Mr Wesley took his degree of Bachelor of Arts at Oxford on the 19th of June 1688. Exactly seven weeks afterwards, he was ordained a deacon of the Church of England. He writes: “I tarried in Exeter College, though I met with some hardships I had before been unacquainted with, till I was of standing sufficient to take my Bachelor’s degree; and not being able to subsist there afterwards, I came to London during the time of my Lord Bishop of London’s suspension by the High Commission, and was instituted into deacon’s orders by my Lord Bishop of Rochester, at his palace at Bromley, August 7, 1688.” It is an incident worth remembering, that Mr Wesley left Oxford during the trial of the seven bishops, and was ordained amid the intense excitement which arose out of that event.

In the above quotation he makes mention of his “hardships” in Exeter College. We are left to guess what the hardships were; but remembering that, when he entered, all the money he had was only about forty shillings—remembering that he remained in the college for nearly five years,—and remembering that, for that, length of time, he had to support himself by serving others; and that the only assistance he received from his friends was a five shillings piece, there can be no difficulty in perceiving that his collegiate life must have been no ordinary struggle.

Mr Wesley was ordained a deacon at Bromley by the Bishop of Rochester, the well-known Dr Thomas Sprat. This prelate was a man of considerable eminence. He began life as a fellow of Wadham College, Oxford, where, on the death of Oliver Cromwell, he gave a specimen of his poetical talents in an “Ode to the Happy Memory of the late Lord Protector.” He subsequently became a fellow of the Royal Society, chaplain to George, Duke of Buckingham, chaplain in ordinary to King Charles II., canon of Windsor, Dean of Westminster, clerk of the closet to King James II., dean of the Chapel Royal, and Bishop of Rochester. He was an intimate friend of the poet Cowley, who, by his last will, left to his care his printed works and MSS. His preferment to the bench of bishops was considered as a reward for the service he rendered in drawing up, at the command of King Charles II., an account of the Rye House Plot. His known sympathy for James II. brought upon him a large amount of popular indignation; so much so that, at the trial of the seven bishops, while the air rang with loud huzzas for the persecuted prelates, it was also filled with execrations against Sprat and his fawning associates. Strangely enough, it was just at this time that Sprat ordained Samuel Wesley. An odd incident happened four years afterwards. His principles being so well known, Bishop Sprat was involved with others in an information laid before the Privy Council of a pretended conspiracy for restoring James II. Sprat was arrested, and kept under a strict guard for eleven days, but effectually cleared himself of the accusation. He was so much affected, however, by the danger to which it had exposed him, that, to the end of his days, he commemorated his deliverance by an annual thanksgiving. He died in 1713. Though somewhat of a time-server, he was a man of great ability. Dunton, in his “Characters of Eminent Conformists,” is most extravagant in praising him: his style is matchless, his wit flowing, his thoughts deep, and his poems beautiful.

Samuel Wesley was ordained a priest of the Church of England, by Dr Compton, in St Andrew’s Church, Holborn, on February 24, 1689. This was twelve days after the Prince and Princess of Orange were declared by parliament to be King and Queen of Great Britain.

