¢ The Rectory Fire
@ rour W The Rectory Fire he night of Wednesday, 9 February 1709, looms large in Susanna Wesley's life f hes as well as in Methodist legend. Near midnight a fire, probably the latest mischief of the rector's enemies in the parish, engulfed the house. The family all rushed or were carried to safety—miraculous enough, it might have seemed, that night. However, the subsequent career of John Wesley has focused special attention on the rescue of the then six-year-old "Jacky," trapped in an upstairs bedroom by the flames. With the help of neighbors he was lifted down to safety, leading him to regard himself as providentially set apart, a "brand plucked from the burning," ' a phrase eagerly repeated by his Methodist followers.
Mythologizing aside, the event had personal consequences deep and far-reaching enough for Susanna Wesley. For a start, their home and all their belongings were destroyed, necessitating the dispersal of the children until money could be scraped up for the construction of a new rectory (the one that still exists as a place of Methodist pilgrimage). Among the losses of the fire were the rector's library and writings; the Epworth parish registers; the manuscripts left to Susanna by her father,
Samuel Annesley; and her own manuscripts.
Several letters in the days and months immediately following the fire recount what happened and how Susanna meant to cope. Of particular consequence to her own identity and sense of calling was her redoubled dedication to producing materials useful in the education of her growing children. Evidence that she energetically continued in this calling may be found in later correspondence with her sons, even as they undertook an Oxford education and pursued their own priestly vocations, and in the longer moral and theological treatises she directed to her daughters, who in that era could not even aspire to university training.
All but one of these letters were sent to Samuel Wesley Jr., near the end of his school days in Westminster. We find Susanna by turns eager to fill him in on the family tragedy (14 February 1708/9); recording her emotional response to the fire, urging him to follow a "method" in his living, and detailing "the little manual" she had been writing for her children when the flames struck (11 October 1709);
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commending, though with the self-deprecation expected of an "uneducated" woman, her finished work on the Creed (7 April 1710); and answering his call for spiritual direction, though again with considerable disparagement of her talents (28
December 1710).
The one letter from this period not sent to "Sammy" is addressed to the Rev.
Joseph Hoole, vicar of the neighboring parish of Haxey. A later letter demonstrates that Susanna was to find in Hoole a conversation partner for exploring one of the intellectual issues of the day (see 12 October 1716). In the present correspondence, however, she recounts the tragic events of the fire to one of her husband's colleagues. Getting the details down on paper for someone only a few miles removed from the event might seem odd, unless, as appears to be the case, it was necessary to inform him so that he could better fill the role of fund-raiser for a new Epworth rectory.
To Samuel Wesley Jr.
14 February 1708/9 MA; SW)Jr Letter Book, pp. 103-105.
Dear Sammy!
When I received your letter wherein you complain of want of shirts, I little thought that in so short a space we should all be reduced to the same, and indeed a worse condition. I suppose you have already heard of the firing of our house by what accident we cannot imagine, but the fire broke out about eleven or twelve o'clock at night, we being all in bed; nor did we perceive it till the roof of the corn chamber was burnt through and the fire fell upon your sister Hetty's bed, which stood in the little room joining upon it. She waked and immediately run to call your father, who lay in the red chamber, for I being ill, he was forced to lie from me. He says he heard some crying fire in the street before, but did not apprehend where 'twas till he opened his door. He called at our chamber and bid us all shift for life, for the roof was falling fast and nothing but the thin wall kept the fire from the staircase.
We had no time to take our clothes, but ran all naked. I called to Betty to bring the children out of the nursery. She took up Patty and left Jacky to follow her.* But he, going to the door and seeing all on fire, ran back again. We got the street door open, but the wind drove the flame with such violence that none could stand against it. I tried thrice to break through, but was driven back. I made another attempt and waded through the fire, which did me no other hurt than to scorch my legs and face. When I was in the yard, I looked about for your father and the? children, but seeing none, concluded 'em all lost. But I thank God, I was mistaken! Your father carried sister Emly, Suky and Patty into the garden; then, missing Jacky, he ran back into the house to see if he could save him. He heard him miserably crying out in the nursery and attempted several times to get upstairs, but was beat back by the flame; then he thought him lost and commended his soul to God and went to look after the rest. The child climbed up to the window and called out to them in the
Letters yard; they got up to the casement and pulled him out just as the roof fell into the chamber. Harry broke the glass of the parlour window and threw out your sister
Molly and Hetty, and so by God's great mercy we all escaped. Don't be discouraged.
