The Piety Of Joseph Hart As Reflected In His Life, Ministry, And Hymns

By Brian Golez Najapfour

In June 5, 1768, John Hughes preached a sermon during the funeral service for his brother-in-law, Joseph Hart. In that sermon, which was based on 2 Timothy 4:7, the Baptist Hughes appealed four times to his audience to remember their dear and godly departed friend Hart: “O ye saints of God, he [Hart] has a right to be remembered of you all.” [1] Indeed, Hart, regarded by one of his admirers as “the most spiritual of the English hymn-writers,” deserves to be remembered. [2] Yet, sadly, today his name is almost forgotten. In fact, since 1910, no major biography has been written about him, [3] and, since 1988, no major article on him has been published. [4] His hymns, even among evangelical churches, are rarely sung. This article hopes to contribute to the study of Hart by examining his piety as reflected in his life, ministry, and hymns.

A Sketch Of Hart’s Life: “What He For My Poor Soul Has Done” [5]

Joseph Hart was born in London about 1712. Not much is known about his family and his early life, except that according to his memoir he “had the happiness of being born of believing parents.” [6] Andrew Kinsman, Hart’s close friend, who delivered an oration at Hart’s interment and who knew his parents personally, said that Hart was “the son of many prayers.” [7] Hart’s godly parents, who were Calvinists and members of an Independent congregation, no doubt earnestly prayed for their son, especially for his salvation. Yet the Lord did not answer their fervent prayers until their son was nearly forty-five years old. Recalling his early life, Hart writes: “I imbibed the sound doctrines of the gospel from my infancy...but the impressions were not deep, nor the influences lasting, being frequently defaced and quenched by the vanities and vice of childhood and youth.” [8] How painful it must have been for Hart’s parents to see their young son living in sin. But they did not lose hope. They persevered in their prayers, begging God to save their son.

Piety Without Faith (c. 1732 To c. 1740): “My Soul I Pampered Up In Pride” [9]

When Hart was about twenty-one years old, he began to come under conviction to change his sinful living: he was “under great anxiety concerning my soul. The spirit of bondage distressed me sore; though I endeavoured...to commend myself to God’s favour by amendment of life, virtuous resolution, moral rectitude, and a strict attendance on religious ordinances.” [10] But the problem was that he tried to be godly without faith in Christ. Hart was pursuing religious activities as an unbeliever; his piety was not the fruit of a redeemed soul but of a self-righteous spirit. Like the Pharisees of Jesus’ time, Hart performed good works, thinking that it would earn his soul a ticket to heaven: “I strove to subdue my flesh by fasting, and other rigorous acts of penance and mortification; and whenever I was captivated by its lusts (which indeed was often the case) I endeavoured to reconcile myself again to God by sorrow for my faults; which if attended with tears, I hoped would pass as current coin with heaven; and then I judged myself whole again.” [11]

Hart boasted of his righteous deeds before God and others. Later, in his autobiographical hymn entitled “The Author’s Own Confession,” Hart confesses his pre-conversion sins, he singles out this sin of pride:

The road of death with rash career
I ran, and glorified in my shame;

My body was with lust defil’d,
My soul I pamper’d up in pride;
Could sit and hear the Lord revil’d,
The Saviour of mankind denied!

I strove to make my flesh decay
With foul disease and wasting pain;
I strove to fling my life away,
And damn my soul—but strove in vain! [12]

Faith Without Piety (c. 1740 To c. 1751): “Expected To Be Saved By Christ, But To Be Holy Had No Will” [13]

Hart did not stay in this self-righteous religion that attempted to win salvation by good works. In 1740, when he was twenty-eight, he realized that this religion could not save him.

I began to sink deeper and deeper into conviction of my nature’s evil, the deceitfulness and hardness of my heart, the wickedness of my life, the shallowness of my Christianity, and the blindness of my devotion. I saw that I was in a dangerous state, and that I must have a better religion than I had yet experienced before I could with any propriety call myself a Christian.

If his old religion promoted salvation by good works, his new religion promoted salvation without the need of good works. He shifted from one extreme to another—from being a legalist to being a libertine.

[R]ushing impetuously into notions beyond my experience, I hastened to make myself a Christian by mere doctrine, adopting other men’s opinions before I had tried them; and set up for a great light in religion, disregarding the internal work of grace begun in my soul by the Holy Ghost. This liberty, assumed by myself, and not given by Christ, soon grew to libertinism, in which I took large progressive strides, and advanced to a dread height both in principle and practice. [14]

Hart had once exercised piety, thinking it would save him. Now, he felt he was saved and there was no need for him to be holy. As he later admitted:

The way of truth I quickly missed,
And further strayed, and further still;
Expected to be saved by Christ,
But to be holy had no will. [15]

This libertine religion focused only on the doctrine of faith in Christ. Mere belief in Christ garnered salvation without bearing fruits of righteousness. As could be expected, this delusive belief encouraged Hart to sin more: “My actions were in a great measure conformable to my notions: for having (as I imagined) obtained by Christ a liberty of sinning, I was resolved to make use of it, and thought the more I could sin without remorse, the greater hero I was in faith.” [16] Essentially, Hart thought that grace abounds more when we sin more—a misconception that the Apostle Paul refutes when he asks, “Shall we continue in sin, that grace may abound?” (Rom. 6:1) —to which he answers, “God forbid” or “By no means!”