Compton was a man even more remarkable than Sprat. He was the youngest son of Spencer, Earl of Northampton. On leaving the university, he went to the Continent, for the purpose of perfecting himself in the modern languages. After the restoration of Charles II., he became cornet of a regiment of horse; but soon resigned his commission, and devoted himself to the service of the church. He successively became Canon-commoner of Christ-Church College, Rector of Cottenham, Master of St Crosse’s Hospital, Canon of Christ-Church, Bishop of Oxford, Dean of the Royal Chapel, and finally Bishop of the diocese of London. He was intrusted with the education of the two princesses, Mary and Anne, whom he also afterwards married to the Princes of Orange and Denmark; and their firmness in the Protestant religion was in a great measure owing to his instructions. For his steadfast opposition to Popery, and for refusing to become an instrument of ecclesiastical tyranny among the clergy of his diocese, he was suspended, by James II., from his Episcopal office, his name was struck from the list of the Privy Council, and he was deprived of his office as Dean of the Royal Chapel. His suspension was the reason why Samuel Wesley was ordained a deacon by the chameleon-like Dr Sprat. On the invasion of the Prince of Orange, he was restored to his Episcopal functions; he performed the ceremony of crowning King William and Queen Mary; was appointed one of the Commissioners for revising the Liturgy; and laboured with much zeal to reconcile Dissenters to the Established Church. His spirit of moderation made him unpopular with the clergy, and, in all probability, checked his further promotion. He died in the same year as Bishop Sprat, at the age of eighty-one. Through the whole of a long life, he was exemplary in his moral conduct, and displayed the manners of a gentleman. He was a warm friend, a generous patron, a respectable writer, a faithful bishop, but a dull and inanimate preacher. Such were the two prelates who ordained Samuel Wesley.

At the time that Mr Wesley entered upon his ministerial career, there were, in the English Church, some of the most distinguished divines that it has ever had. There was Stillingfleet, Bishop of Worcester, a prelate of great learning and piety, and whose “Origines Sacræ” and “Origines Britannicæ” are still held in high esteem. There was Tillotson, the son of a Yorkshire clothier, who was raised to the see of Canterbury, and whose sermons, when published, were regarded as a standard of finished oratory, and still rank among the most popular in the English language. There was the godly Thomas Kenn, Bishop of Bath and Wells, the well-known author of the “Morning and Evening Hymns.” There was William Sancroft, who took an active part in repairing St Paul’s Cathedral after the dilapidations of the civil wars, and in rebuilding it after the great fire of London; one of the seven bishops, who, for bearding King James II., was committed to the Tower; and who, for refusing the oath of allegiance to King William, lost his archbishopric; a timorous, but well-meaning man, laborious in his studies, and who is said to have written more with his own hand than any other person of his time. There was Robert South, a man of immense talents, though of harsh temper and ungoverned wit. There was Gilbert Burnet, Bishop of Salisbury, a most industrious writer, and author of the “History of the Reformation.” There was John Sharp, Archbishop of York, an able preacher, and the author of seven volumes of valuable sermons. There was Thomas Tennison, Archbishop of Canterbury, who had the esteem of King James, attended Queen Mary during her last moments, faithfully reproved King William for his immoral practices, and officiated at the coronation of Queen Anne and of King George I.,—an able opponent of the infidel opinions of Hobbes; a defender of the Established Church against Popery; though not a brilliant, yet a clear and argumentative writer; and though a plain yet a forcible preacher. There was William Beveridge, Bishop of St Asaph, an eminent Oriental scholar, a distinguished theologian, and a man of great goodness and simplicity. There was White Kennett, a man of great literary labours, his judgment solid, his style easy, and who died Bishop of the diocese of Peterborough. There was Daniel Whitby, profoundly learned, who, in 1703, published in two volumes folio his able “Commentary on the New Testament,” the result of fifteen years of close application. There was George Hooper, Bishop of Bath and Wells, and greatly distinguished both as a writer and divine. William Fleetwood, Bishop of Ely, an active prelate, an eloquent preacher, and a learned, industrious, and able writer. William Derham, the able author of “Physico-Theology.” William Lowth, amiable and erudite, and the father of the bishop of that name. Thomas Wilson, Bishop of Sodor and Man, a man of respectable scientific and classical attainments, but distinguished most for his Christian benevolence. Others might be mentioned, and, besides these, a large number of other clergy, who, though not so eminent for their learning and literary productions, were quite equal for unassuming and zealous piety.

It is scarce credible that, with such bishops at the head of the English Church, there should not be hundreds of quiet, godly, earnest, useful ministers, acting under them, all of them of the same sterling character as Samuel Wesley. It is a great mistake to imagine that, up to the time of Samuel Wesley’s sons, John and Charles, the English clergy were, almost without exception, ignorant, indolent, heterodox, worldly, and wicked. Doubtless there were a large number of such men; but there were likewise a large number of another and much better class.