God will provide for you.
Epworth. Feb. 14
Susanna Wesley.
1708/9 To Rev. Mr. [ Joseph] Hoole 24 August 1709 MA; the copy is in a florid hand, endorsed later by John Wesley, who later edited it heavily in the first issue of A M in 1778: "My mother's account of the fire,
August 24th, 1709. Not exactly right with regard to me. J. W." Paragraphing, completely lacking in the MS, has been supplied.
Epworth 24th Augst. 1709
Revd. Sir, My master is much concerned that he was so unhappy as to miss seeing you at Epworth and is not a little troubled that the great hurry of business he is in about his building will not afford him leisure to write at present. He has therefore commanded me to make a tender of his humblest thanks and service to yourself and his unknown benefactors that by your application were moved to so laudable and generous a charity; and since he is not acquainted here with any good hand that can give you the particulars of our late misfortunes, he has ordered me to satisfy your desire as well as I can, which I shall do by a simple relation of matter of fact; nor can I at this distance of time recollect every calamitous circumstance that attended our strange reverse of fortune.
On Wednesday night February 9th between the hours of eleven and twelve o'clock our dwelling house was fired by what accident God only knows, which was discovered by some sparks falling from the roof upon a bed where one of the children lay that burnt her foot. She immediately ran to our chamber and called us, but I believe none [heard] her, for Mr. Wesley was alarmed by a cry of fire in the street, upon which he arose, not imagining 'twas his own house burning. On opening his door, he found it full of smoke and perceived the roof was already burnt through. He immediately came to my room (for I having been very ill, we were obliged to lie asunder) and bid us rise quickly and shift for our lives, [as] the house was all on fire. Then he ran and broke open the nursery door and called to the maid to bring out the children; she snatch[ed] up the youngest and bid the rest follow, which they did, except Jacky, for he, coming to the entry and seeing the fire, ran back to his bed; nor did we presently miss him. When we were got into the hall and saw ourselves surrounded with flames and that the roof was upon the point of falling, we concluded ourselves inevitably lost, for in the fright we had forgot the keys of the house, which were in my master's chamber; but he ventured upstairs once more and recovered them a minute before the staircase took fire. When we opened the street door, it being a strong northeast wind, the flames poured in with
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such violence that none could stand against them. Mr. Wesley only had such presence of mind as to think of the garden door, out of which he helped some of our children, and our men broke the bars and glass of the hall and dining room windows, by which the rest escaped. I was not in a condition to stir like the rest, nor could I climb a window or get to the garden door. I endeavored thrice to force a passage through the flames that had seized the street door and was as often beat back by the fury of the fire. In this distress 1 made my particular application to our blessed Saviour and besought him if it were his will to preserve me from that death, when I made another attempt and waded through the fire (naked as I was) which did me no further harm than a little scorching of my hands and face, which immediately brought into my mind that passage in Isaiah 43:2, "when thou walkest through the fire, thou shalt not be burned; neither shall the flames kindle upon thee." * While my master was carrying the children into the garden, we heard the child in the nursery cry out miserably for help, which extremely moved him, but his affliction was much increased when he had several times attempted the stairs, then on fire, and found it was impossible to get near him. He then gave him for lost and, kneeling down, commended his soul to God and left him, as he thought, burning. But the boy, seeing none came to his assistance and being frighted by the hanging of the chamber and his bed being on fire, climbed up to the casement, where he was presently spied by the men in the yard, who immediately got up and pulled him out just in that article of time that the roof fell and beat the chamber to the earth. So by the infinite mercy of almighty God our lives were well preserved by little less than [a] miracle, for there passed but a few moments between the first discovery of the fire and the falling of the house.
Though Mr. Wesley and I and seven small children were all naked and exposed to the inclemency of the air in a night which was as severely cold as perhaps anyone can remember and though we had before our eyes the melancholy prospect of our house and goods consuming in the flames, nor knew we whither to wander or what to do with our little ones that now cried out as much with the cold and because the frost cut their naked feet as they had just before done for fear of the fire; yet so deeply were our minds affected with the goodness of God in preserving our and our children's lives that for a while we essayed no reflection on the condition to which we were reduced. Nor did the consideration of our having no house, money, food or raiment for the present much affect us.
