The period which we are now sketching had a fair average of men of genius and learning. Wake was Archbishop of Canterbury. Kennett, an intense student, presided over the diocese of Peterborough. Edmund Gibson, a man of great natural abilities, filled the see of London. John Potter, the son of a Yorkshire linen-draper, worked his way up to the primacy. Hoadley, the Bishop of Winchester, was described as the greatest Dissenter that ever wore a mitre. William Sherlock was writing his celebrated “Trial of the Witnesses of the Resurrection of Jesus.” Daniel Waterland was defending the doctrine of the Trinity against the attacks of Samuel Clarke, and the truth of revealed religion against Tindal, the infidel. Bishop Butler was composing his “Analogy of Religion.” Warburton was equiping himself for a diocese, and for the writing of his “Divine Legation.” Dean Prideaux was composing his “Connexion of the Old and New Testaments.” Bishop Lowth was busy with his invaluable works on Hebrew poetry, &c. Thomas Stackhouse was preparing his “History of the Bible.” George Lavington was developing the talents which he afterwards employed in writing “The Enthusiasm of the Papists and Methodists Compared,” and William Law, the well-known author of the “Serious Call to a Devout and Holy Life,” had abandoned the pulpit, and become tutor to Edward Gibbon, the father of the great historian.
Among Dissenters, Edmund Calamy was preaching and writing almost unceasingly. Isaac Watts was an inmate of Abney House, and was composing hymns which have been sung by myriads. Nathaniel Lardner was completing his “Credibility of the Gospel History.” Samuel Chandler was lecturing at the Old Jewry Chapel. Philip Doddridge had opened his Dissenting Academy at Northampton. Daniel Neal was publishing his “History of the Puritans;” and John Leland was answering Tindal’s “Christianity as Old as the Creation.”
Belonging to other classes of distinguished men living at this period, are Sir Isaac Newton, who, in 1727, was buried with great magnificence in Westminster Abbey; Edmund Halley, who was Newton’s highly respected friend; Sir Hans Sloane, who succeeded Newton as the President of the Royal Society; Nicholas Saunderson, the son of a Yorkshire exciseman, blind from infancy, and yet one of the most illustrious mathematical professors that the University of Cambridge ever had; William Emerson, who, with a dirty wig half off his head, his shirt buttoned behind, and inexpressibles that disdained the aid of braces, wrote books connected with almost every branch of the science of mathematics; Richard Bentley, the son of a Yorkshire blacksmith, who rose to the high office of Regius Professor of Divinity, and of whom Stillingfleet remarked, that “had he but the gift of humility, he would be the most remarkable man in Europe;” Sir Richard Steele, Joseph Addison, Alexander Pope, John Gay, James Thomson, Matthew Prior, and William Congreve, may all be mentioned in a cluster; Edward Young, whose “Night Thoughts” have immortalised his memory; but who was a poet of high distinction long before they were thought about, having, in 1728, received from Wharton for his satire entitled “The Universal Passion,” the enormous sum of £3000; Samuel Johnson, who, at the time of Samuel Wesley’s death, was writing his first work for the press, “Lobo’s Voyage to Abyssinia;” Allan Ramsay, who was revolving in his mind the thoughts and charms of his “Gentle Shepherd;” Edward Cave, the son of a shoemaker, who was now meditating how to carry into effect his long cherished-scheme of the Gentleman’s Magazine; William Croft, who was revelling among his musical compositions; Handel, who, in his enormous white wig, was putting together his unrivalled oratorios; Sir Godfrey Kneller, who was painting heads to ready-made bodies with inconceivable rapidity; Dahl, Richardson, Jervas, and others, who were clothing their portraits with loose drapery, the costume of no age or nation whatever; Hogarth, who was rising to the zenith of his fame; and Roubiliac, whose chisel was giving to the marble a vitality which almost breathed.
