He was already accustomed to taking risks and thinking in
ways that conventional wisdom said was rash. So, why not go further, and put his
feelings in writing? If that’s not what Isaac Watts was thinking in the late 17th
and early 18th Century-era as he declared “I’m Not Ashamed to Own My
Lord”, we might be excused for thinking so, as we notice what he wrote. It was
not necessarily his fidelity to God that was the precarious position he took,
but the way he chose to express that, and especially how it challenged his
English heritage. Was he being disloyal to his nation’s government and its flag,
when his opinions began to find their expression during his education at a
school in Stoke Newington? (It’s in London…see here one of its schools from the
1800s.) And, considering his lineage, was his attitude something he really
controlled? See what you think, and consider whether you’re really as brave as
Watts was with his faith.
Both Isaac Watts and his father, also named Isaac, were of
the Nonconformist wing of English Christianity, a choice that no doubt played a
large role in the younger Watts’ musical face. Because they did not adhere to
Anglican views or the state’s approval of worship practices, Nonconformists
were considered outcasts, mavericks. It’s said that Watts was a poet from an
early age, undeterred even when suffering punishment on one occasion for making
use of this talent. His later use of new poetry in his hymns indeed indicates
he probably felt this was a gift from his Creator, which he should not limit. It’s
said that the younger Watts turned down an offer of a university education in
one of the state’s approved schools, and
instead attended a Nonconformist academy at Stoke Newington in 1690. His life-path
was most likely set there, and in the few years following that experience he probably
penned “I’m Not Ashamed…”. Unlike Anglicans (the church of England), who would
have used only Psalms for hymn development, Watts believed original poems could
assert one’s Christian beliefs and promote worship. The words he used in the
hymn’s verses show he felt confident about his relationship to God, using words
like ‘trust’, ‘firm’, and ‘committed’. Had he encountered others, even by the
young age of perhaps just 20 when he wrote this song (it was published by 1707
when Watts was 33), whom he wanted to admonish because of their more conventional
habits? His own father’s imprisonment for Nonconformism also may have girded
Isaac’s courage to authentically articulate his faith. Perhaps Watts looked
with the eye of faith for the future of hymn-writing also, for many more
followed his example in the succeeding generations.
What lay at the root of Watts’ poetry and hymn-writing
habits? Had his worship to God become stale and insincere? Did others’ worship
look mechanical, rote? Perhaps what they had been vocalizing in their formal
worship didn’t match what they practiced once they left the church building. Did
so-called believers seem uncertain and afraid as life advanced toward the
inevitable conclusion? Watts’ words in his time were a fresh, splash-in-the-face,
testimony from someone looking for a bona fide corporate worship renewal. Their
recitation three centuries later can remind us how their composer was motivated.
His words may be old, but his ideas aren’t worn out.
Isaac Watts couldn't have gone to Oxford or Cambridge Universities if he wanted to, He was a non-conformist, while Oxford and Cambridge were open only to Church of England members.
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