We had a good quantity of wheat and malt in the house and my master had received a considerable sum of money the day before for flax, but we had no time to save anything, nor could we afterwards recover more than about 25 ounces of plate, though perhaps more might be found. I had the week before (as I used to do when in that condition) brought all my pewter, brass, etc., which was most valuable, into my store chamber and so increased our loss; but the greatest almost irrecoverable loss was that of my master's books and manuscripts, particularly that book which he had just before prepared for the press, upon the delivery of which he should have received £50. We had a little hemp and some corn unthrashed that was preserved, and they got some lumber out of the low rooms, but the worth is very inconsiderable. Thus, sir, it pleased God by a strange turn of his Providence to
Letters take from us what before he had most liberally given us, and I can assure you, sir, whatever some men's philosophy may persuade them to the contrary, such involved and mysterious methods of divine Providence are as hard to bear with [?]temper and submission as they are to understand; and the calming our tumultuous passions and suppressing those motions of discontent and murmuring that are wont to take their rise from such occurrences, are some of those difficult acts of mortification which our Saviour aptly expresses by pulling out a right eye and cutting off a right hand.° Yet it hath pleased the almighty Being hitherto to support us and to raise some friends whose charity has supplied us with daily bread and something towards the rebuilding our house; and more, I believe, had been done but that there are a sort of people who find a malicious pleasure in inventing and spreading false reports that our losses are abundantly made up by the liberal contributions of our neighbours. I love not to complain, neither with nor without reason, nor would I be unthankful to God or man, and therefore gratefully acknowledge we have received very considerable benefactions from several worthy persons. Yet notwithstanding, we are, I fear, far from having a sufficiency to defray the charge of building, and when that is finished, any man of sense may easily conceive that the furnishing a house for so large a family (to say nothing of necessary clothing for [our]selves and ten children and the books which my master cannot be without) will require full as much, if not more than the house itself. Yet notwithstanding all that the great enemy of mankind can suggest or any person can do against us, if it pleases God to raise us from the dust as he did Job, he can easily do it, for omnipotence knows no difficulty, and the almighty Power from whom we received our being can, if he sees it best for us, quickly restore us to our former condition. But if his infinite wisdom has otherwise determined concerning us, his will be done.
All is best that he orders, and his ways are ever equal, and his actions are [in] number, weight and measure most perfect. I humbly beg the continuance of your prayers for us that God would assist and direct us. And I am
Sr Yr Obliged hble sert.
S. W.
PS. I gave my master the eight guineas and fifteen shillings in silver.
To Samuel Wesley Jr.
11 October 1709 MA; Wesley College, Headingley MS C (draft) Epworth, October 11, 1709 Dear Sammy, Though nothing in the world could ever make me forget you or prevent my having the tenderest regard for your happiness and concern for your immortal soul, yet my mind has been so terribly shocked by our late misfortunes that, though I cannot say I never had leisure, yet I could not dispose myself to write to ye. A long series of adverse fortunes had before inclined me to a too melancholy temper, but
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this most strange and surprising accident, attended by so many calamitous circumstances, gave my soul so strong a bent to extreme sadness that I have not been able to recover myself till within a few days, but have been as one dead to the world, uncapable of enjoying any of those comforts which God in his mercy hath yet left me. Now I am, heaven be praised,® a little free from that unhappy paroxism, the first thing I shall enquire after is the health of your soul.'
I hope you retain the impressions of your education, nor have forgot that the vows of God are upon you. You know that the first fruits are his* by an unalterable right, and that as your parents devoted you to the service of the altar, so you yourself made it your choice when your father was offered another way for your subsistence. But have you duly weighed what such a choice and such a dedication imports? Sammy, consider what purity, what devotion, what separation from the world! What exemplary virtues" are required in those who are to guide others in their way to glory! Exemplary, I say, for low and common degrees of piety are not sufficient for those of that sacred function. You must not think to live like the rest of the world; but your light in a more special manner must so shine among men that they may see your good works and thereby be led to glorify your Father which is in heaven.'° For my part I cannot see how any clergyman can reprove sinners or exhort men to lead a good life when they themselves indulge their own corrupt inclinations and by their practice contradict their doctrine. If the holy Jesus be in truth their Master, and they are really his ambassadors, surely it becomes them to live like his disciples; and if they do not, what a sad account they must one day give of their stewardship you would do well to consider. Nor would I have you now give yourself liberty to comply with the vain or sinful customs of the'! world, foolishly flattering yourself that it will be time enough to begin a strict course of life when you enter into Orders, when the eyes of the world will be more upon you. For let me tell you, now is the time to lay a good foundation, now is the time to wean yourself from vanity and sensual pleasures.'* If you indulge your unruly passions, if now you suffer yourself to love the world or anything in it more than
God, if you now neglect your private duties, your daily sacrifices of prayers and thanksgiving,'* or grow remiss or cold in their performance. If now you permit impurity, anger, hatred, malice or any kind of danger of intemperance to gain an ascendant over your mind, you are in danger of being eternally lost. Believe me, first motions are most easy to restrain; if they pass unheeded and unchecked, how soon do they prevail upon the inclination, and when that point is gained, how insensibly are we led into act[s], which, being multiplied, naturally beget a habit; and how hard that is to be cured you very well know.
