Chapter XIX Letters — 1725–1735
It has often been said that, generally speaking, there is nothing which develops a man’s character so much as his own private letters to his friends. Hitherto we have made sparing use of Mr Wesley’s correspondence, and hence, that the reader may have an opportunity, by means of such a test, to form his own opinion respecting this venerable man, we devote this chapter entirely to his “letters.” All the letters inserted here were written within the last eleven years of his eventful life—many of them have been previously published; but, with respect to others, this is the first time that they have been submitted to the public eye. A few notes may be useful; but, with this exception, the chapter will consist entirely of letters. The chapter is long, but the writer flatters himself that the reader will thank him for it.
To his Son John.
“Wroot, Jan. 26, 1724–5.
“Dear Son,—I am so well pleased with your decent behaviour, or, at least, with your letters, that I hope I shall have no occasion to remember some things that are past. Since you have now, for some time, bit upon the bridle, I will take care hereafter to put little honey upon it as oft as I am able; but then it shall be of my own mere motion, as the last £5 was; for I will bear no rival in my kingdom.
“I did not forget you, neither Dr M.;275 but have moved that way as much as possible; though, I must confess, hitherto with no great prospect of success.
“As to what you mention of entering into holy orders,276 it is indeed a great work. I am pleased to find you think it so—as well that you don’t admire a callow clergyman any more than I do. As to the motives you take notice of, it is no harm to desire getting into that office, even with Eli’s sons, ‘to get a piece of bread;’ for ‘the labourer is worthy of his hire;’ though a desire and intention to lead a stricter life, and a belief one should do so, is a better reason. But this should by all means be begun before, or else, ten to one, it will deceive us afterwards. If a man be unwilling and undesirous to enter into orders, it is easy to guess whether he can say, with common honesty, that he believes he is moved by the Holy Spirit to do it. But the principal spring and motive, to which all the former should be secondary, must certainly be the glory of God, the service of His Church, with the edification of our neighbour; and woe to him who, with any meaner leading view, attempts so sacred a work; for which he should take all the care he possibly can, with the advice of wiser and elder men, especially imploring, with all humility, sincerity, and intention of mind, with fasting and prayer, the direction and assistance of Almighty God and His Holy Spirit, to qualify and prepare himself for it.
“The knowledge of the languages is a considerable help in this matter, which, I thank God, all my three sons have, to a very laudable degree; though God knows, I had never more than a smattering of them. But then, this must be prosecuted to the thorough understanding the original text of the sacred Scriptures by intent and long conversing with them.
“You ask me which is the best commentary on the Bible? The several paraphrases and translations of it, in the Polyglott, compared with the original, and with one another, are, in my opinion, to an honest, devout, industrious, humble mind, infinitely preferable to any commentary I ever saw written upon it; though Grotius is the best, (for the most part,) especially on the Old Testament. Compare the Hebrew Bible, the Vulgate, and the Samaritan in the Polyglott, in the morning. In the afternoons, which you will; but be sure to walk an hour, if fair, in the fields. Get Thirleby’s “Chrysostom de Sacerdotio.” Master it; digest it. Some advices I drew up for Mr Hoole, my curate, may not be unuseful to you. Pray let no one but yourself see them.
“By all this you see I am not for your going over-hastily into orders. When I am for your taking them, you shall know; and it is not impossible but I may then be with you, if God so long spare my life and health.
“I like your verses on the 85th Psalm. I would not have you bury your talent. All are well. Work and write while you can. You see Time has shaken me by the hand, and Death is but a little behind him. My eyes and heart are now almost all I have left; and I bless God for them.—Your affectionate father,
“Samuel Wesley.”277
A month after the above was written, Susannah Wesley addressed her son on the same subject. The following is an extract:—
“February 23, 1725.
“Dear Jacky,—I was much pleased with your letter to your father about taking orders, and like the proposal well; but it is an unhappiness almost peculiar to our family, that your father and I seldom think alike. I approve the disposition of your mind, and think the sooner you are a deacon the better; because it may be an inducement to greater application in the study of practical divinity, which I humbly conceive is the best study for candidates for orders. Mr Wesley differs from me, and would engage you, I believe, in critical learning, which, though accidentally of use, is in nowise preferable to the other. I earnestly pray God to avert that greater evil from you of engaging in trifling studies, to the neglect of such as are absolutely necessary. I dare advise nothing. God Almighty direct and bless you! Adieu!”278
Mrs Wesley seems to have influenced her husband, and to have induced him to change his mind. Hence the following unpublished letter, written within three weeks after the foregoing:—
“Wroot, March 13, 1724–5.
“Dear Son,—I have both yours; and have changed my mind since my last. I now incline to your going this summer into orders, and would have you turn your thoughts and studies that way. But, in the first place, if you love yourself, or me, pray heartily. I will struggle hard, but I will get money for your orders, and something more. Mr Downes has spoken to Dr Morley about you, who says he will inquire of your character.
“‘Trust in the Lord, and do good, and verily thou shalt be fed.’
“This with blessing, from your loving father,
“Samuel Wesley.”
A visit to Wroot by Samuel Wesley, jun., led to a short postponement of John’s ordination. The following letter, hitherto unpublished, refers to this:—
“Wroot, May 10, 1725.
“Dear Son,—Your brother Samuel, with his wife and child, are here. I did what I could that you might have been in orders this Trinity; but I doubt your brother’s journey hither has, for the present, disconcerted our plans; though you will have more time to prepare yourself for ordination, which I pray God you may, as I am, your loving father,
“Samuel Wesley.”
Part of the following letter was printed in the first volume of the Arminian Magazine, p. 30, but, in the original manuscript, all allusions to John Wesley’s position and prospects are omitted. The subjoined is an exact and full copy:—
“Wroot, July 14, 1725.
“Dear Son,—It is not for want of affection that I am some letters in your debt; but because I could not yet answer them, so as to satisfy myself or you; though I hope still to do it in a few weeks.
“As for Thomas â Kempis, all the world are apt to strain for one or the other. And it is no wonder if contemplative men, especially when wrapt in a cowl, and the darkness of the sceptical divinity, and near akin, if I mistake not, to the obscure ages, when they observed the bulk of the world so mad for sensual pleasures, should run into the contrary extreme, and attempt to persuade us to have no senses at all, or that God made them to very little purpose. But for all that, mortification is still an indispensable Christian duty. The world is a syren, and we must have a care of her. And if the young man will ‘rejoice in his youth,’ yet it would not be amiss for him to take care that his joys be moderate and innocent; and, in order to this, sadly to remember ‘that for all these things God will bring him to judgment.’ I have only this to add of my friend and old companion, that, making a pretty man grains of allowance, he may be read to great advantage, and that, notwithstanding all his superstition and enthusiasm, it is almost impossible to peruse him seriously, without admiring, and, I think, in some measure imitating his heroic strains of humility, and piety, and devotion. But I reckon, you have before this received your mother’s, who has leisure to write, and can do so without pain, which I cannot.
“I will write to the Bishop of Lincoln again. You shall not want a black coat as soon as I have any white.
“You may transcribe any part of my letter to Mr Hoole, but not the whole, for your own private use; neither lend it; but any friend may read it in your chamber. Master St Chrysostom, and the Articles, and the Form of Ordination. Bear up stoutly against the world, &c. Keep a good, an honest, and a pious heart. Pray hard, and watch hard; and I am persuaded your quarantine is almost at an end, and all shall be well: however, nothing shall be wanting to make it so, that is in the power of, your loving father,
“Samuel Wesley.”
The following unpublished letter to his son John, after referring to a painful family occurrence, goes on to say:—
“Wroot, August 2, 1725.
“I was at Gainsborough last week, to wait on Sir J. Thorold, and shall again, by God’s leave, be there to-morrow, and endeavour to make way for you from that quarter.
“As to the gentlemen candidates you write of, does anybody think the devil is dead, or so much as asleep, or that he has no agents left? Surely virtue can bear being laughed at. The Captain and Master endured something more for us, before He entered into glory; and unless we track His steps, in vain do we hope to share that glory with Him. Nor shall any who sincerely endeavour to serve Him, either in turning others to righteousness, or keeping them steadfast in it, lose their reward. Nor can you have better directions, (except Timothy and Titus,) than Chrysostom de Sacerdotio, and the Form of Ordination. And God forbid that I should ever cease to pray for you!—Your loving father,
“Samuel Wesley.”
The following to his son John was accompanied with a certificate of birth and baptism:—
“Wroot, August 21, 1725.
“Dear Son,—Thanks be to God! we are all well. I send the certificate on the other side, and will be soon with Mr Downes at Dr Morley’s. You need not show the other side, unless it is asked for. Say you are in the 23d current.—Your loving father,
“Samuel Wesley.”
The next letter also has never yet been published. Both Samuel Wesley and his son John, at this time, were in great distress for want of money.
“Bawtry, Sept. 1, 1725.
“Dear Son,—I came hither to-day, because I cannot be at rest, till I make you easier. I could not possibly manufacture any money for you here, sooner than next Saturday. On Monday I design to wait on Dr Morley, and will try to prevail with your brother to return you £8, with interest. I will assist you in the charges for ordination, though I am myself just now struggling for life. This £8 you may depend on the next week, or the week after.
“I like your way of thinking and arguing; and yet must say, I am a little afraid on it. He that believes and yet argues against reason, is half a Papist, or enthusiast. He that would make Revelation bend to his own shallow reason is either half a Deist or a heretic. O my dear! steer clear between this Scylla and Charybdis. God will bless you; and you shall ever be beloved, as you will ever be a comfort to, your affectionate father,
“Samuel Wesley.”
“P.S.—If you have any scruples about any part of Revelation, or the Articles of the Church of England, which I think exactly agreeable to it, I can answer them.”
Another to the Same.
“Gainsborough, Sept. 7, 1725.
“Dear Son John,—With much ado you see I am for once as good as my word. Carry Dr Morley’s note to the Bursar. I hope to send you more, and believe by the same hand. God fit you for your great work! Fast-watch-pray-believe-love-endure-be happy. Towards which you shall never want the ardent prayers of, your affectionate father,
“Samuel Wesley.”279
John Wesley was ordained deacon on Sunday, the 19th of September 1725, by Dr Potter, then Bishop of Oxford.280 The day after his ordination he wrote to his father, and the following is his father’s reply:—
“Wroot, Oct. 19, 1725.
“Dear Son,—I had yours of the 20th ult., with the welcome news that you were in deacon’s orders. I pray God you may so improve in them, as to be in due time fit for a higher station.
“If you gave any occasion for what is said of you at L——, you must bear it patiently, if not joyfully. But be sure never to return the like treatment. I have done what I could, do you the same; and rest the whole on Providence.
“The hard words in yours are of the same nature with an anathema, whose point is levelled against obstinate heretics. But is not even schism a work of the flesh, and therefore damnable? And yet is there not a distinction between what is wilful, and what may be in some measure involuntary? God knows, and doubtless will make a difference. We do not so well know it, and therefore must leave it to Him, and keep to the rules He has given us.
“As to the main of the cause, the best way to deal with your adversaries is, to turn the war and their own vaunted arms against them. From balancing the schemes, it would appear that there are many irreconcilable absurdities and traditions in theirs, with none such, though indeed some difficulties, in ours. To instance but one of a side. They can never prove a contradiction in our Three and One, unless we affirmed them to be so in the same respect, which every child knows we do not. We can prove there is a contradiction in a creature’s being a Creator, which they assert of our Lord.
