he would comply with the King's desire. But he absolutely refused to read the King's Declaration; and though surrounded with courtiers, soldiers, and informers, he preached a bold and pointed discourse against it from Daniel iii, 17, 18.-" If it be so, our God whom we serve is able to deliver us from the burning fiery furnace, and he will deliver us out of thine hand, O King. But if not, be it known unto thee, O king, that we will not serve thy gods, nor worship the golden image which thou hast set up." His son Samuel describes this circumstance in the following lines:

When zealous James, unhappy, sought the way
To 'stablish Rome by arbitrary sway;

In vain were bribes shower'd by the guilty crown,
He sought no favour, as he fear'd no frown.
Secure in faith, exempt from worldly views,
He dared the Declaration to refuse:
Then from the sacred pulpit boldly show'd
The dauntless Hebrews, true to Israel's God,
Who spake, regardless of their King's commands,
"The God we serve can save us from thy hands:
If not, O Monarch, know we choose to die,
Thy gods alike and threat'nings we defy;
No power on earth our faith has e'er controll'd,
We scorn to worship idols, though of gold."
Resistless truth damp'd all the audience round,
The base informer sicken'd at the sound;
Attentive courtiers conscious stood amazed,
And soldiers silent trembled as they gazed.

No smallest murmur of distaste arose,

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

The Jewish martyrs walk'd unhurt in fire.

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

Mr. Wesley held the living of Epworth upwards of forty years. abilities would have done him credit in a more conspicuous situation; and had Queen Mary lived much longer, it is probable that he would not have spent so great a part of his life in such an obscure corner of the kingdom. In the beginning of the year 1705, he printed a poem on the Battle of Blenheim, with which the Duke of Marlborough was so well pleased, that he made him chaplain to Colonel Lepelle's regiment, which was to stay in England some time. In consequence of the same poem, a noble Lord sent for him to London, promising to procure him a prebend. But, unhappily, he was at this time engaged in a controversy with the Dissenters, who, in the first part of Queen Anne's reign, had a very powerful influence in both Houses of Parliament, and at Court; and were then preparing to present a petition to the House of

* MS. papers.

Lords, praying for justice against the authors of several pamphlets written in opposition to them, and against Mr. Wesley in particular: but they were dissuaded from taking this step by two members of that House. They had, however, interest enough to hinder Mr. Wesley from obtaining a prebend's stall; and they soon also worked him out of the chaplainship of the regiment, and brought several other very severe sufferings upon him and his family.

I believe it was at this time, while residing in London, as Mr. J. Wesley informed me, that he happened to go into a coffeehouse to obtain some refreshment. There were some gentlemen in a box at the other end of the room; one of whom, an officer of the Guards, swore dreadfully. Mr. Wesley saw that he could not speak to him without much difficulty; he therefore desired the waiter to bring him a glass of water. When it was brought, he said aloud, "Carry it to that gentleman in the red coat, and desire him to wash his mouth after his oaths." The officer rose up in a fury; but the gentlemen in the box laid hold of him, one of them crying out, "Nay, Colonel! you gave the first offence. You see the gentleman is a clergyman. You know it is an affront to swear in his presence." The officer was thus restrained, and Mr. Wesley departed.

Some years afterwards, being again in London, and walking in St. James's Park, a gentleman joined him, who, after some conversation, inquired if he recollected having seen him before? Mr. Wesley replied in the negative. The gentleman then recalled to his remembrance the scene at the coffeehouse, and added, "Since that time, Sir, I thank God, I have feared an oath, and every thing that is offensive to the Divine Majesty; and as I have a perfect recollection of you, I rejoiced at seeing you, and could not refrain from expressing my gratitude to God and you."-"A word spoken in season, how good is it!"

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

But this conscientious regard to parochial duties, did not divert him from literary pursuits. His favourite study seems to have been the original Scriptures, in which he was indefatigable; a practice which must be commended in a minister of the Gospel, when joined with a proper attention to practical duties.

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

*Mr. C. Wesley's Papers.

"January 26, 1725. "I have some time since designed an edition of the Holy Bible in octavo, in the Hebrew, Chaldee, Septuagint, and the Vulgate, and have made some progress in it. What I desire of you on this article is,1. That you would immediately fall to work, and read diligently the Hebrew text in the Polyglott, and collate it exactly with the Vulgate, writing all, even the least variations or differences between them.2. To these I would have you add the Samaritan text in the last column but one; which is the very same with the Hebrew, except in some very few places, differing only in the Samaritan character, which I think is the true old Hebrew. In twelve months time, you will get through the Pentateuch; for I have done it four times the last year, and am going over it the fifth, and collating the two Greek versions, the Alexandrian and the Vatican, with what I can get of Symmachus and Theodotian," &c.

