Studies in the Hymnody of Isaac Watts 9004519947, 9789004519947

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Studies in the Hymnody of Isaac Watts

Studies in Religion and the Arts Editorial Board James Najarian (Boston College) Eric Ziolkowski (Lafayette College)

volume 18

The titles published in this series are listed at brill.com/sart

Studies in the Hymnody of Isaac Watts By

David W. Music

leiden | boston

Cover illustration: The hand of God spans out heaven with a compass while surrounded by angels. Line engraving by Robert Pranker, ca. 1761. Wellcome Collection, reference no. 154458i. Public Domain. The Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data is available online at https://catalog.loc.gov LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2022020268

Typeface for the Latin, Greek, and Cyrillic scripts: “Brill”. See and download: brill.com/brill-typeface. issn 1877-3192 isbn 978-90-04-51994-7 (hardback) isbn 978-90-04-52052-3 (e-book) Copyright 2022 by David W. Music. Published by Koninklijke Brill NV, Leiden, The Netherlands. Koninklijke Brill NV incorporates the imprints Brill, Brill Nijhoff, Brill Hotei, Brill Schöningh, Brill Fink, Brill mentis, Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, Böhlau and V&R unipress. Koninklijke Brill NV reserves the right to protect this publication against unauthorized use. Requests for re-use and/or translations must be addressed to Koninklijke Brill NV via brill.com or copyright.com. This book is printed on acid-free paper and produced in a sustainable manner.

Contents List of Tables and Figures ix Abbreviations x Introduction 1 1 This Book 3 2 Sources, Definitions, and Orthography 5 3 Biography and Hymn Publications 8 4 Early Life and Education 9 5 English Congregational Song before Watts 11 6 The Beginning of Watts’s Hymn Writing 12 6.1 Horæ Lyricæ 18 6.2 Hymns and Spiritual Songs 19 6.3 Divine Songs 26 6.4 The Psalms of David Imitated 27 7 Final Years 31 1

The Bible and the Hymns of Watts 32 1 The Relationship between Hymns and the Bible 33 1.1 Hymns and Spiritual Songs 34 1.2 The Psalms of David Imitated 44 2 Watts’s Use of the Bible 61

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The Theology of Watts’s Hymns 64 1 Holy Scripture 66 2 God and the Holy Trinity 69 3 God’s Eternal Decree 72 4 Creation and Providence 74 5 Fall of Humanity, Sin, and Punishment 76 6 God’s Covenant with Humanity through Christ the Mediator 77 7 Free Will and the Calling of God 80 8 Justification, Adoption, Sanctification, and Saving Faith 81 9 Repentance 82 10 Good Works 83 11 Perseverance of the Saints 85 12 Assurance of Salvation 86 13 The Law of God 87 14 The Gospel and Grace 91 15 Christian Liberty and Liberty of Conscience 92

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Contents

16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23

Religious Worship and the Sabbath Day 93 The Civil Magistrate 95 The Church 97 The Communion of Saints 99 The Sacraments: Baptism and Lord’s Supper 101 The Soul after Death, the Resurrection, and the Last Judgment 104 Additional Topics 106 General Theological Perspectives 110

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Watts’s Hymns and Liturgy 115 1 Worship at Bury Street Church 117 2 The Liturgical Functions of Hymns 120 3 The Sermon Hymn 121 4 The Lord’s Supper and Baptism 129 5 Hymns for Other Aspects of Worship 131 6 Liturgical Texts 134 7 Public and Private Worship 138 8 The Liturgical Use of Watts’s Hymns 141

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The Literary Dimension of Watts’s Hymns 142 1 The Functional Nature of Watts’s Writing 142 2 Hymnic Meter 145 3 Poetic Meter 147 4 Rhyme 148 5 Poetic Devices 155 5.1 Comparison 155 5.2 Contrast 157 5.3 Substitution 159 5.4 Hyperbole 159 5.5 Personification and Apostrophe 160 5.6 Arrangement of Words 160 5.7 Emphasis 167 5.8 “Color” Devices 168 5.9 Figures of Sound 171 5.10 Isocolon 172 5.11 The “Sound” of Watts’s Hymns 173 6 Form 175 7 Watts’s Borrowings 184 8 Textual Revision 188 9 Watts and the Poetry of the Hymn 193

Contents 

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Watts’s Hymns and Music 195 1 Hymnic Meters and Psalm Tunes 197 2 Watts and the Singing of Hymns 201 2.1 Lining Out 201 2.2 Tempo and the Length of Singing 203 3 Early Publications of Watts’s Hymns with Music 205 3.1 Tune Supplements 206 3.2 Tune Books 211 4 Watts and the Music of Hymnody 217

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An Analysis of Four Hymns from Hymns and Spiritual Songs 218 1 “Infinite Grief! Amazing Woe!” 219 2 “God of the Morning, at Whose Voice” 224 3 How Are Thy Glories Here Display’d 229 4 Lo, What a Glorious Sight Appears 232

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An Analysis of Four Hymns from The Psalms of David Imitated 237 1 “I Lift My Soul to God” 237 2 “Great God, the Heaven’s Well-Order’d Frame” 241 3 Deep in Our Hearts Let Us Record 250 4 How Pleas’d and Blest Was I 255

Conclusion 261 Bibliography 269 Index of Hymns by Isaac Watts 279 General Index 286

Tables and Figures Tables 1 Hymns for Sunday 132 2 Hymns for Sunday morning 133 3 Hymns for morning and evening 134 4 Watts’s rhyme schemes for uncommon hymnic meters 150 5 The refrains of “The God of glory sends his summons forth” 181 6 Psalm version changes between Hymns and Spiritual Songs (1707) and The Psalms of David Imitated 190 7 Tunes suggested by Watts 198

Figures 1 “The Lord, the sovereign sends his summons forth”/NEW 50 207 2 “Blest be the Father and his love”/A SONG OF PRAISE TO THE BLESSED TRINITY 212 3 “Infinite grief! amazing woe!”/ST. MARY’S 224 4 “God of the morning, at whose voice”/OLD 100 228 5 “How are thy glories here display’d”/LITCHFIELD OLD 232 6 “Lo, what a glorious sight appears”/ST. DAVID’S 236 7 “I lift my soul to God”/OLD 25 (SOUTHWELL) 241 8 “Great God, the heaven’s well-order’d frame”/OLD 113 249 9 “Deep in our hearts let us record”/FRENCH 100 255 10 “How pleas’d and blest was I”/OLD 122 259

Abbreviations A Hymns and Spiritual Songs, book 1 B Hymns and Spiritual Songs, book 2 C Hymns and Spiritual Songs, book 3 CM common meter DS Divine Songs Attempted in Easy Language HL Horæ Lyricæ HSS Hymns and Spiritual Songs HTI The Hymn Tune Index KJV King James Version of the Bible LM long meter PDI The Psalms of David Imitated Ps./Pss. Psalm/Psalms SD The Savoy Declaration SM short meter st./sts. stanza/stanzas v./vv. verse/verses

Introduction Isaac Watts has long been known as the “Father of English Hymnody” because of his central role in creating and expanding the use of hymns that were not mere versifications of Scripture as a component of worship in English-­ speaking Christian churches. He was not the first person to write hymns in English, nor was he the first to give a Christian emphasis to the psalms. However, he “succeeded overwhelmingly in what his predecessors had achieved only indifferently,”1 and it was largely through his efforts and influence that hymns and paraphrased psalm singing (as opposed to versified psalmody) became a common feature of worship in Anglophone congregations. During the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries, the hymns of Watts provided both a pattern for and formed the core of congregational song for many churches in the English-language Protestant tradition. His work in hymnody is now over 300 years old and the bulk of the more than 725 texts in his two principal collections of congregational song, Hymns and Spiritual Songs and The Psalms of David Imitated in the Language of the New Testament, and in his published sermons, have largely disappeared from common use. Nevertheless, the ones that remain are among the most familiar hymns in Anglophone Christendom, including “Joy to the world,” “When I survey the wondrous cross,” “Our God, our help in ages past,” “Alas! and did my Savior bleed,” and “Jesus shall reign where’er the sun,” and just as importantly, he pointed the way that others followed. Watts, of course, was much more than a hymn writer. He was a pastor, theologian, philosopher, educator, and voluminous writer of poetry and prose works on many different subjects, ranging from astronomy to logic to spelling. His works were widely distributed and brought him a great deal of recognition as well as controversy, the latter particularly because of his writings on the Trinity, which were seen by some of his critics as heterodox. Watts himself claimed to be thoroughly orthodox in his views, but his speculations on the nature of Christ’s divine/human nature in such works as Three Dissertations Relating to the Christian Doctrine of the Trinity (1725) and The Glory of Christ as God-Man Display’d (1746) were often confusing and sometimes led to conclusions that were questionable according to traditional theological tenets. 1 David L. Wykes, “From David’s Psalms to Watts’s Hymns: The Development of Hymnody among Dissenters Following the Toleration Act,” in R. N. Swanson, ed., Continuity and Change in Christian Worship: Papers Read at the 1997 Summer Meeting and the 1998 Winter Meeting of the Ecclesiastical History Society (Woodbridge, UK: Boydell Press, 1999), 239. © David W. Music, 2022 | DOI:10.1163/9789004520523_002

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Watts’s significance has given rise to many studies of his life and works, ranging in date from the eighteenth to the twenty-first centuries, in format from books and dissertations to articles and websites, in approach from studies of a single aspect of Watts’s work to general biographies, and in focus from harsh critique to outright hagiography. Among the important books that deal exclusively with Watts are volumes by Thomas Gibbons (1780); Thomas ­Milner (1834); Josiah Conder (1851); Thomas Jackson (1853); D. A. Harsha (1857); E. ­Paxton Hood (1875); Thomas Wright (1914); Arthur Paul Davis (1943); Erik ­Routley (1962); Harry Escott (1962); Selma L. Bishop (1962 and 1974); and ­Graham Beynon (2016).2 Other works, though not solely about Watts, contain much helpful information and perspective on the Englishman and his work,3 and a number of valuable articles and dissertations have also been written on him.4 2 Thomas Gibbons, Memoirs of the Rev. Isaac Watts, D. D. (London: For James Buckland and Thomas Gibbons, 1780); Thomas Milner, The Life, Times, and Correspondence of the Rev. Isaac Watts, D.D. (London: Simpkin and Marshall, 1834); Josiah Conder, The Poet of the Sanctuary. A Centenary Commemoration of the Labours and Services Literary and Devotional of the Rev. Isaac Watts, D.D. (London: John Snow, 1851); Thomas Jackson, ed., Christian Biography. The Life of Isaac Watts, D. D. The Life of Thomas Haliburton (New York: Carlton & Phillips, 1853); D. A. Harsha, The Life and Choice Works of Isaac Watts, D. D. (New York: Derby & Jackson, 1857); E. Paxton Hood, Isaac Watts: His Life and Writings, His Homes and Friends (London: Religious Tract Society, 1875); Thomas Wright, Isaac Watts and Contemporary Hymn-Writers, vol. 3 of The Lives of the British Hymn-Writers (London: C. J. Farncombe & Sons, 1914); Arthur Paul Davis, Isaac Watts: His Life and Works (New York: Dryden Press, 1943); Erik Routley, Isaac Watts (1674–1748) (London: Independent Press, 1961); Harry Escott, Isaac Watts, Hymnographer: A Study of the Beginnings, Development, and Philosophy of the English Hymn (London: Independent Press, 1962); Selma L. Bishop, Isaac Watts. Hymns and Spiritual Songs, 1707–1748: A Study in Early Eighteenth Century Language Changes (London: Faith Press, 1962) and Isaac Watts’s Hymns and Spiritual Songs (1707): a Publishing History and a Bibliography (Ann Arbor, MI: Pierian Press, 1974); Graham Beynon, Isaac Watts: Reason, Passion and the Revival of Religion (London: Bloomsbury T&T Clark, 2016). 3 See especially John Julian, A Dictionary of Hymnology, 2nd ed., 2 vols. (London: John Murray, 1907; reprint ed., New York: Dover Publications, 1957); Louis F. Benson, The English Hymn: Its Development and Use in Worship (N.p.: George H. Doran Company, 1915; reprinted, Richmond, VA: John Knox Press, 1962); John Hoyles, The Waning of the Renaissance 1640–1740: Studies in the Thought and Poetry of Henry More, John Norris and Isaac Watts (The Hague: Martinus Nijhoff, 1971); Madeleine Forell Marshall and Janet Todd, English Congregational Hymns in the Eighteenth Century (Lexington, KY: Kentucky U. P., 1982); Donald Davie, The Eighteenth-­Century Hymn in England (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1993); J. R. Watson, The English Hymn: a Critical and Historical Study (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1997); Isabel Rivers and David L. Wykes, eds., Dissenting Praise: Religious Dissent and the Hymn in England and Wales (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2011); Richard Arnold, Trinity of Discord: the Hymnal and Poetic Innovations of Isaac Watts, Charles Wesley, and William Cowper (New York: Peter Lang, 2012); and John M. Hull, Towards the Prophetic Church: A Study of Christian Mission (London: SCM Press, 2014). 4 Particularly useful dissertations include Donald Rodgers Fletcher, “English Psalmody and Isaac Watts” (Ph.D. diss., Princeton University, 1945); Selma L. Bishop, “The Poetical Theories

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3

This Book

The present book differs from those listed above and from my own previous book on Watts in three principal ways.5 First, it deals specifically with a single area of Watts’s life and work, his writing of Christian hymns. Despite the importance of Watts’s writings in other areas, this book concentrates on his hymns because these were his major, most “public,” and most long-lasting contribution to the church. Earlier books on Watts have often been comprehensive in scope, discussing multiple aspects of his work; consequently, the hymns are given attention only as a part of the whole, often as a single chapter in a longer study. The chief exceptions to this pattern are the volumes by Selma L. Bishop (which are in the nature of linguistic and bibliographical studies) and Harry Escott’s Isaac Watts, Hymnographer. The latter book is an excellent study, has rightly become a standard resource for all subsequent writings on Watts, and has been drawn upon in the present volume. However, it is limited in its coverage of some topics, such as the liturgical and musical aspects of Watts’s hymns. Second, this book differs from previous studies by analyzing Watts’s hymns in multiple dimensions, utilizing a modified application of analytical principles developed in Scotty Gray’s 2015 Hermeneutics of Hymnody: A Comprehensive and Integrated Approach to Understanding Hymns.6 One of the challenges of investigating hymns is that they touch on so many different fields of study. Hymns are at the same time products of historical circumstance, biblical commentary, theological statements, liturgical documents, poetry, and music. While hymns have been analyzed from each of these viewpoints in the past, Gray’s was the first work to take a “comprehensive and integrated” approach to such study, in which each aspect is given separate treatment, then the elements are brought together to show how their integration creates a meaningful hymn. Congregational hymns are best understood when attention is given to each of their constituent parts and when these are considered in combination so that each element supports and enhances the other. Thus, for example, while one can certainly study the theology of a hymn in isolation, consideration of its poetic language, musical setting, liturgical function, and other factors, as well

of Isaac Watts” (Ph.D. diss., University of Colorado, 1956); William Eaton Stephenson, “The Heroic Hymn of Isaac Watts” (Ph.D. diss., University of California, 1963); and James Wendall Plett, “The Poetic Language of Isaac Watts’s Hymns” (Ph.D. diss., University of California, Riverside, 1986). 5 David W. Music, Repeat the Sounding Joy: Reflections on Hymns by Isaac Watts (Macon, GA: Mercer University Press, 2020). 6 Scotty Gray, Hermeneutics of Hymnody: A Comprehensive and Integrated Approach to Understanding Hymns (Macon, GA: Smyth & Helwys Publishing, 2015).

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as how these features combine to form the whole, will give a more complete picture of the hymn and its message. This “comprehensive and integrated approach” has not previously been applied to the hymns of Isaac Watts. Certainly, several dimensions of his texts have been examined before: his biography is generally well known, and certain aspects of his use of Scripture, theology, and literary features of his hymns have been explored in some of the studies mentioned earlier, though typically not in a comprehensive manner. Other aspects, particularly the liturgical role and the expected or potential musical settings of his texts have mostly escaped discussion. Even for those elements that have received previous attention, however, there is value in approaching them from a different angle. For example, to my knowledge his hymns have never been related to the seventeenth-century Savoy Declaration, the most important doctrinal statement of early English Independents, which forms the basis for discussion in this book. A more comprehensive look than is common at the literary devices and other poetic elements of his hymns reveals some of the features that make them a remarkable example of early eighteenth-century rhetoric. Ultimately, however, the principal purpose of this study is not merely to consider these items in isolation, but to demonstrate that it is how Watts employed these elements to create lyrics that achieved widespread use during the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries and served as a model for other writers of Christian hymns.7 Third, the book seeks to show how these hymns might have been experienced by at least some congregations during Watts’s lifetime and shortly thereafter. To that end, the place of hymns in the worship services of Independents (particularly Watts’s own church) receives attention, and possible linkages between certain texts and tunes are suggested. While the tune suggestions are, for the most part, speculative, to ignore the musical side of the hymns is to leave an incomplete picture of how a contemporary worshiper would most likely have encountered them. Other tunes in the same meter and mood could equally well have been chosen; the ones included here are simply ones that seem to me to fit these aspects of the texts, and nothing more is claimed for them than that. 7 Because this study is to some degree interdisciplinary, it will be necessary to provide basic information in some areas for readers who might not be familiar with that particular field of study. For example, hymn scholars will already be familiar with the various types of meters used in hymnody, but this might be necessary background for theologians, whereas theologians will know about the theories of the atonement while musicians may need review in that area.

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This introduction includes a discussion of the historical, biographical, and sociocultural situation of Watts’s life and the publication of his hymn collections. The outline and many details of Watts’s life are commonly known and are readily available elsewhere. Thus, the present discussion is limited to pointing out the major features of his life, particularly as they relate to his hymn writing. Items such as the essays he wrote during his academic training, his correspondence on non-hymnic topics, and his life and writings post-1719 (when his last major book of congregational song was published) are mostly either disregarded or dealt with in summary fashion. Readers desiring fuller biographical details of Watts’s life and discussion of his non-hymnic works should consult the sources listed above and in the bibliography. Following the introduction is a chapter showing some of the various ways Watts accommodated his hymn texts to the Scriptures. Chapter 2 reflects on the theology of Watts’s hymns from the perspective of the Savoy Declaration of Faith and Order. Chapter 3 deals with the place of his hymns in the liturgy of his own church and others of the Independent order, as well as his provision of hymns for special days and events, and his lyrics based on traditional liturgical texts. Chapter 4 examines poetic aspects of Watts’s hymns, with emphasis upon their rhetorical features, forms, revision, and borrowings. Chapter 5 explores the tunes that were perhaps (and in some cases, certainly) intended for use with them or that were set to them during Watts’s lifetime. The two final chapters provide an integrated analysis of selected texts by Watts, four each from Hymns and Spiritual Songs and The Psalms of David Imitated. A brief coda provides a summary of and conclusion to the study. 2

Sources, Definitions, and Orthography

Unless otherwise noted, quotations and analyses of Watts’s texts are based on the second (1709) edition of his Hymns and Spiritual Songs and the first (1719) edition of The Psalms of David Imitated. The reasons for using the second edition of Hymns and Spiritual Songs rather than the first are twofold: (1) the second edition contained new texts that were not in the first edition and deleted psalm paraphrases that were later printed in The Psalms of David Imitated, and (2) the second edition included some important textual alterations that became more or less standard in subsequent editions.8 The first and other editions are referenced and identified as needed. 8 See Bishop, Isaac Watts. Hymns and Spiritual Songs 1707–1748, xxxiii, xxxv.

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Introduction

Throughout this book, the word “hymn” will often be used in a generic sense to describe any congregational song text by Watts, whether the item in question is from Hymns and Spiritual Songs or The Psalms of David Imitated. Unlike earlier psalters, in the latter book Watts was not writing versified psalms so much as he was providing hymns based on psalm texts. When a more precise definition is needed, the term “psalm” will be used and the context will make its meaning clear. What constitutes a “Watts hymn” for the purposes of this study also needs clarification. In addition to being a hymn writer, Watts was an author of poetry that was intended primarily for reading. This is particularly true of two of his publications, Horæ Lyricæ (1706 and following) and Reliquiæ Juveniles: Miscellaneous Thoughts in Prose and Verse (1734). While Watts included some of the poems from the first edition of Horæ Lyricæ in Hymns and Spiritual Songs, and eventually in The Psalms of David Imitated, later editors have mined these publications for other poems and printed them as hymns for congregational singing. However, in the preface to the second edition of Horæ Lyricæ (1709), Watts pointed out that, while he had originally intended to include some of the poems from the first part of that book in the second edition of Hymns and Spiritual Songs, he decided that these items “were not suited to the plainest Capacity” so he “allotted them a Place” in the second edition of Horæ Lyricæ instead (p. xvi). Thus, Watts himself thought that these poems were not appropriate as congregational song material, and the present book focuses specifically on Watts’s religious poems that he intended principally for congregational singing, those that appeared in Hymns and Spiritual Songs, The Psalms of David Imitated, or his published volumes of sermons.9 Hymns are usually known by their first lines, but it was Watts’s practice also to give the text a separate title to indicate the subject matter. In this book, the hymns will be identified primarily by first lines, and the word “title” will be used only in reference to the subject indication. During Watts’s time, the English language was in the process of standardization regarding spelling. Watts himself was not always consistent in the way he spelled words; for example, he used both “Zion” and “Sion,” “joyn” and “join” in the same book.10 When discussing hymns by Watts and other writers, this book normally gives first lines in modern spelling and punctuation/ 9

10

In his Ph.D. dissertation, “The Hymn Genre in British Poetry, 1700–1820” (University of Virginia, 2003), John Knapp pointed out that the hymn is both a sacred and a secular, a sung and a read genre, and that there are intermixtures between the various types. It is the sacred, sung genre that is dealt with here. See, for example, “How honourable is the place” (A8, “Zion”) and “Now shall my inward joys arise” (A39, “Sion”); “Not to the terrors of the Lord” (B152, “joyn”) and “Come let us join a joyful tune” (C8, “join”).

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capitalization conventions, though, where possible, Watts’s original punctuation and contractions have been retained. However, quotations of lines and stanzas by Watts and other early authors appear with their original archaic words and verb forms (e.g., “strook” for “stricken,” “forsook” for “forsaken”), (mis)spellings, punctuation, and orthography, except when quoting from later writers or as otherwise noted. An exception occurs when Watts uses quotation marks for citations from Scripture or other purposes, where he often places quotation marks at the beginning of each line and does not include a final quotation mark. In this book, opening quotation marks are used only at the beginning of the quote and (where relevant) with the first line of succeeding stanzas; opening quotation marks in lines other than the first in a stanza are omitted and a closing quotation mark is silently added. Also, Watts sometimes brackets together several stanzas as an indication that these strophes can be omitted. When quoting less than the whole bracketed section, an opening or closing bracket is tacitly inserted as needed. Two other silent changes are (1) the replacement of the long “s” with its modern equivalent and (2) the reduction in size of the first letters of a hymn text. The locations of texts in the three books of Hymns and Spiritual Songs are expressed by a capital letter to indicate the book (A=book 1, B=book 2, C=book 3) followed by the hymn number in that book in Arabic numerals; thus, the figure B39 refers to hymn number 39 in book 2 of Hymns and Spiritual Songs. Items from The Psalms of David Imitated are identified by the psalm number and, where relevant, the meter and part. Stanzas and lines of a single hymn are referred to in all Arabic numerals separated by a colon; for example, 2:3 refers to stanza 2, line 3. Throughout this book, the word “verse” will be used only for a division within a biblical chapter (e.g., “verse 3 of Psalm 25”) or as a generic reference to poetry (“Watts’s writing of verse”); it will not be used in reference to a group of lines in a poem, for which the words “stanza” or “strophe” will be employed. During Watts’s lifetime, the calendar in Britain was in the process of conversion from the “Old Style” to the “New Style.” In the Old Style calendar, the first day of the year was March 25, while in the New Style it was January 1; thus a date between January 1 and March 25 might be listed as in—for example—either 1700 or 1701. Though the New Style calendar was not made official in Britain until 1752 (after Watts’s death), the transition had begun well before then with both years given in some documents (e.g., March 1, 1725/1726). All dates in this book are adjusted to the New Style calendar unless otherwise specified. Finally, when the word “church” is used without a qualifying adjective, it is intended to mean the Christian church as a whole in all its various denominations and branches. Where a more specific designation is intended an explanatory adjective is given.

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Introduction

Biography and Hymn Publications

In many ways, it was an unusual set of circumstances that combined to form Isaac Watts and influence his writing of hymns. As the son of pious Dissenting parents, he was raised to respect the Scriptures and acknowledge them as the supreme authority in all areas of life, a feature that would show up in his hymns. His raising in Independency gave him a strong foundation in Calvinism, and the persecutions experienced by his father taught him to stand up for what he believed. He came from a family that valued education, literature, and the arts. In his early schooling with John Pinhorne in Southampton, he was thoroughly grounded in classical literature and in both biblical and modern languages. Watts’s lessons with Thomas Rowe at the latter’s academy introduced him to innovative ideas and taught him to think for himself. From early years he read and wrote verse, thereby learning the principles of poetry. His grew up in a culture that was steeped in singing the metrical psalms, which gave him both respect for this practice and a desire to reform it. The political situation also affected Watts’s hymn writing. The ongoing remembrance of the Spanish Armada and the Gunpowder Plot, the Glorious Revolution and its extension of tolerance to Dissenters, the perceived threats of “popish” attempts to recapture the country, the union of England and Scotland, the accession of King William III and King George I to the throne, almost continual warfare, and other national events prompted Watts to write hymns that viewed Britain as being divinely blessed and thus having a great responsibility to lead the rest of the world in praise to the sovereign God.11 His pastorate of the Mark Lane Independent church gave him access to “a relatively sophisticated, homogenous group that could be trusted to understand and to respond appropriately to his verses.”12 Furthermore, as noted by Thomas Gibbons, it was Watts’s and the (universal) church’s good fortune that he lived and worked during a period when “he never in his own person knew any of the distresses of persecution”: “had his feeble frame been hunted down by persecution, or locked up in a damp suffocating prison,” the church and the world might have been “deprived in a great measure of his numerous useful writings.”13 Though he was well educated, was the pastor of a fashionable church, and often 11

Among the wars fought by England during Watts’s adulthood were the Nine Years’ War (1688–1697), the War of the Spanish Succession (1701–1707), the Great Northern War (Britain’s involvement was 1717–1721), and the War of the Austrian Succession (1740–1748). 12 Marshall and Todd, English Congregational Hymns, 56. 13 Gibbons, Memoirs of the Rev. Isaac Watts, 124–125.

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associated with well-to-do people, his background gave him an understanding of, and a place in his heart for, the “plain Christian.”14 Even Watts’s serious and prolonged illnesses played a part in his hymnody, for they often forced him to leave off preaching and engage in less strenuous activities, including hymn writing. David Jennings, who, as a friend of Watts, would be in a position to know, observed that “some of the finest and most useful Productions of his Pen, as particularly a good Part of his Imitation of the Psalms of David owe their Birth to those Seasons of constrained Retirement.”15 Along that line it can also be said that Watts was fortunate in having friends who provided for him the sort of care and environment that was conducive to his writing. 4

Early Life and Education

Isaac Watts was born in Southampton, Hampshire, England, on July 17, 1674, just after one of the most tumultuous periods in English history, the Civil War (1642–1649), Commonwealth and Protectorate (1649–1660), and Restoration of the monarchy under Charles II (1660). At the Restoration, the Church of England was returned to its traditional status and practices. A series of new laws, the Clarendon Code, led to persecution of those who dissented from the established church, including especially Independents (such as Watts’s family) and Roman Catholics. The statutes included the Corporation Act (1661), which required all government officials to take Communion in the Church of England; the Act of Uniformity (1662), which mandated use of the Book of Common Prayer in worship; the Conventicle Act (1664), which prevented meetings for worship outside the Church of England of more than five people who were not of the same family; and the Five Mile Act (1665), which prohibited non-Anglican ministers from coming within five miles of a town where they had previously ministered. The Test Act, passed in 1673, the year before Watts was born, required persons in civilian or military office to take an oath against the doctrine of transubstantiation (aimed against Roman Catholics) 14 In Isaac Watts: His Life and Works, Arthur Paul Davis points out that “Watts lived and moved in a middle-class world of security, culture, piety, and refinement” (37). At the same time, his publications often express his concern for the “plain Christian.” 15 David Jennings, A Sermon Occasioned by the Death of the Late Reverend Isaac Watts, D. D. Preached to the Congregation of Which He was Pastor. December 11. 1748. To which is added, the funeral oration at his interment. By Samuel Chandler (London: for J. Oswald, et al., 1749), 32–33.

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and to receive Communion in the Church of England within three months of taking their position. These laws meant that Independents were barred from many areas of English life and were often subject to penalties, a fact that would impact Watts in significant ways. Independents arose during the early seventeenth century from the belief of some that the English Reformation had not gone far enough in ridding itself of medieval accretions to the basic simplicity of Christian belief and worship. The emphasis of Independents was upon adherence to the Bible as the revealed Word of God, with the structuring of the church and its worship to be governed according to the precepts found there. Each local congregation was to be an independent entity (thus the name) and not subject to a hierarchy of ecclesiastical officers except those of their own choosing in the local context. Worship was to be relatively simple, with priority placed upon Scripture reading, its exposition, and the sermon, together with prayer and, in most places, congregational singing. Vestments, choirs, musical instruments, the Christian Year, and similar items were rejected. Watts’s father (also named Isaac) has been variously reported as a clothier and as the keeper of a “very flourishing boarding-school” in Southampton. The elder Watts was a staunch Independent and “a most pious, exemplary Christian, and honourable Deacon of the Church of Protestant Dissenters” in Southampton.16 Though he seems to have been well educated and prosperous, his Nonconformity subjected him to the restrictions imposed upon Independents by Charles II and the Church of England, and during his son’s childhood he spent several periods in prison or had to live apart from his family. Isaac Jr. was the oldest of eight children in the family. According to his own testimony, his father began to teach him Latin in 1678 when he was four years old. He began his formal education in 1680 at a Latin and writing school in Southampton under John Pinhorne. In 1688 he “Fell under considerable convictions of sin,” and in the following year he “was brought to trust in Christ, I hope.” Meanwhile, important events were happening in the country at large. Charles II was succeeded by his Roman Catholic brother, James II, in 1685. James’s 1687 promulgation of a Declaration of Indulgence for Roman Catholics and Independents, plus the birth of his son in 1688, sparked renewed fears of the reestablishment of Roman Catholicism as the state church. At the invitation of leading members of Parliament, William of Orange invaded England and James II was deposed. Parliament passed the Toleration Act, lifting many 16 Gibbons, Memoirs of the Rev. Isaac Watts, 1.

Introduction

11

of the restrictions on Independents if they swore an oath of allegiance to the monarch. William and his wife Mary were crowned as William III and Mary II in 1689, and the king accepted the Toleration Act in that year. This “Glorious Revolution” occurred during Isaac’s middle teen years and ensured the continuation of the Church of England as the state church, but also provided a significant measure of relief from active persecution for Protestant Dissenters. In 1690, now aged sixteen, Watts left Southampton to study “Phil[osophy]: &c.” in a Dissenting academy at Newington Green taught by Thomas Rowe.17 Newington Green was an agricultural village north of London, an area in and around which large numbers of Independents lived. In addition to keeping the academy, Rowe was the pastor of an Independent congregation in Holborn. While Watts had been converted some years before, to this point he was not a member of any church, and he joined Rowe’s congregation in December of 1693, just as his academic studies were ending. 5

English Congregational Song before Watts

As the last of the principal sixteenth-century Reformation churches to be established, the English church had several possible models to follow, including those of the Lutheran, Genevan Reformed, Swiss Reformed, and Radical branches. While there was some initial leaning by Henry VIII toward the Lutheran model, this was ultimately rejected, and England set its own path on the road to a national church. Nevertheless, the Church of England did adopt some aspects of the Reformation in other countries, including the singing of metrical psalms and other versified Scripture that was characteristic of the Genevan Reformed church. Work on the first English psalter began about 1547, and in 1562 the complete English psalter was published as The Whole Booke of Psalmes, Collected Into Englysh Metre By T. Starnhold I. Hopkins & Others (“Sternhold and Hopkins” or the “Old Version”). There were many complaints about the poetic quality of Sternhold and Hopkins, and a variety of other authors tried their hand at versifications of the psalms over the next century and a half. Some of these collections found their way into Dissenting churches, including perhaps the congregation in which Watts was raised. Nevertheless, Sternhold and Hopkins 17

Isaac Watts, “Memorable Affairs in my Life,” quoted in Hood, Isaac Watts, n.p. Hood gives a facsimile of the first part of this document and a transcription of the remainder; references to the “Memorable Affairs” are drawn from this source. Unfortunately, Watts carried the document only down to 1711.

12

Introduction

became the dominant resource for singing in both Church of England and Dissenting congregations in England, and continued in use well into the nineteenth century, achieving more than 600 editions in all. The nearest rival to Sternhold and Hopkins, Nahum Tate and Nicholas Brady’s A New Version of the Psalms, was published in 1696, when Watts was in his early twenties. While Tate and Brady never completely replaced the Old Version, they did provide more singable texts and became influential in city churches during the early eighteenth century. Various attempts were made to introduce the singing of hymns (as opposed to metrical psalms) into English churches of the late sixteenth century and the seventeenth century. The Old Version included a few non-biblical texts, and authors such as George Wither, William Barton, John Mason, and B ­ enjamin Keach provided freely-written hymns that could be sung congregationally. However, these hymns could not make much headway against the flood of psalm-singing; furthermore, many of the hymns written during the seventeenth century were either too esoteric for practical congregational singing or, conversely, were too poor as poetry to be useful. It would be up to Isaac Watts to strike the right balance.18 There were also groups that disputed the efficacy of singing in worship altogether, particularly among the Baptists. Essentially following the arguments of the Swiss reformer Ulrich Zwingli, General (Arminian) Baptists mostly rejected the use of “pre-limited forms” (including strophic poetic forms and tunes) and “conjoint singing” (the singing together of a mixed company of believers and unbelievers or of men and women); the only allowable type of singing was that performed under the direct inspiration of the Holy Spirit, but this was not practical and resulted in songless congregations. Particular (Calvinistic) Baptists were divided on the issue, with some following the same principles as the General Baptists, but others, such as Benjamin Keach, fully embracing metrical psalmody and even freely-composed hymns. 6

The Beginning of Watts’s Hymn Writing

After completing his studies at the beginning of 1694, Watts returned to his father’s home in Southampton, where he lived for the next “2 years & ¼.”19 18 19

For a fuller description of English church song before Watts see Benson, The English Hymn, chaps. 1–3. “Memorable Affairs.”

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According to his friend and earliest biographer, David Jennings, Watts spent this time “in reading[,] Meditation and prayer.”20 It is also possible that he wanted to spend time with his parents and family, particularly his father, who had missed so much of his early years. Whatever the reason for this hiatus, the years between the end of his schooling and the beginning of his teaching and preaching ministry apparently served as the seed-bed for his hymn writing. Thomas Gibbons, in his 1780 biography of Watts, tells the story as it was related to him by “Mr. John Morgan, a minister of very respectable character now living at Romsey, Hants.” The occasion of the Doctor’s hymns was this, as I had the account from his worthy fellow-labourer and colleague, the Rev. Mr. Price in whose family I dwelt above fifty years ago. The hymns which were sung at the dissenting-meeting at Southampton were so little to the gust of Mr. Watts that he could not forbear complaining of them to his father. The father bid him try what he could do to mend the matter. He did, and had such success in his first essay, that a second hymn was earnestly desired of him, and then a third, and fourth, &c. till in process of time there was such a number of them as to make up a volume.21 Whatever the truth of the Price/Morgan/Gibbons story—which is, after all, at least third hand and dates from more than eighty years after the events it purportedly describes—it is certain that Watts began his hymn writing (if he had not done so already) during the time between the finishing of his formal schooling and the beginning of his professional career. His first datable hymn text, “Shout to the Lord, and let our joys” (B92), a patriotic hymn for Guy Fawkes Day, was written on November 5, 1694.22 The lyric begins more or less as a conventional hymn of praise that might have been based on a psalm (though mentioning “British Skies” in the first stanza), but by the fifth stanza its context becomes clear. 20 Jennings, A Sermon Occasioned by the Death of the Late Reverend Isaac Watts, 22. In Watts’s “Memorable Affairs” for 1698 he mentions having “pursued University Studys above 8 years,” which indeed suggests that the time at Southampton was employed for additional study. 21 Gibbons, Memoirs of the Rev. Isaac Watts, 254. 22 The date of writing was given with the text in HSS (1707), 163 (B102). Guy Fawkes Day commemorates the failure of a 1605 attempt to assassinate King James I by blowing up the House of Lords. For other texts by Watts written in commemoration of Guy Fawkes Day see chap. 2.

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Their secret Fires in Caverns lay, And we the Sacrifice: But gloomy Caverns strove in vain To scape all-searching Eyes. Their dark Designs were all reveal’d, Their Treasons all betray’d: Praise to the God that broke the Snare Their cursed Hands had laid. (sts. 5–6) If the story about Isaac Sr. challenging his son to write a hymn is true, then it may have been this one that was the result.23 If Watts wrote the hymn on November 5, which in 1694 was a Friday, it could well have been sung at the church on the following Sunday. Only a single copy would be needed if it were to be lined out. On October 15, 1696, Watts took up his first professional position as tutor to John Hartopp, the son of Sir John Hartopp at Stoke Newington. At least one of Watts’s hymns can be traced to the time he lived with the Hartopps. This was “Sing to the Lord, ye heavenly hosts” (B62), which he says was “Made in a great sudden Storm of Thunder. Aug. 20th, 1697.” Titled “God the Thunderer—or, The Last Judgment, and Hell,” the text uses the “Storm of Thunder” as a metaphor to describe in strongly Calvinistic terms the “draconian heat and noise” of the terrible Judge whose justice awaits the unrepentant sinner on the Last Day.24 His Nostrils breath out fiery Streams, And from his awful Tongue, A mighty Voice divides the flames, And Thunder roars along. Think, O my Soul, the dreadful Day When this incensed God Shall rend the Sky, and burn the Sea, And fling his Wrath abroad. (sts. 3–4)

23

24

“Behold the glories of the Lamb” has often been claimed as Watts’s first hymn, but on insufficient grounds; see David W. Music, “Was ‘Behold the Glories of the Lamb’ Isaac Watts’s First Hymn?” Hymn Society of Great Britain and Ireland Bulletin 298, vol. 22, no. 5 (Winter 2019): 186–192. Marshall and Todd, English Congregational Hymns, 35.

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A year and three-quarters into his service with the Hartopps, Watts finally preached his first sermon on his birthday, July 17, 1698, perhaps at the Mark Lane Independent chapel in London,25 where, in February, 1699, he became assistant pastor, normally preaching in the Sunday morning service. Shortly after he took up this position, Watts began to suffer from what he called “fever and weakness.”26 How this might have affected the performance of his pastoral duties is not completely evident, but ongoing illness was to be a burden for the rest of his life. In March of 1700, Watts’s brother Enoch wrote him a letter that prominently mentions his hymn writing and is thus worth quoting at length. In your last [letter], you discovered an inclination to oblige the world by shewing it your Hymns in print; and I heartily wish, as well for the satisfaction of the public as myself, that you were something more than inclinable thereunto; I have frequently importuned you to it before now, and your invention [h]as often furnished you with some modest reply to the contrary, as if what I urged was only the effect of a rash and inconsiderate fondness to a brother, but you will have other thoughts of the matter, when I first assure you that that affection, which is inseparable from our near relationship, would have had in me a very different operation, for instead of pressing you to publish, I should with my last efforts have endeavoured the concealment of them, if my best judgment did not direct me to believe it highly conducing to a general benefit, without the least particular disadvantage to yourself; this latter I need not have mentioned, for I am very confident, whoever has the happiness of reading your Hymns (unless he be either sot or atheist), will have a very favourable opinion of their author, so that at the same time you contribute to the universal advantage, you will procure the esteem of men the most judicious and sensible. In the second place, you may please to consider, how very mean the performers in this kind of poetry appear in the pieces already extant. Some ancient ones I have seen in my time, who flourished in Hopkins and Sternhold’s reign; but [John] Mason now reduces this kind of writing to a sort of yawning indifferency, and honest [William] Barton chimes us asleep. There is therefore great need of a piece, vigorous and lively as yours, to quicken and revive the dying devotion of the age, to which

25 26

“Memorable Affairs” does not record where the sermon was preached. “Memorable Affairs.”

16

Introduction

­ othing can afford such assistance as poetry, contrived on purpose to elen vate us even above ourselves. . . . And as for those modern gentlemen, who have lately exhibited their version of the psalms: all of them I have not seen I confess, and perhaps it would not be worth while to do it, unless I had a mind to play the critic, which you know is not my talent; but those I have read confess to me a vast deference to yours, though they are done by persons of [no] mean credit. Dr. [John] Patrick most certainly has the report of a very learned man, and, they say, understands the Hebrew extremely well, which indeed capacitates him for a translator, but he is thereby never the more enabled to versify. Tate and Brady still keep near the same pace; I know not what sober beast they ride (one that will be content to carry double) but I am sure it is no Pegasus; there is in them a mighty deficiency of that life and soul, which is necessary to raise our fancies and kindle and fire our passions; and something or other they have to alledge [sic] against the rest of adventurers; but I have been persuaded a great while since, that were David to speak English he would choose to make use of your style. If what I have said seems to have no weight with you, yet you cannot be ignorant what a load of scandal lies on the Dissenters, only for their imagined aversion to poetry. You remember what Dr. [John] Speed says: So far hath schism prevailed, they hate to see Our lines and words in couplings to agree, It looks too like aborr’d conformity: A hymn so soft, so smooth, so neatly dress’d, Savours of human learning and the beast. And perhaps it has been thought there were some grounds for his aspersion from the admired poems of Ben Keach, John Bunyan, &c. all flat and dull as they are; nay, I am much out, if the latter has not formerly made much more ravishing music with his hammer and brass kettle. Now when yours are exposed to the public view, these calumnies will immediately vanish, which methinks should be a motive not the least considerable. And now we are talking of music, I have a crotchet in my brain, which makes me imagine that, as cords and discords equally please heavy-eared people, so the best divine poems will no more inspire the rude and illiterate than the meanest rhymes, which may in some measure give you satisfaction in that fear you discover, ne in rude vulgus cadant, and you must allow them to be tasteless to many people, tolerable to some, but to those few who know their beauties, to be very pleasant and desirable; and lastly, if I do not speak reason, I will at present take my leave of you, and only desire you to hear what your ingenious ­acquaintance[s]

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at London say to the point, for I doubt not you have many solicitors there, whose judgments are much more solid than mine.27 Several things should be noticed about Enoch’s letter, to which, unfortunately, it appears that no reply is extant. In the first place, it confirms that Isaac had already written a substantial number of hymns. Second, it shows that Isaac was contemplating printing his hymns, though he apparently needed encouragement to do so. Third, Enoch gives reasons why Isaac should publish the hymns: they will be of service to the church at large, they will redound to the praise of their author, and they will mute criticisms of the Dissenters as being averse to poetry. His analyses seem to have been prescient on Enoch’s part because each of them was fulfilled by his brother’s hymns. Indeed, Enoch’s letter seems to anticipate later comments by Samuel Johnson that Watts “was one of the first authors that taught the Dissenters to court attention by the graces of language” and to replace the “coarseness and inelegance of stile” of their “zeal and purity” with “polished diction.”28 Enoch’s (occasionally humorous) criticisms of earlier and contemporary hymn and psalm version writers is also of interest in view of Isaac’s later borrowings from some of them, particularly John Patrick and Tate and Brady. Finally, his comments that Isaac’s texts may be “tasteless” to people with little literary sense, “tolerable” to others with greater appreciation, and “pleasant and desirable” to congoscenti seems to have missed the mark, because Watts’s hymns ultimately appealed alike to average church-goers and Poets Laureate.29 Unhappiness with the pastor of the Mark Lane chapel, Isaac Chauncey, eventually led to his resignation in 1701, and Watts was approached about 27

28

29

Quoted in The Posthumous Works of the Late Learned and Reverend Isaac Watts, D.D. In Two Volumes. Compiled From Papers in Possession of His Immediate Successors: Adjusted and Published by a Gentleman of the University of Cambridge (London: for T. Becket and J. Bew, 1779), vol. 2, 163–167. No source for the poem by John Speed that was quoted by Enoch has been located, but Isaac included a response to these lines in the first edition of HL: “For Schism prevails no more; we love to see / Our Words and Lines in Couplings well agree / Nor do we thus abhor Conformity. / Hymns may be soft and smooth and comely Drest / With humane Art, nor savour of the Beast” (208). Speed was a Southampton physician who is said to have been one of the townspeople who offered to support Isaac if he attended one of the universities (see Davis, Isaac Watts, 9). Samuel Johnson, “Watts,” in Prefaces, Biographical and Critical, to the Works of the English Poets, vol. 8 (London: John Nichols, 1781), 13. Johnson’s critique of earlier Dissenting poets was itself critiqued in Samuel Palmer’s reprint of Johnson as The Life of the Rev. Isaac Watts, D. D. With Notes. Containing Animadversions and Additions (London: for J. F. and C. Rivington, and J. Buckland, 1785). Among the latter are Robert Bridges and John Betjeman.

18

Introduction

becoming senior minister. However, his illness seems to have become particularly pronounced about this time, and it was impossible for him to accept this responsibility. He did not resume preaching at Mark Lane until November of 1701, having missed five months in the pulpit of his church. His return prompted the church to offer him the pastorate of the congregation on January 15, 1702, which, after some hesitation, he accepted on March 8, the very day on which William III died and Anne of Denmark became Queen of England. Though Watts had been assistant pastor of Mark Lane for three years, he had never moved his membership from Thomas Rowe’s church. This was done and he was ordained to the ministry at Mark Lane on March 18. However, Watts’s poor health continued, and in the fall of 1702, he again had a significant illness. In June, 1703, the church appointed Samuel Price as assistant pastor to relieve Watts of some of his duties. Despite Watts’s illness, the church of which he was pastor thrived, and in June of 1704, the congregation moved to Pinners’ Hall, where it continued to meet until 1708, when it moved to a new building on Bury Street. 6.1 Horæ Lyricæ A landmark event for Watts came in December of 1705 when his first book, Horæ Lyricæ: Poems Chiefly of the Lyric Kind, was published.30 The book was in two parts, “Songs, &c. Sacred to Devotion” and “Odes, Elegys, &c. to Vertue Loyalty and Friendship.” In the preface, Watts observed that “It has been a long Complaint of the Vertuous and Refined World, that Poesie whose Original is Divine, should be enslav’d to Vice and Profaneness.”31 It was Watts’s purpose to help remedy this situation by providing poems that had their basis in religion and other elevating subjects. Later in the preface, Watts describes “the songs sacred to devotion,” which he says, Were never written with a design to appear before the Judges of Wit, but only to assist the Meditations and Worship of Vulgar [i.e., common] Christians, to whom the Measures of [Sternhold and] Hopkins by Custom are grown Familiar and Natural, and esteemed almost Sacred by being bound up in the same Volume with Scripture. These are but a small part of two hundred Hymns of the same kind which are ready for Public Use if the World receive favourably what I now present. The Reason that sent these out first, and divided them from their Fellows, is, that in most of 30 31

Though dated 1706 on the title page, Watts’s “Memorable Affairs” and other information makes it clear that the book was issued in December of 1705. The preface to the first edition of HL does not include page numbers.

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These there are some Expressions which are not suited to the plainest Capacities, and differ too much from the usual Methods of Speech in which Holy Things are propos’d to the general Part of Mankind.32 Here are seen two features that were to become characteristic of Watts’s later hymn publications: an emphasis on assisting the worship of plain Christians and the use of a form that was already familiar, the metrical patterns of the Old Version. The preface also shows that Watts had steadily added to the body of hymns he had written over the past eleven years or so and that he was almost ready to publish the whole lot. In spite of Watts’s implication that the pieces in Horæ Lyricæ would not appear in the proposed collection of hymns because of their elevated tone, he did include four of them in Hymns and Spiritual Songs: “Blest is the man, whose cautious feet” (HL, p. 54), “Look, gracious God, how numerous they” (56), “Sing to the Lord with joyful voice” (59), and “Lo, what an entertaining sight” (61).33 Each of these texts was based on a psalm, and all were reprinted without significant change except for two rhyming words in “Blest is the man” and one stanza in “Lo, what an entertaining sight.” Eventually, they were transferred from Hymns and Spiritual Songs to The Psalms of David Imitated, often with further revision.34 6.2 Hymns and Spiritual Songs A year and a half after publishing Horæ Lyricæ, Watts fulfilled the promise he had made in the preface to that book by issuing Hymns and Spiritual Songs (1707), a collection of 210 hymns with a group of doxologies.35 In contrast to his earlier book, all the texts in Hymns and Spiritual Songs were intended for singing. Watts included a lengthy preface explaining his purpose in the book: to improve the congregational singing of the churches. He paints a dismal scene of the current state of the church’s song: “While we sing the Praises of our God 32

According to Gibbons, Memoirs of the Rev. Isaac Watts, Watts “himself informed me” that he “thought it best . . . to send his Lyric Poems first into the world [i.e., before HSS], considering with himself it is not improbable, that if these were accepted with mankind they would be in a favourable disposition to receive his hymns, but that if the brighter and best productions of his Muse in his Lyric Odes did not meet with success it might be prudent in him to withhold from the public a work in which, in condescension to the plainest capacities, he had purposely reduced his poetry to a lower strain” (255). 33 See HSS (1707), A21, A47, A43, and A44. 34 For a full discussion of HL as a predecessor to HSS see Escott, Isaac Watts, Hymnographer. 35 According to Watts’s “Memorable Affairs,” HSS was printed in July, 1707.

20

Introduction

in his Church, we are employ’d in that part of Worship which of all others is the nearest a-kin to Heaven; and ‘tis pity that this of all others should be perform’d the worst upon Earth” (iii). In Watts’s opinion, the fault for this situation lay primarily with “the Matter and Words to which we confine all our Songs,” that is, the Old Testament psalms. “Some of ‘em,” he says, “are almost opposite to the Spirit of the Gospel: Many of them foreign to the State of the New-­ Testament, and widely different from the present Circumstances of Christians” (iv). Watts was concerned that “by keeping too close to David in the House of God, the Vail of Moses is thrown over our Hearts” and there was a danger that the people “should speak a Fals[e]hood unto God” (v, vi). Watts certainly had great respect for the psalter, and had no desire “to lay aside the Psalms of David in public Worship,” but he also observed that “there are a thousand Lines in it which were not made for a Saint in our Day to assume as his own,” as well as “many deficiencies of Light and Glory which our Lord Jesus and his Apostles have supply’d in the Writings of the New Testament” (vi–vii). He points out the variety of topics included in his collection and his avoidance of “the more obscure and controverted Points of Christianity” so that all may join together in singing God’s praises (vii–viii). Watts went on to describe the general format of the hymns and the structure of the book. He pointed out that the volume is divided into three parts, the first based on particular passages of Scripture, the second of items that are freely composed, and the third of hymns specifically designed for the Lord’s Supper. At the end of the book, Watts appended a further “Short Essay Toward the Improvement of Psalmody,” in which he gave suggestions on “how the Psalms of David ought to be translated in Christian Songs, and how lawful and necessary it is to compose other Hymns according to the clearer Revelations of the Gospel, for the Use of the Christian Church” (233). He discusses at length the mentions of singing in the Bible, and distinguishes between the terms “psalm,” “hymn,” and “song” as found in the New Testament, describing a “psalm” as “a general Name for any thing that is sung in Divine Worship, whatsoever be the particular Theme or Matter” (though he admits that most uses of the word in the New Testament are to the Old Testament book), a “hymn” as “a Song whose Matter or Design is Praise,” and a “song” as “any Theme or Subject compos’d into a Form fit for Singing, and . . . somewhat suited to the Gospel-State, rather than any Jewish Psalms or Songs” (237– 238). He then describes how and why the psalms should be adapted for use in Christian worship, noting that “to prepare them for Psalmody under the Gospel requires another sort of Management in the Translation, than to prepare them meerly for reading as the Word of God in our Language”: they must be turned into verse and meter so they can be sung to strophic tunes (241),

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and in reading “we learn what God speaks to us in his Word,” but in singing we should “speak our own Hearts and our Words to God” (243). Some psalms “that are purely Doctrinal, or meerly Historical” can be assumed by Christians without significant change (he names as examples Pss. 1, 8, and 19), others can be adapted by a change of pronouns with minimal other alterations, but some cannot be used without “very great Alterations, (viz.) such as are filled with some very particular Troubles or Enemies of a Person, some Places of Journeying or Residence, some uncommon Circumstances of a Society, to which there is scarce any thing parallel in our Day or Case” (245–246). He suggests that it is not necessary to translate “intire Psalms” nor to prepare “the whole Book for English Psalmody,” and points to John ­Patrick’s assertion that in omitting some psalmodic passages he was merely taking “the same Liberty” as the song leaders of the churches (248). Watts points out numerous passages in the psalms “which were hardly made for Christian Lips to assume without some Alteration” (248) and establishes two rules to be observed in making the sung psalms relevant for Christians: to translate them “as we have reason to believe David would have compos’d ‘em if he had lived in our Day” (252) and to alter or add to their texts to fit the present circumstances of Christians. He next turns to the necessity for Christians to write new songs (ones not tied to the psalms) to express the gospel. Among the reasons he gives are the following. 1. The alteration of the psalms to make them fit vehicles for Christian psalmody automatically takes them out of the realm of the “inspired or Divine: only the Materials or the Sense contain’d therein may in a large Sense be called the Word of God, as it is borrowed from that Word” (256). 2. The purpose of congregational singing is “to speak our own Experience of divine Things, especially our religious Joy,” which cannot be accomplished if a Christian “confines his Meditations, his Joys, and his Praises, to the Hebrew Book of Psalms” (pp. 257–258). 3. The New Testament calls upon believers to sing and give thanks to God “in the Name of our Lord Jesus Christ” (260–261; Eph. 5:19, Col. 3:16), which cannot be done if the singing is restricted to versifications of the psalms. 4. There are many “Occasions for [Christian] Praise and Thanksgivings, as well as for Prayer” that cannot be adequately covered by the psalms. Furthermore, “in the History of Scripture, . . . new Favours receiv’d from God were continually the Subject of new Songs” (261–262). 5. References in 1 Corinthians 14 to composing or singing “spiritual Songs” under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit show that such inspiration did not cease with the completion of the book of Psalms but was continued in the Christian church (264).

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6.

Finally, he points to “The Faith, the Hope, the Love, and the heavenly Pleasure that many Christians have profess’d while they have been singing evangelical Hymns” (266). Watts finishes the essay by answering some objections to the use of “Christianized” psalms and new composures, ending with an apology in case the hymns contained in his book do not measure up to the ideals he has set forth in the “Short Essay.”36 The preface and the “Short Essay” are important documents that bring to light the shortcomings in contemporary congregational song, set out Watts’s purposes and procedure in writing his hymns, and defend both his use of Scripture and his own creativity in the texts. The release of Hymns and Spiritual Songs was well timed, for interest in improving both the textual and musical sides of congregational singing was growing. The London Particular Baptist pastor Benjamin Keach had introduced singing at his church during the Lord’s Supper in about 1673–1675, and on Thanksgiving days some five years later, without, apparently, any controversy. However, when he began making more extensive use of song to conclude the regular Sunday services, Keach was opposed by Isaac Marlow in A Brief Discourse Concerning Singing in the Public Worship of God (1690). Keach responded with a defense of his position in The Breach Repaired in God’s Worship, or, Singing of Psalms, Hymns, and Spiritual Songs, Proved to be an Holy Ordinance of Jesus Christ (1691). Other writers joined the fray on both sides of the issue, and numerous books and pamphlets on the efficacy of singing were published through the end of the seventeenth century. The majority of these writings advocated the necessity and “lawfulness” of singing in corporate worship, and some, including Keach, went so far as to advocate the “compiling [and singing of] Sacred Hymns . . . out of the Word of Christ” rather than singing only metrical psalms.37 Six or seven months after Watts’s Hymns and Spiritual Songs came off the press, another volume was published under the title Practical Discourses of Singing in the Worship of God; Preach’d at the Friday Lecture in Eastcheap. By several [Independent] ministers. One of the preachers points out that the body of people who have systemic objections to singing in worship “are considerably lessen’d in their Numbers” because of the work of their ministers, along the way mentioning “those excellent Composures wherewith One of them hath oblig’d the Christian Church,” probably a reference to Watts’s hymns.38 36 37 38

For further discussion of the “Short Essay” see Escott, Isaac Watts, Hymnographer, chap. 5. Benjamin Keach, Spiritual Melody (London: for John Hancock, 1691), [xi]. Practical Discourses of Singing in the Worship of God; Preach’d at the Friday Lecture in Eastcheap. By Several Ministers (London: J. Darby for N. Cliff and J. Philips, 1708), 103. The preface of this book is dated February 13, 1708.

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23

A little later, he points out that “Tho we approve and shall presently vindicate the Practice of our Churches in singing David’s Psalms, yet we are not against other Composures” (117). Another preacher mentions Watts by name for his “ingenious Essay” identifying the singing in Revelation as representing the Christian church.39 On the musical side, during the second half of the seventeenth century, John Playford sought to bring more vitality to psalm singing by providing “correct and up-to-date musical texts of the tunes in use,” and by suggesting appropriate matches between texts and tunes. Playford’s work was continued into the eighteenth century by his son Henry, who published new tunes by composers such as John Church, Jeremiah Clark, and William Croft.40 The early eighteenth century also saw the burgeoning of composer-compilers who published collections of their own original tunes. Both Horæ Lyricæ and Hymns and Spiritual Songs met with ready acceptance. In a letter to Samuel Say, dated December 23, 1708, Watts told his friend that “My bookseller urges me to reprint my Hymns, and talks of another edition of the Poems. I earnestly beg you to point me those lines in either which are offensive to the weak and pious, and shocking and disgustful to the polite, or obscure to the vulgar capacity, or, in short, whatever you think should be mended, and if you please with your amendment; but I entreat it especially for the Hymns in a fortnight’s time.”41 On March 12, 1709, Watts acknowledged receiving Say’s critique and gave some information about his procedure in making revisions. Your two letters require a larger answer than I can now give, but I am ashamed of so long delay. I send you my thanks for those few remarks you were pleased to make on my Hymns. I easily believe a longer review of them would have afforded more numerous and more obvious grounds of friendly censure. The method I took was, to collect all the remarks together, that several friends had made by word or letter, and got a friend or two together, and spent a whole day in perusing and considering the remarks; I agreed to their judgments I think in all things; in the whole, there are near half a hundred lines altered, I hope always for the better. Some that were less offensive were let pass; for the bookseller desired 39

Ibid., 153. On p. 154, the preacher (“Mr. Newman”) observes that he had not seen Watts’s essay until after “the Composure of this Discourse.” His reference is to p. 239 of the “Short Essay.” 40 Nicholas Temperley, “John Playford and the Metrical Psalms,” Journal of the American Musicological Society 25, no. 3 (Autumn 1972): 331–378. The quotation earlier in the paragraph is from p. 341. 41 Milner, Life, Times, and Correspondence, 229.

24

Introduction

I would not change too much; besides that lesser faults would not be spied by the vulgar, nor much offend the polite. But I have added above a hundred, and most of them to the First Book. I hope all now more approvable, for their chief design, than the foregoing edition. The printer, by the cold weather, and by working off a supplement of the New Hymns apart, has been made so dilatory, that he has not yet printed all the First Book. If, therefore, you see lines that are very unfit for Christian use, or evidently improper, or disagreeable to you in the Second or Third Books, point them out to me in a week or two, and oblige me further.42 Second editions of both Hymns and Spiritual Songs and Horæ Lyricæ were issued in 1709, in April and May, respectively. The former included a group of “Advertisements concerning the second Edition” following the preface, which noted that “almost 150 new Hymns” were added, and that “various Corrections” were made in the original texts. Watts pointed out that he had omitted “About 14 or 15” psalms that were included in the first edition because he hoped “to convert the biggest part of the Book of Psalms into Spiritual Songs for the Use of Christians.” Indeed, he indicated that he had “already proceeded half way thro’” preparing his psalter for publication.43 Despite the additions and deletions from the second edition, the numbering of the hymns remained the same as in the first edition: at the numbers of the omitted pieces, Watts simply referred the reader or singer to the relevant psalm in the forthcoming Psalms of David Imitated, while the new lyrics were grouped at the end of each part. Another change he made was to enclose certain stanzas of some hymns in brackets (he called them “Crotchets”) to indicate strophes that could be left out if desired without adversely affecting the meaning of the hymn. Watts omitted the “Short Essay” from the second edition to keep the book within reasonable limits and because of his intention to provide “a more 42 43

Ibid., 229–230. HSS (1709), xi. For a list of the psalms and portions of psalms that were omitted in the second edition see Escott, 137–139. It should be pointed out that Watts did not delete every hymn that was based on the book of Psalms from the second edition, but only those that were derived from a single psalm; where the text depended on more than one psalm it was retained, as was the case with, for example, “God of the morning, at whose voice” (A79; see chap. 6). In one of a series of “THOUGHTS and MEDITATIONS in a long Sickness, 1712 and 1713” published in Reliquiæ Juveniles: Miscellaneous Thoughts in Prose and Verse on Natural, Moral, and Divine Subjects; Written Chiefly in Younger Years (London: for Richard Ford and Richard Hett, 1734), Watts included a note that at this time (ca. 1712) his “Imitation of David’s Psalms in Christian Language was not half done” and that “As fast as I recover’d Strength after this long Illness, I apply’d myself by degrees to finish it “ (177).

Introduction

25

compleat Treatise of Psalmody”; the “compleat Treatise” was never published and the “Short Essay” was not reprinted in later editions of Hymns and Spiritual Songs, though some of its arguments were repeated in the preface to The Psalms of David Imitated.44 Finally, as also noted in the letter to Samuel Say quoted above, Watts indicated that the printer was willing to publish a supplement containing the new hymns for patrons who had purchased the first edition of Hymns and Spiritual Songs.45 Hymns and Spiritual Songs went on to achieve sixteen editions during Watts’s lifetime and over 650 editions through 1881.46 In 1712, we get another glimpse of Watts at work on The Psalms of David Imitated. The August 19 issue of Joseph Addison and Richard Steele’s The Spectator included an anonymous letter complimenting the paper on printing “Divine Poems” that “promote the Interests of Virtue, while you reform the Taste of a prophane Age.” The author went on to say that “Upon reading the Hymns that you have publish’d in some late Papers, I had a Mind to try Yesterday whether I could write one. The 114th Psalm appears to me an admirable Ode, and I began to turn it into our Language.” After describing some unusual features of the psalm, he notes that he has “attempted to imitate in a Translation without Paraphrase, and to preserve what I could of the Spirit of the sacred Author,” then asks the editor(s) to “bestow upon it a few Brightenings from your Genius, that I may learn how to write better, or to write no more.” This is followed by a hymn of six stanzas, “When Israel, freed from Pharoah’s [sic] hand.” That it was Watts who wrote the letter and hymn is evident from the fact that the text appeared seven years later in The Psalms of David Imitated with only slight revision.47

44

45 46 47

Watts also promised the publication of a separate essay on psalmody in the preface to his Psalms of David Imitated (1719), but this too was never fulfilled. In a letter to the New England minister Benjamin Colman, dated October 12, 1739, Watts observed “I have had many a design these twenty years to publish some discourses that lye by me on the ordinance of singing and ye manner of forming spiritual songs for Christian worship, but hitherto my want of health as well as other businesses have prevented me, and now my health is at so low an ebb that I much question whether I shall ever do it.” Proceedings of the Massachusetts Historical Society, 2nd series 9, 1894–1895 (Boston: by the Society, 1895), 369. HSS (1709), xiii–xiv. No copies of the supplement are known. See Bishop, Isaac Watts’s Hymns and Spiritual Songs (1707). The Spectator 461 (August 19, 1712), 1–2. Watts’s statement that he would “try” to see “whether I could write” a hymn seems disingenuous since he had already published more than 350 texts in Hymns and Spiritual Songs alone and was probably more than half-way through the preparation of The Psalms of David Imitated. Davis, Isaac Watts, 220–221, ­considers this statement from “The best hymn-writer in England” a “false humility.”

26

Introduction

In the month following publication of Watts’s letter and psalm version, he suffered a debilitating illness that was so severe he could no longer fill the pulpit at Bury Street. The illness incapacitated him for four years, until October, 1716, when he was finally able to return to preaching, though apparently on a limited basis. In view of Watts’s unavailability, the church upgraded ­Samuel Price’s position from assistant pastor to co-pastor, and he evidently took over most of the ministerial duties during that period. Sometime after being stricken by the illness, Watts was invited to spend a week at the home of Sir Thomas and Lady Mary Abney. However, this one-week visit extended to the rest of his life. In the home of the Abneys and their three daughters, Watts found a congenial retreat with people whom he loved and respected, and who in turn cared for him deeply and reciprocated his affection. 6.3 Divine Songs Watts’s 1712–1716 illness, serious though it was, did not keep him from literary efforts. In 1715, he published Divine Songs Attempted in Easy Language for the Use of Children. Watts dedicated the book to the Abney daughters, to whom, he noted in a later writing, he had offered his “Assistance in some part of your Education, while I was uncapable of more publick Work.”48 He also complimented them on learning “by heart so large a number of the Hymns I have published.”49 In the preface, he indicated that his purpose in issuing the book was “to give Minds of Children a relish of Vertue and Religion” through poetry, a medium that gives “a greater Delight in the very learning of Truths and Duties.” “What is learnt in Verse,” he noted, “is longer retain’d in Memory, and sooner recollected.” He pointed out that much of the book was written “several Years ago, at the request of a Friend” who was involved in catechizing children, and that he “endeavoured to sink the Language to the Level of a Child’s Understanding” and yet to “keep it (if possible) above Contempt.” That Watts intended for most of the poems to be sung is evident from his statement that he “confin’d the Verse to the most usual Psalm Tunes.” The volume contains twenty-eight “songs,” plus poetic renderings of several Scripture passages, a group of doxologies repeated from Hymns and Spiritual Songs, and “a slight specimen of moral songs,” one on “The Sluggard” and

48 49

Whether the slight revision Watts made in “When Israel, freed from Pharaoh’s hand” was due to feedback from Addison or Steele is not known, but seems unlikely. “Dedication,” in I. Watts, The Art of Reading and Writing English (London: for John Clark, Em. Matthews, and Richard Ford, 1721), iv. This book was also dedicated to the Abney daughters. DS, dedication (the pages are unnumbered).

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another on “Innocent Play.” These “songs” are not hymns in the sense of being lyrics designed for use in worship, but are instead teaching tools for children at home or in catechism classes, though one of them, “I sing th’ almighty power of God,” has appeared widely in hymnals and been sung by people of all ages. While Watts attempted to “sink the language” to that of children and, indeed, the songs often mention children or youth, from a modern view, they frequently deal with very “adult” subjects: original sin, death, and hell (“Blest be the wisdom and the power”); the providence of God (“Lord, I ascribe it to thy grace”); God’s omniscience (“Almighty God, thy piercing eye”); etc. At this time, children were seen essentially as miniature adults and did not benefit from the romanticized nineteenth-century view of them as “pretty little lambs, / Softly skipping by their dams.”50 Despite the book’s mixture of theological seriousness and naïveté, it became a best-seller, and—according to one account— ultimately achieved more than 600 editions and reprints, often under the altered title Divine and Moral Songs.51 6.4 The Psalms of David Imitated In the preface to the first edition of Divine Songs, Watts noted the presence of the “moral songs” at the end of the book, hoping that some “fitter Pen” would “write a little Book of them.” “My Talent doth not lie that way,” he said, and “Besides, if I had Health or Leisure to lay out this way, it should be employ’d in finishing the Psalms, which I have so long promised the World.” Watts had first indicated publicly his intention to compile a complete psalter in the second edition of Hymns and Spiritual Songs (1709). The 1712 letter to The Spectator and the 1715 preface of Divine Songs showed that he was still working on the project. Watts’s paraphrasing of the psalms came to the notice of some of the Puritan preachers of New England, probably through the preface to the second edition of Hymns and Spiritual Songs, a copy of which the Englishman had sent to the Boston minister Cotton Mather in 1711. On September 27, 1715, Mather wrote to Watts with “a commission from the principal ministers in the country to solicit you that you would expedite the version of the Psalms whereof you

50 51

“Infants’ School,” quoted in J. R. Brown, Cultivation of the Infant Mind; Forming an Epitome of the System of Infant Education: with Lessons and Rhymes for Infant Schools and the Nursery, 5th ed. (London: the author, 1834), 115. See Isaac Watts, Divine Songs Attempted in Easy Language for the Use of Children. Facsimile Reproductions of the First Edition of 1715 and an Illustrated Edition of Circa 1840, With an Introduction and Bibliography by J. H. P. Pafford (London: Oxford University Press, 1971), 1–2, 61–63, 275–278.

28

Introduction

have given us an expectation.”52 Watts’s response to the letter (if any) does not appear to be extant, but on March 17, 1718, he sent a group of psalms in manuscript to Mather, asking for his “free censure and judgment of ‘em,” but also that “none of them may steal out into public.” He went on to observe that “If God allow me one year more, even under my present weaknesses, I hope he will enable me to finish my design.”53 Watts’s prayer for strength to finish the work was answered, and in 1719 he finally completed the task of writing and publishing The Psalms of David Imitated in the Language of the New Testament. The title of the book is significant, for it indicates, as Watts observed in the preface, that this was not “an exact Translation of the Psalms of David” but an “imitation” of them (iv). During the eighteenth century, the word “imitation” was used to describe writing in the style of an earlier author, but in a way that the earlier essayist or poet probably would have written if living in the present day. Thus, Watts’s purpose in The Psalms of David Imitated was to make the psalmist “always speak the common Sense and Language of a Christian,” and especially an eighteenth-century British Christian (xvi). His “chief Design” was to provide material for public and family worship but he also hoped that it would be employed in private devotion; he further suggested that children be taught to memorize the texts (xxix–xxx). In addition to an expansive preface, which repeats some of the arguments from the “Short Essay” of Hymns and Spiritual Songs, Watts incorporated notes to many of the psalm versions explaining some aspect of their texts or his procedure in writing them. He deleted twelve complete psalms and major portions of others, mainly because he believed that the omitted ones were not 52

53

Cotton Mather, Selected Letters of Cotton Mather, ed. Kenneth Silverman (Baton Rouge: Louisiana State University Press, 1971), 188. The immediate impetus behind Mather’s request may have been seeing the proposed psalter mentioned again in the preface to Divine Songs, which was published about three months before Mather’s letter was written. Letter from Isaac Watts to Cotton Mather, March 17, 1718, quoted in George Hood, The History of Music in New England (Boston: Wilkins, Carter & Co., 1846; reprint ed., New York: Johnson Reprint Corporation, 1970), 155. That this was a partial manuscript and not the whole collection is evident from Watts’s statement that Mather’s opinion “will help me in correcting others by them.” However, the package sent by Watts included a version of the preface as well as his notes for some of the psalms. Watts sent Mather a copy of the book after it came off the press; the Boston minister acknowledged Watts’s work, but also indicated that the New Englanders preferred more literal versions of the psalms. See David W. Music, “Cotton Mather and Congregational Singing in Puritan New England,” Studies in Puritan American Spirituality 2 (1991): 13–14, “Isaac Watts in America before 1729,” The Hymn 50, no. 1 (January 1999): 30, and Christopher N. Phillips, “Cotton Mather Brings Isaac Watts’s Hymns to America; or, How to Perform a Hymn without Singing It,” The New England Quarterly 84, no. 2 (June 2012): 203–221.

