Chapter II: Part 2

“Such characters as Dr. Watts still live and flourish in our churches: (I adopt the words of a late acute writer). It would be easy to give a long list of names from the dawn of the reformation to this day: but I sacrifice the pleasure of doing so to the modesty of my friends. This however, I will venture to say, and _no man shall stop me of this boasting_, we have in our churches now exact copies of our ancient models. _The prophets, do they live for ever?_ Yes they do. _The spirit of Elijah rests upon Elisha!_ The grave solidity of Cartwright and Jacob seemed to reside in our Owens and Goodwins and Gills. The vivacity of Watts and Bradbury and Earle lives in others, whom I dare not name. The patient laborious Fox, the silver Bates, the melting Baxter, the piercing Mead, the generous Williams, the instructive Henry, the soft and candid Doddridge, Ridgley, and Gale, and Banyan and Burgess, in all their variegated beauties yet flourish in our pulpits exercising their different talents for mutual edification. We have Barnabas the son of consolation, and Boanerges the thunderer, still.—Ye servants of the Most High God, who shew unto us the way of salvation! _Peace be within the walls of_ your churches, _and prosperity within your_ dwelling-houses[12].”

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

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

Though that which gave him the most remarkable pre-eminence was the extent and sublimity of his imagination: how few have excelled, or even equalled him in quickness of apprehension, and solidity of judgment: and having also a faithful memory to retain what he collected from the labours of others, he was able to pay it back again into the common treasury of learning with a large increase. It is a question whether any author before him ever appeared with reputation on such a variety of subjects, as he has done, both as a prose-writer, and a poet. However this we may venture to say, that there is no man now living of whose works so many have been dispersed, both at home and abroad, that are in such constant use, and translated into such a variety of languages; many of which will remain more durable monuments of his great talents, than any representation we can take of them, though it were to be graven on pillars of brass[13].

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

Dr. Johnson, whom no one here will suspect of partiality, and whose decisions in such case no one will dispute, acknowledges that few books had been perused by him with greater pleasure, than Watts’s Improvement of the Mind, of which he says, “the radical principles may indeed be found in Locke’s Conduct of the Understanding, but they are so expanded and ramified by Watts, as to confer upon him the merit of a work in the highest degree useful and pleasing. Whoever has the care of instructing others may be charged with deficience in his duty if this book be not recommended.”

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

“I returned you my thanks for the kind present of your Logic soon after I received it. I can now do it on much better grounds, for since I have read it, I do not barely thank you for the civility, or the satisfaction I have received on reading a book finely written on a noble and useful subject, or for the profit I have reaped by it, but for a book, by which, I expect, not only the youth of England, but all, who are not too lazy, or too wise to learn, will be taught to think and write better than they do, and thereby become better subjects, better neighbours, better relatives, and better christians; for as wrong reasoning helps to spoil each of these, so far will putting us in a right way of thinking, help to mend us. I think your book so good an help to us in this way, that I shall not only recommend it to others, but use it as a manual of its kind myself, and intend, as some have done Erasmus or a piece of Cicero, for another purpose—to read it over once a year.”

The author of the Meditations among the Tombs, and the Dialogues between Theron and Aspasio, in a letter of acknowledgment for the present of his discourses on the glory of Christ, says—“To say your works have long been my delight and study, the favourite pattern by which I would form my conduct and model my style, would only be to echo back in the faintest accents what sounds in the general voice of the nation. Among others of your edifying compositions, I have reason to thank you for your sacred songs, which I have introduced into the service of my church; so that, in the solemnities of the sabbath, and in a lecture on the week day, your muse lights up the incense of our praise, and furnishes our devotion with harmony.”

The Countess of Hertford, afterwards Duchess of Somerset, writes to him in a strain of peculiar admiration and thankfulness, on reading his Theological Works. “Almost all the hours I passed alone, I have employed in reading your works, which for ever represent to my imagination the idea of a ladder or flight of steps, since every volume seems to rise a step nearer to the language of heaven, and there is a visible progression toward that better country through every page, so that, though all breathe piety and just reason, the last seems to crown the whole, till you shall again publish something to enlighten a dark and obstinate age, for I must believe that the manner in which you treat divine subjects, is more likely to reform and work upon the affections of your readers, than that of any other writer now living. I hope God will, in mercy to many thousands, myself in particular, prolong your life many years. I own this does not seem a kind wish to you, but I think you will be content to bear the infirmities of the flesh some years longer, to be an instrument in the hands of God, toward the salvation of your weak and distressed brethren.”

