TRINITY AND HYMNODY:
THE DOCTRINE OF THE TRINITY IN THE HYMNS OF CHARLES WESLEY

by
Barry E. Bryant

This paper was read at a conference on Trinitarian Theology, held by the Institute of Systematic Theology at King's College, the University of London, 26 September 1990.

It has been conservatively estimated that Charles Wesley composed over 6,000 hymns.1 Admittedly, among that vast collection there are some dismal failures in communicating the Christian faith. But for the most part his hymns are insightful and articulate expressions of it. His mastery of Biblical English, his ability to express simply the often complex issues of Christian theology, and his understanding of the Hanoverian mind helped him to write hymns that were readily and easily grasped by the hearts and minds of early Methodists. John and Charles Wesley never underestimated the power of music to "affect the hearers, to raise various passions in the human mind."2

For the Wesleys, however, the hymn had a greater purpose than simply an aesthetic or emotive appeal. From the very beginning, when they published their first hymnal in 1737, A Collection of Psalms and Hymns, their hymns had a didactic character to them. Charles' hymns were published by his elder brother John and used as a tool for instructing the early Methodist societies. This was no easy task when one considers that early Methodists were comprised mostly of the working poor from Newcastle to Bristol to London. They were not very well-educated and they were more than just a little rough around the edges. When A Collection of Hymns for a People Called Methodist finally appeared in 1780, John ambitiously (and perhaps somewhat optimistically) called it "a little body of experimental and practical divinity."3 It was finally admitted into the "Wesley canon" as one of the standard books on Wesleyan doctrine, along with John Wesley's Sermons, and his Explanatory Notes on the New Testament. The Wesleys' hymns were intended to be metrical theology and should be read as such.

More specific examples of this didactic use of metrical theology came on two occasions prior to the hymnal's publication in 1780. First, in 1746 the Wesley brothers published a collection of twenty-four hymns entitled Gloria Patri... or Hymns on the Trinity.4 This was a short collection of hymns in praise of God for the Trinity, and praise of God through the Trinity. Unfortunately, none of these hymns was selected to appear in the Collection. Two examples of hymns in Gloria Patri.... will be discussed later.

The second, and more significant, example came in 1767, when they published 136 hymns in Hymns on the Trinity, along with 52 more, "Hymns and Prayers on the Trinity" [hence "Hymns and Prayers"], in one volume.5 Hymns on the Trinity was inspired by, and patterned after

William Jones' work, The Catholic Doctrine of a Trinity proved by above an hundred short and clear arguments, expressed in the terms of Holy Scripture, compared after a manner entirely new, and digested under the four following Titles:1. The Divinity of Christ; 2. The Divinity of the Holy Ghost; 3. The Plurality of Persons; 4 The Trinity in Unity: with a few reflections (1754). Jones wrote this while principal of Jesus College Oxford, and made it his contribution to the Trinitarian controversy between Samuel Clarke (1675-1729) and Daniel Waterland (1683-1740). In it, he scathingly attacked Arians, Socinians, Deists, and Samuel Clarke for their views.

He also criticized Methodists and Quakers for making "wrong use of Deism."6

John Wesley certainly would have been aware of the issues involved in the Clarke and Waterland debates on the Trinity. In a letter dated June 19, 1731, he demonstrates a knowledge of Clarke's teachings.7 Then, in his Savannah diary he records having read Waterland's, The Importance of the Trinity on March 23, 1736.8 The Wesleys would not allow Jones' criticism of Methodism to deter them from siding with Trinitarian theology They endorsed Jones' work. Charles used it as a blueprint for Hymns on the Trinity, and followed the order suggested by the work's title, composing hymns for each section, and then adding a few of his own. Of Charles' poetic interpretation of Jones' work, elder brother John wrote glowingly,

Mr. Jones' book on the Trinity is both more clear and more strong than any I ever saw on that subject. If anything is wanting it is the application, lest it should appear to be a mere speculative doctrine, which has no influence on our hearts or our lives; but this is abundantly supplied by my brother's Hymns.9

The notion that the doctrine of the Trinity was not simply a speculative doctrine, but a doctrine with practical application was indeed a significant development in the history of Trinitarian hymnody. To the Wesleys, the doctrine of the Trinity was not simply something to be speculated about by academic theologians and then believed by the Church. It was to influence "hearts and lives," ultimately affecting the way people lived. Obviously, to the Wesleys, the doctrine of the Trinity had far-reaching and pastoral implications.

