Charles Wesley (1707-1788) is remembered as one of the patriarchs of the Wesleyan Tradition, and recognized by a broader circle of acquaintance as an important hymnologist. Despite the accolades granted him, Charles' accomplishments are typically not well known, and his theology receives consideration only as an appendage to that of brother John, or as an excursus on those two major points where Charles and John stoutly disagreed (Christian Perfection and Churchmanship). It is time to look beneath the younger brother's rather standard theological content (Anglican and Arminian), to the startling structures and methodology that held his soteriology intact; therein is his most creative contribution.

Few of Charles' sermons have survived; one (perhaps two) appear among the John Wesley's published works.1 Twelve sermons attributed to Charles by the unsigned editor (probably his widow) of the 1816 Sermons by the Late Charles Wesley A.M. were actually composed by John Wesley, though Charles preached three of those early homilies with some regularity.2 Six of Charles' maturer sermons, preserved in the difficult shorthand of Dr. John Byrom, have recently been located and are currently being transcribed.3 But even in view of these recent discoveries Charles' surviving sermonic corpus is dwarfed by the 151 extant John Wesley homilies. What has survived are Charles' hymns, nearly nine thousand of them!4 But commentators, excepting Franz Hildebrand and John Rattenbury,5 have been unwilling to look to the hymns with the theological interest given John's homilies; yet, both bodies of literature were offered as Methodist theological standards. It was in fact, John Wesley who termed the Hymnbook for the People Called Methodists "a little body of experimental and practical divinity."6  He also quoted Charles' hymns, in his sermons and tracts, to establish and illustrate Wesleyan theology.7

James Dale and John Rattenbury are correct to suggest that a comparison with a Thomas Aquinas or Karl Barth does not aptly measure Charles Wesley's theological acumen. Wesley was no systematic theologian. But both commentators seem to go too far in diminishing his importance as a theological figure.8  In fact, it can be argued that Charles Wesley was the epitome of what a theologian-especially a Wesleyan Theologian-ought to be; traditional in the finest sense of the term, yet fresh and creative in the application of the resources of the Christian tradition, able to wed Biblical themes, contemporary trends together with social concerns and shape these into the fluid expressions that impacted the present age. There was a divine audacity about this man who could, in sermon and in song, create narratives that placed Lam. i.12 on the lips of Jesus.9  His constructions will not fit into the neat categories of more formal theologians, and those approaches to his soteriology which merely demonstrate that Charles affirmed all the standard doctrines certainly miss the fundamentally dramatic or narrative structure of his thought.10

Charles Wesley's theological method produced soteriology that embraced and over-flowed the traditional loci communes in pictures painted with vivid Biblical phrases and allusions. His approach was invariably Christocentric; constellations of images and allusions orbit about Christological centers. There is a symmetry and wholeness about Charles' theology of redemption that is both patristic and poetic; it moves between what Charles characterized as "the two great truths of the everlasting gospel, universal redemption and Christian Perfection."11  The "bosom sin" of humanity can be healed in sanctification, the logical and theological consummation of the Edenic Fall.
 
 

Charles' literary output was nothing short of astonishing! As George Findlay remarked: "There are two marvels-one that Charles' pen should be so ready . . . and the other that it should have written so much of permanent value.''12  While several critical issues emerge when one attempts to fix the exact number of Charles' poetical compositions, 9,000 hymns and sacred poems seems to be a reasonable estimate.13  If Charles composed approximately 9,000 hymns and poems, then he wrote at least one hymn a day every day for nearly twenty-five years of his adult life. This pace was maintained in the midst of a busy (one could say "frantic") public life that often included four or five sermons a day in as many different towns.14  Charles' journal and correspondence set his hymns in the larger context of his daily ministerial duties.15  They were written to be sung with his evangelistic services, in fellowship with Christian friends, or as a part of his own devotional life.16  Wearisome travel by horse, coach, or foot was made more pleasant by belting out a few Methodist hymns: "We sang and shouted all the way to Oxford.''17  These hymns were born in a meeting of the life and faith of a Methodist evangelist.

Wesley was educated and wrote his poetry during a literary renaissance which looked to the past for the foundation of style and mode of expression. He was equally at home in the writings of Virgil or St. Augustine-and in the original languages! But Biblical images and language clearly overshadowed the allusions Charles drew from Classical, Patristic, or Anglican sources.18  He was, perhaps even more completely than his brother, homo unius libri-a man of one book. Henry Bett has rightly termed Wesley's hymns "mosaics" of Biblical allusions.19  Charles selected, shaped and polished Biblical words, phrases, and allusions, and then cemented them into new constructions. The hymns and sacred poems are "Biblical" not only in the sense that they communicate Bible doctrines and concerns, but also in a more primary sense- the hymns are veritable patchworks of scriptural materials, words, phrases, and allusions were cut from the fabric of the Authorized Version and sewn into a new pattern, custom-tailored by the poet-theologian of the Methodist revival.

