Isaac Watts – David Magowan
Isaac Watts
Poet of the New Covenant
Introduction
Isaac Watts is often referred to as the father of the English hymn. He did not introduce hymnody to England – but he was certainly the man who popularised the singing of hymns.
He wrote over 600 hymns, some of which are still regularly used and are amongst the best known and well-liked of English hymns.
These include:
• When I survey the wondrous cross on which the Prince of glory died
• Jesus shall reign where’er the sun does his successive journeys run
• Our God our help in ages past, our hope for years to come
• I’ll praise my Maker while I’ve breath
• Joy to the world! The Lord is come!
• I’m not ashamed to own my Lord or to defend His cause
For example, the newest edition of Christian Hymns contains 59 Isaac Watts hymns, second only to Charles Wesley. The reason for this is given in the preface to Christian Hymns, where we read:
In the case of Watts it must be said that despite the efforts of many successors, few of them have managed to attain so consistently high a standard.
Watts has also been called the poet of the new covenant . This title is given to him because it was Isaac Watts who really introduced the person and the work of Jesus Christ into sung congregational praise.
Previously, sung praise in English churches was based almost exclusively on the psalms, which were the songs of the Old Covenant.
This paper has three parts. The first part is biographical, giving a broad outline of the life of Isaac Watts; the second part considers his writings, including his hymns; and the third part looks at lessons for us from the life of Isaac Watts.
1. Biography
Isaac Watts was born in Southampton on 17th July 1674. His father, also called Isaac, was a ‘clothier’ (a clothmaker) by trade, but he ran a boarding school, before religious persecution forced its closure.
Isaac Watts senior was a dissenter. The word ‘dissenter’ comes from the Latin word meaning ‘disagree’ and the dissenters were so named because they were in disagreement with the established church, namely Anglicanism.
Dissenters, or non-conformists, opposed the Act of Uniformity of 1662, introduced after the restoration of the monarchy in 1660, and included Baptists, Presbyterians, Independents and Quakers.
Isaac Watts senior was a deacon of the independent church in Southampton and he was actually in prison for his religious opinions at the time of his son’s birth. Isaac’s mother, Sarah, was the daughter of an alderman of Southampton, and was of Huguenot descent.
Isaac Watts (junior) was the eldest of eight children.
Isaac received an excellent education – his father began teaching him Latin when he was 4 years old. He then attended a school run by John Pinhorne, rector of All Saints, Southampton, and mastered Latin, Hebrew, Greek and French.
Aged 15, Isaac Watts records his conversion in 1689, after having fallen under considerable conviction of sin.
Isaac showed academic promise and he was offered the opportunity to study at university. However, he was not prepared to give up his non-conformity (which he would have had to have renounced to study at Oxford or Cambridge) and so he was sent to a dissenters academy at Stoke Newington, under the presidency of Thomas Rowe, who was an independent pastor. There Isaac was taught classics, logic, Hebrew, and divinity.
Watts was now mingling with the elite of Puritan non-conformity, and in London he was able to listen to the most-gifted preachers of the day.
After leaving the academy in 1694, Isaac spent two and a half years back at home in Southampton. And it was at this time that he began to compose hymns, which were first sung in the Southampton chapel.
In October 1696, Isaac became tutor to the son of Sir John Hartopp at Stoke Newington. Hartopp was a member of the Mark Lane Independent Church. Watts held this post of tutor for five years, devoting all his leisure to the study of Hebrew and divinity.
He preached his first sermon on his 24th birthday on 17th July 1698, and in the following year was appointed as assistant pastor to Isaac Chauncey in the chapel at Mark Lane.
On 18 March 1702 he succeeded to the pastorate.
The congregation in Mark Lane was a distinguished one, with John Owen (1616-1683) as one of its former ministers. Among its members (at this time) were Oliver Cromwell’s granddaughter and many members of the dissenting aristocracy.
In 1704 the church moved to Pinners’ Hall and in 1708 to Bury Street, St. Mary Axe. These moves were the consequence of a growing congregation – Watts was a popular preacher.
