Fred SandersA scene from the Leben der heiligen Altväter (1482)
Original Edition of A Christian Library
The fifty-volume 1749 edition published during Wesley’s lifetime is archivally important, but for most purposes it has been supplanted by the 1819 edition which is typographically modernized, more legible, more manageable, and less scarce. The 1749 books were generally small enough for pockets (duodecimo size, about 7 inches by 5) and 300 pages long. The scans currently available are of poor quality, having been made from microfilm. The only major feature of the 1749 edition that was left out of the 1819 edition is that the 1749 had extensive tables of contents in the back of each volume, in some cases amounting to very helpful analytic outlines.
Here are links to each volume of the 1749 edition, with a brief finding guide naming the main authors in each one. It is interesting that even in Wesley’s original publication plan, a single author’s work may be divided between two volumes even when it could have fit in one.
| Vol. 1 (1749) | Apostolic Fathers; Macarius; Arndt |
| Vol. 2 (1751) | Arndt; Fox |
| Vol. 3 (1751) | Fox |
| Vol. 4 (1751) | Fox |
| Vol. 5 (1751) | Fox |
| Vol. 6 (1751) | Clark supplements to Fox |
| Vol. 7 (1751) | Hall |
| Vol. 8 (1751) | Bolton |
| Vol. 9 (1751) | Bolton; Preston |
| Vol. 10 (1751) | Preston; Sibbes |
| Vol. 11 (1751) | Goodwin |
| Vol. 12 (1751) | Goodwin; Manton |
| Vol. 13 (1752) | Manton; Ambrose |
| Vol. 14 (1752) | Ambrose |
| Vol. 15 (1752) | Ambrose |
| Vol. 16 (1752) | Taylor; Rouse |
| Vol. 17 (1752) | Cudworth; Culverwell |
| Vol. 18 (1752) | Owen |
| Vol. 19 (1752) | Owen |
| Vol. 20 (1753) | Smith |
| Vol. 21 (1753) | Whole Duty of Man |
| Vol. 22 (1753) | Whately; Sanderson; |
| Vol. 23 (1753) | Pascal; Worthington |
| Vol. 24 (1753) | Worthington; J. Allein |
| Vol. 25 (1753) | J. Allein; Shaw; Ward; Ken |
| Vol. 26 (1753) | Clark |
| Vol. 27 (1753) | Clark |
| Vol. 28 (1753) | Spiritual Bee; Rutherford; Horneck |
| Vol. 29 (1753) | Horneck; Binning; Hale |
| Vol. 30 (1753) | Hale; Vindiciae Pietatis |
| Vol. 31 (1753) | Vindiciae Pietatis; Westminster; Primitive Christianity |
| Vol. 32 (1753) | Holy War; Patrick |
| Vol. 33 (1753) | Gospel-Glass; Cowley |
| Vol. 34 (1754) | Goodman; Leighton |
| Vol. 35 (1754) | Leighton; Annesley |
| Vol. 36 (1754) | Brown |
| Vol. 37 (1754) | Baxter |
| Vol. 38 (1754) | Fenelon; Bro. Lawrence; Molinos |
| Vol. 39 (1754) | More; Charnock; Calamy |
| Vol. 40 (1754) | Lucas |
| Vol. 41 (1754) | Lucas; Reynolds |
| Vol. 42 (1755) | Reynolds; Devotions |
| Vol. 43 (1755) | South; Flavel |
| Vol. 44 (1755) | Flavel; Anesley |
| Vol. 45 (1755) | Scougal; Country Parson; |
| Vol. 46 (1755) | Young; Howe; D’Avilla |
| Vol. 47 (1755) | Beveridge |
| Vol. 48 (1755) | Howe |
| Vol. 49 (1755) | Sundry Eminent Persons |
| Vol. 50 (1749) | Sundry Eminent Persons |