These are a few of the distinguished men who flourished during the last twenty years of Samuel Wesley’s life; and among them he himself was not the least eminent. It was during this period that he prepared and wrote the greatest work that proceeded from his prolific pen, entitled “Dissertationes in Librum Jobi—Autore, Samuele Wesley, Rectore de Epworth in Dioecesi Lincolniensi.” The work is a large-sized folio of more than 600 pages, of good paper, and beautifully printed. It is written in Latin, intermixed with innumerable Hebrew and Greek quotations.
Mr Wesley was employed upon this remarkable work for more than five and twenty years. It was first begun previous to the burning of his parsonage, in 1709. He had carefully read the book of Job, first in the Hebrew text, and secondly in that of the Greek Septuagint. These he collated together, making, as he proceeded, the notes and observations that occurred to him. He then procured Walton’s great Polyglott Bible, containing the Sacred Text in the Hebrew and Greek languages; the Pentateuch in Samaritan; the Psalms and the New Testament in Syriac, Arabic, Chaldaic, and Ethiopic; the four Gospels in Persic; together with the Septuagint and Vulgate versions of both Testaments. Collating what he had already done with the versions of the book of Job in Walton’s Polyglott, he greatly increased his notes and observations. He had proceeded thus far, when the fire of 1709 broke out, and every leaf of his Polyglott and of his collections on Job were utterly destroyed.
He procured another Polyglott and recommenced his studies. The Hebrew text was read over again and again. The Alexandrian and Vatican editions of the Septuagint were diligently compared. All the variations in the Chaldee, Arabic, and Syriac versions, with the principal critics, as exhibited in Pool’s “Synopsis,” together with all the fragments of Origen’s “Hexapla,” were carefully collated. Tindal’s and the Bishop’s Bible were compared. All the commentators within his reach were consulted. Pliny, Salmasius, Mercator, Jerome, Eusebius, Strabo, Diodorus Siculus, Luitsius, Sanson, Purchas, Hakluyt, De la Valle, Pentinger,[Pentinger,] Bochart, Calmet, Pineda, Spanheim, Hyde, Bunting, Greaves, Sandys, Usher, Lloyd, Marshall, Reyland, and Maundrell, were all laid under contribution to his work. Accompanied by his son John, he visited, in 1733, the library of Lord Milton at Wentworth House, and acknowledges that without the kindness of his lordship, the work would have come into the world mutilated, or would have perished as an abortion. While at Wentworth House, their stay was prolonged over the Sabbath, and John Wesley occupied the pulpit of Wentworth Church to the no small gratification of the parishioners.[[236]]
Mr Wesley also received assistance from Maurice Johnson, Esq., who was a distinguished antiquarian, and the founder of the Gentleman’s Society at Spalding, of which many of the greatest men in the nation, including Sir Isaac Newton, Alexander Pope, Sir Hans Sloane, and Samuel Wesley, were members. Johnson was born at Spalding, was a student of the Inner Temple, London, married early a lineal descendant of Sir Thomas Gresham, had twenty-six children, and was the possessor of a fine collection of plants and medals. He was held in high esteem for the frankness and benevolence of his character, and was always ready to communicate the results of his literary researches to all who applied to him for information.[[237]] He contributed one of the maps to Mr Wesley’s “Book of Job;” and also one of the dissertations on “Job’s Jurisprudence.”[[238]]
Assistance was also received from Roger Gale, Esq.,[[239]] a gentleman who was educated at Trinity College, Cambridge; possessed a considerable estate at Scruton, Yorkshire, was Member of Parliament for Northallerton, the first Vice-President of the Society of Antiquaries, and was considered one of the most learned men of his age. He died at Scruton, in 1744, universally esteemed, and left all his MSS. and Roman coins to his alma mater, Cambridge University.[[240]]
Mr Wesley was further assisted by his three sons, Samuel, John, and Charles, who did everything in the work that dutiful sons should do for an aged parent.
During the last few years of his life, Mr Wesley suffered most painfully from the gout and palsy, and hence found it necessary to employ an amanuensis. Two gentlemen who were employed in this capacity, in writing the “Dissertations on the Book of Job,” were John Romley and John Whitelamb.