At the same period, the Dissenters also had a considerable number of able and useful preachers. For example, there was Daniel Williams, the most influential Presbyterian minister of his day; the successor of Richard Baxter at Pinner’s Hall, the author of six volumes of cumbrous controversy, and the founder of the magnificent library of Red Cross Street. There was Daniel Burgess, extremely popular on account of his quaint and familiar style of pulpit oratory. There was Benjamin Keach, once sentenced to stand in the pillory for publishing his “Child’s Instructor,” and whose “Travels of True Godliness” and “Scripture Metaphors” have been read by myriads; a man whom Dunton represents as mounted upon an Apocalyptic Beast, with Babylon before him, Zion behind him, and a hundred thousand bulls and bears roaring and ramping round about him. There was Vincent Alsop, a man of piety and worth, with a glowing fancy and a lively wit. There was Matthew Henry, whose labours as a preacher were almost incessant, and who yet found time to write one of the largest and most useful Expositions of the Holy Bible ever published. There was Matthew Sylvester, a man of “godly life and great ability in the ministerial work,” to whom, as an intimate friend, Baxter left his “MS. Narrative of his Life and Times.” And there were also still surviving not a few of the noble Nonconformist ministers ejected in 1662.

As Samuel Wesley was not only a Christian minister, but likewise an author of considerable eminence, this attempt at photographing portraits will scarce be perfect, without a passing glance at the literary and other celebrities, who were flourishing at the time of Wesley’s ordination, and with some of whom he ran a literary race.

Robert Harley, Earl of Oxford, was just rising into fame and power, and preparing the way for the high position which he occupied during the reign of Anne. John Churchill, Duke of Marlborough, was just appointed commander-in-chief of the British forces. George Byng, the celebrated admiral, was beginning to display the bravery and the naval skill for which he is still remembered. John Radcliffe, the renowned physician, had recently removed to London, where he received from King William, during the first six years of his reign, nearly eight thousand guineas for his professional assistance. Isaac Newton, the unrivalled philosopher, was just elected one of the representatives of the Cambridge University. Sir Hans Sloane was bringing home eight hundred species of plants from the West Indies. Richard Bentley, the son of a Yorkshire blacksmith, had just removed with his pupil, Stillingfleet’s son, to the Oxford University, having already evinced his amazing powers as a scholar and a critic. Matthew Prior was writing his poem on the Deity. Jonathan Swift, having lost his uncle, and being almost penniless, was applying, by the advice of his mother, to the celebrated Sir William Temple to afford him shelter, and to find him bread. William Penn was writing his prolix “Maxims and Reflections on Human Life.” Sir Godfrey Kneller, with King James before him, was painting a portrait of that monarch at the very moment when the landing of Prince William was announced. Grinling Gibbons, whom Evelyn considers the greatest of all sculptors, was at the zenith of his fame. Sir Christopher Wren was building St Paul’s Cathedral. Dryden, deprived of his official emoluments by the abdication of King James, was now writing for bread, and producing some of the finest pieces he ever published. John Locke, whom Dr Watts describes as having a soul wide as the sea, calm as the night, and bright as the day, was finishing his immortal “Essay on the Human Understanding.” And Robert Boyle, not unworthy to be ranked with Lord Bacon, acquainted with the whole compass of mathematical sciences, and from whose works may be deduced the whole system of natural knowledge, was, as usual, regulating, by a thermometer, the quantity of clothes he ought to wear.

Such were some of the illustrious men flourishing at this period. We shall meet with others farther on.

