The Rev. John Wesley, A.M., Vicar of Winterborn, Mr. Wesley's Grandfather
This Gentleman, who was the son of the Rev. Bartholomew Wesley mentioned above, was very religiously brought up, and dedicated by his pious father to the work of the ministry from his earliest youth; the consequence was what might have been expected, he remembered Jus Creator in, and indeed from, the days of bis youth. He was deeply convinced of sin, and had a serious concern for his salvation, when a lad at school; and soon alter God began to work upon his soul he kept a dairy, in which he recorded not only the most remarkable events of God’s providence in his behalf, but more especially the operations of the Divine Spirit upon his heart, and how he felt himself affected by the various means which his heavenly Father used for his salvation, whether in the way of afflictive providences or gradous visit at ions.
This course he continued with little intermission to the end of his life; and it was probably his example, which he must have known, that led his grandson, the founder of the Methodists, to follow the same practice; and whose journals are an uncommon treasury of sound learning and just criticism, and of records concerning the gracious influence of God on ministerial labours, unprecedented and unparalleled.
At a proper age he was entered of New Inn Hall, Oxford; and in due course proceeded A. ML During his stay at the university he was noticed for his seriousness and diligence. He applied himself particularly to the study of the Oriental languages, in which he is said to have made great proficiency.
Dr. John Owen, who was then Vice-Chancellor of the University, shewed him great kindness.
He began to preach occasionally at the age of twenty-two; and in May, 1 658, he was sent to preach at Whitchurch, (Winterborn a vicarage, the income of which was about thirty pounds per annum, lie was promised an augmentation of one hundred pounds a year: but the many changes in public affairs which took place soon after, prevented him from ever receiving any part of it.
Mr. Wesley was respectable in his matrimonial connections. He married a niece of Dr. Thomas Fuller, prebend of Salisbury, rector of Broad Windsor, and chaplain extraordinary to Charles II. This divine was not only eminent for his learning and writings, but for his prodigious memory. He could repeat a sermon verbatim from once hearing it; and undertook in passing to and from Temple Bar to the Poultry to tell every sign as it stood in order, on both sides of the way, and to repeat them either backwards or forwards; and this task he actually performed!
Dr. Fuller in all his works affects a very quaint style, though it is always terse and nervous. He was fond of punning on others, and was sometimes paid in his own coin. Being in company with a gentleman whose name was Sparrowhawk, the Doctor, who was very corpulent, facetiously said, “Pray, Sir, what is the difference between an owl and a sparrowhawk?” The gentleman immediately answered, — “It is fuller in the head, fuller in the body, and fuller all over.”
He was author of the Church History of Britain, folio; — A Defence of it against Dr. Peter Heylin, folio; — The History of the Holy War, folio; — A Pisgah’s Sight of Palestine, folio; — A History of the Worthies of England, folio; — Adronicus, or the unfortunate Politician, octavo; — Introductio ad Prudentiam, or Directions, Counsels and Cautions tending to the prudent management of Affairs in common life; composed for his only Son, duodecimo, 1726: A very excellent and useful work.
By this lady Mr. Wesley had two sons, Matthew and Samuel, of whom hereafter. He is said by Dr. Calamy to have had a numerous family: but the names of none but the above are come down to posterity.
The same author informs us that because of this growing family he was obliged to set up a school in order to maintain it.
It appears that, like his father, he had serious scruples to using the Common Prayer as it then stood; and, soon after the Restoration some of his neighbours gave him a great deal of trouble on this account.
Dr. Gilbert Ironside, bishop of Bristol, was informed by some persons of distinction that Mr. Wesley would not use the Liturgy; and besides, they stated their opinion that his title to Whitchurch was not valid; and that for some other parts of his conduct he might be prosecuted in a court of justice. The bishop expressing a desire to see and converse with him, he took the first opportunity to wait upon his lordship; and had the following interesting conversation with him, which he entered into his journal; and from which it was transcribed by Dr. Calamy. Though this journal is unfortunately lost, we may be thankful for the extracts which the indefatigable Calamy has preserved. —
Bishop. What is your name?
Wesley. John Wesley.
Bishop. There are many great matters charged upon you. ’
Wesley. May it please your lordship, Mr. Horloch was at my house on Tuesday last, and acquainted me that it was your lordship’s desire that I should come to you; and on that account I am here to wait upon you.
Bishop. By whom were you ordained? Or, are you ordained?
Wesley. I am sent to preach the Gospel.
Bishop. By whom were you sent?
Wesley. By a Church of Jesus Christ.
Bishop. What church is that?
so
Wesley. The Church of Christ at Melcomb.
Bishop. That factious and heretical church!
Wesley, May it please you, Sir, I know no faction or heresy that that church is guilty of.
Bishop. No! Did not you preach such things as tend to faction and heresy?
Wesley. I am not conscious to myself of any such preaching.
Bishop, I am informed by sufficient men, gentlemen of honour of this county, viz. Sir Gerrard Napper, Mr. Freak, and Mr. Tregonnel, of your doings. What say you?
Wesley. Those honoured gentlemen I have been with, who, being by others misinformed, proceeded with some heat against me.