Introduction

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fit for Christian worship.54 Instead, he provided multiple versions of some psalms, usually either to accommodate different hymnic meters or to emphasize diverse aspects of the text. Some of the longer psalms were broken up into multiple hymns to shorten them or had pauses inserted. He also continued the practice he had established in the second edition of Hymns and Spiritual Songs of enclosing selected stanzas in brackets to indicate strophes that could be omitted in performance. Watts’s techniques in “Christianizing” the psalms are discussed more fully in chapter 1. Here it should be noted that his approach differed considerably from that of his English predecessors, his works being paraphrases rather than versifications. He also often borrowed lines, phrases, rhyme schemes, and even entire stanzas (or multiple stanzas) from the works of previous psalmodists. While he acknowledged this practice in the preface to The Psalms of David Imitated, he copied much more heavily from his predecessors than indicated there, though usually with alterations, adaptations, omissions, and additions. Thus, his versions are sometimes imitations not only of the psalms themselves, but also of the works of earlier versifiers.55 Not everyone was enamored with what Watts did in his work on the psalms. Particular exception was taken to his statements in both Hymns and Spiritual Songs and The Psalms of David Imitated about the inadequacy of the psalms as the sole lyrical expression for Christian worship and the need for them to be “Christianized.” He was accused of setting up “Watts’s Psalms” in opposition to “David’s Psalms,” a suggestion to which Watts responded, “I abhor the thought.”56 He also received criticism for omitting some of the psalms, though he had explained his reasons for doing so in the preface.57

54 55 56 57

For further discussion of the omitted psalms see chap. 1. See chap. 4. In his book Isaac Watts and Contemporary Hymn-Writers, 126–130, Thomas Wright seems to suggest that Watts paraphrased the texts of the psalms in biblical order, a claim that lacks any direct evidence. See David W. Music, “The Early Reception of Isaac Watts’s Psalms of David Imitated,” The Hymn 69, no. 4 (Autumn 2018): 17–19. See Watts’s January 16, 1740, letter to the Boston, Massachusetts, minister Benjamin Colman in Proceedings of the Massachusetts Historical Society, 2nd series 9, 1894–1895 (Boston: the Society, 1895), 368–369. In Reliquiæ Juveniles, Watts included a poem, “The Hebrew Poet,” that points out “the Difficulty of a just Translation of the Psalms of David, in all their Hebrew Glory; with an Apology for the Imitation of them in Christian Language” (p. 12), in which he defends his “Christianizing” of the psalms. The poem opens by suggesting that “the Man that dares and sings / Great David’s Verse to British Strings” is “bold and vain / As building Babel’s Tower again.” The last stanza, however, notes that “David’s Son is all her [Watts’s muse’s] Theme, / She begs some humble Place to sing / In Consort with Judea’s King.”

30

Introduction

Despite the critics, The Psalms of David Imitated was an immediate success, at least in terms of sales. A second edition was published in the same year as the first (1719), but with an abbreviated preface and the textual notes omitted to shorten the book and make it cheaper and easier to carry. Subsequent editions followed both formats. A note at the end of the preface to the seventh edition of Hymns and Spiritual Songs (1720) points out that “the World seems to have received [PDI] with Approbation, by the Sale of some Thousands in a Year’s time” (xiv). According to Thomas Milner, more than four thousand copies were sold in its first year of publication, and even one of Watts’s critics observed in 1727 that copies flew off the shelves of the booksellers “by Thousands in a Year.”58 Fifteen editions were issued during Watts’s lifetime. After Watts’s death, The Psalms of David Imitated and Hymns and Spiritual Songs were often printed or bound together as a single volume of “Psalms and Hymns by Dr. Watts,” and, in this form, became the central repertory for many churches for the next hundred years. Christopher N. Phillips pointed out another important feature of these two books: “The design of Hymns (1707) and Psalms (1719) was as new as anything in the contents, and this design shaped an entire culture of devotional reading that extended more than a century beyond Watts’s own time.”59 With the publication of The Psalms of David Imitated, Watts essentially completed his attempt to reform the song of the church and turned his attention to other subjects. As reflected in the titles of his two principal congregational song collections, he had spent the early years of his writing ministry providing English-speaking Christians with the “psalms and hymns and spiritual songs” that enabled them to fulfill the injunction of the apostle Paul in Colossians 3:16 and Ephesians 5:19.60 As he himself put it, “if an Author’s own Opinion may be taken, he esteems it [the publication of HSS and PDI] the greatest Work that ever he has publish’d, or ever hopes to do, for the Use of the Churches.”61 He also contributed to the spiritual education of children through song. While he continued to publish hymns from time to time, mostly in conjunction with 58 Milner, Life, Times, and Correspondence, 360; Music, “The Early Reception,” 18. The source for Milner’s figure is not known. 59 Phillips, The Hymnal, 88. Among the innovative features of Watts’s books were the inclusion of first-line indexes (rather than indexes of titles) and—in the second edition of Hymns and Spiritual Songs—a scriptural index (the latter was obviously not needed in The Psalms of David Imitated); see Phillips, 89–90. 60 Watts’s only prose publications before 1720 were An Essay Against Uncharitableness (1707), A Sermon Preach’d at Salters-Hall (1707), and A Guide to Prayer (1715). 61 HSS (1720), xiv.

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printed sermons, his major contributions to the song of the church ended in 1719, and he concentrated his later thinking and writing mainly on textbooks and theological works. 7

Final Years

In 1721, Watts issued a collection of Sermons on Various Subjects . . . Together with a Sacred Hymn Annexed to Each Subject.62 He followed this with two more volumes of sermons “on various subjects” and associated hymns (1723, 1729). He wrote extensively (and controversially) on the doctrine of the Trinity and other religious subjects, but also provided books on practical aspects of Christianity, as well as volumes on English, spelling, logic, astronomy, and philosophy. His expertise on an array of topics prompted David Jennings to observe that “I question whether any Author before him did ever appear with Reputation on such a Variety of Subjects, as he has done, both as a Prose-Writer, and a Poet.”63 In 1728, Watts received the honorary Doctor of Divinity degree from the Universities of Edinburgh and Aberdeen in recognition of his work. He continued as co-pastor with Samuel Price of the Bury Street church until his death on November 25, 1748. Isaac Watts’s family and upbringing, religious convictions, education, teaching and pastoral ministries, friends, poetic abilities, creativity, and even his illnesses combined to form an individual who was well equipped to create a revolution in church song. Watts lived long enough to see the hymnic patterns that he had established during his early years become the accepted standard for English-language congregational song. His works inaugurated the eighteenth-century’s “Golden Age of English Hymnody,” a beginning that flowered further in the texts of Charles Wesley, John Newton, William Cowper, John Cennick, Samuel Medley, Edward Perronet, Robert Robinson, Anne Steele, Samuel Stennett, Augustus Toplady, and other writers of sacred lyrics, and that has continued to the present day. 62 63

I. Watts, Sermons on Various Subjects (London: for John Clark, Em. Matthews, and Richard Ford, 1721). Jennings, A Sermon Occasioned by the Death of the Late Reverend Isaac Watts, 28.

Chapter 1

The Bible and the Hymns of Watts The importance of the Bible for Isaac Watts and his fellow Dissenters was reflected in his works in two ways: through his writing of hymns about the Bible and through his use of the Scriptures in his hymns. Watts’s hymns about the Bible are discussed in chapter 2. Here the focus is on the various means by which Watts related his hymns to Scripture. Obviously, relating hymns to Scripture was nothing new. It is what every psalm versifier of the previous 150 years had attempted to do. But Watts took a different approach, one that was to profoundly change the future course of English-language congregational song. Rather than simply turning a biblical passage into a hymn, he sought to interpret these references by giving a New Testament twist to Old Testament texts, combining Scriptures in various ways, changing the “voice” of the passages, and contributing his own perception of the texts’ meaning. He also made popular the idea of the “New Testament hymn,” one based on the gospels, epistles, or Revelation and not linked to the psalms. There is even a sense in which his hymns are more biblical than those of the strict psalm versifiers, since his texts draw from the whole Bible rather than from a single book. In accomplishing these tasks, he set a pattern for relating hymns to Scripture that has continued to the present. Watts had studied Hebrew and Greek, the original languages in which the Bible was written, but he drew principally from the King James Version for his hymns. This usage of the KJV reflected, at least in part, his desire to reach the common person; it was the cadences and language of this version with which the parishioners who sang his hymns were most familiar. By remaining close to its words and expressions, Watts’s hymns formed a vital link between the Scriptures and the congregation’s song, enhancing the understanding and memorability of both the hymns and of the passages on which they were based.1

1 Watts probably made at least some use of other translations as well, including the Geneva Bible; see Donald Rodgers Fletcher, “English Psalmody and Isaac Watts” (Ph.D. diss., Princeton University, 1945), 143–144.

© David W. Music, leiden, 2022 | doi:10.1163/9789004520523_003

The Bible and the Hymns of Watts

1

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The Relationship between Hymns and the Bible

Hymns can be related to the Bible in several ways. The two principal methods are through versification and paraphrase. In versification, the object of an author is to maintain the meaning and as much of the language of the original text as possible, while placing it in a metrical form and making it practical for congregational singing. In paraphrase, a writer elaborates ideas other than those in the original text and may include words or concepts that the first author did not necessarily intend; the paraphraser will also often omit or rearrange parts of the passage. In English congregational song, the practice of versification came first (in the Sternhold and Hopkins psalter and its successors), and it was Isaac Watts who most successfully developed the practice of paraphrasing Scripture in his hymns. An important feature of paraphrase for Watts was the use of imitation; indeed, he consistently used the word “imitation” to describe his psalm versions. John Dryden called imitation “an Endeavour of a later Poet . . . to write, as he supposes that Authour [sic] would have done, had he liv’d in our Age, and in our Country.”2 Watts himself used very similar language to describe his practice of paraphrase, writing that the psalms should be versified “as we have reason to believe David would have compos’d ‘em if he had lived in our Day” (HSS, 1707, 252). Thus, in a real sense, these are not psalms at all, but hymns that are written in imitation of psalms. Common features of paraphrase include elaboration, combination, addition, and omission. Elaboration takes the scriptural text as a starting point, but then moves on to other subjects that are not part of the original text or introduces new concepts suggested by the original source. Texts from different parts of Scripture may also be combined to give a different or reinforced emphasis, and newly-written material may be inserted into the text. The paraphraser is also under no obligation to use the entire Scripture text or to keep the verses in order, but can choose which portions to work with and rearrange them as desired. Another tool for linking a hymn text to Scripture is allusion, a passing reference to a biblical passage. The citation may be of a phrase, a concept, or even a single word or name, which can begin a train of associations in the mind that both makes the text more vivid and extends its message to other areas. For 2 John Dryden, preface to Ovid’s Epistles, Translated by Several Hands (London: for Jacob Tonson, 1680), n.p. For a study of “imitation” in seventeenth- and eighteenth-century English psalmody see Roger Lund, “Making an Almost Joyful Noise: Augustan Imitation and the Psalms of David,” Journal for Eighteenth-Century Studies 39, no. 1 (March 2016): 121–139.

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chapter 1

example, a reference to ark, Daniel, Bethlehem, or cross will usually conjure up images of Noah’s Flood (or the Ark of the Covenant), the lion’s den, the birth of Jesus, or the crucifixion. Such allusions are an important part of Watts’s hymn writing. Watts made use of all these procedures of versification, paraphrase, and allusion in writing his hymns, as will be seen in the discussion below. The methods that he applied in relating both the Hymns and Spiritual Songs and The Psalms of David Imitated to the Bible are often similar. Nevertheless, there is enough variation in the ways Scripture is employed between the two collections that each book will be discussed separately. 1.1 Hymns and Spiritual Songs Watts’s employment of paraphrase in the hymns was not as radical as it was for the psalms. In paraphrasing the psalter, he worked with a set group of texts that admitted little choice of selection, whereas in the hymns he had complete freedom to choose which Scriptures to imitate. Thus, for Hymns and Spiritual Songs, he could select Old Testament passages that needed little “Christianization,” and, of course, there was no need to “Christianize” the texts that were based on New Testament passages.3 Therefore—perhaps surprisingly—his hymns sometimes remain closer to the actual Scripture text than his psalm versions. The entire first book of Hymns and Spiritual Songs consists of hymns “Collected from the Scriptures” (title page), and each text in this section is headed by a reference to one or more biblical passages, with a few texts toward the end of the part attributed to a variety of (unnamed) Scriptures. Thirty-one books of the Bible are mentioned in the hymn titles of book 1, twelve from the Old Testament and nineteen from the New; in several cases, a single hymn draws upon passages from multiple books.4 While the references include some of the 3 This statement is not quite true, of course, for the psalm paraphrases that were included in the first edition of Hymns and Spiritual Songs (some of which had originally appeared in Horæ Lyricæ), but since these were dropped in the second edition, they will be considered as part of The Psalms of David Imitated. 4 OT: Genesis, Job, Psalms, Proverbs, Song of Solomon, Ecclesiastes, Isaiah, Lamentations, Ezekiel, Micah, Nahum, Zechariah. NT: Matthew, Mark, Luke, John, Acts, Romans, 1 Corinthians, 2 Corinthians, Galatians, Ephesians, Philippians, Colossians, 2 Timothy, Titus, Hebrews, 1 Peter, 1 John, Jude, Revelation. In two instances, copying or typographical errors have crept into the Scripture references. “How beauteous are their feet” (A10) is said to be based on “Isa. 5. 2, 7, 8, 9, 10” as well as verses from Matthew 13; the period after the five is misplaced, and the reference should be to Isaiah 52:7–10. The reference for “So did the Hebrew prophet raise” (A112) is listed as “3 John, ver. 14–16” but should read “John 3, ver. 14–16.”

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lesser-known books of the Bible, such as Lamentations, Nahum, and Jude, several portions of the canon are privileged above the others: thirteen hymns draw from Song of Solomon, twenty from Isaiah, twelve from Romans, ten from 1 Corinthians, and sixteen from Revelation. Among the gospels, nine texts come from Matthew, ten from Luke, eight from John, and two from Mark. The New Testament is mentioned more than twice as often as the Old.5 There is also an occasional footnote citing a biblical allusion in the text.6 The only apparent arrangement of the hymns by Scripture reference is that all the texts that are based on Song of Solomon are grouped together as numbers 66 through 78, and that six of the last ten lyrics are derived from “several Scriptures.”7 An example of Watts’s work with an Old Testament text in Hymns and Spiritual Songs is “How honourable is the place” (A8), based on Isaiah 26:1–6. Watts

Isaiah 26

1. How honourable is the Place Where we adoring stand, Zion the Glory of the Earth, And Beauty of the Land. 2. Bulwarks of mighty Grace defend The City where we dwell, The Walls of strong Salvation made Defie th’ Assaults of Hell.

1. In that day shall this song be sung in the land of Judah; We have a strong city; salvation will God appoint for walls and bulwarks.

3. Lift up the everlasting Gates, The Doors wide open fling, Enter ye Nations that obey The Statutes of our King.

2. Open ye the gates, that the righteous nation which keepeth the truth may enter in.

5 William Eaton Stephenson, “The Heroic Hymn of Isaac Watts” (Ph.D. diss., University of California, 1963), 73. 6 See “Adore and tremble, for our God” (A42), based on Nahum 1:1–3, which gives the Scripture reference Heb. 12:29 as its source for the phrase “consuming fire.” 7 In Isaac Watts, Hymnographer (London: Independent Press, 1962), Harry Escott suggests that the hymns based on “several Scriptures” are a preparation for “the revolutionary type of hymn [not based directly on Scripture] that will be found in Book 2” (181–182). He probably means by this a preparation for the reader, since these “several Scriptures” hymns were not published until the second edition, and thus could not have served as an anticipation for texts in book 2 that appeared in the first edition.

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4. Here shall you taste unmingled Joys, 3. Thou wilt keep him in perfect And live in perfect Peace, peace, whose mind is stayed on You that have known Jehovah’s Name, thee: because he trusteth in thee. And ventur’d on his Grace. 5. Trust in the Lord, for ever trust, And banish all your Fears; Strength in the Lord Jehovah dwells, Eternal as his Years.

4. Trust ye in the Lord for ever: for in the Lord Jehovah is everlasting strength:

6. What tho’ the Rebels dwell on high, His Arm shall bring them low, Low as the Caverns of the Grave Their lofty Heads shall bow.

5. For he bringeth down them that dwell on high; the lofty city, he layeth it low; he layeth it low, even to the ground; he bringeth it even to the dust.

7. On Babylon our Feet shall tread In that rejoicing Hour, The Ruins of her Walls shall spread A Pavement for the Poor.

6. The foot shall tread it down, even the feet of the poor, and the steps of the needy.

Watts introduces the hymn with a stanza that does not derive directly from Isaiah 26, then uses a single strophe to paraphrase each verse in the passage. The stanzas repeat certain key words from the corresponding Bible verse; for example, in stanza 2, the words “Bulwarks,” “City,” “Walls,” “strong,” and “Salvation” are repeated from the parallel Scripture. The ideas expressed in both the hymn and Isaiah 26 are that God provides protection and peace for his people, that the faithful should place their trust in him, and that the wicked will be brought low. Nevertheless, there are elements in the hymn that would not be found in a typical versification by one of Watts’s predecessors or contemporaries. In stanza 2, for instance, Watts omits any reference to the phrase “In that day shall this song be sung in the land of Judah.”8 He also added the line “Defie th’ Assaults of Hell,” no version of which is found in the Isaiah passage, probably to clarify from whom the “Walls of strong salvation” are providing protection. Furthermore, the text contains several references to Scriptures other than the Isaiah passage on which it is primarily based. In fact, the first stanza is not 8 It is possible to see this phrase as the basis for st. 1, with “Zion” substituted for “Judah,” but otherwise the two passages have little in common.

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entirely freely written: it reflects two passages from the psalms, “Lord, I have loved the habitation of thy house, and the place where thine honour dwelleth” (Ps. 26:8) and “Beautiful for situation, the joy of the whole earth, is mount Zion” (Ps. 48:2a). This stanza provides a much stronger opening for the hymn than if it began with the current stanza 2 because it identifies the “strong city” (Zion). The psalm’s second verse seems to have reminded Watts of Psalm 24:7 and 9 (the two verses are identical), “Lift up your heads, O ye gates; even lift them up, ye everlasting doors,” which are incorporated as the first two lines of stanza 3, though Watts keeps the focus of the Isaiah passage that it is “the righteous nation” that will enter, rather than the “King of glory” of Psalm 24. The opening of the last stanza refers to Revelation 18:1a and 20a, “And he cried mightily with a strong voice, saying, Babylon the great is fallen . . . Rejoice over her, thou heaven.” The idea of combining Scriptures from different parts of the Bible to create a hymn was not original with Watts, and, indeed, his approach was somewhat more conservative than that employed as early as 1659 by William Barton in his A Century of Select Hymns. Whereas in Barton the individual stanzas are often based on widely scattered passages, either from different chapters of the same book or even different books altogether, Watts’s usual procedure was simply to insert a reference from another part of the Bible into a version of a discrete passage. Barton’s technique allowed him to note the scriptural basis for each stanza, whereas Watts’s insertions were often so brief and numerous that they went unremarked.9 It will be noted that nothing in Watts’s version of “How honourable is the place” specifically “Christianizes” it. However, through his combination of the passage with other Scriptures, Watts has subtly changed the text from its original focus on earthly Jerusalem to heaven and the end times. The combination of Isaiah 26:2 with Psalm 24:7 and 9, which is commonly interpreted in Christian circles as a prophecy of the ascension of Jesus, takes on the added meaning that the “righteous nation” will follow Jesus into the heavenly realm. Watts’s identification of the “lofty city” as “Babylon” reminds the singer that this metaphorical site, the center of persecution of the prophets and saints (Rev. 18:24), will be destroyed at the end of time. Thus, Watts has turned the Isaiah passage from hope for an earthly dwelling place to hope for a future life after death. Similar procedures are evident in the New Testament hymns of the book. The opening lyric, “Behold the glories of the Lamb” (A1), lists the Scripture reference as Revelation 5:6, 8–10, and 12. Watts seems to have had a particular 9 See Louis F. Benson, The English Hymn: Its Development and Use in Worship (N.p.: George H. Doran Company, 1915; reprinted, Richmond, VA: John Knox Press, 1962), 61–62.

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fondness for Revelation 5, since he included four hymns based on this chapter in book 1.10 His versions of this passage were probably intended to make vivid the account of heavenly worship as a model for how worship on earth should be carried out. “Behold the glories of the Lamb” demonstrates Watts’s alteration of the order of a biblical text; for example, stanza 6 is formed from verse 12 of Revelation 5, but the next stanza comes from verses 9–10. Furthermore, he imports phrases from other portions of Revelation that are not part of the central passage, and even pulls in allusions from the books of Psalms and Matthew. He also incorporates material that is not obviously tied directly to any specific Scripture passage (“Jesus is kind to our Complaints, / He loves to hear our Praise”). These features can be seen in the following comparison of the hymn text and the relevant Scriptures. Watts

Revelation

1. Behold the Glories of the Lamb Amidst his Father’s Throne: Prepare new Honours for his Name, And Songs before unknown.

5:6, 9: And I beheld, and, lo, in the midst of the throne and of the four beasts, and in the midst of the elders, stood a Lamb . . . And they sung a new song, . . .

2. Let Elders worship at his Feet, The Church adore around, With Vials full of Odours sweet, And Harps of sweeter Sound.

5:8: And when he had taken the book, the four beasts and four and twenty elders fell down before the Lamb, having every one of them harps, and golden vials full of odours, . . .

3. Those are the Prayers of the Saints, And these the Hymns they raise: Jesus is kind to our Complaints, He loves to hear our Praise.

5:8–9: . . . which are the prayers of the saints. And they sung a new song, saying, . . .

10

“Behold the glories of the Lamb” (A1), “All mortal vanities, be gone” (A25), “Come let us join our cheerful songs” (A62), and “What equal honours shall we bring” (A63).

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4. [Eternal Father, who shall look Into thy Secret Will? Who but the Son should take that Book And open ev’ry Seal?

5:2: And I saw a strong angel proclaiming with a loud voice, Who is worthy to open the book, and to loose the seals thereof? . . . the Lion of the tribe of Juda, the Root of David, hath prevailed to open the book, and to loose the seven seals thereof.

5. He shall fulfil thy great Decrees, The Son deserves it well; Lo, in his Hand the Sov’reign Keys Of Heav’n, and Death, and Hell.]

1:18: I am alive for evermore, Amen; and have the keys of hell and of death.

6. Now to the Lamb that once was slain, Be endless Blessings paid; Salvation, Glory, Joy remain For ever on thy Head.

5:12: . . . Worthy is the Lamb that was slain to receive power, and riches, and wisdom, and strength, and honour, and glory, and blessing. 19:1: . . . Salvation, and glory, and honour, and power, unto the Lord our God.

7. Thou hast redeem’d our Souls with Blood, Hast set the Pris’ners free, Hast made us Kings and Priests to God, And we shall reign with thee.

5:9–10: . . . and hast redeemed us to God by thy blood out of every kindred, and tongue, and people, and nation; and hast made us unto our God kings and priests: and we shall reign on the earth. Ps. 146:7b: The Lord looseth the prisoners. (See also Isa. 42:7).

8. The Worlds of Nature and of Grace Are put beneath thy Pow’r; Then shorten these delaying Days, And bring the promis’d Hour.

Matt. 28:18: All power is given unto me in heaven and in earth. Rev. 22:20: Even so, come, Lord Jesus.

This example shows another feature that is often characteristic of Watts’s paraphrases, and that is his change in the “voice” (or line of communication)

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between the Scripture and the hymn. The voice of a hymn answers the questions “who is doing the speaking?” and “who is being spoken to?” The passage in Revelation is a description of John’s vision of worship in heaven. Watts, however, changes the focus to make the hymn a call for worship on the part of his fellow earth-bound humans. This alteration of voice accords with Watts’s statement in the “Short Essay” that songs should be “Expressions of our own Experiences, or of his [God’s] Glories,” acquainting God with “what Sense we have of his Greatness and Goodness” (HSS, 1707, 243; emphases added). It also accounts for his omission of verses 7 and 11, which merely describe the angel taking the book from God and the huge assembly of angels that speak the words of praise in verse 12, neither of which would be relevant to the situation of an eighteenth-century parishioner. “How honourable is the place” and “Behold the glories of the Lamb” are typical of Watts’s approach to the paraphrasing of Scripture in book 1 of Hymns and Spiritual Songs. Because they retain the basic thoughts of the original Bible passages, in some respects they are closer to versification than to paraphrase. However, they also contain rearrangement, deletions, insertions, and cross-­ references to other Scriptures that set them apart from typical versifications. Special interest attaches to the group of hymns that is based on Song of Solomon (A66–78). These texts employ the traditional Christian allegorical interpretation of the biblical book in which the bridegroom and the bride are replaced by Christ and the church.11 “The voice of my beloved sounds” (A69), based on Song of Solomon 2:8–13, and titled “Christ appearing to his Church, and seeking her Company,” is typical. Watts

Song of Solomon 2

1. The Voice of my Beloved sounds Over the Rocks and rising Grounds, O’re Hills of Guilt and Seas of Grief He leaps, he flys to my Relief.

8: The voice of my beloved! behold, he cometh leaping upon the mountains, skipping upon the hills.

11

Later in life, Watts responded to criticisms of his “poems of divine love” in Horæ Lyricæ (and presumably the Song of Solomon hymns in HSS, as well) by noting that “Solomon’s Song was much more in use among Preachers and Writers of Divinity when these Poems were written than it is now,” dating his comment “1736.” See HL, 7th ed. (1737), xxiii. See John Coffey, “Between Puritanism and Evangelicalism,” in Heart Religion: Evangelical Piety in England & Ireland, 1690–1850 (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2016), 41–46, for a discussion of the use of Song of Solomon in Dissenting hymns, including those of Watts.

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2. Now thro’ the Vail of Flesh I see, With Eyes of Love he looks at me; Now in the Gospel’s clearest Glass He shows the Beauties of his Face.

9: . . . behold, he standeth behind our wall, he looketh forth at the windows, shewing himself through the lattice.

3. Gently he draws my Heart along Both with his Beauties and his Tongue: Rise, saith my Lord, make haste away, No mortal Joys are worth thy stay.

10: My beloved spake, and said unto me, Rise up, my love, my fair one, and come away.

4. The Jewish wintry State is gone, The Mists are fled, the Spring comes on, The Sacred Turtle-Dove we hear Proclaim the New, the Joyful Year.

11–12: For, lo, the winter is past, the rain is over and gone. The flowers appear on the earth; the time of the singing of birds is come, and the voice of the turtle is heard in our land; 13: The fig tree putteth forth her green figs, and the vines with the tender grape give a good smell.

5. Th’ Immortal Vine of Heavenly Root, Blossoms and buds, and gives her Fruit. Lo, we are come to taste the Wine; Our Souls rejoice and bless the Vine. 6. And when we hear our Jesus say, Rise up my Love, make haste away: Our Hearts would fain outfly the Wind, And leave all Earthly Loves behind.

13: . . . Arise, my love, my fair one, and come away.

Watts’s version contains many of the same terms and concepts as the original text, but his incorporation of words such as “Gospel’s” and “Jesus” gives the hymn a New Testament focus that makes it mean something quite distinct from the original.12 Indeed, the use of these terms also colors the unaltered portions to give them a different implication. While this type of hermeneutic was not new in Christian interpretations of Song of Solomon, it was new in 12

For discussion of the “Jewish wintry State” and Watts’s other references to the Jews see chap. 2.

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contemporary congregational song. British congregational song books of the late seventeenth and early eighteenth centuries did not typically include versifications of the Song of Solomon, but English poetic renderings of the book for singing were not unknown at the time, though, unlike Watts, these were mostly in the form of straightforward versifications without any attempt to interpret the text in a Christian light.13 In view of Watts’s well-known “Christianizing” of the psalms by incorporating New Testament references into the Old Testament book, it is interesting to note his use of the reverse process in some of the texts of Hymns and Spiritual Songs. “Let me but hear my Saviour say” (A15), draws from 2 Corinthians 12:7, 9, and 10 in testifying of human weakness and the need for Christ’s strength. As an illustration of the futility of humans trying to rely on their own power, in the last stanza Watts reaches back to the story of Samson (Judges 16:19–21), though the Old Testament figure is not mentioned or alluded to in 2 Corinthians 12. So Sampson when his Hair was lost, Met the Philistines to his Cost, Shook his vain Limbs with sad surprise, Made feeble Fight, and lost his Eyes. (st. 5) Though this is not one of Watts’s better efforts, the stanza shows the poet seeking to interpret the New Testament in light of the Old. According to Watts’s preface, book 2 of Hymns and Spiritual Songs “consists of Hymns, whose Form is of meer Human Composure, but I hope the Sense and Materials will always appear Divine” (i.e., scriptural). He also said that “I might have brought some [biblical] Text or other, and apply’d it to the Margin of every Verse, if this Method had been as useful as it was easy” (1709, xi). Thus, 13

Examples include George Sandys, A Paraphrase upon the Song of Solomon (London: John Legatt, 1641); Samuel Slater, Epithalamium, or Solomons Song . . . Digested into a Known and Familiar Meeter (London: J. Maxon for William Luggar and Livewel Chapman, 1653); T. S., The Book of the Song of Solomon in Meeter (London: for Francis Smith, 1676); John Reeve, Spiritual Hymns upon Solomon’s Song (London: for the author, 1684); William Barton, Six Centuries of Select Hymns, 4th ed. (London: J. Heptinstall for William Cooper, 1688); [John Mason], Spiritual Songs . . . Together with the Song of Songs, Which Is Solomon’s, 6th ed. (London: for Tho. Parkhurst, 1699); Joseph Stennett, A Version of Solomon’s Song of Songs (London: for Dan. Brown and Andr. Bell, 1700). All these books used the hymnic meters that were familiar from contemporary psalm singing, and several of their prefaces specifically mention the possibility of singing the texts. For instance, Stennett observes that he has “compos’d” his version “in such a measure, and divided it into such parts as might render it fit and easy to be sung in the Worship of God” (xvii).

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though most of the hymns in this part draw more upon Watts’s imagination than specific Scripture texts, and are consequently seldom given biblical references, echoes of biblical passages occur frequently.14 For example, the second line of “Stand up, my soul, shake off thy fears” (B77), “And gird the Gospel-Armour on,” alludes to Ephesians 6:13–14 (“take unto you the whole armour of God . . . girt about with truth”), while the second stanza of “Jesus, with all thy saints above” (B29) reflects a variety of New Testament Scriptures, including Acts 20:28, Hebrews 9:12, and Revelation 1:5, as well as the “flaming sword” from Genesis 3:24. Blest be the Lamb, my dearest Lord, Who bought me with his Blood, And quench’d his Father’s flaming Sword In his own vital Flood. Several of the texts in book 2 make more than such incidental use of biblical passages. The opening stanzas of “Once more, my soul, the rising day” (B6) paraphrase the first two verses of Psalm 19, “The heavens declare the glory of God; and the firmament sheweth his handywork. Day unto day uttereth speech, and night unto night sheweth knowledge.” Once more, my Soul, the rising Day Salutes thy waking Eyes, Once more, my Voice, thy Tribute pay To him that rolls the Skies. Night unto Night his Name repeats, The Day renews the Sound, Wide as the Heaven on which he sits To turn the Seasons round. (sts. 1–2)

14

The hymns in book 2 that do include Scripture references are “God! the eternal awful name” (B27; Ps. 148:2), “My God, my life, my love” (B93) and “My God, my portion, and my love” (B94; both on Ps. 73:25), “Come, happy souls, approach your God” (B103; John 3:16–17), “Now let a spacious world arise” (B147; Gen. 1), and “Not to the terrors of the Lord” (B152; Heb. 12:18 &c.). Several hymns include footnotes pointing to particular scriptural allusions in the text: “High on a hill of dazzling light” (B18) “When the great builder stretch’d the skies” (B24), “Where are the mourners (saith the Lord)” (B154), and “Can creatures to perfection find” (B170).

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That this is an allusion rather than a psalm paraphrase is evident from the remaining stanzas, which show little or no reliance upon Psalm 19.15 Book 3 of Hymns and Spiritual Songs contains lyrics intended primarily for the Lord’s Supper, ten of which are provided with Scripture references. As might be expected, all these citations are from the New Testament. For example, “‘Twas on that dark, that doleful night” (C1) draws from Paul’s account of the Last Supper in 1 Corinthians 11. Watts sets the scene by describing the powers arrayed against Jesus (st. 1) and the breaking of the bread (2:2), followed by the Words of Institution: “This is my Body broke for Sin, / Receive and eat the living Food: / Then took the Cup, and blest the Wine; / ‘Tis the New Cov’nant in my Blood” (st. 3). He then inserts two stanzas graphically describing the crucifixion before returning to 1 Corinthians to complete the versification of Jesus’ words: “Do this (he cry’d) till Time shall end, / In Memory of your dying Friend; / Meet at my Table, and record / The Love of your departed Lord.”16 Hymns and Spiritual Songs represented a considerable modification of English congregational song by not being tied exclusively to the psalms. However, Watts met potential detractors at least part way by continuing to link his lyrics directly to biblical texts. It is no accident that the volume begins with hymns that are closely related to specific Scripture passages and that even the hymns in books 2 and 3 are biblical in orientation. This biblicism certainly played an important role in helping smooth the way in the transition from exclusive metrical psalmody to a freer use of “human composures.” 1.2 The Psalms of David Imitated In many ways, The Psalms of David Imitated was Watts’s crowning achievement. His principal goal in this work was to “accommodate the Book of Psalms to Christian Worship,” that is, to “Christianize” and “modernize” the book to make it relevant for eighteenth-century English-speaking Christians to sing.17 In this attempt, he took a different tack from most of his predecessors, who sought to remain as close as possible to the original text (versification): “In the older metrical versions there was the concern for a re-presentation of the psalm,

15 16 17

For a similar example, see sts. 1–2 of “My God what endless pleasures dwell” (B42), based on Ps. 84. See chap. 3 for a discussion of the liturgical use of Watts’s hymns. For further description of Watts’s use of Scripture in Hymns and Spiritual Songs see Selma L. Bishop, “The Poetical Theories of Isaac Watts” (Ph.D. diss., University of Colorado, 1956), 143–149. PDI, xvi. On Watts’s “modernizing” of the psalter see Fletcher, “English Psalmody and Isaac Watts,” chap. 11.

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but in Watts the concern was for reinterpretation.”18 Though Watts’s method of working was not as literal as those who went before him, his reliance upon the Scripture was every bit as significant as theirs, and perhaps even more so, since, as noted above, he drew his work from the whole Bible, rather than from only a single portion of it. As David R. Breed remarked, Watts’s version of the psalms was “rendered with great fidelity,” but it was “fidelity to the spirit rather than to the form.”19 The preface to The Psalms of David Imitated briefly mentions some of the procedures Watts used to accomplish his goal. He notes that he has “entirely omitted several whole psalms, and large Pieces of many others,” and that he has used only those parts of the psalms “as might easily and naturally be accommodated to the various Occasions of the Christian Life, or at least might afford us some beautifull Allusion to Christian affairs.” He eliminated “sharp Invectives against [the psalmist’s] personal Enemies,” replacing these with “our spiritual Adversaries, Sin, Satan and Temptation,” and, where the psalmist has used “sublime” “Flights of his Faith and Love,” he has “sunk the Expressions within the reach of an ordinary Christian.” He has turned prophecies “concerning Christ and his Salvation” into their fulfillment, and, when “Writers of the New Testament have cited or alluded to any part of the Psalms,” he often paraphrases it from that source rather than from the Old Testament book. Finally, he mentions that he has frequently turned such expressions as “the Fear of God,” “the Mercies of God,” “sacrificing Goats or Bullocks,” and the like into “Faith and Love,” “the Merits of a Saviour,” “Christ the Lamb of God,” etc. (xvi-xvii). Though Watts’s description of the procedures he used is helpful, it is not comprehensive, nor does he give explicit examples from the hymns. An analysis of the methods by which he adapted the psalms for use in the Christian church reveals both his thorough knowledge of the Bible and his concern to make biblical teaching relevant for English-speaking congregations.20 Omission of Psalms and Parts of Psalms. As noted in the preface to The Psalms of David Imitated, one important factor in Watts’s Christianizing of the psalms was the simple practice of omission—excluding entire psalms or

18 19 20

Robin A. Leaver, “Isaac Watts’s Hermeneutical Principles and the Decline of English Metrical Psalmody,” Churchman 92, no. 1 (1978): 58. David R. Breed, The History and Use of Hymns and Hymn-Tunes (Chicago: Fleming H. Revell, 1903), 102. The most extensive previous discussion of Watts’s paraphrasing techniques in the psalms is found in Fletcher, “English Psalmody and Isaac Watts,” especially his chaps. 9–11, which should be consulted for additional information on and examples of some of the techniques noted here.

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significant portions of them. Twelve complete psalms were omitted.21 In at least three cases, the omission had little to do with the message of the psalm or difficulty of paraphrase; it was simply that most of the material in the psalm was found elsewhere. Thus, he eliminated Psalm 28 because it “has scarce any thing new, but what is repeated in other Psalms” (77), Psalm 43 because it was “so near a-kin” to Psalm 42 (116), and Psalm 108 because it was “formed out of the 57th and 60th” psalms (287). In a note following the common meter version of Psalm 55, Watts indicated that he had “left out some whole Psalms, and several parts of others that tend to fill the Mind with overwhelming Sorrows, or sharp Resentment; neither of which are so well suited to the Spirit of the Gospel.” An examination of the deleted psalms suggests that they were probably omitted due to their imprecatory nature (Pss. 52, 54) or their general sense of hopelessness (Ps. 88). In the author’s view, these psalms were not fit for use in Christian worship, or at least he despaired of making them so. As he stated in his earlier preface to Hymns and Spiritual Songs, he was leery of putting words into the mouths of the congregation that they could not sing honestly, and he probably thought that these psalms would have made them do so. Some Sentences of the Psalmist that are expressive of the Temper of our own Hearts and the Circumstances of our Lives may compose our Spirits to seriousness, and allure us to a sweet Retirement within our selves; but we meet with a following Line which so peculiarly belongs but to one Action or Hour of the Life of David or Asaph, that breaks off our Song in the midst; our Consciences are affrighted lest we should speak Fals[e]hood unto God.22 As was true of the psalms he omitted entirely, many of the deletions he made in his psalm versions were passages that were imprecatory, too specifically tied to the sacrificial system of Old Testament worship, or were eliminated for other reasons. For example, in Psalm 60, “Lord, hast thou cast the nation off,” Watts paraphrases the first five verses and the last three, but omits verses 6 through 9, which are full of Old Testament place names and cite specific enemies of ancient Israel (Moab, Edom, Philistia, etc.), none of which were relevant to an eighteenth-century English-speaking Christian. Though he sometimes 21 22

Pss. 28, 43, 52, 54, 59, 64, 70, 79, 88, 108, 137, and 140. HSS (1707), v–vi. See Martin A. Wallenstein, “The Rhetoric of Isaac Watts’s Hymns, Psalms, and Sermons” (Ph.D. diss., Indiana University, 1978), 160–162, for further suggestions regarding Watts’s omission of some psalms.

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“translated” such Old Testament references into contemporary places, in this instance he did not do so and simply left them out.23 Titles of the Hymns. In the preface to The Psalms of David Imitated, Watts acknowledged that some psalms can be sung as they stand “if translated into the plain national Language.”24 Thus, in some versions, he incorporates few direct references to New Testament passages or concepts in the body of the text, but provides them with titles that give them a Christian twist. For example, his common meter version of Psalm 15 includes no discernable references to the New Testament or to specifically Christian beliefs. However, Watts heads it “Characters of a Saint; or, a Citizen of Zion; or, the Qualifications of a Christian.” This approach allows Watts to provide a straightforward version of the psalm, but the title directs the reader’s or singer’s attention to the application of the psalm in the life and faith of a Christian or the church. General New Testament Terms and Concepts. One of the most important techniques Watts used to Christianize the psalms was to change references to Old Testament laws, customs, and worship practices to ones with a New Testament focus or to insert New Testament words such as “church” and “gospel” into the text. In many of these cases, he did not allude directly to a specific New Testament verse or passage, but rather to a general Christian practice or belief, and it is here that Watts’s employment of typology often occurs. Such interpretation of the Old Testament was a tradition of long standing in the Christian church, but it was a new development in English congregational song, which, before Watts, generally sought adherence to a more or less literal rendering of the scriptural text. As Graham Beynon put it, “Watts’ innovation, then, was not in a novel hermeneutic but, rather, in bringing a traditional hermeneutic to bear in the singing of psalms.”25 An interesting example of “New Testament substitution” occurs in Watts’s common meter version of Psalm 84, “My soul, how lovely is the place.”

23

24

25

For an example of his substitution of contemporary place names for Old Testament references see the original st. 3 of “Jesus shall reign where’er the sun,” part 2 of his versification of Ps. 72, which mentions Tarshish, Sheba, and Seba; Watts turned these ancient place names into Persia and India. PDI, preface, v. Watts specifically named Pss. 1, 19, 25, 37, 67, and 100 as ones that could stand as written. Indeed, one of his versions of Ps. 100, “Ye nations round the earth, rejoice,” is labeled “a Plain Translation.” It is evident from these and other items that the hymn writer did not slavishly follow a program to Christianize every psalm or portion of a psalm, and where he felt he could do so, he simply let the psalm speak for itself. Graham Beynon, Isaac Watts: Reason, Passion and the Revival of Religion (London: Bloomsbury T&T Clark, 2016), 150.

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Watts

Psalm 84

3. With his rich Gifts the heavenly Dove Descends and fills the Place, While Christ reveals his wondrous Love, And sheds abroad his Grace.

3. Yea, the sparrow hath found an house, and the swallow a nest for herself, where she may lay her young, even thine altars, O Lord of hosts, my King, and my God.

The insertion of “Christ” into the passage and the mention of his “Love” and “Grace” are obvious New Testament references, but special interest attaches to Watts’s substitution of the “heavenly Dove” (the Holy Spirit) for the birds alluded to in the psalm.26 The author goes further by mentioning the dove’s “descending and filling the place” (Acts 2:3–4) and its “rich Gifts,” an allusion to the twelfth chapter of First Corinthians. A general reference to Christian practice and belief can also be seen in stanza 6 of his long meter version of Psalm 23, “My shepherd is the living Lord.” Watts

Psalm 23

6. The Sons of Earth and Sons of Hell Gaze at thy Goodness, and repine To see my Table spread so well With living Bread and chearful Wine.

5a. Thou preparest a table before me in the presence of mine enemies.

Here Watts has turned the “table” of the psalm into a Communion altar. The implication of the alteration is that the “enemies” are now not so much jealous of God’s material blessings on the psalmist as they are of his or her close communion with the Almighty.27 This substitution or addition of general Christian doctrines or terms is characteristic throughout The Psalms of David Imitated and constitutes one of the chief ways that Watts Christianized the psalter. These alterations and additions are often subtle and barely noticeable. At other times, they so thoroughly rework the psalm that they leave the original text far behind. As a result, congregants singing a paraphrase such as “Joy to the world” (Ps. 98) or “Jesus shall 26 27

The sparrow is eventually mentioned in st. 6. In “English Psalmody and Isaac Watts,” Fletcher pointed out that the two stanzas following this one (the last two of the hymn) were bracketed for possible omission, suggesting the use of this text at Communion (102).

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reign where’er the sun” (Ps. 72) might have thought they were singing a psalm, when they were actually singing a hymn—which was probably Watts’s intent. Psalm Quotations from the New Testament. Watts observed in the preface to The Psalms of David Imitated that one of his Christianizing techniques was to draw from New Testament passages where the psalm was cited. Watts’s long meter version of Psalm 8 illustrates his approach to these quotations. The hymn is divided into two parts, the first covering the opening three verses of the psalm, and the second verses four through eight.28 The New Testament orientation of Watts’s text is evident from a note he placed at the end. The two first Verses [of the psalm] are here Paraphrased and explained by the History of the Children crying Hosanna to Christ, Matt. 21. 15. 16. where our Saviour cites and applies those Words of the Psalmist. Thus, Watts gives notice that some of the stanzas in part 1 are not based on the psalm, but on a passage from the book of Matthew. In the first three stanzas, he renders Psalm 8:1–3, then turns to Matthew 21 and paraphrases portions of that passage for stanzas 4 and 5. Watts

Psalm 8

1. Almighty Ruler of the Skies, Thro’ the wide Earth thy Name is spread, And thine Eternal glories rise O’er all the Heavens thy Hands have made.

1. O Lord, our Lord, how excellent is thy name in all the earth! who hast set thy glory above the heavens. 3. When I consider thy heavens, the work of thy fingers, the moon and the stars, which thou hast ordained . . .

2. To thee the Voices of the Young A Monument of Honour raise; And Babes with uninstructed Tongue Declare the Wonders of thy Praise.

2a. Out of the mouth of babes and sucklings hast thou ordained strength . . .

28

Watts gave the Scripture reference for part 1 as “Verse 1, 2” and for part 2 as “Verse 3, &c,” but it is obvious from an examination of the hymn that the initial part actually covers the first three verses and that the second part begins with verse four.

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3. Thy Power assists their tender Age To bring proud Rebels to the Ground, To still the bold Blasphemer’s Rage, And all their Policies confound.

2b. . . . because of thine enemies, that thou mightest still the enemy and the avenger.

4. Children amidst thy Temple throng To see their great Redeemer’s Face; The Son of David is their Song, And young Hosanna’s fill the Place.

Matt 21:15b. . . . and the children crying in the temple, and saying, Hosanna to the son of David . . .

5. The frowning Scribes and angry Priests In vain their impious Cavils bring; Revenge sits silent in their Breasts, While Jewish Babes proclaim their King.

Matt 21:15a, c, 16a. And when the chief priests and scribes saw the wonderful things that he did . . . they were were displeased, and said unto him, Hearest thou what these say?

Watts’s use of the Matthew passage was not haphazard, but was prompted by the second part of verse 16 in the gospel, in which Jesus quotes from Psalm 8:2: “And Jesus saith unto them, Yea; have ye never read, Out of the mouth of babes and sucklings thou hast perfected praise?” In fact, Watts’s second stanza appears to be based more directly on Jesus’ quotation from the psalm in the King James Version than on the psalm itself, the key being his use of the word “praise” (as found in Matthew) rather than the psalm’s “strength.” Part 2 of the hymn, “Lord, what was man, when made at first,” titled “Adam and Christ, Lords of the Old and the New Creation,” picks up with verse 4 of the psalm and uses stanzas 1 and 2 to paraphrase through verse 8. In a note at the end of the hymn, Watts points to the quotation of verses 4 through 6 of the psalm in Hebrews 2:6–8, and thus in stanza 4 he quotes from Hebrews 2:9, where the New Testament writer applies the psalm passage he has just quoted to Jesus. Watts

Hebrews 2

4. See him below his Angels made; See him in Dust amongst the Dead, To save a ruin’d World from Sin: But he shall reign with Pow’r divine.

9. But we see Jesus, who was made a little lower than the angels for the suffering of death, crowned with glory and honour; that he by the grace of God should taste death for every man.

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Watts concludes the hymn with a freely-written stanza that summarizes the salvific work of Jesus in redeeming the world from the “Miseries” created by the Fall. The World to come Redeem’d from all The Miseries that attend the Fall, New-made, and glorious, shall submit To our exalted Saviour’s Feet. (st. 5) To this point, no mention has been made of the third stanza of part 2. This strophe appears to be based primarily on Psalm 8:5b (note the use of “crown,” “Glories,” and “Honours,” all drawn from the psalm), but includes an allusion to the Second Adam from 1 Corinthians 15:45. Watts

Psalm 8, 1 Corinthians 15

3. But O what brighter Glories wait To crown the second Adam’s State? What Honours shall thy Son adorn Who condescended to be born?

5. . . . and hast crowned him with glory and honour. 1 Cor 15:45. And so it is written, The first man Adam was made a living soul; the last Adam was made a quickening spirit.

The reason for Watts’s oblique reference to 1 Corinthians 15 is Paul’s passing allusion to Psalm 8:6b (“thou hast put all things under his feet”) in verse 27 (“For he hath put all things under his feet”). Other elements of the stanza seem to reflect passages from Hebrews 1:3–6, which deals with the “brightness of [Christ’s] glory” sitting at “the right hand of the Majesty on high.” These verses in Hebrews quote from Psalm 2 rather than Psalm 8, but they may have caught Watts’s attention when working on the paraphrase of the latter psalm because they refer to the Son as “Being made so much better than the angels,” a phrase that is an antithesis to Psalm 8:5, where “man” is said to be “a little lower than the angels.” Watts’s bringing together these disparate passages from various books of the Old and New Testaments in a single hymn reveals both his profound knowledge of the Scriptures and his use of the Bible to interpret itself. When Watts began versifying a psalm, it seems that he often turned immediately to any New Testament passage(s) where it was quoted. In the writing of his hymn, he then paraphrased the psalm text as quoted in the New Testament or added some of the latter’s surrounding material in addition to, or in place of, parts of the original psalm. This practice provided the reader or singer with a direct and obvious link between the psalm and its fulfillment in the New Testament.

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Inserting a Paraphrase of a New Testament Passage. In some psalms, Watts inserted paraphrases of one or more New Testament Scriptures. These references differ from those discussed above because they are not associated with quotations from the psalm in the New Testament. Psalm 22 has long been used in the Christian church as a Passiontide text; Jesus quoted its first verse while on the cross, religious leaders mocked him with verse 8, and the soldiers gambled for his garments as predicted in verse 18 (see Matt. 27:35, 43, 46). It was therefore quite natural for Watts to insert paraphrases of verses from the gospel Passion accounts into his imitation of this text, though these New Testament passages did not quote directly from the psalm. Thus, in the first part of his common meter version, “Why has my God my soul forsook,” Watts inserted the following stanzas. Watts

Matthew and Luke

10. My God, if possible it be Without this bitter Cup; But I resign my Will to thee, And drink the Sorrows up.

Matt 26:39b. O my Father, if it be possible, let this cup pass from me: nevertheless not as I will, but as thou wilt.

12. Father, I give my Spirit up, And trust it in thy Hand; My dying Flesh shall rest in Hope, And rise at thy Command.

Luke 23:46a. And when Jesus had cried with a loud voice, he said, Father, into thy hands I commend my spirit. (Quoting Ps 31:5)

In some psalm versions, the New Testament insertion does not appear to be a single verse, but a combination of two or more passages. Watts’s imitation of Ps 149, “All ye that love the Lord rejoice,” includes a stanza that seems to paraphrase three different New Testament verses. Watts

2 Corinthians, Matthew, Revelation

6. When Christ his ­Judgment-seat ascends, And bids the World appear, Thrones are prepar’d for all his Friends Who humbly lov’d him here.

2 Cor. 5:10a. For we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ. Matt. 19:28b. . . . when the Son of man shall sit in the throne of his glory, ye also shall sit upon twelve thrones, judging the twelve tribes of Israel. Rev. 20:4a. And I saw thrones, and they sat upon them, and judgment was given unto them.

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By transposing New Testament passages into the psalms, the psalm is not only “Christianized,” but the singer is given a further sense of the link between Old Testament prophecy and New Testament fulfillment. Here again is an expression by Watts of the unity of Scripture and its ability to interpret itself. This aspect of Watts’s hymns reflects the statement in the Savoy Declaration of 1658 that “The infallible Rule of Interpretation of Scripture, is the Scripture it self.”29 New Testament Allusions. In addition to direct paraphrase, Watts often made brief allusions to New Testament Scriptures. The hymn writer provided three versions of Psalm 1, one each in common meter, short meter, and long meter. In the last-named, he paraphrases the first verse as follows.30 Watts

Psalm 1

1. Happy the Man, whose cautious Feet Shun the broad Way that Sinners go, Who hates the Place where Atheists meet, And fears to talk as Scoffers do.

1. Blessed is the man that walketh not in the counsel of the ungodly, nor standeth in the way of ­sinners, nor sitteth in the seat of the scornful.

While this stanza is a more or less straightforward rendering of the verse, Watts’s New Testament orientation is evident in his insertion of the words “broad Way” in the second line, a wording and concept that do not appear in the psalm. This reference is borrowed from Jesus’ admonition in Matthew 7:13, “Enter ye in at the strait gate: for wide is the gate, and broad is the way, that leadeth to destruction, and many there be which go in thereat” (emphasis added). In Watts’s common meter paraphrase of Psalm 23, “My shepherd will supply my Need, / Jehovah is his Name,” the first line is a clear-cut reference to Philippians 4:19, “But my God shall supply all your need according to his riches in glory by Christ Jesus.” These allusions in the paraphrases of Psalms 1 and 23 make an immediate link with the New Testament, and for parishioners who were aware of them, they had the potential to create in the mind a stream of associations with the New Testament Scriptures to which they referred. Incorporating Names and Titles of Jesus and the Holy Spirit. An important technique Watts used for Christianizing a psalm was to insert the name or one 29 30

A Declaration of the Faith and Order Owned and Practised in the Congregational Churches in England (London: John Field, 1659), 5. See chap. 2 for discussion of the Savoy ­Declaration. This psalm version originally appeared in HL (1706), was revised for HSS (1707), and was reprinted with further revisions in PDI. See Escott, Isaac Watts, Hymnographer 56–59.

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of the titles of Jesus into the text. This procedure is particularly evident when “Jesus” appears as the first word in the hymn, as in “Jesus shall reign where’er the sun” (Ps. 72, LM, pt. 2) or “Jesus, our Lord, ascend thy throne” (Ps. 110, CM).31 Such placement gives immediate notice that the psalm has been Christianized. The author also uses the title “Christ” in a number of texts, and quite often in the headings of the hymns and in his notes to them. More common is Watts’s use of the word “Son” in an obvious reference to Jesus. Other terms, such as “Saviour” or “Redeemer,” are not specifically Christian, since they also appear in the Old Testament in reference to God the Father, but Watts probably intended them—and most eighteenth-century singers would likely have understood them—to refer to Jesus. In some instances where the name or a title of Jesus appears, it is used as a substitute for God the Father. Watts’s common meter version of Psalm 47, “O for a shout of sacred joy,” begins conventionally with a paraphrase of verses 1 and 2, which call upon all people to give praise to God. For the second stanza, Watts turns to verse 5, but rather than “God” going “up with a shout,” it is now “Jesus” who “ascends on high,” in a direct reference to the Ascension, retaining, however, some details from the psalm that are not found in the Acts 1 account of the event (e.g., “Trumpets”). Watts

Psalm 47

2. Jesus our God ascends on high; His heavenly Guards around Attend him rising thro’ the Sky, With Trumpets joyful Sound.

5. God is gone up with a shout, the Lord with the sound of a trumpet.

Another term that is often found in the psalm imitations is “Spirit.” While the word is invariably capitalized (as is true of most important nouns in Watts’s work), the context shows that in about half the cases it refers to the human spirit rather than the Holy Spirit, as, for example, in the common meter version of Psalm 23, “My shepherd will supply my need”: “He brings my wandring Spirit back / When I forsake his Ways.” Watts seldom specified the “Holy Spirit” in his psalms (but see “While I keep silence and conceal,” Ps. 32, LM, pt. 2), though 31

See also “Maker and sov’reign Lord” (Ps. 2 SM), “Lord, I am vile, conceiv’d in sin” (Ps. 51 LM, pt. 2), “My soul, how lovely is the place” (Ps. 84 CM), and “For ever shall my song record” (Ps. 89 LM, pt. 1). To some degree, this technique is similar to the use of general New Testament terms and concepts noted above, but it is given here in a different category because of the specificity of the reference.

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the framework of other usages indicates that the subject is the third person of the Trinity. One of these mentions of the Holy Spirit occurs in the second part of his long meter version of Psalm 34, “Children in years and knowledge young,” which paraphrases the end of the psalm, particularly verses 17–20. 17. The righteous cry, and the Lord heareth, and delivereth them out of all their troubles. 18. The Lord is nigh unto them that are of a broken heart; and saveth such as be of a contrite spirit. 19. Many are the afflictions of the righteous: but the Lord delivereth him out of them all. 20. He keepeth all his bones: not one of them is broken. The hymn writer transforms the passage into a Trinitarian statement, something of which there is no hint in the original. He tells their Tears, he counts their Groans, His Son redeems their Souls from Death; His Spirit heals their broken Bones, They in his Praise employ their Breath. (st. 5) By substituting Jesus for the Father, Watts was following an interpretive tradition of long standing, as he pointed out in a later writing: “a Multitude of Scriptures in the Old Testament, in which the One Supreme God is plainly spoken of, are applied to Christ, or the Logos, by the Primitive Fathers.”32 This method of interpretation reinforces the doctrine of Jesus being one with the Father. Despite the antiquity of this practice of identification, such an approach was not common in contemporary psalmody, which generally followed a more literal path. Thus, this feature, plus his incorporation of the Holy Spirit, represents an important Christianizing element in Watts’s work because it incorporates Trinitarian doctrine into the church’s singing of psalms. Substituting Jesus for David. In some hymns, Watts substitutes Jesus for David or another human, either when the Old Testament figure is named directly in the text or when he is mentioned in one of his roles of king or psalmist. This, of course, is an example of typology but it differs from the category

32

I. Watts, Dissertations Relating to the Christian Doctrine of the Trinity, the Second Part (London: for J. Clark and R. Hett, E. Mathews, and R. Ford, 1725), 67 (see also p. 68).

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discussed above because of its specificity and its contrasting implications for the singer, which will be noted below. Psalm 89 deals with God’s promises to David, who is mentioned by name in verses 3, 20, 35, and 49. In part 1 of Watts’s long meter imitation, “For ever shall my song record,” “David” is replaced by a reference to the “Son,” showing that the “type” of David as Messiah has been fulfilled. Watts

Psalm 89

2. Thus to his Son he sware, and said, “With thee my Covenant first is made; In thee shall dying Sinners live, Glory and Grace are thine to give.”

3. I have made a covenant with my chosen, I have sworn unto David my servant, 4. Thy seed will I establish for ever, and build up thy throne to all generations.

The identification of Jesus with David accomplishes at least three things in Watts’s psalms. First, it is another example of the use of typology, with David becoming a figurative representation of Jesus. Second, it emphasizes the fulfillment of David’s prophecies in the person of Jesus. Third, by linking Jesus with a human figure, it affirms the incarnate nature of the Logos. Thus, since Watts’s psalms associate Jesus with both God the Father (as above) and an earthly person, both his full divinity and full humanity are symbolized for the singer. Putting the Psalm into the Mouth of Jesus. Another technique Watts employed was to give the words of the psalm as though they are being spoken by Jesus, even when the gospels do not mention his ever having quoted them. Watts’s common meter version of Psalm 69, part 1, “Save me, O God, the swelling floods,” contains twelve stanzas covering the first fourteen verses of the psalm. This part is further divided into three sections by the use or non-use of quotation marks. In the opening section (sts. 1–4), which paraphrases verses 1 through 4 of the psalm and is enclosed in quotation marks, the “voice” is that of David, as is explained by the single strophe of section 2 (st. 5), which does not include quotation marks. Thus in the great Messiah’s Name The royal Prophet mourns; Thus he awakes our Hearts to Grief, And gives us Joy by Turns.

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This transitional stanza is not drawn from the psalm but is freely written. The hymn concludes with seven more stanzas, all of which are also enclosed by quotation marks. Here, however, the voice has changed from that of David to Jesus, and from this point the words are put into the mouth of Christ. “Now shall the Saints rejoice and find Salvation in my Name, For I have born their heavy Load Of Sorrow, Pain and Shame.” (st. 6) Of particular interest is stanza 9, which is drawn partly from two New Testament passages that are themselves based upon quotations from the psalter. Watts

Hebrews 10, John 2

“I came in sinfull Mortals stead To do my Father’s Will; Yet when I cleans’d my Father’s House, They scandaliz’d my Zeal.”

Heb. 10:9. Then said he, Lo, I come to do thy will, O God. (Quoting Ps 40:7–8). John 2:16–17. [Jesus] said unto them that sold doves, Take these things hence; make not my Father’s house an house of merchandise. And his disciples remembered that it was written, The zeal of thine house hath eaten me up. (Quoting Ps 69:9).

The quotation of Psalm 69:9 in the passage from John served as the catalyst for Watts to incorporate the reference to Jesus’ cleansing of the temple in his rendering of the psalm. This example (another instance of drawing from a New Testament quotation of a psalm) again shows that Watts’s insertion of New Testament Scriptures grew directly out of the textual background. It also suggests that—since the words of the Old Testament book are now in the mouth of Jesus—he is the one who inspired them, giving a further identification between the Father of the Old Testament and the Son of the New Testament. Inserting a Freely Written Stanza. In addition to inserting paraphrases of New Testament verses into the psalms, Watts occasionally interpolates a freely-written strophe that Christianizes the text. An example of this practice has already been noted in the paraphrase of Ps. 69, “Save me, O God, the swelling floods” (st. 5). In his common meter version of Psalm 133, which contains only three verses, the author expanded the text to four stanzas by inserting a newly-composed strophe that includes the word “Christ” after stanza 1. Though

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related somewhat to verse 2 of the psalm,33 the connection is very loose, and verse 2 is more directly rendered in stanza 3. Thus, the second stanza is an interpolation to explain the meaning of the psalm in New Testament terms. Significantly, Watts chose to give this gloss before the actual verse to which it serves as an interpretation, preparing the singer to perform stanza 3 with a Christian interpretation already in mind.34 Watts

Psalm 133

1. Lo, what an entertaining Sight Are Brethren that agree, Brethren whose chearfull Hearts unite In Bands of Piety!

1. Behold, how good and how pleasant it is for brethren to dwell together in unity!

2. When Streams of Love from Christ the Spring Descend to every Soul, And heavenly Peace with balmy Wing Shades and bedews the Whole: 3. ‘Tis like the Oyl divinely sweet On Aaron’s reverend Head, The trickling Drops perfum’d his Feet, And o’er his Garments spread.

2. It is like the precious ointment upon the head, that ran down upon the beard, even Aaron’s beard: that went down to the skirts of his garments.

4. ‘Tis pleasant as the Morning-Dews That fall on Sion’s Hill, Where God his mildest Glory shews, And makes his Grace distill.

3. As the dew of Hermon, and as the dew that descended upon the mountains of Zion: for there the Lord commanded the blessing, even life for evermore.

33 34

The added stanza obliquely uses some of the imagery of verse 2: “Streams of Love” descending = ointment running down the beard; shading and “bedewing” = covering Aaron’s garments. Like “Happy the man whose cautious feet,” “Lo, what an entertaining sight” first appeared in HL (1706) and passed through HSS (1707) before finding its rightful place in PDI; it went through revision at each stage. See Escott, Isaac Watts, Hymnographer, 56–59.

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These interpolations of original material reflect Watts’s belief that, while the “special revelation” of the biblical canon was closed, inspiration and the work of the Holy Spirit was not, and that songs for congregational worship should not only mirror biblical content but be relevant to the people who sing them. As he put it in the preface to The Psalms of David Imitated, “Let us remember that the very Power of Singing was given to human Nature chiefly for this purpose, that our warmest Affections of Soul might break out into natural or divine Melody, and the Tongue of the Worshipper express his own Heart” (xii; emphasis of last three words added). This desired result required the activity of contemporary text writers—such as Watts himself—for its fulfillment, whether it be in largely original poetry (such as in many of his Hymns and Spiritual Songs, book 2) or in interpolations into the biblical text, as in The Psalms of David Imitated. Such interpolations, however, were also potentially the most controversial aspect of Watts’s technique since, in the view of some critics, they treated human thoughts and words as though they were the inspired word of God. In this view, the singing of “human composures” in public worship might be unacceptable, but inserting “uninspired” words into Scripture was even worse. Though he did not mention Watts by name, Thomas Bradbury, a particularly outspoken critic of the hymn writer, preached a sermon in August of 1723, in which he castigated “putting into his [David’s] Mouth a Sett of Words that Man’s Wisdom teaches” because the poet found the psalmist’s own words to be “offensive to Christian Ears.”35 Another critic suggested that those who favor “Mr. Watt’s [sic] Psalms” are “against David’s.”36 Watts had anticipated these criticisms in the preface by pointing out that his attempt was at an “imitation,” rather than a versification, and by suggesting that there can be no fault “in enlarging a little on the more usefull Subjects in the Style of the Gospel, where the Psalm gives any Occasion” (PDI, xxi). Psalm Cross-References. An important feature of Watts’s paraphrases that relates to his biblical usage, though not directly to his Christianizing of the text, is the cross referencing of one psalm to another. For example, the second stanza of his version of Psalm 5, “Lord, in the morning thou shalt hear,” contains an allusion to Psalm 121:1.

35 36

Thomas Bradbury, The Power of Christ Over Plagues and Health (London: for John Clark and Richard Hett, 1724), 97–98. A Vindication of David’s Psalms, From Mr. J. Watt’s Erroneous Notions and Hard Speeches of Them (London: Andrew Jacob, 1727), 27.

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Watts

Psalms

2. Up to the Hills where Christ is gone To plead for all his Saints, Presenting at his Father’s Throne Our Songs and our Complaints.

5:3b. . . . in the morning will I direct my prayer unto thee, and will look up. 121:1. I will lift up mine eyes unto the hills, from whence cometh my help.

Watts summarizes the first six verses of Psalm 45 in four stanzas of his common meter version, “I’ll speak the honours of my king,” at the end of which he appends a fifth stanza based on verses from two other psalms. Watts

Psalms

5. Justice and Truth attend thee still, But Mercy is thy Choice; And God, thy God thy Soul shall fill With most peculiar Joys.

89:14. Justice and judgment are the habitation of thy throne: mercy and truth shall go before thy face. 35:9. And my soul shall be joyful in the Lord: it shall rejoice in his salvation.

These cross-references suggest that, in Watts’s opinion, if the sung psalter needed Christianizing to make it relevant to contemporary English-speaking worshippers, it was also a unity that, at least to some degree, could interpret itself. In other words, the best commentary on a psalm could very well be another psalm. The psalms may have been written by different people in different eras and circumstances, but it was still the word of God and had an internal unity that revealed both God’s character and his works. If the psalter needed to reflect “Christ and the sweet Discoveries of Grace, and the Blessings of the Gospel,” it was nevertheless “A rich and heavenly Treasure . . . A Repository or an Altar of sacred Fire” that could inspire, enrich, and develop the faith of the people of God.37 On occasion, Watts also cross-references another Old Testament Scripture in a psalm. In his version of Psalm 11, “My refuge is the God of love,” the fifth stanza not only paraphrases verse 6 of the psalm, but also alludes to Genesis 19:24, the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah: “On impious Wretches he shall 37

I. Watts, Discourses of the Love of God and the Use and Abuse of the Passions in Religion (London: for J. Clark and R. Hett, E. Mathews, and R. Ford, 1729), 283.

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rain / Tempests of Brimstone, Fire and Death, / Such as he kindled on the Plain / Of Sodom with his angry Breath.” Similarly, Watts bases stanza 7 in part 1 of his common meter version of Psalm 18, “We love thee, Lord, and we adore,” on verse 39, but also mentions the Persian king Cyrus from Isaiah 45:1 and 5b. Watts

Psalm 18

Isaiah 45

He arms our Captains to the Fight, (Tho’ there his Name’s forgot; He girded Cyrus with his Might, But Cyrus knew him not.)

39a: For thou hast girded me with strength unto the battle . . .

1: Thus saith the Lord to his anointed, to Cyrus, whose right hand I have holden . . . 5b: I girded thee, though thou hast not known me.

2

Watts’s Use of the Bible

Most of the techniques that Watts employed in making the psalms “speak the language of a Christian” were not really new, but had been used by preachers and commentators since the early days of the church. What was original was their application to the psalmody of English-language churches. As Watts himself acknowledged in the preface to The Psalms of David Imitated, to some degree he had been anticipated in this application by several other psalmodists, including Luke Milbourne, Charles Darby, and John Patrick. I confess Mr. Milbourn and Mr. Darby in very different Verse have now and then given an Evangelic Turn to the Hebrew Sense; and Dr. Patrick hath gone much beyond them in this Respect, that he hath made use of the present Language of Christians in several Psalms, and left out many of the Judaisms. (vi) Watts, however, believed that these earlier authors had not gone far enough. Speaking of Patrick in particular, Watts noted that he had made “all the other personal Characters and Circumstances of David appear strong and plain, except that of a Jew; and many of them he has represented in stronger and plainer Terms than the Original” (vii). In other words, while Patrick had lessened the identification of David as a Hebrew, he had gone the other direction in identifying him as a king, psalmodist, etc., even when the psalm itself did not do so, “So that ‘tis hard to find even in his Version six or eight Stanza’s together

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in any Psalm (that has personal or national Affairs in it) fit to be assumed by a vulgar Christian, or proper to be sung by a whole Congregation.” As one example, Watts points to Patrick’s version of Psalm 4:2, “O ye sons of men, how long will ye turn my glory into shame? how long will ye love vanity, and seek after leasing?” Patrick renders this verse as “Fond men! that would my Glory stain, / My Government despise; / How long will ye pursue vain hopes, / And please your selves with lyes?” In Watts’s view, this approach renders the due Performance of Psalmody every where difficult to him that appoints the Verses: But ‘tis extremely troublesome in those Assemblies where the Psalm is sung without reading it Line by Line, which yet is, beyond all Exception, the truest and the best Method; for here there can be no Omission of a Verse, tho’ it be never so improper; but the whole Church must run down to the next Division of the Psalm [i.e., the next stanza], and sing all that comes next to their Lips, till the Clerk puts them to Silence. (vii–viii) Two features in Watts’s use of the Bible set his work apart from his versifying predecessors and contemporaries. The first is his much more thoroughgoing alteration, addition, omission, and combination of Scriptures to provide hymns that reflect New Testament teaching. This not only meant submerging characteristically Old Testament elements in the psalms but adding to them features of the gospel message. In this sense, his psalm versions were like sermons on the biblical book as a Christian congregation would expect it to be preached. The second goal of Watts was that Christian congregations be able to sing their faith with integrity—that is, without putting words into their mouths that they could not understand or sing honestly—and to proclaim the word of God in its full gospel dispensation. In the preface and “Short Essay” of Hymns and Spiritual Songs, and again in the preface to The Psalms of David Imitated, Watts claims that voicing praise to God “should represent our own sense of things in Singing, and address ourselves to God expressing our own Case” (PDI, x). The various methods he employed served as glosses on the text that sought to explain the psalm and apply it to the daily life of a Christian. By incorporating words, thoughts, quotations, and allusions from the New Testament into the psalms, he provided churches with lyrical material that was relevant to their life and belief system. Speaking particularly of Hymns and Spiritual Songs—but in words that apply equally well to The Psalms of David Imitated—Richard Arnold pointed out that Watts’s use of the Bible sometimes led him into difficulties.

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In Part One of his volume, Watts bases his hymns upon scriptures, but he takes liberties that other writers do no[t] take: he varies the amount of detail, imposes his own imaginative figures, and interprets the scriptures. But in breaking new ground, however, he also creates some problems for himself: figures that seem rather contrived and unclear, interpretations that often run contrary to what the scripture more obviously means to say, and affirmative endings and resolutions and spiritual confidence that tend to divest the hymns of some of their potential sincerity, depth, and fervor. However, Arnold goes on to observe that Watts also made “some fundamental and forward-looking changes in the art of writing scriptural hymns: he begins with the scripture rather than ending with it, he works with it rather than toward it, and he widens out to greater meaning rather than narrowing in on the one scriptural meaning.”38 It was not only his biblical fidelity, but also his focus on making the Scriptures speak to Christians of his day in congregational song, that played an important role in the dissemination and widespread use his texts received. And to Watts himself, this “Christianization” was one of his greatest accomplishments, as he noted in one of his letters: “I give solemn thanks to my Saviour with all my soul, that he hath honoured me so far as to bring his name and gospel in a more evident and express manner into Christian psalmody.”39 38 39

Richard Arnold, Trinity of Discord (New York: Peter Lang, 2012), 42–43. Thomas Milner, The Life, Times, and Correspondence of the Rev. Isaac Watts, D.D. (London: Simpkin and Marshall, 1834), 395–396.

