivable by none but God!

“This is a nobler union and a more intense pleasure than _the
Man_ Jesus Christ knows or feels, or can conceive, for He is
a creature. These are glories too Divine and dazzling for
the weak eye of our understanding, too bright for the eye of
angels, those morning stars; and they, and we, must fall down
together, alike overwhelmed with them, and alike confounded.
These are flights that tire souls of the strongest wing, and
finite minds faint in the infinite pursuit; these are depths
where our tallest thoughts sink and drown; we are lost in this
ocean of being and blessedness that has no limit on either
side, no surface, no bottom, no shore. The nearness of the
Divine Persons to each other, and the unspeakable relish of
their unbounded pleasures, are too vast ideas for our bounded
minds to entertain. It is one infinite transport that runs
through the Father, Son, and Spirit, without beginning, and
without end, with boundless variety, yet ever perfect and
ever present without change, and without degree; and all this
because they are so near to one another, and so much one with
God.

“But when we have fatigued our spirits and put them to the
utmost stretch, we must lie down and rest, and confess the
great incomprehensible. How far this sublime transport of joy
is varied in each subsistence; how far their mutual knowledge
of each other’s properties, or their mutual delight in each
other’s love, is distinct in each Person, is a secret too high
for the present determination of our language and our thoughts:
it commands our judgment in silence, and our whole souls into
wonder and adoration.”

He frequently indulged in a warmth of expression; he did not disdain ornament, although all was held in a wise check, and indeed with a severe rein, and his sermons were not less practical than beautiful. They abound in such passages as the following, in which he so sweetly and mildly expostulates with

CENSORIOUS CHRISTIANS.

“Be not too severe in your censures, you who have been kept
from temptation, but pity others who are fallen, and mourn
over their fall. Do not think or say the worst things you
can of those who have been taken in the snare of Satan, and
been betrayed into some grosser iniquities. When you see them
grieved and ashamed of their own follies, and bowed down
under much heaviness, take occasion then to speak a softening
and a healing word. Speak for them kindly, and speak to them
tenderly. ‘Have compassion of them, lest they be swallowed
up of over much sorrow.’ And remember, too, O censorious
Christian, that thou art also in the body. It is rich grace
that has kept thee hitherto, and the same God, who for wise
ends has suffered thy brother to fall, may punish thy severity
and reproachful language by withholding His grace from thee
in the next hour of temptation, and then thy own fall and
guilt shall upbraid thee with inward and bitter reflections,
for thy sharp censures of thy weak and tempted brother. This
life is the only time wherein we can pity the infirmities of
our brethren, and bear their burdens. This law of Christ must
be fulfilled in this world, for there is no room for it in
the next: ‘Wherefore bear ye one another’s burdens, and so
fulfil ye the law of Christ.’ This world is the only place
where different opinions and doctrines are found amongst the
saints; disagreeing forms of devotion, and sects, and parties,
have no place on high: none of these things can interrupt
the worship or the peace of heaven. See to it then, that you
practise this grace of charity here, and love thy brother, and
receive him into thy heart in holy fellowship, though he may be
weak in faith, and though he may observe days and times, and
may feed upon herbs, and indulge some superstitious follies
while thou art strong in faith, and well acquainted with the
liberty of the Gospel. Let not little things provoke you to
divide communions on earth: but by this sort of charity, and
a Catholic spirit, honour the Saviour and His Church here in
this world; for since there are no parties, nor sects, nor
contrary sentiments among the Church in heaven, this Christian
virtue can never find any room for exercise there. This kind of
charity ends with death.”

