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$C:\Users\Randy\Documents\Wesley$ Moral and Sacred Poems (1744)1 Volume 1 [Baker List, #78] Editorial Introduction: Poetry played a prominent role in genteel culture in eighteenth-century Britain. In addition to well- selling collections by poets like John Dryden, Alexander Pope, and Edward Young, there were regular sections of poetry in most of the leading periodicals. The genre was embraced for political critique, moral instruction, philosophical argument, religious devotion, light diversion, and a range of other public purposes. John Wesley was typical of many in his day in keeping a manuscript notebook during his Oxford years where he copied poems that he found instructive or worthy of reading repeatedly (see the MS Poetry Miscellany in this collection). While Wesley’s manuscript collection includes several selections that he would have viewed as entertaining, it is clear that he particularly valued poems with strong moral and religious themes. Thus, he was sympathetic to a suggestion made by Selina Hastings, Countess of Huntingdon, in 1742 that public culture would greatly benefit from a collection of “chaste” moral and sacred poems. Wesley soon began work on such a collection. It was issued as a series of unbound leaflets, beginning in 1743. The last installment appeared in 1744 and the full compliment were bound as a three-volume set. While the target audience of Wesley’s Collection of Psalms and Hymns series was Anglican worshipers, and the Hymns and Sacred Poems series was particularly aimed at those involved in the renewal movement, the hoped- for audience of this series was the larger public, particularly those of genteel society. Slow sales suggest that it was not well received in this setting. About 150 sets of the initial bound copies remained in the inventory at John Wesley’s house in London at his death, nearly fifty years after its publication. Despite this lack of commercial success, the three-volume collection remains valuable as a window into Wesley’s moral and theological emphases in the 1740s (note, for example, the footnotes he adds to his republication of Alexander Pope’s Essay on Man in this volume). Wesley includes several prominent poets of the last century in this published set (some of which appeared in his earlier MS Poetry Miscellany). He also drew upon more recent works, without seeking permission from their original publishers, which drew him into copyright disputes in a couple of cases, notably over Edward Young’s Night Thoughts (in volume 2). Given the specific focus of this collection, there are only a few instances where he incorporates in this first volume verse that appeared in earlier volumes of his Collections of Psalms and Hymns or Hymns and Sacred Poems (shown in blue font in the Table of Contents). While we have modernized capitalization in the transcription below, we have generally retained the spelling and punctuation of the original, correcting only the printer errors that are scattered through the text. Edition: John Wesley. Collection of Moral and Sacred Poems. 3 vols. Bristol: Farley, 1744. 1This document was produced under the editorial direction of Randy L. Maddox, with the diligent assistance of Aileen F. Maddox. Last updated: January 21, 2013. Table of Contents Dedicatory Letter to Countess of Huntingdon iii–vii Morning Hymn [John Milton] 1–3 Creation [John Milton] 3–14 On Human Knowledge [John Davies] 15–21 Know Thyself [John Davies] 21–22 Perirrhanterium: or, the Church-Porch [George Herbert] 23–32 Providence [George Herbert] 32–37 Isaiah 34 [Abraham Cowley] 37–40 Life and Fame [Abraham Cowley] 41–42 Life [Abraham Cowley] 42–43 The Plagues of Egypt [Abraham Cowley] 44–58 Paraphrase on the 148th Psalm [Earl of Roscommon] CPH (1738), 17–20 59–62 A Hymn to Darkness [Thomas Yalden] 62–65 Horace, Lib. 2. Ode 14 [William Congreve] 65–67 Horace, Lib. 2. Ode 3 [John Dryden] 67–69 The Character of a Good Parson [John Dryden] 70–73 The Meditation [John Norris] 74–75 A Prospect of death [John Pomfret] 75–82 An Ode. Inscribed to the Memory of the Hon. Col. George Villiers [Matthew Prior] 83–86 Charity. A Paraphrase on I Corinthians 13 [Matthew Prior] 87–89 [Blank] 90 Solomon on the Vanities of the World [Matthew Prior] Knowledge. The First Book 91–120 Pleasure. The Second Book 121–56 Power. The Third Book 157–92 The Humble Enquiry [Isaac Watts] 193–94 Death and Eternity [Isaac Watts] 194–96 Sun, Moon and Stars, Praise Ye the Lord [Isaac Watts] CPH (1737), 70–71 196–98 True Learning [Isaac Watts] 198–200 God’s Absolute Dominion [Isaac Watts] 200–2 Young Men and Maidens ... Praise ... [Isaac Watts] CPH (1738), 75–76 203–4 Flying Fowl, and