Books Lately Publish'd

John Wesley.
An Extract of the Rev. Mr. John Wesley’s Journal from February 1, 1737–8 to his Return from Germany.
London: William Strahan, 1740. (04581)

John Wesley consistently sought to expose his followers to helpful writings. One of his strategies for accomplishing this was to print advertisements or catalogues of such works in his own publications. This edition of selections from Wesley’s journal, published in 1740, includes the first advertisement of Methodist books ever printed. The advertisement announces “Books lately publish’d by the Rev. Mr. John and Charles Wesleys, and sold at the Foundery near Upper Moorfields, at Mr. James Hutton’s, at the Bible and Sun, without Temple-Bar; and at Mr. Lewis’s, printer, in Bartholomew-Close.” The Foundery in London, an abandoned cannon factory, was the first meeting house and headquarters of the Methodist movement; the bookseller James Hutton (1715–1795) was an early follower of Wesley, but later joined the Moravian Church; the printer John Lewis (d. 1750) was an Anglican with strong Methodist leanings.

All ten of the items listed were printed in 1739–40. The first two items (I-II) are collections of hymns compiled by Wesley and his brother Charles Wesley (1707–1788), followed by the first two volumes of Extracts from Wesley’s journals (III-IV), a collection of prayers compiled by Wesley (V), his abridgement of a work by William Law (VI), his anthology of homilies by various Anglican clergymen (VII), two original Wesley sermons (VIII-IX), and Wesley’s abridgment of a work by August Herman Francke (X). The absence here of Wesley’s abridgements of the Christian Pattern by Thomas à Kempis (1735) and his father Samuel Wesley’s Advice to a Young Clergyman (1735) suggest that these publications had sold out.