Isaac watts biography hymn writer 1748

English hymnwriter and theologian (1674–1748)

For the British naval architect, see Isaac Watts (naval architect).

Isaac Watts (17 July 1674 – 25 November 1748) was an English Congregational minister, hymn writer, theologian, and logician. He was a prolific and popular hymn writer and is credited with some 750 hymns. His works include "When I Survey the Wondrous Cross", "Joy to the World", and "O God, Our Help in Ages Past". He is recognised as the "Godfather of English Hymnody"; many of his hymns remain in use today and have been translated into numerous languages.

Life

Watts was born in Southampton, Hampshire, England, in 1674 and was brought up in the home of a committed religious nonconformist; his father, also Isaac Watts, had been incarcerated twice for his views. Watts had a classical education at King Edward VI School, Southampton, learning Latin, Greek, and Hebrew.

Watts displayed a propensity for rhyme from an early age. He was once asked why he had his eyes open during prayers, to which he responded:

A little mouse for want of stairs
ran up a rope to say its prayers.

He received corporal punishment for this, to which he cried:

Watts could not attend Oxford or Cambridge because he was a nonconformist and these universities were restricted to Anglicans—as were government positions at the time. He went to the Dissenting Academy at Stoke Newington in 1690. Much of the remainder of his life centred on that village, which is now part of Inner London.

Following his education, Watts was called as pastor of a large independent chapel in London, Mark Lane Congregational Chapel, where he helped train preachers, despite his poor health. He held religious opinions that were more nondenominational or ecumenical than was common for a nonconformist Congregationalist. He had a greater interest in promoting education and scholarship than preaching for any particular sect.

Watts took work as a private tutor and lived with the non

Watts was born July 17, 1674 at Southampton, England, the eldest of nine children. His father was a Dissenter from the Anglican Church and on at least one occasion was thrown in jail for not following the Church of England. Isaac followed his father's strongly biblical faith. Isaac was a very intelligent child who loved books and learned to read early. He began learning Latin at age four and went on to learn Greek, Hebrew, and French as well. From an early age Isaac had a propensity to rhyming, and often even his conversation was in rhyme.

Because Isaac would not follow the national Church of England, he could not attend the Universities of Cambridge or Oxford. Instead, he attended an academy sponsored by Independent Christians. After completing his formal schooling, Watts spent five years as a tutor. During those years he began to devote himself more diligently than before to the study of the Scriptures. In 1707 he published his first edition of Hymns and Spiritual Songs.

For a few years Watts served as an assistant and then pastor to an Independent congregation in London. A violent and continual fever from which he never recovered forced him to leave the pastorate. Sir Thomas Abney received Watts into his home, and Sir Thomas' family continued to provide a home and serve as Watts' patrons for the next 36 years!

Though naturally quick to resentment and anger, the Lord used Watts' sufferings to produce a gentle, modest, and charitable spirit. Out of his compassion, one-third of his small allowance was given to the poor. Watts' tenderness to children can be seen reflected in his lovely Divine Songs for Children, published in 1715.

Watts' most published book was his Psalms of David, first published in 1719. In his poetic paraphrases of the psalms, Watts adapted the psalms for use by the Church and made David speak "the language of a Christian." Examples of Watts' method can be seen in his paraphrases of P

by Edwin F. Hatfield

Isaac Watts is a name of most precious memory. More than two centuries have passed since his birth, and yet no one, even to this day, so often leads the praises of the sanctuary, as the bard of Southampton. "Every Sabbath," wrote Montgomery in 1825, "in every region of the earth where his native tongue is spoken, thousands and tens of thousands of voices are sending the sacrifices of prayer and praise to God, in the strains which he prepared for them a century ago; yea, every day, 'he being dead yet speaketh' by the lips of posterity, in these sacred lays, some of which may not cease to be sung by the ransomed on their journey to Zion, so long as the language of Britain endures."

"Of Watts," said Dr. Dibdin, "it is impossible to speak without veneration and respect. His Hymns are the charm of our early youth; his Logic, the well-known theme of school-boy study; and his Sermons, Essays, and other theological compositions, are a source of never-failing gratification in the advance, maturity, and decline of life. The man at four-score may remember, with gratitude, the advantage of having committed the hymns of this pious man to his infantile memory."

"My grandfather, Mr. Thomas Watts," says Watts, "had such acquaintance with the mathematics, painting, music, and poesy, etc., as gave him considerable esteem among his contemporaries. He was commander of a ship of war (1656), and by blowing up of the ship in the Dutch war he was drowned in his youth." His widow survived until July 13, 1693, taking an active and prominent part in the education of her grandson.

Their son, Isaac Watts, Sr., like his parents, was a thorough Puritan; a deacon, also, in the Congregational Church of Southampton, and eminent for piety. Born in 1652, he came to years during the stormy days of persecution that characterized the later years of Charles II. He married in 1873, and had born to him four sons and five daughters. He was well educated, an

The child that wrote during family prayers:

"There was a mouse for want of stairs,
Ran up a rope to say his prayers"

wrote many years later:

"See from His head, His hands His feet,
Sorrow and love flowed mingled down.
Did e'er such love and sorrow meet
Or thorns compose so rich a crown".

Isaac Watts was the writer.

The young Isaac Watts revealed a poetic gift within his parents' home. The mature Isaac Watts used his God-given gift to write inspiring sacred songs which affected hundreds of thousands of believers in God in his life-time and millions more since his death. He has been described as the father of the English hymn.

From his earliest days Isaac Watts was accustomed to hear the Word of God read by his father and to hear him pray also. His father was a godly Dissenting minister who twice suffered imprisonment because of his convictions. Such a father was a great help to young Isaac Watts. Isaac was the eldest of nine children, and when he was eleven years old, his father wrote a letter to all his children in which he exhorted them "frequently to read the Scriptures — get your hearts to delight in them — above all books and writings account the Bible the best and read it most — lay up the truth of it in your hearts". The wise father also exhorted them to pay attention to prayer and godly living. When Isaac was fifteen years old he trusted the Lord Jesus as His own personal Saviour. His father's godly example and wise counsel had borne fruit. A few years after this, Isaac spent two and a half years at home studying the Scriptures and praying. The Lord was preparing His servant for his important contribution to Christian worship and praise.

Watts' high intellectual promise induced a physician in Southampton and other friends to offer him an education at one of the Universities for eventual ordination to the Church of England. This he refused and entered a Nonconfo