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mitted to those who did not. In this happy frame he continued till the day before his death, when the pain of his body overpowered his reflection and reafon. This was the comfort he administered to his friends who wept for, or lamented him: "We part but for a while; we shall spend an happy eternity together." One coming into the room with a Bible in her hand, he cried out, "O that dear book! that lovely book! I fhall foon fee it opened! the myfteries that are in it, and the myfteries of GOD's providence, will all be unfolded." On Thursday, October 6, he lay for a confiderable time, as if he were dying; and was heard, at intervals, breaking out into fuch whispers as thefe: "He will come: He will not tarry. I shall soon be in glory: Soon be with GOD and his angels." From this time his diftrefs increased more and more; infomuch that he faid, "It was another thing to die than people imagined;" explaining himfelf to mean, they were not aware of the bodily pain undergone before death. Yet all the while, as he could, his patience was great; the comforts and fupports of grace were alfo great: And all of them continued unabating to the laft; which was about fix o'clock on Friday morning, October 9, 1747, the happy period when he joined the innumerable company of faints above, the general affembly and church of the first-born, GOD the Judge of all, the fpirits of just men made perfect, and Jefus the Mediator of that new and better covenant, which had been all his rejoicing, and all his hope.

ISAAC WATTS,

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D. D.

NE great object of this compilation is, the illuftration of divine grace in its power and influence upon the hearts of men: So that, while we point out the bright examples of many eminent chriftians, we would be underftood, not fo much to fet up men for mere admiration, but to fhew what GOD hath done, in fucceffive generations, for poor finners like ourselves, that others might be encouraged, according to their measure of the fame grace, to follow them who now through faith and patience inherit the promifes. Hence, therefore, as we muft abhor a mean and invidious detraction, which could only prove that we want either grace or common candor; we would be careful alfo to avoid the other extreme, from a mind equally devoted to temporal

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temporal views, of fliding into fulfome or fwelling panegyrics, through any refpect that fhould be entertained for the memories of faithful men. It becomes us, in this cafe, to confider what the perfons, we venture to celebrate, would fay of us or to us, could they read what fell from our pens, now their fpirits are made perfect and divefted of all the vanity and conceit of the flesh. I believe, they would readily own, with the Apoftle, that they were at best but empty veffels in themselves; that whatever they enjoyed of goodnefs was entirely out of that Fullness, which filleth all in all; and that, by the grace of GOD, they were whatever they were, either in themfelves or for others, in point of usefulness and worth. And, in confequence of this acknowledgement, they would be much more ready to chide than to thank us, were we to dignify their perfons for public view, and to forget to mention, that they had nothing worth having, but what they freely received from their Mafter. Under this impreffion of mind, which we would wish never to forget, we shall select, from the various memoirs which have been published of this excellent Man, chiefly what has been given by the late Dr. Samuel Johnson, as the moft concife, judicious, and candid of any; to which we will add a few edifying particulars, which, we conceive, cannot but be grateful to our ferious Readers.

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Ifaac Watts (fays Dr. Johnson) was born July 17, 1674, at Southampton, where his father, of the fame name, kept a boarding-school for young gentlemen, though common report makes him a fhoemaker. He appears, from the narrative of Dr. Gibbons, to have been neither indigent nor illiterate. Ifaac, the eldeft of nine children, was given to books from his infancy; and began, we are told, to learn Latin when he was four years old, I fuppofe at home. He was afterwards taught Latin, Greek, and Hebrew, by Mr. Pinhorne, a clergyman, mafter of the free-fchool at Southampton, to whom the gratitude of his fcholar afterwards infcribed a Latin Ode. His proficiency at fchool was fo confpicuous, that a fubfcription was propofed for his fupport at the univerfity; but he declared his refolution to take his lot with the Diffenters. Such he was, as every chriftian church would rejoice to have adopted. He therefore repaired in 1690 to an academy taught by Mr. Rowe, where he had for his companions and fellow-ftudents Mr. Hughes the poet, and Dr. Horte afterwards archbishop of Tuam. Some Latin Effays, fuppofed to have been written as exercifes at this academy, thew a

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degree of knowledge, both philofophical and theological, fuch as very few attain by a much longer courfe of study. He was, as he hints in his mifcellanies, a maker of verfes from fifteen to fifty, and in his youth he appears to have paid attention to Latin poetry. His verfes to his brother, in the glyconic meafure, written when he was feventeen, are remarkably eafy and elegant. Some of his other Odes are deformed by the pindaric folly then prevailing, and are written with fuch neglect of all metrical rules as is without example among the antients; but his diction, though perhaps not always exactly pure, has fuch copioufness and fplendor, as fhews that he was but at a very little diftance from excellence.

His method of ftudy was to imprefs the contents of his books upon his memory by abridging them, and by interleaving them to amplify one fyftem with supplements from another. With the congregation of his tutor Mr. Rowe, who were, I believe, independents, he communicated in his nineteenth year. At the age of twenty he left the academy, and spent two years in ftudy and devotion at the house of his father, who treated him with great tendernefs; and had the happiness, indulged to few parents, of living to fee his fon eminent for literature and venerable for piety. He was then entertained by Sir John Hartopp five years, as domeftic tutor to his fon; and in that time particularly devoted himfelf to the study of the holy fcriptures; and being chosen affiftant to Dr. Chauncey, preached the first time on the birth-day that compleated his twenty-fourth year; probably confidering that as the day of a fecond nativity, by which he entered on a new period of existence. In about three years he fucceeded Dr. Chauncey; but, foon after his entrance on his charge, he was feized by a dangerous illness, which funk him to fuch weaknefs, that the congregation thought an affiftant neceffary, and appointed Mr. Price. His health then returned gradually, and he performed his duty, till (1712) he was feized by a fever of fuch violence and continuance, that, from the feeblenefs which it brought upon him, he never perfectly recovered. This calamitous ftate made the compaffion of his friends neceffary, and drew upon him the attention of Sir Thomas Abney, who received him into his houfe; where, with a conftancy of friendship and uniformity of conduct not often to be found, he was treated for thirty-fix years with all the kindness that friendship could prompt, and all the attention that refpect could dictate. Sir Thomas died about eight

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