Note 117 — Chapter XII

One one occasion, Dr. Doddridge being in London, he was invited, with Lady Huntingdon, to dine at Stoke Newington, at the house of Lady Abney, with whom Watts was resident. Lady Frances Gardiner, Dr. Gifford, Dr. Gibbons, the Rev. Samuel Price, Watts’s colleague, and Dr. Langford, pastor of the church at the Weigh House, were present. Lady Abney having mentioned the influence which appeared to attend the preaching of Messrs. Wesley and Whitefield, Dr. Watts said, it is a blessing of incalculable value that such men should have been raised up as ambassadors of Christ, to make known the great salvation to the minds of men. Lady Huntingdon instanced several remarkable effects of their powerful preaching, and the Doctor (Watts) added, “Such, my Lady, are the fruits that will ever follow the faithful proclamation of divine mercy; the Lord our God will crown his message with success, and give it an abundant entrance into the hearts of men.” At parting he took the Countess most affectionately by the hand, pronounced a paternal benediction, and concluded with a memorable remark on his approaching dissolution:—“I bless God (he said) that I can lie down to sleep in comfort, no way solicitous whether I awake in this world or another.”

When on his death-bed, Dr. Watts was visited by Mr. Whitefield, to whom he described himself as a “waiting servant of Christ.” Mr. Whitefield assisted in raising him to receive some medicine, and would doubtless have prolonged his visit could he have foreseen that his venerable friend was then within half an hour of glory.

The Doctor died at Stoke Newington, in the house of Lady Abney. “You have arrived on an extraordinary day (said he to Lady Huntingdon, on one of her visits), for on this day thirty years I came to the house of my good friend Sir Thomas Abney, intending to spend but a single week under his friendly roof, and I have extended my visit to the length of thirty years.” “I consider your visit, my dear Sir (said Lady Abney), as the shortest my family ever received.” “A coalition like this (says Dr. Johnson), a state in which the notions of patronage and dependence were overpowered by the perception of reciprocal benefits, deserves a particular memorial.”

Sir Thomas Abney was Lord Mayor of London, but his dignities did not seduce his heart from the duties of the unfashionable religion he had chosen; on the very day of his inauguration he left the mayoralty feast to read prayers in his own family. He died eight years after Watts had accepted a home in his house (on the 6th Feb. 1722). Lady Abney died one year after Watts (Jan. 12, 1750). Watts was resident in this hospitable mansion thirty-six years.