Hart continued in this libertine religion for the next nine or ten years. During this “gloomy, dreadful state,” he influenced and infected “others with the poison of [his] delusions”: [17]

Abused His grace, despised His fear,
And others taught to do the same. [18]

Using his impressive knowledge in classical languages (Hebrew, Greek, Latin, and French), Hart influenced others by publishing “several pieces on different subjects, chiefly translations of the ancient heathens; to which [he] prefixed prefaces and subjoined notes of a pernicious tendency, and indulged a freedom of thought far unbecoming a Christian.” [19] Such translations included works by Phycolides (translated from Greek in 1744) and Herodian (translated from Latin in 1749). Significantly, it was during this period that he composed The Unreasonableness of Religion. Being Remarks and Animadversions on Mr. John Wesley’s Sermon on Romans viii.32 (1741). Ironically, when Hart penned this pamphlet, he was yet unregenerate, though he wrote as if he were already saved. It is also important to understand that Hart wrote this treatise against the backdrop of the eighteenth-century Evangelical Revival in Great Britain. To enter into Hart’s thinking, we need to briefly look into the doctrinal issues that distinguished the two leaders of this movement.

George Whitefield (1714-1770) and John Wesley (1703-1791) were key preachers who worked together to advance this revival. In 1741, however, because of the issue of predestination, the Calvinist Whitefield, a firm believer in the doctrine of predestination, broke with the Arminian Wesley. The division between these two started when, in 1739, Wesley published his sermon called Free Grace. In it Wesley argued against predestination, saying that it “is not a Doctrine of God, because it makes void the Ordinances of God....” [20] He further asserted: this doctrine “directly tends to destroy that Holiness, which is the End of all the Ordinances of God.” [21] It destroys “several particular Branches of Holiness. Such are Meekness and Love.” [22] As Wesley saw it, this doctrine also “directly tends to destroy our Zeal for Good Works.” [23] In other words, Wesley thought that predestination tends to promote libertinism.

[T]he Doctrine itself, “That every Man is either Elected, or not Elected, from Eternity; and that the one must inevitably be saved, and the other inevitably damn’d,” has a manifest Tendency to destroy Holiness in general. For it wholly takes away those first Motives to follow after it, so frequently propos’d in Scripture, the Hope of future Reward, and Fear of Punishment, the Hope of Heaven and Fear of Hell. That these shall go away into everlasting Punishment, and those into Life eternal, is not Motive to him to struggle for Life who believes his Lot is cast already. It is not reasonable for him so to do, if he thinks he is unalterably adjudged either to Life or Death. [24]

The tendency Wesley references here had actually taken place in Hart’s life, who fell into the heresy of libertinism. Hart sided with Whitefield on the issue of predestination and wrote a tract on the topic against Wesley, defending it from the viewpoint of libertine and antinomian theology. But Whitefield would never agree with Hart’s libertinism. Later Hart would publicly repent of having written the treatise.

Hart’s main thesis in his tract was that “Religion and Reason are not only widely different, but directly contrary, the one to the other.” [25] “Reason tells me,” explained Hart, “that in order to secure an Interest in eternal Life, I must by mine own Natural Strength, strive, struggle and labour; and pray for the Assistance of God, to enable me so to please Him here, that I may Shun His Wrath, and Enjoy Him in Bliss hereafter. But religion plainly shews me, that when I was in my Natural State, it was impossible for me to move one Step towards Heaven; no, not so much as to implore the Divine Assistance aright; but was utterly Dead in Trespasses and Sins; and as incapable of exerting the least Power, or Motion towards any Spiritual Good, as a Dead Carcass is of performing any Action of Natural Life.” [26] Hence, in Hart’s thinking, religion and reason were antithetical.

Hart’s explanation implied two crucial doctrines. First was the Calvinistic doctrine of total depravity. This doctrine teaches that man by nature is unable to save himself. He cannot even repent and believe, unless God grants him faith to do so. Recalling his libertine days, Hart wrote:

How often did I make my strongest efforts to call God MY GOD! But alas, I could no more do this than I could raise the dead! I found now, by woful experience, that faith was not in my power; and the question with me now was, not whether I WOULD be a Christian or no; but whether I MIGHT: not whether I should repent and believe; but whether God would give me true repentance and a living faith. [27]

The second doctrine implied in Hart’s explanation was justification by faith alone. He now was convinced that salvation was apart from good works; on this Hart would not find contradiction from his fellow Calvinists. However, in the latter part of his tract, his libertinism and antinomianism become obvious, especially when he avers that sinner’s “Sins do not Destroy but often Increase their Comfort even here.” [28]

Hart’s libertinism and antinomianism—both promoting a religion of theology without practice—are exactly the opposite of his old legalism, a religion with piety but without faith. Of course, a libertine or antinomian faith is not true faith at all, for a true saving faith will bear fruit. Likewise, pharisaic piety is not true piety at all, for true piety springs from saving faith. At this time, therefore, as Faith Cook observes, “Hart was confusing head-knowledge with true heart experience.” [29] Years later, after his conversion, Hart would discover that true religion was both intelligent (with faith) and experiential (with piety):

True religion’s more than notion;
Something must be known and felt. [30]

Faith In Christ With Piety (1757): “A Daily Increase In All True Grace And Godliness” [31]

Before Hart finally experienced true conversion, he had gone through two spiritually painful stages, the first of which was reform not rooted in conversion (1751-1756). Forty years old, Hart “began to reform a little [outwardly at least], and to live in a more sober and orderly manner,” [32] about the time he married Mary, a woman fourteen years younger than himself. Hughes described her as “a loving, virtuous woman.” [33] Mary, no doubt, was a significant factor in Hart’s reformation.

