Mr Wesley was ordained a deacon at Bromley by the Bishop of Rochester, the well-known Dr Thomas Sprat. This prelate was a man of considerable eminence. He began life as a fellow of Wadham College, Oxford, where, on the death of Oliver Cromwell, he gave a specimen of his poetical talents in an “Ode to the Happy Memory of the late Lord Protector.” He subsequently became a fellow of the Royal Society, chaplain to George, Duke of Buckingham, chaplain in ordinary to King Charles II., canon of Windsor, Dean of Westminster, clerk of the closet to King James II., dean of the Chapel Royal, and Bishop of Rochester. He was an intimate friend of the poet Cowley, who, by his last will, left to his care his printed works and MSS. His preferment to the bench of bishops was considered as a reward for the service he rendered in drawing up, at the command of King Charles II., an account of the Rye House Plot. His known sympathy for James II. brought upon him a large amount of popular indignation; so much so that, at the trial of the seven bishops, while the air rang with loud huzzas for the persecuted prelates, it was also filled with execrations against Sprat and his fawning associates. Strangely enough, it was just at this time that Sprat ordained Samuel Wesley. An odd incident happened four years afterwards. His principles being so well known, Bishop Sprat was involved with others in an information laid before the Privy Council of a pretended conspiracy for restoring James II. Sprat was arrested, and kept under a strict guard for eleven days, but effectually cleared himself of the accusation. He was so much affected, however, by the danger to which it had exposed him, that, to the end of his days, he commemorated his deliverance by an annual thanksgiving. He died in 1713. Though somewhat of a time-server, he was a man of great ability. Dunton, in his “Characters of Eminent Conformists,” is most extravagant in praising him: his style is matchless, his wit flowing, his thoughts deep, and his poems beautiful. “Nature rejoiced beneath his charming power; His lucky hand made everything a flower. On earth the king of wits, (they are but few,) And, though a bishop, yet a preacher too.” Samuel Wesley was ordained a priest of the Church of England, by Dr Compton, in St Andrew’s Church, Holborn, on February 24, 1689. This was twelve days after the Prince and Princess of Orange were declared by parliament to be King and Queen of Great Britain.