Bishop. There are the oaths of several honest men who have observed you, — and shall we take your word for it that all is but misinformation?
Wesley. There was no oath given or taken. Besides, if it be enough to accuse, who shall be innocent? I can appeal to the determination of the great day of judgment, that the large catalogue of matter laid against me are either things invented or mistaken.
Bishop. Did not you ride with your sword in the time of the committee of safety, and engage with them?
Wesley. Whatever imprudences in matters civil you may be informed I am guilty of, I shall crave leave to acquaint your lordship, that his Majesty having pardoned them fully, and I having suffered on account of them since the pardon, I shall put in no other plea, and wave any other answer.
Bishop. In what manner did the church you speak of send you to preach? At this rate every body might preach.
Wesley. Not every one. Every body has not preaching gifts and preaching graces. Besides, that is not all I have to offer to your Lordship to justify my preaching.
Bishop. If you preach it must be according to order; the order of the Church of England upon an ordination.
Wesley. What does your lordship mean by an ordination?
Bishop. Do not you know what I mean?
Wesley. If you mean that sending spoken of Rom. x. I had it.
Bishop. I mean that. What mission had you?
Wesley. I had a mission from God and man.
Bishop. You must have it according to law, and the order of the Church of England.
Wesley. I am not satisfied in my spirit therein.
Bishop. Not satisfied in your spirit! You have more new coined phrases than ever were heard of! You mean your consience, do you not?
Wesley. Spirit is no new phrase. We read of being sanctified in body, soul, and spirit: but if your lordship like it not so, then I say I am not satisfied in conscience, touching the ordination you speak of.
Bishop. Conscience argues science, science supposes judgment, and judgment reason. What reason have you that you will not be thus ordained?
W esley. I came not this day to dispute with your lordship; my own inability would forbid me to do so.
Bishop. No, no: but give me your reason.
Wesley. I am not called to office, and therefore cannot be ordained.
Bishop. Why then have you preached all this while?
Wesley. I was called to the work of the ministry, though not to the office. There is, as we believe, vocatio ad opus, et ad munus.
Bishop. Why may you not have the office of the ministry? You have so many new distinctions! O, how are you deluded!
Wesley. May it please your lordship, because they are not a people that are fit objects for me to exercise office-work among them.
Bishop. You mean a gathered church: but we must have no gathered churches in England; and you will see it so. For there must be unity without divisions among us; and there can be no unity without uniformity. Well then, we must send you to your church that they may dispose of you, if you were ordained by them.
Wesley. I have been informed by my cousin Bitfield and others concerning your lordship, that you have a disposition inclined against morosity. However, you may be prepossessed by some bitter enemies to my person, yet there are others who can and will give you another character of me. Mr. Glisson hath done it; and Sir Francis Fulford desired me to present his service to you, and being my hearer, is ready to acquaint you concerning me.
Bishop. I asked Sir Francis Fulford whether the presentation to Whitchurch was his. Whose is it? He told me it was not his.
Wesley. There was none presented to it these sixty years; Mr. Walton lived there. At his departure, the people desired me to preach to them; and when there was a way of settlement appointed, I was by the trustees appointed, and by the triers approved.
Bishop. They would approve any that would come to them, and close with them. I know they approved those who could not read twelve lines of English.
Wesley. All that they did I know not: but I was examinee touching gifts and graces.
Bishop. I question not your gifts, Mr. Wesley. I will do you any good I can: but you will not long be suffered to preach, unless you do it according to order.
Wesley. I shall submit to any trial you shall please to make. I shall present your lordship with a confession of my faith; or take what other zuay you please to insist on.
Bishop. No. We are not come to that yet.
Wesley. I shall desire several things may be laid together which I look on as justifying my preaching. 1. I was devoted to the service from my infancy. 2. I was educated thereto, at school and in the university.
Bishop. What university were you of?
Wesley. Oxon.
Bishop. What house?
Wesley. New Inn Hall.
Bishop. What age are you?
Wesley. Twent y-fi ve.
Bishop. No sure, you are not.’
Wesley. 3. As a son of the prophets, alter I had taken my degrees, I preached in the country, being approved of by judicious able Christians, ministers, and others. 4. It pleased God to seal my labour with success, in the apparent conversion of several souls.
Bishop. Yea, that is, it may be, to your own icay.
Wesley. Yea, to the power of godliness, from ignorance and profaneness. If it please your lordship to lay down any evidences of godliness agreeing with the Scriptures, and if they be not found in those persons intended, I am content to be discharged from my ministry; I will stand or fall by the issue thereof.
Bishop. You talk of the power of godliness such as you fancy.
Wesley. Yea, the reality of religion. Let us appeal to any common place book for evidences of grace, and they are found in and upon these converts.
Bishop. How many are there of them?
Wesley. I number not the people.
Bishop. Where are they?
Wesley. Wherever I have been called to preach. At Radpole. Melcomb, Turmvood, Whitchurch, and at sea. I shall add another ingredient of my mission. 5. When the church saw the presence of God going along with me, they did by fasting and prayer, in a day set apart for that end, seek an abundant blessing on my endeavours
Bishop. A particular church?
