Christian biography

Front matter

CHRISTIAN BIOGRAPHY.

THE LIPE OP ISAAC WATTS, D. D.

THE LIPE OP THOMAS HALIBURTON.

Chapter I

Dr. Isaac Watts was born in Southampton, July 17th, 1674. His father, Mr. Isaac Watts, was the master of a very flourishing boarding school in that town, which was in such reputation that gentlemen's sons were sent to it from America and the West Indies for education. He was a most pious, exemplary Christian, and honourable deacon of the church of Protestant dissenters in that place. He was imprisoned more than once for his nonconformity, and during his confinement his wife has been known to sit on a stone near the prison door suckling her son Isaac. It is reported of him, that while he was very young, before he could speak plain, when he had any money given him, he would say to his mother, " A book, a book, buy a book." He began to learn Latin at four years old ; and in the knowledge of that language, as well as in Greek, he made such a swift progress under the care of the Rev. Mr. Pinhorne, a clergyman of the establishment, that he became the delight of his friends, and the admiration of the neighbourhood. He studied Hebrew also under the same master. " The doctor was early taken notice of," says Dr. Jennings, " for his sprightliness and vivacity, — talents Avhich too often prove fatal snares to young persons ; but, through the power of divine grace, he was not only preserved from criminal follies, but had a deep sense of religion upon his heart betimes." As proofs, the one of his uncommon genius, and the other of his powerful impressions of piety, I will mention two particulars concerning him, communicated to me by his sister, Mrs. Sarah Brackstone. When he was only about seven or eight years old he was desired by his mother to write her some lines, as was the custom with the other boys after the school hours were over, for Avhich she used to reward them with a farthing. The doctor obeyed, and presented her w r ith the following couplet : —

" I write not for a farthing, but to try How I your farthing writers can outvie."

About the same time of life he composed a copy of verses, which falling into the hands of his mother, she, upon reading them, expressed her doubts whether he was the author of them. To satisfy her what he was able to perform in poetry, he wrote the following acrostic upon his own name : —

I am a vile polluted lump of earth.

So I've continued ever since my birth,

A lthough Jehovah grace does daily give me,

A s sure this monster Satan will deceive me ;

C ome therefore. Lord, from Satan's claws relieve me-.

W ash me in thy blood, O Christ,

A nd grace divine impart,

T hen search and try the corners of my heart,

T hat I in all things may be fit to do

S ervice to thee, and sing thy praises too.

It is said that while the doctor was a youth, Dr. John Speed, a physician, and some other gentlemen at Southampton, observing his genius, and being willing to encourage it, offered to be at the charge of his education at one of our English universities ; but that he declined the proposal, saying, that he was determined to take his lot among the dissenters. Accordingly, in the year 1690, he was sent to London for academical education under the Rev. Thomas Rowe ; and in 1693, in his nineteenth year, he joined in communion with the church under the pastoral care of his tutor. I have heard the doctor speak with great honour of Mr. Rowe ; and there is an ode addressed to him in his " Lyric Poems," which breathes the high esteem and affection he had for him. " I have been credibly informed," says Dr. Jennings, " that, while he resided in this college of learning, his behaviour was not only so inoffensive that his tutor declared he never gave him any occasion of reproof, but so exemplary that he often proposed him as a pattern for his other pupils for imitation." No doubt can reasonably be made that the doctor diligently applied himself to his studies, when it is recollected what a strong inclination he discovered to literature from his earliest age, and what treasures of knowledge and erudition lie opened to the world not many years after his academical education was completed. But to put the matter beyond all question, I will state that a manuscript volume, in his own hand, was given me by his brother, Mr. Enoch Watts, which contains no less than twenty-two Latin dissertations, which were evidently his college exercises. The subjects may be ranged under the articles of physical, metaphysical, ethical, and theological. The following is a translation of the dissertation on the immateriality of the human soul : —

" Very surprising and no less pernicious are, I know not whether I should not call them, those dreams of some philosophers who maintain that the mind of man is material, as the flagrant absurdities and mischiefs of such a notion must strike even the most hasty observer, some of which we may point out before we close our discourse.

