Poetical Works of J.& C.Wesley, ed. G.Osborn: Vol.III, 1869: transcriptions from a copy in St Deiniol's Library, Hawarden.
[Editorial Preface to Volume III]
In preparing this Volume it has been found needful to deviate, to some extent, from the chronological order of the several publications reprinted; and as a similar necessity will probably arise again, it is noticed here once for all. The deviation, however, is but slight; and as facsimile titles are given wherever practicable, the means of correcting it are supplied. Some of the original wood-cuts have been reproduced as matters of curiosity, or helps to identify particular editions; but no valuable end would be answered by reproducing all. One or two archaisms will be found in this, as in former volumes, and one or two words employed in an unusual sense, which it has not been deemed right to correct, or to encumber the page by pointing out in a note. While the Editor is duly sensible of the kindness which leads some of his readers to ask for more frequent annotations, he is unwilling to intrude on the province of any Commentator who may either now, or at a future period, employ himself upon these volumes.
[Hymns on God's Everlasting Love: Editorial Note (including a description of the relationships between the Wesleys, George Whitefield and John Cennick, and their disagreements about Predestinarianism) ]
"HYMNS ON GOD'S EVERLASTING LOVE" is the title of two tracts, which, though they have been three times reprinted together, were originally separate publications; one of which was printed at London, and the other at Bristol, but both in the year 1741. Two or three of these hymns first appeared in the volume of "Hymns and Sacred Poems, 1740," but were afterwards transferred to one of these publications, and not reprinted elsewhere. About that time the United Societies were much disturbed by the predestinarian controversy. Having been originally constituted not on a doctrinal but an experimental basis, only one condition was laid down, - viz., a desire on the part of those who joined them to flee from the wrath to come, and to be saved from their sins. Members were left at liberty to attend their several places of worship, and to hold their peculiar opinions, on the understanding that they should not make them subjects of contention. By whom that understanding was first violated we have not now the means of ascertaining with exactness; but in Mr Charles Wesley's Journal (vol.i., p.155) there is mention of disputes on the subject as early as June 1739; and a year afterwards a member of the Society in London was excluded because he insisted on disputing on election and reprobation wherever he was: he then predicted that on his dismissal all would be in confusion in a fortnight. (Wesley's Works, vol.i., p.274.) A few weeks afterwards the differences between Wesley and the English Moravians rendered it necessary to occupy separate places of meeting, and he betook himself to the Foundery, commencing his services there on the 23rd of July. The excitement connected with these transactions may have prevented the predestinarian disputes from being very actively carried on in London at that time, but in Bristol and South Wales they ran high. Mr Cennick, after having publicly avowed his agreement with the Wesleys as to the extent of redemption, within a short time entirely changed his opinions; and as he persisted in preaching Calvinism, was excluded from the pulpit at Kingswood, and afterwards formed a separate Society. The proverbial zeal of new converts was sadly exemplified in this good but weak man, who imbued his adherents with his own spirit, and sought, by a secret correspondence, to sow discord between the Wesleys and Whitefield. Charles Wesley's journal furnishes several melancholy illustrations of the bitterness of his opponents at Bristol, where he spent most of his time in the latter end of the year 1740. He was contradicted in preaching, and bitterly cursed in the street. One "poor creature" even called for damnation on his own soul if Christ died for all, and more than once burnt the tracts that were distributed in defence of General Redemption.
The Wesleys had bestowed much kindness on Cennick; but his alienation from them, though painful, did not inflict so deep a wound as that of their early friend Whitefield. His intercourse with the Presbyterians in America, Cennick's letters, and his theological reading, all combined to widen the distance between this saintly man and unrivalled orator, and the Wesleys; and on his return from America in 1741 he felt it his duty to preach against them, even when he occupied their own pulpit at the Foundery, and Charles Wesley sat by his side. He doubtless considered it much more his duty to bear the same testimony in places where he was under no such conventional restraints. Accordingly, in the Tabernacle and elsewhere among his own people he, after some hesitation, renounced fellowship with the advocates of General Redemption as enemies to the Gospel. (Wesley's Works, vol.i, p. 305.)
Under these circumstances, the "Hymns" now brought before the reader were composed. The defection of old friends and fellow-labourers, and the ignorant virulence of some of them, had touched the writers to the quick. It seemed as though the work of God entrusted to their care was to be overthrown by disputes and contentions about matters which confessedly are not of fundamental importance. Was it surprising that they threw their whole souls into the defence of the truth, as they had aforetime into its propagation? Would it not have been strange if they had failed to do so? According to the urgency of the crisis was the extent of their labour. They preached twice daily: they plied the press. Wesley's sermon on Free Grace, with a long poem appended, was published in 1740. Tracts extracted from Dr Watts and others followed in quick succession, and were dispersed in large numbers. (Works, vol.xii., p.107.) In the same year there appeared "A Dialogue between a Predestinarian and his Friend," in which all that the Calvinistic interlocutor says is quoted from Calvin, Beza, Piscator, and other authors, and references subjoined to every quotation. But the "Hymns" were the great weapons of this warfare. Forcible, earnest, and ingenious, they admitted of no easy reply. The Christian temper of the writers is observable throughout. Never, surely, since English verse was written, has the entire dependence of man upon the grace of God for all good been more explicitly avowed. Never, probably, have the witnesses to evangelical truth borne their testimony with more of modesty and self-distrust, or with greater confidence in their cause; and never, so far as the Editor is aware, has there been a more remarkable combination of solemn prayer, compassionate appeal to sinners, and powerful Scriptural argument than these pages supply. The poets personate by turns the penitent sinner hoping for mercy, the believer rejoicing in God, the backslider, hardened in sin and dropping into hell, or penitent and imploring restoration to the favour of God; and in every instance an argument from Scripture is powerfully stated or clearly implied, so that devotional sentiment and doctrinal instruction go hand in hand throughout. The grateful and tender emotions of a pardoned sinner, the active sympathies of a working believer, and the lamentations of a despairing reprobate, all in succession, illustrate the great truth that Jesus Christ tasted death for every man; while the satire by which the reasons then commonly urged in favour of final perseverance are put into the nouth of the great Deceiver, is among those "words of the wise" which "are as goads and as nails."