I have already given you so many particular directions, how to perform your duty to God, yourself and your neighbour, that I shall not at present speak much o' those subjects, but shall only mention some few things and beseech the great Father of Spirits to direct and assist your mind to practice what you already know.
First I would advise you as far as 'tis possible in your present circumstances to throw all your business into a certain method, by which means you'll learn to improve every precious moment and find an unspeakable facility in the performance of your respective duties. Begin and end the day with him who is the Alpha and Omega, and though my ignorance of the orders of your school makes it impossible
70 _~ Letters for me to assign what time you should spend in private devotion, yet I'm sure, if you do but really experience what it is to love God, you'll redeem all the time
'* you can for his more immediate service. What is in your own power you may dispose of, nor are your rules so strict as not to admit of some diversions. I'll tell you what method '* I used to observe when I was in my father's house and perhaps had as little, if not less, liberty than you have now. I used to allow myself as much time for recreation as I spent in private devotion; !® not that I always spent so much, but so far I gave myself leave to go, but no farther. So likewise in all things else, appoint so much time for sleep, eating, company etc. Remember what the divine
Herbert advises on!' this head:
"Slight them who say amidst their Sickly Healths, Thou livest by rule. What doth not so but man?" '®
And 'tis the shame and ignominy of our minds that we who alone were created after the image of the God of order should be the only part of his creation that is irregular and disorderly. But above all things, my dear Sammy, I command you, I beg, I beseech you to be very strict in your observance of the Lord's day. That blessed day of God, that most dear and sacred type of the great sabbath which we hope to enjoy with him in glory. Believe me, dear child, there is more depends on this one duty than the unthinking world is aware of. I am verily persuaded that our most gracious God is more ready to grant our petitions and more pleased with our devotions on that day than any other. Though he is ever present with us and carefully adverts to the particular actions of each individual creature at all times, yet he has promised to be in a more peculiar'? manner present in the assemblies of his saints; and to be sure he takes particular notice of the behaviour of his servants on his own day. Nor do those blessed guardian spirits that are sent forth to minister for those who are the heirs of salvation behold a devout soul in its seraphic aspirations towards that Being whom we jointly adore without the greatest pleasure and satisfaction imaginable. We then hold communion with all saints, with the celestial hierarchy; with angels and archangels and all the company of the heavenly host we join in admiring and praising our great Creator,*® our blessed Redeemer, and the Holy
Spirit of grace by whom we are sealed unto the day of redemption.*' Indeed I heartily wish that I could persuade all my children to such a love and honour of the sabbath, that they might by it be known and distinguished from the rest of the world.
In all things endeavour to act upon principles. Do not live like the greater part of mankind, who pass through the world like straws upon a river, which are carried what way soever the stream or the wind drives 'em. Accustom yourself often to put the question: Why do I this or that? Why do I pray, read, study, eat, sleep, use diversions, etc.? And so as much as possible moralize all your thoughts, words and actions, which will bring you~' to such a steadiness and consistency as becomes a reasonable being and a good Christian.
Be very nice in the choice of your company, and never rely upon your own virtue so far as to associate with the vicious and profane."* Our blessed Lord, who knew what was in man, commands us to pray daily, "Lead us not into temptation." ** And indeed, considering what the world is, 'tis most prudent to avoid a
The Rectory Fire DA great acquaintance, for let us be we're so careful, much company will strongly divert the mind?* from serious thoughts; nor can we possibly serve God so well in a crowd as in solitude. In all places and at all times be most*® careful to avoid that most odious but common vice of intemperate drinking. I have formerly writ largely on that subject. I'll therefore only remind you to observe a constant rule in drinking.
