Wesley Corpus

Scripture Hymns (1762), Vol. 11 Baker list, 249 Editorial Introduction: Charles Wesley was sidelined in Bristol for much of 1760-61 with an extended illness (the gout). He frequently visited Bath nearby to drink the waters and he occupied his time writing a series of verse arising from reading through the entire Bible. Unlike his earlier work on the psalms and other scripture passages, which sought mainly to paraphrase scripture in verse, most of the work collected in this two-volume set is reflective in tone. The short hymns often pick up a single theme provoked by the passage being read, with emphasis on relevance to the current struggles in the Methodist movement. As Charles notes in the preface (included below), many of the hymns focus on current debates about Christian perfection. Charles also notes in the preface that the reflections on scripture contained in these short hymns were often suggested by reading alongside of scripture some commentaries on the text (particularly by Johann Bengel, Robert Gell and Matthew Henry). As he had done with his two-volume collection HSP (1749), Charles sought copyright protection for this two-volume set, registering it at Stationers Hall on August 23, 1762. While Charles does not provide a table of contents for his volume, we have provided one below, organized by scripture reference, because he occasionally gives a hymn on a particular verse out of sequence. Edition: Charles Wesley. Short Hymns on Select Passages of the Holy Scriptures. 2 vols. Bristol: Farley, Notes: John Wesley's personal copy of this two-volume set is present in the remnants of his personal library at Wesley's House, London (shelfmark, J. 25-26). His significant reactions to the text and suggested corrections will be recorded in footnotes. For a more complete list (including minor spelling corrections) and reflections on these manuscript insertions, see S T Kimbrough Jr. "John Wesley: Editor-Poet-Priest," Methodist History 43 (2005): 131-59. There is a manuscript notebook at the Methodist Archive and Research Centre (MS Judges; MA 1977/560) that contains all of the hymns below on Judges, Ruth, 1 Samuel, 2 Samuel, and 1 Kings (1:126-74). It is not in Charles Wesley's hand, but appears to a penultimate copy prepared by a scribe to send to the publisher. The few significant variants in this manuscript will be noted below.