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Isaac Watts's Education for The Dissenting Ministry: A New Document

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  10 June 2011

William E. Stephenson
William E. Stephenson
Affiliation:
University of California, Los Angeles
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Extract

Dr. Williams' Library in London has a copy of Bishop John Wilkins's Ecclesiastes, interleaved with pages on which the divine and hymn-writer Isaac Watts made hundreds of notes — concerning the books he studied at Thomas Rowe's Dissenting academy in London, the comments of leading figures in London's nonconformist circles, and his own maturing opinions and judgments. Dates on various notes range from 1690 to 1709. The document should be of interest to all students of English religious nonconformity in the seventeenth century; it is in effect a manuscript record of an education for the Dissenting ministry, written by one of the foremost ministers of the age, which further reveals the influence of that education on his thinking and his pastoral activities in the most active years of his public leadership. Through a combination of circumstances, Watts' copy of Wilkins has remained obscure, unidentified and virtually untouched in the Dr. Williams archives for well over a century. Now that it has come to light again,2 and has been identified as Watts's,3 perhaps it can gain the attention it merits

Type
Research Article
Information
Harvard Theological Review , Volume 61 , Issue 2 , April 1968 , pp. 263 - 281
Copyright
Copyright © President and Fellows of Harvard College 1968

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References

1 Seventh edition (London, 1693). This copy, not the only one in the Dr. Williams holdings, is shelf-marked 1063.K.20.

2 The copy was traced down by the writer, while doing research in England made possible by a grant from the University of California. The help of the Librarian and staff at Dr. Williams' Library is also gratefully acknowledged.

3 A note by the writer on the history of this copy, and the points which identify it as Watts's, appeared in Notes and Queries (Dec., 1966).

4 McLachlan, H., English Education Under The Test Acts (Manchester, 1931)Google Scholar, 2, says, “the records of their labours are, generally speaking, scanty and fragmentary …”

5 Milnee, Thomas, The Life, Times and Correspondence of … Isaac Watts (London, 1834), 138Google Scholar, says, “We have now arrived at an important period in the life of Watts [years 1693–1697]; and it is to be regretted, that he has left us no record of his views and feelings at this critical era”; Davis, Arthur P., Isaac Watts (New York, 1943), 11Google Scholar, says, “Unfortunately, we do not have an outline of the courses offered by Thomas Rowe …”

6 Thomas Rowe (1657–1705) was the son of the eminent nonconformist divine, John Rowe. He was educated at the Dissenting academy of Theophilus Gale in Newington Green; he succeeded Gale as tutor in 1678, and moved the academy to Clapham and then to Little Britain. Among his students were Henry Grove, Josiah Hort, John Hughes, Daniel Neal, and Samuel Say. The academy was disbanded at his death. See further D.N.B. and McLachlan.

7 In all quotations from Watts' notes, his spelling, punctuation, and capitalization are followed exactly.

8 According to Wilson, Walter, History and Antiquities of Dissenting Churches (London, 1808)Google Scholar, II, 535–36, Walter Cross (?–1701?) probably studied for the ministry “first in Scotland, and afterwards in Holland … Towards the latter end of the reign of Charles the Second, he became pastor of the Independent congregation in Rope-makers'-alley, Moorfields. About the year 1685 … a stormy time for the Nonconformists in England, he retired to … Utrecht … and took his turn in preaching at the English church … When the times grew more favourable, he returned to England, and resumed his pastoral charge … till the time of his death … considerably advanced in life.” See Wing STC for full list of his writings.

9 McLachlan, 1. Rowe himself was both minister and teacher.

10 Text as in 2nd ed., corrected (London, 1734), p. v.

11 McLachlan, 27f.

12 For instance, the preface to Horae Lyricae, text as in 3rd ed. (London, 1715), xxiii–xxiv, says, “The Image of my Heart is printed in them [his poems]: and if they meet with a Reader whose Soul is akin to mine, perhaps they may agreeably entertain him…. While I have attempted to gratify innocent Fancy in this Respect, I have not forgotten to allure the Heart to Vertue, and to raise it to a Disdain of brutal Pleasures. The frequent Interposition of a devout Thought may awaken the Mind to a serious Sense of God, Religion, and Eternity. The same Duty that might be despis'd in a Sermon when propos'd to their Reason, may here perhaps seize the lower Faculties with Surprize, Delight and Devotion at once; and thus by Degrees draw the superior Powers of the Mind to Piety.”

13 See discussion in Escott, Harry, Isaac Watts Hymnograpker (London, 1962), 122Google Scholar, 178.

14 Haller, William, The Rise of Puritanism (New York, 1938)Google Scholar, notably discusses the emotional basis of Puritan worship; for a reflection of the emotional accent in Watts' time, see the remarks on Dissenting worship of Robert Kirk, a Scottish traveler in London, quoted from his diary in Maclean, Donald, London at Worship 1689–1690 (Manchester, 1929), 21Google Scholar.

15 Preface to Hymns and Spiritual Songs. Text as in 18th ed. (London, 1755)Google Scholar, [iii].

16 Preface to Hymns, vi.

17 The preface to Psalms of David Imitated (London, 1719)Google Scholar says, “I have seen above twenty Versions of the Psalter by Persons of richer and meaner Talents; and how various soever their Professions and Prefaces are, yet in the Performance they all seem to aim at this one point, (viz.) to make the Hebrew Psalmist only speak English, and keep all his own Characters still ….” (v); “ … I have entirely omitted several whole Psalms, and large pieces of many others; and have chosen out of all of them such Parts only as might easily and naturally be accommodated to the various Occasions of the Christian Life … These I have copied and explained in the general style of the Gospel …” (xvi); “In all Places I have kept my grand Design in View, and that is to teach my Author to speak like a Christian” (xx).

18 Stevenson, Robert, Dr. Watts's “Flights of Fancy,” Harvard Theological Review 42 (1949), 241CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

19 Preface to Psalms, vii.

20 Preface to Hymns, ix.

21 See, for example, “To the Reverend Mr. John Howe,” and “On Mr. Lock's Annotations, &c.” in Book II, and “The humble Enquiry. A French Sonnet imitated” in Book I, of Horae Lyricae.

22 viii.

23 The phrase is taken from the title of the best-known treatise on the subject, Strickland Gough, An Enquiry into the Causes of the Decay of the Dissenting Interest (London, 1730)Google Scholar; Watts' contribution to the discussion was An Humble Attempt towards the Revival of Practical Religion among Christians (London, 1731)Google Scholar.

24 Routley, Erik, English Religious Dissent (Cambridge [England], 1960), 135Google Scholar.

25 See O.E.D., s. v. “Methodist” 3.

26 Quoted as published in Watts, Isaac, Reliquiae Juveniles (London, 1734)Google Scholar, Section XLI, p. 189.

27 As quoted in Davis, 120 f., from The Works of … Isaac Watts (London, 1753)Google Scholar, IV, 640–43.