But such delineations as these might be pursued to a great length, and we have scarcely dwelt at all upon that aspect of his public teaching which the last quotation instantly suggests, its eminent practical character; his discourses on “Christian Morality,” his beautiful discourse on “Humility,” for which he received the hearty thanks of the Bishop of London; his “Caveat against Infidelity,” his “Guide to Prayer;” summarily, it may be said, he touched everything with an exquisite delicacy of conscience, and with the elevation of a saint. His mind cannot be summed in one attribute, neither his piety, nor his genius can be said to find an adequate illustration in one work; he was one of a race of men of whom, indeed, the history of the literature of those times furnishes many illustrations, whose learning and labours were alike vast; they must have caught the earliest daybeam, and trimmed the lamp far beyond the hours of midnight, pursuing their industrious toil, devouring libraries. Their works formed a library; they had not the necessities of our times to call them away, nor was it the age of magazines and reviews, and the lighter shallops of literature. The age immediately preceding that of Watts, and his own age, present to us the forms of many men, who in some sheltered nook passed a life unprofitable—ought we to say inglorious?—satisfied with the spoils of learning, they lived a life of barrenness; they sought wisdom for her own sake, neither for the use it enabled them to confer on others, or the fame it conferred on themselves; or, if they published, it was not so much from the benevolent idea of the transfusion of knowledge, but really from their interest only in their own idea. These were the men and those the times which may be best described in the words of Milton:

Whose lamp at midnight hour
Is seen in some high lonely tower,
Where he may oft outwatch the Bear
With thrice great Hermes, or unsphere
The spirit of Plato, to unfold
What worlds or what vast regions hold
The immortal mind that hath forsook
Her mansion in this fleshly nook.

But to this order of mind Watts added that which altogether changed it; he possessed in an eminent degree the love of books and thought, lofty imaginations, and excursions through the far-off continents of knowledge; but he added to the volitions of genius, and the accumulations of the scholar, the doing “all for the glory of God;” few lives so useful and even so obvious seem to have been so sanctified from every human passion and selfish isolation; and hence with powers which might have found their gratification had he chosen to move like some remote and solitary planet in an unilluminating orb, he preferred rather to be a satellite, shedding a useful lustre on his serene way, and in the language of a well-known writer, “singing while he shone.” The amiable critic to whom we have already referred says that the whole lesson of Watts’ life might be condensed into the apostolic injunction, “Study to be quiet and mind your own business;” and the estimate is greatly true. He was a firm Nonconformist, but he was no agitator; he lived and wrought laboriously in his vocation, and that vocation was to bring about “the union of mental culture and vital piety.” As he did not write pamphlets to expose the evils of the hierarchy, or the defects of his own ecclesiastical system, so neither did he attempt to rebuke in print such assailants as Bradbury. He was the first in England who set the Gospel to music; and many who knew not the meaning of the words yet found their hearts melted by the melody of genius. There is a saintly dignity and peaceful purity about his life which it is not invidious to say gives to him, even in writers of his own order, a high pre-eminence. He seems to have been one whom “the peace of God which passeth all understanding” kept. And surely he has won a place in the universal Church—no Church repudiates him; his eulogy has been pronounced, and his life recorded, by Samuel Johnson, and Robert Southey, and Josiah Conder. If his hymns crowd the “Congregational Hymn Book,” they are to be found in the “Hymns Ancient and Modern;” and, as we have seen, his monument adorns not only the “conventicle” but the cathedral.

Ages differ, and men differ with their age. This is the place neither to compare nor to contrast; but in an eminent sense Watts appears to have fulfilled himself. He drank deep from every kind of learning: we have seen that he wrote upon every kind of subject; and although it is the fashion now to pass him by, and even to underrate many of those pieces in prose and verse which were long held as the most cherished heirlooms of the Church, we shall have to search long and far to discover a more ample and consecrated intelligence, a more conscientious and laborious worker, than the mild, the modest, yet majestic hermit, philosopher, and sweet singer of Theobalds and Stoke Newington.

FOOTNOTES

[1] “Dr. Isaac Watts,” a Lecture by Hermann Carlyle, LL.B., seventh minister of the church of which Dr. Watts’ father was for forty-eight years a deacon.

[2] It is interesting to remember that Isaac Watts the elder was the first local trustee to Robert Thorner’s munificent bequest, which is now the grandest of all the Southampton charities, and has made the name of Thorner in that town a household word.

[3] The soil of Southampton seems to have been favourable to the production of the lyrical faculty, although it is not probable that many of those whose hearts have been stirred by the holy strains of Watts have been acquainted with the melodies of one of the most national of English song-writers, the laureate of sailors, also a townsman of Southampton, Thomas Dibden.

[4] See Appendix.

[5] Walter Wilson’s “Life of Defoe,” vol. i. pp. 26, 27.