Also at this time, Hart thought that because he was “not only sound in principles, but sober and honest in practice,” he could not “but be in the right way to the favour of God.” [34] Later, writing in his “Experience,” he acknowledged that he was still not yet truly saved. “The fountains of the great deep of my sinful nature,” admits Hart, “were not [yet] broken up!” He was then just experiencing reform not rooted in conversion—a similar experience he had when he was a legalist, the only difference being that he was now aware of the doctrine of justification by faith in Christ, though he confessed that he “was so far from seeing or owning that there was such a necessity for his [Christ’s] death.” [35]

And now, as I retained the form of sound words, and held the doctrines of free grace, justification by faith, and other orthodox tenets, I was tolerably confident of the goodness of my state; especially as I could now add that other requisite, a moral behavior.... I looked on his death indeed as the grand sacrifice for sin; and always thought on him with respect and reverence; but did not see the inestimable value of his blood and righteousness clearly enough to make me abhor myself, and count all things else but dung and dross. [36]

Nevertheless, he was not yet a believer. John Bunyan (1628-1688) had gone through a similar experience. In his Grace Abounding to the Chief of Sinners, Bunyan remarked that before he knew Christ savingly, he had experienced “some outward Reformation.” [37] Because this outward change was not rooted in the gospel, however, it did not last. This book, which is Bunyan’s spiritual autobiography, was to some extent comparable to Hart’s “Experience.” In fact, the two share similar stories of conversion.

The second stage that Hart went through before experiencing true conversion was severe despondency caused by the absence of Christ (1755-1757). Around the age of forty-four, Hart “fell into a deep despondency of mind, because [he] had never experienced grand revelations and miraculous discoveries” of Christ. [38] He assumed he was saved but could not feel the presence of Christ in his life. During this time, as Hart recalled later, he “was very melancholy,” and “shunned all company, walking pensively alone, or sitting in private, and bewailing my sad and dark condition, not having a friend in the world to whom I could communicate the burden of my soul; which was so heavy, that I sometimes hesitated even to take my necessary food.” [39]

This melancholic experience was not infrequent among the Puritans. Bunyan, for example, also suffered melancholy or deep depression, both before and after his conversion. [40] Timothy Rogers (1658-1728), a Puritan divine, had to resign from the ministry because of this struggle. In his book Trouble of Mind and the Disease of Melancholly (1691), Rogers calls melancholy “the worst of all Distempers; and those sinking and guilty Fears which it brings along with it, are inexpressibly dreadful.” [41] Nevertheless, none of these pastors allowed their melancholy to stop them from pursuing Jesus.

Hart continued to suffer great spiritual turmoil for a long period of time. On Whit Sunday, May 29, 1757, he “happened to go in the afternoon to the Moravian Chapel in Fetter Lane, where [he] had been several times before.” [42] There he heard a sermon on Revelation 3:10, which the Lord used to save him. The story of his conversion cannot better be expressed than in his own words:

I was hardly got home [from church] when I felt myself melting away into a strange softness of affection which made me fling myself on my knees before God. My horrors were immediately dispelled, and such light and comfort flowed into my heart as no words can paint. The Lord by his Spirit of love came, not in a visionary manner into my brain, but with such divine power and energy into my soul, that I was lost in blissful amazement. [43]

In his “Confession,” he writes:

What an amazing change was here!
I looked for hell—He brought me heaven.
Cheer up, said He, dismiss thy fear;
Cheer up; thy sins are all forgiven. [44]

Humbled and amazed by God’s grace, Hart could only wonder why such a holy God would save a wicked sinner like him:

I would object; but faster much
He answered, Peace! What, me?—Yes, thee.
But my enormous crimes are such—
I give thee pardon full and free. [45]

With this newfound assurance of forgiveness, Hart could now enjoy “sweet peace” in his soul. However, not long after his conversion and for some months, he was “terribly infested with thoughts so monstrously obscene and blasphemous” that they could not be described. [46] Yet he was “sensible that most of God’s children [were] sometimes attacked in like manner,” though he felt that his thoughts “were foul and black beyond example, and seemed to be the master-pieces of hell.” [47] Fortunately, this experience did not endure; Hart soon began to experience what he thought could be called “reconversion”:

I soon began to be visited by God’s Spirit in a different manner from what I had ever felt before. I had constant communion with him in prayer. His sufferings, his wounds, his agonies of soul, were impressed upon me in an amazing manner. I now believed my name was sculptured deep in the Lord Jesus’ breast, with characters never to be erased. I saw him with the eye of faith, stooping under the load of my sins; groaning and groveling in Gethsemane for me. [48]

