D' x,;,' "
J: / 
i                   
/
NN F. S./  Y()         l ~ If      IA   ft F  F          &      FJ h    C, T! f     be(a




WESLEY,
AND METHOD IS [.
BY ISAAC TAYLOR.
NEW YORK:
HARPER & BROTHERS, PUBLISHERS,
FRANKLIN SQUARE.
1855.








PREFACE.
THE METHODISM of the last century, even when considered apart from its consequences, must always be thought
worthy of the most serious regard. But, in fact, that great
religious movement has, immediately or remotely, so given
an impulse to Christian feeling and profession, on all sides,
that it has come to present itself as the starting-point of
our modern religious history.  The field-preaching of
WESLEY and WHITEFIELD, in 1739, was the event whence
the religious epoch, now current, must date its commencement.  Back to the events of that time must we look,
necessarily, as often as we seek to trace to its source what
is most characteristic of the present time.
Yet this is not all, for the METHODISM of the past age
points forward to the next-coming development of the
powers of the Gospel; and it is especially as thus involving what may be called a predictive meaning, that the
reader's attention is now invited to the subject.
It is also with a view to the future-that is to say, in
relation to those changes, a silent preparation for which
is now in progress, that I venture upon the task of reviewing, as announced on the last page of this volume, the
course and the principles of the NONCONFORMISTS of the
past age. Assuredly it is with no thought of setting in a
disadvantageous light the good and great men who ranged
themselves on that side of the Protestant movement of the
times, that I enter upon such a service.




viii                   PREFACE.
Should this task be completed, one that must be accounted still more venturous and difficult, would present
itself as next in order; if, indeed, it should be permitted
me to complete a plan which should embody those views
that seem to give coherence to the past history of Christianity, considered as a preparation for its destined universality.
Stanford Rivers,
November, 1851.




CONTENTS.
PAGE
PREFACE                                                                  Vii
METHODISM, as related to the present Time...............    13
THE FOUNDERS OF METHODISM.
The Founders of Methodism: the two Wesleys.................             24
Early Stages of Wesley's religious course.....................  34
Wesley's early religious Connections..........................   38
The first Methodistic Preaching.............................   41
Wesley's Separation from Whitefield.........................   49
Lay Preaching, and the Lay Preachers........................  54
Lay Preaching; and a Point of Comparison suggested between Methodism and Romanism................................   67
Wesley, as Founder of an Institute..........................   77
Charles Wesley......................    90
Whitefield..............................................   96
Fletcher..............................................  108
Coke..................................................  117
Lady Huntingdon........................................ 119
The Methodistic Company.................................  127
THE SUBSTANCE OF METHODISM.
The first Element of Methodism............................. 137
The second Element of Methodism........................... 147
The third Element of Methodism............................ 159
The fourth Element of Methodism...........................  170
THE FORM OF (WESLEYAN) METHODISM.
The Form of (Wesleyan) Methodism.......................... 188
Wesleyan Methodism, a Scheme of Evangelic Aggression......... 197
Wesleyan Methodism, a Scheme of religious Discipline and Instruction, toward the People...............................  215
Wesleyan Methodism, a Hierarchy, or System of Spiritual Government 234
Wesleyan Methodism, an Establishment, or body Corporate, related
to Civil Law and Equity...............                            246
THE METHODISM OF THE TIME COMING.
Methodism of the Future.................................. 269
NOTES......................... 301








NOTICE
RELATIVE TO THE PORTRAIT OF WESLEY
THE engraving which accompanies this volume has been executed, with much care, from an outline in the Author's possession; and which has been attributed to Worlidge, whose imitations of Rembrandt are well known to amateurs. That artist
died, however, long before Wesley had attained the age which
the sketch represents. Whoever was the artist, the outline exhibits a practiced hand and eye, and is full of character: it was
said to have been taken from the sid& gallery at the Foundery,
while Wesley was preaching. This, at least, is the tradition
which accompanied it when it came, many years ago, into the
Author's hand.








METHODISM,
AS
RELATED TO THE PRESENT TIME.
A FORTY or FIFTY YEARS has been the term, more or
less clearly defined, within which each of those revolutions that mark the history of the human mind has had
its rise, has passed its climax, and has gone forward,
commingled with other moral forces, and having its own
abated.
Some reasons that are quite obvious, and some that are
occult, and perhaps not cognizable by science, might be
assigned in explanation of a fact which obtrudes itself as
we follow the luminous track of those outbursts of light
and warmth which take place in the lapse of centuries. It
might seem enough to say, that, as every such time of
renovation and movement takes its rise in the bosoms of
two or three individual men, and as these, for the most
part, occupy nearly the same, level. as to age, a term of
forty or fifty years gives the extreme limits of the personal
energy and influence of any such band of men; and never
hitherto has any new impulse, or any strenuous moral
movement, been taken up and carried forward, by the
sons and successors of its originators, in the same mind,
or with the same, or with nearly the same singleness of
purpose. Great men do not repeat themselves in their
immediate followers; or if the mantle of an Elijah has
in some rare instances rested upon an Elisha, yet never,
hitherto, has the spirit and power of a company of distinguished persons come upon, or remained with, those
who have stood up to represent them before the world.




14          METHODISM, AS RELATED TO
Methodism, it is true, survives among us, and may long
so survive, in its broad array, and its ample frontage; but
the Methodism with which, in these pages, we shall have
to do, went to its place in the history of Christianity when
its originators stepped off from the scene of their labors.
An interval of full sixty years since the recession of the
men who breathed their souls into it, is enough to put us
in a vantage position for bringing this great movement
under review. No disparagement to that body of eminently useful men who now, in their stations, farm the
spiritual inheritance bequeathed to them by their fathers
is intended, when we affirm that their own peculiar relationship to those men-the fathers and founders of their:communion, appears, to the eye of an impartial bystander,
to be made up more of what is technical, or conventional,
than of what is substantial, in a purely religious sense.
We assume then that we, at this time, stand far enough
off from the Methodism of the last century to enable us to
contemplate it with advantage. But another question here
presents itself at the threshold of our subject; and it relates to the qualifications, for their part, of those whom a
writer may suppose that he is challenging to sit with him
in judgment upon the men and the system which are so to
be reviewed.
This second question involves more than may at first
appear; and it implicates, not merely the dispositions of
the writer, and of his reader, individually, but the religious
characteristics also, and the tendencies of the times we
live in.
Without some self-scrutiny a writer should not engage
in a task such as this; nor, without some self-recollection, should an individual reader take his place beside the
writer; nor, without some looking to itself, should the
Christian body of one age allow itself to pass judgment,upon that of another age. We must not forget that there
As action and reaction among moral, as well as among
mechanical forces; nor that every judgment we pronounce
has a reciprocal sense; and that, whether or not it trulv




THE PRESENT TIME.                 lb
bears upon the one party, it bears upon the other with
infallible precision.
It might seem superfluous formally to advance so obvious a truth as this-that, as often as we cite another to our
tribunal, the sentence we utter has a double import, and
may be read offfirst as touching the party so cited, and in
which application it may be an equitable decision, or quite
otherwise; but that when regarded in its reflex sense, no
such judgment can be fallacious; and it carries with it a
fearful certainty, just in proportion as it has been deliberately formed, and has received the full consent of mind
and heart. The metallic reflector which the astronomer
presents to the celestial field may image the bright objects
before it truly or falsely, clearly or dimly; but infallibly it gives notice of any flaws that mar its own surface,
and tells of its own variations from an exact parabolic
figure.
A writer calls before him men such as those were who
originated Methodism; and then, with philosophic ease
and a feeling of irresponsibility, he deals with his worthies,
and sets upon them their price and value-mind and heart,
motive, purpose, and intellectual power, and his reader
assents, perhaps, and consents, and nods approval while
the arraigned are thus disposed of at the bar. But in
which of its bearings does this process of judgment convey most meaning?  Undoubtedly in its reflex bearing;
for, read in this reverberative sense, every word tells;
nor could eternal justice itself ask for evidence more conclusive than that is which is comprised in the deliberately
pronounced opinion which individually we frame, or which
we assent to, when other men are brought up before us,
for judgment. We decide, in each instance, according to'
our own dispositions, our principles, and our moral condition.
But what is thus true individually, must be true also,
and in a more comprehensive sense, when a set of men,
or a certain marked revolution in the moral world, comes
on, as it always does in its course, to receive, in various




16          METHODISM, AS RELATED TO
modes of expression, the judgment of the times next ensuing. When the vessel, with the wind in its sails, loosens
from its moorings, it is not easy for those on deck to resist
the belief, at first, that the quay, and its lighthouse, and the
ranges of docks, and the ships at anchor, have all taken
to themselves wings and are flitting away. Yet we oth
erwise think the moment when our own ship meets the,swell of the open sea. A similar involuntary feeling, not
so soon corrected, attaches to most minds as often as the
persons, the events, and the moral and political condition
/of other periods are brought in review before them. We
are at rest, we are stationary, having established ourselves
immovably upon a certain terra firma of steadfast opinions, usages, and modes of thinking. An infatuation of
this sort infests all minds, more or less, but in somefrom constitutional arrogance, and from the induration of
early prejudices —the feeling is far too strong to be in any
way broken up or disturbed. Such persons hold a sort
of Ptolemaic idea of the moral and intellectual world;
and, in their view, sun, moon, planets, stars, are all whirling around the spot on which they stand.
It is not under the influence of any such illusion as this
that we now propose to look back upon Methodism and
its authors. Are not we ourselves, that is to say, the
Christian community of this passing moment, afloat upon
the eddying Euphrates of time? Is our standing any
thing betterthan a foot's breadth 9pon a raft which is
whirling itself onward, as borne on the heaving bosom
of " many waters?"  If we speak thus it is in relation to
those specialities of opinion, of practice, and of feeling,
which will present themselves as the points of contrast
between. ourselves and the bygone Methodism. And is
it certain that every thing in respect of which we may
find ourselves to differ from that scheme of things, is a
difference in our own favor? The reader will not ask
the writer to do his best for holding him safe in any such
conclusion. Rather'we go into Methodism ingenuously
and modestly, wishing, while in that strange region, fairly




THE PRESENT TIME.                 17
to measure it, and ourselves also with It; perhaps to
gather thence some sharp lesson of humiliation.
The Methodism of the 18th century has, we say,
ceased to have any extant representative among us.
None are there now who, with an entire congeniality
of feeling, can interpret to us its phrases, or can warmly
and forcibly speak of it, and plead for it, as a reality
with which they are themselves conversant. We must
be content then to understand it in our own sense, as well
as we may.
A vast interval, as if it had been of a thousand years,
divides us, of this present time, from the obsolete religious condition of our ecclesiastical progenitors of the last
century. The extent of the revolutions that have come
in to constitute this interval, is not to be grasped without
an effort of thought. Methodism itself has had a great
share in bringing about these revolutions; and itself too
has undergone transmutations greater, perhaps, than those
that have affected other communions.
The vastness of that religious and moral interval which
seventy or eighty years have given room for, between
ourselves and our religious predecessors, severally, to
whatever communion we may belong, will become visible, or it will make itself felt by us, if we choose to
take notice of it in the course of that review of the
Methodistic movement which we have now in prospect;
and the reader is here invited to give attention to those
indications which will meet him of the fact —that every
religious community among us has distanced its place as
abreast of the Methodism of the last century by many
leagues, of which they have taken little or no reckoning.
The reader, to whatever body he may belong, will be
advertised of the fact of this unconscious movement in
different modes.
During these sixty, or seventy, or eighty years that
have slipped by, the absolute number of persons in England, or the proportion of such persons, has vastly increased, whose range of view, in matters of religion, has




18          METHODISM, AS RELATED TO
been so much widened that, in disregard of sectarian
restrictions, and even holding in abeyance some notions
which they have not discarded, they are more than
coldly willing to think and speak of Wesley and of
Whitefield as great and good men, and to admit their
claim to stand prominent among the benefactors of their
country, and the worthies of all time. Concomitant with
the increase of this class of liberally-feeling religious persons, upon whose assent and consent a writer may safely
rely, there is a proportionate decrease of the number of
those who would tolerate, or approve of that style of
frigid levity, — half banter, half admiration, and whole
infidelity-which, only thirty years ago, passed as the
appropriate mode in which a candid and philosophic
writer should deal with Methodism.
At this moment then-and the change indicates an immeasurable advance and improvement-there is a large
class of religious persons, or more strictly speaking, there
are several such classes, who would demand, in a writer
upon Methodism, far more of serious purpose, and more
of sympathy with what is great and good, and more
depth of thought-in a word, more of reality-than
would have been required only thirty years ago. Wesley, Whitefield, and their companions seem, therefore, so
far to have gained upon us of late; and so it is that a
writer may now speak of these worthies cordially, and
yet not incur the risk of being called "Methodist."
And then, during the lapse of this same period, the religious body has so much come into the habit of refining
upon its own principles, and it has so far drawn itself in
from all extremes, and it has become so nicely observant
of proprieties, and is so abhorrent of excesses, and it is
so discreet, that when, with truthfulness and impartiality,
the unpleasing characteristics of Methodism (at its rise)
are noted, and when the errors fallen into by its founders,
the irregularities which were sanctioned by them, and the
illusions of which they were the victims, are, with temper and precision specified, a writer may be sure that his




THE PRESENT TIME.                 19
readers (very few excepted) are going with him, and will
be prompt to give a verdict on the same side, upon every
count of the indictment. The refinements and the religious tact and taste of this time, make the task a very easy
one, of marking for disapproval and rejection whatever
in the early Methodism may seem to be obnoxious to
criticism.
But just at this point the modern religious reader's unhesitating approval is likely to receive a decisive check.
He would, indeed, resent it if Wesley and Whitefield
were treated flippantly; or if a want of sympathy were
shown with what is noble in their conduct and character.
On the other hand, he allows their faults and errors to be
temperately specified; but when this has been done-a
writer who would fain look at Methodism as it appears
from an elevated position, whence the entire course of
Christian history comes also within the:ange of sight,
and who, in the spirit of serious bPlici, endeavors to separate the accidents of the system from those things which
were its substance-such a writer will know that he must
not expect to find his reader prepared to go forward with
him as cordially as before. This same period-this sixty
years-which has made us so much more liberal, and
in a sense, more serious too, than were our fathers, and
in which refinement and discretion have done so much for
us, has touched-not our creeds indeed, so as to remove
any one article from them; but it has touched the depths
of our convictions as to the whole, and as to several
points of our belief. There is little, perhaps, in the cycle
of our predecessors' confession of faith which, if challenged to relinquish it, we should consent to see erased.
But, whether we be distinctly conscious of the fact or
not, there has come to stand over against each article of
that belief a counterbalance-an influence of abatement,
an unadjusted surmise, an adverse feeling, neither assented to, nor dismissed, but which holds the mind in perpetual suspense. The creed of this tirrre is-let us sayword for word, the creed of sixty years ago; but if such




20          METHODISM, AS RELATED TO
a simile might be allowed, these items of our "Confession" now fill one side of a balahce sheet, on the other
side of which there stands a heavy charge which has not
yet been ascertained or agreed to.
If this alleged state of the case be resented-as it
will, by some-it will be tacitly assented to by the more
thoughtful and ingenuous reader. Such persons will often
be saying to themselves in reviewing the early Methodism, and in listening to its wakening voice, "I do not
deny that there is truth here; but, as to myself, I have
little or no sympathy with it; on the contrary, I draw
back from it." This feeling, this honest acknowledgment,
measures as it indicates, the width of that space which
intervenes between ourselves and that which was of the
very substance of Methodism: it may indicate also the
difference between our outward conventional selves, and
the " inner man."
In anticipation of meeting, in his reader, a reserved
A-l hesitating accordance as to much with which we
shall have to do, the writer would at once plant a firm
foot on the ground he intends to occupy.
In attempting to treat a subject such as the one before
us, a choice must necessarily be made among the three
assumptions following:
1st, It may be said that Christianity being true in the
sense of this or that Church, Methodism ought to be
rejected as a spurious development of it; and that its
founders should be solemnly denounced as schismatics
and enthusiasts.
Or, secondly, that neither Christianity nor Methodism
being true in its own sense; but both true in the much
abated sense of the recent spiritualizing philosophy, therefore while both alike may claim some kindly regard,
neither of them is entitled to any submission.
Or, thirdly, that Christianity being true, without abatement, in its own sense, Methodism, as a genuine development of its principal elements, must be religiously regarded as such; while yet it may be open to exceptions




THE PRESENT TIME.               21
on many grounds, as the product of minds more good
and fervent, than always well-ordered.
This last supposition is then our ground; and in assuming it, while we use the liberty it allows, we yield
without fear to the consequences it draws with it, be they
what they may.
These consequences are momentous; for we can not
allow Methodism to have been a genuine development
of the principal elements of Christianity, without admitting it to take a prominent place in that providential
system which embraces all time, and which, from age to
age, has, with increasing clearness, been unfolding itself,
and becoming cognizable by the human mind. So far as
Methodism truly held forth Christianity, it was a signal
holding of it forth; for a more marked utterance of the
Gospel has occurred only once before in the lapse of
eighteen centuries; and that, at the REFORMATION, was
not less disparaged than this is by a large admixture of
the errors and inconsistencies of its movers or adherents.
Christianity, given to the world at once in the ministry
and writings of the Apostles, has, from the first moment
to this, held its onward course under a system of administration inscrutable indeed as a whole, or as to its
reasons and yet not entirely occult. On the contrary, at
moments, Heaven's economy has seemed to receive a
bright beam, as through a dense cloud, making conspicuous, if not the motives of the divine government, yet the
fact. The Reformation is held by Protestants to have
been such a manifestation of the providence of God in
restoring the Gospel, and in proclaiming it anew among
the nations; and thus the events of the sixteenth century
brought out to view that which is always real, whether
visible or not-namely, a divine interposition-maintaining truth in the world, and giving it a fresh expansion
from time to time. In perfect analogy with the events
of the Reformation were those which attended the rise
and progress of Methodism.
What may be the relative value or importance of these




22          METHODISM, AS RELATED TO
two courses of events is not a question we are now concerned with; and it may easily be allowed that the former surpassed the latter in importance; but that the one,
as well as the other, was a marked development of the
scheme which is moving forward toward the subjugation
of the human family to the Gospel, is here confidently
maintained.
In making good this position, it will be well, and especially for the purpose of setting ourselves clear of all
entanglements as to the personal merits or demerits of
the men who were the prime movers or originators of
Methodism, to gain as distinct an idea as wve can of each
of them, as to those qualities, intellectual and moral, which
make the individuality of each. Such an idea must of
course, be gathered from the incidents of his life; which,
however, it is not our purpose here to repeat; for these
have been often and well recounted, and it may be presumed that they are familiarly known by almost every
reader. If, in the exercise of due discrimination, we
succeed in placing Wesley, Whitefield, and others in
their true position, we shall be free to consider what, in
its substance, Methodism was; and next to entertain an
inquiry as to the diffused influence of this movement
upon other communions, and to ask also what probably
may be the ulterior product of it as related to the Christianity of the times next ensuing.
This sort of continuity is necessarily implied when
it is affirmed that Methodism, as did the Reformation,
formed a signal epoch in religious history; for every
event, or course of events, that may deserve to be so
spoken of, must stand related to the future as well as
to the past. Methodism, the coherent dependence of
which upon the Reformation may be traced, will, no
loubt, be seen also to reappear among those greater religious movements which are destined next to agitate
the social system. An attempt to predict distinctly those
future movements ought to be reprehended as presumptuous: nevertheless, it may be warrantable to pursue an




THE PRESENT TIME.'23
analogy thus far: that is to say, while considering the relationship of Methodism to the Reformation, to consider
also, what it is to which Methodism may have been the
proper preliminary, or to what order of events, yet future,
it may seem to point.
Hitherto the intervals have been long between one remarkable religious era and the next. At present the belief is strong and general, whether resting upon any sufficient grounds or not, that such intervening periods will
be cut short, and that all things are now hastening to
reach their final results.




THE FOUNDERS OF METHODISM.
THE TWO WESLEYS.
THE band of men who had already attracted the eye
of the world in the year 1740, and who, most of them,
finished their labors some time before the close of the century, were connected together, partly by the ties of natural
affection, or of Christian love, partly by voluntary compact and subordination, as members of a religious association, and partly by no stricter tie than that of a discordant
accordance in promoting, separately, the same great purposes. Methodism did not appear before the world as if
it had issued from a conclave; for although it came to be
ruled mainly (but never wholly) by one master spirit, it
was not devised, plotted, modeled, touched, and retouched
by its two or three protectors, who, when thus they had
set their hands to, its code, prudently hushed their individual opinions, and presented a front of unanimity to the
world. This was true of Jesuitism; but it was not true
of Methodism.
Methodism rose as great rivers do, from several springs
of nearly equal volume; and it spread and strengthened
itself as much by its contrarieties as by its agreements;
and eventually the great ends of this movement were secured by a doctrinal antagonism that was not then, and
and has not since been adjusted. As a matter of mere
convenience, and to avoid circumlocution, we speak of
Wesley and his colleagues as one; but, in truth, they were
not one; and their individuality, and their independent
concurrence, and their opposed proceedings, are facts essentially attaching to the history of this course of events.
We must bring them, therefore, into view singly in their




THE TWO WESLEYS.                 25
distinct personality; and this, as we have said, is best done
before the great features of Methodism as a whole come
to be considered.
But with what order of men is it that we have now to
do? Let it be confessed that this company does not include one mind of that amplitude and grandeur, the contemplation of which, as a natural object —a sample of humanity-excites a pleasurable awe, and swells the bosom
with a vague ambition, or with a noble emulation. Not
one of the founders of Methodism can claim to stand on
any such high revel; nor was one of them gifted with the
philosophic faculty-the abstractive and analytic power.
More than one was a shrewd and exact logician, but none
a master of the higher reason. Not one was erudite in
more than an ordinary degree; not one was an accomplished scholar; yet while several were fairly learned,
few were illiterate, and none showed themselves to be imbued with the fanaticism of ignorance.
Powers of popular oratory were among them such as
to set them far out of the reach of rivalry with any of their
contemporaries, in the pulpit. Not one was a great writer; but several of them knew how to hold the ear of men
with an absolute mastery. As to administrative tact and
skill in government, the world has given them (or their
chief) more praise than they or he deserved, while baffled in its own perplexed endeavor to solve the problem
of Methodism, in ignorance of the main cause of its spread
and permanence. Apart from the gratuitous supposition
of a profound craft, as the intellectual distinction of Wesley, " what intelligible account shall we be able to give of
Methodism?" No credible account can be given of it
by aid of any such supposition, nor until the presence of
causes has been recognized, of which the philosophy of
such persons knows nothing.
The persons claiming to be named as the founders
of Methodism, or as principally concerned in its rise
and spread, are —John and Charles Wesley, Whitefield,
Fletcher, Coke, and Lady Huntingdon. Of the lay preachB




26           FOUNDERS OF METHODISM.
ers, that is to say, those who were Wesley's helpers and
instruments, several were men gifted in an extraordinary
manner; nor can their memoirs be looked into by a generous and Christianly-minded reader without emotion or
benefit. But these men do not appear individually, or
singly, to have left their own impression upon Methodism;
and here, while a place is saved for a very few exceptions,
it may be affirmed that it is not given to men of no early
discipline, or who have not, before attaining middle life,
made good their want of education by extraordinary efforts, to exert much influence extending beyond their immediate sphere, or which can last a year after the moment
of their death. It is the prerogative of the educated class
to extend themselves, by the products of their minds, over
space and time.
Dissimilar as they were, as men, it is yet not easy to
speak of John and Charles Wesley separately; for the
influences affecting in common the early course of the
brothers, though affecting them very diversely, can be
properly spoken of only as constituting one order of
things.
The rectory at Epworth might be brought forward as
an instance in abatement of much that has lately been
said of the " state of religion and the Church" in the early
part of the last century;-just as Luther's home contradicts the exaggerations in which some Reformation-champions have indulged themselves. That rectory was not
a solitary instance; it was a sample, if not of many, of
more than a few, clerical homes; and besides, it furnished
indirect evidence concerning another main element of the
religious condition of England at that time, and which is
too little regarded. The characteristics and the excellences of the antecedent and contemporary nonconformity,
were there extant-in an occult manner, perhaps, and yet
really. Some of the very choicest samples of the firm,
consistent, English Christian character have been the product of the non-conforming or puritanical soul, blended
with the better-ordered and more broadly-based Christian




THE TWO WESLEYS.                 27
temperament of the Episcopal Church. Need we name
Leighton, Tillotson, Butler, Seeker, as instances? While,
on the other hand, the brightest adornments of nonconformity have been men who, having been bred in that
Church, were thrust out of it.
Wesley, the father, had renounced nonconformity, and
had cordially surrendered himself to the guidance and
control of the Church: he had put off the dissident, so far
as he could, or as far as he was conscious of it; but he
could not lay down that in nonconformity which belonged
to the inner man. A stern moral force, and a religious
individuality, went with him into the Church, nor left him
as he entered it; and it showed itself as an inherited quality in his sons. It must not be regarded as a refinement,
when it is affirmed that the special characteristics of religious communities-that is to say, those properties that
visibly mark such bodies-do go down to the second,
third, and fourth generation, in the instance of families
that have walked forth from the inclosure within which
they were born and bred. Family peculiarities may have
disappeared-the physical type, perhaps, has been lost;
and yet a note of the religious pedigree survives, and reappears in grandchildren, sons and daughters. The Wesleys-John and Charles, if not Samuel-inherited from
both father and mother, qualities most serviceable for
their after work, which their father, if not mother, would
have disallowed and rooted out from their bosoms. So it
is that Heaven takes care of the original temper of its
tools.
Mind is from the mother: such we conclude to be a
law of nature, on the evidence of very many bright instances. The Wesleys had the advantage of this law;
and their mother, a woman of extraordinary intelligence
and force of mind, of correct judgment, and vivid apprehension of truth, conferred also upon her sons whatever
advantage they might derive from her composite excellence as a zealous churchwoman-yet rich in a dowry of
nonconforming virtues. The Wesleyan organization of an




28           FOUNDERS OF METHODISM.
after period, which gave life, consistency, and permanence
to Methodism, may we not trace it up to its spring head,
in the conforming nonconformity which the brothers had
imbibed with their mother's milk?-a bold following out
of a conscientious belief, still governed by the love of
order, and an abhorrence of anarchy, and of individual
willfulness. The Wesleys' mother was the mother of
Methodism in a religious and moral sense; for, her courage, her submissiveness to authority, the high tone of her
mind, its independence, and its self-control, the warmth
of her devotional feelings, and the practical direction
given to them, came up, and were visibly repeated in the
character and conduct of her sons.
When Mrs. Wesley, writing to her husband concerning the irregular services she had carried on during his
absence, in the rectory kitchen, for the benefit of her
poor neighbors, said —" Do not advise, but command me
to desist," —she was bringing to its place a corner stone
of the future Methodism. In this emphatic expression of
a deep compound feeling, a powerful conscientious impulse, and a fixed principle of submission to rightful
authority, there was condensed the very law of her son's
course as the founder and legislator of a sect. This
equipoise of forces which, if they act apart, and when
not thus balanced, have brought to nothing so many hopeful movements, gave that consistency to Methodism, to
which it owes its permanence. If the Wesleys had
started on their way-let us suppose it —fired with the
same evangelic zeal, but impelled also by the modern
political fanaticism, which assails every authority as a
strong-hold of Satan, that zeal would quickly have given
place in their own bosoms to a turbulent rancor, and
in the time that followed toward the close of Wesley's
course, every Wesleyan congregation throughout England would have been a club, fraternizing with those of
France.
The belief of being destined to the achievement of a
great work has probably sprung up, at an early age, in the




THE TWO WESLEYS.                 29
mind of every man whose destiny this has actually been.
Doubtless, also, a vague feeling of this sort has heaved
the bosom of many an aspiring boy, who, in fact, never
makes himself known to fame-some, because they were
wanting in the inborn quality for any such work; and
some from the want of opportunity.  There are, however, grounds for believing that a call has been heard
in the still moments of every youth's eager onward
course, who in manhood has led other minds. It was
so with John Wesley, if not with Charles, and his rescue,
as by miracle, from the fire at the rectory, gave point
to such a feeling, which fixed itself in his motto, " Is not
this a brand plucked from the burning?"
Wesley's instinct of belief, which was a prominent
characteristic of his mind, met no counteractive force
in its structure, which was not at all of the philosophic
cast.  He reasoned, more than he thought: this, however, is a too significant fact not to claim distinct consideration hereafter. The often-told story of " Jeffery's"
tricks, and antics at the Epworth parsonage, need not
in this place be repeated; but they must be alluded to in
passing, for this strange episode in his early history took
effect upon Wesley in a decisive manner. Might we say
that it so laid open -his faculty of belief, as that a "right
of way" for the supernatural was opened through his
mind, and to the end of his life there was nothing so marvelous that it could not freely pass, where "Jeffery" had
passed before it.
In thus speaking, we are far from intending to make
light of so well-attested and remarkable a story as that of
the long-continued -noises and jostlings of the Epworth
imp. There is no need, in an instance like this, to feel as
if the alternative were either to reject a mass of well sustained and copious evidence; or, if it be admitted, then
to talk of "Divine interpositions" or "miracles," and so
to make ourselves liable to the indeterminate question,
"What purpose, worthy of God, can be subserved by
these, or similar occurrences?" The mistake is, when




30           FOUNDERS OP METHODISM.
such occurrences are not of a kind that can be rejected
as-tricks or fictions, immediately to attribute to them a
religious meaning, or to see in them the hand of Heaven.
Why should any such hypothesis be resorted to?-we
do not so think in parallel instances. Once in a century,
or not so often, on a summer's evening, a stray Arabian
locust-a genuine son of the desert-tempest-borne, we
know not how, has alighted in Hyde Park, or elsewhere.
This rare occurrence, and which it is so difficult to explain, is indeed out of the course of nature; but it is not
supernatural; certainly it is not a religious event. Nor,
to judge of them by their apparent characteristics, are
many other inexplicable occurrences, similar to the Epworth rectory noises and disturbances, to be thought of
as touching any religious question. In truth, there is nothing in these facts of a celestial complexion; nor are
they grave enough to be reputed infernal. We can incur
no risk of committing sacrilege-when we deal with occult folk, such as "Jeffery," huffingly and disrespectfully.
Almost, while intent upon these quaint performances, one
seems to catch a glimpse of a creature-half-intelligent,
or idiotic, whose pranks are like those of one that, using
a brief opportunity given it by chance, is going to the
extent of its tether in fieaks of bootless mischief.
Why may not this be thought? Around us, as most
believe, are beings of a high order, whether good or evil,
and yet not cognizable by the senses of man. But the
analogies of the visible world favor the supposition that,
besides these there are orders, or species, of all grades,
and some, perhaps, not more intelligent than apes or than
pigs. That these species have no liberty, ordinarily, to
infringe upon the solid world is manifest; nevertheless,
chances, or mischances, may, in long cycles of time,
throw some (like the Arabian locust) over his boundary,
and give him an hour's leave to disport himself among
things palpable.
In Wesley's mind all instances went on to their utmost
limits, and with him the preternatural was equivalent




THE TWO WESLEYS.                31
always to the supernatural; nor' does he seem to have
noted the distinction between what is supernatural and
what is miraculous; and thus every thing not ostensibly
natural, he was prone to interpret in a sense wholly religious. This credulity did not sensibly impair a mind so
high-toned and vigorous as his; but, beside that it gave
the world an occasion against him, and lowered his influence out of the pale of his own communion, it set a premium within it upon marvels, and tended to throw confusion upon the popular notion of religious faith. Besides,
in minds of a relaxed temperament, credulity is a leakage
through which all belief, sooner or later, oozes out and is
lost. But we shall see presently in what way Methodism
at length shook off this ill-adjunct, which had sprung from
the infirmity of its founder.
It is characteristic of the man, that Wesley's self.possession, his ardor in study, and the powerful instinct of
order within him, so operated to render him unconscious
of outward ills, that he could look back upon his boyish
days at Christchurch, not merely without horror, but with
delight! If, as a general truth, it be good for a man " to
bear the yoke in his youth," indispensable is this severe
condition in the training of those who are born to command. Wesley learned, as a boy, to suffer wrongfully
with a cheerful patience, and to conform himself to cruel
despotisms without acquiring either the slave's temper,
or the despot's. If an ill consequence resulted from the
severities of his school course, it appeared long afterward, in those misunderstandings of human nature which
he embodied in the code of the Kingswood school: he
seems to have imagined that little boys, as a species, are
much like what, as he remembered, John Wesley was at
twelve and thirteen, a prodigy of energy, assiduity, and
unconquerable patience.
Oxford at once brought out the robustness of Wesley's
intellectual structure. To speak of that ability which
enabled him, with ease, to make himself master of any
subject to which he directed his attention, is saying little;




32           FOUNDERS OF METHODISM.
for the same may be affirmed of hundreds of men of whom
the world hears nothing after they have won for themselves their academic status. Wesley was thus almost
intuitively master of all arts-or of all but the highest, to
which the predominance of secondary faculties bars the
way. Many facts characteristic of himself, and of the
system he gave to the world, are explicable on this ground
of that energy of the intuitive reason which precludes the
philosophical faculty. Yet this intellectual characteristic
in Wesley is not to be spoken of with regret, if we are
thinking of the work he was to accomplish; for it is certain that while the power which was his characteristic fits
a man to lead and command others, the philosophic faculty
— its opposite —shows itself to be a peremptory disqualification in any one who would sway the multitude. The
mass of men follow, or think they follow, the well-forged
chains of reasoning which logicians deal in; and they
delight to find themselves ferried over a stream they could
never have forded, and safely landed upon some irrefragable conclusion. The very populace like to be reasoned
with, and to be forcibly driven in upon a definite doctrine;
but no graces of illustration, no powers of oratory, ever
avail to induce the crowd to think, or to tread the bottom
of a subject.
Yet in speaking of Wesley as a master of technical
logic, we must screen him at once from the imputation of
ever having played the part of a scholastic sophist, or
wordy wrangler. The high tone of his mind, and the
thorough seriousness which belonged to him, and his
reverence for truth, and, afterward, his religious awe,
forbade him to engage as gladiator in any disputation.
Such an imputation he resented warmly. Many indeed
were the sophisms (logically compacted) which he himself bowed to, but never did he defend one, the fallacy of
which he secretly discerned.
Writers who, of late, have spoken of Wesley's want of
the philosophic faculty-a topic easy to enlarge upon and
illustrate-have, as if by way of compensation, allowed




THE TWO WESLEYS.                  33
him the praise of being an accomplished logician. And
so perhaps he was, or seemed to be, while dealing, from
the moderator's chair, with scholastic sophisms. But it is
inaccurate, or unphilosophical to make the logical faculty
-that is to say, an expertness in technical reasoning-the
intellectual contrary of the philosophic faculty. In that
order of mind to which Wesley belonged, it is the irresistible force, or one might say, the galvanic instantaneousness of the intuitions, which forbids and excludes the
exercise of the abstractive and analytic power. With
him the grasp of what he thought to be a truth, was so
sudden, and so spasmodically firm, as ordinarily to preclude two mental processes to which minds of a higher
order never fail to submit whatever offers itself for acceptance as a verbal proposition or conclusion:-namely,
first, a ridding the terms, so far as may be possible, of the
ambiguities that infest language; and secondly, the looking
through the medium —the veibal proposition, into the very
midst of the things so presented. Wesley's.habits as a
logician stood him in some stead as to the first of these
processes; but he scarcely seems to have been capable of
that equipoise of the mind which the second demands.
At the time when Wesley was acting as moderator in
the disputations at Lincoln College, there was no philosophy abroad in the world —there was no thinking that was
not atheistical in its tone and tendency, and the whole
energy of his moral nature would have drawn him off
from any commerce with it, even if the structure of his
mind had allowed him to tread at all on that path. But
while thus officiating in a scholastic chair, that preparation
was in progress which, in due time, wa% to issue in the
peremptory and categorica. style which became the
marked characteristic of the Wesleyan ministrations. The
fervor of Methodism, carrying upon its surface, as it did,
so well defined a character of dialectic precision, might
suggest the idea of a sharply-struck medallion, retaining
its nicest features while molten and incandescent. In this
feature we find what was to constitute a main distinction




34           FOUNDERS OF METHODISM.
between the Wesleyan and the Whitefieldite Methodism;
and it is curious to note the fact, that while, as we shall
see, the former exhibited at its commencement ostensible
extravagances and distortions which in a much less degree
attached to the latter, it was Wesley's community that
crystalized itself in geometric figure; while Whitefield's
followers passed into an organized condition very slowly
and very imperfectly. Wesley's Methodism excelled in
external order; Whitefield's in a deep and more true
harmony. But what we have just now to do with is, that
training in verbal precision, which was to give life and'form, both to the theology of Wesley, and to his institutions.
EARLY STAGES OF WESLEY'S RELIGIOUS COURSE.
AT Oxford, Wesley's religious feelings went through a
two-fold transmutation, which, however, brought him very
little way forward toward the position whence he was
to exercise his ministry. At each step of his progress
he had yielded, after some resistance, to a force partly
logical, and partly suasive; and his so yielding might, by
a bystander, have been anticipated as certain to ensue.
Nevertheless, his conversion, taking place as it did in
this manner, by successive vanquishments, gave to his
own religious opinions, and so-afterward to Methodism, a
marked character of abruptness and antagonism.
The conversion of several of his companions was less,
or not at all, interrupted by distinct epochs: and therefore, while it was less logical, it was of a more even color,
and the doctrinal system adopted had in it more of harmony, and less of paradox.  Wesleyan Methodism, so far
as it was the product of its founder's mind, and the representative of his individual experience, and the symbolic
record of his personal religious history, came forth-a
cramped Christianity; nevertheless, it had a recommendation, most important in whatever is to control the mass of




WESLEY'S EARLY RELIGIOUS COURSE.        35
the people —that of being sharply chiseled on every side:
it was shaped and bounded with intelligible definitions.
Thus it was, that those extravagances which attended its
early progress, subsided and went off in no permanent ill
consequence, for every thing, after a while, collapsed
within the limits of rules, and of decisions of " Conference."
We have said that at Oxford Wesley passed through
two stages of his religious course. The first was that
which brought him over from the unbroken hilarity of his
natural temper, to a fixed seriousness, and a determination
to frame his course of life under the sovereign control of
religious reasons and motives. The second stage was
not passed through until he, although to much the firmer
temper of the two, and although the master mind, had
come under a spiritual influence of a deeper sort, namely,
that of his brother Charles, and his praying companions.
Charles Wesley's soul had more in it of altitude (profundity and elevation) than John's, and it is always seen
that force and energy give way to, and receive their form
from, depth and intensity of feeling; one might say, in
like manner, as the bony structure of the animal frame
takes its shape from the softer parts and the fluids. Let
the Wesleyan hymn-book be examined, and the relation
between the minds of Joht and Charles Wesley will become apparent, nor will it seem strange that the maker of
the best of those hymns should have governed the robust
spirit of the founder of Methodism.
Wesley misunderstood the first religious book that much
engaged his attention-the De Imitatione. He read it as
if it had been intended to represent the Christian life
under its ordinary conditions; and so it was that his good
sense, and his untamed youthful feelings, prompted him to
resent that abnegation of human nature which the writer
throughout supposes. Wesley, probably, had then made
little acquaintance with the medieval monastic and ascetic
system; otherwise he would have perceived that the De
Imitatione looks no further than the cell, and that the
abstraction, the elevation, the purity of intention, and the




36           FOUNDERS OF METHODISM.
reserve which it speaks of and recommends, are scarcely
imitable in the open world; or are so only in a very limited sense. The breadth, the richness, and the power
of Jeremy Taylor, at once vanquished Wesley's mind,
and under this guidance he became, without reserve or
abatement, the religious man. How far this solemnity,
fervor, or intensity of soul came short of the amplitude
and liberty of evangelical piety, can not be precisely
determined; but that it did fall far short of that standard
is certain; at least, he himself thought so, for it was not
until long after this time that he fixed the date of what he
termed his " conversion."
But using, as we must, the liberty to speak of Wesley,
as from broader ground than ethat of his own views, we
must first reject his condemnation of himself, as "not a
regenerate man" at this period; for if not, then many of
those whose names adorn Church history, during a full
thousand years, were not Christians; and moreover, if
we compare him as a Christian, at a period later than the
date he assigns to his conversion, with some who, since
the Reformation, have shone as lights in the world, we
must think that he, less clearly than many, apprehended
the height and depth, the length and breadth, of the Christian scheme. If he had been less argumentative, and less
categorical, and more meditative, he would have set Wesleyan Methodism upon a broader theological basis. We
ask leave, then, to speak of John Wesley at Oxford, as a
Christian man, notwithstanding his own protestations to
the contrary; and the very same liberty we use in thinking of the matured Wesleyan theology as an immature
Christianity. Wesley's first impressions at Oxford had
made him a man not of this world; his second placed
him in open antagonism to the levity, the indifference,
and the impiety which on all sides surrounded him; and
if this impiety had been less extreme, the reaction from
it would have been less vehement and decisive. In fact,
this reaction, of which so many instances present themselves in religious history, went on, as in analogous cases




WESLEY'S EARLY RELIGIOUS COURSE.         37
it usually does, beyond the stage of a stern protest against
abounding evils, and it passed into what is so little thought
of by fervently religious persons —religious egotism.
Wesley's state of mind, and his habits at Oxford, included much intensity of feeling, brought to a focus-spot
upon his individual welfare. It would be harsh and inaccurate to designate this introverted feeling as selfishness: or if we were to do so, an appeal might fairly be
made to the self-denying labors and charities of Wesley,
and of others who may come under the same description.
But there may be much egotism, where there is also
much self-denial for the good of others. That which
disperses this species of concentration, and which gives
full play to a genuine benevolence, is a better understanding of the Gospel than Wesley had at this time, or until
long afterward, attained.
And yet we might say that Wesley's ascetic notions
and practices, and the dangerous extent to which he went
in fasting, were less indicative of his imperfect apprehension of Christianity, than was the pertinacious opposition
he made to his father's proposal, that he should take steps
for being appointed as his successor at Epworth. In fact,
his earnest piety had brought out, and given force to that
self-determining energy which was to qualify him for his
function as founder and ruler of a society; but at this
time it showed itself in an immovable resolution to think
only of his own (supposed) spiritual welfare; and in
defending himself in this position, he stretched sophistry
to the utmost, evading, by shallow pleas, at once the
import of his ordination vow, a clear call to extensive
usefulness, and (if such considerations might be listened
to) the duty of a son toward his parents. While we
mark the overruling hand which had otherwise disposed
Wesley's lot, his own part on this occasion-that is to
say, in clinging to his college life when a populous parish
was before him-shows clearly enough that a willfulness
still held its mastery in his mind, which years of severe
discipline were needed to dispel; yet this state of his




38           FOUNDERS OF METHODISM.
mind was nothing more than a stage in his progress; it
was not a mood in which a nature so noble (Christian
principles apart) could have remained stationary. Christian principles, with a discipline efficient for its purpose,
did at length thoroughly set him free from the bondage
of every restrictive or self-regarding motive, and thenceforward as large and warm a philanthropy as a human
bosom has ever admitted ruled him supremely.
WESLEY'S EARLY RELIGIOUS CONNECTIONS
EXCEPT SO far as it formed part of the discipline we
have just spoken of, Wesley's adventure in Georgia claims
little notice in relation to our immediate purpose. His vovages to and fro, and the months of his stay in the colony,
were indeed incidentally important in bringing him within the circle of the Moravian influence. It was in that
circle that the new and strange idea first met him of a
Christianity more elevated and excellent than his own.
One or two of the Moravian ministers were-and he felt
it-far advanced in knowledge and experience beyond his
own rate of attainment. At Oxford he had found himself
stepping forward always in front of those around him.
But on board the ship in which he crossed the Atlantic,
and afterward in the colony, he met with men who, without assuming a tone of arrogance toward him, spoke to
him as to a novice, and who, in the power of truth, brought
his conscience to a stand by questions which, while he
admitted the pertinence of them, he could not answer
with any satisfaction to himself. Thus it was that he
returned to England in a state of spiritual discomfort and
destitution. He had been stripped of that overweening
religiousness upon which, as its basis, his asetic egotism
had hitherto rested. He rejoined his friends in a mood
to ask and receive guidance, rather than to afford it.
At a later time, and when his judgment in spiritual




WESLEY'S EARLY RELIGIOUS CONNECTIONS.   39
matters had ripened, he became the censor of the Moravian community:-he rebuked it, and in the end, broke
connection with the body, from which, however, he borrowed certain rudiments of Methodistic organization; but
the spirit of the two communities was widely-we might
say essentially-different, and the two have subserved purposes wholly dissimilar. Within the Moravian circle the
prevailing force is centripetal; within the Wesleyan it is
centrifugal. The Church of the Brethren has conserved
within its small inclosures an idea of what was imagined
to be pristine Christianity; and it has moored itself, here
and there, in sheltered nooks of the world, amid the wide
waters of general impiety or formality; but no such tranquil witness-bearing to primitive principles could have
satisfied Wesley's evangelical zeal; and the Methodism
which he framed was an invasive encampment upon the
field of the world: it never was in his view or purpose a
CHURCH: its original principles and practices were exclusive of those to which Moravianism attached the highest
importance. This is an instance, and such present themselves on all sides, in which some accidental and unsubstantial analogy, or some merely apparent resemblance,
has.been hastily taken up by writers, and repeated one
after another; —" Methodism-it is our protestant Jesuitisrn;"-or, "it is our English Moravianism."  Nothing, in
such comparisons, agrees with the facts, if these be correctly thought of.
Wesley's was. a mind in the history of which no gradual
transition-periods-no seasons during which the understanding and the moral sentiments should, in equipoised
conjunction, work their way onward from one position to
another-could have place. Each change was either a
leap from a precipice, or a being thrown with violence
from one standing place to another; and the very next
moment after he had regained his feet, or even before
lie could do so, he turned upon those whose company
lie had thus left, and assailed them with eager, yet never
with bitter upbraidings.  Such are the characteristics,




40           FOUNDERS OF METHODISM.
not of a mind of the highest order, which passes from
one condition to another harmoniously, as to all its faculties; but of a spirit of energy, destined to command the
multitude.
Thus it was that Wesley, whose spiritual confidence
had received a death wound from the hand of the Moravian brethren, turned so sharply upon his former masterWilliam Law; and although confbssing himself to be yet
only treading the threshold of Christian faith, he sternly
rebukes his teacher, as a blind leader of the blind. With
Law's moonlight Gospel we have not now to do; but his
modest and pertinent reply to this rude assault proves at
least, that this spurned teacher had much the advantage
over the recusant disciple, on the ground of humility and
patience.
The elastic force of his mind prevented his imbibing
from other minds any more of a foreign influence than he
might, at the moment, be in a state to assimilate. Thus
I~ was that, in his visit to Herrnhut-too short for any
purposes of intelligent inquiry, as to the principles and
practices of the society-he took up from Moravianism'
that which he then most needed, namely, a clearer apprehension of the first principle of the Christian life; or, to
speak technically, he learned the doctrine of Justification
through Faith. It does not appear that hitherto his notions on that subject had acquired any coherence, or had
produced the fruits of peace in his own soul. Just so
much aid as he then required, and which the Moravian
brethren were qualified to afford, he received from them.
That his mind did not undergo more transmutation than
this, may be accounted for by the shortness of his stay
among these people, and by that restlessness which prevented his seeing or understanding what was beneath the
surface. It'is probable, too, that his very limited knowledge of the German language stood much in his way.
With the Moravian ministers, or with some of them, he
conversed in Latin; but such conversations, in which a
deliberate and formally theological style would prevail,




FIRST METHODISTIC PREACHING.           41
could not convey to him what he might have gathered
from an unfettered and promiscuous colloquial intercourse
with the Herrnhut community. From Georgia, Wesley
had returned-we might say-dilapidated; from Germany
he returned edified; or at least, his Christian sentiments
thenceforward rested upon a better foundation, and which
was afterward to be built upon: as to the superstructure
of a settled faith and peace, it did not yet appear. Unity
of purpose, singleness of intention, was-in the highest
sense his characteristic; but simplicity, in a genuine sense
that is to say, ONENESS of the mind and soul, leading to
repose, could not have been his distinction. Several of
his friends, who were far his inferiors as teachers, or
leaders, or as rulers, stood in advance of him, as to the
homogeneousness of their religious sentiments. On this
ground his brother Charles was always his superior; and
Whitefield immeasurably so.
THE FIRST METHODISTIC PREACHING.
WESLEY, at Whitefield's invitation, and following the
example he had set, commenced his public miinistry as
a field-preacher, in 1739. This was a course utterly repugnant to his most cherished notions of Church order,
as well as to every instinct of his nature; yet it was by
field-preaching, and in no other possible way, that England could be roused from its spiritual slumber, or Methodism spread over the country, and rooted where it spread.
The men twho commenced and achieved this arduous
service, and they were scholars and gentlemen,. displayed
a courage far surpassing that which carries the soldier
through the hail-storm of the battle field. Ten thousand
might more easily be found who would confront a battery,
than two who, with the sensitiveness of education about
them, could mount a table by the roadside, give out a
psalm, and gather a mob.




42           FOUNDERS OF METHODISM.
In looking down upon this field-preaching it is easy to
make out a list of inferior motives which might prompt
to such a course, and which, although singly they must
be reckoned wholly inadequate for.the purpose, yet when
heaped together, and when piled up in the periods of a
swelling paragraph, may seem enough to resolve the difficulty presented by such a line of conduct, begun and persevered in. Let those who so reason, and who so write,
themselves make an experiment for effecting great things,
on a difficult ground, at the impulse of an accumulation
of motives singly insufficient for the purpose. Such reasoners can know little of human nature; and they must
be ignorant of the laws which take effect upon it, when
its utmost energies are put in strenuous movement. It it
a mistake to imagine that the sum of small motives can
ever constitute, or be equivalent to, a great motive; on
the contrary, such an accumulation produces, not concentration, but distraction, vacillation, and infirmity of purpose. Arduous achievements demand powerful motives:
this, indeed, is something like a truism; but let it be added
that powerful motives are simple in their structure, and
they love to have the whole man to themselves..
As a point of philosophy, nothing is gained by the frigid
flippancy of attaching to the names of men who have
achieved arduous conquests in a long course of persevering activity, the designation-" Enthusiasts;" for how
does this phrase help us forward? Not at all. Unless a
serviceable word is to lose its significancy, and therefore,
to drop out of its place in the dictionary, this term must
be held to convey the idea of that which is spurious, unreal, and which, as compared with the reality it counterfeits, is inefficient, nugatory, and inconstant. The word
Enthusiasm, undoubtedly, is one of a class of terms which
has no meaning apart from its correlative. When therefore, men whose very aspect, and whose whole course of
life, indicates that there is in them the highest rate of constitutional energy and courage, pass before us, and we
see them achieving great things, and bearing up, undis




THE FIRST METHODISTIC PREACHING.         43
mayed, amid discouragements, perils, and reproacheswhen (to condescend to the cant of a philosophic style)
all the "phenomena" show the presence of motives that
must be true in human nature, and true toward human
nature, and toward the moral system-when, with facts
such as these in view, we think the word enthusiast appropriate, as applied to the principal actors, we either
write English miserably, or we think confusedly, or we
ourselves-and this is the most likely supposition-are
staggering in front of facts which no sympathy in our
own bosoms enables us to comprehend.
Perplexities of this sort which so much embarrass a
certain class of writers whose good-nature would impel
them to deal kindly with useful "madmen," and who
would fain be thought masters of philosophic equanimity,
are much enhanced by the occurrence of those excesses,
or of those inexplicable agitations which have so often
run alongside of great religious movements. "May we
not," say they, "fairly call those men Enthusiasts who,
whatever their virtues may have been, stand before us
implicated in disorders that are frightful to think of?"
So it may appear; yet leave must be taken to apply a
stricter analysis to the facts.
It is a circumstance worthy to be noted that although
Whitefield's oratory was of a far more moving sort than
that of Wesley, bodily agitations and outwardly expressed agonies were less frequently excited in his audiences
than in those of his friend. In fact, it was seldom except
when Whitefield followed immediately upon Wesley's
track, that any of these disturbances took place, beyond
such as might arise from the copious weeping of a large
proportion of the congregated thousands that listened
to him. When they did occur in his.presence, Whitefield
stood in doubt as to the source to which they should be
attributed. He could see in them no indubitable indications of the hand of God. He looked for such fruits of
his preaching as are of a less questionable kind. It may
be thought, and with some reason, that it was Wesley's




44           FOUNDERS OF METHODISM.
too ready acceptance of these supposed proofs of the
presence of God, that tended to produce, and to aggravate them. But this natural explication of the difference
is not sufficient. The tone and quality of the popular
addresses of the two preachers has also to be taken into
the account; for while Wesley-in his earlier years
especially-made a vehement appeal to the instantaneous
impressions of his hearers, thus throwing inward upon
the imagination and the nervous system the whole amount
of emotion which he had raised, Whitefield worked upon
the human mind in a manner that is more in harmony
with its laws; that is to say, he roused genuine feelings
to a high pitch by vividly presenting to the mind the
proper external objects of such feelings, and by sustaining the outward tendency of these feelings toward their
true objects. Those paroxysms of feeling which agitate
the body, take place in consequence of some sudden introverted action and shock produced among them.
There is, however, something further, calling for inquiry on this ground, and the problem may be looked at
quite fearlessly; for the danger, if there be any, lurks
among mistaken apprehensions of danger.
There is nothing that should tempt one to recount
them, in the extant narrations of those appalling scenes
that were of frequent occurrence when Wesley preached.
They became, however, less and less frequent in the progress of Methodism, and he himself less inclined to regard them with favor. But while these disorders were
at their height, they resembled, in some of their features,
the demoniacal possessions mentioned in the Gospel history. The bodily agitations were perhaps as extreme in
the one class of instances as in the other; nevertheless
there is no real analogy between the two. The demoniacs (clearly distinguishable from lunatics) were found in
this state by Christ where he went preaching: —they did
not become such while listening to him. In no one instance
is it said that frenzy seized upon any among the thousands
who pressed around him, eager to catch his words. In




FIRST METHODISTIC PREACHING.            45
no one instance, recorded in the Gospels or Acts, did
demoniacal possession, or any bodily agitations resembling
it, come on as the initial stage of conversion. Some, indeed, out of whom demons had been cast, gratefully accepted so great a deliverance with a devout consciousness
of whence it came; and afterward they followed their
Divine Benefactor; —and so did the leper, the blind, the
lame, when "healed."  But there was no recognized dependency, no sequency of a spiritual renovation, as the
issue of demoniacal possession; —far from it: and yet,
when this apparent analogy has been dismissed as unreal,
there remains not another word in the writings of the
New Testament (or only one, and that not pertinent1 Cor. xiv. 25) which should compel us to pay the least
regard to the Wesleyan agitations, as if they implicated,
in any way, Christianity itself: they are to be looked at
as facts sundered from all real relationship to those truths
with which they stand in this temporary and accidental
juxtaposition.
Thus far, then, all is secure; Christianity is in no way
entangled in questions concerning the occult cause, or
causes, of the still unexplained phenomena that attended
the Wesleyan preaching. Even Methodism itself stands
clear of this difficulty; for it.held on its course, and
wrought its beneficial effects, after these disorders had
subsided, or where they did not occur. Yet, in some degree, our opinioni of Wesley himself does take a color
from this source, inasmuch as he failed to extricate himself entirely from the difficulties thence arising; and so it
was that he left many of his thoughtful and more soberminded followers painfully struggling with a very serious
doubt —a " temptation," as they would call it, when-with
these bodily agonies taking place in their presence, they
knew not whether they should attribute what they saw to
the finger of God, or charge it, as a work of confusion,
upon the " father of lies."
In the present state of what, by indulgence, may be
called intellectual or psychological science (no such




46           FOUNDERS OF METHODISM.
science being, in fact, in existence) some room may be
found for suppositions which a few years ago would have
been scouted as chimerical; for there is now observable
among intelligent persons an unwillingness to believe too
little, as, years ago, there was a nervous dread of believing too much. The progress of the physical sciences
has tended to bring about this change, by its often recurrent and startling discoveries. " What is there," we are
tempted to ask, "that may not turn out to be true?"  In
the same direction minds, not the credulous only, but the
incredulous, have been led on toward an enlarged belief
on that ground where psychological empirics have encamped themselves; and where they wait until a true
philosophy shall drive them off, with its regular inclosures. In a word, it is now felt, more than heretofore,
that human nature occupies a position bordering upon a
world, or a region, unknown and unexplored, but with
which it has certain obscure relationships, and which,
hitherto, have been little regarded.
This tacit and general recognition of an unknown
neighboring system, may be held to bear in some manner
upon our present subject. Tlat which we need in relation to inexplicable occurrences, such as those that are
now in view, is first, to. be relieved from the necessity,
real or imagined, of either doing violence to the established laws of evidence, or of resorting to a flippant skepticism, as the only means of dismissing. troublesome narration of alleged facts. We next need an alternative supposition, serving to preserve the deep realities of spiritual
religion from all implication with what is merely physical
or incidental. Now for securing both these ends, nothing
more is requisite than that we keep in view certain negative principles, such as these:-wFirst, That, as the laws
of sentient life are at present almost wholly unknown —
this ignorance having of late glared upon us in an unwonted manner-there is reason in the modesty which
gives a hearing to the most extraordinary recitals, in suspended faith, as to the causes of what has occurred.