[6] “The Improvement of the Mind,” chap. iv. of “Books and Reading.”

[7] Afterwards, says Dr. Gibbons, Dr. Daniel Scott. He was a very learned and amiable man. After he had studied under Mr. Jones he removed to Utrecht for further education; there he took the degree of doctor of laws. In the year 1741 he published a new version of St. Matthew’s Gospel, with critical notes, and an examination of Dr. Mills’ various readings. He published, also, in the year 1745, an “Appendix to H. Stephens’ Greek Lexicon,” in two volumes.

[8] “History and Antiquities of Stoke Newington.” By William Robinson, LL.D., F.S.A.

[9] The interested reader consulting that singular monument of patient and painstaking industry, “The History and Antiquities of Dissenting Churches and Meeting-Houses in London, Westminster, and Southwark,” by Walter Wilson, will probably feel astonishment, not less at their number than at the singular places in which they assembled.

[10] Matt. xviii. 20.

[11] Originally Mart Lane.

[12] “Quarterly Review,” vol. lxxxix. pp. 303, 304.

[13] “Ode to Mr. Pinhorne.” Translated by Dr. Gibbons.

[14] Lord Lytton, in “Devereux.”

[15] “Quarterly Review,” No. 222, April, 1862. Art. Hymnology.

[16] “British and Foreign Evangelical Review,” 1865.

[17] “The Poet of the Sanctuary,” etc. By Josiah Conder. 1857.

[18] “The Psalter and the Hymn Book.” Three Lectures by James Hamilton.

[19] See Crosbie’s “History of the English Baptists” (1740), vol. iii.

[20] “Quarterly Review,” vol. xxxviii. Art. Psalmody.

[21] “Letter to Rev. S. F. Macdonald,” by James Martineau, 1859.

[22] “Old Town Folk,” chap. iii.

[23] For illustrations of this, see “A Letter to the Rev. Mr. ⸺ or a Gnat destroying the Little Arian Foxes among the Vines,” and part of the “Remains of Dr. Watts’ Clear’d from the Leaves and Rags of Arianism.”

[24] See this idea illustrated in “An Essay on the Book of Psalms,” by Mary Anne Schimmelpenninck, 1825, and “An Essay on the Literature of the Book of Psalms,” in the “Preachers’ Lantern,” vol. ii. p. 558.

[25] Lord Barrington’s “Theological Works,” 3 vols.

[26] “Biog. Brit.” Article, Barrington.

[27] Dr. Southey, remarking on this incident, says: “The hymn, indeed, was likely to have this effect upon an assembly whose minds were under the immediate impression produced by a pathetic preacher.” They were those well-known words:

Give me the wings of faith to rise
Within the veil, and see
The saints above, how great their joys,
How bright their glories be.

Once they were mourning here below,
And wet their couch with tears,
They wrestled hard, as we do now,
With sins, and doubts, and fears.

I ask them whence their victory came;
They with united breath
Ascribe their conquest to the Lamb,
Their triumph to His death.

They marked the footsteps that He trod,
His zeal inspired their breast;
And, following their Incarnate God,
Possess the promised rest.

Our glorious Leader claims our praise
For His own pattern given,
While the long cloud of witnesses
Show the same path to heaven.

[28] See an admirable and interesting summary of Doddridge’s Life and Character,—“Philip Doddridge:” “North British Review.”

[29] Glover’s “Leonidas,” a poem scarcely ever read or referred to now, but which created considerable interest on its publication, and for some time held a conspicuous place in English poetry.

[30] Mr. Waller’s lines, to which her ladyship refers, are at the conclusion of his Divine Poems:

The soul’s dark cottage, battered and decayed,
Lets in new light through chinks that time has made:
Stronger 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.

The verses of Dr. Watts which her ladyship intends is the poem in his “Horæ Lyricæ,” entitled “A Sight of Heaven in Sickness.”

[31] “Daniel Defoe, His Life and Recently Discovered Writings.” By William Lee. 3 vols.

[32] See “Memoirs of the Life and Times of Daniel Defoe,” etc. By Walter Wilson, Esq.

[33] See the whole of this in the “Posthumous Works of the late learned and Rev. Isaac Watts,” 1779.