" Previous to our entrance upon our subject, it is proper we should settle our terms, lest, like as enemies brought over to our side may fall out with one another, our words should clash, at the same time that there is an agreement among the things themselves.

" By ' the mind of man' I understand that cogitation which every one feels within himself; or, to express myself more clearly, that internal principle of all our thoughts, of our desires, and of our volitions, to which we owe all those operations in which any degree of thought is concerned, or that principle which, as in its prime subject, includes all our thoughts.

" We shall next attend to our predicate. I call all that immaterial which is not extended, that which has not parts annexed to parts ; for whatever has the dimension of length, breadth, and thickness, is properly denominated matter in the opinion of the best philosophers. • " Having opened our way, we now enter into the field. But what a numerous and formidable host immediately appears in array against us ! First Epicurus, then Tertullian ; next Hobbes and his followers oppose me, — Greeks, barbarians, pagans, and some, though but a few, professors of the true religion. Some will not admit that the mind of man is immaterial, lest the consequence should press them that it is immortal ; and that they may have no check upon them in their course of sin, they exclude from the human soul the idea of immateriality. Others adopt the error that they may by it support their mistaken notions in religion. And a third sort, through ignorance, prejudices, and inconsideration, do not with sufficient accuracy draw the line between mind and matter.

"We shall now consider what arguments may be alleged in proof of our proposition, that the mind of man is immaterial. I have selected the following reasons out of many that might be adduced : —

" 1. If the body is capable of thinking, thought is a mode of body, and depends either upon the position of its parts, or upon motion. But what is that position of parts which thinks 1 What is its figure ? Does it consist of three or four angles ? Or, if thinking depends upon motion, let me ask what is that motion ? I know of no motion but what is local ; and if this is thinking, then whenever a body moves, it thinks. But these are mere bubbles which instantly dissolve before the breath of reason.

" 2. Body or matter, according to philosophers, is a passive principle ; but who is there can deny but thinking is an action^ and more especially that kind of it which is called volition ? You may perhaps reply, ' that matter is inert, but that there is a spiritual extension which is active.' To which I answer, that it must be in a manner different from that of reasoning, by which your error should be combated, that of distinguishing between extension and matter.

" 3. If body can think, thinking must be either an essential or an accidental mode. It cannot be an essential mode, for, if it were, it would be inseparable, and all bodies would think. It cannot be an accidental mode, because Ave can have no conception of an accident — no not even upon the most refined abstraction — without a subject ; otherwise an accident would be conceived of without its essence, when its very being is an in-being in that essence. Now try, my adversary, I address myself to you, whether you cannot think of your will, of the power of determining yourself, of joy, of love, and your other affections, without any idea of any thing extended ? You can undoubtedly : conclude, then, that thought is not an accident of body.

" 4. That is an essential, primary attribute of a thing, — and which indeed constitutes it, — - which may be conceived of without other properties, at the same time that other properties cannot be conceived of without an idea of that attribute. Thinking and extension, considered in this manner, agree the one to spirit, the other to body ; nor does either the one or the other presuppose any thing besides in which it should be founded ; thinking and extension, therefore, are essential attributes of two particular kinds of beings, which are at the greatest remove from each other. Not, then, till these two essences constitute one simple being shall I believe that thinking belongs to matter.

"5. The last and grand argument, to which all lovers of truth will yield their assent, may be thus represented. It is an axiom that universally prevails in philosophy, that an essence may be known by its operations ; or, in other words, as are the operations, such are the subjects. Now the operations of our minds are knowledge, doubting, affection, and the like. But what connection has extension with knowledge ? Knowledge, unquestionably, has neither length, breadth, nor thickness. If, therefore, judgment or volition is immaterial, its subject is immaterial too. The body is incapable of exerting such acts ; for it would then go beyond the sphere of its power, and the effect would be more excellent than its cause.

