with every thing that affluence directed by the best feelings can beftow. In 1728, he was prefented with the degree of Doctor of Divinity by the univerfities of Edinburgh and Aberdeen. This honour was accompanied with a tranfcript of the reasons that had influenced them in conferring it, replete with respect and compliments to the merits of Dr. Watts. His laft fickness was rather a decay of nature, exhausted with age and labours, than any particular diforder. He fuffered long under a kind of intermediate existence, and at laft, on the 25th of November, 1748, was received into the bofom of his God." -A plainer Biographer would have faid, in fimple language, that he died. Dr. Watts was certainly a moft amiable and excellent character. As a man-let your Bradburys, and all fuch furious bigots, fay all that envy can invent to infult charity and virtue -as a good and worthy man, we cannot be too lavish of our praises and could our applaufe cherish the laurels which candour and piety have placed on his brows, they fhould flourish with immortal verdure.-But when the question relates to the prize of genius, we must never permit the impartiality and truth of criticism, to yield to the prejudices or partialities of the heart. This collection confifts of poems, letters, and fermons. On none of them have we much praise to bestow. The greatest part of the poetical pieces is below criticifm: and the best of them are barely tolerable. Several of the Doctor's Hymns are republished in their first and most unpolished drefs. Whether this was done from ignorance or defign, we will not determine. The rude effays-the unfinished fketches of a GREAT work, is an object of curiofity; but very few would be gratified, or improved, by tracing out the rife and progrefs of a hymn on faith and repentance. If the curiofity of any of our readers fhould happen to run this way, they may find fome amusement, by comparing the first nine pieces in this collection with the improved edition of them in the book of "Hymns and Spiritual Songs," in general ufe amongst the Diffenters. The fucceeding piece is entitled-" Song of Love ;"-in which the good Doctor's fancy runs riot in the wilds of myfticifm; and adopts images of too luscious an original, to be applied with any fort of propriety to the chafte and awful spirit of devotion : Shall mortal beauties at a glance : Engender firong defire; And hall it not my joys advance The The raptures that I feel within Some out of fear or shame decline Pierc'd by a dart from his bright eye, The fweet elapses of his grace If one line in thefe verfes were altered, they might be very properly addressed by fome foolish, love-fick maid to her darling fwain. Dr. Watts had a warm imagination.-He was alive to the attractions of beauty. We fhall not enquire how far a man, for his private amusement, may indulge himself in those spiritual extacies, which always apply carnal ideas to intellectual objects. But we must heartily condemn a public exhibition of those soft fcenes of holy dalliance. Few that approve of them will be edified by them. Perfons of warm paffions, and weak underftandings, will be impofed on by the delirium of fancy, and mistake the fervour of the affections for the fpirit of devotion. The greatest part of mankind will laugh at this crude mixture of heterogeneous principles; and turn to an ill account, what might poffibly be meant to answer a pious defign. The best piece in this collection, as it avoids this unnatural conjunction, is fecured against abufe on the one hand, and ridicule on the other. It is written on Lady Sunderland; and as there is something pretty and poetical in it, we think it worthy to be offered to our Readers. Fair nymph, afcend to beauty's throne, And rule that radiant world alone: The court of beauty, built fublime, Not Not Blenheim's field nor Ifter's flood, His captives feel their limbs confin d. Now this is as it fhould be:-but when Dr. Watts talks in the fame ftrain of Jefus Chrift as he does of Lady Sunderland, or as he would of another beauty of the noble house of Churchill, the charming Duchefs of Devonshire, if he were living to behold that inimitable fair;"-when he talks of diffolving in extacy, in the love of his dear objectthe bleffed Jefus-of clafping him in his arms as the fixed centre of his foul's delight, on whom he feafts by day, and with whom he refts by night;" (Vide page 55. vol. I.)-when he makes ufe of language and fentiments, fo repugnant to all ideas of that distant veneration which mortals owe to their divine Mafter, we are difgufted and afhamed. The fecond Volume of this collection, contains a number of infignificant letters that were never defigned for the public eye, and which ought rather to have been committed to the flames than fent to the prefs. By the publication of them, the remembrance of a filly controverfy, long fince configned from its worthleffness to oblivion, is now revived. The controverfy was chiefly of a perfonal nature, between Dr. Watts and Tom Bradbury. The latter was a man of fome wit and vivacity, and in his merry moments would laugh at Dr. Watts's Hymns, and in his fplenetic and zealous hours would abufe his principles, and call his orthodoxy in queftion. He tells the Doctor very bluntly, that he never admired his mangling, garbling, transforming, &c. fo many of his fongs of Zion.' him for his predilection for Sabellian principles, in refpect to the perfonality of the Holy Ghoft; and informs him, that he heard and faw the holy Sir John Hartopp, with tears running down his cheeks, lament