Nor can I name a better than that of Mr. Herbert: "Stay at the third glass" *"—one for thirst and one for refreshment is sufficient, especially for one designed for a clergyman. Nor is temperance always the utmost that is required from them: they must for the most part be abstemious, especially where the tide runs strongly o' the contrary side. For old Seneca's maxim is yet good; "Those are the best instructors who preach by their lives and prove their words by their actions." ** And that man may with courage boldly reprove another for being drunk who will never himself be guilty of an intemperate glass." Nor do I think it possible for any persons to keep a due guard upon their minds against impurity or any irregular passion if they indulge themselves in*° immoderate drinking. I do protest, though I love you perhaps as much as ever parent loved a child, I had much rather see you die than have you commit that sin which I abhor above anything whatever.
Sammy, there is nothing I now desire to live for, but to do some small service to my children,*! that, as I have brought 'em into the world, so that it might please
God to make me (though unworthy) an instrument of doing good to their souls. I had been several years collecting from my little reading, but chiefly from my own experience, some things which I hoped would ha' been useful to you all; and had begun to*? form all into a little manual wherein I had designed you should ha' read what were the particular reasons which prevailed upon me to believe the being of a God and the ground of natural religion, together with the motives that first*' induced me to embrace the faith of Jesus Christ, under which was comprehended my own private ** reasons for the truth of revealed religion and upon what convictions I professed myself a Christian. /And because I was educated among the Dissenters, and there was somewhat remarkable in my leaving 'em at so early an age, not being full 13, I had drawn up an account of the whole transaction, under which head I had included the main of the controversy between them and the Established
Church as far as it had come to my knowledge; and then followed the reasons that determined my judgment to the preference of the Church of England. I had fairly transcribed a great part of it, but you writing to me for some directions about the receiving the sacrament, I begun a short discourse on that subject,*' intending to send all together;, 'but before I could finish my design the flames consumed this with all the rest of my writings. I would have you*® do somewhat like this yourself when you've leisure and write down the principles upon which you build your faith, and though I cannot possibly recover all I formerly writ, yet I'll gladly assist you what I can in explaining any difficulty that may occur to your thoughts, that you may be able to give a reason of the faith that is in you.*"
Since I begun to write this I received a letter from you dated [?]°* wherein you tell me you know not whether you should congratulate my good, or condole my ill, health or fortune. Truly my health and fortune is much alike, neither very good or extremely bad.°*' I have constantly pain enough to mind me of mortality _ and ~ , pe ACTON trouble enough in my circumstances of fortune to exercise my patience. | shall
72 ~~ Letters shortly write to your Aunt Annesley a particular account of our late losses (which letter I'll enclose in one to you) which will inform you of those things that you say you are ignorant of. I take it mighty kindly that you offer me part of your small library, but I am not willing to receive anything from one to whom I can give so little. Your sister Emly [sic] has wrought you a purse in which I have sent a small present. "Tis a very pretty one and you ought to thank her. I beseech God to bless you with health of mind and body.
S. Wesley Let me hear from you when you've leisure.*° To Susanna("Suky") Wesley 13 January 1709/10 Wesley College, draft. This "letter" is really an extended treatise on the Apostles'
Creed, and thus is included in part III of this volume.
To Samuel Wesley Jr.
7 April 1710 MA; SWJr Letter Book, pp. 106-107. Cover letter sent with copy of exposition of Apostles' Creed, originally addressed to Suky. See part III of this volume.
Dear Sammy!
I thought I should have heard from you e'er now, but I find you do not think of me as I do of you. Indeed, I believe you would be very easy were you never to hear from me more, but I cannot satisfy myself without writing sometimes, though not so often as I would!
I have sent you a letter which I writ to your sister Suky at Gainsbro, which I would have you read and copy if you have time.
When I have any leisure, I think I can't be better employed than in writing something that may be useful to my children; and though I know there are abundance of good books wherein these subjects are more fully and accurately treated of than I can pretend to write, yet I am willing to think that my children will somewhat regard what I can do for 'em, though the performance is mean, since they know it comes from their mother, who is perhaps more concerned for their eternal happiness than anyone in the world. And, as you had my youth and vigour employed in your service, so I hope you will not despise the little I can do in my declining years, but will for my sake at least carefully read these papers over, if it be but to put you upon a more worthy performance of your own.
