graciously laid His hand upon my body, and disabled me for the principal work of the ministry, has therefore given me an unexpected occasion of writing the following hymns'. Several of them were on the subject of Christian Perfection, and John Wesley had to caution his people against being 'hurt by what they might find in these volumes contrary to the doctrine they had long received'. This referred to some peculiar expressions about spiritual darkness being sent as a means for the improvement of the Christian's graces, and other matters which showed that the poet was somewhat morbid and mystical in his teaching.
Charles Wesley took a watchful interest in his sales. He mentions that Mr. Salthouse, who was to have been his companion to Bristol, could not leave the books at London without great loss and 'disappointment of my subscribers'. J. Jones proved a broken reed, and the poet expresses his resolve to 'look after his books himself on his return to Bristol'. During the imprisonment of Earl Ferrers in 1760, Miss Shirley gave Charles Wesley a guinea for his hymns.
When he died he left three small quarto volumes of hymns and poems, a poetic version of a considerable part of the Psalms, which appeared in the Arminian Magazine. But the most interesting legacy was five quarto volumes of hymns on the Gospels and Acts of the Apostles in manuscript, with notes of revision. 'Finished, April 24, 1765. Θ.Δ.' 'The revisal finished, April 24, 1774. Θ.Δ.' 'Another revisal finished, January 28, 1779. Θ.Δ.' 'A third revisal finished, February 29, 1780. Θ.Δ.' 'A fifth revisal finished, August 26, 1783. Θ.Δ.' 'A sixth finished, October 28, 1784. Θ.Δ.' 'The seventh, if not the last, January 11, 1786. Gloria Tri-uni Deo!' 'The last finished, May 11, 1787. Hallelujah.'
John Wesley thought 'some of them bad; some mean; some most excellently good. They give the true sense of Scripture, always in good English, generally in good verse. Many are equal to most, if not to any, he ever wrote; but some still savour of that poisonous mysticism, with which we were both not a little tainted before we went to America'.
Canon Ellerton says, 'No English hymn-writer approaches Charles Wesley in copiousness. Of course, in so vast a collection there must be many repetitions, and many pieces that we no longer remember or care for; but yet it is only doing justice to these famous men to say that the depth of
