The Psalms of David

Imitated in the Language of

The New Testament

And Applied to

The Christian State and Worship

By I. Watts D. D. 

Luke xxiv. 44All things must be fulfilled which were written in the _Psalms_concerning me. 

HEB. Xi. 32, 40. David, Samuel, and the prophets -- that they without us shouldnot be made perfect. 

Transcriber's Note. 

There are significant differences in the numerous reprints ofIsaac Watts' "Psalms. " The first generation of this ProjectGutenberg file was from an 1818 printing by C. Corrall of38 Charing Cross, London. 

The Index and the Table of First Lines have been omitted forthe following reasons:1. They refer to page numbers that are here expunged; and2. In this electronic version key words, etc. , can be easilylocated via searches. 

Separate numbers have been added to Psalms that have more thanone part or version, for example: Psalm 51:1; Psalm 51:2; etc. 

The Life of Isaac Watts, D. D. 

by

Dr. Johnson. 

From his lives of the most eminent English Poets. 

The Poems of Dr. Watts were by my recommendation inserted in thelate Collection; the readers of which are to impute to me whateverpleasure or weariness they may find in the perusal of Blackmore, Watts, Pomfret, and Yealden. 

ISAAC WATTS was born July 17, 1674, at Southampton, where hisfather of the same name, kept a boarding-school for young gentlemen, though common report makes him a shoe-maker. He appears, from thenarrative of Dr. Gibbons, to have been neither indigent norilliterate. 

Isaac, the eldest of nine children, was given to books from hisinfancy; and began, we are told, to learn Latin when he was fouryears old, I suppose at home. He was afterwards taught Latin, Greek, and Hebrew, by Mr. Pinhorne, a clergyman, master of thefreeschool at Southampton, to whom the gratitude of his scholarafterwards inscribed a Latin ode. 

His proficiency at school was so conspicuous, that a subscriptionwas proposed for his support at the University; but he declaredhis resolution to take his lot with the Dissenters. Such he was, as every Christian Church would rejoice to have adopted. 

He therefore repaired in 1690 to an academy taught by Mr. Rowe, where he had for his companions and fellow-students Mr. Hughesthe poet, and Dr. Horte, afterwards Archbishop of Tuam. Some Latinessays, supposed to have been written as exercises at this academy, shew a degree of knowledge, both philosophical and theological, such as very few attain by a much longer course of study. 

He was, as he hints in his Miscellanies, a maker of verses fromfifteen to fifty, and in his youth he appears to have paid attentionto Latin poetry. His verses to his brother, in the _glyconic_measure, written when he was seventeen, are remarkably easy andelegant. Some of his other odes are deformed by the Pindaric follythen prevailing, and are written with such neglect of all metricalrules as is without example among the ancients; but his diction, though perhaps not always exactly pure, has such copiousness andsplendour, as shews that he was but at a very little distancefrom excellence. 

His method of study was to impress the contents of his books uponhis memory by abridging them, and by interleaving them, to amplifyone system with supplements from another. 

With the congregation of his tutor Mr. Rowe, who were, I believe, independents, he communicated in his nineteenth year. 

At the age of twenty he left the academy, and spent two years instudy and devotion at the house of his father, who treated himwith great tenderness; and had the happiness, indulged to fewparents, of living to see his son eminent for literature andvenerable for piety. 

He was then entertained by Sir John Hartopp five years, as domestictutor to his son: and in that time particularly devoted himselfto the Study of the Holy Scriptures; and being chosen assistantto Dr. Chauncey, preached the first time on the birth-day thatcompleted his twenty-fourth year; probably considering that asthe day of a second nativity, by which he entered on a new periodof existence. 

In about three years he succeeded Dr. Chauncey; but soon after hisentrance on his charge, he was seized by a dangerous illness, whichsunk him to such weakness, that the congregation thought an assistantnecessary, and appointed Mr. Price. His health then returnedgradually, and he performed his duty, till (1712) he was seizedby a fever of such violence and continuance, that from the feeblenesswhich it brought upon him, he never perfectly recovered. 

