conservation be a continual creation, i.e., whether that
action, whereby God preserves all creatures in their several
ranks and orders of being, is not one continued act of His
creating power or influence, as it were, giving being to them
every moment? Whether creatures, being formed out of nothing,
would relapse again into their first estate of nonentity if
they were not, as it were, perpetually reproduced by a creating
act of God? How there is one plain and easy argument whereby,
perhaps, this controversy may be determined, and it may be
proposed in this manner. In whatsoever moment God creates a
substance, He must create with it all the properties, modes,
and accidents which belong to it in that moment; for in the
very moment of creation the creature is all passive, and
cannot give itself those modes. Now if God every moment create
wicked men and devils, and cause them to exist such as they
are, by a continued act of creation, must He not, at the same
time, create or give being to all their sinful thoughts and
inclinations, and even their most criminal and abominable
actions? Must He not create devils, together with the rage and
pride, the malice, envy, and blasphemy of their thoughts? Must
He not create sinful men in the very acts of lying, perjury,
stealing, and adultery, rapine, cruelty, and murder? Must He
not form one man with malice in his heart? Another with a false
oath on the tongue? A third with a sword in his hand, plunging
it into his neighbour’s bosom? Would not these formidable
consequences follow from the supposition of God’s conserving
providence being a continual act of creation? But surely these
ideas seem to be shocking absurdities, whereas, if conservation
be really a continued creation, the modes must be created
together with their substances every moment, since it is not
possible that creatures, who every moment are supposed to be
nothing but the immediate products of the Divine will, should
be capable in every one of those very moments in which they are
produced or created to form their own modes in simultaneous
co-existence with their subjects. I own there are difficulties
on the other side of the question; but the fear of making God
the author of sin has bent my opinion this way. We must always
inviolably maintain it for the honour of the blessed God,
that all spirits, as they come out of His hand, are created
pure and innocent; every sinful act proceeds from themselves,
by an abuse of their own freedom of will, or by a voluntary
compliance with the corrupt appetites and inclinations of flesh
and blood. We must find some better way, therefore, to explain
God’s providential conservation of things than by representing
it as an act of proper and continual creation, lest we impute
all the iniquities of all men and devils, in all ages, to the
pure and holy God, who is blessed for evermore.”
There are two other pieces well worth a study—his remarks on Mr. Locke’s
“Essay on the Human Understanding,” and a “Brief Scheme of Ontology.” The
essay on ontology, like that on logic, is a most interesting handbook
and guide to thought. Watts thought so clearly that it often seems as if
he were only putting things neatly. Sometimes, as in his “Philosophic
Essays,” and in his pieces on the Trinity, he is eminently translucent;
you see that there is light behind. This is the impression conveyed by
his dissertation on “Space,” “Substance,” and “Concerning Spirits, their
Place and Motion;” but in his Ontology and Logic he is transparent, the
objects are brought distinctly into view. When he presents before you
his greater thoughts his style is indeed clear, but you feel that it is
as when “morning is spread upon the mountains” before sunrise, or as
when evening lingers in the soft and rosy light after sunset, there is
something somewhere behind, some orb of light which spreads out all that
roseate glow; in his Ontology and Logic he is concise and distinct, as
we have said; you may almost call him a neat writer. He has a wonderful
power of accumulating particulars, a singular felicity in discriminating
ideas. This gives to him a very nice sense of words, as he says, “We must
search the sense of words. It is for want of this that men quarrel in the
dark, and that there are so many contentions in the several sciences, and
especially in divinity.” His power of discrimination is so nice that it
often becomes as amusing as it is instructive; regarded thus, his Logic
is a most interesting book, we suppose quite the most delightful to read
of any treatise on logic in our language. Of this amusing cumulative
power let the reader take the following:
NAMES AND NAMING THINGS.