Watts’ popularity was not the result of a commanding physical presence or a magnetic personality – he is described as minute, pale-faced, with a hook nose, small grey eyes and prominent cheekbones.
However what Watts did have was a great command of English and he preached with simplicity and with clarity. His sermons were fresh, thoughtful and stimulating. He had a few simple points, which he made as clearly as he could, and he adapted himself to the least intelligent, yet never in such a way as to offend the educated or the refined.
Throughout his adult life, Watts suffered much from ill-health. The intense study to which he devoted himself had undermined his constitution and made him subject to frequent attacks of illness.
In the spring of 1714, Watts was invited by Sir Thomas and Lady Abney to stay for a week at their stately home near Cheshunt in Hertfordshire. Watts was to remain as their guest for the next 34 years, living either at their country house or at their London home in Stoke Newington. He never married.
Watts bouts of illness increased as the years went on: he only reluctantly consented to retain his pastorate, and had scruples as to taking any salary; but the congregation refused to break the connection with one so famous as Watts had became.
Medically, what was wrong with Watts? It’s hard to know for sure, but it was possibly a nervous disorder, aggravated by the relentless way he drove his mind.
The last months of his life were of prolonged sickness and mental weakness. He died on 25th November 1748 aged 74 and he was buried at Bunhill Fields in London.
2. His writings
Isaac Watts was one of the most popular writers of his day. We remember him principally as a hymnwriter, but he wrote on various subjects:
• He wrote educational books – In 1721 he wrote a textbook entitled ‘The art of reading and writing English’ in which he argued that English not Latin should have the primary place in a child’s education. His ‘Catechisms’ (1730) and his ‘Scripture History’ (1732) were still standard works 200 years after they were first published. In 1741 he write a book titled ‘Improvement of the mind’ which gave practical guidance on how to study, how to read books, how to write an essay, and how to form an argument.
• He wrote on philosophy – His book ‘Logic’ (1726) had a long circulation. The best of his philosophical works is ‘The Improvement of the Mind’ (1741).
• He wrote on astronomy – in 1726 he wrote a book with the title ‘First principles of astronomy and geography’ which was intended as an easy introduction to the study of astronomy.
• He wrote poetry – his ‘Horae Lyricae’ (1706) was a favourite book of religious poetry.
• He also wrote on religious topics – for example, he drew up a list of questions under 5 headings for young ministers to ask of themselves. He gave advice on leading in public prayer (this is now contained in ‘A Guide to Prayer’ published by Banner of Truth). And he wrote on choosing a sermon text, which can be found in his 1731 book ‘A humble attempt towards the revival of practical religion among Christians’.
But it is Watts’ hymnology that attracts most attention.
The Protestant Reformation in England was more Calvinistic than Lutheran in its influence. Thus, until the C18th, only the songs of the Bible were generally used in church worship. These were mainly, but not exclusively, metrical psalms, but also included some other portions of Scripture, for example, the song of Simeon, the Lord’s Prayer, and the 10 commandments.
But by the time Watts was born, this had begun to change – with Particular Baptists, such as John Bunyan and Benjamin Keach, having introduced hymnsinging.
Richard Baxter and Matthew Henry (a contemporary of Watts) also advocated the singing of hymns in worship.
However, under Watts, what was previously a trickle became a flood. Watts’ hymns took the religious world of dissent by storm.
His hymns would in time give a voice to the evangelical awakening that occurred later under the preaching of the Wesleys and Whitfield.
In writing his hymns, Watts was theologically motivated.
Watts believed that Christian praise was limited and restricted because of the dominance of the psalms, which were the songs of the Old Covenant. Truths were couched in terms that related to the shadowy forms of the Old Covenant, rather than to the substance of the New Covenant.
And Watts thought “Why should the glorious light of the gospel of Jesus Christ be wrapped up in the dark shadows of Jewish worship?” He believed that hymns were needed to express the fullness and the richness of the gospel as revealed in the person and work of Jesus Christ.