Never one to shy away from controversy, John undoubtedly published Hymns on the Trinity because the growing popularity of Socinianism, its Arian-like denials, and unitarianism, posed a daunting threat to the Trinitarian evangelicalism of the Methodist revival and its Puritan ethic. Lines such as the following left no doubt as to whom the theological opponents were [the words italicized here were italicized in the original text]:

Thy glorious Deity blasphemes
With Arian or Socinian dreams . . .
[HT, XXII]

Arise, ye dead, and meet your doom!
Arians, behold His glorious face!
His face ye shall behold no more. . .
[HT, XXVII]

Boot out Thine Unitarian foe,
No longer let his place be found,
The crescent by the cross o'erthrown,
And loose the world in darkness bound.
[HT, LII]

Men who Arians' blasphemies
Dare to scripture-doctrine name,
Let their dire delusions cease,
Sink to hell from whence it came.
[HT, LXXXIX]10

Before we place these hymns under the genre of "theological hooliganism," keep in mind that the Wesleys took their Trinitarian theology seriously. The reason for such strong language was their conviction that to undermine the theology of the Trinity was to undermine the hearts, lives, and salvation of people Unitarianism threatened the very foundations of the Church. To John and Charles Wesley, such corrupt teaching could only be conceived in hell, and to hell it should return.

With the publication of first, Gloria Patri, and later, Hymns on the Trinity, with its "Hymns and Prayers on the Trinity," we see a clear and deliberate attempt to combat Unitarianism, and to teach the Methodist societies Nicene Trinitarian doctrine and theology through verse. Although John published at least two sermons on the same subject, both Wesleys thought perhaps the best way to combat the Unitarian heresy was through the hymnal, not through declarations from the pulpit. The pulpit was used to convert. The hymnal was used to instruct in Christian doctrine in order to influence the lives of the Methodists.

After this somewhat lengthy, but necessary, historical introduction, we can perhaps better appreciate what Charles had to say on the Trinity. What this paper will do from here is to look at what the Wesleys taught about the Trinity through the hymns contained in these sources: Gloria Patri.... ; Hymns on the Trinity, "Hymns and Prayers on the Trinity"; and, A Collection of Hymns for a People Called Methodists.

I. "A TRINITY IN UNITY" [Collection, 249.4.1]

The most pronounced doctrine which the Wesleys taught about the Father Son, and Holy Spirit is that of "A Trinity in unity" [Collection, 249.4.1 = hymn.verse.line]. Here is just a sample of the phrases Charles used to describe this:

One undivided Trinity [Collection, 251.2.1]
Jehovah in three persons [Collection, 253.2.1]
Three Persons equally divine [Collection, 251.5.1]
One inexplicably Three,
One in simplest Unity [Collection, 252.3.12]
a mystical plurality [Collection, 248.2.1]

Three uncompounded Persons One,
One undivided God proclaim:
In essence, nature, substance one, [Collection, 255.2.13]

[the Son] In substance with thy Father one, [Collection, 245.2.2]

The Father is both God and Lord;

Both God and Lord is Christ the Son;

The Holy Ghost, the glorious third,

Both God and Lord his people own.

8 Both God and Lord, who him believe,

Each person by himself we name:

Yet not three Gods or Lords receive,

But One essentially the same.

[Collection, 255.78]

Throughout all of his Trinitarian hymns Charles seemed concerned with re-expressing these three concepts: (1) the concepts of "person" (hypostatis) and unity of "substance" (homoousia); (2) the role each Person of the Trinity plays in the life of the believer in the process of salvation (i.e. economic Trinity), which is the eschatological revelation and prophetic fulfillment of (3), the idea of the Three-in-One God (i.e. essential or immanent Trinity). All of this is the vocabulary and the expression of Trinitarian theology as found in the creed of Nicaea (325), with deliberate use of its concepts and language of "person" and "substance." What is so astonishing is not so much the opinions he held, but the way, in which and to whom, he proposed to teach these opinions. Charles was not at all reluctant to teach the simple Methodists such sophisticated ideas and finer theological subtleties. He never underestimated either their ability or their motivation to understand the Three-in-One and the One-in-Three nature of the Trinity.

Unfortunately, we do not have time to explore Charles Wesley's understanding of the relationships between Father, Son, and Holy Spirit within the Trinity, a concern of much recent inquiry. Roughly one third of the nearly two hundred Trinitarian hymns deals with this and could be a subject of its own. Perhaps it should be said that Charles refers to the Holy Spirit as being

The gift of Jesus . . . [Collection, 492.3.2]

The Spirit that doth from Both proceed,

[HT, LXIII], We the Spirit receive

That proceeds from the Father and Son.

