Isaac Watts and the Singing Church
This article collates biographical records outlining the life and Influence of Isaac Watts. I have tried to credit sources within the body of the paper but having read about this great Christian for several years, it is possible, I may have overlooked some for which I apologize ahead of time. I trust His story will be a challenge and example to all who read.
"Give ‘em Watts, boys! Give ‘em Watts!"
"Such was the cry of James Caldwell, the captain of the local militia near Springfield, new Jersey, that summer day, June 23, 1780, during the American Revolutionary War. During an encounter with the British, his men had taken shelter behind the stone wall which surrounded the churchyard, where, at other times, he was the preacher. They shortly found themselves in great danger - their supply of "waddling" was exhausted! This material was stuffed against the charge of powder in a muzzle-loading gun to keep it firmly in place and close to the shot."
"In a few moments their captain/preacher came out of the church building with an armful of hymnbooks. "Give ‘em Watts, boys!" he shouted. "Give' em Watts!" He went down the line handing out pages torn from the hymnals to be used instead."
"Today we are engaged in another conflict - this one for the hearts and souls of our children. With God's help we are going to "Give ‘em Watts!" again."
I found this story in the 1991 Reprint Introduction of - Divine & Moral Songs for Children by Isaac Watts. What is so important in his testimony, sermons, songs, and hymns that we would say 260 years after his death that the church and the children of our generation need a dose of Watts? Isaac Watts, by his faithful example, passionate faith, persevering ministry, and quality of literature enables the church to think glorious and magnificent thoughts of God especially in congregational singing. This is a biographical sermon on the life and faith of Isaac Watts and we want to unfold the testimony of God's grace in this man and let his witness challenge us.
"It is the year 1674; the place is God's House Tower, Southampton, [England]. A woman sits on a horse-block outside the prison, nursing her child. It is a hard seat, but not so hard as the hearts of her husband's persecutors, for he is inside, imprisoned for refusing to conform to the laws of the land relating to the worship of God. He is prepared to pay the price, as he would rather serve God than man, for he believes that Scripture alone should be our guide in worship."
"He and his wife had been married but a year, and although he could not see the child's face, the sound of his crying would give him pleasure. How much more pleasure it gave him in later years when that child, who was born so small and sickly was to influence the worship of the nation more than any other single man. The father indeed, was suffering for his convictions regarding the worship of God, and those convictions were conveyed to his son, but his son, Isaac, had the opportunity and ability to give expression to them to an unimaginable degree. Isaac Watts became the father of the English Hymn, and the Writer of more hymns in popular use than any other man, except possibly Wesley. The impact of his father's faith never left the son, and the son gave it an expression which has enriched the worship of Christians throughout the world ever since." Thus David Fountain begins his biography of Isaac Watts.
Isaac Watts was the eldest of eight children, born into the home of a strict Non-conformist. Nonconformity is the refusal to conform to common standards, conventions, rules, customs, traditions, norms, or laws. This term was used in England after the Act of Uniformity 1662 to refer to an English subject belonging to any non-Anglican church. The term is also applied retrospectively to English Dissenters, such as Quakers, Baptist, Independents, and Presbyterians, who violated the Act of Uniformity 1559, typically by practicing or advocating radical dissent with respect to the Established Church.
When, in 1662, the "Act of Uniformity" was passed, and two thousand ministers were ejected from the Church of England, two Southampton ministers were among them: Nathaniel Robinson, the Rector of All Saints, and Giles Say, the Vicar of St Michael's. Isaac Watts, senior, became a member of Robinson's ‘Independent' church and, subsequently, a Deacon. Thus Isaac Watt's home town became the scene of persecution.
The Watts family was constantly harassed by their enemies. His father was imprisoned twice; first, during the year of his birth in 1674 [also the year of John Milton's death, another dissenter] and again when he was a young boy of nine years. But His Father stood true; he had as his constant companion in his cell a pocket Bible in which he wrote, "Teach me to understand aright Thy sacred Word, and with delight shall I peruse it day and night."
The strain on his mother was considerable, and when Isaac, was born he was small and sickly. However his mother's family was not unfamiliar with persecution. Her name was Sarah Taunton and her father was descended from the Huguenots who escaped from France to England after the massacre of Protestants in Paris on St Bartholomew's Day, 1573.
