́dearest JESUS, I come!" Thus died this excellent man, December 31, 1696, in the 77th year of his age, and left us an example how to live, and how to die.

Dr. Annesley had naturally a strong robust constitution, which enabled him to undergo great labour and fatigue. He was seldom sick, and could endure the coldest weather without hat, gloves, or fire. For many years he scarcely ever drank any thing but water, and even to his last sickness, his sight continued so strong, that he could read the smallest print without spectacles. His piety, diligence, and zeal, made him highly esteemed by the Dissenters. He assisted at the first public ordination they had, after the Act of Uniformity, when Dr. Calamy, and six others, were ordained in the Dissenting place of worship in Little St. Hellen's, in 1694.*

CHAPTER II.

OF HIS PARENTS AND SISTERS.

MR.

SECTION I.

OF THE REV. SAMUEL WESLEY, SENIOR.

R. JOHN WESLEY, of whom I have spoken before, left two sons, Matthew and Samuel; of the rest of the children we know nothing. As the family had been greatly reduced by persecution, these two brothers must have experienced some difficulties in their education. Their mother was niece to Dr. Thomas Fuller; but it does not appear that they received any assistance from this branch of the family. By industry they surmounted every difficulty that lay before them, and rose to very respectable and useful situations in life. Matthew Wesley, following the example of his grandfather, studied Physic, and afterwards made a fortune by his practice.t Samuel, the father of the late Mr. John Wesley, was born about the year 1662, or perhaps a little earlier; but he could not, I think, have been more than eight or nine years old when his father died. The first thing that shook his attachment to Dissenters was, a defence of the death of King Charles the First, and the proceedings of the Calve's Head club.‡ These things shocked him; and though it is certain that the Dissenters in general disapproved of the King's death, and that the proceedings

*See Nonconformist's Memorial, Voi. II. p. 238. For the account of Dr. Annesley, see the Funeral Sermon Dr. Williams preached for him; and Nonconformist's Memorial, Vol. I. p. 104.

+ We shall afterwards see some verses on the death of this gentleman by his niece, Mrs. Wright

Notes of Samuel Wesley to his elegy on his father. For this, and some other original papers, of great use in this work, Dr. Whitehead was indebted to a private friend.

of a club ought not to be attributed to a large body of men, who had no connexion with the members of it, and differed greatly in opinion from them; yet they had such an effect on his mind, that he separated himself from the dissenting interest while yet a boy, as appears from the following lines in his son's elegy upon him:

"With op'ning life his early worth began,

The BOY misleads not, but foreshews the MAN.
Directed wrong, though first he miss'd his way,
Train'd to mistake, and disciplin❜d to stray:
Not long-for reason gilded error's night,

And doubts well founded shot a gleam of light."

He spent some time at a private academy before he went to the university; but where, it is not said. About the age of sixteen he walked to Oxford, and entered himself of Exeter College. He had now only two pounds sixteen shillings; and no prospect of future supplies, but from his own exertions. By industry, I suppose by assisting the younger students, and instructing any who chose to employ him, he supported himself till he took his Bachelor's degree, without any preferment or assistance from his friends, except five shillings. This circumstance does him great honour, and shews him to have been a young man of wonderful diligence and resolution. Many feel his difficulties, but few are capable of his vigorous and continued exertions to overcome them in so honourable a way, and with such success. He now came to London, having increased his little stock to ten pounds fifteen shillings. He was ordained Deacon, and obtained a curacy, which he held one year, when he was appointed chaplain on board the fleet. This situation he held one year only, and then returned to London, and served a cure for two years. During this time he married, and his wife brought him a son. In this period he wrote several pieces, which brought him into notice and esteem, and a small living was given him in the country. We are not certain whether it was during his residence here, or while he was chaplain on board the fleet, that the following circumstance happened, but I suppose the latter. He was strongly solicited by the friends of King James II. to support the measures of the court in favour of Popery, with promises of preferment if he would comply with the King's desire. But he absolutely refused to read the King's declaration; and though surrounded with courtiers, soldiers, and informers, he preached a bold and pointed discourse against it, from Daniel jii. 17, 18. If it be so, our God whom we serve is able to deliver us from the burning fiery furnace, and he will deliver us out of thy hand, O King. But if not, be it known unto thee, O King, that we will not serve thy gods, nor worship the golden image which thou hast set up. son Samuel describes this circumstance in the following lines of the poem entitled The Parish Priest, intended as a description of his father's character.

