THE LIFE

OF

THE REV. JOHN WESLEY, A. M.

CHAPTER I.

JOHN and CHARLES WESLEY, the chief founders of that religious body now commonly known by the name of the Wesleyan Methodists, were the sons of the Rev. Samuel Wesley, rector of Epworth, in Lincolnshire.

Of this clergyman, and his wife Mrs. Susannah Wesley, who was the daughter of the Rev. Dr. Annesley, as well as the ancestors of both, an interesting account will be found in Dr. Adam Clarke's "Memoirs of the Wesley Family," and in the "Life of Mr. John Wesley" by Dr. Whitehead, and the more recent one by Mr. Moore. They will be noticed here only so far as a general knowledge of their character may be necessary to assist our judgment as to the opinions and conduct of their more celebrated

sons.

The rector of Epworth, like his excellent wife, had descended from parents distinguished for learning, piety, and nonconformity. His father dying whilst he was young, he forsook the Dissenters at an early period of life; and his conversion carried him into high church principles, and political toryism. He was not however so rigid in the former as to prevent him from encouraging the early zeal of his sons, John and Charles, at Oxford, although it was even then somewhat irregular, when tried by the strictest rules of church order and custom; and his toryism, sufficiently high in theory, was yet of that class which regarded the rights of the subject tenderly in practice. He refused flattering overtures made by the adherents of James II., to induce him to support the measures

of the court, and wrote in favour of the revolution of 1688; admiring it, probably, less in a political view, than as rescuing a protestant church from the dangerous influence of a popish head. For this service, he was presented with the living of Epworth, in Lincolnshire, to which, a few years afterwards, was added that of Wroote, in the same county.

He held the living of Epworth upwards of forty years, and was distinguished for, the zeal and fidelity with which he discharged his parish duties. Of his talents and learn

ing, his remaining works afford honourable evidence.

Mrs. Susannah Wesley, the mother of Mr. John Wesley, was, as might be expected from the eminent character of Dr. Samuel Annesley her father, educated with great care. Like her husband, she also, at an early period of life, renounced nonconformity, and became a member of the established church, after, as her biographers tell us, she had read and mastered the whole controversy on the subject of separation; of which, however, great as were her natural and acquired talents, she must, at the age of thirteen years, have been a very imperfect judge. The serious habits impressed upon both by their education did not forsake them;" they feared God, and wrought righteousness;" but we may perhaps account for that obscurity in the views of each on several great points of evangelical religion, and especially on justification by faith, and the offices of the Holy Spirit, which hung over their minds for many years, and indeed till towards the close of life, from this early change of their religious connexions. Their theological reading, according to the fashion of the church-people of that day, was now directed rather to the writings of those divines of the English church who were tinctured more or less with a Pelagianized Arminianism, than to the works of its founders; their successors, the Puritans; or of those eminent men among the nonconformists, whose views of discipline they had renounced. They had parted with Calvinism; but, like many others, they renounced with it, for want of spiritual discrimination, those truths which were as fully maintained in the theology of Arminius, and in that of their eminent son, who revived, and more fully illustrated it, as in the writings of the

most judicious and spiritual Calvinistic divines themselves. Taylor, Tillotson, and Bull, who became their oracles, were Arminians of a different class.

The advantage of such a parentage to the Wesleys was great. From their earliest years they had an example in the father of all that could render a clergyman respectable and influential; and, in the mother, there was a sanctified wisdom, a masculine understanding, and an acquired knowledge, which they regarded with just deference after they became men and scholars. The influence of a piety so steadfast and uniform, joined to such qualities, and softened by maternal tenderness, could scarcely fail to produce effect. The firm and manly character, the practical sense, the active and unwearied habits of the father, with the calm, reflecting, and stable qualities of the mother, were in particular inherited by Mr. John Wesley; and in him were most happily blended. A large portion of the ecclesiastical principles and prejudices of the rector of Epworth was also transmitted to his three sons; but whilst Samuel and Charles retained them least impaired, in John, as we shall see, they sustained in future life considerable modifications.

Samuel, the eldest son, was born in 1692; John, in 1703; and Charles, in 1708.