Chapter 2

The Theology of Watts’s Hymns Isaac Watts did not attempt to set forth a systematic theology in his hymns. However, his aim was to express gospel truth as he understood it, and because of this and the prolific nature of his output, his hymns touch upon many of the significant themes of the Christian religion; indeed, they have been called “rhymed theology.”1 In summary, this gospel truth was that God created the world, including humanity; that through the sin of Adam and Eve, the whole human race separated itself from God, but that a new covenant was provided through Jesus Christ, by which people can be brought back to God through repentance; that the most trustworthy revelation of God is found in the Bible; and that those who believe will ultimately spend eternity with God in heaven and unbelievers will be separated from God in hell. The discussion of the theology of Watts’s hymns in this chapter follows the outline of the Savoy Declaration of Faith and Order that was adopted in 1658 by a group of English Independents at the Savoy Palace in London and published in 1659.2 The Declaration was largely identical to the Westminster Confession of Faith that had been promulgated by the “reformed” Church of England in 1646. The most important differences between the two were that the Savoy Declaration added a chapter, “Of the Gospel, and of the Extent of the Grace Thereof” (chap. 20), and replaced chapters 30 and 31 of the Westminster Confession (which dealt with church censures, synods, and councils) with a statement on “the Institution of Churches, and the Order Appointed In Them By Jesus Christ” that emphasized Congregational church governance. Minor changes were made in the chapter on “Christian Liberty, and Liberty of Conscience”; one section was replaced in the chapter on “The Civil Magistrate”; and one section was added, two deleted, and one rewritten in the chapter on “The Church.” These changes mostly reflected the difference between the Westminster Confession’s being the tenet of a “reformed” state church and the 1 Albert Edward Bailey, The Gospel in Hymns: Backgrounds and Interpretations (New York: Charles Scribner’s Sons, 1950), 57. Note also Samuel Johnson’s comment about Watts, that “whatever he took in hand was, by his incessant solicitude for souls, converted to Theology.” Samuel Johnson, “Watts,” in Prefaces, Biographical and Critical, to the Works of the English Poets, vol. 8 (London: J. Nichols, 1781), 18–19. 2 A Declaration of the Faith and Order Owned and Practised in the Congregational Churches in England; Agreed upon and consented unto by their elders and messengers in their meeting at the Savoy, October 12, 1658 (London: John Field, 1659). Hereafter “SD” in references. © David W. Music, 2022 | doi:10.1163/9789004520523_004

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Savoy Declaration’s being that of an Independent religious body. Nevertheless, the similarities between the two statements are important for evaluating the hymns of Watts, for it shows that his hymns were not necessarily restricted to his own denominational heritage. There is no indication that Watts consciously sought to follow either the Savoy Declaration or Westminster Confession in writing his hymns, though there are occasional similarities of language between the hymns and the confessions.3 Some areas of the Declaration are not dealt with in Watts’s hymns; for example, the first chapter of the document simply catalogues the canonical books of the Old and New Testaments, a listing that will not be found in Watts’s hymns, and the Declaration’s chapters on marriage and oaths and vows are not covered. Furthermore, Watts’s texts sometimes include subjects that are not mentioned or are dealt with only cursorily in the statement of faith, such as Satan, angels, and the nation. That Watts’s hymns would be in accord with the tenets expressed in the Savoy Declaration is not surprising. What is unusual about them is the range of their theological expression, which was not a characteristic feature of contemporary congregational singing, restricted as it was to versifications of the psalms. The thoroughness of Watts’s coverage of the doctrines expressed in the Declaration is also significant; he provided material for all the major topics that are found in the confession, often numerous times. Through the regular singing of Watts’s hymns, a congregant could, over the course of time, come to know and understand the basic (and even some of the more advanced) doctrines of the Christian faith, at least as expressed by Independents; the hymns also served as a source of support for the doctrinal preaching of Independents. Another feature that reflects the theological orientation of Watts’s work was his provision of indexes of subjects in both Hymns and Spiritual Songs and The Psalms of David Imitated, an element that was not typically found in other congregational collections of the time. If earlier psalters and hymnals included any sort of index at all, it was typically only a table of titles of the psalms or hymns, not a subject index. In both of his congregational song books, however, Watts included copious indexes that reveal the importance he attached to the theological dimension, as well as the practical aspects, of his books; this feature was another of the innovative and forward-looking features of his work.4 3 See the discussion of “I sing th’ almighty power of God” under “Creation and Providence” below. 4 Christopher N. Phillips, The Hymnal: A Reading History (Baltimore, MD: Johns Hopkins University Press, 2018), 89. Phillips, following Watts himself, labels the subject index a “table of contents” and points out that it was “a forerunner to the subject indexes of later hymnbooks.”

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Both the Savoy Declaration and Watts’s hymns are Calvinistic in orientation, which, as Erik Routley reminds us, is “the theology of the Sovereignty of God, the faith of a persecuted church.” He goes on to observe that this theology sustained the Scottish Covenanters and the various Puritan sects during the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, and that this brand of Calvinism “was, in its effect, weak in the direction of the gentler Christian graces, but it gave heart to fighters in a fighting age.”5 Despite the relief granted to Dissenters by the Glorious Revolution of 1688, the continuation of this improvement in their lot was anything but secure during the early eighteenth century, and it was not until the accession of King George I that a more or less permanent security was attained. Furthermore, though Watts wrote in the eighteenth century, he is often thought of as essentially a seventeenth-century writer, and the theology of his hymns generally reflects the traditional views expressed in the Savoy Declaration. 1

Holy Scripture

The first chapter of the Savoy Declaration speaks “Of the Holy Scripture” as the basis for knowledge about and belief in God. Although the Light of Nature, and the Works of Creation and Providence, do so far manifest the Goodness, Wisdom and Power of God, as to leave men unexcusable; yet are they not sufficient to give that knowledge of God and of his Will, which is necessary unto salvation: Therefore it pleased the Lord at sundry times, and in divers man[n]ers to reveal himself, and . . . to commit the same wholly unto writing: which maketh the holy Scripture to be most necessary; those former ways of Gods revealing his Will unto his people, being now ceased. (1–2) In “God who in various methods told” (A53), Watts calls the Bible “the written Word, / That Book of Life, that sure Record: / The bright Inheritance of Heav’n” (st. 2), and goes on to indicate that it is “Fit for Reproof, and Comfort too” (alluding to 2 Tim. 3:16). Watts admonishes his fellow citizens to praise God because, though he “hath not sent his Sacred Word / To every Land,” the “British Isles” can “read his Love / In long Epistles from above” (st. 4).

5 Erik Routley, I’ll Praise My Maker (London: Independent Press, 1951), 12.

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“Laden with guilt, and full of fears” (B119) points out that hope and the assuaging of grief come through the Scriptures because they reveal Christ. Laden with Guilt, and full of Fears I fly to thee, my Lord, And not a Glimpse of Hope appears But in thy written Word. The Volume of my Father’s Grace Does all my Griefs asswage; Here I behold my Saviour’s face Almost in every Page.6 (sts. 1–2) The next two stanzas use biblical metaphors to liken the Bible to the “pearl of great price” (Matt. 13:45–46), the water that will quench the thirst of the human soul (John 4:13–15), and the “tree of knowledge” (Gen. 2:9).7 Watts makes an important statement in the fifth stanza: “This [the Bible] is the Judge that ends the Strife / Where Wit and Reason fail”; in other words, “wit and reason” can take a person to a point, but for the fuller revelation of God one needs the Bible—a remarkable statement in the “Age of Reason,” and a view that contrasts strongly with the Deism that was popular at the time, but for which Watts had a profound distaste.8 The final stanza prays for God’s counsel to keep the singer from forsaking “the happy Road / That leads to thy Right-Hand.” The next hymn, “The Lord declares his will” (B120), points out that the Bible contains both the Law and the Gospel: “Here Wrath and Lightning fills the Page, / Here Beams of Mercy shine” (7:3–4). Through the pages of Scripture “We learn Christ Crucify’d” (5:1) from which “We take the offer’d Grace, / Obey the Statutes of the Lord, / And trust his Promises” (6:2–4). As might be expected, texts dealing with the Bible in The Psalms of David Imitated are found chiefly in paraphrases of Psalms 19 and 119, both of which make significant reference to God’s word. Watts provided three versions of Psalm 19, one each in short meter (divided into two parts constituting separate hymns), long meter, and 888888. Each of the four hymns follows the psalm by 6 Note the very similar stanza in “‘Twas by an order from the Lord” (B151): “Great God, mine Eyes with Pleasure look / On the dear Volume of thy Book; / There my Redeemer’s Face I see, / And read his Name who dy’d for me” (st. 3). 7 The last-named analogy is a bit odd, since the “tree of knowledge” in Genesis was forbidden to Adam and Eve, who sinned in failing to observe the rule concerning it. 8 See his anonymously-published The Strength and Weakness of Human Reason . . . Argued between an Inquiring Deist and a Christian Divine (London: for J. Pemberton and R. Hett, 1731).

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pointing out that the creation testifies to God’s handiwork, but that he is more fully revealed in the Scriptures. The Heavens declare thy Glory, Lord, In every Star thy Wisdom shines: But when our Eyes behold thy Word, We read thy Name in fairer Lines. “The heavens declare thy glory, Lord” (LM, st. 1) A text from Divine Songs Attempted in Easy Language for the Use of Children of 1715 expresses similar thoughts. Great God, with Wonder, and with Praise, On all thy Works I look: But still thy Wisdom, Pow’r and Grace, Shine brighter in thy Book. (st. 1) The entirety of Psalm 119 is about the word or law of God. Because of its length, Watts took a different approach than usual to his paraphrase of this psalm. I have collected and disposed the most usefull Verses of this Psalm under eighteen different Heads, and form’d a Divine Song upon each of them. But the Verses are much transposed to attain some degree of Connexion. (PDI, 312). An example of Watts’s procedure is the fourth part of his paraphrase, the eight stanzas of which are based on verses 9, 130, 105, 99, 100, 104, 113, 89–91, 160, 140, 9, and 116. The first stanza describes the importance of the Bible in the education of youth. How shall the Young secure their Hearts, And guard their Lives from Sin? Thy Word the choicest Rules imparts To keep the Conscience clean. In Watts’s hymns on the Bible, one clearly sees a hierarchy at work. The “book of nature” is important because it reveals that there is a creator. The “book of Scripture” is even more important because it reveals who that creator is. But the most important “book” is Jesus Christ, the ultimate revelation of God’s love for humanity, who, however, is revealed primarily through the Bible.

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God and the Holy Trinity

“There is but one onely living and true God; who is infinite in Being and Perfection,” begins the second chapter of the Savoy Declaration. The Declaration goes on to name some of God’s attributes: “invisible, without body, parts, or passions,” “most loving, gracious, merciful, long-suffering,” “most just and terrible in his Judgements,” etc.9 The omnipotence, omniscience, and omnipresence of God are reflected in numerous hymns by Watts, perhaps none more so than the group of texts that ends book 2 of Hymns and Spiritual Songs (nos. 166–170). The last of these, “Can creatures to perfection find” (B170), includes the following stanzas that are typical of Watts’s approach to the subject. Can Creatures to Perfection find Th’ Eternal uncreated Mind? Or can the largest Stretch of Thought Measure and search his Nature out? ‘Tis high as Heav’n, ‘tis deep as Hell, And what can Mortals know or tell? His glory spreads beyond the Sky, And all the shining Worlds on high. God is a King of Power unknown, Firm are the Orders of his Throne; If he resolve, who dares oppose, Or ask him why, or what he does? (sts. 1, 2, 4) God’s eternal nature is also the subject of a number of psalm versions, including “Our God, our help in ages past” (Ps. 90 CM, pt. 1), where every other stanza shows that time has no meaning for God. Before the Hills in order stood, Or Earth receiv’d her Frame, From everlasting Thou art God, To endless Years the same.

9 SD, 6–7. Throughout SD the word “only” is spelled “onely.”

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A thousand Ages in thy Sight Are like an Evening gone; Short as the Watch that ends the Night Before the rising Sun. (sts. 3, 5) Watts does not neglect the “loving, gracious, merciful, and long-suffering” nature of God. Indeed, in almost every one of the hymns heretofore quoted, the hymn writer goes on to express this side of God’s essence. In another example, “O the almighty Lord” (B80), after detailing God’s tremendous might and majesty, Watts ends with a doxology of praise and a description of God’s dual nature of “Might” and “Love”: “Salvation to the King / That sits enthron’d above; / Thus we adore the God of Might, / And bless the God of Love” (st. 6). The Savoy Declaration’s chapter on God concludes with a section describing the Trinity: “In the Unity of the God-head there be three Persons, of one Substance, Power, and Eternity, God the Father, God the Son, and God the holy Ghost: The Father is of none, neither begotten, nor proceeding; the Son is eternally begotten of the Father; The holy Ghost eternally proceeding from the Father and the Son” (SD, 7). Neither the Savoy Declaration nor Watts’s hymns give much attention to the events of Jesus’ earthly life. A handful of Watts’s texts address his birth, ministry, miracles, and details of the triumphal entry, crucifixion, resurrection, and ascension, but there are few lyrics that take these events as their principal subject, and most of the attention is on the meaning of Christ’s redemptive work.10 Watts seems to assume either that the singer already knows the details of Jesus’ life or that they are relatively unimportant. What he chooses to focus upon is the significance of the act for the singer instead of the act itself. Similarly, hymns on the Holy Spirit tend to deal with the work of the Spirit in the process of salvation or sanctification, rather than the events of the Day of Pentecost.11 Watts’s most obvious attention to the Trinity is found in the group of fifteen doxologies that concludes book 3 of Hymns and Spiritual Songs (1709, C26–41).12 Three of these (nos. 26, 27, 38) follow what was to become the classic Trinitarian hymn structure, in which one stanza each is devoted to the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, with a concluding stanza to the Three in One. “Blest be the Father 10 11 12

See, for example, “Alas! and did my Saviour bleed” (B9), which makes no mention of any aspect of the crucifixion except for Christ’s death being on a “Tree” and an oblique reference to the darkness at the death of Jesus. See “Come Holy Spirit, heavenly dove” (B34). For Watts’s introductory note to the doxologies see chap. 3.

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and his love” (C26) is of particular interest for its combination of Trinitarian hymn structure and “liquid” imagery, anticipating by a century and a half William Whiting’s similarly constructed “Eternal Father, strong to save.” Blest be the Father and his Love, To whose Celestial Source we owe Rivers of endless Joy above, And Rills of Comfort here below.13 Glory to Thee, great Son of God, From whose dear wounded Body rolls A precious Stream of vital Blood, Pardon and Life for dying Souls. We give the sacred Spirit Praise, Who in our Hearts of Sin and Woe Makes living Springs of Grace arise, And into boundless Glory flow. Thus God the Father, God the Son, And God the Spirit we adore, That Sea of Life and Love unknown Without a Bottom or a Shore. While none of the hymns outside the section of doxologies employ this fourstanza Trinitarian hymn structure, several texts incorporate the form into a larger scheme. “Raise thee, my soul, fly up and run” (B33) is an eight-stanza hymn in which the middle four stanzas follow Trinitarian form. “My God, what endless pleasures dwell” (B42) is similar in that stanza 3 mentions “sitting round our Father’s Board,” stanza 4 the “quickning Grace” of Jesus, and stanza 5 the “lonesome Dove”; the last-named is not a direct reference to the Holy Spirit (and the stanza is in brackets, indicating possible omission), but it would probably be read that way by an average congregant, coming as it does after stanzas mentioning the Father and the Son. Several lyrics follow Trinitarian hymn structure but add an extra stanza, including “Let God the Father live” (C28) and “Father of glory, to thy name” (no. 14 in Sermons, 1729). 13 In HSS this stanza ends with a comma.

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Some of Watts’s hymns acknowledge each of the persons of the Trinity but without naming them as “Three in One and One in Three.”14 Others do not list the members of the Godhead, but specifically mention the Trinity, such as “Let them neglect thy glory, Lord” (B35): “All Glory to th’ UNITED Three, / The Undivided One” (st. 2, caps as in original).15 In later years, Watts began to explore the doctrine of the Trinity in theological works that caused considerable controversy and led to accusations that he held Arian beliefs (denying the full divinity of Jesus). For example, in his The Glory of Christ as God-Man Display’d (1746), he attempted to prove that the “human soul” of Christ “had an Existence, and was personally united to the Divine Nature, long before it came to dwell in Flesh and Blood” (suggesting a division in the Godhead) and that some Scriptures “seem to refer to some Intelligent Nature belonging to our Lord Jesus Christ, which is inferior to Godhead” (implying that Christ’s “human soul” made him less than God), and he called the Michael mentioned in Daniel 10 the human soul of Christ.16 Watts himself always claimed that his views were orthodox, but that he sought to understand the Trinity by the light of reason. The problem was partly that the hymn writer was a compromiser, always seeking to find a middle ground between opposing viewpoints, and partly that he allowed his explorations to wander too far into speculation that had little support from the Scriptures. At any rate, the theology of the Trinity found in the hymns from early in his life was thoroughly orthodox.17 3

God’s Eternal Decree

The third chapter of the Savoy Declaration deals with God’s will and the doctrine of predestination or election: “God from all eternity did by the most wise and holy Counsel of his own Will, freely and unchangeably ordain whatsoever comes to pass,” though God is not “the Author of sin” and does not inhibit the 14 15

16 17

See “Who can describe the joys that rise” (A101), “Eternal Spirit, we confess” (B133), “Dearest of all the names above” (B148), and “Father of glory, to thy name” in I. Watts, Sermons on Various Subjects, vol. 3 (London: for E. Matthew, R. Ford, and R. Hett, 1729), 478. See also “Awake my heart, arise my tongue” (A20), “What happy men, or angels, these” (A40), “‘Twas the commission of our Lord” (A52), “How wondrous great, how glorious bright” (B87), “My thoughts surmount these lower skies” (B162), and “Let all our tongues be one” (C9). [Isaac Watts], The Glory of Christ as God-Man Display’d (London: for J. Oswald and J. Buckland, 1746), 147, 152, 37. For further discussion of Watts’s hymns and their relation to his later views on the Trinity see Thomas Milner, The Life, Times, and Correspondence of the Rev. Isaac Watts, D.D. (London: Simpkin and Marshall, 1834), 278–289.

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will of his creatures (SD, 7). God’s immutable essence and the unchanging nature of his decrees finds expression in Watts’s version of Psalm 111 CM, part 1, “Songs of immortal praise belong.” His Counsels never change the Scheme That his first Thoughts design’d. When he redeem’d his chosen Sons He fixt his Covenant sure: The Orders that his Lips pronounce To endless Years endure. (3:3–4, st. 4) In another psalm, he points out that The sacred Truths his Lips pronounce Shall firm as Heaven endure; And if he speak a Promise once, Th’ Eternal Grace is sure. “My never-ceasing songs shall show” (Ps. 89 CM, pt. 1, st. 2) The Savoy Declaration goes on to say that “By the Decree of God for the manifestation of his Glory, some Men and Angels are predestinated unto everlasting Life, and others fore-ordained to everlasting Death,” but this “high mystery . . . is to be handled with special prudence and care” and should result in “praise, reverence and admiration of God, and of humility, diligence, and abundant consolation to all that sincerely obey the Gospel” (SD, 7–9). Foreordination and election are clearly reflected in a number of hymns by Watts, as is the notion of receiving salvation with praise and humility. The first three stanzas of “Now to the power of God supreme” (A137) are particularly pointed. Now to the Power of God Supreme Be everlasting Honours giv’n, He saves from Hell, (we bless his Name) He calls our wand’ring Feet to Heav’n. Not for our Duties or Deserts, But of his own abounding Grace, He works Salvation in our Hearts, And forms a People for his Praise.

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‘Twas his own Purpose that begun To rescue Rebels doom’d to die; He gave us Grace in Christ his Son Before he spread the Starry Sky. For Watts and other Independents, God was sovereign and his justice absolute, a fact that was strongly expressed in both the Savoy Declaration and Watts’s hymns.18 4

Creation and Providence

“It pleased God the Father, Son and holy Ghost, for the manifestation of the glory of his eternal Power, Wisdom and Goodness, in the beginning to create or make of nothing the world, and all things therein . . . and all very good.” Furthermore, “God the Creator of all things, doth uphold, direct, dispose and govern all creatures, actions, and things from the greatest even to the least by his most wise and holy Providence” (SD, 9–10). The creation and sustenance of the natural order is one of Watts’s favorite topics. He often expresses an almost child-like delight in nature and frequently waxes rhapsodic in his description of God’s handiwork. I Sing th’ Almighty Power of God, That made the Mountains rise, That spread the flowing Seas abroad, And built the lofty Skies. I sing the Wisdom that ordain’d The Sun to rule the Day; The Moon shines full at his Command, And all the Stars obey. I sing the Goodness of the Lord, That fill’d the Earth with Food; He form’d the Creatures with his Word, And then pronounc’d them good. 18

For other hymns on predestination see “Jesus, we bless thy Father’s name” (A54, titled “Electing Grace: or, Saints beloved in Christ”) and “But few among the carnal wise” (A96, “Election excludes Boasting”).

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Lord, how thy Wonders are display’d Where’er I turn mine Eye, If I survey the Ground I tread, Or gaze upon the Sky. Divine Songs, 1715 (no. 2, sts. 1–4) Note that the first three stanzas of this hymn reflect the “Power, Wisdom and Goodness” phrase in the Savoy Declaration, a duplication that is probably not accidental. The same exuberance over the creation is found in many of Watts’s psalm versions, particularly Psalms 104 and 148. God from his cloudy Cistern pours On the parch’d Earth enriching Show’rs: The Grove, the Garden and the Field A Thousand joyfull Blessings yield. “My soul, thy great creator praise” (Ps. 104, st. 9) He built those Worlds above, And fixt their wondrous Frame; By his Command they stand or move, And ever speak his Name. “Let every creature join” (Ps. 148 SM, st. 3) Testimonies of God’s creative acts also feature prominently in Hymns and Spiritual Songs.19 The spacious Earth, and spreading Floods Proclaim the wise, the powerful God, And thy rich Glories from afar Sparkle in every rolling Star. “Now to the Lord a noble song” (B47, st. 3) The glory of creation extends to human beings. In Psalm 139 LM, part 2, Watts pays tribute to the God who “stamp’d his Image on my Frame” in a hymn that serves as an important counterbalance to Watts’s frequent musings on the corrupt nature of humanity because of original sin (see below).

19

See Daniel Johnson, “Let Heaven and Nature Sing: Creation and New Creation in the Hymns of Isaac Watts,” The Glass 34 (Spring 2021): 4–13.

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‘Twas from thy Hand, my God, I came, A Work of such a curious Frame; In me thy fearfull Wonders shine, And each proclaims thy Skill divine. (st. 1) It is worth reiterating that, as seen above in the discussion of hymns on the Bible, Watts joyfully acknowledges and celebrates the creation, but he always gives pride of place to the revelation of God through the Scriptures, and above all, through Jesus Christ. 5

Fall of Humanity, Sin, and Punishment

Because Adam and Eve ate “the forbidden fruit,” they “fell from original righteousness and communion with God” and their guilt was “conveyed to all their posterity descending from them by ordinary generation” (SD, 12–13). This doctrine of “original sin,” that all humans are sinners by nature and cannot redeem themselves, is vividly expressed in “Backward with humble Shame we look / On our Original” (A57). Conceiv’d in Sin, (O wretched state!) Before we draw our Breath, The first young Pulse begins to beat Iniquity and Death. (st. 3) The fallen nature of the human race often leads Watts to refer to humanity as “worms.” Alas! and did my Saviour bleed, And did my Sovereign die? Would he devote that sacred Head For such a Worm as I? (B9, st. 1) This metaphor reflects Scripture passages such as Psalm 22:6a, “But I am a worm, and no man.” By comparing humanity with one of the lowest forms of life, Watts “reminds the singer of his fallen condition,” “establishes the gulf between an Infinite God and his creation,” and makes it plain that, while humans may be worth saving, they are without merit to do so on their own.20 20

James Wendall Plett, “The Poetic Language of Isaac Watts’s Hymns” (Ph.D. diss., University of California, Riverside, 1986), 117.

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Because of the sinful nature of humans, they deserve only “Tempests of Brimstone, Fire and Death, / Such as he [God] kindled on the Plain / Of Sodom with his angry Breath” (“My refuge is the God of love,” Ps. 11, 5:2–4). An even worse punishment for Watts would be eternal separation from God, as expressed in “That awful day will surely come” (B107). O wretched State of deep Despair, To see my God remove, And fix my doleful Station where I must not taste his Love? (st. 5) Even heaven would bring no joy for Watts if he could not be with God: “Heaven without thy Presence there / Would be a dark and tiresome Place” (“How full of anguish is the thought,” B100, 3:3–4); “Were I in Heaven without my God, / ‘Twould be no Joy to me” (“God my supporter and my hope,” Ps. 73 CM, pt. 2, 3:1–2). 6

God’s Covenant with Humanity through Christ the Mediator

However, as with the Savoy Declaration, Watts does not leave the matter there, for God has given humanity a covenant of grace as a remedy for sin. God’s “Covenant of Works” with Adam was broken by Adam’s sin, but God then provided a “Covenant of Grace,” “wherein he freely offereth unto sinners life and salvation by Jesus Christ” (SD, 14). Watts emphasizes the provision of this new covenant in “Deep in the dust before thy throne” (A124), based on Romans 5, which he titled “The First and Second Adam.” [By the Rebellion of One Man Thro’ all his Seed the Mischief ran; And by One Man’s Obedience now Are all his Seed made Righteous too. Where Sin did reign and Death abound, There have the Sons of Adam found Abounding Life; there glorious Grace Reigns thro’ the Lord our Righteousness.] (sts. 5–6) In order to satisfy the covenant, Christ was born of a virgin, taking on human flesh while remaining fully divine. He brought redemption through his death and resurrection, which appeased the wrath of God against sinful humanity

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(propitiation), and now he intercedes for sinners with the Father. This “penal substitution theory” of the atonement was common among Calvinistic Independents and is reflected in many Watts hymns, including the three stanzas of “Blood has a voice to pierce the skies” (B118). Blood has a Voice to pierce the Skies, Revenge, the Blood of Abel cries; But the dear Stream when Christ was slain Speaks Peace as loud from every Vein. Pardon and Peace from God on high, Behold he lays his Vengeance by, And Rebels that deserv’d his Sword Become the Favorites of the Lord. To Jesus let our Praises rise Who gave his Life a Sacrifice; Now he appears before his God, And for our Pardon pleads his Blood. While the penal substitution theory is found often in Watts’s hymns, other approaches to soteriology also occur. The “ransom theory” states that the sin of Adam and Eve sold their descendants to the Devil, but that God, through the crucifixion and resurrection of Jesus, provided a payment to rescue humanity. “Like sheep we went astray” (A142) notes Christ’s having paid “A Ransom for the Flock,” while another text, “Let all our tongues be one” (C9) also suggests the paying of a debt for sin. How glorious was the Grace, When Christ sustain’d the Stroke! His Life and Blood the Shepherd pays A Ransom for the Flock. “Like sheep we went astray” (st. 3) 21

21

“Ransom” is, of course, a biblical word that Watts would have used in writing paraphrases of scriptural passages that mention it. However, the word is not used in Isa. 53 (the source for “Like sheep we went astray”) and the word “pays” in line 3 is a further indication of the ransom theory.

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It cost him Cries and Tears To bring us near to God; Great was our Debt, and he appears To make the Payment good. “Let all our tongues be one” (st. 3) Another of the principal atonement theories is Christus victor, which Escott says “colours the whole of Watts’s writings in verse.”22 According to this approach, Christ did battle with the Devil and conquered through his death and resurrection. Jesus, the God that fought and bled, And conquer’d when he fell, That rose, and at his Chariot-wheels Drag[g]’d all the Powers of Hell. “Come let us lift our voices high” (C21, st. 2) Hosanna to our conquering King, The Prince of Darkness flies, His Troops rush headlong down to Hell Like Lightning from the Skies. Thy Vict’ries and thy deathless Fame Thro’ the wide World shall run, And everlasting Ages sing The Triumphs thou hast won. “Hosanna to our conquering king” (B89, sts. 1, 4) Regardless of the specific theory involved, it is evident that the atonement was not only a central tenet for the compilers of the Savoy Declaration, but also for the hymn writer. While God’s wrath figures prominently in Watts, it is balanced by an emphasis on God’s love in sending his son to die on a cross and redeem humanity. 22

Harry Escott, Isaac Watts, Hymnographer (London: Independent Press, 1962), 48. See also William Eaton Stephenson, “The Heroic Hymn of Isaac Watts” (Ph.D. diss., University of California, 1963), especially pp. 132, 178, 186, 206. Christus victor as a systematic theory of the atonement dates from the twentieth century, but its essence can be seen in many earlier writings, including Martin Luther’s sixteenth-century hymn Christ lag in Todesbanden.

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Free Will and the Calling of God

“God hath endued the Will of man with that natural liberty and power of acting upon choice, that it is neither forced nor by any absolute necessity of Nature determined to do good or evil.” However, God calls those who are predestined “out of that state of sin and death in which they are by nature, to grace and salvation by Jesus Christ” (SD, 18–19). In other words, humans have the choice to do good or evil, but it is only through God’s call that they are inspired unto salvation and to do good. Humans can take no credit for either their salvation or their good works; the credit belongs solely to God. Human freedom and God’s calling are taken up in Watts’s Communion hymn “How sweet and awful is the place” (C13). The third stanza ends with the question of why the singer was made “a Guest” at the Supper. The next two stanzas then point out that people are given a choice (though “thousands” make the wrong one), but it was only because the singer was “made to hear thy Voice” that he or she received the invitation to salvation and otherwise would have “perish’d.” “Why was I made to hear thy Voice, And enter while there’s Room? When thousands make a wretched choice And rather starve than come?” ‘Twas the same Love that spre[a]d the Feast, That sweetly forc’d us in, Else we had still refus’d to taste, And perish’d in our Sin. (sts. 4–5) God’s call to rise above the naturally sinful human character is reflected in “How sad our state by nature is” (B90). How sad our State by Nature is! Our Sin how deep it stains! And Satan binds our captive Minds Fast in his slavish Chains. But there’s a Voice of sovereign Grace Sounds from the sacred Word, Ho, ye despairing Sinners come, And trust upon the Lord. (sts. 1–2)

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For Watts, as for the framers of the Savoy Declaration, predestination did not mean a lack of human responsibility. Rather, people have a choice as to whether or not to engage in either sin or righteousness. It is God who calls, and people must respond. 8

Justification, Adoption, Sanctification, and Saving Faith

According to the Savoy Declaration, “Christ by his Obedience and Death did fully discharge the Debt of all those that are justified . . . not for any thing in them, their justification is onely of free grace” (SD, 21). One of Watts’s clearest statements of God’s grace justifying sinners through Christ is in “Lord, we confess our num’rous fau’ts” (A111). ‘Tis not by Works of Righteousness Which our own Hands have done; But we are sav’d by Sovereign Grace Abounding thro’ his Son. Rais’d from the Dead we live anew; And justify’d by Grace We shall appear in Glory too, And see our Father’s Face. (sts. 3, 6) Through Christ, those who are justified are made “partakers of the grace of Adoption” and “are enabled to cry Abba Father, . . . and inherit the Promises as Heirs of everlasting Salvation” (SD, 22). Watts’s “Behold what wondrous grace” (A64), based on 1 John 3 and Galatians 4:6, expresses the adoption of the elect in powerful terms. Behold what wond’rous Grace The Father hath bestow’d On Sinners of a Mortal Race, To call them Sons of God! We would not longer lie Like Slaves beneath the Throne; My Faith shall, Abba Father, cry; And thou the Kindred own. (sts. 1, 6)

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For the Christian, adoption by God leads to sanctification, “the practice of all true holiness” (SD, 23). The power of God to cleanse the sinner rings like a refrain through several of Watts’s hymns. Yet mighty God, thy wondrous Love Can make our Nature clean. (“Backward with humble shame we look,” A57, 7:2) His Spirit makes our Natures clean (“Buried in shadows of the night,” A97, 3:2) He makes our Natures clean (“Mistaken souls! that dream of heav’n,” A140, 6:2) “[T]he principal acts of saving Faith are, accepting, receiving, and resting upon Christ alone, for justification, sanctification, and eternal life, by virtue of the covenant of Grace” (SD, 24). This accepting, receiving, and resting upon (or waiting for) Christ is reflected in the following lines from Watts. See, dearest Lord, our willing Souls Accept thine offer’d Grace. (“Come, happy souls, approach your God,” B103, 6:1–2) But Souls enlightned from above With Joy receive the Word. (“Christ and his cross is all our theme,” A119, 2:2) But we that wait upon the Lord Shall feel our Strength encrease. (“Whence do our mournful thoughts arise,” A32, 4:3–4) My God, I long, I hope, I wait For thy Salvation still While thy whole Law is my Delight, And I obey thy Will. (“With my whole heart I’ve sought thy face,” Ps. 119, pt. 13, st. 6) 9 Repentance The provision of salvation for the elect does not mean that the Christian will be sinless: “there is none that doth good, and sinneth not, and the best of men

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may, through the power and deceitfulness of their corruptions dwelling in them, and with the prevalency of temptation, fall into great sins and provocations.” However, God, “in the covenant of Grace mercifully provided” a way to “be renewed through repentance unto Salvation” (SD, 25). Perhaps Watts’s best expression of the doctrine of repentance is his long meter paraphrase of the great confession of sin in Psalm 51 from The Psalms of David Imitated. Shew pity, Lord, O Lord forgive, Let a repenting Rebel live: Are not thy Mercies large and free? May not a Sinner trust in Thee? O wash my Soul from every Sin, And make my guilty Conscience clean; Here on my Heart the Burden lies, And past Offences pain my Eyes. My Lips with Shame my Sins confess Against thy Law, against thy Grace: Lord, should thy Judgment grow severe, I am condemn’d, but thou art clear. (sts. 1, 3, 4) In another hymn, “Behold the wretch whose lust and wine” (A123), Watts provides a paraphrase of the story of the Prodigal Son, certainly an apt example of penitence. As Watts also points out, repentance is actually a source of joy: “Life and immortal Joys are giv’n / To Souls that mourn the Sins they’ve done, / Children of Wrath made Heirs of Heav’n / By Faith in God’s Eternal Son” (B125, st. 1). 10

Good Works

The Savoy Declaration makes it quite clear that humans cannot receive salvation through good works, but only through the grace of God. However, good works are important as “the fruits and evidences of a true and lively Faith.” Good works come “wholly from the Spirit of Christ” for the glory of God (SD, 26–27). “So let our lips and lives express” (A132) notes the usefulness of works in giving evidence of God’s grace. So let our Lips and Lives express The Holy Gospel we profess, So let our Works and Virtues shine, To prove the Doctrine all-Divine.

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Thus shall we best proclaim abroad The Honours of our Saviour God; When the Salvation reigns within, And Grace subdues the Power of Sin. (sts. 1–2) A specific example of a good work is relief of the poor, and one of the marks of a saint is an attempt to help them. The Saint is merciful and lends, Nor turns the Poor away. His Alms with liberal Heart he gives Amongst the Sons of Need. “Why do the wealthy wicked boast” (Ps. 37, pt. 2, 2:3–4, 3:1–2) Most of Watts’s hymns about sickness and healing refer to them either in spiritual terms or from the perspective of the one who has been ill. However, in “Go preach my gospel, saith the Lord” (A128), Watts quotes the words from Jesus’ commission in Mark 16:15–18, “Go heal the Sick, go raise the Dead, / Go cast out Devils in my Name” (3:1–2), suggesting the “good work” of a healing ministry. Another task for the Christian is to lead others to recognize the glory, majesty, and love of God. Begin my Tongue, some heav’nly theme And speak some boundless thing, The mighty works, or mightier Name Of our Eternal King. Tell of his wond’rous Faithfulness, And sound his Power abroad, Sing the sweet promise of his Grace, And the performing God. Proclaim Salvation from the Lord For wretched dying Men; His Hand has writ the sacred Word With an Immortal Pen. “Begin my tongue, some heav’nly theme” (B69, sts. 1–3)

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Watts wrote his hymns about three-quarters of a century before the beginning of the modern English missionary movement. As noted in a previous section, Watts’s hymns reflect the tenets of the Savoy Declaration regarding election, and his texts are not what would later be called “evangelistic.” However, in Watts’s opinion, Christians have a responsibility to proclaim God’s praise so that others may hear and God may be glorified.23 11

Perseverance of the Saints

The perseverance of the saints, also sometimes called “the eternal security of the believer,” means that the elect cannot lose their salvation, which is in the hands of God, even if they fall into sin (SD, 28–29). Watts put it this way in the three stanzas of “Firm as the earth thy gospel stands” (A138). Firm as the Earth thy Gospel stands, My Lord, my Hope, my Trust; If I am found in Jesus[’] Hands My Soul can ne’er be lost. His Honour is engag’d to save The meanest of his Sheep, All that his heavenly Father gave His Hands securely keep. Nor Death, nor Hell shall e’er remove His Favorites from his Breast, In the dear Bosom of his Love They must for ever rest. 23

The modern missionary movement is generally considered to have started with the publication in 1792 of William Carey’s An Enquiry into the Obligations of Christians, to Use Means for the Conversion of the Heathens, the founding of the Particular Baptist Society for the Propagation of the Gospel Amongst the Heathen (later the Baptist Missionary Society) in the same year, and Carey’s voyage as a missionary to India in 1793. Watts maintained an interest in revival movements in both England and America. In addition to his hymns, his interest in spiritual renewal movements can be seen in his and John Guyse’s abridgement and publication of a letter by the American Congregationalist Jonathan Edwards as A Faithful Narrative of the Surprizing Work of God in the Conversion of Many Hundred Souls in Northampton [Massachusetts] (London: for John Oswald, 1737).

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For Watts, as for the Savoy Declaration, the perseverance of the saints is directly linked to election, which provides both comfort and a challenge to live righteously. 12

Assurance of Salvation

According to the Savoy Declaration, “such as truly believe in the Lord Jesus . . . may rejoice in the hope of the glory of God.” While this assurance of salvation may be “shaken, diminished and intermitted” by sin from time to time, it “may in due time be revived” (30–31). Watts clearly expresses this confidence in the first two stanzas of “When I can read my title clear” (B65). When I can read my Title clear To Mansions in the Skies, I bid farewel[l] to every Fear, And wipe my weeping Eyes. Should Earth against my Soul engage, And hellish Darts be hurl’d, Then I can smile at Satan’s Rage, And face a frowning World. Of course, the proper response to this assurance of salvation is to “rejoice in the hope of the glory of God.” A great many of Watts’s hymns consist either of praise directed to God or admonitions to others (or to oneself) to praise the Lord. Naturally, this is particularly true of the psalm versions. I’ll praise my Maker with my Breath; And when my Voice is lost in Death Praise shall employ my nobler Powers: My Days of Praise shall ne’er be past While Life and Thought and Being last, Or Immortality endures. “I’ll praise my maker with my breath” (Ps. 146 “as the 113th Psalm,” st. 1) In the next psalm, Watts points out that praise is both a duty and a delight. Praise ye the Lord: ‘Tis good to raise Our Hearts and Voices in his Praise:

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His Nature and his Works invite To make his Duty our Delight. “Praise ye the Lord: ‘tis good to raise” (Ps 147, pt. 1, st. 1) Such sentiments are not restricted to the psalms, but are also found frequently in Watts’s hymns. Jesus is worthy to receive Honour and Power divine; And Blessings more than we can give, Be, Lord, for ever thine. Let all that dwell above the Sky, And Air, and Earth, and Seas, Conspire to lift thy Glorys high, And speak thine endless Praise. “Come let us join our cheerful songs” (A57, sts. 3–4) I yield my Powers to thy Command, To thee I consecrate my Days; Perpetual Blessings from thine Hand Demand perpetual Songs of Praise. “My God, how endless is thy love” (A81, st. 3) 13

The Law of God

The Savoy Declaration points out that God gave two sorts of laws, the law of universal obedience (moral law) and the ceremonial law. The moral law, which was given to Adam and “written in his heart,” received visible form in the Ten Commandments and is still in force as the proper way to relate to God and to other people. The ceremonial law, delivered to the people of the Old Testament to guide their worship and the performance of their duties, consisted of “Typical Ordinances” that were abrogated at the coming of Christ. True believers are neither justified nor condemned by the moral law, but it helps inform them of the will of God (SD, 31–33). “The law by Moses came” (A118) observes that the moral law must still be obeyed, though Christ’s covenant of grace is the ultimate arbiter of salvation. The Man that durst despise The Law that Moses brought;

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Behold! how terribly he dyes For his presumptuous Fau’t. But sorer Vengeance falls On that rebellious Race, Who hate to hear when Jesus calls, And dare resist his Grace. (sts. 4–5). The helplessness of the moral law to justify, but also its use to correct and call to repentance, is also mentioned in “Vain are the hopes the sons of men” (A94). In vain we ask God’s righteous Law To justify us now, Since to convince and to condemn Is all the Law can do. (st. 3) The abrogation of the ceremonial law at the coming of Christ is a frequent subject in Watts’s hymns. “The true Messiah now appears” (B12) is typical. The true Messiah now appears, The Types are all withdrawn; So fly the Shadows and the Stars Before the rising Dawn. No smoaking Sweets, nor bleeding Lambs, Nor Kid, nor Bullock slain; Incense and Spice of costly Names Would all be burnt in vain. Aaron must lay his Robes away, His Mitre and his Vest, When God himself comes down to be The Off’ring and the Priest. (sts. 1–3) Indeed, not even “all the outward Forms on Earth, / Nor Rites that God has giv’n, / . . . / Can raise a Soul to Heav’n” (“Not all the outward forms on earth,” A95, st. 1). This hymn, and others like it, express the supersessionist view that God gave the ceremonial law to the Hebrews of the Old Testament, but that this ceremonial law was abrogated by the coming of Christ, which did away with the need

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for animal sacrifice in the temple, as expounded particularly by the writer of the book of Hebrews. In the supersessionist view, the Christian church superseded the Jewish nation as the chosen people of God. Thus, Watts can suggest that “The Jewish wintry State is gone” (“The voice of my beloved sounds,” A69) or that “We humbly take what they [‘Thine ancient Family the Jews’] refuse” (“How rich are thy provisions, Lord,” C12, 2:1, 3). His strongest statements of this thinking are found in the prose sections of Hymns and Spiritual Songs (including the “Short Essay”) and The Psalms of David Imitated, in both of which he often critiques the “Jewish” elements in the psalms. For example, in the preface to The Psalms of David Imitated, he asks the following questions. What need is there that I should wrap up the shining Honours of my Redeemer in the dark and shadowy Language of a Religion that is now for ever abolished; especially when Christians are so vehemently warned in the Epistles of St. Paul against a Judaizing Spirit in their Worship as well as Doctrine? And what Fault can there be in enlarging a little on the more usefull Subjects in the Style of the Gospel, where the psalm gives any Occasion, since the Whole Religion of the Jews is censur’d often in the New Testament as a defective and imperfect Thing? (xx–xxi). While this is perhaps Watts’s most strident critique of the Jewish religion in the prose writings of his song books, it is far from the only one, and he often calls passages in the biblical book of Psalms “dark,” “shadowy,” or “gloomy.” However, it is important to keep in mind his primary purpose in these essays: to show that the unrevised Jewish psalms are not sufficient as the sole song material for Christians of the eighteenth century. For instance, in the “Short Essay” he asks “And how do we rob God the Son of the Glory of his dying Love, if we speak of it only in the gloomy Language of Smoke and Sacrifices, Bullocks and Goats, and the Fat of Lambs?” But he goes on to ask, “Is not the Ascent of Christ into Heaven, and his Triumph over Principalities and Powers of Darkness a nobler Entertainment for our tuneful Meditations, than the removing of the Ark up to the City of David, to the Hill of God, which is high as the Hill of Bashan?” (HSS, 1707, 258). According to Watts, the Jewish elements in the psalms were “suited to their [the Jews’s] Dispensation” (HSS, 1707, 268), but it was not appropriate for Christians to continue singing things that were specific to the religious practice of the Old Testament Hebrews, such as “I will praise thee upon a Psaltery; or, I will open my dark Saying upon the Harp . . . when Thousands never saw such an Instrument, and know nothing of the Art” (PDI, xiii–xiv): “Moses, Deborah and the Princes of Israel, David, Asaph and Habakkuk, and all the Saints under the Jewish State, sung their own Joys

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and Victories, their own Hopes and Fears and Deliverances, as I hinted before; and why must we under the Gospel sing nothing else but the Joys, Hopes and Fears of Asaph and David?” (PDI, xi). These and similar comments are not so much critiques of the Jews as of Christians who continued to sing only the Old Testament psalms in worship rather than expressing their own “Joys and Victories,” “Hopes and Fears and Deliverances.” Watts’s hymnic references to the Jews for their supposed role in the crucifixion also contain some harsh language; in various hymns they are called “stubborn,” “spightful,” “Barbarous,” and “envious.”24 This wording is unfortunate, but the references are not always what they seem on the surface. It is important to consider both the scriptural background of the lyrics that use these expressions and the context of the entire hymn. In nearly every case, the Scripture from which the allusion is taken refers to the backsliding Jews of the Old Testament (often the subject of critique in the psalms themselves), the Jewish leaders who conspired the death of Jesus, or the crowd at the crucifixion, thus to a single group of Jews and not to the race as a whole.25 For example, in his short meter paraphrase of Psalm 118, “See what a living stone,” Watts writes that God founded the Christian church “In Spight of envious Jews” (1:4). The phrase is clarified in the next stanza when he observes that it is “The Scribe and angry Priest” who “Reject thine only Son,” making it clear that it was this specific group, not all Jews of every time and place, that is being called “envious.”26 Most of the other negative references to “Jews” in the hymns have a similar background or context. This is not to excuse Watts entirely. His use of the generic term “Jews” to refer to particular groups of Jews can easily be misinterpreted as referring to the whole race of people, particularly when encountered by a member of a singing 24 25 26

See “Who has believ’d thy word” (A141, 4:3), “Infinite grief! amazing woe!” (B95, 3:4), “Now let our mournful songs record” (Ps. 22 LM, 10:1), and “See what a living stone” (Ps. 118 SM, 1:4) See Ps. 95:8–9, 11; Luke 22:2–3; Matt. 27:39–43; and Mark 15:10 for the Scripture references that relate to the hymns in the previous footnote. The “envy” of the chief priests is derived from Mark 15:10. Stephen Orchard, “The Hymns of Isaac Watts,” Journal of the United Reformed Church History Society 6, no. 3 (1998): 161, quotes st. 1 of “See what a living stone” as an example of Watts’s antisemitism in blaming the Jews for the crucifixion without, apparently, taking note of the second stanza. For additional discussion of anti-Jewishness in Watts see Sharon Achinstein, Literature and Dissent in Milton’s England (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2003), 239, 241. It might be remarked that Watts’s italicization of the word “Jews” throughout his writings could be taken as a sign of antisemitism by calling special attention to the term. However, it was his practice to italicize almost all proper nouns, and words such as “Jesus” and “Christian” receive the same treatment.

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congregation who perhaps does not know the scriptural background or when stanzas are omitted in singing. Watts did not consider the Jews (or, for that matter, the Romans) as ultimately responsible for the death of Christ, as is evident from his hymn “Infinite grief! amazing woe” (B95; see chap. 6). Indeed, some of his references to the Jews are quite positive, and some of them acknowledge (with the apostle Paul) both that Judaism is the foundation on which the Christian church was built and that God has not cast away the Jews, but has a purpose for them.27 Nevertheless, from a distance of more than 300 years, it is unfortunate that in some of his hymns he was not more circumspect in his choice of language.28 14

The Gospel and Grace

Redemption cannot come through the covenant of works, but through the gospel, which proclaims the grace of God through the promise of Christ, and by which the believer receives faith and repentance. The gospel is disclosed only by the Word of God, not creation or providence, which can only reveal God in a general or obscure way. One cannot earn this grace—it comes through the will of God. The Holy Spirit works upon the soul to produce a new spiritual life. For Watts, the gospel is . . . the Word of Truth and Love, Sent to the Nations from above; Jehovah here resolves to shew What his Almighty Grace can do. This Remedy did Wisdom find, To heal diseases of the Mind; This Soveraign [sic] Balm, whose virtues can Restore the ruin’d Creature, Man. The Gospel bids the Dead revive, Sinners obey the Voice, and live; 27 28

See “Bless, O my soul, the living God” (Ps. 103 LM, pt. 1, st. 8), “Gentiles by nature we belong” (A114, sts. 1–2), “God of eternal love” (Ps. 106, pt. 2, st. 6, and the note that follows the hymn), and Paul’s discussion in Romans 11. For a fuller discussion of Watts’s references to the Jews in his congregational song books see David W. Music, “Isaac Watts, Hymns, and the Jews,” Pacific Journal of Theological Research 16, no. 1 (November 2021): 15–33.

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Dry Bones are rais’d and cloth’d afresh, And Hearts of Stone are turn’d to Flesh. “This is the word of truth and love” (B138, sts. 1–3) The superiority of the Word of God over creation and providence in revealing the plan of redemption has been noted above in the discussion of Watts’s hymns on the Bible, particularly in his paraphrases of Psalm 19. The helplessness of humans to save themselves, the work of Christ in salvation, and the joy that it brings are well expressed in the three stanzas of “Salvation! O the joyful sound” (B88). Salvation! O the joyful Sound! ‘Tis Pleasure to our Ears; A Sovereign Balm for every Wound, A Cordial for our Fears. Bury’d in Sorrow and in Sin, At Hell’s dark Door we lay, But we arise by Grace Divine To see a heavenly Day. Salvation! Let the Eccho [sic] fly The spacious Earth around, While all the Armies of the Sky Conspire to raise the Sound. The work of the Holy Spirit in producing spiritual life in the believer is given attention in “Not all the outward forms on earth” (A96). The Spirit like some heavenly Wind Blows on the Sons of Flesh, New-models all the carnal Mind, And forms the Man afresh. “Not all the outward forms on earth” (st. 3) 15

Christian Liberty and Liberty of Conscience

The Savoy Declaration’s chapter on Christian liberty and freedom of conscience points out that salvation not only gives freedom from the ceremonial

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law (as detailed under “The Law of God” above), but also greater boldness of access to the throne of grace. This aspect of Christian liberty is voiced in “Come let us lift our joyful eyes” (B108). Now we may bow before his Feet, And venture near the Lord; No fiery Cherub guards his Seat, Nor double-flaming Sword. The peaceful Gates of heavenly Bliss Are open’d by the Son; High let us raise our Notes of Praise, And reach th’ Almighty Throne. (sts. 4–5) However, Christian liberty is not freedom to engage in willful sin, a practice that would “pervert the main designe [sic] of the Grace of the Gospel” (SD, 36). Watts addresses this issue in a hymn based on the opening of Romans 6, “Shall we go on to sin” (A106), which contains an interesting analogy of sins being crucified and resurrected. Shall we go on to sin, Because thy Grace abounds, Or crucify the Lord again, And open all his Wounds? Forbid it mighty God, Nor let it e’er be said That we whose Sins are crucify’d Should raise them from the Dead. (sts. 1–2) The message is clear: God hates sin, even when it is committed by one who has been redeemed, and the liberty of God’s grace is not an excuse for indulging in it. On liberty of conscience, see below under “The Civil Magistrate.” 16

Religious Worship and the Sabbath Day

The Savoy Declaration states that God is worthy of worship, but that this must be done only according to God’s own commandments. Further, worship is to

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be given solely to the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. It is to be carried out on the first day of the week, the Lord’s Day (37–39). As might be expected, Watts’s version of Psalm 118 (CM, pt. 4), transposes the day of worship from the Jewish Sabbath to the Christian Lord’s Day. This is the Day the Lord hath made, He calls the Hours his own; Let Heaven rejoice, let Earth be glad, And Praise surround the Throne. To day he rose and left the Dead, And Satan’s Empire fell; To day the Saints his Triumph spread, And all his Wonders tell. (sts. 1–2) In a sequence of three hymns in book 2 of Hymns and Spiritual Songs (nos. 14–16), Watts describes Sunday as the “sweet Day of Rest / That saw the Lord arise,” calls on the “vain World” to be “Far from my Thoughts” in worship, and prays that God will “in thy Temple let us see / A glimpse of Love, a glimpse of Thee.”29 The Savoy Declaration lists the principal elements of worship as prayer, Scripture reading, preaching and hearing God’s word, singing of psalms, and the administration of baptism and the Lord’s Supper. According to Watts, as well as most other Dissenters, plain worship without outward elaboration or ceremony is best: worship is “decent,” “wise,” and “glorious” when it is “Beyond the Pomp that charms the Eyes, / And Rites adorn’d with Gold” (“Far as thy name is known,” Ps. 48 SM, pt. 2, 5:3–4). In another text, “God is a spirit just and wise” (A136), the hymn writer points out that “Nothing but Truth before his [God’s] Throne / With Honour can appear” and that “God abhors the Sacrifice / Where not the Heart is found” (2:1–2, 3:3–4). “How beauteous are their feet” (A10), based on verses from Isaiah 5 and Matthew 13, notes both the “beauteous” work of the preacher and those who joyfully hear what the preacher has to say. How beauteous are their Feet Who stand on Zion’s Hill, 29

“Welcome sweet day of rest” (1:1–2), “Far from my thoughts, vain world, be gone” (1:1), “Lord, what a heaven of saving grace” (12:3–4). See chap. 3 for further discussion of these texts.

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Who bring Salvation on their Tongues, And Words of Peace reveal! How charming is their Voice! How sweet the Tidings are! “Zion, behold thy Saviour-King, He Reigns and Triumphs here.” How happy are our Ears That hear this joyful Sound Which Kings and Prophets waited for, And sought, but never found! (sts. 1–3) Prayer, praise, and the bringing of offerings (the last-named not mentioned in the Savoy Declaration) are among the actions of worship found in the third stanza of “Lift up your eyes to th’ heavenly seats” (B37): “Petitions now and Praise may rise, / And Saints their Offerings bring, / The Priest with his own Sacrifice / Presents them to the King.”30 Another text, “Thus saith the Lord, ‘The spacious fields’” (Ps. 50 CM, pt. 2), has God say “I ask no Sheep for Sacrifice, / Nor Bullocks burnt with Fire; / To hope and love, to pray and praise / Is all that I require” (st. 2). 17

The Civil Magistrate31

The Savoy Declaration observes that magistrates are ordained by God for “his own glory and the publique good,” and that Christians can lawfully “accept and execute” such an office (SD, 41). Watts touches on the divine ordination of magistrates in his version of Psalm 75, “To thee, most holy, and most high,” which he “Apply’d to the Glorious Revolution by King William, or the Happy Accession of King George to the Throne”: “He from thy Hand receiv’d his Crown.” While this line suggests the “divine right of kings,” it also reflects Romans 13:1–2, and 30

31

Unfortunately, Watts spoils the sentiment by the next stanza, which he gives a polemical twist: “Let Papists trust what Names they please, / Their Saints and Angels boast; / We’ve no such Advocates as these, / Nor pray to th’ Heavenly Host.” The stanza is marked for possible deletion, which seems like a good idea. Between the sections in SD on “Religious Worship and the Sabbath Day” and “The Civil Magistrate” is one on “Oaths and Vows.” The topic is omitted here, since Watts addressed this subject only in his CM version of Ps. 116, part 2, “What shall I render to my God,” where he merely copies the words “vow” and “vows” from the Scripture passage (sts. 2, 6).

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Watts goes on to point out that the sovereign “sware to rule by whol[e]some Laws; / His Foot shall tread th’ Oppressor down, / His Arm defend the righteous Cause” (st. 3). Magistrates are to defend and encourage those who do well and to punish those who break the laws, rendering just and unbiased verdicts. They are not to abridge the liberty of those who believe or worship differently. Watts’s Psalm 58, “Judges, who rule the world by laws,” titled “Warning to Magistrates,” addresses both of these issues, noting that the judges themselves will also be judged. Judges, who rule the World by Laws, Will ye despise the righteous Cause, When th’ injur’d Poor before you stands? Dare ye condemn the righteous Poor, And let rich Sinners ‘scape secure, While Gold & Greatness bribe your Hands? Have ye forgot or never knew That God will judge the Judges too? High in the Heavens his Justice reigns; Yet you invade the Rights of God, And send your bold Decrees abroad To bind the Conscience in your Chains. (sts. 1–2) The reverence that is due to magistrates but, in addition, their duty not to abridge liberty of conscience, is likewise found in the hymn “Eternal sovereign of the sky” (B150). Let Cæsar’s Due be ever paid To Cæsar and his Throne, But Consciences and Souls were made To be the Lord’s alone. (st. 5) Watts also provides a hymn for magistrates who are believers, which he titled “The Magistrates Psalm” (“Mercy and judgment are my song,” Ps. 101 LM). If I am rais’d to bear the Sword, I’ll take my Counsels from thy Word; Thy Justice and thy heavenly Grace Shall be the Pattern of my Ways.

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Let Wisdom all my Actions guide, And let my God with me reside; No wicked thing shall dwell with me, Which may provoke thy Jealousy. (sts. 2–3) The role of civil magistrates was an important one in the life of Watts. As noted in the introduction, the incarceration of his father because of his religion and the shifts in English governmental attitudes toward Independents that resulted from the changes of monarchs were ongoing issues during his lifetime. His close association with Thomas Abney, who held a number of governmental posts, also brought home to him the importance of this topic, one to which, as seen, he devoted several of his hymns. 18

The Church32

The Savoy Declaration’s chapter on the church deals only with the universal church, which “consists of the whole number of the Elect” (44). Oddly, given the nature of Independency, there is no mention of the local church. However, the local definition of the church—as well as its reference to people and not to a building—was dealt with by Watts in his common meter paraphrase of Psalm 132, “No sleep, nor slumber to his eyes.” [The Lord in Zion plac’d his Name, His Ark was settled there; To Zion the whole Nation came To worship Thrice a Year. But we have no such Lengths to go, Nor wander far abroad; Where e’er thy Saints assemble now, There is a House for God.] (sts. 2–3) The church is made up of individuals—which, in “Jesus invites his saints” (C2), he compares to the “broken Bread” of Communion—but it has Christ as its head. 32

Between the SD chapters on the civil magistrate and the church is one on marriage. Since Watts apparently did not write any hymns dealing with marriage, other than those that use it metaphorically to symbolize the relationship between Christ and the church, the topic is omitted here.

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We are but several Parts Of the same broken Bread; One Body hath its several Limbs, But Jesus is the Head. (st. 5) In two texts, “We are a garden wall’d around” (A74), based on verses from Song of Solomon 4 and 5, and “Lord, ‘tis a pleasant thing to stand” (Ps. 92 LM, pt. 2), Watts emphasizes the “called-out” nature of the church by comparing it to a garden. We are a Garden wall’d around, Chosen and made peculiar Ground; A little Spot inclos’d by Grace Out of the World’s wide Wilderness. Our Lord into his Garden comes, Well pleas’d to smell our poor Perfumes, And calls us to a Feast divine, Sweeter than Honey, Milk, or Wine.33 (sts. 1, 6) Lord, ‘tis a pleasant Thing to stand In Gardens planted by thine Hand; Let me within thy Courts be seen Like a young Cedar fresh and green. There grow thy Saints in Faith and Love, Blest with thine Influence from above; Not Lebanon with all its Trees Yields such a comely Sight as these. (sts. 1–2) The church is a “sacred Place” in which God dwells with his people, as observed in “Happy the church, thou sacred place” (B64). Happy the Church, thou sacred Place; The Seat of thy Creator’s Grace; 33

The first two lines of this stanza may have been the inspiration for the folk hymn “The Lord into his garden come[s], / The spices yield a rich perfume,” found as early as the second edition of The Christian’s Duty: Exhibited in a Series of Hymns (Germantown, PA: Peter Leibert, 1801), supplement pp. 20–22.

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Thine holy Courts are his Abode, Thou Earthly Palace of our God. (st. 1) The church is also a place of refreshment for the Christian, and in his common meter version of Psalm 122, Watts exults in the opportunity to meet God and his people there. How did my Heart rejoice to hear My Friends devoutly say, “In Zion let us all appear, And keep the solemn Day!” I love her Gates, I love the Road; The Church adorn’d with Grace Stands like a Palace built for God To shew his milder Face. My Soul shall pray for Zion still, While Life or Breath remains; There my best Friends, my Kindred dwell, There God my Saviour reigns. “How did my heart rejoice to hear” (Ps. 122 CM, sts. 1–2, 6) 19

The Communion of Saints

“All Saints that are united to Jesus Christ their Head by his Spirit and Faith, although they are not made thereby one person with him, have fellowship in his Graces, Sufferings, Death, Resurrection and Glory; and being united to one another in love, they have communion in each other[’]s gifts and graces” (SD, 45). Some of Watts’s thinking about the communion of saints can be found in his hymns on the church quoted above (see especially the lines comparing the members of the church to the broken bread of Communion, the growing of the “Saints in Faith and Love,” and the description of them as “my best Friends, my Kindred”). Watts’s versions of the “brotherhood psalm” (Ps. 133) emphasize the importance of agreement among the saints as they “each fulfill their Part.” How pleasant ‘tis to see Kindred and Friends agree,

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Each in their proper Station move, And each fulfill their Part With sympathizing Heart, In all the Cares of Life and Love! (Ps. 133 “as the 122d Psalm,” st. 1)34 The communion of saints provides mutual support and helps keep the Christian on the right path. Yet, Lord, thy Saints on Earth may reap Some Profit by the Good we do: These are the Company I keep, These are the choicest Friends I know. “Preserve me, Lord, in time of need” (Ps. 16 LM, pt. 1, st. 3) The ultimate goal of the communion of saints is to bring glory to God, and, as noted in Watts’s version of Psalm 106, part 1, “To God the great, the ever-blest,” this also becomes the Christian’s glory. O may I see thy Tribes rejoice, And aid their Triumphs with my Voice! This is my Glory, Lord, to be Join’d to thy Saints and near to Thee. (st. 4) For Watts, there is also a mystical communion with those who have preceded him and his contemporaries in death. The Saints on Earth, and all the Dead But one Communion make; All joyn in Christ their living Head, And of his Grace partake. “Not to the terrors of the Lord” (B152, st. 5) Come let us join a joyful Tune To our exalted Lord, Ye Saints on high around his Throne, And we around his Board. (C8, st. 1) 34

See also “Lo, what an entertaining sight,” quoted in chap. 1.

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Needless to say, the idea of saints as being people who are canonized for having a special degree of holiness finds no place in Watts’s works. Rather, the saints are the elect of the present and past who have been called by God and strive to live a holy life.35 20

The Sacraments: Baptism and Lord’s Supper

The Savoy Declaration calls the sacraments “holy Signs and Seals of the Covenant of Grace” that were “instituted by Christ” and have a “sacramental union between the sign and the thing signified” (46). Only two sacraments are recognized, baptism and the Lord’s Supper. In a text titled “Faith Assisted by Sense; or, Preaching, Baptism, and the Lord’s Supper,” “My Saviour God, my sovereign prince” (B141), Watts reflects on the two sacraments and their meaning. My Eyes and Ears shall bless his Name, They read and hear his Word; My Touch and Taste shall do the same When they receive the Lord. Baptismal Water is design’d To seal his cleansing Grace; While at his Feast of Bread and Wine He gives his Saints a Place. (sts. 2–3) According to the Declaration, baptism is not necessary for regeneration, a point that Watts makes in the fourth stanza of “My Saviour God, my sovereign prince” (B141): “But not the Waters of a Flood / Can make my Flesh so clean, / As by his Spirit and his Blood / He’ll wash my Soul from Sin.” The Declaration also states that baptism does not necessarily have to be done by dipping and that the infants of believing parents can be baptized. Though not mentioned in the Declaration, a frequent argument for infant baptism is that it is a successor to the circumcision of the Old Testament, which served as a “type” of baptism. Watts reflects this understanding in “Thus saith the mercy of the Lord” (A121). 35

See J. R. Watson, “The Hymns of Isaac Watts and the Tradition of Dissent,” in Dissenting Praise: Religious Dissent and the Hymn in England and Wales, ed. Isabel Rivers and David L. Wykes, 33–67 (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2011).

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Abraham believ’d the promis’d Grace And gave his Sons to God; But Water seals the Blessing now, That once was seal’d with Blood. Thus later Saints, Eternal King, Thine antient Truth embrace; To thee their Infant-Offspring bring, And humbly claim the Grace. “Thus saith the mercy of the Lord” (A121, sts. 2, 4) However, Watts, always the compromiser, did not neglect those who practiced believer’s baptism by immersion by including one hymn that they could sing with integrity. Do we not know that solemn Word, That we are bury’d with the Lord, Baptiz’d into his Death, and then Put off the Body of our Sin? Our Souls receive Diviner Breath, Rais’d from Corruption, Guilt and Death; So from the Grave did Christ arise, And lives to God above the Skies. (A122, sts. 1–2) In regard to the Lord’s Supper, the Declaration claims that Christ is present spiritually in the taking of the sacrament, but that it is a memorial and not a sacrificing of Christ anew. Furthermore, the elements should be taken by all believers in both kinds. The best known of Watts’s Communion hymns is certainly “When I survey the wondrous cross” (C7), which, however, does not specifically mention the words of institution, the Last Supper, Communion, or the elements; rather, it is a meditation on the sacrifice of Christ that fulfills the memorial function noted by the Savoy Declaration.36 A more direct application of the memorial idea is found in “Jesus is gone above the skies” (C6).

36

For a hymn that quotes the words of institution see “‘Twas on that dark, that doleful night,” discussed in chap. 1. Note also in the same chapter Watts’s alteration of the “table” in Ps. 23:5 to a Communion altar in “My shepherd is the living Lord” from PDI.

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He knows what wand’ring Hearts we have, Apt to forget his lovely Face; And to refresh our Minds he gave These kind Memorials of his Grace. (st. 2) But participation in the Supper is more than just a way of remembrance: it was a command of Jesus. At thy Command, our dearest Lord, Here we attend thy dying Feast; Thy Blood like wine adorns thy Board, And thine own Flesh feeds every Guest. (C19, st. 1) In “Father, we wait to feel thy grace” (C24), Watts alludes to what the Savoy Declaration calls the “sacramental union between the sign and the thing signified” by noting that while the elements feed our senses, our souls are given hope. We touch, we taste the heav’nly Bread, We drink the sacred Cup; With outward Forms our Sense is fed, Our Souls rejoice in Hope. (st. 2) The singing of a “hymn” by Jesus and the disciples at the conclusion of the Last Supper has often served as both an argument and a model for the use of song in the church.37 The provision of hymns for the Lord’s Supper was particularly important for Watts. In the preface to The Psalms of David Imitated, he pointed out the difficulty of finding “proper Hymns at the Celebration of the Lord’s-Supper, where the People will sing nothing but out of David’s Psalm-Book” (viii). The fact that the entire third book of Hymns and Spiritual Songs consists of texts designed especially for Communion, though “There are above an Hundred Hymns in the Two former Parts that may very properly be used in this Ordinance,”38 speaks eloquently to how significant the provision of hymns for

37 38

To cite but a single example, the Baptist Benjamin Keach used the Last Supper hymn as a model in introducing singing into his hitherto songless church at Horselydown, Southwark, London, in about 1673. HSS (1707), xii. For further discussion of Watts’s hymns on the sacraments see chap. 3.

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the ordinance was for him. Thus, it is not surprising that so many of his hymns are appropriate for celebration of the sacrament. 21

The Soul after Death, the Resurrection, and the Last Judgment

The Savoy Declaration explains that, at death, righteous souls immediately go to heaven, where they behold God and await the full redemption of their bodies. Unrighteous souls are cast into hell. At the last day, all souls are reunited with their original, but now changed, bodies. God will judge the apostate angels, and all persons who have lived upon earth will be called to give an account of their thoughts, words, and deeds, and to receive merit or demerit according to what they have done in the body, whether good or evil. The righteous will receive their eternal reward and the wicked will be cast into everlasting torment. Each of these aspects of the soul, the resurrection, and the last judgment is found in Watts’s hymns. “Stoop down, my thoughts, that use to rise” (B28) points to the immediate travel of the believer’s soul to its final destination at death. But, O the Soul that never dies! At once it leaves the Clay! Ye Thoughts, pursue it where it flies, And track its wond’rous Way. Up to the Courts where Angels dwell, It mounts triumphing there, Or Devils plunge it down to Hell In infinite Despair. (sts. 3–4) The resurrection of the body and its reuniting with the soul at the last day are acknowledged in several of Watts’s hymns, including “Why do the proud insult the poor” (Ps. 49 LM). My Saviour shall my Life restore, And raise me from my dark Abode: My Flesh and Soul shall part no more, But dwell for ever near my God. (st. 6) The glorified body at the resurrection is brought out in “And must this body die” (B110).

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Array’d in glorious Grace Shall these vile Bodies shine, And every Shape, and every Face Look heavenly and divine. (st. 4) The fearfulness of the Day of Judgment for an unbeliever and the horrors of hell receive frequent notice in Watts’s hymns. See where the Great Incarnate God Fills a Majestick Throne, While from the Skies his awful Voice Bears the Last Judgment down. (A45, st. 1) But Vengeance and Damnation lies On Rebels who refuse the Grace; Who God’s Eternal Son despise The hottest Hell shall be their Place. “Not to condemn the sons of men” (A100, st. 4) His sounding Chariot shakes the Sky, He makes the Clouds his Throne, There all his Stores of Lightning lie Till Vengeance dart them down. What shall the Wretch the Sinner do? He once defy’d the Lord? But he shall dread the Thunderer now, And sink beneath his Word. “Sing to the Lord, ye heavenly hosts” (B62, sts. 2, 5)39 In contrast, God’s grace and the faith of the Christian make it easier to bear death and judgment. Why should we start and fear to die? What timorous Worms we Mortals are! Death is the Gate of endless Joy, And yet we dread to enter there. 39

See also the stanzas from this hymn quoted in the introduction, as well as the stanzas from “With holy fear, and humble song” (B44) in chap. 4.

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O, if my Lord would come and meet, My Soul should stretch her Wings in haste, Fly fearless thro’ Death’s Iron Gate, Nor feel the Terrors as she past. Jesus can make a dying Bed Feel soft as downy Pillows are, While on his Breast I lean my Head, And breathe my Life out sweetly there. “Why should we start and fear to die” (B31, sts. 1, 3–4) Watts’s vivid descriptions of the Last Judgment for both the saint and the sinner are not gratuitous, but are designed to comfort the one and give pause to the other. The contrast between flying “fearless thro’ Death’s Iron Gate” and dreading “the Thunderer” have as their ultimate objects to strengthen the saint in facing the trial of death and to encourage the sinner to accept God’s grace. 22

Additional Topics

Watts also wrote hymns on a number of subjects that were not dealt with in the Savoy Declaration. Among these topics are angels, Satan or the Devil, and the nation. Three texts in Hymns and Spiritual Songs are concerned primarily with the ministry of angels: “High on a hill of dazzling light” (B18), “Great God, to what a glorious height” (B112), and “The majesty of Solomon” (B113). The first of these hymns catalogs the appearances of angels at the Annunciation to Mary and at the birth of Jesus (Luke 1:26, 2:13), the angelic protection for Elisha (2 Kings 6:17), and the breaking of Peter’s chains after his arrest by Herod (Acts 12:7). The other two texts are both titled “Angels ministring [sic] to Christ and Saints,” of which the first two and last two stanzas of “Great God, to what a glorious height” may be quoted. Great God, to what a glorious Height Hast thou advanc’d the Lord thy Son? Angels in all their Robes of Light Are made the Servants of his Throne. Before his Feet their Armies wait, And swift as Flames of Fire they move

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To manage his Affairs of State In Works of Vengeance or of Love. Now they are sent to guide our Feet Up to the Gates of thine Abode, Thro’ all the Dangers that we meet In travelling the heav’nly Road. Lord, when I leave this mortal Ground, And thou shalt bid me rise and come, Send a beloved Angel down Safe to conduct my Spirit Home. (sts. 1–2, 4–5) Other references to the ministry of angels are scattered throughout the hymns.40 While hymnody has largely tended to ignore the designs of Satan in attempting to thwart God and his people, two consecutive texts in Hymns and Spiritual Songs are devoted explicitly to the Devil’s machinations, “I hate the tempter and his charms” (B156) and “Now Satan comes with dreadful roar” (B157). In the first hymn, Watts observes that “The Serpent takes a thousand Forms / To cheat our Souls to Death” (1:3–4), then proceeds to list some of the ways that the Evil One deceives: persuading people of either the ease or difficulty of salvation, coaxing young people to put off a decision, and influencing the aged to believe that it is too late to accept Christ. “Now Satan comes with dreadful roar” carries much the same message, but, alluding to James 4:7, advises the Christian to “Resist, and he’ll be gone” (2:2). Watts’s patriotic hymns are a mixture of recognizing and calling for praise for God’s blessings on his native land, prayers amid times of trouble, and anti-Catholic sentiments. His works in this vein were part of a Whig literary culture in which “biblical verse was to be the saving of the nation and it was the duty of the nation’s poets to participate in this national reformation.”41 In his 40

41

See “God! the eternal awful name” (B27), “I’ll bless the Lord from day to day” (Ps. 34 CM, pt. 1, st. 6), “Ye sons of men, a feeble race” (Ps. 91 CM, pt. 2, sts. 3–4), “The Lord is come; the heav’ns proclaim” (Ps. 97 LM, pt. 2, st. 2), “Ye islands of the northern sea” (Ps. 97 CM, st. 4), “The Lord, the sovereign king” (Ps. 103 SM, pt. 3, sts. 2–3), and “With all my powers of heart and tongue” (Ps. 138 LM, sts. 1–2). Apostate angels are the subject of “Down headlong from their native skies” (B96) and “From heaven the sinning angels fell” (B97). Sarah Prescott, “Elizabeth Singer Rowe: Gender, Dissent, and Whig Poetics,” in David Womersley, ed., assisted by Paddy Bullard and Abigail Williams, “Cultures of Whiggism”: New Essays on English Literature and Culture in the Long Eighteenth Century (Newark, DE:

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paraphrase of Psalm 147, part 2, titled “A Song for Great Britain,” Watts points out the protection provided by the waters surrounding the British Isles. O Britain, praise thy mighty God, And make his Honours known abroad; He bid the Ocean round thee flow; Not Bars of Brass could guard thee so. Thy Children are secure and blest; Thy Shores have Peace, thy Cities Rest: He feeds thy Sons with finest Wheat, And adds his Blessing to their Meat. (sts. 1–2) Watts sometimes mentions the monarch in the texts, titles, or notes of his patriotic hymns. “Zion rejoice, and Judah sing” (B111) calls on Britain to “own the heavenly King, / And make his Glories known” (1:3–4), and ends with a salute to the earthly ruler, “Long may the Queen, our Sovereign, live” (6:1).42 A note to Watts’s version of Psalm 21 CM, “The king, O Lord, with songs of praise,” informs the reader that “I have borrowed almost all these Stanza’s from Mr. Tate’s Version, and they seem very applicable to his present Majesty King George. 1716,” while, as observed above, Psalm 75, “To thee, most holy, and most high,” titled “Power and Government from God alone,” is “Apply’d to the Glorious Revolution by King William, or the Happy Accession of King George to the Throne.” The rubrics of two texts call for prayer in times of calamity: “Now may the God of power and grace” (Ps. 20) is “For a Day of Prayer in time of War,” and “Lord, hast thou cast the nation off” (Ps. 60) is for “a Day of Humiliation for Disappointments in War.” “Shine, mighty God, on Britain shine” (Ps. 67) prays for God to “Reveal thy Power thro’ all our Coasts” (1:3), with the assurance that “Our God will crown his chosen Isle / With Fruitfulness and Peace” (6:3–4). During Watts’s lifetime, the disagreement between Protestant and Catholic was much more than simply a religious dispute, for it also had serious political ramifications because of the close link between church and state. There was constant fear on the part of English Protestants either that a Catholic monarch

42

University of Delaware Press, 2005), 188. See also Abigail Williams, Poetry and the Creation of a Whig Literary Culture 1681–1714 (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2005). The reference is to Queen Anne, which helps date this hymn to between 1707 and 1709; the text did not appear in the first edition of HSS. In later editions, “queen” was altered to “king” to reflect the change of monarchs.