Nonconformists were under constant threat of having their meetings broken up and of being fined. It was a period when those ministers who were unable to preach used the opportunity to write. The Puritan ministers whose names are now famous, such as Owen, Goodwin and Manton, published their works at this time, and John Bunyan wrote most of his works at this period. "Pilgrim's Progress" appeared in 1678.
"In 1670 a Bill was introduced which was described as "the quintessence of arbitrary malice." It was described as an Act "to prevent and suppress seditious conventicles." According to the Noah Webster's 1828 Dictionary of American English a conventicle is "an assembly or meeting; usually applied to a meeting of dissenters from the established church, for religious worship. In this sense it is used by English writers and in English statutes, hence, an assembly, in contempt." The malicious aspect of this Bill lay not only in the heavy fines, but in the fact that the sworn evidence of two informers was sufficient to gain prosecution, and that these informers themselves were given a third of the fine!"
"Those who failed to attend church on Sundays were liable to the censures of the church, and fined 1 shilling for each offence, £20 per month for continual personal absence, and £10 per month for the non-attendance of their servants. These fines were recoverable by the seizure of land, and penalties included imprisonment and exile. Those who were once banished and returned faced death."
"Ministers of the Protestant dissenters were by the Act of Uniformity subject to a penalty' of £100 for administering the Lord's Supper; by the Five-mile Act were prohibited under a penalty of £40 from coming within five miles of any city, town corporate, or borough; and by the Conventicle Act they forfeited £20 for the first offence, and for the second offence, £40, if they preached in any place ‘at which there should be five or more besides those of the household.'"
The dissenting Christians responded with prayer, perseverance, and cleverness. They would hold meetings in crowded alleys where it was difficult to distinguish who was meeting for worship and who was passing through or living there. Fountain also records the story of Pastor Thomas Jollie. They had a door, which led from the meeting house to a staircase, cut in two. He stood on the staircase behind the door to preach, while the top of the door, fitted on hinges, served as his desk. A string was conveniently attached to this makeshift desk so that all he had to do when he was given a warning was to pull the string so that the top half of the door closed. When the informers came in they would find a congregation but no preacher!
This is the world into which Isaac Watts was born, a world of steadfast faith and determined persecution. He would later write a hymn of persecution,...
Am I a Soldier of the Cross?
Am I a soldier of the cross,
A follower of the Lamb,
And shall I fear to own His cause,
Or blush to speak His Name?
Must I be carried to the skies
On flowery beds of ease,
While others fought to win the prize,
And sailed through bloody seas?
Are there no foes for me to face?
Must I not stem the flood?
Is this vile world a friend to grace,
To help me on to God?
Sure I must fight if I would reign;
Increase my courage, Lord.
I'll bear the toil, endure the pain,
Supported by Thy Word.
Thy saints in all this glorious war
Shall conquer, though they die;
They see the triumph from afar,
By faith's discerning eye.
When that illustrious day shall rise,
And all Thy armies shine
In robes of victory through the skies,
The glory shall be Thine.
Love of Learning: Very early in his life, Isaac Watts showed a keen mind and love of learning. His father was clothier but also conducted a school where he trained many children as well as His own. His mother was diligent to teach him and his brothers and sisters the Scriptures. When he was given money he would run to his mother crying, "A book, a book; buy me a book!"
He also showed a gift for rhyme and metered verse. During family prayers he was discovered to have his eyes open, apparently he made a noise that drew his father's attention. His father demanded the cause of his behavior. "Because", he replied, pointing to the bell-rope by the fireplace, "I saw a mouse run up that rope and the thought came into my mind,
There was a mouse, for want of stairs,
Ran up a rope to say his prayers.
He received a spanking for this infraction of piety but even his pleas to his father were in the form of verse, for he said.
O father, do some pity take
And I will no more verses make.
Before the age of six, he composed some verses, which were found by his mother, but she doubted that he could have really wrote them. So to remove her uncertainty as to his ability to compose in this manner, he penned the following acrostic upon his name. The expression shows more than poetic skill, a depth of doctrinal understanding permeates the lines in a very personal way.
I am a vile polluted lump of earth
S-o I've continu'd ever since my birth
A-lthough Jehovah grace does daily give me
A-ssure 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.