" Let these arguments suffice ; and to me they appear sufficient to satisfy any mind that will not obstinately adhere to its opinion against the force of reason. If any person, after all that has been alleged, should still insist upon it that his own mind is material, I shall have no objection to his turning out among the animals which graze the fields, as he is utterly unworthy the society of philosophers, and indeed of mankind."

Besides the Latin theses in the volume above mentioned, of which we have given this specimen, there are also inserted two English dissertations : the first made, as the doctor prefixes it, " for our meeting together" (meaning, undoubtedly, the students of the academy) " on Saturday in July, 1693," and the other " for our meeting together on Saturday, September 9th, 1693." These dissertations have considerable merit, and show the doctor's diligence in the improvement of his time, and of his intercourse with his fellow-students.

Mr. Enoch Watts also gave me several manuscript volumes of his brother, some of which I parted with several years since as curiosities to particular persons. What were the subjects of the volumes I have given away I cannot recollect, only that one of them, I believe, was an abridgment of Mr. Gale's learned work, called " The Court of the Gentiles." Two only of the number which Mr. Watts was so kind to present me are still in my hands ; one of which is entitled, " QucBStiones LogiccB ut plurimum desumpta ex Burgersdicii Institutionibus, et Heerboordii Commentariis, 1691, 1692;"* and the other,

*In English, " Logical Questions collected for the greatest part, from Burgersdicius's Institutions and Heereboord's Commentaries."

" Sententiolce qucedam £ Tractatu Lud. de la Forge de mente humand collects, aut potius Epitome ejusdem Tractates, 1691."* Neither of the volumes is very small, and must have cost the doctor considerable pains and patience, if any thing might be called pains and patience to him in his pleasurable pursuit of learning. He had a happy method of acquiring knowledge, by abridging scientific works. By this means he made himself master of the subject before him, whatever it was ; drew it into a small compass, and imprinted it on his memory. Twenty volumes upon logic, pneumatology, ethics, &c, swiftly run over, and without any endeavours thus to exhaust and fix them upon the mind, might not yield the twentieth part of real improvement as would one volume thus perused, arranged, and treasured in the memory. It is no wonder, therefore, that the doctor recommends the like practice to others in such strong language. " Shall I be so free," says he, " as to assure my younger friends, from my own experience, that these methods of reading will cost some pains in the first years of your study, and especially in the first authors you peruse in any science, or on any particular subject : but the profit will richly compensate the pains ; and in the following years of life, after you have read a few valuable books on any special subject in this manner, it will be very easy to read

* " Some brief Opinions collected from the Treatise of Lewis de la Forge, concerning the human Mind ; or rather, an Epitome of the Work."

others of the same kind, because you will not find very much new matter in them which you have not already examined."*

There was another method also which the doctor adopted, it may be in the time of his preparatory studies, though of this we are not able to furnish positive evidence, but of which there are the fullest proofs in his farther progress in life ; namely, that of interleaving the works of authors, and inserting in the blank pages additions from other writers on the same subject. I have now by me, the gift of his brother, Mr. Enoch Watts, the Westminster Greek Grammar thus interleaved by the doctor, with all that he thought proper to collect from Dr. Busby's and Mr. Leeds's Greek Grammars, ingrafted by him into the supplemental leaves ; and I have besides in my possession, a present from the doctor himself, a printed discourse by a considerable writer on a controverted point in divinity, interleaved in the same manner, and much enlarged by insertions in the doctor's own hand.

Such were the happy, though laborious, methods this eminent man took to possess himself of knowledge. He was not contented with superficial glances and hasty surveys. He searched deep for the mines of wisdom, and spared no pains to discover them, and enrich himself with their treasures.

* Improvement of the Mind, part 1, chap, iv., sec-, 7.

CHAPTER IL

While lie was thus laborious in the acquisition of knowledge, the doctor was not inattentive to poetic composition. He tells us that he had amused himself with Verse from fifteen years old to fifty ;* and during the time of his studies, or in a very short space after he had closed them, he wrote several poems, and no inconsiderable number of his lyric odes. The pieces which were composed by him at this period are the poem called " Light in Darkness ;" his verses to Mr. Josiah Hort, afterward archbishop of Tuam, in Ireland ; his ode entitled " Excitatio Cordis ad Ccelum ;" his two epistles, the one to his brother Richard, and the other to his brother Enoch ; and his ode addressed to our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ. The four last are written in Latin.

