Wesley Corpus

Preparation for Death (1772)1 Baker list, 342 Editorial Introduction: In eighteenth-century English spirituality the life of a Christian in this world was generally seen as a pilgrimage, with death bringing release from our probationary state into the reward of the afterlife. Charles Wesley was deeply shaped by this perspective, often commenting at funerals about how he envied the dead, who had reached their peace. Of course, this assumed that they had died in a state of saving relationship to God. A genre of literature had developed to give guidance on how to prepare for such a "good death" an example Wesley would have known well is Jeremy Taylor's Rule and Exercises of Holy Living and Holy Dying (1651). Reflection on the "good death" is woven throughout Charles Wesley's verse, reaching some prominence in his two published collections of Funeral Hymns (1746 / 1759). It found its strongest focus in his later years. In 1772 Charles published forty hymns on the theme of Preparation for Death. And additional forty-one manuscript hymns on this theme, composed over the last decade or so of his life, appear in MS Preparation for death. The general theme of the hymns in this published collection is captured well in the first stanza of hymn 4: "I want the preparation / Before I hence depart, / The knowledge of salvation, / The purity of heart." The hymns stress the desire for assurance of justification and for actual spiritual transformation (sanctification) as prerequisites to greeting death with peace. One of the debates among scholars of Charles's verse is whether the plaintive plea in many of these hymns should be read as autobiographical (suggesting his negative assessment of his own state) or as the skillful crafting of poetic conversion narratives for others. Edition: Charles Wesley. Preparation for Death, in Several Hymns. London, 1772. Table of Contents Hymn I Hymn II Hymn III Hymn IV Hymn V Hymn VI. Isaiah 46:4 Hymn VII Hymn VIII Hymn IX. Hymn X Hymn XI Hymn XII Hymn XIII Hymn XIV Hymn XV Hymn XVI Hymn XVII Hymn XVIII