This calamitous state made the compassion of his friends necessary, and drew upon him the attention of Sir Thomas Abney, who receivedhim into his house; where with a constancy of friendship anduniformity of conduct not often to be found, he was treated forthirty-six years with all the kindness that friendship couldprompt, and all the attention that respect could dictate. SirThomas died about eight years afterwards; but he continued withthe lady and her daughters to the end of his life. The lady diedabout a year after him. 

A coalition like this, a state in which the notions of patronageAnd dependence were overpowered by the perception of reciprocalbenefits, deserves a particular memorial; and I will not withholdfrom the reader Dr. Gibbons's representation, to which regard isto be paid as to the narrative of one who writes what he knows, and what is known likewise to multitudes besides. 

"Our next observation shall be made upon that remarkably kindprovidence which brought the doctor into Sir Thomas Abney's family, and continued him there till his death, a period of no less thanthirty-six years. In the midst of his sacred labours for the gloryof God, and good of his generation he is seized with a most violentand threatening fever, which leaves him oppressed with greatweakness, and puts a stop at least to his public services for fouryears. In this distressing season, doubly so to his active andpious spirit, he is invited to Sir Thomas Abney's family, nor everremoves from it till he had finished his days. Here he enjoyed theuninterrupted demonstrations of the truest friendship. Here, withoutany care of his own, he had everything which could contribute tothe enjoyment of life, and favour the unwearied pursuits of hisstudies. Here he dwelt in a family, which, for piety, order, harmony, and every virtue, was an house of God. Here he had theprivilege of a country recess, the fragrant bower, the spreadinglawn, the flowery garden, and other advantages to sooth his mindand aid his restoration to health; to yield him, whenever he chosethem, most grateful intervals from his laborious studies, andenable him to return to them with redoubled vigour and delight. Had it not been for this most happy event, he might as to outwardview, have feebly, it may be painfully, dragged on through manymore years of languor and inability for public service, and evenfor profitable study, or perhaps might have sunk into his graveunder the overwhelming load of infirmities, in the midst of hisdays; and thus the church and world would have been deprived ofthose many excellent sermons and works which he drew up andpublished during his long residence in this family. In a few yearsafter his coming hither, Sir Thomas Abney dies; but his amiableconsort survives, who shows the Doctor the same respect andfriendship as before, and most happily for him and great numbersbesides; for, as her riches were great her generosity and munificencewere in full proportion; her thread of life was drawn out to agreat age, even beyond that of the Doctor's; and thus this excellentman, through her kindness, and that of her daughter, the presentMrs. Elizabeth Abney, who in a like degree esteemed and honouredhim, enjoyed all the benefits and felicities he experienced athis first entrance into this family, till his days were numberedand finished, and, like a shock of corn in its season, he ascendedinto the regions of perfect and immortal life and joy. "

If this quotation has appeared long, let it be considered, thatit comprises an account of six-and-thirty years, and those theyears of Dr. Watts. 

From the time of his reception into this family, his life was noOtherwise diversified than by successive publications. The seriesof his works I am not able to deduce; their number, and theirvariety, show the intenseness of his industry, and the extent ofhis capacity. 

He was one of the first authors that taught the Dissenters tocourt attention by the graces of language. Whatever they had amongthem before, whether of learning or acuteness, was commonly obscuredand blunted by coarseness and inelegance of style. He shewed them, that zeal and purity might be expressed and enforced by polisheddiction. 

He continued to the end of his life the teacher of a congregation, and no reader of his works can doubt his fidelity or diligence. Inthe pulpit, though his low stature, which very little exceeded fivefeet, graced him with no advantages of appearance, yet the gravityand propriety of his utterance made his discourses very efficacious. I once mentioned the reputation which Mr. Foster had gained by hisproper delivery to my friend Dr. Hawkesworth, who told me, thatin the art of pronunciation he was far inferior to Dr. Watts. 

Such was his flow of thoughts, and such his promptitude of language, that in the latter part of his life he did not precompose hiscursory sermons; but having adjusted the heads, and sketchedout some particulars, trusted for success to his extemporary powers. 