The epistle to his brother, Mr. Enoch Watts, bears date September 30th, 1691, and may be translated as follows : —

TO' MY BROTHER ENOCH WATTS, GOING A VOYAGE.

Brother, may Heaven vouchsafe to bless. And crown your voyage with success ! Go, in the planks of pine immured, And from surrounding harms secured : Go, and with sails expanding wide, With pleasure plough the placid tide ; In safety wafted o'er the main, In safety wafted home again.

* Miscellaneous Thoughts, No. 65. 2

O may no monster of the flood, That roams for prey, and thirsts for blood, Seize you to his tremendous power, And with remorseless jaws devour, While the bark, shiver'd by the blast, Strews with its wreck the watery waste ! My brother, trusted to thy care, Half of myself, vessel, bear Secure through ocean's wide domain, At best a desert, trackless plain ; And oft, when hurricanes arise, In billows thundering to the skies, Safe from the sand's devouring heap, May'st thou thy wary passage keep ; Safe too from each tremendous rock, Where ships are shatter d by the shock : May only favourable gales Attend thy course, and fill thy sails ; And may the zephyr's softest wing Thee to thy port serenely bring! Thou, who dost o'er the seas preside, Rouse them to rage, or smooth their tide,- Thou who dost in thy fetters keep The boisterous tyrants of the deep, To foreign climes secure convey My brother through the watery way, And back conduct him o'er the main To his dear shores and friends again !

The doctor's Latin ode addressed to himself may be thus translated : —

THE EXCITATION OF THE HEART TOWARD HEAVEN.

What ! shall whole ages wear away, And I a willing prisoner stay.

Immured within these walls of clay !

The porch, the open door I see : Shall both conspire to set me free. And I start back from liberty !

Shall I not pant to ascend the road That leads to yon sublime abode, The palace of my Father, God 1

From this vile flesh, what countless ills Arise ! Now fear my bosom chills, Now grief in trickling tears distils ;

While sin, the worst of all my foes,

And snares of dark destruction strows.

On this poor spot where canst thou find Pleasures of such exalted kind To fill the wishes of the mind 1

Jesus, thy love, far, far from sight, 'Midst stars^ and seraphs pure and bright, Dwells high enthroned in worlds of light.

Thither shouldst thou attempt to go, Th* Almighty would no thunders throw, Nor would one cloud obscure his brow ;

Himself invites thee to the skies : From sin and all its sorrows rise ; Wings of swift flame his love supplies.

The ode " to our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ" may perhaps vie in the merit of its composition with any of the lyric performances of the Greek and Latin writers. A most astonishing energy animates, I may truly say, every line, and evinces the uncommon poetic powers which the doctor possessed. It it thus rendered into English : —

Thee, Jesus, in whose person join The human nature and divine, Th' all-glorious Sire's all-glorious Son Ere worlds were form'd or time begun, Thee will I praise ; thy name adored Shall consocrate the tuneful chord :

My tongue thy glories shall proclaim, And my pen propagate thy fame.

Let strings of sounds divinely bold Be fitted to the vocal gold ; And thou, my harp, awake and tell The triumphs of ImmanueL How, in the thunder of his might, He put th' infernal hosts to flight. In fetters bound their vanquished king, Trampled on death, and crush'd his sting. Ages immense through heaven had roil'd Their ample rounds of radiant gold. While in the realms of endless day He in the Father's bosom lay, Of his unbounded love possessed, With joys immeasurable bless'd, Till from th* empyreal heights he saw Adam transgress his Maker's law, And hell expand its lake of fire T' ingulf the offspring with their sire ; Saw, too, th' avenging angel stand, Swords and keen lightnings in his hand, And arrows ranged in dire array Athirst for blood, and wing'd to slay ; Then heard from the abhorr'd profound The monsters of the pit resound Their joys, that man from God was driven/ And earth to hell's dominion given : Compassion not to be express'd, - Like a swift flame, pervades his breast ; To help, to save, almighty ire And love dimentionless conspire : — " Not the whole race of men shall be Plunged in eternal misery : What ! shall my Father's work divine, Where- his refulgent beauties shine, Perish by hellish fraud and spite ! Rather let all the stars of light Be from their glorious stations huiTd, And night and chaos whelm the world ; I'll enter Satan's dark domain And bind the felon in my chain,

Or he shall chase me from the field,

And I'll to him my sceptre yield.

