Wesley Corpus

Last updated: Feb. 25, 2008. Hymns on God's Everlasting Love (1741)1 Baker list, 46 Editorial Introduction: As the early Methodist revival spread, John and Charles Wesley found their commitment to God's universal offer of saving grace increasingly challenged by Calvinist participants in the movement. Their initial response was John's sermon Free Grace, to which Charles appended a hymn see "Universal Redemption" (1739). This only intensified the debate. Charles's MS Journal reveals him becoming quite frustrated with the "poison of Calvin" in the final months of 1740. He gave vent to this frustration in this volume, which contains some of his most pungent satirical verse. While the volume was published anonymously, various evidences make clear that Charles was the author of all the hymns included and the main force behind its publication. In addition to sixteen new hymns, Charles brought into this collection two earlier items from HSP (1740). The textual history of this volume is a bit convoluted. Charles left an initial set of verse with the printer in Bristol in late 1740, as he headed back to guide the work in London. This initial set was put in proofs with the simple title of "A Collection of Hymns," but before it was actually printed the title page was changed to "Hymns on God's Everlasting Love." Unfortunately, not all the drop titles were corrected, and the first printing in March 1741 includes some copies with the original shorter drop title. Charles returned to Bristol in April 1741 and helped supervise a corrected printing, with a lengthened title to highlight two of the hymns, and with four new verses added to the fourteenth hymn. What appears below is this longer printing, as the definitive first edition of this work. This first edition was listed in catalogues of the Wesley brothers publications from 1742-54. Either there was a large initial run, or it did not sell as well as other items since its polemical nature limited its use in worship. It did not go into a new edition until 1756, at which time it was combined with a second volume of the same title that Charles published in 1742 see Hymns on God's Everlasting Love (1742). This combined collection went through 3 editions prior to Charles's death.