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would accede to the throne or that the nation would be defeated by a Catholic power. These anxieties account for the title of “Not to our names, thou only just and true” (“Popish Idolatry reproved,” Ps. 115 “as the New Tune of the 50th Psalm”) and such stanzas as the following. No vain Pretence to Royal Birth Shall fix a Tyrant on the Throne: God the Great Sovereign of the Earth Will rise and make his Justice known. “To thee, most holy, and most high” (Ps. 75, st. 6) In vain to Idol-Saints they cry, And perish in their Blood; Where is a Rock so great, so high, So powerful as our God? “To thine almighty arm we owe” (Ps. 18 CM, pt. 2, st. 4).43 The importance of Guy Fawkes Day (November 5) to British Protestants is evident from the fact that Watts wrote no fewer than three song texts for this commemoration, “Shout to the Lord, and let our joys” (B92), “Not to our names, thou only just and true” (Ps. 115 “as the New Tune of the 50th Psalm”), and “Had not the Lord, may Israel say” (Ps. 124). As Lowell B. Harlan put it, Watts was “inclined to consider [the events of his time] in Biblical terms. The saving of Britain from the Papacy, the French, and the Gunpowder Plot were to him events paralleling the Exodus.”44 Finally, Watts’s patriotic references were probably designed at least in part to show that Independents were as loyal to their country as members of the established church.45 The close link between church and state meant that 43 44 45

See also “Lift up your eyes to th’ heavenly seats” (B37), st. 4, and “Happy the church, thou sacred place” (B64), st. 4. Lowell B. Harlan, “Theology of Eighteenth Century English Hymns,” Historical Magazine of the Protestant Episcopal Church 48, no. 2 (June 1979): 170. See John M. Hull, Towards the Prophetic Church: A Study of Christian Mission (London: SCM Press, 2014), 122. In this book and his articles “Isaac Watts and the Origins of British Imperial Theology,” International Congregational Journal 4, no. 2 (February 2005): 59–79, and “From Experiential Educator to Nationalist Theologian: The Hymns of Isaac Watts,” Hymn Society of Great Britain and Ireland Bulletin 264, vol. 19, no. 9 (July 2010): 260–277, Hull describes the role of Watts’s hymns in helping develop a “British imperial theology.” I do not agree with all of Hull’s conclusions about a British imperialistic subtext in Watts’s “Jesus shall reign where’er the sun”; to cite only one point, Hull sees Watts’s reference to India shining “in eastern gold” as reflecting imports from the subcontinent to Britain

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those outside the Church of England were often suspected of disloyalty to the nation and its monarchy, especially given the events of the previous century, in which King Charles had been executed and the monarchy temporarily abolished. It was the position of Dissenters that they could hold different views about the church and still be loyal and obedient subjects of the Crown, and Watts’s references to Britain were part of this apology. While Watts’s political hymns are understandable in the context of the times, they often seem smug or painfully chauvinistic and are among the most unattractive of his texts because they detract from a focus on spiritual matters. This is particularly true of his psalm paraphrases, in which he often substitutes Britain for the nation of Israel, suggesting that the former now constitutes the “chosen people.” For obvious reasons, most of these patriotic lyrics were dropped or altered by Americans after the Revolutionary War, and the ecumenism of later times has led to the abandonment or alteration of all of them. They are an important reminder that hymns that are too closely tied to current events often have a short shelf life. 23

General Theological Perspectives

In a sermon preached in Watts’s honor after his death, fellow Dissenter Caleb Ashworth noted several features of Watts’s character that he thought his own parishioners should emulate: Watts was a man of prayer, he was charitable, he labored diligently for the church and the souls of people, and he was a friend of liberty. Furthermore, Ashworth pointed out that Watts’s “attempts to render our anthems of praise more evangelical and edifying, were so successful, that our circumstances can hardly be so uncommon, but we may find a sacred Song suited to our Case.”46

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(Towards the Prophetic Church, p. 112), when it is more likely a simple reference to Ps. 72:15 (“to him shall be given of the gold of Sheba”); furthermore, the emphasis of both the psalm and of Watts’s text is the giving of gifts to God, not to Britain. Hull is certainly correct in observing that Watts “did not intend to create an imperial theology” (p. 112), but that the texts mirror his own times and life circumstances, and, for good or ill, had a profound impact on the views of the Christian mission by subsequent generations of the British and American people. Caleb Ashworth, Reflections on the Fall of a Great Man. A Sermon Preached to a Congregation of Protestant Dissenters at Daventry in Northamptonshire, On Occasion of the Death of the Late Reverend Isaac Watts, D. D. (London: J. Waugh, et al., 1749), 28.

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This theological thoroughness and orthodoxy were among the secrets of Watts’s success as a hymn writer. Though not necessarily intended as such by their author, the hymns of Isaac Watts form an effective lyrical complement to the Savoy Declaration of Faith and Order. His hymns deal with the significant points of the Declaration and do so in such a way that fellow Independents (as well as others) could form and express their beliefs about God, God’s work, and their own responsibility in a manner that was simply not possible through versified psalmody. Independents were a confessional rather than a credal people, and thus did not recite statements of belief on a regular basis. By writing and publishing a large body of hymns that—intentionally or not—­paralleled to a remarkable degree the most important Independent confession of faith, Watts provided churches with a means to explore on a regular basis the full range of their doctrine and belief through congregational singing. While Watts’s texts are plainly Calvinistic in orientation, he was also careful to avoid “the more obscure and controverted Points of Christianity” in the hope “that we might all obey the Direction of the Word of God, and sing his Praises with Understanding. Psal. 47. 7” (HSS, 1707, viii). When he did include a hymn on a subject about which there was some disagreement (such as infant versus believer’s baptism) he provided more than one text so that both could be provided for. In Watts’s view, congregational singing should be a force that unites rather than divides. His provision of non-psalm-based texts was already controversial without adding to it theological hairsplitting that would potentially restrict use of the hymns to a small group. Critiques of the theology in Watts’s hymns, particularly its Calvinism, have not been lacking. Watts’s nineteenth-century biographer Thomas Milner points out some of the differences between the theology of Watts’s era and that of later times. The theology of his day was of a somewhat different mould to that embraced at the present by the majority of the dissenting churches; it had sterner features, and, at the same time, those which were more tumid; it spoke in severer accents to the sinner, and in a more glowing and mystic style to the saint; it delighted too much in presenting to the one the elements of gathering wrath, without a shelter from the storm, and in pampering the other with the gay and ardent fancies of impassioned eastern poetry.47 47 Milner, Life, Times, and Correspondence, 270. “Tumid” is a synonym for “bombastic” or “turgid.”

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That being said, it is also true that, while Watts writes frequently about the Last Judgment and the wrath of God, these topics are almost inevitably offset by an emphasis on God’s love and grace. Several other significant features emerge from a study of the theology in Watts’s hymns. One is the universality of his work. In 1875, E. Paxton Hood wrote that in the hymns of Watts “there is no doctrine of the great Christian creed and no great Christian emotion which does not find happy and frequently most faultless expression.”48 Watts dealt with most of the major subjects of the Christian faith, topics that could be (and have been) sung about by English-speaking Christians of almost every generation and theological persuasion. As one commentator put it, “Dr. Watts is the most unsectarian of all hymn writers.”49 At the same time, however, Watts was definitely a hymn writer of evangelicalism and “in a very eminent sense the poet of the Atonement,” for “he saw the infinite meanings in that great expression ‘the blood of Jesus Christ His Son cleanseth us from all sin.’”50 Over and over again his hymns relate the salvific work of God through the sacrifice of Jesus Christ, and it is little wonder that this aspect of the faith called forth such memorable texts as “Alas! and did my Saviour bleed” and “When I survey the wondrous cross.” Another prominent feature of his hymns is their attention to the revelation of God’s majesty, glory, and power through the creation and nature. This perspective is balanced by his focus on the fuller revelation of God that is provided by the Scriptures, and ultimately in Jesus Christ, through which and through whom God’s love, mercy, and plan for humanity and the world are shown. Though Watts’s hymns were written primarily for corporate worship, they are very personal in nature. First person singular pronouns predominate, and the texts are frequently introspective, dealing with matters of the human heart and mind. However, the texts never descend into mere sentimentality, but represent “a first person voice” reflecting “those generalized Christian beliefs which Watts felt could be universally accepted.”51 Furthermore, as has been seen throughout this and the preceding chapter, the personal aspect is 48

E. Paxton Hood, Isaac Watts; His Life and Writings, His Homes and Friends (London: Religious Tract Society, [1875]), 111. 49 Cyprian T. Rust, Break of Day in the Eighteenth Century: a History and a Specimen of Its First Book of English Sacred Song, 300 Hymns of Dr. Watts (London: William Hunt and Company, 1880), xxix. Of course, Watts’s broad-minded approach did not extend to “popery.” 50 Hood, Isaac Watts, 108. 51 Plett, “The Poetic Language of Isaac Watts’s Hymns,” 114.

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invariably associated with a doctrinal component and is based solidly in the Bible and the Savoy Declaration.52 In symmetry with what has just been said about their personal nature, Watts’s hymns often include a cosmic perspective. In a sense, his texts reflect the advances that were being made in the expanding understanding of the universe during Watts’s time, but with a theological approach that emphasizes the glory, majesty, and “otherness” of God.53 For example, one “cosmic” hymn, “Let mortal tongues attempt to sing” (A58), takes for its subject the archangel Michael’s war with the dragon (Satan) and the apostate angels (Rev. 12:7–9), a topic that is seldom encountered in subsequent hymnody. Two texts, “Ere the blue heav’ns were stretch’d abroad” (A2) and “Shall wisdom cry aloud” (A92), deal with the preexistence of Christ, again a subject that is rarely found in congregational song.54 References to the Last Judgment, heaven, hell, and eternity abound in Watts’s hymns. No fewer than sixteen lyrics in book 1 of Hymns and Spiritual Songs are based at least partly on passages from the Apocalypse.55 Watts often emphasizes “the whole Realm of Nature” or “the Creation’s utmost Bound.”56 The immensity of Watts’s conception is made particularly explicit when he places the cross against a cosmic backdrop. Perhaps this aspect of Watts’s work was best (and certainly most poetically) expressed by Bernard Lord Manning.

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Horton Davies, Worship and Theology in England, combined ed., vol. 3, From Watts and Wesley to Maurice, 1690–1850 (Princeton: University Press, 1996), 100. Watts’s namesake, Isaac Newton, published his Philosophiæ Naturalis Principia Mathematica in 1687, when Watts was thirteen years of age. Watts was a theologian who also wrote on scientific topics, while Newton was a scientist who wrote on theological subjects. One of the few examples in English-language hymnody is the translation of Aurelius Clemens Prudentius’s medieval Corde natus ex parentis, “Of the Father’s love begotten,” by John Mason Neale and Henry W. Baker. HSS (1709): “Behold the glories of the Lamb” (A1), “Hear what the voice from heav’n proclaims” (A18), “Lo, what a glorious sight appears” (A21), “All mortal vanities, be gone” (A25), “What happy men, or angels, these” (A40), “These glorious minds how bright they shine” (A41), “See where the great incarnate God” (A45), “How strong thine arm is, mighty God” (A49), “We sing the glories of thy love” (A56), “Let mortal tongues attempt to sing” (A58), “In Gabriel’s hand a mighty stone” (A59), “Now to the Lord that makes us know” (A61), “Come let us join our cheerful songs” (A62), “What equal honours shall we bring” (A63), “Let the sev’nth angel sound on high” (A65), and “Nor eye has seen, nor ear has heard” (A105). “When I survey the wondrous cross” (C7, 5:1); “Shine, mighty God, on Britain shine” (Ps. 67, 7:3).

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Watts sees the Cross, as Milton had seen it, planted on a globe hung in space, surrounded by the vast distances of the universe. There is a sense of the spaciousness of nature, of the vastness of time, of the dreadfulness of eternity, in Watts.57 But this sense of grandeur and mystery is not there simply for its own sake. What ultimately matters for Watts is what humans do with such a spectacular vision. Thou art our mighty All, and we Give our whole selves, O Lord, to thee. “Buried in shadows of the night” (A97, 5:3–4) Here, Lord, I give my self away, ‘Tis all that I can do. “Alas! and did my Saviour bleed” (B9, 6:3–4) Another component of this cosmic perspective is Watts’s emphasis on the universality of the gospel message. His concern for his native country is balanced by a global reach, as can be seen in the “travelogue” of “Jesus shall reign where’er the sun” (Ps. 72 CM, pt. 2), which claims that Christ’s kingdom stretches from shore to shore, wherever the sun shines, from north to south, in Europe, Persia, India, and “barbarous Nations.” Finally, it should be noted that Watts’s hymns are often given a major share of the credit for the maintenance of orthodoxy among early eighteenth-­century English Independents. According to Horton Davies, it was a combination of their congregational form of government and the hymns of Watts that kept the Independents from sliding into the Unitarianism of many of their Presbyterian contemporaries.58 If the orthodoxy of some of Watts’s later writings on the Trinity could be questioned by his fellow Independent ministers, the same could not be said about his hymns, which were solidly in the mainstream of seventeenth- and eighteenth-century English Dissent. Thus, it is not surprising that his texts eventually found a place in the liturgical practices of evangelical churches, where they served St. Paul’s counsel in Colossians 3:16 to “teach and admonish one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs.” 57

Bernard Lord Manning, The Hymns of Wesley and Watts: Five Informal Papers (London: Epworth Press, 1942), 83. See also Christopher Idle, “The Hymns of Isaac Watts: a Study in Space and Time,” Hymn Society of Great Britain and Ireland Bulletin 223, vol. 16, no. 2 (April 2000): 38–45. 58 Davies, Worship and Theology in England, 94–95.

Chapter 3

Watts’s Hymns and Liturgy Independents such as Watts were critical of worship that they thought was more concerned with “form” than with “spirit.” In the view of Independents, ritualistic worship, such as that of the Church of England, with its repeating texts, written prayers, read homilies, and musical elaboration represented a “quenching of the Spirit” (1 Thess. 5:19) because there was no warrant for it in the New Testament and it did not leave room for the Spirit of God to speak. This distaste for “formal worship” appears in Watts’s “God is a spirit just and wise,” which he titled “Sincerity and Hypocrisy; or, Formality in Worship” (A136). God is a Spirit Just and Wise, He sees our inmost Mind; In vain to Heaven we raise our Cries And leave our Souls behind. Nothing but Truth before his Throne With Honour can appear, The painted Hypocrites are known Thro’ the Disguise they wear. Their lifted Eyes salute the Skies, Their bending Knees the Ground; But God abhors the Sacrifice Where not the Heart is found. (sts. 1–3) Likewise, his version of Psalm 50 LM, part 3, critiques “Rites and Forms” that are not connected with faithfulness and love. The Lord the Judge his Churches warns Let Hypocrites attend and fear Who place their hope in Rites and Forms, But make not Faith nor Love their Care. (st. 1) However, these texts are not only critiques of churches that have prescribed orders or written directions for liturgy, but of any worship—including that of Independents—in which people merely go through the motions, rather than © David W. Music, 2022 | DOI:10.1163/9789004520523_005

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with the engagement of the heart. At the same time, Watts recognized the need for form and order in worship. In a discussion of “The advantages of Dissenters in matters of religion” in his 1731 An Humble Attempt toward the Revival of Practical Religion, he noted of prescribed liturgies, “God forbid that I should say or think that Forms of Prayer are sinful Things, or improper for our assistance: nor indeed am I so zealous against Forms as to imagine that a precomposed Liturgy, in the main distinct Parts of Worship, Confession and Petition would be unlawful to be used.” He then points out that the Westminster Directory for Public Worship, which essentially provided the model for worship in his own congregation, “comes pretty near to such a Design.” “And yet,” he says, “I cannot help thinking with you, that this Method of Worship, if there be a Confinement to the constant Repetition of one and the same Form, has naturally some Tendency to pass over the Ears without due Impressions on the Heart, and to leave the Worshipper under a Coldness and Indifferency of Spirit, which would be greatly relieved by a larger Variety of Sentiments and Expressions in the publick Worship of every Lord’s Day.”1 For Watts, repetition and structure are necessary so that worship is carried on “decently and in order” (1 Cor 14:40); that is, worship should not degenerate into chaos or quietism. At the same time, worship requires variety and freedom. Of most importance for him is that worship is sincere and properly directed toward God. It is not only the messages of Watts’s hymns that reflect these ideals of worship, but also the very nature of the texts themselves. In order to facilitate singing, the hymns maintain the traditional forms of metrical psalmody: stanzaic structures, common hymnic and poetic meters, rhymes, and a close relationship to the Bible. However, they are given a sense of freedom by not being tied strictly to scriptural versification and through greater employment of the poet’s imagination. Watts justified this freedom by observing in the “Short Essay” that “we have some Reason to believe that God doth not utterly confine us even to the Forms of his own composing” (HSS, 1707, 262). Just as a preacher was not expected simply to read a biblical text but to expound upon it, explaining or making it relevant to the congregation, Watts took a scriptural passage and gave it a new interpretation or turned its meaning in a new direction. This chapter will show that it was partly the liturgical character of Watts’s texts that made them so useful for congregations during the eighteenth century and following. The chapter will explore the context of congregational singing in Watts’s own Bury Street congregation and other Independent 1 I. Watts, An Humble Attempt toward the Revival of Practical Religion Among Christians, and Particularly the Protestant Dissenters (London: for E. Matthews, R. Ford, and R. Hett, 1731), 200–201.

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churches during his lifetime to give a sense of how they were experienced by parishioners. His provision of hymns for the sacraments and other elements of worship, and his paraphrasing of liturgical texts that were commonly used in the Church of England illustrate his desire to cover every important aspect of worship, as well as a breadth of outlook that was unusual for the time. 1

Worship at Bury Street Church

Watts did not write his hymns simply for his own church, and, indeed, his hymn writing was probably already far along before his association with this particular congregation. Nevertheless, the practice of the Bury Street church is instructive, since it provided the immediate backdrop against which he wrote or used many of his hymns, giving him the opportunity to test them in an actual congregational setting among “plain Christians,” and undoubtedly influencing both the style and content of his writing. It may very well have been the singing of the hymns in his congregation that led him to revise some of them between the publication of Horæ Lyricæ and the first edition of Hymns and Spiritual Songs, between the first edition of Hymns and Spiritual Songs and the second edition, and between the first edition of Hymns and Spiritual Songs and The Psalms of David Imitated.2 The “Church Book” of Watts’s Bury Street congregation provides a few indications of how public worship was conducted and congregational singing was employed during his time as pastor there. At his ordination service on March 18, 1702, “Mr Watts, as entering upon his office, finished ye duties of ye day with Prayer, Singing, & ye Blessing.”3 More specific information is available from a Lord’s Supper service held eleven days later, which concluded “by Singing A Gospel Hymn suitable to ye Ordinance, taken from Rev. 1st, 5, 6, 7, with one Heart & one Voyce, to ye Glory of our Redeemer & our great consolation & Joy.” The editor of the Church Book in the Transactions of the Congregational Historical Society is undoubtedly correct in believing that the hymn in question was “Now to the Lord that makes us know” (A61), which would not achieve publication for another five years, but is based on precisely those Scripture verses.4 2 See chap. 4 for further discussion of Watts’s revision of his hymns. 3 Crippen, T. G. “Dr. Watts’s Church Book,” Transactions of the Congregational Historical Society, vol. 1, 1901–1904 (Nendeln/Liechtenstein: Krause Reprint, 1969), 38. 4 Transactions, vol. 1, 38. The editor of the document in John Rippon, The Baptist Annual Register, for 1801 and 1802 (London: Sold by Button and Conder, et al., 1802), 558, suggested that the hymn was “Behold the glories of the Lamb,” but that is surely incorrect, since that text was not based on Rev. 1 but Rev. 5. The versions of the Church Book in Rippon’s Annual ­Register

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The fullest account of worship at the church comes from two decades later (1723). Our usual celebration of worship on the Lord’s day is performed in this manner: In the morning we begin with singing a psalm, then a short prayer follows to desire the Divine Presence in all the following parts of worship; after that, about half an hour is spent in the exposition of some portion of scripture, which is succeeded by singing a psalm or an hymn. After this the minister prays more at large, for all the variety of blessings spiritual and temporal, for the whole congregation, with confession of sins, and thanksgiving for mercies; petitions also are offered up for the whole world, for the churches of Christ, for the nation in which we dwell, for all our rulers and governors, together with any particular cases which are represented. Then a sermon is preached, and the morning worship concluded with a short prayer5 and the benediction. The worship of the afternoon is performed in the same manner with this difference, that we omit the first short prayer and the exposition, and sing the psalm or hymn just after the sermon which in the morning followed the exposition.6 The morning service can thus be outlined as follows: psalm, short prayer, exposition of Scripture, psalm or hymn, long prayer, sermon, short prayer, benediction. It is important to be aware of the footnote in the document, which explains that the psalm or hymn after the exposition should have been sung after the sermon, but because Watts’s “head was unable to bear the sound,” it was moved to earlier in the service. This altered placement suggests that perhaps Watts did not enter the meeting house until after the second song had been sung to avoid his being unduly incapacitated because of the singing. It may also imply that the congregation participated well in the singing and and the Transactions of the Congregational Historical Society were apparently transcribed from the same document, but by the time of the latter, parts of the document had gone missing, and those portions were copied from Rippon. In Rippon’s version, some of the features of the document were modernized (for instance, using “the” instead of “ye”) whereas the portions in the Transactions were transcribed without such modifications. 5 Footnote in original: “The hymn or psalm which is sung just after the exposition should have been sung just after the sermon; but Mr. Watts, our Pastor, being for several years so much indisposed with nervous disorders, desired the hymn to be sung rather before he went into the pulpit, only because his head was unable to bear the sound.” 6 Rippon, Baptist Annual Register (1802), 593–594.

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that it was consequently quite full in sound. At any rate, the second song was originally intended to be linked to the sermon and also to come near the end of the service, which would balance better with the psalm at the beginning. Exactly when the second song was moved to an earlier place in the service is not known, but it most likely occurred after Watts returned to preaching in 1716 following his four-year illness. While Watts’s incapacitation meant that the second song had to be moved elsewhere, it was still associated with a Scripture reading and its exposition. The afternoon service was similarly structured, but with a few small changes: psalm, long prayer, sermon, psalm or hymn, short prayer, benediction. Here the second song was given its “proper” position after the sermon, perhaps because Watts’s associate pastor, Samuel Price, typically preached in the afternoon. Obviously, these descriptions of the services at Bury Street date from well after the completion of both Hymns and Spiritual Songs and The Psalms of David Imitated. However, they undoubtedly reflect at least the general order of worship at the church during the time these two collections were in process. This is evident from their similarity to the Westminster Directory for Public Worship of 1644, which was probably followed more or less consistently by Independent congregations of Watts’s day. The order laid out in the Directory contained the following elements: short prayer, Scripture reading, psalm, long prayer, sermon, short prayer, psalm (“if with conveniency it may be done”), benediction.7 Of course, the Directory was intended only to be a guide and was subject to the variations of local circumstance. The immediately noticeable difference between the Westminster Directory and the morning service at Bury Street is the different placement of the two songs, the second caused by Watts’s nervous disorder, but it appears that Bury Street was well within the mainstream of Independent worship practices in terms of its service elements and order. The selection of the hymn or psalm texts to be sung in the service was undoubtedly Watts’s responsibility, or, in his absence, Samuel Price’s. The procedure for song selection in Congregational churches of the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries varied from church to church. In some congregations, the minister chose the text (and perhaps the specific stanzas) and a song leader selected a tune in the proper meter and mood, then led the congregation in singing it.8 In others, the choice of the text, stanzas, and tune was left up to 7 Summarized from A Directory for the Publique Worship of God, Throughout the Three Kingdoms of England, Scotland, and Ireland (London: for Evan Tyler, et al., 1644), 10–39. 8 See David W. Music, “The Diary of Samuel Sewall and Congregational Singing in Early New England,” The Hymn 41, no. 1 (January 1990): 9.

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the song leader,9 a practice with which Watts disagreed, suggesting that it was best for “the Minister to chuse the Particular Parts and Verses of the Psalm or Hymn that is to be sung, rather than leave it to the Judgment or casual Determination of him that leads the Tune,” who might be thinking more in musical than in theological or liturgical terms (HSS, 1709, xiv).10 The singing of Watts’s own “Now to the Lord that makes us know” for his first Communion service as pastor suggests that he chose it, since the text had not yet achieved print. Undoubtedly, Watts followed his own advice and selected all the texts himself, at least when he was doing the preaching. 2

The Liturgical Functions of Hymns

The liturgical function of a hymn is to a large degree determined by its line of communication or “voice.” The most common lines of communication in hymnody are human to God, human to human (including human to self), God to human (revelation), and human to inanimate object (apostrophe). A human to God line of communication typically consists of praise or prayer, while that of human to human will usually be admonition or instruction (proclamation). A God to human line of communication is relatively infrequent because it can be unseemly to put words into the mouth of God; this voice is often, though not always, reserved for direct quotations or paraphrases from Scripture. Apostrophe is described more fully in chapter 4. Of course, the lines of communication cannot be too sharply drawn since, for example, a hymn that is addressed to God may also contain teaching about his person or actions, or one that is directed to an inanimate object may end with a doxology addressed to God. Nevertheless, the voice of a hymn can be a valuable tool in determining the liturgical function of a text. Watts’s hymns make use of all these lines of communication. Some, such as “Thee we adore, eternal name” (B55) and “My God, my life, my love” (B93), maintain a human-to-God voice. Others, such as “Come, we that love the Lord” (B30) and “Give to our God immortal praise” (Ps. 136 LM), give expression to 9 10

HSS (1707), 248: “I might here add also Dr. Patrick’s Apology in his Century of Psalms first publish’d, that he took but the same Liberty which is allow’d to every Parish-Clerk, to chuse what Psalm and what Verses of it he would propose to the People to sing.” Watts’s psalm-versifying Church of England predecessor Luke Milbourne had made a similar statement in the unpaginated preface to his The Psalms of David, in English Metre (London: For W. Rogers, et al., 1698): “This [considering psalm singing “a Part of Divine Service”] would take the Choice of them out of the Parish-Clerk’s Power, and make it the Priest’s Business, whose Discretion might be farther relied on in it.”

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a human to human line of communication. Portions of “Why did the nations join to slay” (Ps. 2 CM) and “Go preach my gospel, saith the Lord” (A128), are written from a God-to-human perspective. Apostrophe appears in “My soul, come meditate the day” (B61) and “Blest morning, whose young dawning rays” (B72). Mixed lines of communication are found in “When I survey the wondrous cross” (C7) and “From all that dwell below the skies” (Ps. 117 LM), both of which contain human-to-human (or self) and human-to-God voices. Thus, Watts’s texts are capable of serving as praise, prayer, proclamation, or some combination of these, and as transitional elements in a service. 3

The Sermon Hymn

While Watts’s hymns were written to fulfill a variety of functions and occasions, the relationship between the sermon or scriptural exposition and the singing in his own church (as well as in the Westminster Directory) strongly suggests that one of the primary objectives of the texts was to support preaching. If, as speculated above, the second song in the Bury Street service was moved from after the sermon to follow the exposition in 1716 or later, this means that at the time Watts published the initial editions of his Hymns and Spiritual Songs, the sermon and hymn were closely linked in the service, and the use of his hymns to illustrate or summarize sermons he preached seems a matter of course.11 Two examples of potential relationships between hymns by Watts and his own sermons may be cited. The second volume of his The World to Come (1745) included a “discourse” by Watts on “Safety in the Grave, and Joy at the Resurrection.” The preface to the first volume observes that it includes “a few Discourses . . . out of my publick [i.e., preaching] Ministry, to set them before the Eyes of the World in a more publick manner,” and also notes their possible use “as a Religious Service in private Families on Lord’s-day Evenings,”12 statements that probably apply to the second volume, as well. It is likely that the sermons were revised before publication as “discourses,” but they undoubtedly represent the gist of the original. Here are two extracts from “Safety in the Grave.”

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In his discussion of the relationship between Isaac Watts and Philip Doddridge, E. Paxton Hood observed “that Doddridge pursued for many years the practice of Watts—perhaps he derived it from him—of writing a hymn after each or many of his sermons,” without, however, giving a source for this information. See E. Paxton Hood, Isaac Watts; His Life and Writings, His Homes and Friends (London: Religious Tract Society, [1875]), 163. I. Watts, The World to Come: or, Discourses on the Joys or Sorrows of Departed Souls at Death (London: for T. Longman and J. Brackstone, 1745), vol. 1, iv, viii.

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This one Thought, that the Grave is God’s Hiding-place, should compose our Spirits to Silence, and abate our Mourning for the loss of Friends, who have given sufficient Evidence that they are the Children of God. Their heavenly Father has seized them from the midst of their Trials, Dangers, and Difficulties, and given them a secure Refuge in his own appointed Place of Rest and Safety. Jesus has open’d the Door of the Grave with his golden Key, and hath let them into a Chamber of Repose: He has concealed them in a silent Retreat, where Temptation and Sin cannot reach them, and where Anguish and Misery can never come. . . . Reflection. Awake, O my Soul, and bless the Lord with all thy Powers, and give thanks with holy Joy for the Gospel of his Son Jesus. ‘Tis Jesus by his rising from the Dead has left a divine Light upon the Gates of the Grave, and scattered much of the Darkness that surrounded it. ‘Tis the Gospel of Christ which casts a Glory even upon the Bed of Death, and spreads a Brightness upon the Graves of the Saints in the lively Views of a great Rising-day. O blessed and surprizing Prospect of Faith! O illustrious Scenes of future Vision and Transport! when the Son of God shall bring forth to publick View all his redeemed ones, who had been long hidden in Night and Dust, and shall present them all to God the Father in his own Image, bright, and holy, and unblemished, in the midst of all the Splendors of the Resurrection! O blessed and joyful Voice, when he shall say with divine Pleasure, “Here am I, and the Children which thou hast given me: We have both passed thro’ the Grave, and I have made them all Conquerors of Death, and vested them with Immortality according to thy divine Commission! Thine they were, O Father, and thou hast given them into my Hands, and behold I have brought them all safe to thy appointed Mansions, and I present them before thee without Spot or Blemish.”13 The sentiments expressed in these passages are paralleled to a remarkable degree in stanzas of Watts’s “Why do we mourn departing friends” (B3). Why do we mourn departing friends? Or shake at Death’s Alarms? ‘Tis but the Voice that Jesus sends To call them to his Arms. 13

Ibid., vol. 2, 172–173, 193–194.

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The Graves of all his Saints he blest, And softned every Bed; Where should the dying Members rest, But with the dying Head? Thence he arose ascending high And shew’d our Feet the way; Up to the Lord our Flesh shall fly At the great Rising Day. (sts. 1, 4, 5) Both the discourse and the hymn are intended to give comfort to the friends and relatives of the departed. They each use the metaphors of the bed of death and rest, mention Jesus’ having gone before to prepare the way for his people, and describe the ultimate victory of resurrection and eternal life in heaven. There are also a few similarities of phrasing: “abate our Mourning for the loss of Friends” and “Why do we mourn departing Friends”; “A great Rising-day” and “At the great Rising Day.” Another sermon, not published during Watts’s lifetime, is on “Christian Baptism.” During the course of the homily, Watts mentions the institution of circumcision through Abraham, its supersession by Christian baptism, and the fact that the households of Lydia and Stephanos were baptized upon the faith of the head of the family.14 Very similar thoughts are expressed in Watts’s hymn on infant baptism “Thus saith the mercy of the Lord” (A121), though, in the hymn, Stephanos has been replaced by the Philippian jailor. Abraham believ’d the promis’d Grace And gave his sons to God; But Water seals the Blessing now, That once was seal’d with Blood. Thus Lydia sanctify’d her House When she receiv’d the Word; Thus the believing Jaylor gave His Houshold to the Lord. (sts. 2–3) There is, of course, no evidence that the named hymns were ever employed with these particular sermons. The hymns were probably written long before 14

The Works of the Late Reverend and Learned Isaac Watts, D.D., ed. D. Jennings and P. Doddridge (London: for T. and T. Longman, et al., 1753), vol. 1, 819–820.

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the sermons were preached, so a direct connection between the two cannot be established with any certainty. However, it is at least evident that the hymns would have provided appropriate supplements to the sermons, summarizing and extending some of their main points, in a manner that Watts probably hoped other preachers would employ. There are other indications of a liturgical connection for Watts between sermon and song. The first book of Hymns and Spiritual Songs contains texts “Collected from the Scriptures”; the correspondence between these hymns and specific biblical passages would certainly make them useful as sermon hymns. Furthermore, these texts would appeal to those preachers and congregants who still insisted on singing only the words of Scripture. Several of the texts in book 1 are cast in the basic form of a sermon. For example, “Lord, at thy temple we appear” (A19), based on the Song of Simeon (Nunc Dimittis) in Luke 2:27–32,15 includes two stanzas that serve as an introduction to the text, followed by a paraphrase of the Nunc Dimittis itself, then an application for the believer. Lord, at thy Temple we appear, As happy Simeon came, And hope to meet our Saviour here; O make our Joys the same! With what Divine and vast Delight The good old Man was fill’d, When fondly in his wither’d Arms He clasp’d the holy Child! Now I can leave this World, he cry’d, Behold thy Servant dies, I’ve seen thy great Salvation, Lord, And close my peaceful Eyes. This is the Light prepar’d to shine Upon the Gentile Lands, Thine Israel’s Glory, and their Hope To break their Slavish Bands. 15

Watts inadvertently credited the passage as Luke 1.

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[Jesus, the Vision of thy Face Hath overpow’ring Charms, Scarce shall I feel Death’s cold Embrace If Christ be in my Arms. Then while ye hear my Heart-strings break, How sweet my Minutes roll! A mortal Paleness on my Cheek, And Glory in my Soul.] In like manner, the three stanzas of “Who can describe the joys that rise” (A101) expand the thought of the angels in heaven rejoicing over a repenting sinner (Luke 15:7, 10) into a teaching on the Trinity in a manner that was perhaps characteristic of many contemporary sermons. Who can describe the Joys that rise Thro’ all the Courts of Paradise To see a Prodigal return, To see an Heir of Glory born? With Joy the Father doth approve The Fruit of his Eternal Love; The Son with Joy looks down and sees The Purchase of his Agonies. The Spirit takes Delight to view The holy Soul he form’d anew; And Saints and Angels joyn to sing The growing Empire of their King. Similar forms can be seen in “Saints, at your Father’s heav’nly word” (A129, conceivably intended for a sermon on Abraham’s near-sacrifice of Isaac, Gen. 22) and “Behold how sinners disagree” (A131, on the Pharisee and the Publican, Luke 18). The structures of these hymns imply that the stanzas might have been derived from the points of a sermon, or even perhaps served to generate sermon points. Another feature of some hymns is that they contain biblical references that would probably have little meaning for an average congregant without some sort of expository or sermonic explanation or clarification. It is difficult to see

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how the two stanzas of Watts’s “In Gabriel’s hand a mighty stone” (A59) would be edifying for a congregation unless they were linked with a sermon on Revelation 18:20–21. In Gabriel’s Hand a Mighty Stone Lyes, a fair Type of Babylon: Prophets rejoice, and all ye Saints, God shall avenge your long Complaints. He said, and dreadful as he stood, He sunk the Mil[l]stone in the Flood: Thus terribly shall Babel fall, Thus, and no more be found at all. Citations of such obscure Old Testament references as “Along the Idumean Road / Away from Bozrah’s Gate,” “And black as Kedar-Tents appear,” or “No Chariot of Amminadib” make little sense apart from expositions of Isaiah 63, Song of Solomon 1, or Song of Solomon 6, even if one presumes a greater biblical knowledge on the part of eighteenth-century congregations than is the case today (a shaky assumption at best).16 However, if joined to a sermon on those Scripture passages, the references would probably assume relevance for the singer. As noted in previous chapters, there is little evidence of an overall organization for book 1 in terms of Scripture references or theological topics.17 However, there are a few groupings of texts that may indicate hymns that were used as part of a sermon series. The consecutive placement of thirteen texts from Song of Solomon (A66–78), all in proper chapter order, and all in long meter, certainly suggests a series of some kind. Another sequence of three hymns deals with various aspects of death.18 Further three-hymn groupings provide texts

16

See “What mighty man, or mighty God” (A28, 1:3–4), “Let him embrace my soul, and prove” (A66, 5:2), and “When strangers stand and hear me tell” (A76, 5:3). 17 In Isaac Watts, Hymnographer (London: Independent Press, 1962), Harry Escott traces what he calls the “liturgical structure” of The Psalms of David Imitated (pp. 155–159) and Hymns and Spiritual Songs (pp. 183–186). However, he does not mean by this an orderly arrangement of texts in theological or liturgical sequence, but the fact that the hymns provide for most of the important theological topics. 18 “O for an overcoming faith” (A17, “Victory over Death”), “Hear what the voice from heav’n proclaims” (A18, “Blessed are the Dead that die in the Lord”), and “Lord, at thy temple we appear” (A19, “The Song of Simeon; or, Death made desirable”).

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about heaven and warnings to youth, while two consecutive texts are based on the same chapter in Proverbs.19 Nor are such patterns absent from book 2 of Hymns and Spiritual Songs. A succession of three hymns deals with aspects of worship, with the first and third of them linked by the employment of similar phrasing.20 Two consecutive hymns, “Thy favours, Lord, surprise our souls” and “Up to the Lord that reigns on high,” deal with “God’s Condescension” (“to our Worship” and “to Humane Affairs,” B45 and 46), while another pair focuses on anticipation of heaven (“When I can read my title clear” and “There is a land of pure delight,” B65 and 66). A group of four hymns near the end of book 2 is written on “The Divine Perfections.”21 While we cannot be certain that these and other orderings of texts in books 1 and 2 were either intentional or related to sermon series, there remains the possibility that they were so designed, providing additional circumstantial evidence that Watts’s hymns were intended in large part to accompany preaching. A further consideration of Watts’s hymns as companions to preaching is the extensive indexes of subjects and Scriptures in Hymns and Spiritual Songs. While these listings might have usefulness in several areas of devotional life, they would be of particular interest for preachers who were looking for a hymn to supplement their sermon on a specific topic or biblical passage.22 A catalog of Scripture references was obviously less useful in The Psalms of David 19

Heaven: “All mortal vanities, be gone” (A25, “A Vision of the Lamb”), “Blest be the everlasting God” (A26, “Hope of Heaven by the Resurrection of Christ”), and “Death may dissolve my body now” (A27, “Assurance of Heaven, or a Saint prepared to die”); note particularly the last two titles, which give “hope” then “assurance.” Youth: “Ye sons of Adam, vain and young” (A89, “Youth and Judgment”), “Lo the young tribes of Adam rise” (A90, “The Same”), and “Now in the heat of youthful blood” (A91, “Advice to Youth; or, Old Age and Death in an unconverted State”); Proverbs: “Shall wisdom cry aloud” (A92) and “Thus saith the wisdom of the Lord” (A92). 20 “Welcome sweet day of rest” (B14), “Far from my thoughts, vain world be gone” (B15), and “Lord, what a heaven of saving grace” (B16, pt. 2 of “Far from my thoughts, vain world be gone”). The similar phrases are “And sit and sing her self away” (“Welcome sweet day of rest,” 4:3) and “Here we could sit, and gaze away” (“Lord, what a heaven of saving grace,” 9:3). 21 “How shall I praise th’ eternal God” (B166), “Great God, thy glories shall employ” (B167), “Jehovah reigns, his throne is high” (B168), and “The Lord Jehovah reigns” (B169). B169 is essentially the same hymn as B168 but in a different hymnic meter; see chap. 4. 22 In The Hymnal: A Reading History (Baltimore, MD: Johns Hopkins University Press, 2018), Christopher N. Phillips makes the point that the subject index includes numerous cross-references, enhancing its potential use for both preaching and private devotion (p. 89). On the same page, he also notes the presence of something that was rare in congregational song books of the time: an alphabetical index of hymns by their first lines.

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Imitated (and thus was omitted), but the 1719 volume did include a comprehensive subject index, enhancing its practicality for preachers. In 1721, 1723, and 1729, Watts published a three-volume set of Sermons on Various Subjects . . . together with a Sacred Hymn Annexed to Each Subject. All of the hymns in these volumes were “new” in the sense that none of them had appeared in Hymns and Spiritual Songs, The Psalms of David Imitated, or others of Watts’s publications. Thus, they were apparently written specifically to accompany each of the sermons as a reinforcement or summation of its message. Finally, the employment that Watts’s hymns received among his contemporaries indicates that their usefulness as accompaniments to sermons was well recognized. The American Congregationalist Cotton Mather perceived this possibility early on, and quite often included a hymn by Watts when he printed one of his sermons. For example, the 1713 publication of his sermon “What Should Be Most of All Tho’t Upon” included “Two Hymns, Transcribed from the Sweet Composures of Mr. Isaac Watts,” “Thee we adore, eternal name” (B55) and “Death! ‘Tis a melancholy day” (B52).23 It is unlikely that these hymns were actually sung when the sermon was preached—the language Mather used in introducing the hymns suggests as much, and his was a “psalms only” church— but his inclusion of them with the sermon publication showed his recognition of their appropriateness for his subject matter.24 The relevance of Watts’s hymns as an accompaniment for the preaching of Independents and others is undoubtedly one of the secrets of their success. In his books of song, a minister could readily find a hymn that would summarize or illustrate almost any topic or Scripture on which he chose to expound in a way that versified psalmody simply could not. This link between sermon and song was an important innovation in the worship of English-language churches and was one of the significant contributions of Watts to the practice of hymnody.

23

24

[Cotton Mather], What Should Be Most of All Tho’t Upon. A Brief Essay, to Awaken in a Dying Man, (That Is to Say, In Every Man,) a Proper and a Lively Concern for, A Good State After Death (Boston: T. Green for D. Henchman, 1713), 40–42. That this “essay” was originally a sermon is pointed out in the preface “To the Reader” (p. i). On the question of whether or not the hymns printed by Mather were sung at the time the sermon was preached see Christopher N. Phillips, “Cotton Mather Brings Isaac Watts’s Hymns to America; or, How to Perform a Hymn without Singing It,” The New England Quarterly 85, no. 2 (June 2012), 209–211. Phillips also points out that by 1740 at least nine other Massachusetts pastors had published sermons accompanied by Watts texts (p. 217).

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The Lord’s Supper and Baptism

Louis F. Benson pointed out that, while Watts’s hymns certainly found a large part of their usefulness as homiletic material, they were also “made liturgical, in the broad sense of that term, by confinement within the common ground of Christian experience and avoidance of individualism, whether elevated or eccentric. They are filled also with reverence and a deep sense of God’s majesty and goodness, that evoke a recurring note of adoration and praise.”25 They are further “made liturgical” by their provision of texts for the ordinances of the church and for special days. The Lord’s Supper was commemorated at Bury Street on the first Sunday of each month, with the pastors alternating the leadership in its administration. Communion typically occurred after the sermon in the afternoon service, though it was held occasionally at noon on Sunday “for the conveniency of the pastor or of particular members,” especially “in the winter season, when the days are shortest.” After partaking of the elements, “there is a psalm or hymn sung, suited to the ordinance” (reflecting Matt. 26:30 and Mk. 14:26), followed by a collection for “the necessities of the poor.”26 Presumably, the song sung after Communion was in addition to the ones sung at the beginning of the service and following the sermon (in the afternoon) or the exposition (in the morning). The provision of lyrics for the Lord’s Supper was obviously a major concern for Watts since, except for the doxologies and hosannas that conclude the volume, he dedicated the entire third part of Hymns and Spiritual Songs (25 texts) to this ordinance.27 This helped fill a gap that he mentioned later in the preface to The Psalms of David Imitated. I might here also remark to what a hard Shift the Minister is put to find proper Hymns at the Celebration of the Lord’s-Supper, where the People 25

Louis F. Benson, The English Hymn: Its Development and Use in Worship (n.p.: George H. Doran Company, 1915; reprinted, Richmond, VA: John Knox Press, 1962), 209. 26 Rippon, Annual Register, 594–595. This use of singing after Communion was also mentioned by Watts in the preface to Hymns and Spiritual Songs: “I have prepar’d the Third Part [of HSS] only for the Celebration of the Lord’s Supper, that, in Imitation of our blessed Saviour we might sing an Hymn after we have partaken of the Bread and Wine”; HSS (1709), xii. 27 John Coffey, “Between Puritanism and Evangelicalism,” in Heart Religion: Evangelical Piety in England & Ireland, 1690–1850 (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2016), 35–37, traces the provision of Communion hymns by Dissenters through the time of Watts, including entire collections and sections of hymnals that were devoted to the ordinance.

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will sing nothing but out of David’s Psalm-Book: How perpetually do they repeat some part of the xxiiid or the cxviiith Psalm? And confine all the glorious Joy and Melody of that Ordinance to a few obscure Lines, because the Translators have not indulg’d an Evangelical Turn to the Words of David. (viii) Erik Routley noted the generally high quality of the hymns in the third book, saying that “Watts was capable, in an output of over 750 pieces” of writing some “laughable doggerel,” but that “hardly a line of his communion hymns can be so described.” According to Routley, “If this subject did not often engage his attention, when it did, it got it all.”28 However, Watts’s concern for this element of worship was not restricted to the third book of Hymns and Spiritual Songs, for, as noted in chapter 2, he claimed in the preface to the first edition that “almost an hundred Hymns in the two former Parts . . . may very properly be used in this Ordinance.” While he did not specify which of these “almost an hundred Hymns” he meant, at least the following texts from the 1707 printing would surely have been among them, all of which specifically mention some aspect of the Lord’s Supper. “Let ev’ry mortal ear attend” (A6) “In vain we lavish out our lives” (A9) “How strong thine arm is, mighty God” (A49) “Let him embrace my soul, and prove” (A66) “Thou whom my soul admires” (A67) “Behold the Rose of Sharon here” (A68) “The voice of my beloved sounds” (A69) “We are a garden wall’d around” (A74) “Welcome sweet day of rest” (B14) “Far from my thoughts, vain world be gone” (B15) “My God, what endless pleasures dwell” (B42) “How vain are all things here below” (B48) “Glory to God that walks the sky” (B59) To these may be added some that did not appear until 1709, including “Blest are the humble souls that see” (A102), “Go, worship at Immanuel’s feet” (A146), and 28

Erik Routley, “The Eucharistic Hymns of Isaac Watts,” Worship 48, no. 9 (November 1974): 528. Routley also points out that “When I survey the wondrous cross” (C7) is “the one hymn in all the twenty-five that is written in the first person singular” (p. 533). His figure of “over 750 pieces” probably includes some of the poems from HL that have been arranged as hymns.

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“My Saviour God, my sovereign prince” (B141). Other texts he probably had in mind were ones that dealt with the sacrifice of Christ on the cross, such as “Now to the Lord that makes us know” (A61, sung at his first celebration of Communion as pastor at Mark Lane) “Alas! and did my Saviour bleed” (B9), “Infinite grief! amazing woe” (B95), and “O if my soul was form’d for woe” (B106). Chapter 3 pointed out two texts Watts provided for churches that baptized infants by sprinkling and one for congregations that practiced believer’s baptism by immersion.29 Another lyric, “‘Twas the commission of our Lord” (A52), titled “Baptism,” is noncommittal as to the form, while a fifth hymn, “The promise was divinely free” (B134), deals with the abolition of circumcision and was indexed as also being appropriate for baptism, probably of infants. The God of Abraham claims our Praise, His Promises indure, And Christ the Lord in gentler Ways Makes the Salvation sure. (st. 4) One more hymn, “My Saviour God, my sovereign prince” (B141), mentions both baptism and the Lord’s Supper and could well be sung at either ordinance (see chap. 2). Since baptism was probably not celebrated as often as the Lord’s Supper, there was need for fewer hymns for that sacrament, and, of course, other hymns on commitment or following Christ in faith could be employed. Nevertheless, Watts obviously felt that it was important to provide texts to be sung at both of these ceremonies. 5

Hymns for Other Aspects of Worship

In the indexes, titles, and other rubrics for his hymns, Watts occasionally provided information about liturgical occasions or places in a worship order when their singing would be appropriate. In order to be effective, a hymn should not only be “well written” but also “well chosen.”30 Watts recognized this fact, and sought to give at least some guidance in how his hymns might best be placed in worship. This concern is another mark of the liturgical value he placed on the hymn. 29 30

“Thus saith the mercy of the Lord” (A121, “For those who practise Infant-Baptism”) and “Thus did the sons of Abraham pass” (B127, “Written only for those who practise the Baptism of Infants”), “Do we not know that solemn word” (A122, for believer’s baptism). Erik Routley, Hymns and Human Life (London: J. Murray, 1952), 299. Routley adds that it must also be “well sung.”

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Watts made three versions of Psalm 95, the first of which, “Sing to the Lord Jehovah’s name” (CM), is marked as “A Psalm before Prayer.” The next one, “Come sound his praise abroad” (SM), is “A Psalm before Sermon.” Though not specified as opening hymns, Watts’s two versions of Psalm 122, “How did my heart rejoice to hear” (CM) and “How pleas’d and blest was I” (Proper Tune), both of which are titled “Going to Church,” would almost certainly have been employed in that manner. Several texts are identified in their titles as being specific to Sunday (table 1). Some texts are even more explicitly labeled as being designed for Sunday morning (table 2). table 1  Hymns for Sunday

First line

Source

Title or rubric

“Welcome sweet day of rest”

B14

“Blest morning, whose young dawning rays” “Sweet is the work, my God, my king” “This is the day the Lord hath made”

B72

The Lord’s Day; or, Delight in Ordinances The Lord’s Day; or The Resurrection of Christ A Psalm for the Lord’s-Day

“See what a living stone”

Ps. 118 SM

“Lo what a glorious ­cornerstone”

Ps. 118 LM

Ps. 92 LM, pt. 1 Ps. 118 CM, pt. 4

Hosanna; the Lord’s Day: or, Christ’s Resurrection, and our Salvation An Hosanna for the Lord’s-day; or, a new Song of Salvation by Christ An Hosanna for the Lord’s-day; or, a new Song of Salvation by Christ

It is easy to imagine a text such as his paraphrase of Psalm 5 being sung as the opening hymn in the morning service of the Bury Street church. Lord, in the Morning thou shalt hear My Voice ascending high; To thee will I direct my Pray’r, To thee lift up mine Eye. But to thy House will I resort To taste thy Mercies there;

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First line

Source

Title or rubric

“Lord, in the morning thou shalt hear” “Behold the lofty sky” “Behold the morning sun” “Early my God without delay”

Ps. 5 Ps. 19 SM, pt. 1 Ps. 19 SM, pt. 2 Ps. 63 CM, pt. 1

For the Lord’s-day Morning For a Lord’s Day Morning For a Lord’s Day Morning The Morning of a Lord’s Day

I will frequent thine holy Court, And worship in thy Fear. (sts. 1, 4) Other hymns are noted simply as being for morning or evening without reference to the Lord’s Day, though of course their use for the Sunday services is not ruled out (table 3). These texts would also be useful in times of private or family devotion at those periods of the day. Note particularly the two sequences of three hymns each in books 1 and 2 of Hymns and Spiritual Songs for morning, evening, and either morning or evening. Some of Watts’s texts were written for special services, such as funerals, ordinations, and days of prayer or humiliation. “Remember, Lord, our mortal state” (Ps. 89 LM, pt. 6) is categorized as “A Funeral Psalm,” while “Thro’ every age, eternal God” (Ps. 90 LM) is called “A mournfull Song at a Funeral.” Additional lyrics that are not distinctly identified as funeral hymns could readily be used on such occasions, including “Hear what the voice from heav’n proclaims” (A18) and “Why do we mourn departing friends” (B3). Another special service for Independents was the commissioning or ordination of a minister. “Go preach my gospel, saith the Lord” (A128) is indexed as being appropriate for a ministerial commissioning, while the long meter version of Psalm 132, “Where shall we go to seek and find,” is titled “At the Settlement of a Church; or, the Ordination of a Minister.” The common meter paraphrase of the same psalm, “No sleep, nor slumber to his eyes,” is noted as being fit for singing at the establishment of a church. Watts’s version of Psalm 22, “Now may the God of power and grace,” is titled “Prayer and Hope of Victory” and is said to be suitable “For a Day of Prayer in time of War.” Similarly, “Lord, hast thou cast the nation off” (Ps. 60) is written for “a Day of Humiliation for Disappointments in War,” while “Why doth the Lord stand off so far” (Ps. 10) is more generic, being “For a Humiliation Day.”

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table 3  Hymns for morning and evening

First line

Source

Title or rubric

“God of the morning, at whose voice” “Thus far the Lord has led me on” “My God, how endless is thy love” “Once more, my soul, the rising day” “Dread sov’reign, let my evening song” “Hosanna, with a cheerful sound” “Lord, how many are my foes” “Lord, thou wilt hear me when I pray” “Lord, when I count thy mercies o’er”

A79 A80 A81 B6 B7 B8 Ps. 3 LM Ps. 4 CM Ps. 139 CM, pt. 3 Ps 141

A Morning Hymn An Evening Hymn A Song for Morning or Evening A Morning Song An Evening Song A Hymn for Morning or Evening A Morning Psalm An Evening Psalm An Evening Psalm

“My God, accept my early vows”

6

A Morning or Evening Psalm

Liturgical Texts

It is doubtful that Watts had in mind any significant use of his hymns by the Church of England. Elements of certain of his texts would likely offend members of this communion.31 However, it may be no accident that paraphrases of several Scripture texts that are important in services of the established church are included in his collections. Among these are renditions of the Benedictus (traditionally sung at Morning Prayer), and the Magnificat and Nunc Dimittis (both sung at Evening Prayer).32 Since these canticles are scriptural, they would certainly not be out of place in Independent churches, though their usage has typically been more common in the Church of England. Watts’s versions never simply versify the canticles, but omit portions or include background material, commentary, or application of the text in the 31

32

For example, “Can I [God] be flatter’d with thy cringing Bows, / Thy solemn Chatterings and Phantastick Vows? / Are my Eyes charm’d thy Vestments to behold, / Glaring in Gems, and gay in woven Gold?” (“The God of glory sends his summons forth,” Ps. 50 “To the old proper Tune,” 10:1–4). Watts was probably aiming more at the Roman Catholic church than the Church of England in this stanza, but members of the established church might easily see themselves in the polemic. See also the quotations from “God is a spirit just and wise” and “The Lord the judge his churches warns” at the beginning of this chapter. “Now be the God of Israel blest” (A50, Benedictus), “Our souls shall magnify the Lord” (A60, Magnificat), “Lord, at thy temple we appear” (A19, Nunc Dimittis), and “Now have our hearts embrac’d our God” (C14, Nunc Dimittis).

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same manner as his other paraphrases of scriptural texts. His adaptation of the Benedictus, titled “The Song of Zecharias, and the Message of John the Baptist; or, Light and Salvation by Jesus Christ,” with the Scripture references Luke 1:68ff and John 1:29 and 32, is illustrative (A50). The text is given here in parallel with the relevant biblical passages. Watts

KJV

1. Now be the God of Israel blest, Who makes his Truth appear, His mighty Hand fulfills his Word, And all the Oaths he sware.

Blessed be the Lord God of Israel; for he hath visited and redeemed his people, (Luke 1:68)

2. Now he bedews old David’s Root With Blessings from the Skies; He makes the Branch of Promise grow, The promis’d Horn arise.

And hath raised up an horn of salvation for us in the house of his servant David; (Luke 1:69) And there shall come forth a rod out of the stem of Jesse, and a Branch shall grow out of his roots: (Isa. 11:1)

3. [John was the Prophet of the Lord To go before his Face, The Herald which our Saviour-God Sent to prepare his Ways.

And thou, child, shalt be called the prophet of the Highest: for thou shalt go before the face of the Lord to prepare his ways; (Luke 1:76)

4. He makes the great Salvation known, He speaks of pardon’d Sins; While Grace Divine and heavenly Love In its own Glory shines.

To give knowledge of salvation unto his people by the remission of their sins, (Luke 1:77)

5. “Behold the Lamb of God, he crys, That takes our Guilt away: I saw the Spirit o’er his Head On his Baptizing Day.]

The next day John seeth Jesus coming unto him, and saith, Behold the Lamb of God, which taketh away the sin of the world. (John 1:29). And John bare record, saying, I saw the Spirit descending from heaven like a dove, and it abode upon him. (John 1:32)

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6. “Be every Vale exalted high, Sink every Mountain low; The proud must stoop, and humble Souls Shall his Salvation know.

Every valley shall be filled, and every mountain and hill shall be brought low . . . and all flesh shall see the salvation of God. (Luke 3:5a, 6)

7. “The Heathen Realms with Israel’s And the glory of the Lord shall be Land revealed, and all flesh shall see it Shall joyn in sweet Accord: together. (Isa. 40:5a) And all that’s born of Man shall see The Glory of the Lord. 8. “Behold the Morning-Star arise, Ye that in Darkness sit; He marks the Path that leads to Peace, And guides our doubtful Feet.”

To give light to them that sit in darkness and in the shadow of death, to guide our feet into the way of peace. (Luke 1:79) I am . . . the bright and morning star (Rev. 22:16) Take heed . . . until the day dawn, and the day star arise in your hearts (1 Pet. 1:19)

Watts does not present the whole text of the canticle, and his insertions from other Scriptures are not part of the normal liturgical practice for such texts in the Church of England. Likewise, in his version of the Magnificat (the Song of Mary), he cannot help indirectly critiquing the Mariolatry that is sometimes associated with performance of this canticle. [Let every Nation call her Blest, And endless Years prolong her Fame; But God alone must be ador’d: Holy and Reverend is his Name.] “Our souls shall magnify the Lord” (A60, st. 3) Whether or not Watts was making a conscious gesture toward the Church of England, at the very least, he was perhaps demonstrating how the canticle texts might be applied in the worship of Independents.33 33

To the New Testament canticles named above can be added some of the paraphrases from The Psalms of David Imitated that formed an important part of the liturgy in the Church

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Another potential indication of influence from the established church is the group of sixteen doxologies and four hosannas (C26–45) that conclude book 3 of Hymns and Spiritual Songs. Watts introduced this section with an extended note. I Cannot perswade my self to put a full Period to these Divine Hymns, till I have address’d a special Song of Glory to God the Father, the Son, and the holy Spirit. Tho’ the Latin Name of it, Gloria Patri, be retain’d in our Nation from the Roman Church; and tho’ there may be some Excesses of superstitious Honour paid to the Words of it, which may have wrought some unhappy Prejudices in Weaker Christians, yet I believe it still to be one of the noblest Parts of Christian Worship. . . . I have cast the Song into a Variety of Forms, and have fitted it by a plain Version or a larger Paraphrase, to be sung either alone or at the Conclusion of another Hymn. I have added also a few Hosannas, or Ascriptions of Salvation to Christ, in the same manner, and for the same end. (1709, 308) In both the Roman Catholic church and the Church of England, the Gloria Patri has traditionally been used primarily to conclude the singing of psalms and canticles. Thus, Watts’s suggestion of attaching one of his Gloria Patri paraphrases to the end of another hymn has considerable historical precedent. How this might work can be demonstrated by adding the doxology “Now let the Father and the Son” (C34) to the end of his four-stanza hymn “Jesus, with all thy saints above” (B29). Jesus, with all thy Saints above My Tongue would bear her Part, Would sound aloud thy saving Love, And sing thy bleeding Heart. Blest be the Lamb, my dearest Lord, Who bought me with his Blood, And quench’d his Father’s flaming Sword In his own vital Flood. The Lamb that freed my Captive Soul From Satan’s heavy Chains, of England, such as Pss. 95 and 100 (Venite and Jubilate Deo, Morning Prayer), and Ps. 98 (Cantate Domino, Evening Prayer).

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And sent the Lion down to howl Where Hell and Horror reigns. All Glory to the dying Lamb, And never ceasing Praise, While Angels live to know his Name, Or Saints to feel his Grace. Now let the Father and the Son And Spirit be ador’d, Where there are Works to make him known, Or Saints to love the Lord. Watts provided similar short doxologies in the hymnic meters that were used most often for the texts in the body of the book. Other doxologies are too lengthy to attach to the end of another hymn—“Let God the Father live” (C28), for example, contains five stanzas—and were intended to stand alone. It is doubtful that there was a specific place for these doxologies and hosannas in the services of Watts’s own church or other Independent congregations. However, their presence in Hymns and Spiritual Songs shows that he felt they could be useful in the worship of Dissenters as well as in the Church of England.34 Independents typically did not observe the Christian Year, and thus Watts did not provide hymns that were specially designed for such occasions. He did include texts that dealt with some of the major events in the life of Christ, including his birth, triumphal entry, crucifixion and death, resurrection, and ascension as well as with the Holy Spirit, but, as noted in chapter 2, in most of these cases his hymns deal more with the spiritual meaning or the singer’s reaction to the events than to the actual events themselves. While these lyrics could certainly have been employed in services that followed the Christian Year, it is doubtful that Watts had any such intention in mind when he wrote and published them. 7

Public and Private Worship

Public worship was important to Watts. In his view, this was where one could see the glory of God and feel “the Power of sovereign Grace” (“Great God, 34

See Thomas Milner’s extended discussion of objections by some to the doxologies of Hymns and Spiritual Songs in The Life, Times, and Correspondence of the Rev. Isaac Watts, D.D. (London: Simpkin and Marshall, 1834), 282–289.

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indulge my humble claim,” Ps. 63 LM, 4:3–4). Watts’s joy over the thought of meeting his congregation for the service overflowed in his common meter version of Psalm 122, “How did my heart rejoice to hear.” How did my Heart rejoice to hear My Friends devoutly say, “In Zion let us all appear, And keep the solemn Day!” I love her Gates, I love the Road; The Church adorn’d with Grace Stands like a Palace built for God To shew his milder Face. (sts. 1–2) Hymns and Spiritual Songs and The Psalms of David Imitated were designed primarily for use in the public services of the church, but Watts also envisioned their employment in family and private devotion. At the end of the preface to the first edition of Hymns and Spiritual Songs (1707), he expressed the hope that his “Composures” would be “useful to private Christians; and if they may but attain the honour of being esteem’d Pious Meditations to assist the devout and the retir’d Soul in the Exercises of Love, Faith and Joy, ‘twill be a valuable Compensation of my Labours” (pp. xiii–xiv). In the second edition, he added another sentence acknowledging “how useful he [God] has made these Compositions already, to the Comfort and Edification of Societies and of private Persons” (p. xii). The “Advertisement” in the second edition of Hymns and Spiritual Songs pointed out his use of brackets to indicate stanzas that could be omitted because they were “too Poetical for meaner Understandings, or too particular for whole Congregations to sing” (p. xiv); nevertheless, the stanzas were still there for use in private devotion, if not in the stated services of the church. Likewise, in an “Advertisement to the Readers” in The Psalms of David Imitated, Watts penned his hope that the work would be employed not only in public worship but also in private and family devotion. The chief Design of this Work was to improve Psalmody or Religious Singing, and to encourage the frequent Practice of it in public Assemblies and private Families with more Honour and Delight; yet the Author hopes the Reading of it may also entertain the Parlour and the Closet with devout Pleasure and holy Meditations. Therefore he would request his Readers at proper Seasons to peruse it thro’; and among 340 sacred Hymns they may find out several that suit their own Case and Temper, or the Circumstances of their Families

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and Friends; they may teach their Children such as are proper for their Age, and by treasuring them in their Memory they may be furnish’d for pious Retirement, or may entertain their Friends with holy Melody. (xxix–xxx) It was a common practice among Independents for families to gather on Sunday evening for a time of worship at which Scripture would be read, the father would read a sermon aloud, and songs would be sung. The latter were probably most often metrical psalms, but since this was not a public service of worship, the Calvinist proscription against hymns was not applicable, and both Watts’s hymns and psalms could—and probably did—find a place. His suggestion about teaching the songs to children also likely became common. Several of Watts’s rubrics specifically mention family worship. Psalm 101 CM, “Of justice and of grace I sing,” is designated “A Psalm for a Master of a Family,” while Psalm 128, “O happy man whose soul is fill’d,” is titled “Family Blessings.” “Blest are the sons of peace” (Ps. 133 SM) is headed “Communion of Saints; or, Love and Worship in a Family.” Obviously, singing in family worship would not be restricted to these texts, but the presence of these rubrics demonstrates the importance Watts placed on this venue, as well as on private reading of the hymns and meditation on their texts. In the index of The Psalms of David Imitated, Watts indicated two psalms that deal particularly with daily devotion, Psalms 55 and 139. The opening stanzas of his short meter version of Psalm 55, “Let sinners take their course,” titled “Dangerous Prosperity; or, Daily Devotions Encouraged,” call on the parishioner to engage in prayer times at morning, noon, and night. Let Sinners take their Course, And chuse the Road to Death; But in the Worship of my God I’ll spend my daily Breath. My Thoughts address his Throne When Morning brings the Light; I seek his Blessing every Noon, And pay my Vows at Night. Though no similar rubric describes any of Watts’s versions of Psalm 139, the third part of his common meter version, “Lord, when I count thy mercies o’er,” ends with the following stanza: “These [blessings] on my Heart by Night I keep; / How kind, how dear to me! / O may the Hour that ends my Sleep / Still find my Thoughts with Thee.”

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The Liturgical Use of Watts’s Hymns

Isaac Watts wrote his hymns for the generality of Christians, not merely for his own local church. Nevertheless, the employment of his hymns in the Bury Street congregation undoubtedly affected their writing and the revision of earlier texts. One of the main uses of his hymns was as an accompaniment to sermons or scriptural exposition, with applications to other occasions such as the Lord’s Supper and baptism, as well as more occasional services. Such intended uses were a new, or at least a recent, development in English congregational song. Because singing was usually restricted to psalms— which, as Watts himself noted, did not provide for every occasion of Christian ­worship35—and since the psalters typically did not contain adequate indexes, the selection of texts to be sung must often have been either haphazard or carried on in lectio continua fashion, without any particular reference to the sermon or other elements of a worship service; in other words, the singing more or less stood on its own and apart from other liturgical acts. By including subject indexes and providing hymns specifically to accompany sermons, the Lord’s Supper, baptism, and other service elements, Watts sought and achieved a greater interrelationship between the singing and other features of worship. Watts’s adaptation of texts such as the Magnificat, Benedictus, Nunc Dimittis, and Gloria Patri may indicate a gesture toward the Church of England, but at any rate, their inclusion perhaps helped overcome any prejudices Independents might have had toward these texts and assisted in recovering them for use among his own people. While public worship was one of Watts’s principal concerns, he did not neglect family and private devotion, including both texts that encouraged such concerns and that could be sung or read on these occasions. As a result of his foresight and labors, his hymns have been employed in both public and private worship for more than 300 years. 35

“However I can see nothing in the inspired Book of Praises that should perswade me that the Spirit of God design’d it as a universal Psalm-book; nor that he intended these to include or provide for all the Occasions of Thanksgiving that ever should befal[l] Jews or Christians in a single or social Capacity” (HSS, 1707, 262).

Chapter 4

The Literary Dimension of Watts’s Hymns Isaac Watts was part of an Augustan literary tradition that valued wit, satire, parody, allusion, and “imitation” of earlier writers. While Watts was primarily a “sacred poet,” he was quite aware and appreciative of, and a full participant in, the literary concerns and fashions of the time. His relationship to Augustan literary culture is most evident in the poems of Horæ Lyricæ but can also be seen in his hymns, particularly in his employment of some of the key elements of Augustan poetry, including allusion, imitation, and poetic/rhetorical devices. This chapter evaluates the functional nature of Watts’s hymn writing and the means and materials he used in writing his texts. It was through these means and materials that the hymns create much of their emotional impact. This combination of theological expression with the emotional power of poetry (and music) is a powerful stimulant for understanding, remembering, and responding to the faith, a feature that is seen often in Watts’s texts. The functional and poetic values of Watts’s hymns demonstrate two other features that might be seen as contradictory but are important markers of his contribution—his hymns are both practical for singing by average parishioners and exhibit literary and rhetorical skill. Watts thus avoided the pitfalls of many earlier psalm and hymn writers, whose works were either poor poetry or were too elevated for “plain Christians.” Though the poetic elements are discussed individually here, it is the combination of them that makes Watts’s hymns effective. This combination of literary features (along with other aspects of his work) will be brought together mainly in the last chapters of this book, but it is first necessary to describe the literary and rhetorical materials he used in creating his hymns. 1

The Functional Nature of Watts’s Writing

Isaac Watts was both a poet and a hymn writer. While, of course, congregational hymns are also poems, they have a purpose that is generally not the same as that of most other types of poetry, in that they are designed primarily to be sung by a mixed assembly of different genders, ages, socioeconomic status, theological awareness, literary sophistication and understanding, and musical ability. Like poetry, hymns may represent the personal and innermost thoughts of the writer, but they must also express the thoughts and feelings of © David W. Music, 2022 | doi:10.1163/9789004520523_006

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a large group of worshipers. Thus, though making use of the techniques and partaking of the spirit of poetry, hymns must at the same time be more and less than poetry: less in that it must be understandable and relevant to a large group of people—and more for the same reason. Watts, of course, was well aware of the distinction between the two types, which caused him to limit himself in his hymns compared to his other poetry. One limitation is his restriction of the hymnic meters to those that were familiar from versified psalmody. This meant that the texts could be used immediately without having to wait for new musical settings to be written or the people to learn new tunes. In the preface to the first edition of Hymns and Spiritual Songs (1707), Watts noted another practical aspect of his writing: he had “sunk” the metaphors he used “to the Level of vulgar [i.e., common] Capacities” and tried “to make the Sense plain and obvious.” He unapologetically claimed that “if the Verse appears so gentle and flowing as to incur the Censure of Feebleness, I may honestly affirm, that sometimes it cost me labour to make it so,” and that he had occasionally “neglected” or even “defaced” some of the “Beauties of Poesy.” Still, he had to discard “the Lines that were too sonorous,” and even entire hymns “because of the Bolder figures of Speech that crowded themselves into the Verse, and a more unconfin’d Variety of Number which I could not easily restrain” (1707, viii-ix). In the preface to the second edition, Watts drew a contrast between Horæ Lyricæ, which he hoped would “please and profit the politer part of Mankind without offending the plainer sort of Christians,” and Hymns and Spiritual Songs, a volume that was intended to “promote the pious Entertainment of Souls truly serious even of the meanest Capacity, and at the same time (if possible) not to give Disgust to Persons of richer Sense and nicer Education” (1709, ix). Similar statements were made in the preface to The Psalms of David Imitated: “I have generally kept within the Reach of an unlearned Reader . . . In many of these Composures I have just permitted my Verse to rise above a Flat and indolent Style; yet I hope it is every where supported above the just Contempt of the Criticks” (xxv–xxvi). Perhaps Watts’s statements in these prefaces can best be illustrated by comparing the opening stanzas of two versions he made of Psalm 100, both initially published in the first edition of Horæ Lyricæ (1706). “Sing aloud to the Lord: Let the two frozen poles” appeared as a five-stanza poem “In Trissyllable Feet” (­anapestic meter) for reading. Just a few pages later—but in a new section containing “An Essay on a few of DAVID’s PSALMS”—was “Sing to the Lord with joyful voice,” which reappeared in Hymns and Spiritual Songs, and ultimately in a revised version in The Psalms of David Imitated. The first verse of the psalm on which these texts are modeled reads “Make a joyful noise unto the Lord, all ye lands.”