He did not endeavour to assist his eloquence by any gesticulations;for, as no corporeal actions have any correspondence with theologicaltruth, he did not see how they could enforce it. 

At the conclusion of weighty sentences he gave time, by a shortpause, for the proper impression. 

To stated and public instruction, he added familiar visits andPersonal application, and was careful to improve the opportunitieswhich conversation offered of diffusing and increasing the influenceof religion. 

By his natural temper he was quick of resentment; but by hisestablished and habitual practice, he was gentle, modest, andinoffensive. His tenderness appeared in his attention to children, and to the poor. To the poor, while he lived in the family of hisfriend, he allowed the third part of his annual revenue, thoughthe whole was not a hundred a year; and for children, he condescendedto lay aside the scholar, the philosopher, and the wit, to writelittle poems of devotion, and systems of instruction adapted totheir wants and capacities, from the dawn of reason through itsgradations of advance in the morning of life. Every man, acquaintedwith the common principles of human action, will look with venerationon the writer who is at one time combating Locke, and at anothermaking a catechism for children in their fourth year. A voluntarydescent from the dignity of science is perhaps the hardest lessonthat humility can teach. 

As his mind was capacious, his curiosity excursive, and his industrycontinual, his writings are very numerous, and his subjects various. With his theological works I am only enough acquainted to admirehis meekness of opposition, and his mildness of censure. It wasnot only in his book but in his mind that _orthodoxy_ was _united_with _charity_. 

Of his philosophical pieces, his Logic has been received into theuniversities, and therefore wants no private recommendation: ifhe owes part of it to Le Clerc, it must he considered that no manwho undertakes merely to methodize or illustrate a system, pretendsto be its author. 

In his metaphysical disquisitions, it was observed by the latelearned Dr. Dyer, that he confounded the idea of _space_ with thatof _empty space_, and did not consider that though space might bewithout matter, yet matter being extended, could not be withoutspace. 

Few books have been perused by me with greater pleasure than his_Improvement of the Mind_, of which the radical principles mayindeed be found in _Locke's Conduct of the Understanding_, butthey are so expanded and ramified by Watts, as to confer upon himthe merit of a work in the highest degree useful and pleasing. Whoever has the care of instructing others, may be charged withdeficience in his duty if this book is not recommended. 

I have mentioned his treatises of Theology as distinct from hisother productions: but the truth is, that whatever he took inhand was, by his incessant solicitude for souls, converted toTheology. As piety predominated in his mind, it is diffused overhis works: under his direction it may be truly said, _TheologiaePhilosophia ancillatur_, philosophy is subservient to evangelicalinstruction; it is difficult to read a page without learning, orat least wishing to be better. The attention is caught by indirectinstruction, and he that sat down only to reason, is on a suddencompelled to pray. 

It was therefore with great propriety that, in 1728, he receivedFrom Edinburgh and Aberdeen an unsolicited diploma, by which hebecame a Doctor of Divinity. Academical honours would have morevalue, if they were always bestowed with equal judgement. 

He continued many years to study and to preach, and to do good byHis instruction and example: till at last the infirmities of agedisabled him from the more laborious part of his ministerialfunctions, and being no longer capable of public duty, he offeredto remit the salary appendant to it; but his congregation wouldnot accept the resignation. 

By degrees his weakness increased, and at last confined him tohis chamber and his bed; where he was worn gradually away withoutpain, till he expired, Nov. 25, 1748, in the seventy-fifth yearof his age. 

Few men have left behind such purity of character, or such monumentsof laborious piety. He has provided instruction for all ages, fromthose who are lisping their first lessons, to the enlightened readersof Malbranche and Locke; he has left neither corporeal nor spiritualnature unexamined; he has taught the art of reasoning, and thescience of the stars. 

His character, therefore, must be formed from the multiplicityand diversity of his attainments, rather than from any singleperformance; for it would not be safe to claim for him the highestrank in any single denomination of literary dignity; yet perhapsthere was nothing in which he would not have excelled, if he hadnot divided his powers to different pursuits. 

