John Balguy.

BORN A. D. 1668.-died A. D. 1748.

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JOHN BALGUY was born at Sheffield, August 12th, 1686, and educated in the grammar-school in that town, of which his father was master. After his father's death he became a pupil of the Rev. Charles Daubrez, the author of a Commentary on the Revelation,' who had succeeded to the school. In 1702 he was admitted of St John's college, Cambridge, where he took the degree of M. A., in 1726. In 1708 he was taken into the family of Mr Banks, and became tutor to Joseph Banks, Esq. of Raresby, Lincolnshire, grandfather of the celebrated voyager and philosopher. In 1711 he obtained a small church donative at Lamesly and Temfield in the county of Durham. In 1718 he engaged in what was called the Bangorian controversy, in which he defended Dr Hoadly against several assailants. In the three pamphlets which he wrote in this controversy, he assumed the name of Silvius. Dr Stebbing and Dr Sherlock were the persons against whom he wrote. In 1727 he was presented by Bishop Hoadly with a prebend in Salisbury cathedral. Soon after, he preached an assize-sermon at Newcastle-upon-Tyne,-the subject was party-spirit, and the judges ordered its publication. In 1729 he was preferred to the vicarage of North Allerton, Yorkshire. He died September 21st, 1748, at the age of 63. Besides his tracts in the Bangorian controversy, his chief publications were A Letter to a Deist The Foundation of Moral Goodness,' in two parts; Divine Rectitude,' a second letter to a deist; The Law of Truth;'Essay on Redemption; Six Sermons;—these, with fifteen others, were published in a posthumous volume. Mr Balguy was distinguished as an author by great perspicuity, simplicity of style, and force of argument. He inclined to the ethical, rather than to the scriptural school of theology; and, from the side which he took in the Bangorian controversy, it will be seen that he belonged to what was then called the liberal party. Throughout his writings he places the grounds of virtue and religion, rather in reason, than in the authority of revelation. The prevailing vice of the divines of his age, was the love of ethical, and what was termed rational theology: Balguy is, however, one of the ablest of this class of divines.

Esaac Watts, B. B.

BORN A. D. 1674.-died a. D. 1748.

ISAAC WATTS was born at Southampton on the 17th of July, 1674. He was the eldest of nine children, and named after his father, a decided nonconformist, who had suffered not a little persecution for conscience sake at the hands,-not of "the nation," as Dr Southey, in a memoir prefixed to a recent edition of the 'Hora Lyricæ, gently insinuates, but of the high-church clergy. It is affirmed of young

Watts that, almost before he could speak, his greatest delight was in turning over the leaves of books, and that his first pocket-money was devoted to the extension of his little library. So remarkable was his precocity, that while only in his fourth year he began to acquire the Latin language, and was entered as a pupil of the Rev. John Pinhorne, at the free grammar-school of his native town. The rapid progress which the child made in all the various branches of school-learning, and the amiableness of disposition he ever displayed, drew upon him the attention of some of the wealthier classes of the town, who offered to enter him at one of the English universities, and support him while there; but he could not be induced to abandon the principles in which he had been educated, and preferred to sacrifice his worldly interests to his convictions of truth and duty. In his sixteenth year, therefore, he was sent to an academy in London, over which the Rev. Thomas Rowe, at that time pastor of the independent church meeting in Haberdashers' hall, presided. Rowe was a man of considerable learning and great worth. Among the fellow-pupils of Watts were Hort, afterwards archbishop of Tuam; Say, whose poems and miscellaneous pieces were published after his death; and Hughes, the author of The Siege of Damascus,' and other dramatic poems. Watts was at once the gentlest and the most studious of all Rowe's pupils. He indeed injured his health by the intensity of his application, and laid the foundation of deseases which were never afterwards eradicated from his constitution, while at this academy. About this period he filled a large volume with dissertations in Latin upon various philosophical and theological topics. He also frequently amused himself with poetical composition.