“If you turn your thoughts and studies this way, you may do God and His Church good service. To His blessing and protection I commit you; and am, your loving father,
“Samuel Wesley.”
All the foregoing letters refer, less or more, to John Wesley being ordained a deacon, and, on that account, are not without interest. Some of them, up to the present, have never appeared in print; and the remainder, with one exception, have never been published in full as they are published here. The young deacon was still embarrassed for want of money, and his father was at his wit’s end how to serve him. Hence another letter, the last we shall give for the year 1725:—
“Wroot, Nov. 30, 1725.
“Son John,—You see, by the enclosed, that I am not unmindful of you. All I can do for you, (and God knows more than I can honestly do,) is to give you credit with Richard Ellison for £10 next Lady-Day.
“Nothing else from your loving father,
“Samuel Wesley.”281
Subjoined are four letters written in the year 1726. Those dated March 21st and April 17th, have not before been published. The whole of them were addressed to John Wesley.
“January 26, 1726.
“Dear Son,—The providence of God has engaged me in a work, wherein you may be very assistant to me, promote the glory of God, and, at the same time, notably forward your own studies.
“I have sometime since designed an edition of the holy Bible in octavo, in the Hebrew, Chaldee, Septuagint, and Vulgate; and have made some progress in it. I have not time at present to give you the whole scheme, of which scarce any soul knows except your brother Sam.
“What I desire of you is, first, 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.
“Second, To these I would have you add the Samaritan text, 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.
“You may learn the Samaritan alphabet in a day, either from the Prolegomena in Walton’s Polyglott, or from his grammar. In a twelvemonth’s time, sticking close to it in the forenoons, you will get twice through the Pentateuch; for I have done it four times the last year, and am going over it the fifth, and also collating the two Greek versions, the Alexandrian and the Vatican, with what I can get of Symmachus and Theodotian, &c. You shall not lose your reward, either in this or the other world. Nor are your brothers like to be idle; but I would have nothing said of it to anybody, though your brother Sam shall write to you shortly about it.”282
What the full extent of Mr Wesley’s scheme was, we are not able to learn; but probably it was the publication, on a wide basis, of a Polyglott Bible.
John Wesley was elected Fellow of Lincoln College, Oxford, on the 17th of March 1726. Four days afterwards, his father wrote the following short letter:—
“Wroot, March 21, 1726.
“Dear Mr Fellow Elect of Lincoln,—I have done more than I could for you. On your waiting on Dr Morley with this he will pay you £12. You are inexpressibly obliged to that generous man. We are all as well as can be expected. Your loving father,
“Samuel Wesley.”283
It was no trifle for this venerable man to meet the moderate expenses incurred by his son John at the Oxford University. Hence the following:—
“Wroot, April 1, 1726.
“Dear Son John,—I had both yours since the election. In both you express yourself as becomes you for what I had willingly, though with much greater difficulty than you imagine, done for you; for the last £12 pinched me so hard, that I am forced to beg time of your brother Sam, till after harvest, to pay him the £10 that you say he lent you. Nor shall I have so much as that, (perhaps not £5) to keep my family till after harvest; and I do not expect that I shall be able to do anything for Charles when he goes to the University. What will be my own fate, God knows, before this summer be over. Sed passi graviora. Wherever I am, my Jack is Fellow of Lincoln!
“Yet all this, and perhaps worse than you know, has not made me forget you; for I wrote to Dr King, desiring leave for you to come one, two, or three months into the country, where you should be gladly welcome.
“As for advice, keep your best friend fast; and, next to him, Dr Morley; and have a care of your other friends, especially the younger. All at present from your loving father,
“Samuel Wesley.”
Sixteen days after this Mr Wesley wrote to his son again, as follows:—
“April 17, 1726.
“Dear Son,—I hope Sander will be with you by Wednesday noon, with the horses, books, and bags, and this. I got your mother to write the enclosed, (for you see I can hardly scrawl,284) because it was possible it might come to hand on Tuesday; but my head was so full of cares that I forgot on Saturday last to put it into the post house. I should be very glad to see you, though but for a day; but much more for a quarter of a year. I think you will make what haste you can. I design to be at the Crown in Bawtry on Saturday se’ennight. God bless and send you a prosperous journey to your affectionate father,
“Samuel Wesley.”285
John Wesley came to his father’s a few days after the date of the above letter, and spent the summer at Epworth and at Wroot. Here he usually read prayers, and preached twice every Sabbath; and, in various ways, assisted the venerable rector. He still pursued his studies, and had frequent opportunities of conversing with his parents, and kept a regular diary of what transpired. He takes notice of the particular subjects discussed in their various conversations, and among others mentions the following: how to increase our faith, our hope, and our love of God; prudence, simplicity, sincerity, pride, and vanity; wit, humour, fancy, courtesy, and general usefulness. He returned to Oxford on the 21st of September; and, on the 7th of November following, was chosen Greek lecturer and moderator of the classes.286
We now proceed to lay before the reader seven letters written during the year 1727; the first, second, fourth, and seventh of which are now for the first time published.
“Wroot, June 6, 1727.
“Son John,—I hope I may still be able to serve both my cures this summer; or, if not, die pleasantly in my last dike. If that should happen, I see no great difficulty in bringing your pupil down with you, say a quarter of a year, where you may both live at least as cheap as at Oxford. I shall be myself at Epworth, as soon as I can get a lodging.
“This is all to you at present from your humble father,
“Samuel Wesley.”287
Charles Wesley was now at Oxford, and the following letter was written to him and his brother John unitedly:—
“Bawtry, June 21, 1727.
“Dear Lads,—This moment I received the satisfaction of yours of the 14th inst. I had no more reason to doubt your duty to me, than you have had of mine to you; although I am sure you cannot think it proper there should be two masters in a family. Read! reflect! You know I cannot but love you; if you please, and if you think it worth your while that an old father should love you.
“What should I be, if I did not take your offer to come down soon? But you could not now get from hence to Wroot; though I can make shift to get from Wroot to Epworth by boat; and it cannot be worse this summer. However, if you have any prospect of doing good to F——n288 (let none of my lads ever despair,) I beg you, for God’s sake, to take to him again; for how do you know, that you may thereby save a soul from death, and cover a multitude of sins? I heartily give you this advice, and beg of you, as you love God, or me, that you would follow it, as far as it is practicable. Once more, remember what a soul is worth, as you know what price was paid for it.
“I hope, in a fortnight, to be able to walk to Epworth. When I am tired, I will send you word. If you should come, it would be best to buy a horse; for I have now ground enough to spare for a dozen. I am weary.—From your loving father,
“Samuel Wesley.”289
The above letter refers to the difficulty of travelling in the neighbourhood of Epworth. The following, written five days later, alludes to the same matter:—
“Wroot, June 26, 1727.
“Dear Son John,—I do not think I have yet thanked you enough for your kind and dutiful letter of the 14th inst, which I received at Bawtry, last Wednesday, and answered there in a hurry; yet, on reflection, I see no reason to alter my mind much as to what I then writ; but, if you had any prospect of doing good on your pupil, I should have been pleased with your attempting it some time longer. If that is past, or hopeless, there is an end of the matter.
“When you come hither, after having taken care of Charterhouse and your own rector, your headquarters will, I believe, be for the most part at Wroot, as mine, if I can, at Epworth, though sometimes making an exchange. The truth is, I am hipp’d by my voyage and journey to and from Epworth last Sunday; being lamed with having my breeches too full of water, partly with a downfall from a thunder shower, and partly from the wash over the boat. Yet I thank God I was able to preach here in the afternoon, and was as well this morning as ever, except a little pain and lameness, both of which I hope to wash off with a hair of the same dog this evening.
“I wish the rain had not reached us on this side Lincoln; but we have it so continual that we have scarce one bank left, and I cannot possibly have one quarter of oats in all the levels; but, thanks be to God, the fields of barley and rye are good. We can neither go afoot nor on horseback to Epworth, but only by boat as far as Scawsit Bridge, and then walk over the common, though I hope it will soon be better. I would gladly send horses, but don’t think I have now any that would perform the journey; for—1. My filly has scarcely recovered from the last, and I question if she ever will. However, I have turned her up to the waggon, and very seldom ride her. 2. Mettle is almost blind. 3. Your favourite two-eyed nag they have taken to swing in the back, and he is never like to be good for riding any more. 4. And Bounce and your mother’s nag, you know. Therefore, if you can get a pretty strong horse, not over fine, nor old, nor fat, I think it would improve, especially in summer, and be worth your while. I would send as far as Nottingham to meet you, but would have your studies as little intermitted as possible, and hope I shall do a month or two longer, as I am sure I ought to do all I can both for God’s family and my own; and when I find it sinks me, or perhaps a little before, I will certainly send you word, with about a fortnight’s notice; and in the meantime send you my blessing, as being your loving father,
“Samuel Wesley.”290
“P.S.—Dear Charles, were I you, it should go hard but I’d get one of the Blenheim prizes. Thomas calls. Good night to you.”
Nine days after, Mr Wesley wrote again to his two sons at Oxford. The Rev. Elijah Hoole, D.D., has kindly favoured me with a copy of the letter, which has never been published until now:—
“Wroot, July 5, 1727.
“Dear Children,—The reason why I was willing to delay my son John’s coming was his pupil; but that is over. Another reason was that I knew he could not get between Wroot and Epworth without hazarding his health or life; whereas my hide is tough, and I think no carrion can kill me. I walked sixteen miles yesterday, and this morning, I thank God, I was not a penny worse. The occasion of this booted walk was to hire a room for myself at Epworth, which I think I have now achieved.”
(After this follows his proposal that Charles should come to Lincolnshire by the carrier. He then proceeds:—)
“You will find your mother much altered. I believe what will kill a cat has almost killed her. I have observed of late little convulsions in her very frequently, which I don’t like.
“God bless and guide, and send you both a speedy and happy meeting with, your loving father,
Samuel Wesley.”
The next two letters were written on the same day, within a fortnight after the former one. The first refers to Mrs Wesley’s illness:—
“Wroot, July 18, 1727.
“Dear Son John,—We received last post your compliments of condolence and congratulation to your mother on the supposition of her near approaching demise; to which your sister Patty will by no means subscribe, for she says she is not so good a philosopher as you are, and that she cannot spare her mother yet, if it please God, without great inconvenience.
“And indeed, though she has now and then some very sick fits, yet I hope the sight of you will revive her. However, when you come you will see a new face of things, my family being now pretty well colonised, and all perfect harmony; much happier, in no small straits, than perhaps we ever were before in our greatest affluence; and you will find a servant that will make us rich, if God gives us anything to work upon. I know not but that it may be this prospect, together with my easiness in my family which keeps my spirits from sinking, though they tell me I have lost some of my tallow between Wroot and Epworth; but that I don’t value, as long as I have strength left to perform my office.
“If Charles can get to London, I believe Hardsley, at the Red Lion, Aldersgate Street, might procure him a horse as reasonably as any to ride along with you to Lincoln. He will also direct him where to leave it there for the carrier to return. This will be the cheapest and the safest way; and I will warrant you will find means to bring Charles up again. Your own best way, as in my last, will be to buy a horse for yourself for the reasons I then told you. I am weary, but your loving father,
“Samuel Wesley.”291
“Wroot, July 18, 1727.
