ADVERTISEMENT.
The "Hymns and Sacred Poems," of which this
Volume completes the reprint, differ from other Wesleyan publications having the same title in being
originally published in two volumes, and in bearing
the name of Charles Wesley alone. His brother
John not only contributed nothing to them, but did
not see them before they were published, as we learn
from an express statement made many years afterwards in the eighteenth section of his "Plain Account
of Christian Perfection." (Works, vol. xi., p. 391.)
As a consequence, he distinctly declined to be responsible for all they contained, and particularly for
those passages which favour the notion that to those
who are perfected in love apostasy is impossible.
Traces of this disagreement will be found in various
parts of the present Volume. In the main, however,
he approved and admired the publication, and drew
largely upon it for that "Collection of Hymns" to
which the Methodist Societies are so deeply indebted.
Some of the pieces contained in these volumes had appeared previously, being appended to various publications designed to explain or defend Methodism; and in this form supply a beautiful illustration of the oneness of heart subsisting between the two brothers. Others had been circulated in MSS. among admiring