When he was six he was sent to the ‘Free School' in Southampton; he kept a record of the events of his life called "Memoranda".
Began to learn Latin of my father - 1678
To Latin school and writing - 1680
Began to learn Greek - 1683 or before
1683: My father persecuted and imprisoned for nonconformity six months. After that forced to leave his family and live privately in London for two years.
I had ye small pox - 1683
Learnt French - 1684, 1685
Learnt Hebrew - 1687 or 1688
Among these he also recorded that in 1688 at 14 years of age, he fell under great conviction of sin. And in 1689 he wrote that he was taught to "Trust in Christ." His personal faith is clearly documented in his hymns.
Alas, and Did My Savior Bleed (208)
Alas! and did my Savior bleed,
and did my Sovereign die!
Would he devote that sacred head
for sinners such as I?
Was it for crimes that I have done,
he groaned upon the tree?
Amazing pity! Grace unknown!
And love beyond degree!
Well might the sun in darkness hide,
and shut its glories in,
when God, the mighty maker, died
for his own creature's sin.
Thus might I hide my blushing face
while his dear cross appears;
dissolve my heart in thankfulness,
and melt mine eyes to tears.
But drops of tears can ne'er repay
the debt of love I owe.
Here, Lord, I give myself away;
'tis all that I can do.
After graduating from Free School at age 16, he attended at an academy in north London. He was unable to attend either of the well known universities of Cambridge or Oxford, since he was a Dissenter (non-conformist) and not an Anglican. But the Academies of the Dissenters had a better academic record than either of the universities. In fact, author Daniel Defoe was a former graduate of the same academy. Though well prepared for ministry he did not immediately enter into a pastoral vocation. In 1694 he left the academy and continued his studies at his father's house.
Hymn Writer: It was here that the story of his hymnody unfolds. As a young man, Isaac Watts disdained the worship singing of his congregation. His brother Enoch wrote, "He could not forbear complaining of them to his father. So father bid him, ‘Try what he could to mend the matter.'" This "mending" is how he earned the title of "the father of English hymnody." For among all of his contributions, most important is that he delivered the protestant church in England and Scotland from the slavish tradition of Psalm singing only. On the Sunday his father challenged him to do what he could, he wrote his first hymn that afternoon, Behold, the Glories of the Lamb and the church sang it the same evening. Note the reference to the "new honors and songs" from Revelation 5:9 in the first verse. This was prophetic of the hundreds of hymns to be written.
Behold the glories of the Lamb
Amidst His Father's throne.
Prepare new honors for His Name,
And songs before unknown.
Let elders worship at His feet,
The Church adore around,
With vials full of odors sweet,
And harps of sweeter sound.
Those are the prayers of the saints,
And these the hymns they raise;
Jesus is kind to our complaints,
He loves to hear our praise.
Eternal Father, who shall look
Into Thy secret will?
Who but the Son should take that Book
And open every seal?
He shall fulfill Thy great decrees,
The Son deserves it well;
Lo, in His hand the sovereign keys
Of Heav'n, and death, and hell!
Now to the Lamb that once was slain
Be endless blessings paid;
Salvation, glory, joy remain
Forever on Thy head.
Thou hast redeemed our souls with blood,
Hast set the prisoner free;
Hast made us kings and priests to God,
And we shall reign with Thee.
The worlds of nature and of grace
Are put beneath Thy power;
Then shorten these delaying days,
And bring the promised hour.
The number of hymns written by Isaac Watts is disputed, but most agree that he contributed at least 700. Only 15 are retained in our hymnbook. C. H. Spurgeon's grandmother offered him a penny for each of the hymns of Isaac Watts he could memorize. He learned them so rapidly that she had to reduce the reward to a hay-penny (half a penny). But Spurgeon's continued enthusiasm and remarkable memory forced her to reduce that sum to a farthing (a quarter of a penny).
In the 17th and 18th centuries, most protestant groups excluded all uninspired hymns from their worship; they sang only Psalms in a metrical form produced by Sternhold and Hopkins in 1562. These metrical psalms are still available on the internet. This was an upgrade of the Genevan Psalter published in 1542, and became the standard for almost 250 years, going through 600 editions.
