l DfEMOnis OF bR. WATTS. fot the Sacred dfiice living at a time when his public services were peculiarly neededand when be was known andspokenof as promising celebrity in what,. everprofession he might chime, that with all these advantages he should con- tinue inretirement, isa fact difficult toaccount for, andfor which only his ex- treme diffidencecan affordany apology. But whatever were his reasons for so long a silence, his time was wisely improved; he gave himself up to reading, meditation, and prayer ; and in the family of his patron, besides discharging the dutiesof a tutor, he was em- ployed in several ofhis most useful andpopular works, particularly his Logic, Astronomy andGeography. In the family of Sir John, he appears to have enjoyed, whatever was mostcongenial with hisviews in friendship and devotion: his testimony inhis sermon onthe death of SirJohn is highlyhonourable to his virtueand to the mingled respect, sorrow and gratitude ofthe preacher. While hewas increasing his mental treasures bÿ study, and familiarising the importance of these treasures to his pupil, he enjoyed opportunitiesof conversing with the wire, the learned, and the devout, here his thirst after knowledge increased daily and his ambition for usefulness. The advantages of his situation, like the beamsof light, fell upon an object capable of reflect- ing them; and to this part of bis life, may be ascribed much of that supe- riority,'by, which he was afterwards distinguished in the church ;. which still animates us in his writings, and which amidst all the caprice of taste, or the revolutions of opinions, will endear and perpetuate his' re- membrance. On his birth-day 1698, he preached his first sermon; " Probablyconsi- dering that as the day of a second "nativity, by which he entered into a new period of existence." Sometime in the course of this year he was chosen assistant toDr. Isaac Chauney, pastor of theIndependantchurch then meet- ing in Mark-lane, and such was bis acceptance and success, that in January 1701 -2, hesucceededDr: Chauncyinthe pastoraloffice. Theday onwhichhe accepted his invitationto this charge wasdistinguished by an event peculiarly interesting to the friends Of religious liberty. The death of KingWilliam III. brought a cloud over the prospects of the dissenters; which inthe close of thesucceeding reign, was ready to burst in showers of calamity, and which was only dispelled, by the critical interposition of divine providence in the death of queen Anne. Mr. IS'atts, who had not entered upon the service of God without duly counting the cost, was not to be discouraged by difficulties, nor deterred by opposition. He had " engaged in a sacred work, where the harvest is great, and the labourers arebut few ; while he hadleft the fieldof ambition, where the labourers are many, and the harvest not worth carrying away"" His viewswere directed to right objects, his principles invigorated his exertions, and the power with whichhe seas endowed from on high, enabled himtospeak with irresistiblewisdom. The same month in which he assented to the un- animouscall of the church, he was solemnly set apart to the important rela- tionship ; and never didany youngmanassume the pastoral officewithhigher qualifications, willsdeeper humility, or with more ardent desires for the eter- nalwelfare of men. ' His public declaration of acquiescence in the choice of * Goldsmith.
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