Dr. Vicesimus Knox, in his Christian Philosophy, after a long citation from the Inward Witness to Christianity, concludes thus:—“For my own part, I cannot but think this good man approached as nearly to christian perfection as any mortal ever did in this sublunary state; and therefore I consider him as a better interpreter of the christian doctrines than the most learned critics, who, proud of their reason and their learning, despised or neglected the very life and soul of christianity, the living, everlasting gospel, the supernatural operation of divine grace; and be it ever remembered, that Dr. Watts was a man who cultivated his reason with particular care, who studied the abstrusest sciences, and was as well qualified to become a verbal critic, or a logical disputant on the scriptures, as the most learned among the doctors of Sorbonne, or the greatest proficients in polemical divinity. I mentioned this circumstance for the consideration of those who insinuate that the doctrines of grace cannot be entertained but by ignorant as well as fanatical persons; by persons uninitiated in the mysteries of philosophy.”

His Theological Works are numerous, and none of them appear to have been hurried into the world under the impulse of a thoughtless vanity. The perspicuity and elegance of his expression and the richness of his imagination, enliven the most common subjects, and add lustre to the most interesting. The multiplicity and diversity of his native and acquired talents are every where conspicuous; and the application of these talents uniformly discovers an accurate knowledge of human nature, a high veneration of the gospel, an unshaken attachment to the cause of christian liberty, and an habitual readiness for any sacrifice to the virtue and happiness of the world. While exploring the most abstruse subjects of corporeal and spiritual nature, he became a teacher of babes; and that wayfaring men, though almost ideots, might not err in the path of life, he laid aside the metaphysician and the philosopher, to explain the doctrines and familiarise the history of the bible. “Whatever he took in hand was, by incessant solicitude for souls, converted to theology; it is difficult to read a page without learning, or at least wishing, to be better. The attention is caught by indirect instruction, and he that sat down only to reason, is on a sudden compelled to pray.”

The Psalms and Hymns of Dr. Watts, which have given his name a kind of immortality in our worshipping assemblies, deserve to be mentioned, independent of their intrinsic merit, for the circumstance in which they originated. The Hymns which were sung at the dissenting-meeting in Southampton, were so little to his judgment and taste, that he could not forbear complaining of them to his father. His father, who, perhaps, fondly attached to his old guides in this service, and impatient of innovations, was not very well pleased, bid him try what he could do to mend the matter. He immediately set to work, and so successful was he in his first essay, that a second was earnestly desired, and then a third, and a fourth, till there was such a number as to make up a volume, which was afterwards considerably enlarged. The first edition of his Hymns was published in 1707, and his Psalms, 1719. The happy manner in which he has rendered these composures intelligible to the ignorant, yet instructive and delightful to the more intelligent, shew at once, how warm a desire of extensive usefulness animated his heart, and how skilful an hand directed his pen; while the strong images, the bold flights, the lively painting, the sublimity of thought, and majesty of expression, which occur in some other of his poetical writings, proclaim what a master he was in that art, and how much self-denial he practised, in condescending to a lower strain, when the genius for which he wrote required it.

The two volumes published as the Dr.’s Posthumous Works, must be ascribed to the avarice of a bookseller, or to the urgent calls of hunger, expecting success from the celebrity of his character, and the general avidity with which his productions were received. These volumes are said, in the title-page, to be compiled from papers in possession of his immediate successors, and to be adjusted and published by a gentleman of the University of Cambridge. Many of the hymns in the first volume were published before, and, with only one exception, they are unmercifully mutilated. The rest bear no more resemblance to the poetic ardor and sublimity of Dr. Watts’s muse, than the grasshopper does to the eagle. It would be easy to select various proofs of imposition in this work, were it necessary; but none, who have read the poet, can hesitate to pronounce it a malicious attempt to hold him up to ridicule and contempt; or, which is most probable, a design to make his name the medium of pecuniary advantage. Such a farrago should not have been mentioned, but as a reason for their exclusion from the genuine works.

Such authors as the subject of these memorials are the glory of nations. The man whose writings expose the doctrines and ordinances of christianity to contempt, who artfully endeavours to destroy the cause of virtue, while he affects to celebrate its praise, by taking away all its animating principle, throws open the flood gates of licentiousness, destroys all public spirit, social order, domestic fidelity, and personal happiness, takes the subject from under the restraint of the civil law, saps the foundation of honour and confidence in commerce, involves his wretched proselytes in the guilt of inveterate rebellion against the Prince of Life, and subjects them to inconceivable woes in the future world. When authors, whose writings have thus subverted the faith, poisoned the morals, and destroyed the souls of their deluded readers, are forgotten, or only remembered as objects of execration, the Works of Dr. Watts justly claim the gratitude of his country, will be perpetuated as blessings in the church, and be honoured with the final plaudit of the Supreme Judge.