His

Secure in faith, exempt from worldly views,
He dar'd the declaration to refuse:

Then from the sacred pulpit boldly shew'd
The dauntless Hebrews, true to Israel's GOD,
Who spake, regardless of their King's commands,
'The God we serve can save us from thy hands;
"If not, O Monarch, know we choose to die,
Thy gods alike, and threatenings we defy;
No power on earth our faith has e'er controll'd,
We scorn to worship idols, though of gold.'
Resistless truth damp'd all the audience round;
The base informer sicken'd at the sound;
Attentive courtiers conscious stood amaz'd,
And soldiers silent trembled as they gaz'd.
No smallest murmur of distaste arose,

Abash'd and vanquish'd seem'd the church's foes.
So when like zeal their bosoms did inspire,

The Jewish martyrs walk'd unhurt in fire."

In this noble instance of integrity and firmness of mind, Mr. Wesley has given us an unequivocal proof that a person of high-church principles may be a true friend to the protestant cause, and the liberty of the subject. It is evident that he as much disliked the arbitrary proceedings of King James, as the religion which he endeavoured to introduce. When the glorious Revolution took place in 1688, Mr. Wesley most cordially approved of it, and was the first who wrote in defence of it. This work he dedicated to Queen Mary,* who, in consequence of it, gave him the living of Epworth in Lincolnshire, about the year 1693; and in 1723 he was presented to the living of Wroote in the same county, in addition to Epworth.

Mr. Wesley held the living of Epworth upwards of forty years. His abilities would have done him credit in a more conspicuous situation; and had Queen Mary lived much longer, it is probable that he would not have spent so great a part of his life in such an obscure corner of the kingdom. In the beginning of the year 1705, he printed a poem on the battle of Blenheim, which happened the year before, with which the duke of Marlborough was so well pleased, that he made him chaplain to Colonel Lapelle's regiment, which was to stay in England some time. In consequence of the same poem, a noble lord sent for him to London, promising to procure him a prebend. But unhappily he was at this time engaged in a controversy with the Dissenters, who, in the first part of Queen Anne's reign, had a very powerful influence in both houses of parliament, and at court; and were now preparing to present a petition to the House of Lords, praying for justice against the authors of several pamphlets written in opposition to them, and against Mr. Wesley in particular; but were dissuaded from taking this step by two members of that House. They had however interest enough to hinder Mr. Wesley from obtaining the prebend; they soon also worked him out of the chaplainship of the regiment, and brought several other very severe sufferings upon him and his family.t

As a pastor, he was indefatigable in the duties of his office: a constant preacher, feeding the flock with the pure doctrines of the Gospel, according to his ability; diligent in visiting the sick, and administer

*MSS. Papers. Mr. C. Wesley's Papers.

ing such advice as their situations required; and attentive to the conduct of all who were under his care, so that every one in his parish became an object of his attention and concern. No strangers could settle in his parish but he presently knew it, and made himself acquainted with them. We have a proof of this from a letter he wrote to the Bishop of Lincoln, after being absent from home a very short time. "After my return to Epworth, (says he) and looking a little among my people, I found there were two strangers, come hither, both of whom I have discovered to be Papists, though they come to church; and I have hopes of making one or both of them good members of the Church of England."

But his conscientious regard to parochial duties, did not divert him from literary pursuits. A man who spends all his time in the most useful manner he can, may diversify his employments, and accomplish by diligence what appears to others impracticable. His favourite study seems to have been the original Scriptures, in which he was indefatigable; a practice which can never be too much commended in a minister of the Gospel, when joined with a proper attention to practical duties.