FIRST METHODISTIC PREACHING.          47
Such and such demonstrations of occult powers in human
nature are to be recorded, and are to be thought of, until
materials more abundant shall have been accumulated
which. may render them explicable.
Another negative'principle may undoubtedly be held,
and may safely be resorted to, when facts that are thus
inexplicable claim to be listened to. It is this-That no
analogy of the visible universe contradicts the supposition, which several such analogies suggest, namely, of
the vicinity of orders of being, infringing, on rare occasions, yet with violence when they do, upon the human
system, and which are fenced off from it by the ordinary
conditions of their existence. Be it so, that we thus live
in a more crowded and busy neighborhood than we have
been used to suppose, or than we know how to include in
a census: no belief of this sort will, in a sound mind, any
way disturb its notions of moral principles, or will make
other than it is our prime relationship to the Divine government. To entertain such a belief, or to reject it as
gratuitous, is a point of perfect indifference, religiously.
Nothing, on this ground, is deeply important, except our
well observing always the distinction between what is
physical, and what is moral and spiritual.
In the present instance the writer would not expend half
a page upon the endeavor to recommend, as better than a
mere conjecture, any hypothesis he might be inclined to
admit in explication of the Methodistic bodily paroxysms.
Let us make our way into Mr. Berridge's church at
Everton. It is as vWhen the juniors of a hive have been
driven forth in June, and are clustering around their
queen upon a willow bough; so is this church packed
and piled with human beings: —pews, aisles, ledges, pulpit
stairs, pulpit rails, and sounding board! The vicar one
thinks must be crushed and stifled, as he pants for breath
at the core of this dense living mass. Faintings and fits
will no doubt occur; and as the preacher, in solemn
tones, touches upon themes which are felt by all, or most
present, to be real, and of immeasurable moment, it is




48           FOUNDERS OF METHODISM.
only natural that the feelings of such a crowd, thus
wrought upon by means of statements and representations
admitted to be true, should burst over the limits of customary restraint, and that sighing and weeping al'oudespecially after the first reserves of diffidence have given
way-should become general, and that the heavings of
compunction should, each moment, reach a higher and a
higher pitch. Thus far nothing presents itself in this
scene which is not readily explicable. Those objects of
thought which, if they were duly dwelt upon, might well
shake the stoutest heart, and which, if vividly presented
and profoundly believed, might agitate the dullest congregation, are now exerting their unabated force-not upon
a congregation, in the ordinary sense of the word, but
upon a living condensation of souls and bodies.
We ought not peremptorily to say within what limits,
under circumstances such as these, bodily agitations,
which may easily be accounted for, would be confined;
but, in some instances, they pass quite beyond any limits
which it might seem possible to allow as proper to them.
Robust men, hale and insensitive, fall in an instant, as if
thunderstruck, upon the ground, where they roll, plunge,
stamp, kick. and howl, as if molten brass had been poured
into their stomachs! The face is swollen and livid, or it
glows with crimson! This access of mortal agonies
lasts, perhaps, some hours, and is then, and in a moment,
succeeded by a calm or ecstatic joy. The permanent result is, in some cases, good and happy; in other cases, the
contrary: these instances, moreover+, are always intermingled with cases of mere folly and fraud.
Now, in contemplating this scene of confusion, after we
have set off from it the utmost amount of what is fairly
attributable to known causes, there will remain more than
a little to which such causes afford no admissible explication. How, then, are we to dispose of them?  Perhaps
not at all to our satisfaction; except so far as this, that
they serve to render so much the more unambiguous the
distinction between themselves, and those genuine affec



WESLEY'S SEPARATE COURSE.             49
tions which the apostolic writers describe and exemplify.
Among the iripired writers let those of them who were
uneducated be brought forward as witnesses in support
of this conclusion-that the most vivid affections of which
our nature is capable, when directed toward objects
purely spiritual, may take their hold of the human heart,
and may fill it-apart from any bodily demonstrations or
agonies. Christianity when proclaimed, in its substance,
severs itself easily from whatever is not moral and spiritual in the results of preaching such as that of the Methodists. Christianity rescues its own out of these tumultuous
assemblages; and then, content with its indisputable
triumphs, it leaves the ambiguous residuum in the hands
of' scoffers, or of philosophers, to be dealt with as thev
please, or can.
WESLEY'S SEPARATION FROM WHITEFIELD.
THE harmony of sacred truth, when at. length it shall
bless the world, will not be seen arising from the bosom
of a tempest-tossed Church. The Reformation yielded
no such fruit, and with less reason could it have been
looked for as likely to spring from among the excitements
of Methodism. Wesley and Whitefield were destined
to bear testimony, independently of each other, to great
but dislocated principles. Each seized his doctrine, and
well maintained it, so long as he dealt with it in its form
as a positive truth: but each failed, and Wesley the
most glaringly, when he used this doctrine as a weapon
wherewith to demolish that of his friend and antagonist.
Neither of them had the leisure, or the furniture, or the
grasp of mind, that might have brought them to an understanding as theologians; and Wesley, by the structure of
his mind, wanted that equipoise of the faculties which the
bringing about such an agreement would demand.
The rupture between them was inevitable; and, on
C




50           FOUNDERS OF METHODISM.
the whole, it has had a beneficial result. Neither Wesley's theology, walled up as it was to heaven, nor Whitefield's, unwalled and open to the tread of th'e unclean and
the lawless, could have stood, or been tolerable by itself.
In times of coolness and indifference Arminians and
Calvinists find it easy to be cheaply wise, and may agree
to hold their differences in abeyance: they pass the time
of their hybernation peacefully enough in adjoining dens.
But it can not be so with men who, in solemn earnestness,
believe their belief, and who are called out to utter their
convictions in terms decisive, and intelligible to the multitude. Wesley and Whitefield loved each other; but it
was not desirable, indeed it was not possible, that they
should continue to address, in turn, the same congregations; for such congregations would have been kept in
the pitiable condition of a ship, thrown on its beam ends,
larboard and starboard, by hurricanes driving alternately
east and west.
Whitefield, not indeed as a theologian, but by the
genuineness and simplicity of his Christian instincts, and
by the more entire harmony of his religious affections, had
advanced beyond his friend's position, and had gained a
wider and more elevated ground. As well attempt to
stitch his arms down to his sides while preaching, as to
shackle him with logic when, with uplifted hands and a
true heart, he made known to the thousands around him
the " unsearchable riches of Christ." Evils and abuses,
he knew not what or how many, might come to claim
affinity with his ample Gospel; nevertheless, he must
preach it, at all risks.
Wesley foresaw these evils; and, indeed, they had
already met him on his ministerial course, in their most
revolting forms; but he was frightened beyond the occasion, and in his terror he lost sight of truths which seemed so beset with abuses. Besides, in adhering to his
habit of reasoning, rather than of thinking, and by the
irresistible affinity of his mind with categorical positions,
Wesley had caught hold of the paradox of " Perfection,"




WESLEY'S SEPARATE COURSE.             51
which, in the form in which at first he announced and defined it, must meet its contradiction in the depth of every
ingenuous bosom. The somewhat harsh pertinacity with
which he maintained this article, combining it with the
assertion of a consciously instantaneous passing from
death unto life, made it necessary that he should stand
alone as the teacher and chief of a community that was
willing to receive law from his lips. It was not likely
that he should find a thoughtful colleague, who would
move on by his side, while he so rigidly insisted upon a
doctrine which assimilates itself in no mind that is not
more or less sophisticated. There are mysteries which
rightly ordered minds accept, knowing well that the subjects embraced in them are beyond the grasp and range
of the human faculties. Transubstantiation is a mystery
which contradicts only our senses; and these perhaps
may fail us; but the doctrine of perfection, as at first
taught by Wesley, contradicts that with which every
man has the most intimate and infallible acquaintance,
namely, his individual consciousness: it is a mystery
lodged on the very pathway between a man's mind and
heart.
Yet the difference concerning the " Election of Grace"
necessitated, in a still more peremptory manner, the separation of the two friends. It was not Whitefield's fault
that, in giving expression to his belief concerning the sovereignty of Him from whom every good gift comes, he
should employ the only terms and phrases in which this
belief had, by divines and controvertists, been conveyed.
This phraseology need not have been rejected because it
was anthropomorphic-for the language of theolpgy can
in no way be relieved from this disadvantange; or it
need not, if its anthropomorphism had not been made to
sustain a superstructure of crude sophism, and of crazy
metaphysics. Calvinism is quarreled with, by serious
persons, not because it is not scriptural and philosophical; but because it has been conveyed in a medium that
has been rendered insufferable by the bad uses to which




52           FOUNDERS OF METHODISM.
it has been applied. Yet Whitefield, taking up, by thd
necessity of the case, the Genevan dialect, sweetened
it by passing it through the warm charities of his own
loving heart. We must not then blame him when, in
speaking of things heavenly, he uses a language which
is not heavenly, but which yet he utters in tones of
evangelic charity. He was no philosopher that he might
have framed for himself a less exceptionable style; he
was not a theologian, not a proficient in biblical interpretation, so as that he might have brought these truths
into a nearer relationship to the very style of the Inspired
Writers. He,spoke of the "Election of Grace" in the
only manner that to him was practicable. May it be
hoped that the Whitefield of the coming age will have
at his command a language-not theological, not metaphysical, not encrusted with logic; —but new-born from
the hearts of men who will utter truth before they have
learned to define it in controversy!
But then, in all fairness, if so much indulgence as this
is granted to Whitefield, while he preaches the GospelCalvinistically, as much, also, should be accorded to Wesley, while he protests, against what he thought the Antinomian abuse of it, in the ill-compacted dialect of Arminianism.  He may claim such an indulgence with the
more reason because, impelled as he was by a stern regard to the great principles of Christian purity —which he
saw to be endangered-so to protest, he was not thinker,
not philosopher enough to perceive that his protest, though
quite good and solid as related to Antinomian enormities,
was only a film, or an evasion, as it stood related to
Calvinistic truths. Every thing for which a Calvinistnot of fanatical temper-would contend, is embraced
within the compass of Wesley's own preaching language, and might indubitably be thence inferred.
Wesley rejected, in terms, the " Election of Grace," on
account of its alliance-inseparable as he supposed, with
Reprobation; but in so doing he fought a wordy phantom; and while thus engaged he lost sight of the reality




WESLEY'S SEPARATE COURSE.             53
— the unsolved and insoluble mystery of the spiritual
condition of the human family. No Calvinist insisted
with more force or point than he did upon the facts of
this awful condition; and no one availed himself in more
solemn terms of the incentives thence arising, for urging
men to repentance. He went forth among the impenitent million as he ought to go;-not as if, in slender
tortuous tones, he would beg a hearing, that he might excuse, evade, or unriddle the mystery of the wide-spread
ruin; but as the Apostles went-assuming, without doubt
or abatement, its reality, and then laboring to rescue
men, one by one, from its fatal bearing upon their immortal destiny. No effective assault has ever been made
upon the consciences of men, whether educated or uneducated, on any other ground than this. The unmitigated fact which Reprobation assumes, Wesley also assumed. The exact difference between himself and the
Reprobationists was this-that they put an anthropomorphic and unwarrantable interpretation upon the fact, and
an interpretation which was sure to be blasphemously
rendered by fanatics. He, with a genuine zeal for the
honor of God, spreads over it a thin sophism, also anthropomorphic.
Fiery arrows they were, indeed, which his sinewy arm
aimed at the hearts of men from the pulpit; yet each
arrow was fledged, if not with Reprobation, with that
which is not much rather to [le chosen than itself. Wesley's preaching, so far as it was effective for dispersing
the infatuations of the human mind, although it was clear
of Calvinistic fanaticism and bad taste, carried with it,
in the view of thoughtful men, the undiminished load of
its difficulties. Lighten this load at all, and Methodism
could not have spread, and would not have been.
And yet there was nothing disingenuous in Wesley's
conduct in this behalf; for, verily he believed that that
ill-judged burst of rhetoric, in which he himself borders
so near upon blasphemy, and apostrophizes "the Devil,"
was as sound in theology, as, in fact, it was shallow and




54           FOUNDERS OF METHODISM.
unseemly.  In this, and in many other similar instances,
we easily save his reputation, as a thoroughly honest
disputant, by alleging his entire want of the deep reflective or analytic faculty. Almost a particle of that power
of mind which looks through wordy propositions and
examines the substance beneath, would have sufficed for
enabling him to embrace that rudiment of the Christian
system which the Seventeenth of the articles he had
subscribed so wisely embodies. On this ground, if he
could have taken it, Wesley might have repelled Antinomianism more successfully than he did; and might have
placed the Wesleyan theology also on a broader and less
precarious basis. This was not to be; for the time was
not come, nor is yet come, when the harmony of truth
can exist otherwise than as an abstraction painfully disentangled from antagonist dogmas.
LPA  PREACHING, AND THE LAY PREACHERS.
RID at length of his friend, and standing clear, as he
believed, of all implication with Calvinistic election and
reprobation, and yet, as a preacher, strong, as well in the
truths which he misunderstood, as in those which he proclaimed, Wesley took his position upon the field of the
world-the friend of man, the enemy of nothing but sin.
On this ground he has a claim to be regarded with reverent affection and admiration, which is as valid as that of
any of the worthies to whom a place has been assigned
among the benefactors of mankind. The very inconsistencies that mark his progress (when properly considered) do but enhance his demand upon our sympathies.
If, indeed, as heartless writers have affirmed, he had
been nothing better than an ambitious plotter-the builder
of a house in which he should rule and be worshipedno such inconsistencies would ever have come to the surface, or would for a moment have made him halt on his




LAY PREACHING AND LAY PREACHERS.          55
path. Unquestionably it was from the want of a plot at
the beginning, and from the lack of ambition as he went
on, that he found himself compelled to yield, once and
again, to the instances of some who seem to have been
deficient in neither.
As a field-preacher, the courage, the self-possession, the
temper, and the tact (and the same praise is due to his
brother) which he displayed, places Wesley in a position
inferior to none with whom it would be reasonable to
compare him. After setting off from the account his constitutional intrepidity, his moral courage was that which
is characteristic of a perfect benevolence, and which, in
the height of danger, thinks only of the rescue of its objects. When encountering the ruffianism of mobs and of
magistrates, he showed a firmness as well as a guileless
skill, which, if the martyr's praise might admit of such
an adjunct, was graced with the dignity and courtesy of
the gentleman. In looking at the two brothers, while
they are thus quietly bearing themselves in the midst of a
furious rabble, a wish is generated, that they had been
used to read their Bibles always in as calm a mood as
that in which they pushed their way among wolves and
tigers.
In making their assault upon the obtuse moral sense of
men, the first Methodists enjoyed, and they well knew
how to use it, an advantage of position which perhaps
has not been duly considered. Wesley's own style of
pulpit oratory was, in a remarkable degree, logically direct and conclusive: each blow was a blow straightforward, and was such as could scarcely be parried or
resisted. And so it would have been under any circumstances; but he, as a preacher, stood in relation to the
human mind, close home upon the conscience; whereas
others have had to make their way thither through a
strong defense of inveterate error. The preachers of the
Gospel, in the apostolic age, were thus disadvantageously
placed, for they had to dispel several forms of misbelief,
before they could assail unbelief, and they seldom found




56           FOUNDERS OF METHODISiI.
men in what might be called the rudimental condition of
impenitence and impiety. As to the Jewish conscience,
it could be reached only through a coating of national
pride, and of Rabbinical evasions; so it was that in the
synagogue, the evangelist was challenged to prove, from
the Scriptures, that "Jesus was the Christ;" for, until
this was done, he could get no hearing for that which
was to move the conscience. And on the other hand, in
proclaiming the Gospel among the Gentiles, a bulwark of
monstrous polytheism stood across the preacher's path.
The host of divinities was to be driven from the ground,
before men could at all be reasoned with as immortal and
responsible beings. And thus, too, it was with the Reformation preachers, for they were led and indeed forced,
to address men, not primarily, as " dead in sins," but incidentally as blinded by superstition.
With a happy simplicity of purpose, Wesley, and so
Whitefield and others, would know nothing in addressing
the multitude but that which is equally true of all men,
always, and every wher: —he spoke of and to them as
the " servants of Satan," amenable to Eternal Justice yet
embraced in the purposes of God's mercy through Christ.
Well indeed it was that these preachers held themselves
wholly clear, as they did, of the fatal error of making it
a preliminary to their own ministrations to assail, and to
endeavor to overthrow, the ecclesiastical system under
which the people of England had lapsed into heathenism
-or a state scarcely to be distinguished from it.
It was in following the better leading of this right view
of human nature, and in thinking of men, not as the victims of a wrong guidance, but as the dupes of Satan,
that these preachers lodged their arrow at once in the
conscience of the impenitent. "I hold you fast as a
rebel against God." In this challenge there was no flattery; but self-love finds much aliment in the argument
that is to end in showing that another-a former guidehas been the cause of whatever is blameworthy in the
disciple.




LAY PREACHING AND LAY PREACHERS.         57
The same simple intention, and the same vigorous grasp
of the true purpose of his mission, carried Wesley well
over the rough ground of his own ecclesiastical prejudices. These prejudices, if they had been permanently
adhered to, as would have happened with a mind of less
energy, must wholly have prevented his fulfilling his ministry; or, if, on the other hand, they had been abandoned
without a struggle, there might have been room to impute
to him an unscrupulous ambition. The occasions on
which his deep-rooted predilections gave way, and the
mode in which this change was brought about, it is edifying to consider; for the man who could never have occupied a subordinate position, or even move forward with
an acknowledged equal by his side, is seen listening in
mid-life, to his aged mother, and yielding himself to her
influence. This worthy mother of such a son had, at an
advanced age, fallen in with Methodistic principles. She
had not, however, surrendered her independence of mind;
and she gave her son now, as she had done at the commencement of his religious course, the benefit of her
perspicuous judgment. Wesleyan lay preaching may be
traced up to that word-well weighed before it was
uttered by this "mother in Israel," —" John, this lay
preacher is as truly called of God to preach, as you
are." The Sunday morning when in compliance with his
mother's request and opinion, he sat listening to Thomas
Maxwell, showed that truth, or what he thought truth,
held a sovereign power over him. He had hastened to
London in very ill-mood, intending to silence this man;
but in hearing him exercise the gifts of nature and of
grace, he bowed to the manifested will of Him from
whom "every good and perfect gift comes." The lay
preacher was therefore encouraged; and lay preaching,
without which there could have been no Methodism, received his sanction, and was put in course of operation.
In any instance, to "forbid" the "gifted" is to take
upon ourselves a very serious responsibility; and if we
venture so to do merely on the ground of ecclesiastical




5i8,        FOUNDERS OF METHODISM.
principles, we should have made ourselves quite sure first,
that these principles are (at least in their rudiments)
warrantable on evidence of Scripture; and then, that they
stand confirmed by a sufficiently wide induction of precedents, as applicable to the case in hand.
Christianity is indeed conserved by Church order; but
surely it does not exist for the sake of it. This, however, has shown itself to be the feeling of heartless and
mindless men in every age. "Order first," say they;
6' and Christianity next." The conduct and the language
of men of this stamp seems to mean nothing less than
this: That the salvation of the human family entire
would be dearly purchased at the cost of any inroad
upon Church usages. It is manifest that in neglect or
contempt of order, Christianity could not have been handed down from age to age; but unless, once and again,
order had given way to a higher necessity, the Gospel
must, by this time, have lain deep buried beneath the
corrupt accumulations of eighteen hundred years. How,
think we, would it have been held in its brightness and
purity by those who, idolizing ancient rules and modes,
become petrified around the altar where they kneel? It
is to minds of a very different mould that the commission
is given to restore what has fallen, and to build again
the waste places, and to re-create order by means of
an hour of confusion. Yet is it a fact worthy of all
regard-That, when Heaven sends its own chosen men
to bring about needed reformations, at the cost of a momentary anarchy, it does not give any such commission as
this to those who, by temper, are anarchists. The anarchist is not to be trusted in any good work, for, as he
acknowledges no rule but that of his own capricious
arrogance, it is not he who will bring home fruit for the
general good.
The Wesleys furnish a notable illustration of this
principle.  Great innovators, indeed, they were; but
anarchists they were not. Themselves bred within a
strict ecclesiastical inclosure, and firm in their attach



LAY PREACHING AND LAY PREACHERS.          59
ment to its principles and practices, and far from indifferent to the prerogatives which personally they thence
derived, and by temper also abhorrent of schism, and
inclined to defer to authority, they were doubly and
trebly guarded against the temptation to violate rules
and usages at the impulse of mere self-will or caprice.
Nevertheless these were the men who, in fact, and before
they had advanced far on their path, found themselves
compelled with their own hands, to snap asunder, as well
the staff" beauty," as the staff"' bands;" # and they rent,
not a Church they denounced, but the very Church they
-sincerely loved and fondly clung to. And how wide
is the rent which was then made; for the Methodistic
*schism-which, however, did not commence with the
Wesleys' own irregular ministrations, but with the sending forth of lay preachers-has not merely drawn off
certain classes of the community from the Episcopal
Church, but, by the new life it diffused on all sides of
itself, it has preserved from extinction and has re-animated the languishing nonconformity of the last century,
which, just at the time of the Methodistic revival, was
rapidly in course to be found nowhere but in books.
Charles Wesley would have been stopped on his course
while struggling with his abhorrence of that only means
of carrying forward the work they had commencedlay preaching. But John could be stopped by no interior
reluctance, as by no external obstacle or opposition,
when once the work he was born to achieve stood out
clearly developed before him. At this time it did so
stand developed in his view; and while he, of all men,
was the most self-determining in relation to whatever
came under his entire control, none was more docile
than he, or more quick to adapt himself to new circumstances, when called upon by his religious convictions,
or by his practical good sense, to relinquish his cherished opinions. Besides, men of his order of mind are
seen more readily to give way to the course of events,
*Zech. xi. 7.




60           FOUNDERS OF METHODISM.
than otners do, because, while they do so, they inwardly
rely upon that inexhaustible store of expedients, and of
ready skill, which will enable them, though driven from
their path for a time, to return to it anon. So great
was the disparity, on every ground, between himself and
his irregular coadjutors, of which disparity he and they
were fully conscious, that he doubted not he should be
able to avail himself always of the zeal and ability he
had called to his service, precisely so far as he thought
good, and then effectively to curb its excesses.  This
anticipation was grounded, too much, upon a confidence
in his own powers; and it included too little thought of
those powers that were about to be developed under his
hand. Nature (if we may use a profane term) is more
rich and various in her bestowments than those are apt
to imagine who feel that the crowd around them are
much their inferiors.  Such master minds are startled
when the highly gifted step suddenly upon their path.
But we need not ask whether Wesley could, by any
means, have dispensed with lay preaching; or whether
he might better have controlled it than he did, or, whether
he ought altogether to have denied himself the use of this
perilous engine. Who is so earth-prone in eye as not
to see that Christianity (and especially as consigned to
the care of the Anglo-Saxon race-God's now "chosen
people") then failing in its influence, and as it might
seem, likely to be discarded, was to be granted afresh
to the world, and to be brought back upon its own potent
rudiments.  The great principle of the apostolic ministry and writings, was anew to be proclaimed, as with
a loud voice, " in the midst of heaven." Let ecclesiastics
plant their chairs upon the rim of the rising waters, and
thence prohibit the tide of salvation for the world; or
let the wise and "moderate" show us by what means,
even if Protestant bishops had been as supple and crafty
as are popes and cardinals,-Wesley and his lay preachers
might have been enticed into Church inclosures, and
there beguiled till they had forgotten their fervor.




LAY PREACHING AND LAY PREACHERS.          61
If no other obstacle had stood in the way of a coalescence with the Church, the inqongruous articles of Wesley's creed, and to which he so pertinaciously adhered,
as of prime importance, must have forbidden it, even
if the rulers of the Church had condescended to consider
a project of the kind. None, in the Church,,could have
thought themselves warranted in propounding those concessions upon which Wesley would have insisted. But at
this time it was not a consentaneous, but an antagonistic impulse that was needed; and lay preaching was
the very force which this urgent occasion demanded.
It is not disingenuousness merely, but obtuseness of
perception as to human character, that has led certain
writers to insinuate that Wesley's professed repugnance
to lay preaching was feigned. Inconsistent in its expression it might be, and was; but genuine, if there be
any thing at all trustworthy in human nature. Manifestly
the course which he and his brother had been pursuing,
in forming religious societies, could not reach any useful
issue otherwise than by calling forth a new species of
ministrations. This new ministry was his own work;
and yet he quailed in the presence of it; and like the
Demiurge of Gnosticism, he dared not look at the creature
he had unadvisedly evoked from chaos. Not as yet
had he learned the import of those words, within which
so much of the Christian history is summarily comprehended- "No man putteth new wine into old bottles;
but new wine must be put into new bottles." So has
it been from the days of" Peter, James, and John;" and
so-may we not be sure? —will it be at the time, yet
future, of refreshment and " restitution of all things."
Dispassionately looked at, Wesleyan Methodism did
not so much violate, as it rendered an homage to the
principle of Church order; for if it broke in upon things
constituted, with a violence that threatened to overthrow
whatever might obstruct its course, it presently afterward emerged from its own confusion, and stood forth
as a finished pattern of organization, and an eminent




62           FOUNDERS OF METHODISM.
example of the prevalence and supremacy oi RULES.
Wesleyan Methodism, such as it continued to be while
its founder lived, was not (like the Romish orders) an
organization of the few who were to act upon the many,
but an enrollment of the few along with the many: Methodism, in a word, was LAw-written upon the "fleshly
tables" of thousands, and thousands again, of heretofore
lawless hearts.
The enlightened adherents of ecclesiastical institutions
might well persuade themselves, therefore, to see in Methodism-not, as they are wont, a horrible Vandalism; but
the most emphatic recognition that has ever been made
of the very core of Church principles, namely, that Christianity can not subsist, does not develop its genuine
powers (longer than for a moment) apart from an ecclesiastical organization; and this seems to mean nothing less
than a well-compacted hierarchical system. This surely
is the true inference which should be drawn from the
facts before us; but the more obvious meaning of Methodism is chosen by minds of a certain class. If it had
been Wesley's fortune to be trampled to death by a brutal
mob, quite early in his course, and while yet guiltless of
schism, he might have been allowed to stand in a fair
place among martyrs; but when he is seen with his lay
preachers clinging to his presbyter's gown, nothing can
be done but leave him, and them, to sink together into the
deeps of ecclesiastical perdition.
Several of the first lay preachers were men of very
extraordinary natural powers, as well as of deep and
genuine religious feeling. Some had made acquisitions
as biblical scholars; yet generally, the irreparable want
of education among them, and their ignorance, often, of
the Bible they were to expound, threw them upon their
own, and their only resource: that is to say, upon a singleminded and fervent consciousness of the reality, power,
and excellence of the Gospel, thought of in its first principles. They were men, some of them, whose power
over the people, as preachers, was little less than that




LAY PREACHING AND LAY PREACHERS.          63
of their educated masters: nevertheless, their range of
subjects was limited, and they were confined, by a necessity thence resulting, to the straight and strait path of
elementary teaching. This confinement, however, does
not imply meagreness of thought, or a dull iteration of
things, uttered in the same phrases ten thousand times.
True indeed it is, that when a genuine fervor declines,
and when ignorance collapses into vulgarity-that is to
say into itself-then the ministrations of uneducated men
become insufferable. But this was not the case with the
foremost of Wesley's lay assistants. The "powers of
the world to come," and the brightness and efficacy of
the Gospel, gave them their inspiration. So it was that,
while Wesley and his three or four'educated colleagues
held to the few and great principles of the Gospel by the
intentness of their minds, and the fervent simplicity of
their zeal, and while the lay preachers, by the paucity
of their ideas, and the slenderness of their knowledge,
kept to the same narrow path, the result toward the people was to prevent the vast disparity between the two
classes of teachers from becoming painfully apparent.
This is seen, by contrast, every where in communions
from which evangelical fervor has departed; for there,
all the vast difference between one preacher and another,
in natural ability and in furniture, is fully felt, and is accurately measured by practiced hearers. Yet let but the
energies of heavenly truth return to such bodies, and
these disparities would become less conspicuous, or would
almost cease to be regarded.
A hundred times it has been said, by those who would
fain show their liberality in getting up an apology for lay
preaching, that it is the lay preacher's employment of a
dialect colloquially understood by the mass of the people,
and at the same time the low level of his ideas, that fit
him for his office as their instructor. But, in fact, men
of the highest culture make themselves thoroughly intelligible to the rudest minds, if only they have a soul
and purpose thereto adapted; and they find they can do




64            FOLNDERS OF METHODISM.
this without vitiating their style by any admixture of
colloquial vulgarities.  It is concentration, and not a
low familiarity; it is the elementary grandeur of first
truths that forcefully opens a way into the human heart,
whether cultured or rude.  Whether it be the bearer
and winner of academic honors, or the recently-washen
mason or shoemaker-the preacher who feels with power and freshness such truths, and who brings to bear
upon the utterance of them some natural gifts, is always
listened to by the mass of men;-for the hearer feels that
the preacher is dealing out what he imparts, as if from
an unexhausted treasure. He never seems to have nearly
uttered all his mind, or emptied his heart.   Cultured
congregations, it is true, must be addressed by cultured
preachers, who are qualified to entertain a sophisticated
religious taste with what is discursive. But with the
multitude, all is well so long as the preacher, whether
bred in the college or the shop, utters with feeling, and
in a concentrated style, that which is acknowledged to
be of primary importance.
The great effects produced in the early years of Methodism, by some, even of the less gifted of the lay preachers, has not been understood by those who, in attempting
to account for the fact, have themselves been wanting in
sympathy with those primary truths. Wesley in one set
of phrases, and Whitefield in another, spoke, sometimes
with a startling conciseness, sometimes with an overwhelming copiousness-of heaven, of hell, of eternity, of
the power, and justice, and mercy of God, of an ample
redemption, of an immediate release from guilt and danger,
and of a present fruition of the Divine favor. The style
and manner of these preachers seemed like a clearing
of the clouds'from the heavens, so that the sun in his
strength might shine upon the dead earth. And so the
lay preachers, taking up the same style, and fraught with
the same powers, became at once terse from intensity
of feeling, and copious from the fullness of their subject.
This copiousness filled and overflowed the channel of




LAY PREACHING AND LAY PREACHERS.          65
their individual minds. Ignorance or narrowness of faculty were lost and overpowered;-neither speaker nor
hearer knew what was the small measure of the earthen
vessel whence flowed the rich nourishment of the soul.
To the lay preacher, while thus ministering from out of
his penury, the words, in an accommodated sense, might
have been addressed —"I know thy poverty —but thou
art rich."
Notwithstanding that many who at first offered themselves to the service sickened of it under its severe conditions, and went back, yet in most places Wesley found
it not difficult to supply his societies with teachers; and
here there presents itself a principle of Christian statistics
which deserves some notice. Whatever might be alleged as to the meagre teaching of the local preachers, the
greater number of the itinerant preachers were men fairly
qualified for the service for which Wesley had accepted
their aid. If not fastidious in his taste, he did not indiscriminately, or in a slovenly manner, avail himself of
such help. He looked to his men-he heard them —proved them-held them awhile on probation; and not in any
large proportion of instances was he shown to have too
hastily admitted any to Wesleyan " orders."
It may be inferred, then, from this instance, that a religious body, within which there is vitality, will ordinarily
supply itself with an adequate proportion of ministers.
And it may be taken as a rule that the supply will come
from what may be considered as the mean level of the
society, as to rank and knowledge. So it appears to
have been in the Wesleyan body, and the instance,
when assumed as a ground of reasoning, embraces a
very wide surface, and includes great varieties of circumstance.
A crowding toward the sacred office is not a fact of
frequent occurrence; but a lack of candidates. or, what
is nearly of the same import, the derivation of its ministers,
in any communion, from a rank below the mean level of the
people, is an ominous symptom and should engage the




66           FOUNDERS OF METHODISM.
most serious attention of those who undertake to think
and care for the body.
But if the instance of Wesleyan Methodism is taken
to establish the general rule —that a religious community,
when it is in a healthy condition, will supply itself with
ministers, it gives negative evidence also in confirmation
of another rule, which this body has too little regarded,
namely —That although such a body may sup.ply itself
with preachers, it is not without a CHURCH that pastors
are to be reared. And here we are not thinking so much
of a hierarchy; and of a settled scheme of government, as
of that more broadly-based economy, and of that more
deep-seated organization, which should bring the Christian system, entire, to bear upon Christian homes. Here
has been (and we must return to so important a subject)
the main point of defectiveness in Wesleyan Methodism;
and it sprang unavoidably from Wesley's reluctance to
break away from the Episcopal Church;- it was an
association of Converts: he would not call it, and did not
make it, a Church. The Nonconformists, to some extent,
had fallen into the same fault, which is that of protesting
sects generally. Methodism regarded its converts individually-it knew them not, or knew them imperfectly,
in their home relationships. The head of a family-husband, father, and master-was, in its view, a convert
only, or chiefly; he was not recognized as the hierarch
of home. Unless a Christian body becomes vital throughout its mass, in a domestic sense, it will neither be conscious of its want of pastors, nor will it furnish such from
its own bosom. An itinerating ministry, useful as it is
in certain respects, and well adapted to the wants of a
recently-evangelized people, must be regarded as indicative of a crude Christian condition: —it is a practice that
belongs to a transition state of things —a state which is
not to be remedied by a more careful training of itinerating ministers; but in no other way than by a far-reaching renovation of the social mass; —in a word, by carrying Christianity, in its silent energies, from the chapel to




LAY PREACHING: METHODISM AND ROMANISM.  67
the house. Wesley at length permitted his preachers to
administer the sacraments, and therefore to baptize infants. But where there is no CHURCH-where children
are not thought of as "members of Christ," and where
they come under no discipline as such, the rite of baptism
administered in infancy, is a five minutes' operationprofitless, perplexing, unintelligible, and out of harmony,
as well with the Christian scheme, as with the system
under which it takes place. An incongruity, not perceived by the parties, but yet serious, was it when these
preachers, whose function was only convert making, welcomed infants into a society from which they were instantly afterward thrust out; or thenceforward forgotten
by it, until they were of age to listen to sermons.
LAY PREACHING; AND A POINT OF COMPARISON SUGGESTED
BETWEEN METHODISM AND ROMANISM.
THOSE who are in any degree conversant with religious
history will be apt to think that a religious system promulgated and maintained to so great an extent by a body
of fervently-minded but uneducated men, could not fail to
generate within itself various forms of error, and that it
would go more and more astray every year of its continuance. In looking into the " Memoirs," the " Journals,"
the "Experiences," of some of Wesley's lay preachers,
the sober reader is perplexed, if not scandalized, by what
he there finds, and he becomes painfully perplexed while
— fearing lest he should compromise sacred truths-he
resents and rejects so much of that with which they are
there mixed. After reading some of these personal histories one may think it inevitable that, when so much
heat has cooled down, extravagance will pass into enormity; and that what has begun wildly, will finish worse.
Such has actually been the course of things in a few instances; nevertheless, no such gradual vitiation of its




68           FOUNDERS OF METHODISM.
doctrine and of its practices has broadly marked the
history of Wesleyan Methodism. On the contrary, like
a liquor of good body, it has well passed through its
season of fermentation, and has become brighter and
clearer than at first, and better flavored. Yet even the
most favorably disposed of by-standers might have been
warranted in predicting a different course of things, when
it was seen in how perilous a manner Wesley himself
cherished and fomented, as well among preachers as
people, tendencies which it should have been his part to
repress. Not seldom it was he, rather than they, that set
reason at defiance, and forgot sobriety.
But the issue, so much more favorable as it is than
might have been anticipated, doubtless has its cause; and
this cause becomes manifest when, in the exercise of a
cool discrimination, we institute a comparison (once so
unfairly drawn) between the "enthusiasm of Methodists
and Papists." Let a point or two of such a comparison
be considered. The contrast in each particular (however many might be adduced) would be found to turn
upon one and the same ground of essential dissimilarity.
Methodism, amid all its early wanderings, still kept its
hold of that Gospel, which Romanism had never possessed, or had deeply perverted. Principal truths, proclaimed distinctly, and held always in a prominent place,
exhibit a repellant force; they clear the. atmosphere, and
disinfect all things around them. Those irregularities
and excesses of opinion and behavior which usually attend religious excitements, and which have their rise in
human nature, do not perpetuate themselves, and do not
tend toward a worse issue, until the system under which
they have appeared has itself lost its vitality. Thus it
has been with Romanism, and it is easy to put the finger
upon the instances. It is not Romanism, or any other
system of belief; but it is our human nature that is to be
blamed for its tendency, under powerful excitements, to
germinate a wild and bitter growth of enthusiastic and
fanatical extravagance. But while under one system of




GAY PREACHING: METHODISM AND ROMANISM.   69
belief this produce blossoms only for a day, and then
withers and disappears, under another it gets possession
of the soil, and overshadows every thing. A religious
system may be such as that, beneath its influence, every
weed of the human heart finds what it seeks; enthusiasm,
wherever it touches, inflames, and fanaticism secretes
poison, as a gangrene. But let the instances, or one or
two such, be noted.
At the time when Bishop Lavington's book appeared"The Enthusiasm of Methodists and Papists Compared,"
many features of the Wesleyan polity were of a kind that
might seem to warrant the institution of this comparison;
and they were such as would bear out the author's professed intention-to disparage the one, by linking it to the
other. But a century almost has elapsed since that comparison was drawn; and in this course of time, while
Romanism has retained, unaltered, each of its characteristics, Methodism has passed its season of effervescence,
and has taken to itself a form, matured and defined, in
which its tendencies, whatever they may be, have become
fully developed; nor can we, unless by our own fault,
misapprehend them. What, then, would be the issue of
an equitably conducted comparison of Methodism and
Romanism, as they now stand before us, both perfectly
known, at this time, or, indeed, at any time subsequent to
the decease of the Founder?
We take, then, that which has ever been a marked
feature of all the religious fervors which Romanism has
cherished and recognized —namely, ascetic extravagances
This same feature attached also to Methodism, in its early
stages, in a very decisive manner. We have here before
us, therefore, a well-defined and prominent instance, characteristic alike of the two systems.
Wesley's constitutional tone, and the nerve and iron of
his frame-mind and body, as well as his early training
and his adopted opinions, all favored the growth of the
ascetic temper, and impelled him to give way to that
which is the constant leaning of severe and deep-felt




70           FOUNDERS OF METHODISM.
religious fervor. The rigid abstinences and mortifications of his initial course had nearly cost him his life: and
although the sharp lesson of prudence which he then
learned, together with his native good sense, taught him
to moderate these voluntary severities, he was, to the
end, in feeling and opinion, the ascetic, and, under favoring circumstances, he would, no doubt, have indulged himself largely in these tastes. But in fact the hard conditions of itinerancy came in the place of fasts and scourges;
for those may well think their shoulders excused from the
discipline of the flagellum, who are used so freely as he
did, to expose their b)soms to the brutality of mobs.
Many, perhaps most, of the lay preachers, either spontaneously, or in following the example of their master,
trod the same rugged path, at first; and some of them
carried to the most extreme point the experiment of what
the body may endure, and yet survive, so long as the
agonies of the soul are always keeping ahead of the
miseries of the flesh. Often did the lay preacher, after a
day of toil in the line of his business, as mason, baker,
shoemaker, spend half the night in fervent devotional
exercises, and, at five in the morning, come fasting to
take his place in the pulpit, so utterly spent as that he was
fain to prop his trembling frame by clinging to the rail, or
throwing his weight upon the desk.
In these instances-and they were varied in every way
-the unavoidable burden of toil, pain, and privation, incident to the preacher's course of life, was made to press
cruelly both upon mind and body, by ascetic practicesnot less extreme than those which have been so much
boasted of by or on the behalf of the canonized of the
Romish Calehdar. Such was Methodism-such was its
" enthusiasm" at its commencement.  But have these errors gone on increasing to more extravagance; or have
they rooted themselves in the system? It is far otherwise, and the reason why they have not done so is obvious; it is not that human nature does not always, and
every where, favor the growth of religious extravagance,




LAY PREACHING: METHODISM AND ROMANISM.  71
but because this tendency has met its proper counteraction.
To take the instance of the lay preacher whom we have
just spoken of-fainting under a self-imposed burden; and
let it be asked, what is the doctrine which, when excitement has come to his aid, he is passionately enforcing?
It is that very doctrine which Rome has never understood, and in presence of which asceticism, whether murky
or fanatical, disappears. This error need not be formally
rebuked;-it was not rebuked, but rather invited, by
Wesley and his preachers; yet, spite of the favor shown
it, room  was not found for it; austerities withered in
their own lifelessness; and the phantom-righteousness
by starvation —met its end in the most suitable mode, by
atrophy, that is to say, by lack of doctrinal nourishment.
The pardon of sin —free, full, immediate —a redemption
obtained for man, and, by a sovereign act, granted to him
without money and without price-children's privileges
in the household of faith-these announcements, these first
principles, giving life to the desponding spirit, and imparting the energy of hope to the moral nature, would not fail
to supersede asceticism, or to disenchant it. The fascination of these frivolous severities is gone when once the
heart has freely admitted the Gospel in its grandeur and
simplicity. Methodism, then, or rather the Christianity it
embodied, absorbed the errors incident to a season of
extraordinary religious agitation.- In this respect, if in
no other, Methodism, since Bishop Lavington's time, has
come right.
But how has it been with Romanism? There can be
no need to swell a paragraph with many instances in
contrast, where the broad facts are within every one's
familiar knowledge.
The ancient asceticism sprang naturally, and without
blame, out of those influences which bore upon the Church
in the third century, and afterward. On various grounds
the early solitary and ascetic life claims a respectful regard; but a very few years elapsed before a simple and




72           FOUNDERS OF MIETHODISM.
blameless species of enthusiasm started off at a rapid pace,
and continued advancing on the road of extravagance and
fanaticism, in a manner that is revolting to think of. The
athletes of one generation were quite eclipsed by their
ambitious successors of the next: what had seemed much
in one age, seemed little in the following: there was a
constant progression, on this ground. Inartificial and
mild austerities gave way to systematized enormities;
and the spontaneous privations of an earlier time were
brought under the iron tyranny of rules in a later time.
The innocent and picturesque romance of the herb-eating
recluse, in his cavern or sepulchre, was despised by the
Christian fakir who, a few years afterward, took his place.
So it was, whether in hermitages or in convents, that a
something more was looked for from those who professed
"Perfection." Fifty Pater-nosters in the twenty-four hours
gave way to three hundred; three days' total abstinence
from food, to ten days or a fortnight; a leathern girdle,
to a spiked iron band. Frenzy drove out folly, and fraud
took up the game when frenzy had spent itself, and could
go no further. Summarily stated, is not this the history
of asceticism as originated in the East long before the
rise of Romanism, and as adopted, and carried forward,
and canonized by it, and as it is now lauded and imitated
by the Romish Church?
The reason of the progress and permanence of this tendency of human nature within that Church can not be
misapprehended. Even if the Gospel had not, at a very
early time, been dimmed and nearly lost, this same exuberance would, no doubt, have been developed; but the
supervening, so early, of "another Gospel"-that is to
say, of a Christianity interpreted according to the leaning
of the human heart toward formalism and self-dependence, not only left asceticism unchecked, but gave it a
direct encouragement. That doctrinal system which, as
afterward defined and matured, is what we mean when
we speak of tfie theology of Romanism, allotted a place
to this species of enthusiasm, and fixed it immovably in




LAY PREACHING: METHODISM AND ROMANISM.  73
that place. Sin, expiated by austerities, and merits won
and laid up in store by courses of voluntary tortulethese notions and these practices became indispensable
parts of that one scheme of salvation which Rome propounded to the Western nations. On this ground of comparison, therefore, the " enthusiasm of Methodists" is seen
in decisive contrast to the " enthusiasm of Papists."
There is, however, one other very significant point of
comparison between the two systems, which claims to
be regarded; and it deserves the more attention because
a century ago the Methodistic enthusiasm seemed to fall
little short of the Romish on this ground.
What we have in view is the encouragement given;
at first, by Wesleyan Methodism, as also by Romanism,
to whatever touches upon the supernatural and the miraculous. Wesley's most prominent infirmity was his
wonder-loving credulity;-from:the beginning to the end
of his course this weakness ruled him. Few were the
instances in which he exercised a due discrimination in
listening to tales involving what was miraculous, or out
Df the order of nature. It is, in fact, mortifying to contemplate an instance like this. of a powerful mind bending like a straw in the wind before every whiff of the
supernatural. It was only in the course of things that,
with a leader thus minded, those who followed, and they
being for the most part the uneducated, should be relators of wonders, and should eagerly listen to whatever
brought with it this ever-coveted species of excitement.
The personal histories of the Methodistic worthies, their
autobiographies and obituaries, are rendered distasteful
by the too copious admixture of incidents which try the
faith of a cool-tempered reader. In truth, some of these
narratives are much in the style -of those' Lives of the
Saints," which none but good Catholics should be allowed
to look into.
And yet, notwithstanding the decisive start which was
thus given to the supernatural at the commencement of
Methodism, it presently fell back from its foremost posiD




74           FOUNDERS. OF METHODISM.
tion in the system, and came to be less and less sought after
every year. At the present time, and so it has been for a
long while past, no more encouragement is given to this
morbid appetite by the regular Wesleyan ministers than
is done by any other body of instructed religious teach-,
ers. Miracles are neither looked for, nor are they desired, in that communion. A W-esleyan superintendent
would, in most cases, be forward to sift to the bran any
wonderment story that he might find to be agitating his
circuit; and the spread of a popular delusion within the
body, involving an alleged miracle, would be regarded
by Wesleyan principals only in the light of an ill-omened
occurrence. Let the attempt be made to persuade the
lower classes of that communion that a certain bust of
Wesley may be seen, now and then, to wink, weep, and
grin!  Would such an attempt be authorized by "Conference?" and yet, a hundred years ago, "the enthusiasm
of Methodists" might have been thought to be rapidly
advancing toward such a stage of credulity as this; but
this tendency has entirely ceased to show itself.
How is it with the analogous enthusiasm of Romanists?
A hundred years ago the Church of Rome professed, as it
always has done, the command of miraculous powers,
and vaunted the healing efficacy of its holy relics. But
was this a lingering remains only of the superstition and
trickery of the dark ages? The enthusiasm of Methodists and Papists once ran abreast on this road: are the
two abreast at this time? Intelligent Romanists can not
complain of unfair treatment when notorious facts are
adverted to, and which show that, notwithstanding the
enlightenment of the times, the mass of the people in
Roman Catholic countries have so been trained by their
religious teachers, as that an eager and mindless credulity, if at all it be less now than it was a century ago,
has received its check, not from the lips of the priest, imparting a ~ounder instruction, but from the spread of a
licentious atheism, and contempt of all religion. Yet this
is but one side of the facts that bear upon our immediate




LAY PREACHING: METHODISM AND ROMANISM.  75
purpose; for, not only are the people, where not mad
with atheism, as credulous as ever, but the chiefs of the
Roman Catholic polity-popes, cardinals, and bishops,
have not shown any shame (scarcely common discretion)
while laboring to meet the popular folly, and to supply it
with aliment. Is it not so?  Whatever accident throws
in the way of the clergy which may be made to serve as
the nucleus of a wonderment agitation, has been eagerly
caught at, and made the most of. Let it be acknowledged that any unusual fact, not easily accounted for, and
over the circumstances of which the Church could hold
control, would be welcomed by cardinals, bishops, priests
-yes, and by educated laymen and nobles-as a providential favor of inestimable price! How can this be
doubted when, by such authorities, at this moment, the
nauseating and stale frauds of the darkest times are set
a-going among the people as authentic wonders!
If, then, at this time a balance were to be struck, on
this ground of comparison also, namely, the enthusiasm
of credulity and of popular infatuation, as between Methodism and Romanism, the odds would be great. Nor are
the reasons of the difference obscure, for they spring
manifestly from the moral and theological qualities of the
two systems.
Untutored minds, or any within which impressions and
emotions are little controlled by reason, when powerfully
wrought upon by religious excitements, become incapable of discrimination as to the objects that move them.
Such minds, while thus agitated, are scarcely conscious
of the difference between sensuous imaginative impressions, and such as are moral and spiritual. The imagination, the sensuous faculties, the moral sense, the spiritual
consciousness, have all received an impulse together, and
these continue for some time in a state of disorderly and
commingled agitation. Hence it is that, in seasons of
religious quickening among the uneducated classes, illusions, delusions, and rude excesses abound; and on this
ground it is that self-government, wisdom, and tact are so




76           FOUNDERS OF METHODISM.
much called for in those to whose zeal such movements,
instrumentally, owe their origin.
Yet these disorders reach their end safely, and at atn
early time, if only the religious system-the scheme of
doctrine wherewith they are connected —contains within
itself the true principles of moral and spiritual renovation.
Bring to bear upon minds religiously excited the proper
objects of genuine moral and spiritual feeling, and there
will take place, silently, yet speedily, what might be called a spontaneous process of discrimination-a separattion of incongruous elements, and a disappearance, entire
or partial, of the grosser matters, while the purer gain
ascendency.
Visions, trances, semi-miracles, lose their value and become vapid inanities, where great truths hold their place.
Let the human heart, quickened in its relationship to the
spiritual world, meet, or come in presence of, its true
objects; and it embraces them, assimilates itself with
them; and then, whatsoever is spurious or unreal, loses
its hold. When within the bosom the " day dawns," and
"' the day-star arises in the heart;" when (still we screen
ourselves in scriptural terms) " Christ is formed in the
heart;" when the soul becomes conscious that it has
been made " partaker of the Divine nature," then, and as
this illumination increases more and more ",unto the
perfect day," shadows disappear, the gliding forms of
superstition melt away, the fatuous glare of a sensuous
fancy loses its charm, and the soul rejoices in its tranquil
consciousness of living under the light and warmth of
heaven. This is the history of the early disappearance
of spurious miracles within every communion that has
held to the Gospel.
But the Romish Church has not retained any such
knowledge of first truths; or it has covered them with
perversions.  Therefore it is that, after stretching charity
and candor to the utmost, we must still, in speaking of
this system, plainly call it "'The Romish superstition:"
therefore it is that we can not withhold from it the desig



LAY PREACHING: METHODISM AND ROMANISM. 7"
nation "idolatrous:" therefore it is that whatever has the
most revolted reason, and whatever has combined absurdity, frivolity; and profanity, has found within it a shelter,
and a market too. It is not possible'otherwise than thus
to speak of Romanism, such as we find it even now, wherever it has been undisturbed by correcting influences
from without.
Romanism has at no period of its history dispelled the
terrors of superstition from the minds of men, or allayed
the grim forebodings of an evil conscience: how should
it do so, with its purgatory, and its promise of release
thence al a price which legatees may' refuse to pay? It
has not, on the other hand, chastised the wantonness of
luxurious and debauched imaginations: how should it do
so, in presence of its gaudy array of divinities-male and
female? Yet it is not Romanism, but it is our common
human nature that, ever and anew, and with inexhaustible
fecundity, generates, on the one hand, the creatures of
superstition, and on the other those of spiritual voluptuousness. But Romanism, in having retained no one main
principle of Christianity in its simple integrity, is not seen
to exert, among these spurious creations, any corrective
or repellant force. It has never righted itself where once
it has gone wrong; it has cut off from itself no excrescence that has appeared upon its surface. Enthusiasm
and fanaticism are its own moods. Delusion has settled
down upon it as the thick atmosphere of its climate.
WESLEY AS FOUNDER OF AN INSTITUTE.
THE ingredients, the spirit, and the tendencies of Methodism, as an INSTITUTE, will claim to be considered apart
from our immediate purpose, which relates only to Wesley's personal qualities and character.
It was under the guidance of the broadest principle, as
well as at the impulse of the most expansive charity, that




18           FOUNDERS OF METHODISM.
he had gone forth upon the field of the world as an evangelist preaching repentance. On the broadest principle
also it was that he laid the foundation of tfie institution
which was destined to conserve the fruits of his preaching; and if, on such a foundation as this, he had raised a
superstructure more free than it was from admixtures of
perishable matter —if he had somewhat better understood
human nature, and had on some points less misunderstood
Christianity, this INSTITUTE, which was so ably administered for forty years by himself, could scarcely have failed to secure for itself a paramount position in England,
and it might have planted itself territorially upon' the ruins
of a then dilapidated and almost deserted Church. This
was not to be.
If the Episcopal Church-and many of its enlightened
adherents have not hesitated to acknowledge this-owes
to Methodism, in great part, the modern revival of its
energies, so (may we not say it?) does it owe to Wesley's misapprehensions of certain principles, its own survivance through that critical period, in which there was
not enough of life or force left in it to make head against
what Methodism might have been, if Wesley's compass
of mind, as a legislator, had been of as ample dimensions
as his heart. This INSTITUTE was not, and is not, a
CHURCH, nor did he himself so designate it: the " Society"
was the product of that peculiar view which he was led
to take of human nature, and of the social system, from
his position as an EVANGELIST, or preacher of repentance.
The Wesleyan Societies were constituted for the one
purpose of gathering and of retaining converts, and they
had little adaptation to the purpose of Christianizing the
social mass, otherwise than by vehement assaults upon
the consciences of those who could by any means be got
together to hear sermons.
The Wesleyan Institute grew out of the work of conversion; and it comprehended little that would not press
itself, as urgently needed, upon the notice of the itinerant
evangelist, who, in revisiting the scene of his first suc



WESLEY AS FOUNDER OF AN INSTITUTE.         79
cesses, would not wish to find all that he had. done scattered and lost. For securing these temporary ends, and for
retaining its conquests, and for spreading them over the
enemy's territory by incessant sallies, as from evangelic
forts, and for perpetuating the same machinery of aggression, the Wesleyan Institute has shown itself a masterpiece of social organization.
In dealing with whatever may belong to a process of
organization, or of marshaling a host for a single initiatory
purpose, Wesley has never been surpassed by civil, military, or ecclesiastical mechanists. Nor has he been surpassed by any general, statesman, or churchman, in administrative skill; —that is to say, in the faculty of adapting himself, and his movements, to the circumstances
of the moment, without compromise of his authority or
personal dignity, and with the least possible damage done
to his theoretic consistency. Thus far Wesley's praise
is entire; and his polity-the polity of perpetual augmentation-went on spreading itself on both sides the
Atlantic, from the commencement to the very close of his
ministerial life. And during this long period of more
than half a century, many very critical conjunctures were
encountered by him, and were passed through successfully. The thorough simplicity and integrity of his purpose, as chief of the body, so well corresponded with the
elementary simplicity of his views as an institutor, that
what had been devised at the first so skillfully, was to the
last managed and governed not less ably.
But to found a Church is another sort of work; and
it would demand powers of mind, and qualifications, intellectual and moral, quite of another order. Wesley
said of himself —truly, not boastfully-and his friends were
accustomed to say of him, that, amidst the accumulation
of his labors, he was "never in a hurry."  A perfect
management of his time, his untiring enemy, and his selfcommand, made it easy for him to accomplish tranquilly
a vast and various daily task. But if never in a hurry,
neither was he ever in repose. Movement, onward and




80           FOUNDERS OF METHODISM.
incessant, was the law of his existence; but that repose
which, in great minds, or in better constructed minds, is
the preparation for renewed action, implies, not merely a
cessation of movement, but a retrocession-a stepping
back, and a looking around. Wesley's course gives no
indications of any such reduplication as this. As there
was nothing of the philosophic quality in his mind, so was
there, little of the ruminative. Therefore it is, that, while
unmatched in whatever has one intention, he could have
held but a low place as author of a system which should
combine complicated impulses, and which should show a
harmonious interaction of them.
The work of" Conversion," how genuine soever it may
be in any instance, or however unexceptionable in the
mode in which it takes place, does not develop the compass and richness of Christianized human nature; nor is
it likely that those who, as itinerant evangelists, are concerned only, or chiefly, with the work of conversion,
should be much conversant with, or should possess a
correct knowledge of the human heart, in the depth and
variety of its range of emotions. Then this same limitation of view, which was consequent upon the speciality
of the evangelists' function, as awakener of the conscience, brings with it a narrowed apprehension of the
Christian system; anc the Bible comes to be read and
used, mainly, or exclusively, as the preacher's instrument
for effecting repentance. But how narrow a view is this!
Wesley made it his boast (the word is not here used in
any sinister sense) that Methodism was more Catholic
than any other system of Christian combination that the
world had ever seen. This was true; for he required
from converts no assent to a Creed;-he stipulated for
no surrender of religious principles or notions. An expressed concern for the "salvation of the soul" was the
one and only condition of entrance, and a consistent adherence to such a profession was the only " term of Communion." This was good; but then this largely-worded
invitation to enter the Society, was an invitation to walk




WESLEY AS FOUNDER OF AN INSTITUTE.         8,
upon a path as narrow as a sheep track; and not narrow
in the sense in which the "narrow  way" is narrow.
Methodism was straitened by the incomnprehensiveness of
the aspect under which it took its view of human nature,
and of the social economy, and of the Gospel as adapted
to both. It was further straitened, too, by some illimagined peculiarites of attire and of behavior, which
Wesley afterward regretted he had not made ten times
more peculiar and more stringent than he did. Strange,
or strange until we have looked into the structure of his
mind, must it seem that he should have had no consciousness of the deep-seated incongruity of this Catholic invitation, which was -to lead to the wearing a straight-cut
coat, or a close bonnet without trimmings! Wesley did
not perceive that, while his good sense forbade his imposing upon his people the style and costume of Quakerism in all its rigidness, and while thus he he held off from
his Institute some extremes of absurdity, those peculiarities
upon which he did insist, and which in themselves were
recommended by no valid reasons, either moral or re.
ligious, were greater inconsistencies in Methodism  than
the like, or than much more, would be in Quakerism,
which, having neither a proselyting nor a Catholic intention, might be as singular as it pleased, at no greater cost
than that of burlesquing solemn truths in the view of the
world.
But thus it is, and ever has been, that those who are
sent by.Heaven to bring about great and necessary movements, which,'however, are, after a time, either to sub.
side, or to fall into a larger orbit, are left to the shortsightedness of their own minds in fastening upon theii
work' some appendage (perhaps unobserved) which, after
a cycle of revolutions, must secure the accomplishment
of Heaven's own purpose-the stopping of that movement. Religious singularities are Heaven's brared, imprinted by the unknowing hand of man,-upon whatever
is destined to last its season, and to disappear. Put a
pin through the wick of a candle at so many inches
Do




92           FOUNDERS OF METHODISM.
down as shall insure its going out just before sunrise:has not this been done, ordinarily, by the founders of
sects? The error of attaching a high and religious importance to matters of costume, or of conventional behavior, or of worship, has drawn with it, as an inevitable
consequence, the superannuation, at length, of the scheme
or system thus unadvisedly distinguished. The instances
will occur to every reader. Wesleyan Methodism has,
however, in it so much of wick and wax, that it may probably outburn what otherwise would have determined its
date.
In delivering one's self fairly into Wesley's Methodism,
such as it was sixty years ago, and in making one's self, for
a time, one with it, an involuntary feeling arises that there
is something in the system, as a social mechanism, that is
out of harmony with human nature; or, that there must
be at the bottom of it some misunderstanding of Christianity. Nevertheless, when the principal elements of
this Institute are singly brought under review, each may
fairly claim for itself some warranty of scriptural proofs.
It must be on the ground, either of a semi-infidelity (if
indeed there can be a halving of that which, where it
comes at all, comes entire) that any one of these principal elements of the Wesleyan system, considered by
itself, can be excepted against or rejected. Still there is
a dissatisfaction remaining with us, standing as spectators
in the midst of this economy; and in proportion as the
spectator's own religious principles are fixed and deep,
this uneasiness will be felt in a more lively manner. It
is true that no religious man could sit by the side of Wesley's pulpit, as in the seat of the scorner, and say, "fine
sample of enthusiasm this!" nor would he be willing to
put himself under guidance, such as that of Southey, who
would divert this unquiet feeling by treating the perplexing case of Methodism as a something which is at once
admirable and contemptible, genuine and spurious, substantial and unreal, and which is "from Heaven," and
"' of men." No such style of alternate approval and ban



WESLEY AS FOUNDER OF AN INSTITUTE.         83
ter can the serious-hearted looker-on and listener adopt
for himself. Instead of relieving any perplexity, such a
mode not merely renders this particular case the more
perplexing, but it breeds confusion in our own minds, and
it tends to bring into peril our best convictions. It may
be affirmed that whoever has turned on the heel, jeeringly, as he has left a Methodist meeting-house, is likely to
experience a death-like qualm when he looks Christianity
itself in the face.
But how then are we fairly to put at rest that disquiet
which the spectacle of Wesley's own Wesleyanism generates? To some extent relief may be obtained by looking to the evidence, presenting itself on every side, in
proof that this leading spirit-the soul and life of the
system-was not so gifted with the reflective faculties
as that a comprehensive grasp of human nature could
have been possible to him. His earnestness, therefore,
and his thorough persuasion of the greatness and the infinite moment of the work he had in hand, and his peremptory mode of thinking, would lead him to drive his
theory, with a reckless impetuosity, over the inclosure
of human affection. He sees, he hears, he comprehends
nothing exterior to the one object of his errand in a world
of ungodly men. Wesleyanism did indeed effect a recovery from sin and ruin for myriads of human beings,
and in its triumphant course of benficence it "led captivity captive:" nevertheless, in this riding forth to conquer,
there was some destruction made of what is genuine and
precious.
But there is a view of VWsley's ministry, and of his
COMMiSSION, which may consist with a serious belief, and
with a broad view of the Christian system. If we are
willing to adhere to the hypothesis that Methodism, as
a heaven-directed movement, had a special purpose, which
it was to achieve, and that a season-a term of years-was
marked out for it, then it must follow that those features
in this system which harmonize imperfectly with Christianity, receive an explanation, if not a justification; for it




84           FOUNDERS OF METHODISM.
is Implied in the very terms that what is destined to effect
a particular purpose, and which is to pass away after a
time, will not wear a universal aspect, and that it doers
not perfectly coincide with that which is enduring and
unchanging.
Not merely does Christianity recognize the social sentiments, but it lays its hand upon them, enjoining social
exercises of devotion, and it forbids its professors to " forsake the assembling of themselves together." Nevertheless, the congregational aspect of the-Gospel is not, as it
is with Methodism, the prominent characteristic of the
system; it was not more than a single element of apostolic Christianity; never was it thought of as the whole
of it.  But Methodism  congregated men upon centres,
as the whirlwind brings things into vortices; and it was
also a sort of whirlwind-agitation which kept them in
company; and even after tempestuous agitations had
passed away, it was a vehement cohesion, rather than
a genuine cementing of the social mass, that was aimed
at, and actually effected. Methodism  seemed scarcely
to be cognizant of any thing in the divine life that could
not'be talked of, and proclaimed aloud: the depths of
the human heart, when the heart itself has come into
correspondence with the Infinite Attributes, were beyond
its line. It might indeed take note of things tossed up
from the depth of the soul, by the surges of passion; but
itself kept on the surface: Methodism did not venture
into the recesses of the soul further than where the
tongue might be its guide.
And then, if considered as a development of the social
principle, Methodism carried itself somewhat shallowly;
and thus showed itself to be a system destined for an
epoch only. Wesley, apostolic man as he was, and having a heart and a countenance warm and bright as the
sun with genuine benevolence-an unselfish, loving soul,
a soul large enough to fill a seraph's bosom, himself knew
nothing of the domestic affections. He had never learned
human nature on that bright side of it, or in that effect



WESLEY AS FOUNDER OF AN INSTITUTE.         85
ive way in which it is learned when the yearnings of domestic love melt souls into one, so thoroughly. casting
down the partitions of selfish thought as that each individual of the home circle exists as if with a multiplied
existence.
Let a father, possessing a father's heart, be told, in the
way of preparation for such a visit, that he is about to inspect a school that was devised, and that is governed by
one of the most benevolent of the human race; and then
let him be taken to spend a four-and-twenty hours at
Kingswood! This father's rising indignation at the iron
rules and the rigid absurdities which he there witnesses,
may prompt him to violate all charity'toward the founder, while he spends his feelings in intemperate.vituperation. But a word of explication may calm this emotion.
Wesley knew no more what a child is, what a boy is,
what human nature is, than he might have known if he
himself had been, and had never been any thing else than
a varnished anatomy, lodging an intellect in a corner of
its cranium.
If one thinks of Torquemada, presiding at the burning
of heretics, and remembers that this man called himself,
and was called, a minister of Him whose history we
have in the Gospels, the prodigious incompatibility of the
two ideas is such as quite staggers the mind. But let
us not be too hasty in thinking of the Inquisitor as a
fiend: perhaps he was such; but perhaps only a theorist,
and a theorist is sometimes a creature as much to be
dreaded as a demon: this man had no consciousness on
the side of human sympathies: in his view it was logically certain that mercy toward heretics themselves, and toward the world, demanded that he should burn them, and
nothing in his bosom rose up to contradict this logic.
Wesley's soul glowed with the truest philanthropy; but
he, too was a theorizer. It was in love that he struck the
heart with the sledge-hammer of his theological logic;
and he brake the flint in pieces; but he did not well
understand what this same flint incloses. As he dealt.