“Dear Charles,—I told you the Chaldee would be easy (Scaliger says the Ethiopic is but a dialect of it,) so will the Syriac, and even the Arabic, as soon as you can crack it, and I believe pleasanter as well as richer than all the rest. And I doubt not but he that is master of the Hebrew may soon conquer all the others, which will both receive it and give light to each other, especially, (as I have heard,) the Arabic, whereof I question whether it be ever exhaustible, and which is yet spoken and writ from the hills of Grenada to the uttermost easterly bounds of the world. I have a sample of it for you here, if you are not got so far, in a specimen of the Arabic Testament, and have picked out a pretty many words in Job, which the commentators say are of one of those three languages, wherein your assistance will do me a great pleasure. If you can, get the Oxford edition of Tacitus’s Annals, transcribing the passage in the sixth book concerning the Phœnix, and the annotations upon it, and be so kind as to bring them with you.
“I have writ, on the other side, to your brother my thoughts of the best way of your coming; and the sooner you come the better; but you will send word by post the day we must send for you to Lincoln. I heartily wish I could as well send you both a viaticum as I do my best blessings.—From your affectionate father,
“Samuel Wesley.”292
Eight days after, Mr Wesley wrote to his son, John, stating his intention to meet him at Lincoln. The letter is now for the first time published, the copy being kindly furnished by Dr Hoole:—
“July 26, 1727.
“Son John,—I shall be at Lincoln, (D.V.,) on the —— inst., and shall stay till Friday morning. If you can get thither by Wednesday or Thursday night, I shall be glad of your company home. And not long after, I hope to send Charles a totable reason for following. Whenever you come, you will be fully welcome to your loving father,
Samuel Wesley.”
John Wesley came to Epworth and Wroot accordingly. Here he continued to act as his father’s curate till July 1728, when he returned to Oxford, with a view to obtain priest’s orders. Two months afterwards, on September 22, he was ordained priest by Dr Potter, who had ordained him deacon in 1725. He immediately returned to the assistance of his father in Lincolnshire, where, excepting a short interval, he continued until November 22, 1729, when, at the request of his faithful friend, Dr Morley, the rector of his college, he returned to Oxford to fulfil the office of moderator. Meanwhile, Charles Wesley was pursuing his studies at Christ Church College, and, though only twenty-two years old, had begun to take pupils. The following letters were written during this period. For the first we are indebted to the kindness of Dr Hoole. Hitherto it has been unpublished:—
“Epworth, Sept. 5, 1728.
“Dear Son,—Your mother had yours yesterday, as I suppose before this you have had hers and mine, with the certificate. Yours brought the good news of Charles’s recovery, which will supersede his country journey, and help him to regain the time he has lost in his studies.
“M—— miraculously gets money even in Wroot, and has given the first fruits of her earning to her mother, lending her money, and presenting her with a new cloak of her own buying and making, for which God will bless her. When we get to Epworth, she will grow monstrously rich, for she will have more work than she can do, and the people are monstrously civil.
“God has given me two fair escapes for life within these few weeks. The first when my old nag fell with me, trailed me by my foot in the stirrups about six yards, (when I was alone, all but God and my good angel,) trod on my other foot, yet never hurt me.
“The other escape was much greater. On Monday week, at Burringham Ferry, we were driven down with a fierce stream and wind, and fell foul with our broadside against a keel. The second shock threw two of our horses overboard, and filled the boat with water. I was just preparing to swim for life, when John Whitelamb’s long legs and arms swarmed up into the keel, and lugged me in after him. My mare was swimming a quarter of an hour, but at last we all got safe to land. Help to praise Him who saves both man and beast.
“I write with pain, therefore nothing else but love and blessing from, your affectionate father, Samuel Wesley.”
“Dick’s just Dick still; but I hope Sukey is not Sukey.”
“Epworth, Jan. 29, 1730.
“Dear Charles,—I had your last with your brother’s, and you may easily guess whether I were not pleased with it, both on your account and my own. You have a double advantage by your pupils, which will soon bring you more if you will improve it, as I firmly hope you will, in taking the utmost care to form their minds to piety as well as learning. As for yourself, between logic, grammar, and mathematics, be idle293 if you can; and I give my blessing to the bishop for having tied you a little faster, by obliging you to rub up your Arabic. A fixed and constant method will make all both easy and delightful to you. But for all that you must find time every day for walking, which you know you may do with advantage to your pupils; and a little more robust exercise, now and then, will do you no harm.
“You are now launched fairly, Charles; hold up your head, and swim like a man; and when you cuff the wave beneath you, say to it, much as another hero did—
‘Carolum vehis, et Caroli fortunam.’
But always keep your eye above the pole-star. And so God send you a good voyage through the troublesome sea of life! which is the hearty prayer of, your loving father,
“Samuel Wesley.”294
Immediately after John Wesley’s return to Oxford, in Nov. 1729, he and his brother Charles and two more students began to meet together, three or four evenings every week, for the purpose of reading the classics. One of the students was Mr Morgan, who, during the summer following, called at Oxford Gaol, to see a man condemned for the murder of his wife. He urged the two Wesleys to join him in his visits to the prison and to the poor, and, at last, on the 24th of August 1730, they yielded; but, fearful that they might be doing wrong, before they fully committed themselves to this work of visiting, they wrote asking the advice of their venerable father. Part of his answer, dated September 21, 1730, was as follows:—
“And now, as to your own designs and employments, what can I say less of them than valde probo: and that I have the highest reason to bless God that He has given me two sons together at Oxford, to whom He has given grace and courage to turn the war against the world and the devil, which is the best way to conquer them. They have but one more enemy to combat with, the flesh; which, if they take care to subdue, by fasting and prayer, there will be no more for them to do but to proceed steadily in the same course, and expect the crown which fadeth not away. You have reason to bless God, as I do, that you have so fast a friend as Mr M.,295 who, I see, in the most difficult service, is ready to break the ice for you. You do not know of how much good that poor wretch who killed his wife has been the providential occasion. I think I must adopt Mr M. to be my son, together with you and your brother Charles; and when I have such a ternion to prosecute that war, wherein I am now miles emeritus, I shall not be afraid when they speak with their enemies in the gate.
“I am afraid lest the main objection you make against going on in the business with the prisoners, may secretly proceed from flesh and blood. Go on, then, in God’s name, in the path to which your Saviour has directed you, and that track wherein your father has gone before you! For when I was an undergraduate at Oxford, I visited those in the castle there, and reflect on it with great satisfaction to this day. Walk as prudently as you can, though not fearfully, and my heart and prayers are with you.
“Your first regular step is, to consult with him (if any such there be) who has a jurisdiction over the prisoners; and the next is, to obtain the direction and approbation of your bishop. This is Monday morning, at which time I shall never forget you. If it be possible, I should be glad to see you all three here in the fine end of summer. But if I cannot have that satisfaction, I am sure I can reach you every day, though you were in the Indies. Accordingly, to Him who is everywhere I now heartily commit you, as being your most affectionate and joyful father,
“Samuel Wesley.”
Samuel Wesley thus gave an impulse to the first Methodist movement. In pursuance of his directions, his son John obtained the consent of the Bishop of Oxford to visit the prisoners, and to preach to them once a month. These proceedings were soon known in the university, and John Wesley and his friends became a common topic of collegiate mirth, and were jeeringly designated “The Holy Club.” John again consulted his father, and was answered as follows:—
“December 1, 1730.
“This day I received yours; and this evening, in the course of our reading, I thought I found an answer that would be more proper than any I myself could dictate. ‘Great is my glorying of you: I am filled with comfort, I am exceeding joyful.’ (2 Cor. vii. 4.) What would you be? Would you be angels? I question whether a mortal can arrive to a greater degree of perfection than steadily to do good, and for that very reason patiently and meekly to suffer evil. For my part, on the present view of your actions and designs, my daily prayers are that God would keep you humble; and then, I am sure that if you continue ‘to suffer for righteousness’ sake,’ though it be but in a lower degree, ‘the Spirit of glory and of God’ shall, in some good measure, ‘rest upon you.’ Be never weary of well-doing; never look back; for you know the prize and the crown are before you; though I can scarce think so meanly of you, as that you would be discouraged with ‘the crackling of thorns under a pot.’ Be not high-minded, but fear. Preserve an equal temper of mind, under whatever treatment you meet with from a not very just or well-natured world. Bear no more sail than is necessary, but steer steady. The less you value yourselves for these unfashionable duties, the more all good and wise men will value you, if they see your actions are of a piece; or, which is infinitely more, He by whom actions and intentions are weighed will both accept, esteem, and reward you.296
“I hear my son John has the honour of being styled the ‘Father of the Holy Club:’ if it be so, I must be the grandfather of it; and I need not say that I had rather any of my sons should be so dignified and distinguished than to have the title of His Holiness.”297
Who can tell the influence which such a letter had in urging John Wesley and his little band of Methodists to proceed in their new career?
Samuel Wesley, though paralysed in his right hand, was busily engaged in completing his “Dissertation on the Book of Job.” He wished to dedicate his work to Queen Caroline, and wrote to both his sons, Samuel and John, relative to the proper mode of proceeding. John, however, was now stigmatized as the “Father of the Holy Club,” and Samuel had given offence in high quarters by his poetical satires on the cabinet and their friends, and hence, for the present, it was found impracticable to obtain the queen’s permission. The following letter refers to this. It was addressed to Samuel:—
“Epworth, Dec. 17, 1730.
“Dear Son,—Yours of the 11th inst. has made me pretty quiet in reference to my dedication, as indeed my heart was never violently set upon it, or I hope on anything else in this world. I find it stuck where I always boded it would, as in the words of your brother in yours, when you waited on him with my letter and addressed him on the occasion. ‘The short answer I received was this, it was utterly impossible to obtain leave on my account; you had the misfortune to be my father; and I had a long bill against M——n.’
“I guess at the particulars, that you have let your wit too loose against some favourites; which is often more highly resented, and harder to be pardoned, than if you had done it against greater persons. It seems, then, that original sin goes sometimes upwards as well as downwards; and we must suffer for our offspring. Though, notwithstanding this disappointment, I shall never think it ‘a misfortune to have been your father.’ I am sensible it would avail little for me to plead, in proof of my loyalty, the having written and printed the first thing that appeared in defence of the government after the accession of King William and Queen Mary to the crown, (which was an answer to a speech without doors;) and that I wrote a great many little pieces more, both in prose and verse, with the same view; and that I ever had the most tender affection and the deepest veneration for my sovereign and the royal family; on which account (it is no secret to you, though it is to most others,) I have undergone the most sensible pains and inconveniences of my whole life, and that for a great many years together; and yet have still, I thank God, retained my integrity firm and immovable, till I have conquered at the last.
“I must confess, I had the pardonable vanity (when I had dedicated two books before to two of our English queens, Queen Mary and Queen Anne) to desire to inscribe a third, which has cost me ten times as much labour as all the rest, to her gracious Majesty Queen Caroline, who, I have heard, is an encourager of learning. And this work, I am sure, needs a royal encouragement, whether or no it may deserve it. Neither would I yet despair of it, had I any friend who would fairly represent that and me to her Majesty. Be that as it pleaseth Him in whose hands are the hearts of all the princes upon earth; and who turneth them whithersoever He pleases.
“If we have not subscriptions enough for the cuts, as proposed, we must be content to lower our sails again, and to have only the maps, the picture of Job, which I must have at the beginning, and some few others.