144 Sing aloud to the Lord: Let the two Frozen Poles Awake to the Song, and dissolve in the Praise; At the Fiery Line will we kindle our Souls, Nor the Worship be quench’t by the Western Seas.

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Sing to the Lord with Joyful Voice, Let every Land his Name adore, The British Isles shall send the Noise Across the Ocean to the Shore.

The plain language and directness of “Sing to the Lord with joyful voice” are in sharp contrast to the elegant language and metaphorical profusion of “Sing aloud to the Lord.” In “Sing to the Lord with joyful voice,” “every Land” is to adore the name of God, from the British Isles to a shore across the ocean. In “Sing aloud to the Lord,” however, the “all ye lands” of Scripture has become the “Frozen” North and South Poles, which are to “Awake” and “dissolve”; the “Fiery Line” (equator), which is to “kindle”; and “Western Seas,” which are not to be “quench’t.” If sung as a hymn, a “plain Christian” would probably spend the next four stanzas of “Sing aloud to the Lord” trying to figure out what the first one meant; no such barrier exists for “Sing to the Lord.”1 Another feature of Watts’s hymns that would help the average congregant is the terseness of his writing. There are few “filler” words, though one does occasionally creep in.2 One- and two-syllable words predominate, three- and four-syllable words are found occasionally, and five-syllable words very rarely.3 “Joy to the world” (Ps. 98 CM, pt. 2) is typical of Watts’s restrained approach: 1 These comments are not intended as a criticism of “Sing aloud to the Lord,” but merely to point out how Watts’s work clearly demonstrates the distinction he made between a literary poem and one intended for congregational singing by “plain Christians.” The poem and the hymn seem to be different versions of the same text (see below). A similar procedure at work can be seen by comparing Watts’s hymn “What mighty man, or mighty God” (A28), first published in the 1707 edition of HSS, with the poem “What heavenly man, or lovely God” from the second edition of HL (1709); both are based on verses from Isaiah 63. 2 For example, in “Not the malicious or profane” (A104), the word “good” in the third stanza seems entirely superfluous to the meaning of the strophe and was probably inserted to fill out the meter: “But we are wash’d in Jesus[’] Blood, / We’re pardon’d thro’ his Name; / And the good Spirit of our God / Has sanctify’d our Frame.” 3 Among the few examples of five-syllable words are “predestinated” and “regenerated” (both in “Jesus, we bless thy Father’s name,” A54), “unsufferable” (“O the almighty Lord,” B80), “innumerable” (“Not to the terrors of the Lord,” B144), “inviolably” (“Great God, thy glories shall employ,” B167), “abominable” (“Fools in their heart believe and say,” Ps. 14 CM, pt. 1), and “inimitable” (“Questions and doubts be heard no more,” Sermons on Various Subjects, vol. 1, 1721).

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eighty-one of the words are monosyllables, fifteen contain two syllables, and only a single word has as many as three syllables (“Righteousness”). Watts’s vocabulary is basically a simple one and is “studiously Anglo-Saxon,”4 though he does not hesitate to employ theological or biblical terms that would likely already be familiar to his target audience through their use in preaching or the KJV, words such as “repentance,” “justify,” “imputes,” and “redemption.”5 A further practical aspect of Watts’s hymns is their lack of enjambment, either a break in the middle of a line or the lack of a stop at the end of one. Enjambment in poetry that is intended for reading is a perfectly acceptable technique, and even in congregational hymnody it can find a place, though a lack of correspondence between the textual and musical phrases can sometimes be awkward. However, avoiding enjambment was of particular importance for Watts because of the contemporary practice of lining out, in which each line of text was read or sung by the precentor, then repeated by the congregation before moving on to the next line. Of course, he could not and did not completely eschew enjambment, as can be seen in such lines as “The wild young Lions pinch’d with Pain / And Hunger roar thro’ all the Wood” (“Lord, I will bless thee all my days,” Ps. 34 LM, pt. 1, 6:1–2). However, such situations are rare, and Watts generally adhered to the goal he set out in the preface to the first edition of Hymns and Spiritual Songs: “I have seldom permitted a Stop in the middle of a Line, and seldom left the end of a Line without one” (viii). 2

Hymnic Meter

Hymnic meter indicates the number of lines in each stanza and the number of syllables in each line. The hymnic meters that were used most often during Watts’s time were those of the metrical psalms, common meter (CM, four lines of 8686), long meter (LM, 8888), and short meter (SM, 6686). In fact, all the texts in the first edition of Hymns and Spiritual Songs were in these three meters, and it was only in the second edition that he included a few texts in 66664444: “With cheerful voice I sing” (A148), “Join all the glorious names” (A150), “The Lord Jehovah reigns” (B169), and several doxologies.6 Other 4 Stephen Orchard, “The Hymns of Isaac Watts,” Journal of the United Reformed Church History Society 6, no. 3 (1998): 156. 5 See “Infinite grief! amazing woe” (B95, 6:3), “Vain are the hopes of men” (A94, 3:2), “O blessed souls are they” (Ps. 32 SM, 1:4), and “Out of the deeps of long distress” (Ps. 130 CM, 8:1). 6 Harry Escott, Isaac Watts, Hymnographer (London: Independent Press, 1962), 173–174. In The Hymns of Wesley and Watts: Five Informal Papers (London: Epworth Press, 1942), Bernard Lord Manning stated that Watts “had to write in only a few well-known metres, a limitation of

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hymnic meters were also featured in traditional metrical psalmody and were employed by Watts in The Psalms of David Imitated, including 668668, 888888, 10.10.10.10.10.10, and 10.10.10.10.11.11.7 Harry Escott accurately observed that The most striking feature of Watts’s Imitation is its metrical variety. His version in this regard alone is in contrast with those of his predecessors. Sternhold and Hopkins has only 154 versions of the 150 psalms, and of these 131 were in common metre, and only four psalms were translated in two metres. There was even less variety of metre in Tate and Brady. It offers one rendering only of each of the psalms. Watts, on the other hand, has 338 versions: 164 in common metre, thirty-four in short metre, 121 in long metre, eight in 6.8’s, four in 6.10’s, three in 668.668 and four in 6666.4444. Thirteen paraphrases are presented in all three traditional metres, and close on fifty in two of them. Quite a number of psalms, or portions of psalms, are presented in four, five, and even six metrical renderings.8 Generally speaking, the multi-part texts in The Psalms of David Imitated use the same hymnic meter for every part, presumably so the entire psalm can be sung to the same tune. However, that is not always the case. For example, the imitation of Psalm 89 is divided into seven parts but there are two first parts, one in long meter and one in common meter. Parts 2–5 continue in common meter, but the last two parts transition to long meter. Each change of meter, of course, would also necessitate a change of tune.9

which he often complained” (p. 81). However, no complaint by Watts of this restriction seems to be extant; he merely noted in the first edition of HSS that “The whole Book is confin’d to three Sorts of Metre, and fitted to the most common Tunes” (preface, viii), and the limitation was apparently self-imposed. 7 On the musical implications of these meters see chap. 5. Any of the hymnic meters could be doubled to form a stanza that was twice as long, though it was not Watts’s practice to use doubled hymnic meters; on occasion, however, he had to make adaptations to fit a doubled hymn tune (see, for example, the discussion of “I’ll praise my maker with my breath” in chap. 5). 8 Escott, Isaac Watts, 148. Escott’s references to “6.8’s” and “6.10’s” are meant to indicate six lines of eight or ten syllables each, rather than a combination of six- and eight or ten-syllable lines. His statement that there are four texts in 10.10.10.10.10.10 meter is not quite accurate; two of these, “The God of glory sends his summons forth” (Ps. 50 “To the old proper Tune”) and “The Lord of glory reigns; he reigns on high” (Ps. 93 “as the Old 50th Psalm”) are in 10.10.10.10.11.11. 9 For other examples, see his versions of Pss. 91, 106, 107, and 119 (the last-named is in common meter except for the final two parts, which are in long meter).

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Poetic Meter

Poetic meter refers to the arrangement of stressed and unstressed syllables in the lines of poetry. The most common poetic meters are iambic, trochaic, dactylic, and anapestic, but because, as he put it in a later writing, “English Verse generally consists of Iambick Feet,”10 Watts’s hymns are exclusively in iambic meter (ᵕ/), though sometimes with alterations or temporary modulations. One occasional variation is the spondee (//).11 Light, Life, and Heav’n are in my Hands (“Jehovah speaks, let Israel hear,” A84, 3:4) And the whole World before his throne (“Behold the potter and the clay,” A117, 8:2) The second example demonstrates an accent pattern that Watts uses often and that breaks out of the typical iambic pattern as a means of emphasizing important words. Another frequent rhythmic figure in Watts’s work is the choriambus, a combination of a dactylic foot and an iambic foot (/ᵕᵕ/), often used at the beginning of a line to express a sense of rejoicing.12 O the Delights, the heavenly Joys (B91, 1:1) Joy to the World; the Lord is come (Ps. 98 CM, pt. 2, 1:1) Watts also uses an occasional anapestic line. From the first dawning Light Till the dark Evening rise. (“I lift my soul to God,” Ps. 25 SM, pt. 1, 3:1–2) Oft I frequent thy holy Place (“Long have I sat beneath the sound,” B165, 2:1)

10 11 12

I. Watts, Reliquiæ Juveniles: Miscellaneous Thoughts in Prose and Verse (London: for Richard Ford and Richard Hett, 1734), 311. In this and the following examples of the present chapter, bold type is added to indicate accents or the poetic device under consideration. Watts describes the use of the spondee and choriambus (which he calls a trochee “used for the first Foot”) on pp. 312–313 of Reliquiæ Juveniles.

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4 Rhyme Rhyme is an important component in hymnody that both provides a sense of rhythm and enhances the memorability of the text. Typical end rhymes in a four-line hymn stanza are ABAB (cross rhyme, alternate lines rhyme), ABCB (only lines 2 and 4 rhyme), and AABB (the rhyming lines are paired). Watts generally expected to rhyme every line, or at least he thought that would be the expectation of his readers. This is the implication of a statement he made in the first edition of Hymns and Spiritual Songs (144) and revised slightly for the second edition (194): “From the 70th to the 108th Hymn [of book 2], I hope the Reader will forgive the neglect of Rhyme in the First and Third Lines of the Stanza.”13 In The Psalms of David Imitated, he anticipated another potential criticism of his rhymes—or was perhaps responding to critiques of those in Hymns and Spiritual Songs. If I am charged by the Criticks for repeating the same Rhymes too often, let them consider, that the Words which continually recur in divine Poesy admit exceeding few Rhymes to them fit for sacred Use; these are, God, World, Flesh, Soul, Life, Death, Faith, Hope, Heaven, Earth, &c. which I think will make sufficient Apology; especially since I have coupled all my Lines by Rhymes much more than either Mr. Tate or Dr. Patrick have done, which is certainly most musical and agreeable to the Ear where Rhyme is used at all. (xxvii) The distribution of rhyme schemes in the nearly 700 four-line lyrics of Watts’s Hymns and Spiritual Songs, Psalms of David Imitated, and three volumes of sermon hymns is approximately as follows: ABAB (64%), AABB (21%), and ABCB (15%), meaning that some eighty-five percent of these texts rhyme every line.14 In truth, however, the situation is not quite as neat as that, for Watts often mixes different rhyme schemes in the same hymn. For example, “Lord, at thy temple we appear” (A19) begins with a cross-rhymed stanza. Lord, at thy Temple we appear, As happy Simeon came, 13 14

According to John Knapp, “Isaac Watts’s Unfixed Hymn Genre,” Modern Philology 109, no. 4 (May 2012): 474, these ABCB rhymed hymns represent ballad meter rather than common meter. This fact calls into question Manning’s statement in The Hymns of Wesley and Watts that “Watts rarely tries to rhyme more than the second and fourth lines” and that he “has too often neglected to provide himself with this safety valve [of rhyming every line], and one bad rhyme, being the only rhyme, puts the verse out of action” (91).

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And hope to meet our Saviour here; O make our Joys the same! However, the next stanza uses ABCB rhyme. With what Divine and vast Delight The good old Man was fill’d, When fondly in his wither’d Arms He clasp’d the holy Child! This is succeeded by two more ABCB stanzas, then for stanzas 5 and 6, Watts returns to the cross rhyme of the opening. A similar situation is presented in his version of Psalm 21, “David rejoiced in God his strength,” in which stanzas 1 through 3 use cross rhyme (though the B rhymes in stanza 2 are rather distant false rhymes) but the last two stanzas switch to AABB.15 The rhyme schemes of the texts in the more uncommon hymnic meters are listed in table 4. The most remarkable thing about the table is that the rhyme schemes are consistent for the hymnic meters, except for 66664444, for which four different patterns are employed. Turning to the actual rhyming sounds themselves, a variety of sound correspondences can be found in Watts’s hymns. The best-known type is pure rhyme, in which there is an identity of sound between the accented vowel(s) and the succeeding consonant(s) of two words.16 In the first stanza of “Lord, at thy temple we appear” quoted above, Watts rhymes “appear” with “here” in lines 1 and 3, and “came” with “same” in lines 2 and 4. Because of changes in the pronunciation of English since the eighteenth century, some words that were pure rhymes during Watts’s time are no longer so. Thus, when Watts rhymed “again” with “rain” and “wind” with “hind,” these were pure rhymes.17 However, like other poets, Watts did not scruple to use 15

16

17

In determining the statistics noted above about Watts’s rhyme schemes, the arrangement found in the majority of stanzas of a hymn was considered the dominant one. If there were an equal number of stanzas in two different rhyme schemes. the first stanza was used as the deciding factor. The various types of rhyme are given different names in disparate sources, sometimes resulting in the same term being used for diverse types of rhyme. Thus, each type of rhyme listed here will be defined to clarify how the term is being used. In general, I have followed the terminology in Scotty Gray, Hermeneutics of Hymnody: A Comprehensive and Integrated Approach to Understanding Hymns (Macon, GA: Smyth & Helwys Publishing, 2015). See “In vain we lavish out our lives” (A9, st. 6, “again” and “rain”), and “Give to the Lord, ye sons of fame” (Ps. 29, st. 3, “wind” and “hind”). On the pronunciations of these words see Edw. Bysshe, “A Dictionary of Rhymes,” in The Art of English Poetry (London: for R. Knap-

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table 4  Watts’s rhyme schemes for uncommon hymnic meters

Hymnic meter

Rhyme scheme

66664444

ABCBDEFE ABABCDED ABABCDDC ABCBDEED AABCCB AABCCB AABBCC AABBCC

668668 888888 10.10.10.10.10.10 10.10.10.10.11.11

Number of texts 7 1 3 1 2 9 2 2

“false” rhymes, words and syllables that are close in pronunciation but that are not pure rhymes. While, as Arthur Paul Davis observed, “It has been customary to accuse Watts of carelessness in his rhymes,” he could not believe that Watts “was indifferent to niceties of rhyme and metre. He knew too much about them and wrote too discriminatingly on them to be careless in such matters.”18 William Eaton Stephenson noted that the use of false rhymes was a technique that Watts employed “to take the everlasting jingle out of the short form, to let some lines sweep on without interruption while perfect rhyme closes others off.”19 It is also important to remember that Watts’s hymns were designed to be sung, rather than merely read, and that in the act of singing the words are pronounced more slowly than in speaking, making near rhymes more effective than they are in simple reading.20

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lock, E. Castle, and B. Tooke, 1702), 2, 23. It is sometimes said that during the eighteenth century, “join” was pronounced to rhyme with “divine” or “design”; that may be so, but the second edition of Bysshe’s The Art of English Poetry (London: for Sam. Buckley, 1705), 27, has “join” rhyme with “coin” and “loin” (“join” does not seem to have appeared in the first edition). In Isaac Watts, Hymnographer, Escott suggested that Watts may have been acquainted with Bysshe’s book (p. 17); indeed, A Catalogue of the Library of the Reverend and Learned Isaac Watts, D. D. (n.p.: n.p., [1750]), 6, reveals that he owned a 1708 edition of it. Arthur Paul Davis, Isaac Watts: His Life and Works (New York: Dryden Press, 1943), 184. Davis is speaking primarily of Watts’s non-hymnic poetry, but the principle applies to both types. William Eaton Stephenson, “The Heroic Hymn of Isaac Watts” (Ph.D. diss., University of California, 1963), 175. Donald Rodgers Fletcher, “English Psalmody and Isaac Watts” (Ph.D. diss., Princeton University, 1945), 109.

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One of the most common types of false rhyme is half rhyme, in which the final vowels and consonants of stressed syllables almost—but do not quite— agree in sound. [Be wise, ye Rulers, now, And worship at his Throne; With trembling Joy, ye People, bow To God’s exalted Son.] “Maker and sovereign Lord” (Ps. 2 SM, st. 9) Assonant rhyme uses identical stressed vowel sounds but different consonants before and after the vowel. Thy Word I’ve hid within my Heart To keep my Conscience clean, And be an everlasting Guard From every rising Sin. “With my whole heart I’ve sought thy face” (Ps. 119, pt. 13, st. 2) Occasionally, Watts uses internal assonant rhyme to create a rhythmic flow: “Hark, how his sounding Bowells move” (“Behold the love, the generous love,” Ps. 35, pt. 2, 1:3). In dissonant rhyme, only the consonant(s) following the stressed vowel correspond. If we reprove some hateful Lie, How is their Fury stirr’d! “Are not our Lips our own, they cry, “And who shall be our Lord?” “Help, Lord, for men of virtue fail” (Ps. 12 CM, st. 3) Eye rhyme uses a correspondence based on spelling rather than sound. Common eye rhymes in Watts are “Lord”/“word,” “home”/“come, and “good”/”food.”21 Watts makes minimal use of rich rhyme (rime riche), in which not only the last stressed vowel and subsequent consonants but also the preceding consonant(s) are identical in sound, though the words may be spelled differently and have different and meanings. Two texts rhyme “knew” and a form of the word “new.” 21

See “Blest is the man who shuns the place” (Ps. 1 CM, sts. 2 and 3). In the same hymn, note also the eye rhyme “tread”/“lead” in st. 7.

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Create my Heart intirely new, ... Which false Apostates never knew. Nor let our hardned Hearts renew The Sins and Plagues that Israel knew.22 Wrenched rhyme occurs when a stressed syllable corresponds with an unstressed syllable. Because Watts wrote almost exclusively in iambic meter, the last syllable of the line is generally stressed. However, there are several instances in which, using normal speech patterns, stressing the last syllable would create awkward accentuation. For example, in “How pleasant, how divinely fair” (Ps. 84 LM, pt. 1), the stressed word “high” is rhymed with the final syllable of “Majesty”: “Blest are the Saints who sit on high / Around thy Throne of Majesty.” Wrenched rhymes are hardly noticeable when they are sung, but become obvious when the text is simply read. In a few instances, Watts uses double rhyme, in which two syllables correspond. In “How vain are all things here below” (B48) Watts employs an internal double rhyme: “Our dearest Joys, and nearest Friends” (3:1). Double rhyme appears more consistently in two texts from The Psalms of David Imitated, “The God of glory sends his summons forth” (Ps. 50) and “The Lord of glory reigns; he reigns on high” (Ps. 93), both of which are in 10.10.10.10.11.11 hymnic meter. In these texts, the double rhymes occur in the concluding two lines of each stanza. The final lines of “The Lord of glory reigns; he reigns on high” are remarkable in that three of the last four syllables rhyme: “appear before him/with Fear adore him.” Internal rhyme uses correspondences of sound within a single line or in the middle of successive lines. In its typical form, internal rhyme in hymnody rhymes the fourth and eighth syllables of an eight-syllable line. Six examples by Watts of this type of pure internal rhyme have been noted. “My earnest Crys salute the Skies” “Their lifted Eyes salute the Skies” “Aaron must lay his Robes away” “And Rocks, and Trees, and Fires, and Seas” “High let us raise our notes of praise” “All this, says he, I bore for thee”23 22 23

“Broad is the road that leads to death” (B158, 4:2, 4), “Come, let our voices join to raise” (Ps. 95 LM, 3:3–4). “In thine own ways, O God of love” (A30, 2:3), “God is a spirit just and wise” (A136, 3:1), “The true Messiah now appears” (B12, 3:1), “The glories of my maker God” (B71, 4:3), “Come let us lift our joyful eyes” (B108, 5:3), “Lord, how divine thy comforts are” (C11, 4:3).

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Internal rhymes between successive lines also appear from time to time, as in his version of Psalm 100 “plain translation,” “Ye nations round the earth, rejoice”: “Great is his Grace, his Mercy sure; / And the whole Race of Man shall find” (4:2–3). One of the most unusual of his internal rhymes between successive lines occurs in “O blessed souls are they” (Ps. 32 SM, 3:2–3): “I felt the festering Wound, / Till I confess’d my Sins to thee.” While Watts uses these “classic” forms of internal rhyme only occasionally, he employs other techniques that create much the same effect. In some cases, he uses a true rhyme except that one of the words contains an extra letter or two. “What e’er he please in Earth or Sea” “His scatter’d Seed with Sadness leaves, / Will shout to see the Harvest yield”24 Another approach is to use an assonant rhyme on the fourth and eighth syllables in a single line, or on the fourth syllable in successive lines. “Till Sovereign Grace with shining Rays” “Beneath some proud Oppressor’s Frown” “To strike his Saints among the rest, Their very Pains and Deaths are blest.”25 Similar examples could be multiplied many times over. A further approach to internal rhyme by Watts is his use of identical rhyme, in which a word is rhymed with itself (i.e., the word is simply repeated). “Forsake thy Gods, thy Idol-Gods” “Now I am thine, for ever thine”26

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“Great is the Lord, exalted high” (Ps. 135 LM, pt. 2, 1:3), “When God restor’d our captive state” (Ps. 126 LM, 4:2–3). Note also the alliteration in the second example. “Hence from my soul, sad thoughts be gone” (B73, 2:3), “Let every tongue thy goodness speak” (Ps. 145 CM, pt. 3, 2:3), “He that hath made his refuge God” (Ps. 91 LM, pt. 1, 9:3–4). “My Saviour and my king” (Ps. 45 SM, 7:3), “Thou art my portion, O my God” (Ps. 119, pt. 3, 5:1). Watts’s version of Ps. 22 CM, pt. 2, “Now from the roaring lion’s rage,” contains what appears to be another example of identical rhyme, with the second and third lines both ending with “Fears.” However, this was a misprint that was corrected in the third edition by changing the second line to “Tears.”

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Another category of rhyme is semirhyme, where one of the rhyming words has an extra syllable. Watts mostly uses this technique in conjunction with various types of internal rhyme. So did the Hebrew Prophet raise The Brazen Serpent high. That was a most amazing Power That rais’d us with a Word.27 Certainly, some of Watts’s rhymes might strike us as a bit odd. This is especially the case when he uses contractions as rhymes. For instance, in “How should the sons of Adam’s race” (A86), he rhymes “Thoughts” with “Fau’ts” (2:1, 3), and three hymns later does the same, but this time without the contraction as “Faults” (“Ye sons of Adam, vain and young,” A89, 3:1–2).28 The second stanza of “Lord, we adore thy bounteous hand” (C20) rhymes “Fruit” and “to’t” (to it), while stanza 2 of “Save me, O Lord, from every foe” (Ps. 16 CM, pt. 1) makes “Delight” correspond with “by’t” (by it), and the eighth strophe of “Amidst thy wrath remember love” (Ps. 38 CM, pt. 1) gives “see ‘t” (see it) as a rhyme for “feet.” “We sing th’ amazing deeds” (C17) contracts “Highest” to “High’st” to rhyme with “Christ” (8:1, 3). On the whole, Watts’s rhymes not only demonstrate a variety of types and approaches, but also subtleties that can often be revealed only by reading or singing the texts aloud. Watts was vitally concerned not only with the meanings but with the sounds of words and combinations of words. His employment of rhyme often creates a rhythmic effect that enhances the emotional component of the text, making it both more vivid and more memorable.

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“So did the Hebrew prophet raise” (A112, 1:1–2), “Hosanna, with a cheerful sound” (B8, 2:1–2). See also “Lord, we confess our num’rous fau’ts” (A111, st. 1), “The law by Moses came” (A118, st. 4), and “Now by the bowels of my God” (A130, st. 4). The use of contractions is called syncope in rhetoric. According to Cyprian T. Rust, Break of Day in the Eighteenth Century: a History and a Specimen of Its First Book of English Sacred Song. 300 Hymns of Dr. Watts (London: William Hunt and Company, 1880), xxvii, “faults” rhymed with “thoughts” during the eighteenth century, but that leads to the question of why Watts deemed the contraction necessary; furthermore, it does not agree with Edward Bysshe’s “A Dictionary of Rhymes” in The Art of English Poetry (London: for R. Knaplock, et al., 1702), 3.

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Poetic Devices

The purpose of poetic devices is to give “beauty, clarity, force, and memorableness” to the meaning of a text.29 While these figures may be intentionally chosen by authors as they write a poem or hymn, they may also result from the writer’s craftsmanship and experience, the natural flow of his or her thought, and the seemingly unforced “rightness” of an expression. The following discussion catalogs many of the poetic devices used by Watts, together with a few examples of each, with the understanding that a complete catalog of them would be well-nigh impossible and probably counterproductive. Many of these items are probably little noticed (if at all) in the reading or singing of a Watts lyric, but they are an important part of what made (and makes) his texts work, and they aid in both the effectiveness and understanding of his hymns by increasing the expressiveness of the words and enhancing their message. 5.1 Comparison Two rhetorical devices that are closely related in their use of comparison are metaphor and simile. Metaphors and similes are not expected to be taken literally, but to infuse the original thought with new meaning. In metaphor, a word or phrase is used in place of another to suggest a general likeness between them. Metaphor is quite common in both Scripture and hymns, and Watts’s texts, based as they are on the Bible, are no exception. One of Watts’s most profound uses of metaphor is in stanza 3 of “When I survey the wondrous cross” (B7), where, instead of describing the blood of Jesus flowing down from his body, he replaces the fluid with the words “Sorrow and Love,” thereby infusing the image with a powerful pictorial and theological message that Jesus’ shed blood demonstrates his sorrow over and love for sinners. The sermon hymn “Am I a soldier of the cross” substitutes “soldier” for “follower” or a similar term to suggest the discipline, courage, obedience, and willingness to give one’s very life that should characterize a disciple of Christ.30 The same metaphors can often be used in different contexts to provide strikingly divergent meanings. On one hand, the second stanza of “Jesus, with 29 Gray, Hermeneutics of Hymnody, 180. Gray prefers the term “figures” to “devices,” believing that the latter word “might imply more ‘fixed’ or ‘mechanical’ uses than are often the case in skillful writing” (181). Since the term “devices” has been commonly used in discussions of poetry, it has been adopted here (and used as a synonym for “figures”), but Gray’s caution that it not suggest something “mechanical” or inartistic should be borne in mind. 30 I. Watts, Sermons on Various Subjects, vol. 3 (London: for E. Matthews, R. Ford, and R. Hett, 1729), 463.

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all thy saints above” (B29) has “The Lamb” (a biblical metaphor for Jesus) sending “the Lion [Satan, mentioned in the previous line] down to howl / Where Hell and Horror reigns,” the latter metaphor suggesting the ferociousness of this enemy of God and humanity, as well as the paradox of a lamb conquering a lion.31 On the other hand, “Lord! What a wretched land is this” (B53) calls God “Judah’s Lion,” who “guards the Way, / And guides the Strangers home” (5:3–4), emphasizing God’s powerful protection. Similarly, Watts can use the metaphor “sea” to describe either immersion in God’s love (“My God, my life, my love,” B93, st. 7) or the trials of human existence (“Lord, what a feeble piece,” Ps. 90 SM, st. 5). In several hymns, he employs the word “painted” to mean “false,” as in “painted Hypocrite” or “painted Dream,” but he also uses it simply to mean “colorful” (“painted Fowls”).32 Simile compares unlike objects in a single aspect by using the words “like” or “as.” One of Watts’s best-known similes is his reference in “Our God, our help in ages past” (Ps. 90 CM, pt. 1, 7:1) to time being “like an ever-rolling Stream,” thus depicting time’s constant movement forward.33 In another comparison involving time, the first line of “Time! What an empty vapour ‘tis” (B58) metaphorically depicts time as a mist that has little or no substance, then the author turns to simile in the third and fourth lines to note that time passes “Swift as an Indian Arrow flies / Or like a shooting Star.” In “When I can read my title clear” (B65), “Cares” might come “like a wild Deluge” (3:1), while another hymn says that “Sin [is] like a venomous Disease” (B153, 1:1), and yet another describes “Man” as “like a wild young Colt” (“Can creatures to perfection find,” B170, 3:1–2).

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For discussion of paradox, see below. “Painted Hypocrite(s)”: “God is a spirit just and wise” (A136 2:3), “The Lord, the sovereign, sends his summons forth” (Ps. 50 “To a New Tune,” 4:6); “painted Dream”: “When God restor’d our captive state” (Ps. 126 LM, 1:4); “painted Fowls”: “Now let a spacious world arise” (B147, 7:3). For further discussion of Watts’s metaphors, see Martin A. Wallenstein, “The Rhetoric of Isaac Watts’s Hymns, Psalms, and Sermons” (Ph.D. diss., Indiana University, 1978), 125–132. This line is remarkably similar to part of the opening sentence of an essay in Watts’s posthumously-published Remnants of Time Employ’d in Prose and Verse, “Vanity Inscribed on All Things”: “Time, like a long-flowing stream, makes haste into eternity, and is for ever lost and swallowed up there.” See The Works of the Late Reverend and Learned Isaac Watts, D. D. (London: for T & T Longman, et al., 1753), vol. 4, 611. Remnants of Time was apparently gathered in 1740 (though not published until 1753) but its contents were written at various periods in Watts’s life (603); at least one item dates from as early as 1705 (624). J. R. Watson points out that the phrase may derive from Ovid’s Metamorphoses, which Watts probably studied in his youth; see J. R. Watson, The English Hymn (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1997), 136.

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These examples are, of course, but a few of the many instances of metaphor and simile to be found in Watts’s hymns. His use of these figures often creates bold mental images that enhance both the meaning and the memorability of the message he seeks to convey. 5.2 Contrast Another group of figures involves contrast. In irony, a writer or speaker says one thing, when what is actually meant is just the opposite. Though irony is relatively uncommon in hymnody, several Watts texts make at least some use of it. In the opening strophes of “Ye sons of Adam, vain and young” (A89), youth are seemingly being encouraged to live profligate lives, but are actually being warned against it. Ye Sons of Adam, vain and young, Indulge your Eyes, indulge your Tongue, Taste the Delights your Souls desire, And give a loose to all your Fire. Pursue the Pleasures you design, And chear your Hearts with Songs and Wine, Injoy the Day of Mirth; but know There is a Day of Judgment too. The next two strophes continue the warning expressed in the last line of stanza 2, and the hymn ends with a prayer for the youth to repent of their ways.34 Antithesis is the placing of two contrasting ideas in balance. Antithesis is found often in the psalter, for example in Psalm 1:6, “For the Lord knoweth the way of the righteous: but the way of the ungodly shall perish.” Antithesis figures in the opening lines of “Our God, our Help in Ages past / Our Hope for Years to come” (Ps. 90 CM, pt. 1, 1:1–2). “How strong thine arm is, mighty God” (A49) sets up a whole series of antitheses between God’s power and Jesus’ grace, and between “The Works of Moses and the Lamb,” as the title puts it. The last hymn in book 2 of Hymns and Spiritual Songs, “Can creatures to perfection find” (B170), points out that “Th’ Eternal uncreated Mind” of God is “high as Heav’n” and “deep as Hell” (2:1). Paradox is a statement that, like antithesis, links two contrasting ideas, but combines them into a single contradictory thought. The Christian religion is 34

For other instances of irony in Watts, see “No, I shall envy them no more” (B56, sts. 3–4) and “Where are the mourners (saith the Lord)” (B154, st. 4).

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full of paradoxes (there is one God who exists in three persons, a virgin conceived a child, Christ’s death conquered death, etc.), and hymn writers make frequent use of this device. Watts is no exception, as can be seen by the following examples. “When I am weak then am I strong” (“Let me but hear my Saviour say,” A15, 2:3) “Our highest Gain springs from thy Loss, / Our Healing from thy Wounds” (“Sitting around our Father’s board,” C23, 3:3–4) “Jesus the God was born to die” (“Now for a tune of lofty praise,” B43, 3:4) Watts’s best-known use of paradox is in “When I survey the wondrous cross” (C7, 1:3–4), which follows closely the use of the same device in the source Scripture for the stanza, Philippians 3:7, “But what things were gain to me, those I counted loss for Christ”: “My richest Gain I count but Loss, / And pour Contempt on all my Pride.”35 An oxymoron is a “compressed paradox”36; like paradox, it combines opposite ideas, but typically in a combination of only two or three words. “No, I’ll repine at death no more” (B102) includes two oxymorons, “cheerful Gasp” (1:2) and “delightful, dreadful Day” (3:2), while the second line of “Now let our lips with holy fear” (Ps. 69 CM, pt. 2) encourages the believer to sing about the Lord’s Passion with “mournfull Pleasure.” The sixth stanza of “The praise of Sion waits for thee” (Ps. 65 LM, pt. 1) is remarkable for including an oxymoron (“dreadfull Glory”) in the first line and a paradox in lines 3 and 4 (God’s wrath reveals his love). With dreadfull Glory God fulfills What his afflicted Saints request; And with almighty Wrath reveals His Love to give his Churches Rest. It should be emphasized that these devices of contrast, like those of comparison discussed above, are not mere plays on words but are an integral part of the message that Watts seeks to convey. In order to achieve their maximum effect, 35

For other examples of paradox that are similar to those quoted, see “No more, my God, I boast no more” (A109, 2:2–3), “Come all harmonious tongues” (B84, 5:4), and “Come let us lift our voices high” (C21, 2:2). 36 Gray, Hermeneutics of Hymnody, 186.

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they need to be read or sung in the context of the remainder of the stanza or the other strophes. Hopefully, however, by calling attention to them here, it is evident that in the hands of a skilled hymn writer such as Isaac Watts, metaphor, simile, irony, antithesis, paradox, and oxymoron effectively express some of the inherent qualities of the Christian faith. 5.3 Substitution Some rhetorical figures depend upon various types of substitution. In metonymy, the name of one thing is substituted for another that is closely associated with it. This is a quite common device in hymnody. Two examples by Watts are his use of “Tree” instead of “cross” in the lines “Those heavenly Hands that on the Tree / Were nail’d, and torn, and bled for me” (“The wond’ring world enquires to know,” A75, 6:3–4), and his adoption of “Lips” in place of “words” in “Lord, if thou dost not soon appear” (Ps. 12 LM, 2:3): “Their Lips are Flattery and Deceit.” Antonomasia is similar to metonymy except that it replaces a proper name with a title or indirect description. Again, this figure is common in hymnody, which often draws upon biblical phrases such as King of Kings and Lamb of God to describe Jesus. Examples by Watts include his use of the term “Prophet” in place of “Moses” in “So did the Hebrew prophet raise” (A112, sts. 1–2) and his reference to Adam as “our first Father” in “Backward with humble shame we look” (A57, 1:4). Synecdoche is a sort of shorthand that uses part of an item to stand for the whole object. In “What shall I render to my God” (Ps. 116 CM pt. 2), Watts says that, in response to God’s kindness, “My Feet shall visit thine Abode” (1:3); obviously, it is not only the feet but the whole body that will go to God’s house. The second stanza of “Life is the time to serve the Lord” (A88) calls life “the Hour that God has giv’n,” using the single component of an hour to represent months, years, and decades. Periphrasis employs a several-word description instead of a single word or phrase. In “O thou whose justice reigns on high” (Ps. 56), Watts uses the term “The Sons of Violence and Lies” instead of “the evil men,” while in Psalm 65 CM, pt. 2, “‘Tis by thy strength the mountains stand,” he calls clouds “Those wandring Cisterns in the Sky” (4:1). 5.4 Hyperbole Hyperbole is the use of exaggeration to make a point. Watts often refers to “thousands” or “ten thousands,” or even “millions” of one thing or another. For example, in “Hosanna, with a cheerful sound” (B8) he claims that “Ten thousand Snares attend us round” (1:3), while “Our spirits join t’ adore the Lamb”

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(C22) states that “Had we a thousand Lives to give, / A thousand Lives should all be thine” (6:3–4). It should be observed, however, that not all his uses of such large numbers are hyperbolic. For instance, in his paraphrase of Psalm 104, “My soul, thy great creator praise,” he mentions God’s “Glories in the Deep, / Where Fish in Millions swim and creep” (19:1–2); there really are millions of fish in the sea. A particularly dramatic instance of hyperbole occurs in the second stanza of “Am I a soldier of the cross” when Watts asks, “Must I be carry’d to the Skies / On flow’ry Beds of Ease, / While others fought to win the Prize, / And sail’d thro’ bloody Seas?” The amount of blood that would need to be spilled to make the seas bloody staggers the imagination—which is exactly the point. 5.5 Personification and Apostrophe Personification is the attribution of human qualities to an abstraction or inanimate object. Scripture often ascribes human features to God—feet, hands, eyes, arms, head, etc.—since this helps people better relate to the divine, and, of course, Watts follows suit in his hymns. This can be seen in such Watts texts as the third stanza of “Children in years and knowledge young”: “The Eyes of God regard his Saints, / His Ears are open to their Cries; / He sets his frowning Face against / The Sons of Violence and Lies” (Ps. 34 LM, pt. 2). Personification of a different sort occurs in such lines as “My Faith would lay her Hand” and “My Soul looks back to see” from “Not all the blood of beasts” (B142 3:1, 4:1). Apostrophe is an address to a dead or absent person, or to an inanimate object or abstraction. Apostrophe is common in the book of Psalms, so naturally it appears often in The Psalms of David Imitated. Thus, in “Ye tribes of Adam, join” (Ps. 148 “Proper Metre”), Watts calls on “Vapours, Hail and Snow,” “stormy Winds,” “Mountains,” “lofty Cedars,” and “Trees of humbler Size” to exalt God’s name (sts. 6–7). However, apostrophe is not missing from Hymns and Spiritual Songs: “O for this Love let Rocks and Hills / Their lasting Silence break, / And all harmonious human Tongues / The Saviour’s Praises speak” (“Plunged in a gulf of dark despair,” B79, st. 6). 5.6 Arrangement of Words The manner in which words are arranged can be an important tool for a speaker or writer to help drive home a point, make a presentation more memorable, create enhanced meaning, or provide a rhythmic sense to a passage. These arrangements can include straightforward repetitions, repetitions with changes in meaning, reversals, and various combinations.

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Anadiplosis refers to the repetition of a word, phrase, or idea from the end of one stanza at the beginning of the next. Examples of Watts’s use of this device are found in “Jesus shall reign where’er the sun” (Ps. 72, pt. 2), in which the fifth stanza ends “And Infant-Voices shall proclaim / Their early Blessings on his Name” and the sixth opens with “Blessings abound where e’er he reigns,” and in “Great shepherd of thine Israel” (Ps. 80), where stanza 9 concludes “Till the fair Branch of Promise rose” and the next stanza begins “Fair Branch, ordain’d of old to shoot.” This device ties the two stanzas together, creating a firm link between them. Anaphora involves the repetition of an important word or words at the start of successive lines, and is a figure that is very common in Watts. A typical example can be seen in the opening lines of stanza 3 from “Mistaken souls! that dream of heav’n” (A140): “‘Tis Faith that changes all the Heart, / ‘Tis Faith that works by Love,” driving home the idea that both salvation and good works come through faith. In the first stanza of “To thee, most holy and most high” (Ps. 75), the four lines are paired by the use of anaphora. To Thee, most Holy, and most High, To Thee we bring our thankfull Praise; Thy Works declare thy Name is nigh, Thy Works of Wonder and of Grace. Here, the person to whom praise is to be directed (God) is emphasized, as is what he is to be praised for (“Thy Works”). Epanadiplosis repeats the first word of a line or sentence at the end of the same unit. The most common form of epanadiplosis is illustrated by Watts’s sermon hymn “Jesus, thy blessings are not few,” the fifth stanza of which begins “Come, all ye vilest Sinners, come,” the repetition of “come” adding to the earnestness of the appeal for sinners to come to Jesus.37 Sometimes he extends the epanadiplosis through two lines, as when he asks, “Why do my Foes insult and cry, / “Fly like a timorous trembling Dove, / To distant Woods or Mountains fly?” in “My refuge is the God of love” (Ps. 11, 2–4). Mesodiplosis is the repetition of a word in the middle of successive lines. In the sixth stanza of “Is this the kind return” (B74), Watts encourages the believer to weep over “old Ingratitude,” then says, “And hourly as new Mercies fall / Let hourly Thanks arise” (6:3–4), emphasizing the need for continuous 37 Hymn IV, in I. Watts, Sermons on Various Subjects, vol. 2 (London: for John and Barham Clark, Eman. Matthews, and Richard Ford, 1723), 461.

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thankfulness. The use of mesodiplosis in “O for a shout of sacred joy” (Ps. 47) is not of a single word but of a short phrase: “Let all the Earth his Honour sing; / O’er all the Earth he reigns” (3:3–4). Watts’s most unusual employment of the device occurs in “Attend, while God’s exalted son” (B130), where two successive stanzas make use of mesodiplosis, both employing the same word. Nature and Sin are pass’d away, And the old Adam dies; My Hands a new Foundation lay, See the new World arise. I’ll be a Sun of Righteousness To the new Heav’ns I make; None but the New born Heirs of Grace My Glories shall partake. (sts. 2–3) Mesarchia repeats the opening word of a line in the middle of the same line. The beginning of “Praise, everlasting praise be paid” (B60) illustrates Watts’s use of this device (as well as alliteration), as does the second line of “Great God, thy glories shall employ” (B167), “My holy Fear, my humble Joy.” In the first instance, the reiteration of “praise” (plus another one in the third line) emphasizes the blessing that is due to God. In “Great God, thy glories shall employ,” Watts could have written “My holy Fear and humble Joy,” which would both make sense and fit the poetic and hymnic meters, but by repeating “my” he emphasizes the personal nature of the line and further highlights the antithesis between “holy Fear” and “humble Joy”; it also creates a momentary break in the line for reflection. Epizeuxis is the immediate repetition of a word. Epizeuxis often imparts a sense of urgency or additional pathos to a line. In “Who shall the Lord’s elect condemn” (A14), Watts emphasizes the rising of Jesus from the dead and his intercession with the Father by repeating “He lives” at the beginning of the third stanza: “He lives, he lives, and sits above.” The line “Turn, turn us, mighty God” from “Is this the kind return” (B74, 5:1) reinforces the prayer for God to “mould our Souls afresh” (5:2). Diacope is the repetition of a word with one or two intervening words. The opening lines in the paraphrases of Psalms 51 LM, pt. 1, and 93 “as the old 50th Psalm” show Watts’s use of this device: “Shew pity, Lord, O Lord forgive” and “The Lord of Glory reigns; he reigns on high.”

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Traductio involves repetition of a word throughout a passage. One of Watts’s sermon hymns, “Ascend my soul, by just degrees” includes three stanzas in which the word “blest” opens every other line.38 Blest is the Nation near to God, Where he makes known his Ways: Blest are the Men whose Feet have trod His lower Courts of Grace. Blest were the Levite and the Priest, Who near his Altar stood; Blest are the Saints from Sin releas’d, And reconciled with Blood. Blest are the Souls dismist from Clay; Before his Face they stand: Blest Angels in their bright Array, Attend his great Command. (sts. 2–4) A similar use of traductio, though more limited in scope, occurs in “Shall wisdom cry aloud” (A92). “Before the first of all his Works Creation was begun.” “Before the flying Clouds, Before the solid Land, Before the Fields, before the Floods I dwelt at his Right Hand.” (2:3–4, st. 3) It will be recognized that in the second stanza above Watts uses both anaphora and mesarchia to create the traductio. The many repetitions of the same word in a short space in these hymns drives home the ideas of the blessedness of the redeemed and the pre-existence of Christ. Polyptoton is the repetition of a word but in a different form, which changes the focus of the word. In “Behold the glories of the Lamb” (A1), the second 38

I. Watts, Sermons on Various Subjects (London: for John Clark, Em. Matthews, and Richard Ford, 1721), 407–408.

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stanza uses a polyptoton based on the word “sweet”: “With Vials full of Odours sweet, / And Harps of sweeter Sound” (2:3–4). The first stanza of “Among th’ assemblies of the great” (Ps. 82) contains not one but two polyptotons. Among th’ Assemblies of the Great A greater Ruler takes his Seat; The God of Heaven as Judge surveys Those Gods on Earth and all their Ways.39 One of the most interesting of the poetic devices is chiasmus, the crossing of words or phrases. In “What different pow’rs of grace and sin” (B143), the last line of stanza 1 reverses the words “hate” and “work” from the previous line, also using a polyptoton. I hate the Thoughts that work within, And do the Works I hate. Chiasmus can also be combined with anadiplosis. In “God in his earthly temple lays” (Ps. 87), Watts ends the third stanza with the line “Thy Fame shall Tyre and Egypt know,” then begins the next stanza with “Egypt and Tyre and Greek and Jew.” Watts’s most significant use of chiasmus is in the third stanza of “When I survey the wondrous cross,” where lines 2–3 reverse “Sorrow and Love” to become “Love and Sorrow.” The Greek letter chi (X), from which chiasmus gets its name, has long been used as a symbol of the cross; it is also the first letter of the word “Christ” in Greek. Since these are the middle lines in the central stanza of the original five-strophe hymn, it seems that Watts intentionally planted a symbol of both Christ and his cross at the very heart of the text.40

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For other examples of polyptoton, see “Life is the time to serve the Lord” (A88, 3:4), “Let the old heathens tune their song” (B21, 4:4), “Terrible God, that reign’st on high” (B22, 3:1), “Begin my tongue, some heav’nly theme” (B69, 1:3), “Come all harmonious tongues” (B84, 2:1–2), “Man has a soul of vast desires” (B146, 1:4–2:1), “Sin like a venomous disease” (B153, 2:2–3), “How shall I praise th’ eternal God” (B166, 4:1), “Now may the God of power and grace” (Ps. 20 LM, 6:3–4), “We bless the Lord, the just, the good” (Ps. 68 LM, pt. 3, 6:2), “With reverence let the saints appear” (Ps. 89 CM, pt. 2, 4:3–4), “Sing to the Lord, ye distant lands” (Ps. 96 CM, 3:1–2), “Bless, O my soul, the living God” (Ps. 103 LM, pt. 1, 6:1), and “Up to the hills I lift mine eyes” (Ps. 121 LM, 4:2). See David W. Music, Repeat the Sounding Joy: Reflections on Hymns by Isaac Watts (Macon, GA: Mercer University Press, 2020), 227.

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Chiasmus can consist not only of the reversal of the literal words but also be a chiasmus of ideas. An example can be seen in “Our days, alas! our mortal days” (B39). In the second line of stanza 1, Watts uses the words “short and wretched” to describe earthly existence, then in line three he replaces and reverses these with “Evil and Few.” A common rhetorical chiasmus in Watts is modeled in “Hence from my soul, sad thoughts be gone” (B73) in the lines “When Jesus told me, I was his, / And my Beloved, mine” (3:3–4). A device that is closely related to chiasmus is antistrophe, in which the order of words in one clause is reversed in the next; it differs from chiasmus in reversing a phrase rather than merely pairs of words. “With reverence let the saints appear” (Ps. 89 CM, pt. 2) contains an antistrophe that also involves polyptoton: “Thou mak’st the sleeping Billows roll, / The rolling Billows sleep” (4:3–4). In at least three hymns, Watts wrote an antistrophe based on “Night to Day” followed by “Day to Night.”41 A classic use of antistrophe is found in the Trinitarian doxology “The God of mercy be ador’d” (C30, 2:3): “The One in Three, and Three in One.” In climax, three or more words are arranged in order of intensity. Clear examples of climax in the works of Watts include the following. To feed, and grow, and thrive Demands my Soul, my Life, my All Till Hours and Years and Time be past42 Hyperbaton is the rearrangement of normal word order for rhetorical effect. If written or spoken in prose, the first stanza of “High as the heavens above the ground” (B115) would read something like the following: “The Creator-God reigns as high as the heavens above the ground; his awful rod extends as wide as the whole creation’s bound.” However, Watts rearranged these thoughts to give emphasis to the height and width of God’s reign and power. High as the Heavens above the Ground Reigns the Creator-God, Wide as the whole Creation’s Bound Extends his awful Rod.

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“Shall the vile race of flesh and blood” (A82, 4:1), “Behold the lofty sky” (Ps. 19 SM, pt. 1, 2:3), “Great God, the heaven’s well-order’d frame” (Ps. 19 “To the Tune of the 113. Ps.,” 2:1). “So new-born babes desire the breast” (A143, 1:2), “When I survey the wondrous cross” (C7, 5:4), “Great God, whose universal sway” (Ps. 72 LM, pt. 1, 3:4).

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Scotty Gray points out that in “Our God, our help in ages past” (Ps. 90 CM, pt. 1) there is not a main verb in the first stanza, and one does not appear until stanza 2.43 Antanaclasis is the repetition of a word, but with a difference in meaning or with a change in the direction of thought. The third stanza of “So did the Hebrew prophet raise” (A112) begins with an anaphora on “high,” but the first use of the word refers to the crucifixion, while the second emphasizes Christ’s eternal reign in heaven: “High on the Cross the Saviour hung, / High on the Heav’ns he reigns.” In “Lord, hast thou cast the nation off” (Ps. 60), Watts prays “Go with our Armies to the Fight / Like a Confederate God”; in the next halfstanza he changes the use of “confederate” to refer to the opposing powers: “In vain Confederate Powers unite / Against thy lifted Rod” (st. 4; note also the use of mesodiplosis). Itemization is the making of a list, but without a sense of direction such as one finds in climax. Itemization is often combined with polysyndeton, the repeated use of conjunctions in a sentence or phrase, as when Watts writes “Nor Earth, nor Seas, nor Sun, nor Stars, / Nor Heav’n his full Resemblance bears.”44 The opposite of polysyndeton is asyndeton, the omission of conjunctions: “Within thy circling Power I stand; / On every Side I find thy Hand: / Awake, asleep, at home, abroad, / I am surrounded still with God” (“Lord, thou hast search’d and seen me thro’,” Ps. 139 LM, pt. 1, st. 3). In zeugma, one word is linked to two others in the same sentence, for instance, a single verb or preposition with two objects. In “Go preach my gospel, saith the Lord” (A128), Watts has God say “I can destroy and I defend” (4:4), and in his paraphrase of Psalm 7 he opens the hymn with “My Trust is in my heavenly Friend, / My Hope in thee, my God” (1:1–2). In these two instances the words “can” and “is” are yoked to two different objects. Tautology repeats the same idea in other words. In his imitation of Psalm 29, “Give to the Lord, ye sons of fame,” Watts uses the tautology “The fearful Hart, and frighted Hind” (3:2), and in his long meter version of Psalm 73, he begins “Lord, what a thoughtless Wretch was I, / To mourn and murmur and repine” (1:1–2). Ellipsis is the omission of words that can be understood from the context. In “Shout to the Lord, and let our joys” (B92), Watts writes “Their secret Fires in Caverns lay, / And we the Sacrifice” (5:1–2); the words “were to be” are omitted from the second line, but would be understood from the surroundings. The same is true of the line “The Northern Pole and Southern, rest”; “Pole” 43 Gray, Hermeneutics of Hymnody, 193. 44 “Go, worship at Immanuel’s feet” (A146, 18:1–2).

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after “Southern” would be simply understood (“With reverence let the saints appear,” Ps. 89 CM, pt. 2, 3:1). Epimone (or refrain) consists of a line or group of lines that is repeated at various points in a poem to give structure or to provide an easily-memorized summary of the principal thoughts. Epimone is discussed further below under “Form.” 5.7 Emphasis Watts employs several devices to provide emphasis to a word or passage. One is the use of rhetorical question, a question to which the answer is obvious. “Shall the vile race of flesh and blood” (A82) opens with two rhetorical questions: “Shall the vile Race of Flesh and Blood / Contend with their Creator, God? / Shall Mortal Worms presume to be / More Holy, Wise, or Just than He?” (st. 1); the answer to both questions is clearly “no.” Ecphonesis is the placing of an exclamation point at the end of a thought or sentence. Watts often uses this figure to provide a sense of ecstasy or amazement, or, in other cases, to portray grief or regret. In “Alas! and did my Saviour bleed” (B9), the exclamation point after “Alas” reflects the anguish of remembering Christ’s death; Watts begins the third stanza with a rhetorical question, “Was it for Crimes that I had done / He groan’d upon the Tree?” (the answer is “yes”), then reflects upon Christ’s pity, grace, and love in making this sacrifice: “Amazing Pity! Grace unknown! / And Love beyond degree!” with the ecphonesis reflecting the poet’s astonishment at such a sacrifice. In several texts from Hymns and Spiritual Songs, Watts makes use of all capital letters as a means of emphasis. Watts stresses the unity of the Trinity in “Let them neglect thy glory, Lord” (B35) by capitalizing the word “united” in the phrase “All Glory to th’ UNITED Three, / The Undivided One” (2:3–4). In “Father, I long, I faint to see” (B68), he uses all caps for several important words in two stanzas. [Then at thy Feet with awful Fear Th’ adoring Armies fall; With Joy they shrink to NOTHING there Before th’ Eternal ALL.45 There I would vie with all the Host In Duty and in Bliss, 45 In HSS “Eternal” is misprinted as “Eeternal.”

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While LESS THAN NOTHING I could boast, And VANITY confess.] Watts also makes much use of italics, though this is generally employed to set off quotations and proper nouns. Thus, hymn 52 in book 1 begins “‘Twas the Commission of our Lord, / Go teach the Nations, and Baptize,” the italics simply indicating a quotation from Jesus’ words in Matthew 28:19, while later in the hymn he italicizes the word “British”: “To bless the distant British Lands” (2:4). No particular emphasis should be read into these italicized words and passages: this was simply part of the orthography of the time. 5.8 “Color” Devices Several rhetorical figures are designed to give color or a heightened sense of emotion or movement to a passage, making it both more vivid and more memorable. Catachresis involves the use of a word in an unusual or abnormal context; it is also known as a “mixed metaphor.” Watts examples include “Had I the Pinions of a Dove / I’d climb the Heav’nly Road” (pinions [wings] are used to fly, not to climb) and “An Inch or two of Time” (inches measure physical space, not chronology).46 Kinesthesia is the use of language to suggest movement. Watts’s favorite word for doing this is “rolling”: “The rolling Sun, the changing Light”; “Time like an ever-rolling Stream.”47 Kinesthesia is also effectively employed at several points in “When I survey the wondrous cross” (C7), especially in the lines “See from his Head, his Hands, his Feet, / Sorrow and Love flow mingled down” and “His dying Crimson like a Robe / Spreads o’re his Body on the Tree” (3:1–2, 4:1–2). Synesthesia suggests the stimulation or combination of multiple senses. “In vain the wealthy mortals toil” (A24) combines a color with the sense of taste in pointing out that the “Golden Cordials” of the wealthy “cannot ease / Their pained Hearts or aking Heads” (a cordial is a comforting drink). In “Behold the lofty sky” (Ps. 19 SM, pt. 1), Watts follows the psalmist by comparing God’s promises both to the taste of honey and the color of gold (st. 7). Perhaps the most striking example of synesthesia by the hymn writer is in “Great God, the heaven’s well-order’d frame” (Ps. 19 “To the Tune of the 113. Ps.,” st. 2), where

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See “My soul forsakes her vain delight” (B10, 6:1–2) and “Teach me the measure of my days” (Ps. 39 CM, pt. 2, 2:2). For similar “confusion” between wings and feet see “Raise thee, my soul, fly up and run” (B33, sts. 1–2). “The heavens declare thy glory, Lord” (Ps. 19 LM, 2:1); “Our God our help in ages past” (Ps. 90 CM, pt. 1, 7:1).

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“The dawning and the dying Light” “read” “Lectures of heavenly Wisdom,” though they do so “With silent Eloquence”! A pleonasm is a type of tautology that involves a redundancy. Watts often uses a phrase such as “burning fires” or “liquid waters” to make the image more vivid, though the adjective is not necessary to the sense.48 Meiosis is the use of understatement to belittle or dismiss something or somebody, making the thing or person seem less important than they are or should be. Watts often adopts this device when describing fallen humanity, in particular using such terms as “worm,” “mole,” or “dust” to describe humans.49 “Up to the Lord that reigns on high” (B46) takes “God’s Condescention [sic] to Humane Affairs” (title) as its subject. In the sixth stanza, Watts contrasts God’s gracious condescension with the pretentious practice of earthly rulers, calling the latter mere “Worms” who preside over “Fellow-worms.” In vain might lofty Princes try Such Condescention [sic] to perform; For Worms were never rais’d so high Above their meanest Fellow-worm. “Worthless” is another word Watts employs to suggest that humans are not quite the superior beings they sometimes make themselves out to be: “Lord, what is Man, that worthless Thing / A-kin to Dust and Worms?” (“O Lord, our heavenly king,” Ps. 8 SM, 4:3–4). In many of his uses of meiosis, Watts’s intent is to depict the lowly state of humans compared to God the Father or Jesus, and to demonstrate that they are incapable of saving themselves. Hypotyposis refers to a vivid description that is intended to call a scene to mind. Watts’s best-known example is in “When I survey the wondrous cross” (C7): “See from his Head, his Hands, his Feet, / Sorrow and Love flow mingled down” (3:1–2). “Stoop down, my thoughts, that use to rise” (B28) paints a lurid picture of the final moments of death. Stoop down, my Thoughts, that use to rise, Converse a while with Death: Think how a gasping Mortal lies, And pants away his Breath. 48

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See “What happy men, or angels, these” (A40, 2:1; “burning Fires”) and “Rejoice, ye righteous, in the Lord” (Ps. 33 CM, pt. 1, 4:1; “Liquid Waters”). Richard Arnold, in Trinity of Discord (New York: Peter Lang, 2012), notes Watts’s frequent and sometimes confusing use of catachresis and pleonasm, and considers this overindulgence a “shortcoming” (45–55). For an example of “mole” see “Lord, how secure and blest are they” (B57).

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His quiv’ring Lip hangs feebly down, His Pulses faint and few, Then speechless with a doleful Groan He bids the World adieu. (sts. 1–2) Even more frightening is Watts’s depiction of the horrors of hell in “With holy fear, and humble song” (B44, sts. 2–5). Far in the Deep where Darkness dwells, The Land of Horror and Despair, Justice has built a dismal Hell, And laid her Stores of Vengeance there. [Eternal Plagues, and heavy Chains, Tormenting Racks and fiery Coals, And Darts t’ inflict immortal Pains Dy’d in the Blood of Damned Souls.] [There Satan the first Sinner lies, And roars and bites his Iron Bands; In vain the Rebel strives to rise Crush’d with the weight of both thine Hands.] There guilty Ghosts of Adam’s Race Shreek out and howl beneath thy Rod; Once they could scorn a Saviour’s Grace, But they incens’d a dreadful God.50 Lest it be thought that hypotyposis is used only to describe the pains of death and hell, it should be pointed out that Watts also applies it to more comforting scenes: “Jesus can make a dying Bed / Feel soft as downy Pillows are”; “There everlasting Spring abides, / And never-withering Flowers.”51

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For a similar portrayal of God’s judgment see the stanzas of “Sing to the Lord, ye heavenly hosts” (B62) quoted in the introduction. The description in that hymn of God’s burning the sea is a particularly colorful image. “Why should we start and fear to die?” (B31, 4:1–2), “There is a land of pure delight” (B66, 2:1–2).

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5.9 Figures of Sound Another group of devices has to do with the sounds of the words themselves. Alliteration, the repetition of consonant sounds at the beginning of words, is often used to create a sense of rhythm and/or to suggest a particular mood or object. There is seldom a stanza in Watts that does not contain at least a pair of alliterative words and sometimes it is a driving force in a line or stanza. For example, the eighth stanza of “Why is my heart so far from thee” (B20) starts with the line “Seizing my Soul with sweet Surprize,” while the fifth stanza of “‘Twas for thy sake, eternal God” (Ps. 69 LM, pt. 2) begins “His Friends forsook, his Followers fled, / While Foes and Arms surround his Head.” Sometimes double or even triple alliteration is used and spread over two or more lines. To rescue Rebels doom’d to die; He gave us Grace in Christ his Son Before he spread the Starry Sky. (“Now to the power of God supreme,” A137, 3:2–4) One special use Watts makes of alliteration is to create a sense of internal rhyme by using the figure on the fourth and eighth syllables of a line. This gives a rhythmic flow to the line that has much the same effect as internal rhyme, but without using corresponding sounds at the ends of the words. Two examples from the same hymn, “My thoughts on awful subjects roll” (B2), illustrate this technique: “What Horrors seize the guilty Soul” (1:3) and “Till like a Flood with rapid Force” (2:3). A related figure is assonance, the repetition of vowel sounds at the beginnings of words. The third line in stanza 3 of “Lord, thou hast search’d and seen me thro’” (Ps. 139 LM, pt. 1) has already been noted as an example of asyndeton; it is also an example of assonance: “Awake, asleep, at home, abroad.” The use of assonance in end and internal rhyme is discussed above. Consonance (similar consonant sounds surrounding unlike vowel sounds) is found occasionally in Watts’s hymns: “But e’er one fleeting Hour is past, / The flattering World employs” (“Why is my heart so far from thee,” B20, 4:1–2); “Our God, our Help in Ages past, / Our Hope for Years to come” (Ps. 90 CM, pt. 1, 1:1“2); “Since God my Guard and Guide” (“Upward I lift mine eyes,” Ps. 121 “as the 148th Psalm,” 2:3). In the first two examples, the use of consonance enhances the contrast between the relevant words, while in the third one it gives greater emphasis to the guardianship and guidance God provides. Syzygy consists of consonant sounds at the end of one word and the beginning of another that can be spoken or sung easily together. In “Come, we that love the Lord” (B30), the final “s” of “thus” and the initial “s” in “surround” in

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the fourth line of stanza 1 elide together to make an easily pronounceable unit: “And thus surround the Throne.” The same device can be seen in “How sad our state by nature is” (B90) with the words “old” and “Dragon”: “Drive the old Dragon from his Seat” (5:3; note also the alliteration). In onomatopoeia, a word imitates the sound of the action. Watts frequently uses some form of the word “blast” to suggest an explosive effect.52 In “Far from my thoughts, vain world be gone” (B15), the “Rivers of Bliss perpetual glide” “in sweet Murmurs” (3:3–4), while in “With holy fear, and humble song” (B44) the “guilty Ghosts of Adam’s Race / Shreek out and howl beneath thy Rod” (5:2), and in “Loud hallelujahs to the Lord” (Ps. 148 LM) “The Lamb must bleat, the Lion roar” (7:4). Onomatopoeia is particularly prominent in “Hear me, O God, nor hide thy face” (Ps. 102, pt. 1): “In secret Groans my Minutes pass,” “The Sparrow tells her Moan,” “Where Beasts of Midnight howl,” “And there the screaming Owl” (3:3, 4:2, 5:2, 5:4). 5.10 Isocolon Isocolon is a sentence that repeats similar grammatical forms in a parallel structure with words, clauses or phrases of approximately equal length, sound, meter, and rhythm. Several stanzas by Watts follow this type of format. [How cold and feeble is my Love! How negligent my Fear! How low my Hope of Joys above! How few Affections there!] “Long have I sat beneath the sound” (B165, st. 4) His Terrors keep the World in awe, His Love reveals a smiling Face, His Truth and Promise seal the Grace. “Jehovah reigns, his throne is high” (B168, st. 2)53

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See, for example, “Sing to the Lord that built the skies” (B13, 4:3, “Then for the Trumpet[’]s dreadful Blast”) and “The Lord, how wondrous are his ways” (Ps. 103 LM, pt. 2, 8:2, “Blasted by every Wind that flies”). See also “Let the sev’nth angel sound on high” (A65, st. 4), “Who can describe the joys that rise” (A101, sts. 2–3), “My dear redeemer and my Lord” (B139, st. 2), “O bless the Lord, my soul” (Ps. 103 SM, pt. 1, st. 3), and the stanzas quoted above from “Shall wisdom cry aloud” (A92).

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5.11 The “Sound” of Watts’s Hymns The discussion above has necessarily described the literary features employed by Watts in discrete fashion, with little attention to their overall effect in complete hymns. The interaction between these elements, and between them and other facets of Watts’s texts, will largely be the province of the last two chapters in this book, but here we can make a few comments about the “sound” of his hymns. One of the important things to note about Watts’s texts is that their beauty and effectiveness are made most obvious when they are spoken or sung aloud. The attractiveness of their sound comes in large part from the use of compelling vowel sounds, the variety of consonants, and from such devices as alliteration, assonance, and “color” words. A good example of how Watts can create meaning from the sound of words is the opening of Psalm 36 (CM). The first line, “While Men grow bold in wicked Ways,” with its strongly iambic rhythm, alliteration, assonant rhyming of “grow” and “bold,” and plosive “b,” seems to march through the words in haughty stride. In contrast, line 2, “And yet a God they own,” smooths out the jagged edges of the first with its softer consonants and less jarring rhythm, as though the “wicked Ways” are being disguised behind a façade of piety and holiness. These facets of sound will be further demonstrated from the first stanzas of three hymns. The tenderness of the incarnation has seldom been better expressed than in the first stanza of the third hymn from book 1 of Hymns and Spiritual Songs. Behold, the Grace appears, The Promise is fulfill’d; Mary the wondrous Virgin bears, And Jesus is the Child. The mood is set by the long vowel sounds of the three principal words in the first line, “Behold,” “Grace,” and “appears,” and is continued in the following lines. The “p” sounds of “appears” and “Promise” tie these two lines together. The eye rhyme in the first and third lines and the half rhymes in lines two and four allow the text to sweep on in a manner that is natural to common speech, without any sense of artificiality. The word “Grace” is suitably ambiguous: it could be understood either as a reference to God’s grace (with an ellipsis) or as an antonomasia for “Jesus.” In complete contrast is the opening of hymn 63 from book 2 of Hymns and Spiritual Songs.

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Hark! from the Tombs a doleful sound! My Ears attend the Cry, “Ye living Men, come view the Ground Where you must shortly lie.” Here, the initial “Hark” and the use of exclamation marks immediately focus the attention: an important message is about to be delivered. The many dark “o” vowels in the first line create a sense of impending doom and require a slowly paced tempo. The onomatopoeia on “Cry” and an antithesis between the “living Men” and their lying in “the Ground” further the lugubrious message of the text. If the first stanza of “Hark! from the tombs a doleful sound” creates a bleak mood that invites somber reflection, the same cannot be said of the opening of Watts’s common meter version of Psalm 63, which fairly trips off the tongue. Early my God without Delay I haste to seek thy Face; My thirsty Spirit faints away Without thy chearing Grace. The beginning choriambus propels the rhythm toward the end of the line, anticipating and symbolizing the “haste” of the second line. The tempo is maintained by the pure rhymes, and the personification of the “thirsty Spirit” that “faints away” lends an additional sense of urgency. Another personification (God’s face) suggests the approach to the Divine presence, where the singer hopes to encounter the Deity’s “chearing Grace.” The whole stanza strikingly expresses the singer’s eagerness to spend a morning in communion with God. In the preface to The Psalms of David Imitated, Watts claimed that “It was not my Design to exalt myself to the Rank and Glory of Poets; but I was ambitious to be a Servant to the Churches, and a Helper to the Joy of the meanest Christian” (PDI, xxviii). That was undoubtedly true, but Watts was indeed a poet, as he had demonstrated in Horæ Lyricæ. He had a solid grasp of the rhetorical techniques of poetry and made full use of them not only in his writing of literary poems, but also in his composition of hymns. The result of his application of these techniques was a body of hymns that are vivid, emotive, and memorable, and that communicate to the singer on many levels.

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6 Form Watts is often credited with establishing the “permanently simple, but satisfying poetic form of the English hymn,”54 including “an appealing opening line, singleness of theme, and a progression of thought up to a climax.”55 Beyond these generalizations, there are several methods by which the form of a hymn can be analyzed. Two that are particularly helpful in studying the hymns of Watts are those by Harry Escott and Scotty Gray. Escott identified five common formal patterns in Watts’s hymns, which he named and characterized as follows.56 Recital describes God’s attributes, actions, or a theological or ethical tenet. In “Had I the tongues of Greeks and Jews,” based on 1 Corinthians 13:1–3, Watts simply lists the actions that are vain without love. Had I the Tongues of Greeks and Jews, And nobler Speech that Angels use, If Love be absent, I am found Like tinkling Brass, an empty sound. Were I inspir’d, to preach and tell All that is done in Heaven and Hell, Or could my Faith the World remove, Still I am nothing without Love. Should I distribute all my Store To feed the Bowels of the Poor, Or give my Body to the Flame To gain a Martyr’s Glorious Name; If Love to God and Love to Men Be absent, all my Hopes are vain; 54 Davis, Isaac Watts, 204. 55 Lowell B. Harlan, “Theology of Eighteenth Century English Hymns,” Historical Magazine of the Protestant Episcopal Church 48, no. 2 (June 1979): 170. 56 Escott, Isaac Watts, Hymnographer, 243–247. Escott describes and gives examples of text forms only from Hymns and Spiritual Songs. However, the same or similar forms also appear often in The Psalms of David Imitated. With that in mind, I have incorporated some examples from that volume.

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Nor Tongues, nor Gifts, nor fiery Zeal The Work of Love can e’re fulfil. Response consists of a statement of faith, dedication, or praise to God. “Lord, I esteem thy judgments right” (Ps. 119, pt. 7) illustrates this approach. Lord, I esteem thy judgments right, And all thy Statutes just; Whence I maintain a constant Fight With every flattering Lust. Thy Precepts often I survey; I keep thy Law in Sight, Thro’ all the Business of the Day, To form my Actions right. My Heart in Midnight Silence cries, “How sweet thy Comforts be![”] My Thoughts in holy Wonder rise, And bring their Thanks to Thee. And when my Spirit drinks her Fill At some good Word of Thine, Not mighty Men that share the Spoil Have Joys compar’d to mine. According to Escott, the majority of the hymns combine these two categories into one of recital-response. He points out the “neat and balanced architecture” of “Hosanna to our conquering king” (B89), in which the first two stanzas consist of recital and the last two of response; the two sections both begin with an identical line, further delineating the form.57 Hosanna to our conquering King, The Prince of Darkness flies, His Troops rush headlong down to hell Like Lightning from the Skies. 57

Ibid., 245.

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There bound in Chains the Lions roar, And fright the rescu’d Sheep, But heavy Bars confine their Pow’r And Malice to the Deep. Hosanna to our conquering King, All hail, incarnate Love! Ten thousand Songs and Glories wait To crown thy Head above. Thy Vict’ries and thy deathless Fame Thro’ the wide World shall run, And everlasting Ages sing The Triumphs thou hast won. In the invitation/invocation-recital form, “a Gospel Invitation, or a Call to Worship, or a short Invocation of God, Christ or the Holy Spirit is followed by the Recital of a religious or moral doctrine.” Escott calls this a “rarer pattern.”58 In “Hear what the voice from heav’n proclaims” (A18), the first two lines provide the invitation (“Hear”) while the rest of the hymn contains the recital.59 Hear what the Voice from Heav’n proclaims For all the pious Dead, Sweet is the savour of their Names, And soft their sleeping Bed. They die in Jesus, and are blest; How kind their Slumbers are! From Suff’rings and from Sins releast, And freed from ev’ry Snare. Far from this World of Toyl and Strife, They’re present with the Lord; The Labours of their Mortal Life End in a large Reward.

