A Collection of Hymns, for the Use of the People Called Methodists. A New Edition, Carefully Revised. [Methodist Hymnal]

v, [2], 8-552 pp. 5 x 2 7/8. Full leather, gilt titles and rules, gilt decorated edges, clasps at fore edge. A hymnal by the prominent religious figure associated with Methodism, an evangelical form of Christianity. "Wesley [Westley], John (1703–1791), Church of England clergyman and a founder of Methodism... organize the so-called Holy Club" in the 1720s, subsequently converted to a form of Moravian religion that he later questioned, after which point he began formalizing his version of Methodism. "Wesley's organization, however, was distinctive for its development of a centrally directed national network with common loyalties, in contrast with the localized independence of most English religious bodies of its day." Wesley secured and increased the influence of this network with the help of his brothers. "Wesley devised a scheme for an independent American Methodist church, complete with a revised Book of Common Prayer and reduced articles of religion. Relying on his old claim that bishops and presbyters were originally of one order, he claimed to be a scriptural 'episkopos' with the right to ordain. On 1 and 2 September 1784, with the help of Thomas Coke and James Creighton, he ordained two preachers for America and then Coke as a superintendent, with a view to his ordaining Asbury as co-superintendent for America... Wesley's theological position has been variously described. He produced no systematic theology and was highly eclectic in his selective borrowings from patristic writers, Roman Catholics (notably the seventeenth-century French quietists), high-church and puritan Anglicans, as well as Moravians. Following Anglican tradition, he appealed to the combined authority of scripture, early church tradition, and reason, though increasingly also to experience. Though giving scripture primacy, he allowed for some textual criticism in his Expository Notes on the Old and New testaments (1761, 1755), based chiefly on J. A. Bengel's Gnomon (1742). His use of reason was influenced by John Locke's Essay Concerning Human Understanding (1690), though even more by Peter Browne's Procedure, Extent and Limits of Human Understanding (1728). He was strongly empiricist in principle, rejecting innate ideas. However, he stretched empiricism to cover 'a new class of senses' 'opened in your souls' by God, 'not depending on the organs of flesh and blood' (Works, 8.276). His belief in the supernatural was strong, for he claimed it was justified by scripture and credible witnesses. His debt to the eighteenth-century temper also shows in his impatience with traditional protestant scholastic systems of theology and his toleration of those agreeing with him on fundamentals, though he was not always consistent here in his treatment of Calvinists and Roman Catholics. Rejecting predestination, Wesley saw salvation as being open to all through prevenient grace, with freedom to accept or reject the offer. Unlike Calvinists, Wesley believed salvation once gained could be lost and had to be pursued actively. Similarly, assurance of salvation is usually obtainable, partly by recognition of a changed life, partly as a direct gift from the Holy Spirit, but there is no guarantee of Calvinist final perseverance. Despite his acceptance from 1738 of justification by grace through faith as the basis of salvation, Wesley's mature doctrine of salvation shifted away from the Reformation's stress on justification and towards the development of a holy life. Justification begins this process of sanctification, which culminates in the attainment of a 'perfection' characterized by unbroken love to God and humanity. This gift may even be received in a moment, by faith. Thus Wesley seems to have combined the Moravian understanding of an instant gift with the more 'Catholic' notion of the systematic cultivation of holiness. Wesley evaded charges of 'salvation by works' by saying that even the 'perfect' depend every moment on grace and faith. Wesley denied that he taught 'sinless' perfection. This seems to rely on his definition of sin 'properly so called' as being limited to 'a voluntary breach of a known law' (J. Wesley to M. Pendarves, 19 June 1731, Works, 25.289). Wesley retained his high-church beliefs in frequent communion and in a version of the real presence and a kind of sacrifice in the eucharist, expressed in vivid physical terms in his brother Charles's hymns. In matters of worship he was less conservative. While regarding Methodist worship as only supplementary to Anglican services he provided much else for Methodists. Hymns and extempore prayer were freely used. From various sources he adapted the love feast (a kind of folk sacrament with bread and water and religious testimonies); the covenant service, which became an annual act of rededication; and the watch-night, which became a new year counter to secular celebrations. Wesley edited Hymns for the Use of Methodists (1780), arranged to follow the pattern of Methodist religious experience, and he claimed for it the 'spirit of poetry' as well as of 'piety' (preface)... Wesley was an early supporter of the anti-slave trade campaign, adapting Anthony Benezet's attack in his Thoughts on Slavery (1774). In education he supported Methodists' schools and the rising Sunday school movement, as well as founding his own Kingswood School (1748), though he often despaired of making it truly 'Christian'. More negatively, he praised the refounded Society for the Reformation of Manners in a sermon in 1763 and attacked the wasteful luxury of tea drinking and the poison of spirit drinking... American Methodists have recently attempted to develop a distinctive ‘Wesleyan' theology and apply it to present-day religion. The basis of future biographies has been laid by the first critical edition of Wesley's Works (1975–). The latest biographers have re-evaluated the sources and related Wesley more closely to his social and intellectual environment. On wider issues of interpretation, Wesley has been seen as challenging and reviving the moribund Church of England and ministering to the neglected poor. It has been claimed that Methodism helped to save England from violent revolution and provided a home for people uprooted by the industrial revolution. He has been credited with a role in social reform along with Wilberforce and the Clapham Sect. His doctrine of perfection has been seen as an original contribution to theology." - Oxford Dictionary of National Biography