“The family, I thank God, is all well, as is your affectionate father, Samuel Wesley”298
As the following letter, likewise to his son Samuel, refers to the same Dissertations, we insert it here, though a few months out of its chronological order. Samuel Wesley, jun., had recently interred his only son:—
“June 18, 1731.
“Dear Son,—Yes, this is a thunderbolt indeed to your whole family; but especially to me, who am not now likely to see any of my name, in the third generation, (though Job did in the fourth,) to stand before God. However, this is a new demonstration to me that there must be a hereafter. I trust God will support you both under this heavy and unspeakable affliction. But when and how did he die? and where is his epitaph? Though, if sending this now will be too much refricare vulnus, I will stay longer for it.
“And now for your letter of May 27. The sum is,
“1. As to the placing the Dissertations. As you say, the prolegomena are something aguish; though that and all the rest I leave (as often before) to your judgment, for my memory is near gone; neither have I the papers in any order by me.
“2. The ‘Poetica Descriptio Monstri,’ I think, would come in most naturally after all the Dissertations of the Behemoth and Leviathan; but you, having the whole before you, will be the most proper judge.
“3. Do with the ‘De Carmine Pastoritio’ as you please.
“4. ‘Periplus Rubri Maris’ comes with the geography, when Mr Hoole has finished it.
“5. I remember no extracts but that from the ‘Catena,’ which is 616 folio pages; but I think I have got the main of it into thirty quartos, which I finished yesterday, though there is no haste in sending it, for I design it for the appendix.
“As for the ‘Testimonia Arianorum’ περί του Λογου, it happens well that I have a pretty good copy, though not so perfect as that which is lost, and will get Mr Horberry to transcribe it as soon as he returns from Oxford; though I think it will not come in till towards the latter end of the work, as must your collation at the very end, only before the appendix;299 and I shall begin to revise it to-morrow. Blessing on you and yours, from your loving father, Samuel Wesley.”300
Mr Wesley was a strict disciplinarian, not only in his family, but in his parish. According to the canonical law of the Church of England, churchwardens took an oath to bring to justice all who “offended their brethren by adultery, whoredom, incest, drunkenness, swearing, ribaldry, usury, or any other uncleanness or wickedness of life,” (Canon 109.) And when churchwardens violated their oaths by neglecting their duty, it then became imperative that the clergyman of the parish should present to his ordinary, the appointed judge of ecclesiastical causes, all the crimes and persons which he thought needed reformation. (Canon 113.) If the accused person was found guilty of adultery, or incontinency, the punishment usually inflicted was to do a public penance in the parish church, or in the market-place, when the offender, or offenders, stood in a white sheet, bare-legged and bare-headed, and made an open confession of their crime in a prescribed form of words. The judge, however, had authority, after the penance had been enjoined, to permit a commutation of it, by the criminal paying a sum of money for pious uses in satisfaction thereof. These remarks will help the reader to a better understanding of the following letters:—
“Epworth, Dec. 30, 1730.
“Mr Terry,—On account of our old friendship, I beg your advice as to the greatest parochial difficulty I have met with since my residence here.
“I have two couples of sinners at present upon my hands—the first very lean; the latter very fat; and I hope your courts will manage them both very well when they are blended together.
“The lean ones are Benjamin Becket, a widower, and Elizabeth Locker, a widow. Though they had not much less than half-a-score of children between them before, yet he has ventured to increase the number by getting a chopping bastard on her. She had weekly relief from the town; and he was prevented doing the same by being made sexton last year. They continue both unmarried. What aggravates his crime is, that, some years since, he did public penance here for ante-matrimonial fornication with his first wife. He and the widow are now desirous to do penance for this crime; and the fellow would undergo even a third penance by marrying her. I am desirous that their punishment should be as exemplary as their crime; and that both of them may perform their penance at three churches of the Isle;—my own at Epworth, at Haxey, and at Belton. I will see the court charges defrayed, which I hope will be as moderate as possible, because most of it is like to come out of my own pocket, and because the second couple will make amends.
“Their names are, Mr Aaron Man, one of the most substantial yeomen in my parish, reckoned worth about £100 a-year; a married man, with five grown-up children. He has long haunted a widow here of a character scarce better than his own. Her name is Sarah Brumby, with whom he has been seen both day and night, till at last she proved with child, and told several persons, who are ready to witness it, that he was the father of it. Notwithstanding this, he is so impudent and cunning that nobody doubts but he will do all he can to baffle justice, and even prevail upon Brumby to retract her confession, and lay it upon some other. He threatens any one who says he is the father, to put him into the spiritual court, or bring an action against him.
“Your advice, what steps to take in order to bring these criminals to public justice, would be very obliging and serviceable to me, and to the best of my parish. Our opinion is, that, being guarded with his impenetrable brass, he will obstinately deny the fact; and, when he is presented, will refuse public penance. Perhaps he might be willing to commute, though we are inclined to believe that he would stand an excommunication, which we know he does not value, though a capias carried to an outlawry, we believe, would make him bend.
“I would not willingly be baffled in this matter, because I look upon the whole exercise of discipline, in my parish, in a great measure to depend upon this event.—I am, my most worthy friend, your entire friend and servant, Samuel Wesley.”
The next letter, written six weeks afterwards, relates the steps which Mr Wesley took in this curious business. It was addressed “To the Worshipful Mr Chancellor Newell, at Lincoln:”—
“Epworth, Feb. 15, 1731.
“Sir,—I received yours, together with the order of penance for Benjamin Becket and Elizabeth (then) Locker; and have got them both to perform it at Epworth and Haxey, on the days appointed; but the woman, being weakly, was so disordered by standing with her naked feet, that the women, and even a midwife, assured me that she would hazard her life if she went to perform it the third time at Belton in the same manner.
“I could therefore do no more than send the man thither at the day appointed, who performed it the third time, according to order, as is certified by myself, Mr Hoole, Mr Morrice, and our churchwardens, on the instrument you sent us; which is ready to be returned at the visitation, or when you please. If you don’t think it proper to remit the woman’s doing penance the third time, which I entreat that you would, I shall, upon your order in a letter, oblige her to perform it to the full extent. She appeared the modestest w—— that I have met with on such an occasion, and is now an honest married wife, for I married them last Friday.
“As soon as this case was over, I fell at my second couple, having prepared the way by my addresses to a justice of the peace; and by disposing some of the best of my parishioners to join with me, on account of the charge that this illegitimate child of Sarah Brumby might bring upon the parish.”
Mr Wesley then proceeds to narrate the proceedings which took place before the magistrate. Sarah Brumby confessed that her child was illegitimate, but refused to tell who was its father. A witness, “one Mary Jackson, who had been guilty of fornication herself, and had then a bastard of about six feet high, had told Wesley that she had heard Brumby say that Aaron Man was the father, but when brought before the magistrate to give evidence, she denied all that she had said. Two other witnesses, however, Elizabeth Piers, and Elizabeth Dawson, the midwife, declared that they had heard Brumby frequently declare that the father of the child was Aaron Man.” Mr Wesley then concludes his letter thus:—
“This is the evidence we have got. If we may ground a presentment on these proofs, in the taking which we have exactly followed the direction you were so kind to prescribe us, I believe I shall be able to induce my churchwardens to present both Aaron Man and Sarah Brumby, as soon as you will be so good as to teach us how we may proceed,—I am, honoured sir, your very obliged humble servant, Samuel Wesley.”
Mr Wesley pursued this strange business during the whole of the year 1731. It appears that the churchwardens, William Watkins and Richard Samson, had neglected to present Aaron Man and Sarah Brumby for prosecution; and that Mr Chancellor Newell had threatened to proceed against them for such neglect of duty. Meanwhile, another case had sprung up. Some years before, Eliza Hurst had been delivered of an illegitimate child, but refused to name the father. The Epworth churchwarden, for the time being, presented her, but no prosecution followed. Mr Wesley often wrote to the officials respecting her, but without effect. At length the woman came to him, and earnestly desired she might perform penance for her offence, whenever the court should order it. Wesley informed the Chancellor of this, and here the matter stuck. Since then, Hurst had cohabited with Thomas Thew, and was likely to have another child. She had wished to marry Thew, but Mr Wesley refused to perform the ceremony, until she had done penance for her former fault. It so happened, however, that there was “a strolling villain in the parish, called John England, and he coupled them together in a hemp-kiln, on Saturday, January 22, 1732, they having confessed to him their fornication, and he having absolved them for it.”
In consequence of all this, Wesley found himself in an unpleasant position, and wrote to Chancellor Newell a complaining letter, dated “February 2, 1732,” and which he concluded by subscribing himself, “Your much aggrieved friend and servant, Samuel Wesley.”
On the day following, he wrote to the Bishop of Lincoln:—
“Epworth, Feb. 3, 1732.
“My Lord,—I received the high honour and favour of your lordship’s, dated Bugden, Christmas-eve. I ever thought it my duty, since I have been the minister of any parish, to present those persons who were obnoxious in it, if the churchwardens neglected it, unless where the criminal was so sturdy, and so wealthy, as that I was morally certain I could not do it, without my own great inconvenience or ruin, in which cases God does not require it of me.”
He then refers to the case of Aaron and Brumby, and his unfaithful churchwardens, and asks—
“What must I do with the two churchwardens, if they offer themselves to receive the sacrament? Ought I not to repel them from it, being satisfied in my own mind that they are notoriously perjured, and have thereby given great scandal to the congregation? One of them, Richard Samson, offered himself at the communion at Christmas, but I sent my clerk to desire him privately to withdraw, because I had written to your lordship about his case, and had not received your directions.
“Begging your lordship’s blessing, and a line of answer, I remain, your lordship’s ever devoted and most humble servant,
“Samuel Wesley.”301
These are curious letters, and are inserted here, not as a vindication of public penances, but simply to show Samuel Wesley’s stern fidelity. They furnish a sketch of ecclesiastical discipline in the Church of England, at the time that Samuel Wesley’s sons, John and Charles, were beginning their Methodist career at Oxford University. John Wesley tried to enforce the same sort of church discipline in Georgia; and all clergymen are bound, by their engagements, to do as Wesley did, that is, act according to the canons of their Church. Canon-law might need revision; no doubt it did; but, because Samuel Wesley had bound himself to observe these ecclesiastical decrees, he was far too conscientious a man to treat them as though they did not exist. His stern, perhaps unwise, fidelity, often brought him into trouble; but, in the midst of all, his “rejoicing was this, the testimony of his conscience, that in simplicity and godly sincerity, he had his conversation in the world.”
During the year 1731, Samuel Wesley met with a most serious accident. Mrs Wesley gives a graphic account of it in the following letter to her son John:—302
“July 12, 1731.