86           FOUNDERS OF METHODISM.
with the boys at Kingswood, so with adults in his Societies, that is to say, with an iron intensity of purpose; and
human affections, in passing under his hand, were much
damaged, or were forced into a half their volume.
Methodism, such as Wesley made it, was girt about
too tightly, and it has, in fact, necessarily assimilated
itself since to those principles of the social system which
theoretic men may disturb for a time, but can not abrogate; yet it too much retains its characteristic as the
Christianity of the preacher, and of the heated chapel;
and it is therefore deficient in those elements that might
entitle it to be spoken of as a CHURCH. How far such
needed modifications of Wesleyan Methodism may already have had place, we are not here called upon to inquire; much less to hazard aconjecture as to the probable extent of those changes which time and experience
may still suggest. All that we have now to do with is
the fact, related as it is to the Founder's personal character, that his Institute, such as he left it, and whatever
praise it may be entitled to, was a dispensation for a
season, springing from those qualities in his own mind
and moral nature which fitted him to accomplish the
great work of his day.
No mind and heart that has ever attracted the eyes of
mankind, is more thoroughly transparent than Wesley's.
How is it then that, like Loyola's, it can have furnished a
problem? To read his journals and letters, or his sermons
and polemical writings, is to come into the presence, not
merely of a master spirit, and of one who stands tnmatched in energy, constancy, consistency; but of a man
who was too guileless to think of saving himself from the
imputation of inconsistency, and far too fervently intent
upon an object beyond himself to entertain any care
about that semblance of egotism, or of ambition, which
the pursuit of that object could not fail to impart to his
mode of acting-acting as he did as the founder, proprietor, and administrator of a society so widely extended.
Why is it, then, that, among those who would wish to be




WESLEY AS FOUNDER OF AN INSTITUTE.        87
thought his apologists (though not his disciples) he has
been so spoken of as if some mystery overshadowed that
bright head, or as if that countenance, beaming, as itdoes, with childlike love, was the covering of an abyss?
It has so happei'd because the character and the course
of Wesley, as of his colleagues, involves a far deeper
problem than that of the individual dispositions and motives of the man.
The Gospel-understood and bowed to in all its depth
and height of meaning-furnishes the only possible means
of clearing up the perplexities that attach to the motives
and conduct of those who from it have received their
impulse, and who have walked according to its rule.
Wesley perplexes those only who, if they would confess
the fact, are still more perplexed by Christianity itself.
One must believe that many of that class of persons
whom a writer like Sothey represents, and to whose
tastes and views he evidently labored to adapt himself,
must be conscious that the explications he advances in
attempting to unravel Methodism, are as futile in philosophy, as they are false in theology; and, in fact, that most
of his solutions of the "phenomena" are nothing better
than frigid absurdities. That they were so, was strongly
felt by Coleridge, whose far deeper acquaintance with
spiritual principles, and whose vastly more acute intelligence, prompted him to protest, in many instances, against
his friend's vapid arrogance. And yet even he turned
away from Methodism, as an enigma he had not solved
in any manner that was satisfactory to himself. In frequent instances, his first annotation upon the "Life of
Wesley," was the prompting of a generous sympathy,
and that of indignant contempt which the flippancy of
Southey provokes. But in his second, or the note upon
his own note, he gropes among the darknesses of psychology for what may serve to bring about an apparent
agreement between himself and his friend.  But that
which these distinguished men undertook to do-the one
frivolously, the other profoundly —was, to give a reason




88           FOUNDERS OF METHODISM.
for the bright greenness and the gay blossoms of May,
ignoring the sun.
Those, on the other side, who, with a charitable intention, would labor to explain to the class of persons
whom Southey and Coleridge represeit* how and why
it is that they so misunderstand the persons and events
of Methodism, show, in making this attempt, that they
have themselves, for the moment, lost sight of their own
ground. Human nature, with its beautiful adaptations of
intellectual and moral forces, is explicable always within itself, even in its lapsed condition; —that is to say,
the relation of its parts, one to the other, or to the whole
mechanism, may always be shown and demonstrated. It
becomes inexplicable only when it is thought of in its present broken or disordered relationship to a higher economy
-the economy of Heaven. Seen on this side, an ominous
darkness hangs over the hum4n system upon which no
earth-born philosophy has ever, or can ever, shed one ray
of light.
So far as Christianity has christianized the social sys
tem, and so far as it acts as a good influence upon indi
vidual men, it is easily explicable; and it is so even if the
office of professed candor be undertaken by a Gibbon.
But the Gospel itself is a truth of the upper world, and
in its very substance it wholly eludes the perceptions
of those who have not bowed to it. From every other
ethical or religious system Christianity differs absolutely
-in its first principles, in its superstructure, in its tone,
in its tendency, and in its issue. Individually we either
deeply feel this dissimilarity; or, if we do not feel it, we
labor to extenuate whatever seems to- declare it.
Thus it is that Wesley and Methodism so sorely try
the ingenuity of those who, if they knew how, would
gladly be just toward him, and his communion-saving
their " philosophy." This will never be done; nor can it
be well to proffer aid toward effecting that which, in the
nature of things, is impracticable.
If he had moved in a private sphere, that for instance




WESLEY AS FOUNDER OF AN INSTITUTE.        89
of a parish priest, Wesley's flock would not have known
that their minister had so much as one fault; and the
admiration and love of his intimate friends would only
have been a more emphatic expression of the feeling
which'would have pervaded the little world whose happiness it was to live within sight and hearing of him. His
was a personal virtue that was not merely unblemished,
for it was luminously bright. His countenance shone
with goodness, truth, purity, benevolence: a sanctity belonged to him, which those near him felt, as if ii were
a power with which the atmosphere was fraught. If we
may imagine —what could not have been-so much energy
pent within a narrow circle, how would it have filled that
space with abounding labors of evangelic charity! It
might indeed have happened that some quiet and discriminating parishioner would sometimes whisper so much
fault-finding as this —"' Our dear Rector is too apt to think
other people as honest as himself; he trusts himself too
easily to any who tell him a fair tale; and he is too fond
of wonders." Another, perhaps, would have asked leave
to think awhile before he should assent to some points
of the minister's theology. With some such slender abatements as these, Wesley's praise would have been warmly
uttered by every tongue in his neighborhood. Friends
would have regarded him with a deep reverential-love:
foes —he could have had none.
It is a sort of axiom with opticians, that, whereas natural objects (the works of God) will bear enlargement to
any extent, and excite always the more wonder in proportion as you apply to them, in the solar microscope, a
higher and a higher power; it is otherwise with the
products of human skill, which, the more they are magnified, the less are they to be admired. This illustration
may aid us a little in the present instance. John-Wesley
as to his intellect, and as to his views-had his faults
and his infirmities: grant it; but we should not have
known so much as this if what was individual in him had
not repeated itself, and become a feature of a community




90           FOUNDERS OF METHODISM.
that now fills half the world. When thus magnified, each
ruggedness or want of finish on the surface of his mind,
who can not see it? as to this or that misadjustment of the
intellectual mechanism, who may not point the finger at
it? These things were of the man; but his virtues were
God's own work, perfectly finished-and how well they
look, although the bright spectrum has spread itself out
to a diameter as wide as the empire upon which the sun
never sets! It was Wesley's virtues and piety that gave
form and tone to his teaching, and his teaching has embodied itself in the Christianlike behavior of tens of thousands of his people, on both sides the Atlantic.
CHARLES WESLEY.
As his brother's friend, adviser, and colleague, Charles
exerted an influence that was almost always corrective
and salutary. Less credulous than John, less sudden in
his apprehensions, and proportionately more discriminative and cautious, his mind reached its maturity earlier;
and- this maturity was itself of a riper sort. But then
his prejudices, as a Churchman, were less flexible; his
reserve and modesty were greater, and unless the superior force of his brother's character had carried him forward beyond his own limit, he must soon have withdrawn himself from public life; and then he would have
been known only, if at all, as the author of some sacred
poetry of rare excellence. But these very hymns, if the
writer had not been connected with Methodism, would
have shown a very different phase; for while the depth
and richness of them are the writer's, the epigrammatic
intensity, and the pressure which marks them,'belong to
Methodism. They may be regarded as the representatives of a modern devotional style which has prevailed
quite as much beyond the boundaries of the Wesleyan
community, as within it. Charles Wesley's hymns on the




CHARLES WESLEY.                 91
one hand, and those of Toplady, Cowper, and Newton on
the other, mark that great change in religious sentiment
which distinguishes the times of Methodism from the staid
nonconforming era of Watts and Doddridge.
Better constituted than his brother for domestic enjoyment, Charles had a happy home, where the gentle affections of a gentle nature found room to expand; and it
was thus that he became qualified to shed into the Methodistic world something of a redeeming influence, which
John could never have imparted. Charles Wesley's mind
was an ameliorating ingredient, serving to call forth and
cherish those kindlier emotions with which a religion of
preaching-a religion of public services, so much needs
to be attempered. His personal ministrations, no doubt had
this tendency in some degree; but it was by his sacred
lyre, still more than as a preacher, that he tamed the rudeness of untaught minds, and gained a listening ear for the
harmonies of heaven, and of earth, too, among such.
Ought not then the disposing hand of God to be acknowledged in this instance, remarkable as it is, that,
when myriads of uncultured and lately ferocious spirits
were to be reclaimed, a gift of song, such as that of
Charles Wesley, should have been conferred upon one of
the compl y employed in this work?  To estimate duly
what was the influence of this rare gift, and to measure
its importance, one should be able to recall scenes and
times gone by, when Methodism was much nearer to its
source than now it is, and when " Hymn 147, page 145,"
announced by the preacher in a tone curiously blending
the perfunctory with the animated,
" O Love Divine, how sweet thou art!"
woke up all ears, eyes, hearts, and voices, in a crowded
chapel. It was, indeed, a spectacle worth the gazing
upon! It was a service well to have joined in (once and
again) when words of such power, flowing in rich cadence, and conveying, with an intensity of emphasis, the
loftiest, the deepest, and the most tender emotions of the
divine life, were taken up feelingly by an assembly of men




92           FOUNDERS OF METHODISM.
and women, to whom, very lately, whatever was not of
the "earth-earthy," had neither charm nor meaning.
Rugged forms were those that- filled the benches on the
one hand; nor were they the fairest in the world that were
ranged on the other; but there was soul in the erect posture when the congregation rose to sing, as well as in the
glistening eye; and it was a cordial animation that gave
compass to the voices of these, the ransomed of Methodism. Perhaps it was little more than a particle of meaning
that some gathered from the hymn. But to the hearts of
many, its deepest sense-the poet's own sense of the words
-was quite intelligible, and was intimatelyrelished. Who
could doubt it, that had an eye to read the heart in the
beaming countenances around him? Thus it was that
Charles Wesley, richly gifted as he was with graces,
genius, and talents, drew souls-thousands of souls-in
his wake, from Sunday to Sunday, and he so drew them
onward from earth to- heaven by the charm of sacred
verse i!
It may be affirmed that there is no principal element
of Christianity, no main article of belief; as professed by
Protestant Churches-that there is no moral or ethical sentiment, peculiarly characteristic of the Gospel-no height
or depth of feeling, proper to the spiritual life, that does
not find itself emphatically, and pointedly, and clearly
conveyed in some stanza of Charles Wesley's hymns.
These compositions embody the theory, and the practice,
and the theopathy of the Christian. system; and they do
so with extremely little admixture of what ought to be regarded as questionable, or that is not warranted by some
evidence of Scripture. What we have here before us is
a metrical liturgy; and by the combination of rhythm,
rhyme, and music, it effectively secures to the mass
of worshipers much of the benefit of liturgical worship.
Such a liturgy, thus performed by animated congregations, melted itself into the very soul of the people, and was
perhaps that part of the hour's service which, more than
any other, produced what, to borrow a phrase, we might




CHARLES WESLEY.                  93
call digestive assimilation. It would secure this, its beneficial effect, in moulding the spirits of the people, by its
iteration, by its emphatic style, and by aid of the pleasurable excitements of music.
Charles Wesley's part in the great results of Methodism
has not, perhaps, been duly appreciated. Let us then look
to, and analyze the facts-if not as they may now be any
where observed, yet as they may be remembered by some
of us.
In the magnificent amphitheatre of Gwenap, and at
other spots in the mining districts'of Cornwall, the Wesleys had drawn around them thousands of the Ka-raxO6vtol
of that wild region. What was the intellectual and moral
condition of these dwellers in the heart of the earth, before the coming of Methodism among them? Is the Episcopal Church prepared to make her boast of the mining
populiation of Cornwall, such as it had become under her
care?  But Methodism  snatched its hundreds and its
thousands from out of this heathen mass; and very soon
its unsightly preaching houses speckled the dreary landscape on all the hill sides of the country where there were
mines, and in each of the fishing towns along the two
coasts. These structures, or chapels as they came to be
called, were, for the most part, well filled on Sunday,
with a people decently attired, more neat and clean than
those of the same rank assembling in other places of worship; quite orderly in their behavior, and among whom,
very rarely, any audible disturbance of the solemnities of worship occurred, beyond the emphatic " Amen!
Amen!" which served so well to carry the minister forward, from period to period of his extemporaneous prayer.
In all these chapels, in their turn, and in many of them
scattered over the country, often the officiating minister
was a local preacher of the district; and meagre, too
often, was then the preacher's part of the service! The
sermon was indeed a heavy trial of patience and candor
to the casual visitor; the prayer was a much heavier trial!
But at the worst, the soul of Charles Wesley —lofty, ten



94           FOUNDERS OF METHODISM.
der, pure, intense, was there present in the hymn; and,
like a summer's shower in a time of drought, was this
hymn sung, on such occasions, and in such places! The
preacher could at least read it; and the hymn book was
in almost every hand; and enough of the soul of music
was among the people to secure for the congregation
the benefits of a liturgical worship, animating, elevating,
instructive, unexceptionable; and the people were sufficiently alive to Christian truth to qualify them for taking
part in such devotional services with pleasure and advantage.
If that breadth of country be thought of, over which
Methodism had then stretched itself, far beyond the proportion of its itinerant ministry, and which it could occupy
in no other way than by its system of irregular and uninstructed ministrations, then it must be to Charles Wesley
that we should assign the place of honor, as the every
where present soul of Methodism. It is true that the
Hymn Book is his in part only; but then his part in it is
the vital part.
In any system of public worship the constant elementthat is to say, the liturgical-will always exercise a great
influence over the variable part-the extemporaneous-in
giving it tone and direction, and in preserving a doctrinal
consistency in the pulpit teaching. It will be so at least
wherever this liturgical ingredient warmly engages the
feelings of the people, and where it is performed with
untiring animation. In communities that have laid aside
liturgies, in every other sense, the HYMN BOOK which they
use, especially if psalmody be a favored part of public
worship, rules, as well the preacher as the people, to a
greater extent than is often thought of, or than would perhaps be acknowledged. The Hymn Book, to such bodies
comes in the stead of Creed, Articles, Canons, and presiding power. Isaac Watts is still held in grateful remembrance by those who use his devotional compositions: but
there may be room to think that, in the course of these
hundred and fifty years past, he has rendered services to




WHITEFIELD.                  95
them, in behalf of which they have not yet blessed his
memory, and, perhaps, may never do so.
Benefits the most substantial are often those of which
the least notice is taken; and silent blessings are wont
to be silently received. Thus putting out of view their
adaptation to public worship, "hymns, and psalms, and
spiritual songs"-a species of literature in which the English language is more rich than any other-administer
comfort, excitement, and instruction to an extent, and in a
degree, which never can be calculated. The robust in
body and mind, the earthly, the frivolous, and the sordid,
know nothing of that solace, of that renovation of the
heart which sacred poetry is every day conveying to the
spirits of tens of thousands around them. It is not merely
when sickness has slackened the cords of life, but also
when the heart has become benumbed by the toils and
cares of a common day, and when even the understanding is rendered obtuse, it is then that the hymn and psalm,
at a late hour, restore the spirit, and give renewed clearness, by giving consistency to the distracted intellect, and
so lead the soul back to its place of rest in the presence
of " things unseen and eternal." Among those to whose
compositions millions of souls owe inestimable benefits, in
this manner, Charles Wesley stands, if not foremost, yet
inferior to few.
WHITEFIELD.
WHITEFIELD must be allowed to occupy the luminous
centre upon the field of Methodism. Besides his personal
claim to this distinction, which we think is clear, there is
a ground on which those who would award this position
rather to Wesley, might be content to relinquish it in his
behalf; for, if it be true that his ministerial course furnishes peculiar evidence of the reality of the Gospel which
he preached, and of the presence of Him who "worketh




96           FOUNDERS OF METHODISM.
all in all" —if it be true that Wesley's glory was, as one
may say, an effulgence of Christianity itself, the same may
more emphatically be affirmed as to Whitefield, whose
natural endowments were fewer, and whose success as a
preacher of the Gospel was not less, perhaps greater.
Whitefield's natural powers and gifts were indeed extraordinaiy; nor is it known that the same have been
possessed in a higher degree by any one: but then they
were of that sort which, if they had been exercised in any
secular line, could have won for him nothing more than
an ephemeral reputation, and its immediate worldly recomnpense. His name as an orator might have found a place,
casually, on some page of the annals of his time; but no
faculty did he possess which could have given him a permanent renown among the distinguished men of his age,
whether in the senate, at the bar, or as a popular leader:
much less could he have secured a lasting fame in the
walks of literature or science. But Wesley might no
doubt have earned a great reputation either in the senate
or at the bar.
The endeavors that have been made to give a sufficient
reason for Whitefield's power over the thousands that
crowded around him-while the true and the principal
reason is rejected, or is put out of view-are quite futile.
His natural gifts, although extraordinary, were yet limited
in their range, and were employed upon subjects that
move the human mind from its very depths, when they
move it at all; but they so move it only when an energy
works with the word which no orator, however gifted,
can command, and which, again and again, the most perfect pulpit oratory has wholly failed to engage on its side.
If Whitefield had possessed any one of those higher
intellectual endowments which might be named as an
adequate cause of the unexampled effects produced by his
preaching, we of this age should be reading his sermons
with delight; but in fact they have sunk out of all recollection-they are never read. Neither the imaginative
nor ratiocinative power did he possess in more than an




WHITEFIELD.                    97
ordinary degree; and as to the fascinations of his voice
and manner, a five years' popularity, if resting on this
basis alone, would have been its utmost term. All instances that might properly be adduced in such a case
show this. But Whitefield, with the Gospel message, and
that only on his lips, drew thousands around him, go
where he might; and he did so from the first year of his
ministerial career to the very last.
Powerful causes, wherever they are at work, give evidence of their presence in the continuous uniformity of
the effects that follow; and it was a wonderful uniformity
of results that attended Whitefield's preaching throughout
the many years of his ministry, and under every variety
of circumstance. This preacher, occupying as he does a
very narrow walk upon the field of thought, yet displays
there a mysterious power. Inartificial as to the structure of his discourses, all minds around him, whether the
rudest or the most highly cultured, confess him to be the
minister of God toward them. He holds MAN, as if in
the abstract, or as if whatever is not common to all
men were forgotten. The most extreme diversities, intellectual and moral —differences of rank, culture, national
modes of thought, all gave way, and ceased to be thought
of: distinctions were swept from the ground where he
took his position. At the first opening of his lips, and as
the rich harmony of his voice spread its undulations over
the expanse of human faces, and at the instant when the
sparkle of his bright eye caught every other eye, human
nature, in a manner, dropped its individuality, and presented itself in its very elements to be moulded anew.
Whitefield, although singularly gifted with a perception
of the varieties of character, yet spoke as if he could
know nothing of the thousands before him but their immortality and their misery; and so it was that these thousands listened to him.
No preacher, whose history is on record, has trod so
wide a field as did Whitefield; or has retrod it so often,
or has repeated himself so much, or has carried so far the
E




98           FOUNDERS OF METHODISM.
experiment of exhausting himself, and of spending his popularity, if it could have been spent; but it never was spent.
Within the compass of a few weeks he might have beet
heard addressing the negroes of the Bermuda islands,
adapting himself to their infantile understandings, and to
their debauched hearts; and then, at Chelsea, with the
aristocracy of rank and wit before him, approving himself to listeners such as the lords Bolingbroke and Chesterfield. Whitefield might as easily have produced a
Hamlet or a Paradise Lost, as have excogitated a sermon
which, as a composition-a product of thought, would have
tempted men like these to hear him a second time; and
as to his faculty and graces as a speaker. his elocution and
action, a second performance would have contented them.
But in fact Bolingbroke, and many of his class, thought
not the hour long, time after time, while, with much sameness of material and of language, he spoke of eternity, and
of salvation in Christ.
The same subjects, in the same phrases, held the ear of
men in the same manner from the date of his first sermon
in St. Mary de Crypt to that of his last in New England
-a period of thirty-four years. The crowds that thronged the churches of Bristol or London, at his first appearance, were constituted, for the most part, of the constant
frequenters of churches and meeting-houses, and they were
persons upon whose thickened organs of hearing sermons
enough had beat, from Sunday to Sunday, from their youth
up. But then fiom these congregations he passed to Moorfields and Kennington Common, and there found the reckless savages of civilization:-thence he went to Kingswood, where he encountered a, ferocity, wild, robust, and
unused to simulate civility. From Kingswood one might
follow him across the Tweed, and find him preaching the
same Gospel in the midst of a people too fully instructed
"in the right ways of the Lord" to have any thing to
learn, one might suppose, fiom this raw preacher, who
knew nothing of the " Solemn League and Covenant," and
who had received episcopal ordination! Yet so it was




WHITEFIELD.                   99
that alike noble wits, Kingswood colliers, and seceding
congregations, broke down before Whitefield! Floods
of tears moistened cheeks, rough and smooth; and sighs,
suppressed or loudly uttered, gave evidence that human
nature is one.and the same when it comes in presence
of truths which bear upon the guilty and the immortal,
without distinction.
The preacher of these truths, wielding a power manifestly extraneous to his natural gifts, thought little or nothing of those means of effect to which so much importance has been attached by a certain class of writers. Or
if he had at the first thought of them, experience would
have taught him that they might be wholly disregarded
Whitefield's journals show indeed that he had a feeling
of the grand and beautiful in nature; but he found himself, and his message, and his hearers, the same, whether
his voice wakened the echoes of a primeval forest in the
New World, or resounded from the near walls of an English meeting-house. Those whose sense of the picturesque is more vivid than their moral consciousness, have
labored with their materials in endeavoring to give a reason for Whitefield's power as a preacher. The magnificence of the silvan theatre in which the gathering of the
people took place, the stillness, in such a place, of a congregation of ten or fifteen thousand persons-the recollected remoteness of cities-the ardors of the climate-the
interludes, not infrequent, of the mighty thunderings and
lightnings of that climate, and the forethought of the many
perils to be encountered in returning from the wilderness;
— shall nof the preacher avail himself well of these various
and powerful excitements? He does so scarcely at all;
he is unconscious of the place, the scene, the time; and
so are his hearers, for eternity is opened up before him,
and them.
The basis of Whitefield's mind, or that power upon
which his singular gifts as a speaker worked, was the
CONCEPTIVE FACULTY, as related to those objects that are
purely spiritual, both abstract and concrete; and with




100          FOUNDERS OF METHODISM.
him this faculty had a compass, a depth, and an intensity
of sensitiveness, never perhaps equaled. So it was that
while he spoke the visible world seemed to melt awa"y
into thin mist, and the world eternal-the real world —to
come out from among shadows, and stand-forth in awful
demonstration. This faculty in him was by no means
that of the poet, or the painter, and which is sensuous in
its material; for if it had been of this sort he would
have left us monuments of his genius-such as a Divina
Commedia, or a Paradise Lost, or a series of Michael
Angelo cartoons. Nor was it a sensuous perception, as
related to the passions and affections of the human bosom;
for if it had been of this kind he would have composed
tragedies, or epics. Nor was it that faculty in which
Italian preachers (and some others) have excelled, and
which has enabled them so vividly to paint the scenes
and events of sacred history as,to draw tears, for an hour,
from melting eyes.
The objects, and almost the exclusive objects of this faculty with Whitefield, were those which are in jhe highest
sense spiritual;-the things not of this world, but of a
brighter region; —and yet, let us well note it, not an earthmade celestial apparatus, or a scene-painting of heaven
and hell, with its artificial illumination, and its mock
lightning, and its peals of mechanic thunder. Enough of
this sort has been done and attempted in pulpits, and to
how little purpose! Truly of such efforts of oratory it
may be said, "which things perish in the using." The
great preachers of past times, whose sermons retain a place
in libraries, produced surprising " sensations" in churches
with little fruit-out of church.
If it had been only, or chiefly, the awful future-that
infinite of duration toward which the brevity of this life is
tending-if it had been only, or chiefly, the idea of immortality, with its alternatives, which Whitefield's mind
grasped, he must at an early time, have expended his
power, as to stated congregations, or within each circuit
of his itinerancy. He might, indeed, have gone about




WHITEFIELD.                  101
preaching, with effect, a second or a third time, over the
surface which he had once visited; but not much oftener.
Every where this question and answer would have been
heard among the people, "Whitefield is coming again,
will you not hear him?"  "No, I have heard already all
he has to say about the world to come." How unlike
this was the history of this preacher's course from first
to last! His ministrations were felt to be as fresh, and
they took hold of the minds of the people as powerfully,
when he left England the seventh and last time, for
America, as when he left it for the first time.
In the wide compass of ideas and emotions among
which the human mind takes its circuit, those things only
seem always new, and those only continue to exert over
it an unspent power, which touch that element in human
nature which itself is imperishable-namely, the moral
consciousness. All other things, bright as they may appear to be, fade; and, as to each in its turn, the mind sickens, and turns from it dissatisfied. But it is not so with
whatever bears upon the primary rudiment of human
nature-the moral affections. By this, and not by his
intellectual framework, man may be shown to be immortal; for it is on this ground that he stands related
to eternal rectitude. Christianity lays a hand of power
upon this moral consciousness, and troubles it; but the
GOSPEL, using this word in its own peculiar sense, sheds
life, animation, hope, where dismay had first come. The
Gospel brings before the spiritual sense a personal object
of love, adoration, and gratitude; and as the heart is
that, in human nature, which "lives forever" when thus
it finds its immortality assured, by union with HIM who
has obtained it for his people, there is no weariness, or
impatience of repetition, while HE is spoken of.
The history of Whitefield's ministry is, in a word, this
-the Gospel he proclaimed drew men around him, in
dense masses, at the moment when he commenced his
course; and it was the Gospel, not the preacher's harmonious voice, not his "graceful action," not his fire as




102          FOUNDERS OF'METHODISM.
an orator that gave him power over congregations to the
very last. No intellectual faculty of a high order lent himn
its aid in sustaining this popularity.
Let those who think they may succeed in such an attempt undertake the task of searching among things real,
or among things which it may be possible to imagine,
until they find objects (other than those constituting the
Christian system) upon the ground of which such a man as
Whitefield could have gathered thousands around himkeeping always close to his topic-and could hold them
in his hand, time after time, and could do so through a
course of four-and-thirty years.
If we were to speak of that phase of evangelic doctrine which Whitefield, as distinguished from Wesley or
others, adopted, it must not be pretended, in his behalf,
that he reached his position by any legitimate process of
induction, or that he won it as a theologian. He came
into it by a process more emphatically legitimate; that
is to say, by the simplicity and amplitude of his preceptions of spiritual objects. He felt, if he could not prove it,
that that sovereign grace whence the redemption of the
world took its rise, must be the one law of the Christian
system, and the only principle of harmony among doctrines, seemingly antithetical; and he held that this law
must be applicable. not merely to the Gospel abstractedly,
but to each individual instance in which it takes effect
upon the human heart. He felt that this one principle,
as it was the spring of Christianity itself, must neither
be abated, nor be made subordinate to exceptive rules,
nor be subjected to cautionary restrictions. It must be
held entire, or abandoned wholly. Whatever those misinterpretations were which might be put by others upon
that first principle of Christianity-SovEREIGN GRACE —
Whitefield's childlike structure of mind compelled him to
exult in9.and to preach it.
In the same manner that Whitefield's ministerial course,
sustained for so long a time-that is to say, to the endcan be understood on no other supposition than that of




WHITEFIELD.                   103
the truth of the Gospel, so does that course, its circumstances considered, yield incontestable proof of the purity,
simplicity, and apostolic genuineness of his character.
If a spark of ambition, or a personal motive of any sort,
had lurked in the bosom of the "stripling preacher," the
effect produced upon his townsmen by his first sermon at
Gloucester was enough to have turned his head; or if
there had been by his side some one to whisper in his ear
the word of worldly wisdom, Whitefield's career might
have been a brilliant one —as the world thinks. Why
should it not have been so? He needed nothing but to
observe the easy rule of moving always with the tide,
and of feeling his way upward toward the high places
of the Church. Or, if his early triumphs might have
been attributed to accidental causes, the recurrence of
the same wherever he afterward appeared'made it certain that a preacher, who was not yet five-and-twenty,
and gifted in this extraordinary manner, needed only to
husband his powers, and to manage his popularity; and
every thing bright which the world can offer was before
him.
Entirely unlike this was his actual history; and the
course he did adopt at the first moment, he pursued,
without turning to the right hand or the left, from that
first moment, until the day when, broken with excessive
labors, he said-" I shall be better and preach again in
a day or two"-and died. During the months of his
first popularity-that is to say, of his first coming before
the world, the church walls reeked wherever he had
been announced; and the crowds that gathered round
him, instead of spending their feelings, in terms of heartless admiration, wept, each for himself, as the preacher
passed from their sight. This popularity, of which there
had been no example in the Church (or out of it) occurred
in good time to allow him to reconsider his purpose of
going out to Georgia, as a missionary. Many reasonsmost of them plausible, and some of them valid —might
have been urged by "judicious friends," in behalf of such




104          FOUNDERS OF METHODISM.
a reconsideration. Blame could scarcely have attached
to him, if he had resolved to occupy the wide field that
had now opened itself before him at home. But to his
missionary purpose he did adhere.
Right or wrong in this instance, he broke away from
the earnest entreaties of those whose hearts he had won;
and he went whither he was carried by that one motive
which ruled his life.  So far as this sovereign motive
mingled itself with any other, that other was a pure and
warm benevolence. The Orphan House, with the racking anxieties that attached to it, and the perplexities it
involved him in, for many years, gave evidence of the
simplicity and unworldliness of his mind. The scheme,
whether prudently devised or not, was the scheme of a
youth-let it not be forgotten-who had already discovered the secret of his possessing unmatched powers
of oratory.
So far as Whitefield's ministerial life and his personal character may properly be appealed to in support of
some momentous principles, the inference which is thence
deducible is much strengthened, and is not at all weakened, when we take into account, as well the mediocrity
of his intellectual structure, as those softnesses of disposition, and that laxity of tone of which his letters and
journals give so much evidence. That consistent following of a high and simple motive which marks his ministry
was not, as is manifest, the proper consequence of much
constitutional nerve and energy.  In this instance we
have true heroism before us; yet less than a hero. There
is greatness-there is moral grandeur; but i.t is shown
in the behavior of a man whose letters and private notes
are rendered wearisome, if not repulsive, by a luxurious
verbosity-a tautology rarely relieved by any coruscations of mind.
Nor, perhaps, could a paragraph be produced from
Whitefield's works, indicative of what might be called a
philosophic breadth of view in relation to religion; yet
practically, all that such a breadth could imply was his




WHITEFIELD.                  105
own.  His ministerial standing-place was always high
raised above middle walls of partition; nor could he, in
any instance, be induced to render worship to the idols
of intolerance and bigotry. As to those partitionments
within which soulless religionists are content to be penfolded, he walked over them unconsciously; nor could
he be made to understand how "precious" those things
were upon which he thus trampled.  "Gentlemen, I
hope you will settle these matters to your own satisfaction," said he among zealots,-" my business is to preach
the Gospel." But this breadth, this greatness, was not
with him the product of philosophy, or the prompting of
a powerful intellect; nor was it liberalism, nor was it
indifference: it was the greatness of the Gospel, well
lodged in a large heart.
The simplicity of his character, the singleness of his
views, as well as the rapidity of his movements, and the
superabounding variety of his engagements, all tended to
betray him, at times, into indiscretions; nor was so much
as one of these slidings of his foot lost upon the wakeful
hatred of the world. But, like an ingenuous and meek
spirited child, he acknowledged these errors, when they
were placed in his view; and he thanked his reprovers
and then "amended his ways."  A nice -and exact sense
of propriety, and a thoroughly well-bred feeling toward
all ranks and conditions of men, supplied in him the place
of that sort of prudence which seldom goes hand in hand
with a burning zeal and a boundless benevolence. In
fact, Whitefield did walk safely among the many snares
of that time, when the country had not regained a settled
political condition.
The blamelessness of Whitefield's public life is the
more noticeable when it is thought of in relation to that
quality in which the contrast between himself and Wesley is the most marked. Not at all inferior to his friend
in any point of Christian morality, and with a personal
virtue quite as resplendent, his spirituality was-if the
phrase may be allowed-somewhat loosely garbed. As
F.*




106           FOUNDERS OF METHODISM.
to the fervent affections of his soul, one could not say
that " his loins were always girt about." Never is there
ground of apprehension, in following him, lest he should
act in any manner unbecoming his professions; nor, if
only his sense of discretion be called up, need it be feared
that he will greatly misapprehend his line of duty. But
there is a feeling, to which perhaps our modern fastidiousness gives undue force, as if the awful majesty of
things sacred was in peril in his hands; or as if feelings
which should be reverential always, were in danger of
being compromised or damaged by his colloquial vivacity.
In connection with the Methodistic revival, or as its
consequence, there did in fact come into use a religious
style and tone which has given occasion, to those who
have sought it, in opposing themselves to evangelic doctrine. In this style there is mingled something of an
overweening egotism, something of vulgar levity, something of the taste for antithesis and exaggeration, something of spiritual lusciousness; and much that is quite out
of keeping with the chasteness, simplicity, severity of the
apostolic writings. It does not appear that to Whitefield
mainly this faulty style should be attributed, as if he had
been its author; but, doubtless, he had his share in giving it currency. There are on record instances of the
Christian intrepidity with which he dealt with some illustrious persons; nevertheless, his intimacy with titled
folks was not without its effect in softening a little more
what was soft in his temperament: so much sunshine did
produce upon him a perceptible result. In him this melting went no further than the surface; and its only permanent consequence was a vitiation, to some Extent, of his
religious phraseology.  In other instances this honeyed
style became nauseating, and it has been the source of
serious evils. A book, almost, might be filled with terms
And modes of expression for which no warrant can be
found in the Inspired Writings; and out of this factitious
dialect, a factitious Christianism has often sprung. Yet it
may be doubted whether it be possible, in the very nature




WHITEFIELD.                    107
of things, to originate and carry forward any religious
revival, however urgently needed, and though it be the
best ordered, without bringing into use a phraseology that
must differ in some measure from that of the Sacred Scriptures. To the stagnant part of a community within which
such reforms take place, this artificial dialect gives higlh
offense; for with such it is "cant."  It should be the duty
of the next age to remove from religious parlance these
factitious phrases, and to return to a strictly scriptural
style.
But did Whitefield show any disposition to linger in
the sunshine of " splendid auditories?" It was far other.
wise; and his crossing the Atlantic'for his last visit to
America, was like his crossing it the first time-an evidence of the purity of that motive which had governed
his life. In his fifty-fifth year, with a constitution so much
broken and spent, he might, without blame, have accepted a position of honor and usefulness at home, along with
the agreeable excitement of moderate labor. England
was at his command, when he.left it to return no more.
But although the spring of life was broken within him,
the motive power was entire; and it carried him  on
through his last weeks of incessant preaching, as through
his first.  It would not be easy to name an instance, surpassing that now before us, of a thorough uniformity of
conduct and intention, held to firom the moment of a
man's coming before the world, to the very last hour of
his life.
And now is it not time that the world should deal
righteously with itself as to its ancient quarrel with one
like Whitefield? The world has a long score to settle in
this behalf, for it pursued him, from first to last, with a
fixed and furious malignity; and even now, where Wesley is spoken of with fairness, and perhaps with commendation, a line of reluctant praise, coupled with some ungracious insinuation, is the best treatment Whitefield can
obtain after he has been eighty years in his grave! No
one can dare to say that his life was not blameless; and




108          FOUNDERS OF METHODISM.
that his intentions were benevolent is manifest. His temper was not arrogant; for meekly he received rebuke,
and patiently he endured so many revilings. It was with
the courage of a noble nature that he confronted violence; and with the simplicity of a child that he forgave injuries. Yet among those who by their flagitious
vice and outrageous crimes have the most deeply sinned
against society, It would be difficult to find a wretch
upon whose guilty pate has been showered so much rancorous abuse as, year after year, was heaped upon the
head of the love-fraught, self-denying, and gentle-natured
Whitefield. There is a mystery here which " philosophy"
should do its best to clear up; or not succeeding in this
endeavor, should ingenuously acknowledge that as, on
the one hand, it can give no intelligible account of
Whitefield's motives, so neither can it show reason for
the world's hatred of him.
FLETCHER.
THE justly venerated name of Fletcher of Madeley
brings into prominence, in a peculiar manner, what we
have assumed to be the true idea of Methodism-namely,
that it was a divinely appointed development of the Gospel-temporary in its purport, although fraught with momentous ulterior consequences. Methodism, in the rise
and progress of which we trace and reverently acknowledge the hand of God, it is not easy to regard as the
origination of what could, in that form, be permanent.
One must be resolved not to see a providential intention in the Methodistic movement, if it is not to be recognized in the singular adaptation, one to the other, of its
principal agents. This company of men neither fashioned
themselves individually for their work; nor did any one
of them select his colleagues as the men, among others,




FLETCHER.                    109
that were best qualified to assist him in carrying out his
scheme. If Wesley had chosen his own Whitefield, that
Whitefield assuredly would not have been the preacher
of "election;" but would have been one as peremptory
as himself in adhering to a single rudiment of truth; or
if the master mind had looked around for one who should
be qualified as a writer to rrnke good, to defend, and to
consolidate Wesleyan theology, and to hand it down as
an impregnable scheme of doctrine to posterity, Fletchex
would not have been his choice.
Nevertheless he was the very man-now we may see
it-who was well qualified for the part he actually took in
the Methodistic dispensation; —that is to say, to write
attractive books that could not fail to be read by thousands during the years in which they were needed, but
which would not be read, after that season, by a creature.
The "Checks to Antinomianism" did their office; and
they have done it; for, in theological literature, they now
hold no place.
Een Whitefield's preaching, and if there had been
none of a more exaggerated sort, needed a counteraction,
a drag on the wheel. But among those who followed in
the same track, or who started independently at the same
time, there were several who, with far less simplicity of
soul, distinguished themselves by a prurient grossness of
taste, by an eager pursuit of exaggeration and paradox;
or by a temper which may justly be designated as fanatical (because involving some element of malignity) and
who would not fail to put upon Calvinistic theology a
guise that must render it an object of mockery or of
loathing to the world, and of alarm and reprehension to
the seriously minded. To repress this exuberance, to
redress this grievance, and to put to shame those who
had thus outraged religious propriety, Fletcher came forward, under Wesley's auspices. He was fitted for this
task, by the warmth of his religious sentiments, by the
acknowledged purity of his personal character, by the
Christian meekness of his temper, by his humility, fervor,




110           FOUNDERS OF METHODISM.
and love. As a theologian he possessed acquaintance
enough with doctrinal literature and with the Scriptures,
to give him always a point or two of advantage in relation to his antagonists; but he was no such reasoner, he
was no such master of biblical criticism, as might have
made it possible for him to overstep the limits of his appointed task, or, as a theological writer, to survive his
day. As a writer he held a fluent pen: with much
vivacity, and with some faculty of appropriate illustration.
he possessed that happy art of diffuseness which, while it
does not send the reader to sleep, so dilutes the meaning
of each page as serves to adapt it well to the feeble assimilative powers of the class of minds for which it was
prepared. Any one who is accustomed to read by a
process of abbreviation, might easily make himself master
of the entire meaning which Fletcher wire-draws over a
hundred pages; and if he be skillful in catching the one
hinging sentence of each page, all going before, and coming after, may safely be disregarded.
We should be assigning to Fletcher far too high a
place, as a writer, if we were to affirm that his reasoning
is sophistical; for in fact he does not reason, nor could
he do so. What he brings together, are not consecutive
propositions, but pointed instances and illustrations, sometimes appropriate, but even then not conclusive in argument; and often they are wholly inappropriate, as well
as inconclusive. Often they are such as needed only
a little re-dressing to be brought to bear with effect
against his own doctrine.  With an understanding inferior to Wesley's, he was better fitted to his line of labor
in this respect-that he could go on in the mode of cumulative argumentation, without at any stage bringing out
in a tangible manner, the inconclusiveness of the whole;
whereas Wesley, in that strict and categorical style
which he adhered to, was continually in danger of breaking up his own sophisms.  Fletcher was always safe in
his cork-lined skiff, among the breakers, and riding high
upon foam, where Wesley would have run upon the rocks.




FLETCHER.                    111
Personally, Fletcher of Madeley deserved all that warm
affection, and that admiration of which he was the object
in his circle; but while it is difficult to find parallels to
Wesley or Whitefield, in the catalogue of Christian worthies, he stands as one of a class which4 if not very
numerous, has not been the most rare. In a genuine
sense, he was a saint-a saint such as the Church, of
every age, has produced a. few samples. Sanctity and
purity of manners were his distinctive characteristic: an
attenuated temperament, and feeble constitution, attenuated the more, from year to year, under the discipline
of ascetic notions, rendered him as unearthly a being as
could tread the earth at all. And then if he seemed but
as a shadow bodily, an overdone style of self-abasement
— a humility, the expression of which inflicts positive
suffering upon those who must listen to it, placed him
too far beyond the range of ordinary sympathies. It is
seldom that an Englishman-born is heard to exaggerate modesty in the style which, to Jean Guillaume de la
Flechere, had become habitual. Perfectly assured as one
is of this good man's Christian integrity, and of his eminence in every virtue, it is a species of torture to read
those letters of his, in which the bathos of lowliness
quite exhausts all powers of language.  This mistaken
style often finds imitators among those who, in adopting, for themselves, such terms of abasement, do not go
so far wrong as they would wish the world to suppose.
Among the principal persons of the Methodistic movement every thing (so fari as human infirmity admits) was
genuine and sincere; but there was much that had not
been considered in its consequenices. Whitefield, as we
have said, opened a vein of English-luscious and colloquial, which, as flowing from the lips and pens of his imitators, would, if it had not met correction, have covered
Calvinistic Methodism  with an offensive and pestilential
deposit. On the other hand-the Wesleyan side-there
meets the eye an expanse of fragmentary verbosity-dry
and friable, and of which, as one of its originators, Fletch



112          FOUNDERS OF METHODISM.
er must be named. To any one who might be capable
of such a task, we should much rather recommend the
writing a book of his own; otherwise one so qualifie"d
might give to our religious literature a serviceable compendium within the compass of a hundred pages, which
should embodjy, ip a biblical and logical sense, the entire
substance of the ten volumes of Fletcher's works. What
this copious writer has to say, might soon be said; and
in truth it is little more than this, that, throughout the
Inspired Writings, men are dealt wit by their Maker,
their Judge, and their Saviour, such as we all feel and
know ourselves to be;-that is to say, suasible, accountable, and free; and not such as theological theorists, or
as metaphysical sophists, or as some popular declaimers,
catering to a debauched taste for paradox and exaggeration, have pictured men to be. This is nearly the whole
pith' of the " Checks to Antinomianism." But Fletcher
had not grasped that key of biblical interpretation which
allows the devout and ingenuous reader of the Scriptures
to possess and to enjoy principles, among and between
which the connection of abstract consistency can never
be traced, or at least has not hitherto been laid open. If
a simple and reasonable question could have penetrated
so far as to the still interior of this good man's heart his
answer to it might have been followed by his drawing
the, pen through very many pages of what he had written
in attempting to botch up a sort of consistency for his
own theology. This question would be of this sort, "If
Antinomianism were quite gone and forgotten, would
Arminian theology give you entire contentment?" One
might answer for Fletcher that he would in that case
have gladly dismissed it, as a man returning to health
and appetite rejects the meagre diet that had been imposed upon hiin by his physician. But he wrote his
"Checks" with a feeling like that of those empirics who
labor to convince us that animal food is poison, that
vegetable substances are much to be suspected, and that,
in fact, nothing is quite safe for the stomach but medicine.




FLETCHER.                    113
Nevertheless, Fletcher most usefully and ably dis
charged his function as Wesley's polemical attendant and
champion; and his writings had great influence, no doubt,
in waking up, and in calling into exercise, that right-hearted good sense which is a characteristic of the English
mind, and to which some few demagogues and fanatics in
Whitefield's train were then doing much wrong. It is
long since this good sense and better religious feeling has
swept the religious field nearly clear of those Antinomian
paradoxes which sprang out of the Methodistic heat. A few
notorious preachers and obscure writers, whose names
it is a happiness to forget, rendered perhaps a more effective service than even Fletcher and his " Checks," to the
severity of Christian truth,'while they were doing their
utmost to dress up their corrupt theology in a harlot's
attire; for the best check to Antinomianism is given by
those who themselves are held in check, neither by the
fear of God, nor any sense of shame in giving utterance
to their absurdities.
Fletcher's part in that unedifying controversy which
sprang out of the Minutes of Conference for 1770, while
it consists well with his repute as an eminently holy, conscientious, and peace-loving man, brings to view a feature of Methodism which will demand further attentionwe say a feature of Methodism; for although the same
appearances have attached, in greater or less degrees, to
all seasons of religious excitethent, yet in this instance
there is observable a marked sequence of causes and
effects. Little thinking, or thinking not at all, of what
must inevitably be the consequence when the style they
indulged in should reach the rude mind of the people, and
be imitated by the false and the foolish, some of Whitefield's followers-Berridge by eminence-so wrote, one to
another, and so penned their journals, and, too often, so
preached, as if,-in their minds, there had been resident a
very faint consciousness of the infinite perfections and
majesty of Him with whom man has to do. What it is
usual to call the natural attributes of God, and of which




114          FOUNDERS OF METHODISM.
the Inspired Writers never lose their recollection, had,
with some of these good men-or so it seemed-fallen out
of place, or had got beyond the range of their vision.
When blasphemy assails the ear, the blood curdles; but
it is even a deeper and a more lasting distress that is endured when, from the lips and pens of religious persons,
there flows a copious irreverence, an indecent easiness, a
flippant buffoonery, in the utterance of which before the
world, the religious sentiment in all men's minds is outraged, in a manner which no mere blasphemy can effect.
Extremes, such as these, were not reached by any of the
leading preachers.
These abuses had attached, principally, to the Calvinistic side of Methodism. Wesley's firmer tone of mind,
and the brighter complexion of his feelings, held him
exempt from all such exorbitances; and so was it with
Fletcher; nevertheless, a reverberated influence from
faults which they themselves avoided and abhorred,
affected them also, when they were drawn into controversy. As to their opponents, it was only according to
the ordinary course of things that men who, in a time of
love and fervor, fell into a style of luscious irreverence,
should, when roused by controversy, and when irritated,
exchange, in a moment, honey for venom. The suddenness of the change is startling; but it is not in fact wonderful, for it is quite in human nature.
Fletcher, although his style had shown much of what
was overdone, did not at any time render himself offensive in the way that had become characteristic of some
of the Calvinistic preachers; nor did he, when he rushed
into controversy, fall, as did his assailants and opponents,
into virulent and rancorous buffoonery.  The reaction
upon himself, and so upon Wesley, was to hurry him
beyond the limits of religious propriety in giving his
portraiture, or caricature, of Calvinistid Antinomianism.
Wesley had set a very bad example in his noted apostrophe to the Devil, and Fletcher made an ill use of this
pattern. He and his friend seemed unconscious of the




FLETCHER.                   115
awful risks that are incurred by those who indulge, as he
so often did, in this species of rhetoric. Nothing can be
of worse consequence, in controversy, than to paint the
Devil, and then to say to an antagonist-" There! that is
your god!" What place will there be left in the minds
of men for any religious reverence, when the same impropriety comes to be retorted, and when thus, between
the combatants, the entire disc of the sun has been blackened? Fletcher's antagonists in this controversy (one
does them an office of love in avoiding to name them)
wrote in a style which involves its own antidote: offensive beyond endurance, it is quickly forgotten; and
so Fletcher's "Checks" are by this time forgotten; yet
through a longer course of time they wrought a real,
although indirect mischief, for within the Wesleyan pale
they continued to shut out the light, both of charity and
of Scriptural doctrine; the mass of the people, and even
the preachers, taking Fletcher's word for it, religiously
believed that the contrary of the Wesleyan theology was
a worship not much better than that of the Principle of
Evil.
This ill-conducted controversy, which did not redeem
itself by calling forth so much as one accomplished theologian, or by giving birth to so much as one book which,
in itself, is now worth the reading, not only broke the
force of Methodism as related to the open irreligion of
the times, but it turned off a thoughtful and favorable regard toward it, in the instance of many whom it had
nearly won.
And yet how uncharitably, or, let us rather say —for
we ask no indulgence on this ground-how incorrectly
and unphilosophically should we think, even of those who
sinned the most egregiously in this controversy, if we
were to take our idea of them, personally, from their own
pens! As to Fletcher indeed we might very safely do
so, for his worst offenses arose only from that bad tiste
which the slender build of his mind allowed him to fall
into. Great intensity of feeling he had, but little depth;




116          FOUNDERS OF METHODISM.
some elevation, but no soaring-no grandeur —no grasp
of general principles.  The most unseemly things he
could coolly write, much in the way in which the blind
sometimes trample innocently over things that are sacred
and precious. Intending every thing that is right and
pious, this good man makes the blood run cold while,
with an apparent insensibility, or unconsciousness of
what is due to the awful realities before him, he accumulates illustrations, showing the blasphemous import of his
adversaries' doctrine. It is consolatory to believe —as
we justly may —that nothing so unwise and unseemly
would now be tolerated, or even attempted, in religious
controversy.
Whatever service Fletcher may be thought to have
rendered to Wesley, as a controversial writer, a far more
important and more lasting benefit was conferred upon
Methodism by his holy conversation, and his laborious
course, as a Christian man, and a parish minister. Madeley has been shedding a lustre upon Methodism now
these hundred years. It is true that the books which
thence issued may well rest in their oblivion; but the
virtues which there bloomed and bore fruit, are of immortal fame, and this fame is not merely that of the mani individually, but it is fairly the property of the community
in the bosom of which he was reared, lived, and died. If
it be asked what this Methodism is, about which the
world, even now, has come to no settled opinion, an
equitable reply, inclusive even of some Methodistic mistakes, may be obtained by any honest inquirer-at Madeley. The Methodism of Fletcher- was Christianity, as
little lowered by admixture of human infirmity as we
may hope to find it any where on earth.




COKE.                     117
COKE.
THE position we have ventured to take, namely, that
Methodism was " from Heaven," receives its confirmation
in two modes in each separate instance, when we look to
its first movers; for there then becomes manifest at once
the peculiar fitness of each to accomplish his destined
work, and also the disproportionate vastness of the result,
when we think of it as related to the natural powers of
the agent. This kind of proof, coming in as it does from
opposite directions to bear upon the same conclusion, is
the characteristic, as of other religious movements, yet in
none so remarkably as in the Methodistic revival; and
among its instances of this order, that of Coke is as significant as any.
Rightfully called an " apostolic man," and the father of
the Wesleyan Missions, and so the originator of a work
which has been incalculably beneficial, one might wish
to think of him rather in the vagueness of an imaginary
personality, than precisely — according to the un-heroic
truth of his individual form and style. And it might be
better, too, to have heard of him, as an unwearied and
successful evangelist, than to have listened to him, as addressing a home congregation, in his own formal, oper*ose, and iterative manner. We might say, let the man
be measured by the extent of his achievements; but it is
better to say-and he himself would so have said-let the
Wesleyan Coke be thought of as the honored servant of
God, faithful in the employment of the gifts that were
intrusted to him, these gifts being such as well fitted him
for his part; and yet wholly insufficient if named as the
proper causes of his success.
Absolute devotion to his one object, a devotion which
spared nothing of personal welfare, or ease, or fortune, or
worldly repute, was Dr. Coke's distinction. As to the
entireness of this devotedness, he was not inferior to




118          FOUNDERS OF METHODISM.
Wesley, or to Whitefield, or to Fletcher; and the sacrifices he thus willingly offered to God included more than
had been surrendered by any other of the founders of
Methodism. The "all things" which he accounted as dross
for Christ's sake, embraced the materials, or the means
of obtaining, whatever is most desired and sought after
by mankind. On behalf of Xavier there may fairly be
claimed the praise of having sacrificed himself-his rare
talents, his personal advantages, and an unquestionable
career of ambition at home, to the high purposes of Christian benevolence. But then, beside his zeal and devotedness, Xavier's soul was large as a hero's soul could be.
He was borne to the East as on the eagle's wings of an
innate and boundless ambition, which, on any other course,
might have carried him to the pinnacle of power or fame
-political, military, or sacerdotal. Can any thing of this
sort be alleged as to Dr. Thomas Coke? It does not
appear that the "high destiny" sentiment had any lodgment in his bosom. It would be doing him in every
sense a wrong, to paint him as one of the giants. His
habits and his consciousness as a gentleman, and as a
man of fortune, and as a scholar and clergyman, gave him
an air which, in all positions, saved his diminutive and
rotund person from contempt. His ardor, his disinterestedness, his courage, his devotedness, which were always conspicuous, secured him, in most instances, a fair
treatment from the world. But beyond this-that is to
say, all the impress of power and greatness attaching to
this evangelist's character and course, and to the work
he accomplished-was the greatness and the power of
the Gospel which he preached, and of the Divine energy
that went with him.
Not to speak of the important-the indispensable services that were rendered to the Wesleyan community at
home, that is to say, throughout England and Ireland,
by Dr. Coke, as Wesley's second and representative, and
which no other clerical minister in his service was at all
qualified to afford, it was he, if not absolutely as the ear



LADY HUNTINGDON.                 119
liest instrument, yet as immeasurably the most efficient,
that carried organized Wesleyanism across the Atlantic,
and laid the foundation-broad and firm, at once of a
missionary work, and of a settled religious community,
which perhaps may outlast the parent body.
Dr. Coke, not abjectly, but in a manly spirit, surrendered himself to Wesley's guidance; and, avoiding to
risk any thing as to the onward movement of the evangelic
enterprise, by an unseasonable obtrusion of his individual
notions or opinions, he gave himself to the work-that
is, to Wesleyan Christianity, without distraction, disturbance, or exceptive protest; and it was such a colleague as
this that Wesley needed. But as a consequence of this
(it should not be called subserviency) it followed that although entitled to a foremost place among the founders of
Methodism, he can not be thought of as having imparted
to itself any peculiar characteristics, springing from his
own mind or temper. In this respect, incidental as it is, a
ground of comparison might again be made good between
the apostle of the East Indies, and the apostle of the West.
Xavier illuminated the early Jesuitism by the world-wide
splendor of his virtues; but his genuine fame stands clear
of any direct implication with Jesuitism, as a scheme.
To render to Dr. Coke-in a word-the tribute of
praise that is his due, as Wesley's most efficient coadjutor,
completes what need be said of him in relation to our
present purpose.
LADY HUNTINGDON.
THE broad facts of this noble lady's history afford
ground enough for the repute she has enjoyed as a woman of much tact and ability, of great energy, and of a
munificent temper; while the use she made of her influence and fortune for the promotion of the Methodistic
movement-that is to say, of Christianity itself, suffi



120          FOUNDERS OF METHODISM.
ciently attests her piety and zeal. It must also be inferred from the circumstance of her having retained the
friendship and regard of-many among the leading persons
of her time, through a long period of years, that she possessed qualities of mind and attractions of manner, that
were of no ordinary sort; for it is certain that those
who ridiculed, or even hated her Methodism, still yielded
themselves, in frequent instances, to her personal influence.
So far, an idea of Lady Huntingdon may be gathered
from facts that are beyond doubt. There is, however,
so little that is discriminative in the extant eulogies of her
friends and correspondents, or of her biographers, and there
is so little that bears a clearly marked individuality in her
own letters, that a distinct image of her mind and temper
is-not easy to obtain.
As to the position assigned to her among the founders
of Methodism, it is due to her rather on the ground of
what she did for it, as its patroness, which was almost
immeasurable, than because she imprinted upon it any
characteristic of her own mind. Calvinistic Methodism
was not of her creation. In the centre of the brilliant
company of her pious relatives and noble friends, and with
a numerous attendance of educated and episcopally ordained ministers, and-beyond this inner circle-a broad
penumbra of lay preachers, chosen by herself, and educated, maintained, and employed at her cost, and acting
under her immediate direction, she seems to sit as a
queen. Something of the regal style-something of the
air of the autocrat, was natural to one who, with the
consciousness of rank, and with the habitude of one accustomed to the highest society, was gifted with a peculiar governing ability, and was actually wielding an extensive influence over men and things. It would have
been wonderful indeed if nothing of the sort had been
perceptible in her manner and style; yet that her main
intention was pure and beneficent, and that ambition was
not her passion, will be felt and confessed by every candid
reader of her letters.




LADY HUNTINGDON.                121.
These letters, or so much of her correspondence as has
been given to the world, amply attest what is here alleged
in her behalf, namely, that Lady Huntingdon, like Wesley,
and like Whitefield, and others around them, was governed by a motive of the highest order, and that she
has a rightful claim upon our sympathies and admiration.
Thus far these documents are clearly available in her behalf; but they do not afford the means of giving distinctness to a portraiture of her mind and temper; and they
are such that a continuous perusal of them can be accomplished only as a task. They indicate much business-like
ability, and they show always a pertinent adherence to
the matter in hand; they are therefore more determinate,
by far, than Whitefield's, and, indeed, are little less so
than Wesley's, whose letters are eminent samples of succinct determinativeness: they bespeak an unvarying and
genuine fervor, and a simple-hearted onward tendency
toward the one purpose of her life-the spread of the
Gospel, and the honor of her Saviour. Lady Huntingdon's letters are moreover marked by often repeated, but
not to be questioned professions of the deep sense she
had of her own unworthiness and unprofitableness. Such
are the ingredients-few and perpetually recurrent —of
these compositions: a severe monotony (not severe in the
sense of harshness) is their characteristic. But then when
it is recollected in what society she had passed her early
years, and fiom which she was never entirely separated,
and that she possessed mind enough to maintain her place
in the regard of some of the most distinguished persons
of that age, it may seem surprising that the uniform color
of these letters is relieved by no sparkling of wit, by no
flashes of intellect, by no allusive references to the events
of the time; and that they do not put us into connection
with the great world by one casual hint, or a single discursive observation; and yet of that world she knew much;
nor was she ever far fi'om it.
This monotony, and this absolute exclusion of whatever
was merely secular, had, however, its meaning, and we
F




122          FOUNDERS OF METHODISM.
may see in it, not simply an indication of that fixedness
of purpose which may be expected in such an instance,
but something more, and which, as we have noticed, is
a characteristic of Methodism. A straitened and rudimentary style of thought attaches to every thing that has
survived of the Methodistic literature-if literature it can
be called. Although voluminous, it has little volume, and
might be compressed within very narrow limits: it is
theological, but it does not constitute a theology. This
mass of letters, journals, minutes, experiences, or of controversial treatises, does indeed furnish much evidence
illustrative of the rise, progress, and characteristics of
Methodism; yet there is little in it that would now attract
an eye not in search of mere evidence touching this course
of events. So*fitted for their part were the originators
and movers of Methodism that, while amply furnished with
gifts proper for the great work they were to accomplish,
they were not so qualified as might have enabled them
to go beyond their allotted task.
This law of the Methodistic dispensation receives peculiar illustration in the instance now before us.  If Lady
Huntingdon, along with the advantage she drew from
her rank and her command of fortune, and enjoying, as she
did, access to statesmen and official persons —if she had
possessed a wider compass of mind-if she had been so
far the Elizabeth as might have prompted her to call a
Walsingham and a Cecil to her counsels, she might, at
that time, have put forward an ecclesiastical movement
the consequences of which we, of this time, should have
seen and felt in every thing around us. T'he Church, at
that time, although it had animus, had no soul, and no
concentration, moral or spiritual. It had slid far away
fiom the Reformation-ground. ~ In reply to its assailants
-the Methodists —it dared not make its appeal, as they
did, to the Articles and Homilies, nor did it even retain
more than a very feeble devotional sympathy with the
liturgy.  Scarcely at all, in a religious sense, or other-ise than from motives of interest, was the aristocracy




LADY HUNTINGDON.               123
of that age attached to the Established Church: the
mass of the upper classes was utterly indifferent, or was
avowedly infidel; while among those persons of rank
who might be religiously disposed, more than a few were
openly or implicitly connected, either with Nonconformity,
or with Romanism. Upon this class Whitefield's preaching had made a decisive impression. As to the masses
of the people, they were nearly lost to the Church, except
when a parson or a magistrate could gather them as a
mob, to carry some purpose of violence.
If at that time a head and leader, occupying Lady
Huntingdon's high position, and surrounded, as she was,
with ordained ministers, not wanting in endowments as
popular preachers, had devised and planted-not a Society, but a Church; and if, instead of building and opening
chapels, here and there, without polity or plan, she had
employed, in a politic manner, the means which were in
fact at her command, it may be doubted if the Established Church, or the hierarchy then in possession of it,
could long have held its own. Toward the people a
body of Calvinistic clergy might easily have made good
their own position as the true successors of the Reformers: those few phrases in the Offices which had a discordant sound, were not enough to have constituted a
barrier, resisting such a force as that which Methodism
had then at its command. The people, crowding into
the churches, if a plan had been concerted and held to,
would have borne their favored preachers forward, high
lifted above the obstructions which these few obsolete
forms could have been made to supply.
Or let it be imagined that a politic or statesmanlike
comprehension of the relative strength of whatever was,
or might have been opposed to'it, had brought the Calvinistic and the Arminian bodies to combine, and to act
in concert; in that case could those things have come
down to us entire, which have come down?  It is hard
to think they could. But Methodism was not a scheme
devised by man; it was not, at any moment, earlier or




124          FOUNDERS OF METHODISM.
later, a foreseen movement. It did, in its day, the work
of God, and it possessed neither the innate powers, nor
the ambition to do more.
Whether the chapels in Lady Huntingdon's Connection
are at this time few or many, is a matter of no general
moment to inquire; for whether few or many, the "Connection" has subsided into its place as one among the
religious communities that hold orthodoxy and evangelic
doctrine; and probably it is efficient in a full proportion
to its statistics. But with this we have here no concern.
What does concern us is the fact that much that has
become characteristic of evangelic Christianity, at the
present time, had its origin in Lady Huntingdon's drawing-room;-that is to say, in the circle of which she was
the centre, and her house the gathering point.  In a
diffusive or undefined manner this religious style has pervaded the non-episcopal religious communions, where it
has easily commingled itself with existing homogeneous
elements. But within the Episcopal Church the transmission was more determinate, and more sharply outlined, and it may there be traced with more precision,
and is pregnant with further consequences.
The fact of this religious transmission, which connects
the venerated names of Venn, Newton, Scott, Milner, and
others, in no very remote manner, with the Founders of
Methodism, might, to a reader of its history, seem too
conspicuous to be called in question; nor does it very
clearly appear what those manly and Christianlike-feelings are which should prompt.any parties, at this time, to
repudiate it. A wiry task surely is it which those undertake who labor, thread by thread, to disengage the modern episcopal evangelic bodies from the ties of filial relationship to Wesley, Whitefield, and their colleagues.
Instead of pursuing an attenuated argument of this sort,
one would boldly-as cordially affected toward the Episcopal Church —rejoice in contemplating this (assumed)
fact that the Methodistic revival, instead of its turning
aside from the Church, as if adjudged to be undeserving




LADY HUNTINGDON.                125
of the heavenly benefit, did so largely partake of it, and
that the consequences of this revival -have centred upon
the Episcopal Church, far more decisively and more permanerftly than it did upon any of the dissident bodies
around it. It is the Episcopal Church that has-inherited
the main part of the religious animation and refreshment
which has come down from that band of ordained ministers of which we are now speaking. Besides those already named, and who stand so nearly related to the present times, in ascending a few years we reach, without
a break, that company of men, less regular in their ministrations, but not less deserving of affectionate regard,
whose names can by no means be disconnected with
Methodism —names which, so long as the Church retains
its Articles and Homilies, it would be a treason to disown. Let Fletcher lead the way, and let him bring with
him Hervey, Grimshaw, Berridge, Romaine, Toplady,
Talbot, Walker, Shirley. Is it easy to imagine that the
twelve or twenty clergymen who must stand or fall
together, as the tRue representatives of the Reformers,
would have been spurned and condemned by Cranmer,
Ridley, Latimer, Hooper; or that Jewell and Hooker
would have turned from them with cold disdain?  Can
we think this? Certainly those can not think it who, with
no interests at stake, and no prejudices in peril, are accustomed to follow the devious and perplexed track of
religious history by the guidance of principles applicable
to all ages.
It may well be granted that the rise of Methodism
brings to view many instances of what may be called independent origination; and it is true that the minds of
men who were unknown to each other became, about the
same time, similarly affected toward the first truths of the
Christian system; so that when accident or sympathy
had brought them into contact, they readily coalesced,
and thenceforward thought ift their duty and happiness
to act in concert.  So acting, and so associating, Lady
Huntingdon gathered them around herself; and she aided




126          FOUNDERS OF METHODISM.
and, to some extent, she directed their mov6ments. But
this company, thus for a while concentrated, and thqs
governed, at length diverged in the two directions of a
new Calvinistic form of dissent; and of Calvinistilc conformity; and while the one has become a variety only,
within the dissenting mass, not materially affecting its
position or prospects, the latter has been the principal
means of recovering the long-lost influence of the Episcopal Church over the laity, and of bringing down to
these precarious times a firm Protestant feeling, which is
not unlikely to burst forth anew, and to lead the way in a
time of less ambiguity than the present.
As with Wesley, so with Lady Huntingdon, a formal
separation from the Established Church was, in each act
and instance, submitted to with extreme reluctance, and
not until it was felt to be inevitable. When at length the
irregularities of the Methodistic clergy could no- longer
be winked at by the Church authorities, the greater number of them fell back into their places, as parish ministers; and this defection, while it give lrse, necessarily, to
a new order of ministers in the "Connection" whose ordination placed them on a level only, with the dissenting
ministry, it took place at a time when no alternative was
left to Lady Huntingdon's congregations but to seek protection under the Toleration Act, as dissenters.
This double illustration of a conspicuous principle, as
afforded by the Wesleyan and Calvinistic movement,
might be enough to' preclude the necessity of any future
experiments, attempted with the hope of constructing a
platform outside the Episcopal Church, but yet resting
against its walls: it is evident that the reforming energy
must henceforward take an inward direction. But at the
moment when any such reform does take place, unless a
constitutional renovation of the two nonconforming masses
-the Wesleyan and the Calvinistic-shall avail to preclude
so natural a result, an extensive absorption will be imminent to both; for it can not but happen that the renovation, or the more effective adjustment of a body near to us,




