PREFACE

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THE LAST LONDON EDITION.

FOR Some years after Mr. Wesley had entered upon the office of a Christian minister, his views of evangelical truth were very defective. His temper was deeply serious, and it was his sincere and earnest desire to save his own soul, and them that heard him; but he understood not the nature and extent of the Christian salvation, nor the faith by which it is obtained. In this state he wrote and published little. A revised translation of Kempis's "Christian's Pattern," a single Sermon, and a small Collection of Prayers, which he formed for the use of his pupils at Oxford, were his only publications at this period of his life. The case was widely different when he was brought to an acquaintance, both in theory and experience, with the truth as it is in Jesus. He then felt that "the world was his parish ;" and that he had a message from God to all men. The love of Christ constrained him to publish that message in all parts of the land, regardless of toil, contempt, and danger; and the same principle rendered him one of the most voluminous writers of the age. For fifty years the press was incessantly employed under his direction, in multiplying books of the most useful kind, adapted to the spiritual benefit of all classes of the community, but chiefly designed for the instruction of the poor. His different works were printed in London, Bristol, Dublin, and Newcastle-upon-Tyne; but they were often confided to the care of men who were incompetent to the task of correcting them; and the itinerant ministry in which he was incessantly employed rendered it impossible that they should undergo his own inspection as they passed through the press. The consequence was, that errors accumulated in them, till, in several instances, they failed to express the author's meaning.

Reminded, at length, by advancing years, of his approaching end, and desirous that, after his decease, his trumpet should not "give an uncertain sound," he undertook a careful revision of his whole Works, which he published in a uniform edition. It is comprised in thirty-two duodecimo volumes; the first of which bears the date of 1771, and the last that of 1774. To this edition the following address "to the "eader" is prefixed:

"1. I have had a desire, for several years, if God should spare me a little longer, to print in one collection all that I had before published in separate tracts. (I mean, all the prose, except the Notes on the

Bible, the System of Philosophy, the Christian Library, and the books which were designed for the use of Kingswood School.) These I wanted to see printed together; but on a better paper, and with a little larger print, than before.

"2. I wanted to methodize these tracts, to range them under proper heads, placing those together which were on similar subjects, and in such order, that one might illustrate another. This, it is easy to see, may be of use to the serious reader, who will then readily observe, that there is scarce any subject of importance, either in practical or controversial divinity, which is not treated of more or less, either professedly or occasionally.

"3. But a far more necessary work than that of methodizing, was the correcting them. The correcting barely the errors of the press is of much more consequence than I had conceived, till I began to read them over with much more attention than I had done before. These, in many places, were such as not only obscured, but wholly destroyed, the sense; and frequently to such a degree, that it would have been impossible for any but me to restore it. Neither could I do it myself, in several places, without long consideration: the word inserted having little or no resemblance to that which I had used.

4. But as necessary as these corrections were, there were others of a different kind, which were more necessary still. In revising what I had wrote on so many various subjects and occasions, and for so long a course of years, I found cause for not only literal or verbal corrections, but frequently for correcting the sense also. I am the more concerned to do this, because none but myself has a right to do it. Accordingly I have altered many words or sentences; many others I have omitted; and in various parts I have added more or less, as I judged the subject required: so that in this edition I present to serious and candid men my last and maturest thoughts, agreeable, I hope, to Scripture, reason, and Christian antiquity.

"5. It may be needful to mention one thing more, because it is a little out of the common way. In the extract from Milton's Paradise Lost,' and in that from Dr. Young's Night Thoughts,' I placed a mark before those passages which I judged were most worthy of the reader's notice. The same thing I have taken the liberty to do throughout the ensuing volumes. Many will be glad of such a help; though still, every man has a right to judge for himself, particularly in matters of religion, because every man must give an account of himself to God. JOHN WESLEY."

MARCH, 1771."

The printer employed upon this occasion was William Pine, of Bristol; whose carelessness in a great measure defeated Mr. Wesley's design in the correction of his Works. In the seventeenth volume,

page 56, the argument is completely ruined by an omission, which Mr. Wesley has thus noticed in the table of errata :-" By the inexcusable negligence of the printer and corrector, several paragraphs are here left out." A more grievous instance of the same kind occurs in the twentyninth volume, page 183; where one hundred and seven pages are omitted, making a chasm in the Journal of one year and three months. On this subject the following entry is made by Mr. Wesley in the volume which he left in his own private library :-" N. B. From this day, July 20, 1749, to Nov. 2, 1751, is wanting, by the inexcusable negligence of the printer:-An entire Journal!"

In addition to these instances of flagrant inattention, it should also be stated, that Pine's edition of Mr. Wesley's Works is disfigured throughout by inaccuracies, many of which greatly affect the sense. Mr. Wesley prepared a list of errata, which he prefixed to each volume; and in the copy of his Works which he reserved for his personal use, he corrected the whole with his own hand. One of these errors may be properly mentioned as an example: the number might be greatly increased. In volume the twenty-eighth, page 98, having given an account of his mother's death and funeral, Mr. Wesley inserts a letter written by her, in which she describes her manner of governing her children when they were under her care at Epworth. One of her rules was, as there stated, "That no sinful action, as lying, pilfering at church, or on the Lord's day, disobedience, quarrelling, &c, should ever pass unpunished." This law of the family, as it here stands, is a perfect libel upon the understanding and conscience of the excellent mother, and upon the character and habits of her well-disciplined children. It supposes that, under ordinary circumstances, "pilfering" is not "a sinful action ;" and that it only becomes such when committed in the "church," or on the Sabbath; and intimates that, if the children were only honest on that sacred day, and when engaged in public worship, they might, at other times, and in other places, transgress the eighth commandment with impunity. Suspicions have been actually deduced from this most objectionable passage unfavourable even to the moral character of the Wesley family. Whereas they were all innocent in this affair. Mrs. Wesley's rule was, "That no sinful action, as lying, pilfering, playing at church, or on the Lord's day, disobedience, quarrelling, &c, should ever pass unpunished." Thus it stands in the early editions of the Journal, and thus it stands corrected by Mr. Wesley. Pine's most injurious misprint, however, was perpetuated in the successive editions of the Journal for half a century; and during that period was also unhappily transferred to various other publications which have been extensively circulated.