Samuel Wesley, junior, was educated at Westminster School; and in 1711 was elected to Christ Church, Oxford. He was eminent for his learning, and was an excellent poet, with great power of satire, and an elegant wit. He held a considerable rank among the literary men of the day, and finally settled as head master of the free school of Tiverton, in Devonshire, where he died in 1739, in his forty-ninth year.

Mrs. Wesley was the instructress of her children in their early years. "I can find," says Dr. Whitehead, "no evidence that the boys were ever put to any school in the country; their mother having a very bad opinion of the common methods of instructing and governing children." She was particularly led, it would seem, to interest herself in John, who, when he was about six years old, had a providential and singular escape from being burned to death, upon the parsonage house being consumed. There is a

striking passage in one of her private meditations, which contains a reference to this event;* and indicates that she considered it as laying her under a special obligation “to be more particularly careful of the soul of a child whom God had so mercifully provided for." The effect of this special care on the part of the mother was, that, under the divine blessing, he became early serious; for at the age of eight years, he was admitted by his father to partake of the sacrament. In 1714, he was placed at the Charter House, where he was noticed for his diligence and progress in learning." "Here, for his quietness, regularity, and application, he became a favourite with the master, Dr. Walker; and through life he retained so great a predilection for the place, that on his annual visit to London, he made it a custom to walk through the scene of his boyhood. To most men, every year would render a pilgrimage of this kind more painful than the last; but Wesley seems never to have looked back with melancholy upon the days that were gone; earthly regrets of this kind could find no room in one who was continually pressing onward to the goal." When he had attained his seventeenth year, he was elected to Christ Church, Oxford, "where he pursued his studies with great advantage, I believe under the direction of Dr. Wigan, a gentleman eminent for his classical knowledge. Mr. Wesley's natural temper in his youth was gay and sprightly, with a turn for wit and humour. When he was about twentyone years of age, "he appeared," as Mr. Badcock has observed, "the very sensible and acute collegian; a young fellow of the finest classical taste, of the most liberal and manly sentiments."§ His perfect knowledge of the clas sics gave a smooth polish to his wit, and an air of superior elegance to all his compositions. He had already begun to amuse himself occasionally with writing verses, though most of his poetical pieces, at this period, were, I believe,

* The memory of his deliverance, on this occasion, is preserved in one of his early portraits, which has, below the head, the representation of a house in flames, with the motto, "Is not this a brand plucked from the burning?"

+ Whitehead's Life.

§ Westminster Magazine.

+ Southey's Life.

either imitations or translations of the Latin. Some time in this year, however, he wrote an imitation of the sixtyfifth Psalm, which he sent to his father, who says, "I like your verses on the sixty-fifth Psalm; and would not have you bury your talent."*

Some time after this, when purposing to take deacon's orders, he was roused from the religious carelessness into which he had fallen at college, and applied himself diligently to the reading of divinity. This more thoughtful frame appears to have been indicated in his letters to his mother, with whom he kept up a regular correspondence; for she replies, "The alteration of your temper has occasioned me much speculation. I, who am apt to be sanguine, hope it may proceed from the operations of God's Holy Spirit, that, by taking off your relish for earthly enjoyments, he may prepare and dispose your mind for a more serious and close application to things of a more sublime and spiritual nature. If it be so, happy are you if you cherish those dispositions; and now, in good earnest, resolve to make religion the business of your life; for, after all, that is the one thing which, strictly speaking, is necessary: all things beside are comparatively little to the purposes of life. I heartily wish you would now enter upon a strict examination of yourself, that you may know, whether you have a reasonable hope of salvation by Jesus Christ. If you have, the satisfaction of knowing it will abundantly reward your pains; if you have not, you will find a more reasonable occasion for tears than can be met with in a tragedy. This matter deserves great consideration by all, but especially by those designed for the ministry; who ought, above all things, to make their own calling and election sure; lest, after they have preached to others, they themselves should be cast away."

This excellent advice was not lost upon him; and indeed his mother's admirable letters were among the principal means, under God, of producing that still more decided change in his views which soon afterwards began to display itself. He was now about twenty-two years of age. The practical books most read by him at this period,

*Whitehead's Life.