The dissolution of Dr. Watts fully corresponded with his holy and useful life. For near three years prior to this period, his lamp had given such a tremulous and uncertain light, that his friends daily expected its utter extinction. But his prospects were bright and his confidence was firm. If his intellectual faculties were not vigorous, they yet continued to perform their office to the last. When in full possession of himself he committed his soul into the hands of his Redeemer, triumphing over all the terrors of death. Thus glorifying his profession and the ministry of the gospel, administering the consolations of hope to his sorrowing friends, and displaying the faith, fortitude, and joy, which form the noblest conclusion of a life devoted to God.

Soon after, Mr. Henry Grove, who contracted an intimate friendship with Dr. Watts, had published a funeral sermon on the fear of death; the subject was treated in so masterly a manner that a person of considerable rank in the learned world declared, that after reading it he could have laid down and died, with as much readiness and satisfaction as he had ever done any thing in his life. Some similar effects may, it is hoped, be produced by reviewing the circumstances of an event, where theory was most unusually realized in experimental fact. It is not from books however finely written, but from the lips of the dying disciple of Jesus, that we shall learn the exercise of patience and courage in the anticipation of that state where we shall flourish in everlasting health and vigour.

Let us mark the perfect man, and behold the upright, and see how peacefully he reposes on his dying pillow, with what chearfulness he bids adieu to his friends, and how he descends to the grave in a full age, like as a shock of corn cometh in his season. The day of this great man’s life was not more useful in its progress, than serene and glorious in its close. Without perturbation he read his summons to appear before the Judge of all, and without reluctance he obeyed. After a long and rough voyage he came with a propitious gale within sight of the peaceful harbour; and how fully he enjoyed the prospect, his own language in that happy period will abundantly testify.

With application to himself he often repeated the words of Paul to the Hebrews, “Ye have need of patience that after ye have done the will of God, ye may receive the promise.” Not that he was exercised with bodily pain, but, retaining his desire to do good in undiminished force, he was not at times so resigned to his providential disability as he should have been. In such a frame of mind perhaps, he once said, “I wonder why the great God should continue me in life, when I am incapable of performing him any further service.” But now he had finished the work given him to do, he must quietly wait till the Lord of the vineyard shall bestow the promised, the desired reward. With these considerations he would check the encroachments of impatience, “The business of a christian,” said he, “is to bear the will of God, as well as to do it. If I were in health I could only be doing that, and that I may do now. The best thing in obedience is a regard to the will of God, and the way to that is to get our inclinations and aversions as much mortified as we can.” He discoursed much of his dependance upon the atoning sacrifice of Christ; and his trust in God through the Mediator remained unshaken to the last. “I should be glad,” he said, “to read more, yet not in order to be confirmed more in the truth of the christian religion, or in the truth of its promises, for I believe them enough to venture an eternity on them.” How his soul was absorbed in the faith of these promises, and the certainty of their accomplishment, all who visited him during the illness which terminated in his dissolution, could bear testimony.

On retiring to rest, he has been heard to declare, that if his Master had no more work for him to do, he should be glad to be dismissed that night, “I bless God,” he would say, at other times, “I can lie down with comfort at night, not being solicitous whether I awake in this world or another.” When he was almost worn out by his infirmities, he observed in conversation with a friend, that he remembered an aged minister used to say, that the most learned and knowing christians, when they came to die, have only the same plain promises of the gospel for their support, as the common and unlearned: “and so,” said he, “I find it. It is the plain promises of the gospel that are my support, and I bless God they are plain promises, that do not require much labour and pains to understand them; for I can do nothing now but look into my bible for some promise to support me, and live upon that.” In this way the promises became a present inheritance of support and consolation both as the security and prelibations of his future exaltation before the throne of God; and “As the setting sun appears of greater magnitude, and his beams of richer gold than when in his meridian, so this dying believer was richer in experience, stronger in grace, and brighter in his evidences for heaven than was usual in any period of his life.” With some view, no doubt to this happy state of mind, Dr. Grovesnor, being at the funeral of Dr. Watts, a friend said to him, “Well Dr. Grovesnor, you have seen the end of Dr. Watts; and you will soon follow him: what think you of death?” “Think of it.”—he replied, “why when death comes I shall smile upon him, if God will smile upon me.”

