Isaac Watts; his life and writings, his homes and friendsHood, Edwin Paxton
Religion
Isaac Watts; his life and writings, his homes and friends
Hood, Edwin Paxton
Watts, Isaac, 1674-1748
All efforts must fail to apprehend the doctrines involved in the idea
of the Trinity, which insist upon either the idea of personality or
numeration, as they are understood by us. Watts, with the Bible in his
hand, stood on the defensive against the aggressions of Arianism, and
having attempted to unfold the Christian doctrine of the Trinity, he
published his further dissertation, “The Arian Invited to the Orthodox
Faith; a plain and easy method to lead such as deny the Proper Deity
of Christ into the belief of that Article.” Those who charge Arianism
upon Watts can only do so, because throughout the argument he has
conducted it in a strain of eminent courtesy and charity. He approached
the matter in no spirit of disputation, but with a cordial desire to
promote, if possible, healing and unity; nor do we think that there are
any indications, in the course of any of his discussions, that his own
mind or faith was unhinged; but the discussions around him compelled
him to direct his attention to questions certainly not uncongenial to
his speculative and analytic order of mind. Probably the reader feels
that there is a sufficient correspondence between the sense of our own
spiritual wants and the revelation given to us in the Divine Word to
make us feel that the Trinity of Persons in the Godhead is a necessity
of our moral nature, and that it is a doctrine, as we have already
intimated, best held, as most satisfactory to the mind and conscience,
when held _im_plicitly rather than _ex_plicitly.
The claim which the Unitarians put forth to find in Watts one of
themselves is not less than audacious and dishonest. It is, however,
founded—very ridiculously, we venture to think—upon some expressions
reported after his death, which implied that he would have been willing,
had he been able, to have altered some expressions in his hymns. Truly
it is amazing that the author could survive the publication of his
first volume forty years, and not alter many barbarisms of metre and
expression. It may, perhaps, be partly accounted for from the fact that
the copyright of the hymns had passed at once from his hands. We can
very well believe there were certain expressions in his hymns he would
have been not indisposed to alter, without touching at all upon matters
of doctrine. It will be time enough for Unitarians to claim Watts when
they are able to set aside his last published words, and to reconcile
them with that faith which they call theirs, or to account, upon such
principles as they would make him hold, for the sentiments which fell
from his lips when dying.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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