Watts had a gift – even a genius – for writing hymns. His hymns are full of solid theology and Scriptural allusion and yet he had the singular ability to express profound truths in noble yet simple language.
The two staple volumes of Watts hymns were
‘Hymns and Spiritual Songs’ (first published in 1707; by 1748 they had been 16 editions); and
‘Psalms of David Imitated’ (first published in 1719).
In the preface to ‘Hymns and spiritual songs’ Watts said that all too often when singing psalms, our spiritual affections are excited within us, our souls are raised a little above this earth – but then we are checked in our ascent toward heaven by expressions that are so extremely Jewish and cloudy that it darkens our sight of God our Saviour. Watts maintained that by keeping too close to David, the veil of Moses is thrown over our hearts.
In the preface to the ‘Psalms of David Imitated’, Watts says this:
It is true that David left us a richer variety of holy songs than all that went before him; but rich as it is, it is still far short of the glorious things that we Christians have to sing before the Lord.
The title of this second collection of hymns is significant – The psalms of David imitated. Because Watts was not simply translating the psalms – rather he was producing interpretations and paraphrases of the psalms, in which the light of the New Covenant was brought to bear, so that the psalms were updated to reflect the progress made in the history of redemption by the coming of Jesus Christ.
In the preface to this hymnbook, Watts outlines his general purpose, and his approach, which is
To accommodate the book of Psalms to Christian worship….to make them always speak the common sense and language of a Christian.
Where the psalmist uses sharp invectives against his personal enemies, I have endeavoured to turn the edge of them against our spiritual adversaries – sin, Satan, and temptation. Where the flights of his faith and love are sublime, I have often sunk the expressions within the reach of an ordinary Christian…Where [the psalmist] speaks of the pardon of sin, I have added the merits of a Saviour. Where he talks of sacrificing goats and bullocks, I rather choose to mention the sacrifice of Christ the lamb of God. When he attends the ark with shouting into Zion, I sing the ascension of my Saviour into heaven, or his presence in his church on earth.
Why need is there that I should wrap up the shining honours of my Redeemer in the dark and shadow language of a religion that is now for ever abolished.
Watts concludes the preface with an appeal to those who might dismiss his efforts out of hand. He urges his critics:
To forget their prejudices for a season so far as to make a few experiments of these songs; and try whether they are not suited through divine grace to kindle in them a fire of zeal and love, and to exalt the willing soul to an evangelic temper of joy and praise.
Let us consider a few examples to illustrate Watts’ approach. The beginning of Psalm 72 reads thus in NIV:
v1 Endow the king with your justice, O God, the royal son with your righteousness…v5 He will endure as long as the sun, as long as the moon, through all generations
becomes under Isaac Watts
Jesus shall reign where’er the sun
doth his successive journeys run;
His kingdom stretch from shore to shore,
Till moons shall wax and wane no more.
See Handout on Psalm 90
In his Essay on the improvement of psalmody in which he defends what he has done, Watts argued that if we can pray and preach in our own words, and not just repeat Scripture, then why should we not sing in our own words also.
Watts hymns became very popular and over time his hymns, and those of others, largely replaced the singing of psalms. For this he was criticised.
William Romaine, for example, wrote in his Essay on Psalmody (1775)
I have no quarrel with Dr. Watts, or any living or dead versifier. I would not wish all their poems burnt. My concern is to see Christian congregations shut out divinely inspired Psalms, and take in Dr. Watts’ flights of fancy; as if the words of a poet were better than the words of a prophet, or as if the wit of a man was to be preferred to the wisdom of God.
When the church is met together in one place, the Lord God has made a provision for their songs of praise – a large collection, and great variety – and why should not these be used in the church according to God’s express appointment? I speak not of private people or of private singing, but of the church in its public service. Why should the provision which God has made be so far despised, as to become quite out of use? Why should Dr. Watts, or any hymn maker, not only take the precedence of the Holy Ghost, but also thrust him entirely out of the church? Insomuch that the rhymes of a man are now magnified above the word of God, even to the annihilating of it in many congregations.