His freedom from corporeal pain, and his uninterrupted assurance that all was well, excited the strongest sentiments and expressions of gratitude in his last moments, when without a struggle or a groan, November 25, 1748, in the 75th year of his age, he departed this life, eminently beloved of God, and lamented by all wise and good men. Such are the joys and honours derived from the doctrines of Christianity. Such are the joys and honours by which the true believer shall be faithfully attended through the valley of the shadow of death, and which will be consummated in the fruition of an eternal weight of glory. Let those who doubt and despise our faith consider of what importance religion is to the sick and dying, and till they possess the power of healing, and of restoration from the borders of the grave, let them not take away the only support of our hopes, the only solace of our afflictions: Let them not interpose between us and the bright prospects of life and immortality.

The remains of this great man were deposited in Bunhill-fields burial-ground, London; and to give a final testimony to his affection and liberality, his pall was supported by six ministers, two of the presbyterian, two of the congregational, and two of the antipoedo-baptist denomination, Dr. Samuel Chandler delivered an oration at the grave, and Dr. Jennings preached his funeral sermon to the church of which Dr. Watts had been pastor, from Hebrews xi. 4. “By it he being dead yet speaketh.” Several other eminent men gave similar testimonies of respect to his memory. But while his various excellencies procured him these honours, he in his life time, was concerned to prevent whatever might be considered as inconsistent with the humility of his character. He gave directions to have only a stone erected over the place of his interment, with this humble inscription:

“ISAAC WATTS, D. D. Pastor of a Church of Christ, in London,
successor to the Rev. Mr. Joseph Caryl, Dr. John Owen, Mr. David
Clarkson, and Dr. Isaac Chauncy; after fifty years of feeble labours
in the gospel, interrupted by four years of tiresome sickness, was
at last dismissed to his rest.

“In uno Jesu omnia.

“2 Cor. v. 8.—Absent from the body, and present with the Lord.

“Col. iii. 4.—When Christ who is my life shall appear, then shall I
also appear with him in glory.”

A handsome tomb, bearing this inscription, with the time of his death, was accordingly erected at the joint expence of Sir John Hartopp, once his pupil, and Lady Abney, in whose house he so long and so happily resided.

Footnote 1:

Reynolds.

Footnote 2:

Seed.

Footnote 3:

Howe.

Footnote 4:

Afterwards Archbishop of Canterbury.

Footnote 5:

Knox.

Footnote 6:

Goldsmith.

Footnote 7:

Discourses on Humility.

Footnote 8:

Bacon.

Footnote 9:

What he says in one of his sermons shews to what the corporeal
afflictions of his later days may be ascribed: Midnight studies are
prejudicial to nature, and painful experience calls me to repent of
the faults of my younger years, and there are many before me have had
the same call to repentance. Wearing out the lightsome hours in sleep
is an unnatural waste of sun-beams. There is no light so friendly to
animal nature as that of the sun. Serm. xx.

Footnote 10:

Letters published by Dr. Gibbons.

Footnote 11:

Milton.

Footnote 12:

Robinson.

Footnote 13:

Jennings.

DEDICATION TO THE FIRST VOLUME OF SERMONS.
_To the Church of Christ assembling in Berry-street, London._

Christian Friends, dearly beloved in our Lord;

It is in the service of your souls that I have spent the best period of my life ministering the gospel among you. Two and twenty years are now expired since you first called me to this delightful work; from that time my cares and labours, my studies and prayers, have been employed in your behalf. I trust they have been accepted with God, and, through his almighty blessing, have obtained some success. As to their acceptance with you, I have too many and plain evidences to admit a doubt of it; which I have often thankfully acknowledged to God and you. Your forward kindness hath always forbid my request, nor do I remember that you ever gave me leave to ask any thing for myself at your hands, by your constant anticipation of all that I could reasonably desire.

While I was thus walking among you in the fellowship of the gospel with mutual delight, God was pleased to weaken my strength in the way, and thereby has given you a fairer opportunity to shew the vigour of your affection under my long weakness and confinement. Your diligence and zeal in maintaining public worship in the church, under the pastoral care of my dear brother and colleague[14], in your special days and hours of prayer for my recovery, your constant and fervent addresses to the throne of grace on my account in your weekly solemn assemblies, and your chearful supply of my necessities under so tedious an affliction, have made me your debtor in a high degree, and have strengthened the bands of my duty, by adding to them the bands of your love.

As soon as I was capable of the smallest attempt of service, you received me with all joy in the Lord: And though we were rivals in this pleasure, yet you will allow that my joy was, at least equal to yours; for I think I can pronounce it with great sincerity, that “there is no place, nor company, nor employment, on this side heaven, that can give me such a relish of delight, as when I stand ministering holy things in the midst of you.”

As fast as my health increases, you may assure yourselves it is devoted to your edification. It often grieves me to think how poor, feeble, and short, are my present labours among you; and yet what days of faintness I generally feel after every such attempt: So that I am continually prevented in my design of successive visits to you, by the want of active spirits while I tarry in the city; and if I attempt to stay but a week or ten days there, I find a sensible return of weakness; so that I am constrained to retire to the country-air, in order to recruit and maintain this little capacity of service.