Mr Wesley’s first ecclesiastical appointment was a curacy, with an income of £28 a-year. He was then appointed chaplain on board a man-of-war, where his salary was at the rate of £70 a-year, and where he began his poem on the Life of Christ. He then obtained another curacy in London, his ecclesiastical income during the two years’ service that he rendered, being £30 per annum, an amount which he doubled by his industry and writings. It was while he held this appointment that he married, he and his wife living in lodgings, until after the birth of their first-born, Samuel.

The young lady, who became Mr Wesley’s wife, was Susanna Annesley, the daughter of Dr Annesley, one of the leading Nonconformist ministers of London.

Dr Annesley was born at Haseley in Warwickshire, in the year 1620. His father was cousin of the Earl of Anglesea, and died when Samuel was but four years of age. His education devolved on his pious mother, who brought him up in the fear of God. From his early childhood his heart was set on preaching; and, to qualify himself for that sacred work, he began, when he was only five or six years old, seriously to read the Bible; and such was his ardour that he bound himself to read twenty chapters daily, a practice which he continued to the end of life. Though a child, he never varied from his purpose to become a preacher; nor was he discouraged by a dream, in which “he thought he was a minister, and was sent for by the Bishop of London to be burnt as a martyr.” At fifteen years of age, he went to Queen’s College, Oxford, and there took the degree of LL.D. When he was twenty-four he became chaplain of his Majesty’s ship Globe, under the command of the Earl of Warwick. Not liking a seafaring life, he left the navy, and settled at Cliff in Kent, in the place of a minister who had been sequestered for his scandalous living; but of whom the rude and ignorant parishioners were so extremely fond, that when Annesley, his successor, first went among them, they assailed him with spits, forks, and stones, threatening to take away his life. In a few years his labours had surprising success, and the people were greatly reformed.

In July 1648, he was called to London to preach the fast sermon before the House of Commons, which, by imperial order, was printed. In 1652, he relinquished his living at Cliff, which was worth £400 a year, and became minister of the Church of St John the Apostle in London. Five years after he was made lecturer at St Paul’s, and, in 1658, became vicar and “soul-servant,” as he terms himself, of St Giles’s, Cripplegate. He now had two of the largest congregations in the city. The Cripplegate living was worth £700 per annum.

With two thousand other ministers he was ejected by the Act of Uniformity, and had his fair share of subsequent persecution. One magistrate, while signing a warrant to apprehend him, dropped down dead.

Samuel Annesley was a large-hearted man, and was extensively useful. He had the care of all the Nonconformist churches in the capital upon him; and was the chief instrument in the education and subsistence of several ministers, of whose useful labours the church would otherwise have been deprived.

In 1672, when King Charles, for the sake of the Papists, unconstitutionally suspended for a little while the penal laws in matters of religion, Dr Annesley licensed a meeting-house in St Helen’s Place, Bishopsgate Street, where he raised a large and flourishing church, of which he continued the pastor until his death. He was the main support of the morning lecture, and always laid aside a tenth part of his income for charitable purposes. He had a weekly meeting of ministers in his vestry at St Helen’s Place; and, once a month, there were Latin disputations upon theology; but, as these engendered heated debates among the ministers, they were dropped. In the same meeting-house at St Helen’s Place, Edmund Calamy was ordained in 1694, his being the first public ordination among the Dissenters for more than thirty years. Dr Annesley and five other ministers took part in the ordination service, which lasted nearly nine hours, from before ten o’clock in the morning to past six o’clock at night. During the last thirty years of his life he had uninterrupted peace of spirit, arising from an uninterrupted assurance of God’s forgiving love. He closed his useful ministry, of more than fifty-five years’ continuance, December 31st, 1696. His death occurred in Spittal Yard, and he lies interred in the burial-ground of St Leonard’s, Shoreditch. His funeral sermon was preached by the Rev. Daniel Williams, and, in an enlarged form, was published by Dunton in 1697, making a small volume of one hundred and fifty pages. Williams states in the biography, that Annesley was of so hale and hardy a constitution, as to endure the coldest weather without using hat, gloves, or fire. For many years he seldom drank anything but water, and, to the day of his death, he could read the smallest print without spectacles. He was an eminently useful man, and, in most things, a pattern worthy of imitation. A short time before he died his joy was such that he exclaimed, “I cannot contain it. What manner of love is this to a poor worm! I cannot express the thousandth part of the praise due to Christ. I’ll praise Thee, and rejoice that there are others that can praise Thee better!”