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

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

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

and after you have thoroughly weighed the whole, as I think the subject deserves, to make the strongest objections you are able against any article of it, where you are not convinced by my observations. For I should not deserve a friend, if I did not esteem those my best friends who do their endeavours to set me right, where I may possibly be mistaken, especially in a matter of great moment."

Mr. Wesley was a voluminous writer. His Latin Commentary on the book of Job is a most elaborate performance; but the subject of this book, and the language in which the commentary is written, are but ill adapted to the generality of modern readers. As a poet, he has been censured by Garth and others; though when he failed, it was, perhaps, as much owing to the difficulty of the subject as to a want of poetical abilities. In an early edition of the Dunciad, he and Dr. Watts were associated together, and involved in the same censure. But it is well known that the earlier editions of this poem were all surreptitious, in which the blanks were filled up by the mere caprice or envy of the editors, without any regard to the intention of the author. Thus, in a surreptitious edition printed in Ireland, the blank in the 104th verse of the first book was filled up with Dryden instead of Dennis, which, no doubt, was far enough from the intention of Mr. Pope. With the same propriety and good judgment, in the surreptitious editions, the names Wesley and Watts were inserted thus, Wly, Ws, in the 126th line of the same book; but they never appeared in any edition published by Mr. Pope. The lines originally stood thus:

A Gothic Vatican! of Greece and Rome,

Well purged, and worthy Withers, Quarles, and Broome.

In a London edition of the Dunciad, printed in 1729, there is the following note on the last of these lines, "It was printed in the surreptitious editions, W-ly, W- -s, who were persons eminent for good life; the one writ the Life of Christ in verse, the other some valuable pieces of the lyric kind, on pious subjects. The line is here restored according to its original."

Of Mr. Wesley's larger poetical performances, his son Samuel passes the following candid and impartial judgment, in the elegy above mentioned:

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

Faith to assert and virtue to defend.

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

Deduced his Maker's praise from age

to age,

Through the long annals of the sacred page.

Most of his smaller pieces are excellent. I shall insert the following, both for its intrinsic beauty, and as a specimen of his poetical talents.

EUPOLIS HYMN TO THE CREATOR.

THE OCCASION.

Part of a (new) dialogue between Plato and Eupolis* the Poet.

The rest not extant.

EUPOLIS.-But is it not a little hard that you should banish all our fraternity from your new commonwealth? What hurt has father Homer done, that you dismiss him among the rest?

PLATO. Certainly, the blind old gentleman lies with the best grace in the world. But a lie, handsomely told, debauches the taste and morals of a people. Besides, his tales of the gods are intolerable, and derogate in the highest degree from the dignity of the Divine Nature.

EUPOLIS.-But do you really think that those faults are inseparable from poetry? May not the ONE SUPREME be sung, without any intermixture of them?

PLATO. I must own, I hardly ever saw any thing of that nature. But I shall be glad to see you, or any other, attempt and succeed in it. On that condition I will gladly exempt you from the fate of your brother poets.

EUPOLIS.-I am far from pretending to be a standard. But I will do the best I can.

THE HYMN.†

AUTHOR of Being, Source of light,
With unfading beauties bright,
Fulness, goodness, rolling round
Thy own fair orb without a bound;
Whether Thee thy suppliants call
Truth or Good, or One, or All,
Ei or Jao: Thee we hail,
Essence that can never fail,
Grecian or Barbaric name,

Thy steadfast being still the same.

Thee, when morning greets the skies,

With rosy cheeks and humid eyes;

Thee, when sweet declining day

Sinks in purple waves away;

Thee will I sing, O parent Jove,

And teach the world to praise and love.

Yonder azure vault on high,

Yonder blue, low, liquid sky,
Earth, on its firm basis placed,

And with circling waves embraced,

*EUPOLIS was an Athenian. He is mentioned several times by Horace, and once by Persius; and was in high estimation at Athens for his poetical compositions, though he severely lashed the vices of the age he lived in. He was killed in an engagement at sea between the Athenians and Lacedemonians, and his death was so much lamented at Athens, that they made a law, that no poet should go to battle. He lived about four hundred years before Christ.

+ It has been disputed whether Mr. Wesley or his daughter, Mrs. Wright, (of whom I shall speak hereafter,) was the writer of this poem. This dispute is of a very recent date, and does not appear to have any real foundation. Many years ago, the Critical Reviewers inserted some sarcasms against the poetry of the Methodists. Mr. John Wesley replied, and sent this poem to them as a specimen. The Reviewers so far did honour to the speci men, as to insert it at large in their next number. Mr. Wesley always declared that it was written by his father.

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