THE LIFE

OF

THE REV. CHARLES WESLEY, M.A.

SOMETIME STUDENT OF CHRIST-CHURCH, OXFORD:

COMPRISING

A REVIEW OF HIS POETRY;

SKETCHES OF THE RISE AND PROGRESS OF METHODISM;

WITH

NOTICES OF CONTEMPORARY EVENTS

AND CHARACTERS.

BY THOMAS JACKSON.

THESE abilities are the inspired gift of God, rarely bestowed; and are of power to allay the
perturbations of the mind, and set the affections in right tune; to celebrate in glorious
and lofty hymns the throne and equipage of God's Almightiness, and what He works,
and what He suffers to be wrought, with high providence, in His church.-MILTON.

IN TWO VOLUMES.

VOL. I.

LONDON:

PUBLISHED BY JOHN MASON,

AT THE WESLEYAN CONFERENCE OFFICE, 14, CITY-ROAD ;

AND SOLD AT 66, PATERNOSTER-ROW.

BIPLIOTHECA

REGIA MONACENSIS.

LONDON:

PRINTED BY JAMES NICHOLS,

HOXTON-SQUARE.

PREFACE.

MORE than fifty years have passed away since the eminent man whose personal history is traced in these volumes finished his ministry and life; and it will perhaps, to some persons, be a matter of surprise that no previous attempt has been made to give a complete view of his character and eventful career, distinguished as he was by his fidelity and zeal, and still more by his poetic talents. Various causes have led to this delay. The principal one is, that his surviving children, who possessed his papers, carefully concealed them from the eye of those who were the most likely to do justice to his memory. The Methodists were the only people that could be supposed to take a lively interest in his biography; and as he differed from his brother, and from a large body of the Preachers and societies, on questions to which they attached a deep importance, it was probably thought that if a writer could be found who would duly appreciate the opinions and motives of this extraordinary man, the Wesleyan body generally would not give him that place in their esteem to which he is entitled. an unbending Churchman, it was doubtless supposed that many of the Methodists would cherish towards him an unfriendly feeling, at least till the controversies with which he stood connected should have generally subsided. This was, in all probability, the reason why the family papers were so long kept in entire secrecy.

As