As a poet, had he been only a poet, he would probably have stoodhigh among the authors with whom he is now associated. For hisjudgement was exact, and he noted beauties and faults with verynice discernment; his imagination, as the _Dacian Battle_ proves, was vigorous and active, and the stores of knowledge were largeby which his fancy was to be supplied. His ear was well-tuned, andhis diction was elegant and copious. But his devotional poetry is, like that of others, unsatisfactory. The paucity of its topicsenforces perpetual repetition, and the sanctity of the matterrejects the ornaments of figurative diction. It is sufficientfor Watts to have done better than others what no man has donewell. 

His poems on other subjects seldom rise higher than might beexpected from the amusements of a Man of Letters, and have differentdegrees of value as they are more or less laboured, or as theoccasion was more or less favourable to invention. 

He writes too often without regular measures, and too often inblank verse; the rhymes are not always sufficiently correspondent. He is particularly unhappy in coining names expressive of characters. His lines are commonly smooth and easy, and his thoughts alwaysreligiously pure; but who is there that, to so much piety andinnocence, does not wish for a greater measure of sprightlinessand vigour? He is at least one of the few poets with whom youthand ignorance may be safely pleased; and happy will be that readerwhose mind is disposed by his verses, or his prose, to imitate himin all but his non-conformity, to copy his benevolence to man, andhis reverence to God. 

PREFACE. 

THE following extract from the Doctor's Preface, as it containsthe plan of his version of the Psalms, may be found useful:

"I come therefore to explain my own design, which is this, Toaccommodate the book of Psalms to Christian worship. And in orderto do this, it is necessary to divest David and Asaph, &c. Of everyother character but that of a psalmist and a saint, and to makethem always speak the common sense, and language of a Christian. 

"Attempting the work with this view, I have entirely omitted severalwhole psalms, and large pieces of many others; and have chosen outof all of them, such parts only as might easily and naturally beaccommodated to the various occasions of the Christian life, orat least might afford us some beautiful allusion to Christianaffairs. These I have copied and explained in the general styleof the gospel; nor have I confined my expressions to any particularparty or opinion; that in words prepared for public worship, andfor the lips of multitudes, there might not be a syllable offensiveto sincere Christians, whose judgments may differ in the lessermatters of religion. 

"Where the Psalmist uses sharp invectives against his personalenemies, I have endeavoured to turn the edge of them against ourspiritual adversaries, sin, Satan, and temptation. Where theflights of his faith and love are sublime, I have often sunk theexpressions within the reach of an ordinary Christian: where thewords imply some peculiar wants or distresses, joys, or blessings, I have used words of greater latitude and comprehension, suitedto the general circumstances of men. 

"Where the original runs in the form of prophecy concerning Christand his salvation, I have given an historical turn to the sense:there is no necessity that we should always sing in the obscureand doubtful style of prediction, when the things foretold arebrought into open light by a full accomplishment. Where the writersof the New Testament have cited or alluded to any part the Psalms, I have often indulged the liberty of paraphrase, according to thewords of Christ, or his Apostles. And surely this may be esteemedthe word of God still, though borrowed from several parts of theHoly Scripture. Where the Psalmist describes religion by the fearof God, I have often joined faith and love to it. Where hespeaks of the pardon of sin, through the mercies of God, I haveadded the merits of a Saviour. Where he talks of sacrificing goatsor bullocks, I rather chuse 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 presencein his church on earth. Where he promises abundance of wealth, honour, and long life, I have changed some of these typicalblessings for grace, glory, and life eternal, which are broughtto light by the gospel, and promised in the New Testament. And Iam fully satisfied, that more honor is done to our blessed Saviour, by speaking his name, his graces, and actions, in his own language, according to the brighter discoveries he hath now made, than bygoing back again to the Jewish forms of worship, and the languageof types and figures. "

Of chusing or finding the Psalm. 

By consulting the Index at the end, any one may find hymns veryproper for many occasions of the Christian life and worship; thoughno copy of David's Psalter can provide for all, as I have shewn inthe Preface to the large edition. 

Or, if he remembers the first line of any Psalm, the Table of thefirst lines will direct where to find it. 

[NOTE: the Index and the Table of First Lines are omitted from