THE METHODISTIC COMPANY.            127
consigns ourselves to decay unless we fully partake of
the samd benefits.
Lady Huntingdon was always the object of a warm
personal affection with those who were nearest to her.
With them, it is always "our dear Lady Huntingdon;"
and putting out of view formal eulogies, it is unquestionable that, if she governed her Connection as having a
right to rule it, her style and behavior (like Wesley's) indicated the purest motives, and the most entire simplicity of purpose. This, in truth, may be said to have been
the common characteristic of the founders of Methodism,
especially of the two Wesleys, of Whitefield, Fletcher,
Coke, and Lady Huntingdon-a devotedness to the service and glory of the Saviour Christ, which none who saw
and conversed with them could question.
The same praise, and in the same degree is undoubtedly the due of many of those who were the associates and
colleagues of these principal persons. It is as bright a
company that we have before us, as we find any where
on the page of Christian history.
THE METHODISTIC COMPANY.
THE names that would claim a place in a history of
Methodism, on the ground of personal connection with its
founders, and of important services rendered to this evangelic movement, may be as many as a hundred;-a company large enough, assuredly, to attract an eye that is
looking over the wide field of Christian history; and why
should it not attract as much regard as we are used to
pay to any other band of men whose names are conserved
with affection and respect?
It would not be easy, or not possible, to name any
company of Christian preachers, from the apostolic age
downward to our own times, whose proclamation of the
Gospel has been in a larger proportion of instances effect



128          FOUNDERS OF METHODISM.
ive, or which has been carried over so large a surface,
with so much power, or with so uniform a result. No
such harvest of souls is recorded to have been gathered
by any body of contemporary men, since the first century. An attempt to compute the converts to Methodistic
Christianity would be a fruitless, as well as presumptuous
undertaking, from which we draw back; but we must
not call in question. what is so variously and fully attested, that an unimpeachable Christian profession was the
fruit of the Methodistic preaching in instances that must
be computed by hundreds of thousands, throughout Great
Britain, and in America.
Until the contrary can be clearly proved, it may be affirmed that no company of men of whpse labors and doctrine we have any sufficient notice, has gone forth with a
creed more distinctly orthodox, or more exempt from admixture of the doctrinal feculence of an earlier time. None
have stood forward more free than these were fi'om petty
solicitudes concerning matters of observance, to which,
whether they were to be upheld or to be denounced, an
exaggerated importance was attributed. None have confined themselves more closely to those principal subjects
which bear directly upon the relationship of man to God
-as immortal, accountable, guilty, and redeemed. If we
are tempted to complain of the unvaried complexion of
the Methodistic teaching, it is the uniformity which results
from a close adherence to the very rudiments 6f the Gospel. Uniformity or sameness of aspect, as it may be the
coloring of dullness and of death, so may it spring from
simplicity and power; but can it be a question to which
of these sources we should attribute that undiversified
breadth which is the characteristic of Methodism?
To dispute the claims of the Methodistic company to
be thus regarded, on the ground of any errors of an incidental kind that may have attended their teaching, or of
the follies or delinquencies that may be chargeable upon
any of them, individually, would be a frivolous as well
as an ungenerous mode of proceeding. Need it be said




THE METHODISTIC COMPANY.             12 =
that these Methodists were men "of like passions with
ourselves?" and such, too, were those who, in the Apostolic age, carried the Gospel throughout the Roman world,
and beyond it. Taken in the mass, the one company of
men was as wise as the other-not wiser-as holy, not
more holy. If it be affirmed that the Christian worthies
of some remote time were, as a class of men, of a loftier
stature in virtue and piety than these with whom we have
now to do, let the evidence on which such an assumption
could be made to rest be brought forward: this can never
be done; and the supposition itself should be rejected as
a puerile superstition.
Yet there is one plea on the ground of which, if it be
valid, the Methodistic company might be cast down from
the place of honor which is now claimed for it. This
ground of exception is that occupied by those who, with
strictness and consistency, hold the doctrine that, apart
from the line of episcopal ordination, unbroken in its descent, there is and can be no Church, no ministry., no
sacraments, no salvation. It is much to be desired that
those who profess thus to think would take up the case of
Methodism, and deal with it thoroughly, flinching from
no consequence toward which their theory may lead
them. The instance is every way well adapted to such a
purpose; nor does it offer any color of evasion, nor admit
of any way of escape from the one conclusion which the
premises demand, if those premises be valid. The conditions of this very definite case preclude an evasive reply,
such as this-" We can not tell whether Methodism was
from Heaven or of men." Neither Wesley's episcopal ordination, nor Whitefield's, could, on the ground of the " historic succession," carry with it a power of ordination; and
certainly it could not excuse or palliate their insubordination, as presbyters of the established Church. It is not
as if Methodism had sprung up in some remote quarter of
Christendom, where it could not have connected itself
with the Apostolic line, or where ignorance, on questions
of this sort, was involuntary. Nor is it as if Methodism
Fib




130          FOUNDERS OF METHODISM.
had been a revival, taking place within a body which
claimed for its ministry a high'ecclesiastical ancestry, so
that its original irregularity was shrouded by the mists bt
centuries. Methodism took its rise in the very bosom of
the Apostolic succession; and it was carried forward by
men who were fully informed as to all subjects bearing
upon the course which they pursued. The offense-if.an
offense-was committed in broad day, by men with their
eyes open; and these men had cut themselves off from
the benefit of pleading an abstract conscientious opinion,
analogous to that of the Presbyterians or Independents:
they declared themselves Churchmen and Episcopalians.
On every.side, therefore, this Methodistic problem is
clearly defined; and the more we think of it, the more
exempt will it seem from ambiguitie's, or ways of escape.
No cne who is accustomed to pursue principles with logical
severity into their consequences, will deny that the Apostolic-succession theory, such as it has been enunciated
and. defined of late, must either break itself upon Methodism, or must consign Methodism and its millions of souls
to perdition, in as peremptory a manner as that in which
the Church of Rome fixes its anathema upon heretical
nations.
No doubt there are more than a few sincere, seriouslyminded, and kind-tempered persons, holding this theory,
who would find themselves wanting in the nerve and
hardihood required of them, on an occasion like this, when
challenged, by the clearest rule of consistency, to take
their places, as spectators, while men, such as Wesley,
Whitefield, Fletcher, with millions of their proselytes and
spiritual progeny, are to be sent down alive into the pit!
The one precise ground of this auto da ft should not be
lost sight of. Let it be stated;-the Methodistic preachers, even if they held some questionable subsidiary notions, yet professed, in the most decisive terms, their
adherence to the doctrine of the Three Creeds; therefore
they were not heretics. They declared their approval
of the Thirty-nine Articles: they threw themselves upon




THE METHODISTIC COMPANY.             131
the Book of Homilies: they frequented the liturgical worship of the Church; they partook of its sacraments; they
acknowledged its orders. 
It can never be thought a Christian-like act to consign
masses of men to perdition on the mere charge of enthusiasm, or of some extravagance in behavior. As to the
general good conduct of the Methodistic converts, it is
not pretended that it was not- fully equal to that of other
men-reputed Christians.  Nevertheless, there remains
this one ground of exception against the Methodistic
body, which the Apostolic-succession theory brings forward, and which it must continue to bring forward and
insist upon. Whoever, while he holds this theory, flies
off from its application in a case so flagrant and so thoroughly unambiguous as this, implicates himself in the sin
of schism, and comes within range of that anathema to
which he has not the conscience and the courage to respond.
But if Methodism be cut off from one line of succession,
it may claim another, or more than one other. If there
be any difficulty in connecting this body of evangelists
with those, in other ages, who, in a like spirit, have borne
testimony to the truth, that difficulty attaches much rather to the obscurity of the extant evidence on the ground
of which the claim of, the more ancient witnesses is to be
established, than to any ambiguity as to the latter. To
trace the true Apostolic line, from Methodism upward,
would lead us over ground not merely too extensive,
but which might be passed over to more advantage apart
from our immediate purpose. Already we have claimed
for Wesley, Whitefield, and others, a genuine relationship
to the Protestant martyrs and founders of the English
Church, between whom and themselves no important difference of doctrine or of feeling can be made out. The
question is not whether the English reformers would
have formally sanctioned the Methodistic secession, for to
this question no answer can be obtained, even by inference; but it is affirmed that these Methodists, rather than




132          FOUNDERS OF METHODISM.
any other Churchmen of their times, may make good their
pretension to have been, in doctrine and in spirit, the
genuine sons of the English Reformed Church.
But the Methodists took orders in another manner, less
direct and explicit indeed, but yet-so bold are we-not
unauthentic or unimportant. Methodism, in a deep and
genuine sense, held on to Nonconformity, and to whatever
had been good in Puritanism.
Wesley, Whitefield, Fletcher, and their colleagues, if
placed by the side of Howe, Baxter, Charnock, Manton,
Bates, Flavel, and others, must be thought to rank below
them, in theological attainment, in compass of learning, in
intellectuality, and in discursive power, as preachers and
writers; as well as in the depth and elevation of their
devotional style. In blamelessness of life, in devotedness,
and on the ground of doctrinal integrity, the balance
stands even between the two companies. But then, even
after allowance has been made for the obstructions that
stood in the way of the Nonconformists, the Methodists
had much the advantage on the ground of expansive and
adventurous Christian philanthropy: on this ground, in
fiact, the founders of Methodism have no rivals. Yet besides their warmer zeal, as evangelists, the relation in
which they stood to the ecclesiastical authorities of their
time gave them a signal advantage: to this an allusion
has already been made. The energies and the animus of
the Nonconformists, as also of the Puritans, had, to a great
extent, been employed and exhausted in resisting, and in
protesting against, the despotic measures of the Court and
Church of their times: hence it was that they were always
too much occupied with matters which were either altogether frivolous, or of very inferior moment. But a protesting and a resistant function of this sort does not favorably develop the symmetry of the Christian character;
much less does it auspiciously affect the course of the
evangelist; for even if his temper has not become soured
in controversy, his zeal for the conversion of souls will
scarcely hold itself clear of impatience to make proselytes




THE METHODISTIC COMPANY.             133
to his party. Resistance to Church despotism may be the
duty of Christian men, at some seasons; but such seasons
will not be the times that are made glad by the triumphs
of the Gospel.
The Methodists stood in a far bettereposition than this
as evangelists. Reviled, pelted, and hooted by mobs,
as they were, sometimes mistreated by magistrates, and
generally unwisely and unkindly dealt with by the Church
authorities, they themselves had no quarrel, either with
Church or State; in all points they were loyal men: they
cherished also a filial regard toward the Church; and they
themselves were of it. As to the civil power, they knew
and found that its feeling and arm were always on their
side. In their bosoms there was no rankling grudge
against authorities-there was no particle of that venom
which, wherever it lodges, infects and paralyzes the religious affections. Their sole quarrel was with sin and
Satan; it was not with the visible powers of this world.
Men may wage war with the Devil, without hatred; but
not with'their fellow men. Whitefield's face, while denouncing all the powers of darkness, still wore its usual
loving smoothness; not so the Puritan, when Prelacy'was
in his eye.
We may well recognize that providential ordering of
the Methodistic revival, which kept it clear of all sympathy with the bitter " vestments and gesture" feeling of the
preceding century; and if required to name that one adjunctive circumstance which most favored its progress, as
a proclamation of the Gospel, we should not hesitate to
say-the Church training, and the Church feeling of the
Wesleys, and of Whitefield.
The Puritan temper had nearly ceased to attach to the
Nonconformists of the times of Watts and Doddridge;
and they and their predecessors had done their part well
in preserving evangelic doctrine from the extinction which
then threatened it. It was a witness-function which they
had discharged, and which had more of a passive than
of an active character; invasive it was not in any de



134          FOUNDERS OF METHODISM.
gree; yet the true-hearted among the Nonconformists
affectionately greeted their more enterprising successors,
and cordially bid them God's speed. When Whitefiefd
sat at the bedside of Watts, and in his frequent intercourse with Docdkridge, and when he and the Wesleys,
as often happened, were welcomed in the homes of the
dissenters-that is to say, such dissenters as Williams
of Kidderminster, they may be thought of as then tacitly
receiving a charge, and as being invested with a commission to do effectively what these good men had not
been in a position to attempt. Yet it was with a lively
satisfaction that they hailed the dawn of a brighter day!
They gave the rising Methodism their blessing, and died,
rejoicing in hope. Thus did this new  ministration of
Apostolic Christianity receive a double authentication,
first and formally from the Episcopal Church, and then
virtually, from the Nonconforming Church. It was in a
manner not altogether unlike this that the Reformers —
German, Swiss, and English-united in themselves, officially and personally, the double continuity of. a formal,
and of an occult ordination. Visibly, they were ministers of the Church from  which they separated, and
which cast them out: at the same time, by personal intercourse and correspondence, by congruity in doctrine,
by sympathy as martyrs, or as sufferers for the same
Gospel, they stood related to the Bohemian and the Waldensian bodies, and were honored by the opprobrium
that attached to the names-Wickliffeites and Lollards.
That law of continuity which is seen to prevail in the
history of Christianity, has hitherto always shown itself
under this twofold aspect. That is to say, revivals and
renovations, whenever they occur, so arise as to render
homage, first, to the visible or hierarchical transmission
of Christian ordinances and ministrations; and at the
same time they do not fail to connect themselves with
that which has come down from an earlier season of reform  and refreshment.  Although an ample comment
upon this biform law of religious history might seem, in




THE METHODISTIC COMPANY.            135
some of its instances, to be too elaborate, -or in a degree
precarious, yet, when the course of events through long
periods is broadly regarded, it presents itself too frequently not to attract notice, and to establish itself silently
in our convictions.
Those whose own religious temperament is tranquil
and devout, and who had always rather love than hate,
will while reviewing any separate portion of Christian
history, or when contemplating the whole of it, draw
much comfort from the considerations which this general
principle suggests; for these considerations avail, not
merely to discharge ecclesiastical virulence, if it has had
any lodgment in our minds, but to abate that antagonistic
vehemence to which we so easily give place, in matters
of religion; and in a word, it will aid us in the endeavor
to look calmly upon the troubled arena of this present
scene, as from a higher level.
Further from  our immediate purpose we must not
travel than may be needful thus to bring the METHODISTIC COMPANY into, what we think, is its rightful position on the field-of religious history.  How comforting
is it, and how consoling, and how does it purify, ennoble,
animate, and elevate our own feelings when we consent
to think and speak of these good men as taking their
place in the host which "no man can number" of those
who are constituting, and shall constitute a social economy, unearthly, and never to be dissolved!
We cast from us therefore with pity (and with shame
if ever it have found a lodgment in our own heart) that
hierarchical arrogance which would impel us to look
upon the Methodistic band with scorn, and which mutters its anathemas against schismatics. On the other
side, we put as far from us the dissident's glorying in the
same company, whenxhe points to them as the successful
leaders of a great and permanent revolt from the Episcopal Church. In the place of either of these contracted
feelings, we recognize, upon the front of Methodism, that
special characteristic which has attached to Heaven's




A36          FOUNDERS OF METHODISM.
own servants, from age to age, as the authentic representatives, first, of an existing and visible order of things;
and then of that always extant, remonstrant energy which
took its rise in some anterior season of renovation. Let
us be shown any where a company of men whose office
it has been to reanimate what has become lifeless, and to
purify what is corrupt, who have not stood related, in this
twofold manner, to the present and to the past.




THE SUBSTANCE OF METHODISM.
THE FIRST ELEMENT OF METHODISM.
INTENDING to confine our view to its most distinctive
features, we inquire concerning the Methodism of the last
century, what is it which distinguishes it on the one hand,
from that religious condition which it found existing, and
on the other, from that which has come into its place, and
which now surrounds ourselves.
Methodism was not a NEW THEOLOGY, or a polemical
affirmation of dogmas, contravening or adding to that
system of befief which had been embodied, two. centuries
before, in the articles and confessions of the several Protestant Churches.  Those few points of doctrine which
Wesley individually appended to the existing Protestant
faith do not materially affect our present allegation,
namely, that the Methodistic preachers held and taught,
substantially, the doctrine that had been professed by the
Reformers; and, as to Whitefield, and those who followed
with him, he advanced nothing, in doctrine, that was new
to Calvinistic theology.
Nor was Methodism, as to its primary intention, the
promulgation and enforcement of a new religious mode
of life, or an order, or factitious institute: it was not the
gathering of a body of Regulars. Wesleyanism did indeed issue in the constitution of a new society; but this
was an incidental consequence, resulting from the Founder's success in effecting his original and always principal
purpose-" the conversion of the ungodly."
Setting off then from the mass of facts before us some
incidental and unimportant peculiarities of opinion, as well
as that which belongs to its external organization merely,




138          SUBSTANCE OF METHODISM.
we are to find in Methodism only that which is identical
with the sense of all the Protestant communions, as expressed in their several confessions, creeds, and articles
of religion, and which is held by all to be of the very substance of Christianity itself. And yet, while the theology
is entirely what we recognize as the authentic belief of
the Protestant Church, the product of the Methodistic
ministrations, that is to say, the general or average product, apart from what miight be attributed to. the oratorical powers of individual preachers, was such as has no
parallel, even in the most exciting moments of the Reformation; nor has it had any parallel in these later times.
We are called upon therefore to show what it was which
constituted the visible difference-vast as it is.
In what proportion of instances the Methodistic movement, which affected so many thousands of hearers through
its forty years of primitive energy, did in fact issue in producing a- "godly, righteous, and sober life," we are not
now concerned to inquire, nor could such an inquiry,
however laboriously instituted, yield any satisfactory result. What we have to do with is not that which can be
known only in Heaven; but that which is patent and unquestionable, namely-that Protestant doctrine, proclaimed by men variously gifted and qualified, did, through a
course of years, and wherever carried, affect the minds of
thousands of persons, not in the way of a transient excitement, but effectively and permanently. The very same
things had been affirmed, from year to year, by able and
sincere preachers, in the hearing of congregations, assenting to all they heard-not indeed altogether without
effect; yet with no such- effect as that which ordinarily,
if'not invariably, attended the Methodistic preaching.
Nor, if we look beyond the pale of religious influence,
had any previous ministrations of the same Protestant
doctrines taken hold, as this did, or in any remarkable
manner, of the untaught masses of the people-the non-attendants upon public worship-the heathen million that
circulates every Sunday around churches and chapels.




ITS FIRST ELEMENT.               139
Let it be said-and we hold it as an undoubted truth,
and a truth apart from which the facts before us must be
wholly inexplicable-that the Methodistic proclamation
of the Gospel was rendered effective by a Divine Energy,
granted at that time, iri a sovereign manner, and in an
unwonted degree; but this truth remembered always, as
it ought, the question returns-What were the principal
elements of that religious impression which the Methodistic preaching so generally produced? This question
must, for convenience sake, be answered in a distributive
order, or under several heads, although in fact what we
have to consider separately, constitutes a whole that is
indivisible.
There are principles in human nature-as well intellectual as moral-which, although inherent in its structure, may, and often do, remain latent as to any effect,
not in individuals merely, but in entire races of men, and
that through long centuries, and even where civilization
has wrought its effects partially upon them.'Those vast
diversities of condition, moral, intellectual, and social,
which affect the several branches of the human family,
resolve themselves, for the most part, into instances of
this kind: that is to say, of the activity or the quiescence
of certain elements of human nature. Man is the only one
of the animated orders that is liable to any such obliteration of his original faculties-and so, he is the only being
that falls out of his place, and fails, in so many instances,
to reach the average level of development, proper to his
order. A striking instance, illustrative of what is here
affirmed, is afforded in that faculty which, among cultured nations, is the source of the arts of life, of the sciences, and of philosophy, namely-the abstractive. This
faculty-we see it when once it begins to be developedis of the very substance of the mind: it is man's distinction as head of the animated orders; and it is also his
distinction as an intelligent inspector of the mechanism
of the material universe, and so, in a sense, the consort
of the Creator. Nevertheless, there are vast regions on




140          SUBSTANCE OF METHODISM:
the surface of the earth-regions that have been occupied
during thousands of years by races of the human family,
among which this master-spring of the mind has scarcely
at all got into play. Man has there stood only a few
steps raised above the level of the brute;-he has been
a wretched troglodyte, or the tenant of a bush or hut;
and he has so remained unchanged, while four or five
empires, near neighboring to him, have risen, and flourished, and disappeared in their turn. And yet it is certain, that if at any moment during that long reckoning of
silent centuries there had come among these tribes, the
civilized man —protected and favored —carrying with him
his implements, his arts, and his science, he might have
woke up the dormant power, so that a nation might have
been born in a day.' If the civilization, the refinement,
and the philosophy of the civilized nations be a wonder,
is not the barbarism of races that are capable of the same
by structure, and which yet is perpetuated through cycles
of time —a still greater wonder, or we may say, a deep
mystery? With an instance such as this before us, there
can be no room to think it incredible that some principal
rudiment of the moral structure of human nature, should
also be liable to a like dormant condition, or that whole
races of men, civilized or barbarous, should, through
perhaps the entire period of their national existence,
show only the feeblest indications of the presence of such
a moral power. It is certain that if the abstractive faculty were not a rudiment of man's intellectual structure,
no modes of excitement, no stimulants, how powerful soever, would avail to convey, or to confer it. It is manifest, therefore-perplexing as the fact may be-that so
principal a faculty may, in the instance of nations, and
through the longest periods of time, be, as if it were not.
If this fact be perplexing, when thought of in its relationship to such notions as we are apt to form of the Vrovidential government of the world, so, and in a deeper
sense, is the fact perplexing that races of men, millions
strong, have passed through their allotted cycles, and




ITS FIRST ELEMENT.                141
have counted out their destined centuries, barely conscious, if at all, of their immortality, or of their future
encounter with inflexible justice. Yet to infer hence that
the religious consciousness is no part of human nature, or
that man is not born to live again, would be a conclusion
equally unphilosophical and dangerous.
The religious sense, that is to say, a vivid feeling of
our relationship, individually, to invisible governmenthereafter to be reckoned with, requires to be distinguished firom some other principles of our nature with which
it usually commingles itself, and with which it may easily
be confounded. Thus, in the first place, the religious
sense is distinguishable from the moral sense, or that consciousness of right and wrong, which may be fully developed as far as it is related to the good and evil of our
present term of life, and yet may bring with it no reference to a future life. Although the belief of a future life
will not fail to stimulate the natural conscience, this power, as the basis of secular morality, does not spring from
any such belief, and is often entirely independent of it.
Then again, the religious sense has no inseparable alliance with that tendency of mankind, so universally displayed, to surround themselves with invisible powersthe objects of immediate hope and dread, and which are
the creations of the imagination, rather than of the moral
sense. Nations the most addicted to polytheistic worship
have shown themselves less alive than others, either to
the moral, or to the religious feelings.
While in the midst, as we now are, of another argument, it would carry us too far to attempt to illustrate the
independence and the sejunctive tendency of the religious
and of the moral sense, by taking even a glance at the
religious history of the Jewish people, and of the Christian Church. Instead of entering upon so various and
heavy a task, we may find. nearer home, sufficient exemplification of what we have just now to do with, namely,
that first element of Methodism  which continued to be
a prominent characteristic of it, through a course of years.




142          SUBSTANCE OF METHODISM:
Taking an ordinary instance as sufficient for our purpose, let it be asked what it is that a Christian minister
may believe that he sees before him on a Sunday? He
may be sure that there is always much of the diffused
and salutary influence of Christian doctrine within the
compass of his stated congregation. With a few exceptions (probably) he addresses those who, whether in the
way. of a passive acquiescence, or as the result of reading
and reflection, have come sincerely to accept Christianity
as true:-they do " unfeignedly believe the holy Gospel."
They do "look for the resurrection of the dead, and the
life of the world to come." In this pulpit-prospect there
is therefore a wide range for charitable hope, and ground
enough on which the pastor's consolation may rest, that
he has not altogether "labored in vain."
Or to vary the instance, we can many of us recall the
recollection of those over-crowding times when a preacher of unmatched power and grace-a perfect orator, used
to fix every eye upon himself, through his hour of fluent
and affluent sublimities. How did all faces gleam with
an intensity of intellectual enjoyment, longing to vent
itself in loud acclamations at every pause! And when
that hour of fascination was over, what looks of gratulation were exchanged among friends, from pew to pew!
what shaking of hands, and how many smiles and nods
passed to and fro, among the delighted people!
But now all these pleasurable indications must be dismissed, for it is a Methodist of Wesley's, or of Whitefield's
order that is in this same pulpit. As a preacher he is not
more sincere or right-minded than the last; and as an
orator, he is far less highly gifted; he is not so accomplished a theologian, nor in any sense is he rather to be
chosen than the other, as to his dispositions, or endowments, or as to his creed; but he is a Methodist, and his
words sink into the hearts of those that hear. While he
speaks, a suppressed anxiety rules the spirits of the crowd,
and this feeling breaks forth into sighs, on every side:-the
preacher's style is not, in itself, oratorically affecting, and




ITS FIRST ELEMENT.                143
yet many weep, and an expression, not to be simulated, of
anguish and of dread, marks many faces. What is it then
that has taken place? It is this, that a sense, deep seated
in the structure of human nature, but which hitherto has
slumbered, has suddenly woke up. There is a tumult in
the soul, while a power irresistible is claiming its rights
over both body and soul. Instead of that interchange of
smiles which lately had pervaded the congregation, while
the orator was doing his part, now every man feels himself, for the hour, alone in that crowd. Even the preacher is almost forgotten; for an immortal and guilty spirit
has come in to the presence of Eternal Justice. Within
the dismayed heart it is as if the moral condition, hitherto unheeded, were spread abroad for strictest scrutiny.
Quite gone from the thoughts are all those accessories
of religious feeling, which so often in times past, had
been the source of agreeable devout excitement. It is a
dread of the supreme rectitude that now holds the mind
and heart.
To many who had honestly thought themselves religious persons for twenty years or more, the feelings are
quite new which now have come into exercise; and such
persons are willing to acknowledge that, whatever impressions of a religious kind may have been produced
upon them heretofore by eloquent preachers, those which
the voice of this Methodist has enkindled differ from
such feelings, not. merely in degree, but in kind: to them
it is as if a lost rudiment of the moral nature had sprung
into activity. It is a sense of the soul's relationship to God
-a relationship which nothing can dissolve, and which
demands the immortality of its subject. This awakened
sense, at the first, can be painful only; and its activity is
an anguish-an agony. The belief, or rather the vivid
consciousness, of a future life, results involuntarily from
this new perception of the infinite import of good and evil.
When it is affirmed, as now, that the feeling excited by
the Methodist preacher, and which so powerfully affects
the mass of his hearers, differs not only in degree but in




144          SUBSTANCE OF METHODISM:
kind from ordinary religious emotions, what is intended
may be made clear by a familiar illustration; as thus:
A man has been trained from boyhood to the militafy
profession, and he has spent the years of youth and manhood in camps, barracks, and garrisons, and all that belongs to a soldier's life, or that can belong to it, in time
of peace, whether in the way of reading, or of converse
with veterans, or of martial movement and circumstance,
has become part and parcel of his nature. But at length
actual war sounds its note in his ear; and he joins his
comrades on the field, and moves to his position in the
ranks while yet the morning mist hangs upon the slopes
in front of the lines:-in a moment a flash of fire and its
thunders is followed by the fall of men on either hand:
blood and moans begin this long new day of his life: battle is a reality; and although the same subjects fill his
thoughts now, as have filled them heretofore, his state of
mind, now and then, differs not in degree of feeling merely,
but in kind.
Whoever has lived through hours or moments, of extreme peril or anguish, will know how to find analogous
instances.,ven to witness a fatal shipwreck from the
shore, or a conflagration, in which several perish; or to
stumble in one's path through a copse upon the weltering
body of a murdered man-any of these less frequent incidents may have made an impression so deep and indelible upon a sensitive mind, as that the-years preceding
such an occurrence seem to belong to a state of existence
essentially unlike that of the years subsequent to it.
Preaching, in ordinary times, produces an effect upon
practiced congregations analogous indeed to the subjects
that are at any time brought forward;-that is to say, the
feeling of the people is in harmony with the feeling and
intention of the speaker; and beyond this rippling of the
glassy surface, an individual, here and there, is more deeply affected. But, as to the mass, there is no proportion
whatever-there is no approach toward a proportionate
feeling, as related to the import of the principal facts upon




ITS FIRST ELEMENT.                145
which the preacher insists. The difference, then, between
this preacher and the Methodist of the time gone by
is of that sort which the instances above adduced illustrate: the one is listened to with assent and approval —
every word of the other is as a shaft that rives the bosom.
Whe'ther Wesley and Whitefield, and others of their
class, addressed Christianized congregations, or the lowest of the people, a wonderful uniformity marked the
effect produced, where any effect at all was produced;
and whether the hearer was one who had listened to ten
thousand sermons, or was now hearing his first, the two
hearers stood almost undistinguished side by side. But
this could not have been if the preacher had gone about
to produce conviction by a circuit of reasoning; for in
that case what might have swayed one mind, would not
have touched the other. What the preacher advanced
ordinarily, was a bare affirmation of that which the human mind, by its very structure, assents to as true, when
it is so affirmed as to take hold of the conscience. Having won this first advantage, that is to say, having lodged
in the conscience his initial principle, he went on to improve his conquest. In doing so he sometimes used a
style which modern congregations could not easily be
brought to tolerate, and against which some reasonable
exceptions might no doubt be taken. Nevertheless, it
must be the phraseology only, or the preacher's manner,
and his undue vehemence, that could be resented, at least
by those who are the frequenters of churches; for he does
nothing more than insist upon, and expound, that very
language which is on the lips of all such persons habitually, or of all who profess any form of Christian belief.
When that which is so momentous is in question, the
mere adjuncts of the Methodistic preaching-its rudeness,
perhaps, or its harsh phrases, or its obsolete dialect, should
be disregarded. The Methodist asks for no assent reaching beyond the range of our own constant acknowledgments. But if these things be granted, then he expounds
to us what, without his asking, we have confessed often;
eC4
tX




146         SUBSTANCE OF METHODISM:
but now the mind's habitual complacency has been rent
away and dispersed, and the affrighted hearer finds that
he can not, if he would, " cloke or dissemble his sins gefore the face of Almighty God;" he feels and knows that
he is indeed one who had need deprecate the "wrath of
God," and pray to be delivered from " eternal damnation."
Now, if never before, he admits it to be true that he has
"most justly provoked" that "wrath and indignation;"
and now he feels the " remembrance of his multiplied offenses to be grievous, and the burden of them intolerable."
If then it be asked "What was Methodism?" our first
reply must be-it was the waking up of a consciousness
toward Almighty God, which gave a meaning to expressions such as these.
But the Methodist preacher advanced further on this
ground; and he spoke, without scruple or abatement, of
the future retribution. Why should it be required of him
to evade the meaning of terms so well authenticated, and
that were still in use? "Eternal damnation" was not a
phrase of Methodistic origin; nor was it new to affirm it
to be the "just reward of our sins."  Nothing on this
ground was added by the preacher to the universal belief
-or the professed belief of Christendom. The fact, however, is to be well observed that, while insisting with unwonted urgency upon this dread article of catholic belief,
the personal temper, neither of the Wesleys, nor of Whitefield, nor of any of the more noted preachers, was in any
degree morose, gloomy, acrid, or wrathful.  A temper
the contrary of this was the characteristic of this band of
men. If some few of the lay preachers were fierce or
stern in their dispositions, it was not so with the chiefs.
Methodism-let us note the fact-was not ushered into
the world by a company of brazen-tongued and fiery
zealots.  Wesley by temperament was joyous, Whitefield loving, and in respect of mildness of temper and benevolence, they and their colleagues stand in very favorable contrast with the Puritans, as well as with many of
the German, Swiss, and English Reformers. In speaking




ITS SECOND ELEMENT.               147
as they did of the " wrath to come," they are exempt from
the imputation either of a malign fanaticism, or of a presumptuous exaggeration of the existing doctrine thereto
relating; nor does it appear that they were in fact ex
cepted against by their contemporaries on this ground.
They thought and spoke as Baxter, and as Luther, and as
the divines of earlier times had thought and spoken.
If we are willing to trace the hand of God in the Methodistic movement of the last century, we should acknowledge it in this instance, that it took place at the very verge
of that period when the ancient belief as to future punishment was still entire. These preachers therefore employed the doctrine they found ready to their hand, without
thinking themselves obliged to maintain it against any
prevalent gainsaying. Any such feeling would have given
a controversial air to that which, to produce its direct and
proper effect, must be affirmed peremptorily, and as if
assented to by the hearer. If the preacher had abated
these affirmations, in compliance with a known contrary
opinion, he would have forfeited his power: if he had gone
about to sustain them with argument, he would often have
failed, and often have run into exaggerations.
A new Methodism-a Methodism confronting the Christian, and the unchristian mind of this present time, would
find itself in a very different position; but we here touch a
subject which may be better considered in another place
THE SECOND ELEMENT OF METHODISM.
As the FIRST element of that revival which Methodism
so extensively effected, we have thus alleged to be an
awakening of the dormant religious consciousness, or innate sense of our relationship to God, the righteous Judge.
This religious consciousness, as it goes far beyond the
range of that moral sense which regards the obligations
of this life, so does it vastly exceed, and much differ from




148          SUBSTANCE OF METHODISM:
the feeling which in ordinary times, pervades Christianized communities. But then, how deep soever and intense
for a time, this awakened consciousness may be, there
does not necessarily result from it any permanent spiritual renovation of the minds in which it takes place. The
tumult of his new sense toward God may wholly subside,
and all the anguish and the terror attending it may be allayed, or may be diverted by the return of earthly passions, and the soul may thus relapse, and often does so
relapse, into its slumber. But if not, and if this quickening proceeds, there supervenes a deeper feeling still-a
consciousness of the relationship of God, the Father of
spirits, to the individual spirit, which is thus beginning to
live a life divine. This reflex idea is the proper consequence of that which had already taken possession of the
soul; and we find in it what we name as the second element of the Methodistic revival.
From the commencement of our Lord's public teaching,
the spiritual system He proclaimed stood out in bold contrast with every other scheme of religion, or of philosophy —
first, by presenting to the minds and affections of men-not
a pantheistic idea, not a vague abstraction, not a "Deity,"
but "God the Father"-an idea which embraces all perfections, natural and moral, and represents them as centring
upon a Personality, distinct, independent and individually
defined. The consequence of fully admitting this Chris
tian idea, was a belief and feeling of the individualsrelationship of God toward the soul individually. The main
purport of our Lord's discourses, especially of those which
were addressed to his immediate followers, was to imprint
this one idea upon their minds and hearts. Thus it was
that he " manifested the Father;" and, in the use of symbols the most peculiar, he encouraged each of his disciples to confide in the Divine regard toward himself individually.  This doctrine, then so new, and so powerful
always in its effect upon the human affections, imparted to
dogmatic Christianity its force, its animation, its warmth;
and a renovation of this belief has attended every remark



ITS SECOND ELEMENT.               149ale season of religious refreshment.  In a most decisive
manner it attached to the Methodistic revival.
While, however, the personal ministry of Christ, and its
intention, as embodied in his discourses, seemed to relate
mainly to this principle of the Divine regard to each soul,
and the tendency of which, if not otherwise counterbal
anced, would be to insulate the human spirit —the Apos.
tles, in giving Christianity to the world as a visible
scheme, or Church system, brought foward another principle, namely, the relative and social, in giving effect to
which men are considered and treated less as insulated
beings, and more as members of a body, embracing all
those who are embraced in the affections of each, and
comprehended in the circle of domestic obligations.
This is a rudiment of that CHURCH IDEA which we assume
to be as undoubtedly apostolic in its origin, as the other
just named. Now the various, or, as one might say, the
multifarious forms under which the Christian system in
the lapse of ages has put itself forward, might conveniently be classified on this very ground; that is to say, as
having either given expression, chiefly, if not exclusively,
to that in the Gospel which concentrates the religious affections upon the individual relationship between God and
the soul; or to that which diffuses the religious feelings
and renders them less immediate. In a classification such
as this, Methodism would take its place along with instances of the former class. Yet an objection starts up
against such a decision; fgr it may be said —" Has not
Methodism shown itself fo be eminently a social scheme?"
We grant that it has, yet it is social only so far as the individual convert is individually considered: of the apostolic Church Idea it has seemed to be little conscious, or
too unmindful. It was on this ground that Wesley innovated the most, where least he is thought of as an innovator.
If the distinction we have now to insist upon be of a
kind that is less obvious than some, it is far from being
of inferior moment; and in truth, at this time, it is pre



150          SUBSTANCE OF METHODISM:
cisely tnat distinction which most urgently needs to te
well understood, and attentively regarded. If we imagine
each of these modes of Christian piety to be carried to
its extreme point, and even to be a little exaggerated,
then we shall have before us two broadly-marked religious styles, as well of feeling as of behavior, and between
which the reconciling principle has not hitherto been discovered, or not applied. That it will be discovered, and
applied too, and that thus an entire Christianity shall at
length exhibit itself, we hold to be certain.
Taken, therefore, somewhat in its extreme form, for the
sake of obtaining a more decisive contrast, the CHURCH
IDEA of Christianity-beyond which the Church of Rome
knows of nothing, and to which the Church of England
has given more prominence than has been allowed it by
any other of the Protestant communions, and more prominence than to the opposite, or counteractive idea, upon
which Methodism wholly rests-this Church Idea lays its
hold of all that are born within its circle, and it seals
them as the property of the Church, and treats them as
passive subjects (not individually, indeed, but seriatim
rather) in its own appointed manner, as they arrive at
each epoch of their mortal journey, from the womb to the
grave: it duly engages for their safety and welfare, certain conditions being complied with; and it sends them
forward, authoritatively countersigned, or endorsed, not
merely into the unseen world, but beyond its entrance.
Now it must not be denied that, within the limits of
even a system such as this, the religious affections may
find room for exercise, and may become intense, profound, and ecstatic. Nevertheless, it is manifest that, so
long as this Church Idea is held entire, or where it is
open to no disturbance from the contiguity of more animated religious systems, there must belong to it a reserve, a distance, and a sense of remoteness from the object of worship. Piety, under this form is mediate always,
more than immediate; and whereas the individual adult
worshiper has reached, as a matter of course, and as if ac



ITS SECOND ELEMENT.               151
cording to an invariable rule of official promotion, his
actual place in the marshaled host that is moving forward
with a steady tread toward the world eternal, he is not
lifkely to entertain the thought of his own individuality; nor
has he been encouraged to cherish the animating belief
that he, individually, is the object of the Divine complacency in a peculiar sense.
How unlike this, on every side, whether of feeling, or
of behavior, or of customary phraseology, is that Idea
of Christianity which, in connection with our immediate
purpose, we must call the Methodistic! Nor is the force
of the contrast abated, in any sensible degree, when we
select our Methodistic samples from  out of the very
bosom of the Church; nay, when we not only find our
instances within its pale,~but leave them there! Methodism may indeed flourish within the Church; but it will
not be of it in a thoroughly homogeneous sense; or it
will not do so until that harmonizing principle has come
into operation, which shall give play to the two counteractive, but not incompatible, rudiments of Christianity itself. Until then, even if every phrase and every rubrical
usage that hitherto has stood in the way of unanimity and
conformity were removed, there must still exist a Christianity within the Church, and a Christianity out of itwhether Methodistic, or dissenting. Those phrases and
those usages have hitherto served as the means of conserving among us that other Christian element which the
Church does not recognize so distinctly as it might, and
to which, in the last century, Methodism gave so broad
an expansion.
The pulpit style of Wesley, -and of Whitefield too,
although in another tone, if it might be characterized
in a single phrase, must be called the individualizing.
These preachers, whose eye sparkled with a fiery energy,
and whose hand, in every movement, seemed to have an
aim, as if at a single bosom, spoke to the soul of every
hearer, apart from  the thousands around him.  "My
message is to thee, sinner! I stand herb to-day to bring




152         SUBSTANCE OF METHODISM:
thee to bethink thyself of thy past ways. Thou who dost
now appear in the presence of thy God-loathsome in thy
sins-I challenge and command thee to bow thy stubborn
neck, and to bend thy knee. Dost not thou —even thou,
ungrateful as thou hast been these many years-yea a
hardened rebel from thy mother's breast until now-dost
thou not hear the Saviour calling to thee to repent and
turn? Was it not for thee that he shed his blood? Did
he not carry -thy sorrows to Calvary, even thine? Was
he not wounded for thy transgressions'! Did he not think
of thee, of thy soul, and of all its abominations, that dark
night when he lay in agony on the ground? Yes. It
was none other than thy sins that made him sweat blood
in that garden. But now, with a purpose of mercy in his
heart toward thy wretched soul,ohe calls thee to himself;
and says, yes, he says, it to thee, i Come now, let us reason
together."'
It was thus, and often in phrases far more emphatic
and awakening, that a firm hold upon the human heart
was taken, and that a commencement was made of that
life divine-of that converse of the soul with the Shepherd of souls, to which it is the purport and end of the
Christian dispensation to give effect.
As the proper and inevitable consequence of a commencement such as this, all those personally intense affections come into exercise, which in their variations of vividness give a history to each Christian singly, and which
may be narrated by him. It is the development, and the
subsidence, and the renovation, and the progression, of
this theopathy that constitute the "experience" of each,
and which is customarily spoken of under the comprehensive phrase of " the dealings of God with the soul."  It is
this individualized piety which furnishes materials to what
is called "experimental preaching;" it is this that becomes the topic of conversation in classes and bands; it
is this that has shed life and fervor into the diaries and
letters of so many eminent persons, who have been the
ornament of the several Protestant communions; and




ITS SECOND ELEMENT.               153
in a word, it is on this ground that the exercise of a pure
taste and of Christian discretion are so much to be desired,
and have so often been lost sight of.
Now although this individualized spiritual life is much
older than Methodism, yet it must be named as having
been peculiarly its characteristic; and.can we read the
Book of Psalms, or our Lord's discourses with his disciples, or the apostolic epistles, and then denounce this
rudiment of Methodism, as if in itself it were spurious
and unwarranted? Surely not; nevertheless, when this
order of religious feeling has been left to expand itself unchecked, and when it has received encouragement, and
has been exposed to stimulants, it has come'to present
an aspect differing essentially from that Christianity according to the Church Idea, of which already we have
spoken; and how incongruous do the two forms of piety
appear when, as sometimes has happened, the one has
sprung into existence upon the very lap of the other! or
when Methodism has courted the maternal caresses of
the Church!
The most important innovations are often those which
attract little or no attention while they are taking place.
Wesley earnestly deprecated, for instance, the interference of the preaching hour in his chapels with the hours
of divine worship in the parish church; and he also long
resisted the administration of the sacraments by his
preachers. In such things he dreaded innovation; and
yet these invasions of Church order were of small moment, as compared with that mighty revolution in Christian feeling, language, behavior, which every word almost of his sermons, and of his personal converse with
his people, was bringing about. He did indeed vehemently enjoin his followers to hold to their parish
churches; but in the very same breath he woke up in
their hearts a vivid individual feeling, which would inevitably withdraw them from it; and this result would
take place, even where the ministrations of the Church
itself were animated by the Methodistic spirit! Thus it
a.*




154          SUBSTANCE OF METHODISM:
is that, at this time, and irrespective entirely of all questions of ecclesiastical polity, or of external conformity,
or of non-conformity, the religious commonwealth (in the
Episcopal Church, and out of it) subsists under these two
types, that is to say, of the Church Idea, and of the Methodistic. Great changes must have place before the two
shall coalesce, or work well together.
The writings of the continental Reformers, as also of
the founders of the English Church, abundantly prove
that they were themselves alive to that great Christian
principle which imparts its individuality to piety. Their
own earnest style in the pulpit implies this; and upon it
rests the Protestant principle-the right of private judgment, as well as the sacred obligation of witnessing to the
truth, even unto death; together with the privilege and
duty of every manr to read and study Holy Scripture for
himself. It was from this solid standing that the Reformers made head against Rome. Nevertheless, in their reconstruction of the Church, it was the Church Idea that
became predominant, which thus was left liable, at all
times, to those internal discords, and to those convulsions
and invasions which, by a deep necessity, must bring it
into peril, as often as any great religious revival takes
place within, or around it. The next season of religious
reanimation may not perhaps take to itself, or bear, the
name and guise of "Methodism," but inevitably it will
convulse a communion which does not distinctly recognize what is not included in its own Idea of Christianity.
It is of the very nature of animated piety that it should
pass into the form of an individual history; and the more
profound this piety is, the more decisively personal will it
become. And then further, when he who, in this intimate
manner, surrenders himself to the influence of the loftier
revelations of the Christian system, and learns to think of
himself —albeit as one of the most unworthy, yet as the
object of an eternal purpose of mercy-when, in a word,
he has learned to read in the Scriptures far more than
what, as a convert, he had thought of-when he has pass



ITS SECOND ELEMENT.              155
ed beyond the use of milk, and knows how to assimilate
stronger aliment, then will "the life he lives daily" be the
treading of a path which must be trod alone. What ismeant is not a mystic absorption in the Divine Essence
but an animated correspondence, from day to day, from
hour to hour, carried on between the redeemed and restored human spirit and the PERSONAL REDEEMER-the
Shepherd and Bishop of souls, who, in terms the most significant, has invited and has given ample warrant to this
"boldness of access" to Himself. Thus it is that a ripened
Christian piety is always in a sense seclusive; and thus is
it spoken of as a " life that is hid with Christ in God."
Nevertheless the most profound and elevated piety can
never be unsocial-far from it; and, on the contrary, it
will seek and find sympathy and communion. Yet it is
always a question to what extent, and under what conditions, it will or can do so. Or the same inquiry, in substance, might be set forward in other terms-as thus, in
relation to our immediate subject it might be asked-Can
that religious individuality, which it was the very object
of the Methodistic revival to call forth and cherish-can
it advance beyond a rudimental condition when, in a
compulsory and mechanical manner, it is drawn forth
friom the bosom, and subjected to formal regulations, and
when it is to be registered and reported weekly? This
is a grave question, and it seems to bring into view an
incongruity in one at least of the forms into which Methodism has passed.
Christian piety, developed according to the Church
Idea, will not often, if ever, take to itself this character
of individuality; but when developed according to the
Methodistic, or, as we now say, the " Evangelic" idea, it
seldom fails to do so; and this is that point of difference
between the two, on the ground of which the imputation
of enthusiasm is used to be thrown by the profane world,
and by the formalist adherents of the Church principle,
upon those who profess a piety that is less abstract, and
more subjective, than their own.




156          SUBSTANCE OF METHODISM:
A faulty style, easily fallen into, and not easily avoided,
and from which Methodism has never held itself entirely
free, gives color to that imputation of enthusiasm  of,
which we now speak. In truth this imputation is more
than colorable-it is warrantable-when brought against
very much which has received the sanction of Methodistic
and of Evangelic usage. What is here intended ought to
be clearly understood.
That conscious personal relationship to the Saviour
Christ, which we have assumed to be of the very substance of mature Christian piety, and which can never be
warrantably rebuked as enthusiastic, is by no means identical with the introverted spiritual sensitiveness, or the
overweening religious egotism, or the hypochondriac
moodiness, which so often comes in its place, and is inconsiderately accepted in its stead. The one rests upon a
clear and ample foundation of scriptural encouragements;
the other must go far before it finds any substantial support, either of precept, promise, or example, any where
within the compass of the inspired writings. The immediate objects and excitements of the one are those un
changing perfections of the Divine nature, the habitua!
contemplation of which imparts stability, serenity, dignity.
to the human spirit, prevailing over its own momentary
variableness. But, as to the latter, its objects are concentred around that same variableness. The fitfulness of
every hour, the sombre color of one mood, or the gayety
of another, the!ameless ills, the dim surmises, the absurd
fantasies, which perturb misgoverned minds, these are
the objects, the occasions, the springs, of that alternately
murky and giddy temper to the variations of which the
phrase "religious experience" has so often, and so grievously, been misapplied.
That a substitution of the spurious for the genuine
should so often take place on this ground, can excite little
surprise; for the genuine " hidden life" implies a depth of
soul and a tranquil fervor that are not the most common;
and it implies instruction, and a well-formed habit of medi



ITS SECOND ELEMENT.               157
tation and prayer: it implies, moreover, consistency and
moral tone; but as to the other, its counterfeit, nothing
more is required for its production than so much religious
perturbation as shall suffice for working upon the disorders, the inconsistencies, the waywardness, the ungoverned tempers, the vanity, the pride, the vexations, that are
incident to the commonest order of minds. In any community of Christian people, therefore, where we might
find one who is qualified, if he could be induced so to do,
to speak of that hidden life which gladdens his own heart,
scores may be met with who are full of their "experience," and who may easily be encouraged to say much
of it, and so of themselves.
Nevertheless it would be a serious practical error on
the part of any who should incline to treat these instances
as cases of hypocrisy, or of delusion. The world must,
perhaps, be indulged in the license it will take, to deride
that which, wanting substance as it does, yet contains a
germ which, to the world, is a problem always. A wise
instructor, and one who is loving as well as wise, and
whose wisdom has nothing in it of vulgar shrewdness,
will know how to turn the eye from  objects that are
sullied and marred, and that can yield no peace, and insensibly fix it upon that which is ever bright and constant.
But how shall any such office of charity be performed by
those whose own piety is fervent perhaps, but superficial
and uninformed, and whose habit of mind and language is
egotistical? When, in fact, an instructor or spiritual
guide of this order puts his stated question to his class,
" What have been the Lord's dealings with your soul, the
last week?" he invites the utterance of that which not
only would be better not uttered, but better not remembered or thought of.
Too easily it has been assumed as certain that this
style of spurious "experience" is sustained by example
and precept of Scripture.  Those who have allowed
themselves to think so would do well to make search,
and to bring together —if indeed so many are to be found




158         SUBSTANCE OF METHODISM:
-five texts from the gospels, or epistles, which, when
fairly interpreted, might serve the required purpose. It
is granted, indeed, that the soul will have its alternatiorrs
of hope and fear, of joy and despondency, of elation and
depression. This is certain; but let the question be
asked, how much regard is paid by the inspired writers to
these fitful diversities of individual feeling? So much as
this-to enounce a comprehensive admonition-" Is any
among you merry, let him sing psalms; is any afflicted,
let him pray."  To every joy "and every woe, to each
mood, to each affection the alternations of which checker
the course of man, the Gospel furnishes what we need for
our comfort, or correction. But these alternations, having
sometimes a real, and sometimes an imaginary or factitious origin, become exaggerated when they are habitually
regarded, and when they are made the subject of formal
question and answer.
It was the proper consequence of the Methodistic
preaching to call into activity that life of the soul, as individually related to God, of which now we have spoken,
and which must be named as one of its distinctive elements. But it was a consequence not to be desired, and
yet not easily averted, that this preaching, and the social
economy which sprung out of it, should have the effect of
diffusing among all religious communities an unreal style
which the Scriptures do not authorize. This mistaken
pietism has, however, received some check, and in an effective manner, for amid those various labors of Christian
benevolence which have become the characteristic of these
times, the religious thoughts and affections of Christian people, and especially of the young, meet their legitimate objects, and are healthfully engaged. In the place of an introverted spiritual egotism there has come in among us a laborious, and often a self-denying and warm-hearted, philanthropy-a good exchange indeed! and if Methodism must
bear the blame of having generated the former, it may
fairly challenge as its own a large portion of the praise,
or the humble gratulation, which is the due of the latter.




ITF THIRD ELEMENT.               159
THE THIRD ELEMENT OF METHODISM.
THERE may have been, in some instances, more than a
colorable pretext for the opprobrium thrown upon Methodism, that it has produced insanity; for if we imagine
those emotions only which thus far we have spoken of,
and none of a more tranquil kind, to be taking effect upon
feeble or distempered minds, it can be no wonder if reason givAe way. In truth, not merely the weak, but the
strongest minds might be seen to break down beneath those
feelings of anguish and dismay which powerful religious
impressions, of one kind, unabated, are likely to excite.
It can not seem strange that human nature should be convulsed by ungovernable terrors when it wakes, up as in a
moment, in presence of the unseen and eternal world, and
when it becomes vividly conscious, at once of its own
immortality, and of that which renders the thought of
immortality appalling-the sense of accumulated guiltiness. The wonder is, rather, that such awakenings do not
shatter every bosom within which they take place.
But the same Methodism which produced this agitation
carried with it also the proper counteractive motives: or
let it rather be said, that it brought with it that Gospel
which wounds, only that it may heal. The same human
nature which betrays its infirmity when it is borne upon
by powerful motives of one kind only, or by unadjusted
motives, alternately-as, for instance, by hope and fear,
displays-may we not say it-its innate grandeur, and
affords a sure indication of its immortal destiny, when,
although the forces that act upon it are severally of the
highest intensity, these forces are so balanced as to establish themselves in equilibrium, in relation to the intellectual and moral faculties. This balance, or counteraction of motives is, as we know, the spring of tranquil
power and of productive energy in the highest order of
minds; and to others less distinguished, it secures peace
and a fruitful activity.




160         SUBSTANCE OF METHODISM:
It may be that, while diverted or distracted amidst the
shifting objects and interests of the present life, we do but
imperfectly feel how important-how indispensable to our
well-being is this equilibrium of motives, especially when
these are of a powerful kind. But to those whose habit
of mind is meditative and excursive it will often have happened-in a musing hour-to fall into perplexities, when
endeavoring-to imagine what that condition of the moral
faculties, and of the sympathies belonging to this life must
be, which shall render a state of undisturbed felicity possi.
ble in the next, when that shall have been seen and known,
the knowledge of which now could consist with no tranquillity, much less with felicity. Yet as this knowledge
of the alternatives of immortality can not be supposed to
undergo erasure from the mind that has once admitted it,
we are compelled to imagine that the future "fullness of
joy" will arise from a true harmonizing of emotions brought
about in some mode bearing analogy to that which, in
the present state, secures peace to even the most sensitive Christian mind.
No human mind, probably, in the present state, has entirely succeeded in working its way out from among- the
perplexities to which we now refer, for they attach to our
position, as social beings, very imperfectly alive, as we
are, to those higher relationships, that are to be unfolded
in our after state. Nevertheless, we may with confidence
advance a step in saying, negatively, concerning this future harmony of the soul, which is to consist with its
happiness, and with its knowledge of that which if now
known and contemplated must overthow the firmest mind
-that it will not arise from the mere balancing of opposite considerations-so much set down on the one side,
outweighed by so much more on the other side —which
balance, showing a clear excess of what is favorable and
bright, the mind assents, once for all, to the product, and
comes to the reasonable conclusion, for itself, to be happy
forever! This can not be. It may, indeed, be thus that
we consent to reason ourselves into a tranquil acquiesence




ITS THIRD ELEMENT.               161
with our own lot in life, as being on the whole eligible;
but it is not thus, or in any such manner, that the deepest
elements of our nature are hereafter to be forced into adjustment. The felicity of the good will never be framed
out of metaphysic syllogisms, in the manner that has been
attempted by the misjudging and insensitive theologians
of a scholastic age.
It must be on some other path that spirits, moulded
after the fashion of human nature, may hereafter reach a
ground of peace and joy. In this state we must always
fail to give body and form to that which belongs to another state; yet we may be sure, thus far, that a tranquil
happiness which is not founded, either upon an oblivion
of what has once been known, or upon grounds of formal
calculation, may be the product of the due adjustment of
the moral faculties. Whatever may be the intensity of any
one class of feelings, it is certain that feelings of another
class, being the proper counterpoise of the first, may be
brought to bear upon it. The finite spirit-retaining unabated its sensibilities, and having forfeited none of its
past experiences-may be imagined to reach its place of
rest, when borne upon on all sides by forces which, singly
would crush it.
By following upon this path a step or two further, we
come in sight of that which we are now in search ofnamely, that which was the principal, and the harmonizing
element of the Methodistic revival.
Whatever is proper to human nature, inclusive of its
most vivid and its most peculiar sensibilities, belonged tG
HIM who, when he took that nature to himself, as his
own, blended it forever with the Infinite Perfections. It
is as one Being —finite and Infinite-sensitive as the finite,
" ever blessed" as the Infinite-that He liveth who is the
one Christ-our God and Saviour; and so is the Representative, and the Head, and the Ruler of the human
family. Whatever else, of an adjunctive kind, hitherto
unthought of, and unimagined, the future life shall reveal.
undoubtedly it shall bring near to the consciousness of




162         SUBSTANCE OF METHODISM:
every human spirit its own indissoluble relationship to the
Divine nature, through Him who is God and Man —bright
in eternal attributes; bright also in every grace of a perfect humanity!
Now on any occasion of unusual peril or anxiety, when
tumultuous emotions are bearing with distracting force
upon an infirm and sensitive nature, if one who is so suffering does but come into the society of a greater mind,
known and seen to be at once cognizant of all facts and
circumstances, and as much alive as itself to them all, and
which yet shows a placid brow, and an eye beaming with
hope and love, the mere contiguity of such a superior
spirit, with a word of assurance and sympathy, how does
it allay the inward tempest, how does it impart hope and
comfort! In such an instance-and such belong to the
circle of human experience-the reanimated spirit, although it could not have reasoned itself into tranquillity,
yet it has caught it, and is now silently partaking of a
harmony not its own.
The application of this analogy to our present purpose
is not difficult. Although the human mind, in its present
condition, must always fail in its endeavor to bring itself
into a position such as it may be imagined to occupy in
the future state, we may without hesitation affirm from
what source must spring that new class of feelings among
which the human spirit is to find its equilibrium. These
rudiments of joy —a joy not unconscious ok contrary impulses, nor oblivious of them, and yet full and securemust be the product of the soul's contiguity with Him
whose own blessedness blends what is peculiar both to
the Divine and human natures.
But now how far may a consciousness analogous to this,
which we allege as belonging to a future state, be partaken of by those who still tread this low ground of dim
perceptions, and of faith? An answer to a question such
as this may best be obtained by following the course of
an individual mind in its progress onward, from a low toward a higher position. Let us, then, bring before us an




ITS THIRD ELEMENT.              163
instance, of which many, every way similar, might be
adduced. An individual history will give the more distinctness to that comparison which we have in view
between one condition of a Christian community and another, when no difference as to articles of belief has had
place, or would be admitted.
We suppose, then, that we have before us the religious
memoirs of one whose advantage it was to be bred and
trained in the bosom of an orthodox and evangelic cornmunity, and who there received-as without much reflection, so without gainsaying, and with an acquiescent and
respectful feeling, the principal articles of the Christian
faith, as embodied in the three creeds of the Episcopal
Church, or in the Westminster Confession of Faith; or as
held and taught by Howe and Matthew Henry. During
that high season of fresh life in which an active mind is
pushing its way, and breaking for itself a path, hither and
thither, among the objects of professional ambition, or of
science, or literature, that early indoctrination-or, as it
might be called, the catechumen's inherited faith-remains
whole and untouched-like a costume dress, which is had
out and worn only a few times in the course of years.
But a time comes when perhaps the accidental looking
into a body of Divinity, or the reading a controversial
book, or an incidental regard paid to the history of
opinions, brings the gravest questions of Christian theology
before the now mature mind. An effective intellectual
effort is therefore made, and a degree of serious attention
is given to these momentous principles, involving, as they
do, not merely the position which is hereafter to be taken
in the religious community, but the opinion that should be
formed of Christianity itself, as claiming the submission of
a well informed and upright mind.
The consequence of this process of inquiry, the biblical
and theological, is, we may suppose, the attainment of a
belief much in advance of the catechumen's silently accepted creed: —it is a personal possession, the fruit of
labor; it is a dogmatic persuasion, on the ground of which




164          SUBSTANCE OF METHODISM:
a man may hold a serious argument with others, may repeat the creeds with intelligence and feeling; and might
even write, and profess his belief before the world.
At those seasons when, whether from any special cause
or not, devout emotions are in unusual activity, the mind
calls up its now accredited doctrinal belief, and is able, with
more or less of feeling, to throw itself upon this ground
of religious hope. He who thus believes, thinks, and feels,
is undoubtedly in possession of the faith of a Christian
man; and such a faith is that of a large proportion of
those who statedly occupy pews in churches and chapels,
and who never advance beyond it.
Alternations of comfort and discomfort, of confidence
and of misgiving, are likely to attach to this state of mind,
especially with the ingenuous and thoughtful; and with
such there will be an uneasy consciousness of the disproportion between its own habitual emotions, and the doc.
trines it holds, which will often thus express itself, and
such a one will say —"If truths so unutterably vast in
their compass, and so momentous, be indeed my creed
-if the words I constantly repeat mean what they seem
to convey, and I acknowledge it to be so, how shall I give
any reason for my own ordinary state of mind, as thereto related? Either there must be something misunderstood in my own mind, when I say I believe such things,
or there must yet be something further on in the Christian
life, of which, at present, I have had no experience." The
consequence of such reflections as these will be, the renewal of serious efforts to redress, if possible, this inward
disproportion-this variation of so many degrees between
the soul and the creed, and a measure of success may
attend these conscientious endeavors; nor ought the genuineness of the religious conditions, even if it never advances far beyond this stage of alternating disquiet, and
dissatisfaction, and hopefulness, to be questioned-that is
to say, if it be.not brought into doubt on other grounds,
But tt length this Christian man, whose history we
uppose ourselves to be following, reaches a new era in




ITS THIRD ELEMENT.                165
his course, and an advance is made which is so marked
and decisive, that, whatever he may have believed and
felt in times past fades almost from his recollection, as
if it were a dream. Not a syllable of his heretofore professed belief has been displaced, or seems to need correction. If required to state in what sense he understands certain passages in the apostolic writings, his reply
would be precisely the same in words now as at any
former time; he would find it difficult, in fact, to describe,
in terms, the revolution which has taken place in his feelings and apprehensions, for it consists in a consciousness
to which language gives no utterance-a consciousness
of the reality 6f the First Truth of the Christian system.
With this new sense is associated the feeling that it has
been granted from above; it has come to him as a bestowment; he perfectly knows that it has not been the
product of the laborious workings of his own reason; but
that it is a gift-as much so as if he had suddenly found
himself endowed with a new sense, as to material objects.
Many religious persons, of thoughtful habit, have come
to a conclusion, more or less clearly perceived, to this
effect-namely, That inasmuch as the principal fact of
Christianity-the union of the Divine and human natures
in the person of Christ, and its propitiatory intention has,
and can have, no parallel-no instance strictly analogous,
and as it includes far more than a finite mind can compass or apprehend, little aid, in the way of explication or
illustration, or for obviating objections, ought to be looked
for as derivable from the circle of human agencies, or any
modes of proceeding known to us on earth. Much has
been attempted by theological writers on this groundl, and
perhaps something useful has been effected: yet it is but
little, at the most; and the endeavor has speedily been
relinquished by the best ordered minds. The first truths
of Christianity are not indeed out of harmony with the
human mind; but they are quite beyond its experience,
and fai beyond its unaided grasp; they are principles
which may be symbolized by the things of earth, but not




166         SUBSTANCE OF METHODISM:
resembled to any of therm: they may be announced in
words, but can never be laid open by any powers of
language; for language has no terms expressive of relationships such as these, between the Infinite and the finite.
It is not true that language is so ambiguous that it may
not run itself around these high truths, definitely, and so
as to lodge them securely in a creed: it may do so; but
it can never unfold what it so conveys or defines.
A step further may yet be taken. Beyond the confines
of that region which language may claim as its domain,
the human mind does make excursions, and thus it becomes conscious of a power to admit more than words or
phrases may convey: but has this faculty hitherto fully
developed itself? Every meditative mind feels that it
has not; and hence comes the fervency of that desire
which impels such minds to seek and implore the bestowment of light and truth as a free gift from above. Still
further than this, it is perceived that that Sovereign Grace
— ience sprang the redemption of the world, and the deliverance of man from sin and misery, implies (must
it not necessarily imply?) a correlative act, in each instance in which this redemption takes effect. If to have
devised and achieved his own salvation is a task utterly
hopeless on the part of man, so must it surpass his facul
ties, intellectual and moral, to bring himself individually
into communion with this salvation, or indeed to apprehend it: this knowledge of it, not less than the redemption
itself, must be a bestowment.
When at length it, is bestowed-when what has always
been believed on evidence of Scripture is brought home,
as a reality, both to the mind and to the feelings, then the
hitherto perturbed spirit, which had alternately accepted
and rnistrqsted its first.principles, takes them as its own,
and is at rest. What was well sustained by argument
and evidence is still seen to be so sustained; but now it is
known with an assurance such as no intellectual effort
could convey.
In theological usage, whatever is involved in the first




ITS THIRD ELEMENT.               167
truths of Christianity has come to be treated of distinctively, and is argued under a dogmatic form, as constituting so many doctrines. This method may, in relation to
its purposes, be good and necessary; but as a matter of
consciousness-as a Divine bestowment upon each soul
that receives it, it is One Truth —it is the one effulgent
mystery, it is the one "great salvation," effected and
secured in that ineffable mode which the inspired writings
variously affirm.
According to the constitution of their minds, or the discipline they had individually passed through, or the influence of others over them, the leading Methodistic
preachers gave prominence to this or that-separately
considered —aspect of the one bright truth of the coming
of the. Eternal Son of the Father into the world for its
deliverance. Thus it was that, with some of them, the
primary or rudimentary announcement-which is that of
the preacher of repentance-namely, a free and full pardon of sins —was the customary theme in the pulpit; and
the preacher's characteristic motto-text was of this sort"In whom we have redemption, even the forgiveness of
sins." Another, taking up this primary truth, combined
it with bright and enlivening announcements of the unrestricted intention, or universal availableness, to all mankind, of this salvation. "Christ"-this is the preacher's
text-'" is the propitiation for our sins, and not for ours
only, but for the sins of the whole world:" or this-" The
Father sent the Son to be the Saviour of the WORLD."
Another, whose eye is fixed upon the grace and majesty
of Him who is " the brightness of the Father's glory, and
the express image of His person," enlarges with pathos
and copiousness of illustration upon those inexhaustible
themes for which the Scriptures afford materials, and
which relate to the personal perfections of Him who, as
truly man, and truly God, gathers to himself whatever
can move the profound and reverential affections of men.
To this preacher the tropical language of the Old Testament, when illuminated by the beams of the New, fur



168          SUBSTANCE OF METHODISM:
nishes treasures of impassioned discourse —ever grateful
to the ear, and always listened to as if heard for the first
time. Or, approaching the same object, as from another
side, a preacher takes up the dogmatic and forensic strain:
and in a style more severe, and more logical and polemical, asserts the Protestant doctrine of "justification by
faith"-faith itself being the gift of God; and conveying
to the guilty and convicted sinner a "righteousness" not
his own, but "imputed." This preacher, in his style, is
textual, categorical, consecutive; and he employs himself
much in defending the position which he has assumed
against all assailants.
There is, however, yet another style which was characteristic of the Methodistic dispensation, and which,
while it may seem to border upon dangers or abuses, has
-it must be acknowledged-belonged to those whose
souls were of the amplest dimensions —whose habit of
thought has been the most rich and ruminative, and whose
personal piety has been the most profound and ripe. A
preacher of this order takes his choice texts from our
Lord's discourses with his disciples, or from those passages in the Pauline Epistles which affirm —plainly or
symbolically-Christ's relationship to his people, and his
headship to the mystic Church, and which speak of him as
the Saviour of those who were given to him of the Father
"from before the foundation of the world."
But from whatever side the mystery of human salvation
may have been contemplated by the several Methodistic
leaders, there was not merely a substantial unanimity
among them (wordy differences put out of view) but there
was a oneness of feeling, pervading all minds, and which
became the characteristic of this company of preachers,
and of those who were trained under their influence.
This feeling was the very contrary of the undefined and
dreamy mysticism of the pietist school, the connection of
which with the doctrines of Scripture was slender and
precarious; whereas the Methodistic feeling expressed
itself in terms decisively Biblical, whether correctly so or




ITS THIRD ELEMENT.                169
not. Nor had it any analogy with that pensive adoration
of the meek and suffering Jesus which so beautifully depicts itself in some pre-Lutheran devotional books; for in
these books the vital question of the grounds of justification is never well understood. But with the Methodists, notwithstanding Wesley's cautionary retractations, or
Fletcher's counter-arguments, the substratum of the pulpit
instruction on all hands was a full, free, and sovereignlybestowed salvation, wrought and obtained for men by the
Son of God. and which might now, in this life-even in
this very hour —be entered'upon, and enjoyed by every
one who thereto consented.
A vivid consciousness of this salvation, brought constantly under correction and revision by reference to the
Bible, and by an often-renewed appeal to scriptural tests
of sincerity, gave a healthy tone to Methodism, for the
most part, and long preserved it from subsidence into any
of those forms of non-scriptural and sentimental excitement which so often take the place of effective piety.
Methodism thus stands contrasted also with that intellectualism to which the genius and eloquence of some few
noted pirachers and popular writers of more recent times
have given currency.  Modern congregations, disciplined
— under such guidance-in the art and practice of listening to sermons, as amateurs, have drawn preachers, by
their plaudits, more and more, into this elaborated manner
-the purport of which is to pass Christianity through the
refining fires of each successive system of sentimental
philosophy that attracts ephemeral attention. Methodism
knew of no such tastes, no such refinements, and although
it proclaimed the Gospel rudely, often, or under partial
aspects, or in objectionable phrases, it was not a sophisticated Christianity that it published: it was that Biblical
Christianity which will never cease to be an amazement,
a scorn, an insoluble problem to all, of every class, religiously-minded or otherwise, who have not brought themselves to the point of an unconditional abandonment of notions and speculations that are of the " earth-earthy."
H




I 7b        SUBSTANCE OF METHODISM:
During the Methodistic era the popularity of preachers,
individually, resulted much less from their personal accomplishments, or their powers as orators, than from their
being thoroughly imbued with the doctrine and spirit of
the Methodistic company. Whoever it was that thus
"preached Christ," was thronged every where, and was
listened to as men listen when the message is to them of
immeasurably more moment than the style and manner of
him who may happen to deliver it. There is a. fine line
of demarkation which it would be no easy task to trace
across the broad field of evangelic pulpit exercises, but
on the one side of which the message is listened to and
thought of; and on the other, the messenger, and his mode
and his merits in delivering it. On the one side of this invisible line is the Methodism of the last century:-on the
other, what we may hear any where, and every Sunday;
and let it be acknowledged that what we may thus hear
is, for the most part, sound and commendable-sometimes
admirable, and far from being wholly ineffective; but on
the Methodistic side, if in these times it were to be heard,
there are words of power, in the hearing of which the
human spirit, vanquished and trembling, yet full of hope,
bows in presence of the Infinite Majesty, who, having
taken upon himself the sins of the world, and abolished
death, is able, as willing, to deliver from sin and wrath all
that come to him, willing thus to be rescued.
THE FOURTH ELEMENT OF METHODISM.
AGAIN we have to affirm, in behalf of the Methodism
of the last century, that which, if not peculiar to it, marked it in a manner not to be overlooked or easily misunder
stood. EVANGELIC PHILANTHROPY, considered as a specific
class of emotions, or as a habit of the moral nature, differs,
in its origin, substance, and form, from all the cognate
henevolent affections: nor can it develop itself ever, ex



ITS FOURTH ELEMENT.              171
cept in immediate and causal connection with those impressions, and with that vivid consciousness of the Mediatorial scheme which we have named as the third, and the
principal element of the Methodistic revival.
As to the benevolent affections, it may almost be said
that they have been the creation of Christianity, operating,
as it has, in a diffused manner, upon the social system,
wherever it has rooted itself among the institutions of
countries. Paganism knows little of these emotions, Mohammedanism not much; but the scope and encouragement
given to them by Romanism has redeemed it hitherto, and
may yet avail to it for much, in times of religious commotion. Yet what we have now in view is something
essentially different from that humane impulse which expends itself in the "seven works of mercy," or in any
enterprises or labors which spring from the gentler sympathies of our nature, quickened and informed by the precepts and encouragements of the Gospel. Those words
of love and power —do they not seem to shine on the page
where they stand? — " Then shall the King say unto them
on the right hand, inasmuch as ye did it unto these my
brethren, ye did it unto me"-what countless treasures of
relief have they not opened to the wretched, in the lapse
of these eighteen centuries! This stands certain; but it
is not our immediate object.
Beyond this, the benevolent affections, when enkindled
and enhanced by Christian motives, take a wider range,
and prompt Christian men to engage in those enterprises
of mercy which have respect more to the religious and
moral necessities of their fellows, than to their bodily destitution. Those noble charities of these times which are
carrying the Gospel out through the pagan wildernessthese have their rise in motives that are wholly approvable
to the Christian law-" thou shalt love thy neighbor as
thyself;" for where we lodge Christianity, with its healing
influences, and its purifying institutions, in the heart of a
pagan country, we do that which embraces the purposes
of all works of mercy, spiritual and temporal.




