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following passages, any person can persuade himself that Watts was a Unitarian, we know not what arguments would convince him to the contrary. "Hast thou not ascribed divine names, and titles, and characters to thy Son, and thy Holy Spirit, in thy word, as well as assumed them to thyself? And hast thou not appointed to them such glorious offices, as cannot be executed, without something of Divinity or true Godhead in them?" Speaking of Christ in this prayer, Dr. Watts says: "I believe he is a man, in whom dwells all the fulness of the Godhead bodily. I believe he is one with God; he is God manifested in the flesh; and that the man Jesus is so closely and inseparably united with the true and eternal Godhead, as to become one person, even as the soul and body make one man." If a prayer such as this may with propriety be quoted to prove that its author was a Unitarian, what could he have said, that would prove him a Trinitarian?

We have now done with Mr. Burnap's proofs of the Unitarianism of Dr. Watts; and were we inclined to go into the subject only so far as he has done, we might with propriety leave it here. But others besides Mr. Burnap have insisted that Dr. Watts was a Unitarian; and it may be interesting to inquire what further evidence has been adduced in support of such an opinion.

The celebrated Dr. Lardner, a cotemporary of Watts, a dissenting London minister, and a Unitarian, is reported to have said, that "for several years before his death, Dr. Watts was a Unitarian ;" and that "his last thoughts were completely Unitarian." Dr. Lardner founded his opinion, partly upon certain unpublished manuscripts of Dr. Watts, and partly on the testimony of a Mr. Neal, who was a son of Daniel Neal, the historian of the Puritans, and a nephew of Dr. Lardner. We propose to examine both these sources of evidence.

The manuscripts of Watts were entrusted to Doctors Jennings and Doddridge, "to publish or suppress, as they should judge best." He had himself personally requested these gentlemen to take charge of them, and the same trust was committed to them in his Will. He had made Dr. Jennings acquainted with the number and character of his manuscripts "three or four years" before his death; and at the time of making his Will, two years before his death, he arranged them under eight specific heads, a complete list of which was afterwards published by Mr. Palmer. Three out of the eight unpublished collections were on the subject

of the Trinity; but that neither of them contained sentiments at all different from those which appear in the last published works of the author, we have complete proof. For, in the first place, they were all written previous to his own last publications on the same subject. If written, "three or four years" before the author's death, according to the testimony of Dr. Jennings, they must have been written as early as the year 1745. At any rate, they were written previous to July, 1746, which is the date of the Will. But it was near the close of 1746, that Dr. Watts published his last work, on "the Glory of Christ." consequently, his unpublished manuscripts, whatever they may have been, did not contain his last thoughts on the subject.

But one of the three manuscripts respecting the Trinity, and the last of them, has since been published, and is found to contain nothing different from the work on "the Glory of Christ." It also appears from the titles of the other two, as given by Mr. Palmer, that they were in the same strain, going to show "the ill effects of incorporating the Divine doctrine of the Trinity with the human explications of it; " or in other words, to set forth, as we may presume, the supposed advantages of his own peculiar "explications." But, by the way, strange phraseology this for a Unitarian, "the divine doctrine of the Trinity!"

Dr. Lardner saw some of the manuscripts of which we speak, and had they clearly disclosed that Watts was a Unitarian, he would, we doubt not, have insisted on their publication. But instead of this, he says: "They were not fit to be published. Dr. Watts had never been used to a proper way of reasoning on such a subject." Another "gentleman of veracity, who had seen the manuscripts, assured" Mr. Palmer, "that they appeared to him to contain nothing new, being only a farther illustration of Dr. Watts's sentiments concerning the Trinity, which he had published to the world."

We turn now to the testimony of Mr. Neal, as reported by Dr. Lardner. "My nephew, Neal, an understanding gentleman, was intimate with Dr. Watts, and with the family where he lived. Sometimes, in an evening, when they were alone, he would talk to his friends in the family of his new thoughts concerning the person of Christ, and their great importance, and that if he should be able to recommend them to the world, it would be the most considerable thing that ever he performed. My nephew,

therefore, came to me, and told me of it, and that the family was greatly concerned to hear him talk so much of the importance of these sentiments."

Such was the story of Mr. Neal, as reported by Dr. Lardner; and having passed through several Unitarian hands, it was published, at length, by Mr. Belsham, in his Memoirs of Lindsay. But taking the account just as it stands, what evidence does it furnish in support of Dr. Lardner's conclusion, that "the last thoughts of Dr. Watts were completely Unitarian?" Obviously, none at all. Could not Dr. Watts, in his old age, cherish any "new thoughts concerning the person of Christ," and thoughts which seemed to him of "great importance," without becoming a Unitarian? The truth is, Dr. Watts did, in the latter part of his life, entertain some some "new thoughts concerning the person of Christ," which he unfolded in his last publications; but these thoughts he believed, and strenuously insisted, were entirely consistent with the supreme divinity of his Lord and Saviour.