The following extracts from two of his letters to his son, the late Mr. John Wesley, will give some idea of his diligence in this respect; and the second of them will shew us his opinion of a subject on which learned men have been much divided.

"January 26, 1725.

"I have some time since designed an edition of the Holy Bible in octavo, in the Hebrew, Chaldee, Septuagint, and the Vulgate; and have made some progress in it. What I desire of you on this article is, 1. That you would immediately fall to work, and read diligently the Hebrew text in the Polyglott, and collate it exactly with the Vulgate, writing all, even the least variations or differences between them. 2. To these I would have you add the Samaritan text in the last column but one; which is the very same with the Hebrew, except in some very few places, differing only in the Samaritan character, which I think is the true old Hebrew. In twelve months' time you will get through the Pentateuch; for I have done it four times the last year, and am going over it the fifth, and collating the two Greek versions, the Alexandrian and the Vatican, with what I can get of Symmachus and Theodotion," &c.

Mr. John Wesley was in the twenty-second year of his age, not yet ordained, nor had he attained any preferment in the University, when he received this letter from his father. It gives a pleasing view of his progress in biblical learning at this early period of life, and shews his father's confidence in his critical knowledge of the Hebrew Scriptures. The following letter was written in 1731, and very clearly states the old gentleman's opinion of the translation of the Seventy, after a most laborious examination of it.

"I find in your letter an account of a learned friend you have, who has a great veneration for the Septuagint, and thinks that in some instances it corrects the present Hebrew. I do not wonder that he is of

that mind; as it is likely he has read Vossius and other learned men, who magnify this translation so as to depreciate the original. When I first began to study the Scriptures in earnest, and had read it over several times, I was inclined to the same opinion. What then increased my respect for it was, 1. That I thought I found many texts in the Scriptures more happily explained than in our own or other versions. 2. That many words and phrases in the New Testament, can hardly be so well understood without having recourse to this translation. 3. That both our Saviour and his apostles so frequently quote it. These considerations held me in a blind admiration of the Septuagint; and though I did not esteem them absolutely infallible, yet I hardly dared to trust my own eyes, or think they were frequently mistaken. But upon reading this translation over very often, and comparing it verbatim with the Hebrew, I was forced by plain evidence of fact to be of another mind. That which led me to it was, some mistakes (I think not less than a thousand) in places indifferent, either occasioned by the ambiguous sense of some Hebrew words, or by the mistake of some letters, as daleth for resh, and vice versa ; which every one knows are very much alike in the old Hebrew character. But what fully determined my judgment was, that I found, or thought I found, very many places which appeared purposely altered for no very justifiable reason. These at last came so thick upon me in my daily reading, that I began to note them down; not a few instances of which you will see in the dissertation I shall send you in my next packet. I would have you communicate it to your learned friend, with my compliments, earnestly desiring him, as well as you, to peruse it with the greatest prejudice you can: and after you have thoroughly weighed the whole, as I think the subject deserves, to make the strongest objections you are able against any article of it, where you are not convinced by my observations. For I should not deserve a friend, if I did not esteem those my best friends who do their endeavours to set me right, where I may possibly be mistaken, especially in a matter of so great moment."

Those two extracts give an interesting view of this gentleman's learning, diligent study of the Scriptures, and candour, in each of which he holds forth to us an example highly deserving of imitation.

Mr. Wesley was a voluminous writer, which in most cases is a disadvantage to an author, whatever his abilities may be. His Latin commentary on the book of Job is a most elaborate performance; but the subject of this book, and the language in which the commentary is written, are but ill adapted to the generality of modern readers. As a poet he has been censured by Garth and others; though when he failed, it was perhaps as much owing to the difficulty of the subject, as to want of poetical abilities.

Of his larger poetical performances, his son Samuel passes the following candid but impartial judgment, in the elegy above-mentioned.

"Whate'er his strains, still glorious was his end,

Faith to assert, and virtue to defend.

He sung how God the Saviour deign'd t' expire,
With Vida's piety, though not his fire;