172         SUBSTANCE OF METHODISM:
Although that evangelic philanthropy which we have
now in view, as a principal element of the early Methodism, entered largely, no doubt, into the motives of those
with whom the modern missionary enterprise had its
origin, and of many too of those who have gone forth
among the heathen, yet, even at the first, and much more
since the first season of fervor, and at present, when the
work of evangelizing the heathen world has come to be
systematized on known principles of social organizationecclesiastical and educationary-missionary societies rest
for their support, and for the zeal that gives effect to their
endeavors, upon motives of a somewhat lower order, that
is to say, upon those various considerations which Christian benevolence so amply supplies, and for which the
degradation and wretchedness of pagan nations afford so
much scope.
Motives of this secondary order, intelligible as they are,
and warrantable on every ground of reason and piety, are
also readily available on those occasions of popular excitation, and of impulsive agitation, which the ordinary
working of the evangelic machinery brings before those
who are responsible to their constituents for its efficient
maintenance. Nevertheless, genuine and well founded as
are these more ordinary motives, it must be acknowledged
that, to a great extent, if not absolutely and entirely, they
are of modern, and of very recent origin: they belong
to our lately acquired habit of looking abroad upon the
world, geographically, and of considering what, until of
late, so seldom entered the thoughts even of the best men
the condition of our brethren of mankind remote from
us. These benevolent and frugiferous impulses, stimulating the active faculties, and the affections, and which
bring so near to our imaginations, and to our sympathies,
the population of a Chinese city, or of an island of the
southern hemisphere, are they-in their present form —of
much older date than those amazing mechanical inventions
of these last times which almost annihilate space and time?
The thoughtful reader of the New Testament can not




ITS FOURTH ELEMENT.               173
have failed to note the fact that, as to this entire class of
motives, upon which mainly our missionary enterprises
rest, as their basis —their reason, and their impulse, exceedingly little exemplification of them-very little of precept, or of rule, is to be gathered from  the apostolic
writings. Instead of this, which we are so apt to think
we shall find in abundance, we meet, on the one hand,
with precept, example, and encouragement, applicable to
all occasions of common benevolence, or of a self-denying
regard to the bodily wants and sufferings of those around
us. On the other hand, and especially in the Pauline
epistles, we find an impulse of a far deeper origin, and of
more refined quality, and of a less utilitarian aspect, and
which employs a dialect that is in the strictest sense peculiar to the Christian system.'It is to this impulse that
we have now to give attention, for it offers itself to view
as a principal element, also, of the early Methodism; it is
the spontaneous accompaniment of that vivid evangelic
feeling of which we have lately spoken. The elementary
expansive principle of Christianity is not natural benevolence, enhanced and spiritualized by religious considerations:-it is a sense, bestowed in an absolute manner from
on high upon whoever receives it, of that which is ineffable, and for the conveyance of which language has no
terms or powers adequate, but which yet it indicates and
affirms, as'when we hear of the " unsearchable riches of
Christ" —a wealth available beyond the utmost reach of
the all-grasping desires of the human mind, and available,
as for the individual soul, so for all human spirits. Whoever thus feels, first exults for himself, as rich indeed; yet
the consequent feeling follows so closely upon -the first,
that the two seem one; and it is -this second impulse
which we assume as THE TRUE MISSIONARY RUDIMENT-the
earnest, the burning desire to make known to all men
"that which passeth knowledge." It is in the writings
of St. Paul, to whom the evangelic mission was specially
confided, that we find-and scarcely at all elsewhere in
the Apostolic records-this which now we have in view.




174          SUBSTANCE OF METHODISM:
That this expansive feeling is a bestowment, specially
conferred upon those to whom an unlimited evangelic comrn;
mission is to be granted, might be gathered from the fact
that it barely indicates its presence in the minds of those
of the inspired writers whose apostolic function was to be
exercised within prescribed boundaries-local or ecclesiastical. The epistle of St. Jamyes, which so pointedly enforces Christ's law of beneficence, as related to the present
necessities of the poor and helpless,* barely contains a
word (one only, applicable by inference) on which we
might found our modern evangelizing labors.t No such
word occurs in the epistle of St. Jude. In the epistles of
St. John there is nothing which, in its direct or obvious
import, looks beyond the narrow limits of the Christian
inclosure, or at most, which carries us by force beyond
that boundary. " The whole world lieth in the wicked
one;" but the modern missionary inference from this dark
affirmation is not subjoined. The same is true of the
two epistles of St. Peter: those of the "dispersion," to
whom they were addressed, might think their obligations
as Christians fully acquitted so long as they maintained,
among themselves, purity of doctrine and of life, gave no
occasion to the ungodly to blaspheme, and held themselves
ready always, when asked for a reason of their hope, to
give it.
It is in the writings of St. Paul, that is to say, within
the compass of a few passages in some of his epistles, and
in the narrative of his labors, as given by St. Luke, that
are found all that presents itself indicative of the existence of that expansive force which, in the apostolic age,
did actually carry the Gospel over the entire area of the
Roman world, and probably far beyond its limits.
Those who have not given attention especially to the
subject, may, in these missionary times, feel a momentary
surprise, or even uneasiness, when the fact is first placed
before them-that the evangelizing impulse, the motives
and considerations which have taken so much hold of the
* James, i. 27.; ii. 15.; and iii. 17.  t James, v. 20.




ITS FOURTH ELEMENT.                   175
modern Church, far from occupying a prominent position
in the New  Testament, are found there very scantily.
Nor is this fact our only ground of surprise; for when the
few passages bearing upon this subject are examined, they
offer to our view a species of motive materially differing
from that which is characteristic of the modern evangelizing zeal.
It is only very remotely, or allusively, that the evangelizing work, or its motives, is glanced at in the Epistle to
the Hebrews, or in two of the three clerical epistles, or in
that to Philemon, or in the Second Epistle to the Thessalonians. Of the passages referred to below, the greater
number contain nothing more than an incidental reference
to the missionary work;* a few spread open to our inspection the apostolic mind, as related to those labors
which carried him around the circuit of the Roman world,
and in a retrospect of which he said —" I have fought a
good fight, I have finished my course." But what is the
complexion of these passages?  It is easy to describe
them negatively. Although the degraded condition of the
heathen world is spoken of in no abated terms.;yet this
dark subject, brought forward in its connection with a
theological argument, is not made use of, or spread out to
view, in its details, in any such manner as has become
customary with ourselves; that is to say-as furnishing
a motive for missionary labors. There is not one word,
in the compass of these epistles, that is analogous to
the evangelical statistics, and the geographic missionary
sketches which are so rife and frequent with ourselves.
This "Apostle of the Gentiles"-never seems to have computed the "millions of the perishing heathen" that were
* The passages in the Pauline Epistles which, either directly or by remote implication, seem to bear upon the writer's commission as the Apostle of the Gentiles-the Apostolic Missionary-are the folloan*g:~
ROMANSr i. 5. 14. 16; iX. 24; x. 14.; xi. 13; xv. 9. 16. 1 CORINTHIANS,
i. 23; ix. 23; xii. 10. 28: 2 CORINTHIANS, ii. 14; iv. 13; V. 19; X. 16;
xii. 10. GALATIANS, i. 16; ii. 7, 8, 9. EPHESIANS, iii. 6, 9, 10; iv. 11,
12; vi. 19. PHILIPPIANS, i. 14. 18. COLOSSIANS, i. 6. 23. 27. 1 THESSA-.LONIANs, i. 8; ii. 2, 16. 2 TIMOTHY, iv. 5.




176          SUBSTANCE OF METHODISM:
dwelling on this side of the Danube, or beyond it-on this
side the Rhone, or on that; or on the banks of the Rhine.
He never, so far as appears, addressed Christian congregations in the incitative style, as if to move them to aid
him in accomplishing his work. He speaks of contributions for " poor saints;" but never ot collections for propagating the Gospel in heathen lands.
Nor do these epistles exhibit any of those well-founded
and warrantable comparisons between Christianity and
heathenism, as to the effect of each upon the happiness
and civilization of nations, which have become, with ourselves, a staple of missionary eloquence. Nor even, if we
look to the deeper sources of evangelic zeal, do we find
the apostolic missionary expatiating, as does the modern,
upon those saddening subjects which are opened before us
by our meditations of the future life, as related to the
heathen world.  There is nothing in them of this sort;
yet it does not follow that we are therefore altogether
wrong; but it does follow that those incalculable revolutions which' have carried the human mind so far away
from the ground of antiquity, have given rise to modes of
thinking for which we shall in vain search the inspired
writings, as furnishing either the warrant or the example.
It is a fact noticeable indeed that the modern mind-the
world-wide philanthropy of these latter days-finds its
like of sentiment and expression, and of animation, much
rather in the prophetic poetry of the ancient dispensation,
than in the writings of evangelists and apostles.- The
books of Isaiah, David, Daniel, are the modern missionary's
treasury of texts, firaught -.with hope.
Nevertheless the fact returns upon us, that, although it
was with views or motives so remotely resembling those
which stimulate our modern zeal, the Apostle of the Gentiles did Lthis fact is out of question) plant the Gospel to
an extenT throughout the countries then subject to Rome,
which finds no parallel in Christian history; or none unless
we are willing to bring into comparison with it the preaching of our METHODIST-WHITEFIELD!




ITS FOURTH ELEMENT.               177
But now, if there be ground for any such comparison as
this, does it offer to our inspection any analogy as to the
prime impulses of the two courses of evangelic labor-the
Apostolic and the Methodistic? -This is a question, the
answer to which would be full of meaning. And here the
averment is boldly hazarded that, unless he had, by mere
sympathy, caught the feeling, and fallen into the style of
those around him, Whitefield, as a platform orator, at a
modern missionary meeting, would have felt himself out
of his place, and quite unprovided with materials that
might mingle homogeneously with the speeches coming
before, and coming after, his own. Might it be imagined
that Whitefield and St. Paul would together stand apart,
on such an occasion-rejoicing indeed as listeners to the
Report; but both inclined rather to hear than to speak,
and both of them perplexed as much as delighted?
Those who go forth with the Gospel in their hearts,
and on their lips, among the impenitent, may fix their eye
wholly, or mainly, upon one of these classes of objects; or
upon each in turn; as for instance-The missionary may
be chiefly intent upon the benevolent design of Christianizing a pagan and imperfectly civilized people, and so of
conferring upon them those inestimable secular benefits
which the Gospel brings in its train; yet meantime, not
unmindful of its bearing upon the future well-being of those
who shall cordially embrace it.
Or, the missionary may place before him an object of a
more abstract kind, which yet shall not exclude the benevolent considerations just mentioned. His ambition may
be inflamed with the hope of extending the boundaries of
his CHURCH, and of bringing under her spiritual sway new
and splendid conquests-regions nowsubject to the powers
of darkness, over which she may cast forth her line, and
where she may erect the symbols of her empire. Such
has been the prime impulse, no doubt, of many, if not most
of those who have carried Romanism into heathen lands.
Or again-and this is perhaps the feeling which is char.
acteristically that of our modern Protestant Missionaries,
rue




178          SUBSTANCE OF METHODISM:
combining itself with motives of the kind first named, and
more or less with those which we have yet to mentionthe missionary may chiefy fix his thoughts upon the spiritual condition of the heathen individually, and may direct
his endeavors to the one object of effecting the conversion
of those, individually, to whom he can by any means gain
access. Assuredly this order of feeling and this direction
of missionary labors are not reprehensible, nor will they
altogether fail of producing their effect.
And yet the eye may take another, and a higher range,
and it may fix itself, not exclusively, yet chiefly, upon objects that, as they are far brighter, so do they impart more
animation, and prove themselves to be more effective
for good. The modern missionary, while perusing the
epistles of the " Apostle of the Gentiles," has, as we have
said, often entertained a perplexing question on this very
ground, and has sought an explanation of the startling fact,
that so very small a place in them is occupied by those
exciting themes which had so large a part in engaging
himself in this arduous work. An allusive word or twoan incidental phrase, which by implication may be made to
carry a missionary sense —is all that he finds in these
epistles corresponding with those views and impulses that
constantly fill his own thoughts.
But is there nothing found in the place of that which he
looks for, and does not find? Let the modern missionary
gather firom the writings of the most successful of missionaries what it is which might auspiciously supplant, in his
own mind, much that hitherto has filled it. Does it not
seem that the soul of this MIssIoNARY-successful beyond
all example as a preacher of repentance, existed-if one
might so speak-in the very blaze of that glory which surrounds the Mediatorial scheme? To none of those considerations which engage so much our own minds, can we
imagine him to have been wholly insensible; nevertheless
it was to higher themes that he reverted; and it was from
a far loftier position that he looked abroad upon the field
of his labors. If he thought of the heathen world in its




ITS FOURTH ELEMENT.               179
actual condition, he thought much more of Him " who was
reconciling the world unto himself," by the Gospel. If he
thought of his ministry in preaching this Gospel "among
the Gentiles," it was as that ministry was the consequence
of the grace which had "revealed" the Son of God "in
him"-and had "formed Christ in his heart, the hope of
glory." He, no doubt, did think of the spiritual wretchedness and utter destitution of the millions around him, who
were " without God, and without hope in the world;" but
such meditations (so we must suppose) were incidental
only to the settled habit of his mind, which was bright and
ardent, and was occupied with nothing less than "the unsearchable riches of Christ." His errand, in traversing
sea and land, his impulse, and his ruling reason was, to
utter every where the outbursting fullness of his own
heart, overfull with a consciousness of the saving grace
and power of HIM in whom dwells the "fullness of the
Godhead bodily."
Here, then, is a state of mind-a habit of the soul,
which, though it does not exclude any of those moving
considerations of Christian-like philanthropy, or of common benevolence which have come to take the foremost
place among ourselves, is clearly distinguishable from
them, and is at once of a more animating kind, is more
constant, more elevating, and, in fact, is found to be more
effective for securing those very ends which are regarded
by such lower reasons.
Now if we take WHITEFIELD.as our fittest instance, or
sample of the early Methodism, and if we rightly gather
from the whole of the extant evidence touching his character and ministry, what his mind and motive was-what
the prevailing habit of his soul, what the foremost objects
in his view, he will seem to take his position, as an evangelist, in that very class of which St. Paul is the chief, and
the brightest exemplar. It was as living himself in the
effulgence of the Mediatorial scheme that he went forth to
call men to repentance. His motive was not a congeries
of reasons and considerations; it was an impulse, sponta



180          SUBSTANCE OF MVIETHODISM:
neous, irresistible, bright, and fiaught with love, hope, and
a sure anticipation of abundant success. Whitefield did
not measure his powers, as related to the task he undertook; nor could he have drawn discouragement from any
estimate formed of them by others, as insufficient for the
purpose.  Not merely did he look to, ask, and rely upon a
power extrinsic to himself; but he so commingled himself
with the omnipotence on which he relied, that the thought
of his own insufficiency passed out of his view.
It belongs to those evangelizing motives that are (so
we think) of a secondary or derived order, to be liable to
transmutations, or rather to be themselves always in a
transition state. Motives and reasons which are at first in
a high degree impulsive, and which express themselves in
an impassioned or rhetorical style, pass on, through successive stages *of abatement, toward a tranquil condition
of utilitarian sobriety.  It is not in the nature of motives
of this order to sustain themselves in their first freshness
and potency.  Whatever is composite tends, necessarily,
to dissolution-its elements combining with other elements
around it, in new forms.  But it was quite otherwise with
Whitefield; and the characteristic of his ministry was, as
we have said, its undecayed vitality-its ONENESS of tone,
from the first to the last.  There is a difference in this respect between Whitefield and Wesley, which the admirers
of the latter should not be reluctant to see adverted to: in
following the course of his long career, as preacher and
chief of a community, on; can not fail to notice a gradual
progress, or ripening of his views and principles: his fervor, if undiminished, perhaps, almost to the last, yet came
under the control of a slowly acquired discretion, and
spent itself in modes approvable-if not to the maxims of
worldly wisdom, yet to principles which a merely secular
intelligence recognizes. Maore and more, from the middle
period of his course, toward its close, his pulpit energies
were engaged in repressing ill tendencies, in forefending apprehended mischiefs, and in righting his societies
where they were lapsing into doctrinal or practical errors.




ITS FOURTH ELEM]NT.              181
Whitefield also gained wisdom fi-om what he saw and
suffered; but these wholesome fruits of experience related
almost entirely to his personal conduct. He had a nice
tact and sense of propriety, and in his later years he held
himself exempt from imputations to which, at first, from
want of caution, he had laid himself open. But as to his
evangelic function, this small wisdom-the wisdom of
common life-it touched him not. An ever deepening
sense of the richness, freeness, and boundless sufficiency
of that Gospel which he preached, held him always to the
same path, and made it impossible that he should tread
upon a lower level.
It may well be imagined that Whitefield, if brought into
the very midst of the modern missionary excitement, and
required to put his shoulder to this wheel, would have
found that he had forfeited his power, and could barely
maintain a position of equality among his colleagues. Not
so Wesley, who, with the machinery of our great associations under his control, and with the heathen world now
so near at hand as it is, would have thought himself, at
length, to have reached the very position he was born to
fill, with six hundred millions of pagans at his feet, and a
revenue of a million sterling, such as he would have made
it, at his command! The difference between Wesley and
Whitefield, on this ground, is not simply this, that the one
was eminently endowed with the governing faculty-the
power of disposing and commanding, while the other was
a simple soul, distinguished by no such eminent intellectual
qualities: it is more than this:-Wesley truly walked in
the light of the Gospel; but Whitefield lived in the blaze
of it, as it fills the upper heavens.
Whitefield is not thus named as if in disparagement of
others of the Methodistic company, among whom some,
perhaps, were not at all inferior to him, in this respect.
This elementary impulse, which is the exterior and involuntary expression of a deeper feeling, marks the Methodistic era; and it was in various degrees the distinction
of this band of men, and it is that which should entitle




182          SUBST1NCE OF METHODISM:
them to occupy a prominent position in a genuine history
of Christianity. On this special ground where do we find
their equals-that is to say, where, within the compass of
Christian history, shall we find-not eminent and solitary
instances —but a company of men, of untainted orthodoxy,
clear of sectarian virulence, indifferent to things indifferent, intent only upon the first Truths;-in labors and sufferings equal to the most zealous, and surpassing perhaps
all in simplicity of purpose, as embassadors for Christentreating men every where, "in Christ's stead, to be reconciled to God."
From  out of this elementary evangelic impulse there
sprang, after a time, and as its proper consequence, the
modern evangelic philanthropy-issuing in the missionary
enterprise; but the two, though related as cause and effect, are not to be confounded, nor should they be spoken
of as one and the same. A wide unmeasured space had
been silently traversed by the Christian community during
the few years that elapsed between the subsidence of the
Methodistic energy, and the origination of Missionary and
Bible Societies. In all those instances of transition, or
transmutation, in matters of opinion, feeling, or taste,
which mark successive eras in the history of communities,
that which is the prominent characteristic of bodies of
people, in any one period, passes forward into the next, as
the characteristic of individuals; or, to state the same
general fact in other terms, there are to be found, in every
period, individuals who might well be cited as the types of
the period that has just gone by. Whenever, therefore, it
is affirmed, concerning any definite moral or religious condition, that it has passed away, such an allegation is likely
to meet an animated contradiction on the part of those
who find it easy to name, among their acquaintances,
more than a few eminent men, as instances of the survivance of that which has so been spoken of as obsolete. But
such instances are not pertinent when they are thus appealed to. Periods rendered remarkable by the heaving
activity and force of certain moral elements, might be re



ITS FOURTE ELEMLNT.               183
sembledto mountain ranges, which, range after range, are
found to rise abruptly from their roots on the one side, and
to flow down by easy slopes, and to send out many offsets
and spurs into the plains on the other side.
It would be resented as a wrong done to the memories
of certain venerated men who were the fathers of modern
missions, if it were alleged concerning them that the evangelic fervor which moved and sustained them was at all a
less simply constituted habit of the mind than that of the
first Methodists. We waive, then, any such allegation,
if it may seem derogatory to those upon whom it would
bear; yet without scruple may it be affirmed that the diffused feeling of the Christian community during the past
Missionary era differed greatly, in its elements, and in its
composition, from that of the Methodistic period; as again
that feeling has, since then, passed through transmutations
which make it clearly distinguishable from that which at
present takes to itself the same dialect, and occupies the
same platform.
Allowing all the room for exceptive instances that can
fairly be claimed in their behalf, it must be said that, although the product.and the consequences of that visitation
from on high are on all sides extant, the soul and substance
of Methodism have long ago departed, that is to say, when
considered as a development of the primary motives of
EVANGELIC PHILANTHROPY.
We have affirmed that the Methodism of the last century was in no theological sense a novelty; yet that it was
a manifestation of elementary Christian truths, such as has
no parallel: —it was a sense of those truths granted in an
extraordinary degree to the principal persons, and through
their ministry conveyed to thousands of the people.
It has, moreover, been said that, as this Methodism
stands strongly contrasted with the religious condition of
all communions at the time when it appeared, so does it
stand contrasted (essentially, if not so strongly) with that
to which it has since given place throughout the Christian




184          SUBSTANCE Oi METHODISM:
Community. To some points of this contrast we must
return in concluding this volume; but to one special point
of it a reference should at once be made, lest a serious
misapprehension should suggest itself, and should gain a
lodgment in the reader's mind.
Methodism, we say, was not an issuing of new dogmas,
but a new feeling toward the existing belief-a sense of
things assented to; or, to vary our phrases, it was a vIVID
CONSCIOUSNESS of those elementary truths, or rather facts,
which constitute, in substance, the Christian religion. But
if so, then was it not —if we are willing to deduct from it
its vehemence, and its peculiar dialect, and to render it
liberally into the purer medium of our spiritualized philosophy, was it not, or may it not now be regarded as nearly
identical with the system concerning which we are assured by the initiated, that, while it includes every thing in
Christianity which ought to be regarded as essentially true,
or which can do us any good, holds itself exempt from the
unintelligible dogmas, the national symbolisms, the temporary frame-work, and the infantile myths of the apostolic
age, and of the (so called) Inspired Writings? " Methodism, you say, was a soul-stirring consciousness of Christian
verities. Yes, and our better philosophy, which abhors to
assail Christianity, which venerates its founder, and which
appropriates its lofty ethics, is also an INTUITION:-it is a
deep, if not a soul-stirring consciousness of eternal verities.
Its jargon deducted, is not then your Methodism the same
thing as our Philosophy-better phrased, and better behaved, and every way, therefore, a preferable religion?"
We can not grant this; —for instead of being substantially
identical, and in form only diverse, the two religions stand
in vehement contrast, and are forever irreconcilable; and
the difference between them -is for this reason hopeless of
adjustment, because it involves an utter mistake, on the
one part or on the other, as to the very structure of the
human mind, and its principles of action, intellectual and
moral. Before Methodism could be transmuted into the
spiritual philosophy of this passing time, proof must be




ITS FOURTH ELEMENT.              185
forthcoming, such as shall convince us that our settled belief concerning the mechanism of human nature is wholly
wrong.
Christianity assumes, and builds itself upon, this same
frame-work —such as we understand it; and if this foundation be indeed solid, then the modern philosophy can
have none; and inasmuch as we can neither rid ourselves
of our belief as to human nature, nor of our conviction
concerning Christianity as historically demonstrable, nor
cease to see the agreement of the one with the other, we
can not but hold the recent philosophy in small esteem.
It is very easy to imagine that just so much' of the
Christian system-theological or ethical, as this philosophy
is willing to recognize, and which it authenticates, as so
many portions of universal truth, might have been consigned to writings of remote and unknown origin, the
authority of which, irrespective entirely of any reference
to their authorship, or alleged inspiration, should have resulted, simply, from the accordance of their contents with
our innate sense of what is good, true, and beneficial. In
this case we should have possessed a religion —whether
the gift of Heaven or not, could not be determined-but
which, making its appeal to reason and to our moral intuitions, would neither have asked for faith, nor could have
demanded submission. Thus it might have been.
But in fact it is not thus that Christianity meets us.
TWhNT it does not, is a question to which a reply, under
several heads, may be returned; there is, however, one
reason why it should not be so, which is both obvious and
conclusive, because it involves, as we have just said, a
principle of huiman nature: this principle is recognized
and acted upon on all occasions.
A few minds excepted, and those not the most vigorous
always, or the best constructed, the human mind does not
yield itself to any very powerful impressions, and is not
effectively wrought upon, by any reasons or considerations
that take their rise wholly within itself, or which are generated by the mere interaction of its own faculties. In the




186          SUBSTANCE OF METHODISM:
world of mind, not less than in the material world, force
implies, somewhere, a fixed point of support-a fulcrums a
resistant, or reactive mass —an exterior, or independent
force, equivalent to the movement that is required to be
produced. It may well be questioned if so much as one
human mind has ever been so constituted as to evolve
force from within itself.  Incalculable indeed are the
energies of a powerful mind when acting upon, or when
getting its spring from that which is exterior to itself, and
independent; but apart from such extrinsic point of rest,
the movements and the involutions of the human mind are
not much better or more productive than a sort of incessant curdling, or endless gyration of elements-coming
round upon themselves, with fruitless repetitions.
The active faculties, and the moral impulses (if for argument's sake we allow a few exceptive instances) become
productive at the moment when some exterior fact, known
to bear upon our well-being, and which, if not palpable, is
still accepted as certain, presents itself before us:-then it
is that we begin to feel, and to act: then it is that we wake
up, and that dreams are dispelled, and that the real world
claims us as its own.
Who does not know' that this is human nature? How
perplexing, then, would it have been if a religion, professing to be effective for curbing the passions, and for ruling
thb man in the arduous occasions of his course, had itself
seemed to be unconscious of this first law of the moral system, and had undertaken its task of training us to virtue
and self-denial in contempt of it! It is not so, but the
very contrary; and Christianity meets us on the path of
passion and selfishness-meets us with its antagonist force,
and with its authority-meets us, not as a philosophy, but
as a FACT: or as a congeries of facts —facts historical, and
these attested as any others of the same class may, and
should be; and the very secret of its power, when once it
has caught the heedless ear, is, as one may say, the ordinariness of its apparatus of proof.
Human nature being such as it is, and not such as men




ITS FOURTH ELEMENT.               187
of the closet and dreaming sentimentalists would make it,
let the relative forces of a religion of Philosophy and a
religion of Facts be brought into comparison in any such
way as this:-Let us imagine a congregation to be listening, with charmed attention, to a lecture upon "the Religion of our Moral Intuitions;" or upon ethical abstractions-the purest and the most engaging. But we suppose
that, midway in this lecture, there enters some one, known
to all, who, in a tranquil and governed voice, and in the
briefest and simplest terms, states a fact. —new and conclusive in its bearing upon the welfare of all; remote, perhaps, in its'consequences, but infallibly certain to touch all
present. When this announcement has well fixed itself in
the mind of every hearer-shall the lecturer-resume the
thread of his discourse, and pursue his elaborate reasoning?  It is vain for him to attempt it. Every mind before
him has wholly broken connection with his own, and it
would be a hopeless endeavor to win them back to his influence. The thoughts of all have now come to a centering upon an extrinsic reality-upon a fact; and a class of
emotions altogether of another kind is getting into play,
and is gaining supremacy.
It is precisely thus t}lt Christianity, when it is proclaimed, not as a tissue of azure dreams, but as a fact —
when it is set forth as a series of transactions which is now
in course, and which hereafter is to reach its conclusion,
takes effective hold of the minds of men. Methodism did
so proclaim the Gospel, and the people every where were
awed by it, and multitudes became " obedient to the faith."
And thus it is, we say, that Methodism and the new philosophy, would have nothing in common. Methodism, as its
very characteristic, takes up the apostolic memento, and
thereupon rests its appeal to mankind —" Remember that
Jesus Christ, of the seed of David, is raised fiom the dead,
according to my Gospel." The new philosophy, if it does
not care to contradict this point of history, holds it as a
matter indifferent, and inconsequential.




THE FORM OF (WESLEYAN) METHODISM.
As to its substance, Methodism, Arminian and Calvinistic, may be spoken of as one, although its elements were
developed with some diversity under these two modes.
But when Methodistic organization comes to be considered, then it is solely Wesleyan Methodism that can demand
any peculiar attention. Already the fact has been alluded
to that, as to Whitefield, he never proposed it to himself to
bring his converts within the inclosures of an ecclesiastical
constitution. Nor was any purpose of this sort carried
out by Lady Huntingdon in such manner as might have
rendered the "Connection," and its apparatus, and its
rules, an object of much curidsity; or likely to yield instruction if brought under analysis. Calvinistic Methodism, after fertilizing the Episcopal Church, on the one
hand, and the Dissenting communions on the other, has
ceased to attract attention itself, as a communion distinguished from others.
Not so Wesley's Institute, for in this instance the FORM
-the organization of Methodism offers itself to view as a
fact, on every ground deserving of the most attentive examination.
But let a probable misapprehension.as to our present
purpose in attempting such an analysis be distinctly precluded. Are we then so bold as to entertain the thought
of schooling the extant Wesleyan body;-or do we propose to advise "Conference," or to utter judgment in
causes now pending between it, and any of its unruly
members? Certainly to no such high purposes as these is
the reader, in the present instance, to be made a party.
What is actually intended comes within those warrantable
limits of remark to which all human institutions are con



THE FORM OF WESLEYAN METHODISM.          189
fessedly open. METHODISM we have spoken of as that
which has long ago accomplished its purpose, and has
passed away: to other moods and modes of thinking it has
given place; and with its nominal representative-the
modern Wesleyan Methodism, we have no more to do, in
these pages, than with any other existing religious body.
But the genuine Wesleyan organization-that "' Society"
which was the product of its founder's mind, claims to be
considered as one of the most remarkable experiments in
ecclesiastical science that has ever been carried forward.
In truth, it stands before us alone, and without a parallel,
on the field of Church history, and therefore it may well
engage the serious regard of those who, in this day of
actual and of projected revolution, or reform, are inquiring
concerning the first principles of CHURCH ORGANIZATION.
Is it not probable, or almost certain, that, from the contemplation of:*o noted an experiment, carried 1 upon so large
a scale, much may be learned touching the theory and
practice of Christian combination?
If, in fact, a free and unprejudiced criticism of the Wesleyan church system should seem to issue in throwing a
shade of doubt upon the perpetuity of the body, in its
actual integrity, and present form, the writer must take
his place among those who would entertain any such forebodings with extreme reluctance, and would witness the
fulfillment of them with a lively and profbund regret.
One must be strangely insensible toward that which
touches the most momentous interests of mankind, and be
accustomed to regard the well-being of our fellow-men
under the very narrowest aspects, not to be dismayed at
the thought of the breaking up, the suspension, or the
alienation, of those means of good which, up to this time,
have been effective to an incalculable extent toward millions of men. How can a Christian-hearted man take his
course, on a Sunday morning, through the streets of a
manufacturing town, and not fervently desire the undamaged continuance, and the further extension of Wesleyan
Methodism?




190    THE FORM OF WESLEYAN METHODISM.
Nevertheless, it would be an ill-judging weakness, and
a miscalculating caution, that would prohibit the sort of
inquiry we have now before us, as if its tendency might
be to accelerate a result that is foreseen and deprecated.
On the contrary-unless indeed such a supposition should
be scouted as utterly presumptuous, it might be allowable
to imagine, as possible, that suggestions offered in humility
and affection, by one who can be influenced by no sinister
motive, may, in some indirect manner, avail for purposes
of conservation and renovation toward the Wesleyan body.
With very rare, if indeed any exceptions, the institutions,
doctrines, and usages of religious bodies have, hitherto,
either been set forth, in laudatory terms, by adherents
and advocates, or acrimoniously assailed by antagonists;
or the weaknesses of such bodies have been maliciously
placarded by renegades. May there not be room, then,
for the modestintervention of any whose onlywolicitudes
and whose only jealousies relate to that Christianity which; common to all evangelic bodies?
A religious revival or reformation can never be held exempt from the inconvenience and opprobrium attaching to
the circumstance of its receiving from the world, or accepting-a NAME. But this disadvantage, whether it be
of greater or less amount, is a temporary evil, and may be
patiently submitted to until it wears itself away; but the
founding of a Church, or communion, is another matter;
inasmuch as it is a work intended for perpetuity, and the
affixation of A NAME to a Christian Institute can not be regarded in any other light than as a prognostic of its dissolution, at some period not immeasurably remote. Yet
among such designations, undesirable as they are-one
and all, there may be a choice; and it might be well, and
it would show wisdom on the part of a rising community,
frankly to take to itself, from the world, a designation
given it in scorn, rather than to place, on its own front, as
in triumph, the name of its venerated founder. One indines to think that, in the eye of Heaven, this is an indiscretion, if not an offense, which, though venial at the first.




THE FORM OF WESLEYAN METHODISM.         191
no merits in the body shall avail to perpetuate. It is indeed hard to believe-when thinking of some form of
Christianity which we are told is the very purest, and the
loftiest, that it should continue forever to be called after
the name of its promulgator, whether Luther, Calvin,
Barclay, or Wesley.
If Methodism had not so early split itself upon the Arminian and Calvinistic controversy, it is probable, or it
may at least be conjectured, that Wesley's Institute might
have come down to.us exempt from the ominous prefix
which is now its designation-in law and usage. There
may be reason to think, perhaps, that some oversight in
the framing of that institute was such as could not fail to
work out its ill-consequence in the course bf time; but
when Wesley failed to take effective means for forbidding
to his friends and successors the gratification of calling
themselves and their Church by his name, did he not surely
doom it to dissolution? Wesley, if he had sternly enjoined
his followers to be content with " Methodism," would have
consigned his ashes to an urn with sweeter odors than he
did in indulging them with this ill-omened " Wesleyanism."
Once and again the writer has professed his entire faith
in Wesley's simplicity of purpose, and his freedom from
personal vanity, or ambition: it was from no such vulgar
impulse that he bequeathed " Wesleyan Methodism" to his
people. But, exempt he was not from the autocratic sent
timent-from the Founder's self esteem-from that-infatuation-one must call it, which works as an irrepressible
energy in the bosom of every man who is born to invert
-to originate —to lead the way-to govern-to FOUND.
In the view, or in the feeling of the Inventor or Founder,
the product of his mind-the ripened fruit of long and
painful cogitation-the scheme-the system-the mechan
ism, which has filled his thoughts, waking and sleeping,
firom year to year, has become, as a whole, and in each of
its parts, even the smallest, identical with his own personal
consciousness: to excind any part of this whole is the
same thing as to amputate a limb, or to pluck out an eye




192     THE FORM OF WESLEYAN METHODISM.
The vulgar will persist in taking this strong feeling for
vanity or arrogance; but it is not so: it is an illusion to
which almost the loftiest and the most vigorous minds haVe
been subject.
It is not difficult on this ground to imagine Wesley's
feeling: it seemed to him that his creation-his " Society,"
would, as to the integrity of its rules, its orders, its doctrines, and its spirit, be more safe under the guardianship
of a personal, than under that of an impersonal designation: and it would be so, doubtless, for a time; —but for
how long a time? That a feeling of this sort did enter
into Wesley's views, and determine his conduct; is not a
mere presumption, for it makes itself conspicuous in those
injunctions and enactments-variously expressed, as they
are, and on different occasions put forth, which, in a tone
of almost unparalleled confidence, impose upon his followers-ministers and people, that v,ery form of belief which
he has embodied in his own voluminous writings. " My
Sermons," "my Exposition," "my Treatises" —such and
such. It was not arrogance, not egotism, in the vulgar
sense of the word; but it was the yielding to an impulse
which a higher wisdom would have taught him to repress,
and which a better knowledge of human nature than he
seems to have possessed would have shown him could
have no other result, after a lapse of time, than to place
1' The Works of the Reverend John Wesley" on a high
shelf, where they will share the fate of Calvin's Institutes
at Geneva: the funereal formula is already uttered "dust
t* dust."
A voluminous writer, or one who, if not voluminous, has
appeared before the world'frequently, from the middle
period of life, to its later years, may well be indulged in
so much overweening as to think that the body of opinions
maintained in his works, a* intrinsically of rather more
value and importance than he finds to be attributed to
them in the wide world of his heedless readers. A writer
may so think, and yet himself be thoroughly superior to
the vanity and egotism that attach to inferior minds. Let




THE FORM OF WESLEYAN METHODISM.          193
this be granted; but now, if there be in the structure of a
man's mind a particle of the philosophic element-if he be
accustomed to indulge in that sort of tranquil meditation
which grasps the broadest aspect of things, and which
takes account of, and correctly estimates the moral and
intellectual forces that are acting around-himself wholly
forgotten-such a man, how would he shrink from the
astounding presumption of saying to his readers —" There!
in the ten or twelve volumes of my works-there look for
your belief —whole and lacking nothing. Take and digest
what I have written, page by page, line by line, word for
word:-you may as well spare yourselves the fruitless
trouble of thinking any further, or of going deeper into
any subject than I have gone, or of speculating concerning any thing which I have not considered. Take it on
my word that, within the compass of my mind youyou-tens of thousands of people-the teachers and the
taught, are safe: go beyond that limit, and you will get
out of your depth, and be lost."
Wesley did not use any such words as these when addressing his preachers and people; but what he did say
embraced the substance of them. His mind might be adduced as a singular instance-when its high energy is
considered-of the absolute absence of the retro-reflective
faculty, or the power and habit of stepping back from
one's position, and of measuring its bearings, as related to
other objects. What is it that the p tinter does who, at
frequent intervals, and as often as he has exhausted his
skill and pencil upon a particular object, recedes to a
spectator's distance, and there considers how this last
finishing tells in the general effect? Wesley did no such
thing. He wrought his picture in mosaics, from side to
side of his frame, and nothing could be retouched or considered anew.
Surprising results may be obtained, in any work of art
or mechanism, or in any social economy, if only we are
willing to pay the cost; that is to say, to compromise
every thing else —to sacrifice every thing else-to forget
I




194     THE FORM OF WESLEYAN METHODISM.
every thing else, for the sake, of that one result. It is on
this principle that the institutors of monastic orders, and
the founders of rigid sects have so often amazed the world
by what they have produced, out of the raw material of
human nature. Draw the pen, with merciless consistency, through every thing in human nature-its tenderest
and most generous affections, its active faculties, its desires, sympathies, hopes, fears-erase all but some one
principle, some one passion or tendency; and then bring
the entire force of the system, mental and bodily, to a
focus —bearing upon that one clear spot; and if you will
do this, and will submit to all this damage and destruction, there is nothing that may not be realized, just on this
one line:-the man, when he has been thus treated, and
thus condensed, goes about as a miracle among others.
He who can leap high from a slack rope, and come down
upon his palms, and turn over, and regain his erect position, has learned to accomplish this feat at the cost of his
entire faculties-bodily and mental: —this is what he can
do, and this is all; —he has paid down his whole human
nature for this one accomplishment. The parallel to this
sort of compromise may be found within the pale of
every ascetic community, and something approaching to
it within the circle of some noted modern sects; and we
must not say that Wesleyanism offers no sample of this
sort, if it be not itself altogether an example of it. Jesuitism assuredly is so.
After what has been said in the course of the preceding
pages, expressive of the writer's belief concerning the
early Methodism, and his reverential idea of Wesley's personal virtues, and of the incalculable good which Wesley-.
anism has effected, some degree of libertymay be allowed
him in speaking of that system of close sectarianism which
he bequeathed to the world. It must be granted to be in
costume, and quite fitting-the garb to the inner manwhen religious communities which occupy, as one may
say, a few acres only upon the breadth of Christendom,
narrow their doors, shut their windows, and manage their




THE FORM OF WESLEYAN METHODISM.          195
hterior economy in the most despotic style. Let it be
so: but the same indulgence can not so easily be granted
to a community, like the Wesleyan, the gates of which
stand open night and day, which challenges all passers-by
to enter, and which has rebuked other communions, as less
catholic than itself. Yet, is it not true, at the present
time, and has it not been true from Wesley's time down
to this, that a seclusive and repellant style and tone have
been the characteristics of the Wesleyan body, as compared with surrounding communities? If it be so then,
what we have before us is at once the widest of all sects,
as to the area it covers, and its statistics, and the very
narrowest as to its temper!
It is quite true that a pent-up force becomes so much
the more aforce by that very means; and the energy of
Wesleyanism  may, in part, be attributed-no doubt-to
its tight lacing. If only you can bring to bear upon the
minds of a body of men enough retaining motive, and can
induce them to submit themselves to minute rules of personal behavior, to sumptuary restrictions, and to verbal
fixities of opinion;-if you can win them to something resembling a jail discipline, if they may be brought to take
an Index Expurgatorius as the tether of their intellectual
sustenance;-if all this can be effected, scarcely any limitse
can be set to the effective power which such a machinery
may display. It is thus that the Regulars, in their day
gone by, have amazed the vulgar world; and thus that
Jesuitism has seemed, almost, as if it might achieve its object-the conquest of the human family. It is thus, on a
much smaller scale, that fervent sects have filled out their
hour; and thus in measure-must we not say it-that
WesTeyanism has been outstripping all competitors, now
these last hundred years. But so surely as any species of
moral force has been generated by means of a moral compromise, or at the cost of the symmetry and beauty of the
Christian system-so certainly will that force spend itself,
after a time, and leave the materials it had bound together
to resolve themselves into their elements.




196     THE FORM OF WESLEYAN METHODISM.
While we have in view any such instance as this, it A
highly necessary to attend to the distinction between a religious institution, and the Christianity which it implicates.
The adherents and champions of sects are perpetually deluding themselves on this ground, and are making an idle
boast while they attribute to the excellence of their framework-to the wisdom and efficiency of their rules, orders,
discipline, that which, in truth, is common to themselves
and to all others, retaining and employing an equal
amount of the deep energies of the Gospel. What ought
indeed to excite our admiration, in contemplating certain
religious mechanisms, is that inextinguishable force and
vitality of the Christian system, which renders it effective
for good, notwithstanding the pressure of almost any burden with which misjudging men may have encumbered it.
Wesleyan Methodism  has proved itself hitherto the
most efficiently expansive Christian institute which modern
times have seen; it must be presumed, therefore, to possess
excellence of structure of a very peculiar kind, and which
should command the attention of all who make ecclesiastical economics their study. This first unquestionable inference from the facts before us being granted, then it will
support another-if such another should force itself upon,4s —namely, that a scheme whi h is in itself so effective,
working upon and by the aid of the powers of Christianity,
has thus far held off from itself the ill consequences of some
serious imperfections, which would, long ago, have been
fatal to almost any other community.
The eager champion of Wesleyanism would appeal to
the broad fact of its unexampled spread and prosperity, in
proof of the perfection of the system; but thaecalm observer, who looks upon it from without, will find, in that alleged excellence, a solution of the otherwise perplexing
question-How is it that such and such glaring imperfections have not, long ago, brought the Institution to which
they attach to its end?
With a further question, which would involve a calculation of the destinies of the Wesleyan body, we have no



THE FORM OF WESLEYAN METHODISM.          197
thing to do, in these pages; nor shall stay to inquire what
number of years may be expected to elapse before the accumulating results of its imperfections shall outweigh its
intrinsic forces. Nor, again, shall we prosecute this inquiry-whether the Wesleyan system may admit of such
amendments, as, while its integrity is preserved, may extend its duration. Avoiding all such perilous, and perhaps
invidious topics, we are to look into this vast and complicated economy for the sole purpose of gathering up from
the field of so large an experiment the. lessons it may
furnish.
Wesleyan Methodism may conveniently be considered
under the following heads-namely, asI. A SCHEME OF EVANGELIC AGGRESSION;
II. A SYSTEM OF RELIGIOUS DISCIPLINE AND INSTRUCTION,
as toward the people;
III. A HIERARCHY, or system of spiritual government;
IV. AN ESTABLISHMENT, or Body Corporate, related to
Civil Law and Equity.
WESLEYAN METHODISM-A SCHEME OF EVANGELIC
AGGRESSION.
THE advocates of the Wesleyan body may fairly appeal
to the candor of other communions in some such manner
as this-Our system, they may ask, is it not in itself good
as compared with other systems? If you doubt it, see
what progress it has made, and what it has done. Reckon
the rate of its increase, in Christianized and in heathen
lands, within the compass of a century, or little more.
If you say it is Christianity that has so triumphed, we
gladly grant it; but yourselves, as we also gladly grant,
have, during the very same course of time —and much
longer-professed the same Gospel, and you have faithfully administered it; but yet with no success at all com



198     THE FORM OF WESLEYAN METHODISM.
parable to ours; and while we acknowledge the hand
of God in this instance, we must not be forbidden to look
to the proximate causes of this difference in the result,
and these causes we find in the SYSTEM; that is to say, in
those things which distinguish our WESLEYANISM from
any previously existing ecclesiastical organization.
The justness of this appeal ought surely to be granted;
and if so, then the question presents itself, —What is it in
this system which has rendered it, in so eminent a manner, effective for carrying the Gospel out upon new
ground? Much of this unexampled success must be attributed to that extraordinary impetus which Wesleyanism, at its commencement, received from METHODISM,
which was not its own, exclusively; but as this advantage, at starting, was, in the nature of things, temporary,
we are still bound to look to the institution itself for the
principal reason of the greater and continued success it
has commanded.
This success, estimated in the most moderate manner,
and after allowance has been made, in the way of abatement, on whatever grounds may seem requisite, ought, as
the writer thinks, to be held good in argument-fact
against theory-establishing a great principle of ecclesiastical science, such as this:-That it is always the part and
duty of Christian meh, put in trust with the Gospel-or,
let us so express it, of "any congregation of faithful men
in the which the pure word of God is preached, and the
Sacraments duly administered," to devise, and to give
effect to such methods of procedure as to them, in the conscientious exercise of their reason, shall seem best; and
this, as well for maintaining the church which they actually possess, on its ground, as for extending continually the
Gospel, near and far, among those who have it not.
This principle, obvious as it is, would seem to need little
proving; and in fact it has been tacitly assumed and acted
upon, even by those who have rejected it in words. Yet
it stands opposed, in the first place, to the mystical and
spiritualizing theory which aims, if it were possible, to




AN AGGRESSIVE SCHEME.               199
hold the Gospel in a sort of sublimated condition, as an
unearthly abstraction. There is always in existence a
tendency of this sort; and it is seen more or less to sway
the min'ds even of those who well know that to no such
theory can they give indulgence, unless the clearest injunctions of Scripture are to be set at naught. But, on the
other hand, the same clear rule of common sense and
Christian duty impels us to reject, as an impracticable
superstition-a superstition to which hitherto not the most
resolute fanaticism has succeeded in giving full effect-the
belief that no means or devices intended for securing the
maintenance of visible Christianity, or for effecting its
spread, can be lawfully employed, other than those which
are verbally and specially defined in Holy Scripture.
Those who have professed this belief have been ready to
cite Biblical warrant for outline and finishing, for foundations and superstructure-for masons' work, and for decoration, of their Church-of-Texts. Amazing have been the
refinements of expository sophistry resorted to for the
purpose of giving completeness and consistency to the
ideal of such a Church; and besides the fierceness of temper, and the bigotry attendant upon this endeavor, it has
had the ill effect of training astute minds in the practice
of that Rabbinical chicanery by means of which any thing
we please may be inferred from any texts given.
This superstition, if not formally renounced, is not now
practically regarded by any Christian community;-it is
only sighed after by fond theorists, who would fain think
themselves entitled to allege. the authority of heaven in
behalf of all they do and say, as members of a Churc-h.
But if a practical refutation of this groundless doctrine
were needed, we should find it most conclusively in the
instance of the Wesleyan body. Wesleyanism is a scheme
— it is the product of uninspired intelligence; and therefore it has its defects; but notwithstanding these defects,
it has been (to use a customary religious phrase) " owned
of God," for the good of men, to an extent that has no
parallel. Let the facts, as they bear upon the obsolete




200     THE FORM OF WESLEYAN METHODISM.
superstition in question, be broadly and correctly stated.
They stand before us thus:
Certain Christian bodies, taking their rise during tfie
Reformation era, or in the following age, adopted, as was
very natural, the textual princi-ple, and could be content
with nothing but a Church, in all things, conformed to the
supposed primitive model: the founders of these Churches
indulged themselves to the full in this their ecclesiastical
zeal; but what has, in each instance, been the resulttaking the lapse of a century into account? The history
of such bodies has shown a sure progress from animation
to formality and supineness, and a constant recession from
the ground at first occupied, to a ground more narrow.
Such bodies, left to themselves, and when they have admitted no genial influences of reanimation from foreign
sources, have invariably lost, fi'om year to year —their
light-their warmth-their area, and their numbers. Is
there, then, at this time, any room left for indulging the
hope that the world will be widely Christianized by any of
those Text-made Churches?
But let us turn to the facts which present themselves on
the other side, and we find them in the history of Wesleyan Methodism. Wanting, as it was at its commencement, in almost every adventitious aid, and owing nothing
to concomitant political excitements, strong, solely, in its
evangelic energy, and in the simple purpose of its promulgators, it possessed itself of a surface outmeasuring far
that which, in any properly comparable instance, Christian
teachers have brought under their influence, within the
same compass of time. And then, after the Methodistic
founders had done their work, and when Wesleyanism
had come to its place among other communions in England and America, and when it was working its way as
abreast of them, after they had received the new life
which Methodism itself had diffused through all, still it
continued to spread in an increasing ratio, as compared
with the rate of its initial advances, and quite beyond
the rate of its competitors. In relation to our present




AN AGGRESSIVE SCHEME.              201
purpose, the Wesleyan annual increase must be reckoned
to include those who, on several occasions, have broken
their connection with Conference; for these offsets have
still held to the elements of Wesleyan organization, and
are themselves instances confirmatory of our immediate
argument.
This organization has, we say, abundantly proved itself
to be effective in an extraordinary degree-considered
simply as a system of evangelic aggression; that is to
say, of aggression upon the irreligion of the world around
it; and then, if any are inclined to urge the acknowledged
imperfections which attach to this system, or those serious
faults of structure that seem now to threaten its perpetuity,
as so many countervailing facts which should lower it in
our esteem, we make our appeal to those same blemishes
and faults in a contrary sense, and we say-This Wesleyanism-notwithstanding its confessedly crude composition,
and the misapprehensions and the practical errors with
which it has encumbered itself, has yet far outstripped
other Church systems, framed in scrupulous conformity to
the theory adopted by their founders. Wesley, as founder
of a Church, stands liable to some heavy inculpations; and
tlterefore it is that, as originator of an evangelic enterprise
for extending the Gospel, he may claim the higher praise:
looked at in this light, his very faults come in to swell his
trophies.
Foremost among the causes to which may be attributed
the unexampled success of the Wesleyan body, must be
named its UNITY OF INTENTION, or adherence to, and
steady pursuit of a great principle. This means something more than a faithful profession of doctrine, or a continuous orthodoxy; for other bodies have had this same
merit, and haveS held fast the form of sound words"
through centuries of prophesying in sackcloth.  But
these communities, without an exceptive instance, beside
their giving less prominence to that effective truth —" salvation through faith," have either derived their organization by tradition from remote times, and have allowed their
1*




202     THE FORM OF WESLEYAN METHODISM.
energies to be shackled by venerated observances; or,
what is worse, have, as we have just said, yielded themselves to the will and whim of theoretic Biblists, and have
vegetated, or barely breathed, within the bandages of a
Church polity according to texts.
No man was more devoutly observant of the authority
of Holy Scripture than Wesley; but his understanding
was as practical in its tendencies, as his piety was sincere,
and he perfectly felt, whether or not he defined that conviction in words, that an Apostolic Church-although
right to a pin-which did not subserve its main purpose
-the spread of the Gospel, and the conversion of the ungodly, must be regarded as an absurdity and a hinderance
to the truth. " What is the chaff to the wheat?" what are
wholesome and scriptural usages and orders which leave
Christianity to die away within an inclosure? Wesley,
not withdrawing his eye for a moment from the great and
single purpose of his life, not letting go his hold of his one
principle, worked upon such materials as came to his
hand, in the spirit of liberty and power. Nothing for
mere expediency sake would he have admitted-nothing
would he knowingly have done on the assumption that the
end sanctifies the means. But so long as no apostolic anjunction is violated, and so long as the spirit and intention
*of apostolic precedents are regarded, a Christian institutor
is free (as he he thought) to use the natural ability and
sagacity which God has given him, for devising a mechanism which, though it may not give contentment to theorists, shall subserve its high purpose of sustaining and
spreading the Gospel. Wesleyan Methodism, therefore,
whatever may be its deficiencies, if thought of as a Church
system, or how grave soever and ominous its faults as a
scheme of government, has yet the gri1t and commanding merit of embodying the evangelic impulse as its one
law and reason: it is simple in principle, and with the
working of that principle no subordinate purposes are
allowed to interfere.
However true it may be that Wesley, as a Founder,




AN AGGRESSIVE SCHEME.              203
was keenly sensitive as to the integrity of the system he
had created, it may be imagined that, if certain material.
imperfections in that system had been placed before him,
in a convincing manner, he would, with an earnest ingenuousness, have set himself to work anew, and either have
removed those faults, or have demolished his house, and
built it up from the foundation on a better model. Further even than this we might go, and affirm that, at the
present moment, Wesley's true successors and best representatives would be the men who-after the experiment
of a century, finding Wesley's own Wesleyanism seriously
at fault, would-with that grandeur of soul and simplicity
of purpose which distinguished him, take in hand the SYsTEM, and mould or remodel it in conformity with the
founder's one purpose. How good is the example he has
left with his followers on this ground; and even now one
may think one hears his voice, echoing in his chapels, and
expounding to his people, in its genuine sense, those words,
so often repeated among them, "Let us mind the same
thing;" not meaning thereby a slavish adherence to things
as they are, whether fitting or unfitting, but a wise constancy in holding fast a paramount principle, which the
lapse of time can not affect, but which can be preserved
through the lapse of years in no other way than by new
adjustments, introduced from time to time, and always before the hour when they can no longer be resisted.
The unexampled success that has attended the Wesleyan Institute, in winning conquests from the world-and
this, notwithstanding its defects, and the meagre style, too
often, of its ministrations, furnishes an evidence fraught
with instruction, which none but the infatuated will fail to
turn to advantage. Actually to effect those changes, or to
introduce those subsidiary means which the large experiment before us might seem to warrant, may not be practicable, at any particular moment; nevertheless, it must.
be desirable to keep the eye upon such items of reform,
so that fit occasions for introducing them may not be lost,
when they shall occur.