The celebrated Richard Baxter, who was no eulogist, remarks:—“Dr Annesley is a most sincere, godly, humble man,—an Israelite indeed: one that may be said to be sanctified from the womb.” Dunton, his son-in-law, says—“He was a man of wonderful piety and humility. The great business and the pleasure of his life was to persuade sinners back to God. His Nonconformity created him many troubles; but they never altered the goodness and cheerfulness of his humour.” Daniel Defoe was one of his congregation, and wrote an elegy respecting him, which Dunton published. Defoe, speaking of his early piety, says:—

Dr Annesley had a large family. Dunton relates that when Dr Manton was baptizing one of Annesley’s children, he was asked how many more he had? he replied, he believed it was either two dozen or a quarter of a hundred. Of these four or five-and-twenty young Annesleys, however, Dr Clark could find not more than the names of seven—viz, Samuel, Benjamin, Judith, Sarah, Ann, Elizabeth, and Susanna. Samuel went abroad in the service of the East India Company, accumulated a considerable fortune, and intended to return to England; but, all at once, he suddenly disappeared, and no account was ever received, either of his person or of his property. The probability is that he was robbed and murdered.^[38] Benjamin Annesley was “an ingenuous youth,” and was appointed an executor of his father’s will. Judith was eminently pious, and loved good books more than other young ladies loved fine clothes. She was exceedingly beautiful; and refused to marry a gentleman of splendid fortune because he was addicted to his cups. Of Sarah, we find no information. Ann was a wit, and was as fine a woman as nature and art ever formed. She married Mr James Fremantle; and Dunton says, she was the only person he ever knew whom an estate made more humble. Her life was one continued act of tenderness, wit, and piety. Elizabeth Annesley will be mentioned hereafter. Susanna became the wife of Samuel Wesley.

Having sketched the life of the father of Susanna Wesley, a few lines must be devoted to her mother. It is a remarkable fact, that as the father of Samuel Wesley’s mother was named John White, so the father of Susanna Wesley’s mother was named John White also. Both of them were men of mark. John White, “the Patriarch of Dorchester,” is brought before the reader in Chapter II. The other John White, the grandfather of Susanna Wesley, is too important a character to be overlooked. He was the son of Henry White, of Heylan, in Pembrokeshire, where he was born, June 29, 1590. He entered Jesus College, Oxford, when about seventeen years of age; and, after completing his studies, was admitted to the Middle Temple, and, in due time, became a member of the Bar, and a bencher of that society. While a barrister, he was much employed by the Puritans in the purchase of impropriations, which were to be given to those of their own party. In 1640, he was elected Member of Parliament for the borough of Southwark. He now joined in all the proceedings which led to the overthrow of the Established Church. He was appointed chairman of the Committee for Religion, and was also a member of the Westminster Assembly of Divines. In a speech of his, made in the House of Commons, and published in 1641, he contends that the office of bishop and presbyter is the same; and that the offices of deacons, chancellors, vicars, surrogates, and registrars, are all of human origin, and ought to be abolished, as being altogether superfluous and of no service to the Church. He says that Episcopacy had been intrusted with the care of souls for more than eighty years; and now, as a consequence, nearly four-fifths of the churches throughout the kingdom were held by idle or scandalous ministers. He alleges that, even during the present parliament, the House of Commons and its committees had been furnished with abundant evidence that it was of no use to report “scandalous ministers” to their bishops, for they received no censure, save a harmless admonition; while, on the other hand, if the bishops happened to discover a godly and learned preacher within the limits of their diocese, they did their utmost to scatter his congregation, and to expel him from his church. He admits that some of the bishops are good men; but the bishops who are good men, are all bad bishops,—a sufficient proof, in his estimation, that the very office is itself a curse.

