Book 1, Chapter 6
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71 CHAPTER VI. Some Account of the Life of the Rev. Charles Wesley, A. M. SECTION I. OF HIS BIRTH, AND EDUCATION UNTIL HIS ORDINATION IN 1735. Mr. Charles Wesley was born December 18, 1708, old style, sev eral weeks before his time, at Epworth in Lincolnshire; being about five years younger than his brother John Wesley, and about sixteen younger than Samuel. He appeared dead rather than alive when he was bom. He did not cry, nor open his eyes, and was kept wrapt up in soft wool until the time when he should have been born according to the usual course of nature, and then he opened his eyes and cried. He received the first rudiments of learning at home, under the pious care of his mother, as all the other children did. In 1716 he was sent to Westminster school, and placed under the care of his 72 THE LIFE OF THE KEV. CHARLES WESLEY. eldest brother Samuel Wesley, an high churchman, who educated him in his own principles. He was exceedingly sprightly and active; very apt to learn, but arch and unlucky, though not ill-natured. When he had been some years at school, Mr. R. Wesley, a gentle man of large fortune in Ireland, wrote to his father, and asked if he had any son named Charles; if so, he would make him his heir. Accordingly a gentleman in London brought money for his education several years. But one year another gentleman called, probably Mr. Wesley himself, talked largely with him, and asked if he was willing to go with him to Ireland. Mr. Charles desired to write to his father, who answered immediately, and referred it to his own choice. He chose to stay in England. Mr. W. then found and adopted another Charles Wesley, who was the late Earl of M—n—g—n. A fair es cape, says Mr. John Wesley, from whose short account of his brother I have taken this anecdote. From this time Mr. Charles Wesley depended chiefly on his brother Samuel till 1721, when he was admitted a scholar of St. Peter’s Col lege, *Westminster. He was now a King’s scholar; and as he advanced in age and learning, he acted dramas, and at length became captain of the school. In 1726 he was elected to Christ Church, Ox ford, j- at which time his brother was Fellow of Lincoln College. Mr. John Wesley gives the following account of him after he came to Oxford : “ He pursued his studies diligently, and led a regular harm less life: but if I spoke to him about religion, he would warmly answer, ‘What, would you have me to be a saint all at once?’ and would hear no more. I was then near three years my father’s curate. During most of this time he continued much the same; but in the year 1729 I observed his letters grew much more serious, and when I returned to Oxford in November that year, I found him in great earnestness to save his soul.” Mr. Charles Wesley gives the following account of himself for the first year or two after he went to Oxford.J “My first year at college I lost in diversions: the next I set myself to study. Dili gence led me into serious thinking: I went to the weekly sacrament, and persuaded two or three young students to accompany me, and to observe the method of study prescribed by the statutes of the univer sity. This gained me the harmless name of Methodist. In half a year (after this) my brother left his curacy at Epworth, and came to our assistance. We then proceeded regularly in our studies, and in doing what good we could to the bodies and souls of men.” It was in the year 1728, in the twentieth year of his age, that he be gan to apply more closely to study, and to be more serious in his gene * Welch’s List of Scholars of St. Peter’s College, Westminster, as they were elected to Christ-church College, Oxford, and Trinity College, Cambridge, p. 105. 1 Ibid. p. 110. | In his letter to Dr. Chandler. THE LIFE OF THE REV. CHARLES WESLEY. 73 ral deportment than usual. He soon gave proof of his sincere desire to be truly religious, by expressing a wish to write a diary, in which he intended to register daily the state of his mind, and the actions of the day. A diary of this kind, faithfully kept, is a delineation of a man’s moral and religious character; it is a moral picture of the man accu rately drawn. No man wishes to draw his own character in this way, in every little circumstance of life, and to review it often, but he who is desirous to think and act rightly, and to improve daily in knowl edge and virtue. He knew that his brother, Mr. John Wesley, had kept such a diary for several years, and was able to give him instruc tions how to proceed. He therefore wrote to him in January, 1729, as follows: “I would willingly write a diary of my actions, but do not know how to go about it. What particulars am I to take notice of ? Am I to give my thoughts and words, as well as deeds, a place in it? I am to mark all the good and ill I do; and what besides? Must I not take account of my progress in learning, as well as reli gion? What cypher can I make use of? If you would direct me to the same, or like method to your own, I would gladly follow it, for I am fully convinced of the usefulness of such an undertaking. I shall be at a stand till I hear from you. “God has thought fit, it may be to increase my wariness, to deny me at present your company and assistance. It is through him strengthening me, I trust to maintain my ground till we meet. And I hope, that neither before nor after that time, I shall relapse into my former state of insensibility. It is through your means, I firmly be lieve, that God will establish what he has begun in me; and there is no one person I would so willingly have to be the instrument of good to me as you. It is owing, in great measure, to somebody’s prayers (my mother’s most likely) that I am come to think as I do; for I cannot tell myself, how or when I awoke out of my lethargy—only that it was not long after you went away.” The enemies of the Christian Revelation, and friends of Deism, were so much increased about this time, and were become so bold and daring in their attempts to propagate their principles in the univer sity, as to rouse the attention of the Vice-Chancellor; who, with the consent of the Heads of Houses and Proctors, issued the following programme, or edict, which was fixed up in most of the halls of the university. “ Whereas there is too much reason to believe, that some members of the university have of late been in danger of being corrupted by ill-designing persons, who have not only entertained wicked and blasphemous notions, contrary to the truth of the Christian religion; but have endeavored to instil the same ill principles into others: and the more effectually to propagate their infidelity, have applied their poison to the unguarded inexperience of less informed minds, where they thought it might operate with better success : carefully conceal- 7 10 74 THE LIFE OF THE REV. CHARLES WESLEY. ing their impious tenets from those whose riper judgment and more wary conduct might discover their false reasoning, and disappoint the intended progress of their infidelity. And whereas therefore, it is more especially necessary at this time, to guard the youth of this place against these wicked advocates for pretended human reason, against divine revelation, and to enable them the better to defend their religion, and to expose the pride and impiety of those who endeavor to undermine it; Mr. Vice-Chancellor, with the consent of the Heads of Houses and Proctors, has thought fit to recommend it, as a matter of the utmost consequence, to the several tutors of each col lege and hall in the university, that they discharge their duty by a double diligence, in informing their respective pupils in their Chris tian duty, as also in explaining to them the articles of religion which they profess, and are often called upon to subscribe, and in recom mending to them the-frequent and careful reading of the Scriptures, and such other books as may serve more effectually to promote Chris tianity, sound principles, and orthodox faith. And further, Mr. Vice- Chancellor, with the same consent, does hereby forbid the said youth the reading of such books as may tend to the weakening of their faith, the subverting of the authority of the scripture, and the intro ducing of deism, profaneness and irreligion in their stead.”—The Dean of Christ Church was so much a friend to infidelity, that he would not suffer this programme to be put up in the hall of his college. It is always pleasing to a pious mind, to trace the ways of provi dence, not only as they relate to individuals, but as they affect large bodies of men, collectively considered. In the case before us there is something worthy of observation.