58 59

Ibid., 246. See also “From all that dwell below the skies” (Ps. 117 LM).

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Finally, Escott points out that “The most common type of hymn is the one that combines the three patterns”: invitation/invocation-recital-response.60 Part 2 of Watts’s paraphrase of Psalm 111 is a good illustration of this form: invitation (st. 1), recital (sts. 2–3), and response (st. 4). Great is the Lord; his Works of Might Demand our noblest Songs; Let his assembled Saints unite Their Harmony of Tongues. Great is the Mercy of the Lord, He gives his Children Food; And ever mindfull of his Word, He makes his Promise good. His Son the great Redeemer came To seal his Covenant sure: Holy and reverend is his Name, His Ways are just and pure. They that would grow divinely Wise Must with his Fear begin; Our fairest Proof of Knowledge lies In hating every Sin. There are, of course, many variations on these patterns. Nevertheless, Escott’s analysis provides a helpful guide to the form of Watts’s hymns. Unlike Escott, whose principal subject was the forms found specifically in Watts, Gray’s classification of hymn forms is more general in orientation. However, it also provides useful criteria for examining Watts’s texts.61 Trinitarian form was discussed in chapter 2. In developmental form, a theological, biblical, or other concept is established in a clear and logical structure. “We bless the prophet of the Lord” (B132) is a hymn on “The Offices of Christ” 60 Escott, Isaac Watts, Hymnographer, 246. 61 Gray, Hermeneutics of Hymnody, 202–205. Not all the forms listed by Gray are to be found in Watts. No examples of Gray’s “acrostic” and “cumulative” categories have been discovered in the hymns of the eighteenth-century writer, even when paraphrasing the originally acrostic psalms, such as Pss. 25 and 34. At any rate, these two forms are rare in hymnody.

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(title) that devotes a single stanza each to Jesus as “Prophet,” “High-Priest,” and “King,” ending with a summary of how Jesus “saves by different Ways” (4:2). The first of the four stanzas of “Not all the outward forms on earth” (A95) describes some of the things that will not help a soul be raised to heaven. Stanza 2 then points out what will accomplish this goal (“The Sovereign Will of God alone”), stanza 3 tells how it happens (“The Spirit . . . New-models all the carnal Mind”), and stanza 4 anticipates the final result and commits the singer to praise. Chronological/narrative form tells a story. This often occurs in Watts when he paraphrases a passage from the Gospels or Acts. “Behold, the grace appears” (A3) telescopes the Annunciation, birth of Jesus, and appearance of the angels to the shepherds into a single hymn, while “Behold the wretch whose lust and wine” (A123) retells Jesus’ parable of the Prodigal Son. Both “Now let a spacious world arise” (B147) and “Give thanks to God most high” (Ps. 136 “as the 148th Psalm”) relate the story of creation. The allegorical model uses figurative language to describe an event or concept. “Shall wisdom cry aloud” (A92) follows its source Scripture, Proverbs 8, in allegorizing “Wisdom” as a reference to Jesus. “Often I seek my Lord by night” (A71), based on Song of Solomon 3:1–5, uses the biblical passage to develop an allegory about Christ being “found in the Street, and brought to the Church” (title). In its description of heaven, “There is a land of pure delight” (B66), which has been called “perhaps the most beautiful of all Watts’s hymns,”62 likens the celestial place to pleasant fields arrayed in green from which we are separated by a “narrow Sea” (2:3). In regard to this last hymn, Geoffrey Tillotson suggested that it shows traits of the Augustan pastoral/landscape verse, in which human qualities are superimposed upon nature; by way of example, he quotes line 3:2, noting that “even the fields of heaven . . . ‘stand drest in living green.’”63 A dialogical structure suggests a conversation between two or more people. The first two stanzas of “What mighty man, or mighty God” (A28) include a question and its answer, as though two people are carrying on a conversation. Then, in stanza 3, the “Saints” ask “Why, Mighty Lord, . . . / Why thine Apparel red?” The rest of the hymn gives Christ’s response to the question. Comparative texts link together two subjects, showing how they complement each other or how one follows from the other. “Lo the destroying angel flies” (B155) compares the sprinkling of the lamb’s blood on the doorpost at the first Passover with the shedding of blood by Jesus at the crucifixion. “The memory of our dying Lord” (C15) describes the apostle John’s leaning his head 62 63

J. R. Watson, An Annotated Anthology of Hymns (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2002), 130. Geoffrey Tillotson, Augustan Poetic Diction (London: Athlone Press, 1964), 17, 19.

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on Jesus’ breast at the Last Supper and suggests that by partaking of the Lord’s Supper we can do the same, at least figuratively. A contrastive hymn is similar to a comparative one, except that it shows the differences between two subjects. “Our God, our help in ages past” (Ps. 90 CM, pt. 1) alternates stanzas describing humanity as “Frail” and God as “Eternal” (title). “The law by Moses came” (A118) shows the disparity between Moses (“a faithful Servant”) and Jesus (“a faithful Son”). A climactic text, as its name implies, contains a progression of thought that leads to a dramatic peak of imagery or emotion. “When I survey the wondrous cross” (C7) certainly qualifies as an example of this type, moving from contemplation of the crucified Christ to commitment of “my Soul, my Life, my All” (5:4). “Alas! and did my Saviour bleed” (B9) is similarly structured. In a symmetrical arrangement, a pattern is established that is carried through a significant part or the entirety of a hymn. “Blest are the humble souls that see” (A102), based on the Beatitudes, begins every stanza with the word “Blest.” Similarly, as noted earlier in this chapter, alternating lines in three stanzas of the sermon hymn “Ascend my soul, by just degrees” also begin with the word “Blest”; furthermore, “blest” or “Blessed” also appear in the last two strophes, meaning that five of the six stanzas are constructed around this word. In “Salvation! O the joyful sound” (B88, quoted in chapter 2) both the first and last stanzas begin with “Salvation,” and “Sound” appears as the last word in the first line and the final word in the hymn. An epimone or refrain is a component of a hymn that is often used to create a symmetrical structure. Watts employs several different forms of refrain, ranging from stanza-length repetitions to the repeating of single lines and even of only two or three words. His use of refrains is seldom like that found in later hymnody, in which lines are repeated in exact form at the end of every stanza; rather, his use of refrains demonstrates a variety of creative approaches. Watts’s most extensive uses of refrains come in several texts from The Psalms of David Imitated. The refrains in “My soul, thy great creator praise” (Ps. 104) and “Loud hallelujahs to the Lord” (Ps. 148 LM) each consist of two optional lines that can be added to every stanza; if the optional refrain is used, the meters of the two hymns change from long meter to 888888. “The God of glory sends his summons forth” (Ps. 50 “To the old proper Tune”) also includes a two-line refrain with each stanza, but it appears in an assortment of repetitions mixed with non-repeated portions. Table 5 notes the number of the stanza, assigns a letter to each form of the refrain, and gives the first few words of the refrain, showing the arrangement of the various repetitions that are used. The hymn ends with a final “Epiphonema” (summary statement) and another refrain, “Then joyn the Saints.” It will be noted that the refrains of

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table 5  The refrains of “The God of glory sends his summons forth”

Stanza 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14

Refrain designation A B C D C B E F G H E H I E′

First words The Trumpet sounds When God appears When Christ returns There’s no Distinction here When Christ returns When God appears Judgment proceeds Earth is the Lord’s All is the Lords God is the Judge Judgment proceeds God is the Judge See, God appears Judgment concludes (1 word different)

stanzas 2–6 form a mirror image, but whether or not this was intentional or what might have been its significance for Watts are unknown. In the versions of Psalms 107 and 136, the refrains follow the use of a similar device in the biblical texts themselves. In the first of these, Watts added more repetitions than are found in the psalm, ending each of the six parts with the refrain that is found in verses 8, 15, 21, and 31 of the original, though the refrain is varied each time, as can be seen from the last stanzas of the first three parts.64 O let the Saints with Joy record The Truth and Goodness of the Lord! How great his Works! how kind his Ways! Let every Tongue pronounce his Praise. “Give thanks to God: he reigns above” (Ps. 107 LM, pt. 1, st. 8) O may the Sons of Men record! The wondrous Goodness of the Lord! 64

The version of Ps. 107 is actually in five parts, since there are two versions of part 4, one in LM and one in CM.

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How great his Works! how kind his Ways! Let every Tongue pronounce his Praise. “From age to age exalt his name” (Ps. 107 LM, pt. 2, st. 6) O may the Sons of Men record The wondrous Goodness of the Lord! And let their thankfull Offerings prove How they adore their Makers Love. “Vain man on foolish pleasures bent” (Ps. 107 LM, pt. 3, st. 6) Psalm 136 includes a refrain, “for his mercy endureth for ever,” as the last half of each verse. In his version “as the 148th Psalm,” “Give thanks to God most high,” Watts replaced the repeating refrain with two refrains that alternate with each stanza. His long meter paraphrase of the same psalm, “Give to our God immortal praise,” uses the same alternating technique, but repeats the first refrain verbatim while varying the second on each repetition. Less extensive refrains occur in other biblical psalms and are reflected in Watts’s hymns. For example, in Psalm 57, verses 5 and 11 are identical: “Be thou exalted, O God, above the heavens; let thy glory be over all the earth.” In his paraphrase of the psalm, “My God, in whom are all the springs,” Watts reflects this structure by repeating the third stanza as stanza 6: “Be Thou exalted, O my God, / Above the Heav’ns where Angels dwell; / Thy Power on Earth be known abroad, / And Land to Land thy Wonders tell.” Psalm 80 includes a refrain in verses 3, 7, and 19; in “Great shepherd of thine Israel,” Watts paraphrases these verses as the last two lines before the pauses that mark the sections of the text.65 In some instances where duplicate verses appear in a psalm, Watts omits the repetition(s).66 In other cases, such as “Our God, our help in ages past” (Ps. 90 CM, pt. 1), he adds a repeat where none occurs in the biblical original (st. 1=st. 9, alt.).67

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For other examples that follow the pattern of the original psalms see “O Lord, our heavenly king” (Ps. 8 SM, sts. 1, 8), “O Lord, our Lord, how wondrous great” (Ps. 8 CM, sts. 1, 9), “O thou whose justice reigns on high” (Ps. 56, sts. 3, 8), “Exalt the Lord our God” (Ps. 99, pt. 2, sts. 1, 4), “Bless, O my soul, the living God” (Ps. 103 LM, pt. 1, 1:1, 2:1; 1:4, 8:4), and “O bless the Lord, my soul” (Ps. 103 SM, pt. 1, 1:1, 2:1). An example is his paraphrase of Ps. 46, where repetitions occur in vv. 7 and 11 but this material appears only in stanza 2 of “Let Sion in her king rejoice” (pt. 2). See also “Give thanks to God, invoke his name” (Ps. 105, sts. 8, 14, 20), “Lord, thou hast search’d and seen me thro,’” (Ps. 139 LM, pt. 1, sts. 5, 10, 13), “Give thanks to God the

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While refrains and other types of structural repetition are perhaps most prominent in The Psalms of David Imitated, they are not missing from Hymns and Spiritual Songs. “Great God, how infinite art thou” (B67) repeats the opening stanza at the end; “Come Holy Spirit, heavenly dove” (B34) does the same thing, but the second statement is altered. In some instances, a single line, or even only part of a line is repeated, giving a different focus to the text. The Father lays his Thunder by, And looks, and smiles, and loves. [Hosanna to the God of Grace That lays his Thunder by.] “Well, the Redeemer’s gone” (B36, 3:3, 5:4) Jesus the God was born to die. Jesus the God exalted reigns, “Now for a tune of lofty praise” (B43, 3:4, 7:2) A particularly interesting approach is taken in “Arise my soul, my joyful powers” (B82), in which phrases from the first and third lines of stanza 1 are combined to form the first line of the last (sixth) stanza. Arise my Soul, my Joyful Powers, And triumph in my God, Awake my Voice, and loud proclaim His glorious Grace abroad. Arise my Soul, awake my Voice, The examples given here are but an earnest of the variety of formal patterns and repetitions to be found in Watts’s hymns. It is in a large degree the form of Watts’s hymn that gives his texts their “singability” through the structuring of a logical progression of thought and a memorable framework. By following a few simple patterns, but using them creatively, Watts was able to provide a body of hymns that proved to be effective in teaching the faith and allowed English-speaking Christians a means of response to that faith. At the same s­ overeign Lord” (Ps. 136 CM, sts. 1, 10), “I’ll praise my maker with my breath” (Ps. 146 “as the 113th Psalm,” sts. 1, 6), and “With songs and honours sounding loud” (Ps. 147 CM, 1:1, 8:3).

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time, the ways in which he structured his texts gave variety, color, and cohesiveness to them, and helped sustain interest and understanding on the part of the congregation.68 7

Watts’s Borrowings

Watts’s knowledge of the works of his predecessors in writing hymns and metrical versions of the psalms is evident from his library, which included John Mason’s Spiritual Songs; psalters by Simon Ford (1688), Matthew Henry (n.d.), Cotton Mather (1718), Luke Milbourne (1698), and Joshua Squire (1707); as well as several unidentified collections.69 His familiarity with both earlier and contemporary psalmody is also seen from the preface and notes to The Psalms of David Imitated—where he names Charles Darby, John Denham, Tate and Brady, and John Patrick as sources—and from the contents of that book, which also includes items based on works by William Barton, Richard Baxter, Simon Ford, King James I (or William Alexander), Henry King, Francis Rous, and even Sternhold and Hopkins. Watts’s borrowings range from the appropriation of large portions of a psalm from another writer, through incorporation of a single stanza or two to a couple of lines, and even an individual word or rhyme scheme. Watts’s version of Psalm 112 “as the 113th Psalm,” “That man is blest who stands in awe,” ends with a note that “Many Lines of this Metre and some of the next Psalm, proper Metre [“Ye that delight to serve the Lord,” Ps. 113], are borrow’d from Mr. Tate’s Version.” A comparison of Watts’s first three stanzas with Tate’s versification of Psalm 112 from A New Version of the Psalms of David (1696) shows the extent of Watts’s borrowing, as well as his rearrangement and alteration of lines, omissions, and additions.

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For a study of Watts’s Communion hymns that focuses specifically on the three rhetorical canons of “invention,” “disposition,” and “style,” see Ronald Tajchman, “Isaac Watts’s Communion Hymns: An Application of Classical Rhetoric,” The Hymn 46, no. 1 (January 1995): 18–22. The dates given for these collections are those found in the sale catalogue, which mistitled Mason’s Spiritual Songs as Hymns and Spiritual Songs. For possible identifications of some of the unattributed volumes see chap. 5. The catalogue names two other hymn collections that appeared after Watts had completed his work in that genre, including “Cennick’s Hymns” (1741) and “[Richard] Blackmore’s Translation of the Psalms” (A New Version of the Psalms of David, 1721). See Catalogue of the Library of . . . Isaac Watts ([1750]), 17.

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Watts

Tate

That Man is blest who stands in Awe Of God, and loves his sacred Law: His Seed on Earth shall be renown’d; His House, the Seat of Wealth, shall be An inexhausted Treasury, And with successive Honours crown’d.

That Man is blest who stands in aw[e] Of God, and loves his sacred Law: His Seed on Earth shall be renown’d, And with successive Honours crown’d. His House, the Seat of wealth shall be An inexhausted Treasury; Their Fathers Justice shall avail, And Blessings on his Heirs entail. (st. 1)

His liberal Favours he extends, To Some he gives, to Others lends: A generous Pity fills his Mind: Yet what his Charity impairs, He saves by Prudence in Affairs, And thus he’s just to all Mankind.

His lib’ral Favours he extends, To some he gives, to others lends:

His Hands, while they his Alms bestow’d, His Glory’s future Harvest sow’d; The sweet Remembrance of the Just Like a green Root revives and bears A train of Blessings for his Heirs. When dying Nature sleeps in Dust.

Yet what his Charity impairs Recruits by Prudence in Affairs. (2:5–8) As well as just to all Mankind. (2:4) His Hands, while they his Alms bestow’d, His Glory’s future Harvest sow’d, (4:1–2) The sweet Memorial of the Just (3:3) Shall flourish when he sleeps in dust. (3:4)

Watts’s use of a short phrase from another psalmodist is particularly evident when the words are distinctive and do not appear in the KJV of the psalm. For example, John Patrick’s version of Psalm 84 contains the line “There let me have the meanest place.” At the same point in part 2 of his LM paraphrase of this psalm, “Great God, attend while Zion sings,” Watts has the second stanza begin with the line “Might I enjoy the meanest place.” That the phrase “meanest place” was borrowed from Patrick is obvious by comparing both versions to the KJV, which does not contain those words or even the suggestion that the “place” of “a doorkeeper” is “mean”: “I had rather be a doorkeeper in the house of my God, than to dwell in the tents of wickedness” (v. 10b).

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Watts’s mention of some of his sources in the preface and notes shows that he was not trying to pass these works off as completely original, though the list of those from whom he borrowed probably could have been more extensive. However, the ones he did name were those from whom he took the largest portions; furthermore, the likenesses frequently occur only in passing, and he often revised, added to, or deleted from his sources. Such borrowings and reworkings were common in Augustan poetry, and, indeed, in all the arts of the time, the music of Watts’s younger contemporary George Frideric Handel being a good example.70 Borrowings in Hymns and Spiritual Songs are more difficult to trace, since Watts himself made no mention of them, unlike the psalm versions they have no parallel to works by other authors, and they tend to be less extensive and more subtle than in the psalm versions, often consisting of the merest of allusions. Nevertheless, various ideas, lines, phrases, or stanzas appear to have been derived from other authors, either in general suggestion or specific wording. For example, Harry Escott pointed out similarities between hymns by Watts and several texts by Thomas Shepherd, John Mason, Benjamin Keach, and Joseph Stennett, while Edward B. Davis noted Watts’s inspiration for a stanza from “Let others boast how strong they be” (B19, st. 3) in a prose writing by Robert Boyle from 1665, though the hymn writer changed the focus of the allusion.71 Watts

Boyle, Occasional Reflections (1665)

Our Life contains a thousand Springs, And dies if one be gone; Strange that a Harp of ­thousand Strings Should keep in tune so long!

I could not have been surprised, that so curious an Engine [as the human body] should be subject to Pain, or Sickness, than that an Instrument with above a thousand Strings (if there were any such) should frequently be out of Tune. (pp. 188–189)

70

For additional discussion of Watts’s indebtedness to other writers in PDI see David W. Music, “Isaac Watts’s Sources for The Psalms of David Imitated (1719),” Bulletin of the Hymn Society of Great Britain and Ireland 302, vol. 22, no. 9 (Winter 2020): 371–385. For correspondences with another author not mentioned there, Joseph Stennett, see below and the discussion of “Deep in our hearts let us record” in chap. 7. 71 Escott, Isaac Watts, Hymnographer, 92–94, 234–238. Edward B. Davis, “Robert Boyle as the Source of an Isaac Watts Text Set for a William Billings Anthem,” The Hymn 53, no. 1 (January 2002), 46–47. See also Thomas Wright, Isaac Watts and Contemporary Hymn-Writers, vol. 3 of The Lives of the British Hymn-Writers (London: C. J. Farncombe & Sons, 1914), 89–90, and Selma L. Bishop, “The Poetical Theories of Isaac Watts” (Ph.D. diss., University of Colorado, 1956), 110–130.

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Attention may be drawn particularly to the text that opens part 3 of Hymns and Spiritual Songs, “‘Twas on that dark, that doleful night,” which seems to borrow its general structure, as well as words, phrases, and ideas, from the contemporary Baptist hymn writer Joseph Stennett’s “That doleful night, when our dear Lord,” though considerably altered, and with much new material and organization. In addition to the subject matter and opening lines of the two hymns, Watts’s “Then took the Cup, and blest the Wine; / ‘Tis the New Cov’nant in my Blood” (3:3–4) and “We show thy Death, we sing thy Name, / Till thou return, and we shall eat” (7:2–3) show considerable similarity to Stennett’s “He took the Cup too, crown’d with Wine / . . . / ‘Tis the New Test’ment in my Blood” (4:1, 3) and “We’ll thus commemorate thy Death, / Till thou appear on Earth again” (8:1–2). In a posthumously-published collection of Remnants of Time Employed in Prose and Verse, Watts included a poem with the first line “The mighty frame of glorious grace,” accompanied by the following note, which seems to summarize his views about borrowing from others: “In this ode there are three or four lines taken from Mr. Stennet’s sacramental Hymns; for when I found they exprest my thought and design in proper and beautiful language, I chose rather to borrow and to acknowledge the debt, than to labour hard for worse lines that I might have the poor pleasure of calling them my own.”72 If Watts did not scruple to borrow from his contemporaries, it should come as no surprise that he also copied frequently from himself. In reading or singing through the hymns, one often runs across a familiar wording or recognizable phrase. The following parallel lines demonstrate both the common phrasings and the varied contexts and uses to which Watts put them. Blest are the Men whose Bowels move / And melt with Sympathy and Love Blest is the Man whose Bowells move, / And melt with Pity to the Poor When Jesus told me, I was his, / And my Beloved, mine There Jesus says that I am his, / And my Beloved’s mine My God, the Spring of all my Joys See here the Spring of all your Joys

72

David Jennings and Philip Doddridge, The Works of the Late Reverend and Learned Isaac Watts, D. D., (London: for T. and T. Longman, 1753) vol. 4, p. 609–610. The quoted lines, found in Watts’s stanza 5, are from the parallel strophe in Stennett’s “Others may tell of famous things.”

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With living Bread and generous Wine With living Bread and chearful Wine His Kingdom stretch from Shore to Shore, / Till Moons shall wax and wane no more Thy Praise shall sound from Shore to Shore / Till Suns shall rise and set no more. The meanest Fish that swims the Flood / Leaps up, and means a Praise to God. While the dumb Fish that cut the Stream / Leap up and mean his Praises too.73 It seems that when Watts coined what he considered to be a good phrase, he did not hesitate to repeat it, either directly or in varied fashion. This practice gave his two books a sense of familiarity and interconnection. As congregations began to explore the texts in singing or reading, these repeated phrases would undoubtedly give them a feeling of recognition and an impression of something that is already known.74 8

Textual Revision

Watts left little direct indication of his manner of working in writing his hymns and psalm paraphrases. However, as observed above, we can be fairly certain that when he wrote his psalm versions, he must have had at least some of the works of other versifiers before him. He also sought advice from others and indulged in greater or lesser revision of his texts, even after they had been published. As noted in previous chapters, Watts included four psalm versions in the first (1706) edition of Horæ Lyricæ, which he then reprinted in Hymns and Spiritual 73

74

See, respectively, “Blest are the humble souls that see” (A102, 5:1–2) and “Blest is the man whose bowels move” (Ps. 41, 1:1–2); “Hence from my soul, sad thoughts, be gone” (B73, 3:3–4) and “Lord, how divine thy comforts are” (C11, 2:3–4); “My God, the spring of all my joys” (B54, 1:1) and “Lord, how divine thy comforts are” (C11, 3:3); “Behold the Rose of Sharon here” (A68, 5:1) and “My shepherd is the living Lord” (Ps. 23 LM, 6:4); “Jesus shall reign where’er the sun” (Ps. 72, pt. 2, 1:3–4) and “From all that dwell below the skies” (Ps. 117 LM, 2:3–4); “God of the seas, thy thundering voice” (B70 3:3–4) and “Loud hallelujahs to the Lord” (Ps. 148 LM, 8:3–4). These are but a few of many such repetitions of, and allusions to, his own work. Another form of Watts’s self-borrowing, his writing of the same hymn in two different meters, is discussed below.

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Songs (1707) with only minor changes. In the latter book he added ten more psalm paraphrases.75 These fourteen imitations were omitted from the second edition of Hymns and Spiritual Songs, since their author planned to use them in The Psalms of David Imitated. When the latter book was finally published, it did indeed contain the fourteen psalm versions, but all had been revised to a greater or lesser extent. The modifications were sometimes as minor as simply changing a few words, usually in the interest of greater clarity, as in “Unshaken as the sacred hill,” where 4:4 was altered from “Where their Forerunner’s gone” to “Where Christ their Lord is gone,” which also improves the metrical rhythm. In other cases, however, the alterations were more extensive. Table 6 gives an indication of the extent of the changes Watts made to the various texts.76 This process of refinement is illustrated in the first stanza of his long meter version of Psalm 1 as it appeared in Horæ Lyricæ, Hymns and Spiritual Songs, and The Psalms of David Imitated. The changes probably reflect a combination of authorial second thoughts, the experience of hearing the text sung at Bury Street church, and perhaps critique by members of the congregation or others. Horæ Lyricæ (1706)

Hymns (1707)

Psalms of David (1719)

Blest is the Man, whose cautious Feet Shun the broad Path which Sinners chuse, Who hates the House where Atheists meet, And dreads the Words that Scoffers use.

Blest is the Man whose cautious Feet Shun the broad Path where Sinners go, Who hates the House where Atheists meet, And fears to talk as Scoffers do.

Happy the Man, whose cautious Feet Shun the broad Way that Sinners go, Who hates the Place where Atheists meet, And fears to talk as Scoffers do.

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“Why did the Jews proclaim their rage” (A4; Ps. 2 LM), “Unshaken as the sacred hill” (A22; Ps. 125 CM), “Firm and unmov’d are they” (A23; Ps. 125 SM), “There’s no ambition swells my heart” (A33; Ps. 131), “Ye that obey th’ immortal king” (A34; Ps. 134), “Shine, mighty God, on Britain shine” (A35; Ps. 67), “Lord, what a thoughtless wretch was I” (A36; Ps. 73 LM), “Lord, what a feeble piece” (A37; Ps. 90 SM), “Ye saints, how lovely is the place” (A38; Ps. 84), and “Loud hallelujahs to the Lord” (A46; Ps. 148 LM). The table does not take account of spelling, orthographic, or most individual word changes, but mainly those affecting multiple lines or stanzas. “Rewritten” means that the original text is still readily discernible, while “replaced” indicates that completely new material has been substituted. Of course, sometimes the difference between the two is a matter of degree. For a study of the changes that Watts made in “Sing to the Lord with joyful voice,” see Louis F. Benson, “The Evolution of a Great Hymn,” Journal of the Presbyterian Historical Society 1, no. 5 (September 1902): 327–340.

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table 6  Psalm version changes between Hymns and Spiritual Songs (1707) and The Psalms of David Imitated

First line in Hymns and Spiritual Songs

Changes in The Psalms of David Imitated

“Why did the Jews proclaim their rage” “Unshaken as the sacred hill” “Firm and unmov’d are they” “Blest is the man whose cautious feet” “There’s no ambition swells my heart”

St. 7 replaced Sts. 2 and 5 rewritten Sts. 1-2 rewritten, st. 5 replaced 1:1 altered to “Happy the man” All 3 sts. rewritten, 1:1 as “Is there ambition in my heart” “Ye that obey th’ immortal king” Sts. 1-2 rewritten, st. 3 replaced by 2 new sts. “Shine, mighty God, on Britain shine” Sts. 1-5 rewritten “Lord, what a thoughtless wretch was I” 1:4 replaced “Lord, what a feeble piece” Only minor changes “Ye saints how lovely is the place” All sts. rewritten (1:1 as “My soul”), 1 new st. added “Sing to the Lord with joyful voice” Sts. 2-4 rewritten, 1 new st. added “Lo, what an entertaining sight” Only minor changes “Loud hallelujahs to the Lord” Only minor changes “Look gracious God, how numerous they” Sts. 1, 3, 7 rewritten (1:1 as “My God, how many are my fears”)

Of course, Watts’s reshaping of his psalm texts was not restricted to these fourteen versions (plus “When Israel, freed from Pharaoh’s hand” [Ps. 114], first published in The Spectator in 1712). Indeed, there is evidence that some of the previously-unpublished psalms were revised even before the first edition of The Psalms of David Imitated came off the press. The table of contents of this edition includes entries for “The sweetest psalms of praise belong” (Ps. 111) and “What wonders Lord, thy love has wrought” (Ps. 40). However, the actual first lines of these texts as printed in the body of the book are “Songs of immortal praise belong” and “The wonders, Lord, thy love has wrought,” the differences probably reflecting last-minute changes before publication, with the unrevised first lines having been missed in the index.77

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The revised first lines were also listed in the index.

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In some cases, Watts almost completely rewrote a poem to make it into a congregational hymn. Thomas Gibbons pointed out that a text from the first edition of Horæ Lyricæ, “I long for a consort of heavenly praise” (titled “The Sufferings and Glories of Christ”), was rewritten as the hymn “Now for a tune of lofty praise” (B43), using a similarly-worded title.78 In the second edition of Hymns and Spiritual Songs, Watts noted that he had “made various Corrections” in the texts that were retained from the first edition. On the whole, the types of revision in Hymns and Spiritual Songs are similar to those found later in The Psalms of David Imitated, i.e., in an attempt at greater clarity and elegance of expression. For example, the fifth stanza of “Let ev’ry mortal ear attend” (A7) was altered from “In a vast Ocean of rich Grace / The milky Rivers join, / Salvation in abundance flows / Like Floods of gen’rous Wine” to “Rivers of Love and Mercy here / In a rich Ocean joyn; / Salvation in abundance flows / Like floods of Milk and Wine,” while line 7:3 became “Wrought by the Labours of his Son” instead of “Wrought by the Fingers of his Son.” In terms of subsequent usage, the most important revision was undoubtedly that in the second line of “When I survey the wondrous cross,” in which “Where the young Prince of Glory dy’d” became “On which the Prince of Glory dy’d.”79 On occasion, Watts gave in succession two versions of what is essentially the same text to provide metrical variety. Eighteen texts in Hymns and Spiritual Songs have the words “the same” in their titles, indicating that they are on similar topics as the hymn before.80 All but four of these repetitions employ 78

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Thomas Gibbons, Memoirs of the Rev. Isaac Watts, D. D. (London: For James Buckland and Thomas Gibbons, 1780), 245–248. Thomas Milner, The Life, Times, and Correspondence of the Rev. Isaac Watts, D.D. (London: Simpkin and Marshall, 1834), 253, suggests that several stanzas of Watts’s “Sing aloud to the Lord: let the two frozen poles” were revised and simplified for use in “Sing to the Lord with joyful voice.” However, as pointed out by Louis F. Benson, the two pieces were both published in the first edition of Horæ Lyricæ, so priority between the two cannot be established with certainty. See Benson, “The Evolution of a Great Hymn”: 331–332. Various commentators have suggested that the original line is superior to the revision, but this opinion is not universally shared. See Music, Repeat the Sounding Joy, 221–222. For a complete listing of the variants between the editions of Hymns and Spiritual Songs during Watts’s lifetime, see Selma L. Bishop, Isaac Watts. Hymns and Spiritual Songs, 1707–1748: a Study in Early Eighteenth Century Language Changes (London: Faith Press, 1962). “These glorious minds, how bright they shine” (A41), “The Lord on high proclaims” (A85), “Lo the young tribes of Adam rise” (A90), “How heavy is the night” (A98), “Gentiles by nature we belong” (A114), “Like sheep we went astray” (A142), “With cheerful voice I sing” (A148), “Join all the glorious names” (A150), “I send the joys of earth away” (B11), “Lift up your eyes to th’ heavenly seats” (B37), “Come all harmonious tongues” (B84), “From heaven the sinning angels fell” (B97), “Raise your triumphant songs” (B104), “The maj-

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a different hymnic meter from the first version.81 Of particular interest is a sequence of three hymns (B167–169) labeled “The Divine Perfections,” beginning with “Great God, thy glories shall employ.” The next hymn, “Jehovah reigns, his throne is high,” is “The Same” and, like the first, is in long meter. The third text in the set, “The Lord Jehovah reigns,” is also “The Same” but with the added notation “as the 148th Psalm.” The last two lyrics are essentially the same hymn, but in different meters, as can be seen by a comparison of their first stanzas. Jehovah reigns, his Throne is high, His Robes are Light and Majesty; His Glory shines with Beams so bright No Mortal can sustain the Sight.

The Lord Jehovah reigns, His Throne is built on high; The Garments He assumes Are Light and Majesty; His Glories shine With Beams so bright No mortal Eye Can bear the Sight.

This same practical inclination toward variety is also found in The Psalms of David Imitated. When Watts made more than one version of a psalm, the second one was almost invariably in a different hymnic meter, allowing for use with another tune. Thus, for example, he made three imitations of Psalm 133, one each in common meter, short meter, and 668668.82 Generally speaking, these alternate paraphrases are completely independent texts, but Watts occasionally used the same procedure he had employed in Hymns and Spiritual Songs of simply rewording previous material. This technique is particularly evident in two versions of Psalm 50, “The Lord, the sovereign, sends his summons forth” and “The God of glory sends his summons forth,” and in Psalm 146, “Praise ye the Lord, my heart shall join” and “I’ll praise my maker with my breath,” but it can also be seen more subtly in the paraphrases of Psalm 136, “Give thanks to God the sovereign Lord” and “Give thanks to God most high,” as well as the opening stanzas of “Jehovah reigns: he dwells in light” and “The Lord of glory reigns; he reigns on high” (Ps. 93). The provision of two versions of the same hymn but in different meters allowed a greater opportunity for musical variety and a way to emphasize or highlight different aspects of the text.

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esty of Solomon” (B113). “Now Satan comes with dreadful roar” (B157), “Jehovah reigns, his throne is high” (B168), “The Lord Jehovah reigns” (B169), and “Jesus, we bow before thy feet” (C18). The exceptions are “Gentiles by nature we belong,” “Like sheep we went astray,” “Now Satan comes with dreadful roar,” and “Jehovah reigns, his throne is high.” “Lo, what an entertaining sight,” “Blest are the sons of peace,” and “How pleasant ‘tis to see.”

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Watts and the Poetry of the Hymn

As a student of poetry and a poet himself, Isaac Watts was well aware of the components of the poetic art, and he employed a full range of rhetorical techniques and forms in preparing songs for congregational participation. One of Watts’s goals in writing his hymns was to provide what his brother Enoch had called “life and soul, which is necessary to raise our fancies and kindle and fire our passions.”83 This “life and soul” was largely missing in the earlier forms of versification that, in Isaac’s mind, were tied too closely to the words of the psalms and with which eighteenth-century English-speaking Christians would have difficulty identifying. As Watts himself expressed it in the first edition of Hymns and Spiritual Songs—probably referring at least obliquely to the practice of his own congregation—through the singing of humanly-written spiritual songs “many pious Souls” have found “Divine Delight” and “spiritual Joy and Consolation,” and thereby experienced “Faith,” “Hope,” “Love,” and “heavenly Pleasure” (265–266). In the preface to The Psalms of David Imitated, he indicates that when most congregations sing psalms as they are found “in our common Translations, that Spirit of Devotion vanishes and is lost, the Psalm dies upon their Lips, and they feel scarce any thing of the holy Pleasure” (iii). To correct that shortcoming, Watts not only altered and supplemented the psalms, but filled his texts with bold imagery, resonant vocables, and varied forms that give life and substance to the theological and spiritual principles they espoused. The difference in emotional quality between the work of Watts and his psalm-versifying predecessors can be readily seen by comparing the ending of his common meter version of Psalm 23, “My shepherd will supply my need,” with that of Thomas Sternhold, “My shepherd is the living Lord.” Sternhold Through all my lyfe thy fauour is, so frankly shewde to me: That in thy house for euermore, my dwelling place shalbe. (st. 5)

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Watts O may thy House be mine Abode And all my Work be Praise! There would I find a settled Rest, (While others go and come) No more a Stranger or a Guest, But like a Child at Home. (5:3–6:4)

See the introduction for a fuller extract from Enoch’s letter.

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Apart from the more modern spelling, Watts’s employment of the exclamation mark, suggestion of a laying hen (“settled Rest”), use of climax (Stranger-Guest-Child at Home), smooth diction, and expansion of the ideas in the psalm contrast significantly with the more literal and rather stilted language of the earlier versifier. Watts’s version is not intended merely to proclaim the message of the psalm, but to create an emotional reaction to it. The same can be said of many his hymns that are not closely tied to a particular Scripture, such as “Alas! and did my Saviour bleed” or “‘Twas on that dark, that doleful night,” both of which essentially place the singer in the role of a participant in the Passion story. Watts also did not hesitate to recognize quality work by other people by borrowing from them, and even repeating portions of his own work. He was a craftsman, continuing to revise and refine many of his texts even after an initial publication, and even in so profound and perfectly-shaped a text as “When I survey the wondrous cross.” At the same time, Watts’s hymns were written for the use of the average Christian, and thus he often “sunk” his metaphors and language to suit the people for whom his books of congregational song were designed. It was in large part due to his ability to balance the poetic and the practical, the emotional and the rational, that his hymns achieved such widespread and long-lasting usefulness in English-speaking Christianity.

Chapter 5

Watts’s Hymns and Music Hymns written for use in congregational worship are primarily designed to be sung, and as such are essentially incomplete without music. Furthermore, as pointed out by Martin A. Wallenstein, “The writing of poetry to be sung dictates strategies to the author who would use the form well.”1 The hymn writer must be concerned with matters of meter, enjambment, clarity of vowel and consonant sounds, and general similarity of mood throughout a text, as well as penning a lyric that is relevant to a large group of people, who perhaps do not encounter poetry on a regular basis, all of which impact, and are impacted by, the music that accompanies it. The writer of poetry is usually concerned with how a poem reads; a hymn writer must be concerned primarily with how it sings. It was in part a lack of attention to the musical aspect of their texts that doomed the efforts of many psalm versifiers and hymn text writers before Watts either to mediocrity or non-use. Isaac Watts was a hymn text writer, not a composer nor—as far as we know—a practicing musician. He inherited the “common tune” practice of English psalmody in which the matching of a tune with a text was left up to the song leader, who would hopefully choose one that fit not only the meter, but also the general character of the lyrics. However, contemporary precentors were often selected more on the basis of qualities such as willingness to serve and faithfulness than on musical ability, and it could not be considered a matter of course that they would always choose a tune in the correct meter or mood. In a psalter published in 1661, the compiler John Playford provided what he considered to be appropriate text-tune matches for individual psalms, but how often his suggestions might have been followed is unknown.2 Some of Watts’s psalm versifying and hymn writing predecessors and contemporaries included a collection of tunes in their publications or suggested specific melodies for each text, but neither Hymns and Spiritual Songs nor The Psalms of David Imitated did this.

1 Martin A. Wallenstein, “The Rhetoric of Isaac Watts’s Hymns, Psalms, and Sermons” (Ph.D. diss., Indiana University, 1978), 121. 2 Nicholas Temperley, “John Playford and the Metrical Psalms,” Journal of the American Musicological Society 25, no. 3 (Autumn 1972): 351. Temperley points out that Thomas Ravenscroft claimed to have done the same thing forty years before, but did not in fact do so. © David W. Music, leideN, 2022 | DOI:10.1163/9789004520523_007

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This is not to say, however, that Watts gave no attention to the music for singing his hymns. Though he expressed the hope that his hymns would be “useful to private Christians” as read devotions, his primary purpose was that they promote “the Reformation of Psalmody amongst the Churches” (HSS, 1707, xii), and as part of his plan he provided information for matching texts with tunes in appropriate meters, specified melodies for some texts, and made suggestions for improving the performance of congregational song. His instructions, though by no means unique, were an important step to take to help ease the transition to singing what was in other ways a radical departure from traditional psalmody. Musical settings written specifically for Watts’s texts also began to appear during the first half of the eighteenth century, and though his knowledge of or involvement with these is often uncertain, it is evident that composers and tune compilers found his lyrics to be grateful for setting to music. This chapter identifies some of the tunes that Watts recommended for use with his texts or that were set to his lyrics by others during his lifetime. The emphasis is on tunes that he might have known, whether traditional or newly-written, and not on subsequent tunes to which his lyrics have been sung, though there will be some mention of the latter. The principal objective of the chapter is to show how early eighteenth-century congregations might have experienced some of his texts in their singing. Watts’s library, which was sold at his death, contained only a single item that can be securely identified as a tune book. Listed in the sale catalogue as “Ravenscroft’s Psalm Tunes, improved by Turner,” the entry refers to Thomas Ravenscroft’s The Whole Book of Psalm Tunes, in Four Parts . . . Newly Done by William Turner (London: William Pearson) in either its 1728 or 1746 printings; the sale catalogue does not give a date and, at any rate, the contents of the two printings are the same.3 Of course, the Ravenscroft-Turner book, even in its first printing, dates from well after Watts had mostly quit writing hymns; what other musical collections (if any) he might have owned that were disposed of before his library went on sale is uncertain, though some probabilities will be noted below.4

3 See A Catalogue of the Library of the Late Reverend and Learned Isaac Watts, D. D. (n.p.: n.p., [1750]), 9 (item 211). 4 In his will, Watts directed that the two surviving Abney sisters, Samuel Price, David Jennings, and his three nieces select from his library whatever books they wanted; there was no provision in the will for selling them. See Thomas Milner, The Life, Times, and Correspondence of the Rev. Isaac Watts, D.D. (London: Simpkin and Marshall, 1834), 730, 732.

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Hymnic Meters and Psalm Tunes

The preface to the first edition of Hymns and Spiritual Songs explains Watts’s choice of hymnic meters: he restricted the texts to only common, long, and short meter so that the lyrics could be “fitted to the most common Tunes” (viii). This statement was revised in the second edition to include four meters, reflecting the addition of texts in 66664444 (viii). Similarly, near the end of the preface to The Psalms of David Imitated, Watts notes that he has “formed my Verse in the three most usual Metres to which our Psalm-Tunes are fitted, (viz) The Common Metre, the Metre of the old 25th Psalm which I call Short Metre, and that of the old 100th Psalm which I call Long Metre.”5 “Besides these,” he says, “I have done some few Psalms in Stanza’s of six, eight, or twelve Lines, to the best of the old Tunes” (xxvi–xxvii). He concludes the preface by observing that “The various Measures of the Verse are fitted to the Tunes of the Old Psalm-Book” (i.e., Sternhold and Hopkins), then provides the following list of correspondences between texts and tunes. To the Common Tunes sing all entitled Common Metre. To the Tunes of the 100th Psalm sing all entitled Long Metre. To the Tune of the 25th Ps. Sing Short Metre. To the 112th or 127th Psalm sing one Metre of the 104th and 148th. To the 113th Psalm sing one Metre of the 19th, 33d, 58th, 89th, last Part, 96th, 112th, 113th. To the 122d Psalm sing one of the Metres of the 93d, 122d and 133d. To the 148th Psalm sing one Metre of the 84th, 121st, 136th and 148th. To a New Tune sing one Metre of the 50th and 115th. (PDI, xxxii) Watts’s description is helpful in determining some of the tunes to which his texts might be sung, but he inadvertently omitted a few psalm texts and one tune from the list.6 Table 7 organizes the information provided by Watts, adds the missing items and syllable counts, and supplies references from The Hymn Tune Index to the melodies that were most likely intended.7 Except for the next-to-last item, the tunes listed in the left column were the ones that 5 From Watts’s statement, it appears that he was the one who came up with the designations of long and short meter. 6 This information is, however, found in the headings of the relevant psalms. 7 Nicholas Temperley, The Hymn Tune Index, https://hymntune.library.uiuc.edu/ (accessed January 2, 2021). The Hymn Tune Index is the most comprehensive listing of strophic tunes with sacred English-language texts through 1820. Items that were omitted by Watts and that have been added to the chart are placed in brackets.

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table 7  Tunes suggested by Watts

Tune

Psalm

HTI

CM tunes Psalm 100 Psalm 25 Psalms 112 or 127 (888888) Psalm 113 (888888D)

All in CM All in LM All in SM 104, 148 19, 33, 58, 89 (last pt.), [96], 112, 113, [146] 93, 122, 133 84, 121, 136, 148 50, 115 50, 93

— 143 (among others) 114 130 146

Psalm 122 (668668) Psalm 148 (66664444) New Tune (10.10.10.10.10.10) [“old proper Tune” or “as the Old 50th Psalm”] (10.10.10.10.11.11)

147 126 896a 116

had traditionally been used to sing the psalms from which they derived their names in Sternhold and Hopkins. While Watts gave no similar indication of tunes to be used with the texts in Hymns and Spiritual Songs, it seems likely that, given the more restricted use of hymnic meters in the earlier collection, as well as Watts’s analogous statements in the two volumes about the texts being sung to the “most common Tunes” and the “most usual Metres,” the same CM, LM, SM, and 66664444 melodies would serve for both books. It is, of course, nearly impossible to determine which specific tunes—if any—Watts might have had in mind for the common meter texts in his two collections: the information he provided in the preface to The Psalms of David Imitated about the tunes in this meter was too generic, the concept of the “proper tune” had not yet been established, and scores of familiar common meter tunes were available by the time Watts began publishing his hymns. A single collection, Thomas Ravenscroft’s The Whole Booke of Psalmes of 1621, issued nearly a century before Watts’s psalter, contained more than fifty melodies in common meter or common meter double.8 Likewise, Watts did not specify a single tune for long meter texts, but tunes (plural) that would fit William Kethe’s version of Psalm 100, “All people that on earth do dwell,” in 8 Thomas Ravenscroft, The Whole Booke of Psalmes: With the Hymnes Evangelicall, and Songs Spiritvall. Composed Into 4. Parts by Sundry Authors (London: for the Company of Stationers, 1621).

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Sternhold and Hopkins.9 However, he probably had in mind the tune OLD 100 for his own two versions of Psalm 100, “Ye nations round the earth rejoice” and “Sing to the Lord with joyful voice.” Watts’s usual procedure when providing multiple versions of a psalm was to give them in different meters, but the two Psalm 100 imitations, though labeled “First Metre” and “Second Metre,” respectively, are both in long meter, suggesting that they were intended for use with OLD 100.10 Watts’s list links the short meter texts to the tune OLD 25 (also known as SOUTHWELL), the setting for “I lift mine heart to thee” (Ps. 25) in Sternhold and Hopkins. As with OLD 100, it is not likely that Watts intended for all the texts in this meter to be sung only to this tune, and it was probably named simply as a familiar example that could do service for texts in this meter. Again, however, it is reasonably certain that his own paraphrase of Psalm 25 was designed to be sung to this tune, since all three parts of the version are in short meter.11 Such adherences to tradition would have been expected by most congregations. More precision is possible when it comes to the texts in the less usual meters, since there are fewer tunes from which to choose, in most situations a single tune would probably suffice because of the smaller number of hymns in those meters, and Watts gave more specific indications of his intent. The eight 66664444 texts that were added in the second edition of Hymns and Spiritual Songs (three hymns and five doxologies) were all indicated to be sung “as the 148th Psalm,” as were three of the four items in The Psalms of David Imitated.12 A bit more exactness is found with the 66664444 version of Psalm 148, “Ye tribes of Adam join,” which is designated “Proper Metre,” meaning that it is not just to be sung to a tune that will fit the traditional Psalm 148 meter, but to the specific tune for that psalm, OLD 148. The same situation occurs with the other psalms in the less common meters. Of the eight psalms in the traditional meter of Psalm 113, six are labeled simply 9 10 11 12

“All people that on earth do dwell” was originally published in the Anglo-Genevan Psalter of 1561, but by Watts’s time it had been added to the Old Version. See chap. 8 for the melody of OLD 100. Some of the rhymes and the last line of Watts’s “Ye nations round the earth, rejoice” appear to be indebted to “All people that on earth do dwell.” “I lift my soul to God,” “Where shall the man be found,” and “Mine eyes and my desire.” See chap. 8 for the tune OLD 25. HSS: “With cheerful voice I sing” (A148), “Join all the glorious names” (A150), “The Lord Jehovah reigns” (B169), “I give immortal praise” (C38), “To him that chose us first” (C39), “To God the father’s throne” (C40), “To our eternal God” (C41), “Hosanna to the king” (C45). PDI: “Lord of the worlds above” (Ps. 84), “Upward I lift mine eyes” (Ps. 121), “Give thanks to God most high” (Ps. 136), “Ye tribes of Adam join” (Ps. 148).

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“as the 113th Psalm,” while the paraphrase of Psalm 113 itself, “Ye that delight to serve the Lord,” is designated “Proper Tune,” indicating that the traditional melody for that psalm (OLD 113) is to be employed. “Great God, the heaven’s well-order’d frame” (Ps. 19) is also marked specifically to be sung “To the Tune of the 113. Ps.” (see chap. 7). “The God of glory sends his summons forth” (Ps. 50) is to be sung “To the old proper Tune” (OLD 50), while the other text in that meter, “The Lord of glory reigns; he reigns on high” (Ps. 93), is more generically labeled. Among the three 668668 texts, Psalm 122, “How pleas’d and blest was I,” is headed “Proper Tune” (OLD 122; see chap. 7), while the other two texts, “The Lord Jehovah reigns” (Ps. 93) and “How pleasant ‘tis to see” (Ps. 133), are to be sung as Psalm 122. Two things are evident from this information. First, when Watts came to imitate a psalm, especially one that was traditionally sung in one of the less frequent meters, he usually wrote a version that would fit the conventional tune for that psalm.13 Second, when he gave indications that a text in an unusual meter would fit a specific psalm tune, this was more or less only one possibility, except in the case of the “mother” psalm, for which he invariably seems to have preferred the established tune for that biblical text. There remain the versions of Psalms 50 (“The Lord, the sovereign, sends his summons forth,” to be discussed later), 104 (“My soul, thy great creator praise”), and 148 (“Loud hallelujahs to the Lord”). The latter two texts are both in long meter, but with two optional lines that can be sung as a refrain with each stanza. Watts indicates that when the additional lines are used, the traditional tune for Psalm 112 (also employed for Psalm 127) should be sung (OLD 112); otherwise, they should be sung to a melody that fits the meter of the old versification of Psalm 100 (i.e., LM). Though working within the traditional “mix-and-match” system for tune selection, the interest that Watts took in the musical side of his hymns and psalm versions is evident not only from his written directions as outline above, but also from his two paraphrases of Psalm 146. The first version, “Praise ye the Lord, my heart shall join,” is in long meter and was evidently the earlier one, as suggested by a note at its end. 13

There is evidence, however, that in some cases this procedure might have been the suggestion of others. See Watts’s February 26, 1725, and January 24, 1726, letters to Thomas Bradbury about his “proper” versions of Pss. 50 and 122, and Bradbury’s January 27, 1726, response in The Posthumous Works of the Late Learned and Reverend Isaac Watts, D.D. In Two Volumes. Compiled From Papers in Possession of His Immediate Successors: Adjusted and Published By a Gentleman of the University of Cambridge (London: for T. Becket and J. Bew, 1779), vol. 2, 171, 183, 189.

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This Psalm consists so much of single Sentences that a small and easy Transposition of the Verses with a very few Lines added will afford a Metre to the Tune of the 113th Psalm, with a Repetition of the first Stanza at the End to compleat the Tune, as follows. The note is succeeded by the text of “I’ll praise my maker with my breath.” As indicated by Watts, he repeats the first stanza at the end (though slightly varied). While, as seen in the previous chapter, Watts sometimes indulged in such repetitions for structural reasons, in this case it served at least partly to provide an even number of stanzas to fit the 888888D tune.14 2

Watts and the Singing of Hymns

Watts’s concern for the performance of congregational singing is revealed throughout the prefaces of both Hymns and Spiritual Songs and The Psalms of David Imitated. In these two writings, he recorded the customs of the times, noted his desire to improve them, and gave suggestions to those who were charged with the leadership of the song. 2.1 Lining Out As previously described, lining out was a procedure in which the song leader read or sang a line of the text, after which the congregation repeated it. This tradition began at least in part because many people could not afford to buy a psalm book, could not read it if they had one, or were musically illiterate.15 It probably served also as a means of introducing new tunes. In Hymns and Spiritual Songs, Watts complained that “While we sing the Praises of our God in his Church, we are employ’d in that part of Worship which of all others is the nearest a-kin to Heaven; and ‘tis pity that this of all others should be perform’d the worst upon Earth. . . . That very Action which 14 Today, OLD 113 is usually printed and sung as 888888, omitting the repeated phrases. Though Watts laid out this text and the others in the OLD 113 meter in stanzas of 888888, he always used an even number of strophes to ensure that the words and music would fit together. 15 Psalm books were not provided by the church during the sixteenth, seventeenth, and eighteenth centuries, so if parishioners desired to have one, they had to purchase it themselves. Sometimes a distinction is made between lining out (the leader reading the text of each line) and “setting the psalm” (the leader singing the text of each line or at least giving an opening pitch).

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should elevate us to the most delightful and divine Sensations doth not only flat our Devotion, but too often awakens our Regret, and touches all the Springs of Uneasiness within us” (1707, iii–iv). While he laid most of the blame for this situation on the fact that contemporary churches gave too much emphasis to adhering as closely as possible to the original texts of the psalms, he also critiqued “the unhappy Mixture of Reading and Singing” that was prevalent in most congregations and that, he regretted, “cannot presently be reformed” (viii).16 Watts mentions the practice of lining out again in the preface to The Psalms of David Imitated. Here, the context is his appraisal of the psalm versions of John Patrick. Watts’s complaint is that Patrick “hath suffer’d himself so far to be carried away by Custom, as to make all the other personal Characters and Circumstances of David appear strong and plain, except that of a Jew; and many of them he has represented in stronger and plainer Terms than the Original.” In other words, while Patrick had lessened the identification of David as a Hebrew, he had gone the other direction in identifying him as a king, psalmodist, etc., even when the psalm itself did not do so, “So that ‘tis hard to find even in his Version six or eight Stanza’s together in any Psalm (that has personal or national Affairs in it) fit to be assumed by a vulgar Christian, or proper to be sung by a whole Congregation.” As an example, Watts points to Patrick’s version of Psalm 4:2, which in the KJV reads “O ye sons of men, how long will ye turn my glory into shame? how long will ye love vanity, and seek after leasing?” Patrick renders this verse as “Fond men! that would my Glory stain, / My Government despise; / How long will ye pursue vain hopes, / And please your selves with lyes?” In Watts’s view, Patrick’s approach renders the due Performance of Psalmody every where difficult to him that appoints the Verses: But ‘tis extremely troublesome in those Assemblies where the Psalm is sung without reading it Line by Line, which yet is, beyond all Exception, the truest and the best Method; for here there can be no Omission of a Verse, tho’ it be never so improper; but the whole Church must run down to the next Division of the Psalm [i.e., the next stanza], and sing all that comes next to their Lips, till the Clerk puts them to Silence. Or to remedy this Inconvenience, if a wise Man leads the Song, he dwells always upon four or five and twenty Pieces of some select Psalms, tho’ the whole 150 lie before him; and he is forced to run

16

See Daniel Johnson, “Isaac Watts’s Hymnody as a Guide for the Passions,” English Literature 5 (December 2018): 151, 144.

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that narrow Round still for want of larger Provision suited to our present Circumstances. (vii–viii) Watts is here suggesting that Patrick’s version makes it difficult to omit a stanza, especially for congregations that have dispensed with lining out. His reference to “Assemblies where the Psalm is sung without reading it Line by Line” suggests that the situation regarding lining out had improved since he wrote his preface to the first edition of Hymns and Spiritual Songs, and that at least some congregations had given up the practice. Nevertheless, he felt compelled to offer another criticism of the method later in the preface: “It were to be wish’d that all Congregations and private Families would sing as they do in foreign Protestant Countries without reading Line by Line. . . . many Inconveniencies will always attend this unhappy Manner of Singing.” He then suggested two measures that can be taken where lining out cannot be eliminated: 1) have the people provide themselves with psalm books so they can read the words to help “make the Sense compleat” and 2) have the song leader read the text of the whole psalm aloud before it is sung “that the People may have some Notion of what they sing” (xxxi). Watts’s own hymns provided a partial solution to the dispassionate nature of contemporary Anglophone congregational song by replacing psalm versification with psalm paraphrase and freely written poetry. Watts himself could do little about the second problem, lining out, except write his texts in such a way as to accommodate the practice by avoiding enjambments and encourage its ultimate abandonment. In these respects, however, he shows that he was aware both of the obstacles created by lining out and of practical solutions that could serve as a stopgap until the practice could be eliminated. 2.2 Tempo and the Length of Singing Another musical feature of contemporary congregational music that Watts addresses in The Psalms of David Imitated is the tempo of the singing. The slow tempos in early eighteenth-century Nonconformist churches were a perennial challenge in both England and America.17 These slow tempos resulted primarily from two factors: 1) the meetinghouses were mainly of wood construction and furnishing, which meant that they were very live acoustically, and 2) the singing was not accompanied by an instrument or led by a choir, the leadership 17

See, for example, the criticism by the American Puritan minister Thomas Walter that the slow tempo of the singing is “A Fault very frequent in the Country, where I my self have twice in one Note paused to take Breath.” The Grounds and Rules of Musick Explained (Boston: J. Franklin for S. Gerrish, 1721), 4.

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being exercised almost exclusively by the voice of the song leader. In circumstances such as these, congregations—which, after all, are not typically composed of trained musicians—naturally tend to drag the tempo. In describing his division of the psalms into shorter sections in the preface to The Psalms of David Imitated, Watts decried “that excessive long Tone of Voice that stretches out every Syllable in our publick Singing,” which “allows us neither Time nor Spirits to sing above six or eight Stanza’s at once; and sometimes we make use of but three or four” (xxiv). He expanded upon these comments later in the preface. It were to be wish’d also that we might not dwell so long upon every single Note, and produce the Syllables to such a tiresome Extent with a constant Uniformity of Time; which disgraces the Musick and puts the Congregation quite out of Breath in singing five or six Stanza’s: whereas if the Method of Singing were but reformed to a greater Speed of Pronunciation, we might often enjoy the Pleasure of a longer Psalm with less Expence of Time and Breath; and our Psalmody would be more agreeable to that of the antient Churches, more intelligible to others, and more delightfull to our selves. (xxxii) While the slow tempos were obviously not to Watts’s liking, he tried to accommodate the situation in his texts by reducing the psalms “into Hymns of such a Length as may suit the usual Custom of the Churches” (xxiv). Watts also pointed out the provisions he had made for shortening the singing and encouraged the singing of more stanzas than was customary at the time. If the Psalm be too long for the Time or Custom of Singing, there are Pauses in many of ‘em at which you may properly rest: Or you may leave out those Verses which are included in Crotchets [ ] without disturbing the Sense: Or in some Places you may begin to sing at a Pause. Do not always confine your selves to six Stanza’s, but sing seven or eight, rather than confound the Sense and abuse the Psalm in solemn Worship. (xxxi) Certainly, both Hymns and Spiritual Songs and The Psalms of David Imitated include some rather lengthy texts: “Go, worship at Immanuel’s feet” (A146) contains eighteen stanzas, while “My soul, thy great creator praise” (Ps. 104) has twenty-eight. However, in the former, only the first and last stanzas are not bracketed, and thus a hymn of anywhere between two and eighteen stanzas can be created.

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Another approach, used particularly in The Psalms of David Imitated, is to insert periodic pauses, which can either give the congregation an opportunity to rest and catch its breath, or be used to form a discrete hymn out of the larger context. Thus, in “My soul, thy great creator praise,” pauses occur after stanzas eight, twelve, and twenty, each marking the possibility of a shorter hymn or a brief break. Watts also sometimes gives written directions for shortening a specific text, as in a note he appended to his nine-stanza “Psalm for New-England,” “When God, provok’d with daring crimes” (Ps. 107 LM, pt. 5): “If this Hymn be too long to sing at once, The two first and two last Stanza’s of it may be sung together, and the five middle Stanza’s by themselves, another Hymn: For I could not find any other convenient Division of it.” Both the elimination of lining out and the use of faster tempos had to wait until the proliferation of singing schools in the second half of the eighteenth century to become a reality. The work of local or itinerant singing masters in England and America—many of them also tune book compilers—eventually led to the introduction of choirs and musical instruments into churches of the Congregational order, both of which resulted in the dropping of lining out and the establishment of more singable speeds. This development began during Watts’s lifetime, but did not come to full fruition until after his death. However, in the way he wrote his texts, he made accommodations that took account of these features of contemporary congregational singing, displaying a practical bent that enhanced the use of his hymns. 3

Early Publications of Watts’s Hymns with Music

During the forty-one years between the printing of the first edition of Hymns and Spiritual Songs and Watts’s death in 1748, about a dozen music publications included settings of his texts. This relatively small number is not surprising, given the fact that most English churches were still singing versified psalms, and many congregations were not yet ready for hymns or the sort of paraphrased psalms that Watts was writing. As the monopoly of versified psalmody began to break down, due in no small part to the work of Watts himself, the number of music collections that contained at least one Watts text grew significantly, so that beginning in the 1750s there was a veritable flood of settings of his hymns. The pre-1750 collections that contained musical settings for Watts were of two basic types: the tune book that took texts from a variety of sources and was often intended for educational purposes outside the church service, and the tune supplement that was designed specifically to provide musical settings

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for congregational use. Though the earliest music collection to include texts by Watts was of the general tune book type, the tune supplements will be discussed first. 3.1 Tune Supplements In the same year that Watts’s Psalms of David Imitated was printed, William Lawrence issued A Collection of Tunes, Suited to the Metres in Mr. Watts’s Imitation of the Psalms of David, or Dr. Patrick’s Version (1719).18 The book was dedicated to the “Gentlemen of the Society, that support, and encourage the Friday Lecture in Eastcheap, who have also promoted the delightful Exercise of Psalmody.”19 From the dedication, we learn that Lawrence, who served as the song leader for the Friday Lecture, at first intended only to compile for his own private use a set of tunes for John Patrick’s psalter, but then “Application was made to me, to collect a Number of Tunes, that might Suit with the various Metres of Mr. Watts’s Imitation of the Psalms of David; together with an Introduction to Psalmody. I the more readily comply’d with that Request, because I thought I should at once oblige them that made it, and you too.” The last sentence implies that the request to compile the volume did not come from the Friday Lecture, but from another source. The tunes are all in two parts, melody and bass. Twenty-four are in common meter, fourteen in common meter double, eight in long meter, four in long meter double, four in short meter, and seven in “particular” or “peculiar” meter (other combinations, usually of 8s and 6s); all the tunes mentioned in Watts’s Psalms of David Imitated list are included, and twelve other melodies represent first printings. Nicholas Temperley pointed out that “These are the first tunes ever printed in England that were created for a dissenting congregation, and their appearance constitutes a new beginning in the music of dissent.”20 Only the last two items in the book contain a text (neither is by Watts), and, with one exception, the tunes are not specified for particular lyrics by Watts. However, this exception, “New Tune to the 50 Psalm for Mr. Watts’s ­Version” (figure 1), provides an important insight into the relationship between Lawrence’s collection and The Psalms of David Imitated. The title and unusual meter of the tune (10.10.10.10.10.10) indicate that it was written specifically for Watts’s Psalm 50 text “The Lord, the sovereign, sends his summons forth”; 18 19 20

W. L., A Collection of Tunes, Suited to the Metres in Mr. Watts’s Imitation of the Psalms of David, or Dr. Patrick’s Version; Fit to Be Bound Up with Either (London: W. Pearson for John Clark, R. Ford, and R. Cruttenden, 1719). For further mention of the Friday Lecture and Watts’s hymnody see chap. 1. Nicholas Temperley, “The Music of Dissent,” in Dissenting Praise: Religious Dissent and the Hymn in England and Wales, ed. Isabel Rivers and David L. Wykes, 197–228 (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2011), 204.

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figure 1 “The Lord, the sovereign sends his summons forth”/NEW 50

another Watts lyric, “Not to our names, thou only just and true” (Ps. 115), is in the same meter, and in The Psalms of David Imitated, the two texts are labeled “To a New Tune” and “as the New Tune of the 50th Psalm,” respectively. The Hymn Tune Index, which codes the tune as no. 896, records a total of eight publications of this “New Tune” during the eighteenth century, and speculates that it is “Probably by Simon Browne,” who printed it in a slightly different version titled TORRINGTON in his 1720 A Set of Tunes in 3 Parts (mostly new), credited to himself.21 21

The tune collection was part of a larger publication by Browne titled Hymns and Spiritual Songs (London: Eman. Matthews, 1720). He mentions Watts several times in his preface, at one point calling him “the ingenious Mr. Watts,” who “has outdone all that went before him,

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Whether or not the new Psalm 50 tune was written by Browne, Lawrence, or someone else, what is of particular interest is the timing of its publication. Watts completed his manuscript of The Psalms of David Imitated in December of 1718 (the preface is dated December 1) and the book was in print before the middle of January, 1719.22 While no indication of exactly when Lawrence’s collection was issued has come to light, it certainly did not appear until after the first edition of The Psalms of David came off the press: the end of Watts’s book contains a notice that “In a few Days will be Publish’d. A Collection of Tunes fitted to Mr. Watt’s [sic] Imitation of the Psalms, his Book of Hymns, and his Divine Songs. To which is prefix’d the Gamut, or Scale of Musick. Price 6d.” Despite the statements about including tunes for Hymns and Spiritual Songs and Divine Songs, neither of which is mentioned in Lawrence’s volume, the reference is almost certainly to that book.23 Both the advertisement and the tune collection use the same principal title, “A Collection of Tunes.” A very similar advertisement appeared at the end of Daniel Wilcox’s The Noble Stand (1719), but with the references to the two earlier Watts volumes omitted.24 The same publishers were involved with both The Psalms of David Imitated and A Collection of Tunes. Finally, Lawrence’s book is the only known contemporary volume that can reasonably be said to fit as a tune supplement for Watts. All this is to say that Lawrence’s book must have come out shortly after the first edition of The Psalms of David Imitated, which leads to the following questions: how did Watts know about the “new tune” for Psalm 50, which had not yet appeared in print, but that he called for in his volume not once, but twice? Did Watts solicit the tune for his versions of Psalms 50 and 93? Indeed, could it have been Watts or his publishers who requested the tune collection from Lawrence? We will perhaps never be able to answer these questions definitively, but one thing seems certain: since Watts apparently knew about the “New Tune” before The Psalms of David Imitated came off the press, there must have been some sort of prepublication collaboration between him and

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in the variety of his subjects, the smoothness of his verse, and the richness of his fancy” (n.p.). Lawrence’s Collection of Tunes did not contain composer attributions. Both the London Evening Post and London Post Boy advertised it as “This Day is publish’d” in their January 10–13, 1719, issues. In a sense, the statements are not inaccurate, for the tunes do fit texts in Watts’s two earlier collections, though this was not indicated in Lawrence’s book. It is possible that the more comprehensive scope was the original intent for the book but was abandoned before it was actually published. [Daniel Wilcox], The Noble Stand (London: for R. Cruttenden, 1719), n.p.

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Lawrence or Browne, if only through a third party. The circumstances further suggest that he might have had at least some consultive role in Lawrence’s tune collection.25 A second edition of Lawrence’s volume was published in 1722. This printing deleted one tune from the first edition (BRENTFORD) and added nineteen new ones. As before, the additions are textless, apart from another setting of a nonWatts text. One of the tunes new to the collection was titled CHICHESTER TO MR. WATTS’S 122, intended as a setting for “How pleas’d and blest was I.” However, the tune was not written for Watts’s words, having first been published with a different text in 1710.26 The fifth edition of The Psalms of David Imitated was published in 1725.27 Bound at the end was a small music collection titled Tunes in the Tenor Part Fitted to the Several Metres, engraved by Francis Hoffman. Like Lawrence’s book, its twenty-three melody-only tunes were textless and did not specify use with particular lyrics, though the “New Tune” for Psalm 50 was included. All the tunes had previously appeared in Lawrence. This smaller supplement continued to be issued with various editions of The Psalms of David Imitated through at least 1753.28 These reprints, the presence of many of the same tunes in this supplement and the one by Lawrence, and the list of tunes mentioned by Watts in the preface to The Psalms of David Imitated suggest a common repertory for singing his psalms (and probably the hymns too) that consisted of at least the following items (HTI numbers are in parentheses). Common Meter CAMBRIDGE (249) GLOCESTER (368) HACKNEY (ST. MARY’S; 542) LITCHFIELD OLD (371) LOW DUTCH (250) MANCHESTER (374) 25 26 27 28

The unusual meter of “The Lord, the sovereign, sends his summons forth” apparently resulted from a misunderstanding growing out of a suggestion by Watts’s fellow Independent minister Thomas Bradbury. See The Posthumous Works, vol. 2, 171, 183. HTI catalogues CHICHESTER as no. 699 and notes that it was composed by John Bishop. I. Watts, The Psalms of David Imitated in the Language of the New Testament, 5th ed. (London: for John Clark. Richard Hett, and Richard Ford, 1725). For a list of the later editions of PDI that include the supplement, see HTI, item *TS WatA a. Subsequent to Watts’s death a similarly-titled supplement, but with different content, was issued with various editions of PDI; see HTI, *TS WatB a.

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MARTYRS (330) ST. DAVID’S (379) WINDSOR (271) YORK (331) Common Meter Double OLD 81 (175) OLD 119 (120) Long Meter ANGEL’S SONG (387) FRENCH 100 (288) OLD 100 (143) READING (157) Long Meter Double LAMENTATION (184) Short Meter OLD 25 (=SOUTHWELL, 269) 66664444 OLD 148 (126) 888888 OLD 112 (130) OLD 122 (147) 888888D OLD 113 (146) 668668 CHICHESTER (699) 10.10.10.10.11.11 OLD 50 (116) 10.10.10.10.10.10 NEW 50 (896)

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Of course, other tunes could be added to these, depending upon the tune knowledge of the congregation and the skill of the song leader, but this list of tunes would suffice to sing everything in both Hymns and Spiritual Songs and The Psalms of David Imitated. 3.2 Tune Books The publication of music for Watts’s texts in tune books differs in an important respect from that in the tune supplements. Whereas the supplements generally supply a textless melody to which any Watts hymn in the correct meter can be sung, the tune books are usually more specific in the lyric that was intended, either interlining the words with the music, printing the text or a portion of it at the bottom or on a facing page, or at least providing a title or textual incipit that indicates the hymn or psalm. Since the tune book was generally designed for use outside the church service (to teach music reading skills), and because Watts’s texts were not yet standard repertory in the churches, it was necessary to have the words and music together on the same page or in close proximity. Credit for the first published musical settings of texts by Watts apparently belongs to Thomas Orme, whose A Collection of the Choicest and Best Psalm Tunes (1717), second edition, included eleven tunes for Watts texts, with the same piece sometimes intended for more than one hymn.29 That Orme relied on the second or a subsequent edition of Hymns and Spiritual Songs is evident from his inclusion of lyrics that were not in the first printing, such as “Who can describe the joys that rise.” The tunes are all in three parts, with the melody in the top voice, and many of them are given generic titles (e.g., AN HIMN [sic]). Two of the settings that are linked with texts by Watts received their first printings in this book, “Blest be the Father and his love”/“Now have our hearts embrac’d our God” (A SONG OF PRAISE TO THE BLESSED TRINITY; figure 2) and “Who can describe the joys that rise” (A HIMN TUNE).30 Neither tune ever received a second publication. In the same year that the second edition of William Lawrence’s Collection of Tunes was printed, John Christian Jacobi published Psalmodia Germanica; or a Specimen of Divine Hymns, translated from the High Dutch. Together with Their

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Thomas Orme, A Collection of the Choicest and Best Psalm Tunes, 2nd ed. (Nottingham: William Ayscough, 1717). HTI notes that no copy of a first edition of this book is known, and that Robert Bennet’s similarly titled A Collection of the Choicest and Best Psalm Tunes (Nottingham: J. Collyer, 1714) may have been the original version of the book. These are identified in HTI as nos. 861 and 857.

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figure 2 “Blest be the Father and his love”/A SONG OF PRAISE TO THE BLESSED TRINITY

Proper Tunes and Thorough Bass (1722).31 In the preface, Jacobi indicated that “I have, with the Leave of the Reverend Mr. Watts, transcrib’d one entire Hymn out of his Horæ Lyricæ, upon the Nativity of Christ, and the 127 Psalm, out of his new Translation; both which agree so well with our German Composures on those Subjects, that I made bold to try, how a good English Verse, set to a German Tune, might be relish’d by a British Singer.” The two named pieces are “Shepherds, rejoice, lift up your eyes,” first published in the second edition of Horæ Lyricæ (1709), and “If God succeed not all the cost” (Ps. 127 LM), which Jacobi revised as “Is God withdrawing, all the cost.” These texts were accompanied by the German chorale tunes LOBT GOTT, IHR CHRISTEN ALLZUGLEICH and WO GOTT ZUM HAUS, respectively. However, Jacobi’s use of Watts’s lyrics did not end with these two items, for he employed portions of several other hymns as well. The opening stanza from part 1 of “He reigns; the Lord, the Saviour reigns” (Ps. 97 LM) was combined 31

John Christian Jacobi, Psalmodia Germanica; or a Specimen of Divine Hymns, Translated from the High Dutch. Together with Their Proper Tunes and Thorough Bass (London: J. Young, M. Smith, and W. Smith, 1722). Watts’s library listed an undated book of “German Psalms, 3 vol.,” which most likely refers to Jacobi’s collection; the “three volumes” may refer to multiple copies of the same edition, to the two parts of 1722 and 1725, or some combination of these.

