He was a man of great ability, and was an unwearied student. It is said that he retained the whole of the New Testament in his memory verbatim, not only in English, but in Greek, as far as the fourth chapter of the Revelation. His persecutions made converts to his principles, particularly in London; and from these he formed a distinct and separate society, not only for the purpose of divine worship, but for the free investigation of theological questions. The members of this society were called, from Biddle, Bidellians; and, from their agreement in opinion with the followers of Socinus, they were denominated Socinians. The name, however, which most properly characterised their leading sentiment was that of Unitarians; and in this way the Unitarian sect in England had its origin.[[17]]
It is a disgraceful fact that the life and works of this archheretic were in the hands of the pupils of Morton’s academy, and that Wesley was actually employed to translate some of those pernicious writings, and was promised a considerable gratuity for doing it. He says, “When I saw what it was, I proceeded no farther.” He might, however, have proceeded farther, and, like many other juvenile aspirants, whilst dabbling in Socinian works, might have become a Socinian himself; and, instead of becoming an honoured rector of the Established Church, and the father of the greatest reformer of the age, and of the best uninspired hymnist since the days of King David, he might have dwindled down into a cold-hearted sceptic, with a creed composed of negatives, and a life bereft of blessings to those among whom he moved.
There is no intention, in all this, to censure Mr Morton. Twenty years after these proceedings, Wesley, in his pamphlet against Dissenting Academies, does honour both to Mr Morton and himself, by writing thus: “I must, and ever will, do my tutor the justice to assert that, whenever the young men had any discourse of the government, and talked disaffectedly, or disloyally, he never failed to rebuke and admonish them to the contrary, telling us expressly, more than once, that it was none of our business to censure such as God had set over us; that small miscarriages ought not to be magnified, nor severely reflected on, there never having been a government so exact or perfect but what had some of those neavi in it. He also cautioned us against writing lampoons and scandalous libels concerning our superiors, and that, not only because it was dangerous so to do, but likewise immoral.”
Considering the disgraceful prosecutions to which Mr Morton had been subjected, such a testimony shows him to have been a man of high principle and honour; but Mr Morton, perhaps, was unable to prevent less honourable ministers having access to the students of his academy; or of his students having access to them. Besides, while the bulk of his students were without doubt respectable and virtuous young men, it is not unfair to imagine that, as in other seminaries, so in this, there might be bad characters, who would try to infect the rest. And, in addition to all this, while we hesitate in accusing young Wesley of strictly immoral conduct, we are quite prepared to think, that the exuberance of spirit, liveliness of wit, and adventurous heroism, which seem to be characteristics of the Wesley family, would often hurry him into improprieties, which he doubtless lamented in after life.
Wesley writes, “that some of the gravest, eldest, and most learned of Dissenting ministers encouraged and pushed him on in his silly lampoons both on Church and State,” that they “gave him subjects, and furnished him with matter; that they transcribed, reviewed, and corrected his writings before they were put to press; and that they taught him to equivocate, by telling him, that, when he was charged with being the author of such publications, he might deny that they were his,” because of the “very weighty and honest reason that there might be some literal mistakes in the printing.” He also adds, that it was from among the most famous of the Dissenting ministers that he “learned this way of writing;” “that it was in their hands he first saw the lampoons which were then most famous against the Government; and that he had often heard them repeated by their own lips, oaths and all.”
These are weighty charges against the Dissenting ministers of that period; and we have no means of refuting them. Still, while the allegations of Samuel Wesley, in the main, are doubtless true, it is only common charity to infer that these hot-headed, lampooning ministers were exceptions to the general rule; and it is only fair, even to them, to remind the reader that the Government and the age against whom the lampoons were written, were almost as corrupt and vile as profligate and abandoned wickedness could make them.
After all, it was a perilous thing for a young, sprightly fellow, like Samuel Wesley, whose father and grandfather had, by the existing Government, been ejected from their livings, reduced to beggary, and hunted to a premature grave, and whose mother, in consequence of such tyranny, was even now pining in some obscure dwelling, crushed with the sorrows of a too early widowhood, and compelled to submit to the humiliation of being, to some extent, dependent upon the charity of her friends; we say, it was a perilous thing for such a young man to be brought into close connexion with such political parsons. No wonder that he acknowledges that, when he came to Mr Morton’s school, “he was forward enough to write lampoons and pasquils;” “was abundantly zealous in the cause;” “was fired with hopes of suffering;” “and often wished to be brought before kings and rulers, because he thought what he did was done for the sake of Christ.”
Such were the ministerial tempters of this high-spirited and exceedingly clever youth. In Morton’s academy, there were about fifty pupils, many of whom were doubtless as headstrong as himself, and at least two of whom were a great deal worse than this, being not only headstrong, but lewd and vicious. Would it have been surprising, if, under such circumstances, Samuel Wesley had fallen into worse errors than what he did? and is it not owing to the prayers of his dead father, the training of his widowed mother, and the restraining grace of God’s good Spirit, that, in after life, he was able to tell his enemies, face to face, without fear of contradiction, that, though he was not an “exemplary liver” while at Mr Morton’s academy, he was not a “scandalous one?” He admits that he was too keen and revengeful, and that if he thought a person had injured him, he could not forgive such a person, without receiving something which he thought to be satisfaction. That seems to have been one of his greatest crimes; but now all such revengeful feeling was done away; and it was the greatest pleasure of his life to forgive and to oblige an enemy.
Before quitting the “school days” of Samuel Wesley, perhaps it may be interesting to add, that, besides himself, several of his school-fellows rose to great eminence.
For instance, there was Timothy Cruso, “the golden preacher,” as he was called, and who was so great a textuary, says Dunton, that he could pray two hours together in Scripture language. Also Obadiah Marriott, who was Dunton’s uncle, and for many years officiated as minister at Chiswick, and at Croydon.