“Do not suppose that the natures or essences of things always
differ from one another as much as their names do. There are
various purposes in human life for which we put very different
names on the same thing, or on things whose natures are near
akin; and thereby oftentimes, by making a new nominal species,
we are ready to deceive ourselves with the idea of another
real species of beings, and those whose understandings are
led away by the mere sound of words fancy the nature of those
things to be very different whose names are so, and judge
of them accordingly. I may borrow a remarkable instance for
my purpose out of every garden which contains a variety of
plants in it. Most of all plants agree in this, that they have
a root, a stalk, leaves, buds, blossoms, and seeds: but the
gardener ranges them under very different names, as though
they were really different kinds of beings, merely because of
the different use and service to which they are applied by
men, as for instance those plants whose roots are eaten shall
appropriate the name of roots to themselves, such as carrots,
turnips, radishes, etc. If the leaves are of chief use to us
then we call them herbs, as sage, mint, thyme; if the leaves
are eaten raw they are termed salad, as lettuce, purslane;
if boiled they become pot-herbs, as spinage, coleworts; and
some of those same plants which are pot-herbs in one family
are salads in another. If the buds are made our food they are
called heads or tops; so cabbage heads, heads of asparagus,
and artichokes. If the blossom be of most importance we call
it a flower, such as daisies, tulips, and carnations, which
are the mere blossoms of those plants. If the husks or seeds
are eaten they are called the fruits of the ground, as peas,
beans, strawberries, etc. If any part of the plant be of known
or common use to us in medicine we call it a physical herb, as
cardamus, scurvy-grass; but if we count no part useful we call
it a weed, and throw it out of the garden; and yet perhaps our
next neighbour knows some valuable property and use of it, he
plants it in his garden and gives it a title of an herb or a
flower. You see here how small is the real distinction of these
several plants considered in their general nature as the lesser
vegetables, yet what very different ideas we vulgarly form
concerning them, and make different species of them, chiefly
because of the different names given to them.”
Exactly the same characteristics meet us in his Ontology, but here
there is yet more of this kind of amusement; its pages are crowded
with illustrations. It was perhaps in the nature of the subject that
he scarcely mentions a particular for which he does not furnish one or
twenty illustrative examples: take his curious discrimination of causes
into the deficient, the permissive, and the conditional:
CLASSIFICATION OF CAUSES.
“_A deficient cause_ is when the effect owes its existence in
a great measure to the absence of something which would have
prevented it, so that this may be reckoned a negative rather
than a positive cause: the negligence of a gardener, or the
want of rain, are the deficient causes of the withering of
plants; and the carelessness of the pilot, or the sinking of
the tide, is the cause of a ship’s splitting on a rock; the
forgetfulness of a message is the cause of a quarrel among
friends, or of the punishment of servants; the not bringing a
reprieve in time is the cause of a criminal’s being executed;
and the want of education is the cause why many a child runs
headlong into vice and mischief; the blindness of a man, or the
darkness of the night, are the causes of stumbling; a leak in
a boat is a deficient cause why the water runs in and the boat
sinks; and a hole in a vessel is called a deficient cause why
the liquor runs out and is lost. Man is the deficient cause of
all his sins of omission, and many of these carry great guilt
in them.
“_A permissive cause_ is that which actually removes
impediments, and thus it lets the proper causes operate. Now
this sort of cause is either natural or moral. A natural
permissive cause removes natural impediments or obstructions,
and this may be called a deobstruent cause. So opening the
window shutters is the cause of the light entering the room;
cleaning the ear may be the cause of a man’s hearing music
who was deaf before; breaking down a dam is the cause of the
overflowing of water and drowning a town; letting loose a rope
is the cause of a ship’s running adrift; leaving off a garment
is the cause of a cold and a cough; and cutting the bridle of
the tongue may be the cause of speech to the dumb.
“_Note._—The cause which removes natural impediments may be a
proper efficient cause with regard to that removal, yet it is
not properly efficient, but merely permissive with regard to
the consequences of that removal.
“_A moral permissive cause_ removes moral impediments, or takes
away prohibitions, and gives leave to act: so a master is a
permissive cause of his scholars going to play; a general is
the same cause of his soldiers plundering a city; and a repeal
of a law against foreign silks is the permissive cause why they
are worn.
“_Query._—Was not God’s permission of Satan to afflict Job
rather natural than moral, since his mischievous actions did
not become lawful thereby, and since it is now become his
nature to do mischief where he has no natural restraint?
“_A condition_ has been usually caused _causa sine quâ non_,
or a cause without which the effect is not produced. It is
generally applied to something which is requisite in order to
the effect, though it hath not a proper actual influence in
producing that effect. Daylight is a condition of ploughing,
sowing, and reaping; darkness is a condition of our seeing
stars and glowworms; clearness of the stream is the condition
of our spying sand and pebbles at the bottom of it; being well
dressed with a head uncovered is a condition of a man’s coming
into the presence of a king; and paying a peppercorn yearly is
the condition of enjoying an estate. How far the perfect idea
of the word condition, in the civil law, may differ from this
representation is not my present work to determine.
“_Note._—These three last causes may possibly be all ranked
under the general name of conditions, but I think it more
proper to distinguish them into their different kinds of
causality.”
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.
[Illustration: MONUMENT OF DR. WATTS IN WESTMINSTER ABBEY.]
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._
[Illustration]
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.
[Illustration]
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.