On the completion of his academical studies, he returned, at the age of twenty, to his father's house, where he appears to have devoted other two years to further preparations for assuming the sacred office, after which he accepted the office of tutor to Sir John Hartopp's son, and resided in family with Sir John, at Stoke-Newington, for five years longer. One of his biographers says, "The long silence of this excellent and accomplished youth, as to the primary object of all his studies, the preaching of the gospel, affords considerable scope for conjecture. It is true he was but still a youth, diffident of himself, and deeply affected with the importance of the ministry, under a sense of his insufficiency, and trembling lest he should go to the altar of God uncalled. But after sixteen years spent in classical studies,-after uncommon proficiency in other parts of learning connected with the work of the ministry,—with every qualification for the sacred office,-living at a time when his public services were peculiarly needed, and wher he was known and spoken of as promising celebrity in whatever profession he might choose,-that with all these advantages he should continue in retirement, is a fact difficult to account for, and for which only his extreme diffidence can afford any apology." Mr Southey's remarks are here quite satisfactory: "When it is remembered," says he, "that Mr Watts left the academy in his twentieth year, or soon after its completion, the diffidence which withheld him from hurrying into the pulpit should rather be held forth as an example, than represented as a weakness or a fault. Nor can there be any difficulty in accounting for it, even to those to whom such diffidence might appear ex

traordinary. He preached his first sermon on the very day whereon he completed his twenty-fourth year; 'probably considering that as the day of a second nativity, by which he entered into a new period of existence; and in the meantime it is recorded of him, that he 'applied himself to the study of the scriptures, and to the reading of the best commentators, both critical and practical, preparatory to his undertaking the pastoral office, to which he was determined to devote his life, and of the importance of which he had a deep sense upon his

mind.'

In 1698, the year of his first appearance in the pulpit, Watts was chosen assistant to Dr Isaac Chauncey, pastor of the church assembling in Mark-lane; and in January, 1701-2, on the death of Mr Chauncey, he received a call to be his successor, with which he saw it to be his duty to comply. Scarcely, however, had he entered upon the discharge of his pastoral duties before he was seized with a dangerous illness, which impaired his constitution so much that it became necessary to obtain an assistant for him in the person of Mr Samuel Price. While recovering from the effects of this illness, Watts was invited by Sir Thomas Abney, to his house at Theobalds, for change of air, and thither he went, intending to stay but a single week. Providence so ordered it, however, that he spent his whole remaining life under the hospitable roof of this family. "Here," says his biographer, Dr Gibbons, "he enjoyed the uninterrupted demonstrations of the truest friendship. Here, without any cares of his own, he had every thing which could contribute to the enjoyment of life, and favour the unwearied pursuits of his studies, Here he dwelt in a family which, for piety, order, harmony, and every virtue, was an house of God Here he had the privilege of a country recess, the fragrant bower, the spreading lawn, the flowery garden, and other advantages to soothe his mind, and aid his restoration to health; to yield him, whenever he chose them, most grateful intervals from his laborious studies, and enable him to return to them with redoubled vigour and delight. Had it not been for this happy event, he might, as to outward view, have feebly, it may be painfully, dragged on through many more years of languor and inability for public service, and even for profitable study; or perhaps might have sunk into his grave, under the overwhelming load of infirmities, in the midst of his days: and thus the church and the world would have been deprived of those many excellent sermons and works which he drew up and published during his long residence in this family. In a few years after his coming hither, Sir Thomas Abney died; but his amiable consort servives, who shows the doctor the same respect and friendship as before: and most happily for him, and great numbers besides, (for as her riches were great, her generosity and munificence were in full proportion,) her thread of life was drawn out to a great age, even beyond that of the doctor's. And thus this excellent man, through her kindness, and that of her daughter, Mrs Elizabeth Abney, who in a like degree esteemed and honoured him, enjoyed all the benefits and felicities he experienced at his first entrance into this family, till his days were numbered and finished, and, like a shock of corn in its season, he ascended into the regions of perfect and immortal life and joy." Watts' situation in this family was exactly suited to his temper and circumstances. It relieved him from the ordinary cares

of life, and all anxiety as to temporal matters, while the footing on which he stood with his friends at Theobalds was such, as left no place for any feeling of patronising superiority on the one side, or of dependance upon the other.

Until the infirmities of old age overtook him, Watts continued to benefit the public by his ministrations in the pulpit, and still more by his labours in the study. In 1728 his services as an author were acknowledged by the universities of Edinburgh and Aberdeen, who conferred upon him the degree of D. D. in a very handsome manner. He died on the 25th of November, 1748, in the 75th year of his age.