Now some protestant groups were already singing hymns in worship. The Lutherans in the German church were producing chorals with freely composed devotional texts, singing the hymns of Martin Luther, and making great use of the organ and other instruments. In Bohemia, the Moravian brethren had been singing hymns even prior to the Reformation. But for most congregations, Psalm singing was the exclusive music of the church.
But traditions die slowly. The efforts of many to write and introduce hymns into the worship of the church prior to the time of Isaac Watts failed. Many were grieved at the condition of praise in the churches. In 1676, Thomas Mace observed much "whining, tooting, yelling, or screeching" in the meetings of the church. Watts saw a declining spirituality and connected it to the inadequate expressions of worship. He wrote, "The singing of God's praise is the part of worship most clearly related to heaven; but its performance among us is the worst on earth."
The followers of John Calvin had taken the regulative principle[i] in worship (which I believe in) so seriously that they treated any other songs of praise with contempt. Some of Watts contemporaries complained that his hymns were "too worldly" for the church. One critic fumed, "Christian congregations have shut out divinely inspired psalms and have taken in Watts's flights of fancy!" His hymns outraged many people, and split congregations (most notably the congregation whose pastor, years earlier, had been John Bunyan). Apparently worship wars are not a novelty of our generation.
Watts argued that if we can preach the Scripture in words of human composure and if we can pray in words of human composure, then we can also sing in words that accord with the revelation of God in the Scripture. He also shaped the form and style in which English hymns developed. Most other hymn writers are his disciples, and his influence is felt throughout the entire hymnal.
Besides his hymn writing, Watts evangelized the Psalter. R. W. Dale says, "Watts redeemed the psalmody of the Congregationalist from Judaism and made it Christian." His rewriting of the Psalms was different from anything previously done, though Richard Baxter pointed the way in his paraphrase of the Psalms. Watts deliberated imitated the language of the New Testament. He was guided by the use of Psalm 2 in the early church recorded in Acts 4:23-31. He gave new covenant expression to the old covenant song. By this great work he broke the exclusive hold that Psalm singing only had on the churches. For some examples see The Psalms and Hymns of Isaac Watts.
Some have speculated that singing is the most frequent command in the Bible. I did find 37 imperatives or commands to "sing to the Lord" in Scripture. This does not include a number of jussive forms like "let us sing to the Lord" or expressions like "break forth into singing". While I am unable to prove or disprove that singing is the most oft stated command, yet, clearly God places a high value upon the singing of His people in worship.
The problems with contemporary songs are the same as days of old; they are weak theologically, overly simplistic, and lacking in poetic skill. Isaac Watts challenges us to worship and to add new songs to the praise of the Lord.
Isaac Watts never married. There was a lady of literary bent who attracted his interest named Elizabeth Singer. It is supposed that he actually made an offer of marriage, but her interest in him was more an admiration of his spiritual walk. She reportedly said something like, "Though she admired the jewel, she was not so enamored with the casket that held it." It may be well to remind you at this point that Watts was only 5 foot tall with a petite body and a very large head. Some biographers have described him as ugly.
Pastor Isaac Watts: Isaac Watts was the pastor of the Church of Christ in London from 1702-1748 (46 years in the same church), succeeding such great preachers as Joseph Caryl and John Owen. He wrote far more than his 697 hymns; after preaching his sermons he would go back and add to them those things that came to his mind while he was preaching which were not originally in his notes. His other writings on ministry are very edifying and altogether make up nine thick volumns. Some of the qualities that made him a great pastor were...
Humility: After his training in London, he did not enter immediately into the ministry. One biographer records that his hesitancy was due to being "...deeply affected with the importance of the ministry, under a sense of his insufficiency, and trembling lest he should go to the altar of God uncalled." Though some writers are critical of his reluctance, everything we know of him should lead us to the conclusion that his timidity to assume the responsibilities of pulpit and pastorate were due to a sober wisdom of the seriousness of preaching the gospel. Many who have hurried to take the pulpit have swiftly pushed themselves into a role for which they are not spiritually prepared even if they are called to the ministry. It is a common weakness of youth to eagerly rush ahead when reflection and growth are yet needed. Watts preached his first sermon in 1698, at age twenty-four, as the assistant to Dr. Isaac Chauncy. The independent church called him to follow Dr. Chauncy in the pastorate in January 1702; even then Watts recommended three other trained theologians, older and in better health than himself, and whom he held to be more capable. He wrote in his acceptance...