Creeping Things, Praise ... [Isaac Watts] CPH (1738), 76–77 205–6 The God of Thunder [Isaac Watts] 206–7 Fire, Air, Earth and Sea, Praise Ye the Lord [Isaac Watts] 207–9 Happy Frailty [Isaac Watts] 210–12 Casimiri Epigramma 100 – Englished [Isaac Watts] 212–13 Ascending to Christ in Heaven [Isaac Watts] 214–15 Hymn [Elizabeth Rowe] 215–16 A Pastoral on the Nativity of our Saviour [Elizabeth Rowe] 217–21 The Conflagration [Elizabeth Rowe] 222–27 On the Death of Mr. Thomas Rowe [Elizabeth Rowe] 228–30 The Resignation [Elizabeth Rowe] 231–33 Psalm 63 [Elizabeth Rowe] 233–35 On the Works of Creation [Elizabeth Rowe] 235–36 On Love [Elizabeth Rowe] 236–37 Devout Soliloquies [Elizabeth Rowe] Soliloquy I 238 Soliloquy II 239–40 Soliloquy III 240–41 Soliloquy IV 241–42 Soliloquy V 243 Soliloquy VI 243–44 Devout Soliloquies in Blank Verse [Elizabeth Rowe] Soliloquy I 244–45 Soliloquy II 246 Soliloquy III 247 Soliloquy IV 248 Soliloquy V 249–50 Soliloquy VI 251 Soliloquy VII 252–53 Soliloquy VIII 253–54 Soliloquy IX 254–56 Soliloquy X 256–57 An Allegory on Man [Thomas Parnell] 258–61 A Night-Piece, on Death [Thomas Parnell] 261–64 Hymn to Contentment [Thomas Parnell] 265–67 The Hermit [Thomas Parnell] 268–76 To The Right Hon. Robert Earl of Oxford and Mortimer [Alexander Pope] 277–78 Epitaph [Alexander Pope] 279 Stanzas from the French of Malherbe [Alexander Pope] 279–80 Messiah. A Sacred Eclogue [Alexander Pope] 281–85 Epistle to James Craggs, Esq. [Alexander Pope] 286 To Mr. Addison [Alexander Pope] 287–89 Epitaph on Mrs. Corbet [Alexander Pope] 290 On the Monument of the Hon. Robert Digby and his Sister Mary [Alexander Pope] 291 On Mr. Elijah Fenton [Alexander Pope] 292 On Mr. Gay [Alexander Pope] 292–93 [Blank] 294 An Essay on Man [Alexander Pope] 295–347 [Page iii] TO THE RIGHT HONOURABLE THE COUNTESS OF HUNTINGDON. Madam, It has been a common remark for many years, that poetry which might answer the noblest purposes, has been prostituted to the vilest, even to confound the [Page] iv distinctions between virtue and vice, good and evil. And that to such a degree, that among the numerous poems now extant in our own language, there is an exceeding small proportion which does not more or less fall under this heavy censure. So that a great difficulty lies on those who are not willing, on the one hand, to be deprived of an elegant amusement, nor on the other to purchase it at the hazard of innocence or virtue. Hence it is, that many have placed a chaste collection of English poems, among the chief desiderata of this age. Your mentioning this a year or two ago, and expressing a desire to see such a collection, determined me not to delay the design I had [Page] v long had, of attempting something in this kind. I therefore revised all the English poems I knew, and selected what appeared most valuable in them. Only Spenser’s works I was constrained to omit, because scarce intelligible to the generality of modern readers. I shall rejoice if the want, of which you complained, be in some measure supplied by the following collection; of which this at least may be affirmed, there is nothing therein contrary to virtue, nothing that can any way offend the chastest ear, or give pain to the tenderest heart. And perhaps whatever is really essential to the most sublime divinity, as well as the purest and most refined morality, [Page] vi will be found therein. Nor is it a small circumstance, that the most just and important sentiments, are here represented with the utmost advantage, with all the ornaments both of wit and language, and in the clearest, fullest, strongest light. I inscribe these poems to you, not only because you was the occasion of their thus appearing in the world; but also because it may be an inducement to many to read them. Your name indeed cannot excuse a bad poem: but it may recommend good ones to those who would not otherwise consider, whether they were good or bad. And I am persuaded they will not be unacceptable to you; were it only on this account, that many [Page] vii of them describe what a person of quality ought, and what, I trust, you desire to be. My heart’s desire and prayer to God for you is, that you may never rest short of this: that “whatsoever things are true, whatsoever things are venerable, whatsoever things are just, whatsoever things are pure, whatsoever things are lovely, whatsoever things are honourable: if there be any virtue, if there be any praise, you may think on these things.” And “my God shall supply all your need, according to his riches in glory by Christ Jesus!” I am Your Ladyship’s obliged and obedient servant for Christ’s sake, Oxford, Aug. — 1744.

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