It seems that Hart did not have the full assurance of salvation until his “reconversion” experience. The gospel of Christ became increasingly precious to him, and the gospel to which Hart often fled for comfort, especially in time of distress and doubt, became the central theme of most of his hymns, as seen in Hymn 115:

Jesus, when on the bloody tree
He hung, through soul and body pierced,

In heaven He lives, our King, our Priest;
There for His people ever pleads:
How sure is our salvation! Christ
Died, rose, ascended, intercedes. [49]

It was also during this experience that Hart began to sincerely and strongly long to know Christ more and more and he “desire[d] at the same time a daily increase in all true grace and godliness.” [50]

Hart’s Ministry: “Some Service Might By Me Be Done, To Souls That Truly Trust In Him” [51]

Thus delivered from misery, Hart was filled with gratitude and joy. He was so thankful that he wanted to serve the Lord in a full-time capacity: “I threw my soul willing into my Saviour’s hands, lay weeping at his feet, wholly resigned to his will, and only begging that I might, if he was graciously pleased to permit it, be of some service to his church and people.” [52] God did not immediately grant Hart’s desire to be a minister; He first made him a hymn writer.

In 1759 he published the first edition of his Hymns, which included a preface containing a brief summary account of his experience and the great things that God had done for his soul. [53] “This publication most likely drew him into the notice of many godly persons, and was the means, under God, of calling him into the ministry.” [54] Indeed, in 1760, a year after the publication of his hymn-book, he became minister of Jewin Street Meeting-House in London, where many people came to hear him preach.

A Gifted Preacher: “Many Refreshed Under The Preached Word From His Lips” [55]

Sadly, of all the sermons of Hart, only one has survived—The King of the Jews. This message, preached on December 25, 1767, is an exposition of the question in Matthew 2:2: “Where is he that is born King of the Jews?” Reading this sermon, it is easy to see that Hart preached experientially. In fact, at the beginning of his message, after introducing his main points, Hart declared that it is his “wonted manner” to “proceed to a suitable word of application from the whole.” [56] That is, it was his practice to provide practical applications at the end of the sermon.

Hart also preached discriminately, addressing both unbelievers and believers. The following citations will show this fact:

I shall address myself to the unconverted who take pleasure in anything that is sinful, if it will but satisfy their sense for a moment. I would ask you, in the midst of your mirth and jollity, in the midst of your sensual pleasures, “Where is He that is born King of the Jews?”

Then, addressing the believers, Hart proclaimed with passion:

But some, perhaps, may be dejected and distressed on account of the weakness of their faith, and may be tempted to argue and conclude that they are not believers because their faith is so weak and small. I would ask you, my brother believer, how was Christ first born? Was He made a perfect man at once? No, He Himself was once a little, weak, feeble Babe, although He was at the same time the mighty God that held up heaven and earth. [57]

We also know from Hughes that, in the institution of the Lord’s Supper, Hart demonstrated extra “power, and presence of the dear Lord Jesus.” [58] This practical, discriminatory, passionate, and powerful preaching, empowered by his piety and the presence of the Lord, attracted many people to come to hear him preach. In fact, the number of people who came to listen to him was often more than their meeting-house could accommodate. Many were “refreshed under the preached word from his lips.” Indeed, Hart must have been a gifted preacher by God’s grace.

A Watchful Shepherd: “I Will Keep My Pulpit As Chaste As My Bed” [59]

The Calvinist Hart was always on guard, watching over his flock, making sure that they received sound teachings. To protect his congregation from any defective doctrine, he “made it his inviolable rule, not to let an Arian, an Arminian, or any unsound preacher, occupy his pulpit so much as once. His usual saying on these occasions was, I will keep my pulpit as CHASTE as my bed.” [60] Hart strove topreach nothing but the pure Word of God. Not only did he guard his congregation from false doctrines, he also refuted those false teachers. With all his strength, says Hughes, Hart stoutly defended “the doctrines of the gospel, viz. the Trinity in unity; the electing love of God; the free justification of the sinner by the imputation of Christ’s righteousness, and salvation alone by his precious blood; the new birth and final perseverance of the saints.” [61]

Hart was not only concerned with doctrinal purity of his church, but also firmly maintained the need for moral purity. As Hughes again testifies, Hart always entreated his congregation to live according to the gospel [62] because he had learned personally that true piety emanates from the gospel. Apart from the gospel there could be no true piety; any form of righteousness that does not stem from the righteousness of Christ is artificial. Hart did not just want to see his flock equipped with sound heads, but also with pure hearts.

A Diligent Pastor: “Like The Laborious Ox That Dies With His Yoke On His Neck” [63]

Hart’s laborious work in the ministry is also worth mentioning. Entering the ministry at the age of forty-eight, Hart made a commitment to use all his energy for the advancement of the kingdom of Christ. Describing how industrious Hart was, Hughes likens him to a “laborious ox that dies with his yoke on his neck.” According to Kinsman, Hart specifically “labored hard...for the conversion of souls,” proclaiming “the glories of the incarnate Saviour, and his finished redemption.” [64] Hart, adds Kinsman, frequently warned his congregation “to flee from the wrath to come, to renounce [their] own righteousness, and put on the Lord Jesus Christ.” [65] To borrow the words of Richard Baxter (1615-1691), Hart preached “as a dying man to dying men.” [66] This earnestly gospel-centered preaching, coupled with God’s benediction, resulted in the conversion of many souls.