Wesley. Yes, my lord. I am not ashamed to own myself a member of one.
Bishop. Why, you mistake the apostle’s intent. They went about to convert heathens, and so did what they did. You have no warrant for your particular churches.
Wesley. We have a plain, full, and sufficient rule for Gospel worship in the New-Testament, recorded in the Acts of the Apostles and in the Epistles.
Bishop. We have not.
Wesley. The practice of the apostles is a standing rule in those cases which were not extraordinary.
Bishop. Not their practice, but their precepts.
Wesley. Both precepts and practice. Our duty is not delivered to us in Scripture only by precepts; but by precedents, by promisesp by threatenings mixed; not common-place wise. We are to follow them, as they followed Christ.
Bishop. But the Apostle said, This speak I, not the Lord; that is, by revelation.
Wesley. Some interpret that place, This speak I now, by revelation from the Lord; not the Lord in that text before instanced, when he gave answer to the case concerning divorce. May it please your lordship, we believe that cultus non institutus est indebitus.
Bishop. It is false.
Wesley. The second commandment speaks the same, Thou shalt not make unto thyself any graven image.
Bishop. That is, forms of your own invention.
Wesley. Bishop Andrews, taking notice of non fades tibi, satisfied me that we may not worship God but as commanded.
Bishop. You take discipline, church government, and circum’ stances, for worship.
Wesley. You account ceremonies a part of toorship.
Bishop. But what say you? Did you not wear a sword in the time of the committee of safety, with Demy and the rest of them?
Wesley. My lord, I have given you my answer therein: and I farther say, that I have conscientiously taken the oath of allegiance, and faithfully kept it hitherto. I appeal to all that are round about me,
Bishop. But nobody will trust you. You stood it out to the last gasp.
Wesley. I know not what you mean by the last gasp. When I saw the pleasure of Providence to turn the order of things, I did submit quietly thereunto.
Bishop. That was at last.
Wesley. Yet many such men are trusted, and now about the king
Bishop. They are such as though on the Parliament side during the war, yet disown those latter proceedings: but you abode even till Haselrig-s coming to Portsmouth.
Wesley. His Majesty has pardoned whatever you may be informed of concerning me of that nature. I am not here on that account,
Bishop. I expected you not.
Wesley. Your lordship sent your desire by two or three messengers. Had I been refractory, I need not have come: but I would give no just cause of offence. I think the old Nonconformists were none of his majesty’s enemies.
Bishop. They were traitors. TJiey began the war. Knox and Buchanan in Scotland, and those like them in England.
Wesley. I have read the protestation, of owning the king’s supremacy.
Bishop. They did it in hypocrisy.
Wesley. You used to tax the poor Independents for judging folks’ hearts. Who doth it now?
Bishop. I did not; for they pretended one thing and acted another. Do not I know them better than you?
Wesley. I know them by their works; as they have therein delivered us their hearts.
Bishop.. Well then, you will justify your preaching, will you, without ordination according to the law?
Wesley. All these things laid together, are satisfactory to me for my procedure therein.
Bishop. They are not enough.
Wesley. There has been more written in proof of preaching oi gifted persons with such approbation, than has been answered by any one yet.
Bishop. Have you any thing more to say to me, Mr. Wesley f
Wesley. Nothing. Your lordship sent for me.
Bishop. I am glad I heard this from your own mouth.. You will stand to your principles, you say?
Wesley. I intend it, through the grace of God; and to be faithful to the king’s majesty, however you deal with me.
Bishop. I will not meddle with you.
Wesley. Farewell to you, Sir.
Bishop. Farewell, good Mr. Wesley.
Calamy’s Nonconformists7 Memorial, Vol. II. p. 103.
There is no evidence that the bishop forfeited his word by giving Mr. Wesley any disturbance. How he was treated by others we shall see shortly. But before I proceed farther in his history, I think it necessary to make some remarks on the preceding dialogue; as there are some things in it which require explanation.
I. The conversation mentioned here must have taken place after the year 1660. For on Jan. 13 of that year, was Dr. Gilbert Ironside consecrated bishop of Bristol; the see having been vacant, through the calamities of the times, from the death of Dr. Thomas Howell, in the year 1646, to the year abovementioned, (vide De Preesulibus Anglice, 566).
There was another Dr. Gilbert Ironside, son of the preceding, who was bishop of Bristol in 1685. But this could not be the prelate in question. The preceding held the see from 1660 to 1671, so that the conversation took place some time in that period; and certainly before the passing the Act of Uniformity in 1662, as that event is here alluded to as shortly to take place.
II. The committee of safety, mentioned by the Bishop, was formed Oct. 26, 1659, by the great officers of the army. It consisted of twenty-three persons, who were ordered “to endeavour some settlement of the government for after the death of Cromwell, on Sept. 3, of the preceding year, the nation was greatly distracted; there was no efficient civil government, and the power fell wholly into the hands of the army.
This committee was invested with the full power of the council of state; and were to a prepare such a form of government as might best comport with a free state and commonwealth, without a single person, kingship, or house of lords.” — See Rapin.