[34] See an interesting table of “Memorable Affairs in my Life and Coincidents,” in Watts’ writing, in Appendix to this volume.

[35] See “History of England,” by Earl Stanhope, vol. i. chap. 1.

[36] Lord Macaulay says: “There was considerable excitement, but it was allayed by a temperate and artful letter to the clergy, the work, in all probability, of Bishop Gibson, who stood high in the favour of Walpole, and shortly after became minister for ecclesiastical affairs.”

[37] Essay on “Popular Ignorance.”

[38] See the “Clapham Sect.” Sir James Stephen’s Essays in “Ecclesiastical Biography.”

[39] “Memorials, etc. etc. of the late W. M. Bunting.”

[40] Doddridge’s “Life and Correspondence,” vol. iv. p. 520.

[41] “Without question we must affirm that Body is the necessary means of bringing Mind into relationship with space and extension, and so of giving it _Place_, very plainly a disembodied spirit, or we ought rather to say, an unembodied spirit, or sheer mind, is NOWHERE.”—Isaac Taylor’s “Physical Theory of Another Life,” chap. ii.

[42] See Preface to the second vol. of “World to Come,” Octavo edition.

[43] 1 Cor. i. 26.

[44] So says Mr. Carlyle, in one of the most interesting little documents in connection with the life of Watts ever published, the little pamphlet to which we have already referred.

[45] Montgomery on the Cholera Mount of Sheffield.

[46] “Memorials, Historical, Descriptive, Poetical and Pictorial, Commemorative of the Inauguration of the Statue to Dr. Isaac Watts, in the Western Park, Southampton, by the Earl of Shaftesbury, July 17th, 1861.” See also “The Proceedings connected with the Inauguration of the Memorial Statue to Dr. Isaac Watts, at Southampton, July 17th, 1861.”

[47] “There is also perhaps more method and clearness in the logic of Watts than in that of Arnauld. The good English sense—the business faculty—that of practical life, repeats itself here in the highest degree; whilst the speculative mind of a tolerably scholarly theologian is yet more full in _the art of thinking_. Now Watts is complete without being extravagant; he has touched very adequately all that is necessary, and he always stops at the very precise point where depth might have injured transparency.”

[48] “The Athenian Oracle, being an entire collection of all the valuable Questions and Answers in the old Athenian Mercurys, intermixed with many cases in Divinity, History, Philosophy, Mathematics, Love, and Poetry, and never before Published,” etc. 4 vols. Printed for Andrew Bell, at the Cross Keys.

“Athenian Sport; or, Two Thousand Paradoxes Merrily Argued, by a Member of the Athenian Society.”

“Memoirs for the Ingenious; containing several Curious Observations in Philosophy, Mathematics, Physic, Philology, and other Arts and Sciences, in Miscellaneous Letters.” Printed for H. Rhodes, and for J. Harris, at the Arrow, in the Poultry.

[49] “Another Collection of Philosophical Conferences of the French Virtuosi, upon Questions of all sorts for the Improving of Natural Knowledge, made in the Assembly of the Beaux Esprit of Paris, by the most ingenious persons of that nation, rendered into English.” Sold at the George, in Fleet Street, and the Mitre, Middle Temple, 1665.

[50] Rogers’ “Life of Howe,” p. 476.

[51] The matter, we suppose, is long since set at rest; it may be very distinctly set at rest by a study of Watts’ works, discussing the great question of the Trinity. “Watts not a Socinian,” by the Rev. S. Palmer, puts the matter in a popular and concise form; but when his monument was erected in Southampton, a lecture was delivered and published on “His Life, Character, and Religious Opinions,” by the Rev. Edmund Kell, M.A., F.S.A., the late Unitarian minister of Southampton, in which the old exploded dishonest statements were all reiterated.

[52] This is illustrated and manifest by the writings of Waterland, which are almost contemporary with the discussions of Watts.

[53] J. R. Lowell.

[54] This matter has been well argued against the Atheistic view, in a very interesting little pamphlet, “Croll on the Conservation of Force.”

[55] Psalm lxxvi. 5, 10.