“Dear Jacky,—The particulars of your father’s fall are as follows:—On Friday, June 4th, I, your sister Martha, and our maid, were going in our waggon to see the ground we hire of Mrs Knight, at Low Millwood. He sat in a chair at one end of the waggon, I in another at the other end, Matty between us, and the maid behind me. Just before we reached the close, going down a small hill, the horses took into a gallop; and out flew your father and his chair. The maid seeing the horses run, hung all her weight on my chair, and kept me from keeping him company. She cried out to William to stop the horses, and that her master was killed. The fellow leaped out of the seat, and stayed the horses, then ran to Mr Wesley, but, ere he got to him, two neighbours, who were providentially met together, raised his head, upon which he had pitched, and held him backward, by which means he began to respire; for it is certain, by the blackness in his face, that he had never drawn breath from the time of his fall till they helped him up. By this time, I was got to him, asked him how he did, and persuaded him to drink a little ale, for we had brought a bottle with us. He looked prodigiously wild, but began to speak, and told me he ailed nothing. I informed him of his fall. He said he ‘knew nothing of any fall. He was as well as ever he was in his life.’ We bound up his head, which was very much bruised, and helped him into the waggon again, and set him at the bottom of it, while I supported his head between my hands, and the man led the horses softly home. I sent presently for Mr Harper, who took a good quantity of blood from him; and then he began to feel pain in several parts, particularly in his side and shoulder. He had a very ill night, but, on Saturday morning, Mr Harper came again to him, dressed his head, and gave him something which much abated the pain in his side. We repeated the dose at bed-time, and, on Sunday, he preached twice, and gave the sacrament, which was too much for him to do; but nobody could dissuade him from it. On Monday he was ill, and slept almost all day. On Tuesday the gout came; but, with two or three nights taking Bateman, it went off again, and he has since been better than could be expected. We thought at first the waggon had gone over him; but it only went over his gown sleeve, and the nails took a little skin off his knuckles, but did him no further hurt.”
Mr Wesley was now in his sixty-ninth year, and the effects of such an accident, of course, were serious and lasting. He had held the Epworth living for about five-and-thirty years; but being now, to a great extent, disabled, he proposed to resign it, if his son Samuel could use sufficient influence to be appointed his successor. The Wroot Rectory he had held not longer than about seven years, and, as John Whitelamb had recently become his curate, and had married his daughter Mary, he applied to the Lord Chancellor to have that living transferred to him. The following letters refer to these intended resignations, and to other matters:—
“Feb. 28, 1733.
“Dear Son Samuel,—For several reasons, I have earnestly desired, especially in and since my last sickness, that you might succeed me in Epworth, in order to which I am willing and determined to resign the living, provided you could make an interest to have it in my room.
“My first and best reason for it is, because I am persuaded you would serve God and his people here better than I have done. Though, thanks be to God, after near forty years labour among them, they grow better, I having had above one hundred at my last sacrament, whereas I have had less than twenty formerly.
“My second reason relates to yourself. You have been a father to your brothers and sisters, especially to the former, who have cost you great sums in their education, both before and since they went to the University. Neither have you stopped here, but have showed your pity to your mother and me in a very liberal manner, wherein your wife joined with you, when you did not overmuch abound yourselves, and have even done noble charities to my children’s children. Now, what should I be if I did not endeavour to make you easy to the utmost of my power, especially when I know that neither of you have your health in London?
“My third reason is from honest interest; I mean, that of our family. You know our circumstances. As for your aged and infirm mother, as soon as I drop, she must turn out, unless you succeed me; which, if you do, and she survives me, I know you will immediately take her then to your own house, or rather continue her there, where your wife and you will nourish her, till we meet again in heaven, and you will be a guide and stay to the rest of the family.
“There are a few things more which may seem to be tolerable reasons to me for desiring you to be my successor. I have been at very great and uncommon expense on this living. I have rebuilt from the ground the parsonage barn and dovecote; leaded, and planked, and roofed, a great part of my chancel; rebuilt the parsonage house twice when it had been burnt, the first time one wing, the second time down to the ground, wherein I lost all my books and MSS., a considerable sum of money, all our linen, wearing apparel, and household stuff, except a little old iron, my wife and I being scorched with the flames, and all of us very narrowly escaping with life. This, by God’s help, I built again, digging up the old foundations, and laying new ones. It cost me above £400, little or nothing of the old materials being left; besides the cost of new furniture from top to bottom, for we had now very little more than what Adam and Eve had when they first set up housekeeping. I then planted the two fronts of my house with wall fruit the second time, as I had done the front of the previous house, for the former all perished by the fire. I have set mulberries in my garden, which bear plentifully, as also cherries, pears, &c., and, in the adjoining croft, walnuts, and am planting more every day. And this I solemnly declare, not with any manner of view that any of mine should enjoy any fruit of my labour, when I have so long outlived all my friends; but my prospect was for some unknown person, that I might do what became me, and leave the living better than I found it.
“And yet, I might own, I could not help wishing, that all my care and charge might not be utterly lost to my family, but that some of them might be the better for it, though I despaired of it, till, some time since, the best of my parishioners pressed me earnestly to try if I could do anything in it.
“All I can do is to resign it to you, which I am ready frankly and gladly to do, scorning to make any conditions, for I know you better.
“I commend this affair, and you and yours, to God, as becomes your affectionate father, Samuel Wesley.”303
Samuel Wesley, jun., declined his father’s offer; and, as we shall soon see, the same proposal was afterwards made to John. Meanwhile, the venerable rector still kept plodding at his work on the Book of Job. To the Rev. Mr Piggot, Vicar of Doncaster, he wrote respecting this, and respecting his late serious accident, as follows:—
“Epworth, Feb. 22, 1733.
“Dear Sir,—Many thanks for your civil letter. I cannot wonder that any should think long of Job’s coming out, though it is common in books of this nature, especially when the author is absent from the press, and there are so many cuts and maps in it, as must be in mine. However, I owe it to my subscribers, and indeed to myself, to give some farther account of this matter.
“Now, if Job’s friends have need of patience, at seeing him lie so long on the dunghill, or, which is much the same, the printing-house, how much more has Job himself need of it, who is sensible his reputation suffers more and more by the delay of it; though, if he himself had died, as he was lately in a very fair way to it, having been as good as given over by three physicians, there would have been no manner of doubt to any one who knows the character of my son at Westminster, that every subscriber would have had his book.
“But I cannot be satisfied with this though I have lost the use of one hand in the service; yet, I thank God, non deficit altera, and I begin to put it to school this day to learn to write, in order to help its lame brother. And when it can write legibly, I design, if it please God, to go to London myself this summer, to push on the editing, by helping to correct the press both in text and maps, and to frame the indexes, more than which I cannot do.
“Very many have forgot their large promises to assist me in it, so that I hardly expect to receive £100 clear for all my ten years’ pains and labours; but if you will be so kind as to communicate this to any of my subscribers, who may fall in your way, it may perhaps give some satisfaction to them, while it will be but a piece of justice to your most obliged friend and brother,
“Samuel Wesley.”304
Mr Wesley was naturally a humane man, and was always on the alert where benevolence was needed. The following letter is illustrative of this trait in his character:—
“Epworth, March 27, 1733.
“Mr Porter,—Dorothy Whitehead, widow, lately died here, leaving four small children, and all in her house not sufficient to bury her, as you will see by the oath of her executor added to the will; for a will she would have to dispose of a few roods of land, lest her children should fall out about it. The bearer, Simon Thew, who is her brother, consented to be her executor, that he might take care of her children. I gave him the oath, as you will see, as strictly as I could, and am satisfied it is all exactly true. They were so poor that I forgave them what was due for it, and so did even my clerk for the burial. If there be any little matter due for the probate of the will, I entreat and believe you will be as low as possible; wherein you know your charity will be acceptable to God, and will much oblige, your ready friend,
“Samuel Wesley.”305
As intimated in a previous letter, Mr Wesley went to London towards the end of the year 1733. Whilst there, he addressed the following letter “to the Lord Chancellor, for John Whitelamb, now curate of Epworth”:—
“Westminster, Jan. 14, 1734.
“My Lord,—The small rectory of Wroot, in the diocese and county of Lincoln, adjoining to the Isle of Axholme, is in the gift of the Lord Chancellor, and more than seven years since was conferred on Samuel Wesley, rector of Epworth. It lies in our low levels, and is often overflowed. During the four or five years that I have had it, the people have lost the fruits of the earth to that degree that it has hardly brought me in £50 per annum, omnibus annis; and some years not enough to pay my curate there his salary of £30 a-year. This living, by your lordship’s permission and favour, I would gladly resign to one Mr John Whitelamb, born in the neighbourhood of Wroot, where his father and grandfather lived, when I took him from among the scholars of a charity school, (founded by one Mr Travers, an attorney,) brought him to my house, and educated him there, where he was my amanuensis for four years, in transcribing my ‘Dissertations on the Book of Job,’ now well advanced in the press; and was employed in drawing my maps and figures for it, as well as we could by the light of nature. After this, I sent him to Oxford to my son, John Wesley, Fellow of Lincoln College, under whom he made such proficiency, that he was, the last summer, admitted by the Bishop of Oxford into deacon’s orders, and placed my curate in Epworth, while I came up to town to expedite the printing of my book.
“Since I was here, I gave consent to his marrying one of my seven daughters, and they are married accordingly; and though I can spare little more with her, yet I would gladly give them a little glebe land at Wroot, where I am sure they will not want springs of water. But they love the place, though I can get nobody else to reside on it.
“If I do not flatter myself, he is indeed a valuable person, of uncommon brightness, learning, piety, and indefatigable industry, always loyal to the king, zealous for the Church, and friendly to our Dissenting brethren; and for the truth of this character I will be answerable to God and man.
“If, therefore, your lordship will grant me the favour to let me resign the living unto him, and please to confer it on him, I shall always remain, your lordship’s most bounden, most grateful, and most obedient servant,
“Samuel Wesley.”306
In the Gentleman’s Magazine for February 1734, p. 108, the following announcement is made, in the list of ecclesiastical preferments:—“Mr Whitelamb to the rectory of Wroot, Lincolnshire.”
Mr Wesley’s two sons, John and Charles, were still at Oxford, and, with the other members of “the Holy Club,” were receiving the sacrament once a week, were practising the fasts of the English Church, visiting prisoners in the gaol, and the destitute in the city, and were abridging themselves of all the superfluities, and of many of the conveniences of life, for the purpose of relieving the distress with which they met. In December 1731, Samuel Wesley visited his two sons at Oxford, to see for himself the good they were doing, and to obtain direct information respecting their temper and spirit. In a letter to his wife, he says he “was well paid both for his expense and labour by their shining piety.” During the course of the ensuing summer, in 1732, John Wesley made two visits to Epworth; and two others in January and in June 1733. His father’s health had been seriously affected ever since his sad accident in June 1731; and as Samuel Wesley, jun., had declined to become his father’s successor at Epworth, the same proposal was now made to John,307 and a long correspondence followed, which lasted till the end of 1734.308 In a long letter to his father, written at this period, John Wesley assigns his reasons for declining the proposal. At Oxford he always had at hand half a dozen friends like-minded with himself; he was free from idle and trifling visitors, except once a month when he invited some of the students to breakfast with him; he was free from cares, and had the opportunity of attending public prayer twice a day; he could be holier and usefuller at Oxford than anywhere else; and the care of two thousand souls at Epworth was a greater weight than he had ability to bear.
His father replied to many of these objections in the following letter:—
“Nov. 20, 1734.
“Dear Son,—Your only argument is this: ‘The question is not whether I could do more good to others there or here, but whether I could do more good to myself; seeing wherever I can be most holy myself, there I can most promote holiness in others. But I can improve myself more at Oxford than at any other place.’
“To this I answer—
“1. It is not dear self but the glory of God, and the different degrees of promoting it, which should be our main consideration in the choice of any course of life.
