WATTS, Isaac, English Congregational divine: b. Southampton, 17 July 1674; d. Stoke, Newington, London, 25 Nov. 1748. He was educated for the ministry at an academy in Stoke-Newington. In 1696.-1702 he was a pri vate tutor, in 1699-1702 was assistant to Isaac Chauncy, minister of the Congregational chapel in Mark Lane, London, and in 1702 succeeded to the pastorate. The congregation here was a distinguished one. Watts remained nominally pastor until his death, though from 1713 ill health frequently interrupted his ministry, and Samuel Price was made co-pastor. Watts had in his own time great popularity as a writer, his manuals of religious instruction and his works of popular divinity having large circulation; while his 'Flom Lyricm) (1706) admitted him to Johnson's
of the Poets) and was re printed in 1834 in a series of
custom of "lining out° hampered Watts' work; he had, too, many defects in rhyme and dic tion, was at times rhetorical and at others pro saic. But a number of his hymns are among the finest and most popular in English. Many are found in all hymn-books, and about a dozen remain in very general use. A collection was made in 1707, a second edition
in 1709. He published in 1722-24 doctrinal treat ises of an Arian tendency, but grounds are wanting for believing that he finally passed to that position. His 'Works' were edited by Jennings and Doddridge in 1753; the (Posthu mous Works' were published in 1779. The former were reprinted with additions, and a memoir by Burder, in 1810. Consult Gibbons, 'Memoirs' (1780) ; Milner, (Life (1834); Hood, 'Life' (1875) ; Julian, 'Dictionary of Hymnology' (1892).