So not all were enamoured by what Watts was doing.
Watts also wrote hymns specifically for children. His Divine Songs published in 1715 was the first children’s hymn-book. Afterwards it was enlarged and renamed Divine and Moral Songs and it ran through a hundred editions.
In the preface to this first children’s hymnbook, Watts found Scriptural warrant for instructing children through song in Deuteronomy where the Lord commands the Song of Moses (and the Law more generally) to be taught to the children, and from the NT, in Ephesians 5:19, where we are urged to speak to one another with psalms, hymns and spiritual songs.
Watts identified 4 advantages of writing songs for children, which I paraphrase as follows:
1. It’s an enjoyable way for children to learn the truth – it turns duty into delight.
2. What is learned in verse is retained in the memory, and sooner remembered.
3. You are furnishing a child’s mind with good things – it counteracts the influence of the loose and dangerous sonnets of the age.
4. They assist family worship
Let me give you just one example of one of these songs that Watts wrote specifically for children. It’s a song against quarrelling and fighting.
Let dogs delight to bark and bite, for God has made them so:
Let bears and lions growl and fight, for ‘tis their nature, too.
But, children, you should never let such angry passions rise:
Your little hands were never made to tear each other’s eyes.
Let love through all your actions run, and all your words be mild:
Live like the blessed Virgin’s Son, that sweet and lovely child.
His soul was gentle as a lamb; and as his stature grew,
He grew in favour both with man, and God his Father, too.
Now, Lord of all, he reigns above; and from his heavenly throne
He sees what children dwell in love, and marks them for his own.
It is Isaac Watts who is often credited or blamed…depending on where you stand on this issue – for abolishing the predominant if not the exclusive use of psalmody in worship, and for opening the door that has led to the modern songs that so characterise contemporary Christian worship.
But it has to be said that reading Watts hymns, there is little in comparison in terms of theological content and language with much that is found in contemporary Christian songs.
3. Lessons from Watts
In conclusion, let me identify 4 areas in which the life of Isaac Watts impacts us.
a. Isaac Watts had very broad interests. He was interested in the world around him and in society at large. For example, he was fascinated by astronomy, he studied philosophy, and he was concerned for the education of children.
We might say that he was a man who sought to read and learn from God’s world book of general revelation as well as from God’s word book of divine revelation.
Watts then inspires us or encourages us to be men who appreciate God’s common grace, as well as God’s special grace – ministers of the gospel who take an interest in the created world around us, as well as the church we serve.
b. In his ministry Watts sought simplicity and clarity – in prayer, in preaching, and in sung worship. What we see in Watts’ hymns, of truth being simply explained and plainly expressed, was true also of his preaching and his public praying.
Watts lived in an age when many ministers used very flowery language in their sermons and public prayers and were keen to display their learning and their great understanding. This was a time when pulpit oratory was at its height.
For example, in his instructions on public prayer, Watts gives this advice: Avoid excessively colouring very word and sentence to extremes, as if you were upon a stage in a theatre.
In his advice on preparing sermons, Watts says to choose texts such as are most suited to do good to souls. Don’t say to yourself how much or how elegantly can I talk upon such a text but ask yourself what can I say most usefully to those who hear me for the instruction of their minds, for the conviction of their consciences, and for the persuasion of their hearts?
It was the same with his hymns – he wanted them to be full of truth but understandable by all those who sang them.
In the preface to Hymns and spiritual songs he writes:
The metaphors are generally sunk to the level of vulgar (popular) capacities. I have endeavoured to make the sense plain and obvious; if the verse appears so gentle and flowing as to incur the censure of feebleness, I may honestly affirm, that sometimes it cost me labour to make it so. Some of the beauties of poetry are neglected…lest a more exalted turn of thought or language should darken or disturb the devotion of the plainest souls.
Watts deliberately and consciously made his hymns clear and simple, even when it pained him, from a literary perspective, to do so.