“2. Supposing you could be more holy yourself at Oxford, how does it follow that you could more promote holiness in others there than elsewhere? Have you found many instances of it, after so many years hard pains and labour? Further, I dare say, you are more modest and just than to say, there are no holier men than you at Oxford; and yet it is possible they may not have promoted holiness more than you have done; as I doubt not but you might have done it much more, had you taken the right method. For there is a particular turn of mind for these matters—great prudence as well as great fervour.
“3. I cannot allow austerity or fasting, considered by themselves, to be proper acts of holiness, nor am I for a solitary life. God made us for a social life; we are not to bury our talents; we are to let our light shine before men, and that not barely through the chinks of a bushel, for fear the wind should blow it out. The design of lighting it was, that it might give light to all that went into the house of God. And to this academical studies are only preparatory.
4. You are sensible what figures those make who stay in the university till they are superannuated. I cannot think drowsiness promotes holiness. How commonly do they drone away life, either in a college or in a country parsonage, where they can only give God the snuffs of them, having nothing of life or vigour left to make them useful in the world.
“5. We are not to fix our eye on one single point of duty, but to take in the complicated view of all the circumstances in every state of life that offers. Thus in the case before us, put all circumstances together. If you are not indifferent whether the labours of an aged father, for above forty years in God’s vineyard, be lost, and the fences of it trodden down and destroyed; if you consider that Mr M—— must in all probability succeed me if you do not, and that the prospect of that mighty Nimrod’s coming hither shocks my soul, and is in a fair way of bringing down my gray hairs with sorrow to the grave; if you have any care for our family, which must be dismally shattered as soon as I am dropt; if you reflect on the dear love and longing which this poor people have for you, you may perhaps alter your mind, and bend your will to His, who has promised, if in all our ways we acknowledge Him, He will direct our paths.”309
A large portion of the correspondence on this momentous business was carried on during Samuel Wesley’s sojourn in London, at the commencement of the year 1734. On the 30th of March, John Brown set out from Epworth to London, to accompany the venerable rector to his home.310 On his arrival, he wrote as follows to Dr Reynolds, Bishop of Lincoln:—
“Epworth, May 2, 1734.
“My Lord,—I thank God I got well home, and found all well here. My son-in-law, Mr Whitelamb, is gone with his wife to reside at Wroot, and takes true pains among the people. He designs to be inducted immediately after visitation.
“At my return to Epworth, looking a little among my people, I found there were two strangers come hither, both of which 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.”311
Mr Wesley was always brimful of benevolence, and, as soon as he was at home again, he showed it. Hence the following characteristic letter:—
“Epworth, May 14, 1734.
“Mr Stephenson,—As soon as I heard from John Brown that your kinswoman Stephenson had writ to you for her son Timothy, and that you had desired her to send for him up, I spoke to several of my best parishioners, Mr John Maw, Mr Barnard, and others, that we might be as kind to him as we have been to others, who have been put apprentices at the public charge, which could be done but meanly at £5, though his mother should be able to provide a few shoes and stockings besides for him. I went twice, on your account and his, to a public meeting at the church, before I had seen the mother or the boy, but the highest sum we could bring our people to, in order to make a man of him, was no more than £3, which I knew was far short of the requisite amount. On Sunday last I went and talked to Mr John Maw and Mr Barnard, and we resolved to make up the rest by a private contribution among ourselves. The next day, I sent for the lad and his mother to my house, and accordingly they came. I found he was a lad of spirit, and that he would please you. I encouraged them both, and told his mother that she might depend on £5, besides what she herself could do to set him out. This was all that I could do for him, and if herein I have been over-officious I hope you will, at least, excuse it from your obliged friend, Samuel Wesley.”312
At this period, General Oglethorpe had become a man of mark in England. After finishing his education at Corpus Christi College, Oxford, he was appointed secretary and aide-de-camp to Prince Eugene, under whom he acted at the famous siege of Belgrade. While on the Continent, a prince of Wirtemberg, with whom he was at table, took up a glass of wine, and threw a portion of its contents into his face. “That’s a good joke, my prince,” said young Oglethorpe, smiling, “but we do it much better in England;” and so saying he dashed a glass full of wine at his Serene Highness in return. Returning to England about 1722, Oglethorpe became member of the House of Commons for Haslemere, which he represented in five successive parliaments, from 1722 to 1754. In 1729, having found a friend suffering most barbarous treatment in the Fleet Prison, and taking the precedence of John Howard, he called the attention of the House of Commons to the fact, and was appointed chairman of a committee to examine into the state of prisons, where cruelties of the most revolting description had long been practised. About the same period, some charitable person bequeathed to Oglethorpe and others a large some of money in trust, to procure the discharge of poor debtors; and Oglethorpe, soon afterwards, obtained a grant of £10,000 from government, and also a very liberal public subscription, to enable the liberated insolvents to emigrate to Georgia. He proceeded to that country at the head of such a body of settlers about the year 1733, and returned to England in 1734, bringing with him some Indian chiefs, who were presented to the king.
Immediately after his arrival,313 Mr Wesley addressed to him the following letter respecting his “Dissertations on the Book of Job;” and it is possible that this letter was the first of a series of causes, which, in 1735, led John and Charles Wesley to accompany the general to his newly-formed colony:—
“Epworth, July 6, 1734.
“Honoured Sir,—May I be admitted, while such crowds of our nobility and gentry are pouring in their congratulations, to press, with my poor mite of thanks, into the presence of one who so well deserves the title of Universal Benefactor to mankind. It is not only your valuable favours on many occasions to my son, late of Westminster, and to myself, when I was not a little pressed in the world, nor your more extensive and generous charity to the poor prisoners; it is not only this that so much demands my warmest acknowledgments, as your disinterested and immovable attachment to your country, and your raising a new country, or rather a little world of your own, in the midst of almost wild woods and uncultivated deserts, where men may live free and happy, if they are not hindered by their own stupidity and folly, in spite of the unkindness of their brother mortals.
“Neither ought I to forget your singular goodness to my little scholar and parishioner, John Lyndal. Since he went over, I have received some money for him; and it seems necessary that he should make a slip hither into Lincolnshire, if you could spare him for a fortnight or a month, to settle his affairs with his father’s creditors, which I hope he may now nearly do, and then he will have a clear estate left of about £6 a-year, to dispose of as he pleases. I hope he has behaved with such faithfulness and industry, since he has had the honour and happiness of waiting upon you, as not to have forfeited the favour of so good a master.314
“I owe you, sir, beside this, some account of my little affairs since the beginning of your expedition. Notwithstanding my own and my son’s violent illness, which held me half a year, and him above a twelvemonth, I have made a shift to get more than three parts in four of Job315 printed off, and both the printing, paper, and maps hitherto are paid for. My son, John, at Oxford (now his elder brother is gone to Tiverton) takes care of the remainder of the impression in London; and I have an ingenious artist here with me, in my house at Epworth, who is graving and working off the remaining maps and figures for me, so that I hope, if the printer does not hinder me, I shall have the whole ready by next spring, and by God’s leave be in London myself to deliver the books perfect. I print five hundred copies, as in my proposals, whereof I have above three hundred already subscribed for; and among my subscribers, fifteen or sixteen English Bishops, with some of Ireland.
“I have not yet done with my own impertinent nostrums. I thank God I find I creep up hill more than I did formerly, being eased of the weight of four daughters out of seven, as I hope I shall of the fifth in a little longer.
“When Mr Lyndal comes down, I shall trouble you by him with a copy of all the maps and figures which I have yet printed, they costing me no more than the paper since the graving is over.316
“If you will please herewith to accept the tender of my most sincere respect and gratitude, you will thereby confer one further obligation on, honoured sir, your most obedient and most humble servant, Samuel Wesley.”317
The following letter was written to a friend, and shows his anxiety for the spiritual welfare of all with whom he was acquainted:—
“Epworth, near Gainsborough, July 11, 1734.
“Dear Friend,—Though I have not been worthy to hear from you, or to have seen any letter of yours since I saw you last, yet I cannot but retain the same warmth of Christian affection for you which I conceived at our first sight and acquaintance, as I believe you did the like for me and mine. Your friend of Queen’s, whom we call Nathaniel, and who brought us the last good news of your health, is gone to his relations in Yorkshire, but promises to return and meet you here, when you and your friends come down to see us at our fair, in August next. If Charles is short of money, pray tell him he is welcome to twenty shillings here to make him easier in his journey. But I think I can tell you of what will please you more; for last Sunday, at the sacrament, it was darted into my mind that it was a pity you and your company, while you are here, should be deprived of the benefit of weekly sacraments which you enjoy where you are at present; and I therefore resolved, if you desire it, while you are here, to have the communion every Sunday; and, lest some of the parish should grumble at it, the offerings of us who communicate will defray the small expense of it. If there be anything else which you can desire, and which is in my power to grant or procure, you are hereby already assured of it. If I could write anything kinder, my dear friend, I would; and I shall see by your acceptance of it, and compliance with it, whether you believe me, your sincere friend, and half-namesake, Samuel Wesley.”318
The following letter to General Oglethorpe evinces the intense interest he felt in the colony of Georgia, for which his two sons, John and Charles, embarked eleven months afterwards:—
“Epworth, near Gainsborough, Nov. 7, 1734.
“Honoured Sir,—I am at length, I thank God, slowly recovering from a long illness, during which there have been few days or nights but my heart has been working hard for Georgia, and for my townsman, John Lyndal. It is in answer to the favour of yours, and of his last, that I write these to both. I am extremely concerned lest an inundation of ruin should break in upon your colony, and destroy that, as it has almost done some others. But I have some better hopes, because I hear you do not design to plant it with canes, but with some more innocent, and I hope, as profitable produce, any of which, whether mulberries or saffron, I should be glad to hear were begun in Georgia. I confess I cannot expect God’s blessing, even on the greatest industry, without true piety and the fear of God. I had always so dear a love for your colony that if it had been but ten years ago, I would gladly have devoted the remainder of my life and labours to that place, and think I might before this time have conquered the language without which little can be done among the natives, if the Bishop of London would have done me the honour to have sent me thither, as perhaps he then might, but that is now over. However, I can still reach them with my prayers, which I am sure will never be wanting.
“My letter to Mr Lyndal relates to his own particular affairs here in the country; for though his effects are not large, they ought by no means to be neglected, and I have given him the best advice I am able; but if your wisdom should think otherwise, I desire the letter may be sunk, or else go forward to him by the next opportunity.
“With all the thanks I am capable of, I remember your kindness to my son, formerly of Westminster, to myself, and to my parishioner Lyndal; and am, with the truest respect and gratitude, your honour’s most obliged and most humble servant,
“Samuel Wesley.”319
The following is the letter to Mr Lyndal:—
“Epworth, near Gainsborough, Nov. 7, 1734.
Lyndal,—I have not been a little concerned for the unsettledness of your affairs at Wroot. I have somewhat above £10 of yours in my hands, and think the best and the honestest way you could do, would be to pay that money, as far as it will go, towards the interest of what your father had taken up upon his estate while he was living. Mr Epworth has brought me a letter from his mother, wherein she says there was a bond of £10, and a note of £20, as I remember, due to Mr Epworth’s father. She desired you would pay off the £10 with interest, and they would stay for the £20. I told him that could not be done, because there was so little money amongst us all, and therefore I thought the fairest and wisest way was to divide the money I had in my hand, to pay the interest proportionally as far as it would go.
