popular preacher, with a small shrill voice, and noted for his funeral sermons." In his "Dissenting Doctors," Dunton writes in extravagant and doggerel rhyme :

"Shower-thy name and nature both agree,

For both, (yes both,) refreshing showers be-
You're Chrysostom, let down from beams on high,
You preach like him, charm with his orat'ry:
So moving are your sermons, that, 'tis clear,
You've brought the rhetoric of angels here;
So pious in your life, meek in your place,
We think you brought up in the schools of grace-
Your pulpit's fragrant, for you preach in flowers,
And when the hearer 's truly blest, it-Showers—
Showers, indeed! for both thy tongue and pen,
Have often made our graces spring again."

Another of Wesley's school-fellows was the celebrated Daniel Defoe the son of a London butcher, and born the year before Wesley was the master of five languages, and a diligent student of mathematics, natural philosophy, geography, history, and logic; a man who commenced trade as a horse-dealer; but who paid less attention to trade than to politics; and hence, at the age of thirtyone, was bankrupt, and had to compound with his creditors. Trade failing, Defoe turned author, and published several works, which gained him the confidence of King William, and excited great attention. In 1703, he issued his publication entitled, "The Shortest Way with Dissenters," of which more anon. In 1704, he commenced the Review, a periodical which extended to nine quarto volumes, and which pointed the way to the Tatlers, Spectators, and Guardians that followed. After this, he was, in more instances than one, employed by the Government, and was granted a Government pension. By his Family Instructor, the family of George I. were instructed; his "Robinson Crusoe" is too well known to need description; while his "Captain Singleton," "Moll Flanders," "Religious Courtship," "Cavalier," "Colonel Jack," and "Fortunate Mistress;" his "Journal of the Plague," "Political History of the Devil," and "New Voyage Round the World," if not read now, used to be read by admiring myriads. Defoe was a marvellous man, and something more will have to be said concerning him. He died in poverty, four years before Samuel Wesley died, and was buried in Bunhill Fields, in 1731.

Space forbids any further mention of the school-fellows of young Wesley; and we can only add, that, notwithstanding the dangers

to which he was exposed, and excepting the censurable proceedings already noticed, he left London with an unblemished character, and considerably advanced in classical learning, by the instructions of the two pious and eminent men who acted as his tutors. He had the opportunity of attending the ministry of Stephen Charnock, John Bunyan, and many other of the most popular preachers of the day; and, before he went to Oxford, had taken down many hundreds of their sermons. Though he left the Dissenters, it would be folly to deny that these dissenting sermons greatly enriched his mind, and helped to mould his moral character.

[Besides some of the works mentioned at the close of Chapters I and II., the following have contributed to the contents of the present chapter, viz., Clarke's Wesley Family, Dunton's Life and Times, Toulmin's Life of Biddle, Gentleman's Magazine, the Tracts written during the controversy between Wesley and Palmer in 1703-1707, the works mentioned in the course of the chapter, and others.]

CHAPTER IV.

UNIVERSITY DAYS-1683-1688.

SAMUEL WESLEY left the Dissenters in 1683. Why? His son, the Rev. John Wesley, shall answer. His statement is as follows::"Some severe invectives being written against the Dissenters, Mr S. Wesley, being a young man of considerable talents, was pitched upon to answer them. This set him on a course of reading, which soon produced an effect different from what had been intended. Instead of writing the wished-for answer, he himself conceived he saw reason to change his opinions; and actually formed a resolution to renounce the Dissenters, and attach himself to the Established Church. He lived at that time with his mother and an old aunt, both of whom were too strongly attached to the Dissenting doctrines to have borne, with any patience, the disclosure of his design. He therefore got up one morning, at a very early hour, and, without acquainting any one with his purpose, set out on foot to Oxford, and entered himself of Exeter College."

Samuel Wesley's own account is, in substance, the following:While he was a student in the Dissenting academies in London, Dr Owen wished him and some others to graduate at the universities, on the ground that the Dissenters were expecting the times to change, and that in a little while their party would be looked upon with greater favour, and their pupils be allowed to take university degrees. Owen, however, insisted that on no account whatever ought they to take the oaths and subscriptions.