It was at this time, 1659, -that Sir Arthur Haselrig was sent to Portsmouth by the parliament, the town and garrison of which declared for them, against the orders of the committee of safety.
The Bishop accuses Mr. Wesley that he continued till the last gasp; i. e. that he held with the parliament against the restoration of the king till the time that Haselrig came to Portsmouth; soon after which he and all the army joined with Monk; and the king was invited over, proclaimed in London, May 8, 1660, and landed at Dover on the 25th.
The declaration of Portsmouth for the parliament was one of the last public acts against the restoration of the king; and might be fitly denominated, as here by the Bishop, the last gasp, i, e. of the republican government in England.
III. What is implied in his wearing a sword at that time I cannot tell: whether it was for personal safety, or as a soldier, or as an ensign of some office. During the existence of the committee of safety the whole nation was under military law; for this committee was created, and the members appointed, by the great officers of the army.
The parliament and the army had now separate interests, and separate views. Every person saw that there must soon be a stupendous issue: but of what kind none could tell.
Mr. Wesley, it appears, was undecided: but he was a man of a reflecting mind, careful to mark the workings of Providence; and when he saw that it was the pleasure of Providence to turn the order of things, i. e. to restore the monarchy in the family of the Stuarts, he quietly submitted, read the protestation, owning the king’s supremacy; and cheerfully took the oath of allegiance. His indecision was no blot on his character; and his subsequent conduct much to his credit.
IV. Had we more particulars of the family of Mr. Bartholomew Wesley, we should, no doubt, find something peculiarly interesting relative to his son John, of whom we are speaking.
That he had a truly religious education there can be no doubt; and from his own account to the Bishop of Bristol it appears that he was devoted to the sacred service from his in fancy: and educated in order thereto, both at school and at the university. And it was evident from the manner in which God wrought upon his mind, and the gifts and graces with which He had endued him, that He had accepted the gift which his parents had offered, and given him those qualifications for the work of the ministry which neither schools nor universities can supply, and which the imposition of the hands of the holiest bishop cannot confer. His conversation with the Bishop shews that he possessed manly sense, unaffected piety. and religious knowledge far beyond his years.
V. From this conversation we learn two important facts: — 1. That he was a lay-preacher. 2. That he was an itinerant evangelist.
1. That he was Jiot ordained, either by bishop or presbyters, by the imposition of hands, is fully evident. He had authority from God; this he conscientiously believed was sufficient, and he does not appear to have wished to have the authority of man superadded. However he submitted all his own views and feelings to the examination and judgment of such persons as from their knowledge, piety, and experience, were capable of discerning the grace of God that was in him, and whether his talents wrere such as the people of God might profit by.
2. He went to proclaim Christ crucified wherever he had an invitation, and probably where he had none. It appears also that he had religious societies at several places; himself mentions Radpolef Melcomb, Turnwood, Whitchurch* and at sea. What be means by o7
his converts at sea I cannot learn; whether he served aboard the fleet, or whether he only occasionally visited the ships at Bridport, Weymouth, Lyme, Radpole, &c. I know not. From his own account we find that he exercised his ministry both by sea and land in what would be called an irregular way, without any kind of human ordination, as u a son of the prophets,’’ to use his own words; nearly in the same way, from similar motives, and in reference to the same end, as those whom his grandson long afterwards associated with himself in the Christian ministry. Indeed we find in this man’s conduct a kind of epitome of Methodism; his mode of preaching, matter, manner, and success, being most strikingly similar.
VI. Mr. Wesley tells the Bishop that he was appointed to preach at Whitchurch by the trustees, and approved by the triers.*
Of these persons we have a sufficient account in a little scarce duodecimo work, printed in 1658, intituled, The examination of Tilenus before the Triers, in order to his intended settlement in the office of a public Preacher in the Commonwealth of Utopia. The chairman opens the meeting thus: — M The great prudence and piety of the governors of this commonwealth, considering how apt the people are to be influenced by the principles and example of their constant teachers, have been pleased out of an ardent zeal to God’s glory, and a tender care of men’s precious souls, to think upon a course how their dominions may be made happy in the settlement of an able and godly ministry among them; for which purpose they have appointed commissioners to examine the gifts of all such as shall be employed in the office of public preaching.”
The committee of triers appears to have been appointed about 1652. It certainly existed in that year, if not before.
It is to such commissioners Mr. Wesley refers: and that the£ were generally Calvinists may be gathered from the fictitious names given to them in the above tract, viz. — Dr. Absolute, Chairman; Mr. Fatalitie; Mr. Pretention; Mr. Fri-babe: Mr. Dam-man; Mr. Narrow-grace, alias Stint-grace: Mr. Efficax; Mr. Indefectible; Dr. Confidence; Mr. Dubious; Mr. Meanwell; Mr. Simulans; Mr. Take-o-trust; Mr. Know-little; and Mr. Impertinent. This trial was inserted by the late Mr. Wesley in the First Volume of the Arminian Magazine.
