Isaac Watts, [Stoke Newington], to Philip Doddridge, Northampton, Saturday, 20 May, 1732.

Saturday. May 20. 1732.

Dear Sir

         On Thursday last I received your Letter, & at ye same time Mr Hett shew’d me ye packet of yr manuscript wch I could not then receive. Upon reading your letter I considered that it would be useless to read over ye MST: in order to [make] any corrections unless you were present: for ye notices of wt might be alterd would occasion more time & writing than ye Corrections would be worth. Besides I would rather chuse to have had it published without my view, as I told Mr Some a month ago: Mr Jennings agrees with me in ye same opinion: And as a concluding [Thought, I might/would?] add yt neither my health nor temper is sufficient to do this, nor do I correct for any of my friends, unless a leaf or two, or where they are present to read over to me & receive any hints by word of mouth. My affairs of various kinds relating to ministers & churches &c. grow so much upon me yt I am necessitated to excuse my self from such services as much as possible yt I may have any time for reading & writing. May Divine Providence & Grace succeed all your Labors & studies of various kinds, & when your Sermons of Education are printed & tell you with great Sincerity that I shall take so much the greater pleasure in reading them by how much the more you have anticipated any thoughts of mine, & left me the less to do, for I have too much work on my hands.

                     I am Sir with all Esteem

                                 Your most obedt Servt

                                             & affecte Bro:

                                                         [signature has been cut out]

Address: To the Revd | Mr Philip Doddridge | in Northampton

Postmark: 20 May

Endorsed: May 1732 | Dr Watts own hand [in an unknown hand]

Text: MA 514.3, Isaac Watts Letters, The Morgan Library, New York. The above letter is not mentioned in Geoffrey Nuttall's Calendar of the Correspondence of Philip Doddridge (1977) or Nuttall's Philip Doddridge: Additional Letters (2001).