204    THE FORM OF WESLEYAN METHODISM.
And now, might not that ONE INSTITUTE which holds the
affection and approval of the majority of the English
people, draw to itself, in an especial manner, those infe'
rential benefits which may be derivable from the Wesleyan
experiment? How improbable soever, and undesirable,
may be an absorption of Methodism by the Established
Church, there are points enough of assimilation between
the two bodies to allow of the carrying over whatever
may be good in the one, to augment the efficiency of the
other. Let leave be granted for affirming that, for the
advantage of the Episcopal Church at some time future,
there has been carrying forward, during these last hundred
years, and on an adjoining field, an experiment precisely of
that kind which would best supply hints and suggestions
for its own improvement. Wesley, thrust out of the
Church in his day, will not, now, or ever, re-enter it with
the thousands of his people; but yet he may, at some time
not very remote, win the honor of bringing into it the
rich fruits of his ecclesiastical sagacity. The Established
Church needs-as we have already ventured to say-a
place assigned within it for that which we have named as
the Second Element of Methodism; and it needs-glaringly so-a scheme of ministrations having an aggressive
purpose, in relation to the masses of the people, and on
this ground, manifestly, Wesleyan Methodism might read
it a lesson.
No ecclesiastical scheme, however wisely put together,
will of itself avail, either to conserve the Gospel in its
purity, or to extend its range; but such a scheme may
favor, both its conservation and its propagation; and it
has been too often proved to be in the power of an ill-constructed Church polity, as well to deprave doctrine, as to
forbid expansion.
Whether it be good and safe, for purposes of government, of discipline, and of financial management, to leave
uncontrolled power in the hands of the ministers of religion may well be questioned; and, indeed, it is conceding much to those who would defend such a system, to




AN AGGRESSIVE SCHEME.             205
grant any space at all for a question on that ground. But
this is not our immediate subject. When purposes of
evangelic aggression only are in view, much may be said
with reason in behalf of a purely clerical conclave, or deliberative assembly, which shall be exclusive of laymen.
It ought not to be thought that we take low ground, or
that we are recommending that which must, in the end, secularize religion, when we pay regard to those secondary
principles of action which spring from our common human
nature.'A church system which utterly refuses to recognize inferior motives will be inefficient and impracticable,
except so long as its fervor is at the highest pitch: a
church which builds wholly upon such motives is nothing
better, at any time, than a worldly polity. We do not
build upon any such motives; but we never lose sight of
them.
Those arduous, and often perilous labors, by means of
which-and on no easier terms, in any state of society, and
not less in the heart of Christianized countries than in
heathen lands-the Gospel may be carried out and planted
upon new ground, imply and demand a very high tone of
religious feeling among those who charge themselves with
these enterprises. This work of aggression-this dauntless entry upon the royal preserves of Satan, and this continuance in the soldier's course-this endurance of contempt, buffeting, defeat, and "hardness," in many forms
of real suffering, and of tormenting annoyance, will never
be carried forward by men who have not braced their
minds by an habitual recurrence to the ultimate motives
of that course of life to which they have devoted themselves. Men —however good, fervent, and benevolentwho listen to gentle whispers, who are wont, as the phrase
is, " to think better of it," and who take advice from those
that stand at men's elbows ready to endorse the pleadings
of an infirm. conscience, such will not do the work of
which now we are speaking: —in a word, it is a work
which demands a high and sustained tone.pervading a
select body of men, and which would almost certainly be




206     THE FORM OF WESLEYAN METHODISM.
lowered or abated by the stated presence, and the official
intervention, of laymen. The layman, individually, whose
views and temper were such as to place him on a level
with the loftiest spirits in a conclave of ministers would,
by the very fact of possessing such a mind, cease to be a
layman. But when a deliberative assembly is so consti
tuted as to include, of right, a certain proportion of lay
members, these, in whatever way elected, must be taken
as they come, and they can never, as a body, possess a
very exalted character; at the best, they will be no better
than the best of the people. Some of the more active
spirits among these lay deputies will be forward to recommend courses of ministerial enterprise which, if they
themselves were ministers, they would'never suggest;
and in doing so, they will rouse some ministerial counteraction, which will not stop till it has gone too far: the
*" wise" among the lay brethren will be likely to go over
to the same counteractive side; and thus less will be undertaken and done than as if ministers had been left to the
promptings of their spontaneous zeal.
Within a purely ministerial conclave, assembling periodically, formally, and authoritatively, the ambition (not
necessarily unholy) which seeks the welfare and increase,
the stability and the augmentation of the INSTITUTE, whence
the individual men themselves derive their social and professional existence-their all-will not be wanting.  A
feeling of this sort is one of the most powerful that are incident to human nature: we gain nothing by depriving it
of all space and opportunity; we gain much by giving it
a legitimate scope.
An assembly such as we now suppose, and consisting,
whether of one, of two, or of tliree hundred members,
will not- unless in times of extreme lifelessness —be wanting in at least a few eminent instances of high energy,
practical determination, lofty motive, firm principle; and
these will not merely be allowed the influence which is
their right —the inalienable right of the gifted-to guide.he mass; but they will impart to it their tone, they will




AN AGGRESSIVE SCHEME.              207
diffuse throughout it their feeling, they will animate, by
their words and by their looks, the less enterprising; they
will defeat the captious, and they will shame the inert.
The body will become such as is its inhabitant soul. Far
greater things will thus be devised, proposed, enacted, and
effected, than any, singly, would have thought of as prac.
ticable.
If thus we have secured, within the conclave, the motive
power which must spring from the bosoms of a few, we
should next see to it that this body of men be such-or be
in such a position as that they may best receive, and best
transmit, this same impulse, and diffuse it. The Wesleyan
Conference, as framed by Wesley himself, was well constituted for this purpose. No purely spontaneous and
precarious meeting together of Individuals will ever exhibit, or has ever exhibited, a sustained energy in carrying
out its intentions, or any continuous consistency of plan,
from year to year, or any unity of purpose; or has had
enough of impetus to overcome those petty oppositions
and caprices that swarm about voluntary associations.
The members of such a council must feel that their election to it is a distinction, and they should feel, too, that
this honor brings with it no trivial responsibilities, and
that these, be they what they may, can be foregone on no
other condition than that of the loss of status, character,
and social existence. Never will great things be effected
by a body of men to any of whom, individually, the sort
of petitionary question might be put —" Will you not attend our next annual meeting?" —followed by the surmising prayer —" Do, if you can!" It is in no such style as
this, we may be perfectly certain, that war can be successfully waged with Satan, and he and his hosts driven
in upon their defenses. The individuals of an aggressive
evaingelic body must all be subject to stern law; they
must be accustomed to act and to move by rule and
order; and they must go forth singly, full of an effective
energy-more than their own-that is to say, the energy
of the collective force which sends them oiu




208     THE FORM OF WESLEYAN METHODISM.
Human nature, being such as it is, and if we take it in
the mass, and exclude from our reckoning some rare and
eminent instances-the men from whom arduous servicfes
for the public good are expected, must be held exempt
from the pressure of private cares-from excessive anxieties, and from all shadow of dependence upon the precarious favor or caprices of individuals, or of small constituencies. When a man is struggling for himself, and for his
own, he may be left to meet the difficulties of his position
as he can:-not so (a hero now and then excepted, or a
martyr) when he is called to suffer and to labor for interests that are not immediately personal. Wesley well understood this; and while calculating his fiscal resources
in the most exact manner, and adjusting every claim on
the most frugal scale, he lifted from the shoulders of the
men who were to be his " helpers" the oppressive burden
of their personal cares:-he would have their help; and
therefore he saved them from the rankling anguish which
is daily endured by those who, while serving the Church,
are torn with cares for a wife and children. The itinerant preacher, whether single or married-a father, or not,
set a firm foot upon the ground he trod: and while frugal,
and observant of the Methodistic sumptuary discipline, he
was safe, free, cheerful; and he had at command his constitutional stock of courage, unabated: it was not required
of him that he should work, travel, preach, govern, while
himself subject, every day, to the perennial ague of hopeless poverty.
In considering the efficiency of the Wesleyan system,
as to its expansive powers, much ought to be attributed to
the position of its ministers, as being, at once, exempted
from excessive cares, and yet, as being members of a
body, the prosperity and extension of which was not remotely related to their individual welfare. On this ground,
and when we consider also the provision made for the
superannuated, and the education given to the sons of
preachers, it may be affirmed that no body of Christian
ministers has stood in a position so favorable as the Wes



AN AGGRESSIVE SCHEME.              209
ieyan, for the free and healthful exercise of ministerial
energies. Exempt from the law of clerical celibacy, and
clear of the degrading influences of that detestable practice, the Wesleyan minister is, on the whole, less exposed
to the temptations of ecclesiastical ambition, and is less
burdened with the thoughts and cares "of this life" than
his brother minister of any other communion.
It may seem obvious to mention the Wesleyan itinerating system as a principal cause of the rapid spread and
wide extension of the body; and unquestionably it hias
been so; and yet this has taken place under conditions
which are likely to be lost sight of. If the itinerating
ministry of the Wesleyan body be placed by the side of
the stagnation, the inertness, the timidity, and the gentle
style, that so often have become characteristic of a ministry fixed to a spot, then indeed the advantage will appear
to be all on the side of the former. A few individual instances may no doubt be found, and these may be made
to serve the purposes of a needy argument, showing what
great things a devoted man may do, as father of a district,
in evangelizing his neighborhood. Such instances, rare
always, are of the highest utility when employed as the
materials of an instructive and stimulating biography; but
they are of no pertinence when lugged into an ecclesiastical discussion.
If experience is to be our guide, there are two modes
available, separately, but which are far more effective
when brought into combination, in which the Gospel may
be extended from any given centres, and may thence be
made to embrace the population, until these widening
circles meet each other. The first. and most obviously
available of these modes is a systematic itinerancy: that
is to say, a continuous assault made upon the unchristianized masses of the people, by dauntless yet discreet
preachers-preachers who. at risk of life, will gather the
people-in the fields, on the highways, in rooms, or wheresoever else they may be encountered; and will there, and
thus, waken the fleshly ear by a bold challenge which finds




210    THE FORM OF WESLEYAN METHODISM.
its involuntary response in the depths of every human
bosom.
The other of these two modes-and which will be the
most effective when it avails itself of the first, is that of a
territorial occupation of a country, by an ecclesiastical institute-not indeed asked for by the people, which will
never be, but given to them, as it should be given, by an
enlightened government: but with this practice and principle our immediate subject does not require us to concern
ourselves.
But if an evangelizing itinerancy is to be spoken of, the
conditions upon which its efficiency depends should be
duly regarded.' It seems often to have been imagined that
itinerant preaching is mainly useful as affording a preparatory exercise for tyro preachers —a serviceable training
and breaking-in, well fitted to the purpose of exhausting a
little, and of usefully expending the animal courage and
exuberant zeal of young and raw probationers for the
ministerial office. "Let these fiery youths," it is said,
"go forth for us, and break the ground;-they may perhaps do some harm; but they will do more good; and we
will follow in due time." Among the errors into which
senile indolence may lead men, there can be none, surely,
more pernicious, or more awfully delusive, than this;none that is more conclusively contradicted by the most
authoritative of all precedents —that of the apostolic age;
or more at variance with the most pertinent of modern instances-that of Methodism. The pattern ITINERANT of
primitive Christianity was none other than the loftiest
spirit of his age, and the most learned and accomplished
man of his nation, and one who lacked nothing that could
fit him for this, the most arduous of all services-nothing
but a commanding presence. Or did Methodism make
England and America its own, to so great an extent as it
did, by the sending out of youths —preachers who had
more fire than beard? Did the founders of Methodismdid those true heroes and martyrs of the modern Church,
did they sit in committee with maps and plans before




AN AGGRESSIVE SCHEME.              211
them, and thence, from their chairs of ease, trumpet the
question-" Who will go for us?"  It was not so:-these
great men-great they were in energy and courage-went
themselves: —they never said to others, "go and we will
follow you;" but always, "we go:-follow us, and help
uS.,
If the Wesleyanism of this present time be not the Methodism of the last century —a fact concerning which we
profess to advance no opinion, as we have no sufficient information —but if it be not such, the reason of the change
should be looked for on this very ground, mainly; that is
to say, in the substitution of the less accomplished, and the
less experienced, and the less commanding ministerial persons, in the place of the PRINCIPALS, where arduous and
perilous evangelic enterprises are set on foot.
A growing and a-healthy Christian community has, in
this respect, no analogy with the animal structure; for in
the body the living force must concentrate in the heart
and the head, and thence must send its pulsations to the
extremities; but within a Church, if it is to thrive and
spread itself beyond its limits, the heart and the mind-the
life and soul-the very best minds must move forward to
the exterior, and plant the advancing stakes of its tabernacle on new ground. No apology shall be pleaded for
when the bold affirmation is advanced that, at this moment, a Christian community-holding always a perfect
and untainted orthodoxy-that is to say, the doctrine of
the two creeds —whatever might be its deficiencies, or its
minor faults, if it sent forth its very best men as an itinerant ministry-its seniors-its men of experienced wisdom,
its most accomplished and best educated men, and those
already possessed of a generally admitted and established
reputation —such a Church, thus itinerating, and thus manfully confronting the desperate evils that afflict our eyes
and ears on every side, and thus giving the irreligious and
the unbelieving a proof that those who know most of
Christianity are the forwardest to publish it-even at the
risk of life, health, and comfort-such a Church would




!12     THE FORM OF WESLEYAN METHODISM.
gain upon all competitors by great strides: —in a word,
it would spread itself abroad as that Methodism spread
which Whitefield, and Wesley, and Coke preached-not
by deputy, but personally.
It is altogether in relation to purposes of another kind
that the Wesleyan practice, as to its lay and local preachers, finds its reason. Christianity, extended and planted
by means of an efficient itinerant ministry, may then (we
need not doubt it) be sustained and cherished by these
subsidiary and inferior ministrations. And so, in like
manner, by the modern expedient of lay. helps-such as
city missionaries, Scripture readers, and the like —Christian influences may be made insensibly, and most serviceably, to permeate the godless masses of the people: it is
thus that the Gospel may open for itself a' thousand noiseless paths, shedding blessings in each; but it is not thus
that it will triumph; not thus that it will be honored to
overturn the throne of Satan. The future Methodism,
concerning which the writer intends yet to risk an opinion
-that next-coming renovation of the powers of thle Gospel, will not-so we believe-take effect upon the world
in the hands of any but those who shall stand the foremost
as the chiefs and the fathers of the Church, at that happy
time.
When Wesleyanism, as distinguished from METHODISM,
is spoken of as a scheme of Evangelic aggression, its own
phase of doctrine ought to be taken into account; for this
phase has a meaning, when so regarded, distinct from that
which we have already spoken of as belonging to the substance of Methodism.
A field of meditation far-reaching, and difficult to traverse, would be opened before those who might attempt to
follow and to exhibit the Divine providential government
of the Church universal, as related to the measure of light
and truth that is granted to, and possessed by, leading
minds in seasons of renovation. No such arduous subject
can we venture to touch in the present instance, and we




AN AGGRESSIVE SCHEME.              213
thus allude to it only to introduce what must here be said\
of Wesleyan doctrine.  Was it not then just such an
aspect of Christian truth as fitted it for its purpose-namely, that of gathering and of retaining minds of the ruder
class? Wesley was not left to adopt, in subtilty and false
wisdom, the pernicious principle of reserve, in proclaiming
the Gospel among the ignorant; but while, in all honesty
and simplicity of heart, he wrought out for himself, from
Scripture, his own form of doctrine-that doctrine (as we
assume, and as the thoughtful reader of the Bible will, we
think, be willing to grant) was itself an ill-adjusted Christianity, over which an air of consistency and harmony can
be thrown only so long as the eye takes in a few degrees
of the broad field of vision. Yet such narrowed aspects
of things are well adapted to the quick apprehensions of
undisciplined minds, and when forcibly presented to such
minds by preachers whose own views are not wider than
their style of discourse, and who are most peremptory
when least consistent, and the most copious in citatioas of
Scripture when Scripture least befriends them-such aspects, so presented, become effective for the purposes then
most important to be secured.
That the barb of the Gospel should well flesh itself in
the wild, willful conscience of the rugged populace-that
alarms which are indeed too well founded, though not
precisely in the preacher's sense, should retain their hold,
both of the imagination and the reason after date-if one
might so speak-and moreover, that that release fiom
guilty fears which the Gospel affords should be thought
of as instantly available, and yet as amissible;-thege are
the conditions, perhaps, of a scheme of doctrine best fitted
to the purpose of bringing to the obedience of faith the
lost and debauched masses of a Christianized country.
Wesley's Christianity was altogether of this sort; and
while we see its fitness to its end, we should devoutly acknowledge the presence of a higher wisdom, and of a
sovereign rule, which distributes "to every man severally
as He wills."




214     THE FORM OF WESLEYAN METHODISM.
When Wesley went on, so far beyond the necessity of
the case, to rivet upon his people forever, and by aid of
law, the heterogeneous mass of doctrine comprised in the
many volumes of his works, we see him inconsiderately
taking a course in which, again, an overruling Providence
is to be recognized, as intending an issue which Wesley,
while living, would have deprecated with tears, but which
we might imagine him now to look forward to with complacency. The adaptation of a certain mould of doctrine
to the peculiar circumstances and uses of a temporary dispensation can be nothing else than its fitness in relation to
what it finds around itself, at the time, and with which it
has to contend, more or less directly. Now, while the
adaptation of Wesleyan doctrine to the religious and to
the irreligious masses of the people of England, a century
ago, might easily be shown, under several aspects, that is
to say, as related, on the one hand, to the brutish insensibility and profligacy of the many —on the other, to the
2i:ess Epictetus-Christianity of the Episcopal Church, and
again, to the metaphysical sophistications then in vogue
among the dissenters-while all this might be shown and
sustained by copious proofs, yet will it thence follow that
the very same form of doctrine, legally stereotyped as it
is in Wesley's writings, and as sustained by the inflexible
authority of the Court of Chancery, is now, and at this
time-and not to look into futurity-equally well adapted
to its intended purposes, as related to the present doctrinal
position of surrounding communities?  This will not follow; but, on the contrary, the misfitting of the twelve
volunmes to the times current can hardly fail to become
more and more obtrusively apparent, and more oppressively inconvenient, at every interval of seven or ten years.
Since Wesley's time vast stores of genuine philological
science have been accumulated on the field of biblical exposition-stores ready and available for bringing in that
better harmony of sacred truth which shall gladden the
coming age. How, then, shall it fare with Wesleyan
theology, and with the Poll Deel at the dawn of'that




TRAINING OF THE PEOPLE.             215
time? Even now there is a noiseless progress taking
place which, as it advances, must remove the solid earth
from beneath whatever was Wesley's own in his system
of theology. So far as this relative change has actually
taken place, and is going on, Wesleyanism, instead of its
being that which the modern preacher may useas did his
predecessor —as an effective engine of assault upon the
consciences of men, it is a something felt to be obsolete,
and for the preservation of which he must fight a desperate battle.
Let leave be granted for the suggestion that a reconsidered Wesleyanism, which should wholly cease to make
itself the antagonist of an obsolete form of Calvinism,
might yet restore to the Wesleyan Institute that expansive
evangelic force in which once it so far surpassed every
other Christian community.
WESLEYAN METHODISM-A SYSTEM OF RELIGIOUS DISCIPLINE AND INSTRUCTION, AS TOWARD THE PEOPLE.
A HEARING has been secured by the Wesleyan preacher; and the people, thus far gained, are not merely willing
to listen to him again, but they earnestly desire to do so.
Gladly he yields to this desire, and repeatedly addresses
them, and he makes good his hold of their consciences
and affections, of which he must, by all means, take advantage, for their highest good. But as to himself, his
commission requires him to hurry forward to other scenes
of labor, and he must provide as he can for the spiritual
oversight of the converts he has made: he does so, first,
by looking out from amongvhis little company the one who
may be naturally gifted in some fair degree, and perhaps
also may be a Chrigtian man of older date, and who has
already approved himself within some other community,
by his knowledge, piety, and consistent behavior: to this
Christian man, or to two such if he can find them, the itin



216     THE FORM OF WESLEYAN METHODISM.
erant preacher commends his company of converts: in a
word, he does that which, as it appears, St. Paul did under circumstances not essentially dissimilar.  This done,
he departs, engaging foi' himself, or for another preacher,
to revisit this society after a while, and to renew his
labors among them. And who shall say that, thus far,
the apostolic practice, as to its substance, and its practical
meaning, has not been followed? To Wesley's vigorous
and always practically-set mind, this course, notwithstanding his prejudices, fully approved itself; and his energy,
and his simplicity of intention, and that faculty of order
which in him was so remarkable, quickly brought this
practice, which had sprung up under his hand spontaneously, into the form of a well-defined and established institute. At this point Wesleyanism is no longer to be regarded merely as a call to repentance, or a religious
movement and revival; but it is a SYSTEM of religious
training: it is a social mechanism, sure to be productive
of definite and beneficial results, so long as it shall be
maintained in vigorous action.
A religious movement and revival, if indeed it be
genuine, issuing in unfeigned repentance and faith, must
be the work of God, though effected by human agency;
but a religious mechanism, or social institute, well contrived, and working according to its own law and rule, is
the work of man; yet drawing toward itself, and engaging in its behalf, the blessing of God. METHODISiM, as we
have assumed, was God's work; and therefore it is worthy of the most devout regard; but Wesleyanism was the
work of man, and instead of its being liable, on this account, to a mistrusting, a suspicious, and a cold exceptive
approval, it has well shown itself to enjoy abundantly the
favor and presence of Him w lo fails not to prosper the
faithful and wisely-directed labors of His servants.
Yet, in so far as Wesleyanism-was the work of man, it
is open to the freest scrutiny. The system, as to the
rudiments of its composition, is conformable to the spirit
and intention of the apostolic ministrations; but when we




TRAINING OF THE PEOPLE.              217
come to follow it into its more elaborate adjustments, our
course is less clear. for much that presents itself is of ambiguous tendency:-some of its results offend, not our
tastes merely, but our feelings of propriety and consistency; and very much bears upon its face the characteristics
of a system of expedients which, though they might be
tolerable or warrantable for a time, or at the urgent
demand of very unusual circumstances, become intolerable, if extended beyond their immediate limits, as to the
occasion, or the time.
Nevertheless, Wesleyan discipline, even if its faults
were more serious than they are, has the high merit of
having brought in upon the people A SCHEME OF RELIGIOUS
DISCIPLINE, IN THE PLACE OF NONE! Frightfully wrong
must a form of religious discipline be which one should
wish to see quite swept away, leaving nothing in its stead!
Wesleyanism came in, with its itinerant ministry, its local
preachers, its classes, its bands, its trusteeships, and its
fiscal organization-it came in, not to supplant any existing system of actual discipline. or of church training, but
to establish a culture of some sort, upon the waste howling
wilderness of popular irreligion. Where it effected conversions, there it also provided for, and carried forward,
the cure of souls. The cure of souls-a very few exceptive cases allowed for-had been wholly neglected, or forgotten, on all hands, at the time of the Methodistic revival.
The Episcopal Church, in its several offices, assumes the
existence and the' efficiency of a universally extended religious training; and it is on the ground of this hypothesis
that these offices are susceptible of a good and scriptural
interpretation. But as this (supposed) cure of souls-intended to embrace the community, from the first weeks
of life, to its close, had fallen into desuetude, and had
quite ceased to be a fact, Wesleyanism deserves high
praise (apart from its merit as a mission to the irreligious)
on this ground, and because it supplied so sad a lack of
service on the part of the Church.
As to the several Ibodies of orthodox dissenters —the reK




218     THE FORM OF WESLEYAN METHODISM.
ligious contemporaries. of Methodism, not to speak of the
lifelessness which had then fallen upon most of them, the
disciplinary principles recognized in these bodies, at that
time (in some degree amended since) were founded upon
a far too narrow conception of the social intention of the
Gospel. The puritanic idea of a Church, although true
and right, if we look just to a bright centre spot, where all
Christian influences are made to come to a focus, sheds no
benign beam of diffusive grace beyond that spot. If you
chance to stand a few feet away from that glare, you
barely see a glimmer of light, or feel a glow of warmth.
Who, at a little distance outside a puritanic Church of the
rigid sort, would surmise that he was standing so near to
a ministration of —" THE GLORIOUS GOSPEL OF THE BLESSED
GOD?" Wesleyanism then, with its more practical and
its more widely-based discipline, was a great gain, as compared with the exclusiveness, and the small efficiency of
the then existing nonconforming communions. If we have
deductions to make from this praise, let it first be bestowed in terms so decisive and ample as shall leave abundant
margin, even after our severest annotations have found
room.
It may easily be granted to Wesley's admirers that he
made the best provision which was in any way possible,
at that time, for the instruction of his people-a people
created, as they were, not by a gradual operation, but
evoked almost at a moment. Then, inasmuch as an itinerating ministry was indispensable to that continuous aggressive movement which was the first intention of Methodism, so was it the only condition under which men so
imperfectly educated, and so slenderly furnished with biblical knowledge as most of his preachers were, could have
discharged the function of religious teachers, with any
sort of competency;-especially considering the incessant
public services in which they were engaged. Then, in the
early times of Methodism, the meagreness which must
have attached often to these ministrations, was partly
remedied, or their deficiencies supplid, by Wesley's own




TRAINING OF THE PEOPLE.             219
powerful and effective preaching, and by that of several
of his ordained colleagues; and at length, by some of his
ordinary preachers, who, in their periodic visitations of the
circuits, gave the congregations a better aliment, and carried them forward, each time, a stage or two, in knowledge and feeling.
And beyjond this, Wesley would naturally look forward
to a time when, in the course of things, his Societies,
growing always in Christian proficiency, would become
nurseries for the ministry, and would at once create a demand for a higher order of ministrations, and nurture those
who should supply it. It ought not to be questioned that
these reason'able anticipations (which Wesley, as we suppose, entertained) have been, in a fair degree, realized.
Besides, although Wesley seems to have held the several
orthodox communions around him in small esteem, and
perhaps barely allowed himself to calculate upon any
material benefits to accrue to his preachers from the indirect influence which they might thence derive, it can
not be imagined that the Wesleyan ministry has in fact so
shut out from itself all these beneficial influences, as not
to have drawn from them many very decisive advantages.
It would be uncandid not to suppose that, since their
founder's time, these preachers have caught a tone, and
have admitted among themselves a light, and have received an excitement, from exterior sources.
And further than this, it may be granted, that the merely
physical influence of frequent change of scene, and the
animation that arises from contact with fresh congregational surfaces-if so we may speak, and the opportunity
afforded to actively-minded preachers to amend their
style, in entering upon a new circuit, and, not the least
among these advantages of itinerancy,.that knowledge of
mankind, which it may impart, all tend to promote the
preacher's improvement, to give him a just confidence in
himself, to render him fearless of individual countenances,
and to fix upon his ministrations a character of force, animation, and freshness. Even if his stores be far less ample




220     THE FORM OF WESLEYAN METHODISM.
than those of others, yet, such as they are, they will be
made more available to the hearer; and especially so to
the uneducated.
All this allowed and granted, to the full, it must still remain as a theoretic probability that an itinerating ministry
will occupy a position several degrees below the level of
a located ministry, as to the purposes of religious instruction. Must it be thought an illiberal and unwarranted inference that this theoretic probability has niade, and does
make itself apparent as an actual fact?
Any one who, endowed with some natural faculty and
fluency of utterance, has made the experiment, will have
found it far from difficult to acquire the power of continuous and pertinent speaking, upon familiar topics —especially upon religious topics-and so to hold out for a thirty
or forty minutes, or more; and if this habit of speaking be
well husbanded, and kept always within the safe inclosures
of conventional phrases, and of authenticated modes of
thinking, this preacher may be always ready to ascend
the pulpit —in season, and out of season. His sermon,
or his set of discourses, is, in fact, the glib run of the
mental associations upon worn tracks —this way or that,
as the mind may chance to take its start from a given
text.
This sort of mindless facility of speaking proves a sore
temptation to many a located minister; and its consequence is to leave many a congregation sitting, from year
to year, deep in a quagmire.  Better than this, undoubtedly, would be itinerancy:-far better is a frequent shifting of monotonies, than a fixedness of the same. But such
an admission will not avail to establish the principle that
this shifting system is in itself good; or that it ought to be
regarded in any other light than as a necessary expedient,
allowed under peculiar circumstances, or (which would be
far better, and indeed good) as a method, or system, supplementary to a located ministry. Thus used, and put in
act-as we have already ventured to say-by the most
accomplished and highly reputed ministers of a Church



TRAINING OF THE PEOPLE.             221
by its chiefs and its doctors, every thing that is auspicious
might be looked for as its consequence.
This, however, is not the Wesleyan itinerancy:-it is not
as thus equipped that the Founder sent forth his ship upon
its transit of the great deep: —his preachers were, all of
them, to be itinerants; and as movement was the law of
his own existence-bodily and spiritual, so —this manifestly was his feeling-must perpetual movement be the law
and the practice of his Institute: but if so, then must we
not accept the double conclusion that Wesleyanism is an
economy for a time; and that the Christianity it teaches
will always be immature and superficial; —precisely defined-no.t merely in a horizontal direction, that is to say,
as to its bordering upon other systems; but not less sharply shaped beneath and above, or toward those heights and
depths which it is the part of devout meditation to explore?
When, as we have now done, the whole amount of its
probable or even possible advantages are freely allowed
as the recommendations of an itinerating ministry, liberty
may fairly be taken for placing these advantages in contrast with those of a settled or located ministry. We
must not be told, to deter us from attempting such a comparison, that these happy and important results of a fixed
pastoral residence are far from being uniformly realized:
does an itinerant ministry always, or in a larger proportion of instances, reach its own point of ideal perfection?
The permanently located Christian minister, if he be not
broken down by over much pastoral labor, and if conscientious in the devotion of his whole energies and time to
his high calling, will, in the first place, find leisure-more
or less-for perpetually extending, and for retaining also,
his acquisitions as a biblical expositor, and for availing
himself continually of that influx of critical apparatus
which, from year to year, is laid at his feet by the unwearied industry of accomplished scholars-German especially. If this advantage may now, by some, be set at
a low price, the time is coming which will teach the rising
ministry a serious lesson, on this ground, and will convince




222     THE FORM OF WESLEYAN. METHODISM
them that any such disparaging opinion of biblical accom
plishments involves nothing less than a fatal observance
of the present tendencies of opinion.
Grant it that signal industry and an unquenchable thirst
of knowledge may enable an errant biblical scholar to
prosecute his studies; but-man for man, taken alike, has
not the resident scholar,with his own treasures-his Lexicons, and his Commentaries, and his idolized folios, in their
own places, on their own shelves, in his little study-the
blessed place of his converse with all minds, and with
heaven-has not this settled minister and student an
advantage which his brother, the like-minded itinerant
preacher, will sigh to enjoy?
Yet tlis is only the beginning, only the preparationonly the apparatus of a full ministerial acquaintedness with
those inexhaustible treasures of thought which invite our
advance when the Book of God opens before us the portals
of.eternity! Even if it might be alleged, concerning any
passing period of time, that habits of profound meditation
are rarely cherished, and that, at. any such time, the pulpit
does not give evidence leading the reflective hearer to
suppose that a soul-deep communion with that which is
unseen and eternal has much been sought after, or has
actually been enjoyed by preachers, even should it be so,
it will remain certain that a life of intense meditation,
grounding itself upon an exact biblical scholarship, and
observant always of the written revelation-that a life of
heart-thoughtfulness-a life the product and issues of
which will impart force and freshness to public services,
and will supply nourishment to hungry souls-such a life
of industrious biblical rumination can scarcely be possible
except under the conditions of a tranquil ministerial fixedness. If ever again the habit of counting the days of the
week until Sunday comes, is to grow up in congregations
(not a giddy eagerness for the intellectual luxury of a fine
sermon), if sermons are to be remembered beyond the moment when the foot reaches the last step at the church
doors —if it is to be thus with us, preachers must not be




TRAINING OF THE PEOPLE.             223
those who shall have it to say, at the close of a weary life
of labor, that, in the service of the Gospel, they have traveled half a million of miles!
But the people, if indeed they are to know what that
store of blessings is which Christianity holds ready to bestow upon themselves and upon their families, must have
near them always, not preachers merely, but pastors; and
if the man of incessant journeyings may become a pastor,
such.as the people need, then also may oaks, in full
growth, be had from a nursery ground, and set down before your window. We must have been used to trifle
with our own souls, and we must have become regardless
of the spiritual welfare of our families, children, and servants, if we have not often desired those influences, for our- 
selves and for them, which a Christian minister, not a sermon-maker but a pastor, may shed around him. But shall
he do this who has been " two years on our station," and
who will be gone the next, and who, while he stays, is
called upon to dispatch countless public services, and to
rid himself well of a thousand formalities of office? This
will not be: "Do men gather grapes of thistles?" The
vine, laden with ripened clusters, is a plant that loves its
own spot, clings to its wonted holdings, sends its fibres
throughout its own plot of soil, and may not be torn up,
and set elsewhere: the vine draws its sap from the ground
it knows, and yields its juices to those who keep it.
What we are now thinking of, as the fruit-the fruit
most of all precious-of the pastoral office, when sustained
through a course of years by a resident minister, is not the
frequency of domiciliary religious visitsin the families of
his congregation, nor the pointedness, the fervor, the faithfulness of those instructions which this shepherd of his
flock may address to assembled families, or to youths in
vestry classes; it is not that species of service which may
be acquitted in so many hours of each week, and which
may be duly entered in the columns of a register; it is not
this, but it is that which, beyond every other means of religious influence, and beyond all other means put together,




224     THE FORM OF WESLEYAN METHODISM.
is felt and known to be effective in diffusing a Christian
temper, and in securing Christian cohduct, within the circle
where it is found. It is the exhibition-from year to yeav',
of fervent, consistent piety, in its aspects of wisdom, meekness, self-command, devotedness, in the person of the loved
and revered father of his congregation-the man who is
greeted on the threshold of every house by the children,
and whose hand is seized as a prize by whoever can first
win it-the man who is always first thought of in the hour
of domestic dismay or anguish-the man whose saddened
countenance, when he must administer rebuke, inflicts a
pain upon the guilty, the mere thought of which avails for
much in the hour of temptation. It is the pastor, an affection for whom has, in the lapse of years, become the characteristic feature of a neighborhood, and the bond of love
among those who, otherwise, would not have had one feeling in common.
If it be said. pastors such as this are not found on every
side among resident ministers, we grant it; yet some such,
in their various degrees of excellence, are found, and may
always be found within a Church which fixes its ministers
in their spheres; but it is not within the range of possibility that Christian eminence of this species can be nurtured,
or can find its field of exercise under the stern and ungenial
conditions of an itinerant ministry.
May we not safely adopt aphorisms such as these?
first: —Where there is no itinerancy, there will be no aggression on the irreligious masses-no wide spread of
the Gospel: and again, this-Where there are no resident
pastors,-there will be no CHURCH; no deep-seated Christian
love-little diffused reverence-little domestic piety, and
much more reliance will be placed upon means of excitement, than upon means of influence: regulations, established orders, conventional usages will take their course; but
those impulses and motives which supersede law will
scarcely be known.
It is always true, and it is consolatory to think of it as
tree, that a system which is not essentially vicious, when




TRAINING OF THE PEOPLE.             225
it is vigorously worked, supplies its own deficiencies, and
brings in a remedy, by help of happy anomalies, for its
most serious faults. Thus, probably, has it been with
Wesleyanism; so that, in fact, though destitute of pastors,
it may find an equivalent among its other provisions.
The practice of supplying congregational services by the
ministration of gifted laymen-local preachers, may be exempted from the reprehension to which, abstractedly, it
stands open —partly by the plea of necessity-partly by
the rigidness of the regulations to which it is made subject; and in good measure also by a recollection of the
benefits which indirectly flow from it as a means of calling
forth those who, on this field of trial, may approve themselves as fit for the ministry.
With the practice of the ancient Church before them,
those who profess to be governed by its authority ought
to take care in what terms they condemn lay teaching.
Under the influence of circumstances essentially similar,
the same course has been adopted within the Wesleyan
body as was followed by the ancient Church. Whenever
a Christian community becomes, as it ought to be always,
aggressive toward the irreligious masses around it, two
consequences necessarily follow, and require to be provided for:-the first is, this, that the preaching of a few
able ministers has called into existence many more congregations than they can themselves personally serve; the
second is of a kind to aggravate the inconveniences result.
ing from the first; and it is this, that congregations gathered from the uninstructed masses, and constituted chiefly of
those whose religious habits are still unformed, must be
dependent upon others always for the aid and guidance
they need in spiritual matters. Moreover, as these converts (very few of them) can command at home, even in
any degree, the place or time for private devotional exercises, they must be assembled, for worship and instruction,
as frequently as possible, and in fact much oftener than
can be either necessary or beneficial, in the case of a religiously trained community.
Kt



226     THE FORM OF WESLEYAN METHODISM.
Hence it is that there arises perhaps a threefold demand
fbr ministerial appearances in public; or that, for one congregational service which an established and stationary
Church may require-a convert-making Church, in which,
after the apostolic model, "believers are added to the
Church daily," in such a Church neither its onward progress, nor its permanence, can, in the nature of things, be
provided for and secured except by calling forth the gifts,
and by allowing and favoring the services of laymen,
locally connected with each single congregation.  A
Church which, in the spirit of rigid or of arrogant adhesion
to certain principles and rules, persists in refusing all such
aid, and will do what it does only by the means of educated
and ordained ministers, must abide by the inevitable consequence-that is to say, it must fail in a main article of
Christian duty, and be content to sleep with them that
sleep.
To condemn therefore the Wesleyan practice, in this
behalf, is to abandon Christianity, as a glad tidings to all
people: it may still rest in our keeping, as a subject of
luxurious meditation, or as affording the objects and excitements of mediaeval devotional services; but it is not
apostolic Christianity.
Nevertheless those who know what human nature is, and
how much caution is needed when spiritual gifts are to be
brought into exercise for the good of others-consistently
also with the religious welfare of the individual, such will
not need to be told that not merely personal wisdom and
discretion are required on the part of those who govern a
society, and who direct such services, but more than this
-the enforcement of rules and orders carrying with-them
the weight of a recognized authority. If all things done
in the Church should be done " decently and in order," so
especially should the gifts of the "gifted" be exercised
under, and within the limits of well-defined and absolute
regulations. The truly gifted and the right-minded, the
zealous and the modest, will rejoice to submit themselves
to such restraints which will at once sustain them against




TRAINING OF THE PEOPLE.            227
their own misgivings and timidity, and defend them against
the jostlings of impudent competitors.
It is not our part to inquire how far, at this time, Wes-'
leyan Mthodism,which stands recommended by so much
of system, organization, and RULE, brings this, its own
principle, to bear upon its practice, in relation to the lay
ministrations which it allows. It is however matter of
record (and of recollection with some) that in the Wesleyanism of the time immediately following Wesley's period,
and when it was in the main what he had made it, his
doctrine concerning instantaneous assurance, and his unwarranted practice of almost demanding or of looking for
semi-miraculous interpositions,. in answer to prayer, took
effect, not very seldom, upon the gifted laity in a manner
which can not be thought of without a mingled feeling of
terror and disgust. It was well if indeed the regular
preachers always observed decorum, and always remembered what is due, of reverence and humility, to the Infinite.Majesty; —but as to many of the gifted laity, who charged
themselves with the task of praying the converted into a
better condition, it will be acknowledged by the candid
and intelligent of this communion that, to a very gi:eat extent, if not customarily (let us say in times gone by) frightful violences of voice and gesticulation, accompanied by
improprieties of language which made the ears tingle,
were to be seen and heard in Wesleyan chapels. Where,
within the compass of the inspired writings, do we find so
much as one syllable which could be appealed to in defense of these extravagances? They must stand, forever,
without apology.
But then it will follow that, when Wesleyan Methodism,
comes under review, as a scheme of religious discipline,
for the people, its original misapprehensions of Christian
doctrine, every one of which Wesley riveted by law upon
his societies, have not told well upon that practice which,
otherwise, would be highly approvable-namely, its lay
ministrations. Thus does a theological error-which may
seem to be only an innocent abstraction, work its way out



228     THE FORM OF WESLEYAN.METHODISM.
ward from the region of speculation and of textual exposition, until it comes, fraught with mischief, upon the platform  of popular excitement.  Justification by faith all
orthodox Protestants admit and teach. But, says Wesley,
No man is justified who does not know it-know it clearly,
certainly, and instantaneously. He who is not sure that
he is saved, is still in a state of condemnation; nevertheless
fiom this state he may, at a moment, be delivered; and,
for the purpose of obtaining for him this deliverance, the
very heavens are to be rent by the boisterous vociferations
of prayer!
Thus it is that the inconveniences inseparable from the
allowance and employment of lay ministrations, when
coming, as one might say, to an intersection upon some incoherent doctrine, have issued in producing the most
serious evils. How far the good sense and matuired
judgment of the Wesleyan ministry may have applied
a remedy, in this direction, those who stand outside
the Society can not well know; yet we may take comfort in recollecting how much the insensible influence of
one religious community upon another avails to mitigate
the evils incident to each.  Thus, to take the case before
us as an instance, it can not be doubted that a corrective
influence, real, though silent and unconfessed, derived from
surrounding communities, less crude than itself, has, almost
from the first, borne upon Wesley's Wesleyanism, and has
operated to rectify many of those serious defects to which
his unreflective and logical energy gave occasion.
It may be so in the instance we have referred to, namely, the intemperate style fallen into by some lay preachers
and leaders: yet is there another principal element of the
Wesleyan discipline which, as set on foot by Wesley, has
still more urgently called for correction, and has needed
every healthful counteraction which it might possibly receive from the better feeling of other Christian communities.
Nothing, in Wesleyanism, has drawn upon itself more
reprehension —or, in fact, has been more open to it-,than




TRAINING OF THE PEOPLE.             229
the principles assumed, and the practices established, in its
class meetings and bands; but while, on the one hand, the
rebukes which this particular institution has met with have,
often been unmeasured and excessive, and while too much
use has been made of some reported instances of impropriety or extravagance, little, if any regard has been paid
to the pleas which a disinterested observer may advance
in its defense. These pleas, in apology for the weekly
meetings in classes, are chiefly two-the first being this,
which however no thorough Wesleyan would admit, that
the Wesleyan Institute, itself, is not a church; but is rather
a system of useful and necessary expedients, brought in, at
the first, to supply the wants occasioned by the remissness
and the culpable negligence of the existing Christian communities. The second ground of apology, though analogous, is not quite identical, and it is of this sort, namely,
that as for the most part those with whom it has had to
do, and whom it has rescued fiom utter irreligion, have
come under its treatment with none of that training which
an effective church system would have supplied, it could
adopt, toward these converts from heathenism, none other
than extreme measures, adapted to the ruggedness of the
material upon which it had to work. When therefore, on
this ground, Wesleyanism is blamed, or when it is blamed
by members of the older communions, such condemnation
as may be called for can not ask to be listened to unless it
is prefaced by expressions of unfeigned compunction in the
recollection of the ecclesiastical sins and supineness of
ourselves, and of our fathers, of generations back. Is it
so that class meetings are of very ambiguous tendency?Grant it;-but let it be remembered that an utter neglect
of the masses of the people is of no ambiguous tendency;
for it is a pure and certain evil-without relief, and admitting of no plea of extenuation. Far better must it be to
assemble in classes those whom we, and others, have left
banded together in sin, than so to leave therfi any longer,
even although much of what might be heard in the class
meeting would offend our fastidiousness, or be liable to




230     THE FORM OF WESLEYAN METHODISM.
some just reprehension. Easy is it for us, with our nice
notions, and our unacquaintedness with the manners and
habits of the lower classes, to think much of the improprieties of religionists, and little or nothing of the miseries and
degradation, the ferocity and the utter ruin of the unreclaimed multitude! A humane and Christian-like temper
will prompt the earnest wish that Wesleyan Methodism
may go on in its course and prosper, notwithstanding its
heaviest faults of system or practice, and even if they could
be proved to be heavier than they are.
Such faults have perhaps already, in great measure, met
their correction; or whether they have or not, a reference
to them; made in the spirit of love, should not be considered as offensive.
The evils of the class-meeting system have been made a
frequent theme with those who have assailed Wesleyanism: they seem to be summed up under two or three
articles; but the actual mischiefs resulting from them are
probably much less than theoretically they would seem
likely to produce; and be they what they may, they must
be accounted smaller evils by far than those of which
Methodism has been the cure.
If the class of persons is considered who, for the most
part, are brought together in these weekly conclaves, what
is most needed for them-besides those devotional exercises which tend to keep fervent piety alive-is a course
of sound instruction, catechetical and didactic, embracing
the doctrines and duties of Christianity;-that is to say,
instruction brought home to each mind, and brought down
to the level of each understanding, in a manner which can
scarcely be effected from the pulpit. That which the
class-meeting urgently needs is, a competent Bible-class
teacher. But how slenderly are even the best trained
congregations furnished with teachers so qualified! how
few are those, even whose religious advantages are at the
highest pitch,'who can intelligently and judiciously expound
Holy Scripture! How then should Wesleyan conglrega.
tions, newly gathered and undisciplined, find among them



TRAINING OF THE PEOPLE.             231
selves any such teachers? It will not be: it is impossible.
They may, however, and ordinarily they will be able to
select a sufficient number of fervently-minded and well'
reputed persons, raised a few degrees above their brethren
or sisters in experience, and possessing a faculty available
for giving direction to an hour's religious conversation:
and how much better it is that this hour should be so spent,
than spent as otherwise it would be!
Nevertheless, a religious meeting, thus constituted, and
thus directed, will not merely fail of accomplishing what
ought to be its purposes; but it can scarcely fail to give
that wrong-because retorted —direction to the religious
affections whence spring most of the disorders and irregularities that rob the Gospel of its honors. So it would be
under such a system, taken at the best; but Wesley's
logical sophisms, when he brought scriptural precepts to
bear, in a forced sense, upon human nature, have had the
effect of sadly aggravating these evils. What could he
imagine would be the consequence of instructing his classleaders to demand of each member an unreserved exposure
of a week's sins and temptations? What is it that could
be the product of such disgorgements when each was
solemnly enjoined, with a remorseless disregard of delicacy, of reserve, of diffidence, to pour forth, before all, the
moral ills of the past seven days?  May there not be some
ground for the alleged comparative harmlessness of auricular confession? The gross-minded and the shameless will
be prompted by egotism and by a bad ambition to discharge the week's accumulations of their bosoms very
copiously; but it is certain that the sensitive, whose consciences are the most alive to feelings of healthful compunction in the recollection of sin, will not, until the system
itself has spoiled them, be able to bring themselves up to
any such pitch of ingenuousness; those who should be
silent, will be loquacious; those who might speak, will
violate their best feelings if thiy do.'
It is not easy to imagine how it can be otherwise, so
long as Wesley's instructions are literally complied with;




232     THE FORM OF WESLEYAN METHODISM.
but it is probable that that good sense and better feeling
which so often comes in to exclude the practical absurdities
attaching to a theory, have availed, and do constantly avail
for good in this instance of the class-meeting confessional.
But-so far as these unedifying outpourings of ill-conditioned bosoms may still take place in a class-meeting,
one can not but be dismayed in thinking of what must be
the moral consequence which, in a course of time, will be
produced upon the imagination and the religious sentiments of those whose fate it is to listen to the same! Again
we must profess the hopeful belief that such ill consequences are (one knows not precisely how) reduced always, or generally, to a minimum. Yet is it exceedingly
difficult to imagine that a weekly listening to the revelations of the class-meeting can have otherwise than a
very corrupting influence upon young and uncontaminated
minds.
Let it, however, be granted that the natural discretion
and better feeling of class-leaders do avail, in most instances, for excluding what would be of ill tendency
toward any who may be present; but even then a misdirection is being given to religious feelings, which is so
much the more prejudicial, because all the parties concerned-alike the teachers and the taught, believe it to be
wholly good. Already, in these pages, this subject has
been referred to; but the importance attaching to it demands a further remark, inasmuch as Wesleyanism has reduced to system that which Methodism had cherished, and
which, so long as it continued to be quite spontaneous and
incidental, would be far less hurtful than when it came to
be cut, and fitted, and timed, according to statute. The
spiritual life, the true life of the soul toward God, will
never yield itself to the rigid will of the legislator: formality and hypocrisy may thus be dealt with; but not
truth —not the depth of genuine religious feeling.
It is that extensive coifvert-making from amiong the
utterly irreligious, and which was the glory and the true
praise of the early Methodism, that hias set Wesleyanism




TRAINING OF THE PEOPLE.             233
wrong, on this ground. Iow different an aspect would
our Christianity wear, if developed by the means of an
effective apostolic Church-a Church embracing all homes,
and all souls there, and carrying out the benign intention
of the Gospel, toward all born within its circle!
The contracted theological views of some parties, and
the perpetuated medimeval errors so fondly clung to by
others, have, in their antagonism, shrouded from the eyes
of all very much of that bright beam and that life-giving
glory, the distant glimmerings of which make glad the
meditative reader of the inspired books. The Gospel,
wherever it is dispensed, claims for a rescue all human
souls, in the name of "God our Saviour."  We demur
about this claim, and we put it under conditions, and we
make it liable to exceptions; and while we are thus
grudging its amplitude, we actually fail to give effect to
its beneficent import in those instances in which our line
of duty is clearly chalked out for us.
Christian families, trained within a Church which should
well understand its commission in the world, and should
be alive to its duties, and mistrustful, never, of the grace,
the power, and the faithfulness of God, such families, so
trained, would send forth from their nurture-bosoms, for
catechetical instruction, their junior members-the "mem
bers of Christ-the children of God-the inheritors of the
kingdom of heaven"-those to whom the customary hour's
talking in a " class-meeting" would be strangely unsuitable.
But this is a subject too deep and wide for this place.
When we have affirmed, once and again, in these pages,
that Wesley did not construct a CHURCH —a main part of
what we mean finds its interpretation at this point: —Methodism was a proclamation of the Gospel, lasting its season,
and doing its work:-Wesleyan Methodism was an economy well adapted to the purpose of sustaining that aggressive evangelic movement after the impulse in wh'ich it
originated should have subsided. But when it comes to
be considered as a permanent system of religious discipline,
as toward the people, it presents itself under an aspect far




234           WESLEYAN METHODISM,
too special, and, one might say, too well adapted to the
rude masses with which chiefly it has been conversant, to
be entitled to the praise implied, if we were to call it "a
Church. If the rejoinder should come in the form of an
animated question —" Where then is your Church?" this is
a question to which we are not bound, in this place, to
supply an answer.
WESLEYAN METHODISM, CONSIDERED AS A HIERARCHY,
OR SCHEME OF SPIRITUAL GOVERNMENT.
WESLEY'S rightful claim to our esteem as a Christian
ruler, and our admiration of his ability as the founder of a
great community, would not surely be enhanced by any
attempt to allege, in his behalf, that, while contemplating
one species of organization, and while having in his view
a certain well-defined purpose, what he had devised for
effecting that purpose has, in fact, proved, itself to be the
very best possible-if he had intended to bring about something, not only wholly different, but of a contrary tendency! As if a mechanical contriver had constructed, as he
thought, a power-loom which, with all its movements and
frame-work unchanged, was found to perform, without
fault, the part of a printing press-or any thing else!
The evidence is copious and various which attests the
fact that Wesley, in instituting his Society-which he
thought of only as an evangelizing supplement to the
Established Church-entertained no thought, intention, or
wish to construct a Church;-that is to say, to fiame a
spiritual polity, which should stand by itself-should comprise all powers requisite for a complete ecclesiastical organization, and which (especially) should embrace within
its provisions that necessary balance of powers, clerical
and lay, apart from which the choice must always lie
between hierarchical despotism, or democratic despotism;
-that is to say, between an unabated spiritual supremacy
or impracticable and ungovernable popular caprice.




A HIERARCHY.                  235
It has become usual to say much of Wesley's rare
sagacity; and this praise may well be allowed him, if we
think of that bright intuition which, as by a flash, discerns
the true bearings of things present, and which, in the same
instant, adapts itself to the shifting circumstances of the
hour or day, and works its purposes onward from day to
day, with high success, by aid, and under the luminous
guidance of this ready wisdom and skill. In this sense
the Founder of Wesleyan Methodism, or, let us rather say,
its chief and ruler, was pre-eminently sagacious.
But there is another usual sense of the same word, in
which it conveys a loftier idea, namely, that of a far-reaching and, one might say, a prophetic forethought of the distant issues of movements and of tendencies now in course
of development, and which takes its measures in due time,
provides for probable results, and includes, in what it now
does, some well-calculated adaptations to remote products.
Sagacity, in this more enlarged sense, we can not think
was Wesley's distinction. If indeed we thought him to be
sagacious in this sense, as one who looked far and wide into
the future, we must, of sheer necessity, abate very much
from the reverence with which we are used to regard him,
as a thoroughly ingenuous and simple-minded Christian
man. If indeed, which we think obviously was not the
fact —Wesley was endowed with a far-reaching sagacity,
and if indeed, from the very first, he discerned-as an ambitious spiritual hierarch would have discerned-what
must be the issue of the movement he had originated, and
if he saw, in the distance, what Wesleyan Methodism
would come to mean, and what position it would occupy,
and what the successors of his lay preachers and his
"Helpers" would. be, at the moment of the centenary
celebration of the founding of the Society, if indeed it was
thus with him, then what interpretation will there remain
for us to put upon his professed and long-adhered-to reluctance to allow to his preachers and helpers, and to his
societies, those functions and that independent liberty of
action which they —ministers and people, were, from year




236            WESLEYAN METHODISM,
to year, so importunately asking to be granted them?
This reluctance might indeed be verypolitic, and it might
be that which a far-seeing sagacity would dictate to'a
chief in Wesley's position; but if politic in this sense, then
it was not ingenuous; his reluctance, though real as to the
inner motive which prompted it,-was unreal, nay, it was
absolutely false as to its declared motive: it was a hollow
pretext-it was a trick and a disguise.
Of no trickery or paltry conduct was John Wesley
capable; of no such falseness, or of any falseness was he
ever guilty. But then, if not-these are the consequences
of our so thinking, namely-he was not gifted with a longsighted sagacity; and then it will be certain that, when
he spoke of his institute as a "Society," or collection of
societies, and when he declared that he did not intend it to
be a Church, his meaning was-that, as it was not, so it
could never become, a Church; and then further, if we
regard him, as we may, as a skillful builder, and as being
(in the sense we have reserved for him) a sagacious contriver or social mechanist, then will it follow that the
organization which he left to his followers must show
fault, and must work ill, and must strain itself in its joints,
and must be liable to frequent shocks and jars, when it
comes to be put in play for purposes nor merely unlike
those for effecting which it was constructed, but altogether of an opposite tendency.
When Wesley gathered his helpers, and his preachers, and his colleagues around him, that he might confer
with them, and obtain the benefit, if any, of their advice,
he honestly intended precisely what he spoke of, and
therefore he did not intend something wholly differentsomething of vastly greater dimensions, and of incalculably greater difficulty-namely, the bringing together the
elements of a permanent spiritual government. Thus it
is that we save Wesley's Christian reputation, which is
dear to the hearts of all Christians; but then we save it
at the cost of Wesleyan Methodism, if it assumes to speak
and act in the character of a Church.




A HIERARCHY.                  237
Two very serious ill consequences have resulted from
the anomalous position which the Wesleyan ministerial
body has (involuntarily) come to occupy in the course of
events;-the first is their standing perpetually in an attitude of antagonism, or self-defense toward their people;the second, following as the consequence of this, has been
that their writers and apologists have, by the urgent necessities of this their accidental position, been driven to
adopt, and resolutely to maintain, a ground of clerical
pretension which should be left in the hands of ultramontane Romanists, and which has an almost grotesque appearance when it is assumed by Wesleyan ministers.
How do these pretensions (when urged on this side the
line between Protestantism and Romanism) sound as compared with the spirit and meaning of the apostolic writings?
Disclaiming, as we do utterly, the doctrine that a
Church may be educed in its specific orders from texts,
we hold ourselves the more free to draw broadly from
the manifest intention of the apostolic writings those
great principles which can never be lost sight of by the
framers of ecclesiastical constitutions, without immediate
damage, involving also the eventual breaking up of what
they so construct. Putting out of view the nugatory arguments of tlose who have set about to expound Scripture under the high pressure of some sectarian necessity
-putting all such flimsy perversities out of the way, then
manifestly does it appear'to have been the intention of the
inspired men who gave visible existence to Christianity,
and under whose guidance it became a social organization, to set apart, for its service, a class of men-variously
gifted, and exercising, accordingly, very different functions-who should devote themselves wholly to these services; who, exceptive and peculiar circumstances not
preventing, should alienate themselves from all secular
callings-should give themselves, without distraction, to
the work of the ministry-meditative and active, and, in a
word, should live for the Gospel and live by it




238            WESLEYAN METHODISM,
Clear is the correlative duty of those-the peoplewho are benefited by these services, to. see to it that the
laborer, " who is worthy of his hire," receives it. In what
mode these duties are to be rendered, and under what
conditions, it is the part of Christian men to determine, in
the exercise of their best discretion.
Equally clear is the duty of the people-the instructed
and the " ministered unto"-to yield obedience in spiritual
matters to those of the ministering body whose function
it is to govern;-the limits of such obedience being easily
ascertained, resulting as they do from the nature of the
relationship itself, from its obvious intention, and from
the quality of those motives which are characteristic of
the Gospel. Can we think that a servile submission to
priestly arrogance is embraced within the meaning of this
precept-" Obey them that have the rule over you in the
Lord? "-how should it be so, when these very rulers are
forbidden to demean themselves in a lordly manner, and
wVien, on the contrary, they are enjoined to be examples to
the flock of meekness, gentleness, long-suffering humility?
Yet these are not the only Church principles, which
obviously present themselves to the ingenuous reader of
the New Testament. Such a reader, without putting his
finger upon single texts, will have seen and felt, and will
be ready to acknowledge (let the inference be what it
may) that the doctrine which makes the clergy every
thing in the Church, and the people nothing-or nothing
but its raw material-that this doctrine is not of CHRIST;
and then, when he looks through the vista of history, and
sees in what manner this pride-born doctrine has worked,
and what have been its fruits, he will scarcely hesitate to
say-it is of Satan.
The precept " to obey," where is it found, and in the
midst of what matter is it embedded? These very injunctions, upon which the despotic hierarch insists, and
which he expounds with a richness and an unction as if
the very substance of God's message to man were therein
summarily comprehended, these injunctions, do they not




A HIERARCHY.                 239
find their places in the very midst of theological arguments, and of biblical commentaries of that very kind which
the hierarch tells the people they have nothing to do with,
and which they can never understand? But these injunctions to'I obey," take their place also in letters disciplinary, addressed to "all the faithful brethren in Christ
Jesus." These faithful brethren-even the mass of Christian people-the "congregation of faithful men," are
instructed in what manner, and according to what principles, they should carry forward those measures of Church
organization which are essentially of a spiritual kind, and
which-we might have thought, belonged, as of office, to
the ministerial class. That the people —call them the
laity-should exercise a control, direct and absolute, over
that which they themselves have created-namely, the
palpable and visible property of the community-is a
principle too obvious and unquestionable to be formally
asserted, as if it needed INSPIRATION to advance or sustain
it. But beyond this clear rule of natural right, the people
are, throughout the apostolic epistles, so addressed, and
they are so instructed, and they are so cautioned, as to
imply, undoubtedly, that they have (or should have) an
organic existence, in a spiritual sense, in the Church. Ingenuously reading the apostolical epistles we recognizenot with reluctance indeed, but with a deep-felt and
devout satisfaction-as therein seeing the "mind of
CHRIST," that the Christian Laity are not merely to be in
the Church, nor merely of it, but that they, with their
ministers, are IT.
When we follow the course of events to which Wesley,
from year to year, and with so much address and tact
conformed himself, it is quite easy to see how, and under
what influences, he was led, so to construct his Society,
and so to organize its legislature, and its judicial, and its
adminitrative council as in fact nullifies, nay, puts contempt upon, the very first principle of a true Church
organization. Wesleyan conquests from the world are
the materials which, from year to year, are to be wrought




240            WESLEYAN METHODISM,
upon by Conference. But does a social structure, such as
this, meet our idea of what a Christian Church should be?
The problem —how to give its due place to the popular
influence within a Church, so as to promote, not to impede, the ministerial functions, has been variousry solved,
or has been attempted to be solved; by the several communions that have come into existence since the Reformation. These we must not, in this place, particularly
specify; but shall only refer, in an incidental manner, to
those two or three instances which, as they stood always
in Wesley's view, must have offered themselves to his
acceptance, as available, in whole or in part, as precedents, if in fact he had intended any such thing as to construct an ecclesiastical polity —a design which manifestly
did not engage his thoughts; for if it had, who can doubt
that he would have taken the English Episcopacy as his
model; not excluding its essential principle, as it stands
distinguished from Romanism-namely, the supremacy, or
constitutional control, exercised by the State-as representative of the laity?
Within those churches that were of puritanic origin —
Independents, or Congregationalists (English, not American; for these latter have in fact taken up the useful
elements of the Presbyterian scheme) the popular influence, according to the theory of this system, is supreme,
and uncontrolled; nor have instances ever been wanting
in which this theory and the practice thence resulting
have, for the humiliation of the ministry, been nearly coincident. But more often, the democratic principle, happily,
has so been overlaid by a legitimate ministerial influence,
as that in the working of the congregational machine the
theory has been thrown into the place of a faded emblazonment of honors long since obsolete. The Christian
Pastor-such as he should be-has so ruled in the hearts
of his people as to find it an easy thing to govern and
guide them-the "Principles of Independency" notwithstanding.. It has been the less skillful, or the less pastorhearted, minister —often a not less estimable man —or less




A HIERARCHY.                  241
able preacher, who has suffered as the victim of demo
cratic supremacy.
But besides that happy counteraction which has thus
come in to moderate the popular power in congregational
societies, the very principle of these bodies has supplied a
reactive influence, preventing what must otherwise have
come about. Notwithstanding the centralizing tendency
of some provincial associations, or of more comprehensive
combinations-precarious, inconstant, and powerless, as
they are, the congregational bodies have always shown
a dispersive, rather than a cumulative or concentrative
tendency. With these bodies it has always seemed a
more natural or easy operation to split than to join-to
fly asunder, than to band together-unless indeed at moments of high political excitement, for the carrying some
special purpose, or for defending their rights as citizens
and Christians.
Thus it has been that the laity of these communions —
or their representatives, the body of deacons-has not
come into the habit, and has not possessed itself of the
organization requisite for any effective purposes of combined popular action. The dissenting laity at large does
not congregate; popular supremacy does indeed exert
itself in many small circles, not in the happiest manner;
but nowhere has it become a formidable power, presenting a broad frontage which might breed alarm.
But whatever may have been the conditions of the democratic element in the nonconforming communions, it
does not appear that Wesley knew much (probably little
or nothing) of their constitution, or of their actual state;
nor indeed would his prejudices, as a Churchman, have
favored his giving due attention to what might so welli
have engaged it, in the structure and working of the Independent churches. From  Moravianism  he borrowed
what might seem available, on points of discipline; but
*lis body was too special in its intention to allow of a
transfer of its structural principles to his own more widely-based society.
L




242            WESLEYAN METHODISM,
Yet of Presbyterianism, Continental and Scottish, he
was not ignorant; nor could he have forgotten it. It was
not possible that, while his own institute was growinrg
under his eye and hand, he could have failed to recollect
that, in the Presbyterian Churches, a well-considered and
a scripturally sustained combination of the clerical and
lay elements was open to his imitation: here, full in his
view, was a carefully equipoised ecclesiastical structure,
which, although wanting, as it would be if his opinion, as
to the episcopal function, yet claims a respectful regard
on the ground of the jealous care it takes, as well of ministerial honors, as of popular rights.
Why then-did not Wesley take pattern-in some way
-from  so applicable an example as this?-why did he
borrow nothing from the Presbyterian model? This
question admits of but one answer, which is this-that, ill
firaming his Society, and in investing Conference with its
absolution, and in putting into the sovereign hands of his
superintendents the irresponsible power to bind and to
loose on earth, he no more intended to construct a Church
than he intended to frame a new British Constitution. All
those mischiefs and perils which, since his time, have
ensued within the body, seem comprehended in the one
practical error of those who have attempted to work a
complicated machinery for a purpose almost the very
contrary of'that which the contriver himself had in view.
It may be alleged that, as to Presbyterianism, Wesley
was not intimately acquainted with it; or, if acquainted
with it, that his Episcopalian prejudices would be likely to
prevent his availing himself of any aid from that quarter.
What have we then to say, when we recollect that, with
the constitution and the working of the Established Church
he was thoroughly conversant-that he cordially approved this constitution, and that the very characteristic of
this Church, and the point of its contrast with Romanisn
(or, let us here say, Popery) is this very principle of la
influence, lay control, lay appeal, lay supremacy, in spiritual matters? If Congregationalism admits the influence,




A HIERARCHY.                  243
and works by the means of the Church at large, the members and their officers-if Presbyterianism also thus rests
upon the broad basis of a mixed government, clerical and
Tay, the Established Episcopal Church does so much more.
The constitutional rendering of the phrase "' Church and
King" is in fact King and Church; and this interpretation is carried out, from the throne, to those extreme instances in which a layman demands, and makes good,
against the purely spiritual will of the parish priest, his
rights as a member of the national Church.
The system of patronage (whether good or evil in itself) and the position of the episcopal order in the State,
as barons of the empire, and their place among the lay
lords, in concurrence with whom, and not without their
consent, they can carry any ecclesiastical measure —and
the absolute authority of Parliament, Commons as well as
Lords, in Church affaiis; and that power which is quite
separable from the constitutional function of the Crown as
one with Parliament —namely, the royal supremacy-the
headship of the Church; all these provisions for giving
operation to lay influence, and for securing a peremptory
lay control in matters both spiritual and ecclesiastical, are,
whatever opinion may be entertained as to some of them,
in fact so many notable instances of the prominence intended to be given to the popular element in the structure
and working of the Established Church. Besides, and beyond all this, it is upon the Established Church-it is upon
its bishops and clergy, and in a proportion immeasurably
greater than in any other instance-that the mighty influences of public opinion are perpetually bearing. The
surrounding religious communities attract public attention
very rarely, or only in some feeble and incidental manner. A religious dissenting body must have stepped quite
out of the course of its ordinary routine, and must have
made itself strangely remarkable, before it can draw toward itself the eye, or waken the ear, of the great and
busy world. Not so with the clergy of the Established
Church, who, one and all, higher and lower, the primate




244           WESLEYAN METHODISM,
and the country parson and curate, stand daily and weekly,
as one might say, liable to a citation to answer for their behavior before the periodic press. The daily, the weekly, t4
monthly, the quarterly press makes, for its court, a TERM
of the year round, and constitutes itself at once a bench of
magistrates, a court of appeal, a star chamber, and a " holy
office," to which all clerical persons are instantly amenable.
It does not appear that Wesley disapproved of the constitution of the Established Church in this behalf, or that
he formally asserted, in contravention of it, the ultramontane doctrine of absolute spiritual despotism. Is it not,
therefore, manifest that, when he constituted his Society
on a principle which is at variance with that of every
Protestant Church, and which is in harmony with nothing
but the loftiest and most arrogant pretensions of the Romish hierarchy, that, when he did this, he did it because he
was constructing a supplementary Society, not rearing a
Church? Nor, indeed, could he have undertaken any
such task with the materials that came then, or at any
after time, under his hand. What was the Wesleyan laity,
such as he saw it around him? A laity, competent to perfbrm its functions to good purpose within a church organization, must have been religiously trained, and it must
have grown up in the knowledge and practice of those
social religious virtues which tend to bring about a due
adjustment of forces between zeal and wisdom, or prudence. An efficient laity grows up by the side, and under
the teaching, of an efficient pastorate. Preachers who are
not pastors will never see around them elders, deacons,
and people, able and willing to work with them in carrying forward those various means of good to which Christianity may, and will, give effect.
Wesley, we say, had not at his command, while he was
laboring to bring his Society into order, either the ministerial or the lay materials by means of which he could
have organized a Church, even if he had proposed and
wished so to do. But it is manifest that he did neither
wish nor intend any thing of the sort. Nevertheless, if




A- HIERARCHY.                245
he had possessed that sort of sagacity which, in love to his
memory, we do not attribute to him, he would have seen,
as the inevitable consequence of the vast machinery he
had set in movement, that Wesleyan Methodism would, at
no very remote period, come into a position for which he
had made no proper provision; that is to say, it would
become a Church, wanting the necessary elements of
church organization.
To what extent this serious, if not fatal, deficiency. in
the Wesleyan community may since have been supplied,
or how far the evils resulting from it have been remedied
by the several concessions granted to the people by the
Conference, of late years, it is not our purpose to inquire;
nor do we ask, whether some thorough and effective modification of the system-such as might give reasonable
contentment to the popular feeling-might yet be practicable. Yet it may be permitted to the writer to say that
which many, who are not of the Society, would, no doubt,
join him in professing-that a Wesleyan Reform, spontaneously effected, and not brought about by violence, and which
should reanimate the body-should restore harmony within
it, and enable it, as of old, to move outward and aggressively upon the impiety that surrouuds us, would deserve
to be hailed as an event in the highest degree auspicious.
Little as Wesley could have imagined such a course of
things as likely to arise from the constitution he gave to
his Conference, there has in fact resulted from it this singular state of things-namely, that, in respect of the position of the ministers toward the people, which is that of
irresponsible "lords of God's heritage," the professedly
Christian world is thus parted: —on the one side stand all
Protestant Churches, episcopal and non-episcopal, Wesleyanism excepted; on the other side, stands the Church
of Rome-with its sympathizing adherents-the malcontents of the English Church, and-the Wesleyan Conference! This position, mainthed alone by a Protestant
body, must be regarded as false in principle, and as in an
extreme degree ominous.