I bless God heartily, and you are my witnesses, that in my better seasons of health heretofore, and in the intervals of my studies, I was not a stranger of your private families, nor thoughtless of your soul’s improvement.

What shall I do now to make up these defects? What can I do more pleasing and profitable to you, than to seize the advantages of my retirement, to review some of those discourses which have assisted your faith and joy in my former ministry, and to put them into your hands? Thus something of me shall abide with you in your several houses, while I am so incapable of much public labour, and of personal visits.

This, my friends, is the true design of sending this volume to the press: And though many of my brethren may compose far better sermons than I, whose persons I love and honour, and their labours I read with reverence and improvement, yet I am persuaded, that share which I have in your affections, will render these discourses at least as agreeable to your taste, as those of superior excellency from other hands. If any other christians shall think fit to peruse them, and find any spiritual benefit, they must make their acknowledgments to God and you.

I cannot invite the loose and fashionable part of mankind, the vain censors of the age, and the deriders of the ministry, to become my readers: Too many of them grow weary of christianity, and look back upon heathenism with a wishful eye, as the Jews did of old upon the leeks and onions of Egypt, when they grew angry with Moses, and began to loathe the bread of heaven. These persons will find but little here that suits their taste; for I have not entertained you with lectures of philosophy, instead of the gospel of Christ; nor have I affected that easy indolence of style which is the dry delight of some modish writers, the cold and insipid pleasure of men who pretend to politeness. You know it has always been the business of my ministry to convince and persuade your souls into practical godliness, by the clearest and strongest reasons derived from the gospel, and by all the most moving methods of speech, of which I was capable; but still in a humble subserviency to the promised influences of the Holy Spirit, I ever thought it my duty to press the conviction with force on the conscience, when light was first let into the mind. A statue hung round with moral sentences, or a marble pillar with divine truths inscribed upon it, may preach coldly to the understanding, while devotion freezes at the heart: But the prophets and apostles were _burning and shining lights_; they were all taught by inspiration to make the words of truth glitter like sun-beams, and to operate like _a hammer_, and _a fire_, and _a two-edged sword_[15]. The movements of sacred passion may be the ridicule of an age which pretends to nothing but calm reasoning. Life and zeal in the ministry of the word, may be despised by men of luke-warm and dying religion: _Fervency of spirit is the service of the Lord_[16], may become the scoff and jest of the critic and the profane: But this very life and zeal, this sacred fervency, shall still remain one bright character of a christian preacher, till the names of Paul and Apollos perish from the church; and that is till this bible and these heavens are no more.

In some of these discourses indeed I have not had the opportunity of so warm and affectionate an address to the hearers. A true and just explication of scripture and a convincing proof of the doctrine proposed, have been the chief things necessary; yet I have endeavoured, even there, to give a practical and pathetic turn, as far as the design of the text would bear it: But in the other sermons I blame myself more for the want of zeal and devout passion, than for the excess of it.

I will readily confess, there are here and there some periods where the language appears a little too elevated, though not too warm; I know it is not the proper style of the pulpit: but there is some difference between speaking and writing. In one the ear must take in the sense at once; in the other, the eye may review what the first glance did not fully receive. Besides, my friendly readers will now and then indulge a metaphor, to one who from his youngest years, has dealt a little in sacred poesy.

You are my witnesses, that in the common course of my ministry, I often press the duties of sobriety and temperance, justice and charity, as well as the inward and spiritual parts of godliness. But since treatises on the latter subjects are seldom published now-a-days, I have permitted the matters of secret converse between God and the holy soul, to take up a larger share in these discourses; and it has been my aim to rescue these arguments from the charge of enthusiasm, and to put them in such a light, as might shew their perfect consistence with common sense and reason. Hereby I have done my part to defend them against the daily cavils of those low pretenders to christianity, who banish most of these things from their religion, and yet arrogate and confine all reason to themselves.

It is necessary that a christian preacher should teach the laws of sobriety, the rules of charity and justice, our duty to our neighbour, and our practice of public religion; but it is my opinion that discourses of experimental piety, and the work of the closet, should also sometimes entertain the church and the world. Our fathers talked much of pious experience, and have left their writings of the same strain behind them: They were surrounded with converts, and helped to fill heaven apace; for God was with them. But I mourn to think that some are grown so degenerate in our days, as to join their names and their works together in a common jest, and to ridicule the sacred matter of their sermons, because the manner had now and then something in it too mystical and obscure, and there is something in their style unfashionable and unpolished.

