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.

He

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. was therefore obliged to leave home for a considerable time. He at length ventured to return to his family and flock: but nothwithstanding 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 in- ' creasing 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 those places where they were especially needful. He neither mentions. the year of his birth, nor that of his death. He tells us only, "that he began preaching when he was twenty-two, and in May 1658,

was sent to preach at Whitchurch." Now, if this means May of 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 1661, 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 1665. In 1666, 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, "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 "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 short time, he must have lived after the year 1670 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 can

not 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 on 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 my 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 her husband during the whole of her married life, and abandoned to poverty during a long and dreary widowhood.

MATTHEW WESLEY, SURGEON.

WE have already seen that the Rev. John Wesley, ejected from the vicarage of Whitchurch in Dorsetshire, of whom I have lately spoken, is said to have had a numerous family. But the names of Matthew and Samuel only are come down to us. Whether the others died young, or survived their father, we are not informed: but it is most likely that the rest died in infancy; as not even the name of any of them is ever mentioned.

Matthew, after the example of his grandfather Bartholomew, studied physic, and settled in London; after having travelled over the greatest part of Europe for his improvement. He is reported to have been eminent and singularly useful, and is said to have made a large fortune by his medical practice..

It is not likely that his father could have given him an academic education. But as he taught a school for the support of his family, for which he appears to have been well qualified, no doubt his sons, particularly Matthew, who was the eldest, had the rudiments of a clas

sical education from himself, as he was at the death of his father about ten or twelve years of age. And it is very likely that he might have obtained additional instruction at the free school in Dorchester, and in some of the Dissenting academies, as we know his brother Samuel did.

Though Matthew be generally styled a physician, yet we do not know that he ever graduated, or studied in any university, unless it were in a foreign one; and this is not improbable, as, from a passage in the following letter from Mrs. Wesley it appears that Mr. M. Wesley had tried all the spas in Europe, both in Germany and else where. Former times were not so nice in distinctions as the present; surgeons, apothecaries, and medical practitioners of all sorts, were generally termed physicians or doctors: the latter was the most usual title; and this Matthew Wesley might have had by common courtesy, or he might have had it by right. But it is most likely that he had it by courtesy, as he is not styled physician, M. D., nor even doctor, in the verses addressed to his memory by the person who signs himself Sylvius, in the very year in which he died. Besides, he is not termed doctor in any of the family letters which have come under my notice. This at present is a matter of little consequence, and cannot now be determined. The whole family of the Wesleys were blest with a genius that surmounted all difficulties: opposition and unfavourable circumstances only served as a stimulus to industry and enterprize; and they ever rose the higher in proportion to the causes which tended to depress them. This is the grand characteristic of all the branches of this family with whom we are acquainted; and we may safely infer it was the case with the rest.

Mr. M. Wesley resided and practised chiefly in London. In the year 1731 he visited his brother's family at Epworth. This visit is described by Mrs. Wesley in a letter to her son John, who was then at Oxford; and as it contains some curious particulars, I shall lay it before the Reader.

"My brother Wesley had designed to have surprised us, and had travelled under a feigned name from London to Gainsborough: but there sending his man out for a guide into the Isle the next day, the man told one that keeps our market his master's name, and that he was going to see his brother, which was minister of Epworth. The man he informed met with Molly in the market about an hour before my brother got thither. She, full of the news, hastened home, and told us her uncle Wesley was coming to see us: but we could hardly believe her. 'Twas odd to observe how all the town took the alarm, and were upon the gaze, as if some great prince had been about to

make his entry. He rode directly to John Dawson's (the Inn;) but we had soon notice of his arrival, and sent John Brown with an invitation to our house. He expressed some displeasure at his servant for letting us know of his coming, for he intended to have sent for Mr. Wesley to dine with him at Dawson's, and then come to visit us in the afternoon. However he soon followed John home, where we were all ready to receive him with great satisfaction.

He

"His behaviour among us was perfectly civil and obliging. spake little to the children the first day, being employed (as he afterwards told them) in observing their carriage, and seeing how he liked them; afterwards he was very free, and expressed great kindness to them all.

"He was strangely scandalized at the poverty of our furniture; and much more at the meanness of the children's habit. He always talked more freely with your sisters of our circumstances than to me; and told them he wondered what his brother had done with his income, for 'twas visible he had not spent it in furnishing his house, or clothing his family.

"We had a little talk together sometimes, but it was not often we could hold a private conference; and he was very shy of speaking any thing relating to the children before your father, or indeed of any other matter. I informed him, as far as I handsomely could, of our losses, &c. for I was afraid that he should think I was about to beg of him: but the girls (with whom he had many private discourses) I believe told him every thing they could think on.

"He was particularly pleased with Patty; and one morning before Mr. Wesley came down he asked me if I was willing to let Patty go and stay a year or two with him at London! 'Sister,' says he,

'I have endeavoured already to make one of your children easy while she lives; and if you please to trust Patty with me, I will endeavour to make her so too.' Whatever others may think, I thought this a generous offer; and the more so, because he had done so much for Sukey and Hetty. I expressed my gratitude as well as I could; and would have had him speak to your father, but he would not himself, he left that to me; nor did he ever mention it to Mr. Wesley till the evening before he left us.

"He always behaved himself very decently at family prayers, and in your father's absence said grace for us before and after meat. Nor did he ever interrupt our privacy: but went into his own chamber when we went into our's.

"He staid from Thursday to the Wednesday after; then he left us to go to Scarborough; from whence he returned the Saturday