By my Sire's glories, and by mine,

Alike immortal and divine,

I swear." He said, and bows the skies.

And to our world impatient flies.

The Prince of heaven without delay

Assumes an humble form of clay ;

Though scant the room, and poor th' abode.

Yet honour'd to admit the God !

Thus he displays his wondrous grace,

Thus he redeems our ruin'd race,

Vengeance' full quiver he receives,

And for our own his life he gives.

O the distress ! th' effects how dire

Of the offended Thunderer's ire !

Edict severe ! what punishment

For Adam's one transgression sent !

He tastes the interdicted tree,

And death sweeps o'er his progeny.

But check, my muse, thy plaintive lay ;

Whither do thy wild pinions stray 1

Suppress these sighs, these groans restrain :

What ! shall a flood of tears profane

The triumphs of Immanuel's tomb I

Rather a joyful strain assume,

And in thy noblest numbers tell

How he descended into hell,

And enter'd the tremendous cells

Where death in night and horror dwells ;

The dreary seats his presence own'd,

And to their inmost caverns groan'd,

Chaos through all his empire shook,

Th' alarm th' infernal tyrant took,

And, roaring loud in wild affright,

Ran, fled through all the realms of night,

In hope to hide his guilty head,

When thus the Lord of glory said :

" Monster, cursed cause of sin and wo,

In vain thou triest to shun my blow :

This bolt shall find, shall pierce thee through,

Though, to conceal thee from my view,

Thou under hell's profoundest wave Should' st dive to seek a sheltering grave." He spoke, and with unerring aim Full on the foe he flung the flame His Father gave :' through all the coasts Hell trembled, trembled all the ghosts, Who well ethereal fires might dread Ere since before their force they fled From the celestial light and bliss Down to the bottomless abyss.

Now from the deep loud thunders sound Scattering immense destruction round, Tear up the dungeons from their base Prepared t' immure the chosen race. Here in a thousand fragments lie Engines of hellish tyrrany, Fetters, wheels, racks asunder burst, And every cruelty accursed ; While death in lamentable groans The plunder of his darts bemoans. But see the God, with conquest crown'd, Returning from the dark profound ; See up heaven's hills the triumph roll'd ; See to his wheels of burning gold Proud Satan chain'd, and with a throng Of hell's grim monsters dragg'd along. What shouts of joy from angels rise. While he ascends his native skies ! What pleasure in the victor glow'd. While through the gates of bliss he rode ! His praises, ye seraphic choirs, Resound, and sweep your golden lyres, His praises to all human tongues Resound, and tune the noblest songs, While the glad stars, that round the pole 'Twixt heaven and earth incessant roll, Seize from both worlds the tuneful sound, And waft th' immortal echoes round.

It may be some entertainment to the reader to be informed who were the doctor's fellow-students, and were honoured with his esteem and friendship. I shall mention three of the number, — Mr. Josiah Hort, Mr. John Hughes, and Mr. Samuel Say. Mr. Hort was his acquaintance and fellow-pupil, and was pronounced by the doctor " the first genius in the academy." This gentleman, after having been educated at a dissenting academy, and probably descended from dissenting parents, entered into the established church, and subsequently became archbishop of Tuam.

