Publisher's Synopsis
This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can usually download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated. 1840 edition. Excerpt: ... THE LIFE THE REV. JOHN WESLEY, A. M. CHAPTER I. John and Charles Wesley, the chief founders of that religious body now commonly known by the name of the Wesleyan Methodists, were the sons of the Rev. Samuel Wesley, rector of Epworth, in Lincolnshire. Of this clergyman, and his wife Mrs. Susanna Wesley, who was the daughter of the Rev. Dr. Annesley, as well as of the ancestors of both, an interesting account will be found in Dr. Adam Clarke's "Memoirs of the Wesley Family," and in the "Life of Mr. John Wesley" by Dr. Whitehead, and the more recent one by Mr. Moore. They will be noticed here only so far as a general knowledge of their character may be necessary to assist our judgment as to the opinions and conduct of their more celebrated sons. The rector of Epworth, like his excellent wife, had descended from parents distinguished for learning, piety, and nonconformity. His father dying whilst he was young, he forsook the Dissenters at an early period of life; and his conversion carried'him into High Church principles, and political toryism. He was not however so rigid in the former as to prevent him from encouraging the early zeal of his sons, John and Charles, at Oxford, although it was even then somewhat irregular, when tried by the strictest rules of Church order and custom; and his toryism, sufficiently high in theory, was yet of that class which regarded the rights of the subject tenderly in practice. He refused flattering overtures made by the adherents of James II, to induce him to support the measures of the court, and wrote in favour of the Revolution of 1688; admiring it, probably, less in a political view, than as rescuing a Protestant Church from the dangerous influence of a Popish head. For this service, he was presented...
