“SAMUEL WESLEY.”[189] ----- Footnote 189: _Methodist Magazine_, 1846, p. 253. ----- Such are a few of the godly letters that were written by the Epworth rector immediately after his release from Lincoln Castle. We are loathe to leave so much Christian serenity, fatherly affection, and manly sentiment, for the region of strife and contest; and yet, to do justice to the subject of these memoirs, we must. It has been already shown how Samuel Wesley was, unintentionally on his part, involved in the Dissenting controversy. It was most unwarrantable conduct in Mr Clavel to publish a letter which the writer intended to be kept private; but, being published, and being so savagely attacked by Mr Palmer, there was nothing for it but for Samuel Wesley to defend himself. This he did in his pamphlet, published in 1704. In 1705, Palmer published his “Vindication,” in which Wesley was again offensively assailed. Immediately after this, he was subjected to all the disgraceful persecutions that have been narrated, and, as a climax to the whole, was thrust, by a revengeful spirit, into Lincoln Gaol. He had already begun his “Reply to Mr Palmer’s Vindication,” and, during his involuntary leisure within his prison-house, he finished it. It consists of 155 pages quarto, and was published “for Robert Clavel, at the Peacock, in St Paul’s Churchyard, in 1707.” It has on the title-page, for a motto, the following sentence from the writings of Defoe:—“How long must we see the reproaches of our Establishment and the insults of the laws, and be bound to silence, and to say nothing for peace’ sake? How long must their false prophets and dreamers of dreams abuse us, and we be obliged to hold our peace?” The book consists of nine chapters and an introduction. In the introduction, Wesley states that Palmer has charged him with publishing “scandalous, wicked, malicious, envious, spiteful, injurious, base, bold, daring, rampant, downright, positive, complicated, abominable falsehoods.” He says Palmer regales him by applying to him the epithets following:—“Cruel, unjust, wicked, silly, wretched, flagrant, spiteful, impertinent, insidious, scandalous, impudent, barefaced, perfidious, ingrate, sycophant, delator and informer.” Wesley’s “Reply” was written at the request of his bishop, who offered to assist him with materials for the work, and revised part of it before it was printed.[190] It is elaborate and able; but a lengthened review of it, at this period, would be useless. We content ourselves, therefore, with giving a few matters of fact in the order in which the book contains them. ----- Footnote 190: Wesley’s _Reply_, p. 154. -----