April 7th 1710 Susanna Wesley To Samuel Wesley Jr.
28 December [1710] AM, 1788, pp. 36-38, 83-86 (dated there "about the year 1706"). This is not in the SWJr Letter Book, which concludes with Samuel's transcription of Susanna's
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letter to Suky on the Creed. Clarke, pp. 298-301, and Stevenson, pp. 236-238, date the letter 1710. This is corroborated by a December 1710 letter from Samuel
Jr, which this one answers, and the fact that December 28 did fall on a Thursday in 1710.
Thursday, Dec. 28 [1710] Dear Sammy, I am much better pleased with the beginning of your letter than with what you used to send me, for I do not love distance or ceremony; there is more of love and tenderness in the name of mother than in all the complimental titles in the world.
I intend to write to your father about your coming down, but yet it would not be amiss for you to speak of it too. Perhaps our united desires may sooner prevail upon him to grant our request, though I do not think he will be averse from it at all.*!
I am heartily glad that you have already received and that you design again to receive the Holy Sacrament; for there is nothing more proper or effectual for the strengthening and refreshing the mind than the frequent partaking of that blessed ordinance.
You complain that you are unstable and inconstant in the way of virtue. Alas! what Christian is not so too? I am sure that I, above all others, am most unfit to advise in such a case; yet, since I cannot but speak something, since I love you as my own soul, I will endeavour to do as well as I can; and perhaps while I write I may learn, and by instructing you I may teach myself.
First, endeavour to get as deep an impression on your mind as is possible of the awful and constant presence of the great and holy God. Consider frequently that wherever you are, or whatever you are about, he always adverts to your thoughts and actions in order to a future retribution. He is about our beds,** and about our paths, and spies out all our ways. And whenever you are tempted to the commission of any sin or the omission of any duty, make a pause, and say to yourself, "What am I about to do? God sees me! Is this my avowed faithfulness to my Creator,
Redeemer, and Sanctifier? Have I so soon forgot that the vows of God are upon me?
Was it easier for the eternal son of God to die for me than it is for me to remember him? For what end came he into the world but to satisfy the justice of God for us and to reconcile us to God and to plant good life among men in order to their eternal salvation? What! cannot I watch one hour with that Jesus*? who veiled his native glory with our nature, and condescended so low as to make himself of no reputation, by putting on the form of a servant, that he might be capable of conferring the greatest benefit upon us that man could receive, by his suffering such a shameful and cursed death upon the cross for our redemption?" ** Oh, Sammy, think but often and seriously on Jesus Christ, and you will experience what it is to have the heart purified by faith!
Secondly, consider often of that exceeding and eternal weight of glory that is prepared for those who persevere in the paths of virtue. "Eye hath not seen, nor ear heard, not hath it entered into the heart of man to conceive what God hath prepared for such as love and serve him faithfully." *° And when you have so long thought on this that you find your mind affected with it, then turn your view upon this present
74 ~— Letters world and see what vain inconsiderable trifles you practically prefer before a solid, rational, permanent state of everlasting tranquility. Could we but once attain to a strong and lively sense of spiritual things, could we often abstract our minds from corporeal objects and fix them on heaven, we should not waver and be so inconstant as we are in matters of the greatest moment, but the soul would*® as naturally aspire towards a union with God, as the flame ascends; for he alone is the proper centre of the mind, and it is only the weight of our corrupt nature that retards its motions towards him.
Thirdly, meditate often and seriously on the shortness, uncertainty, and vanity of this present state of things. Alas! had we all that the most ambitious, craving souls can desire; were we actually possessed of all the honour, wealth, strength, beauty, etc,, that our carnal minds can fancy a[nd]*' delight in; what would it signify, if God should say unto us, "Thou fool, this night shall thy soul be required of thee"?
