SOME OUTLINES OF THE LIFE OF DR. ISAAC WATTS*. THIS great and good man was born at Southampton, July 17, A. D. 1674, of eminently religious parents; who being confcientious non-conformifts, had fuffered much, by thofe perfecuting measures, which difhonoured the reign and will for ever disgrace the memory of Charles II. It is unspeakably beneficial to a man, that he bear the yoke in his youth. Whoever is entrusted with the education of a young perfon, and wishes him to excel in folid literature, fhould take particular care, to initiate him betimes. By which juft precaution, ufeful knowledge becomes infenfibly familiar, and almoft natural to the mind; before the poifonous habits of eafe, idlenefs, and trifling (fo hoftile to every * Dr. Gibbons, in his Memoirs of Dr. Watts, attacks the validity of two anecdotes, and the date of a piece of poetry, which was printed in Mr. Toplady's Outlines of Dr. Watts, with a difpofition bordering on afperity; the littleness of criticifm upon fuch trifles are certainly derogatory to the dignity of a biographer. They may be falfe, or imperfect, from mistake or mifinformation. To whatever cause they may be afcribed, it cannot be deliberate mifreprefentation; they do not, in the leaft, affect to take one flower from the wreath which encircles the doctor's brow, whofe name is enrolled in the tablet of literary merit, by the united fuffrages of the public. The hints derived from them, were made ufe of as a palliative for that eminent character's defalcation, refpecting the Trinity, which the doctor publifhed to the world.- -Thefe few incidental remarks, which are exhibited to the reader, and delineated with a bold and mafterly hand, has received no alteration except the expunging of the objectional parts. EDITOR. H 4 manly manly and valuable pursuit), have entirely and irra dicably overfpread the foil. Dr. Watts enjoyed the full advantages of this early cultivation. He began to learn Latin, at four years of age; and, at a proper interval the Greek; under the care of Mr. Pinhorne, a clergyman of the Church of England, to whom we find a Latin ode addreffed by the doctor in his lyric poems. His progrefs in the languages, though rapid, was folid. He ran faft; but (which was of far greater confequence) he mastered every inch of ground as he went. The precife time when effectual grace laid hold of his heart, and fpiritually converted him to God, I am not, at prefent, able to find. But that great event (abftracted from which, all befides is of little value), appears to have taken place, in an early period of his life. Some tender and beauteous fruits of the Holy Spirit's work upon his foul, appears in feveral of the doctor's juvenile productions, as well as in thofe of a later date and warrant us to believe, that (to use the phrafeology of a divine long fince with God) the "old angel" had been a young faint. About the fixteenth year of his age, and A. D. 1690, he was fent up to London, that the academy might finish an education fo happily begun. His tutor, Mr. Thomas Rowe (to whom alfo the doctor infcribed an ode, extant in his lyric poems), has been heard to declare, that he never had occafion to reprimand Mr. Watts, fo much as once, during the whole time of his refidence in the academy on the contrary, that his behaviour was fo correct and exemplary, that he often propofed Mr. Watts, to the other pupils, as a pattern worthy of their imitation. In the year 1693, when he was but nineteen, he was adinitted, as a communicant, by the congregation of which his tutor had the paftoral charge. Having Having compleated his academical ftudies at London, he returned (about A. D. 1694.) to his father's houfe; where he spent two years in the private fpiritual exercises of reading, meditation, and prayer, by way of humble prelude to his entrance on the work of the miniftry; a work, to which he believed Providence had called him, and which he justly confidered as the most facred and momentous of all human undertakings. Hardly any thing can be of more important confequence to individuals, to families, and to fociety at large, than the wife and virtuous education of young people. Inftruction, it is true, cannot impart the faving grace of God: but it is no lefs true, that God often bleffes human cultivation to very valuable purposes; and fometimes even deigns to make the religious efforts of Chriftian tutors and minifters, the channels, or means, through which he imparts his faving grace. The hufbandman's duty is, to plough and drefs and fow his lands; and though, after all his efforts, their fuccefs depends on the bleffing of heaven; and notwithstanding the crop may not