[56] “These expressions may be sufficiently justified if we consider Jephthah’s rash vow of sacrifice, which fell upon his only child; and Samson’s rude or unbecoming conduct in his amours with the Philistine woman at Timnath, the harlot at Gaza, and his Delilah at Sorek; his bloody quarrels and his manner of life. The learned and pious Dr. Owen, as I have been often informed by his intimate friend, Sir John Hartopp, called him a rude believer. He might have strong faith of miracles, but a small share of that faith which purifies the heart.”

TABLE OF COINCIDENTS.

_Mention has been made in p. 14 of a curious Autobiographical Table prepared by Dr. Watts of the chief incidents in his life, together with contemporaneous events of public interest. We give a fac-simile of the first page, and the contents of the remainder._

COINCIDENTS. MEMORANDA.

1693: July 13: Grandmo. I was admitted to Mr. T. Rows
Watts dyed Church. Dec. 1693

I went into yᵉ Country June. 1694

Dwelt at my father’s house
2 years & ¼.

Came to Sʳ John Hartopp’s to
be a Tutor to his Son at
Newington Oct. 15. 1696

1697. Jun. 11: Grandfa.
Tanton dyed

12 Cousin Isaac Began to preach, after I had
Watts dyed pursued University Studys
above 8 years. July. 17. 1698

1697 Peace at Reswic Went to Southampton and
concluded preached there severall times
in a visit to my friends. Augᵗ: 1698.

1698/9 Cousin John Preacht as Dr. Chanceys
Chapmā of Portsm dyed Assistant in yᵉ Church at
Mark Lane, & a little after
that my fever and weakness
began. Feb. 1698/9

1699/1700 Feb: Mʳ Wᵐ Adams Paid another Visit to Southampton
dyed of 5 weeks. July 1699

1700. March 30. Grandmo. Another. June 1700
Tanton [died.]

May 22. Mʳ John Pook Went to yᵉ Bath by yᵉ advice
of Physicians. June. 9. 1701.
Novʳ: 11: Mʳ Tho.
Gunston
From yᵉ Bath to Southampton July. 1701
Thence to Tunbridge. Sept 3 1701.
returned to Newington Nov. 3:
& to preaching at Mark Lane. Nov: 1701

So yᵗ I was detained from Study & preaching
5 o/m by my Weakness. Except one very
short discourse at Southto. in extreme
necessity.

Dr. Chancy having left his people,
Aprill 1701. & I being returned to
preach among ’em, they Call’d me to
yᵉ Pastorall office. Jan. 15. 1701/2

1702 March 8th, Morning: Accepted it March 8⸺
King Wᵐ dyed & was ordained March 18. 1701/2

Visited my friends at Southampton July. 1702.

Seizd wᵗʰ violent Jaundice from Septʳ 8 or
& Cholic 3 weeks after my thereabout to
return to London & had a Novʳ 27 or 8
very slow recovery—8 or 9
weeks Illness

This year (viz) 1702 by Slow degrees
removed from Newington to Mʳ Tho:
Hollis’s in the Minories. 1702

Mrs. Owen Dr Owen’s June—Mʳ Samˡˡ Price was chosen by yᵉ
Widow dyed Janʸ. 18: Church to assist me in preaching 1703
1703/4

Augᵗ I went to Tunbridge and stayd there 7
weeks with scarce any benefitt, for the
waters thro some defect of my stomach
did not digest well.

1703 Novʳ 26 Friday night Decʳ: after having intermitted in a great
and Saturday morning, measure a method of study and pursuit of
the Great and Dreadfull Learning, 4 years, by reasō of my great
Storm indispositions of body and weakness of head
(excepᵗ w: was of absolute necessity for my
Constant preaching) & being not satisfyd to
live so any longer, after due consideratiō
& prayer, I took a boy to read to me &
write for me, whereby my studies are much
assisted. Decʳ 1703

Visited my friends at Southto. May 1704

Augᵗ: 31. 1704 Bro: Remov’d our Meeting place to pinners
Richard marryd hall and began expositions of
Scripture. June 1704

Br. Joseph Brandley my Visited Southton July 1705
first servᵗ went away
Decʳ 1704: & Edwd.
Hitchin came

Published my Poems Decʳ 1705

Augᵗ 1705 Mʳ Tho: Rowe
my Tutor dyed

Mʳ Benoni Rowe my Went to Southton May. 18ᵗʰ 1706 returned
intimate friend dyed agⁿ wᵗʰ but small recruit of health.
Apˡˡ: 1706 July 5ᵗʰ