246           WESLEYAN METHODISM,
WESLEYANISM, A CORPOIATION OR ESTABLISHMENT.
TIHERE is a problem which hitherto has received no solution, involving those conditions under which, with the
least damage to the spirituality of the Christian system,
and with the most advantage to it, as an instrument of
good to mankind, it may come to an adjustment among the
various social interests wherewith it connects itself, and
may take its bearing upon the palpable matter of this
world's elements. In regard to this problem it may
assuredly be said that those who have devoted to it the
most thought, and whose temper of mind is the most tranquil, will be the last to exult over those, not of their own
Church, whom they see to be sorely perplexed in contending with the untoward influences that arise perpetually
firom this source.
At the moment when Christianity connects itself, as it
must do, with the things of this world, and when it becomes a visible institution, holding property in stone, and
timber, and plots of ground, and having to deal with funds,
stipends, trusteeships, pews, taxation; and, in a word,
with LAW, how best may it constitute itself, in all these
uncongenial relationships, securing its high intention with
the least detriment to itself?
The Church of Rome has always dealt with this problem
in a summary manner; that is to say, after claiming all
things on earth, as well as in Heaven, as its own, in the
most absolute sense, it then finds little difficulty in granting
out of these, its comprehensive stores, such morsels of sustenance or of privilege as it may be good for its laity to
receive and use. The Romish Church is a wise, not an
indulgent, mother, who feeds her babes, whether they be
kings, nobles, or peasants, with her spoon-meat, in such
quantities as may suit theirteble stomachs. But it is not
thus that modern nations and Protestant people can be
treated.




AN ESTABLISHMENT.               247
Those who occupy Protestant ground, and who think,
speak, and act on behalf of Protestant communions, should
better understand their own principles, and should be more 
considerate than to do what has been so common, namely,
to hush the evils, the abuses, and the perplexities, that
beset their own ecclesiastical scheme, while, with blast of
trumpet, they blazon the scandals and the overthrows that
are occurring around them. In this course there is as little of philosophic breadth of mind, as of Christian temper.
Some most desirable reforms would cease to be hopeless
if the contrary practice were adopted-namely, if the wise
and honest of all communions, agreeing to put to silence
their own noisy fanatics-were, each communion for itself, fairly to render account of those ascertained evils
which might be considered as characteristic of each, and,
in attempting a remedy, to take up whatever seemed to
be better contrived in other communions. Is it then utterly
chimerical to imagine, as a fact, the prevalence of so much
common sense as this? —alas if it be so, then the most
despicable passions shall have a sway allowed them on
sacred ground, which is forbidden them upon the field of
this world's affairs!
Protestant communions, one toward another, as they
stand related —in common, to the Church of Rome, or let
us say, the Papacy-should feel as do constitutional and
representative governments, as related to the unmixed
despotisms of Russia or Naples. How urgent and formidable are the embarrassments inseparable from the
working of even the best-adjusted representative polity!
-and how near at hand and efficacious is the one remedy!
— let us of the West invite the Emperor of all the Russias
to take upon himself the administration of the perplexed
affairs of Europe, and the heaving billows instantly are
calmed-the winds are down-silence and order reign
through the world! But are we prepared to invite this
tranquillity, at this cost?  A like remedy is available to
the Protestant world, if only it will return to its obedience
to Rome.




248            WESLEYAN METHODISM,
The alternative —that is to say, the cost at which liberty,
political or religious, is to be had and maintained-is the
having to contend perpetually with the difficulties that
arise in the working of institutions which in themselves
are always compromises between theory and practice, and
which go on, one knows not how, from year to year,
working by and through, and in spite of, their unadjusted
antagonisms: inconsistent always they are; nevertheless
they yield to us-to us Protestants-the priceless benefits
of life, political and religious —life and liberty, in comparison with which the false advantages of despotism are not
more to be desired than are the silence and the putrefaction
of a sepulchre.
Every one of our religious communions is, in fact and
law, an ESTABLISHMENT; and as such it is liable to those
entanglements, and is open to those abuses which attach,
in the very nature of things, to religious interests, when
they come to be legally associated with secular interests.
The difference between one mode of establishing a religious
community and another mode, is substantially this, that,
while an incomplete establishment holds itself exempt from
some abuses, it secures this immunity by means of a proportionate degree of inefficiency and limitation: whereas
a complete establishment-a thorough Church-and-State
system, open as it is, and must be, to many and great
abuses, occupies that only position whence, in ample measure, the highest purposes of visible Christianity can be
secured.
Much that may claim to be considered when, as now,
Wesleyan Methodism is spoken of as an establishment, or
an institution giving organic action to visible Christianity,
might, with nearly equal propriety, have been treated of
under one or other of the preceding heads; for in fact the
distribution of subjects, in this instance, can not be perfectly
logical, or be very clearly defined. Regarded either as a
system of-discipline for the people or as an establishment,
Wesley's institute has a high merit on this ground-that
SOCIAL ORGANIZATION SO thoroughly pervades it and is its




AN ESTABLISHMENT.               249
very soul, and is carried out from its centre to its extremities, taking hold of, assimilating, and employing absolutely
every individual who is enrolled on its lists. On this
ground no church or society has gone so far, or can be
brought into comparison with it; and to this very cause —
that is to say, to the thoroughness, if so we might say —of
the Wesleyan organization-must be attributed, in great
measure, the unexampled rapidity of its spread, and, until
of late, the tenacity of its hold where once it has taken
possession of a field of labor.
In other communions, if organizatiorshas been elaborate
and complete, as with the Society of Friends, it has been
much more upon the seclusive, than upon an expansive
principle, and the causes of the stagnant condition of the
body are conspicuous. But in the Wesleyan community
organization has always had one intention, namely, systematic'laborca labor sustained by systematic excitements, and having an expansive purpose as its object. Its
stated and very frequent gatherings, whether for purposes
of worship, public or select, or for the transaction of its
routine business, combine always the two elements —that
is to say, excitement, or excitation rather, and the apportionment and the reporting of the work allotted to each.
No Wesleyan Methodist (where the system has had its free
course) falls out of notice, or is suffered to lapse into forgetfulness, or is left as an inert fragment, not partaking
of the momentum of the mass. An organization which
toce.vr.ne Ln  brng Lvr on inos pL: 1 _




250            WESLEYAN METHODISM,
It must be, of course, with an explanation appended,
that one should affirm Wesleyan Methodism not to be a
voluntary society; for undoubtedly no compulsion draws
you into it, and none prevents your secession. Yet there
is another, a deeper, and a far nlore pertinent sense of the
term VOLUNTARY, in which sense it could not well be applied to this religious association. Saving the civil liberty
not to enter it, and the same liberty to depart at pleasure,
every thing within the Wesleyan inclosure is strictly compulsory, or is the very opposite of voluntary. No place,
no indulgence will.it allow (we are speaking of Wesleyanism, such as the Founder made and left it), no place for
"doing as you please," or for doing nothing,.or for giving
nothing, or for rendering no account of yourself, or for
kicking against constituted authorities, or for putting contempt upon regulations. No place has it for, no license
does it grant to, the willfulness, the individual whims or
preferences, the laxity, the precariousness, the indifference, the dronish incapacity, and the inertness that belong
to, and that flourish under the soft maternal wings of voluntary Churches. Stand off from Wesleyan Methodism —
if you please; but if you touch it, if you enter your name
upon its lists, you are voluntary no longer; or not until
you secede.
The great modern experiment that has been exhibited
by Wesleyan Methodism, might be held quite sufficient
for establishing the principle that a working force, or social
religious power, must be the result of organization, so carried out into detail, and so applied to the total religious
behavior of each member of the body, as shall thoroughly
discharge from the mass whatever is properly spontaneous, or which has its rise in, and draws its impulse from,
the bosom of the individual. Ifindividually you must retain entire your spontaneousness and your personal liberty,
you must forego the animating consciousness of being a
member of a spreading and powerful community. If, in
the fullest sense you will and must be free, you should be
content to walk in and out of church or chapel, on Sunday,




AN ESTABLISHMENT.                251
to pay for a sitting, and to greet your minister with a
courteous distance-making smile, as often as you chance to
encounter him on your path; but you must eschew ORGANIZATION, whence, and whence alone, springs power; and
power, in all instances, costs the liberty of the individual.
A well rounded territorial occupation of the soil on
which it enters, has, from the first, been the characteristic
of Wesleyan Methodism, and, doubtless, a main cause of
its successes, especially as compared with its sister Methodism-the Calvinistic, which has been sporadic only,
or topical. Every elastic fluid-say the chemists-is a
vacuum to every other, and this principle holds good, to
some extent, in the social system. In a country where
perfect toleration is law, religious bodies, keeping themselves exempt from the arrogance and the treachery of
Rome, and from sectarian encroachments, one upon another, may frame themselves, harmlessly and usefully, on
the assumption of a plenary territorial occupancy of the
land. Two, three, or more of such elastic bodies may,
without any offensive interference one with another, thus
stretch their line over counties and provinces; and may
become, each according to its ability, geographically integral. It is true that geographical designations, associated with whatever is great in the history of a country,
seem to draw with them a grotesque inconsistency when
we chance to hear them linked with the small doings of
obscure bodies; but it is not so when the topical and territorial designation is well borne out by courses of arduous
and successful labor, and when tens of thousands of the
people swell the muster-roll of provinces. It is energy
and success, exempt from suspicion of a treasonable ambition, that redeem territorial titles from contempt.
On the one hand, without itinerancy there will be no
evangelic expansion; and, on the other, without territorial
occupation there can be no permanency, and no entireness
of the Christian influence, as related especially to the
rural districts of a country. Paganism-using the word
in its original meaning —yields to nothing but a territorial




252            WESLEYAN METHODISM,
and a parochial church-system, carried out and maintained,
as a public service, and which, in the most absolute sense,
must be irrespective of the expressed or the anticipated
wishes and contributions of those for whose benefit it is
effected.
Wesleyanism has, in a good degree, worked upon this
two-fold principle, and thus, to so great an extent has it
dispelled the paganism, if not of the rural districts of England, yet of its towns and cities; and it has done so where,
during the lapse of one, two, or three centuries, the Gospel,
in the keeping of less enterprising bodies, has lain embedded, as rough diamonds do, in masses which they neither
illuminate nor adorn.
Thus far then, by its effective organization, by its spirit
of order, by its machine-like adjustments, and its planting
itself territorially upon the length and breadth of the land,
Wesleyan Methodism, considered as an establishment of
visible Christianity, has been excelled by no religious institute of ancient or modern times; or at least it has not
been surpassed by any as to efficiency, and the moral force
or power which has been generated within it. Why then
should it not continue to spread itself, and to prosper as at
first? It may or it might yet do so, and Christian men
must wish it, until they see its place supplied by other
means; but whence arises the foreboding which indicates
a different issue?
If it were alleged that some Wesleyan practices-obiectionable always, are constantly becoming more so; or
are found to be less and less in harmony with the spirit ot
the times, we should reply that-in this and other instances,
the system will, doubtless, learn to adapt itself to the
progress of society, and will know how to assimilate its
usages to the growth, or to the shiftings of the religious
mind around it. Such imperfections, therefore, do not necessarily involve Methodism in any serious risk, as to the
permanence of the body: it can never be that a great and
useful institution, administered by intelligent men. should
dissolve from causes such as these.




AN ESTABLISHMENT.               253
But Wesleyan theology, is it not much at fault?  Can
it be thought possible that the ill-digested and antagonistic
mass-the heterogeneous congeries of religious opinions"
spread over the pages of the Founder's writings, should
stand intact another century, and should continue to command the assent of an educated body of ministers, through
the term of the present, and the net generation? This it'
might be hard to believe; and yet if difficulties of another
sort did not meet us on this ground, there would be room
to suppose that a wise and silently effected consignment
of Wesley's theological writings to a respectful oblivion,
would leave room for the advancemnent of the Wesleyan
ministry at once in religious intelligence, and in scriptural
consistency.
Or, might we not advance a step further, and suppose
that the instinct of self-preservation, prompted by the
ominous indications ot popular feeling, not to mention religious motives of a higher order, would bring about, sooner
or later, and before it be too late, such a reconstruction of
Wesleyanism, as a hierarchy, as might at once give reasonable contentment to the laity, and bring the body clean
over from its present false position upon ultramontane
grounc, and place it, where it should stand, in contiguity
with other Protestant communions?  But here we are
peremptorily told, that no such reformatory movement,
even although seen to be indispensable to the preservation
of the Society, is, in the very nature of things possible!
The very idea of change should therefore be dismissed as
chimerical. The Wesleyan laity petitions-the Wesleyan
ministry (let us suppose it) would gladly yield itself to be
constituted anew, for its own sake, even; but itself, and
the people, and the Court of Chancery, and Parliament,
are in this unparalleled instance alike powerless! We
assent then to this lamentable decision; and, ceasing to indulge fruitless regrets, turn for a moment to consider the
instructive fact that a mind, such as that of John Wesley,
should thus, while intending to secure the permanence of
his Institute, so far have misapprehended the constant and




254            WESLEYAN METHODISM,
inevitable tendency of human affairs as to have rendered
its continuance, every year, more and more difficult and
precarious, from the moment of his death, up to the present time.
A vast property in chapels and other effects had been
created by the Methodistic movement, as governed by
Wesley; and it had bedcme imperatively necessary to bring
it fairly out from among the shoals and the sunken reefs
where then it floated at hazard, and to lodge it securely,
for the purposes intended, upon the terra firma of law. In
a word, Wesleyanism was to become, as every form of
visible Christianity always must-an ESTABLISHMENT-an
endowed institution, and a holder of lands, goods, and
revenues, subjected to conditions such as should be intelligible in courts of justice, and such as should entitle it to
the benefits of a readily available civil protection.
The problem then to be resolved was one of a class
which would be complicated and difficult even if the purposes and interests that are to be legally secured were all
purely secular and homogeneous; but when these purposes and these beneficiary interests involve things so
heterogeneous as are palpable properties, civil rights, and
religious principles, opinions, usages, and modes of eeling,
the difficulties inherent in the subject assume the most formidable aspect. It may be safely affirmed that no question of social and legal adjustment is more perplexing than
this.
In no instance, hitherto, have circumstances been altogether favorable for dealing with this problem on any
abstract principle, whether religious or legal. Churches
and communities have done the best they could, or what
seemed to them the best, in ridding themselves of urgent
perplexities, rather than in satisfying their better convictions. Protestant Churches, at the best, are reparations
of ruins: they are not normal structures; and so it is that,
in looking into them from without, occasion is never lacking to those who seek it, for making up heavy indictments
on the score of those abuses and disorders that may be at



AN ESTABLISHMENT.               255
tributed to the intrinsic faults of the system. On this field
narrow minds, inflamed by a sectarian temper, find it easy
to fill their catalogue of scandals.
The best imaginable church establishment, as it can be
nothing better than a compromise, effected among and
between irreconcilable interests, the choice before us, in
any instance, will be of this sort-namely, we may take to
ourselves a scheme embracing the greatest objects, and
ikely to secure extensive practical benefits, yet liable-in
the nature of things-the world being such as it is —to
abuses and perversions. Or, on the other hand, timidly
contenting ourselves with the minimum of efficiency, the
smallest compass of resulting advantages, we may exclude,
not entirely, but to some extent, the liability to abuse and
perversion. Somewhere between these extremes every
Protestant Church hitherto has taken up its position.
In making his choice, on this ground, Wesley's temperament signally displays itself. The decisively practical
tendency of his mind, his energy, courage, and promptitude, at once impelled him to aim at the most extensive
results, and to embrace and secure, at all risks, the high
benefits which his burning zeal taught him to desire and
pursue. He was not the man to please himself with a
faultless ideal-so faultless, that it could be made to work
only on the most diminutive scale-a Church in a cornel
-or a machine, exquisite in contrivance, but never to be
turned to any good account. But in thus boldly devising
his system, the high tone of his mind, its lofty moral
aspirings, his abhorrence of laxities, and his intolerance
of perfunctory remissness, led him to adopt a complicated disciplinatory system-remedial and preventative, by
means of which, as he thought-and, on the whole, his
anticipations have not been falsified —the problem would
be solved, and a religious machinery constructed which,
while it embraced the widest purposes, should hold itself
exempt from abuses; that is to say, that it would be at
once efficient and pure.
The unexampled successes of Wesleyan Methodism,




256            WESLEYAN METHODISM,
during its first fifty years, afford ample evidence of its
Founder's sagacity, and, one might say, genius, on this
peculiar ground. The difficult problem of a religious In'stitute, broadly based, and in the highest degree efficient
for its purposes, and at the same time in a great degree
exempt from disorders and abuses, was so far solved.
That was done which no founder of an institution hitherto
had done; but it was in fact done by aid of the silent
energy of his own personal influence-an influence never
surpassed, perhaps never equaled, by any human being
who has individually swayed the minds of his fellows.
Wesley was well conscious of this influence; but he would
not allow himself to give it a definite expression, as a force
or element, making up the sum of Wesleyan effective
power; and therefore he did not, or it does not appear
that he did, distinctly consider how this same mechanism
was to work when that single energy should fail. The
Wesleyan system, at the moment when it came to work
on its own proper forces, showed what had been the miscalculation of its contriver, as to futurity. The few years
of Wesley's decrepitude gave indications of troubles to
come, and almost at the moment of his death thlose troubles
broke out which, at intervals, have convulsed the Society
during the course of fifty years, which have thrown off
several large secessions, and which perpetually threaten
its utter dissolution.
Wesley's function, through the later years of his life,
whatever else it might embrace, was mainly that of Mediator between his people and the irresponsible body of
ministers which he had called into existence. This mediatorship, so natural in its origin, and so efficacious always,
as he found it, for the preservation or restoration of peace
and order, seems to have blinded from his view the illboding fact that his people and their ministers-the governing body-the legal hundred, did not stand related, the
one to the other, in any CONSTITUTIONAL manner, whether
for better or worse: clergy and laity were forces having
absolutely no structural relationship the one to the other.




AN ESTABLISHMENT.                257.
A vital or spiritual relationship did, or might, subsist between them; that is to say, the people did, and might long
continue to love and venerate their ministers; and these
might continue well to deserve their affectionate esteem.
The people might be always willing implicitly to obey,
and the ministers might so exercise an uncontrolled despotic power as should give no occasion of complaint, and
generate no impatience. That a relationship so fearfully
precarious as this should actually have availed so long, and
so far as it has, to conserve Wesleyan Methodism, speaks
much in behalf of the merits and temper of the governing
body; but more in behalf of the Christian feeling of the
governed; and strikingly does it illustrate that excellence
of Christianity itself which avails to carry ill-contrived
human systems through the roughest waters.
Nothing in the compass of literature can be at once
more sharply logical, or more thoroughly unphilosophical
than are Wesley's reasonings, in support of ministerial absolutism, and in enforcing the duty of popular submissiveness. With a heart that would have grieved to injure any
man in the smallest matter, he upheld a Church theory on
the ground of which heretics, in troops, might consistently
be burned. This misunderstanding of the first principles
of Apostolic Christianity came, in his mind, to an awkward
misadjustment with his determination not to construct a
Church, but a Society only; and so it was —strange medley
of incongruities! that he left in the hands of a body of
preachers, whom he would not consent to think of as
Clergy, a power as irresponsible and absolute as that
which the most despotic hierarchy has ever challenged as
its right, by ordinance of Heaven!
These anomalies might, however, have worked themselves insensibly into some sort of accordance, if Wesleyanism, as a purely religious institute, could have held itself
remote from those embarrassments that attend always, and
unavoidably, the legal settlement of properties and revenues, held and enjoyed for religious purposes. In his
mode of adjusting these legal relationships, Wesley-not




258            WESLEYAN METHODISM,
from motives of personal ambition-no stain of which attached to his moral nature-not from vanity or egotism
but at the impulse of the Founder's prepossession-the rnventor's plenitude of feeling, concerning his own IDEA, took
that course which brings with it the maximum of embarrassment and difficulty; that is to say, he lodged the
Wesleyan property, the dues of the ministers, and the
rights of his people, upon the irresponsible will of a selfperpetuated body of ministerial persons, and these ruled,
and overruled, by a voluminous and heterogeneous mass
of polemical writings!
Whether or not a religious society be endowed with
revenues drawn from other sources, its plots of ground, and
the structures thereupon erected, its places of worship, its
ministerial residences, its school houses, and the like, especially when held by those whose holding is a fee simple,
constitute a property, and give rise to claims of which the
State, in its courts of law and equity, must of necessity be
cognizant, and of which it must be-as of all other rights,
claims, and properties —the guardian, or TRUSTEE GENERAL.
Such trusteeship the State may exercise immediately,
by its own officers; or mediately, that is, as the ulterior
authority or court of appeal, when disagreements arise
between private trustees and the parties claiming to be
beneficially interested in the property so devised, and
when called upon by either party to protect its invaded or
disputed rights.
The several elements of the matter in hand, when a religious body seeks to make the State legally cognizant of
its corporate existence, and to place itself and its property
within the precincts of legal protection, are these four:First. That which may be called the final cause, or ulterior intention of the corporation, holding or managing the
property in question: thus the care and cure of the indigent sick is the final cause of an hospital, as it is the
ulterior destination of the revenues that may have been
created for its'support.  The three other matters are
means, drawing their rule and reason wholly from their




AN ESTABLISHMENT.                 259
fitness to subserve and to secure the final purpose of the
institution, or, as we say, the "Charity." The first of these
three means is the nomination of trustees, in whom is
vested the legal property, and the determination of their
powers and responsibilities as such. The second embraces
the rights, claims, duties, and responsibilities of those to
whom is to be confided, from time to time, the actual performance of the work implied in giving effect to the said
Charity, so as that its benefits shall indeed, and in full
measure, reach the persons whose welfare is in view. In
the instance of an hospital, the persons contemplated under this head are the visiting governors, the physicians,
the surgeons, with their assistants, the nurses, porters, and
other servants of the house.  The third of these instrumental matters are those conditions and restrictions, those
rules, customs, costumes, and orders, if any, in conformity
with which the beneficent intention of the Charity is to be
carried out, and its revenues administered. Thus, for example, it may be determined by the founders of such an
institution-an hospital, let us suppose-that the physicians and surgeons elected to fill its lucrative appointments, shall for ever be such as will bind themselves to
practice medicine and surgery according to the principles
laid down in the writings of Hippocrates, or of Galen, or
of Hunter, or any other.  The founder, or founders, may
furthermore insist upon compliance with a hundred minute
regulations, as to hours, liveries, expenditure, diet, and
what not. It must be granted that no principle of natural
justice is infringed upon when a munificent THOMAS GUY
thus devotes a princely fortune to a purpose so good, and
when he uses his undoubted right as benefactor, in tying
down trustees, governors, physicians, surgeons, nurses, and
patients too, by even a complicated tissue of regulations,
whether these laws be wise or unwise.
Some obscurity might, however, seem to be thrown
over this case of conscience (as to the founder's right ot
prospective legislation) if, in fact, the property devised,
instead of its being, in the simplest sense, his own, had, by




260            WESLEYAN METHODISM,
his exertions and influence, been accumulated in the mode
of contributions from his friends, or the public at large, the
intention of such donations being stated and understood
on all sides. In that case, indeed, if no stipulations, formal or virtual, had accompanied these contributions, the
founder must be held free to legislate as he might have
done in relation to his own.
Now, in fact, it is in this last-named instance that we
find the nearest case of analogy that can be found at all,
illustrative of the course taken by Wesley in lodging his
Society, side by side, with other legally constituted charitable corporations. It is in this light-and in no other,
that the "Deed of Declaration," and the regular Trust
Deeds of the Chapels, and the "Minutes at large," and
those passages in his writings which are usually appealed
to in this argument, can so be read as to seem consistent
with any admitted and general principles of law, or of abstract justice. Wesleyan Methodism, with its properties,
its chapels, its residences, its body of ministers, its officers,
of all grades, is, or constitutes, an hospital, dispensingand it well and usefully dispenses- -spiritual remedies, and
affording spiritual curative attendance to the people; —
these having been persuaded to accept such benefits, if
not freely or gratuitously rendered, yet rendered on terms
fair and advantageous, on the whole, to the recipients.
All is intelligible, if the Wesleyan institute be looked at
in this light, that is to say, as a widely-extended spiritual
"Charity."  Nothing is intelligible, nothing in the social
and political structure of this scheme consists with the admitted principles of social justice;-by no ingenuity, by no
refinements of interpretation, can Wesleyanism be brought
into harmony with the unquestionable rudiments of the
apostolic-church system, if we are resolved to consider
and to defend it, as if it were intended to be a Church, or
an equipoised association of Christian men, ministers and
people.
A few terms, and names substituted, and then the " Deed
of Declaration," enrolled in Chancery, and signed and




AN ESTABLISHMENT.               261
sealed by John Wesley in 1784, will read well as the Will
of the founder of an hospital or dispensary, or of any similar institution, intended to afford needed benefits to whoever, in all time future, might be willing to accept them,
on the conditions named. Wesleyanism, thus considered,
offers tdo the eye nothing that is despotic, nothing reprei
hensible, nothing which should, or, indeed, which could,
give rise to a turbulent resistance on the part of the recipients of this eleemosynary good. The only ground of
exception that could be taken against so noble a charity
would be of this sort-to return to our analogy-" It is a
pity that a body of physicians and surgeons should, at this
time of day, and when medical science has been so much
advanced, be compelled to practice according to Hippocrates!"
If it would not seem trifling with what is so serious,
one might be tempted to transcribe the Deed of Declaration entire, making therein no other changes than the
leaving blanks for the names of the parties, and substituting, for the recurrent phrase "to preach and expound
God's holy word"-this-to practice physic and surgery,
and to dispense medicines. In this case, the "Thomas
Guy" is our'"Rev. John Wesley "-the annual "Conference" is an annual meeting of life governors and directors,
these having the power, uncontrolled, to fill up vacancies
in their number, and to expel obnoxious individuals. The
only difference being this, that these same governors and
directors, accountable to none for their collective conduct,
stand also in the position of the physicians and surgeons
of the hospital; and thus they have charged themselves
with the blended responsibilities of those who appoint to
certain functions, and of those who discharge such functions!
In this declaratory document, which may be regarded
as the Magna Charta of Wesleyanism, which was prepared with the utmost care, and which embodies the
Founder's mind and principles, as matured at a late period
of his public life, namely, more than forty years after the




262            WESLEYAN METHODISM,
origin of the Society-in this document not one word
meets the eye of a reader who, uninstructed in Wesleyan
lore, but well conversant with the apostolic writings, arid
not ignorant of Church history, looks into it, not doubting
that he shall therein find a formal recognition of the rights
*and claims of the Christian laity. No such recognitionno saving allusion to the mass-the people, to those to
whom the apostolic epistles are immediately addressed" the saints and faithful brethren in Christ Jesus," is therein
discoverable!
Hopeless then must be the endeavor to expound the
Wesleyan establishment on any principle that is purely
and properly religious, or that is distinctively Christian.
It is a charitable foundation, supported, in part by "voluntary contributions;" but governed, absolutely, by a close
corporation, perpetuating itself by its own acts from within. Thus considered, we ought neither to wonder, nor to
complain, if the " patients" or people find no place in the
charter.
It does not appear that the idea had at any time presented itself to Wesley, when thinking of his society-of
a christianized body-a congregation of faithful men, instructed, religiously intelligent, and competent to take the
place, and to discharge the functions that are implied and
supposed in the apostolic writings, as belonging to the
PEOPLE, the body of the Faithful. We may understand
how it was that this idea-this church aspect of the Christian system, did. not force itself upon his thoughts. But
even if it had, his principles, in relation to government,
civil and ecclesiastical, were, in a high degree, autocratic,
if not despotic. If he had come into the place of certain
noted hierarchs of past ages, his course would have been
theirs. With a fervent and paternal love he loved "his
people;" but the notion of a Christian laity, as something
more than the patients of an hospital, or the recipients of
"relief," he does not seem to have entertained, and therefore he made no provision for the constitutional government of the Society in perpetuity.




AN ESTABLISHMENT.                263
Nevertheless he was not blind to what would, and must
be, the cou ie of things after his death. This is certain:
on frequent occasions he said —" the people obey me, and
will do so while I live; but they will not obey (Conference?) after I am gone." What, then, we may fairly ask
-what was Wesley's expectation, when he allowed him
self —and surely he must have done so-to forecast the
future? Can we imagine that a man such as he would be
content to go to the grave with that formula of intense
egotism uponhislips —after me the Deluge! Nothing would
be more dishonoring to his memory than any such supposition. Could he tranquilly have sunk into decrepitude, believing that a wide anarchy would overthrow
and dissipate the work of his life, within a few years,
or even months, after his decease? this must not be believed.
Yet he foresaw that the "people called Methodists,"
would, as soon as he was well gone, resent and resist the
irresponsible government of a self-electing corporation
of ministers. He knew that the anomalous constitution
which he had legalized, as well as put in action, was of a
sort which could not be made to work on its own forces.
What then was to happen? Would he complacently reconcile himself to the thought that "Conference," adhering
to the letter of this constitution, and actuated by those
powerful motives, so deep-seated in human nature, which
have always impelled the holders of absolute power to
hold it on, at all risks-that his successors, thus influenced,
and thus acting, would go on to defend and maintain their
supremacy against the impetus of popular feeling; and
that they would be able, in fact, to hold out in their citadel through successive seasons of turbulence and agitation.
A forecasting of events, such as this, should be reluctantly
entertained, for it does not well consist with Wesley's
claim upon our reverence, as a wise and simple-hearted
Christian ruler.
There is one other supposition for which there may be
room, and which saves his reputation in this respect; al



264           WESLEYAN METHODISM,
though events have not been such as to be.r it out, or
make it appear worthy of a mind so highly ted.
Wesley-let us for a moment imagine it, might thds
have forecast the history of his people, and he might have
said:-" I have had to do with babes; but these infants
are becoming, and will become, men: then, as Christian
men, they will acquire at once a mature discretion, and the
consciousness of it. To treat them in perpetuity, as children, will be not merely unwise, but wholly impracticable.
My successors-the. legal Conference Hundred, will not
fail to know and feel this: they will understand-and will
understand in good time, or before it be too late, that, as
they do not wield the secular arm or sword, and as they
stand in fact upon the ground of a voluntary association,
their common interests, their duty as Christian men, as
well as every motive of prudence and piety, will prompt
them, at an early time after my decease, to invite the
people, by their delegates, or otherwise, to consider, and
to reconsider the Wesleyan Constitution-to form it anew
by mutual concessions, made in the spirit of love, upon a
broader basis; and, in a word, they will, no doubt, find
the means of safely transmuting this temporary Wesleyan
Methodism into a Protestant Communion, or Church. My
preachers will doubtless take this course; and certainly
they will take it rather than risk their own existence, and
the perpetuity of the Society itself, by a pertinacious adherence to that which has so little congruity, either with human
nature, or with the temper and usages of the Anglo-Saxon
race, or with the principles of Apostolic Christianity."
Let it be imagined and believed that Wesley thus
thought, and that he died with this, perhaps, undefined
prospect before his eyes. How far, or whether in a timely
and effective manner, or otherwise, the concessions that
have been made by Conference to the people-the Wesleyan laity, from time to time, have filled out the measure
of reasonable popular demands, we do not affect to know,
nor are called upon to inquire or consider.
If Wesleyan Methodism be, regarded —and it is in this




AN ESTABLISHMENT.                265
light alone that, in these pages, it is regarded, as an instance, unparalleled-as to tile breadth and the success of
the experiment, available for the guidance of those who
make ecclesiastical polity the subject of their thoughts, and
who would reduce it to a scientific form, then, and before
any inference should be drawn from the facts it presents,
we should set off from it, when inquiring concerning the
causes of its wide and rapid spread, the impulse-incalculable, which it received at its commencement from that
METHODISM out of which it sprung. No such inchoative
force can we at any time reckon upon, as if it were at our
command, or as if it would necessarily be evolved from
those means of any sort, which human wisdom and zeal
may bring into operation. As part and parcel of the
Methodistic impulse, giving its early triumphant course to
the Wesleyan movement, must be reckoned also, that
which sprang from the extraordinary personal influence
of Wesley himself, and this was as great as any man,
known to history, has ever exelted.
These several forces reckoned off, so far as such an
elimination may be practicable, then what we have before
us in Wesleyanism-is an instance, more conclusive and
more ample than any elsewhere found, of what may be
done by aid of ORGANIZATION, whether the actual structure
within which it takes place be the best possible, or not.
In following this scheme into its details (anbnot now to
refer to the absolute principle on which it rests) there may
seem room for better adjustments in various instances;
but, better or worse, this thorough organization, what will
it not effect?  Had the Wesleyan Institute, from the first,
embraced those elements of Christian combination which
in fact it overlooked and rejected, it may seem  a not
chimerical supposition that, in the course of its first century,
it would well-nigh have drawn around itself the Christianity of the British people. Had it indeed been a Church,
and had its theology been large and tolerable, the surrounding Protestant communions might all have undergone
a process of absorption into itself.
M




266            WESLEYAN METHODISM,
But then, if it be so, the question comes-Are all these
complicated movements-and is this supplementary invasion of the social system, aned is this wheel within wheel,
and this incessant whirl of the religious power-loom, and
this interaction, and this counteraction of authorities, and
this anxious balancing of forces-is this over-organized
Christianity abstractedly good; or does it not actually produce, as one would be inclined to suppose, a mechanical
pietism? or even if not, is it necessary? Might not the
entire benefits of social Christianity be secured, at a
cheaper rate? or, more properly speaking, might not the
same advantages be obtained in a mode that is less conventional, less arbitrary, less formal, and in a style more
in harmony with that unobtrusive and genial domestic
habit and temper which, in a peculiar manner, is the characteristic of the English mind, when best ordered and best
cultured?
If an answer, in a summary style, were demanded to
this previous question, it n-ight safely be given in the form
of a peremptory negative. Wesleyan hyper-organization,
whatever good may have sprung from it, or may yet
spring from it, is not necessary to the full development of
the energies of the Gospel. Further than this we go, and
say, that, when the genuine -and intrinsic forces of Christianity shall be brought to bear-in copformity with Apostolic Churc4 principles, upon the social system, and, when
the ample import of" salvation in Christ" shall be carried
home fi:om churches to families, no such artificial and complicated mechanism as that of Wesleyanism will have any
place left it, or will be called for.
And besides, Wesleyan Methodism, rapidly and widely
as it has spread, has drawn a limit around itself which
though, at the first, it might be nothing more than a chalk
mark upon the ground, will become a barrier impassable,
when Christianity shall work itself clear of all similar entanglements, as undoubtedly it will.
How stands the case? Wesleyan Methodism, as a
legally recognized establishment, is known to the State,




AN ESTABLISHMENT.               267
and is protected by it, in this manner: —Its chapels and
other chattels are held in trust, for, and under the control of the "Conference of the people called Methodists;" and these chapels are to be entered upon, used, and
enjoyed by the members of that corporation, and by those,
forever, whom they may appoint; and these ministers,
thus entitled to use the property of which the trustees are
legally seized, are themselves bound by one condition only;
but it is a condition which was ill-imagined at the first,
and the intolerable oppression of which must be sensibly
enhanced by every instance of progress in intelligence and
scriptural understanding that may bergoing on around it.
The Conference Preachers themselves, and those whom
they appoint, and the body of local preachers, are to teach
that doctrine, " and no other," which is set forth in the first
four volumes of the Rev. John Wesley's Sermons, and in
his Notes on the New Testament! It is the part and duty
of Wesleyan trustees to hold the preachers, tightly, to the
letter of some dozen volumes of heterogeneous and polemical theology! undesirable duty-impracticable obligation!
But we return to the pieliminary paragraph of this seca
tion. We have said that the constitution of visible Christianity, as an Institute working upon, and among, other
institutions, and so as not to forego or damage its own
peculiar and anomalous prerogatives, offers a problem ot
the very highest difficulty-a problem which hitherto has
not been solved, with any notable success, by any Church
or religious community. Thoughtful, well-informed, and
ingenuous Christian men perfectly know this; and they
acknowledge it, and while they admit it as a fact, in relation to the Church to which they may have attached themselves, they can not but hear, with disapproval, the noisy
exultations in which interested and sectarian speakers
and writers indulge themselves, when occasion gives publicity to those abuses or embarrassments that are incident,
peculiarly, to this or that Christian body. Quite of another sort are the feelings indulged by, and the reflections
excited in, better ordered minds on such occasions.




268  WESLEYAN METHODISM, AN ESTABLISHMENT.
As to Wesleyan Methodism, in its actual relationship,
on the one hand to the masses of the people, and on the
other to surrounding religious communions, and to the
Established Church, such minds-or, let us say, largehearted Christian men, accustomed to weigh the wheat
against the chaff, would fervently rejoice to see Wesleyan
Methodism righting itself internally;-that is to say, finding, and availing itself of, sorr, happy expedients by aid
which it should surmount or remove its structural difficulties, and should return in power to its original place, and
its proper function, among other bodies, as the foremost
evangelizing force, brought to bear anew, and in the spirit
of its illustrious Founder, upon the impiety of the millions
around us.




METHODISM OF THE FUTURE.
- WE leave Wesleyanism, and return for a moment to
METHODISM.
Concerning the Methodism of the last century, we have
assumed that it was indeed a dispensation from Heaven.
But when it is thus considered, this inference is involved,
namely, that this recent renovation of the powers of the
Gospel must stand related, as well to the future as to the
past: in other words, that it must be held to take a position in that series of events, through the medium of which
Christianity has, from the apostolic age onward, continued
to work its way forward toward its destined issue-the
subjugation of the human family, and the universality of a
pure religion.
Inscrutable always are the reasons of the Divine Government; nevertheless, the evidences of the fact of such
a scheme of government, having its marked stages, and
its sequences,-linking each conspicuous period of religious
revival with the one preceding it, and then with the next
-the evidences, we say, of such an ordered sequence of
events force themselves upon the notice of the meditative.reader of (what is called) Church history. Yet, although
illustrations of this alleged causal connection of events
might easily be adduced, yet to carry them clear of all
plausible exceptions, and to construct, by means of them,
a well-compacted and impregnable argument, would be
difficult. So arduous a task, who shall attempt it?
A purpose far less venturous we have now before us,
and, therefore, we shut off from our view that wider prospect which would claim to be contemplated if the intention
were-to bring Methodism to its place in the general history of Christianity.




270         METHODISM OF THE FUTURE.
It must suffice here to say, that, if the wide-spread revival of evangelic piety which followed the itinerant ministry of Whitefield, and Wesley, and their companions,
be regarded as "from Heaven" (and this belief will, at
this time, be rejected by few religiously-minded persons),
and, if this Methodism be thought of, as it should, as a following up of that recovery of true theology and of a pure
worship, which it was the work of the Reformation to
bring about, then will it be inevitable, or it will come
upon us as an irresistible impulse, to look onward from the
now extinct Methodism, to its destined sequence, or to that
which we have here ventured to designate, beforehand, as
the Methodism of the coming time. If the hand of God
should be acknowledged in that work which Whitefield
and Wesley effected, can we think that that hand has been
withdrawn from the sphere of human affairs? or are those
high purposes which then were moved forward, rescinded
or broken?  Shall the Reformation of the sixteenth century, and the Methodism of the eighteenth, and the missionary impulse which followed hard upon it, shall these
movements onward toward an issue proportionate, shall
they stop short, and be looked back upon, ages hence, as
a dawn that was followed by no day?
We otherwise think. But even if Christian men might
incline to abstain from all forecastings of the future, they
would not be suffered, in quietness, so to do, by those on
every side, who, adducing in triumphant tones, and with
apparent reason, as the grounds of their anticipations, the
actual and indisputable course of events, and the tendencies of opinion in the educated classes throughout the
civilized world, are challenging the Chfristian community
to look well to that which is coming, and to interpret, as
they do, the signs of the times. We may not then, even
if we would, refuse to consider that which is impending
in the times that are now next us, and near at hand.
The RoMANIsT-naming him, for convenience sake, as
the truest representative of all who, Romanists or not, hold
substantially the same principles-the Romanist believes,




METHODISM OF THE FUTURE.             271
and in so believing he is justified by a great amount and
variety of evidence, that the religious instinct of mankind,
so far as it assumes the form of a definite creed, and s6
far as it conforms itself to an external worship, is now fast
gathering itself aroundche one visible source of authentic
belief, ana which is also the centre of spiritual government, and which enjoins the one form of worship acceptable to Heaven. The Romanist believes-and this his
persuasion has, at least, its semblance of reason, that, yet
a little while, and the eyes of all men shall be seen to turn
toward the chair of the Prince of the Apostles; at least,
so it shall be with all who profess any sort of dogmatic
faith, and who adhere to the usages of a visible worship.
This belief, recommended as it is by its simplicity of expression, is strong also on the ground of its antiquity, and
of its wide diffusion, and of the apparent tendency of devout minds.
On the other side, again for convenience sake, and for
brevity, we name the PANTHEIST of the present time as the
representative of that various mass of undefined opinion
which has existed always as the counter-belief, though
not the real antagonist, of Romanism. It is this Pantheism and this Romanism which, from the earliest periods
known to history, have, under different names, shared between them, in shifting forms, the empire of the human
family; the one shaping itself always in counter-conformity to the other; and the two, like binary celestial masses,
revolving round a common centre, are found to blnecessary,. the one to the other: —annihilate either, and the
other would fly off from its orbit, and be lost in infinite
space. Each, silently conscious of its dependent relationship to the other, has been tolerant of the other; and thus
it is that, while Romanism, under cover of mysticism,
reserves a place for Pantheism, Pantheism has been used
to say, and is now saying aloud, "Inasmuch as the mass
of mankind-the herd, high and low, must and will have
a dogmatic belief of some sort, and must have an ostgntatious worship, Romanism supplies both in a mode that is




272         METHODISM OF THE FUTURE.
well adapted to satisfy the instincts, and to meet the prejudices of the unthinking many."
But the Pantheist, resting his calculations of the future
at this time, upon the observed tendencies of modern science, in all its branches and arl its amazing developments, of late, and seeing also toward what end social and
political institutions are moving, announces it as a fact,
well-nigh accomplished, or as now evolving itself rapidly,
that the entire body of instructed and intelligent men,
throughout the civilized world, and leaving, by peaceable
connivance, the Romanist to take to its bosom the uninstructed and the unintelligent-that this thinking class is
now preparing itself for its near approaching time of triumph-its millennium —when it may ingenuously profess
its rejection of every dogma, and its independence of
every authority in matters of thought, and its tranquil
contempt of all forms of worship alike. The Pantheist,
in support of this, his confident anticipation, appeals to the
admitted fact that, already all, or nearly all, educated men,
from end to end of Continental Europe, those of the AngloSaxon race alone excepted, if they have not yet declared
themselves on his side, are held back from doing so only
by motives of conventional propriety, or of policy.
Now the question between the Romanist, on the one
hand, and the Pantheist, on the other, and those who hold
to the religion of the Bible, on the third part, would not
relate to the fact, which is obvious and notorious, of the
present prevalence of both Romanism and Pantheism, or
of the probable future triumph of both; but only as to the
extent, or the amount, and the value of that exception,
which both must admit to exist-namely, the firmly-held
Christian belief of multitudes within the circle of Protestantism. The overweening feeling of the Romanist impels him, indeed, to set down, as of little account, Protestantism, in its several forms; —he swells and boasts himself
too much. The Pantheist, ever vague in his mode of
thinking, and prone to beguile himself among baseless
speculations, apart from evidence, and regardless of facts,




METHODISM OF THE FUTURE.             273
professes not to know, or knowing, not to care, whether,
at this moment, the Christian exception, or "remnant,
of faith," be larger or smaller: the world, or the world
of mind, is, or it will speedily becom6, his own undisputed property, and he can be patient a few days or
years, until that which is inevitable has actually come
about.
Rather than enter upon an ambiguous controversy, as to
facts which in themselves are not to be precisely defined,
or ascertained, as between himself and the Romanist, or
the Pantheist, the Christian, or he who holds to articles of
belief, as authentically taught in Holy Scripture, and to a
worship thence gathered, will do well (for himself, and as
a means of reaching a tranquil position) to grant, for an
hour at least, to both his antagonists, that the facts are as
they severally profess them to be, and that the anticipations which spring from these facts are not chimerical.
Let it be so then, that our prospect of the future-the immediate future-is to be constituted by blending, in some
manner, the predictions of the Romanist with those of the
Pantheist! This prospect, then, is that which we have to
do with. Of what interpretation is it susceptible? This
is our question.
Many of those who are on the side of Christian faith,
will loudly protest against any such admission as this,
even though it be introduced only in a hypothetic form;
for they will peremptorily deny that it rests upon any solid
grounds; and, in contradiction and refutation of it, they
will make an appeal triumphantly to facts of a very different order, indicating and proving, beyond doubt, the actual
hold which Christian truth has secured for itself in the
world, and the constantly augmenting efficacy of its principles, as " mighty, through God, for casting down imaginations," and for bringing into captivity every thing that
opposes its beneficent influence.
All this we do not deny, nor would we abate any thing of
the warmth of that persuasion which impels Christian-hearted men to anticipate, as near, an order of events the very




274         METHODISM OF THE FUTURE.
reverse of that to which we have here given a conjectural
place.
Be it so. Still we return to those facts, on the other
side, that are not to be denied, namely, that, to some extent, and an extent unusual, if not absolutely unexampled,
both Romanism and a mystic philosophy, which is essentially pantheistic, are winning the favor, and are securing
for themselves the adherence of multitudes around us;
and that thus they are making their advances, as well in
the upper, as in the lower classes of the community. So
much as this is not disputable; for the facts obtrude themselves upon us every day, and are seen in all societies;
and they are admitted and reported in tones, either of uneasiness and alarm, or of triumph.
What is it then, that is indeed going on, and of what sort
is that preparation which, by such means as these, is now
in progress, for bringing about that which we here assume
to be "at the doors," or not indefinitely remote; namely,
a time of renovation and refreshment, and which, by accommodation, we have ventured to speak, of as THE METHODISM OF THE'TIME COMING?
To answer this question in a word, we say, that, by
these very means-by the- aid of Romanism on the one
hand, and of Pantheism on the other-the Christianity of
the apostolic writings is throwing off, and is getting itself
clear of, every thing which hitherto, through the medium
of a diffused profession, and of a conventional religiousness,
it has come to be entangled with, but which is not its own,
and with which it has no true alliance. Christianity is, as
we believe, shaking off from its surface the encrustations
of recent times: it is parting company with the multitude
that of late has pressed about it, and thronged it, and is
drawing itself off to the desert, for converse with those
who are not offended with it, as it is.
Well fitted are these two agents for the purpose they
are subserving: fitted for it they are, separately and conjointly. It is the Romanist, and none so well as he, who
can draw off from the wide field of English Christian pro



METHODISM OF THE FUTURE.             275
fession the many, whether rude or refined, that have
listlessly trodden its inclosures. It is the Pantheist of this
time, who has just now learned how to take into his use
the language of a spiritualism which he has borrowed (as
to its dialect) from the Scriptures, it is he, and none so
well as he, who can beckon away from all Christian congregations, one by one, the youth, the intelligence, the ambitious and the stirring thoughtfulness they may contain.
A customary, and now, perhaps, an exhausted topic,
with Protestant writers (and a very legitimate ground of
argument doubtless) has been the adaptation of Romanism
-or, if we were to use more comprehensive phrases, we
should say-sensuous Ritualism, to engage and charm
imaginative, sensitive, and meditative minds; not now to
speak of its all-prevailing influence with the thoughtless
multitude, as a gross superstition and a polytheistic apparatus. This Ritualism, in a word-and if we now think of
it only in its more refined form, such as it assumes when
it has to recommend itself to the notions and habits of a
Protestant country-it is this Ritualism, with its attendant
mysticism, which offers to devoutly-disposed and cultured
minds that which the craving of such most earnestly seeks
for, namely, a subjective religion, all the elements of which
are found within the circle of human nature itself, and are
always at its command, independently of that grace and
illumination which is felt to be, not from itself, nor at its
command, but which must be looked for, and obtained,
from above. The devoutly-disposed mind must have its
religion; and it may have it at -first hand, by the aid of a
worship like that of Romanism.
Ritualism, subjectively considered, is the soul's own
product; and it is therefore clung to, and rested in, with a
deep-felt complacency. Some of the purest minds have
been content to stop short in this homogeneous and wild
growth of human nature. Then, according to the temperament of individuals, it readily coalesces, on the one
hand, with the themes of a lofty and abstruse meditation,
or on the other, and in minds of a more vulgar cast, with




+76         METHODISM OF THE FUTURE.
polytheistic admixtures, and with the semi-sensual gratifications that are supplied by music, painting, architecture,
and the various branches of the decorative arts. It is in"
this endless variety of combination that we now, and in
every circle, meet with the ecclesiastical artistic feeling,
so worked up with the devout, that much more than an
ordinary skill is required in those who would attempt to
separate these ingredients. A time ago, which some of
us remember, the tastes of the same class of minds among
the opulent, sought their gratification in what might be
called the sublime in upholstery, and in the cognate devices of the arabesque and the grotesque-carved, sculptured, or painted. We have now the symboli. for the
grotesque; we have saints in the place of satyrs, cherubs
for dolphins, implements of martyrdom for the paraphernalia of chivalry; and all to meet the whims, and to exhaust the purses, of the very same order of persons, fired
by a new enthusiasm, or an enthusiasm that has been
newly raked out of the deposits of the middle ages.
But there is something much deeper than this in the now
spreading eagerness of the Ritualistic temper. A mere
fashion, or "rage," as it is called, for ecclesiastical performances, and for the sumptuous accompaniments of such
exhibitions, would wear itself out in a season or- two; and
that which, in its elements and its impulses, is indeed of the
world, would presently sicken of the gloom and chill of
churches. and would return to its proper haunts-to
saloons, theatres, galleries, and the like. The now prevalent Ritualism means more than a fashion, for it is a deep
working inlpulse; it is AN INFATUATION. What, then, do
we mean by this word, as thus applied?
A perfectly distinct answer to this question it is not easy
to give; but a sufficient answer may be supplied by the
means of an illustration, more or less exact and pertinent.
One enters, let us suppose, upon some infected region, over
which a miasma —not to be seen, or felt, or to be shown
and proved to be present by any human means-is reigning, as vicegerent of Death. All countenances speak of




METHODISM OF THE FUTURE.             277
this invisible power, and man and beast stoop and fade before it. Though unseen, it does not leave the casual visitor
to doubt the reality of its sway; for an uneasiness not to
be shaken off, but which is the prognostic of worse, warns
him to retreat, and to make his escape while he may.
If we turn then to the world of mind and opinion, and
ask what it is which we should thus speak of as an epidemic infatuation, we answer, it is an influence which is found
to be spreading from mind to mind, to be taking to itself
families and districts, to be enchaining even some of the
intellectually robust, and which, nevertheless, when one
would apply to it any known mode of rational treatment,
or if one would seek to submit it, in the form of propositions,
to logical ahnalysis-if one would endeavor to confront it
with evidence, historical or biblical; or, in a word, to deal
with it on any principle of which reason is cognizant or'
which authentic piety can bow to-this impression —this
inappreciable, but all providing feeling, eludes all such
means of detention: —while one grasps it-it is gone. As
well bring argument to bear.upon the flashing of the arctic
Aurora, as upon this ruling tendency of the minds around
US.
An infatuation, taking a religious form, is thus seen to
draw to itself, and to bind in its threads, first the young,
the amiable, and the sensitive among women; and then
the sensitive, and the less masculine among men: —then
follow those who, worldly as they may be in habit and
temper, must have a religion, with its Sunday observances;
and this need must be supplied by that which is not so inane
as -that it could not dissipate ennui; and it must be in good
repute, and must be easy in its conditions, By aid of its
ever varying recommendations, ritual Pietism engages
minds that are very differently constituted; but, in so engaging them, it wholly abstracts them from that which is
strictly Christian. No form of worldliness or frivolity is
more absolutely remote from the Christianity of the apostolic writings, than is the Ritualism, which now draws the
crowd.




