No useless flambeau there, but from the throne
A radiant blaze of light profusely shone.
Here pious souls shall blissful seats obtain,
With God, and with the Lamb, to endless ages reign.”
These extracts are given, first, because the book itself is extremely scarce, and not one Methodist in a thousand has ever seen it; and, secondly, as a sort of rebuke to the slap-dash and too sweeping censure pronounced against it in Nicholl’s Literary Anecdotes, namely, that it is “mere pap, or milk and water.” Those three volumes are not the best that Mr Wesley published; but they are better far than scores of similar productions that have had the good fortune to be read, and therefore to be praised.
To say the least, every one must admire the unwearied diligence of this impoverished man. He had a large and increasing family, and was £300 in debt; but, instead of sinking under discouragement, he bravely breasts his trials, and, by eagerly seizing those scraps of time which devotion to his clerical duties did not require, he tried to free himself from his distressing embarrassments by writing and publishing, within two short years, four good-sized volumes, besides his “Epistle on Poetry,” consisting of nearly eleven hundred lines.
CHAPTER XIII.
CONVOCATION—1701, ETC.
On three several occasions, Samuel Wesley was elected proctor or convocation man for the diocese of Lincoln. The first of these elections took place in 1701; a second in 1711; the date of the third is doubtful. These three attendances at convocation brought upon him an expenditure of £150, which he could ill afford to bear.
Convocation is an assembly of the clergy of the Church of England by their representatives. It is always held during the session of parliament, and consists of an upper and of a lower house. In the upper house sit the bishops; in the lower the inferior clergy, represented by their proctors and others. The lower house, of which Mr Wesley was a member, consists of twenty-two deans, fifty-three archdeacons, twenty-four prebendaries, and forty-four proctors, (being two proctors for the clergy of each diocese;) altogether one hundred and forty-three persons. The prolocutor or speaker of the lower house is always chosen by itself. His duty is to take care that the members of the house attend its sittings, to collect their debates and votes, and to convey to the upper house the resolutions which they pass. Convocation is always called together by the royal writ, directed to the archbishop of each province, requiring him to summon all bishops, deans, archdeacons, and others qualified or entitled to sit therein. Up to the year 1605, it was the privilege of convocation to fix the taxes which should be paid by the clergy; but, at that time, this privilege was surrendered to the House of Commons, on the condition that henceforth, and in lieu of it, the clergy should be allowed to vote at elections of members of parliament, a right of which heretofore they had been deprived. The power of convocation is limited. Its members are not to make any canons or ecclesiastical laws without the royal licence; nor, even when the royal licence is granted, can any newly-made laws or canons be put in force except under certain restrictions. They have the power to examine and to censure all heretical and schismatical books; but the authors of such books have an appeal to the king in chancery or to his delegates. It ought also to be added, that members of convocation have the same privileges allowed as belong to members of parliament.
Such, then, was the ecclesiastical parliament of which Samuel Wesley was elected a member, by his brother clergymen, in the diocese of Lincoln, in 1701. The honour was distinguished, though, to a poor man like himself, seriously expensive. Some writers have not been sparing in the censures they have thought proper to pronounce on Wesley for spending so much money on convocation attendance, which, as is alleged, might have been much better spent in the payment of his debts, or in providing for the wants of his wife and children. Such censures are soon uttered, but are scarcely merited. The convocation, which was called together in 1701, was one of unusual importance, and it behoved the clergy of the diocese of Lincoln to send as their proctor the most fitting man that the diocese contained; and that man, being elected, was bound by every principle of duty and of honour to take upon himself the onerous responsibility of representing the gentlemen who had thus distinguished him. The expenses of the office might be inconvenient, yet to be selected as a fitting representative to the most august and important ecclesiastical assembly in the land, was an honour not to be despised. Many a minister struggling with poverty would have readily made as great a sacrifice to have attained as high a dignity, especially if its attainment was likely to be the stepping-stone to yet higher ecclesiastical power and benefit. Samuel Wesley’s talents, learning, piety, and literary works were sufficient to justify him in aspiring after the higher, if not highest offices that the Church has to give; and it is not improbable that had it not been for his pecuniary embarrassments, and his cruel imprisonment in Lincoln gaol, he would have died, not the rector of an almost unknown country parish, but in one of the most distinguished positions to which a clergyman of the Church of England can be exalted. Apart from a sense of the honour which his brethren had bestowed upon him, and apart from his readiness to undertake difficult and expensive duties, it is no disparagement of Samuel Wesley’s unblemished character to say, that perhaps he had some hope of such promotion when he consented, at such an inconvenient sacrifice, to go as proctor to the house of convocation. Considering his talents, attainments, and labours, such ambition was neither mercenary nor inordinate. The clergy of the diocese of Lincoln conferred an honour upon the Epworth rector in thus electing him; but the honour was merited, and it would have been not only an act of kindness, but an act of justice, if those who gave the honour had also given the money which it cost to wear it.