“As for your estate, which is in the tenure of Robert Brumby, I suppose about £5 or £6 a year, I think it would be best for you to fix two or three trustees, and make him yearly accountable to them. If you like it, I will be one of them myself as long as I live; my son, Whitelamb, would be another; and we think we could persuade Mr Romley, the schoolmaster, to be the third, who so well understands the whole matter.
“I find your father owed your uncle, John Barrow, £4, 10s., and Goody Stephenson £5. John Barrow is willing to take it when you can pay him, without interest, and so should Stephenson, too, but only she is poor, and therefore I will give her five shillings on your account, if you think fit. Let me hear from you as soon as you can after the receipt of this.
“And now I have some little inquiries to make of your new country. Whether any of our ministers understand their language, and can preach to them without an interpreter? Whether they speak the same language with those Indians who are near them, of Saltsburg and Carolina; or of those of New England, who, I know, have the Bible translated into their language? Whether your Indians have the Lord’s Prayer in their own language? which, if they have, I desire you would send me a copy in your next. In all which, especially in loving God and your neighbour, you would exceedingly oblige, your sincere friend,
“Samuel Wesley.”320
These two letters to Oglethorpe and Lyndal were written six days after the burial of Mrs Whitelamb, Mr Wesley’s daughter.321 Poor Whitelamb was exceedingly distressed by his sad bereavement, and, in the depth of his grief, wished to go to Georgia. Hence the following letter to Oglethorpe, which was written exactly a month after the former one:—
“Epworth, Dec. 7, 1734.
“Dear Sir,—I cannot express how much I am obliged by your last kind and instructive letter concerning the affairs of Georgia. I could not read it over without sighing, when I again reflected on my own age and infirmities, which made such an expedition utterly impracticable for me. Yet my mind worked hard about it; and it is not impossible but Providence may have directed me to such an expedient as may prove more serviceable to your colony than I should ever have been.
“The thing is thus:—There is a young man, who has been with me a pretty many years, and assisted me in my work on Job; after which I sent him to Oxford, to my son, John Wesley, Fellow of Lincoln College, who took care of his education, where he behaved himself very well, and improved in piety and learning. Having got him into deacon’s orders, I sent for him down, and he was my curate in my absence in London; when I resigned my small living of Wroot to him, and he was instituted and inducted there. I likewise consented to his marrying one of my daughters, there having been a long and intimate friendship between them. But neither he nor I were so happy as to have them live long together; for she died in child-bed of her first child. He was so inconsolable at her loss, that I was afraid he would soon have followed her; to prevent which, I desired his company here at my own house, that he might have some amusement and business, by assisting me in my cure during my illness.
“It was then, sir, I just received the favour of yours, and let him see it for his diversion; more especially, because John Lyndal and he had been fellow-parishioners and school-fellows at Wroot, and had no little kindness one for the other. I made no great reflection on the thing at first; but, soon after, I found he had thought often upon it, was very desirous to go to Georgia himself, and wrote the enclosed letter to me on the subject. As I knew not of any person more proper for such an undertaking, I thought the least I could do was to send the letter to your honour, who would be so very proper a judge of the affair; and, if you approve, I shall not be wanting in my addresses to my Lord Bishop of London, or any other, since I expect to be in London myself at spring, to forward the matter, as far as it will go.
“As for his character, I shall take it upon myself to say, that he is a good scholar, a sound Christian, and a good liver. He has a very happy memory, especially for languages, and a judgment and intelligence not inferior. My eldest son at Tiverton has some knowledge of him, concerning whom I have writ to him since your last to me. My two others, his tutor at Lincoln, and my third of Christ Church, have been long and intimately acquainted with him; and I doubt not but they will give him, at least, as just a character as I have done.
“And here I shall drop the matter, till I have the honour of hearing again from you, and shall either drop it or prosecute it, as appears most proper to your maturer judgment; ever remaining, your honour’s most sincere, and most obliged friend and servant, Samuel Wesley.”322
These are remarkable and important letters, and doubtless served as links, in the chain of cause and effect, which led to the selection of John and Charles Wesley for the mission in Georgia. The missionary spirit was a passion in the Wesley family, when Christian missions to the heathen scarce existed. John Wesley, after being ejected from his church living, in 1662, longed to go as a missionary, first to Surinam, and afterwards to Maryland. Samuel Wesley, his son, when a young man of between thirty and forty years of age, formed a magnificent scheme to go as a missionary to India, China, and Abyssinia; and, in the last year of his life, most feelingly laments that he was not young enough to go to Georgia. His sons, John and Charles, now at Oxford, caught his spirit, and, within twelve months after the date of the last letter, actually went. John Whitelamb, his son-in-law, wished to go; but, for some unknown reason, was kept at home.
As already stated, Oglethorpe went to Georgia in 1733, with a number of released debtors, who were the first settlers in the colony. These were joined by a number of persecuted Protestants, who had been driven from Salzburg, a city of Bavaria, by the archbishop of the place. On October 14, 1735, six months after Samuel Wesley’s death, Oglethorpe re-embarked for Georgia, with five hundred and seventy adventurers, among whom were one hundred and thirty Highlanders, and one hundred and seventy Germans, of whom a considerable number were Moravians.323 The trustees of the colony requested John Wesley and some of his friends to accompany the emigrants. Wesley consulted his widowed mother. Her answer was: “Had I twenty sons, I should rejoice they were all so well employed, though I should never see them more.”324 The thing was settled, and away Wesley went, his brother Charles, and their Oxford friends, Benjamin Ingham and Charles Delamotte, going with him.
Samuel Wesley strongly wished his son John to be his successor at Epworth; but John, four months before his father’s death, decisively declined the proposal. He was resolved to remain at Oxford, because he imagined he could be holier at Oxford than he could be anywhere else. The rector died, and then his son changed his mind, and set out on the very mission upon which his father had set his heart, and to be engaged in which he would, if he had been ten years younger, have gladly relinquished Epworth Church. The following letter refers to John Wesley’s final refusal of his father’s proposition. It was written to Samuel Wesley, jun., four months previous to Mr Wesley’s decease:—
“Epworth, Dec. 4, 1734.
“Dear Son,—Having pretty many things to write to you, and those of no small moment; and being for the most part confined to my house by pain and weakness, so that I have not yet ventured to church on a Sunday, I have just now sat down to try if I can reduce my thoughts into any tolerable order. Though I can write but few lines in a day, yet being under my own hand, they may not be the less acceptable to you.
“I shall throw what I have a mind you shall know, under three heads—1. What most immediately concerns our own family. 2. Dick Ellison, the wen of my family, and his poor insects that are sucking me to death. 3. J. Whitelamb;—and, perhaps, in a postscript, a little of my own personal affairs, and of the poor.
“1. Of our family. Your brother John has at last writ me, ‘that it is now his unalterable resolution not to accept of Epworth living, if he could have it;’ and the reason he gives for it in these words:—‘The question is not whether I could do more good to others there or here, but whether I could do more good to myself; seeing wherever I can be most holy myself, there, I am assured, I can most promote holiness in others. But I am equally assured there is no place under heaven so fit for my improvement as Oxford. Therefore,’ &c.
“Thus stands his argument. Though I am no more fond of the gripping and wrangling distemper than I am of Mr Harper’s325 boluses and clysters, (for age would again have rest,) I sat myself down to try if I could unravel his sophisms, and hardly one of his assertions appeared to me to be universally true. I think the main of my answer was, that he seemed to mistake the end of academical studies, which were chiefly preparatory, in order to qualify men to instruct others.
“He thinks there is no place so fit for his improvement as Oxford. As to many sorts of useful knowledge, it may be nearly true; but surely there need be a knowledge, too, of men and things (which has not been thought the most attainable in a cloister) as well as of books, or else we shall find ourselves of much less use in the world.
“But the best and greatest improvement is in solid piety and religion, which (in Oxford) is handy to be got, or promoted, by being hung up in Socrates’ basket. But allowing that austerity and mortification may either be a means of promoting holiness, or, in some degree, a part of it, why may not a man exercise these in his own house as strictly as in any college, in any university in Europe, and, perhaps, with less censure and observation? Neither can I understand the meaning or drift of being thus ever learning, and never coming to a due proficiency in the knowledge and practice of the truth, so as to be able commendably to instruct others in it.
“Thus far I have written with my own hand, both to you and your brother, for many days together; but I am now so heartily tired that I must, contrary to my resolution, get my son Whitelamb to transcribe and finish it. I have done what I could, with such a shattered head and body, to satisfy the scruples which your brother has raised against my proposal, from conscience and duty; but if your way of thinking be the same with mine, especially after you have read and weighed what follows, you will be able to convince him in a much clearer and stronger manner.
“The remaining considerations I offered to him were for the most part such as follow:—I urged, among other things, the great precariousness of my own health, and the sensible decay of my strength, so that he would hardly know me if he saw me now; the deplorable state in which I should leave your mother and the family, and the loss of near forty years’ honest labour in this place, where I could expect no other, but that the field which I have been so long sowing with good seed, and the vineyard, which I have planted with no ignoble vine, must be soon rooted up, and the fences of it broken down,—for I am morally satisfied, if your brothers both slight it, Mr P—— will be my successor.
“I hinted at one thing, which I mentioned in my letter to your brother, whereon I depend more than upon all my own simple reasoning; and that is, earnest prayer to Him who smiles at the strongest resolutions of mortals, and can, in a moment, change or demolish them; who alone can bend the inflexible sinew, and order the irregular wills of us simple men to His own glory, and to our happiness. While the anchor holds, I despair of nothing, but firmly believe that He who is best will do what is best, whether we earnestly will it or will it not. There I rest the whole matter, and leave it with Him, to whom I have committed all my concerns, without exception and without reserve, for soul and body, estate and family, time and eternity.326
“2. As to the second part of my letter concerning R. Ellison,327 I have charity crammed down my throat every day, and sometimes his company at meals, which you will believe as pleasant to me as all my physic. But this is beyond the reach of all my little prudence, and therefore I find I must leave it as I have done, in some good measure before, to Him who orders all things.
“3. The third part of my letter is in relation to my son Whitelamb, and is of almost as great concern as the former, and on some accounts perhaps greater.328 You will find the whole affair contained in a letter I lately sent to Mr Oglethorpe, and in my son Whitelamb’s to myself. The letters are so full, that they have exhausted what we had to say on that subject; and nothing at present need or can be added. I desire you therefore to weigh the whole with the utmost impartiality; and, if you are of the same mind with myself and your mother, who entirely approves of the design, that you would yourself write to Mr Oglethorpe, as I promised you would, and send him your thoughts, and use your good offices about it.
“And now, as to my minute affairs, I doubt not but you will, as you gave me hopes when you went into Devon, improve your interest among the gentlemen, your friends, and get me some more subscribers, as likewise an account whether there be any prospect yet remaining of obtaining any favour from the Duke of Newcastle, in relation to the affair.329—Yours,
“Samuel Wesley.”330
The last letter we shall introduce is a review of his life, and therefore an appropriate conclusion of the present chapter.
It has been already mentioned that Mr Wesley had a brother, named Matthew,Jwho practised as a physician in London. There does not appear to have been much intimacy between the two brothers; but, after the fire at Epworth in 1709, Matthew took to his house his brother’s two children, Hetty and Susan; and afterwards in 1720, he, in a similar manner, took Patty, who lived in his house for twelve years, and to whom, on her marriage, he gave a dowry of £500. Matthew Wesley was a man of considerable wealth; but he had obtained it by unwearied diligence, and by the utmost economy. He knew next to nothing of the troubles of a family, and was ill-qualified to judge of family expenses.