We mean not, in aught we have said, to charge Dr. Lardner with intentional misrepresentation; but he evidently drew a wrong conclusion from the testimony of Mr. Neal. In proof that he did, Mr. Palmer appeals to the different members of Lady Abney's family, in which Dr. Watts lived and died. He appeals "to the Rev. Thomas Taylor, who was for many years a chaplain in this family;" to "Mr. Joseph Parker, his (Watts's) amanuensis, who was constantly with him;" and to Lady Abney herself: neither of whom had the least reason to suppose, from aught they saw or heard, that Dr. Watts ever adopted any sentiments relative to the person of Christ, different from those contained in his last publications. Mr. Palmer refers also to Dr. Gibbons and Dr. Stennett, both of whom visited Watts but a short time before his death. "So far," says Dr. Stennett, "from having embraced the Socinian system, he expressed his firm belief in the doctrine of Christ's atonement, and lamented, even with tears, that so many should have given it up." In strict accordance with this, adds Mr. Palmer, "is the epitaph which Dr. Watts ordered to be inscribed on his tomb-stone: IN UNO JESU OMNIA,- In Jesus alone is my all." It should be remarked too, that Dr. Jennings, a thoroughly orthodox divine, and one of those who were entrusted with Dr. Watts's manuscripts, preached at his funeral, and afterwards published the sermon, in which he speaks of the religious

character of his departed friend in the most exalted terms; — a thing which he certainly would not have done, had he discovered from the manuscripts, or from any other source, that Watts became a Unitarian. Indeed, Mr. Belsham himself, who brings forward and arrays the evidence from Lardner, does not appear to consider it of much force, or to believe that Dr. Watts ever supposed himself a Unitarian. "There can be little doubt," says he, "that, owing to early prejudice, he (Watts) would, to the latest day of his life, have started from the imputation with horror."

It has been often said, that Dr. Watts, at his decease, left a corrected copy of his Psalms and Hymns, from which he had expunged all those expressions which speak of the Trinity, and the Divinity of Christ. But of this pretended fact, there is absolutely no evidence. What became of the copy thus corrected? Mr. Palmer assures us that Dr. Watts's amanuensis, without whose assistance nothing was done, "knew of no such thing, and never heard of the author's having such a design." This report, then, is without foundation.

It has been alleged again, that Dr. Watts was dissatisfied with some of his hymns, and wished to make alterations; but that, having disposed of the copy-right, his book-seller would not suffer them to be corrected. That Dr. Watts may have wished to alter some of his hymns is not improbable. They were written and published in early life, and it is not strange that, after long use, alterations and improvements should be suggested to him. Indeed, he has told us that this was the fact. 66 'I wish some things were corrected." But does it follow from this, that Dr. Watts had become a Unitarian, and wished to expurgate his Psalms and Hymns of the Christian doctrine of the Trinity? By no means. There is no evidence of his having ever indulged such a thought, but abundant evidence, as we shall now shew, to the contrary.

Dr. Watts died November 25th, 1748. In the beginning of the year 1746, he published a work, entitled "Useful and Important Questions concerning Jesus Christ, the Son of God; and near the close of the same year, another work, entitled “The Glory of Christ, as God-Man; displayed in three Discourses." These were his last publications, and may be regarded as an expression of his last thoughts, respecting the person of the Saviour. His unpublished papers on the subject of the Trinity were all written, as we have shewn, previous to the publication of 48

VOL. II.

these works. One of these, and the latest of them, entitled, "A faithful Inquiry after the Ancient and Original Doctrine of the Trinity," was published in 1802. From these three works, we shall now make copious extracts. In view of them, the public will judge, whether Dr. Watts was not to the last, a firm believer in the doctrine of the Trinity, and in the proper divinity of Christ.

1. THE "FAITHFUL INQUIRY."

"It is evident that Christ is often called God in Scripture; and since he is true God, as well as man, we have plain directions from Scripture to suppose, that this man Christ Jesus has the true Godhead united to him, or dwelling in him in a peculiar manner, so that they are often represented as one complex person."

"The doctrine of the blessed Trinity, or of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost, with their peculiar characters and offices, is a special doctrine of the Christian religion. This sacred Three in the Trinity are plainly represented in Scripture, and have generally been represented by Christian writers, like three persons, or three distinct personal agents; as acting different parts, and sustaining different characters, in the affairs of our salvation. And yet it seems to be abundantly evident also in Scripture, that they are all three represented as having true and proper Deity some way belonging to them, and that the names, titles, attributes, and operations of Godhead are ascribed to the three, both in the Old Testament and in the New. This is the substance of the doctrine itself, as revealed in the Bible; and the writers on the Trinity have so often proved it, that I need not repeat the proofs."

2. THE "USEFUL AND IMPORTANT QUESTIÓNS."

In the Preface to this work, Dr. Watts says, that "he freely and delightfully confesses these following Articles, borrowed from the Athanasian creed, viz. "We believe and confess that the Lord Jesus Christ, the Son of God, is both God and man; God, of the same substance with the Father; a man, of the substance of his mother; born into the world perfect God, and perfect man; of a reasonable soul and human flesh subsisting together; equal to the Father as touching his Godhead, and yet inferior to the Father, as touching his manhood; one, not by conversion of the Godhead into the flesh, but by taking of the manhood into God, so as to become one personal agent, or one person: — and as the reasonable soul and flesh is one man, so God and man are one Christ, who suffered for our salvation.” In the body of this work he says: "We may justly call Jesus Christ God manifest in the flesh: a man, in whom dwells all the fullness of the Godhead bodily; a man of the seed of David, and yet God over all blessed forever.""

3. THE GLORY OF CHRIST AS GOD-MAN.

The very title of this work, the last of Dr. Watts's publications on the subject, is decisive as to the question now before us. “The

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