Bro: Thomas marry’d,
May 9ᵗʰ: 1706
went to Tunbridge Augᵗ 8ᵗʰ: Returned much
stronger Augᵗ 30.
Publisht essay against
Uncharitableness Apˡˡ 1707.
Went to Southton July, returned July Went
to Tunbridg: Augᵗ: returned Sepᵗ 3ᵈ

Union of E & Scot: May All this Year my health has been encouraging
1ˢᵗ 1707

This year yᵉ French Publisht my Hymns & Spˡˡ Songs July 1707
prophetts made a great Overturned in a coach without hurt. Oct. 5.
noise in our nation, 1707
and drew in Mʳ Lacy, Preached a reformation Sermō: Oct. 6. 1707,
Sir R. Bulckley &c. 200 and printed it
or more had
yᵉ agitations, 40 had yᵉ
inspiration—Provd a
delusion of Satan at
Birminghā Feb 3 or 4ᵗʰ
1707/8

Sister Sarah marryed. Went to Southtoⁿ—and afterward to Tunbr:
Feb: 1707/8 Augᵗ 1708

Pretender’s invasion Removed our Meeting place to Bury Street
disappointed. March: Sepʳ 29: 1708.
1708

May 25 1708 The Prophetts Printed 2ᵈ Edition of Hymns & 2ᵈ ed: of
disappointed by Mʳ Eams Poems: Apˡˡ & May 1709.
not rising frō the Dead

Terrible long snowy winter
1708/9

Bro R: came to settle in Went to Southton: June: Tunbridg. Augᵗ 1709
Londō: Oct 7 1709

Mar: 1 1709/10 yᵉ Mob rose Edwᵈ Hitchen my Servᵗ went away Decʳ: 31.
& pulled down yᵉ pews I bought a horse for my health Apˡˡ: 1710
and gallerys of 6 I rode down to Southton, & back agⁿ June &
meeting houses (viz) according to yᵉ accoᵗᵗ: I kept I rode above
Mʳ Burgess, Mʳ Bradbury, 800 mile frō Apˡˡ 13ᵗʰ to Sepʳ 28ᵗʰ
Mʳ Earle, Mʳ Wright, Mʳ I removed from Mʳ. Hollis’s & went to live
Hamilton, & Mʳ Chr: wᵗʰ Mʳ Bowes att Dec. 30ᵗʰ & John Merchant
Taylor but were my Servᵗ: came to me
dispersed by yᵉ Guards Went to Southton June, returned July
under Capt: Horsey at 1
or 2 in yᵉ morning.

Mʳ Arthur Shallot senʳ Went to Tunbridge Augᵗ: returned 7 Sepʳ
dyed: 4ᵗʰ Feb 1710/11 being under a disorder of my stomach,
and Mʳ Tho: Hunt and freqᵗ pains of yᵉ head. Found some
merchant & his wife relief at Tunbr: waters.
dyed about yᵉ same time.

Mʳˢ Ann Pickford dyed
Apˡˡ: 7ᵗʰ 1711.

My Lady Hartopp dyed
Novʳ: 9ᵗʰ: & Mʳˢ
Gould, Novʳ 15ᵗʰ 1711.

INDEX.

Abney House, old, 223
Sir Thomas, 76

Academy at Gloucester, the, 25
at Stoke Newington, 15

Acrostic, an, 7

Anecdotes—Blind woman and Watts’ hymns, the, 134;
Bradbury and Burnet, 191;
Bradbury and Dr. Watts, 193;
death of an aged minister, 113;
Derby (Earl) and the blind woman, 134;
dying Webster, the, 134;
giant and pigmy, 248;
of Luther, 97;
sceptic defeated, the, 146;
stonemason’s dream, the, 5;
text for Queen Anne, a, 202;
“That the great Dr. Watts?” 247;
Watts’ (W)_hims_, 193;
“What think you of death?” 269;
Whitefield and Watts, 261