[Collection, 476.3.5, 6]

These lines reveal a decidedly Western and Augustinian understanding of the relationship between Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.11

II. "AN IMAGE OF A TRIUNE GOD" [Collection, 248.6.3]

We must now move on to the second area of our inquiry, even if prematurely. Perhaps the most interesting features of Charles Wesley's Trinitarian hymns are their Trinitarian anthropology and Trinitarian soteriology It is the doctrine of the Trinity which binds the doctrine of salvation with anthropology. Inherent in this anthropology is the view of Adam and Eve being created in

An image of a Triune God [Collection, 248.6.3; HT LXXXVII]

The Triune God of holiness

[Collection, 254.3.4; "Hymns and Prayers," XVII]

Adam and Eve were created by the Trinity, as this line reveals:

And all the glorious persons joined to form thy

fav'rite, man. [collection, 248.4.34; HT, LXXXVII]

They were also created within a triune image of the Trinity, as this couplet reveals:

Stamped with the Triune character;

Flesh, spirit, soul, to thee resign,

[Collection, 253.4.45; HT, XVII].

Firmly fixed in Wesleyan anthropology and soteriology was the belief that the original image of God given to the first humans was both triune and holy in nature. This notion of God's image being triune in nature follows Augustine's lead, except that Augustine's notion of a Trinitarian imago Dei is more Aristotelian.12 As far as I know, the only other Protestant theologian to take up a Trinitarian notion of the image of God was Andreas Osiander.13 In refuting Osiander, Calvin explicitly, and rather tersely, rejected it.14 Luther was more diplomatic in his denial of it.15

Here, we must differentiate the implicit dissimilarity between the "lost" and the "marred" image of God. Charles writes,

Father, Son, and Holy Ghost,

In council join again

To restore thine image, lost

By frail, apostate man

[Collection, 357.4.14]

Bring back the heavenly blessing, lost

By all mankind, and me.

[Collection, 243.1.34]

Come Father, Son, and Holy Ghost,

Whom one all-perfect God we own, Restorer of thine image lost,

Thy various offices make known . .

[Collection, 253.1.13; "Hymns and Prayers," XIV].

Father, Son, and Holy Ghost,

Be to us what Adam lost;

Let us in thine image rise,

Give us back our paradise! [Collection, 500.4]

The "lost" image referred to here is not the one triune in character. The triune character of the image of God consists of flesh, spirit, and soul. This is irreducible anthropology and cannot be lost without forsaking essential elements of humanity. The flesh, spirit, and soul were, however, marred. What was "lost" was the image of perfect love, the image of righteousness, and the image of liberty.16 Without the lost image of righteousness and holiness, the flesh, spirit, and soul (particularly the latter two) became "sin sick" and marred.17 Throughout his hymns Charles more often uses metaphors of sin as a sickness, and salvation as the "therapy of the soul," than he uses forensic ones. Examples of these metaphors can be seen in the following:

Speak, gracious Lord, my sickness cure,

Make my infected nature pure

[Collection, 127.4.14]

My Sin's incurable disease,

Thou Jesus, thou alone canst heal

[Collection, 383.18]

Wouldst thou the body's health restore,

And not regard the sin-sick soul?

The sin-sick soul thou lov'st much more,

And surely thou shalt make it whole.

[Collection, 385.6.14]

What results is an interesting view which sees original sin primarily as a sickness resulting from the lost image of righteousness, holiness, and love, marring the triune character of humanity, i.e. body, soul, and spirit.

As we were created by the Trinity, in the image of the Trinity, only the Trinity can therapeutically restore the image lost by Adam and Eve and heal sin infected humanity. Considering the Wesleys' preoccupation with their evangelistic effort it should come as no surprise that Charles would be largely concerned with the Trinity's role in salvation. The following is a sustained description of the role which each Person of the Trinity plays in salvation;

1 Jehovah, God the Father, bless,

And thy own work defend!

With mercy's outstretched arms embrace,

And keep us to the end!

2 Preserve the creatures of thy love

By providential care,

Conducted to the realms above

To sing thy goodness there.

3 Jehovah, God the Son, reveal

The brightness of thy face!

And all thy pardoned people fill

With plenitude of grace!

4 Shine forth with all the Deity

Which dwells in thee alone;

And lift us up thy face to see

On thy eternal throne!