While Wesley was still in doubt whether to adopt Dr Owen's advice, he began to study for himself the usual arguments for separating from the Church. He writes-"I earnestly implored the divine direction in a business of so weighty a concern, and on which so much of my whole life depended. I examined things over and over, as calmly and impassionately as possible; and the farther

I looked, still the more the mist cleared up, and things appeared in another sort of light than I had seen them in all my life before. So far were the sufferings of the Dissenters at that time from influencing my resolution to leave them, that, I profess, it was a thing which retarded me most of any. The ungenerosity of quitting them in their meaner fortunes, when I had been a sharer in their better, I knew not how to get over. Still, I began to have some inclinations to the University, if I knew how to get thither, or to live there when I came; but then I was not acquainted with one soul of the Church of England, or, at least, with none to whom I might address myself for assistance or advice.

"I was now offered employment among the Dissenters, (having been with them nearly four years,) either in a gentleman's house, or as chaplain to an East Indian ship; but my inclinations were more for Oxford, where, I thought, I might have opportunities more fully to study the point which I was now almost resolved

upon.

"Still there were some rubs lay in my way thither, which our people generally urged to prevent us from such intentions. I was told (1.) that the Universities were so scandalously debauched that there was no breathing for a sober man in them; (2.) that the Church of England, so far from encouraging Dissenters to close with her communion, generally frowned on those who did so, and never loved nor trusted them; and (3.) that the nation was so unanimously against the Church of England, that the bishops and hierarchy would certainly have a speedy fall; and even rats and mice were wise enough to quit a tumbling house, and not to run into it."

In reference to the first of these objections, he says-“ I resolved not to believe a word about Oxford debauchery till I saw it, for which now a very happy opportunity offered. Dr Owen having died, the trustees of the £10 exhibition requested me to enter the university with all speed. To this end I went to Oxford, and stayed there some time. I found many sober and religious men, as well as some Rakehells; and discoursed several points on which I still hesitated a little, and received satisfaction on them."

He adds, that having been so long with the Dissenters, he still thought, even after he went to Oxford, that Episcopacy would

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

be abolished; and not being willing to be over hasty, he returned to London to give the subject further consideration. Soon after his return, he had £20 given him,-part of a considerable some of money, left by a Dissenter, to be distributed among ministers. With this he paid his debts, as far as it would go, and then resolved for Oxford as soon as possible,-whither accordingly he went, in the name of God, and entered himself there, the

day in August 1683, a servitor of Exeter College.

When he had been some months at college, and after several letters had passed between them, he was "followed by a young gentleman, one of his fellow-pupils at his first tutor's, who was now a Fellow of Exeter College, and ordained a priest."*

This is all that is known of the reasons that induced Samuel Wesley to leave the Church of his fathers, except another little incident mentioned by himself. He writes-"A reverend and worthy person, my relation, who lived at a great distance, coming to London, was so kind as to see me while I was at Mr Morton's, and gave me such arguments against the Dissenting schism, which I was then embarked with, as added weight to my resolutions, when I began to think of leaving it."

The above account differs from the accounts which previous biographers have published; but, being taken from Mr Wesley's own writings, there can be no doubt of its correctness.

When Samuel Wesley set out for Oxford, all that he possessed was forty-five shillings. By leaving the Dissenters, he had forfeited the friendship of all the friends he had. His mother was a poor forlorn widow, utterly unable to afford him help; and yet, this well-nigh penniless young man resolves to obtain for himself a university education and university degrees. He was nearly five years at college; and yet, five shillings was all the assistance which, during that period, he received from his family and friends. To ride to college was a thing not to be thought about. To use his own expression, he "footed it." His books, his clothes, and his other luggage, were all probably carried in a knapsack on his back. Thus the young student entered Oxford, friendless and well-nigh moneyless, in 1683; and, five years after, he left it, not dishonoured, but with B.A. attached to his subsequently distinguished name, having managed to support himself, and to pay his fees, by his own endeavours, and to bring away with him a * S. Wesley's Letter from a Country Divine. Third edit. 1706.