A Suffering Servant: “Labouring Under Many Deep Temptations” And Trials

If one word can best describe Hart’s ministry, it is suffering. Those who knew him were very well aware of this fact, including Hughes: “[he] came into the work of the ministry in much weakness and brokenness of soul; and laboring under many deep temptations, of a dreadful nature; for though the Lord was pleased to confirm him in his everlasting love to his soul; yet...he was at times so left to the buffetings of Satan, for the trial of his faith, and to such clouds and darkness on his soul, that he has been oftentimes obliged to preach to the church with sense and reason flying in his own face; and his faith at the same time like a bruised reed; insomuch that he has often done by the church, as the widow of Zarephath did to the prophet Elijah, who made him a cake of that little she had, when herself seemed at the very point of starving.” [67]

Hart faced challenges at home as well. He raised five children; his youngest son, who was only six years old when he entered the ministry, struggled with epilepsy. On August 18, 1763, his third son died at the age of three. Furthermore, his wife, like Hart himself, was also sickly. [68] That Hart himself was in poor health is evident in his two autobiographical hymns on sickness:

When pining sickness wastes the frame,
Acute disease, or tiring pain;
When life fast spends her feeble flame;
And all the help of man proves vain;

Joyless and flat all things appear;
The spirits are languid, thin the flesh;
Medicines can’t ease, nor cordials cheer,
Nor food support, nor sleep refresh. [69]

Yet God “so ordered it, that it was a means of making him through the super-abundant grace of God, experimentally wise and humble.” [70]

Hart’s afflictions did not shake his faith; rather, they strengthened it. Nor did they stop him from preaching Christ; rather, they encouraged him more to preach Jesus—so much so that according to Hughes, Hart “preached Christ...with the arrows of death sticking in him.” [71] Nevertheless, in all these trials, Hart was aware that though

Trials may press of every sort;
They may be sore, they must be short;
We now believe, but soon shall view,
The greatest glories God can shew. [72]

One cannot but feel Hart’s longing to be free from pain and to see that glory in heaven. When composing this hymn, he must have had in mind Romans 8:18: “…the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory which shall be revealed in us,” and 1 Peter 1:6: “…though now for a season, if need be, ye are in heaviness through manifold temptations.” And because of Hart’s tremendous suffering in life, Wright comments that “few hymnists can approach Hart when he is upon the subject of sorrow.” [73]

Hart’s Hymns: “A Treasure Of Doctrinal, Practical, And Experimental Divinity” [74]

As a learned poet it was natural for Hart to compose hymns. His first edition of Hymns, which was released on July 7, 1759, contains 119 hymns (written between 1757 and 1759). [75] In the Preface, Hart told his readers that he had included a few poetical pieces devised many years previous during his graceless days. [76] The dates of his first three hymns, framed in April of 1757, bear this out, since he was saved in May of the same year.

In 1760 he resumed writing hymns. This resulted in his Supplement (eighty-two hymns written between 1760 and 1761) and Appendix (thirteen hymns written between 1761 and 1765). All in all, including his seven doxologies and “Fast Hymn,” Hart composed 221 hymns. [77] These “simple, but experimental and comfortable hymns,” pronounces Hughes,

have been a means of refreshing the souls of many, who have been ready to give up all soul affairs for lost; and many poor prodigals, who have long fed on husks, and have been almost starved, have ventured with him, to arise and go to their father; and say: father, I have sinned against heaven, and in thy sight, and am no more worthy to be called thy son; and with him have received their father’s kiss; and have had their poor wandering feet shod with the gospel-shoes; and the best robe (even that of Christ’s righteousness) put on them; and on the right hand of their faith, the ring of everlasting Love. [78]

This statement answers Hart’s humble wish, as expressed in the Hymn’s preface: he desired that through his hymns “Jesus of Nazareth, the mighty God, the friend of sinners, would be pleased to make them [i.e. his hymns] in some measure (weak and mean as they are) instrumental in setting forth his glory, propagating and enforcing the truths of his gospel, cheering the hearts of his people, and exalting his inestimable righteousness, upon which alone the unworthy author desires to rest the whole of his salvation.” [79]

This expressed desire reveals three features of Hart’s hymnology. First, his hymns are evangelical. Similar to other hymnists of the eighteenth-century revival, Hart aimed to present the gospel of Christ. For this reason, his hymns were used for the salvation of sinners, as Hughes’s words imply. This evangelical emphasis is best seen in Hart’s most celebrated hymn—“Come and welcome to Jesus Christ,” a favorite hymn for evangelistic meetings. In this song, the Calvinist Hart who believes in God’s absolute sovereignty, compellingly invites sinners to come to Christ.

J. I. Packer, in his classic book Evangelism and the Sovereignty of God, uses this hymn to illustrate that the “belief that God is sovereign in grace does not affect the genuineness of the gospel invitations, or the truth of the gospel promises.” Then Packer adds, “The whole hymn is a magnificent statement of the gospel invitation,” [80] as we can see:

Come, ye sinners, poor and wretched,
Weak and wounded, sick and sore,
Jesus ready stands to save you,
Full of pity joined with power;
He is able, He is able, He is able;
He is willing; doubt no more.