We could wish that where there is so much to praise and admire we might stop here; but we may freely own that in more than one place such language is used as is rather adapted to popular effect than characterized by theological accuracy; as where all mankind is spoken of as ®forgiven¯ through the sufferings and death of the incarnate God, meaning doubtless no more than that a sufficient provision had been made for their forgiveness. Nor need the most ardent admirer of the Wesleys hesitate to admit that this noble work is blemished in some places by a spirit not quite in harmony with the habitual reverence of the writers. To which of the brothers this fault is specifically attributabl we need not stop to inquire, since as the passages referred to remained unaltered during their lives neither can be wholly exempted. To stake their salvation on the truth of their views upon a much controverted point may show them sincere and in earnest, but can carry no conviction, and scarcely comports with the solemnity of the subject, or the majesty of the Person addressed. Far more effective as an argument, as well as more in harmony with the Christian temper, is the humble disclaimer of any peculiar privilege put in by the returning backslider, and the humble entreaty that he may share with the vilest the general grace.
To some readers not familiar with the tracts referred to on p. xv., it may be needful to state that the phrase which occurs so often in these poems, and supplies the title of one, "The Horrible Decree," is borrowed from Calvin's Institutes. In the third book, chap. xxxiii, sect. 7, he writes as follows:-
"How is it that the fall of Adam involves so many nations, with their infant children, in eternal death without remedy, unless that it so seemed meet to God? Here the most loquacious tongues must be dumb. The decree, I admit, is dreadful (Decretum quidem horribile fateor); and yet it is impossible to deny that God foreknew what the end of man was to be before He made him, and foreknew because He had so ordained by His decree."* ____________________________________________________
- * The three translators of the institutes into English use different terms:
- Beveridge (1845) is quoted in the text; Allen (1813) has "awful";
- Norton (1582), "terrible." Wesley rather adopts than translates; and
- the reader must judge which of these four words most fitly conveys
- the sense of the author, which in the French edition (Geneva, 1560)
- is expressed by Je confesse que ce decret doit nous e'pouvanter.
- ____________________________________________________
This extract clearly shows that the necessary perdition of at least some infants was a part of the great French theologian's creed. Nor is the language which he uses in another place, regarding the dealings of God with the non-elect, any less explicit: -- "Those, therefore, whom He has created for dishonour during life, and destruction at death, that they may be vessels of wrath and examples of severity, in bringing to their doom He at one time deprives of the means of hearing His word, at another by the hearing of it blinds and stupefies the more. . . . He directs His voice to them that they may turn a deafer ear; He kindles a light, but it is that they may become more blind; He produces a doctrine, but it is that they might become more stupid; He employs a remedy, but it is that they may not be cured." (Ibid., chap. xxiv., sects. 8,13.)
When read in the light of these and similar passages, the vehement invective of the sermon on Free Grace, as well as of these hymns and poems, is better understood and easily accounted for. There is a fulness and directness about the statements of Calvin which is wanting in those of many of his modern followers, and our authors meet them with other statements equally direct and unmistakable.
When, after the lapse of some years, -
- " The strife was past,
- And friends at first were friends again at last, - *
one or more of these poems was dropped from the current edition. But when, after Whitfield's death, the controversy was revived by Hill, Toplady, and others, and carried on in a most unworthy manner, Wesley considered himself called upon to do more than stand (as he had done hitherto) on the defensive. (See his remarks in Mr Hill's "Review," Works, vol. x., p.413.) The dropped poem was inserted, with several others from this Collection, in the "Arminian Magazine."
- ________________________________________
- * See C.Wesley's Epistle to Whitefield, a scarce and
- beautiful poem, which will be reprinted in a subsequent
- volume of this series.
- ________________________________________
A few years ago it would have seemed almost a work of supererogation to reprint these remarkable compositions; but we cannot now suppose that the need for such publications is at an end. There are still, unhappily, not a few who, while strenuously maintaining, with Wesley, that grace is "free in all," as firmly hold with Whitefield that it is not "free for all;" and, with a singular inconsistency, denominate their restrictive schemes "the doctrines of grace." To such readers as seek for a settlement of the questions at issue by means of metaphysical reasoning, these hymns will afford no assistance; but such as are content to abide by "the law and the testimony" will find in them a treasure of great price.
It may be proper to add, that Wesley having published his "Serious Thoughts upon the Perseverance of the Saints," in 1751, to which Dr Gill published an answer in the following year, there appeared in 1754 a tract entitled "An Answer to all which the Rev. Dr. Gill has printed on the Final Perseverance of the Saints, by the Rev. Mr. Wesley." This tract consisted of parts of the Hymns III., IV., V., found on pages 46-57 of this volume*.
[* These three polemical poems - scarcely `hymns', apart from their conventional DSM metre - begin, respectively:
- O take away the stone;
- Jesu, the bar remove,
- `Twas thus the subtle foe
- Beguiled my foolish heart,
- O my offended God,
- If now at last I see ]
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