Mr. Wesley's edition of his own Works was rendered particularly valuable by an addition that was made to those of his Sermons to which

a legal importance was afterward attached. These Sermons were published at different times, and were originally comprised in three duodecimo volumes. The first bears the date of 1746; the second, of 1748; and the third, of 1750. A fourth was added in the year 1760; containing also some other practical tracts, partly original and partly selected; and it was not numbered as connected with the former series. To these Sermons ten others were now added. Some of them had been published as separate pamphlets, having been preached on particular occasions: the rest appear to have been written for the express purpose of giving a more complete view of the author's doctrinal system.* The entire series is inserted in the first four volumes of the Works in the edition of 1771–1774; and to these Sermons it is that reference is made in the trust deeds of the Methodist chapels, as embodying, with his Notes on the New Testament, the doctrines of the connection.

To meet the circumstances of the poor, the edition of Mr. Wesley's Works in question was published in weekly numbers, at sixpence each.† This edition contains a large number of tracts which were not written by Mr. Wesley, but abridged and adopted from various authors; and as he lived nearly twenty years after it was published, and continued during this interval to write with his usual diligence, at the time of his death it was, of course, extremely incomplete. To meet the wishes of his friends, therefore, in the year 1809 a new edition of his

*The following are the ten sermons here mentioned :-The Second Sermon on the Witness of the Spirit;-On Sin in Believers;-Repentance of Believers ;-The Great Assize;-The Lord our Righteousness;--Wandering Thoughts;-The Scripture Way of Salvation;--The Good Steward;-The Reformation of Manners;— On the death of Mr. Whitefield. It is worthy of remark, that when Mr. Wesley published a uniform edition of his Sermons in eight volumes, duodecimo, in 1787 and 1788,-a copy of which he afterward bequeathed to every travelling preacher,―by some unaccountable inadvertency, a copy of an early edition of the doctrinal Sermons was placed before the printer; so that not only were the ten discourses here mentioned left out, but the benefit of the corrections which the author had made sixteen years before was completely lost to the reader. Of this edition the fifth and three following volumes consisted of Sermons selected from the Arminian Magazine. The following were the "conditions" of publication, as stated on the cover of each number, drawn up, in all probability, by the printer:

"1. That the work will be neatly printed in duodecimo, on a fine paper, and new letter; cast on purpose by Isaac Moore and Co.

"2. That a number containing seventy-two pages, stitched in blue paper, shall be delivered weekly to the subscribers, till the whole is completed, at sixpence.

"3. That every five numbers will make a handsome volume, containing about three hundred and sixty pages.

"4. That in the last volume will be given a correct and copious index. "5. That particular attention will be paid, through the whole, to the goodness of the paper, and neatness of the print; so that when finished, it is not doubted but it will afford general satisfaction to the subscribers, as well as put them in possession of a uniform and elegant edition of so valuable a work."

Works, in the octavo size, was commenced, and finished in 1813. It is comprised in sixteen volumes, to which was afterward added an Index to the whole. Respecting this edition it may be observed, that the printer overlooked Mr. Wesley's tables of errata; that the original arrangement of the Sermons was altered, those which were intended by the author to constitute the standard doctrines of Methodism being mixed up with others, apparently for the sake of variety; that two papers, one on baptism, (vol. xiii, p. 412,) and another on the immortality of the soul, (vel. xv, p. 343,) were not written by Mr. Wesley; and that, as no record of his entire Works had been kept, nor any complete collection of them ever formed, many pamphlets, and other documents, written by him, were not known, and therefore not inserted. The edition was perhaps as complete as circumstances would then allow; it met the wishes of the Connection, and gratified Mr. Wesley's friends; and the whole was sold in the course of a few years.

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In regard to the edition now before the reader,-which is denominated the third," and is said to have received "the last corrections of the author,❞—it may be requisite to state, that two objects have been kept in view: The formation of a pure text of Mr. Wesley's original writings; and a complete collection of them. To obtain these, no exertion has been spared. Of all his larger Works Mr. Wesley left copies in his private library, containing corrections in his own handwriting. These corrections are now published for the first time; and every separate work has been carefully collated throughout with copies of different editions which were printed during the author's life. That no literal or verbal inaccuracies have escaped detection is not pretended. A late writer, who was long practised in typography, has remarked, that "absolute correctness in printing is perhaps unattainable ;" and that those are to be the most commended who come the nearest to it." In a few instances, it has been perceived, letters have been broken, or drawn out, after the sheets were put to press; but nothing of the kind, it is believed, has occurred, so as to mislead the reader, or to render the author's meaning uncertain. It is not uncommon, in reprinting the works of deceased authors, to make occasional alterations, according to the views and taste of the person to whom the correction of the press is intrusted: a practice which cannot be too strongly reprobated. In many instances, to alter the style or sentiments of a deceased writer, especially without acknowledgment, is a far greater crime than that of violating the sanctity of his tomb. No such liberty has been taken with a single sentence of Mr. Wesley's Works. It would not have been difficult, indeed, to render many passages in them more conformable to the rules of modern grammar; but this would have been to deprive them of one of their peculiarities, in which also they resemble the productions of the most eminent men among his contemporaries.

*VOL. I.

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