Ho! Ye needy, come and welcome;
God’s free bounty glorify;
True belief, and true repentance,
Every grace that brings us nigh,
Without money, without money, without money,
Come to Jesus Christ and buy! [81]

The second important feature of Hart’s hymns is that they are not only doctrinally biblical but also eminently experiential. This point is well explained by John Towers, who wrote an advertisement for the ninth edition of Hart’s Hymns: “Herein the doctrines of the gospel are illustrated so practically, the precepts of the word enforced so evangelically, and their effects stated so experimentally, that with propriety it may be styled, a treasury of doctrinal, practical, and experimental divinity.” [82]

When analyzing Hart’s experiences, we cannot help but say that his spiritual journey was an important factor in his becoming an experiential hymnist. For instance, his painful experience in conversion enabled him to relate well to those struggling with the same problem. His hymn titled “A Dialogue between a Believer and his Soul,” which has an autobiographical tone, illustrates this point. In the first stanza of this hymn the believer speaks:

Come, my soul, and let us try,
For a little season,
Every burden to lay by:

What is this that cast thee down?
Who are those that grieve thee?
Speak, and let the worst be known;
Speaking may relieve thee.

The second verse is the troubled soul responding:

Oh! I sink beneath the load
Of my nature’s evil;
Full of enmity to God;
Restless as the troubled seas;
Feeble, faint, and fearful;
Plagued with every sore disease;
How can I be cheerful?

This stanza echoes Hart’s experience: overburdened by his sin and without hope of forgiveness, he found comfort in Christ and His suffering. Thus in verse three, Hart aims to comfort distressed souls. He specifically points them to Christ’s suffering in Gethsemane as well as on Golgotha:

Think on what thy Saviour bore
In the gloomy garden,
Sweating blood at every pore
To procure thy pardon!
See Him stretched upon the wood,
Bleeding, grieving, crying;
Suffering all the wrath of God;
Groaning, gasping, dying! [83]

The theme of Christ’s suffering is a repeated motif in Hart’s hymns. Whenever he felt cast down, he always looked to the cross and found relief. Cook rightly observes: “Perhaps more than any other hymn-writer, Hart would become the poet of the cross, and the word ‘Gethsemane’ occurs time and time again in his writings. The very first hymn he wrote set the theme.” [84]

Come, all ye chosen saints of God.
That long to feel the cleansing blood,
In pensive pleasure join with me,
To sing of sad Gethsemane

In Eden’s garden there was food,
Of ev’ry kind for man, while good;
But, banish’d thence, we fly to thee,
O garden of Gethsemane! [85]

The third and final important feature of Hart’s hymns is “the practical godliness they insist upon.” [86] Not only did Hart pen his hymns to promote the gospel and comfort the weary, he also intended to encourage believers to a holy life. He desired that through his compositions singers might be drawn closer to Christ. However, as he had learned himself, knowing Christ was not the only goal. The redeemed must also long to become more like their Lord and Savior, more conformed to His likeness. As Hart expresses in supplemental Hymn 63:

But ’tis a blessing
To know the Holy Son.

Then Hart prays:

Lord! help us by Thy mighty power
To gain our constant view;
Which is, that we may know Thee more,
And more resemble too.

In contrast with some contemporary music, Hart’s hymns are Christ-centered, especially focusing on His atonement. This is precisely why many prize his hymns. As W. J. Latham states, “I value Hart’s hymns, 1. Because there is nothing ‘thin’ or ‘unreal’ in them. They are not mere pious reveries, but are full of vigour and virility. 2. Because they exalt the Divine Person and atoning work of our Lord Jesus Christ, and in this are strikingly unlike many of the sickly sentimental hymns that are in use to-day. They also honour the Holy Ghost in a marked degree. 3. Because they are steeped in personal religion, they are deeply experimental, and are the breathings of the heart at peace with God.” [87]

Likewise, J. K. Popham observes: “I have long thought that for depth and clearness of doctrine, for rich and unctuous experience, a godly sense of sin, a humbling reception of the atonement of Christ, a melting realization of the love of the Father, a knowledge of the indwelling of the Holy Ghost, and for a consistent enforcement of Christian practice—all tersely and finely expressed—Hart is probably not equaled, certainly not surpassed.” [88]

Not surprisingly, Hart’s hymns endeared themselves to many people of his own time. His admirers were so many that more than twenty thousand people attended his funeral. Hart died on May 24, 1768 at the age of fifty-six. His body was buried in Bunhill Fields, joining the other great Independent saints such as Thomas Goodwin, John Owen, and John Bunyan. In this graveyard, declaims Kinsman, “the precious remains of a dear husband, an indulgent and affectionate father, pastor and friend” are deposited. [89] This statement succinctly summarizes the personality of Hart whose hymnbook has become a blessing to many. This book, says Towers, “so exactly describes the preaching of its author, that it may be justly said, that in them, ‘he being dead, yet speaketh.’” [90]

Concluding Remarks: “O Ye Saints Of God, He Has A Right To Be Remembered Of You All” [91]

Some may ask why we remember Hart, who will benefit from his work, or how they can profit from reading him. Consider the following answers.