These things I have urged till I have provoked you to sorrow and tears, and till I myself have been almost ashamed. But your perseverance in your choice, your constant profession of edification by my ministry, the great probability you show me of building up this famous and decayed church of Christ, and your prevailing fears of its dissolution if I refuse, have given me ground to believe that the voice of this church is the voice of Christ. And to answer this call I have not consulted with flesh and blood; I have laid aside the thoughts of myself to serve the interest of our Lord. I give up my own ease for your spiritual profit and your increase. I submit my inclination to my duty; and in hopes of being made an instrument to build up this ancient church, I return this solemn answer to your call, - That with a great sense of my own inability in mind and body to discharge the duties of so sacred an office, I do, in the strength of Christ, venture upon it; and in His name I accept your call, promising, in the presence of God and his saints, my utmost diligence in all the duties of a pastor, so far as God shall enlighten and strengthen me. And I leave that promise in the hands of Christ our Mediator, to see it performed by me unto you, through the assistance of his grace and Spirit."
Ministering through Chronic Sickness: Soon after his call to preach he became seriously ill. After a long and slow recovery, he was left with a weakened constitution and the congregation appointed an assistant to aid him. Gradually, however, he recovered strength, and continued to officiate during some years with no material interruption. Another illness almost brought him to the grave; and when the fever finally broke, he apparently was mentally affected for some time. Southey records that "a nervous debility remained which for some years entirely incapacitated him for the functions of his office." However he was so loved that days were set apart by his congregation to intercede for his recovery. Many of his fellow pastors joined in these prayers, "as men deeply impressed with the importance of his life." Though he begged the church to discontinue his salary, they refused, and instead gave him a raise to help with his medical bills. He lived with weakness and illness for the rest of his life.
Love and Gentleness: Watts was admired for his meekness even in argument and his mildness of censure in his theological writings; in him "orthodoxy was united with charity not only in his works, but in his mind." Love was a favorite topic with this pastor and he delighted in meditating and discussing the theme of Christian charity. "I find a strange pleasure," he says, "in discoursing of this virtue, hoping that my very soul may be moulded into its divine likeness. I would always feel it inwardly warming my heart; I would have it look through my eyes continually, and it should be ever ready upon my lips to soften every expression of my tongue; I would dress myself in it as my best raiment; I would put it on upon my faith and hope, not so as entirely to hide them, but as an upper and more visible vesture, constantly to appear in among men. For our Christian charity is to evidence our other virtues." People noticed and appreciated this quality which differs so from the fierce and cruel manner Christian leaders characteristically argue. Another writer comments, "So completely was he conformed to this Christian temper, that even when engaged in controversy he seems never to have been provoked to any angry feeling nor tempted to an uncharitable one."
Love and Spiritual Concern for Children: He maintained a deep concern over the spiritual development of children. He produced graded catechisms for 3-5 year olds and 7-9 year olds to prepare them for the shorter version of the Westminster Catechism.
"I well know," said he, "that some of my particular friends imagine my time is employed in too mean a service while I write for babes; but I content myself with this thought, that nothing is too mean for a servant of Christ to engage in, if he can thereby most effectually promote the kingdom of his blessed Maker. Perhaps it is not proper for me to say, and the world will hardly believe, what pains have been taken in composing these catechisms; with what care I have endeavoured to select the most easy and necessary parts of our religion, in order to propose them to the memory of children according to their ages; what laborious diligence has been used to seek out all the plainest and most familiar forms of speech, that the great things of God and the mysteries of the gospel might be brought down to the capacities of children. It is not for me to say how many hours and days and weeks have been spent in revising and examining every word and expression, that, if possible, nothing might be inserted which might give just occasion of offence to pious persons and families; that nothing might be left out which was necessary for children to know in that tender age; and that no word, phrase, or sentiment, if possible, might be admitted, which could not be brought in some measure within the reach of a child's understanding." Soon after the Catechisms, he wrote, A Preservative from the Sins and Follies of Childhood and Youth. This was a Scriptural warning of those temptations common to young people.
