The hymns are a hundred and seventy in number, besides several short doxologies. At least twenty-one of them are hymns by John and Charles Wesley. The largest number are by Watts. Most of the others were written by Cennick, Seagrave, Hammond, and Humphreys. Mr. Daniel Sedgwick, a high authority on such a subject, says, between the years 1753 and 1796, Whitefield’s hymn-book passed through thirty-six editions, a good number of them containing additions to the hymns published in 1753. Want of space renders it impossible to give a minute description of Whitefield’s collection; but the following preface is too characteristic to be omitted:—
“Courteous Reader,—If thou art acquainted with the divine life, I need not inform thee that, although all the acts and exercises of devotion are sweet and delightful, yet we never resemble the blessed worshippersabove more than when we are joining together in public devotions, and, with hearts and lips unfeigned, singing praises to Him who sitteth upon the throne for ever. Consequently, hymns, composed for such a purpose, ought to abound much in thanksgiving, and to be of such a nature, that all who attend may join in them, without being obliged to sing lies, or not sing at all.
“Upon this plan, the following collection of hymns is founded. They are intended purely for social worship, and so altered, in some particulars, that I think all may safely concur in using them. They are short, because I think three or four stanzas, with a doxology, are sufficient to be sung at one time. I am no great friend to long sermons, long prayers, or long hymns. They generally weary, instead of edifying, and, therefore, I think, should be avoided by those who preside in any public worshipping assembly. Besides, as the generality of those who receive the gospel are commonly the poor of the flock, I have studied cheapness, as well as conciseness. Much in a little is what God gives us in His word; and the more we imitate such a method, in our public performances and devotions, the nearer we come up to the pattern given us in the Mount.
“I think myself justified in publishing some hymns, by way of dialogue, for the use of the Society, because something like it is practised in our cathedral churches, but much more so because the celestial choir is represented, in the Book of the Revelation, as answering one another in their heavenly anthems.
“That we all may be inspired and warmed with a like divine fire, whilst singing below, and be translated, after death, to join with them in singing the song of Moses and the Lamb above, is the earnest prayer of, courteous reader,
“Thy ready servant, for Christ’s sake,
“G. W.”
The publication of Whitefield’s hymn-book was, doubtless, owing to the erection of his new Tabernacle; but it is somewhat singular, that, in the same year, Wesley published his “Hymns and Spiritual Songs, intended for the use of real Christians of all Denominations;” and that, in the year following, the Moravians published two volumes, of 380 and 399 pages respectively, with the title, “A Collection of Hymns for the Children of God of all Ages, from the beginning till now. Designed chiefly for the use of the Congregations in union with the Brethren’s Church.” The curious reader may speculate how far Whitefield’s little book led to the publication of the other two.
The “sermons,” mentioned in Whitefield’s foregoing letter, were entitled, “The true nature of beholding the Lamb of God, and Peter’s Denial of his Lord, opened and explained, intwo Sermons, by George Whitefield, late of Pembroke College, Oxford, and Chaplain to the Right Hon. the Countess of Huntingdon. London, 1753.” (12mo. 48 pp.) In the former of these sermons, there seems to be an unworthy fling at his friend Wesley. Whitefield ought to have known that Wesley never taught the possibility of any one attaining to a sinlessness equal to that of Christ; and yet he indulged in the following remarks:—
“There was no corruption in the heart of this immaculate Lamb of God for Satan’s temptations to lay hold on; but this property belongeth only to Him. For any of His followers, though arrived at the highest pitch of Christian perfection, much less for young converts, mere novices in the things of God, to presume that they either have arrived, or ever shall, while on this side of eternity, arrive at such a sinless state, argues such an ignorance of the spiritual extent of the moral law, of the true interpretation of God’s word, of the universal experience of God’s people in all ages, as well as of the remaining unmortified corruptions of their own desperately wicked and deceitful hearts, that I venture to tell the preachers and abettors of any such doctrine, however knowing they may be in other respects, they know not the true nature of gospel holiness, nor the completeness of a believer’s standing in the unspotted imputed righteousness of Jesus Christ, as they ought to know, or as I trust they themselves, through Divine grace, will be made to know before they die. Surely, it is high time to awake out of this delusive dream! Pardon this short (would to God there was no occasion for adding), though too necessary, a digression.”