This anthology brings together for the first time the most popular and widely used English hymns from that genre's most formative and important period: the eighteenth century. This annotated collection of some 325 hymns (with author introductions and a general historical sketch) will be of inestimable value to scholars, students, and laypersons from several disciplines and interests; from social history to church history and theology, from political science to literature. Hymns were the most widely read and memorized verbal structures of the eighteenth century: this anthology, therefore, provides unique and higly significant insights into the culture and habits of thought of a people - and their spiritual leaders.