The speech, from which the above is taken, fills fourteen small quarto pages, is full of texts of Scripture, and as dry as a lawyer’s eloquence could make it.

As already stated, John White was appointed chairman of the Committee for Religion. It was the duty of that committee to receive all petitions of parishioners against their pastors, with lists of ministerial misdemeanours. In 1643, one hundred examples of those scandalous clergy were drawn up by White, and were published in a book, entitled, “The First Century of Scandalous, Malignant Priests.” In the preface, White says, “The ensuing summary declaration of the grounds whereupon Parliament had proceeded against divers ministers to sequester their benefices from them, and place in their room godly and learned preachers of the Word of God, may serve many excellent purposes—as 1, To show that the Episcopal form of church government is evil, and that parliament had good cause to abolish it; 2, That the bishops had not only neglected their duties, but had appointed to benefices drunkards, whoremongers, and adulterers; 3, The book will show what sort of men the clergy are who favour the king; and 4, The cause of the general ignorance and debauchery of the gentry and people of this kingdom.”

White then gives the one hundred examples of scandalous parsons. These examples now lie before us, but they are too gross and defiling to be reprinted. The curious reader, anxious to know what they are, may find them in the British Museum, bound up in a volume, given to the Museum by George III. The pamphlet is quarto, and contains fifty-seven pages. White promised to publish a “Second Century” of cases, but he either was unable to find sufficient materials, or perhaps his intention was frustrated by his death, which occurred a few months after. Eight thousand clergy were ejected from their livings during the civil wars, on the ground of heterodoxy, viciousness of life, superstition, or malignancy against parliament: but White has given the character of one hundred only. Clarendon says, that petitions were often presented by a few of the rabble, and against the general sense and judgment of the parish. He avers that many were designated “scandalous clergy,” who were men of great gravity and learning, and who lived the most unblemished lives. He adds, that White was “a grave lawyer, but notoriously disaffected to the Church.” Of course Clarendon knew the men, but his party feeling was such that what he says requires to be received with caution.

John White died shortly after the publication of his “First Century of Scandalous, Malignant Priests,” viz., on the 29th of January 1644, and was buried in the Temple Church, where a marble stone was afterwards placed upon his grave, with this inscription:—

Such was the grandfather of Susanna Wesley. Her mother was one of whom but very little has been left on record. She was a woman of sincere piety. She conscientiously endeavoured to bring up her children in the nurture and admonition of the Lord. She was greatly loved by her husband, and both lie buried in the same sacred grave.

After the faithful and beautiful portraiture of Susanna Wesley, recently published by the Rev. John Kirk, it would be worse than superfluous to relate her history here. We wish that her letters were published in a collected form, not only because of their intrinsic excellence, but also because they would help to depict her refined intellect and her earnest piety. She was in all respects a remarkable woman. Like her father, she was godly from childhood. When she died, in 1742, her sons had four verses inscribed on her tombstone, teaching, if they teach anything, that she was not received into the divine favour until she attained the age of seventy. This is a monstrous perversion of facts, and can only be accounted for on the ground that John and Charles Wesley were so enamoured of their blessed and newly-discovered doctrines, that as yet they felt it difficult to think any one to be scripturally converted except those who had obtained a sense of pardon, and had experienced an instantaneous change of heart, under circumstances similar to their own. If Susanna Wesley was not converted many a long year previous to her death, and previous to the conversion of her sons, we have yet to learn what conversion is. Having read her letters and her other literary productions, we are satisfied that, if there ever was a sincere and earnest Christian, she was one.

