Remarks on Mr. Maty's New Review.
SOME REMARKS
ON
ARTICLE X. OF MR. MATY’S NEW REVIEW,
FOR DECEMBER, 1784.
———
1. A DAY or two ago this Review fell into my hands, which contains a letter from the Rev. Mr. Badcock. I have not the pleasure of knowing this gentleman; but I esteem him for his useful and ingenious publications. And I think it my duty to inform both him and the public better, of some points wherein they have been misinformed.”
2. He says, “Mr. Samuel Wesley, of Epworth, in Lincolnshire, was sent to the University.” This is not accurate. He was educated for some years at a Dissenting Academy, from which he then privately retired, and entered himself at Exeter-College, in Oxford. “His heroic poem, ‘The Life of Christ,’ excited the ridicule of the wits.” His own account of it was, “The cuts are good; the notes pretty good; the verses so so.” “At a very advanced age he published a Latin work on the Book of Job, which was never holden in any estimation by the learned.” I doubt that. It certainly contains immense learning; but of a kind which I do not admire.
3. “He married a woman of extraordinary abilities, the daughter of Dr. Samuel Annesley.” (Dr. Annesley and the then Earl of Anglesey were brothers’ sons.) “Samuel, his eldest son, was a noted Jacobite.” Nay, he was no more a Jacobite than he was a Turk. And what amends can Mr. Badcock or Mr. Maty make, for publishing this egregious falsehood?” Many of his political satires remain unpublished, on account of their treasonable tendency.” Here is a double mistake: For,
(l.) He never published anything political, whether satirical or not. (2.)He never wrote anything of a treasonable tendency; he sacredly avoided it.
“In his rage of Jacobitism, he poured out the very dregs of it on Royalty itself.” No, never. He never wrote, much less published, one line against the King. I speak it from personal knowledge, having often heard him say, “If it reflects on the King, it is none of mine.” His constant practice may be learnt from those lines, in the Battle of the Sexes: — “Forgive the voice that useful fiction sings,
Not impious tales of deities impure;
Not faults of breathless Queens, or living Kings,
In open treason, or in veil obscure.”
“Time, however, changed the satirist against Sir Robert into an humble suppliant.” Nay, I do not believe he ever wrote a line to Sir Robert, either in verse or prose.
4. “Mrs. Wesley lived long enough to deplore the extravagance of her two sons, John and Charles; considering them as ‘under strong delusions, to believe a lie.’” By vile misrepresentations she was deceived for a time. But she no sooner heard them speak for themselves, than she was thoroughly convinced, they were in no delusion, but spoke “the words of truth and soberness.” She afterwards lived with me several years, and died rejoicing and praising God.
5. I was born in June, 1703, and was between six and seven years old, when I was left alone in my father’s house, being then all in flames; till I was taken out of the nursery window, by a man strangely standing on the shoulders of another. Those words in the picture, “Is not this a brand plucked out of the burning?” chiefly allude to this.
6. “He had early a very strong impression of his designation to some extraordinary work.” Indeed not I: I never said so; I never thought so; I am guiltless in this matter the strangest impression I had till I was three or four and twenty was, lnter sylvas Academi quærer verum; 41 and afterwards, (while I was my father’s curate,) to save my own soul and those that heard me. When I returned to Oxford, it was my full resolve to live and die there; the reasons for which I gave in a long letter to my father, since printed in one of my Journals. In this purpose I continued, till Dr. Burton, one of the Trustees for Georgia, pressed me to go over with General Oglethorpe, (who is still alive, and well knows the whole transaction,) in order to preach to the Indians. With great difficulty I was prevailed upon to go, and spend upwards of two years abroad. At my return, I was more than ever determined to lay my bones at Oxford. But I was insensibly led, without any previous plan or design, to preach, first, in many of the churches in London, then in more public places; afterwards in Bristol, Kingswood, Newcastle, and throughout Great Britain and Ireland. Therefore all that Mr. Badcock adds, of the incidents that “gave an additional force” to an impression that never existed, is very ingenious; yet is in truth a castle in the air.
7. It is true, that for a while I admired the Mystic writers. But I dropped them, even before I went to Georgia; long before I knew or suspected anything as to justification by faith. Therefore all that follows of my “making my system of divinity more commodious for general use;” and of “employing myself to search for some common bound, whereby the most dissonant sects might have a center of union;” having no foundation to stand upon, falls to the ground at once. I had quite other work while I was at Oxford; being fully engaged, partly with my pupils, and partly with my little offices, being Greek Lecturer, and Moderator of both the classes.
8. “His dexterity in debate has been so long known, that it is almost become proverbial.” It has been my first care for many years, to see that my cause was good; and never, either in jest or earnest, to defend the wrong side of a question. And shame on me, if I cannot defend the right, after so much practice; and after having been so early accustomed to separate truth from falsehood, how artfully soever they were twisted together.
9. If the poem on Religious Discourse “delineates the disposition and character of the author,” it does not delineate mine; for I was not the author, but Mr. John Gambold. What becomes then of that good-natured remark? — “The wonder is not, that John Wesley should have shown an inclination to insult the memory of a sober Divine; but that Samuel Wesley should have been disposed to show lenity to a Whig of the Revolution.” Mistake upon mistake!
(1.)Those marginal notes were not wrote by Samuel, but Charles Wesley. He told me so this very day.
(2.)Both my father and all his sons have always praised God for the happy Revolution. I let Bishop Warburton alone. He is gone to rest; I well hope, in Abraham’s bosom.
10. “Mr. Wesley had a very important end in view.” What end, but to save sinners? What other end could I possibly have in view? or can have at this day? “Deep projects of a subtle mind.” Nay, I am not subtle, but the veriest fool under the sun, if I, have any earthly project at all now! For what do I want which this world can give? And, after the labor of fourscore years,
No foot of land do I possess,
No cottage in the wilderness;
A poor wayfaring man,
I dwell awhile in tents below,
Or gladly wander to and fro,
Till I my Canaan gain.
CITY-ROAD, January 11, 1785 JOHN WESLEY.