*® Look back on*? your past hours and tell me which of them afford you the most pleasing prospect. Whether those spent in play or vanity or those few that were employed in the service of God? Have you not in your short experience often found
Solomon's observations on the world very true? Has not a great part of your little life proved in*° reflection nothing but vanity and vexation of spirit?°' How many persons on a deathbed have bitterly bewailed the sins of their past life and made large promises of amendment if it would have pleased God to have spared them, but none that ever lived, or died, repented of a course of piety and virtue. Then why should you not improve the experience of those who have gone before you, and your own also, to your advantage? And since it is past dispute that the ways of virtue are infinitely better than the practice of vice, and that life is not only short at best, but likewise uncertain,®' and that this little portion of time is all we have for working out our salvation, for as the tree falls, so it must lie, as death leaves us, judgment will certainly find us; have a good courage, eternity is at hand. Lay aside every weight, and the sin that doth so easily beset you, and run with patience and vigour the race which is set before you.** And if at any time present objects should make so great an impression on your senses as to endanger the alienating your mind from the spiritual life, then look up to Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith,"* and humbly beseech him, that since he for our sake suffered himself to be under temptation, he would please to succour you when you are tempted, and in his strength you will find yourself enabled to encounter your spiritual enemies; °° nay, you will be more than a conqueror through him who hath loved us
I am sorry that you lie under a necessity of conversing with those that are none of the best, but we must take the world as we find it, since it is a happiness permitted to a very few to choose their company. Yet, lest the comparing yourself with others that are worse may be an occasion of your falling into too much vanity, you would do well sometimes to entertain such thoughts as these:
"Though I know my own birth and education and am conscious of having had great advantages and many means of grace,"' yet how little do I know of the circumstances of others? Perhaps their parents were vicious or did not take early care of their minds to instill the principles of virtue into their tender years, but suffered them to follow their own inclinations till it was too late to reclaim. Am I sure that they have had as many offers of grace, as many strong impulses of the Holy Spirit,
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as I have had? Do they sin against such®® clear conviction as I do? Or are the vows of God upon them as upon me? Were they so solemnly devoted to him at their birth as I was?"°? You have had the example of a father who served God from his youth; and, though I cannot commend my own to you, for it is too bad to be imitated, yet surely earnest prayers for many years, and some little good advice, have not been wanting.°° But if after all self-love should incline you to partiality in your own case, seriously consider your own many failings, which the world cannot take notice of because they were so private; and if still, upon comparison, you seem better than others are, then ask yourself who is it that makes you to differ, and let God have all the praise, since of ourselves we can do nothing. It is he that worketh in us both to will and to do of his own good pleasure;°' and if at any time you have vainly ascribed the glory of any good performance to yourself; humble yourself for it before God, and give him the glory of his grace for the future.
I am straitened for paper and time, therefore must conclude. God Almighty bless you and preserve you from all evil! Adieu.
Notes See Amos 4:11 and Zechariah 3:2.
Emphasis in MS, but probably that of some later reader.
See previous note.
. Quotation marks added.
. See Matthew 5:29-30.
MS C substitutes "I thank God."
. Paragraph break inserted here.
. MS C substitutes "heaven's."
MS C phrases the first part of this sentence as "Sammy, consider well what separation
Oe NDR WN " from the world, what purity, what devotion, what exemplary virtues are required.
10. Paraphrase of Matthew 5:16. fl.ein MS.C: this bad."
12. MS C adds, "and to endeavor to get requisite graces, that you may not have them to seek when you should have them to use." Note the similar phrase in her earlier letter to Sammy, 18 March 1706/7: "get a stock of virtue, that you may not have grace to seek, when you have it to use."
13. See BCP, Holy Communion.
14. See Ephesians 5:16 and Colossians 4:5.
Peeeiuevion a) Rie,"
16. S. W. is repeating a point she had already made in her letter of 27 November 1707.
17, In MSC "upon"
18. The poet and priest George Herbert (1593-1633) was successively rector of Leighton
Bromswold and Bemerton. These lines are from "The Church-Porch," stanza 23, lines 133—
145, from The Temple, in F. E. Hutchinson, ed., The Works of George Herbert (Oxford: Clarendon
Press, 1941), p. 12. The edition S. W. might have read is The Temple, Sacred Poems and Private
Ejaculations, 12th ed. (London: Jeffery Wale, 1703). The entire stanza in the latter, p. 5, reads:
Slight those who say amidst their sickly healths, Thou liv'st by rule. What doth not so, but man?
Houses are built by rule, and Common-wealths.
Letters Entice the trusty sun, if that thou can, From his Ecliptick line; becken the sky.
Who lives by rule then keeps good company.