Biographer Robert Southey wrote, "His love of children made him delight in employing himself for their instruction and amusement. He composed rhyming lines for copy-books, containing moral instruction, and beginning with every letter of the alphabet; copies, composed of short letters, for teaching to write even; and others, each line of which contained all the twenty-four letters..." He also wrote a great many songs for children, many of which were published in the little book Divine & Moral Songs for Children. Here are a few examples.
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.
Love between brothers and sisters.
Whatever brawls disturb the street,
There should be peace at home;
Where sisters dwell and brothers meet
Quarrels should never come.
Birds in their little nests agree;
And ‘tis a shameful sight,
When children of one family
Fall out, and chide, and fight.
Hard names at first, and threatening words,
That are but noisy breath,
May grow to clubs and naked swords,
To murder and to death.
The devil tempts one mother's son
To rage against another:
So wicked Cain was hurried on,
Till he had kill'd his brother.
The wise will let their anger cool,
At least before ‘tis night;
But in the bosom of a fool
It burns till morning light.
Pardon, O Lord, our childish rage,
Our little brawls remove,
That, as we grow to riper age,
Our hearts may all be love!
Theological Honesty with Scripture: Southey writes, "Born and bred a Calvinist, after the ‘most strictest sect' of that persuasion, ...that he and they were by indefeasible (meaning "not to be annulled or made void" ) election assured of salvation, was what he could willingly and joyfully believe; but his understanding, his tenderness for his fellow-creatures, and his piety made him shrink from what had ever been held as a consequent article of the same creed, that the other and far greater part of the human race were, by an equally irrevocable decree, predoomed to sin and wrath and everlasting punishment." "Surely," says he, "the Lord Jesus would never be sent in flaming fire to render vengeance on those that obey not the gospel, if there was no sufficient salvation provided in that gospel which commands them to receive it...Can we think that the righteous Judge of the world will merely send words of grace and salvation amongst them, on purpose to make his creatures so much the more miserable, when there is no real grace to salvation contained in those words for them who refuse to receive it?...It is very hard to suppose, that when the word of God, by the general commands, promises, threatenings, given to all men whatsoever, and often repeated therein, represents mankind as in a state of probation, and in the way towards eternal rewards or eternal punishments, according to their behaviour in this life, - I say it is hard to suppose all this should be no real and just representation, but a mere amusement! that all these proposals of mercy and displays of the gracious dealings of God, should be an empty show, with regard to all the millions of mankind, besides the few that are chosen to happiness! and that they should really be so fixed in a wretched, hopeless, and deplorable state, under the first sin of the first man, that they are utterly irrecoverable from the ruins of it!"
Gospel Passion: In his article, "The Use of the Passions in Religion," Watts exclaims, "Does divine love send dreaming preachers to call dead sinners to life, - preachers that are content to leave their hearers asleep on the precipice of eternal destruction? Have they no such thing as passion belonging to them? Have they no piety? Have they no fear? Have they no sense of the worth of souls? Have they no springs of affection within them? - Or do they think their hearers have none? - Or is passion so vile a power that it must be all devoted to things of flesh and sense, and must never be applied to things divine and heavenly? Who taught any of us this lazy and drowsy practice? Does God or his prophets, or Christ or his apostles, instruct us in this modish art of still life, this 'lethargy of preaching?' Did the great God ever appoint statues for his ambassadors, to invite sinners to his mercy? Words of grace written upon brass or marble, would do the work almost as well! - How cold and dull and unaffected with divine things, is mankind by nature! - How careless and indolent is a whole assembly, when the preacher appears like a lifeless engine, pronouncing words of law or grace, when he speaks of divine things in such a dry, in such a cold and formal manner, as though they had no influence on his own heart! When the words freeze upon his lips, the hearts of hearers are freezing also."