We too in our public ministry should endeavour to make the truth plain, and commit ourselves to communicate clearly and simply, even if it is at the expense of our pride in our scholarship or our rhetorical abilities.
c. Watts sought through the writing of hymns to express the joys of Christian experience. He thought that restricting congregational singing to metrical psalms impoverished the worship of the Christian church.
Part of the reason why Watts wrote hymns, was that he wanted to help people give expression to how they felt – to verbalise in song their joys and their sorrows.
In his preface to Hymns and spiritual songs Watts says
It is much to be feared that the minds of most of the worshippers are absent and unconcerned. Perhaps the modes of preaching still want some reformation; nor are the methods of prayer so perfect as to stand in need of no correction or improvement. But of all religious [practices] psalmody is the most unhappily managed. The very action that should elevate us to the most delightful and divine sensations, not only flattens our devotion but too often awakes our regret and touches all the springs of uneasiness within us.
Watts wanted to give people hymns that they could sing with feeling.
I’m sure we all appreciate that hymns and songs have a great ability to motivate and to move people. They not only enable us to give outward expression to our faith as we praise God and as we petition Him for help, but they also teach us and instruct us so that we know what our response ought to be at particular times.
Remember one of the reasons Watts gave for teaching children songs was that through song, truth is more easily remembered. What is true for children is true for adults also.
Sometimes the words of hymns are better remembered and more easily recalled than the words of Scripture.
In hymns, Christians have available to them words that not enable them to express their joy and delight in God, but words that can also be a great comfort and an encouragement to them in the various and often hard circumstances of their lives.
This has application to us today in that it does matter what we sing.
We (or whoever may be responsible) should choose the hymns for public worship with care – to ensure that we are selecting hymns that give an authentic voice to the congregation – hymns that they can sing with conviction and which will prompt their heartfelt praise.
And it is important that we sing hymns that express biblical truth because the theological understanding of the congregation may well depend as much on their hymnsinging as on your preaching.
d. Watts persevered in barren days, whilst awaiting days of revival….and so should we.
Isaac Watts insisted that nothing but the plain, experimental, and affectionate proclamation of the gospel can preserve a congregation from decay or revive it in decline, and that is what he was committed to throughout his ministry.
Watts lived the majority of his life in days of spiritual decline and decadence.
Michael Haykin, in an article for Evangelical Times, explaining what England was like before the Evangelical Awakening, says this about the period:
Homosexuality, profanity, immorality, drunkenness and gluttony were widespread….The moral tone of the nation was set by its monarchs and leading politicians. George I was primarily interested in food, horses, and women. He had many mistresses. Sir Robert Walpole, Prime Minister 1721-1742, lived in undisguised adultery with his mistress….The possession of lovers and mistresses was regarded as commonplace, a matter of gossip but not of reproach.
It was a time of moral and social breakdown.
In times such as these, perhaps not that dissimilar from our own, Watts exercised a faithful ministry.
Towards the end of his life, Watts was delighted to hear of the revival in New England under the preaching of Jonathan Edwards and others.
He was however a little suspicious of Whitfield and the Wesleys. Perhaps that betrayed his non-conformist independency – he couldn’t quite believe that God would choose to bring revival through ministers of the established church.
What Watts longed for, he saw towards the end of his earthly days – the evangelical awakening that would come to fruition in the following generation. He had been faithful in the dark before the dawn, and was God’s instrument, through his hymnody, to provide the voice for that evangelical awakening, and for subsequent generations of believers.
We give thanks to God for the life and work of His servant, Isaac Watts.
Bibliography
Isaac Watts remembered, David Watts (Privately published, 1974)
http://www.ccel.org/cceh/archives/eee/watts.htm
http://www.wicketgate.co.uk/p10.html – Historical lectures by Dr Nick Needham of the Highland Theological College and pastor of the Reformed Baptist Church in Inverness.
The dungeon flamed with light, Michael Haykin, Evangelical Times, April 2003
David Magowan
Whitby