conftantly, and in every refpect, correfpond to the utmost of his wishes and his labours; yet fome valuable fruits feldom fail to crown his industry, even if the feasons prove inclement, and the foil untoward. Sir John Hartopp, baronet, a gen tleman of diftinguished piety and erudition, was fenfible of the importance of putting his fon under the conduct of a wife, a learned, a polite, and a truly Chriftian tutor. Swayed by this view, it was no wonder that he fhould caft his eye on Mr. Watts, as one of the fittest perfons in the world to difcharge fo arduous a truft. Witfius, in Holland; Rollin, in France; and Watts, in England; were, perhaps, of all the elegant fcholars who then flourished, indued with the happieft powers to form young people to science and virtue, and to infinuate the delicacies of learning, without it's thorns, into tender and unexperienced experienced minds. Moft young perfons have a certain key, on which, if you touch difcreetly, you may manage them as you please, without the ufual methods of harth feverity and, difingenuous punishments. To difcern that key, but without letting your pupil perceive you difcern it; and to touch it, with judgment; are the great teft of a fagacious tutor. Plutarch, in his Life of Alexander the Great, obferves, concerning that prince, that he was, from a child, of an ardent and impetuous temper, incapable of being forced to any thing, but fufceptible of perfuafion, and eafily won over by gentleness and reafoning. His father, king Philip, had fufficient penetration to perceive the key of Alexander's mind, and wisdom to provide him a suitable preceptor in Ariftotle who, by a judicious addrefs to the finer paffions of his royal charge, fubdued the future conquerer of the world; and the prince, being made to fall in love with knowledge, became a confiderable proficient in the belles lettres, because he apprehended himself to be a perfect volunteer. I should, as a well-wifher to mankind, deeply lament the want of fuch tutors as Ariftotle, Witfius, Rollin, and Watts; if Providence, in the prefent day, had not given us a Ryland *. Pursuant to his friend's invitation, Mr. Watts accepted the care of young Mr. (afterwards fir John) Hartopp, with whom he refided four years, in the family-house at Stoke-Newington. And it appears, from the dedication prefixed to our author's admirabie Treatife on Logic, that the young gentleman's advancements in literature were fuch, as might be expected from the happy pupil of fo accomplished a fuper-intendant. While he was thus difcharging the duties of a pleafed and pleafing preceptor, with that meekness of wifdom, which gave charms to fcience, and This friend to religion, literature, and mankind, breathed his laft at Enfield, July 24, 1792, in the 69th year of his age. EDITOR. + James iii. 13. with that sweetness of the lips which encreaseth learning; he feduloufly attended no lefs to his own literary improvements, than to thofe of his promifing difciple. It is with diligent tutors, as with faithful and laborious minifters: to both of whom that encouraging word is frequently made good, He that watereth, fhall be watered himself. But, amidft all his other profound and important attentions, he never loft fight of that grand mark, to which he made every human attainment fubferve; viz. the edification of his own heart in faith and holinefs. Hence he devoted much of his time to God: and carefully ftudied the infpired volume, in it's original languages, and with the affiftance of the beft antient and modern expofitors. He preached his firft fermon, on his birth-day, viz. July 17, 1698; when he completed his four and twentieth year; and was, fhortly after, chofen affiftant preacher to that independent congregation, of which Dr. Ifaac Chauncey was the paftor. His pulpit exertions, fuppofed to be more zealous and vehement than his conftitution could well fuftain, were foon followed by a fevere and menacing illness, of five month's duration. But the ambassador of Christ had not yet finished his appointed course, nor fulfilled the work which was given him to do. He recovered, and determined, through grace, to spend and be spent for God, he plied his minifterial labours with as great intenseness as before, On the decease of Dr. Chauncey, he was ordained (March 18, 1702, N. S.) to the paftorfhip of that church; prefently after which event, another long confinement by fickness threatened the extinction of his valuable life, His recovery was fo gradual, that it was deemed neceffary to leffen his public fatigues, by appointing Mr. Samuel Price to be his affiftant, in the fummer of 1703. * Prov, xvi. 21, + Prov. xi. 25. Men |