Charles' favorite description for the Bible was "the oracles," a designation which emphasized the revelatory impact that Wesley felt in the Scriptures.20  For Charles the Bible was the enlivened Word because of the way in which God's Spirit bears witness to Christ through the vehicle of the written word. While Wesley had absolute confidence in the Bible, the Spirit or Christ-more often than the Bible-were said to be infallible in the revelatory event:21
 

It was precisely his emphasis upon the revelatory character of the Bible, expressed theologically in the dynamic relation of Word and Spirit, that gave Charles' hymns a shape that was so essentially Biblical, and yet also so fresh and lively. He had an acute reverence for the Bible, and yet was unwilling to make the Bible an end in itself; rather it was a means to communicate an end (such as reconciliation, sanctification, service, etc). The following verse from Wesley's hymn based on Mat. ix. 20-21 expressed well both his deep reverence for the Scriptures ("I blush and tremble to draw near"), and his concomitant interest to use the Bible as "a garment" with which to "touch my Lord"  22 :
 

Charles Wesley, like many other commentators before him (including Augustine and Luther), was invariably Christocentric in his approach to Scripture. Barbara Welch, examining Wesley's poetry from a literary point of view, pointed to his Christocentrism as a characteristic which distinguished Charles' work from both the contemporary Augustan poets (Dryden, Pope, Addison, Prior), and his hymnological precursors (like George Herbert and Isaac Watts).23  It had roots in Wesley's conversion experience, and was consonant with his conception of sanctification as having the Imago Dei or mind of Christ formed within.24  The Augustan mood meditated upon the wonders of nature in order to contemplate the greatness of God, but in Charles' hymns Christ and redemption through His death and resurrection were the focal points of the poet's message and reconstruction of Scripture. Where earlier writers, like Isaac Watts seemed to follow the more traditional poetic form of the neoclassicists, Charles Wesley refined that same poetic diction by restructuring it around Christ and other leading Biblical themes (like redemption, atonement, self-giving), thereby making his poetic approach more directly serve his theological agenda. Thus, Manning noted that Charles not "only paraphrased but also commented as he versified"; and the "boldness" which Manning observed in Charles' style can be traced to his willingness to grapple with Biblical passages artistically in order to shape them into his own theological affirmations.25

Theology and poetry are image building enterprises. The basic metaphors may have come from the market-place, or law court, but religious language (and Scripture itself) sanctified those pictures and turned them into vehicles of theological communication. Classical theology employed four basic images to articulate its theology of redemption; 1) purchase language and imagery borrowed from the world of commerce; 2) the language of pardon, framed in law court imagery; 3) cleansing and purification ideas derived from rites of sacrifice and ritual cleansings; and 4) allusions drawn from armed conflict or acts of manumission which carry connotations of victory and liberation. Each of these foundational, scriptural images, is a "poetic" expression in the sense that it is a word-picture made into a vehicle of theological communication. Each of these basic images plays a prominent role in Wesley's poetic theology of redemption; he culled and cemented these Biblical images into structures that both approximated and extended their original expression. In this sense his poems are case studies in theology, since they capture and continue that image building process so basic to the nature of religious language. Add to a poem the music that transforms it into a hymn and it becomes a catechism for congregations or crowds. This was precisely the role played by Charles' hymns; he took essentially Biblical words, phrases, and images, and framed these into theological statements that sang on the lips and in the hearts of the common folk of England.
 
 

Charles' application of the Biblical word "blood" and its accompanying imagery is an important example of his methodology. "Blood" is the most numerically predominant soteriological term in the hymnological corpus; it appears nearly 800 times in the later hymns alone, which is roughly twice the number of occurrences in the Authorized Version of Wesley's day.26  But this sort of language is a shock to modern sensibilities and as John Rattenbury observed, "Today the term 'blood' to some minds obscures what it symbolizes rather than illuminates it."27

Charles' basic application of "blood" was to use it as a graphic synonym for "death." generally against the larger context of sacrifice or reconciliation.28  This usage finds support in NT phraseology as Behm points out: "Like the cross, 'the blood of Christ' is simply another, and even more graphic phrase for the death of Christ in its soteriological significance."29  Charles' hymns typically set "blood" and "death" in parallel to describe as the "prevalence" or saving significance of the "sacrificial Lamb."30  In his poetic parlance Christ's "blood" became "the power of Thy passion below."31

Since the primary Biblical connotation for "blood" is death, the term is also closely linked to Levitical sacrifice. This nexus became the focus of one of Charles' favorite "blended images," as he worked "blood," and sacrificial imagery into vivid descriptions of the Christ event. His poetic commentary on Acts iii.2 drew the sacrifices of the Old and New covenants together32 :
 
 

