# Isaac Watts



## py3ak (May 23, 2008)

We have discussed on this forum before a little about Dr. Watts' beliefs, and I believe the question has been raised whether he was a unitarian or not. I found the other day that there is a fairly extensive and sympathetic treatment of his view in Hodge's Systematic Theology v.2. 

Here is the discussion, for future reference. If you want to see his footnotes and everything go to this link.


> Isaac Watts.
> No one familiar with Dr. Watts’ “Psalms and Hymns,” can doubt his being a devout worshipper of our Lord Jesus Christ, or call in question his belief in the doctrine of the Trinity. Yet on account of his peculiar views on the person of Christ, there is a vague impression that he had in some way departed from the faith of the Church. It is, indeed, often said that he was Arian. In his works, however, there is a dissertation on “The Christian Doctrine of the Trinity: or, Father, Son, and Spirit, three persons and one God, asserted and proved, with their divine Rights and Honors vindicated, by plain evidence of Scripture, without the aid or incumbrance of human Schemes. Written chiefly for the use of private Christians.” In that dissertation the common Church doctrine is presented in the usual form, and sustained by the common arguments, with singular perspicuity and force.
> 
> His peculiar views on the person of Christ are brought out in three discourses on “The Glory of Christ as God-man,” published in 1746. In the first of these he refers to the “visible appearances of Christ, as God before his incarnation,” and brings into view all the texts in which He is called Jehovah, God, and Lord, and those in which divine attributes and prerogatives are ascribed to Him.
> ...


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