Anne’s reign, close of Queen, 209

Arianism of Watts’ day, the, 311

Artificial poetry, 58

Atonement, the poet of the, 108

Atterbury, Bishop, 210

Augustine, St., on the songs of the Church, 97

Barbauld, Mrs., _quo._, 186

Barrington, Lord, 144
letter to Watts, 147

Baxter on sacred hymns, 100

Bendish, Mrs., 136

Birth and childhood of Watts, 1

Blair’s “Grave,” 215

Bookmen, the age of great, 339

Bradbury, Thomas, 189, 190;
and Bishop Burnet, 191;
and Dr. Watts, 192;
characteristics, 202;
Defoe’s reproof to, 189;
political preacher, 190

Bunhill Fields, its associations, 265

Bunting, W. M., _quo._, 223

Carey’s tombstone, inscription, 134

Carter, Mrs. Elizabeth, 180

Caryl’s “Book of Job,” 46

Catechism, Watts’, 141

Cedar tree and the scythe, the, 37

Character of Watts, 248

Chauncy, Dr. Isaac, 48

Christ, Psalms restored to, 129

Classical sentiment, translation, 71

Coincidents, table of (_see_ Appendix)

Collins, Antony, and Lord Barrington, 146

Comet, lines on a, 12

Conder, Josiah, _quo._, 100

Controversy between Watts and Bradbury, 194-201

Countess of Hertford and Mrs. Rowe, 172;
and the Rise and Progress of Religion, 167

Coward, William, 142

Critics, hostile, 111

Cromwell, Richard, 80

Crucial events, 14

Daughters, a group of, 36

Death, 259

Defoe in the pillory, 208;
quoted, 15

Derby, Earl, and the blind woman, 134

Devotion the attribute of Watts’ hymns, 113

Dissenters, Shortest way with, 78

Doddridge, Dr. Philip, 151

Dying, 262

Elegy, a lovely, 36

England in the times of the last Stuarts, 12

England’s history, happiest period of, 206

English hymnology, 99

Epigram, an, 174, 255

Erskine, Ralph, and Watts’ hymns, 122

Expression, fervour of, 65

Faith, expressions of personal, 117

Family, in the Hartopp, 32
last of the Hartopp, 38

Father, imprisonment of Watts’, 1

Fleetwood, General, 35

Foster, John, _quo._, 215

Friend, letter to an afflicted, 53

Friends, Watts’, 136

Fuller, Thomas, on death, 260

Gale, Theophilus, 16

Gardiner, Colonel, 166

Gibbons, Dr., _quo._, 53, 54, 89, 256, 260, 261

Girdlers’ Hall church, 22

Gloucester academy, the, 25

Glover’s “Leonidas,” 175

Grandfather and grandmother of Watts, 4

Gunston, Thomas, 220

Harris, Robert, _quo._, 257

Hart, Josiah, 20

Hartopp, Sir John, 33;
daughters of, 36

Hartopps, last of the, 38

Hertford, Countess of, 172;
friendship with Watts, 174;
letters, character of, 173;
letters to Watts, 167, 174, 176, 179, 181, 182;
modesty, 182;
poetry, 177, 184

Hervey, James, 148;
letter to Watts, 150

Hollis family, the, 51

“Horæ Lyricæ,” 57

House in French Street, the old, 11;
old Abney, 223;
Stoke Newington, 32;
Theobalds, 79

Hughes, John, 20

Hymns, Apostolic, 90

Hymn, Augustine’s definition of a, 92;
origin of Watts’ first, 30;
? what is a, 93

Hymnology, Christian, 91;
English, 99

Industry, mental, 50;
of Watts, 249

Johnson, Dr., _quo._, 17, 18, 75, 96, 313

Jones, Rev. Samuel, 25

Jennings, Dr., _quo._, 272

Keble’s “Christian Year,” 89;
criticism of Watts’ poetry, 103

Ken, Bishop, and Watts contrasted, 59

Kennedy, Dr., _quo._, 111

Kentish petition, the, 207

Knox, A., criticism on Watts, 102

Latin, thinking in, 105

Letters—Countess of Hertford to Watts, 167, 174, 176, 179, 181, 182;
Doddridge to Watts, 164;
Doddridge’s dedicatory, 155;
Hervey to Watts, 150;
Jewel to Peter Martyr, 99;
Lord Barrington to Watts, 147;
of Enoch Watts, 84;
Secker to Watts, 25;
to Amsterdam, 160;
to an afflicted friend, 53;
to Bradbury, 195, 197;
to Doddridge, 153:
to Samuel Say, 141;
to Thomas Rosewell, 139;
Watts to his father, 6