Another Wesleyan soteriological phrase which had obvious roots in the cultic rites of the Old Testament is the "sprinkled blood." It is primarily the language of ritual cleansing, but through the Passover ceremony, it also carries connotations of forgiveness and liberation. For Charles Wesley the "sprinkled blood" was pre-eminently something that was "known" or "felt."39  Following a Hebraic (holistic and relational) conception of "knowing" Wesley paralleled "knowing" and "feeling" as modes of experiencing the "sprinkled blood": "Who doth not yet his Savior know/ Or feel the sprinkled blood."40  In the hymns "to know" implied more than mere cognition, it was to experience something fully, and to live in relationship with that which was known. Thus, to "feel the sprinkled blood" was to "know Christ as Saviour"41     "to know, my Lord, My God!"42

The image of "sprinkling," which in the OT was an acted parable of reconciliation and ritual cleansing, became a metaphor of justification and sanctification in Charles' hymns; it meant redemption from both the "guilt and power of sin." Thus "sprinkling with Christ's blood" imparts grace43 , comes to the hearer as Christ's "reconciling word,"44  and is the source and basis of one's redemption: "I now in Christ redemption have,/ I feel it through the sprinkled blood,/ And testify His power to save,/ And claim Him for my Lord, my God."45  Wesley, like the writer of Hebrews, moved directly from justification (access or initiation) language to sanctification (cleansing, washing, and purification) language.46  This movement had precedent in the cultic application of the imagery, and was consonant with the structure of his theology of redemption (e.g. "full" salvation); hence, Charles' singers longed to "feel the sprinkling of that blood/ Which purifies the heart."47     Wesleyan terminology, the "sprinkled blood" produces "real holiness,"48  "uttermost salvation,"49  and "finish'd holiness."50

No phrase is more characteristic of Charles' theology of redemption than "blood applied." It was a soteriological epigram recalling the death of Jesus. and the present power that event holds for those who believe. Often Wesley wrote that "Jesus doth the blood apply.''51  It was equally valid for him to sing that "The Spirit of the Son" applied "the sprinkled blood."52  Frequently, faith applied the "blood" in a saving manner.53     each case the distance between the cross and contemporary person was bridged by a Divine action and an enabled human response. Charles' use of "blood applied" touched all of his redemption categories. The application of Jesus' blood was preparatory to justification since it convicted one of unbelief.54  With that conviction comes the Spirit-blood nexus, which gives birth to faith.55  All of the traditional redemption categories are brought into contact with the "blood applied"; including, terms like "pardon," "forgiveness," "saved," and "salvation." The entire Wesleyan conception of justification could be encapsulated in the phrase56 :
 

The same "blood" which "justified" simultaneously "blots out my offense," and "cleanses every stain."57      Hence, "cleansing" and "washing" became powerful metaphors for describing the inward effects of Christ's redemptive "blood."58  The Holy Spirit's application of the "blood" became synonymous with the process of sanctification59:
 
 

Charles also wrote that "Jesus' blood applies, absolves, and wholly sanctifies."60  This sanctification involved purification from one's sin (original and actual) and a concomitant filling of the person by the Holy Spirit or by "heavenly love''61 :

Charles' hymns are replete with significant soteriological phrases like "blood applied." Each becomes an epigram for a set of redemption images, and each is extended beyond its original roots and brought into contact with other salient themes. The sacrificial roots of "blood" were maintained as it was extended through the introduction of purchase and healing metaphors. It was also personified into a "blood" which both "pleads" intercession71  and "speaks assurance into our hearts."72

There were many poetic devices which Charles Wesley employed to create this dramatic effect in his literature. One of them was to paint the picture of the crucified Christ upon the canvas of the reader's mind. Wesley's verses are full of graphic descriptions. His phrases are short and his words are well chosen-they create and communicate a vivid sense of movement and mood. His lines are peppered with exclamation points, signaling the author's excitement and emotion. The poems are typically set in the present tense (as opposed to the narrative past), breaking the bonds of time and placing the reader and Biblical text in dramatic dialogue. Because of his reverence for the Bible, Charles Wesley reworked and applied it in ways we might term "existential." T. S. Gregory has put it well: Charles wrote his hymns "not only to express but to induce the experience they reveal."73  The experiential communication was both doctrinal and didactic. It revolved around the central themes of the Christian faith and expressed those themes in ways that made them live in the reader's frame of reference.

Our examination of Charles Wesley's application of the word "blood" and its concomitant images evidences his poetic theological approach to the Bible. Biblical words, phrases, and allusions were the raw materials of Wesley's poems; they were shaped into a larger picture that communicated his own theological concerns. The various redemption terms and phrases found their coherence in the Christocentrism of Charles' hymns. Foundational phrases were shaped into orchestrated motifs or depictions of Christ's intercession. These motifs were metaphorical descriptions of Christ's intercessory role, which drew several of the smaller identifications into a more coherent and unified picture. They are image laden snapshots which recur throughout his literary corpus, but they are not "theories" of the atonement or the product of formal theologizing. Seven such integrated motifs are easily identified in the hymnological corpus.74  These motifs included: 1) The Lamb of God, 2) Victor-Liberator, 3) Font of Salvation, 4) Physician of Souls, 5) Advocate, 6) High Priest, and 7) The Cross of Christ and of Christians. Each of these themes represents a longitudinal slice across the Wesley's theology, a concretion and integration of various other images.