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with the three stanzas of part 2, “The Lord is come, the heav’ns proclaim,” and the last stanza of part 3, “Th’ almighty reigns exalted high,” and linked with VOM HIMMEL HOCH. A similar procedure of using stanzas from different parts of one of the imitations was employed for “Shew pity, Lord, O Lord forgive” (Ps. 51 LM; ERBARM DICH MEIN O HERRE GOTT).32 ALLEIN GOTT IN DER HÖH was set to a translation of the German chorale by that name, but with the first four lines borrowed from Watts’s “To our almighty maker God” (Ps. 98 CM, pt. 1). Various lines—including the first—from “Out of the deeps of long distress” (Ps. 130 CM) were incorporated into the words for AUS TIEFER NOT. In addition to using this pastiche approach, Jacobi made frequent changes to Watts’s texts.33 Two other tune books published during the 1720s contained one or two tunes for Watts texts. William Pearson’s The Second Book of the Divine Companion (ca. 1725) included settings for “Behold the glories of the lamb” and “There was an hour when Christ rejoiced,” SPECIMEN OF MUSICK by Arthur Bedford and the anonymous HYMN 11, respectively; both tunes were first printings, and neither saw subsequent use. Michael Broome’s Michael Broome’s Collection of Church Musick ([1726]) printed John Bishop’s 1722 tune PRINCES as a setting for “Thus saith the mercy of the Lord.”34 In 1730, Nathaniel Gawthorn, William Lawrence’s successor as song leader for the Friday Lecture, brought out Harmonia Perfecta: a Compleat Collection of Psalm Tunes, in Four Parts. In his dedication “To the Gentlemen Who Support the Friday Lecture in Eastcheap,” Gawthorn acknowledges the earlier work of Lawrence. Most of the congregational tunes are textless and, unlike Lawrence, the only attempt to relate the work specifically to Watts occurs in the headings of three pieces: ELTHAM (“To Dr. Watts’s Hymn: Had I the tongues of Greeks and Jews”), the “New Tune” for “The Lord, the sovereign, sends his summons forth” (“Torrington Tune. New 50th. For Dr. Watts’s Version”), and “Chichester New Tune, to Dr. Watts’s 122d. Psalm” for “How pleas’d and blest was I.” ELTHAM was a new tune that was evidently written specifically for Watts’s text; it received no later printings. In 1736, Arthur Bedford began publication of a quarterly collection of music titled Divine Recreations, which apparently ceased after the third issue. That last number, printed for the “Whitsun quarter” of 1737, included three canons that employed texts from Hymns and Spiritual Songs. The canons for “There 32

Jacobi’s version of “Shew pity, Lord, O Lord forgive” also incorporates adaptations from part 1 of Watts’s CM paraphrase of the psalm, “Lord, I would spread my sore distress.” 33 A second part for Psalmodia Germanica was published in 1725, but this does not seem to have contained any material by Watts. The second edition of part 1 (1732) contained the same Watts items as the first edition. 34 See HTI PearWDC2 a and BrooMMBC aa.

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was an hour when Christ rejoic’d” and “Behold the glories of the lamb” were apparently composed by the compiler himself, while the melody by Thomas Tallis that has been subsequently known as TALLIS’S CANON was set to “Ere the blue heav’ns were stretch’d abroad.” William Tans’ur’s Heaven on Earth (1738) is a curious collection that contains versifications and musical settings of the entire biblical books of Proverbs and Song of Solomon. Among the “various Hymns, Anthems and Canons, &c.” that conclude the work are settings of four hymns by Watts: “Behold the grace appears,” My God, how endless is thy love” (both with added “hallelujahs”), “Hark! from the tombs a doleful sound” (with an appended doxology), and what appears to be the first published musical setting of “When I survey the wondrous cross,” though Tans’ur had previously published this tune with other texts under the titles EVENING HYMN and SARUM. Two collections issued in 1741, John Arnold’s The Complete Psalmodist and volume three of John Sreeve’s The Oxfordshire Harmony, each contained a single tune for a Watts text, “Behold the grace appears” and “Hark! from the tombs a doleful sound,” respectively. Two additional hymns received settings in 1745, “Why do we mourn departing friends” in Thomas Green and Christopher Clark’s Vocal Harmony Displayed in Psalmody, and “When Israel, freed from Pharaoh’s hand” in John Sheeles’s The Skylark, a collection of tunes set to sacred poetry from The Spectator.35 No more settings of Watts texts appear to have been printed between these 1745 volumes and his death three years later. Several things should be noted about the publication of settings for Watts’s texts in contemporary tune books. First is the scattered nature of the printings. Between the earliest tune book to include Watts texts and the last before his death (1717–1745), a period of twenty-eight years, only eleven tune books were issued that contained or referenced at least one of his lyrics, an average of about one every two-and-one-half years. While this is not an unrespectable figure, it is remarkable that compilers did not mine his more than 725 texts more often; the figures also pale in comparison to the flood of tune books that included his texts published in 1750 and later. Second, apart from Orme’s Collection of the Choicest and Best Psalm Tunes, the compilers seldom included tunes for more than two or three of Watts’s texts. This reticence probably resulted in part from the fact that the books also often contained a large body of metrical psalms from the Old Version or other material (such as the settings of Proverbs and Song of Solomon in Tans’ur), with a small body of hymn texts at the end, or printed only texts from a discrete source (Sheeles). Since Watts’s texts were only in the beginning stages of the 35

See the introduction for discussion of the appearance of “When Israel, freed from Pharaoh’s hand” in The Spectator.

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dominant position they eventually achieved, it is understandable that the tune book compilers were reluctant to fill their volumes with texts that might not be found useful by a large number of potential buyers. Third, contemporary tune book compilers relied more heavily upon Watts’s hymns than his psalm paraphrases. Apart from Jacobi’s Psalmodia Germanica, all of the compilers included at least one hymn text, and most of the time, this was either the only or the primary Watts type that is represented. Metrical psalmody was still the repertory of choice for most congregations, but the extra-liturgical character of the tune book meant that it could contain sacred texts that were not necessarily part of a church’s officially-approved repertory. Fourth, none of the tunes that were written for or printed with Watts’s texts achieved much currency as settings for his words. Most of the newly-composed tunes appeared only a single time. Finally, except for Jacobi, there is no indication of direct involvement by Watts with any of the compilers who employed his tunes. Nor can we be certain that Watts even knew about these settings of his hymns after they were published, and if he did, we have no indication what he might have thought about them. Beginning almost immediately after his death, the publication of tunes for Watts texts from both Hymns and Spiritual Songs and The Psalms of David Imitated increased dramatically, and his works became a standard resource for compilers of music books. The future dominance of Watts seems to have been anticipated by an anonymously-compiled supplement titled “Tunes Adapted to the foregoing Hymns” that was issued in Dublin in 1749 (the year following Watts’s death) as part of A Collection of Psalms and Sacred Poems.36 The twenty-two tunes of the supplement are given in melody and bass, mostly with first stanzas of the hymns interlined between the staves of music. One tune contains two stanzas that are through-composed, two pieces are given additional stanzas grouped at the end of the tunes, and one tune sets a stanza other than the first. Thirteen of the melodies are set to texts from Watts’s Hymns and Spiritual Songs and one is for a lyric that was first published in the second edition of Horæ Lyricæ (1709).37 Four of the tunes in the book are first 36 A Collection of Psalms and Sacred Poems (Dublin: S. Powell, 1749). 37 From HSS: “Raise thee, my soul, fly up and run” (B33), “Come let us join our cheerful songs” (A62), “Happy the heart where graces reign” (B38), “How short and hasty is our life” (B32), “How wondrous great, how glorious bright” (B87), “Time! what an empty vapour ‘tis” (B58), “He frowns, and darkness veils the moon” (st. 6 of “Can creatures to perfection find,” B170), “Descend from heav’n, immortal dove” (B23), “Behold the Rose of Sharon here” (A68), “Away from ev’ry mortal care” (B123), “Welcome sweet day of rest” (B14), “How beauteous are their feet” (A10), “With cheerful voice I sing” (A148). From HL: “Sinners rejoice, lift up your eyes” (originally “Shepherds rejoice”).

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printings, but only one of these is linked to a Watts text, “Time! what an empty vapour ‘tis.” Two examples chosen from the tabulations in The Hymn Tune Index illustrate the frequent use of Watts’s lyrics by tune book compilers in the second half of the eighteenth century and beyond: “Jesus shall reign where’er the sun” was given a musical setting 141 times in English-language tune books (chiefly British and American) between 1784 and 1820, while “Hark! from the tombs a doleful sound” received no fewer than 274 printings between 1750 and 1820.38 Karl Kroeger pointed out that Watts’s psalms and hymns accounted for nearly forty percent of the texts set by American psalmodists between 1770 and 1820, with one lyric, “The God of glory sends his summons forth,” being used more than fifty times.39 The growing acceptance of Watts by congregations undoubtedly provided a stimulus for tune book compilers to include his works in their collections. At the same time, the singing of his texts from tune books in singing schools and by choirs increased exposure to them, and ultimately helped make them more acceptable for congregational use. While several of the tunes to which Watts’s texts are currently sung were of eighteenth-century origin, for the most part these linkages date from well after Watts’s lifetime; other frequently-used tunes for his hymns were not written until the nineteenth century.40 For example, “Our God, our help in ages past” is usually sung to the 1708 melody ST. ANNE; however, this text and tune do not appear to have been joined in print until the early nineteenth century. DUKE STREET (“Jesus shall reign where’er the sun”) did not appear until 1793. ROCKINGHAM, the common setting for “When I survey the wondrous cross” in Britain and the former Commonwealth countries, was first published in the late eighteenth century, but was not paired with this text until Hymns Ancient and Modern (1861). Lowell Mason’s HAMBURG, sung to this hymn in the United States, is an adaptation of Vincent Novello’s arrangement of the first Gregorian psalm tone. The initial form of the tune appeared in 1825, but it was later heavily revised and not set to these words until 1859; another fifty years passed before it began to be recognized as the “standard” tune for these words in the U.S. ANTIOCH, to which “Joy to the world” is almost universally sung, is a reworking of several phrases from Handel’s Messiah. Versions of the 38 39 40

Of course, some of the publications were reprints in later editions of the same tune book, but the figures illustrate in at least a general way the usage of Watts’s texts by compilers of music collections. Karl Kroeger, “Settings of Isaac Watts’s Psalm 50 by American Psalmodists,” The Hymn 41, no. 1 (January 1990): 19. Robert Stevenson, “The Eighteenth-Century Hymn Tune,” in English Hymnology in the Eighteenth Century (Los Angeles: William Andrews Clark Memorial Library, 1980), 24.

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arrangement were printed in several British tune books of the early 1830s; in 1836, Lowell Mason published what became the common form of the melody and set it to Watts’s text.41 The only Watts hymn that is still typically linked with one of the tunes that he recommended is “I’ll praise my maker with my breath,” now usually sung in John Wesley’s slightly altered version as “I’ll praise my maker while I’ve breath,” which is paired with OLD 113. 4

Watts and the Music of Hymnody

Isaac Watts was content to express his innovative ideas for congregational song mainly on the textual side of that practice. It was in his paraphrasing of Scripture and his freely-written hymns that his greatest contributions were made. Since this was a radical departure from previous procedure, it is understandable that he did not at the same time advocate similar innovations in the music of congregational song. In order for his texts to have a chance among the churches, it was necessary for him to rely upon the traditional meters of the metrical psalms so they could be sung immediately, without the need for writing or learning new tunes. This practice removed at least one barrier to the potential use of his hymns and is a demonstration of his practical approach to church singing. However, the comments he made in his prefaces, his specification of “proper” tunes for some texts, and his involvement with the “New Tune” for “The Lord, the sovereign, sends his summons forth,” indicate that he was also interested in the musical side of congregational song. His exact relationship to the tune supplement by Lawrence and the one in the fifth edition of The Psalms of David Imitated is uncertain, but it inconceivable that he did not at least know about these publications, and he might very well have had at least some role in them, if only in agreeing that they might be useful as accompaniments for his texts. Apart from the volume by Jacobi, we are even less certain about his role in or knowledge of the settings of his texts in contemporary tune books. Nevertheless, the growing publication stream of his hymns in contemporary tune books—a stream that was to become a flood soon after his death—indicate an increasing awareness of the compilers of such volumes that these were texts that were well adapted for musical settings. 41

For discussions of HAMBURG and ANTIOCH see David W. Music, “The Origins of Lowell Mason’s Tune HAMBURG,” The Hymn 68, no. 1 (Winter 2017), 24–30; John Wilson, “The Evolution of the Tune ‘Antioch,” Hymn Society of Great Britain and Ireland Bulletin 166, vol. 11, no. 5 (January 1986): 107–114; and Hymnology Archive, https://www.hymnologyar�chive.com/joy-to-the-world (accessed April 9, 2021).

Chapter 6

An Analysis of Four Hymns from Hymns and Spiritual Songs Previous chapters of this book have examined the hymns of Isaac Watts from the perspectives of their historical/biographical/sociocultural environment, biblical background, theological viewpoint, liturgical context, poetic features, and potential musical settings. This chapter and the next one draw these perspectives together through a study of eight hymns, four each from Hymns and Spiritual Songs and The Psalms of David Imitated. The hymns chosen for analysis in these chapters have been deliberately selected from among Watts’s lesser-known texts. “Alas! and did my Saviour bleed,” “Joy to the world! the Lord is come,” “When I survey the wondrous cross,” and similar hymns have already received substantial treatment in hymnal companions and other sources.1 Furthermore, a fresh perspective may perhaps be gained by working with material that is less familiar. The hymns have been chosen in part to demonstrate the range of technique and emotional fervor of which Watts was capable. It is freely admitted that, in most cases, the choice of liturgical possibilities and tunes to accompany the texts in this and the following chapter is speculative. Except when Watts gave precise directions as to the intended occasion or tune, the author has simply chosen a situation or melody that seems to fit the possible use and the character (and meter) of the hymn. The tunes have been selected from those that Watts undoubtedly knew.2 While the liturgical circumstances and tunes posited here are usually but one choice among many possibilities, they do provide some sense of how an early eighteenth-century congregation might well have experienced these texts.

1 For analyses of some of Watts’s better-known texts, see David W. Music, Repeat the Sounding Joy: Reflections on Hymns by Isaac Watts (Macon, GA: Mercer University Press, 2010). 2 The musical examples in this chapter are taken from John Playford, The Whole Book of Psalms . . . With All the Ancient and Proper Tunes Sung in Churches, With Some of Later Use, 7th ed. (London: J. Heptinstall, 1701). It is likely that Watts knew this edition of Playford’s book; his library contained a volume that was described as “A Collection of Psalms and Hymns (Lond. 1701),” and Playford seems to be the only one that fits this description. Only the melodies are given in the examples, since the usual practice in Independent services was to sing in unison. © David W. Music, 2022 | doi:10.1163/9789004520523_008

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“Infinite Grief! Amazing Woe!”

“Infinite grief! amazing woe” (B95) was first published in the 1707 edition of Hymns and Spiritual Songs. It was reprinted without change (except for some minor alteration of punctuation) in the second edition of 1709. The text is in common meter, with an ABCB rhyme scheme; the only half rhymes occur in stanzas four and five. The hymn is headed “Look on him whom they pierced, and mourn,” a phrase that is drawn from a portion of Zechariah 12:10, “they shall look upon me whom they have pierced, and they shall mourn for him,” part of which is quoted in John 19:37. As was customary in book 2, however, Watts did not provide a Scripture reference for the text. Infinite Grief! amazing Woe! Behold my bleeding Lord: Hell and the Jews conspir’d his Death, And us’d the Roman Sword. Oh the sharp Pangs of smarting Pain My dear Redeemer bore, When knotty Whips and ragged Thorns His sacred Body tore! But knotty Whips and ragged Thorns In vain do I accuse, In vain I blame the Roman Bands, And the more spightful Jews. ‘Twere you, my Sins, my cruel Sins, His chief Tormentors were; Each of my Crimes became a Nail, And Unbelief the Spear. ‘Twere you that pull’d the Vengeance down Upon his guiltless Head: Break, break my Heart, oh burst mine Eyes, And let my Sorrows bleed. Strike, mighty Grace, my flinty Soul Till melting Waters flow,

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And deep Repentance drown mine Eyes In undissembled Woe. This hymn on the Passion of Christ is remarkable on a number of counts. The text begins precipitously with a line that does not contain a verb; instead, there are two nouns and two adjectives that take the form of exclamations, complete with exclamation marks (ecphonesis). The line’s abruptness and exclamation marks immediately grab the attention of the singer and at the same time give a foretaste of the amazement, grief, and regret that is to come. Though Watts gave no Scripture references for the hymn, it draws primarily from verses in the gospels of Luke and John. Line 3 of the first stanza is based on Luke 22:2–4. And the chief priests and scribes sought how they might kill him; for they feared the people. Then entered Satan into Judas surnamed Iscariot, being of the number of the twelve. And he went his way, and communed with the chief priests and captains, how he might betray him. Knowing this biblical background is important for understanding Watts’s references to “Hell and the Jews”: the word “Hell” is used metaphorically to describe Satan’s entering into Judas Iscariot, and “the Jews” represents the “chief priests and scribes.” Unfortunately, where this biblical context is not known—as would probably be the case in a typical congregational setting—it can lead to misunderstanding that Watts is lumping “Hell” with the Jewish people and blaming the whole race for the crucifixion. Given its scriptural background, that does not seem to have been Watts’s intent, but it does create a barrier to modern use of the text, particularly when, in the last line of stanza 3, he refers to “the more spightful Jews,” probably meaning either something like “the Jews that were more spiteful than other Jews” or “the Jews that were even more spiteful than the Romans” (i.e., the chief priests and scribes). These references to the Jews are certainly open to misinterpretation, but they should be read in the context of both the Scriptures on which they are based and the later stanzas discussed below, as well as Watts’s usual practice in his hymns.3 Line 4 of stanza 1 obliquely alludes to John 18:31: “Then Pilate said unto them, Take ye him, and judge him according to your law. The Jews therefore said unto him, It is not lawful for us to put any man to death.” Watts turns this bit of dialogue into Satan and the Hebrew rulers using “the Roman Sword” to crucify Jesus. The “knotty Whips” and “ragged Thorns” of stanzas 2 and 3 relate to John 19:1–2: 3 See the discussion of Watts’s hymnic references to the Jews in chap. 2.

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“Then Pilate therefore took Jesus, and scourged him. And the soldiers platted a crown of thorns, and put it on his head, and they put on him a purple robe.” Finally, the nails and spear of stanza 4 are drawn from John 19:17–18 and 34: “And he bearing his cross went forth into a place called the place of a skull, which is called in the Hebrew Golgotha: where they crucified him, and two other with him, on either side one, and Jesus in the midst. . . . But one of the soldiers with a spear pierced his side, and forthwith came there out blood and water.” Watts weaves these Scriptures and his personal reaction to them into a powerful theological statement about who was ultimately responsible for the crucifixion. As the hymn opens, it appears that blame is being assigned to those first-century people who were actually on the scene, but in the third and fourth stanzas, it becomes clear that it was neither the Jews nor the Romans, but Watts’s (the singer’s) own sins that crucified Jesus. This realization leads first to remorse (st. 5), then to a prayer for—and, by implication, of—repentance (st. 6). Stanza 5 clearly relates the hymn to the penal substitution theory of the atonement, in which Jesus took upon himself the punishment (here, “the Vengeance”) that humans deserved because of their sin. It seems likely that the text was inspired at least in part by Meditation 7 in George Stanhope’s Pious Breathings. Being the Meditations of St Augustine, first published in 1701.4 The general theme of the hymn is the same as that of the meditation, which is titled “An acknowledgement that sinful Man was the Cause of Christ’s sufferings.” Stanza 4 in particular resembles several lines from the meditation: “‘Twas I, alas, ‘twas wretched I, that gave thee all those pains; ‘Twas I deserv’d the death that thou enduredst; and My offenses gave those Scourges, those Nails, that Spear, the power of slaying, and wounding, and killing thee. . . . Mine is the Crime, and thine the Torture” (15). The references to weeping in the fifth and sixth strophes reflect another phrase in the meditation, “Let tears be my meat day and night” (17). Watts’s hymn is also very similar to Johann Heermann’s seventeenth-­ century German chorale Herzliebster Jesu, one stanza of which, in the late nineteenth-century translation by Robert Bridges, reads as follows. Who was the guilty? Who brought this upon thee? Alas, my treason, Jesu, hath undone thee. ‘Twas I, Lord Jesu, I it was denied thee: I crucified thee.5

4 George Stanhope, Pious Breathings. Being the Meditations of St Augustine (London: for S. Sprint, et al., 1701). A second edition appeared in 1704. 5 Robert Bridges, The Yattendon Hymnal (London: Oxford University Press, 1899), no. 42, st. 2.

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The resemblance between Heermann’s and Watts’s hymns is not accidental, since both were probably based on the meditation attributed to Augustine. “Infinite grief! Amazing woe” is rich with vivid language (hypotyposis) and baroque imagery. There are not merely “Whips” and “Thorns,” but “knotty Whips” and “ragged Thorns,” the adjectives increasing the boldness of the expression. These instruments of torture create “sharp Pangs,” “smarting Pain,” and tear the “sacred Body” of Jesus. The sins that were Jesus’ “chief Tormentors” are not merely shortcomings, but “cruel Sins” and “Crimes,” the last-named word reminding of another use of that term in “Alas! and did my Saviour bleed” (B9, 3:1–2): “Was it for Crimes that I had done / He groan’d upon the Tree?” Watts metaphorically describes his “Crimes” and “Unbelief” as the nails and spear that crucified Jesus and pierced his side. He calls on his heart to “break,” and his tears, which are described as “melting Waters,” to “burst” or “drown” his eyes in “undissembled [unconcealed] Woe.” His soul is not just hard, it is “flinty” (rock-like). The first two lines of the last stanza may be an allusion to Moses striking the rock in the wilderness to bring water to the Israelites (Num. 20:11). Pleonasm and tautology occur in the first line of stanza 2 (“sharp Pangs” and “smarting Pain”), enhanced by a double alliteration. Alliteration is also prominent in the lines “Behold my bleeding Lord,” “In vain I blame the Roman Bands,” “Break, break my Heart, oh burst mine Eyes,” and “And deep Repentance drown mine Eyes,” the plosive consonants creating a harsh, unforgiving sound that is reminiscent of a nail being driven. Of particular interest are the first two lines of stanza 6, which contain three words beginning with “m”: “mighty,” “my,” and “melting,” the first two forming an alliterative semirhyme. The correspondence of the final sounds of “mighty” and “flinty” should also be noted. An identical internal rhyme occurs in the line “‘Twere you, my Sins, my cruel Sins.” Anaphora appears in the second and third lines of stanza 3 (“In vain”), diacope in the first line of stanza 4 (“my Sins, my cruel Sins”), and epizeuxis in 5:3 (“Break, break”), with the repetitions serving both to create rhythm and reiterate the important words. Personification occurs in 5:4 and apostrophe in 6:1. The phrase “knotty Whips and ragged Thorns” appears in both the second and third stanzas, and the fourth and fifth stanzas both begin with “‘Twere you.” Finally, the hymn is framed by the word “Woe,” which appears at the end of the first line and also as the last word of the text.6

6 For similar placement of a word in another Watts hymn, see “Salvation! O the joyful sound” (B88), in which the word “Sound” ends both the first and last lines of the text.

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All these poetic devices work together to frame a mea culpa that emphasizes the sorrow and repentance of the singer, whose sins were the cause of Jesus’ suffering and death. The emotional character of the hymn takes it out of the realm of a mere theological tenet and into a subjective response that calls for tears and grief. The hymn is in the form that Harry Escott termed “invitation-recital-­ response,” with the invitation found in the first two lines of stanza 1, the recital in stanzas 1:3 through 5:2, and the response in 5:3–4 and stanza 6. The text fits into Scotty Gray’s analysis of lyrics using a climactic design, moving from grief at the crucifixion to the realization of the singer’s own role in the event, and finally to a complete collapse into a prayer of repentance. Liturgically, the hymn is most appropriate to accompany a sermon on the Passion of Christ. It is probably also one of the “above an Hundred Hymns” from books 1 and 2 mentioned in the preface of Hymns and Spiritual Songs as being fit for use at the Lord’s Supper. The hymn is a personal meditation that uses a human to self “voice.” The stark language and bold imagery of Watts’s text call for a tune that is solemn and reflective. While there is no way of knowing if Watts had any particular tune in mind for this hymn, or, if he did, which one it might be, ST. MARY’S (=HACKNEY; figure 3) seems to be an appropriate complement. The melody is in the minor mode, matching the gravity of the text, and its deliberate pace allows scope for the words to be readily grasped and their descriptive metaphors to have their full effect. Watts’s contemplation of the cross of Christ almost invariably led him to pen a hymn that is powerful and full of drama.7 “Infinite grief! amazing woe” is exceptional for the bleakness and severity of its imagery, its outburst of heartbreak, its call for repentance and commitment, and the way in which all the elements of the text (and an appropriate melody) work together to enhance its meaning and effect. Perhaps only in those other two, more famous, Passion hymns, “When I survey the wondrous cross” and “Alas! and did my Saviour bleed,” did Watts achieve similar emotion-laden and striking expressions of the meaning and message of the crucifixion.8 7 For discussion of the dramatic aspects of Watts’s texts, see Madeleine Forell Marshall and Janet Todd, English Congregational Hymns in the Eighteenth Century (Lexington, KY: Kentucky U. P., 1982), 34–44. 8 Contrasting critiques of this hymn can be found in Donald Davie, The Eighteenth-Century Hymn in England (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1993), 47, and Richard Arnold, Trinity of Discord (New York: Peter Lang, 2012), 56–57.

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figure 3  “Infinite grief! amazing woe!”/ST. MARY’S

2

“God of the Morning, at Whose Voice”

“God of the morning, at whose voice” (A79) provides a significant contrast to the intensity and fervor of “Infinite grief! amazing woe.” The hymn did not appear in the first edition of Hymns and Spiritual Songs, and was probably written between the publication of that edition in July, 1707, and the second edition in April of 1709. The text is in long meter and uses cross rhyme. As is customary with Watts, it is in iambic poetic meter, though several lines begin with a choriambus. The fourth and fifth stanzas were marked for possible omission. Watts later revised, shortened, and simplified the text for inclusion in the first edition of Divine Songs Attempted in Easy Language for the Use of Children as “My God, who mak’st the sun to know.”9 God of the Morning, at whose Voice The chearful Sun makes hast[e] to rise, And like a Giant doth rejoice To run his Journey through the Skies. From the fair Chambers of the East The circuit of his Race begins, And without Weariness or Rest Round the whole Earth he flys and shines. 9 William Eaton Stephenson, “The Heroic Hymn of Isaac Watts” (Ph.D. diss., University of California, 1963), 207–208. See DS, 35 (no. 25).

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O like the Sun may I fulfil Th’ appointed Duties of the Day, With ready Mind and active Will March on and keep my heavenly Way. [But I shall rove and lose the Race, If God my Sun should disappear, And leave me in this World’s wild Maze To follow every wand’ring Star. Lord, thy Commands are clean and pure, Inlightning our beclouded Eyes, Thy Threat’nings just, thy Promise sure, Thy Gospel makes the Simple wise.] Give me thy Counsels for my Guide, And then receive me to thy Bliss; All my Desires and Hopes beside Are faint and cold, compar’d with this. Titled “A Morning Hymn,” the text is given the Scripture references “Psal. 19. 5, 8. & 73. 24, 25.” However, the hymn also makes use of verses 6–7 of Psalm 19, and the first citation should probably have read “Psal. 19. 5, 6, 7, 8.”10 [The sun] is as a bridegroom coming out of his chamber, and rejoiceth as a strong man to run a race. His going forth is from the end of the heaven, and his circuit unto the ends of it: and there is nothing hid from the heat thereof. The law of the Lord is perfect, converting the soul: the testimony of the Lord is sure, making wise the simple. The statutes of the Lord are right, rejoicing the heart; the commandment of the Lord is pure, enlightening the eyes. (Ps. 19:5–8)

10

Psalm 19 is also the basis for “Great God, the heaven’s well-ordered frame,” discussed in the following chapter. These two texts on the same psalm have been intentionally chosen so that comparisons may be made between them, one a hymn “based on” a psalm, and the other a metrical psalm version.

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Thou shalt guide me with thy counsel, and afterward receive me to glory. Whom have I in heaven but thee? and there is none upon earth that I desire beside thee. (Ps. 73:24–25) It is likely that, as he wrote this hymn, Watts had before him not only the KJV of Psalm 19, but also the New Version of the Psalms by Tate and Brady, which follows the 1662 Book of Common Prayer (a copy of which was in Watts’s library)11 in rendering the “strong man” of the KJV as “Giant.” Watts must have felt that “Giant” was a better description of the sun, was a more picturesque image, or would be better understood by the average congregant. Watts’s opening two stanzas parallel verses 5–6 of Psalm 19. He omits the reference to the bridegroom, focusing instead on the analogy of the sun running like an athlete a daily race around the earth. He then inserts a freely-written stanza that uses the sun as a simile for himself, and prays that he might be as faithful as that heavenly body in “running the race.” Stanza four is loosely based on Psalm 73:25. The imagery becomes a bit confused at this point, for the sun now becomes a metaphor for God, and the idea of following “every wand’ring Star”—which has no parallel in the psalm—is introduced. Stanza 5 returns to Psalm 19 to paraphrase verses 7–8, and the last stanza imitates Psalm 73:24. The approach taken in this hymn is typical of many of Watts’s lyrics in combining texts from different parts of Scripture and rearranging their thoughts. Theologically, the hymn addresses three principal topics: God’s ordering and sustaining of creation (sts. 1–2), the need for faithfulness in duty on the part of the Christian (st. 3), and the necessity for God’s continued revelation and guidance (st. 4). The “Commands,” “Threat’nings,” and “Promise[s]” of the gospel are acknowledged as the cure for “beclouded Eyes” and for making “the Simple wise” (st. 5). The final stanza is a prayer for enlightenment and eternal reward. The fact that the sun is “chearful” in performing its appointed task (1:2) suggests how the Christian is to approach his or her “Duties.” The carrying out of these duties should also be characterized by a “ready Mind and active Will” (3:3). The form of the text can be described as an alternation between recital and response. The first two stanzas are a recital of God’s role in causing the sun to rise and circumnavigate the earth. Stanza 3 responds by praying that the singer will be found as faithful in duty as the sun. Stanzas 4–5 describe the consequences of God’s withdrawing his support and the usefulness of God’s 11

Listed in A Catalogue of the Library of the Late Reverend and Learned Isaac Watts, D. D. (n.p.: n.d., [1750]), 16, as “Common-Prayer-Book, 1st Edit.”

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word, while stanza 6 responds with another prayer for guidance. The hymn is comparative in its three-fold use of the sun in different meanings: as the celestial body that gives light to the earth, as the believer who should exhibit faithfulness, and as the God who gives light to his people. One of the key elements in “God of the morning, at whose voice” is its use of both metaphor and simile, many of the instances, of course, derived from the source Scriptures: the sun is “like a Giant” and its circuit is a “Race,” believers should fulfill their duties “like the Sun,” and God is “my Sun.” As noted above, several lines begin with a choriambus, including 1:1, in which the rhythm suggests joy and thankfulness at the dawning of a new day. Alliteration is featured at several points in the text (2:1 and 3, 3:2, 5:1, 6:1). The use of consonance in 4:3, “World’s wild,” is particularly striking, especially when combined with the following word (“Maze”), temporarily slowing down the rhythm, which to this point has been as regular as clockwork (or perhaps sunrise), implying the interruption of the singer’s joy caused by God’s potential disappearance. God is personified as having a “Voice,” and the sun can “run.” Traductio on the word “thy” occurs in stanza 5, partly achieved through mesarchia and partly through anaphora. A feature of the text that becomes particularly evident when it is read aloud or sung is its large number of repeated open and rounded vowel sounds (“ah,” “oh,” etc.). For example, the first word of the initial line, “God,” is spoken or sung with a dropped jaw, while the next word, “of,” is a more neutral sound (schwa). Later in the line come “Morning” and “Voice,” an assonant rhyme that has a more rounded formation and is focused in the front of the mouth. Similar smooth vowel formations occur throughout the hymn, as do additional assonant rhymes (“our beclouded,” 5:2; “receive me,” 6:2). Also remarkable are the large number of nasal and liquid consonants—consonants that can be sustained like vowels, such as “m” and “l”—and glides (semivowels) that function like short vowels (“w”), all of which are used to begin words. These gentle sounds combine with the poetic devices to form an atmosphere of contemplation on the marvels of the sunrise and the need for God’s continuing presence. The lines of communication in this hymn are mixed. The first three stanzas are addressed to God, while stanza 4 changes to the singer meditating within him- or herself, with God being described in third person.12 The last two stanzas then return to a human to God “voice.” 12

Stanza 3 is somewhat ambiguous in terms of its voice, and could be interpreted as the singer making a vow to him- or herself. However, it seems more likely to be a continuation of lines 1–2 of stanza 1, since, though periods end both of the first two stanzas, these strophes do not form a complete sentence; the conclusion of the sentence occurs in stanza 3.

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Liturgically, Watts’s hymn is most appropriate as the opening hymn for a corporate Sunday morning service or a beginning-of-the-day personal, family, or small group devotional time. If used at the beginning of public worship, the “Duties of the Day” in Watts’s time would probably be thought of as the elements of worship: singing; prayer; hearing the Scripture, exposition, and sermon; and perhaps partaking of the Lord’s Supper. The text could also have been used to accompany a sermon on either of the psalms that formed its basis. Among the long meter tunes with which Watts would have been familiar, OLD 100 is a logical choice (figure 4), both because of its familiarity and its character. The melody’s major mode and stately, measured tread fit both the “cheerfulness” and steadfastness of the sun in its appointed rounds, as well as the faithfulness required of the believer.

figure 4 “God of the morning, at whose voice”/OLD 100

Watts perhaps tried to do too much in this hymn: celebrate God’s creation, and compare both humans and God to one aspect of it. In the process, the imagery of the sun is stretched to cover too many different analogies and might well be confusing for the “plain Christian.” This may be one reason that Watts marked the fourth and fifth stanzas for possible omission.13 On the other hand, 13

See Arnold, Trinity of Discord, 37–38, for additional discussion of the problems in this hymn.

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the text contains some beautiful and effective symbolism, and compares favorably with Charles Wesley’s later and better-known hymn of “daily duty,” “Forth in thy name, O Lord, I go.” 3

How Are Thy Glories Here Display’d

“How are thy glories here display’d” was probably written between 1707 and 1709: it was not published in the first edition of Hymns and Spiritual Songs, but appeared in the second edition as the last hymn of book 3 (C25), which was devoted to lyrics for the Lord’s Supper. The text, titled “Divine Glories and our Graces,” is in common meter, with an ABAB rhyme scheme. How are thy Glories here display’d, Great God, how bright they shine, While at thy Word we break the Bread, And pour the flowing Wine! Here thy revenging Justice stands And pleads its dreadful Cause; Here saving Mercy spreads her Hands Like Jesus on the Cross. Thy Saints attend with every Grace On this great Sacrifice; And Love appears with cheerful Face, And Faith with fixed Eyes. Our Hope in waiting Posture sits, To Heav’n directs her Sight; Here every warmer Passion meets, And warmer Pow’rs unite. Zeal and Revenge perform their Part, And rising Sin destroy; Repentance comes with aking Heart, Yet not forbids the Joy. Dear Saviour, change our Faith to sight Let Sin for ever die;

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Then shall our Souls be all Delight, And every Tear be dry. Watts did not give a scriptural reference for the text, and indeed there appears to be no central biblical background for it, though the prominent mention of “love,” “faith,” and “hope” in 3:3–4:1 suggests 1 Corinthians 13:1. The first line of stanza 6 alludes to Jesus’ words to the blind man in Mark 10:52, “Go thy way; thy faith hath made thee whole. And immediately he received his sight, and followed Jesus in the way.” The last line of the hymn suggests the phrase “and God shall wipe away all tears from their eyes,” found in both Revelation 7:17 and Revelation 21:4, an allusion that implies the creation of a sort of heaven on earth where Christians will “die” to sin and will sorrow no more; Watts had previously used this phrase in “Come, we that love the Lord” (B30, 10:2) from the first edition of Hymns and Spiritual Songs. The themes of the hymn are God’s revelation of himself through the act of Communion as representative of the sacrifice of Christ and the Christian’s responsibility to respond to this manifestation by commitment to sin no more. The two opening lines sound as though this is to be a hymn about the glory of God as revealed in nature, as can be seen by comparing them with the similar language at the beginning of Watts’s long meter version of Psalm 19 from The Psalms of David Imitated, “The Heavens declare thy Glory, Lord, / In every Star thy Wisdom shines.” Here, however, God’s glory is shown not by the magnificence of the universe but by the provision of simple food and drink. Watts’s language is careful: it is not the actual bread and wine that reflect the brightness of God’s glory (which might suggest the Real Presence of Christ in the elements, anathema to an Independent), but the breaking of the bread and pouring of the wine “at thy Word.” The second stanza sets up an antithesis between God’s “revenging Justice” and “saving Mercy” as revealed in the Supper. The stanza expresses the penal substitution theory of the atonement, in which “revenging Justice” calls for sin to be punished, but rather than chastising the transgressor, God places the punishment on his Son Jesus, who thereby satisfies God’s wrath and saves the sinner. With stanza three, the focus changes from God’s actions to those of the saints, who reflect the love they feel for God in their faces, fix their eyes on faith, direct their hope toward heaven, and warm their hearts through Communion. These positive features are accompanied by destruction—­destruction of sin by zeal, revenge (on sin), and repentance. Though this destruction is done with “aking Heart,” the action does not destroy “the Joy” of redemption. The last

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stanza is a prayer that God will support the communicants who thus call upon him, and that they will “see” the death of sin and an end to sorrow. “How are thy glories here display’d” maintains a human to God line of communication throughout. In his description of book 3 of Hymns and Spiritual Songs, Watts observed that “there are Expressions generally us’d in these which confine ‘em only to the Table of the Lord.” This description certainly applies to “How are thy glories here display’d,” which specifically mentions the bread and wine. At Bury Street church, the psalm or hymn typically came after the partaking of the Communion elements followed by the offering for the poor, and this hymn would have been appropriately sung at that point, with its last stanza (a prayer) serving as an appropriate sending forth to “go, and sin no more” (John 8:11). As he often does, Watts uses exclamation marks (ecphonesis) in the first stanza to express a sense of wonder or amazement and to give a heightened sense of joy or delight to the text. The focus of the hymn is not a mere looking upon the elements of Communion, but a glimpse of God’s glory hovering over them as the congregation fulfills Jesus’ commandment, “this do in remembrance of me” (Luke 22:19). The alliteration on “glories” and “Great God,” “bright” and “break the bread,” and the use of the verbs “break” and “pour” and the adjective “flowing” (kinesthesia) give a sense of forward motion to the text. Personification figures prominently in the hymn: “Justice” “stands / And pleads,” “Mercy spreads her Hands,” “Love” has a “Face,” “Faith” has “Eyes,” “Hope” “sits” and has “Sight,” “Zeal and Revenge perform,” and “Repentance” has a “Heart.” These colorful images help relate the divine to the human, give balance to the text, and, in conjunction with the alliteration and kinesthesia mentioned above, supply momentum; they also make the text more memorable. Simile links “saving Mercy” with “Jesus on the Cross.” Mesodiplosis on the word “warmer” in 4:3–4 combines with antanaclasis (repetition but with a difference in meaning or a change of direction) to unite “Passion” with “Pow’rs” (note also the alliteration). “How are thy glories here display’d” follows the recital-response pattern, with the first five stanzas reciting God’s revelation of himself in the Supper and the effect this has on the faithful. The final stanza then responds by asking for a fuller revelation so that “our Souls [shall] be all Delight, / And every Tear be dry.” The hymn can also be thought of as developmental: stanza 1 introduces the “glories” that are “display’d” in the breaking of the bread and pouring of the wine, after which stanzas 2–5 list some of these “glories,” and stanza 6 caps off the hymn with the prayer for “sight.”

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Among the many common meter tunes Watts would have known, LITCHFIELD OLD seems an appropriate match for this text (figure 5). The character of the tune befits the dignity of both the words and the occasion on which they would have been sung. The accents of the tune well match those of the text; in particular, the second phrase of the melody accommodates the spondee “Great God” without, however, making awkward the parallel place in the other stanzas.

figure 5  “How are thy glories here display’d”/LITCHFIELD OLD

“How are thy glories here display’d” allows congregants to hymn both the glory of God as revealed in the act of Communion and the graces (“unmerited favors”) they receive as a consequence. Here they sing about both “revenging Justice” and “saving Mercy”; love, faith, hope, and passion; zeal in destroying sin; and repentance and joy. They are also given an opportunity to pray for greater insight, vision, and joy in God’s service. To parishioners who heretofore had nothing to sing at the Lord’s Supper but metrical psalms, a text such as “How are thy glories here display’d” must have come as a welcome relief. 4

Lo, What a Glorious Sight Appears

“Lo, what a glorious sight appears” was published in the first edition of Hymns and Spiritual Songs (A21) under the title “A Vision of the Kingdom of Christ among Men,” with the Scripture reference “Revel. 21. 1, 2, 3, 4.” Watts took the opportunity of the second edition to make slight revisions in the orthography, most notably deleting the quotation marks in stanzas 3–5 in favor of italics. The single word change was to alter “Rowl” (roll) in 6:3 to “Fly,” perhaps to give a greater sense of urgency to the request for time to pass quickly. The hymn is in common meter and uses an ABCB rhyme scheme, except in the fifth stanza, where cross rhyme is employed.

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Lo, what a Glorious Sight appears To our believing Eyes! The Earth and Sea are pass’d away, And the old rolling Skies. From the third Heaven where God resides, That holy happy Place, The New Jerusalem comes down Adorn’d with shining Grace. Attending Angels shout for Joy, And the bright Armies sing, Mortals, behold the Sacred Seat Of your descending King. The God of Glory down to Men Removes his blest Abode, Men the dear Objects of his Grace, And he the loving God. His own soft Hand shall wipe the Tears From every weeping Eye, And Pains, and Groans, and Griefs, and Fears And Death it self shall dye. How Long, dear Saviour, oh how Long Shall this bright Hour delay? Fly swifter round ye Wheels of Time, And bring the welcome Day. As noted in Watts’s title for the hymn, the text is based on Revelation 21:1–4, John’s vision of the New Jerusalem. And I saw a new heaven and a new earth: for the first heaven and the first earth were passed away; and there was no more sea. And I John saw the holy city, new Jerusalem, coming down from God out of heaven, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband. And I heard a great voice out of heaven saying, Behold, the tabernacle of God is with men, and he will dwell with them, and they shall be his people, and God himself shall be with them, and be their God. And God shall wipe away all tears from their

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eyes; and there shall be no more death, neither sorrow, nor crying, neither shall there be any more pain: for the former things are passed away. Watts changes the “voice” of the passage from that of the apostle (“I saw”) to the singing congregation (“our believing Eyes”), though maintaining its human to human focus, and interprets the “great voice out of heaven” as belonging to “Attending Angels” in “bright Armies,” perhaps reflecting back on the “many angels round about the throne” of Revelation 5:11–12. Along the way, Watts alludes to a Pauline passage from 2 Corinthians 12 about the “third Heaven where God resides”: “I knew a man in Christ above fourteen years ago, . . . caught up to the third heaven. And I knew such a man, . . . How that he was caught up into paradise” (vv. 2, 4). On the whole, however, Watts’s version of the passage is straightforward, and, unlike some of his other scriptural hymns, maintains both the contents and the ordering of the passage relatively unchanged. The only significant addition to the scriptural background is the last stanza, which is freely written. In John’s apocalyptic vision, the original creation will pass away and be replaced by a new heaven, a new earth, and a new holy city, in which God will be forever with his people, take away all pain and tears, and even do away with death. Watts repeats these features but, rather than making it a vision experienced in the past, changes the past-tense verbs of the apostle to present tense, implying that the revelation is occurring at this moment. This does not mean that Watts sees a “heaven on earth,” but that the vision is so certain it is as though he is narrating a present event. Furthermore, it is not a solitary visionary who is experiencing the “Glorious Sight,” but rather an entire congregation. For Watts, the proper response to the vision is to “shout for Joy” and “sing,” an addition to the biblical text modeling how his own congregation should respond to what they see by singing the praise of God. Indeed, “Joy”—one of Watts’s favorite words—is the overarching theme of the hymn. Whatever hardships and trials have been faced are now in the past, and it is time for pure, unadulterated joy at the prospect of an eternity with God. The only caveat is that the joy is not yet fulfilled, and thus the final stanza calls for time to pass quickly so that the singers’ joy will be complete. There are several possibilities for how this text might have been used in worship in Watts’s own church and other Independent congregations. It would fit well as an accompaniment to the reading and exposition of the opening of Revelation 21, a sermon on that passage, or a homily about heaven in general. The book of Revelation was written to comfort Christians during a time of persecution, and Watts’s hymn might well have spoken in the same manner to the uncertain times in which he and other Independents lived. The hymn could work well as the opening song in a service, where it would serve as an acknowledgement of God’s presence among the congregation.

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The beginning of the hymn shows once again Watts’s skill at writing an arresting opening stanza. The singers’ attention is grabbed immediately by the first word, “Lo” (look), and the exclamation mark that ends line 2: an important announcement is about to be made. By way of contrast, the last stanza begins with a question before urging time to move swiftly to fulfillment of the vision. Watts’s use of “rolling,” “comes down,” “descending,” and “Fly” all suggest movement (kinesthesia), giving the text an impression of energy. In the first two stanzas, he sets up an antithesis between the “old” “Earth,” “Sea.” and “rolling Skies,” and the “New Jerusalem.” Alliteration and assonance figure prominently in the text (“holy happy,” “Attending Angels,” “Sacred Seat,” “God of Glory”), creating a sense of rhythm and inevitability. God is personified as having a “Hand” that will dry the tears of the saints (5:1). The tautologies in 5:3 (“Pains, and Groans, and Griefs, and Fears”) are linked by repeated use of the conjunction “and,” the words piling up on one another to suggest the weight that is being lifted from “the dear Objects of his Grace.” The last line of stanza 5 notes the paradox that “Death it self shall dye,” and the next stanza begins with an epanadiplosis on “how long,” suggesting impatience at the delay. In 6:3, Watts uses the striking metaphor of time as revolving wheels that he (on behalf of the congregation) urges to move faster to “bring the welcome Day.” The text also contains a redundancy (pleonasm): God’s hand will wipe tears from the “weeping Eye.” One remarkable feature of the hymn is its large number of descriptive adjectives. The New Jerusalem is not simply adorned with grace but with “shining” grace, God’s hand is “soft,” the hour is “bright,” and the day is “welcome,” among others. These many adjectives lend color and vividness to the text. In terms of its form, the hymn can be described as recital-response, stanzas 1–5 containing a description of the vision and the final stanza responding with a plea for its quick fulfillment. The text is also climactic, with the first five stanzas providing the background for the outburst of mingled anticipation and impatience found in stanza 6. The tune ST. DAVID’S seems an appropriate match for the combined sense of celebration and expectation of “Lo, what a glorious sight appears” (figure 6). The first three notes suggest the lifting up of the eyes to see the “Glorious Sight,” and the fanfare-like initial phrase and large leaps throughout the melody create a festive mood. The phrases “Jerusalem comes down” (2:3), “descending King” (3:4), and “down to Men” (4:4) are all sung to descending melodic patterns that give voice to the meaning of the text. The cadence on the dominant note (D, end of the second phrase) fits well with the question mark in the last stanza. However, these bits of (unintentional) “word painting” do not adversely affect the parallel places in the other stanzas.

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figure 6 “Lo, what a glorious sight appears”/ST. DAVID’S

“Lo, what a glorious sight appears” could well be called a “visionary” hymn in a double sense: it retells John’s vision of a new heaven and a new earth, and it is an example of Watts’s creation of a new vision for congregational song that was biblically-based, but founded upon the Christian Bible rather than the Hebrew psalms. In a manner of speaking, the two situations are parallel (though Watts may not have been thinking of this potential double meaning), for he was replacing the “old Jerusalem” of versified psalmody with a “new Jerusalem” of New Testament hymnody. If his work, unlike John’s vision, did not exactly result in paradise, it certainly gave eighteenth-century congregations a “new song” that expressed their convictions and provided them with a means of response to God that touched both their heads and their hearts. As indicated earlier in this chapter, the four items from Hymns and Spiritual Songs that have been analyzed here reveal something of the range of Watts’s technique and emotional intensity. The hymns include a lyric that is closely based on a single Scripture passage (“Lo, what a glorious sight appears”), another that combines two biblical references (“God of the morning, at whose voice”), one that features mere allusions to Scripture (“Infinite grief! amazing woe”), and still another that is freely written (“How are thy glories here displayed”). The use of a variety of poetic techniques and forms gives the texts a spectrum of emotional feeling that extends from catharsis and confession (“Infinite grief! amazing woe”) to joy and celebration (“Lo, what a glorious sight”). Through these texts, Watts expresses grief, dependence upon God, commitment, elation, and even impatience. The hymns fit a variety of circumstances and liturgical situations, including the opening of a service, accompaniment to a sermon, or commemoration of the Lord’s Supper. It is little wonder that the texts of Hymns and Spiritual Songs found favor with ministers and congregations who were looking for lyrics that were biblically-based, theologically sound, liturgically appropriate, poetically solid, and grateful for singing, and that expressed a faith that was relevant to eighteenth-century Christians and to many others since that time.

Chapter 7

An Analysis of Four Hymns from The Psalms of David Imitated In the previous chapter, four of Watts’s texts from Hymns and Spiritual Songs were analyzed from the different perspectives discussed in this book, as well as how these elements combine to form a meaningful and useful hymn. The same general procedure is used in this chapter to explore four texts from The Psalms of David Imitated. As in chapter 6, the hymns to be discussed are drawn from among those that are lesser known, and were selected in part to show something of the variety in Watts’s collection. 1

“I Lift My Soul to God”

“I lift my soul to God” is the first of three parts in Watts’s version of Psalm 25. Though he often supplied two or more versions of a psalm in different meters, in the case of Psalm 25 he gave only a short meter text, probably because that was the traditional meter for this psalm in English congregational song. The hymn uses cross rhyme and Watts’s usual iambic poetic meter, though a choriambus occurs in 2:1 and, as noted in chapter 4, some lines can be read as anapestic (3:1–2). Watts titled the text “Waiting for Pardon and Direction” and indicated that it was based on verses 1–11 of the psalm. Here is the text of the hymn in parallel with the corresponding verses from the psalm. Watts

Psalm 25

1. I lift my Soul to God, My Trust is in his Name; Let not my Foes that seek my Blood Still triumph in my Shame.

1. Unto thee, O Lord, do I lift up my soul. 2. O my God, I trust in thee: let me not be ashamed, let not mine enemies triumph over me.

© David W. Music, 2022 | DOI:10.1163/9789004520523_009

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2. Sin and the Powers of Hell Perswade me to Despair; Lord, make me know thy Covenant well, That I may ‘scape the snare.

19. Consider mine enemies; for they are many . . . 16. . . . I am desolate and afflicted. 14. [the Lord] will shew them his covenant. 15. . . . he shall pluck my feet out of the net.

3. From the first dawning Light Till the dark Evening rise For thy Salvation, Lord, I wait With Ever-longing Eyes.

5. . . . thou art the God of my salvation; on thee do I wait all the day. 15. Mine eyes are ever toward the Lord . . .

4. Remember all thy Grace, And lead me in thy Truth; Forgive the Sins of Riper Days And follies of my Youth.

6. Remember, O Lord, thy tender mercies and thy lovingkindnesses ... 5. Lead me in thy truth . . . 7. Remember not the sins of my youth, nor my transgressions . . .

5. The Lord is just and kind, The Meek shall learn his Ways, And every humble Sinner find The Methods of his Grace.

8. Good and upright is the Lord . . . 9. . . . the meek will he teach his way. 8. . . .therefore will he teach sinners in the way.

6. For his own Goodness sake He saves my Soul from Shame; He pardons (tho’ my Guilt be great) Thro’ my Redeemer’s Name.

7. . . . remember thou me for thy goodness’ sake, O Lord. 20. O keep my soul, and deliver me: let me not be ashamed . . . 11. For thy name’s sake, O Lord, pardon mine iniquity; for it is great. 22. Redeem Israel, O God . . .

Several things are evident from this comparison. First, despite his indication in the title that the hymn is based on the first eleven verses of the psalm, he obviously derived some portions of it from later passages in the biblical text. This is especially the case in stanzas 2 and 6. Second, the verses (or portions of verses) of the psalm have been considerably rearranged so that, for instance, in stanza 4 he uses part of verse 6, then part of verse 5, and finally part of verse

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7. Third, he often employs only a word or two from the original and frequently gives the quoted words a new context; thus, in stanza 6, the psalm’s prayer for remembrance becomes something that has already been fulfilled. Finally, nearly every line of the hymn draws from the source Scripture, though with Watts’s rewording and change of focus, this may not always be immediately apparent. The reworking of at least one line is probably an allusion to another Scripture: The wording of “That I may ‘scape the snare” (2:4) is likely derived from Psalm 124:7, “Our soul is escaped as a bird out of the snare of the fowlers: the snare is broken and we are escaped.” The lines of communication in the hymn are also of interest. Verses 1–7 of the original psalm maintain a human to God focus, verses 8–10 take a humanto-human approach, and verse 11 returns to a human to God voice. Watts also mixes the lines of communication, but in a manner different from that of the psalm: the first two lines of the hymn are human to human, and the next two lines and the following stanzas (through st. 4) are addressed to God. The last two stanzas return to a human-to-human structure. The paraphrase procedures employed in this text are similar to those found in such better-known hymns as “Joy to the world! the Lord is come” and “Jesus shall reign where’er the sun.” As in these other lyrics, the biblical psalm provides the basic ideas, but these are reframed by Watts through a reordering of the psalm text, recontextualization of its meaning, and altering its “voice” so that, unless otherwise informed, a singer would likely not know they were singing a psalm text at all. It is easy to see how singing such texts as these would help ease the transition from singing only psalm versifications to singing hymns. As in “Joy to the world,” there is little overt “Christianization” in this hymn based on Psalm 25. The words “Salvation,” “Grace,” and “Redeemer” would probably be associated in the minds of Christian singers with Jesus, but all are found in the Old Testament in reference to God the Father and, indeed, all of them are derived from the psalm itself (with “Grace” substituted for “tender mercies” and “lovingkindnesses”). The only real hint of Christianization comes in the last stanza, in which God “saves my Soul from Shame . . . Thro’ my Redeemer’s Name,” implying the presence of two different “persons,” the Father and the Son. The last stanza suggests that the cleansing afforded to the sinner is not because of some intrinsic worth on the part of the person, but is due wholly to God’s own goodness and for his sake. The hymn, like the psalm, is essentially a plea for deliverance: deliverance from “Foes” both earthly (“that seek my Blood”) and spiritual (“Sin and the Powers of Hell”), from sins of the past, and from shame. It is also an expression of confidence that this deliverance will be accomplished because “The

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Lord is just and kind” and he “pardons” despite the enormity of the supplicant’s “Guilt.” The hymn certainly reflects the Savoy Declaration’s admonition to pray for “pardon and strength of Grace, with a purpose, and endeavor by supplies of the Spirit, to walk before God unto all well-pleasing in all things.”1 At Bury Street church, the character of “I lift my soul to God” would probably have best suited it as the second song in either the morning or afternoon service. It would also serve well as a song of confession and prayer in private devotions, or preparatory to receiving the Lord’s Supper. The terseness of this hymn is worthy of attention. This conciseness results in part from the use of short meter, which almost always gives an impression of succinctness, and in part from the many single-syllable words that make up the text. Of the 133 words in the six stanzas, 114 (nearly 86%) are monosyllables, while only sixteen have two syllables and three (salvation, remember, and redeemer’s) are trisyllables.2 The danger of a sense of choppiness because of the short lines and short words is partly overcome by letting the thought of some phrases move beyond the end of the line without a stop, though they would still make sense when subjected to lining out. The hymn is also straightforward, with relatively few poetic devices. “Blood” in stanza 1 is a metonymy for “death.” Stanza 3 contains instances of pleonasm (“first dawning Light,” “dark Evening”) and synecdoche (“Eyes” representing the whole person). There is an antithesis between “riper Days” (not found in the psalm) and “Youth” in stanza 4. Unlike many of Watts’s hymns, the use of alliteration is limited; its most extensive employment comes in the last stanza: “He saves my Soul from Shame” and “Guilt be great.” As observed in chapter 5, “I lift my soul to God” and the two following hymns based on Psalm 25, “Where shall the man be found” and “Mine eyes and my desire,” were almost certainly intended to be sung to the traditional tune for this psalm, OLD 25 (figure 7).3 The tune perfectly fits the character of Watts’s text, its minor mode and general shape supporting the prayerful pleading implicit in the hymn.

1 A Declaration of the Faith and Order Owned and Practised in the Congregational Churches in England; Agreed upon and consented unto by their elders and messengers in their meeting at the Savoy, October 12, 1658 (London: John Field, 1659), 25. 2 Of course, words such as “Powers” and “Covenant” are two and three syllables, respectively, but in this context, they are contracted into one- or two-syllable words. 3 As in the previous chapter, the tunes in this chapter are taken from John Playford, The Whole Book of Psalms . . . With All the Ancient and Proper Tunes Sung in Churches, With Some of Later Use, 7th ed. (London: J. Heptinstall, 1701), except where otherwise noted.

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Figure 7 “I lift my soul to God”/OLD 25 (SOUTHWELL)

“I lift my soul to God” is a hymn of prayer and trust in God’s mercy and forgiveness. Through its words, the singer verbalizes the depth of his or her “Guilt,” and receives “pardon” and the taking away of “Shame.” Linked with the tune for which it was intended, the hymn is admirably suited as an expression of the believer that “My Trust is in [God’s] Name” (1:2). 2

“Great God, the Heaven’s Well-Order’d Frame”

Watts published three different metrical versions of Psalm 19 in The Psalms of David Imitated, one each in short meter, long meter, and 888888. The short meter paraphrase is given in two parts, “Behold the lofty sky” and “Behold the morning sun”; the long meter version, “The heavens declare thy glory, Lord,” consists of a six-stanza text in a single part; and the 888888 arrangement, “Great God, the heaven’s well-order’d frame,” inserts a pause after stanza 4, leaving open the possibility of its being sung as two separate hymns. The 888888 arrangement is titled “The Book of Nature and Scripture,” follows the usual rhyme scheme for this meter (AABCCB), and is based on some of the same Scriptures that serve as the backdrop for “God of the morning, at whose voice” (see chap. 6). The hymn and its biblical source(s) are juxtaposed below. Watts

Psalm 19

1. Great God, the Heavens well-order’d Frame Declares the Glories of thy Name; There thy rich Works of Wonder shine;

1. The heavens declare the glory of God; and the firmament sheweth his handywork.

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A thousand starry Beauties there, A thousand radiant Marks appear Of boundless Power and skill Divine. 2. From Night to Day, from Day to Night The dawning and the dying Light Lectures of heavenly Wisdom read; With silent Eloquence they raise Our Thoughts to our Creator’s Praise, And neither Sound nor Language need.

2. Day unto day uttereth speech, and night unto night sheweth knowledge. 3. There is no speech or language, where their voice is not heard.

3. Yet their Divine Instructions run Far as the Journeys of the Sun, And every Nation knows their Voice: The Sun like some young Bridegroom drest Breaks from the Chambers of the East, Rolls round, & makes the Earth rejoice. 4. Wher e’re he spreads his Beams abroad He smiles, and speaks his Maker God; All Nature joyns to shew thy Praise: Thus God in every Creature shines; Fair [is] the Book of Nature’s Lines,4 But fairer is thy Book of Grace.

4. Their line is gone out through all the earth, and their words to the end of the world. In them hath he set a tabernacle for the sun, 5. Which is as a bridegroom coming out of his chamber, and rejoiceth as a strong man to run a race.

6. His going forth is from the end of the heaven, and his circuit unto the ends of it: and there is nothing hid from the heat thereof.

[Pause]

4 PDI gives this line as “Fair are the Book of Nature’s Lines.”

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5. I love the Volumes of thy Word; What Light and Joy those Leaves afford To Souls benighted and distrest! Thy Precepts guide my doubtful Way, Thy Fear forbids my feet to stray, Thy Promise leads my Heart to rest.

Ps. 119:98. O how I love thy law . . . Ps. 119:130. The entrance of thy words giveth light . . . 8. The statutes of the Lord are right, rejoicing the heart . . . 7. . . . the testimony of the Lord is sure, making wise the simple. (also Ps. 119:130: . . . it giveth understanding unto the simple) Ps. 119:104. Through thy precepts I get understanding: therefore I hate every false way. 9. The fear of the Lord is clean . . .

6. From the Discoveries of thy Law The perfect Rules of Life I draw; These are my Study and Delight; Not Honey so invites the Tast[e], Nor Gold that hath the furnace past Appears so pleasing to the Sight.

Ps. 119:24. Thy testimonies are also my delight and my counselors. 10. More to be desired are they than gold, yea, than much fine gold: sweeter also than honey and the honeycomb.

7. Thy Threatnings wake my slumbring Eyes, And warn me where my Danger lies; But ‘tis thy blessed Gospel, Lord, That makes my guilty Conscience clean, Converts my Soul, subdues my Sin, And gives a free but large Reward.

8. . . . the commandment of the Lord is pure, enlightening the eyes. 11. Moreover by them is thy servant warned . . . 9. The fear of the Lord is clean . . . 7. The law of the Lord is perfect, converting the soul . . . 11. . . . and in keeping of them there is great reward.

8. Who knows the Errors of his Thoughts? My God, forgive my Secret Faults, And from Presumptuous Sins restrain: Accept my poor attempts of Praise That I have read thy Book of Grace And Book of Nature not in vain.

12. Who can understand his errors? Cleanse thou me from secret faults. 13. Keep back thy servant also from presumptuous sins . . . 14. Let the words of my mouth, and the meditation of my heart, be acceptable in thy sight, O Lord . . .

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It has long been recognized that Psalm 19 falls into two principal parts, with the first six verses dealing with what Matthew Henry called “the Book of the Creatures” and the remainder with the “Book of the Scriptures.”5 Watts follows this bi-partite structure by inserting a pause between stanzas 4 and 5, with the resulting sections paraphrasing verses 1–6 and 7–14, respectively. He also distinguishes the two parts by utilizing different approaches. The first six verses of the psalm are rendered in more or less straightforward fashion, though considerably expanding upon the language of the first two verses: the heavens are now a “well-order’d Frame” that not only depict God’s glory in a general sense, but also “the Glories of thy Name” (emphasis added). The second half of the hymn (after the pause), however, presents a kaleidoscopic approach, using bits and pieces of verses, rearranging them, and inserting allusions to that other great biblical text about the word of God, Psalm 119. At least in part, Watts’s use of this procedure probably resulted from the fact that verses 7–9 of the psalm are essentially repetitions of the same thoughts (synonymous parallelism), which Watts combined, amplified, and reorganized. Oftentimes, it is only a single word that provides a direct link between the biblical passage and the hymn. For example, in stanza 5, the words “Light and Joy” appear to reflect two different verses, Psalm 119:130 (“The entrance of thy words giveth light”) and Psalm 19:8 (“The statutes of the Lord are right, rejoicing the heart”); a similar pattern is evident throughout the remainder of stanza 5 and in stanza 7. There is little in this version of the psalm to suggest an effort to “Christianize” it, apart, perhaps, from the references to the “Book of Grace” (though grace is also an Old Testament concept). In the preface to The Psalms of David Imitated, Watts pointed out that “There are several Psalms indeed which have scarce any thing in them personal or peculiar to David or the Jews, . . . and these if translated into the plain national Language are very proper Materials for Psalmody in all Times and Places,” naming this psalm, as well as Psalms 1, 25, 37, 67, 100, “&c.” as examples (v-vi). Thus, Watts felt no compunction to add New Testament references or reinterpret the psalm in New Testament terms, but to let it stand more or less as is, except for the alterations pointed out above. However, the King James Version of Psalm 19 was not Watts’s only source for this hymn. In 1698, Luke Milbourne, a minister in the Church of England, published The Psalms of David in English Metre. Watts owned a copy of this book and mentioned its author’s efforts in the preface to his own psalter: “I confess [that] Mr. Milbourn [sic] and Mr. Darby in very different Verse have now and 5 Matthew Henry, An Exposition of the Five Poetical Books of the Old Testament (London: T. Darrack, 1710), n.p. (introduction to Ps. 19). See also the discussion of Watts’s hymns based on this psalm in chap. 2.

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then given an Evangelic Turn to the Hebrew Sense” (vi); “I am content to yield to Mr. Milbourne the Preference of his Poesy in many Parts of his Psalms, and to Mr. Tate and Dr. Brady in some of theirs.” Watts also indicated that he had “not refused in some few Psalms to borrow a single Line or two from these three Authors,” as well as others (xxv). In fact, his borrowing from these and other authors is much more extensive than these statements suggest, though still constituting only a fraction of the whole book, and frequently altered or adapted.6 Watts’s borrowing from Milbourne in his version of Psalm 19 is evident from a comparison of the following lines from various stanzas. Watts

Milbourne

There thy rich Works of wonder shine: A thousand starry Beauties there, A thousand radiant Marks appear Of boundless Power and skill Divine.

To prove our God’s Existence, there A thousand starry Beauties shine, A thousand glorious Marks appear Of Providence and Love Divine.

From Night to Day, from Day to Night

There, Days to Nights, and Nights to Days,

Lectures of heavenly Wisdom read;

Instructive Wisdom’s Lectures read.

Our Thoughts to our Creator’s Praise,

Yet to proclaim God’s wondrous praise, And neither Sound nor Language They neither Voice nor Language need. need. The Sun like some young Bridegroom Like some Illustrious Brid[e]groom drest drest; All Nature joyns to shew thy Praise: Thus God in every Creature shines;

Tho’ Nature speak her Maker’s care, And God in every Creature shine.

These similar lines represent less than a quarter of Watts’s hymn, and examining the lines he did not borrow, as well as those that he altered, reveals both his more practical approach and his greater artistry. This is demonstrated, 6 See the discussion of Watts’s borrowing in chap. 4.

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among other places, by comparing Watts’s opening two lines with Milbourne’s loquacious first stanza: “Look up obdurate Wretch! Survey / The Heavens, the far-extended Skyes: / See what those sacred Volumes lay, / Before thy Unbelieving Eyes.” In some cases, the borrowing is merely a single word or a rhyme, and Watts usually alters and improves upon his model. As he wrote this hymn, Watts might also have referred back to his earlier “God of the morning, at whose voice,” since some of the same phrases and words that are not drawn directly from Psalm 19 appear in both: “Chambers of the East,” “Thy Threat[’]nings,” “thy Promise.” And perhaps it is no accident that the last two words of “Great God, the heaven’s well-order’d frame” (“in vain”) are the same as those that close “My God, who mak’st the sun to know,” his revision of “God of the morning, at whose voice” in Divine Songs. Theologically, of course, the hymn deals with the same two topics as the psalm on which it is based, the glory of God as revealed in creation and in his word. In the first four stanzas, Watts extols God’s work in nature with a sense of awe and wonderment. The only personal pronouns referring to humans that occur in the first half of the text are found in 2:5, and in both cases, these are plural (“our”). For Watts, the creation is a “well-order’d Frame” that reveals God’s “boundless Power and skill Divine” and raises “Our Thoughts to our Creator’s Praise.” This gives testimony to “every Nation” that there is a creator. Furthermore, “every Creature” reveals God, even the lowly “worm” (not mentioned here) to which Watts often compares fallen humanity. Beginning in the last two lines of stanza 4, the emphasis shifts from creation to God’s word, and the focus becomes more personal, with the pronouns “I” and “my” predominating. The “voice” also shifts from mere description of God’s actions to direct address to God, and for the first (and only) time in the hymn the word “Love” appears (5:1). This more personal approach does not appear in the psalm until verse 12. Like the psalm, the hymn lists some of the contents of God’s word: precepts, promises, rules, threatenings, and warnings, which bring light, joy, rest, conversion, freedom from sin, and a “large Reward.” In stanza 7, Watts obliquely distinguishes between the two revelations of God’s word, the “law” (the Old Testament) and the “Gospel” (the New Testament). It is particularly interesting to see how Watts interprets the prayer in the last verse of the psalm: the “words of my mouth, and the meditation of my heart” become “my poor attempts of Praise,” which the singer hopes the Lord will “Accept.” The hymn writer adds his own prayer that he has not wrongly interpreted God’s revelation through both nature and the spoken/printed word. Though partly borrowed from Milbourne, the first stanza reveals again Watts’s ability to write an opening strophe that immediately grabs the attention and pulls in the reader or singer. The alliteration of the first two words

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creates a spondee that functions much like an exclamation mark. This beginning is followed by a series of open vowel sounds that suggest the vast sweep of the universe. A sense of the infinitude of space is also fostered by the long lines and the length of the stanzas. “Glories” (line two) mirrors the alliterative opening of the strophe. The phrase “rich Works of wonder” momentarily slows the tempo, and the alliterative “Works of wonder” and the hyperbolic anaphora on “A thousand” add to the majestic feel. The “b” and “p” sounds of “Beauties,” “appear,” “boundless,” and “Power” speed up the rhythm slightly and tie the last four lines together, while the many “s” and “z” phonemes suggest the silence and coldness of space. The following stanzas are no less remarkable. They begin with the antistrophe “From Night to Day, from Day to Night,” followed in the next line by alliteration on “dawning” and “dying.” The light “reads” “Lectures” (personification and synesthesia) with “silent Eloquence” (oxymoron). The sun is “like some young Bridegroom” (simile), and it does not just come out of its chamber, as in the psalm, but “Breaks” out and “rolls round” the earth (kinesthesia); as a result, “every Nation knows” (alliteration) the “Voice” of the creation (personification). The sun also “smiles” and “speaks” (personification again). The last two lines of stanza four contain an example of polyptoton (“Fair” and “fairer”), and metaphorically depict both “Nature” and “Grace” as books. The last three lines of stanza 5 include three groups of itemizations: precepts-fear-promise, guide-forbids-leads, and way-feet-heart. In stanza 6, an antithesis is drawn between the discovery of “The perfect Rules of Life” as being superior to the sweet taste of honey and allure of gold (synesthesia again). Alliteration figures prominently in these stanzas, especially in 5:2 and 5, 7:4–5, and 8:4. The trio of “p” sounds in the phrase “that hath the furnace past / Appears so pleasing” should be noted. As if to symbolize the fact that there is not a dichotomy between the general and specific revelations, Watts unifies the two halves of the hymn by ending the first section with references to the “Book of Nature” and the “Book of Grace,” then reverses the pair in the last stanza. It is interesting to compare Watts’s version of Psalm 19 with other more-orless contemporary renderings of this well-known psalm. Tate and Brady, as might be expected, provide a version that is straightforward and literal: “The Heav’ns declare thy Glory, Lord, / which that alone can fill; / The Firmament and Stars express / their great Creator’s Skill” (st. 1); they also, like Watts, follow the structure of the psalm by giving the text in two parts. John Denham’s A Version of the Psalms of David (1714) versifies the entire psalm, but without a division into parts, and in a more elegant style than Tate and Brady: “The Heavens above and Firmament, / Their Maker’s handy Works present, / Most

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Glorious and Magnificent” (st. 1). Joseph Addison’s “The spacious firmament on high,” first published in the August 13, 1712, issue of The Spectator, deals only with the first six verses of the psalm and also adopts an ornate mode: “The Spacious Firmament on high, / With all the blue Etherial Sky, / And spangled Heav’ns, a Shining Frame, / Their great Original proclaim” (1:1–4). Watts seems to take a middle ground between the plainness of Tate and Brady and the sophistication of Denham and Addison. None of these other psalmodists use the kaleidoscopic approach employed by Watts in the second half of his version. A comparison with “God of the morning, at whose voice,” discussed in the previous chapter, is also instructive. Perhaps most obviously, “God of the morning,” which appeared in Hymns in Spiritual Songs, uses less of the psalm than “Great God, the heaven’s well-order’d frame.” Indeed, the earlier text is not really a psalm version, but a hymn that is based on a psalm, and thus is much more freely written (though Watts often exercised a good bit of freedom even with his psalm versions). “God of the morning” extends the references to the sun into metaphor and simile, and makes a firmer call for commitment on the part of the believer that he or she will “fulfil / Th’ appointed Duties of the Day.” “Great God, the heaven’s well-order’d frame” is a much more expansive text, in part, of course, because of the longer lines and greater number of stanzas, but also because of its many sonorous vowel sounds. The one is an objective paean of God’s greatness in creation and in provision of the Scriptures; the other is a prayer for faithfulness and guidance. Like the psalm it paraphrases, “Great God, the heaven’s well-order’d frame” is mixed in its line of communication. In the psalm, the first eleven verses are in a human-to-human framework, while only verses 12–14 are human to God in orientation. Watts, however, begins the hymn with a human to God focus (st. 1). In stanza 2, this changes to human to human, which is maintained through the end of the first part (st. 4). The second half of the hymn then returns to direct address to God. Formally, the hymn fits Escott’s category of response; though it has some features of recital in it, the whole is written from the perspective of the singer responding to God’s revelation in nature and Scripture. Because of the nature of the psalm on which it is based, the text can be seen as either comparative or contrastive (i.e., either a comparison or a contrast between creation and Scripture, and perhaps both). “Great God, the heaven’s well-order’d frame” would obviously have been well suited to accompany a sermon on or reading of Psalm 19, or a homily about either creation or the Bible, perhaps using only the relevant half of the hymn. Conceivably, the two halves of the hymn might have been sung at different

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figure 8 “Great God, the heaven’s well-order’d frame”/OLD 113

points in the same service, the first part as the opening hymn and the second as an introduction or response to the Scripture reading, exposition, or sermon. This text is one of the two psalm paraphrases for which Watts specified the tune OLD 113 (“To the Tune of the 113. Ps.”; figure 8); the other was Psalm 113 itself, “Ye that delight to serve the Lord” (OLD 113 was “suggested” for other psalms). Today, OLD 113 is usually sung as an 888888 tune, but in its original form—and in Watts’s time—it was printed and sung in 888888D. Since Watts

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wrote all of his texts that use this meter as 888888 stanzas, it meant that he had to provide an even number of stanzas to accommodate the tune. OLD 113 is a vigorous major-mode melody that well suits the character of Watts’s text, and fittingly expresses praise and wonder at both the majesty of God’s creation and the “Book of Grace” by which people can be brought into a personal relationship with their maker. Earlier in this book it was observed that “The creation and sustenance of the natural order is one of Watts’s favorite topics” (chap. 2). “Great God, the heaven’s well-order’d frame” certainly reflects the wonderment that Watts must have felt as he contemplated the vastness of creation. But even more wondrous to him was the book that the creator had given that tells the story of a gracious God who loves and cares for his people. 3

Deep in Our Hearts Let Us Record

“Deep in our hearts let us record” is part 1 of Watts’s long meter version of Psalm 69. He titled the text “Christ’s Passion, and Sinners Salvation.” The hymn is in five stanzas and, typically for a hymn in long meter, uses an AABB rhyme scheme. Watts

Psalm 69

1. Deep in our Hearts let us record The deeper Sorrows of our Lord; Behold the rising Billows roll To overwhelm his holy Soul.