At such times as these it was certainly necessary to examine those who were candidates for the sacred ministry; as from the best
* The Ordinance for the trying of Ministers, Elders, or Presbyters, referred to in these pages, was passed August 29, 1648; and may be found in Scobell’s Acts, cap sviii. p. 165 In that place the names of all the Triers, and the points on which the Candidates were examined, are specified in detail.
of mr. wesley’s antcestors.
accounts we learn, there were great Dumbers then in the church who had neither gifts nor grace for the work; and who were besides scandalous in their lives. It is a trite saying, but it is true, that (£ we must not argue against the use of a thing from its abuse”
VII. Mr. Wesley in defending his call to the ministry, makes a distinction between the vocatio ad opus, “a call to the work,” and vocatio ad munus, “a call to the office,” of the ministry; and tells the Bishop that “he did not do office work among the people, because they were not proper objects for office work.”
By this distinction, which as I apprehend it is of some importance, he must mean, and so the Bishop understood him, that the people who sat under his ministry were gathered from different parts, did not belong to any parish church, and were not as yet a consolidated society; that he had not instituted any code of discipline for their regulation; and probably did not administer the Sacraments among them, especially the Sacrament of the Lord’s Supper. He was called to preach to them, but not to preside orcr them; they were not as yet fit for such office work.
It may not be thought unworthy of remark that this was the plan followed by his grandson in respect to the lay preachers so called, whom he associated with himself in that great work to which God had especially appointed him- He believed they all had from God Himself the vocatio ad opus, — an extraordinary call to the work of the ministry: but he did not believe that they all had the vocatio ad munus, — the call to the office; and therefore he did not trust them to govern the societies, nor permit them to administer the sacraments. He kept the ecclesiastical government of all the societies in his own hands; appointed one preacher in each circuit whom he called the assistant, i. e. one who assisted him in governing the societies; but he seldom suffered any of them to administer the sacraments unless they had been ordained by himself I need scarcely state here that all the other preachers in the different circuits were called helpers, that is, they helped the assistant in his work in the circuit, as he assisted Mr. Wesley in his general government of the whole connexion.
VIII. Taking the vocatio ad munus in the above sense, it may be safely said that there are multitudes who appear to have the vocatio ad opus, the gift of preaching, with every qualification necessary to make that gift powerfully and extensively useful, who at the same time have no gifts for church government, and consequently no vocatio ad munus, no call to that part of the work. Nor are an persons, to use the words of old Mr. Wesley, fit objects of office-work till they are truly awakened to a sense of their sin and danger; all they are gathered out of the world, and solemnly determined to to
seek the salvation of their souls; abstaining from every appearance of evil, and using all the means of grace. This is the sum of the conditions on which, from the beginning until now, members have been admitted into the Methodist societies.
No people have ever made a wiser, more marked, and more salu= tary distinction between the vocatio ad opus and the vocatio ad munus than the Methodists have done. And to them God, in His great mercy, has now given some apostles, and some prophets, and some evangelists, and some pastors and teachers; for the perfect” ing of the saints, for the work of the ministry, for the edifying of the body of Christ; till we all come in the unity of the fait&and of the knowledge of the Son of God unto a perfect man; unto the measure of the stature of the fulness of Christ. Eph. iv. 11 — 13,
It cannot escape the notice and reflection of the reader that Methodism, in its grand principles of oeconomy, and the means by which they have been brought into action, has had its specific, healthy, though slowly vegetating, seeds in the original members of the Wesley Family. We have an additional proof of this, —
IX. In what Mr. Wesley tells the Bishop he considered a sufficient evidence of his call to the ministry. 1. Grace. 2. Gifts, 3. Fruit. To shew that he had the two former, he offers to the Bishop to submit to any kind of trial or examination; and that he had fruit of his labours in every place where he had preached, — in the conversion of souls from gross ignorance and profaneness to the power of godliness, — yea, the reality of religion, — he strongly asserts; and offers to prove to the Bishop that those his converts had in and upon them, i. e. in their religious experience and outward conduct, all the evidences of grace which are enumerated in common-place books, or can be laid down from the Scriptures. And so confident was he of all these things, and consequently of his genuine call to the ministry, that he was willing to stand or fall by the proofs, and to be discharged from the ministry if these things were not so!
How exactly do all these things tally in reference to the Methodist Discipline on this great point. No man is admitted to be a preacher among them unless he be thus qualified and approved of God. Grace, gifts, and fruit, are the grand requisites. Where these unequivocally meet in any person who offers himself to take a part in the great work to which God has called them, they without hesitation take for granted that the man is called of God. And it is because the ranks of the Methodist preachers continue to be filled up by such persons and such only, that the great work is still carried on, and that their religious societies, constituted of such converts, arc a blessing to the nations, and a praise in the earth.
Though Mr. Wesley were thus instrumental in converting the ignorant and profligate, and consequently in bettering the state of society, yet he was not permitted to proceed unmolested in his work. Luther somewhere observes, — Evangelium predicare est furoreni mundi in se derivare, “He who faithfully preaches the gospel is sure to bring down the rage of the world upon himself.” The laws of Christ condemn a vicious world and gall it to revenge. As religion gives no quarter to vice, so the vicious will give no quarter to religion.