19. In MS C: "more especial."
20. Echoes of the Sanctus, Holy Communion, BCP.
21. Paraphrase of Ephesians 4:30.
22. MS C substitutes, "by which means you will come.
. . .
23. MS C substitutes, "so far as to run into temptation."
24. Matthew 6:13; quotation marks added.
25. In MS C: "our minds."
26. MS C substitues "exactly."
27. "The Church-Porch," stanza 7, line 41, in Hutchinson, George Herbert, p. 8. The relevant surrounding material, quoted from the 1703 edition, p. 2, puts the line in context:
Shall I, to please anothers wine-sprung mind, Lose all mine own? God hath giv'n me a measure
Short of his Can and Body; must I find A pain in that, wherein he finds a pleasure?
Stay at the third Glass: if thou lose thy hold, Then thou art modest, and the wine grows bold.
If reason move not Gallants, quit the room, All in a shipwrack shift their severall way:
Let not a common ruin thee intomb:
Be not a beast in courtesy; but stay, Stay at the third cup, or forgo the place.
Wine above all things doth God's stamp deface.
Quotation marks have been substituted for the dashes that surround Herbert's phrase in the MA MS.
28. The Roman writer Lucius Annaeus Seneca (4 B.c.-A.D.65) had considerable attraction for Enlightenment England. His various works, especially his "Moral Epistles," reveal a man who combines reason, morality, and (in his own pagan way) piety in a manner that S. W. must have found congenial. The most likely source of this quotation—R. LEstrange, ed.,
Seneca's Morals by Way of Abstract, 7th ed. (London: Jacob Tonson, 1699)—does not yield it up, though there are similar phrases, for example, "[Wisdom] teaches us to Do, as well as to Talk; and to make our Words and Actions all of a Colour" (164). S. W. may have possessed it in some other form or read it in another author.
29. The passage beginning "Nor is temperance," which includes the Seneca quotation and concludes with this reference to a temperant person's ability to reprove an immoderate drinker, is not found in the draft version of the letter, MS C.
30. MS C originally inserted, then crossed out here, "that shameful vice of.
"» 31. MS C here adds, then crosses out, "to be some way instrumental.
32 MS: C.adds. to, correct aiid aaa ae 33. "First" does not appear in the MS C draft.
34. S. W. first wrote "particular" in MS C, then crossed it out and inserted "private."
35. MS C "on that head."
36. MS C inserts "at your leisure" here, replacing the phrase "when you've leisure" further on in the sentence.
37. Paraphrase of 1 Peter 3:15.
38. The date, omitted in MS C, is nearly totally obscured by a worn creasemark in the
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holograph. A reasonable guess would be "Sept. 12," but a case could be made for the letter of June 9, printed (and probably excerpted) in Clarke, p. 296, and Stevenson, p. 234, and apparently no longer extant. His frantic questions about what was happening at Epworth following the fire and his offer of two books to his mother seem to fit her reply, the lateness of which is attributable both to its length and to the bout of melancholy mentioned in the first paragraph.
39. MS C substitutes "nor extremely ill."
40. There follows an unsigned postscript of 11 lines answering a moral question posed by Samuel Jr. in a previous letter and quoting the Roman grammarian Aulus Gellius and the apocryphal book of Tobit. Handwriting, content, and tone point to the Rev. Samuel Wesley
Sr. as the writer.
41. Paragraph break (not found in AM version) introduced by Clarke, p. 299.
42. In AM: "bed."
43. See Matthew 26:40 and its parallels.
44. See Matthew 2:40 and Philippians 2:7-8; quotation marks added.
45. Paraphrase of 1 Corinthians 2:9; quotation marks added.
46. Clarke, p. 299, reads, "would be naturally aspiring towards.
47. Ibid., p. 300, reads, "or."
48. Luke 12:20; quotation marks added.
49. In Clarke, p. 300, "upon."
50. Ibid. Reads, "on."
51. See Ecclesiastes 1:14.
527 in Clarke, p). 300) life is'only*short/at best'and/umcertaim!
272."
53. Paraphrase of Hebrews 12:1.
54. See Hebrews 12:2.
55. See Hebrews 4:15—-16.
56. See Romans 8:37.
57. The phrase "many means of grace" not found in Clarke, p. 301.
58. Ibid., "as" substituted for "such."
59. Quotation marks added.
60. Paragraph break not in AM added by Clarke.
61. See Philippians 2:13.