First, for heavily disquieted believers, especially those who are about to lose hope and who struggle with their assurance of salvation, Hart’s “Experience” can be a source of strength. Hart himself attested that, in God’s providence, many Christians have been “much blessed” by the chronicle of his conversion. [92] In “Experience,” one cannot fail to see “the great things that God hath done for his soul.” [93]

Second, Hart can serve as a good model for pastors. He was an outstanding example of a godly, diligent, compassionate, and faithful minister, who continued serving the Lord even in the midst of enormous trials. Suffering and discouraged pastors can draw inspiration from Hart.

Third, Hart’s experiential hymns can be a fountain of comfort, joy, and rest for the church. As Daniel Smart states, these hymns “have been a great blessing to the Church of God; but truly to have fellowship with them we must be taught the same truths by the same Spirit. What a blessed hymn is that on Temptation!” [94] The last stanza of that hymn which epitomizes the Christ-centered message of all Hart’s hymnology:

But here’s our point of rest;
Tho’ hard the battle seem,
Our Captain stood the fiery test,
And we shall stand thro’ him. [95]

Therefore, “O ye Saints of God, he has right to be remembered of you all!”

Notes

1. The Christian Warrior Finishing His Course. A Sermon Occasioned by the Death of the Rev. Mr. Joseph Hart, preached in Jewin-Street, June 5, 1768. By John Hughes,...And An Oration Delivered at His Interment by Andrew Kinsman (London, 1768), 28, 29. Hereafter referred to as Funeral Sermon and Oration.
2. Cited in Thomas Wright, The Life of Joseph Hart (London: Farmcombe & Son, 1910), ix, 99. This book is part of the series of “The Lives of the British Hymn Writers, Being Personal Memoirs Derived Largely from Unpublished Materials.”
3. To my knowledge, there is only one existing biographical book on Hart—The Life of Joseph Hart by Thomas Wright. See footnote 2. This is the definitive work on Hart.
4. Peter C. Rae, “Joseph Hart and His Hymns,” Scottish Bulletin of Evangelical Theology 6 (1988): 20-39. This article focuses on Hart’s hymns.
5. The quote is from Hymn 27, “The Author’s Own Confession,” hereafter referred to as “Confession.”
6. Joseph Hart, Hymns Composed on Various Subjects: With the Author’s Experience [Fowler’s edition] (London: Groombridge, 1857), 19. Besides the Supplement and Appendix, this edition contains a memoir of the author and an index to the first line of every verse. The second part of this book includes a selection of hymns by Henry Fowler. There are many available editions of Hart’s hymns. The one I will use in this paper is the Fowler’s edition of 1857. The quote is from “The Author’s Experience,” hereafter referred to as Hart’s “Experience.”
7. Kinsman, Oration, 41.
8. Hart, “Experience,” 19.
9. Hart, Hymn 27, “Confession.”
10. Hart, “Experience,” 19.
11. Hart, “Experience,” 19.
12. Hart, Hymn 27.
13. Hart, Hymn 27.
14. Hart, “Experience,” 21.
15. Hart, Hymn 27.
16. Hart, “Experience,” 20-22.
17. Hart, “Experience,” 20, 22.
18. Hart, Hymn 27.
19. Hart, “Experience,” 22.
20. John Wesley, Free Grace ([Boston]: Bristol, printed. Philadelphia, re-printed by Ben. Franklin: Boston: again re-printed, and sold by T. Fleet, at the Heart and Crown in Cornhill, 1741), 12.
21. Wesley, Free Grace, 12.
22. Wesley, Free Grace, 12.
23. Wesley, Free Grace, 17.
24. Wesley, Free Grace, 12-13.
25. Joseph Hart, The Unreasonableness of Religion. Being Remarks and Animadversions on Mr. John Wesley’s Sermon on Romans viii.32 (London: Printed for the author, 1741), 5.
26. Hart, The Unreasonableness of Religion, 6.
27. Hart, “Experience,” 20.
28. Hart, The Unreasonableness of Religion, 59-60.
29. Faith Cook, Our Hymn Writers and Their Hymns (Darlington, England: Evangelical Press, 2005), 150.
30. Hart, Hymn 56, “Another” (Part 1).
31. Hart, “Experience,” 31. Hart uttered these words when he came to the saving knowledge of Christ.
32. Hart, “Experience,” 22.
33. Hughes, Funeral Sermon, 29. Repeatedly, Hughes is referred to as Hart’s brother-in-law, but, as Wright notes, “whether Mrs. Hart was Hughes’s sister or whether Hughes married Hart’s sister is not disclosed.” See Wright, The Life of Joseph Hart, 26.
34. Hart, “Experience,” 23.
35. Hart, “Experience,” 23.
36. Hart, “Experience,” 22.
37. John Bunyan, Grace Abounding to the Chief of Sinners, ed. Roger Sharrock (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1962), 12-13.
38. Hart, “Experience,” 24.
39. Hart, “Experience,” 24.