Her intellectual was as remarkable as her Christian character. Let any one read her writings, and, unless he is blinded with prejudice, he will willingly acknowledge that, for vigorous thought, mental discipline, clearness of apprehension, logical acumen, extensive theological knowledge, purity of style, and force of utterance, Susanna Wesley has few superiors. She was not a poetess, but, if such language may be used concerning a lady, she was an accomplished scholar, a learned student, a correct philosopher, and a profound divine. Dr A. Clarke observes, “She appears to have had the advantage of a liberal education, as far as Latin, Greek, and French enter into such an education.” Though her knowledge of these languages might be far from perfect, yet the fact itself may be taken as an indication of the mental energy of her character, for at that period female education was most scandalously neglected. Macaulay writes, “The literary stores of the lady of the manor and her daughters generally consisted of a prayer-book and a book of receipts. The English women of that generation were decidedly worse educated than they have been at any other time since the revival of learning. If a damsel had the least smattering of literature she was regarded as a prodigy. Ladies highly born, highly bred, and naturally quick-witted, were unable to write a line in their mother tongue without solecisms and faults of spelling, such as a charity girl would now be ashamed to commit. One instance will suffice. Queen Mary had good natural abilities, had been educated by a bishop, was fond of history and poetry, and was regarded by very eminent men as a superior woman, and yet there is in the library of the Hague a superb English Bible, which was delivered to her when she was crowned in Westminster Abbey, in the title page of which are these words, in her own hand, ‘This book was given the King and I at our crownation.—Marie R.’” In such an age Susanna Annesley acquired an education embracing in its compass Latin, Greek, and French.

We pass over the management of her children, and simply add that, as a wife, she was affectionate and obedient. Writing of her husband, after they had been more than thirty years married, she says, “Since I have taken my husband, ‘for better for worse,’ I’ll take my residence with him; ‘where he lives will I live, and where he dies will I die, and there will I be buried.’ God do so unto me, and more also if aught but death part him and me.”

No wonder that Samuel Wesley was passionately attached to such a wife. She was in her person not only graceful but beautiful. Sir Peter Lely, the painter of the “beauties” of his age, has left a portrait of her sister Judith, representing her as a lady of rare charms; and yet one who knew them both has said, “Beautiful as Miss Annesley appears, she was far from being as beautiful as Mrs Wesley.” If her husband had not loved and respected her as much as she loved and respected him, he would have been unworthy of her. Four years after their marriage, and when cooped up in the miserable little parsonage at South Ormsby, Mr Wesley published his “Life of Christ,” in which there is the following poetic portrait of his noble-hearted wife, and of the sort of life they lived in their humble hut, near the shores of the German sea:—

Such was the nuptial life of Samuel and Susanna Wesley. They were married about the year 1689, but where and by whom there is no evidence to show. For about forty-six years they bravely battled with their domestic trials, and, after a seven years’ separation, were, in 1742, reunited in that happy world, where “the wicked cease from troubling and the weary are at rest.” “No man,” says Southey, “was ever more suitably mated than Samuel Wesley. The wife whom he chose was, like himself, the child of a man eminent among the Nonconformists, and, like himself, in early life she had chosen her own path. She had examined the controversy between the Dissenters and the Church of England with conscientious diligence, and satisfied herself that the schismatics were in the wrong. She had reasoned herself into Socinianism, from which her husband reclaimed her. She was an admirable woman, an obedient wife, an exemplary mother, and a fervent Christian. The marriage was blest in all its circumstances; it was contracted in the prime of their youth; it was fruitful and death did not divide them till they were full of days.”

[The facts contained in this chapter have been gathered from Clarke’s Wesley Family; Dunton’s Life and Errors; Defoe’s Works; Knight’s History of England; Baxter’s Life and Times; Calamy’s Nonconformist Memorials; Calamy’s Life and Times; Clarendon’s History of the Rebellion; Williams’s Funeral Sermon for Annesley; Chambers’s Biographical Dictionary; John White’s Speech in the House of Commons in 1641; John White’s Century of Scandalous Priests, &c., &c.]