It must be acknowledged indeed, to the honour of the present age, that we have some pretences above our predecessors to freedom and justness of thought, to strength of reasoning, to clear ideas, to the generous principles of christian charity; and I wish we had the practice of it too. But as to the savour of piety and inward religion, as to spiritual-mindedness, and zeal for God, and the good of souls; as to the spirit and power of evangelical ministrations, we may all complain, the glory is much departed from our Israel. Happy the men who are so far assisted and favoured of God, as to unite all these excellencies, and to join the honours of the past and present age together! How far it has been attempted amongst you, I have a witness in your consciences: and though I keep a sincere and painful sense within me of my great defects on either side, yet I must still pursue the same attempt; and with reverence and zeal I beg leave to trace the footsteps of my brethren, who come nearest to this shining character.

In all these things I rejoice, and cannot conceal my joy, that my kind and faithful companion in the service of your souls, practises his ministry with the same views and designs; and he hath been sensibly owned and assisted of God, to support and to build up the church, during my long confinement. His labours of love both for you and for me, shall ever endear him both to me and you. May the divine blessing gloriously attend his double services in the seasons of my absence and painful restraint! May your united prayers prevail for my restoration to the full exercise of my ministry among you! And may you all receive such lasting benefit by our associated labours, that you may stand up, and appear as our crown and our joy in the great day of the Lord! This is the continual and hearty prayer of,

My dear Friends,

Your affectionate and afflicted

Servant in the gospel,

I. WATTS.

Theobalds in Hertfordshire,
February, 21, 1720-21.

Footnote 14:

Mr. Samuel Price.

Footnote 15:

2 Cor. iv. 4, 6. John v. 35. Jer. xxiii. 29. Heb. iv. 12.

Footnote 16:

Acts xviii. 25. Rom. xii. 11.

PREFACE[17].

I am bound to give thanks to God always, for the acceptance that my sermons have found among the more pious and religious part of mankind. As it hath been the chief design of my ministry to explain the common and most important things of our religion, to the understanding of every christian, and to impress the most necessary duties of it on the spirit and conscience, so when I am solicited to make my labours yet more public, I would repeat the same work; I would fain give my readers the clearest conceptions of some of the great articles of christianity, and draw out the plain principles of truth which are in the head, to a powerful and holy influence over the heart and life.

These discourses have but little hope to gratify those curious minds, who turn over the leaves superficially to search if there be any new discoveries in them, and being disappointed, lay down the book with disdain: My chief intent was to entertain and assist those humble christians, who converse in secret with God and their own souls.

And since it is the custom of many persons to read a sermon in the evening of the Lord’s-day, as part of their family-worship, I was desirous also to suit the sermons which I publish to such a pious service. Now when the discourses, which are rehearsed in families have much of criticism and speculation in them, or long and difficult trains of reasoning, every one may observe, what a negligent air sits upon the faces of the hearers, what a drowsy attention is given to this religious exercise, and the greatest part of the household find very little improvement.

I grant, it is sometimes necessary to preach, and print such discourses which are more critical and laborious in exposition of difficult texts, and which by artificial trains of argument, may penetrate deep into the hidden things of God, and _bring forth things new as well as old_. But I am content to wave the honour of such performances in the more general course of my labours, whether of the pulpit or the press, and chiefly to pursue those methods which more directly tend to the edification of the bulk of mankind, in the knowledge of Christ and in practical godliness.

We are too often ready to judge that to be the best sermon, which has many strange thoughts in it, many fine hints, and some grand and polite sentiments. But a christian in his best temper of mind will say, “That is a good sermon which brings my heart nearer to God, which makes the grace of Christ sweet to my soul, and the commands of Christ easy and delightful: That is an excellent discourse indeed, which enables me to mortify some unruly sin, to vanquish a strong temptation, and bears me from all the enticements of this lower world; that which bears me up above all the disquietudes of life, which fits me for the hour of death, and makes me ready and desirous to appear before Christ Jesus my Lord.” If the publication of these discourses shall be so happy, as through the influence of the Blessed Spirit to attain these ends, I have obtained my best aim and hope, and will ascribe the glory to God my Saviour.

The first sermons which I published[18] were taken up chiefly in the more spiritual parts of our religion, and such as relate more immediately to the secret transactions of the soul with God, and with his Son Jesus Christ. In several following discourses, I have attempted to explain many duties of the christian life which refer to our fellow-creatures. I hope no man who loves the gospel of Christ, will knit his brow and throw disgrace upon the book, with a contempt of dull morality: If such a person would give himself leave to peruse these sermons, perhaps he would meet with so much of Christ and the gospel in them, that he might learn to love his Saviour better than ever he did, and find how necessary moral duties are to make his own religion either safe or honourable: While _we are saved by faith_ in the blood and righteousness of the Son of God, we must remember also, that it is such a _faith as worketh by love_, for _faith without works is dead_, and useless to all purposes of hope and salvation.