The foregoing allusions to "blood" found expression in the Lamb of God motif, since it was replete with sacrificial imagery. One of Charles' favorite sermon texts was Jn. i.29, 36 "Behold the Lamb of God which taketh away the sins of the world."75  This text, and others like it from Hebrews and the Suffering Servant Songs, provided Charles with an theological bridge between the sacrificial Lambs of the Old and New covenants.

Christ depicted as the Lamb of God appeared over 300 times in Charles' later hymns alone. The basic connection sustained in the Lamb motif was in the sacrificial and substitutionary significance Charles saw in Jesus' death. Jesus was the "Lamb who died for me," who "died for sinners," or for "the whole world."76  Thus, in Wesley's mind, the death Jesus died was aptly depicted as a sacrificial death which was foreshadowed in the Levitical rites.77 Following the pattern of the Levitical sacrifice (Yom Kippur) the Lamb of the New Covenant was also found to be "without spot or blemish,"78  and He was "slaughtered" or "slain"-descriptions which conjure up sacrificial images.79  Charles' hymns picture Christ's cross as an "altar" upon which the Lamb is laid,80  and His death is described as a "pure oblation,"81 "the great sacrifice,"82  or "a sin offering" for "all mankind."83

The motif was further articulated by identifying Jesus as the "paschal Lamb." The Exodus-event became a paradigm of the reader's own deliverance through the agency of the Lamb; Egypt becomes a metaphor for our bondage to sin, and Christ "our passover" has come to set us free. His "blood" sprinkles not only the doorposts of the houses of Israel, but "every house and every heart."84

Another important application of the Lamb of God motif connected it with Charles' eucharistic theology. The sacrificial Lamb became a bridge spanning from Christ's death to the Eucharist sacrifice.85  The eucharist was described as a rite which made the partakers contemporaries of that paschal meal and the saving import of Christ's death86 :
  

The Eucharist, in Charles' view, communicated Christ's life to the partaker and in a way that was experientially discernible. Hence, he asked the rhetorical question: "Is the memorial of your Lord,/ An useless form, an empty sign?/ Or doth He here His life impart?/ What saith the witness in your heart?87  The Lord's Supper was an authentic sign, which set Christ and His sufferings in the midst of the congregation, to call everyone to believe88 :
 

Charles Wesley's theology of redemption combined Biblical and poetical hermeneutics; from the former he mined Biblical loci from the mother lode, with the latter he extended those theological themes and images which spoke the gospel with the fervor of a revivalist. The structure of his theology of redemption reflects this same synthesis and sense of balance. It bears a striking resemblance to the Patristic doctrine of recapitulation.

Irenaeus (d. 198?) is generally considered the first leading exponent of this theological posture; through him and successive theologians recapitulation became an important soteriological approach in the ancient Eastern Church. The basic point of departure may have been the Pauline pairing of the First and Second Adams.96  The original righteousness (Imago Dei) of the First Adam, subsequently lost in the primordial Fall, establishes Christian Perfection as the goal of the incarnation and reconciliation of Christ the Second Adam. Irenaeus, therefore, understood restitution of the Divine image within a person as the central feature of the Christ-event: ". . . our Lord Jesus Christ," he wrote, "Who did through His transcendent love, become what we are that He might bring us to be even as He is Himself."97  From the earliest years of his preaching, Charles Wesley pointed to Christian Perfection, understood as the restoration of the Imago Dei, as the "One Thing Needful" for Christians. His sermon by that title (1737?) made sanctification the primary thrust of redemption, and described Perfection in the categories of recapitulation: "To recover the first estate from which we are fallen is The One Thing Needful; to re-exchange the image of Satan for the image of God, bondage for freedom, sickness for health! Our one great business is to erase out of our souls the likeness of our destroyer, and to be born again, to be formed anew after the likeness of our Creator."98  In this pre conversion sermon, (which was subsequently preached during the revival), the foundation for Charles' unqualified conception of Christian Perfection was laid; and Charles clung to it tenaciously-even in the face of the disputes over sanctification in the 1760's and through his own feelings of god-forsakenness.

Charles' hymns looked to Golgotha with historical and theological intensity; yet, there was also a contemporaneity at work in them. The Atonement, though complete or "finished" from the perspective of potentially putting sin away, also needed to be completed by the response of faith and corresponding deeds of faithfulness. As the latent effectiveness of Christ's death was affirmed in dramatic terms, the contemporary cross enters into the life of the Christian through the demands of faith and costly discipleship. Wesley used the term "atonement" to describe both the finished and unfinished work of the Cross. Presented in his poetic, dramatic format, this meant that Christ hung ever before the seeker in order to elicit the response of faith. This approach was not limited to his hymns, it is also demonstrated in Charles' journal and suggested in his sermons.99  A similar finished-unfinished dialectic emerged in Wesley's theology of suffering. "The school of the Cross" (as he called it) demanded that the Christian be "conformed to an expiring God."100  The formative thrust of "the school of the cross" was to be found in an imitation of Christ, most specifically, in imitation of His suffering and cross-bearing example. The Christian's conformity to "the pattern" of the suffering has as its goal a re-creation of Christ's character-Perfect love101

