1 England, on the 20th of April 1718, and died at Northampton in the same province, on the 9th of October 1747, in the thirtieth year of his age. When he was in his last sickness, his constitution being naturally weak and infirm, he was forewarned that he should not have many days, and that the course infinite wisdom had allotted him to run, though great, was but short. The thoughts of death, therefore, and eternity, were long familiar to his mind; an intimacy, which in the nearest views of both, left his soul cheerful and serene. It was in the beginning of September 1747, that his frail tabernacle began to fail him. A complication of disorders of the most obstinate nature presaged his speedy dissolution, a prospect that he never contemplated but with pleasure, sometimes even with rapture; saying often, "Oh the glorious time is now coming! I have longed to serve GOD perfectly; and now GOD will gratify these my desires.-I long to be in heaven, praising and glorifying GOD with the holy angels: All my desire is to glorify GOD. My heart goes out to the burying-place; it seems to me a desirable place; but, oh! to glorify GOD, that is above all !" The last sentence which he wrote in his Diary, was upon the 25th, and runs thus: "Oh my dear GoD, I am speedily coming to thee, I hope! Hasten the day, O Lord, if it be thy blessed will. O come, Lord Jesus, come quickly! Amen." On Sunday the 27th, he said, "I was born on a Sabbath Day; I have reason to think I was new-born on a Sabbath Day; and I hope I shall die on this Sabbath Day. I shall look upon it as a favour, if it may be the will of God that it should be so. I long for the time. Oh! why is his chariot so long in coming? Why tarry the wheels of his chariot ?" Being afterwards asked how he did, "I am almost in eternity," he answered; "I long to be there. My work is done. I have done with all my friends. All the world is now nothing to me. Oh to be in heaven, to praise and glorify GOD with his holy angels! He spoke much of his desires and hopes to see in heaven the prosperity of the church of Christ on earth; much of the importance of the work of ministers of the gospel, and prayer for the outpouring of the Spirit of GOD upon them to bless and make effectual their labours; and much of the spiritual prosperity of his own congregation of Christian Indians in New Jersey. In short, his whole conversation was the language of resignation, of trust, and of faith; full of goodly savour to all who heard it, and worthy to be trans mitted mitted to those who did not. In this happy frame he continued till the day before his death, when the pain of his body overpowered his reflection and reason. This was the comfort he administered to his friends who wept for or lamented him: "We part but for a while; we shall spend an happy eternity together." One coming into the room with a Bible in her hand, he cried out," that dear book! that lovely book! I shall soon see it opened! the mysteries that are in it, and the mysteries of God's providence, will all be unfolded." On Thursday, October 6, he lay for a considerable time, as if he were dying; and was heard, at intervals, breaking out into such whispers as these: "He will come: He will not tarry. I shall soon be in glory: Soon be with GoD and his angels." From this time his distress increased more and more; insomuch that he said, "It was another thing to die than people imagined:" explaining himself to mean, they were not aware of the bodily pain undergone before death. Yet all the while, as he could, his patience was great; the comforts and supports of grace were also great: And all of them continued unabating to the last, which was about six o'clock on Friday morning, October 9, 1747, the happy period when he joined the innumerable company of saints above, the general assembly and church of the first-born, Gon the Judge of all, the spirits of just men made perfect, and Jesus, the Mediator of that new and better covenant, which had been all his rejoicing, and all his hope. ISAAC WATTS, D.D. ONE great object of this compilation is, the illustra tion of divine grace, in its power and influence upon the hearts of men: So that, while we point out the bright examples of many eminent Christians, we would be understood not so much to set up men for mere admiration, but to shew what God hath done, in successive generations, for poor sinners like ourselves, that others may be encouraged, according to their measure of the same grace, to follow them who now through faith and patience inherit the promises. Hence, therefore, as we must abhor a mean and invidious detraction, which could only prove that we want either grace or common candour, we would be careful also to avoid the other extreme, from a mind equally devoted to temporal temporal views, of sliding into fulsome or swelling panegyrics, through any respect that should be entertained for the memories of faithful men. It becomes us, in this case, to consider what the persons we venture to celebrate, would say of us or to us, could they read what fell from our pens, now their spirits are made perfect, and divested of all the vanity and conceit of the flesh. I believe, they would readily own, with the Apostle, that they were at best but empty vessels in themselves; that whatever they enjoyed of goodness was entirely out of that Fullness, which filleth all in all; and that, by the grace of God, they were whatever they were, either in themselves or for others, in point of usefulness and worth. And, in consequence of this acknowledgment, they would be much more ready to chide than to thank us, were we to dignify their persons for public view, and to forget to mention, that they had nothing worth having but what they freely received from their Master. Under this impression of mind, which we would wish never to forget, we shall select, from the various memoirs which have been published of this excellent man, chiefly what has been given by the late Dr. Samuel Johnson, as the most concise, judicious, and candid of any; to which we will add a few edifying particulars, which, we conceive, cannot but be grateful to our serious readers. Isaac Watts (says Dr. Johnson) was born July 17, 1674, at Southampton, where his father, of the same name, kept a boarding-school for young gentlemen, though common report makes him a shoemaker. He appears, from the narrative of Dr. Gibbons, to have been neither indigent nor illiterate. Isaac, the eldest of nine children, was given to books from his infancy; and began, we are told, to learn Latin when he was four years old, I suppose at home. He was afterwards taught Latin, Greek, and Hebrew, by Mr. Pinhorne, a clergyman, master of the free-school at Southampton, to whom the gratitude of his scholar afterwards inscribed a Latin Ode. His proficiency at school was so conspicuous, that a subscription was proposed for his support at the university; but he declared his 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. Hughes the poet, and Dr. Horte, afterwards Archbishop of Tuam. Some Latin Essays, supposed to have been written as exercises at this academy, shew a degree |