5 Jehovah, God the Spirit, shine,

Father and Son to show;

With bliss ineffable, divine,

Our ravished hearts o'erflow.

6 Sure earnest of that happiness,

That human hope transcends,

Be thou our everlasting peace

When grace in glory ends.

[collection, 250; HT CIV]

The process of salvation is about the restoration of this lost image of God. It comes to a crisis in entire sanctification. One of the most controversial aspects of the Wesleys' thought is brought to light at this point. They believed that the restoration of the lost image of God could take place in this life, in entire sanctification. Without apology, Charles believed that in entire sanctification a Christian believes,

And the whole Trinity descends

Into our faithful hearts

[Collection, 254.4.34; HT XVII];

And when we rise in love renewed,

Our souls resemble Thee,

An image of the Triune God to all eternity.

[Collection, 248.6.14; HT LXXXVII]

Come Father, Son, and Holy Ghost,

Restorer of Thine image lost,

The flaming sword remove.

[HT XXX]

At this point one is entirely sanctified, the image of God restored, and one is able to love the Lord our God with all one's heart, soul, mind, and strength, and one's neighbor as one's self. This, for Wesley, also restores the original holiness and righteousness lost in the first act of human disobedience. With it, spiritual health and wholeness are restored. It is not, however, the last step in the Wesleys' order of salvation, which is glorification, the eschatological conclusion of salvation. While the Methodists were perhaps not able to articulate precisely the doctrinal language of the Trinity, they nevertheless showed that they believed the doctrine by their "experience of salvation from the Father, by the work of the Son, through the Holy Spirit."18

The recreative dynamic of the order of salvation from beginning to end is the Holy Spirit, who is constantly at work in the life of the believer illuminating the Son. The Son, in turn, reveals to us the Father.

The importance of the Trinity to the Wesleys' doctrine of salvation has long been overlooked. As Charles Tyson has correctly observed,

The doctrine of the Trinity was not merely an artifact of theological tradition in [their] soteriology; it was, rather, a dynamic principle that cemented [their] theology of the redemption together at several important points.19

III. "HIM IN THREE PERSONS MAGNIFY" [247.3.41]

The Wesleys understood the Trinity not to be simply the means by which salvation is obtained. They also understood the Trinity as both the means and object of worship, thus helping men and women to find their ultimate purpose in life, namely to praise God and glorify Him forever. Geoffrey Wainwright has already pointed out the doxological intention of the Wesleys' Trinitarian doctrine.20

As the twenty-four hymns found in Gloria Patri, &c. or Hymns to the Trinity are all dedicated to the theme of worship, our inquiry will be focused there. The collection consists mostly of hymns one or two verses long. Hymns IV and VII are the best examples of the contents.

1 Praise be to the Father given!

Christ He gave Us to save,

Now the Heirs of Heaven.

2 Pay we equal Adoration To the Son:

He alone

Wrought out our Salvation.

3 Glory to the Eternal Spirit! Us He seals,

Christ reveals,

And applies His Merit.

4 Worship, Honor, Thanks and Blessing, One in Three,

Give we Thee,

Never, never, ceasing. [GP, IV]

1 Father of Mankind Be ever adorn'd:

Thy Mercy we find, In sending our Lord,

To ransom and bless us; Thy Goodness we praise,

For sending in Jesus' Salvation by Grace.

2 O Son of His Love, Who deignest to die,

Our Curse to remove, Our Pardon to buy;

Accept our Thanksgiving, Almighty to save,

Who openest Heaven, To all that believe.

3 O Spirit of Love, Of Health, and of Power,

Thy working we prove; Thy Grace we adore,

Whose inward Revealing applies our Lord's Blood,

Attesting and sealing us Children of God.

[GP VII]

The most striking thing about these hymns is their Trinitarian worship. The three-in-one helps us to worship the one-in-three. It is worship of God the Father, Son, and Holy Ghost that helps us to achieve true worship of the One God. Charles wrote

To Father, Son, and Spirit

Ascribe we equal Glory!

[GP, XI]

This is not in keeping with the many caricatures of the Wesleys which depict them as either Jesus or Holy Spirit worshippers. Instead, it repudiates the often lopsided evangelical worship of the Son above the Father and the Spirit, or the lopsided charismatic worship of the Spirit above the Father and the Son. It is my guess that given the didactic purposes of their hymns, the Wesley's were probably trying to correct a similar imbalance in early Methodist worship. It is only appropriate that since the human person is a Trinitarian creation, in the image of a Trinitarian God, and since salvation is a Trinitarian process, worship must be emphatically Trinitarian in its focus. The challenge of Christian worship is keeping the balance.