Liddon, Canon, _quo._, 90

Lispings in numbers, 7

Logan and Doddridge, 162

London in Watts’ day, 42

Luther’s songs, 97

Macaulay, Lord, _quo._, 211

Mansion, an old family, 32

Mark Lane chapel, 54;
the church in, 46

Marot, Clement, 98

Martineau, James, _quo._, 106

“Media Vita,” the, 95

Messianic version of the Psalms, 126

Mind of Watts, seraphic, 308

Minories, the, 51

Modesty of Watts, 132

Montgomery’s estimate of Watts’ hymns, 88

Monument to Watts, 271

Morton, Rev. Charles, 16

Motto, a, 203

Mystic, Watts a, 109

Nature, Watts’ love of, 63

Nights, sleepless, 83

Nonconformist, a political, 190
service, early, 43

Nonconformists of old London, 45

Papacy, Watts’ antipathy to, 211

Parentage of Watts, 3

Parker, Mr., _quo_., 264, 265

Pastor, a youthful, 49

Pastor of a London church, 40

Persecution, the child of, 2

Personal appearance of Watts, 233

Personification, a definition of, 60

Personifications, a constellation of, 61

Perspicuity of Watts, 329

Philosophical works of Watts, 315

Physical theory of another life, 233

Pinhorne, Rev. John, 8

Poetry of Watts’ time, 58

Poets, imperfections of, 105

Polhill, David, 207

Pope, a criticism on, 175

Portrait of Watts, a, 224

Prayer, a beautiful, 309

Preacher, Watts as a, 40

Precocity, 7

Price, Samuel, 54

Prose writings, Estimate and summary, 273

Psalmless churches, 101

Psalms, Watts’, 126

Pupil, Watts’, 38

Puritan reminiscence, 43

“Quarterly Review,” _quo_., 59

Relic, an interesting, 270

Resignation in sorrow, 173
Watts’, 260

Rise and Progress of Religion, etc., 155, 162

Rogers, Henry, _quo_., 306

Rogers, Samuel, “Human Life,” characterized, 67

Rosewell, Samuel, death of, 138
letter to, 139

Rowe, Mrs., 173, 187
and Dr. Watts, 185

Rowe, Thomas, 17, 24

Sacheverell mob, doings of the, 209

Saltzburgers, the, 213

Say, Samuel, 21, 140

Schism Bill, the, 209

Scott, Dr. Daniel, 26

Selborne, Lord, _quo._, 122

Secker, Archbishop, 25

Sermons, branching, 306;
satirized by Watts, 306

Shimei Bradbury, 189

Shower, John, 138

Singing controversy, the, 101

Southampton gaol, 2;
of Watts’ day, 9;
plague at, 11

Southey, Dr., _quo._, 165

Spirit, a meek and quiet, 199

Stoke Newington, 218;
side of life, 67;
the old house at, 32

Storm of 1703, the great, 208

Students, Watts’ fellow, 19

Study, methods of, 18;
Watts’, 82

Suburb, an old London, 55

Theobalds, the old house at, 79

Theological works of Watts, 313

Theology, nature of Watts’, 109

Thomson _quo._, 172

Times of Watts, 206

Tunbridge Wells, 250

Tutor, Watts as a, 37

Unitarians and Watts, the, 106, 313

Verse, a perfect, 104

Verse, the accident of Watts’ life, 73

Verses, satiric, 69

Waller _quo._, 176

Walsh and Fletcher, death of, 259

Watchwords and Creeds, 115

Well, Watts’, 257

Wesley, Charles, and Watts contrasted, 124

“Wesleyan Magazine” _quo._, 107

Wesleys’ Obligations to Watts, the, 123

Words, dying, 262

“World to Come” criticised, 226

Young, Dr., 216;
_quo._, 186

Zodiac, signs of the, 72.

LONDON: PARDON AND SON, PRINTERS, PATERNOSTER ROW.