In 1731, accompanied by his man-servant, he started from London to Epworth on a visit to his brother. He travelled under a feigned name, and intended to take his brother by surprise; but his man not being so taciturn as himself, the secret oozed out, and the family were prepared for his coming. The first day after his arrival he spoke little to the children, being employed in observing their behaviour, so that he might know how he ought to like them. He was strangely scandalised at the poor furniture of the parsonage, and at the meanness of the children’s clothing, and wondered what his brother had done with all his income. He always behaved himself decently at family prayers, and, when Mr Wesley was absent, said grace before and after meat. On his return to London, he wrote a severe and caustic letter to his brother, accusing him of bad economy, and of not making provision for his large family. Part of this strange epistle was as follows:—
“The same record which assures us an infidel cannot inherit the kingdom of heaven, also asserts, in the consequence, that a worse than infidel can never do it. It likewise describes the character of such a one: ‘He provides not for his own, especially for those of his own house.’
“You have a numerous offspring; you have had a long time a plentiful estate, and have made no provision for those of your own house, who can have nothing in view at your exit but distress. This I think a black account; let the cause be folly, or vanity, or ungovernable appetites. I hope Providence has restored you again to give you time to settle this balance, which shocks me to think of. To this end, I must advise you to be frequent in your perusal of Father Beveridge on Repentance, and Dr Tillotson on Restitution; for it is not saying Lord, Lord, will bring us to the kingdom of heaven, but doing justice to all our fellow-creatures; and not a poetical imagination that we do so. A serious consideration of these things, and suitable actions, I doubt not, will qualify you to meet me where sorrow shall be no more, which is the highest hope and expectation of yours,
“Matthew Wesley.”331
This is an unjust, unfeeling, disreputable letter, and it is certainly surprising that Mehetabel Wesley, when her uncle died six years after, should have so eulogised his character as she did, in her elegy, published in the Gentleman’s Magazine for 1737. He might be a man of much learning and information, a good judge and lover of poetry, and clever in his profession; but the above epistle makes one doubt that he was “a man of truly benevolent mind,” and prepares one to receive Patty Wesley’s statement respecting him, written a year before the time of his Epworth visit, viz., that he was not converted, nor what he ought to be.332 He seems to have been highly esteemed for his professional ability and services; but a stranger to pure, earnest, heartfelt godliness. He treated John Wesley’s mission to Georgia with ridicule, and told Charles that, “if the French had any remarkably dull fellow among them, they sent him to convert the Indians.” Charles says he checked and silenced his uncle’s art and eloquence by repeating the lines of his brother:—
“To distant realms the apostle need not roam,
Darkness, alas! and heathens are at home.”333
A few months before his death, Samuel Wesley replied to his brother’s accusations, in a long letter, twenty lines of which were written by himself, about one-half of it by Mrs Wesley, and the remainder by his son John, who acted as his amanuenses. The letter, which is without date, is written in a serio-jocose style, and is headed “John o’ Styles’ Apology against the imputation of his ill husbandry.” A friend is represented as reading Matthew Wesley’s letter to his brother, John o’ Styles, and as reporting the brother’s answer to the charges brought against him. The pretended narrator says:—
“When I had read this to my friend John o’ Styles, I was a little surprised that he did not fall into flouncing and bouncing, as I have too often seen him do on far less provocation, which I ascribed to a fit of sickness he had lately had, and which I hope may have brought him to something of a better mind. He stood calm and composed for a minute or two, and then desired he might peruse the letter, adding, that if the matter of fact therein were true, and not aggravated or misrepresented, he was obliged in conscience to acknowledge it, and ask pardon at least of his family, if he could make them no other satisfaction. If it were not true, he owed that justice to himself and his family, to clear himself of so vile an imputation. After he had read it over he said he did not think it necessary to enter into a detail of the history of his whole life, from sixteen to upwards of seventy; but he would make some general observations on those general accusations which have been brought against him, and then would add some balance of his incomes and expenses ever since he entered on the stage of life.
“The sum of the libel may be reduced to the following assertions:—1. That John o’ Styles is worse than an infidel, and therefore can never go to heaven; which secondly, he aims at proving, because he provides not for his own house; as notorious instances of which, he adds, in the third place, that in the pursuits of his pleasures he had produced a numerous offspring, and has had a long time a plentiful estate, and great and generous benefactors, but yet has made no provision for those of his own house; which he thinks, in the last place, a black account, let the cause be folly, or vanity, or his own irregular passions.
“Answer.—If God has blessed him with a numerous offspring, he has no reason to be ashamed of them, nor they of him, unless perhaps one of them. Neither does his conscience accuse him that he has made no provision for those of his own house; which general accusation includes them all. But has he none, nay, not above one, two, or three, to whom he has given the best education which England could afford, by God’s blessing on which they live honourably and comfortably in the world? Some of them had already been a considerable help to the others, as well as to himself; and he has no reason to doubt the same of the rest, as soon as God shall enable them to do it. There are many gentlemen’s families in England who, by the same method, provide for their younger children; and he hardly thinks that there are many of greater estates but would be glad to change the best of theirs, or even all their stock, for almost the worst of his.
“Neither is he ashamed in claiming some merit in his having been so happy in breeding them up in his own principles and practices—not only the priests in his family, but all the rest—to a steady opposition and confederacy against all such as are avowed and declared enemies to God and his clergy, and who deny or disbelieve any articles of natural or revealed religion, as well as to such as are open or secret friends to the Great Rebellion, or to any such principles as do but squint towards the same practices; so that he hopes they are all staunch High-Church, and for inviolable passive obedience;334 from which, if any of them should be so wicked as to degenerate, he cannot tell whether he could prevail with himself to give them his blessing; though, at the same time, he almost equally abhors all servile submission to the greatest and most overgrown tool of State, whose avowed design it is to aggrandise his prince at the expense of the liberties and properties of his freeborn subjects.335
“Thus much for John o’ Styles’ ecclesiastical and political creed; and, as he hopes, for those of his family. And as his adversary adds, that ‘at his exit they could have nothing in view but distress, and that it is a black account, let the cause be folly, or vanity, or ungovernable appetites;’ John o’ Styles answered: He has not the least doubt of God’s provision for his family after his decease, if they continue in the way of righteousness. As for his folly, he owns he can hardly demur to the charge; for he fairly acknowledges he never was, nor ever will be, like the children of this world, who are accounted wise in their generation, in doting upon this world, courting this world, and regarding nothing else: not but that he has all his life laboured truly both with his hands, head, and heart, to provide things honest in the sight of all men, to get his own living, and that of those who have been dependents on him.
“As for his vanity, he challenges an instance to be given of any extravagance in any single branch of his expenses through the whole course of his life, either in dress, diet, horses, recreation, or diversion, either in himself or family.
“Now if these, which are the main objections, are wiped off, what becomes of the black account, or of the worse than infidelity which this Severus Frater et Avunculus Puerorum has, in the plenitude of his power, urged, to exclude those, who, for want of equal illumination or equal estates, think or act differently from himself, out of the kingdom of heaven?
“As for the plentiful estates, and great and generous benefactions which he likewise mentions, the person accused answered, that he could never acknowledge as he ought the goodness of God and of his generous benefactors; but hopes he may add, that he had never tasted so much of their kindness if they had not believed him to be an honest man.
“Thus much he said in general, but added as to particular instances, he should only add a blank balance, and leave it to any after his death to cast it up according to common equity; and then they would be more proper judges whether he deserved those imputations which are now thrown upon him.
| “Imprimis.—When he first walked to Oxford he had in cash, | £2 | 5 | 0 |
| “He lived there till he took his bachelor’s degree, without any preferment or assistance, except one crown, | 0 | 5 | 0 |
| “By God’s blessing on his own industry he brought to London, | 10 | 15 | 0 |
| “When he came to London he got deacon’s orders and a cure, for which he had, for one year, | 28 | 0 | 0 |
| “In which year, for his board, ordination, and habit, he was indebted £30, which he afterwards paid, | 30 | 0 | 0 |
| “When he went to sea, where he had for one year £70, not paid till two years after his return, | 70 | 0 | 0 |
| “He then got a curacy at £30 per annum for two years, and by his own industry in writing, &c., he made it £60 per annum, | 120 | 0 | 0 |
“He married and had a son; and he and his wife and child boarded for some years in or near London without running into debt.
“He had then a living given him in the country, let for £50 per annum, where he had five children more; in which time, and while he lived in London, he wrote a book, which he dedicated to Queen Mary, who for that reason gave him a living in the country, valued at £200 per annum, where he remained for nearly forty years, and wherein his numerous offspring amounted, with the former, to eighteen or nineteen children.
“Half of his parsonage was first burnt, which he rebuilt: some time after the whole was burnt to the ground, which he rebuilt from the foundations; and it cost him above £400, besides the furniture, none of which was saved, and he was forced to renew it.
“About ten years since, he got a little living adjoining to his former, the profits of which very little more than defrayed the expenses of serving it, and sometimes hardly so much; his whole tithe having been in a manner swept away by inundations, for which the parishioners had a brief, though he thought it not decent for himself to be joined with them in it.
“For the greater part of these last ten years, he has been closely employed in composing a large book, whereby he hoped he might have done some benefit to the world, and in some measure amended his own fortunes. By sticking so close to this, he has broke a pretty strong constitution, and fallen into palsy and gout. Besides this, he has had sickness in his family for most of the years since he was married.
“His greater living seldom cleared above £160 per annum, out of which he allowed £20 per annum to a person who had married one of his daughters. Could we on the whole fix the balance, it would easily appear whether he had been an ill husband, or careless and idle, and taken no care of his family. Let us range on the one side his income, and on the other his expenses while he has been at the top of his fortunes, taking them at the full extent:—
| “His income about £200 per annum for near forty years,336 | £8000 | 0 | 0 | “Expended in sickness for above forty years, | £—————— | ||
| “Expenses in taking his livings, repairing houses, &c., | 160 | 0 | 0 | ||||
| “Rebuilding part of his house the first time, | 60 | 0 | 0 | ||||
| “Rebuilding the whole house, | 400 | 0 | 0 | ||||
| “Furnishing it, | —————— | ||||||
| “Eight children born and buried, | —————— | ||||||
| “Ten (thank God!) living, brought up, and educated, | —————— | ||||||
| “Most of the daughters put out to a way of living, | —————— | ||||||
| “To three sons for the best education I could get them in England, | —————— | ||||||
| “Attending the convocation three years, | £150 | 0 | 0 | ||||
“Let all this be balanced, and then a guess may be easily made of his sorry management.
“He can struggle with the world, but not with Providence; nor can he resist sicknesses, fires, and inundations.”337
Such was one of the last letters that Samuel Wesley ever wrote; or rather, we ought to say dictated, for such were his afflictions and weakness, that nearly the whole of it had to be written by his wife and by his second son, who penned it from his lips. It is an ample refutation of the unnatural charges brought against him by his brother; and scatters to the winds the vague ideas of all those who, in modern times, have been apt to think of Samuel Wesley as being, upon the whole, a good-hearted sort of man; but, at the same time, in some way, a spendthrift, and one who very culpably neglected the interests of his wife and family. All this is unfounded, unjust, and cruel; the result, not of research, but of indolent ignorance, which has too readily taken for granted, that which it ought, first of all, to have examined.