Mr. Wesley was not permitted to preach quietly at Whitchurch, even till ejected by the Act of Uniformity. In the beginning of the year 1662 he was seized upon the Lord’s day, as he was coming out of the church; and carried to Blandford, where he was committed to prison. After he had been some time confined, Sir Gerrard Napper, who had been the most furious of all his enemies and the most forward in committing him, was so softened by a sad disaster he met with (the breaking of his collar-bone) that he applied to some persons to bail Mr. Wesley, and told them that if they would not he would do it himself. He was therefore set at liberty, but bound over to appear at the assizes, where he came oft’ much better than he expected.
He has recorded in his diary the particular mercy of God to him in raising up several friends to own him; inclining a solicitor to plead for him; and restraining the wrath of man, so that even the judge, though a very choleric man, spoke not one angry word. The sum of the proceedings, as it stands in his diary, is as follows: —
Clerk. Call Mr. Wesley of Whitchurch.
Wesley. Here.
Clerk. You were indicted for not reading the Common Prayer. Will you traverse it?
A Solicitor. May it please your Lordship, we desire this business may be deferred till next assizes.
Judge. Why till then?
Solicitor. Our witnesses are not ready at present. Judge. Why not ready now? Why have you not prepared for a trial?
Solicitor. We thought our prosecutors would not appear.
Judge. Why so, young man? Why should you think so? Why did you not provide them?
Wesley. May it please your Lordship, I understand not the question.
Judge. Why will you not read the Book of Common Prayer?
Wesley. The book was never tendered to me.
Judge. Must the book be tendered to you?
Wesley. So I conceive by the Act.
Judge. Are you ordained?
Wesley. I am ordained to preach the Gospel.
Judge. From whom?
Wesley. I have given an account thereof already to the Bishop,
Judge. What Bishop?
Wesley. The Bishop of Bristol.
Judge. I say by whom were you ordained? How long is it
since?
Wesley. Four or five years since.
Judge. By whom then?
Wesley. By those who were then empowered.
Judge. I thought so. Have you a presentation to ‘your place?
Wesley. I have.
Judge. From whom?
Wesley. May it please your Lordship, it is a legal presentation
Judge. By whom was it?
Wesley. By the trustees.
Judge. Have you brought it?
“Wesley. I have not.
Judge. Why not?
Wesley. Because I did not think I should be asked any such questions here.
Judge. I would wish you to read the Common Prayer at your peril. You will not say,” From all sedition and privy conspiracy: from all false doctrine, heresy and schism, Good Lord, deliver us ln
Clerk. Call Mr. Meech: [he was called and appeared] Doe Mr. Wesley read the Common Prayer yet?
Meech. May it please your Lordship, he never did, nor he never will.
Judge. Friend, how do you know that? He may bethink himself. Meech. He never did; he never will.
Solicitor. We will, when we see the new boole, either read it, or leave our place at Bartholomew-tide.
Judge. Are you not bound to read the old book till then? Let us see the Act.
While the judge was reading to himself another cause was called; and Mr. Wesley was bound over to the next assizes. He came joyfully home; and preached constantly every Lord’s day till August 17th, when he delivered his farewell sermon to a weeping audience-OF. MR. WESLE¥:S ANCESTORS.
from Act?y xx. 32. And now, brethren, I commend you to God, and the word of his grace.
On the 26th of October the place was, by an apparitor, declare*” vacant; and orders were given to sequester the profits; but his people had already given him what was bis due.
On the 22nd of February following he removed with his family to Mttcomb: but the corporation made an order against his settlement there, imposing a fine of 20/. upon his landlady, and five shillings per week on himself, to be levied by distress! He. waited upon the mayor and some others, pleading that lie had lived in the town formerly, and had given notice of his design of coming thither again. He also offered to give security, which was all that their order required. But all was in vain; for on the 11th of the following month (March; another order was drawn up for putting the former in execution.
These violent proceedings forced him out of the town; and he went to Ilminster, Bridgwater, and Taunton; in all which places he met with great kindness and friendship from the three denominations of Dissenters, and was almost every day employed in preaching in those several places; where he also got some good acquaintance and friends, who were afterwards very kind to him and his numerous family.
At length a gentleman, who had a very good house at Preston two or three miles from Melcomb, permitted him to live in it without paying any rent. Thither he removed his family in the beginning of May, l66o; and there he continued while he lived, excepting a temporary absence shortly to be noticed. He records his coming to Preston, and his comfortable accommodation there, with great admiration and thankfulness to God.
We must now follow him in his further projects and designs.
When the great Mead of the Church calls a man to preach the gospel, He in effect says, Go into all the world, and preach the gospel to every creature, lie never confines His own gift and call absolutely to any particular place; but leaves them under the direction and management of His own providence. The call of God to preach is a missionary call; and they who have it know that they are not their own, and must do the Masters work in the Master’s oum way, place, and time. Hence all the ministers of His gospel have a missionary spirit; let Providence direct, as it chooses, their way.
