“A frightful sum, if one saw it all together; but it is beyond thanks, and I must never hope to perform that, as I ought, till another world; where, if I get first into the harbour, I hope none shall go before me in welcoming your lordship into everlasting habitations; where you will be no more tired with my follies, nor concerned at my misfortunes. However, I may pray for your Grace while I have breath, and that for something nobler than this world can give; it is for the increase of God’s favour, of the light of His countenance, and of the foretaste of those joys, the firm belief whereof can only support us in this weary wilderness. And, if it be not too bold a request, I beg your Grace would not forget me, though it be but in your prayer for all sorts and conditions of men; among whom, as none has been more obliged to your Grace, so, I am sure, none ought to have a deeper sense of it than your Grace’s most dutiful and most humble servant, “S. WESLEY.” To a man with a large family, and who, if not at present, had recently been £300 in debt, the burning of his house was a dire disaster; but, alas! Samuel Wesley’s calamities did not end with this. During the winter of 1704, which was very shortly after the rebuilding of his house, another fire broke out, and burnt the whole of his flax; and, five years after that, a third fire utterly destroyed his recently re-erected rectory. But these are facts which, in chronological order, will have to be noticed anon. In the year 1703, a small pamphlet was published, entitled, “A Letter from a Country Divine to his Friend in London, concerning the Education of Dissenters in their Private Academies in several parts of this Nation: Humbly offered to the consideration of the Grand Committee of Parliament for Religion, now sitting. London, 1703,” 4to., pp. 15.[161] Samuel Wesley was the writer of this letter; but it was printed without either his consent or knowledge; and, as it led to a serious, prolonged, and ill-natured controversy, it behoves us to examine its history. ----- Footnote 161: This is taken from Clarke’s _Wesley Family_; but it seems to be a mistake to say that the letter consisted of 15 pages. The third edition, published by Clavel, in 1706, is now before us, and consists of only 8 pages 4to. -----