Advice to young pastors on motives and goals in preaching: During an ordination he warned the youthful candidate against a common besetting sin of preachers. "Do not say within yourself, how much or how elegantly I can talk upon such a text; but what can I say most usefully to those who hear me, for the instruction of their minds, for the correction of their consciences, and for the persuasion of their hearts? Be not fond of displaying your learned criticisms in clearing up the terms and phrases of a text, when scholars only can be edified by them; nor spend away the precious moments of the congregation, in making them hear you explain what is clear enough before, and hath no need of explaining; nor in proving that which is so obvious that it needs no proof. This is little better than trifling with God and man. Think not, how can I make a sermon correct and earnest, but how I can make the most profitable sermon for my hearers: - not what fine things I can say, either in a way of criticism or philosophy, or in a way of oratory or harangue; but what powerful words I can speak to impress the consciences of those that hear with a serious and lasting sense of moral, divine and eternal things. Judge wisely what to leave out, as well as what to speak. Let not your chief design be to work up a sheet, or to hold out an hour, but to save a soul."
Saturate Yourself with the Word of God before Preaching. In another part of the same exhortation, he says, "Get the substance of your sermon which you have prepared for the pulpit, so wrought into your head and heart, by reason and meditation, that you may have it at command, and speak to your hearers with freedom; not as if you were reading or repeating your lesson to them, but as a man sent to teach and persuade them to faith and holiness. Deliver your discourses to the people like a man that is talking to them in good earnest about their most important concerns, and their everlasting welfare -like a messenger sent from heaven, who would fain save sinners from hell, and allure souls to God and happiness. Do not indulge that lazy way of reading over your prepared paper, as a schoolboy does an oration out of Livy or Cicero, who has no concern in the things he speaks. But let all the warmest zeal for God, and compassion for perishing men, animate your voice and countenance; and let the people see and feel, as well as hear, that you are speaking to them about things of infinite moment, and on which your own eternal interest lies as well as theirs.
"If you pray and hope for the assistance of the Spirit of God in every part of your works, do not resolve always to confine yourself precisely to the mere words and sentences which you have written down in your private preparations. Far be it from me to encourage a preacher to venture into public work without due preparation by study, and a regular composure of his discourse. We must not serve God with what cost us nothing. All our wisest thoughts and cares are due to the sacred service of the temple. But what I mean is, that we should not impose upon ourselves just such a number of precomposed words and lines to be delivered in the hour, without daring to speak a warm sentiment that comes fresh upon the mind. Why may you not hope for some lively turns of thought, some new pious sentiments which may strike light and heat and life into the understandings and hearts of those that hear you? In the zeal of your ministrations, why may you not expect some bright and warm and pathetic forms of argument and persuasion to offer themselves to your lips, for the more powerful conviction of sinners, and the encouragement and comfort of humble Christians? Have you not often found such an enlargement of thought, such a variety of sentiment and freedom of speech, in common conversation upon an important subject, beyond what you were apprised of beforehand? And why should you forbid yourself this natural advantage in the pulpit, and in the fervour of sacred ministrations, when also you have more reason to hope for divine assistance?"
Student and Scholar: Watts was an organized, systematic thinker and student. He recorded his thoughts while reading by marking portions of the text, abridging and annotating as he read, and if a book lacked a table of contents, he would create one. Organized thinking and reasoning also facilitated his good memory. He wrote a textbook on logic, that was used for 200 years at Oxford, Cambridge, Harvard and Yale, as well as books on geometry and astronomy. When seeking to help young students with the English language, he penned The Art of Reading and Writing English. It was followed by his Philosophical Essays, then by Improvement of the Mind (this was actually a "how-to-study" book, and even A Discourse on the Education of Children and Youth. The Universities of Aberdeen and Edinburgh conferred on him the degree of Doctor of Divinity.
[i] WCF 21.1 The light of nature showeth that there is a God, who hath lordship and sovereignty over all; is good, and doth good unto all; and is therefore to be feared, loved, praised, called upon, trusted in, and served, with all the heart, and with all the soul, and with all the might.(1) But the acceptable way of worshipping the true God is instituted by Himself, and so limited by His own revealed will, that He may not be worshipped according to the imaginations and devices of men, or the suggestions of Satan, under any visible representation, or any other way not prescribed in the Holy Scripture.(2)
(1) Rom 1:20; Acts 17:24; Ps. 119:68; Jer. 10:7; Ps. 31:23; Ps. 18:3; Rom. 10:12; Ps. 62:8; Josh. 24:14; Mark 12:33.
(2) Deut. 12:32; Matt. 15:9,10; Deut. 15:1-20; Exod. 20:4,5,6; Col. 2:23.