It does not appear that Mr. Nokes had the charge of a congregation prior to his coming to Beccles. Nor is the exact date of that event known. {168b} It is not unlikely that he previously resided for some time in London, for he enjoyed at this period of his life the friendship of Mr. (afterwards Dr.) Isaac Watts. {168c} To that truly great, and profoundly humble, man, he told (what is seldom told, but in the patient ear of intimate friendship) the tale of the “days of darkness,” which had clouded his spirit. A description of the state of his mind on religious subjects, which he committed to blank verse, Watts revised and amplified, and has preserved among his Lyric Poems. It is thus introduced: “The substance of the following copy, and many of the lines, were sent me by _an esteemed friend_, Mr. W. Nokes, with a desire that I would form them into a Pindaric ode; but I retained his measures, lest I should too much alter his sense.” The style of poetry is such as fully authorizes the conclusion, that friendship must have furnished the chief inducement to Watts to bestow his pains upon it. The following passages will afford a specimen. “A SIGHT OF CHRIST. {169} . . . . . . . . . Once I beheld his face, when beams divine Broke from his eyelids, and unusual light Wrapt me at once in glory and surprise. My joyful heart, high leaping in my breast, With transport cried, ‘This is the Christ of God:’ Then threw my arms around in sweet embrace, And clasp’d, and bow’d, adoring low, till I was lost in him. . . . . . . But the bright shine and presence soon withdrew; I sought him whom I love, but found him not. I felt his absence, and with strongest cries Proclaimed, ‘Where Jesus is not, all is vain.’ . . . . . . Oh that the day, the joyful day, were come, When the first Adam from his ancient dust Crown’d with new honours, shall revive, and see Jesus his Son and Lord; while shouting saints Surround their King, and God’s eternal Son Shines in the midst . . . Death and the tempter, and the man of sin, Now at the bar arraign’d, in judgment cast, Shall vex the saints no more; but perfect love And loudest praises, perfect joy create, While ever-circling years proclaim the blissful state.” In the same year in which Watts accepted the pastoral office, he addressed to Mr. Nokes the subjoined lines. The allusion to the sympathy of minds overwhelmed with floods of sorrow, renders it probable that Mr. Nokes had already been the subject of some deep affliction, while his subsequent history induces the supposition that it might he somewhat similar to that, which for so many years deprived Watts’s church of his public services. “TO MR. WILLIAM NOKES. _Friendship_. 1702. {171} “Friendship! thou charmer of the mind, Thou sweet deluding ill, The brightest minute mortals find, And sharpest hour we feel.