My design in these sermons is to represent vice and virtue in their proper colours, I foresee that many readers will quickly spy out their neighbours’ names amongst the vicious or unlovely characters; but it would turn perhaps to their better account, if they can find their own: for there is many a description here that a hundred persons may lay a righteous claim to. It was my business to set a faithful glass before the face of conscience, by which we may examine ourselves, and learn _what manner of persons we are_; and I pray God to keep it daily before my own eyes. I acknowledge my defects, and stand corrected in many of my own sermons. Blessed be God for a Mediator who is _exalted to give repentance and forgiveness of sins_.

Yet it may not be an improper or unsuccessful method of reproof to fold down a useful leaf now and then for a friend, and give him notice in such an inoffensive manner of any blemishes that may belong to his character. Thus the silent page shall bestow upon him the richest benefit of friendship; it may whisper in his ear a secret word of admonition, and convey it to his conscience without offence. Such a gentle monitor may awaken him to inward shame and penitence; may rouse his virtue to shine brighter than ever, and scatter the clouds that hung dark upon the evidence of his graces.

Since I first published these discourses[19], the world has been furnished with a more complete account of most of these subjects, in that excellent treatise called the “Christian Temper,” which my worthy friend Doctor Evans hath sent abroad, and which is, perhaps, the most complete summary of those duties which make up the christian life, that hath been published in our age.

The next three sermons are employed on that divine subject, which I am ready to call the chief wonder and glory of the christian religion, that is, the great atonement for sin made by the death of Christ, and the practical uses derived thence[20]. This is the blessed foundation of our hope, which I have endeavoured to set in a clear light, and to support by reasoning drawn from the types and predictions of the Old Testament and the clearer language of the New. This is that grace and that righteousness which was witnessed by the law and the prophets, as St. Paul expresses it; Rom. iii. 24. This is that important work of the blessed Saviour, who was promised to the guilty world ever since the fall, and whose various glories have been well represented, according to ancient prophecy, in a happy correspondence with the doctrine of the New Testament, by a volume of “Discourses on the Messiah,” lately published by Dr. William Harris. I wonder how any man can read all these correspondencies of the type, prophecy and history, and not be convinced that Jesus was the appointed Saviour of the world.

The several sermons that follow next, are all formed upon some of the most momentous concerns of a christian, _viz._ How to improve every thing for the advantage of our own souls; how to look on all things as working for our good; how to employ the time of life to noble purposes, and such as the saints above can never be employed in; and to improve the death of others to valuable ends in the christian life, and especially to a preparation for our own departure. The death of that worthy gentleman and excellent christian, Sir Thomas Abney, gave the first occasion to some of these meditations, for the use of the mourning family, which were much amplified afterwards in my public ministry. Here I have endeavoured to awaken myself and my friends to an immediate and constant readiness for a dismission from this sinful, and sorrowful, and tempting world: And God grant when that awful hour approaches, I may be so far honoured by divine grace, as to become an example as well as a teacher.

The last discourse of all, exhibits the “most plain and obvious representation of the doctrine of the blessed Trinity, as it lies in the bible, and the great and necessary use that is to be made of it in our religion.” It is a doctrine that runs through the whole of our serious transactions with God, and therefore it is necessary to be known by men. Without the mediation of the Son, and the influences of the Spirit, we can find no way of access to the Father, nor is there any other hope of his favour proposed in the gospel.

I thought it proper also, to publish it at this season, to let the world know, that though I have entered into some further enquiries on this divine subject, and made humble attempts to gain clearer ideas of it, in order to vindicate the truth and glory of this sacred article; yet I have never changed my belief and profession of any necessary and important part of it, as will here appear with abundant evidence.

In this sermon I have followed the track of no particular scheme whatsoever; but have represented the sacred Three, the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit, in that light in which they seem to lie most open to the common view of mankind in the word of God: And I am glad to find what I have drawn out in this manner in seventeen propositions, appears so agreeable to the general sense of our fathers in this article, that I do not think any one of these propositions would be denied or disputed by our divines of the last or present age, who have had the greatest name and reputation of strict orthodoxy[21].

If I may express the substance of it in a few words, it is this: It seems to me to be plainly and evidently revealed in scripture, “That both the Son and the Holy Ghost have such a communion in the true and eternal God-head, as to have the same names, titles, attributes and operations ascribed to them, which are elsewhere ascribed to the Father, and which belong only to the true God: And yet that there is such a plain distinction between them, as is sufficient to support their distinct personal characters and offices in the great work of our salvation.” And this is what has been generally called the Trinitarian Doctrine, or the doctrine of Three Persons and one God.