If the Suffering Servant image became one of Charles' favorite depictions of Christ, and the pattern of the Christian's life, it must be added that Wesley never lost sight of the "servant" side of that identification. The follower of Jesus, bearing the Cross, is called "to fill my Lord's afflictions up."105 The hymnologist's applications of that Pauline phrase had its basis in his proclivity for seeing Christ mirrored in the face of the outcast, oppressed or neighbor; alleviating their affliction was deemed a portion of the reconciling effects of the Cross. Charles' hymns and sermons on "The Good Samaritan" were particularly powerful explications of the connection between the cross of discipleship and Christian service.106

The doctrine of the Trinity also played a vital role in Charles Wesley's soteriology. Redemption was deemed a Triune work107:
 

Charles' hymns were invariably Christocentric. He employed most of the traditional devices for describing the person and work of Christ, including the "threefold office." Yet over fifty different Christological titles appear in Charles' late hymns. Like Anselm before him, Charles affirmed that the focus and motive of the incarnation was located in the Atonement of Christ: "Who man became for man to die.''110  The phraseology of the Suffering Servant Songs provided Wesley with vivid images to describe the Incarnation of Christ: "The Son of Man, the Man of woe,/Why did He leave the sky? 'Twas all His business here below,/To serve us, and to die!''111  But the goal of the Christ-event was not reached in the celestial rule of Christ "at the right hand of the Father." For Charles Wesley the incarnation (in a sense) continues as Christ is formed in Christians; thus, the culmination of the Christ-event, while including the heavenly session, is more directly found in the inner renovation of "His faithful people''113 :
 

Charles Wesley's hymns (and to a lesser degree-his sermons) build soteriology out of Biblical words, phrases and allusions. While these expressions were informed by a close reading of the resources of the Christian Tradition, they were also shaped and formed by Charles' own Sitz im Leben and religious experience. His soteriological snap-shots communicate basic Bible and theology wrapped in their practical and experiential connections and set those kerygmatic constants in the life experience of the church. The Biblical narratives are frozen in a sort of eucharistic timelessness, to be seen and felt afresh through the hymnological vistas created by Methodism's poet theologian.

The hymnological Christocentricism was fashioned through Charles' own acknowledgement, recognition and confession of Jesus Christ as Christ pro me.118  His hymns had the not-so-subtle agenda of an evangelist, they put Wesley's affirmations on our lips and bid us to "sing our Great Redeemer's Praise"; urging us to affirm, appropriate and find comfort in Christ through faith.

Charles' soteriology has a wholesome interest in the entire person which took expression in "full salvation" and Christian Perfection as the logical and theological (recapitulation) response to the dilemma of human evil. His dialectic of the finished and unfinished work of the Cross extended incarnation-atonement into the life of the Christian, as "the atonement is received" and "Christ is formed within." His hymns, like Charles' life, welded doctrine and experience into an indissoluble unit; "the blood" is "felt," comfort and pardon are "known" (in the richness of the Hebraism). His theology of the Cross not only marked out the path of costly discipleship, but also demanded that the pilgrim "fill our Lord's afflictions up" by serving Christ in the person of our neighbor or the wounded traveler.

Certainly it was his blend of the Biblical witness with Augustan poetic diction, and classical theology-a synthesis born in and shaped to induce Christian experience-which gave Charles Wesley's soteriological expressions (and the hymns that bear them) a life even into our own day.
  

2. Charles Wesley, Sermons by the Late Rev. Charles Wesley, A.M. (London: Baldwin, Craddock, & Joy, 1816). The unsigned editor is thought to be Charles' widow. These sermons were actually composed by John Wesley; cf. Richard Heitzenrater, "John Wesley's Early Sermons," Proceedings of the Wesley Historical Society, Vol. 37, No. 4, (Feb. 1970), 110-128], but it is clear that Charles preached at least four of the homilies while in America; #V, "One thing is Needful";) VII, "He that goeth forth and weepth"; #VIII, "The Single Eye," and #XIII, "There the wicked cease from troubling."

3. The present writer played a small role in this discovery; cf. Thomas Albin, "Charles Wesley's Earliest Evangelical Sermon," Methodist History, Vol. XXI, No. 1, (Oct. 1982), 60-63).

