Restoration & Augustan

Charles Wesley

1707–1788

Charles Wesley (1707–1788) was born at Epworth, Lincolnshire, the youngest surviving son of Samuel and Susanna Wesley and the brother of John Wesley. Educated at Westminster School and Christ Church, Oxford, he joined the small band of students nicknamed the “Holy Club” or “Methodists”, was ordained in 1735 and went with John to Georgia, returning in 1736. After his evangelical conversion in May 1738 he became, with his brother, a leader of the Methodist revival, and wrote the hymns for which he is chiefly remembered; more than six thousand are credited to him.

The texts here are transcribed from G. Osborn (ed.), The Poetical Works of John and Charles Wesley, 13 vols (London: Wesleyan-Methodist Conference Office, 1868–72), from Internet Archive scans (OCR). Osborn does not distinguish the brothers in the publications of 1739–49 that bore both their names, so pieces from those collections carry a note to that effect; the thirteen volumes also include Charles Wesley’s separate collections, his Short Hymns on Select Passages of the Holy Scriptures (1762) and his scattered poems. Pieces that Osborn marks as taken from Herbert or other poets, or as the work of Samuel Wesley the elder, John Gambold or John Byrom, are not included.

Poems (7,175)

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