At the end of the latter sermons I have endeavoured to assist christians in the devout collection of what they hear or read in a way of pious converse with their own hearts, and with God. In most of those meditations, the reader will find the principal heads of the foregoing sermons rehearsed.

Where the sermons are too long to be read in a family at once, I have marked out proper pauses, that the religious service may not be made tedious. May the great God vouchsafe to send his own Almighty Spirit, wheresoever his providence shall disperse these weak labours of mine in the world, and attend them with his sovereign power and blessing for the welfare of immortal souls! _Amen._

Footnote 17:

In the fifth edition the three volumes in 12mo were reduced into two
in octavo, and the prefaces abridged and united by the author.

Footnote 18:

21st February, 1720-21.

Footnote 19:

25th March, 1723.

Footnote 20:

They were first published 25th March, 1727.

Footnote 21:

In this complete collection of the author’s works there are large
additions, as well as many alterations inserted in this sermon ‘On the
Doctrine of the Trinity,’ from the author’s manuscripts. 1734.

SERMONS.

SERMON I.
_The Inward Witness to Christianity._
1 JOHN v. 10.—He that believeth on the Son of God, hath the Witness in
himself.
THE FIRST PART.

There are two points of great and solemn importance, which it becomes every man to enquire into: _First_, Whether the religion he professes be true and divine; and _then_, Whether he has so far complied with the rules of this religion, as to stand entitled to the blessings thereof.

The christians of our age and nation, have been nursed up amongst the forms of christianity from their childhood; they take it for granted their religion is divine and true, and therefore seldom enter into the _first_ enquiry: but when they come to think in good earnest about religious affairs, their great concern is with the _second_, _viz._ to know whether they have so far complied with the rules of the gospel of Christ, as to obtain an interest in the promised blessings of it. And when they hear such a text as this, _He that believeth, hath the witness in himself_, they immediately expect that the meaning and design of it should be to _witness_ the truth of their own faith, and consequently to prove their own title to salvation.

But in the first christian age the case was far otherwise. The gospel itself was not then universally established, and the disciples of this new religion might have frequent doubts in their own minds concerning the truth of it, while they saw it disallowed and opposed by the world round about them. It was evidently necessary therefore for them to enquire, whether it came from God or no? And it is with this view the apostle John writes these words, _He that believeth on the Son of God hath the witness in himself_; _viz._ _he_ hath a proof within himself that _eternal life is in the Son_, ver. 11. and is to be obtained by our believing in him. It is to the truth of this doctrine that the _three bear record in heaven, the Father, the Word, and the Holy Ghost; and the three on earth, the spirit, and the water, and the blood_. And though the proof of the sincerity and truth of our faith now may be derived from hence by a farther consequence, yet the first and direct design of the apostle is to shew, that the truth and divinity of our religion has an inward witness to it in the heart of every believer.

Here give me leave to put you in mind, that it is necessary for you, as it was for the primitive christians, to settle your profession of christianity upon solid grounds; otherwise you are christians but for the same reason that makes a Turk a disciple of Mahomet, or a heathen a worshipper of the Gods of his country; that is, because you were born in such a climate, and under such a meridian. And can you be contented with so poor a pretence to the noblest religion? and lay so sandy a foundation for your eternal hopes? Besides, the day in which we live, threatens you with bold temptations; and how will you stand if you have no surer grounds? Infidelity is a growing weed; the contempt and ridicule of revealed religion, flourish and become fashionable among the gay part of the world; and if you are not furnished with some solid proofs of the gospel of Christ, you may be in great danger of losing your faith; you may be tempted to yield up your religion to a witty jest, and become a heathen for company.

I might say another thing to awaken you to acquaint yourselves with some arguments that will justify and support your belief of the gospel. Suppose you think you have complied with the rules of your religion, and have raised your hopes of heaven to a high degree; should Satan the tempter spread his darkness round your souls, and in a melancholy and gloomy hour assault your faith with such bold questions as these, _How do you know that christianity is the true religion? What tokens have you to shew that it came from God?_ If you have no other answer to make, but that _it is the religion of your country_, that _you are born and bred up in it_, think with yourselves how your spirits will be surprized, your comforts languish, and all your high built hopes totter to the ground; unless the Spirit of God, by his uncommon and sovereign grace, should give in an answer to the temptation, and by some immediate and convincing argument support your faith: but if you are negligent to lay a good foundation at first, you have no reason to expect such a divine favour.