4. Frank Baker, The Representative Verse of Charles Wesley (London: Epworth Press, 1962), p. xi. The calculation of the number of Charles' hymns runs as low as 6,000 if one excludes the lyric poems, which were rarely (if ever) sung. Baker's figure of 9,000 is slightly higher than the traditional ascriptions; J. E. Rattenbury, for example [Evangelical Doctrines of Charles Wesley's Hymns (London: Epworth, 1948), 19-20], suggests that 7,300 is an apt count. Recent documentary finds support Baker's higher estimate, and indicate that 9,000 may be a rather conservative figure. Other critical issues, like distinguishing authorship of the Wesleyan hymns, also have direct bearing on this question. I have give this matter thorough treatment in the first chapter of my Ph.D. dissertation, "Charles Wesley's Theology of the Cross: An Examination of the Theology and Method of Charles Wesley as seen in his Doctrine of the Atonement," (Drew U. Graduate School, Madison, NJ, 1983); cf. Rattenbury, op. cit., ch. III., p. 61f.

5. Franz Hildebrandt, I Offered Christ (London: Epworth Press,1967), and John Rattenbury, Evangelical Doctrines of Charles Wesley's Hymns (London: Epworth Press, 1941).

6. JW. Works, XIV, 340. The two terms, "experimental" and "practical," are elaborated by the context of the Preface. The former is a synonym for "experiential" that is born in the Lockian connection of life and thought. This identification is reinforced by the parallel with "practical' which the Preface twice sets in contrast with "speculative." Cf. the fine article by Frederick Dreyer, "Faith and Experience in the Thought of John Wesley," The American Historical Review, Vol.83, No.1 (Feb.1983), pp. 12-30, which sets John Wesley's conception of religious experience in an Lockian context. Donald Green, "Augustinianism and Empiricism: A Note on Eighteenth Century English Intellectual History," Eighteenth Century Studies, Vol. 1, (1967), pp. 33-68 sees a similar synthesis of ideology and practical experience at work in Charles Wesley's poetic contemporaries.

7. Cf. JW. Works VI, 20-22, Sermon XL, "Christian Perfection"; Ibid., 189-190, Sermon LIV, "On Eternity"; VIII,43, "An Earnest Appeal to Men of Reason and Religion"; Ibid, p. 135; XI, 370, 382, 385,392,393, "A Plain Account of Christian Perfection."

8. James Dale, "The Theological and Literary Qualities of the Poetry of Charles Wesley in Relation to the Standards of His Age." Ph.D. dissertation, Cambridge University, England, 1960. p. 185-186; J.E. Rattenbury, The Evangelical Doctrines of Charles Wesley's Hymns (London: Epworth Press, 1941), p. 85ff.

9. Lam. i.12: "Is it nothing to you, all ye that pass by?" (AV). Cf. Thomas Jackson, ed. The Journal of Charles Wesley, A.M. (London: John Mason, 1849; reprinted Baker Books, 1980), Vol. I, p. 177; 188; 194; 247; 313; 321; 342- 351. [Hereafter: CW. Journal, Vol. etc.] And George Osborn, ed. The Poetical Works of John and Charles Wesley 13 Vols. (London: Wesleyan Methodist Conference,1868-1872), Vol. X, p.48, #1367, and #1368. [Hereafter: PW. Vol. etc.]

10. John R. Renshaw, "The Atonement in the Theology of John and Charles Wesley," unpublished Ph.D. dissertation, Boston University School of Theology, 1965, for example, treats Charles' soteriology as an appendage to John's, more or less proof-texting the standard doctrines out of the younger brother's hymns without feeling the creative force of his method and fluid connections.

11. CW. Journal, I, 286.

12. George H. Findlay, Christ's Standard Bearer (London: Epworth Press, 1965), p. 14.

13. Cf. note #4, above.

14. Thomas Jackson, A Life of Charles Wesley, 2 Vol. (London: John Mason, 1862), I, 332.

15. John R. Tyson and Douglas Lister, "Charles Wesley, Pastor: A Glimpse Inside His Shorthand Journal," QR: The Methodist Quarterly Review, Vo1. 4, No. 1, (Spring 1984), pp. 9-22.

16. CW. Journal, I, 131, 134, 138, 139, 140, 141, 142, 145, 146, 150, 154, 166; II, 214.

17. Ibid, I, 131, 145.

18. One of Charles' manuscript hymns announces that he is introducing "a saying of Chrysostom," Ms. Luke, an unpublished hymn based on Lk. xxi.l, located in the Methodist Archives, John Rylands Library and Research Center of the University of Manchester, Manchester, England, Ms. p. 296. Henry Bett, Hymns of Methodism, pp. 98-107, detects phrases borrowed from Tertullian (De Carne Christi), Ignatius (Epistle to the Romans) and Augustine (Confessions), in Charles' hymns. The Book of Common Prayer was a portion of the Anglican tradition that figured prominently in Charles' life and writings. His journal indicated that he used the prayer book in private prayer and public worship; his "Short Hymns on Select Passages of Scripture," (1762 and unpublished mss.) indicate the prayer book also informed his poetic diction, since many of his hymns based on the Psalms follow the prayer book version instead of the A.V. which he used throughout the rest of the hymnological corpus. For Charles' use of the Book of Common Prayer cf. Journal, I, pp. 104, 111, 120, 121, 123, 125, 127, 130, 131, 201, 258, 287 (twice), 289, 298; II, 254. For the hymns based on the prayer book version cf. PAW. IX, pp. 284-293, "Short Hymns" nos. 819, 821, 824, 828, 832, 835, 836. 837. 839, 840, 844, 846, 848, 851, 852, 853, among others.