40. Richard Greaves feels that Bunyan’s description of his spiritual struggles in Grace Abounding to the Chief of Sinners was more than spiritual in nature. He believes that Bunyan was suffering from depression, which was also known in Bunyan’s time as melancholy. He concludes: “The evidence strongly suggests that Bunyan suffered from recurrent, chronic dysthymia [‘sometimes referred to as reactive, mild, neurotic, or psychogenic depression’] on which a major depressive episode was imposed about late 1653 or early 1654. The onset of the illness would have occurred about early 1651 and terminated, by Bunyan’s reckoning, in approximately late 1657 or early 1658. There would be at least one further apparent recurrence, triggered by anxiety about late 1663 or 1664 during his imprisonment. During his illness in the 1650s, he suffered from pronounced dysphoria, marked feelings of worthlessness, impaired rational ability at times, apparent insomnia, and diminished pleasure in normal activities. He thought periodically about death, even to the point that he was ‘a terror to myself,’ yet he was afraid to die because of the judgment he expected in the afterlife.” Glimpses of Glory: John Bunyan and English Dissent (Stanford, Calif.: Stanford University Press, 2002), 57-58.
41. Timothy Rogers, A Discourse Concerning Trouble of Mind and the Disease of Melancholly In Three Parts: Written for the Use of Such As Are, or Have Been Exercised by the Same (London: Printed for Thomas Parkhurst and Thomas Cockerill, 1691), 3.
42. Hart, “Experience,” 28.
43. Hart, “Experience,” 28.
44. Hart, Hymn 27.
45. Hart, Hymn 27.
46. Hart, “Experience,” 29.
47. Hart, “Experience,” 30.
48. Hart, “Experience,” 30.
49. Hart, Hymn 115, “Who was delivered for our offences, and was raised again for our justification.” Rom. iv. 25.
50. Hart, “Experience,” 31.
51. Hart, Hymn 27.
52. Hart, “Experience,” 29.
53. This is the exact title of the first edition: Hymns composed on various subjects, containing a brief and summary account of the author’s experience, and the great things that God hath done for his soul.
54. “Memoir of Joseph Hart” in Hart, Hymns Composed on Various Subjects: With the Author’s Experience [Fowler’s edition], 7.
55. Hart, “Memoir of Joseph Hart,” 9.
56. Joseph Hart, The King of the Jews, series 30, no. 10 (Grand Rapids: Inheritance Publishers), 4. “It was preached at Jewin Street Chapel, London, and in every publication the date is given as ‘December 25th, 1768’—but Mr. Hart died in May of that year,” 3.
57. Hart, The King of the Jews, 23, 26.
58. Hughes, Funeral Sermon, vi.
59. Hart, “Memoir of Joseph Hart,” 11.
60. Hart, “Memoir of Joseph Hart,” 11.
61. Hughes, Funeral Sermon, 28.
62. Hughes, Funeral Sermon, 28.
63. Hughes, Funeral Sermon, 29.
64. Kinsman, Oration, 39.
65. Kinsman, Oration, 39.
66. Isaac David Ellis Thomas, comp. ed., The Golden Treasury of Puritan Quotations (Carlisle, Pa.: Banner of Truth, 1977), 223.
67. Hughes, Funeral Sermon, 27.
68. When Hart died, his “widow has been for some months in a bad state of health, and is now incapable of doing any thing.” See Advertisement in Hughes, Funeral Sermon, i.
69. Hart, Supplement 40. The other hymn on sickness is in Supplement 39.
70. Hughes, Funeral Sermon, 20-21.
71. Hughes, Funeral Sermon, 29.
72. Hart, Hymn 21, “The wonders of Redeeming Love.”
73. Wright, The Life of Joseph Hart, 44.
74. Cited in Hart, “Memoir of Joseph Hart,” 9.
75. I follow Wright’s dating of Hart’s hymns. See his table of dates of Hart’s hymns for more information about the dates. See Wright, The Life of Joseph Hart, 42.
76. Preface to the first edition of his hymn book, in Hart, Hymns, 17.
77. The Hymn 13, “The Lord’s Prayer,” in the Appendix is not by Hart, but is usually appended to his hymnbook. This then makes the total number of his hymns as 220. The “Fast Hymn,” says Wright, “is placed in front of the book in the 4th edition, the edition in which it first appears as No. 14 of the Appendix.” See Wright, The Life of Joseph Hart, 42.
78. Hughes, Funeral Sermon, vii.
79. Preface to the first edition of his hymnbook in Hart’s Hymns, 18.
80. James I. Packer, Evangelism and the Sovereignty of God (Downers Grove, Ill.: InterVarsity Press, 1961), 100.
81. Hart, Hymn 100, “Come, and welcome, to Jesus Christ.”
82. Cited in Hart, “Memoir of Joseph Hart,” 9.
83. Hart, Hymn 24, “A Dialogue between a Believer and his Soul.”
84. Cook, Our Hymn Writers and Their Hymns, 154.
85. Hart, Hymns 1, “On the Passion.”
86. Hart’s Memorial (London: J. Gadsby, 1877), 24.
87. Cited in Wright, The Life of Joseph Hart, 99.
88. Cited in Wright, The Life of Joseph Hart, 99.
89. Kinsman, Oration, 40.
90. Cited in “Memoir of Joseph Hart,” 9. Towers, perhaps thinking of Abel, utters these words. See Hebrews 11:4.
91. Hughes, Funeral Sermon, 28-29.
92. Preface to the second edition of Hart’s Hymns, 15
93. See footnote 54.
94. Cited in Wright, The Life of Joseph Hart, 98.
95. Hart, Hymn 70, “Temptation.”