It is worthy of remark, that this excellent man, like his grandson long after him, felt a strong desire to visit the continent of America. Surinam, a settlement of South-America, in Guianna, was the first object in the contemplation of his missionary zeal.
This settlement was visited in 1579 by Sir Walter Raleigh, but” nut colonized. In 1634 David Piterse de Fries, a Dutchman) found there a Captain Marshal, with about sixty English. In 1650 Francis Lord Witlougriby, of Paiham, by ‘.permission of Charles II.. sent thither some vessels to take possession of the settlement in the name of his royal master; and in 16G2 this settlement was granted by Charles to Lord iVilloughby and Lawrence Hyde, second son of the Earl of Clarendon, to them and their descendants for ever.
Mr. Wesley no doubt thought that the desolate state of this colony, in respect to spiritual things, might afford a fair and undisturbed field of usefulness.’ This purpose, however, was abandoned; as was also another of going to Maryland. The advice of friends prevailed; and probably the difficulty and expense of removing a numerous family so far were the chief impediments. Indeed, such a removal in ‘his circumstances, must have been all but impossible. He therefore made up his mind to abide in the land of his nativity; to be at the disposal of Divine Providence, relying on the promise Verily, thou shalt be fed.
Being often out of employ, and not willing to be without public worship, he would gladly have attended the church servicer but there were several things in the Liturgy to which he could not give a conscientious assent. However, by reading Mr. Philip Nye’s “Arguments for the Lawfulness of Hearing Ministers of the Church of England,” his scruples were so far removed that he found he could do it with a safe conscience; and doubtless to his edification.
At this same time Mr. Wesley was not a little troubled about his own preaching; whether it should be carried on openly, or in private. Some of the neighbouring ministers, particularly Messrs. Bamjield, iJice, Hallet of Shaston, and John Sacheverel, were for preaching publicly, with open doors. But Mr. Wesley thought h was his duty to beware of men; and that he was bound in prudence to keep himself at liberty as long as he could. Accordingly, toy preaching only in private, he was kept longer oirt of the hands of his enemies than the ministers above mentioned, all of whom were indicted at the next assizes “for a riotous and unlawful assembly held at Shaston $ and were found guilty by a jury of gentlemen, fined forty marks each, and were bound to rind security for their good behaviour.” Or, in other words, that they wouid not speak tiny more in the blessed name of Jesus; but be unfaithful to their heavenly calling and permit the devil unmolested to destroy the souls of the people.
The stopping of the mouths of these faithful men was a general, curse to the nation. A torrent of iniquity, deep, rapid, and -strong ieluged the whole land, and- swept a way godliness and. vital- reJipop op MR. wesley’s ancestors.
from the kingdom. The king had no religion, either in power or in form. Though a Papist in his heart, he was the most worthless that ever sat on the British throne, and profligate beyond all measure; without a single good quality to redeem his numerous bad ones: and the Church and the State joined hand in hand in persecution and intolerance. Since those barbarous and iniquitous times what hath God wr ought?
There was now no open vision, and the pure word of the Lord was scarce in those days. Most of the faithful of the land were either silenced as to public preaching, or shut up in prison; and the rest were hidden in corners. Mr. Wesley in a private manner preached frequently to a few good people at Preston, and occasionally at Weymouth and other places contiguous. After some time he had a call from a number of serious Christians at Poole to becomf their pastor. He consented; and continued with them while he lived, administering to them all the ordinances of God as opportunity offered.
In the parliament held at Oxford, (17 Car. II. l6f>5) a severe Act was passed against the dissenting teachers, prohibiting them from dwelling or coming (except in travelling on the road) within five miles of any corporation or borough town, or any other place where they had been ministers, or preached after the Act of oblivion, on the penalty of forty pounds for each offence; unless they first took the following oath: —
“I, A. B., do solemnly declare that it is not lawful on any pretence whatsoever to take up arms against the king; and that I do abhor the traitorous position of taking arms by his authority, against his person, or against those that are commissioned by him, in pursuance of such commission. And I do swear that I will not, at any time to come, endeavour the alteration of tJtf Government, either in Church or State. So help me God.” Archbishop Sheldon, and Ward, bishop of Salisbury, were the chief promoters of this Act. When it came out, those ministers who had any property of their own retired to obscure villages or to market towns, that were not corporations. And some, who had nothing, were obliged to leave their wives and children and hide themselves abroad, sometimes coming secretly to them after night.
Both Preston and Poole being corporation towns, in the first of which Mr. Wesley resided, in the second exercised his ministry he was obliged to leave his wife, his family, and his flock, and secrete himself in various places. He could not conscientiously take the above oath, because of the last clause, I do swear that I will not at any time to come endeavour the alteration of the Government either in Church or State.
All the Dissenters had strenuously endeavoured to alter the government in the Church, or rather to reform it; as they considered several parts as savouring of superstition, and tending to Popery; and on this the dissent of many of them was founded. Every thing they might say against those points of Popery which seemed to be countenanced in any part of the Liturgy might be considered by their adversaries as an endeavouring to alter the government of the Church, and consequently expose them to prosecution, persecution, and the alleged infamy of perjury.