19. Henry Bett, The Hymns of Methodism in Their Literary Relations (London: Epworth Press, 1912), p. 35-36.

20. PAW. XII, p. 411; cf. IX, 380; Journal, I, 113 etc.

21. PAW. XIII, 183, #3372.

22. PAW. X, 224-225, #216.

23. Barbara Welch, "Charles Wesley and the Celebrations of Evangelical Experience." Ph.D. dissertation, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor,1971, p. 113-114.

24. C.W. Journal, I, p. 88. In his entry for Wed. May 17th., 1738, Charles wrote: "I spent some time with Luther [via the Reformer's Galatians], who was greatly blessed to me, especially his conclusion of the 2d. chapter. I labored, waited, and prayed to feel 'who loved me, and gave himself for me.' " Cf. Charles' sermon "The One Thing Needful," Sermons, p. 86ff, where the phraseology of the title describes the importance of the restoration of the Imago Dei or Christian Perfection.

25. PAW. II, 156-158; IV, 378ff and Journal, I, 208; PAW. II, 173f and Journal, I, 278.

26. By "later hymns" I mean those which Charles published in his Hymns and Sacred Poems, 2 Vol. 1749 edition, or thereafter; these were hymns which were produced and printed without John Wesley's editorial oversight, and can assuredly be attributed to Charles without the difficulty of the brother's habit of publishing the earlier hymnals jointly. Cf. JW. Works, XI, p. 391, for his disclaimer for the 1749 edition of Hymns and Sacred Poems: "As I did not see these before they were published, there were some things in them which I did not approve of."

27. Rattenbury, Evangelical Doctrines, p. 202.

28. Cf. Ms. Miscellaneous Hymns, #113, Ms. p. 162, located in the Methodist Archives, John Rylands Library and Research Center of Manchester University, Manchester, England. Ms. Acts, Ms. p. 554, an unpublished hymn based on Acts. xv.8, 9; PAW. VI, 441; VII, 228, 398; XII, 56, 59; XIII, 22, 164.

29. Behm, T.D.N.T., "Haima," I, 174.

30. PAW. VII, 241.

31. PAW. IV, 419, #21.

32. PAW. XII, 165, #2410.

33. Heb. ix. 20; x.29; xiii.20; cf. Ex. xxiv.6.

34. PAW. X, 46, #1364; cf. PAW. X, 119, #1559, etc.

35. P W. XII, 305.

36. PAW. VII, 339

37. P. W. XIII, 143.

38. P W. I,99, 106; II, 323-334, ("Arise, My Soul, Arise"); VII, 395; PAW. X, 110; XI, 502-503; Ms. Luke, M s. p. 213, an unpublished hymn based on T .k . xiv.16.

39. P W. VII, p.328, #31; VIII,303; X, 11,74,80; XII,236,243, Ms. Acts, Ms. p. 455.

40. PAW. XII, 243, #2576; cf. p. 236.

41. PAW. XII, 243, #2576.

42. PAW. XII, 236, #2560.

43. P W. X, 110, #1542.

44. PAW. X, 80, #1449.

45. P W. VI, 303. Cf. PAW. X, 74; IV, 188; 3. PAW. III, 111; VII, 212, 328; X. 11: XIII. 120.

46. PAW. X, 11 -1291; cf. IV, 364, 349; V, 266.

47. P W. X, 11, #1291; Cf. IV, 364, 349; V, 266.

48. PAW. X, 28-29.

49. PAW. XII, 91, #3206.

50. Ibid

51. P W. VII, 397; XIII, 33, 43, 71, 397.

52. PAW. IV, 166; VII, 297; XII, 40, 298, 300-301.

53. P W. VI, 3; XI, 502; XII, 157, 431.

54. P W. XIII, 43, #3115.

55. P W. VII, 279, #108.

56. PAW. VI, 3, #1. Emphasis added.

57. P W. VII, 384, #32.

58. p W. VII,384, #32; VIII,403, #49; X,23, 1311; XII, 299, #2692; XIII, 173, #3352.

59. P W. IV, 166; cf. X, 23, #1310; XII, 298, #2690; XIII, 71, #3170.

60. PAW XIII, 71, #3170.

61. PAW. XII, 298, #7690.

62. Journal, I, p. 215; PAW. XI, 365, #1713; XII, 109, 248, 256.

63. PAW. III, 168; IV, 168, 265.

64. PAW. VII, 384.

65. Cf. James Townsend, "Feelings Related to Assurance in Charles Wesley's Hymns," an unpublished Ph.D. dissertation, Fuller Theological Seminary, 1979.