his oppofition to Dr. Owen;' which (fays Bradbury) he imputed to an inftability in your temper, and a fondness for your own inventions!? Dr. Dr. Watts acknowledges the fprightlinefs of his antagonist's wit; but calls it vain and licentious.' To this accufation of wanton levity, he adds others of a more ferious nature. He charges him with a fpirit of contention; and he attempts, by several appeals to his conduct, to make good the charge. He next accufes him of ingratitude: and to complete the catalogue of Bradbury's crimes, the Doctor meekly calls him a liar - civilly afks his confcience if he were not one-and then says with abundant courtesy― Give me leave to tell you, Sir, that there is not any one minifter in London, whom I have heard so often charged with falfhood and injuftice, in fuch fort of contentions, as Mr. Bradbury.'-This was a home-thruft. But yet this notorious liar was ftill Dr. Watts's dear brother,' both at the beginning and at the end of the letter; and Dr. Watts was his lincere friend,' who prayed heartily for him, that he might be as heavenly-minded as his own foul wifhed and defired.' But we have faid, perhaps, more than enough on this idle debate. The private contentions of individuals, though important to themselves, are of no confequence to the public; efpecially where wit is fo little proportioned to refentment, that to endure is fufficient,-to approve is impoffible. ART. V. Public and domeftic Devotion united; in a Letter to the Heads of Chriftian Families. By John Martin. 8vo. 6 d. Buckland. T 1779. HE title of this fmall performance fufficiently expreffeth its nature and defign. The original idea of it appears to be derived from a paffage in the Old Testament, in which the public and domeftic piety of David is recorded. When the good King of Ifrael had borne a part in the folemnities which attended the establishment of the Ark in Zion, he returned,' it is faid, to blefs his house.' Mr. Martin makes a very pious use of this circumstance, and inculcates on Chriftians the importance and utility of a regular plan of domestic devotion, particularly on the evening of the Lord's Day. His attempts are fo laudable, that if they had been executed with lefs abilities than Mr. Martin appears to be poffeffed of, we could not have passed any unfavourable ftrictures on them. Several of this Gentleman's remarks are fenfible and judicious; and his whole performance breathes a fpirit of candour and piety. We fhall felect one or two of his obfervations, to juftify our approbation of this little piece: and we fhall be happy, if our teftimony to the excellence of the Author's defign, fhould be the means of promoting the execution of it in chriftian families. It must be confeffed, that of the two, it is much easier for us to appear religious in public, than to be fo, or even to appear fo, in private. We naturally love to court the attention, and gain the applause of strangers; nor are we always unmoved at their cenfure, how much foever we may affect to defpife it. But true religion, though it doth not annihilate these emotions, does however fo regulate them, as to make every emotion fubfervient to the teftimony of a good confcience. To a good man, God is every where the fame, and to be approved in his fight is the ruling principle of his life. He is the fame man in private as in public; and in his own houfe as in the house of God. Perhaps our opportunities of attending to the public worship of God in London are multiplied to excefs: and this feems to be particularly the cafe on what we commonly call the Lord's Day. They who carry it to that excefs, feem to forget, that the Chriftian Sabbath, as well as the Jewish, was defigned to be the Sabbath of the Lord in all our dwellings. But what idea can we have of this in thofe dwellings where the family conftantly attends public worship on the morning, afternoon, and in the evening of that day? How neceffary, therefore, evening lectures may be for thofe who live in irreligious families, or who live in families pretending only to be religious, who have no fettled regard for public worship themselves, and who but feldom permit their domeftics to enjoy it, yet we hope to be forgiven, if we fay, that they are not likely to be productive of much good to those who have attended to the former opportunities as they ought, and who have those personal and relative duties to difcharge at home, that no pretence of regard to public worship ought to fet afide.'. We mention it with regret, but family religion appears to be fo neglected by fome worthless zealots, whofe zeal blackens while it burns, that they feem to have no notion of it. These people hear fermons as others fee plays: all is excellent, or the reverfe, as they are moved in hearing; but their moft violent agitations generally fubfide as faft as they were raifed. Not fo their effects in either cafe; for they commonly leave the mind difgufted with the idea of their being obliged to return to the important concerns of common life. There are, we think, profeffors of religion, whole pretenfions to critical exactnefs, and to cool confiftency, cannot be difputed, that hear the Gospel to as little purpofe as the idly enraptured clafs we have mentioned before. How depraved is the tafie, whofe empty effufions, or lifelefs harangues, naturally productive of fuch effects, are admired! What then is their's who delight in the difmal drudgery of gratifying tastes so vicious, and of being thought the favourites of them who can relish nothing that is better!' REV. Dec. 1779. Ff This |