1–2. Save me, O God; for the waters are come in unto my soul. I sink in deep mire, where there is no standing: I am come into deep waters, where the floods overflow me.

2. In long Complaints he spends his Breath, While Hosts of Hell, and Powers of Death, And all the Sons of Malice join To execute their curst Design.

3–4a. I am weary of crying: my throat is dried: mine eyes fail while I wait for my God. They that hate me without a cause are more than the hairs of mine head: they that would destroy me, being mine enemies wrongfully, are mighty.

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3. Yet, gracious God, thy Power and Love Has made the Curse a Blessing prove; Those dreadfull Sufferings of thy Son Atton’d [sic] for Sins which we had done. 4. The Pangs of our expiring Lord The Honours of thy Law restor’d: His Sorrows made thy Justice known, And paid for Follies not his own.

19a. Thou hast known my reproach, and my shame, and my dishonour. 4b. . . . then I restored that which I took not away. 29a. But I am poor and sorrowful. 5. O God, thou knowest my foolishness; and my sins are not hid from thee.

5. O for his Sake our Guilt forgive, And let the mourning Sinner live: The Lord will hear us in his Name, Nor shall our Hope be turn’d to Shame.

6. Let not them that wait on thee, O Lord God of hosts, be ashamed for my sake: let not those that seek thee be confounded for my sake, O God of Israel. 33. For the Lord heareth the poor, and despiseth not his prisoners.

Psalm 69 is a messianic psalm that has historically been linked with the crucifixion of Jesus, especially verse 21, “They gave me also gall for my meat; and in my thirst they gave me vinegar to drink,” which predicts Matthew 27:34, “They gave him [Jesus] vinegar to drink mingled with gall,” and parallel passages in the crucifixion accounts of the other gospels. Jesus’ disciples also applied verse 9a, “For the zeal of thine house hath eaten me up,” to his cleansing of the temple (see John 2:17). Watts makes the connection between the psalm and the crucifixion explicit by transferring the psalmist’s description of his own ordeal to Jesus. Though he never uses the name “Jesus” in the hymn, the shift is obvious through his use of words such as “Son” and “expiring Lord,” and the change of pronoun from first person to third person, making the text a reflection on the part of the congregation rather than an expression of personal experience.

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The hymn opens with a two-line introduction that sets the expectation for what is to follow: this is to be a “psalm” about the “Sorrows of our Lord.” These lines are probably an adaptation from a hymn by Joseph Stennett, “Others may tell of famous things”: “Deep in our breasts let us record / The story of our dying Lord.”7 Apart from these opening lines, the first two stanzas of Watts’s text closely paraphrase the Bible verses on which they are based, while turning them into a reference to the agony experienced by Christ at the crucifixion. Watts then inserts a freely-written stanza (st. 3) to extend the thought of stanza 2 (linked by the use of “curst” and “Curse” in the two strophes) and express the “good news” about Christ’s suffering—its realization of atonement for lost sinners; this change of focus from suffering to the provision of salvation continues in stanza 4. Stanza 5 concludes the hymn with an original prayer for forgiveness and expresses confidence that the prayer will be answered. The fourth and fifth stanzas are mainly based on verses 5 and 6 of the psalm, but with interpolations from later verses in the text. Unlike the first two stanzas, these last strophes mostly pick up single words from the psalm and refocus them to mean something different from their original context. A good example is the word “Follies” in 4:4: in the psalm, the word is “foolishness” and it is part of the psalmist’s admission of his own folly in sinning against God. In Watts’s hands, the word is transformed to mean that Jesus suffered because of the folly of other people. Had Watts been writing the hymn without reference to the psalm he might not have used the word “Follies” here, but perhaps one like “errors” or “evils”; his employment of “Follies,” however, helps keep his text tied to the Scripture passage. Similar allusions are evident in Watts’s words “Honours,” “restor’d,” “Sorrows,” and “hear,” each of which is drawn from the psalm but given a new context. One aspect of this hymn that shows the challenge of trying to use a psalm text to portray a New Testament event is found in stanza 2, where Watts says that Christ spent his breath “In long Complaints.” This line is drawn from verse 3 of the psalm, but it contrasts with several of the gospel accounts of the trial and crucifixion, in which it is said that Jesus “answered nothing” (Mark 14:61), gave short answers to questions from the priests and Pilate, or made brief statements from the cross, only two of which could reasonably be called “complaints” (“My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me” and “I thirst”), but neither of which is “long.” In this instance, Watts apparently decided to retain the sense of the psalmist to give greater weight to the agony of the crucifixion. His handling of this dichotomy between the psalm and the crucifixion accounts is 7 Stennett’s hymn was probably also the source for the beginning of Watts’s Ps. 22 LM: “Now let our mournful Songs record / The dying sorrows of our Lord” (Ps. 22 LM).

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similar to his paraphrase of Psalm 47, “O for a shout of sacred joy,” which has Christ rising to heaven accompanied by “Trumpets,” which are not mentioned in the Acts 1 account of the ascension.8 In contrast to “Infinite grief! amazing woe” and “How are thy glories here display’d,” both of which rely on the penal substitution theory of the atonement, “Deep in our hearts let us record” expresses the ransom theory, which suggests that God purchased the salvation of sinners through the death and resurrection of Jesus. This doctrine is most clearly stated in the last line of stanza 4, in which Watts says that Jesus “paid for Follies not his own.” An unusual feature of the text is its persistent use of pure rhymes. Apart from “love” and “prove” (3:1–2), and possibly “join” and “design” (2:3–4), Watts uses pure rhymes throughout. This feature, plus the AABB rhyme scheme, creates a sort of “rhythm in rhyme” and enhances both the flow and the memorability of the text. The opening lines of the hymn are also memorable for their use of a polyptoton (repetition of a word but in a different form): “Deep in our Hearts let us record / The deeper Sorrows of our Lord.” The very sound of the word “deep” suggests its meaning, and its use twice in the first two lines sets a somber mood for the beginning of the hymn. In the third line, the “deeper Sorrows” are compared to “rising Billows” that threaten (in line 4) “To overwhelm his holy soul,” the three long “o” sounds on “overwhelm,” “holy,” and “soul” forming assonant rhymes that slow down the rhythm and suggest Christ’s struggle against the rising waters. In stanza 2, the alliteration on “Hosts of Hell” and the plosive opening consonants of “Powers of Death” make these words stand out and imply the evil intent of the “Sons of Malice” (line 3), a periphrasis (multiple word description) that substitutes for the single term “enemies” in the psalm. Stanza 2 also itemizes the forces that arrayed themselves against Jesus: “Hosts of Hell,” “Powers of Death,” and “Sons of Malice.” As noted above, the freely-written third stanza changes the direction of the hymn. This transformation is achieved partly by Watts’s creation of an antithesis between the “Powers of Death” (st. 2) and God’s “Power and Love” (st. 3). The paradox of Christ’s sacrifice is expressed in the second line, where the “Curse” has proven to be a “Blessing”; this is not a reference to the curse of original sin but to the “curst Design” of Christ’s enemies mentioned in stanza 2. The final two stanzas are straightforward expressions of what Jesus’ sacrifice accomplished and a prayer that is enhanced by a widely-spaced alliteration in the last line (“shall . . . Shame”). 8 See chap. 1.

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The hymn is in invitation-recital-response form, with the first two lines of stanza 1 issuing the invitation, the remainder of stanza 1 and stanzas 2–4 relating the suffering and redemptive work of Christ, and stanza 5 responding with a plea for forgiveness. The text is also an example of developmental structure, in which the progression of thought is from the sufferings experienced by Jesus at the crucifixion, to this suffering being the means of salvation, and finally to the response of the congregation in prayer. The portion of Psalm 69 that Watts paraphrased in this text is in a human to God line of communication, except for verse 33, which the hymn writer appends to verse 6. In his first two stanzas, however, Watts changes the voice to a human-to-human focus in order to identify better who is the subject of the hymn (Jesus rather than David). Stanzas 3–5:2 maintain the human to God voice of the original psalm, and the last two lines return to human to human as a means of assurance that the congregation’s prayer for forgiveness will be heard. In Watts’s own church and denomination, “Deep in our hearts let us record” would most likely have accompanied a sermon on Psalm 69 or on the Passion of Christ. With its emphasis on “recording” (remembering by heart) “The deeper Sorrows of our Lord,” it would also have been appropriate for use at the Lord’s Supper. Watts’s congregation did not follow the Christian Year, but for denominations that did, the hymn would be well suited for the season of Lent. Like “Infinite grief! amazing woe,” “Deep in our hearts let us record” calls for a dignified, reflective tune to express adequately Christ’s ordeal and the prayer that ends the hymn. One melody among those printed in the tune supplements for Watts’s texts that seems to fit this requirement is FRENCH 100 (figure 9), which appeared under a variety of names during the sixteenth, seventeenth, and eighteenth centuries. In the second edition of John Playford’s Whole Book of Psalms (1695), from which the tune is reproduced here, it was labeled “At Consecration of Priests” and set to “Come Holy Ghost, our souls inspire.”9 When linked with Watts’s hymn, the motion of the melody creates some interesting bits of poetic-musical rhetoric. In line 3 of the first stanza, the alternating up and down motion of the melody seems to imitate the motion of waves (“rising Billows”) and the word “rising” even occurs on an upward motion. The descending diminished fifth interval in the last musical phrase throws into 9 John Playford, The Whole Book of Psalms . . . With All the Ancient and Proper Tunes Sung in Churches, With Some of Later Use, 2nd ed. (In the Savoy: Edw. Jones for the Company of Stationers, 1695), 263. FRENCH 100 did not appear in the 7th ed. of Playford’s collection. The tune is no. 288b in HTI.

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relief the words “overwhelm,” “execute,” “sins,” and “follies” in the first four stanzas. This diminished fifth, the diminished fourth between the first and second measures, the repetitive rhythmic structure, and the general mood of the tune all serve to support the serious, emotive nature of Watts’s text.

figure 9 “Deep in our hearts let us record”/FRENCH 100

“Deep in our hearts let us record” is a prime example of Watts’s method of “Christianizing” the psalms by substituting the experience of Jesus for that of David. He acknowledges the suffering of Christ, but points out through his text that this suffering brought hope of salvation to humanity. When contemplating the cross, Watts usually includes a statement of commitment or—as here—a prayer for forgiveness and an affirmation of faith. By these means, Watts gave his eighteenth-century congregation and those of later generations material by which they could remain true to the Scriptures but express their own prayers and affirmations. 4

How Pleas’d and Blest Was I

“How pleas’d and blest was I” is Watts’s “Proper Tune” imitation of Psalm 122 (668668), which he titled “Going to Church.” Typically for his hymns in this meter, the five-stanza text uses an AABCCB rhyme scheme. Watts

Psalm 122

1. How pleas’d and blest was I To hear the People cry, Come, let us seek our God to Day; Yes, with a chearfull Zeal We haste to Zion’s Hill, And there our Vows and Honours pay.

1–2. I was glad when they said unto me, Let us go into the house of the Lord. Our feet shall stand within thy gates, O Jerusalem.

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2. Zion, thrice happy Place, Adorn’d with wondrous Grace, And Walls of Strength embrace thee round; In thee our Tribes appear To pray, and praise, and hear The sacred Gospel’s joyfull Sound.

3–4. Jerusalem is builded as a city that is compact together: Whither the tribes go up, the tribes of the Lord, unto the testimony of Israel, to give thanks unto the name of the Lord.

3. There David’s greater Son Has fix’d his royal Throne, He sits for Grace and Judgment there; He bids the Saint be glad, He makes the Sinner sad, And humble Souls rejoice with Fear.

5. For there are set thrones of judgment, the thrones of the house of David.

4. May Peace attend thy Gate, And Joy within thee wait To bless the Soul of every Guest! The Man that seeks thy Peace, And wishes thine Encrease, A Thousand Blessings on him rest!

7. Peace be within thy walls, and prosperity within thy palaces. 6. Pray for the peace of Jerusalem: they shall prosper that love thee.

5. My Tongue repeats her Vows, Peace to this sacred House! For there my Friends and Kindred dwell And since my glorious God Makes thee his blest Abode, My Soul shall ever love thee well.

7–9. Peace be within thy walls, and prosperity within thy palaces. For my brethren and companions’ sake, I will now say, Peace be within thee. Because of the house of the Lord our God I will seek thy good.

“How pleas’d and blest was I” paraphrases the entire Scriptural text, with some slight rearrangement of the passage in stanza 4 and a bit of overlap between stanzas 4 and 5. However, Watts changes the character of the psalm at the very outset: where the first two verses of the psalm are relatively inactive as dealing with future events (“Let us go,” “our feet shall stand”), Watts’s opening stanza is full of movement: the people “cry,” we have a “chearfull Zeal,” “we haste,” and “we pay” vows and honor. For Watts, it is as though the very thought of going to church creates a sense of expectation and excitement, perhaps in part because it was so difficult for him to accomplish personally due to his bodily ailments. Lines 3–6 are an addition to the psalm text, and the last two

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lines of the stanza may be a reflection of two identical verses in Psalm 116: “I will pay my vows unto the Lord now in the presence of all his people” (vv. 14, 18). In the second stanza, “Zion” is called a “thrice happy Place.” The meaning of the word “thrice” here is not entirely clear, since it does not seem to be derived from the model text. It could be a reference to the three traditional Christian interpretations of Jerusalem: as the literal Old Testament “city of David,” as a symbol of the church, and as a metaphor for heaven. In this stanza, the reference is apparently to the church (which is also implied by the title Watts gave to the hymn), but the following strophe seems to suggest heaven. It is perhaps most likely that Watts included “thrice” simply as a rhetorical device to imply extreme joy. The phrase “Walls of Strength” might be an anticipation of verse 7 of the psalm. Watts expands the activity of the “Tribes” that will appear in Zion from merely giving “thanks unto the name of the Lord” to prayer, praise, and hearing “the sacred Gospel’s joyfull Sound.” This mention of the gospel is the first hint of “Christianization” in the text, and it prepares the way for Watts’s further “Christianizing” in stanza 3, where “the house of David” becomes “David’s greater Son,” who not only sits on “his royal Throne” but dispenses “Grace and Judgment there.” Watts expands on the idea of “Grace and Judgment” in two series of itemizations, Saint/Sinner/humble Souls (note the alliteration) and glad/sad/rejoice with Fear, the first and third of each pair emphasizing grace and the middle one judgment. These trios are all additions to the biblical text. In stanza 4, Watts reverses the order of verses 6 and 7 of the psalm and turns the prospering of those “that love thee” (Zion) into “A Thousand Blessings” (hyperbole). Watts then reuses verse 7 of the psalm to begin stanza 5, also creating a bit of symmetry in the text by repeating “Vows” from the first stanza, before moving on to verses 8–9 and the conclusion of the hymn. This last stanza is straightforward and remains close to the biblical text, emphasizing the singer’s love for the house of God. Unlike some of Watts’s other psalm paraphrases, the scriptural source for “How pleas’d and blest was I” remains plainly evident, with little interpolation from outside sources, but with a clear focus on the Christian Sunday rather than the Jewish Sabbath. As noted in the Savoy Declaration, the chief elements of worship on the Lord’s Day are to be prayer, “The reading of the Scriptures, Preaching, and hearing the word of God, singing of Psalms, as also the administration of Baptism and the Lords Supper.”10 Watts’s mention of the first three of these items, prayer, praise, and hearing the gospel, all of which would be present in every Independent service (baptism and the Lord’s Supper 10

SD, 38.

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were celebrated only periodically) is an example of the didactic function of hymnody, reminding people of the chief duties of worship. The original psalm alternates between the psalmist speaking to himself or others and speaking to Jerusalem (an inanimate object); Watts maintains these lines of communication throughout. The obvious liturgical place for a hymn such as “How pleas’d and blest was I” is as the opening hymn in a Sunday morning worship service, where its sense of joy in worship and the church would create an uplifting beginning for the gathering. Several poetic devices in the text have already been mentioned. The most important one in the hymn is metaphor. In the original psalm, the writer has in mind the literal city of Jerusalem. In typical typological fashion, Watts changes the reference to the body of saints who comprise the New Testament assembly of believers. The church has metaphorical “Walls of Strength” (metaphorical since, for Independents, the “church” was the body of baptized believers, while the place they assembled was the “meetinghouse”), implying God’s protection, and a symbolic “Gate” (perhaps an oblique reference to baptism, the entry point into the church). As noted in chapter 5, “How pleas’d and blest was I” was written in the same hymnic meter as Psalm 122 in the Sternhold and Hopkins psalter so it could be sung to the traditional tune for that psalm, OLD 122 (figure 10), as were also “The Lord Jehovah reigns” (Ps. 93) and “How pleasant ‘tis to see” (Ps. 133). In the first edition of The Psalms of David Imitated, Watts erred in writing these texts. OLD 122 fits a lyric of 668668D meter, but all three of Watts’s 668668 psalm versions contained an uneven number of stanzas, meaning that half the tune will be left over after all the stanzas have been sung. This oversight was corrected for two of the hymns in the second edition (published in the same year as the first) by the addition of a note following “How pleas’d and blest was I” to “Repeat the 4th Stanza to compleat the Tune,” and one to repeat the first stanza of “How pleasant ‘tis to see.” “The Lord Jehovah reigns” had to wait until the third edition of 1722 to receive the correction.11 OLD 122 is a robust tune that matches well the exuberant character of “How pleas’d and blest was I.” Since the first and fifth stanzas are sung to the same portion of the tune, the link between the “Vows” of the two strophes is made more explicit. The repetition of the fourth stanza that Watts called for in the 11

The error in the meter of these texts was apparently caused by Watts’s attempt to follow a suggestion by his fellow minister Thomas Bradbury. See The Posthumous Works of the Late Learned and Reverend Isaac Watts, D.D. In Two Volumes. Compiled From Papers in Possession of His Immediate Successors: Adjusted and Published by a Gentleman of the University of Cambridge (London: for T. Becket and J. Bew, 1779), vol. 2, 171, 183.

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Figure 10 “How pleas’d and blest was I”/OLD 122

second edition means that the two statements of this text are sung to the same music, giving it a refrain-like effect. Together, Watts’s text and OLD 122 created an exultant way to begin a service of worship by acknowledging the pleasure of meeting God and one’s “Friends and Kindred” as the people “pray, and praise, and hear / The sacred Gospel’s joyfull Sound.”

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The four hymns studied in this chapter reveal several of Watts’s methods in working with the psalms. Some of them are not overtly “Christianized” (“I lift my soul to God,” “Great God, the heaven’s well-ordered frame”), while others make a connection with New Testament theology explicit (“Deep in our hearts let us record,” “How pleas’d and blest was I”). “I lift my soul to God” and “Deep in our hearts let us record” have the character of lamentations; in contrast, “Great God, the heaven’s well-ordered frame” and “How pleas’d and blest was I” are extroverted and celebratory. Watts enthuses over the creation and going to church, as well as asking forgiveness for sin and remembering Christ’s sacrifice on the cross. He frequently reorders the verses of a psalm, inserts passages from other psalms or freely-written material, recontextualizes the psalm’s meaning, or alters its “voice” to give it a different purpose. To parishioners who were accustomed to singing only versifications of the psalms, Watts’s paraphrases must have seemed either scandalous in their departure from tradition and the biblical text or a welcome relief from the dullness and opaqueness of contemporary versified psalmody. History came down on the side of the latter.

Conclusion It was not a foregone conclusion that Isaac Watts’s hymns and psalm versions would flourish with ministers, parishioners, and churches, or that they would have such a long and sustained impact on religious song in English-speaking lands during the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries. In publishing Hymns and Spiritual Songs and The Psalms of David Imitated, Watts was challenging a tradition of versified psalmody that had been dominant for a century and a half, and that was thus deeply ingrained in the minds, hearts, and voices of English congregations. True, others before and during Watts’s time had written freely-composed hymns and looser renderings of the psalms, but these never achieved anything like the success that Watts did in his two books. In a sense, the history of English-language congregational song can be divided into two periods: pre-Watts and post-Watts. One of the purposes of this book has been to examine Watts’s hymns to suggest reasons for the significant impact they had upon the writing and singing of congregational song in the English language. It is the thesis of the book that it was not any single factor, but a combination of features that led to Watts’s hymns having such an important influence on the congregational song of his own and future generations. To understand the hymns, it is necessary to understand something of the man himself. Raised in Independency by pious religious parents, Watts was early converted to Christian faith, learned his Bible thoroughly, and felt a call to ministry not only in the pulpit, but also through educational endeavors and writing. He was attracted to poetry at a young age, writing juvenile verse while still a child. He received a good classical and university-level education, but also tutoring by an independent-minded teacher who undoubtedly expanded his horizons of thinking considerably, a factor that may have been responsible in part for the innovative approach he took to congregational song. Watts spent much of his life as an educator himself, either in formal situations (such as his tutoring of John Hartopp Jr.), on a volunteer basis (with the Abney daughters), or as an author of textbooks, and this didactic nature reveals itself in his hymn texts. His service as an assistant pastor, and then a senior minister, gave him practical knowledge of and a leadership role in congregational singing in a prominent and growing church, providing a laboratory for his work. His illnesses forced him to leave off preaching and other strenuous activities, and gave him both leisure and energy for such intellectual work as paraphrasing the psalms. Living during a period of relative freedom from persecution, and during a time in which Independents of all stripes were anxious to prove their © David W. Music, 2022 | DOI:10.1163/9789004520523_010

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loyalty to the nation, led him not only to write patriotic hymns, but also texts that could be used by any of the country’s religious groups. The role of Watts’s family and friends in his hymn writing should also be noted. According to Thomas Gibbons, Watts’s first hymns were written out of a challenge by his father. His brother encouraged him to publish his works, and his friend Samuel Say and others gave him advice for revising them. His friendship with the Abney family afforded him congenial circumstances in which to write. A further factor in Watts’s success was his authorial humility. He sought and accepted the constructive criticism of others on his hymns, did not hesitate to revise them, and, while expressing his views boldly in his prefaces and the “Short Essay,” did not attempt to belittle or mischaracterize those who disagreed with him, but to persuade them through biblical and rational argument. Watts also seems to have been the right man for the right time. Churches and ministers, while perhaps not exactly clamoring for a change, were beginning to recognize that strict metrical psalmody was too limiting, and that there was a serious need for reform, if not for revolution. A radical innovation requires not only an enterprising pioneer, but also a receptive audience. The large sales (for that time and place), and the many editions of both Hymns and Spiritual Songs and The Psalms of David Imitated during Watts’s lifetime and after, show that they met a real need for both public worship and private or family devotion. An important feature of Watts’s hymns that led to their widespread use was their biblicism. While versified psalmody was, of course, also rooted in the Bible, it was restricted primarily to only one section of that book. Watts, on the other hand, ranged widely through the Scriptures, in particular bringing the New Testament and the message of the gospel to bear on the singing of English-speaking churches. He emphasized that while the Scriptures are God’s word to humanity, congregational song should be the people’s response to that word. Thus, in his use of the Bible, he felt free to omit portions, combine texts from different sections, alter the focus, or—most radically—incorporate his own thoughts and understanding into a passage. While this was a significant departure from earlier congregational song practices, the obvious biblical basis for Watts’s hymns helped smooth the way for their acceptance by churches and ministers. Watts’s use of the Bible, especially in its “Christianizing” aspect, also demonstrates his concern that believers be able to sing their faith with integrity. On one hand, he noted that restricting song to psalms versified from the Old Testament meant that congregations would forever be singing about new moons, purging with hyssop, desiring vengeance upon enemies, and so on, items that had little relevance or place in Christian worship. On the other hand, a

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limitation to strict psalmody also meant that the church would never sing about Jesus, proclaim the gospel message, or learn New Testament doctrine. If, as Watts believed, song is to be the response of the people to God’s revelation of himself, then it should reflect the experience of the people themselves. Through freely-written hymns and paraphrases of Scripture, Watts enabled congregations to express a New Testament faith that matched their present circumstances, but was still rooted in the biblical revelation. Watts’s hymns also appealed to contemporary ministers and congregations because of their theological comprehensiveness and orthodoxy. His hymns deal with all of the major themes and subjects of the Westminster Confession and Savoy Declaration, and they do so within conventional doctrinal formulations. Watts might have been radical for his time in his approach to the use or nonuse of biblical material in congregational song and, later, in some of his views on the Trinity, but in the theology of his hymns he was content to follow beaten paths and express a full range of Christian belief, making them both acceptable and useful to ministers and churches. In this sense, his hymns can be called a “systematic theology in verse.” Just as important as the breadth and orthodoxy of Watts’s hymns was their nonsectarian nature. Watts himself noted this feature, claiming that he wrote his texts so that all might “obey the Direction of the Word of God, and sing his Praises with Understanding” (HSS, 1707, viii). Watts was definitely a Calvinist, a belief that shows through strongly in his hymns. However, most English Nonconformists during the time he was writing and publishing his hymns were also Calvinist in orientation, so this was not a dividing factor. Still, Watts did not use his hymns to try to distinguish one Christian group from another, avoiding such topics as, for instance, whether the Independent form of church governance was more biblical than that of Presbyterians. When he did express a doctrine or practice that was not shared by all Nonconformists—such as infant versus believer’s baptism—he provided different songs that each group could sing with integrity. Watts saw congregational song as a force that should unite rather than separate. The chief exception to this ecumenical approach in his hymns was his critical view of the Roman Catholic church, which, given the times in which he lived, is not surprising. Another factor in the acceptance of Watts’s hymns was their liturgical flexibility. Because of the wide range of Scriptures that he used, and the breadth of theological and devotional topics on which he wrote, his texts were well adapted to accompany preaching, especially from Nonconformist pulpits. Such usage was greatly augmented by his provision of comprehensive Scripture and subject indexes for the songs, an area he also pioneered. These indexes readily allowed a minister to locate hymns that could support a sermon or exposition,

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bringing unity and order to this sermon/song combination in the service, and promoting a thoughtful, ordered approach to worship. Also significant was the attention he gave to hymns for baptism and, especially, for the Lord’s Supper. Watts was not the first to write hymns for these ­sacraments—to cite but one example, the Baptist Joseph Stennett had published a volume of texts for each ordinance prior to Watts—but his inclusion of such works spoke to their importance among Independents, gave the congregation a means of participation in the rites, and, with their appearance in the larger framework of a miscellaneous collection, aided in their widespread dissemination. Watts did not write any hymns specifically for festivals or seasons of the Christian Year (Independents did not believe in such a thing), but neither were his texts necessarily excluded from such use, and some of his lyrics could appropriately be sung at Christmas, Easter, Ascension, Pentecost, and other special days and seasons. He did purposefully write hymns about the Lord’s Day, as well as for different times of the day, such as morning and evening, which would be equally useful in public worship and private/family devotion. His writing of hymns based on liturgical texts that were commonly employed in the Church of England must be mentioned, including versions of the Magnificat, Benedictus, Nunc Dimittis, and Gloria Patri. While his purpose in writing these hymns was probably not that they would be used in the national church or fill a particular liturgical slot, his work “rescued” these biblical and historic texts for Independents. Watts’s hymns were also successful because of his skill as a poet. Though he was writing primarily for the “plain Christian” and knew that poetry for congregational singing had to be written “under a vow of renunciation,” as Erik Routley expressed it,1 he did not scruple to use the full panoply of available poetic techniques to get his message across. While his hymns employ the traditional meters of the metrical psalms, what he called “sunk” metaphors, short words, and plain language, they are also given color, movement, emotion, and enhanced meaning through their employment of a long list of poetic devices, vivid images and memorable forms, and, indeed, by the very sound of the English language itself. Unlike most of his hymnic predecessors and contemporaries, Watts was able to strike a happy balance between literary elegance and didacticism in his texts. As a result, his hymns are both easily grasped and wear well in repeated readings or singings. 1 Erik Routley, Hymns Today and Tomorrow (New York: Abingdon Press, 1964), 19.

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The emotional fervor of Watts’s work sets him apart from most of his psalm-versifying colleagues. The primary goal of most psalmodists was to translate as exactly as possible the meaning of the original text into verse form. While the psalms themselves are full of varied emotions, this often did not come through in versifications because of their stilted or overly ornate language and too literal approach to the text, which insisted both that nothing must be excluded and nothing added. Watts, writing newly-composed hymns or freed from the need to reproduce a biblical text as exactly as possible, was able to apply words, devices, and techniques that helped the texts come alive and express the joy and sorrow, the sense of longing and fulfillment, the bliss of heaven and the terror of hell, and the uncertainties and security of Christian faith that were largely missing from congregational song that was based strictly on metrical psalmody. The significance of Watts’s self-criticism and his openness to receiving— even soliciting—advice from others about his hymns is worth repeating. He did not hesitate to revise hymns that had already been printed, usually in the interest of greater clarity and understandability, nor did he scruple to borrow good lines, stanzas, or, indeed, almost entire hymns from other authors or from his own earlier work when he felt that these would be fruitful in accomplishing his task. The musical element of Watts’s hymns was a further component in the favor they received. Watts restricted himself to the hymnic meters that were traditional in English psalmody so his texts could be sung to tunes the people already knew. He was not alone in doing this, of course—many versifiers of congregational psalmody did the same thing—but his texts were such a radical departure from what had gone before that his accommodating them to familiar tunes was an important step to take in promoting the use of his texts. It would be difficult to persuade congregations to adopt texts that were in an innovative idiom if they also had to learn new tunes by which to sing them. While Watts generally stayed within the historic metrical patterns, he did move outside this orbit with one of his versions of Psalm 50, which was in a meter that called for a new tune. Watts’s role in the creation of this “New Tune” is not entirely certain, but it does imply some sort of collaboration with a composer, since the new tune was mentioned in his Psalms of David Imitated before the melody itself achieved publication. Watts also gave attention to the musical side of hymnody in the way he wrote his texts. He was careful in writing versions of psalms that were traditionally sung in less common hymnic meters to use the same patterns so they could be sung to the customary tunes. His texts that were intended to be sung

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to “doubled” tunes were given an even number of stanzas so that text and tune would end together appropriately. While it was generally up to an individual church’s song leader to choose an appropriate tune, Watts did give some general guidance as to the melodies that should employed, especially for the hymns in less common meters. In his prefaces, he also gave advice about such matters as lining-out and the tempo of the song, and pointed out that his texts had been written to accommodate these features of contemporary congregational singing, while also urging that the practices be reformed. Watts’s involvement with, or knowledge of, collections of tunes that provided music for his texts is generally not known, but he was certainly aware of Psalmodia Germanica by John Christian Jacobi, who had asked for and received permission to use some of his hymns and poems, though Jacobi apparently went beyond the specific pieces he had requested. Watts was almost surely cognizant of the tune supplements for his works by William Lawrence and Francis Hoffman. A variety of other tune book compilers, beginning with Thomas Orme in 1717, included Watts’s texts in their collections during the first half of the eighteenth century, a trickle that became a flood after Watts’s death in 1748. A feature that is common to many aspects of the above discussion, but that bears specific emphasis, is the overall practicality of Watts’s work. From the biblio-centric and theological comprehensiveness of his hymns to their liturgical fitness, literary style, and musical accommodation, Watts’s hymns reveal a creative thinker who could also put himself into the position of the person in the pew by not making too many demands at once. His primary innovation, a new relationship between the Bible and English-language congregational song, was clothed in generally comforting surroundings that encouraged the wide use of his hymns. What is ultimately of greater importance than any of these features considered singly, however, is their integration into a meaningful and satisfying whole. Watts’s hymns are at the same time didactic and emotional, liturgical and musical, elegant and practical. The historical/biographical/sociocultural background, scriptural language, theological expression, liturgical possibilities, literary qualities, musical appropriateness, and practical nature of his texts often combine to create a hymn of great power. In his best texts, Watts has seldom been equaled and rarely surpassed. The hymns described in the previous chapters reveal the varied spectrum of Watts’s capabilities, ranging from the evangelicalism of “Infinite grief! amazing woe” and “How are thy glories here display’d,” through the objectivity of “God of the morning, at whose voice” and “How pleas’d and blest was I,” the fervor of “Deep in our hearts let us record” and “I lift my soul to God,” and the grandeur

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of “Lo, what a glorious sight appears” and “Great God, the heaven’s well-order’d frame.”2 And this is not even to mention such better-known texts as “Alas! and did my Saviour bleed,” “Am I a soldier of the cross,” “Come, we that love the Lord,” “I sing th’ almighty power of God,” “I’ll praise my maker with my breath,” “Jesus shall reign where’er the sun,” “Joy to the world, the Lord is come,” “My shepherd will supply my need,” “Our God, our help in ages past,” and “When I survey the wondrous cross.” In truth, however, each of the named hymns, and many others, fits into all of these categories at the same time—evangelical, objective, fervent, and grand. Watts’s attention to the various components of a hymn and their integration into a satisfying and meaningful whole led his pioneering work to become adopted as the basic model and standard for congregational song in English. His works served as a basic repertory for Anglophone Christian churches for at least a hundred years after his death and continue to be sung today. Thus, they became, and many of them still are, in the words of Josiah Conder, “the mother language of devotion” for many people.3 2 The descriptors “evangelicalism,” “objectivity,” “fervor,” and “grandeur” are taken from Paul E. G. Cook, “Isaac Watts: Father of English Hymnody,” in ‘Living the Christian Life’: being Papers Read at the 1974 Conference, 29–44 (Warboys, England: Westminster Conference, 1974), 34–44, who uses them—plus “catholicity,” which applies to nearly all of Watts’s work—as part of a general summary of his hymns. 3 Josiah Conder, The Poet of the Sanctuary. A Centenary Commemoration of the Labours and Services Literary and Devotional of the Rev. Isaac Watts, D.D. (London: John Snow, 1851), 92.

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Index of Hymns by Isaac Watts Adore and tremble, for our God 35n.6 Alas! and did my Savior bleed 1, 70n.10, 76, 112, 114, 131, 167, 180, 184, 218, 222, 223, 267 All mortal vanities be gone 38n.10, 113n.55, 127n.19 All ye that love the Lord rejoice 52 Almighty God, thy piercing eye 27 Almighty ruler of the skies 49 Am I a soldier of the cross 51, 160, 267 Among th’ assemblies of the great 164 And must this body die 104 Arise my soul, my joyful powers 183 Ascend my soul, by just degrees 163, 180 At thy command, our dearest Lord 103 Attend, while God’s exalted son 162 Awake my heart, arise my tongue 72n.15 Away from ev’ry mortal care 215n.37 Backward with humble shame we look 76, 82, 159 Begin my tongue, some heav’nly theme 164n.39 Behold how sinners disagree 125 Behold the glories of the Lamb 14n.23, 38–40, 113n.55, 117n.4, 163–164, 213, 214 Behold the grace appears 214 Behold the lofty sky 133, 165, 241 Behold the love, the generous love 151 Behold the morning sun 133 Behold the potter and the clay 147 Behold the Rose of Sharon here 189n.73 Behold the wretch whose lust and wine 83, 179 Behold what wondrous grace 81 Bless, O my soul, the living God 91n.27, 164n.39, 182n.65 Blest are the humble souls that see 180, 188n.73 Blest are the sons of peace 140, 192n.82 Blest be the everlasting God 127n.19 Blest be the Father and his love 70–71, 211–212 Blest be the wisdom and the power 27 Blest is the man who shuns the place 151n.21

Blest is the man whose bowels move 188n.73 Blest is the man, whose cautious feet see Happy the man whose cautious feet Blest morning, whose young dawning rays 121, 132 Blood has a voice to pierce the skies 78 Broad is the road that leads to death 152n.22 Buried in shadows of the night 82, 114 But few among the carnal wise 75n.18 Can creatures to perfection find 44n.14, 69, 156, 157, 215n.37 Children in years and knowledge young 55, 160 Christ and his cross is all our theme 82 Come all harmonious tongues 159n.35, 164n.39, 191n.80 Come, happy souls, approach your God 43n.14, 82 Come Holy Spirit, heavenly dove 70n.11, 183 Come, let our voices join to raise 152n.22 Come let us join a joyful tune 6n.10, 100 Come let us join our cheerful songs 38n., 87, 113n. 55, 215n.37 Come let us lift our joyful eyes 79 Come let us lift our voices high 79, 158n35 Come sound his praise abroad 132 Come, we that love the Lord 120, 230, 267 David rejoiced in God his strength 149 Dearest of all the names above 72n.14 Death may dissolve my body now 127n.19 Death! ‘tis a melancholy day 128 Deep in our hearts let us record 186n.70, 250–255, 260, 266 Deep in the dust before thy throne 77 Descend from heaven, immortal dove 215n.37 Do we not know that solemn word 102, 131n.29 Dread sov’reign, let my evening song 134 Early my God without delay 133, 174 Ere the blue heav’ns were stretch’d abroad 113

280 Eternal sovereign of the sky 96 Eternal Spirit, we confess 72n.14 Exalt the Lord our God 182n.65 Far as thy name is known 94 Far from my thoughts, vain world be gone 94n.29, 127n.20, 130, 172 Father, I long, I faint to see 167 Father of glory, to thy name 71, 72n.14 Father, we wait to feel thy grace 103 Firm and unmov’d are they 189n.75, 190 Firm as the earth thy gospel stands 85 Fools in their heart believe and say 144n.3 For ever shall my song record 54n.31, 56 From age to age exalt his name 182 From all that dwell below the skies 121, 177n.59, 188n.73 From heaven the sinning angels fell 107n.40 Gentiles by nature we belong 91n.27 191n.80, 192n.81 Give thanks to God: he reigns above 181 Give thanks to God, invoke his name 182n.67 Give thanks to God most high 179, 182, 192 Give thanks to God the sovereign Lord 182n.67, 192 Give to our God immortal praise 120, 182 Give to the Lord, ye sons of fame 149n.17, 166 Glory to God that walks the sky 130 Go preach my gospel, saith the Lord 121, 133, 166 Go, worship at Immanuel’s feet 130, 166n.44, 204 God in his earthly temple lays 164 God is a spirit just and wise 94, 115, 134n.31, 152n.23, 156n.32 God my supporter and my hope 77 God of eternal love 91n.27 God of the morning, at whose voice 24n.43, 134, 224–229, 236, 241, 246, 248 God of the seas, thy thundering voice 188n.73 God! the eternal awful name 43n., 107n.40 God who in various methods told 66 Great God, attend while Zion sings 185 Great God, how infinite art thou 183

Index of Hymns by Isaac Watts Great God, indulge my humble claim  138–139 Great God, the heaven’s well-ordered frame 165n.41, 168, 200, 225n., 241–250, 260, 267 Great God, thy glories shall employ 127n.21, 144n.3, 162, 192 Great God, to what a glorious height 106 Great God, whose universal sway 165n.42 Great God, with wonder, and with praise 68 Great is the Lord, exalted high 153n.24 Great is the Lord; his works of might 178 Great shepherd of thine Israel 161, 182 Had I the tongues of Greeks and Jews  175–176, 213 Had not the Lord, may Israel say 109 Happy the church, thou sacred place 98–99 Happy the heart where graces reign 215n.37 Happy the man whose cautious feet (=Blest is the man whose cautious feet) 19, 53, 58n.34 189–190 Hark! from the tombs a doleful sound 174, 214, 216 He reigns; the Lord, the Saviour reigns 212 He that hath made his refuge God 153n.25 Hear me, O God, nor hide thy face 172 Hear what the voice from heav’n proclaims 113n.55, 126n.18, 133, 177 Help, Lord, for men of virtue fail 151 Hence from my soul, sad thoughts be gone 153n.25, 165, 188n.73 High as the heavens above the ground 165 High on a hill of dazzling light 43n.14, 106 Hosanna to our conquering king 79, 176–177 Hosanna to the king 199n.12 Hosanna, with a cheerful sound 134, 154n.27, 159 How are thy glories here display’d 229–232, 236, 253, 266 How beauteous are their feet 34n.4, 94–95, 215n.37 How did my heart rejoice to hear 99, 132, 139 How full of anguish is the thought 77 How heavy is the night 191n.80 How honourable is the place 6n.10, 35–37, 40

Index of Hymns by Isaac Watts How pleasant, how divinely fair 152 How pleasant ‘tis to see 99–100, 192n.82, 200, 258 How pleas’d and blest was I 132, 200, 209, 213, 255–260, 266 How rich are thy provisions, Lord 89 How sad our state by nature is 80, 172 How shall I praise th’ eternal God 127n.21, 164n.39 How shall the young secure their hearts 68 How short and hasty is our life 215n.37 How should the sons of Adam’s race 154 How strong thine arm is, mighty God  113n.55, 130, 157 How sweet and awful is the place 80 How vain are all things here below 130, 152 How wondrous great, how glorious bright 72n.15, 215n.37 I give immortal praise 199n.12 I hate the tempter and his charms 107 I lift my soul to God 147, 199n.11, 237–241, 260, 266 I send the joys of earth away 191n.80 I sing th’ almighty power of God 27, 65, 74–75, 267 If God succeed not all the cost 212 I’ll bless the Lord from day to day 107n.40 I’ll praise my maker with my breath 86, 146n.7, 183n., 192, 201, 217, 267 I’ll speak the honours of my king 60 In Gabriel’s hand a mighty stone 113n.55, 126 In thine own ways, O God of love 152n.23 In vain the wealthy mortals toil 168 In vain we lavish out our lives 130, 149n.17 Infinite grief! amazing woe 90n.24, 91, 145n.5, 219–224, 236, 253, 254, 266 Is there ambition in my heart (=There’s no ambition swells my heart) 189n.75, 190 Is this the kind return 161, 162 Jehovah reigns: he dwells in light 192 Jehovah reigns, his throne is high 127n.21, 172, 192&nn.80&81 Jehovah speaks, let Israel hear 147 Jesus invites his saints 97

281 Jesus is gone above the skies 102 Jesus, our Lord, ascend thy throne 54 Jesus shall reign where’er the sun 1, 47n.23, 48–49, 54, 109n.45, 114, 161, 188n.73, 216, 267 Jesus, thy blessings are not few 161 Jesus, we bless thy Father’s name 74n.18, 144n.3 Jesus, we bow before thy feet 192n.80 Jesus, with all thy saints above 43, 137–138, 155–156 Join all the glorious names 145, 191n.80, 199n.12 Joy to the world, the Lord is come 1, 48, 144–145, 147, 216–217, 218, 239, 267 Judges, who rule the world by laws 96 Laden with guilt, and full of fears 67 Let all our tongues be one 72n.15, 78–79 Let everlasting glories crown Let every creature join 75 Let every tongue thy goodness speak  153n.25 Let ev’ry mortal ear attend 130, 191 Let God the Father live 71, 138 Let him embrace my soul, and prove  126n.16, 130 Let me but hear my Saviour say 42, 158 Let mortal tongues attempt to sing 113&n.55 Let others boast how strong they be 186 Let sinners take their course 140 Let Sion in her king rejoice 182n.66 Let the old heathens tune their song 164n.39 Let the sev’nth angel sound on high 113n.55, 172n.53 Let them neglect thy glory, Lord 72, 167 Life and immortal joys are giv’n 83 Life is the time to serve the Lord 159 Lift up your eyes to th’ heavenly seats 95, 109n.43 Like sheep we went astray 78, 191n,80, 192n.81 Lo the destroying angel flies 179 Lo the young tribes of Adam rise 127n.19, 191n.80 Lo what a glorious corner-stone 132 Lo, what a glorious sight appears 113n.55, 232–236, 267

282 Lo, what an entertaining sight 19, 58&n.34, 100n.34, 190, 192n.82 Long have I sat beneath the sound 147, 172 Look, gracious God, how numerous they see My God, how many are my fears, Lord, at thy temple we appear 124–125, 126n.18, 134n.32, 148–149 Lord, hast thou cast the nation off 46, 108, 133, 166 Lord, how divine thy comforts are 152, 188n73 Lord, how many are my foes 134 Lord, how secure and blest are they 169n.49 Lord, I am vile, conceiv’d in sin 54n. Lord, I ascribe it to thy grace 27 Lord, I esteem thy judgments right 176 Lord, I will bless thee all my days 145 Lord, I would spread my sore distress 213n.32 Lord, if thou dost not soon appear 159 Lord, in the morning thou shalt hear 59, 132–133 Lord of the worlds above 199n.12 Lord, thou hast searched and seen me thro’ 166, 171, 182n.67 Lord, thou wilt hear me when I pray 134 Lord, ‘tis a pleasant thing to stand 98 Lord, we adore thy bounteous hand 154 Lord, we confess our num’rous fau’ts 81, 154n.28 Lord, what a feeble piece 156, 190 Lord, what a heaven of saving grace 94n.29, 127n.20 Lord, what a thoughtless wretch was I 166, 189n.75, 190 Lord! what a wretched land is this 156 Lord, what was man, when made at first 50 Lord, when I count thy mercies o’er 134, 140 Loud hallelujahs to the Lord 172, 180, 188n.73, 189n.75, 190, 200 Man has a soul of vast desires 164n.39 Maker and sovereign Lord 54n., 151 Mercy and judgment are my song 96–97 Mine eyes and my desire 199n.11, 240 Mistaken souls! that dream of heav’n 82, 161 My dear redeemer and my Lord 172n.53 My God, accept my early vows 134 My God, how endless is thy love 87, 134, 214

Index of Hymns by Isaac Watts My God, how many are my fears (=Look, gracious God, how numerous they) 19 My God, in whom are all the springs 182 My God, my life, my love 43n.14, 120, 156 My God, my portion, and my love 43n.14 My God, the spring of all my joys 188n.73 My God, what endless pleasures dwell 71, 130 My never-ceasing songs shall show 73 My refuge is the God of love 60, 77, 161 My Saviour and my king 153n.25 My Saviour God, my sovereign prince 101, 131 My shepherd is the living Lord 48, 102n.36, 188n.73 My shepherd will supply my need 53, 54, 193 My soul, come meditate the day 121 My soul forsakes her vain delight 168n.46 My soul, how lovely is the place 47–48, 54n. My soul, thy great creator praise 75, 160, 180, 200, 204, 205 My thoughts on awful subjects roll 171 My thoughts surmount these lower skies 72n.15 My trust is in my heavenly friend 166 No, I shall envy them no more 157n. No, I’ll repine at death no more 158 No more, my God, I boast no more 158n.35 No sleep, nor slumber to his eyes 97, 133 Nor eye has seen, nor ear has heard 113n.55 Not all the blood of beasts 160 Not all the outward forms on earth 88, 92, 179 Not the malicious or profane 144n.2 Not to condemn the sons of men 105 Not to our names, thou only just and true 109, 207 Not to the terrors of the Lord 6n.10, 43n.14, 100, 144n.3 Now be the God of Israel blest 134n.32, 135–136 Now by the bowels of my God 154n.28 Now for a tune of lofty praise 158, 183, 191 Now from the roaring lion’s rage 153n.26 Now have our hearts embrac’d our God  134n.32, 211

283

Index of Hymns by Isaac Watts Now in the heat of youthful blood 127n.19 Now let a spacious world arise 43n., 156n.32, 179 Now let our lips with holy fear 158 Now let our mournful songs record 252n.7 Now let the Father and the Son 137–138 Now may the God of power and grace 108, 133, 164n.39 Now Satan comes with dreadful roar 107, 192n.80 Now shall my inward joys arise 6n.10 Now to the Lord a noble song 75 Now to the Lord that makes us know 113n.55, 117, 120 Now to the power of God supreme 73–74, 171 O bless the Lord, my soul 172n.53, 182n.65 O blessed souls are they 145n.5, 153 O Britain, praise thy mighty God 108 O for a shout of sacred joy 162, 253 O for an overcoming faith 126n.18 O happy man whose soul is fill’d 140 O if my soul was form’d for woe 131 O Lord, our heavenly king 169, 182n.65 O Lord, our Lord, how wondrous great  182n.65 O the almighty Lord 70, 144n.3 O the delights, the heavenly joys 147 O thou whose justice reigns on high 159, 182n.65 Of justice and of grace I sing 140 Often I seek my Lord by night 179 Once more, my soul, the rising day 43–44, 134 Our days, alas! our mortal days 165 Our God, our help in ages past 1, 69, 156, 157, 166, 180, 182, 216, 267 Our souls shall magnify the Lord 134n.32, 136 Our spirits join t’ adore the Lamb 159–160 Out of the deeps of long distress 145n.5, 213 Plunged in a gulf of dark despair 160 Praise, everlasting praise be paid 162 Praise ye the Lord, my heart shall join 192, 200 Praise ye the Lord: ‘tis good to raise 86–87 Preserve me, Lord, in time of need 100

Questions and doubts be heard no more 144n.3 Raise thee, my soul, fly up and run 71, 168n.46, 216n.37 Raise your triumphant songs 191n.80 Rejoice, ye righteous, in the Lord 170n.48 Remember, Lord, our mortal state 133 Saints, at your Father’s heav’nly word 125 Salvation! O the joyful sound 92, 180, 222n. Save me, O God, the swelling floods 56, 57 Save me, O Lord, from every foe 154 See what a living stone 90&nn.24&26, 132 See where the great incarnate God 105 Shall the vile race of flesh and blood  165n.41, 167 Shall we go on to sin 93 Shall wisdom cry aloud 113, 127n.19, 163, 172n.53, 179 Shew pity, Lord, O Lord forgive 83, 162, 213n.32 Shine, mighty God, on Britain shine 108, 113n.56, 189n.75, 190 Shout to the Lord, and let our joys 13, 109, 166 Sin like a venomous disease 165n.39 Sing to the Lord Jehovah’s name 132 Sing to the Lord that built the skies 172n.52 Sing to the Lord with joyful voice 19, 143–144, 189n.76, 190, 192n.78, 199 Sing to the Lord, ye distant lands 164n.39 Sing to the Lord, ye heavenly hosts 14, 105, 171n.50 Sitting around our Father’s board 158 So did the Hebrew prophet raise 34n.4, 154, 159, 166 So let our lips and lives express 83–84 So new-born babes desire the breast 165n.42 Songs of immortal praise belong (=The sweetest psalms of praise belong) 73, 190 Stand up, my soul, shake off thy fears 43 Stoop down, my thoughts, that use to rise  104, 169 Sweet is the work, my God, my king 132 Teach me the measure of my days 168n.46 Terrible God, that reign’st on high 165n.39

284 Th’ almighty reigns exalted high 213 That awful day will surely come 77 That man is blest who stands in awe  184–185 The glories of my maker God 152n.23 The God of glory sends his summon1s forth 134n.31, 146n.8, 180, 181, 192, 200, 216 The God of mercy be ador’d 165 The heavens declare thy glory, Lord 68, 168n.47, 230, 241 The king, O Lord, with songs of praise 108 The law by Moses came 87, 154n.28, 180 The Lord declares his will 67 The Lord, how wondrous are his ways 172n.52 The Lord is come, the heav’ns proclaim 107n.40, 213 The Lord Jehovah reigns 127n.21, 145, 192n.80, 200, 258 The Lord of glory reigns; he reigns on high 152, 162, 200 The Lord on high proclaims 191n.80 The Lord the judge his churches warns 115, 134n.31 The Lord, the sovereign king 107n.40 The Lord, the sovereign, sends his summons forth 192, 200, 206–207, 209n.25, 213 The majesty of Solomon 22, 191n.80 The memory of our dying Lord 179–180 The praise of Sion waits for thee 158 The promise was divinely free 131 The sweetest psalms of praise belong see Songs of immortal praise belong The true Messiah now appears 88, 152n.23 The voice of my beloved sounds 40–42 The wonders, Lord, thy love has wrought (=What wonders, Lord, thy love has wrought) 190 The wond’ring world enquires to know 159 Thee we adore, eternal name 120, 128 There is a land of pure delight 127, 170n.51, 179 There was an hour when Christ rejoiced 213 There’s no ambition swells my heart see Is there ambition in my heart These glorious minds how bright they shine 113n.55, 191n.80 This is the day the Lord hath made 94, 132

Index of Hymns by Isaac Watts This is the word of truth and love 91–92 Thou art my portion, O my God 153n.26 Thou whom my soul admires 130 Thro’ every age, eternal God 133 Thus did the sons of Abraham pass 131n.29 Thus far the Lord has led me on 134 Thus saith the Lord, “The spacious fields” 95 Thus saith the mercy of the Lord 101–102, 123, 131n.29 213 Thus saith the wisdom of the Lord 127n.19 Thy favours, Lord, surprise our souls 127 Time! What an empty vapour ‘tis 156, 215n.37, 216 ‘Tis by thy strength the mountains stand 159 To God the Father’s throne 199n.12 To God the great, the ever-blest 100 To him that chose us first 199n.12 To our almighty maker God 213 To our eternal God 199n.12 To thee, most holy, and most high 95, 108, 109, 161 To thine almighty arm we owe 109 ‘Twas by an order from the Lord 67n.6 ‘Twas for thy sake, eternal God 171 ‘Twas from thy hand, my God, I came 76 ‘Twas on that dark, that doleful night 44, 102n., 187, 194 ‘Twas the commission of our Lord 72n.15, 131, 168 Unshaken as the sacred hill 189&n.75, 190 Up to the hills I lift mine eyes 164n.39 Up to the Lord that reigns on high 127, 169 Upward I lift mine eyes 171, 199n.12 Vain are the hopes of men 88, 145n.5 Vain man on foolish pleasures bent 182 We are a garden walled around 98, 130 We bless the Lord, the just, the good 164n.39 We bless the prophet of the Lord 178–179 We love thee, Lord, and we adore 61 We sing the glories of thy love 113n.55 We sing th’ amazing deeds 154 Welcome sweet day of rest 94n., 127n.20, 130, 132, 215n.37,

285

Index of Hymns by Isaac Watts Well, the redeemer’s gone 183 What different pow’rs of grace and sin 164 What equal honours shall we bring 38n., 113n.55 What happy men, or angels, these 72n.15, 113n.55, 169n.48 What mighty man, or mighty God 126n.16, 144n.1, 179 What shall I render to my God 95n.31, 159 What wonders, Lord, thy love has wrought see The wonders, Lord, thy love has wrought When God, provok’d with daring crimes 205 When God restor’d our captive state 153n.24, 156n.32 When I can read my title clear 86, 127, 156 When I survey the wondrous cross 1, 102, 112, 113n.56, 121, 130n., 158, 164, 165n.42, 168, 169, 180, 191, 214, 216, 218, 223 When Israel, freed from Pharaoh’s hand 25, 26n.47, 190, 214&n. When strangers stand and hear me tell  126n.16 When the great builder stretch’d the skies 43n. Whence do our mournful thoughts arise 82 Where are the mourners (saith the Lord)  43n., 158n. Where shall the man be found 199n.11, 240 Where shall we go to seek and find 133 While I keep silence and conceal 54 While men grow bold in wicked ways 173 Who can describe the joys that rise 72n.14, 125, 172n.53, 211 Who shall the Lord’s elect condemn 162

Why did the Jews proclaim their rage 189n.75, 190 Why did the nations join to slay 121 Why do the proud insult the poor 21 Why do the wealthy wicked boast 84 Why do we mourn departing friends  122–123, 133, 214 Why has my God my soul forsook 52 Why is my heart so far from thee 171 Why should we start and fear to die  105–106, 170n.51 With all my powers of heart and tongue 107n.40 With cheerful voice I sing 145, 191n.80, 199n.12, 215n.37 With holy fear, and humble song 105n., 170, 172 With my whole heart I’ve sought thy face  82, 151 With reverence let the saints appear  164n.39, 165, 167 With songs and honours sounding loud  183n. Ye islands of the northern sea 107n.40 Ye nations round the earth, rejoice 47n.24, 153, 199&n.10 Ye sons of Adam, vain and young 127n.19, 154, 157 Ye sons of men, a feeble race 107n.40 Ye that delight to serve the Lord 184, 200, 249 Ye that obey th’ immortal king 189n.75, 190 Ye tribes of Adam, join 160, 199n.12 Zion rejoice, and Judah sing 108

General Index A SONG OF PRAISE TO THE BLESSED TRINITY 211–212 Abney family 26, 97, 196, 261, 262 Abraham (biblical character) 102, 123, 125, 131&n.29 Addison, Joseph 25, 26n.47, 248 Alexander, William 184 “All people that on earth do dwell” (Kethe) 198–199&nn.9&10 ALLEIN GOTT IN DER HÖH 213 ANGEL’S SONG 210 Anglo-Genevan Psalter (1561) 199n.9 Anne, Queen 18, 108 ANTIOCH 216–217 Arnold, John 214 Arnold, Richard 62–63, 169n.48 Ashworth, Caleb 110 Augustine, St. 221–222 AUS TIEFER NOT 213 Baker, Henry W. 113n.54 baptism 94, 101–102, 111, 123, 131, 141, 257, 258, 263–264 Barton, William 12, 15, 37, 184 Baxter, Richard 184 Bedford, Arthur 213–214 Benedictus 134–136, 141, 264 Bennet, Robert 211n.29 Benson, Louis F. 129, 191n.78 Betjeman, John 17n.29 Beynon, Graham 2, 47 Bishop, John 209n.26, 213 Bishop, Selma L. 2, 3 Blackmore, Richard 184n.69 Book of Common Prayer 9, 226 Book of the Song of Solomon in Meeter (T. S.) 42n.13 Boyle, Robert 186 Brady, Nicholas see Tate and Brady Breach Repaired in God’s Worship (Keach) 22 Breed, David R. 45 BRENTFORD 209 Bridges, Robert 17n.29, 221

Brief Discourse Concerning Singing (Marlow) 22 Broome, Michael 213 Browne, Simon 207–209 Bunyan, John 16 Bysshe, Edward 150n.17 Calvinism 8, 12, 14, 66, 78, 111, 140, 263, CAMBRIDGE 209 Cantate Domino 137n. Carey, William 85n. Cennick, John 31, 184n.69 Charles II, King 9, 10 Chauncey, Isaac 17 CHICHESTER 209n.26, 210, 213 Church, John 23 Clark, Christopher 214 Clark, Jeremiah 23 Collection of Psalms and Sacred Poems (1749) 215–216 Collection of Tunes (Lawrence) 206–209 Collection of the Choicest and Best Psalm Tunes (Bennet) 211n.29 Collection of the Choicest and Best Psalm Tunes (Orme) 211 Colman, Benjamin 25n.44 Complete Psalmodist (Arnold) 214 Communion see Lord’s Supper Conder, Josiah 2, 267 Corde natus ex parentis (Prudentius) 113n.54 Croft, William 23 Cowper, William 31 Darby, Charles 61, 184, 244 Davies, Horton 114 Davis, Arthur Paul 2, 9n.14, 25n.47, 150 Davis, Edward B. 186 Declaration of the Faith and Order see Savoy Declaration Denham, John 7, 247–248 Directory for the Publique Worship of God see Westminster Directory Divine and Moral Songs (Watts) see Divine Songs Attempted in Easy Language

287

General Index Divine Recreations (Bedford) 213–214 Divine Songs Attempted in Easy Language (DS) 26–27, 68, 75, 208, 224, 246 Doddridge, Philip 121n.11 Dryden, John 33 DUKE STREET 216 ELTHAM 213 Enquiry into the Obligations of Christians (Carey) 85 Epithalamium (Slater) 42 ERBARM DICH MEIN O HERRE GOTT 213 Escott, Harry 2, 3, 35n.7, 79, 126n.17, 146&n.8, 150n.17, 175–178, 186, 223, 248 Faithful Narrative (Edwards/Guyse/ Watts) 85n. Fletcher, Donald Rodgers 48n.27 Ford, Simon 184 “Forth in thy name, O Lord, I go” (Wesley) 229 FRENCH 100 210, 254–255 Friday Lecture 22, 206, 213 Gawthorn, Nathaniel 213 George I, King 8, 66, 95, 108 Gibbons, Thomas 2, 8, 13, 19n.32, 191, 262 GLOCESTER 209 Gloria Patri 137–138, 141 Glory of Christ as God-Man (Watts) 1 Gray, Scotty 3, 155n.29, 166, 175, 178–180, 223 Green, Thomas 214 Grounds and Rules of Musick (Walter) 203n. Guy Fawkes Day 131, 109 Guyse, John 85n. HACKNEY see ST. MARY’S HAMBURG 216 Handel, George Frideric 186, 216 Harlan, Lowell B. 109 Harmonia Perfecta (Gawthorn) 213 Harsha, D. A. 2 Hartopp family 14–15, 261 Heaven on Earth (Tans’ur) 214 Heermann, Johann 221–222 Henry, Matthew 184, 244 Henry VIII, King 11 Herzliebster Jesu (Heermann) 221

Hoffman, Francis 209, 266 Hopkins, John see Sternhold and Hopkins Horæ Lyricæ (HL) 18–19, 23–24, 40n., 143–144, 189 Hood, E. Paxton 2, 11n., 112, 122n.11 Hull, John M. 109n.45 Humble Attempt (Watts) 116 hymn meters 145–147 Hymns Ancient and Modern (1861) 216 Hymns and Spiritual Songs (Browne) 207n.21 Hymns and Spiritual Songs (Watts) 19–25 and liturgy 121–128 “Short Essay” 20–22, 24–25, 28, 40, 62, 89, 262 use of Scripture in 34–44, 62–63 “I lift mine heart to thee” (Sternhold) 199 “Innocent Play” (Watts) 27 Isaac (biblical character) 125 Jackson, Thomas 2 Jacobi, John Christian 211–213, 215, 217, 266 James I, King 13n.22, 184 James II, King 10 Jennings, David 9, 13, 31, 196n.4 Johnson, Samuel 17, 64n.1 Jubilate Deo 137n. Keach, Benjamin 12, 16, 22, 103n.37, 186 Kethe, William 198 King, Henry 184 Knapp, John 6n.9, 148n.13 Kroeger, Karl 216 LAMENTATION 210 Lawrence, William 206–211, 213, 217, 266 lining out 14, 145, 201–203, 205, 240, 266 LITCHFIELD OLD 200, 232 LOBT GOTT, IHR CHRISTEN ALLZUGLEICH 212 Lord’s Supper (Communion) 9–10, 22, 94, 97, 117, 120, 228, 257, 264 at Bury Street 117, 129 Watts hymns for 20, 44, 48, 80, 101–104, 117, 129–131, 141, 223, 229–232, 236, 240, 254, 264 Lydia (biblical character) 123

288 Magnificat 6, 134n.32, 136, 141, 264 MANCHESTER 209 Manning, Bernard Lord 113, 145n.6, 148n.14 Marlow, Isaac 22 MARTYRS 210 Mary II, Queen 11 Mason, John 12, 15, 184, 186 Mason, Lowell 216, 217 Mather, Cotton 27–28, 128, 184 Medley, Samuel 31 Messiah (Handel) 216 Metamorphoses (Ovid) 156n.33 Michael Broome’s Collection (Broome) 213 Milbourne, Luke 61, 120n.10, 184, 244–246 Milner, Thomas 2, 30, 111, 191n.78 Morgan, John 13 “My shepherd is the living Lord” (Sternhold) 193 Neale, John Mason 113n.54 NEW 50 see NEW TUNE NEW TUNE (NEW 50, TORRINGTON) 109, 156n.32, 197, 198, 206–210, 213, 217 New Version of the Psalms (Tate and Brady) see Tate and Brady “Newman, Mr.” 23 Newton, Isaac 113n.53 Newton, John 31 Noble Stand (Wilcox) 208 Nunc Dimittis (Song of Simeon) 124, 126n.18, 134, 141, 264 “Of the Father’s love begotten” (Prudentius) 113n.54 OLD 25 197, 199, 210, 240–241 OLD 50 146n.8, 162, 200, 210 OLD 81 210 OLD 100 197, 199, 210, 228 OLD 112 200, 210 OLD 113 200, 201n.14, 210, 217, 249–250 OLD 119 210 OLD 122 200, 210, 258–259 OLD 148 199, 210 Old Version see Sternhold and Hopkins Orchard, Stephen 90n.26 Orme, Thomas 211 “Others may tell of famous things” (Stennett) 187n., 252 Oxfordshire Harmony (Sreeve) 214

General Index Paraphrase upon the Song of Solomon (Sandys) 42n. Patrick, John 16–17, 21, 61–62, 120n.9, 148, 184–185, 202–203, 206 Paul, St. 30, 44, 51, 89, 91, 114 Pearson, William 213 Perronet, Edward 31 Phillips, Christopher N. 30, 64n.4, 127n.22, 182n.24 Pinhorne, John 8, 10 Pious Breathings (Stanhope) 221 Playford, Henry 223 Playford, John 23, 195, 218n.2, 254 Practical Discourses of Singing (1708) 22–23 Price, Samuel 13, 18, 26, 31, 119, 196n.4 PRINCES (Bishop) 213 Prudentius, Aurelius Clemens 113n.54 Psalmodia Germanica (Jacobi) 211–213, 215, 266 Psalms of David (Milbourne) 120n.10, 184, 244 Psalms of David Imitated (Watts) 9, 27–31 use of Scripture in 44–63 Ravenscroft, Thomas 195n.2, 196, 198 READING 210 Reeve, John 42n. Reliquiæ Juveniles (Watts) 6, 24n.43, 29n.57 Remnants of Time (Watts) 157n.33, 187 Rippon, John 117n.4 Robinson, Robert 31 ROCKINGHAM 216 Rous, Francis 184 Routley, Eric 2, 65, 130, 131n.30, 264 Rowe, Thomas 8, 11, 18 ST. ANNE 216 ST. DAVID’S 210, 235–236 ST. MARY’S (HACKNEY) 209, 223–224 Sandys, George 42n. Savoy Declaration (Declaration of the Faith and Order) 4, 5, 53, 64–106, 111, 113, 240, 257, 263 Say, Samuel 23–24, 25, 262 Second Book of the Divine Companion (Pearson) 213 Sermons on Various Subjects (Watts) 31, 129 Set of Tunes (Browne) 207

289

General Index Sheeles, John 214 Shepherd, Thomas 186 “Shepherds rejoice, lift up your eyes” (Watts) 212, 215n.37 Simeon see Nunc Dimittis “Sing aloud to the Lord: let the two frozen poles” (Watts) 143–144, 191n.78 Six Centuries of Select Hymns (Barton) 42n. Skylark, The (Sheeles) 214 Slater, Samuel 42n. Song of Simeon see Nunc Dimittis Song of Zecharias see Benedictus SOUTHWELL see OLD 25 SPECIMEN OF MUSICK 213 Spectator, The (Addison and Steele) 25, 27, 190, 214, 248 Speed, John 16, 17n.27 Spiritual Hymns (Reeve) 42n. Spiritual Melody (Keach) 22n.37 Spiritual Songs (Mason) 42n., 184 Squire, Joshua 184 Sreeve, John 214 Stanhope, George 221 Steele, Anne 31 Steele, Richard 25 Stennett, Joseph 42n., 186–187, 252, 264 Stennett, Samuel 31 Stephanos (biblical character) 123 Stephenson, William Eaton 79n., 150 Sternhold and Hopkins (Old Version, Whole Booke of Psalmes) 11–12, 15, 18–19, 33, 146, 184, 197, 198, 199, 214, 258 Sternhold, Thomas see Sternhold and Hopkins Tallis, Thomas 214 TALLIS’S CANON 214 Tans’ur, William 214 Tate and Brady 12, 16, 17, 146, 184, 226, 245, 247, 248 Tate, Nahum see Tate and Brady Temperley, Nicholas 195n.2, 206 “That doleful night, when our dear Lord” (Stennett) 187 “The Hebrew Poet” (Watts) 29n.57 “The Sluggard” (Watts) 26 Three Dissertations (Watts) 1 Toplady, Augustus 31 TORRINGTON see NEW TUNE

“Tunes Adapted to the foregoing Hymns” (1749) 215–216 Tunes in the Tenor Part (1725) 209 Turner, William 196 Venite 137n. Version of Solomon’s Song (Stennett) 42n. Vocal Harmony (Green/Clark) 214 VOM HIMMEL HOCH 213 Wallenstein, Martin A. 195 Walter, Thomas 203n. Watson, J. R. 156n.33 Watts, Enoch 15–17, 193 Watts, Isaac and Jews 88–91, 220, 221 Bible and his hymns 1–63, 219–221, 225–226, 230, 233–234, 237–239, 241–244, 250–253, 255–258 borrowings 184–188, 221–222, 244–246 form in his hymns 175–184, 223, 226–227, 231, 235, 248, 254 functional nature of his hymns 142–145 hymns and liturgy 93-95, 115–141, 223, 228, 231, 234, 240, 248–249, 254, 258 poetic devices 155–174, 222–223, 227, 231, 235, 240, 246–247, 253, 258 revision of his hymns 188–192 rhymes 148–154, 253 theology of his hymns 64–114, 221, 226, 230–231, 239–240, 246, 253, 257 tunes for his hymns 197–217, 223–224, 228, 232, 235–236, 240–241, 249–250, 254–255, 258–259 Watts, Isaac (Sr.) 10, 12–13, 14 Wesley, Charles 31, 229 Wesley, John 217 Westminster Directory (Directory for the Publique Worship of God) 116, 119, 121 “What heavenly man, or lovely God” (Watts) 144n.1 What Should Be Most of All Tho’t Upon (Mather) 128 Whole Book of Psalm Tunes (Ravenscroft) 196 Whole Book of Psalms (Playford) 254 Whole Booke of Psalmes see Sternhold and Hopkins

290 Whole Booke of Psalmes (Ravenscroft) 198 Wilcox, Daniel 208 William III, King 8, 10–11, 18 WINDSOR 210 Wither, George 12 WO GOTT ZUM HAUS 212

General Index World to Come (Watts) 121–123 Wright, Thomas 2, 29n.55 YORK 210 Zwingli, Ulrich 12