England at the period of the great
Civil War. He resigned his charge, being one of the two thousand who,
after the Restoration, declared for Nonconformity, and preached their
farewell sermons in the Established Church, on the 17th of August, 1662.
He found his sphere in the meeting-house of Little St. Helen's,
Bishopsgate.

Dr. Annesley's second wife, the mother of Susanna, was a woman of
eminent piety, and beloved of all who knew her. "How many children has
Dr. Annseley?" was a question asked of the eminent Puritan preacher
Manton, who had just been officiating at the baptism of one of the
number. "I believe it is two dozen, or a quarter of a hundred," he
replied. Such was the family into which the mother of the Wesleys was
born on the 20th of January, 1669. Of this crowded household, the
majority were daughters, and Susanna was the youngest of these. In her
own Journals, which form the only account of her childhood, we read of
several instances of her "preservation from accidents," and once from a
"violent death." The method of her education is not clearly stated, but
"the tree is known by its fruits." There is evidence that it was sound
and liberal, and up to the best standard of the day in any rank of
society. French and music were evidently among her attainments, while in
her letters and treatises there are abundant tokens that logic and
philosophy were also held in effective possession and use. She tells us
that which might have been expected when she says that she "was early
initiated and instructed in the first principles of the Christian
religion;" and in after days we find her giving to her son a rule which
had proved to be a blessing to her own girlhood--"Never to spend more
time in any matter of mere recreation in one day, than I spend in
private religious duties."

The thoroughness of her own "private religious duties" is shown by the
fact that in the year 1700 she made a resolution to spend one hour
morning and evening in private devotion. This practice she kept up
through life as far as circumstances would admit.

II.

THEOLOGICAL STUDIES.

Soon we find Susanna Wesley studying the works of Jeremy Taylor, of the
early Puritan Divines, and the immortal Bunyan, till at length her
vigour of intellect and enterprise in reading led her into danger. By
reading Arian and Socinian authors of the period, her faith was shaken.
This, however, was not to be for long, and the manner of her recall was
marke