[166]Julian, p. 681, gives the three versions.
[167]Julian, p. 971. The three-verse cento, dear to Methodists, is slightly varied from that of Thomas Cotterill, of Sheffield.
[168]In early hymn-books there is often confusion between Wesley and Toplady. At the end of his reprint of Toplady’s Poetical Remains, Sedgwick gives a list of seventeen hymns of Charles Wesley’s, attributed to Toplady.
[169]Elvet Lewis’s Sweet Singers of Wales, p. 29.
[170]Lewis’s Sweet Singers, ch. iii. There are other Welsh singers included in this little book who deserve to be more widely known, but my limited space does not allow further quotation.
[171]Smith’s Heber, p. 84.
[172]It is curious how widespread the fear of Methodism was. Crabbe added to his beautiful and touching lines, beginning
Pilgrim, burthened with thy sin,
Come the way to Zion’s gate,
a note explaining that it had been suggested to him that ‘this change from restlessness to repose in the mind of Sir Eustace is wrought by a Methodistic call.’ He protests, however, that ‘though evidently enthusiastic in respect to language,’ they ‘are not meant to convey any impropriety of sentiment.’