Mr. John Hughes was also the doctor's friend and 'fellow-student. This gentleman was born at Marlborough, in Wiltshire, January 9th, 1677, but was educated at London, receiving the first rudiments of his learning in private schools, and afterward becoming a pupil of Mr. Rowe ; for the doctor says in a letter to Mr. Duncombe, that they " were fellow-students together in logic and philosophy." The doctor informed me that Mr. Hughes, by his own confession, so entirely devoted himself to poetry, that he gave little or no attention while he was at the academy to any thing besides ; and that the doctor, in consequence, advised him to decline the ministry. Accordingly it does not appear that Mr. Hughes even so much as preached once in public ; and it is very certain that he became a votary, and indeed an eminent favourite, of the muses.* What sentiments Dr. Watts entertained concerning his poems will appear from a

* See his " Poems on several Occasions, with some select Essays in Prose," in two volumes.

letter of his to Mr. Duncombe, dated May 23d, 1735. " Your letter," says he, " and the present of Mr. Hughes' works, were joyfully received by me the next day after I saw you. Methinks I see the very man, my old acquaintance, there with his temper and softness, his wit and sprightly genius, spreading almost over every page, But my sorrow freshens and renews upon my heart, that such a genius did not live to write more moral and divine odes in advanced years, to be a counterpoise to all the charms of pleasure, and youth, and beauty which his younger poesy indulged. Yet, it must be confessed, I can find nothing which is an ofTence to virtue and piety, so far as I have perused, and I have read more than half. The Christian scheme has glories and beauties in it, which have superior power to touch the soul beyond all the gods and heroes of the heathen heaven or elysium. I should have been much pleased to see such a pen employing its art on such themes. Mr. Pope's Messiah always charms me. I speak not now of Mr. Hughes' odes on the ' Creator of the World,' the ' Ecstasy,' &c, because I have read them long ago. These have so much dignity in them that I wished for more of the same kind."

As Mr. Hughes shone as a poet, so he had also a fine pen for prose ; and had some share in the " Guardian," a greater in the " Tatler," and more abundantly contributed to the " Spectator."

Mr. Samuel Say was another acquaintance and fellow-student with Dr. Watts. He was bom about 1675, and was the second son of Mr. Giles Say, minister of St. Michael's parish, Southampton, but ejected thence by the Act of Uniformity in 1662. Mr. Say, the son, discovered, when he was but young, a strong inclination to the ministry. His father accordingly took care to have him educated in the best manner he could for this purpose from his earliest years ; and about 1692 he entered as a pupil in Mr. Rowe's academy. After exercising his ministry at various places in the country, he was finally called to succeed Dr. Edmund Calamy, in the pastorship of the church of protestant dissenters in Westminster. He removed thither in 1734, and continued till April 12th, 1743, when he left our world, after a week's illness, in the sixty-eighth year of his age.

Dr. Hughes, in his funeral sermon on Mr. Say, draws a very lovely character of him as a minister ; and the editor* of his poems and other compositions, published a year or two after his death, pays him the following honours : — " He had great candour and good breeding, without stiffness or formality ; an open countenance, and a temper always communicative. He was a tender husband, an indulgent father, and of a most benevolent disposition ; ever ready to do good, and to relieve the wants of the distressed, to the utmost extent of his abilities. He was well versed in astronomy and natural philosophy, had a taste for music and poetry, * William Duucombe, Esq.

and was a good critic, and master of the classics." Mr. Say's poems are not destitute of merit ; but the two essays in prose, published with them, the first on the harmony, variety, and power of numbers in general, and the other on those of " Milton's Paradise Lost," in particular, " have been much admired," says the Rev. John Duncombe, " by persons of taste and judgment." Readers of those essays will learn what beauties arise from numbers, and how much they contribute to fine composition, and be convinced that Milton's happy management of his pauses, and his infusion of spondees, trochees, and dactyls, with the iambics of an English verse, as his subjects and descriptions required, are among the distinguishing excellences of his poem. This discovery, I believe I may truly affirm, was first made by Mr. Say; and he therefore is alone entitled to the honour of it, though others have since availed themselves of it without acknowledging to whom they were indebted. It may be farther added, in the words of the editor of Mr. Say's works, " that these essays were drawn up at the request of Mr. Richardson the painter, who was pleased with Mr. Say's uncommon way of thinking."