Dr Watts was a man of eminent, saint-like piety. In his literary character he falls to be regarded as a poet, a philosopher, and a theologian. "Few men," says Dr Johnson, speaking of Dr Watts, "have left such purity of character, or such monuments of laborious piety. He has provided instruction for all ages,-from those who are lisping their first lessons, to the enlightened readers of Malebranche and Locke; he has left neither corporeal nor spiritual nature unexamined; he has taught the art of reasoning, and the science of the stars. His character, therefore, must be formed from the multiplicity and diversity of his attainments, rather than from any single performance; for, though it would not be safe to claim for him the highest rank in any single denomination of literary dignity; yet, perhaps, there was nothing in which he would not have excelled, if he had not divided his powers to different pursuits." Watts' Psalms and Hymns' are well-known, and need not be here made the subject of criticism. Few, we suppose, would rank them among the finest efforts of poetry, yet their's is a merit above all human eulogy in the fact that they have now supplied for above a century, and still supply, the devotional exercises of many thousand dissenting congregations throughout England and America. His 'Hymns and Songs for Children' are still the most popular manual in use for storing the infantile mind with scriptural truths, in that form which most easily recommends itself to their attention and impresses itself upon their memory. As a metaphysician he is entitled, if not to the praise of originality and profundity, at least to that of great clearness and precision. His 'Logic' is still used as a text-book in the English universities; and his work, On the Improvement of the Mind,' has received the highest eulogy from a no less competent judge than Dr Samuel Johnson. "In the pulpit," says Dr Johnson, "though his low stature, which very little exceeded five feet, graced him with no advantages of appearance, yet the gravity and propriety of his utterance made his discourses very efficacious. Such was his flow of thoughts, and such his promptitude of language, that, in the latter part of his life, he did not pre-compose his cursory sermons, but, having adjusted the heads, and sketched out some particulars, trusted for success to his extemporary powers." If his practice came at all up to his precepts on pulpit-style and oratory, he must have been a most fascinating preacher. Suppose two preachers," he says, "were desired to minister to the same auditory, on a day of fasting or praise, and on the same subject One of them has all the beauty, force, and skill of clear and calm reasoning; the other not only instructs well, but powerfully moves the affections with sacred oratory. Which of these two will best secure the attention of the people, and guard them from drowsiness or wan

too.

dering? Surely, he that touches the heart, will fix the eyes and the ears and all the powers; while he that merely endeavours to inform the head, will find many wandering eyes, and some sleepers." In another sermon upon the same subject, The Use of the Passions in Religion,' he exclaims, Does divine love send dreaming preachers to call dead sinners to life,―preachers that are content to leave their hearers asleep on the precipice of eternal destruction? Have they no such thing as passion belonging to them? Have they no piety? Have they no fear? Have they no sense of the worth of souls? Have they no springs of affection within them?-Or do they think their hearers have none?-Or is passion so vile a power that it must be all devoted to things of flesh and sense, and must never be applied to things divine and heavenly? Who taught any of us this lazy and drowsy practice? Does God or his prophets, or Christ or his apostles, instruct us in this modish art of still life, this lethargy of preaching? Did the great God ever appoint statues for his ambassadors, to invite sinners to his mercy? Words of grace written upon brass or marble, would do the work almost as well!-How cold and dull and unaffected with divine things is mankind by nature! How careless and indolent is a whole assembly, when the preacher appears like a lifeless engine, pronouncing words of law or grace, when he speaks of divine things in such a dry, in such a cold and formal manner, as though they had no influence on his own heart! When the words freeze upon his lips, the hearts of hearers are freezing also."

III-LITERARY SERIES.

Charles Cotton.

BORN A. D. 1630.-DIED A. D. 1687.

CHARLES COTTON, the well-known author of Virgil Travestie,' was born in 1630. He was the son of Charles Cotton of Beresford in Staffordshire, of whom Clarendon speaks in terms of high commenda. tion, declaring that "no man in the court, or out of it, appeared a more accomplished person." The subject of the present memoir was educated at Cambridge; and Granger says that "he was esteemed one of the ornaments of that university." He appears to have directed his attention, while at Cambridge, chiefly to the classics; but he also cultivated the literature of France and Italy with considerable assiduity, and subsequently perfected his knowledge of the leading continental languages by foreign travel.

His first publication was a translation of the president De Vaix's account of the Stoic philosophy, which he is said to have undertaken at the request of his father. In 1671, he published a version of Corneille's tragedy founded on the story of the Horatii and Curiatii.

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