1. The Solemn League and Covenant was a contract agreed to by the Scots, in the year 1638, for maintaining their religion free from innovation. In 1643 it was brought into England; and on February 2, of that year, it was enacted, by a joint ordinance of both Houses of Parliament, “that the League and Covenant should be solemnly taken and subscribed, in all places throughout the kingdom of England and dominion of Wales, by all persons above the age of eighteen.” Accordingly, it was signed by most of the members of the two houses of legislature, by all the principal officers of the rebel army, by all the Divines of the Assembly then sitting at Westminster, and by a large number of the people in general. Two of the principal vows were—1. That the party taking and subscribing the Covenant would endeavour to “bring the Churches of God in all the three kingdoms to the nearest conjunction and uniformity in religion, confession of faith, and form of church government, as the Directory prescribes for worship and catechising.” And, 2. That he would “endeavour, without respect of persons, to extirpate Popery and Prelacy—that is to say, church government by archbishops and bishops.”

2. And yet, perhaps this is hardly true. A most pitiful picture might be drawn of the clergymen who, twenty years previously, had been expelled from the same churches by the ipse dixit of Oliver Cromwell, whom Bishop Hackett represents as regarding neither parliaments nor patents—neither canons nor scriptures—“in comparison of some new light shining in the lantern of his own head.” Men of learning and religion were in many instances succeeded by “mere rhapsodists and ramblers,” “cried up as rare soul-saving preachers.” Not a few venerable and worthy ministers, expelled by the rough hand of violence, “lingered out their lives, laden and almost oppressed, worried, and worn out with fears, anxieties, necessities, rude affronts, and remediless afflictions.” A great deal may be said on both sides of the question.

3. Baxter estimates the number of the ejected and deprived as from 1800 to 2000. Calamy gives it at 2400. A catalogue in Dr Williams’s library gives 2257. A manuscript, by Oliver Heywood, gives 2500.

4. Wesley’s Works, vol. ii. p. 297.

5. Ibid., vol. xi. p. 37.

6. Gent. Mag., 1785, p. 427.

7. Ibid.

8. Wesley’s History of England, vol. iii. p. 230.

9. Gent. Mag., 1785, p. 487.

10. It will be seen, from the above dates, that two days only elapsed between the issuing of the warrant against John Wesley and the commencement of the assizes. No wonder that he was not prepared for trial.

11. Calamy says Wesley was arrested in the beginning of 1662.

12. Sandford’s Joseph Alleine, &c.

13. Mr Dolling became master of Dorchester School in 1664, and held the office until 1675. He was LL.B of Wadham College, Oxford; and translated “The Whole Duty of Man” into Latin. The work, a copy of which is in the Dorchester School Library, was licensed in 1678.—Hutchin’s History of Dorsetshire.

14. Dryden’s Miscellaneous Works, vol. i. notes, p. 54. 1760.

15. Macaulay.

16. Wesley’s Letter from a Country Divine. Third edit. London: 1706.

17. Gentleman’s Magazine, 1790, p. 63, &c.

18. The £10 exhibition was one of upwards of twenty more, left by Dr G. for the benefit of young scholars designed to be ministers.

19. S. Wesley’s Letter from a Country Divine. Third edit. 1706.

20. For the titles of the poems, see Appendix A.

21. Edition 1729.

22. Dunton’s Life and Errors.

23. Anthony Wood.

24. Wesley’s Works, vol. i., p. 7.

25. Knight’s History of England.

26. See Ellis’s Correspondence, vol. ii., p. 4.

27. I have examined a large number of pamphlets published at this period, hoping to find the “first defence” of Samuel Wesley. A list of some of these will be found in Appendix B. I incline to think that Mr Wesley’s is in that list, but I am not sure.—L. T.

28. Ency. Brit., “Great Britain.”

29. John Wesley says of him:—“He was in every respect a consummate hypocrite, equally void of piety, mercy, honesty, and gratitude. Under a cover of gentleness he was cruel and revengeful to a high degree. He was abandoned to all vices. A worse man never sat on the English throne.”—Wesley’s History of England, vol. iii., p. 316.

30. Macaulay.

31. Knight’s Pictorial History

32. Baxter’s Life and Times.

33. Macaulay.

34. Ibid.

35. Poems by S. Wesley, jun., London, 1736.