The Wesleys had a vigorous doctrine of the Trinity which was vital to their theology and they defended the doctrine against all comers. They saw it as a doctrine having a direct influence on the "hearts and lives" of the Methodists. Through their hymns, they were able to address the Unitarian heresy, but at the same time they' were able to arm the Methodists to defend themselves. In doing so they shaped and molded the theological character of early Methodism with clear teaching on the Trinity.

The metrical theology of Charles Wesley has made, and can continue to make, an important contribution to Trinitarian theology. This is a timely reminder to an age where "pop" culture has invented a disposable music which has infiltrated the church with its shallow and often misinformed theological content. John and Charles Wesley are there to remind us that the hymn can do more than provide emotive or aesthetic inspirations. The hymn can instruct and assist us in our understanding and worship of God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit. But this will not happen by accident.

Notes

1For the definitive collection see G. Osborne, The Poetical Works of John and Charles .......Wesley (London: Wesleyan Methodist Conference Office, 1870).

2 Arminian Magazine, 4(1781):1037.

3 John Wesley, The Works of John Wesley, volume VII, Franz Hildebrandt, Oliver Beckerlegge, editors (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1983), p.74. Hence, Collection.

4 Charles Wesley, Gloria Patri ....... or Hymns on the Trinity, (London: Strahan, 1746). Hence, GP

5 Charles Wesley, Hymns on the Trinity, (Bristol: Pine, 1767). Hence, HT Perhaps it should be pointed out that this work was originally published anonymously, as were many of Charles' hymns.

6 William Jones, Catholic Doctrine of a Trinity (1756), p. xx.

7 John Wesley, The Works of John Wesley, vol.25, Letters, Frank Baker, editor (Oxford: Clarendon Press), p.288.

8 Journal, Curnock, 1:186; Journal, Ward, I:371.

9 John Wesley, Letters of John Wesley, 8 vols., John Telford, editor, (London: The Epworth Press, 1931), VI:213.

10 It should be noted that none of these found their way into the Collection.

11 This is somewhat ironic given the view held by many that John Wesley's pneumatology is more influenced by the Eastern tradition.

12 I.e. memory, intellect, and will, see Calvin, Institutes, Book 1, Chapter xv, par. 4; Augustine, On the Trinity, Book VII, par. 12; Book XV, ch. 23; City of God, Book XI, par. 26; Aristotle, Ethica Eudemia, 1218b, 1235,1236.

13 See Reinhold Seeburg, The History of Doctrines, Charles Hay, trans. (Grand Rapids: Baker Book House, 1977), 11:36972. Also, Andreas Osiander, Disput. de justificatione (1550); Von dem emigen Mitler Jesu Christo und Rechtfertigung des Glaubens (1551).

14 John Calvin, Institutes of the Christian Religion, Henry Beveridge, trans., (Grand Rapids: Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Company, 1981), 1:165; cf. Commentaries on the First Book of Moses called Genesis, John King, trans. (Grand Rapids, Baker Book House, 1989), p.93.

15 Martin Luther, Luther's Works, vol.1, Commentary on Genesis, (Saint Louis: Concordia Publishing House, 1958), pp.6067.

16 John Wesley, The Works of John Wesley, volume 4, Albert Outler, editor, (Nashville: Abingdon Press, 1987), p.293. The image of righteousness, holiness, and love were also seen as a part of the image of the Triune God, but not triune in essence.

17 For example see Collection, numbers 1, 31, 38, 47, 68, 82, 127, 128, 129, 131, 132, 383, 384, 385, 386, etc.

18 Henry Rack, "Early Methodist Visions of the Trinity," Proceedings of the Wesley Historical Society, 46(1988)69.

19 John Tyson, Charles Wesley, A Reader, (New York: Oxford University Press, 1989), p.46.

20 Geoffrey Wainwright, "Why Wesley was a Trinitarian," The Drew Gateway, 59(1990)2:2643.

Edited by Michael Mattei for the
Wesley Center for Applied Theology
at Northwest Nazarene University
© Copyright 2000 by the Wesley Center for Applied Theology

Text may be freely used for personal or scholarly purposes, provided the notice below the horizontal line is left intact. Any use of this material for commercial purposes of any kind is strictly forbidden without the express permission of the Wesley Center at Northwest Nazarene University, Nampa, ID 83686. Contact the webmaster for permission or to report errors.