Under the date of 1666, Mr. Wesley entered in his Diary some of the reasons why he could not safely take this oath; particularly that to do it in his own private sense, would be juggling with God, with the king, and with conscience; especially as some magistrates had declared they had no right to admit of such a private sense. He was therefore obliged to leave home for a considerable time. He at length ventured to return to his family and flock: but notwithstanding all the prudent precaution with which he conducted his meetings, he was often disturbed; several times apprehended; and four times imprisoned; once at Poole for six months, and once at Dorchester for three months. The other confinements were shorter: but how long their duration was we are not told.
Dr. Calamy adds “that he was in many straits and difficulties; but was wonderfully supported and comforted; and was many times very seasonably and surprisingly relieved and delivered. Nevertheless, the removal of many eminent Christians into another world, who had been his intimate acquaintance and kind friends, the great decay of serious religion among many professors, and the increasing rage of the enemies of real godliness, manifestly seized on and sunk his spirits. At length £ having filled up his part of what is behind of the afflictions of Christ in his flesh, for His body’s sake., which is the church, and finished the work given him to do,? he was taken out of this vale of tears to that world where the wicked cease from troubling, and the weary are at rest; when he had not been much longer an inhabitant here below than his Blessed Master was, whom he served with his whole heart, according to the best light he had.” N. M. Vol. II. p. 164, &c.
It appears that application was made to have him buried in the church at Preston; but the vicar would not suffer it.
It is to be regretted that Dr. Calamy, who had the journal of this excellent man, gives so few dates, and particularly in thosf. places where they were especially needful. He neither mentions the year of his birth, nor that of his death. He tells us only,” tfraJ he began preaching when he was twenty-two, and in May 1C5S of mr. wesley’s ancestors.
was sent to preach at Whitchurch.” Now, if this means May 01 the year 1658, in which he was twenty-two years of age, then he must have been born about A. D. 1636. When he had the conversation with the Bishop of Bristol, related above, he states that he was twenty-five years of age. From internal evidence, I think the Act of Uniformity had not passed previously to that conversation, which must have taken place in l66l, as Dr. Gilbert Ironside, the Bishop, came to that see in 1660; and the Act of Uniformity passed in 1662. These dates thus collated will make him precisely twenty-five, the age which himself mentions, when he had the above conversation with the bishop.
The Oxford Act, called also the Corporation Act, and Five Mile Act, was passed in l66b. In 1G66, he was obliged to retire from his family and flock, and hide himself for some time. The last date we have in Dr. Calamy’s account is March 1666, when by the above collation of dates he must have been thirty years of age. Of the year of his death we are left to conjecture from the words, u He was taken out of the vale of tears when he had not been much longer an inhabitant here below than his Blessed Master was.”
Now as it is generally allowed that our Lord was crucified ‘in the thirty-fourth year of his age, suppose we add another year to Mr. Wesley’s life, for the u not much longer,” used by Dr. Calamy above, this will bring down his death to about the year 1670, when he must have been in the thirty-fifth year of his age. And as his father Bartholomew survived him some sho?’t time, he must have lived after the year 1G70 to have outlived his son.
Dr. Whitehead, who gives an abstract of Dr. Calamy’s account of this good man, concludes it with the following reflections: —” 1. Mr. Wesley appears to have made himself master of the controverted points in which he differed from the established Church; and to have made up his opinions from a conviction of their truth. ‘2. He shews an ingenuous mind, free from low cunning, in the open avowal of his sentiments to the Bishop. 3. He appears to have been remarkably conscientious in all his conduct, and a zealous promoter of genuine piety both in himself and others. 4- He discovered great firmness of mind, and an unshaken attachment to his principles in the midst of the most unchristian persecution, and a train of accumulated evils which he suffered on that account.
“These are prominent features in his character which we cannot but admire, however we may differ from him in opinion: they shew a mind elevated far above the common level, even of those who have had the advantages of an academical education.”
Mrs. Wesley long survived her husband: but how long we cannot exactly tell. In a letter of Mr. Samuel Wesley Jun. in 1710 he speaks of having “visited his grandmother Wesley, then a widow of almost forty-eight years.” But as Mr. John Wesley, her husband, must have died about 1670, she could not have been a widow more than forty years in 1710; and, therefore, I suppose forty-eight is a mistake in the copy of Mr. Samuel Wesley’s letter for forty, an error which might very easily take place from the similarity of the latter figures.
It does not appear that this venerable widow had any help from her own family; and there is reason to believe that she was entirely dependent ou and supported by her sons Matthew and Samuel. How far the former may have contributed to her support it is not easy to say: but that she was deeply indebted to the latter I learn from one of his letters to Archbishop Sharpe, dated Epworth, December 30th, 1700.
“The next year niy barn fell, which cost me forty pounds in rebuilding, (thanks to your Grace for a part of it;) and having an aged mother (who must have gone to prison if I had not assisted her,) she cost me upwards of forty pounds more. Ten pounds a year I allow my mother to keep her from starving.”
How doleful was the lot of this poor woman! persecuted with har husband during the whole of her married life, and abandoned to poverty during a long and dreary widowhood.