66. PAW. XII, 222, #43; PAW. VII, 397, #2532.

67. PAW 208, cf. XIII, 235, #347.

68. PAW. III, 271.

69. CW. Journal, I, 410.

70. PAW. X, 423, #731.

71. Ms. John, p. 334, an unpublished hymn- PAW. IV, 228, #14- VII, 116, #97; 154, #128; IX, 13, #37; X, 417, #714, XIII, 252.

72. PAW. IV,261, #40; V,277, #94; XI, 269, #1498; XIII,146, #3290; XIII, 161, #3326.

73. T. S. Gregory, "Charles Wesley's Hymns and Poems," London Quarterly and Holborn Review, Vol. 182, (1957), p. 261.

74. Cf. Tyson, "Charles Wesley's Theology of the Cross," op. cit. Ch. III, "Major Motifs of Christ's Intercession," pp. 378ff.

75. He preached it at least the twenty-two times indicated by his journal.

76. Ms. Deliberate, p. 5-6, an unpublished hymn; the manuscript is housed in the Methodist Archives, John Rylands Library of the University of Manchester, Manchester, England. PAW. V, 14; III, 112; X, 396; XIII, 119-120.

77. PAW. XI,322, #1620; cf. PAW. I,265,336; V,103,127; VI,389; VII,162.

78. PAW. IX, 42, #134; Cf. XI, Z83; XI, 397, #659; IV, 218; XI, 282; Ms. John, p. 394, an unpublished hymn on Jn. xviii.39.

79. PAW. III, 219, 227-228, 232, 234, 252-253, 292, 301, 302, 319, 320, 336; XI, 282.

80. PAW. XI, 283, #1528.

81. PAW. III, 218, #3.

82. PAW. III, 218-219, #4.

83. PAW. V, 135, R209 is an excellent example since it blends themes of guilt bearing, sin offering, and ceremonial purification through the imposition of blood as imagery for describing Jesus' death.

84. PAW. IX, 42, #134; cf. XI, 283.

85. PAW. III, 219; 227-228, 301, 302, 319, etc.

86. PAW. III, 218, #3.

87. PAW. III, 279, #89.

88. PAW. III, 221, #8.

89. PAW. III, 236, #28.

90. Ibid cf. 211; #35.

91. Eric Sharpe, "Gentle Jesus, Meek and Mild-Variations on a Nursery Theme, for Congregation and Critic," The Evangelical Quarterly, Vol. 53, No. 3, (July-September 1981), pp. 149-165.

92. Ms. Acts, p. 176, an unpublished hymn on Acts viii.2.

93. PAW. X, 89, #1469.

94. PAW. XI 293-294.

95. PAW. V, 273, #91.

96. I Cor. xv.22, 45; Rom. x.14, 15.

97. Irenaeus, "Against Heresies," cited from the Roberts-Douglas ed., Ante-Nicene Fathers, Vol. I, (Grand Rapids: Wm. B. Eerdmans, reprint, 1977), p.52. Charles' writings do not clearly indicate that he studied Irenaeus, though it seems likely that the Eastern Father would have been a portion of Wesley's regimen. It is clear that he read Augustine, Tertullian, Ignatius, Chrysostom, and Clement of Alexandria.

98. CW. Sermons, p. 86.

99. CW. Journal, II, 71; Cf. PAW. IX, 362, 363, 387-388; VIII, 341-342.

100. Ms. Luke, p. 34, an unpublished hymn based on Lk. ii.34.

101. PAW. XIII. 152-154. #3313.

101. Ms. Luke, p. 78, an unpublished hymn on Lk. xi.11; Ibid, p. 276, an unpublished hymn based on Lk. xix.ll; PAW. III, 331; IV, 32, 39; V, 154, 163, 169, 177. 196. 209, etc.

103.  PAW. V, 153-154.

104. Cf. PAW. IX, 100, 150; XIII, 151, 181 for examples of John Wesley's rejection of Charles' theology of purification through suffering.

105. PAW. V, 20.

106. PAW XI, 196; X, 314-315.

107. PAW. VII, 338, #42

108. PAW. XI, 417, #1893.

109. PAW. VII, 224, #31; cf. PAW. X, 264, #316.

110. PAW. XI, 305, #1584.

111. PAW. XI, 37.

112. PAW. XI, 306.

113. PAW. IX, 175, #550; cf. Ibid, 160.

114. Albert Outler, "Preface," in Frank Whaling, (ed.), John and Charles Wesley (New York: Paulist Press, 1981), pp. xv-xvi; Timothy Smith, "The Holy Spirit in the Hymns of the Wesleys," Wesleyan Theological Journal, 16, 2 (Fall 1981), pp. 20-48; T. Crichton Mitchell, "Response to Dr. Timothy Smith on the Wesleys' Hymns," Ibid., pp. 48-58.

115. PAW. XII, 19-20.

116. Cf. Tyson, "Charles Wesley's Theology of the Cross . . .," op. cit., Ch.

II, "Redemption Language," pp. 125-362.

117. John Telford, ed. The Letters of John Wesley, A.M. (London: Epworth Press, 1931), V. 20.

118. CW. Journal, I, 88.

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