278          METHODISM OF THE FUTURE.
Thus it is then on this side-the religious side-that
Christianitv is, by the means of the Ritualistic infatuation,
setting itself clear of that which it is not of itself, and is
retiring to a distance beyond the broad margin of that religiousness wherewith, for a while past, it has been intimately blended.
A separation of another sort is, however, necessary to
complete this same disjunctive process.  The GOSPEL
must wholly cut itself off from the fond philosophy of the
present time; and it is doing so by the aid of an infatuation
of another, and of a more refined species, namely, the
philosophic or pantheistic. So long as science, mathematical and physical, stood opposed to a species of faith which
itself was vague, undogmatical, and tolerant of all differences, men devoted to science, and who themselves had'no religious feeling, found it easy to allow, or to connive
at, a religion that never obtruded itself, and that gave no
one any annoyance. But in times such as these, when a
very decisive orthodoxy has taken the place of the toothless Christianity of the last century, and when the only
alternative presenting itself to the choice of educated men
is, either to yield assent to a creed peremptory in every
clause or to reject Christianity altogether-at such a time,
a reaction inevitably takes place, and in its course it forces
upon the non-religious scientific mind a more determinate
form of unbeliefthan otherwise it would have chosen.
Philosophic non-religion thus becomes articulate infidelity;
and we now hear it uttering itself in various tones, and
propounding philosophic creeds, all of them resolving themselves into a system which, in substance, is Pantheism.
This Pantheism, mor6 or less emotional or imaginative
in the ingredients with which it combines, is at present the
belief of many of the best constructed minds of the scientific
class.  Nothing else can well be looked for at a time when
a formal orthodoxy, having little vitality, and which clothes
itself in the costume of the now prevalent Ritualism, is that
which educated men must take to and profess, if they are
to become religious in a Christian sense: —while it is so,




METHODISM OF THE FUTURE.              279
Pantheism, under some form, will be the religion of the
great majority of this class. It is scarcely possible that
any other species of antagonism than this should obtain in
a community within which a severe and exact philosophy
-abstract and inductive, holds its ground, on the one hand,
and on the other a dogmatic belief is professed and pronounced with unwonted animation, and in alliance, too, with
so- much of formality in worship.
Then this same pantheism which is silently, and one
might say defensively, rather than obtrusively, held by
scientific and well disciplined minds, dilutes itself in descending among those of inferior quality; and, as thus
brought down, it is now pouring itself forth from the press,
in styles adapted to all tastes;-sormetimes elaborately
spiritualized, sometimes inr forms that are rich and imaginative; often as allied to some species of pseudo-scientific
quackery; and very often in combination with political
fanaticism, such as that of Socialism.  So it is, that if the
higher or more abstruse philosophy is too strong for you,
you may be served with the same drug, dilute in a deluge
of vapidity.
We have said that these two discriminative agents,
Ritualism and Pantheism, which are so effectively subserving their destined purpose of ridding Christianity of
its admixtures, apart, do also work to the same end as
related the one to the other. This incidental connection
of the two has made itself conspicuous, of' late, in some
notable instances. Ritualism retains its hold, with difficulty, of active and progressive minds: such take to it in
a moment, as a solace, or a taste; but they soon weary
themselves in and with it: they turn aside with impatience from a path that, as they find, runs an endless circuit, and brings them ever and again round to the same
spot. Ritualism, therefore, is continually losing itself or
melting. away into Pantheism; and so it is that the world
is often challenged to listen to the moani~  of those who,
with strong religious instincts in their bosoms, have sickened of "Cults," and have fallen back, disconsolate, upon




280         METHODISM OF THE FUTURE.
the philosophy which they had already once rejected as a
lifeless abstraction! Those who escape the meshes of
Ritualism are taken up by that net the property of which
is to hold whatever it touches.
The one or the other of these two absorbing influences,
or infatuations, as we have ventured to call them, is now
meeting us in every circle, and is dividing families; and
the victims, too often, are the well trained-the intelligent,
the amiable. Those whose own Christian belief is deep
and immovable, seeing these things, are filled with sorrow
and alarm, or even dismay; and such persons —parents
often-look around for help, and are impelled to call
loudly upon Christian teachers and writers to come forward with dissuasives, with sermons, tracts, or conversations, such as shall avail to stay-the evil in its course: but
by such means it will not, in many instances be stayed.
To a limited extent, and only for an hour or a day, does
reasoning, even though it be the most conclusive, take
effect upon those who have once surrendered themselves
to either of these fascinations, each of which finds its way,
with ease, into the deepest recesses of human nature. Always is it possible to pass from the domination of the one
influence, and to come under the sway of the other; and
this shifting of the mastery of the bosom may, as it seems,
be often repeated; or otherwise, relief may be had by a
surrender of the soul and body to worldly impulses, and
to sensual seductions. Thus may a tyranny which is intellectual be shaken off, by selling the body and soul to a
tyranny that is earthly.
In various modes are these spreading illusions of the
time resisted and repelled on the part of those who represent and profess Biblical Christianity. Sometimes, and
not seldom, by vehement if not virulent invectives; or if
not so, by the angry outbursts of an undigested zeal which
denounces its antagonist-Romanism ("'Popery") or Infidelity —in la!Aage that, while it exhausts the vocabulary
of contemptuous wrath, falls like the clatter of hail upon a
slated roof. How little is this loud barking at the gate




METHODISM OF THE FUTURE.             281
heeded by the wily fox who has already entered, from behind, the inclosure, where he has found what he was in
search of, and is glutted with his prey!
Men of a more governed temper, and of better training, employ themselves in their studies commendably,
and, perhaps, usefully, in redressing the staple argument,
or the round of arguments, long ago admitted to be conclusive, and which, in fact, stand unrefuted, and by means
of which it may be shown, entirely to the satisfaction of
all dispassionate and reason-loving persons-first, that the
pretensions of Rome are utterly unfounded-that its distinguishing doctrines and rites are innovations, the rise
and history of which are no way obscure, and that the
entire system is as corrupt and cruel as it is anti-christian;
or, turning toward our adversary on the left hand, arguments that are good and sufficient, and more than sufficient, may be brought to bear, as well upon Christianity,
to authenticate its claims, as upon Pantheism, to expose
the inconclusiveness of its reasonings, and to show the
vague and nugatory character of its speculations.
Now these several modes of tranquil argumentation can
not be thought to have lost any of their intrinsic value;
and therefore, they may well be set out afresh, from year
to year, as valid and imhpregnable defenses. This advocacy of the truth does, in fact, avail with those who might,
perhaps, have been retained within the inclosures of Christian belief without its aid, or by the use of other means of
suasion. But as to those whose lips have but once touched Circe's cup, the authentic argument which is customarily employed in defense of Biblical Christianity, as
against either Romanism or Atheism, takes effect in instances that are as rare as the rarest of natural phenomena.
We feel —or those feel it who thus labor to stay the
spreading evil-that what we have to do with is not an
error that may be corrected, but an infatuation, out-lying
far beyond the range of reason.
Thaexperience, or the mortifying consciousness of this
impotency of argument to drive back the silent encroach



282         METHODISM OF THE FUTURE.
ments of the two great delusions of these times, has led,
on the part (chiefly) of young, ardent, and ambitious
writers and preachers, to an attempt the most unwise, the
actual product of which has been only to re-act upon their
own minds, and to loosen their hold of their professed
principles, as well as to enfeeble their influence as religious teachers. Such preachers and writers have saidor it appears that they must so have reasoned with themselves-" We find that our Christian argument takes little
effect upon the mass of men; and none at all upon those
who, in an active sense, stand opposed to us. Nor ought
we much to wonder that it should be so, for this style of
reasoning, which had its rise in dark times, stands in no
true relationship toward the human mind in its present
advanced condition; it is thoroughly obsolete; nor ought
it to be required of the educated men of these enlightened
times to listen to that which is so stale. Besides, not only
are the arguments we'have been using out of date, but the
Christianity which we have inherited from our ancestors
(good men indeed!) is itself superannuated. The Gospel
has been misunderstood, as every thing else came to be
misunderstood, during the middle ages. Then the theology that was unadvisedly compacted at the time of the
Reformation was a conglomerate of logical, metaphysical,
polemical, and political truths and errors —an inextricably
entangled mass. The work, therefore, that is now to be
done, and which is to be done by us, the rising ministry,
is (with all due reverence for the text of Holy Scripture)
to reconsider every thing —to pass our creeds through the
refining fires of the modern philosophy-to render the
substance of theology into the intelligible terms of the modern philosophy;-in a word, what we have to do is, to put
forth for the acceptance of the enlightened times on which
we have fallen-a Philosophy of Salvation. To encourage
our endeavors on this ground, we may assume it as certain, that there is nothing in Christianity, when truly understood, which may not be made perfectly intelligible to
all reasonable men. Mystery is aphantom of times gone




METHODISM OF THE FUTURE.             283
by; —it was itself born of superstition, and it becomes the
parent of more. We will show men that their prejudices
against Christianity have all been founded upon misapprehensions, the blame of which rests upon ourselves and our
predecessors more than upon those who entertain them."
Thus, in substance, have some reasoned with themselves, and on such grounds have they addressed themselves to the labor-a labor how vain!-of engineering
a road, upon an easy slope, up the steeps of Paradise,
from the levels of Disbelief; and so that the table land
of Heaven may henceforth be laid open to the feet of all
men.
While time and toil are thus, or in similar enterprises,
expended to little purpose-that is to say, in relation to
the middle classes, and to those who frequent churches
and chapels-to arrest the spread of dangerous opinions,
it is found, it is felt, it is confessed, on all sides, that Christianity has nearly lost its hold of the masses around us;
or that if nothing has been lost, because never possessed,
little or nothing has lately beeh gained on the broad field
of the popular mind. It is true that a proportion of the
laboring classes, in towns, and through the country, is
still held in hand by each of the Protestant communions,
and which, with its score or two, fills, as one might say,
the interstices of congregations; or — to use a phrase
which in itself is of ill sound-there are, in all places of
worship, there are occupants of the "free sittings;"alas! that any sittings should be not free.where the Gospel in its purity is proclaimed.
But even if churches were every where built, and if the
"sittings" in them were all free, the question presents
itself, would that ministration of the Gospel which now
we have at our command, would it avail to recall the
thousands of the people? A mere possibility of so happy
a consequence is, no doubt, enough amply to warrant
all costs and labors requisite for trying the experiment.
Yet, hitherto, the course of things has been different.
Congregations have called for churches (buildings), not




284         METHODISM OF THE FUTURE.
churches for congregations: the sepulchral voice of an
empty church does not fall well on the popular ear.
Let leave be granted for affirming that, to gather the
thousands of the people-the tens of thousands that now
loiter away their Sundays within sound of the church
chime, there must be brought to bear upon them an effective ITINERANCY:-the multitude that is gone astray must
be followed, and must be pursued into their fastnesses of
ignorance and profligacy by apostolic men —that is to say,
by none other than the best men of whom the Churchthe Christian body at large —might make her boast. This
recovery of the lost will be no task for ordinary spirits.
Yet this is not all; for a Doctrine, as well as an Agency,
is now called for; and we wait, not merely for the men
who shall preach it, but for that which they must carry
with them, namely, A NEW METHODISM.
There is a tendency, we have said, in the two now prevalent illusions, which have become characteristic of these
last days-there is in them a tendency to open the ground
for the coming in of this re-animated Gospel-this METHODISM OF THE FUTURE. When it does come, although it
will come " from above," yet will it come in the track of
ordinary causes, and these, even now, are speaking of its
approach.
There never fails to take place somewhere, a reaction,
proportioned, more or less exactly, to whatever influences
are in active operation around us. If, indeed, as many
seem to think — if this now prevalent ritual formality on
the one hand, and if the modern atheistic philosophy on the
other, should go on to spread as an inundation, encircling
a constantly diminished company of those who cordially
affect the Christianity of the Bible, then would there be
reason to look for the gathering of an intense feeling
within the bosoms of a few, among whom would spring up
this renovating spirit-presently bursting its way outward, and moving with power through the masses of the
people. Of what sort then will be this reactive impulse,
and what will be its grounds? We venture thus to pre



METHODISM OF THE FUTURE.             285
diet concerning it, abstaining from speculations that would
unwarrantably meddle with incidental circumstances, and
fixing our thoughts upon that which is of the very substance of a religious revival, in harmony always with the
written Revelation.
Granting as possible, yet by no means assuming it as
certain, that those now prevalent departures from the faith,
which so much alarm Christian men, shall severally, and
in combination, spread still further, thus narrowing the
space that is occupied by the Christian community, and
at the same time undermining this ground, and reducing
the faith of many to a wavering acquiescence, and to a
passive Sunday habit-should it be so, then, within some
two or three minds-minds of power and compass-there
will arise a stern questioning of themselves, in this manner:-" What is it that we do believe, or profess to believe, and on what grounds? or how is it that we are
henceforward to maintain our position, few as we are,
against the world?" There will follow from such an
inquest-not the renewal of a fruitless and interminable
controversy with the hundred-headed errors that are on
all sides triumphant; but a straight-forward pursuit of
truth, on its own ground-the Scriptures —and such a pursuit of it-a pursuit in such a mood of intense earnestness
as does not fail of success. At such a time, and in the
instance of these Christian men-the originators of the
future Methodism —there would be a fulfilment and an
illustration of the words-" the kingdom of heaven suffereth violence, and the violent take it by force."
These fresh minds, applying the unsophisticated energy
of their understandings to the problem before them, will
reach ground which they will know to be immovable:this will be the course so far as the faculty of reason, unassisted, may go. But thence these minds will be carried
onward by a Sovereign Energy, consentaneous with the
natural powers, yet far outstripping their limits. They
will convince themselves, while using diligently all proper
implements of criticism and exposition, that Holy Scrip



286         METHODISM OF THE FUTURE.
ture has, in the main, been truly understood from the first;
and then they will awake to a sense of what it is which
this, their now proven faith, imports.
The Methodists of the time past took up their theology
as they found it ready for their use, in the confessions and
articles of the several Protestant Churches-among which
the points of difference are immaterial. But their successors, of the time future, will take to themselves the
same theology, under conditions of mingled advantage and
difficulty, as thus.-It will be an advantage for them that
the grounds of religious belief, as derived from the canonical writings, have, in the lapse of this half century, been
swept quite clear of that mass of nugatory exceptive criticism which once encumbered it. By the boundless industry of scholars —Christian and non-christian, the flimsy
stuff wherewith the Socinianism of Priestley's time clothed
itself, has been well disposed of, and it will trouble theology no more. The question now is-not what the apostles
hl4ieved and taught; but only this-The apostolic belief,
conspicuously certain as it is (historically and critically
regarded) should it be our belief, because it was theirs?
Now in dealing with this residuary question (if indeed
there be any difficulty attaching to it) we of this time are,
and the Christian men of the future tilne will still more de-.
cisively be, aided, though unwillingly, by our adversary
Romanism. Let us imagine that the wide world, or the
Church, so called, and the world, has —a protesting few
excepted-surrendered itself to this universal spiritual authority, and that its flagrant superstitions and its tyrannies
are bowed to, and obeyed, on all sides. Then it must be
that those who shall continue to loathe these idolatries, and
to resent this despotism, will find themselves driven in upon
the only position where a stand may by any means be
made, namely the authority of Scripture, this being held
as absolute, and not to be abated by admixture with any
other pretended sources of belief. It will thus be, as by
an urgent necessity, and as the only means of resisting the
abominations and the cruelties of a triumphant superstition,




METHODISM OF THE FUTURE.             287
that the few whom we are supposing to stand steadfast in
their faith, will make good their footing on the only practicable ground; and when they are thus, and there
established, the question, as between themselves and their
infidel.antagonists, will have been superseded. This question, on that side, might seem to be less easily determina.
ble; but, as toward the Romish superstition, all is peremptory and clearly defined. At such a time there will no'
remain an inch of space whereon the foot may rest, be
tween these two positions; that is to say, unless, in the
most peremptory manner, and to the exclusion of all reserves or evasions, the sense of Scripture, ascertained and
interpreted on a true principle, be resclutely adhered to
there is nothing gross or abominable in the superstitions
of Southern Europe that must not be submitted to. The
tyranny of the Romish system will not be remiss in forcing
its idolatries upon those who yield themselves, at all, to its
pretensions; and there will be no other means of resisting
those pretensions, but a resolute adherence to Holy Scripture. Hitherto it has always been easy to hold Romanism
at bay, and the Bible too; but this liberty will be gone
when Romanism and Ritualism shall have gained the ascendant, and together shall fill the world.
Tjus, by the compulsion of these two forces, coming in
on either hand, and driven to betake themselves to the authority, and to shelter themselves in the plain sense of
Scripture, those who shall put in movement the future
Methodism, and whom we suppose to be, not the zealous
aypdbiparot and the ldtcrat of less remarkable eras, but well
taught biblical scholars, will feel, as we of this time do not
feel, the necessity,first, of defining, with unambiguous explicitness, what it is they mean, when they speak of the
apostolic writings as; given by inspiration of God," and
then of laying down, and of invariably adhering to, certain
principles of interpretation.
As to the first of these preliminary labors, it is not
merely in itself a work of peculiar difficulty, but it involves
the breaking up of so many inveterate superstitions, and




288         METHODISM OF THE FUTURE.
the dissipation of so many cherished illusions, that we may
be sure it will never be attempted, or, if attempted, never
carried through, in easy tranquil times, like the present;it is a work which will be forcibly effected by strong arms
in some season of anguish and anxiety, and when those
who set about it shall feel that they are wresting immortality and its hopes from the grasp of two lawless adversaries.
As to the second, it will flow out naturally from the first,
and it will bear an analogy to the revolution that was
effected in physical science by the promulgation of the
Baconian philosophy, and in accordance with that analogy
it will effect the final expulsion of metaphysical schemes
of Christian doctrine; in the room of which will come the
fearless THEOLOGY OF INTERPRETATION-offering to the
eye, as it must, many of those breaks and " faults"-those
inferences-irreconcilable the one with the other, which,
while they torment the theorist and the logician, open the
fields of immortality before ingenuous spirits-and which
are, and must ever be, the characteristics of a theology
that is fragmentary and disjointed, for this very reasonthat it exhibits portions of eternal truths, to finite minds.
The movers of the future Methodism will indeed hold
in their hands the same Bible which we hold; but then it
will be to them, as one might say, a new Revelation;-not
because it will bring into the creed any new article, or
expunge any; but inasmuch as it gives to each an immeasurable expansion, and enriches each with a treasure
of hitherto unthought-of meaning.
Such a renovated creed these preachers wilrlfind the
need of in making good their first assault upon the consciences of men, which lately have undergone a sophistication that quite turns aside the shafts of the modern
preacher. The Methodists of the past time (as we have
said) found the consciences of men greatly benumbed, indeed, or paralyzed, by sensuality and earthly passions;
yet not generally recusant of the preacher's appeal. Not
so the masses of men at this time; for the wide currency




METHODISM OF THE FUTURE.             289
that has been given to various schemes of physical metaphysics has, in a positive sense, perverted the moral consciousness of multitudes, and has furnished the minds that
have been thus perverted with the plausible sophisms of
a spurious philosophy —a miserable quackery, by aid of
which men persuade themselves, and each other, that sin
is not sin, but misfortune.
A popular ministration of Christianity, which should
lay anew a solid foundation on this ground, and which
should thence move forward to awaken the fears of men
as guilty, could not fail to convulse the social system; and
especially as there would follow close upon it a more distinct and impressive interpretation of those passages that
are affirmatory of future punishment. The past Methodism took to itself the belief which it found; but the coming
Methodism must derive its belief anew from Scripture, by
bringing to bear upon this difficult subject a reformed principle of biblical interpretation.
The urgent necessity that will be felt by the preachers
of the future time for making good every step of their
ground, when they come, in the present state of opinion,
to assail the consciences of men —infatuated more than
stupefied, must lead to consequences that are little apprehended. When once this weighty question of the after
life has been opened, and when it shall have come into the
hands of well-informed biblical interpreters, a controversy
will ensue, in the progress of which it will be discovered
that, with unobservant eyes, we and our predecessors
have so been walking up and down, and running hither
and thither, among dim notices and indications of the future destinies of the human family, as to have failed to
gather up or to regard much that has lain upon the pages
of the Bible, open and free to our use. Those who, through
a course of years, have been used to read the Scriptures unshackled by systems, and bound to no conventional modes of belief, such readers must have felt an
impatience in waiting —not for the arrival of a new revelation from Heaven, but of an ample and unfettered
N




290         METHODISM OF THE FUTURE.
interpretation of that which has been so long in our
hands.
Thus the future Methodism, as we assume, will feel th'e
need of, and will acquire for itself, under pressure of the
most urgent motives, an incontrovertible exposition of the
Scripture doctrine concerning tte future administration of
justice; but then it will not make this acquisition as if it
could be held as an insulated'dogma; for whatever is further ascertained, on this ground, will come to stand in its
true relationship to much beside, which, in the course of
the same argument, will have started to view, as the genuine sense of the inspired books. The doctrine of future
punishment, as a belief drawn from  Scripture, and so
drawn as to dissipate prevalent illusions, and to spread on
all sides a salutary and effective alarm —such a belief will
take its place in the midst of an expanded prospect of the
compass and intention of the Christian system.
The past Methodism was far from being a message of
wrath, proclaimed by men of fierce and fanatical tempers:-it was a message of joy, hope, and love; and it
made its conquests as such, notwithstanding those bold
and unmeasured denunciations against sin which it so often
uttered. And so it will be with the future Methodism;
and although it will rest itself upon a distinct and laboriously obtained belief concerning the "wrath to come"
a belief such as will heave the human mind with a deep
convulsive dread, yet, and notwithstanding this preliminary, the renovation which we look for will come in as the
splendor of day comes in the tropics-it will be a sudden
brightness that makes all things glad!
Who is so bold as not to draw back trembling, although the prospect be bright, when he approaches a
meditation such as this, and ventures to inquire what that
feeling shall be, and what that condition of the Church
shall be, when, in its simplicity of expression, and in the
incomprehensible vastness of its import, the FIRST TRUTH
of the Christian system shall present itself to the minds of
men-not as a verbal proposition, but as a reality? Those




METHODISM OF THE FUTURE.             291
wordy mists wherewith controversies, long continued and
often repeated, enshroud religious principles, will have
passed away; and the darkness of misbelief, which sheds
a gloom beyond its own limits, will have gone off to the
distance as a cloud. Preachers, well understanding that
science, though good and genuine in itself, can contribute
absolutely nothing toward the interpretation of truths eternal, and feeling well that human eloquence has'little or
nothing of its own to add to the impressiveness of those
truths. shall allow them to be offered in the strictly rendered terms of Scripture, to the reason and to the consciences of men.
But although philosophy can never succeed in its attempts to expound salvation, nor eloquence do much to
recommend it, human nature from its depths responds to
it; and in the hearing of it wakes up to a new existence,
which is felt to be, indeed, its destiny. What is it that is
meant when it is said that "God created man in his own
image," and that " in the image of God created he man?"
Of this eternal alliance man has long ceased to be distinctly conscious, albeit the struggling of his insatiate desires gives him notice of it as a mystery of his being: but
now, in the hearing of this truth, that God has not forgotten that which man has ceased to know or regard, he
listens as to that which, although it be new, is not strange;
in hearing it he returns to his destined position, and, while
pride is utterly humbled, he rejoices to be "made partaker of the divine nature," in Christ, who is God and man
-Head of the human family, and its Almighty Deliverer.
The anticipations that are now most often uttered, when
a bright future is the theme of the preacher's discourse,
have this complexion —namely, That, by a blessing granted much more copiously than heretofore to the various
means of religious instruction and influence, as at present
employed; —and by the diffusion of Bibles, and the buildjng of churches, and the carrying out of plans of popular
education, and the like commendable labors, Christian
communities will at length be christianized indeed; and




292         METHODISM OF THE FUTURE.
that thence, and by such means, the pagan world will
slowly or speedily be converted. There are also those
(zealous theorists) who, in looking forward to better times,
in a religious sense, fix their eye, with a restless eagerness, upon the downfall of this or that false system, the
existence of which they think is now the one and principal
hinderance, standing in the way of Christianity. "If
popery were in the dust, and if all state religions were
trampled on-then would the Gospel take its triumphant
course!"
But if, in any such modes as these, or in the track of
this order of causes, the Gospel is anew to take hold of
the masses of men, in a powerful manner, then will a renovation, thus coming about, be indeed an anomalous event;
for it will have no sort of correspondence with any preceding instance of religious advancement. In every instance that offers itself as bearing upon such a question,
truth and piety have first retired, and have been lost to the
view of the world in the bosoms of a silent "seven thousand "-known only to the Searcher of hearts, and not even
to each other, or to the world. Such has been ever the
state of things in the hour preceding the dawn of day.
The return of truth and piety has been a bright and sudden visitation from on high, as in the thickest gloom of
night, and in the course of this visitation elementary principles have broken away from their entanglements with
secondary truths, and have stood revealed in their simple
majesty before the eyes of men. Thus it was that, in a
time of wide-spread death, the Gospel brought in the Reformation, not the Reformation the Gospel. And thus, too,
at a time not less death-like, did the same Gospel carry
Methodism over half the world; and thus, as we venture
to think, shall these first truths, at a moment when the two
now prevalent delusions have reached their destined limits, burst through all restraint, and claim for Christianity
anew, its own position as the source of all good, and the
only ground of hope for man. Those influences (legitimate as they are) to which Christian people are looking,




METHODISM OF THE FUTURE.             293
as the proper causes of the expected triumph of the Gospel, will follow as its consequence; and they will so be
brought into operation, on a vastly extended scale, as shall
give a new aspect to every cournry wherein they shall be
allowed freely to take effect.
And which are those countries? If we are to adhere
to the rule of analogy, the next coming religious renovation, when the Gospel shall again, and in its power, its
majesty, and its ineffable mystery, come home to the minds
of men-this approaching visitation will take its course
restrictively, as among professedly Christian nations, and
then (not according to any assignable rule) shall it spread
over, or make inroads upon, the non-Christian wastes
of the world. Christianity, at the first, went wherever a
preparation had been made for its reception by the scattering and settlement of the Jewish race, and by the preexistent diffusion of the Scriptures of the Old Testament,
in the Greek language. Within these limits the Gospel
seated itself, and there it held its position with more or
less of continuity; and beyond the same limits it was, indeed, carried forth, and it won its triumphs; but soon it
lost its hold; soon it retreated, and disappeared, leaving
only some scattered and scarcely appreciable fragments
on its spots, to denote the course it had taken.
The Reformation also yielded itself to a restrictive influence; or, as we might call it, a law of limitation, and
it did so in a manner still more marked. It broke, as a
sudden glare, over the entire surface of Europe; and it
entered and convulsed every one of the countries then representing the Roman empire; but as to most of them, it
convulsed them only for a moment, and soon was driven
out and extinguished. As a permanent religious renovation, scarcely did it extend itself over the space occupied
by the several families of the Teutonic race; and within
even these limits, its occupation of its original surface has
been precarious, giving way perpetually, as well to the
returning influence of Romanism, as to the more fatal
spread of a feebly-christianized infidelity. In any true and




294         METHODISM OF THE FUTURE.
religious sense, does the work of the Reformers survive
any where, but among the English people? It is among
the English, and these only, that an unambiguous creed.orthodox and evangelic —the faith that was recovered by
the Reformers, is boldly professed, and is sustained concurrently, by independent communions.
The Methodism of the last century swept over nearly
the same surface, and gave animation to those communions only which still held the creed of the Reformation.
Upon this surface the renovation which was brought about
by Methodism has well maintained itself in its several
transmuted forms, such as a revived church feeling, a diffused evangelic profession; and then the missionary zeal,
and then those many modes of Christian benevolence
which pursue their objects by means of voluntary organizations.
In the British Islands, and in the colonies, every where,
and in the States of America-that is to say, wherever the
English language is spoken, and nowhere else-there are
to be found individuals many, and communities, by and
among whom a new ministration of the Gospel, in its
power and purity, would be hailed with profound emotion, would be welcomed, and listened to, and obeyed. So
far as calculable probabilities might be allowed to find
place in relation to so high a subject, there are two events
which would seem in an equal degree amazing and unlikely, and they are these, namely-That a renovated
Christianity should not be listened to, and joyfully accepted, by the religious communities of the English race; —
of, That it should be so listened to by any of those cultured nations of continental Europe, which have long since
thrown Christianity out of their serious regard, and have
learned to think and speak of it as a religion which, though
better than some, is now effectively obsolete.
Assuredly it is with no leaning toward a' puritanic interpretation of the Fourth Commandment (which was a
Jewish, or rather a Rabbinical, and not a Christian rendering of it), but under the sure guidance of a moral experi



METHODISM OF THE FUTURE.             295
ment which has been carried forward on the largest scale,
and under all imaginable varieties of circumstance, that we
may thus conclude, that, where the SUNDAY retains, in unabated force, its sacredness, as well in the feelings of a community, as in their habitudes and usages, there will be found
-not scattered individuals merely, but masses of the people, ready to accept, and eager to listen to, the Gospel, once
again proclaimed in its grandeur, simplicity, and power.
A throwing off of the Sunday feeling, and an easy contempt of religious usages, such as has become the wellnigh universal characteristic of the continental nations,
may consist, and it does consist, with the tolerated presence of small clusters of Christian men, still clinging, as
they may, to a serious religious belief, and adhering to
religious forms; but in such countries, a new METHODISM,
if, indeed, it shall visit them at all, will provoke, in one
mode, or in another, its new MARTYRDOMS. The Gospel,
if it takes its course through such lands, will run this way
and that, over the surface, as a torrent of fire.
It may well be imagined, and it might almost be predicted that, at such a time, when Christianity in its purity
shall break in (if ever it does so break in) upon the national
impiety of France, Spain, (Germany), Austria, Italy, Russia, the ecclesiastical authorities, whatever may be their
mind, or their readiness to do their office as of old, will be
spared the necessity of grasping the sword and brand in
defense of the Church; for it will then be seen (so we
may predict) that the soul of Decius, of Galerius, of Diocletian, may find a lodgment in the bosom of the modern
atheist, more thoroughly to its taste than was that of an
Innocent III., or a Bonner.
But whatever may be thought of the actual religious
condition of the people, or of the tendency of opinion in
England, or elsewhere, throughout the world, where the
English have created for themselves a home, it is still true
that those feelings are cherished, and those usages are adhered to, by the mass of the people-certainly by a majority of the middle classes, which hold them in readiness




296         METHODISM OF THE FUTURE.
always for the reception of a revived Christianity. There
is a marked difference between ourselves and every other
branch of the civilized commonwealth-the nations of
continental Europe-in this respect, that they are looking
about with a vague anxiety, in this direction and in that,
hoping for social ameliorations to be effected by some
process of political regeneration: we-that is to say —the
observers of Sunday, and the holders of the Bible, though
not indifferent to political improvement, yet deeply feel
that no alleged improvement can be in itself desirable, or
be permanently good, which does not spring out of Christianity directly, or at least receive its sanction.
The religious convictions of many around us may have
been loosened or impaired; yet not so injured, as that the
renovation of them would not be joyfully welcomed, even
as a man exults in the restoration of sight or hearing.
Multitudes are there on all sides, to whom, although they
have gone out of the way, a return to Christian belief and
Christian usages would involve no strange or incongruous
revolution of mind; but only a repentant acquiescence in
principles too long forgotten, or misunderstood. Multitudes also are there, who, although their present religious
condition is, in their own estimation of it, ambiguous, yet
stand prepared to listen to a boldly-proclaimed Gospel
with gladness and animation: they are the constant frequenters of public worship-to its forms and observances
they yield themselves, not reluctantly, nor yet cordially,
but wishing that the service they take part in was borne
out in their bosoms by a less evanescent feeling. Churches
are filled by those to whom the first wakening sounds of
another Whitefield's voice would be hailed as bringing
"glad tidings of great joy."
When, as now, we think of such a renovation, we include in this idea of the future no new or supplementary
revelation-no new creed-not the rising of a new sect,
but only this, that there should be brought to bear upon
human nature the full energy of Eternal Truth, by means
of the existing ministrations of the Gospel. A difficulty




METHODISM OF THE FUTURE.           297
inseparable from the subject, and consequent upon its very
nature, attends us whenever the course of religious movements is spoken of, which, while they stand connected
always with visible causes, with human agency, and with
known motives, have also a higher cause, namely the Sovereign Will of Him from whom all good comes, and of
whose counsels man knows nothing.
Thus, in this present instance, it might be easy, or not
extremely difficult, so to forecast the present tendency of
opinions, in England at least, as might warrant the belief
that a powerful religious reaction is near at hand. But
here we should be checked by considerations of another
kind; for a mere reaction, arising from the return of calculable influences, is not what we desire, or what we now
need. Puritanism was, to a great extent, a reaction only;
and so, too, was that profligacy and impiety which broke
over the land when Puritanism met its political overthrow. But the Methodism that soon followed was no
reaction, which might have been foreseen; for it rose
without visible causation; it came from above; it found
its lodgment in the bosoms of two or three-the chosen
instruments of Heaven; —and as was its commencement,
such its progress.
Shall not then the now looked for and needed renovation come in upon us in a like sovereign manner? We do
not expect unearthly visitants to descend, and to become
the preachers of the Gospel; for those who shall speak as
did Whitefield and Wesley, will be men such as they
were, compassed with those infirmities that are inseparable from humanity. But they will not be the men whom
we, of this or that Church, should have singled out; —far
otherwise: perhaps they will not be of "our" Church at
all; and the course they will pursue, and the means they
will adopt for making full proof of their ministry, will be
of a kind that shall sorely grate upon the tastes, and shock
the cherished convictions of many. On the one hand they
will be reviled because they are seen to render what will
be thought an unwarrantable homage to constituted au-'N




298         METHODISM OF THE FUTURE.
thorities, and because they refuse to lead the onslaught
upon this and that " corrupt system."  On the other side,
not improbably, the irregularities which such a ministry
necessarily involves, will deprive them of all favor in high
places.
Every season of religious renovation comes upon the
men of that time as a winnowing. HE who comes at
such times, comes with "his fan in his hand," and he
ceases not in his work until he has "thoroughly purged
his floor." That is to say, as often as first principles are
presented to the minds of men with power and freshness,
this presentation acts discriminately upon all who are
placed within its influence. The evangelists do not leagve
us to surmise that this dispersive effect attended the
preaching of Christ, on all occasions, for they affirm it
repeatedly. The arrogant, the fanatical, the self opinionated, and the worldly-minded were "offended at him," and
these four sorts of gainsayers make themselves conspicuous in each returning season of religious refreshment.,Small truths, or secondary principles, may be promulgated
in loud tones, and with extreme vehemence, and yet the
world will bear with it; but great truths, when they are
proclaimed by those who feel them to be such, are never
listened to without producing an effect of one kind, or of
another. Human nature, touched to the quick, kindles at
the first hearing of them, rouses itself to resistance, and
then either yields itself, or resents, as an insult and an injury, the preacher's challenge.
But while, in this manner, a new proclamatign of t.e
Gospel acts upon the multitude as a process of discrirfination, it finds always a small number whom it beckons
forward, to follow gladly, rather than challenges to choose
their part; and these are those who long have been looking for, and expecting, this visitation which now makes
them glad.
We have thus spoken of the METHODISM of the past
age, and of that which we presume to be future, so far as
these, or any such like refreshments of Christian piety,




METHODISM OF THE FUTURE.             299
make themselves visible on this side the unseen world,
and so far as they may furnish the subjects, and supply
the materials of religious history. Yet the very same order of events stands in relationship-although it be occult
-to that invisible community; nor do these recurrent
seasons of animation fail to give some dim indications of
this remote connection. With due caution, this subject
may be glanced at for a moment.
The pomp and circumstance of ecclesiastical affairsthe rise and fall of hierarchies-the springing up of new
opinions-the alternate loss and recovery of Christian
doctrine-and the part played by the leading Churchmen
of each age, together with the witness-bearing and the
sufferings of martyrs-these things attract the eye, and
engage the ear, and we are prone, while contemplating the
ever-shifting scene, to think that the entire movementthe compass of religious history, is before us. Yet we
can not so think if,.in a more religious mood, and with the
inspired writings in our hands, we look onward and beyond this range of proximate objects, and penetrate the
mist that rests between us and those things among which
Faith ruminates.
When religious history is thus contemplated, as from a
higher position, and when it is seen apart from its mundane glare, and its accidents, and when we stand at such
a distance from the noisy arena as to hear nothing of its
agitations, then does there come forth, if dimly, yet not
unsubstantially, an order of events obeying a law of the
spiritual economy, such as this, namely-that there is
going forward, through the lapse of ages, a periodic gathering of human spirits, in multitudes-in crowds-for replenishing that kingdom which is under the hand of the
" Shepherd and Bishop of Souls." HE, the Redeemer of
the world, as he is the " FIRST-BORN of the Dead," is the
Sovereign of that realm of ransomed spirits. During the
running out of this present economy it is among, and over,
this company, which " no man can number," that his shield
and sceptre are extended.




300         METHODISM OF THE FUTURE.
No age has been so dark-no time so corrupt in doctrine, or in manners, as not to have sent forward from
Earth to Hades a tide, albeit a slackened tide, of souls, ran.
somed from the ills of earth: but at moments-and as
with a sudden swell-it is as if the portals of Paradise
were thrown wide open, and as if the plains of that region were to be made glad with the arrival of hosts of
spirits, safe housed, and as if, from time to time, fresh
proof were to be given to the expectant inhabiters of that
realm, who are "the prisoners of hope," that the scheme
of human salvation is still in full progress on earth, and
that the promised gathering-the harvest-shall not fail
to be brought home in its season.




NOTE S,
THE materials or documents wherein the history of Methodism is to be found, are not recondite: for the most part they are
readily accessible to every one, and, in fact, the succession of
writers who, whether with a friendly or a hostile feeling, have
put this history together, each in his own manner, have, for these
various purposes, brought forward almost every thing that is the
most pertinent in this mass of evidence. Nevertheless, it would
not be difficult (and would not have been so to the present
writer) to cull some fresh passages from the same sources; and
he might, moreover, have brought forward a few unpublished letters, which were kindly offered to his inspection by some who are
possessed of such treasures. But inasmuch as it has not entered
into his plan to compile biographies, nor to attempt to do again,
what has already (in a literary sense) been well done, he has
refrained from availing himself, to any great extent, of these materials, at least in giving them a place in this volume.
It seems, however, desirable, and indeed it is incumbent upon
a writer who takes a position differing from that occupied by
others, to adduce evidence in support of opinions that are likely
to be called in question. A few pages, therefore, of this volume
will be devoted to the purpose of bringing together, chiefly from
Wesley's Journal, and from the Minutes of Conference, passages
that may serve to illustrate, and to sustain, the averments and the
opinions which the writer thinks warrantable and correct.
As to METHODISM at large-the facts relating to its rise and
progress have long since become the staple of religious history,
and they are such as need little or no attestation. It is solely, or
chiefly, on points touching WTesley's mind and intention, as the
founder of Wesleyanism, that it seemed desirable to adduce evidence. The reader who is little acquainted with WTesleyan
affairs might be unprepared to admit some allegations which the
following passages incontestably establish. As to those readers
to whom these sources of information have always been familiar,




302                      NOTES.
the production of a few paragraphs, as it could add nothing to
their knowledge, so would it fail to affect their long-ago adopted
opinions.
NOTE to pages 31 and 43, et seq.
When Wesley's credulity, or his tendency to listen to the supernatural, is affirmed (and it can not be denied), justice demands
that instances should be adduced, showing that he did-if not
always, yet sometimes-hold and profess a suspended opinion,
and content himself with a simple statement of facts-or of what
he believed to be facts-followed by a conjectural solution, only,
of the perplexing circumstances of the case before him.
The following narrative occurs in Wesley's Journal, June 1st,
1764:-" About seven, Mr. B. was occasionally mentioning
what had lately occurred in the next parish. I thought it worth
a further inquiry, and therefore ordered our horses to be brought
immediately.  Mr. B. guided us to Mr. Ogilvie's house, the minister of the parish, who informed us that a strange disorder had
appeared in his parish between thirty and forty years ago, but
that nothing of the kind had been known there since, till some
time in September last. A boy was then taken ill, and so continues still. In the end of January, or beginning of February,
many other children were taken, chiefly girls, and a few grown
persons. They begin with an involuntary shying of their hands
and feet.  Then their lips are convulsed; next their tongue,
which seems to cleave to the roof of the mouth. Then the eyes
are set, staring terribly; and the whole face variously distorted.
Presently they start up, and jump ten, fifteen, or twenty times
together, straight upward, two, three, or more feet from the
ground. Then they start forward, and run with amazing swiftness, two, three, or five hundred yards.  Frequently they run up,
like a cat, to the top of a house, and jump on the ridge of it, as on
the ground. But wherever they are, they never fall or miss their
footing at all. After they have run and jumped for some time,
they drop down as dead. When they come to themselves, they
usually tell when and where they shall be taken again; frequently
how often, and where they shall jump; and to what places they
shall run. I asked,' Are any of them near?' He said,' Yes,
at those houses.' We walked thither without delay: one of them
was four years and a half old; the other about eighteen. The
child we found had had three or four fits that day, running and




NOTES.                       303
jumping like the rest; and, in particular, leaping many times
from a high table without the least hurt. The young woman
was the only person of them all who used to keep her senses during the fit. In answer to many questions, she said,' I first feel a
pain in my left foot, then in my head. Then my hands and feet
shake, and I can't speak; and quickly I begin to jump or run.'
While we were talking, she cried out, O! I have a pain in my
foot-it is in my hand. It is here, at the bending of my arm.
Oh! my head! my head! my head!' Immediately her arms
were stretched out, and were as an iron bar.'I could not bend
one of her fingers; and her body was bent backward, the lower
part remaining quite erect, while her back formed exactly a half
circle, her head hanging even with her hips. I was going to
catch her, but one said,'Sir, you may let her alone, for they
never fall.' But I defy all mankind to account for her not falling, when the trunk of her body hung in that manner.
" In many circumstances this case goes far beyond the famous
one mentioned by Boerhaave, particularly in that, their telling
before when and how they shall be taken again. Whoever can
account for this, on natural principles, has my free leave: I can
not. I therefore believe, if this be in part a natural distemper,
there is something preternatural too. Yet, supposing this, I can
easily conceive Satan will so disguise his part therein, that we
can not precisely determine which part of the disorder is natural,.and which preternatural."
This mode of dealing with facts so strange is not far from being
sober and safe. It does not appear that these cases were in any
way connected with religious feelings. The instances much resemble some that have of late years been obtruded upon public
attention by the professors of the mesmeric art.  Wesley's testi
mony concerning facts of his own knowledge ought always to be
received implicitly (as, for example, such as the following), and
then candor will demand that a man who not very infrequently
witnessed what no philosophy can explain, may be pardoned if he
sometimes accepts, too readily, the stories related to him by
others. His journal of January 13, 1743, has this entry:" Rode to Stratford-upon-Avon. I had scarce sat down before I was informed Mrs. K., a middle-aged woman, of Shattery,
half a mile from Stratford, had been for many weeks last past in
a way which nobody could understand. That she had sent for a
minister; but, almost as soon as he came, began roaring in so




304                      NOTES.
strange a manner, her tongue at the same time hanging out of
her mouth, and her face being distorted in the most terrible form,
that he cried out,' It is the devil, doubtless;-it is the devil;'
and immediately went away.
" I suppose this was some unphilosophical minister; else he
would have said, —' Stark mad! send her to Bedlam.' I asked,' What good do you think I can do?' One answered,' I can not
tell.' But Mrs. K. (I just relate what was spoken to me, without passing any judgment upon it)'earnestly desired that you
might come, if you were any where near, saying she had seen you
in a dream; and should know you immediately. But the devil
said-those were her own expressions-I will tear thy throat out
before he comes. But afterward she said-his words were-if
he does come I will let thee be quiet;-mand thou shalt be as it
nothing ailed thee, till he is gone away.' A very odd kind of
madness this! I walked over about noon; but when we came
to the house, desired all those who came with me to stay below;
one showing me the way, I went up straight to her room. As
soon as I came to the bedside, she fixed her eyes, and said —' You
are Mr. Wesley. I am very well now, I thank God. Nothing ails
me, only I am weak!' I called them up, and I began to singJesu! thou hast bid us pray;
Pray always, and not faint;
With the word, a power convey,
To utter our complaint.
"After singing a verse or two, we kneeled down to prayer. I
had but just begun-my eyes being shut-when I felt as if I
had been plunged into cold water; and immediately there was
such a roar, that my voice was quite drowned, though I spoke as
loud as I usually do to three or four thousand people. However,
I prayed on. She was then reared up in the bed; her whole
body moving at once, without bending one joint or limb, just as
if it were one piece of stone. Immediately after it was writhed
into all kinds of postures; the same horrid yell continuing still.
But we left her not till all the symptoms ceased, and she was, for
the present at least, rejoicing and praising God."
Wesley's deliberately expressed opinion as to the source of the
outcries of converts (referred to pp. 43, et seq.) should be brought
forward in fairness.
"March 12th, 1743.-I concluded my second course of visiting, in which I inquired particularly into two things; first, the




NOTES.                       305
case of those who had almost every night, the last week, cried
out aloud during the preaching; secondly, the number of those
who were separated from us, and the reason and occasion of it.
" As to the former, I found, first, that all of them, I think not
one excepted, were persons in perfect health, had not been subject to fits of any kind, till they were thus affected. Secondly,
that this had come upon every one of them in a moment, without
any previous notice, while they were either hearing the word of
God, or thinking on what they had heard. Thirdly, that in that
moment they dropped down, lost all their strength, and were
seized with violent pain. This they expressed in different manners. Some said they felt just as if a sword was running through
them: others that a great weight lay upon them, as if it would
squeeze them into the earth. Some said they were quite choked,
so that they could not breathe: others, that it was as if their
heart-as if their inside-as if their whole body was tearing all
in pieces. These symptoms I can no more impute to any natural cause, than to the spirit of God. I can make no doubt that
it was Satan tearing them as they were coming to Christ; and
hence proceeded those grievous cries, whereby he might design
lboth to discredit the work of God and to affright fearful people
from hearing that Word whereby their souls might be saved. I
found, fourthly, that their minds had been as variously affected
as their bodies. Of this some could give scarce any account at
all, which also I impute to that wise Spirit, purposely stunning
and confounding as many as he could, that they might not be
able to bewray his' devices. Others gave a very clear and particular account, from the beginning to the end. The word of
God pierced their souls, and convinced them of inward as well as
outward sin. They saw and felt the wrath of God abiding on
them, and were afraid of his judgments. And here the accuser
came with great power, telling them there was no hope; they
were lost forever. The pains of body then seized them in a moment, and extorted those loud and bitter cries."
The j udgment Wesley formed upon cases of this kind was followed by a practical conclusion, therewith well consisting, as thus:
Sunday, 13th. I went in the morning in order to speak severally with the members of the society at Tanfield. From the
terrible instances I met with here, and indeed in all parts of
England, I am more and more convinced, that the devil himself
desires nothing more than this, that the people of any place should




306                      NOTES.
be half awakened, and then left to themselves to fall asleep again.
Therefore I determined, by the grace of God, not to strike one
stroke in any place where I can not follow the blow."
To whatever cause or causes we may please to- attribute the
violence and noise so often attending conversions under Wesley's
preaching, he must not be much blamed for giving credit to them
as genuine, when they were so very often occurring in his presence, and were' issuing in a favorable manner.
" At Weaver's Hall seven or eight persons were constrained to
roar aloud, while the sword of the Spirit was dividing asunder
their souls and spirits, and joints and marrow. But they were
all relieved upon prayer, and sang praises unto our God, and unto
the Lamb that liveth for ever and ever. —Journal, August, 1739.
Whitefield, though much less inclined than Wesley to view
these demonstrations favorably, yielded, in some degree, to the
force of instances occurring in the course of his own ministry.
"In the afternoon I was with Mr. Whitefield, just come from
London, with whom I went to Baptist Mills, where he preached
concerning the Holy Ghost, which all who believe are to receive;
not without a just, though severe, censure, of those who preach af
if there were no Holy Ghost. Saturday, 7th, I had an opportunity to talk with him of those outward signs which had so
often accompanied the inward work of God. I found his objections were chiefly grounded on gross misrepresentations of matter
of fact. But the next day he had an opportunity of informing
himself better. For no sooner had he begun (in the application
of his sermon) to invite all sinners to believe in Christ, than four
persons sunk down close to him, almost in the same moment.
One of them lay without either sense or motion; a second trembled exceedingly; the third had strong convulsions all over his
body, but made no noise unless by groans; the fourth, equally
convulsed, called upon God, with strong cries and tears. From
this time, I trust, we shall all suffer God to carry on his own
work in the way that pleases Him." —Journal, July, 1739.
Yes; but the previous question might well have been askedDo these animal paroxysms constitute any part whatever of " the
work of God? " Before the affirmative can be granted, it must
be shown that the ministry of' Christ, or of the apostles, was attended by any such frightful seizures. This can never be done.
Nevertheless it would be easy to fill pages with extracts from
Wesley's Journal, conclusively proving and exhibiting the sound



NOTES.                       307
ness of his judgment, on several occasions, in dealing with the
disorders that attended the Methodistic moveme'nt. Some reference, at least, to such instances of discretion may seem to be
called for, in justin, as corrective of any statements of a contrary
import which may have met the reader's eye. Such an instance
occurs in the Journal of the date October 29th, 1762, which, although too long to cite (it occupies four pages), the writer would
not be thought to have overlooked.
NOTE to pages 32 and 86.
KINGSWOOD SCHOOL. There is nothing pleasing, but quite the
contrary, in what Wesley reports of the religious movements that
at times took place among the boys at Kingswood. That these
promising commencements (so he thought them) produced exceedingly little good, he candidly and frequently acknowledges.
"The children are n6t religious: they have not the power, and
barely the form  of religion."  Minutes of Conference, 1783.
"' Nor did they even make as much progress in learning as other
boys; neither do they improve in learning better than at other
schools: no, nor yet so well." This failure-to him a source of
bitter disappointment, he attributes to the neglect of the masters
in enforcing his rules: —and what were these rules, or the spirit
of them?  He says, "they" —the boys —" ought never to play,
but they do, every day: yea in the school." What wonder children should play in school, who are forbidden to play out of it?
Wesley had no consciousness toward human nature, except in certain of its aspects. With a better understanding of human nature, his excellent good sense would no doubt have secured, in
this instance, a fair measure of success; but it did not: the school
continued to be to him a perplexity, and a vexation, through a
long course of time. There is an entry in his Journal, dated
nearly thirty years earlier than the preceding Minute of Conference-namely, August 24th, 1754, which may properly be compared with the one above given.
" I endeavored once more to bring Kingswood School into.order. Surely the importance of this design is apparent, even
from the difficulties that attend it. I have spent more money,
and time, and care on this than almost any design I ever had,
and still it exercises all the patience I have; but it is worth all
the labor."
Yes, and so good a design might well have asked from its ben



308                      NOTES.
evolent founder a reconsideration of the principles on which he
had so vainly labored to effect it  Every one knows that the
management of schools, public or private, is a labor peculiarly
encompassed with difficulties; nevertheless ihey are not absolutely insurmountable; that is to say, when a true knowledge of
human nature, and an experienced skill or tact in the treatment
of boys, are fairly brought to bear upon the task. Wesley's
Kingswood School was, or he would fain have made it, a mliniature Methodism; and therefore he failed to render it, in even an
ordinary degree, efficient for the common purposes of education.
If, in a word, one might give expression to Wesley's leading error,
it would be in this way:-at Kingswood he treated children, as
if already they were men; in his Society he treated men as if
they must always be children.
NOTE to Section on Field Preaching, p. 43.
It was not without extreme reluctance that Wesley followed
Whitefield's example, and obeyed his own convictions, in the
practice of field-preaching. His opinion, as recorded in his Journal on this subject, has frequently been cited, and such passages
need not be repeated here: in a word, he soon became thoroughly
convinced that it must be in this mode, if at all, that the Gospel
is to be brought to the hearing of the people.  " Thousands of
hearers, rich and poor, received the Word near the New Square,
with the deepest attention. This is the way to shake the trembling gates of Hell. Still I see nothing can do this so effectually
asfield-preaching."-Journal, August 21, 1768.  Again:"Monday, about noon, I preached on the Green at Clare, to
an exceeding serious congregation; and in the evening at Tullamore. Tuesday, 27th, I found a little increase to the Society;
but there can not be much without more field-preaching. Wherever this is intermitted, the work of God stands still, if it does
not go back." —Journal, Jzne, 1770.
In the MINUTES OF CONFERENCE for 1744, occur the following
answers to queries, relative to the practice of field-preaching:" Q. Have we not used it too sparingly? A. It seems we have:
1. Because our call is, to save that which is lost. Now we can
not expect such to seek us; therefore we should go and seek them
2. Because we are particularly called, by going into the highways and hedges (which none else will), to compel them to come
in. 3. Because that reason against it is not good:' The house




NOTES.                       309
will hold all that come.' The house may hold all that come to
the house, but not all that would come to the field."
"In the evening I came to Cork, and at seven was surprised
at the unusual largeness of the congregation. I had often been
grieved at the smallness of the congregation here; and it could
be no other while we cooped ourselves up in the house. But now
the alarm is sounded abroad, the people flock from all quarters.
So plain it is, that field-preaching is the most effectual way of
overturning Satan's kingdom.... At seven in the evening I
stood in a vacant place near Blackpool, famous from time immemorial for all manner of wickedness, for riot in particular, and
cried aloud,' Why will ye die, O House of Israel.' Abundance
of papists gathered at a distance; but they drew nearer and
nearer, till nine parts in ten mingled with the congregation, and
were all attention. Surely this is the way to spread religion, to
publish it in the face of the sun." —Joum'nal, June 18, 1763.
NOTE to page 85.
Many passages occur in the Journals, and in the Minutes of
Conference, expressive of-Wesley's earnest desire to impart to his
system of popular instruction a deeper tone, and to send piety
home from the " preaching house" to the families of his people.
That there was great and urgent need of reform in this respect,
he thoroughly understood, and he very often expresses his sense of
it in his usual emphatic style.  Wesleyan Methodism did but
very imperfectly Christianize Wesleyan families. He knew this,
and he acknowledged it: so far therefore the allegations, to this
effect, which the writer has repeatedly advanced, are borne out.
But Wesley labored to bring in a remedy; and perhaps his endeavors were not wholly without effect, although the same sort
of complaint meets us to the end.
On this ground, then, the writer would render justice to Wesley, while he is compelled to adhere to the statements he has
made; nor must he be blamed, on this ground, seeing that
Wesley, at a time when his system had been many years in operation-1766, records his deliberate opinion of its influence upon
the domestic habits of his people, in terms such as these:"Family religion is shamefully wanting, and almost in every
branch.  And the MIethodists in general will be little better till
we take quite another course with them. For what avails public
preaching alone, though we could preach like angels."




310                      NOTES.
This is an acknowledgment conclusively proving that, in
Wesley's matured judgment, a society framed for the purpose of
making and retaining converts, wants that which is of the highest importance and necessity, in giving full effect to Christianity.
" Religion is a very superficial thing among us." Such were his
often repeated confessions and complaints. The fact he attributes to causes short of those whence actually it resulted. A
ministry itinerating always, and therefore never competent to
discharge pastoral functions-a crude theology, adapted indeed to
the field preacher's purpose, and to nothing else, and a style of
address to the people that tended always more to produce excitement than movement, or than progress: —such surely were the
causes of this characteristic of Wesleyan Methodism-its shallowness.
NOTE to page 70.
The following passages from Wesley's Journal, of different
dates, might be compared with what occurs so plentifully in the
biographies of the Romish saints, and which at a glance would
ppqm to be much of the same quality. The difference, however,
is real, and it is such as indicates the very different issue of an
ascetic course, in the one case, when the light of scriptural piety
was gradually breaking in upon the mind-and in the other,
when a thick darkness encompassed the ascetic on every side.
" October 20th, 1735. Believing the denying ourselves even
in the smallest instances, might, by the blessing of God, be helpful to us, we wholly left off the use of flesh and wine, and confined ourselves to vegetable food, chiefly rice and biscuit."
"December 7th, Sunday.  Finding nature did not require so
frequent supplies as we had been accustomed to, we agreed to
leave off suppers, from doing which we have hitherto found no
inconvenience."
"March 30th, 1736.. Mr. Ingham, coming from Frederica,
brought me letters pressing me to go thither. The next day, Mr.
Delamotte and I began to try whether life might not as well be
sustained by one sort, as by variety of food. We chose to make
the experiment with bread, and were never more vigorous and
healthy than while we tasted nothing else.' Blessed are the
pure in heart!' who, whether they eat or drink, or whatever
they do, have no end therein but to please God. To them all
things are pure. Every creature is good to them, and nothing




NOTES,                       311
to be rejected.  But let them, who know and feel that they are
not thus pure, use every help and remove every hindrance; always remembering, He that despiseth little things, shall fall by
little and little."
JTfcne 6th, 1737. I began visiting the prisons, assisting the
poor and sick in town, and doing what other good I could, by my
presence or my little fortune, to the bodies and souls of all men.
To this end I abridged myself of all superfluities, and many that
are called necessaries of life. I soon became a by-word for so
doing, and I rejoiced that my name was cast out as evil.  The
next spring I began observing the Wednesday and Friday fasts,
commonly observed in the ancient Church; tasting no food till
three in the afternoon. And now I knew not how to go any
farther. I diligently strove against all sin. I omitted no sort of
self-denial which I thought lawful.  I carefully used, both in
public and in private, all the means of grace at all opportunities.
I omitted no occasion of doing good; I for that reason suffered
evil. And all this I knew to be nothing unless it was directed
toward inward holinfess. Accordingly this, the image of God, was
what I aimed at in all, by doing his will, not my own. Yet
when after continuing some years in this course, I apprehended
myself to be near death, I could not find that all this gave me
any comfort, or any assurance of acceptance with God. At this
I. was then not a little surprised, not imagining I had been all
this time building on the sand-nor considering that' other foundation can no man lay than that which is laid by God, even
Christ Jesus'..
"1736. On Monday 9th, and the following days, I reflected
much on that vain desire, which had pursued me for so many
years, of being in solitude, in order to be a Christian.  I have
now, thought I, solitude enough; but am I, therefore, the nearer
being a Christian? Not if Jesus Christ be the model of Christianity.  I doubt, indeed, I am much nearer that mystery of Satan
which some writers affect to call by that name. So near, that
I had probably sunk wholly into it, had not the great mercy of
God just now thrown me upon reading St. Cyprian's works:' Oh
my soul, come not thou into their secret, stand thou in the good
old paths.'"
Wesley here refers to that first principle of the ascetic life,
which renders it a condensed selfishness, or egotism.




312                      NOTES.
NOTES illustrative of the Four Sections on Wesleyan Methoaism, from p. 188 to p. 268.
To those who stand unconnected with Wesleyan Methodism,
but who are conversant with Wesley's Journal, Letters, and
Tracts, and with the Minutes of Conference, it must seem superfluous to occupy a page in establishing a fact so conspicuously
certain as this-namely, that, in constituting his Society, and in
conferring upon a hundred of his preachers se absolute and unmitigated spiritual sovereignty, he did-what a man may do with
his own, as for example with a charity, created by himself, and
endowed from his own funds-but what no Christian man could
dare attempt who was knowingly constituting a Church, and
setting on foot a scheme of government, for perpetuity, on principles consonant with those which are obviously deducible from the
tenor of the apostolic writings.
From the severe blame that would be involved in the supposition that Wesley contemplated, and that he aimed indirectly to
bring about a plan of this comprehensive kihd —a blame injurious alike to his reputation for wisdom, and for simplicity of purpose, he stands clearly and wholly exempt, this exculpation
resting, as it does, upon the ground of those many passages, scattered through the documents above mentioned, which show what,
in fact, were his views, and his intentions, in giving form ancd
consistency to his Society. Of these passages a sample only is
now presented to the reader to whom the subject is not familiar.
A few sentences, extracted from the Minutes of Conference, will
best introduce these extracts.  It is well known that Wesley,
from the first to the last, shrunk from the idea of separation from
the Established Church. In a Conference held five years after
the commencement of Methodism, these questions were put and
answered.
"Wednesday, June 27th, 1744.  Q. 6. How far is it our duty
to obey the bishops? A. In all things indifferent; and on this
ground of obeying them, we should observe the canons so far as
we can with a safe conscience. Q. 7. Do we separate from the
Church?  A. We conceive not. We hold communion therewith, for conscience sake, by constantly attending both the WVord
preached and the sacraments administered therein.  Q. 9. But
do you not weaken the Church? A. Do not they who ask this,
by the Church, mean themselves?  We do not purposely weaken




NOTES.                       313
any man's hands. But accidentally we may thus far; they who
come to know the truth by us, will esteem such as deny it less
than they did before. Q. 10. Do you not entail a schism on the
Church? i.e. Is it not probable that your hearers, after your
death, will be scattered into all sects and parties? or that they
will form themselves into a distinct sect? A. 1. We are persuaded the body of our hearers will, even after our death, remain
in the Church, unless they be thrust out.  2. We believe, notwithstanding, either they will be thrust out, or that they will
leaven the whole Church.  3. We do, and will do, all we can,
to prevent these consequences, which are supposed likely to happen after our death. 4. But we can not, with a good conscience,
neglect the present opportunity of saving souls while we live, for
fear of consequences which may possibly or probably happen after
we are dead."
While making these professions, in so formal a manner, Wesley could not-consistently with his repute as a simple-minded
and ingenuous man-go about so to frame his Society as should
at once facilitate, and suggest, to his followers, a separation-a
schism. Again" Q. What may we reasonably believe to be God's design, in
raising up the preachers called Methodists? A. To reform the
nation, more particularly the Church; to spread scriptural holiness over the land."..If Wesley thought himself the head of a Church, not the
leader of a merely voluntary association, then did he assume an
autocratic power over his ministers of the most absolute kind,
Among the Rules of a "I elper "-a superior minister in fact,
this is one-too nearly resembling, in its tone, Loyola's Noted
Letter on Obedience:-" 2. Act in all things, not according to
your own will, but as a son in the Goipel.(i. e. Wesley's son); as
such, it is your part to employ your time, in the manner which
we direct: partly in preaching, and visiting the flock from house
to house; partly in reading, meditation and prayer. Above all,
if you labor with us in our Lord's vineyard, it is needful that you
should do that part of the work which we advise, at those times
and places which we judge most for his glory."
In the Conference of 1749, the phrase " Mother Church," as
applied incidentally to the Central Society in London, occurs;
but a few lines on, in answer to the question, "How should an
assistant be qualified for this charge?" it is answered,' and by
0




314                      NOTES.
loving the Church of England, and resolving not to separate from
it." The term " Mother Church" did not, therefore, mean more
than a centre of management for the societies scattered over the
country. Again, further on, it is asked: " Is there any other advice which you would give the assistants?  A. Yes. In every
place exhort those who were brought up in the Church, constantly to attend its service: and in visiting the classes, ask every
one,-Do you go to Church as often as you ever did? Set the
example yourself, and immediately alter any plan that interferes
therewith. Is there not a cause for this? Are not we, unawares, by little and little, tending to a separation from the
Church? O remove every tendency thereto with all diligence.
1. Let all our preachers go to Church. 2. Let all our people go
constantly. 3. Receive the Sacrament at every opportunity.
4. Warn all against niceness in hearing, a great and prevailing
evil. 5. Warn them likewise against despising the prayers of the
Church. 6. Against calling our Society a Church, or the Church.
7. Against calling our Preachers, Ministers; our houses, meeting
houses; (call them plain preaching houses). 8. Do not license
them as such. 9. Do not license yourself till you are constrained; and then, not as a Dissenter, but a Methodist preacher.
In the Conference of 1766, and after the lapse of seventeen
years, Wesley again earnestly rejects the imputation of intending
to create a separation from the Church, and repudiates the designation Dissenter. P. 57.
"Are we not then Dissenters?  We are irregular; 1st. By
calling sinners to repentance, in all places of God's dominion.
2d. By frequently using extemporary prayer.  Yet we are not
Dissenters, in the only sense which our law acknowledges:
namely, persons who believe it is sinful to attend the service of
the Church: for we do attend it at all opportunities.
" We will not, dare nAo, separate from the Church, for the
reasons given several years ago. We are not Seceders, nor do
we bear any resemblance to them. We set out upon quite opposite principles. The Seceders laid the very foundation of their
work in judging and condemning others. We laid the foundation of our work, in judging and condemning ourselves. They
begin every where with showing their hearers how fallen the
Church and ministers are. We begin every where with showing our hearers how fallen they are themselves.
"And as we are not dissenters from the Church now, so we




NOTES.                       315
will do nothing willingly, which tends to a separation from it.
Therefore let every assistant so order his circuit, that no preacher
may be hindered from attending the Church more than two Sundays in the month. Never make light of going to Church, either
by word or deed. Remember Mr. Hook, a very eminent and a
zealous Papist. When I asked him,' Sir, what do you for public
worship here, where you have no Romish sermon?' He answered:'Sir, I am so fully convinced it is the duty of every man to
worship God in public, that I go to Church every Sunday. If I
can not have such worship as I would, I will have such worship
ad I can.'
"But some may say,'Our own service is public worship.'
Yes, in a sense: but not such as supersedes the Church Service.
We never designed it should. We have a hundred times professed the contrary. It presupposes public prayer like the sermons at the university. Therefore I have over and over advised:
use no long praye1, either before or after sermon. Therefore, I
myself frequently use only a collect, and never enlarge in prayer,
unless at Intercession, or on a Watch-night, or on some extraordinary occasion. If it were designed to be instead of Church
Service, it would be essentially defective. For it seldom has the
four grand parts of public prayer; deprecation, petition, intercession, and thanksgiving. Neither is it, even on the Lord's Day,
concluded with the Lord's Supper. The hour for it on that day,
unless where there is some peculiar reason for a variation, should
be five in the morning, as well as five in the evening. Why
should we make God's day the shortest of the seven? But if
the people put ours in the place of the Church Service, we hurt
them that stay with us, and ruin them that leave us. For then
they will go nowhere, but lounge the Sabbath away without any
public worship at all.
" I advise, therefore, all the Methodists in England and Ireland, who have been brought up in the Church, constantly to
attend the service of the Church, at least every Lord's Day."
Wesley's own account of the origin of his PomrER, as occurring
in the Minutes of 1766, and. elsewhere, has so frequently been
brought forward that it need not again be cited. It is conclusive
to this effect, that the circumstances attending the rise of Methodism threw into his hands such a control over preachers and
people as is far too absolute for any uninspired man to pretend to,
or lawfrllv to exercise —except for some temporary purpose, and




316                      NOTES.
on the ground of some urgent necessity. One paragraph, containing the pith of several, may properly be brought forward.
" Observe, I myself sent for these (preachers) of my own free
choice; and I sent for them to advise, not govern me. Neither
did I at any of those times divest myself of any part of that power
above described, which the providence of God had cast upon me,
without any design or choice of mine. What is that power?
It is a power of admitting into, and excluding from, the societies
under my care: of choosing and removing stewards; of receiving, or not receiving, helpers; of appointing them when, where,
and how, to help me; and of desiring any of them to meet me
when I see good. And as it was merely in obedience to the providence of God, and for the good of the people, that I at first
accepted this power, which I never sought, nay, a hundred times
labored to throw off; so it is on the same consideration, not for
profit, honor, or pleasure, that I use it at this day. But several
gentlemen are much offended at my having so much power. My
answer to them is this:-I did not seek any part of this power.
It came upon me unawares. But when it was come, not daring
to bury that talent, I used it to the best of my judgment.
"' Yet I never was fond of it; I always did, and do now, bear
it as my burden; the burden which God lays upon me, and therefore I dare not yet lay it down. But if you can tell me any one,
or any five men, to whom I may transfer this burden, who can
and will do just what I do now, I will heartily thank both them
and you."
In this, and much more to the same effect, there is no indication leading to the belief that Wesley ever thought of his people
as coming into the position of instructed Christian men, to whom
might be assigned the functions proper to such, and which un
questionably were undertaken and discharged by the laity of the
Apostolic Churches. In answer to the allegation —" this (power
which you exercise) is arbitrary power, this is no less than making yourself a pope," he says, " If by arbitrary power, you mean
a power which I exercise singly, without any colleagues therein,
this is certainly true; but I see no hurt in it. Arbitrary, in this
sense, is a very harmless word. If you mean unjust, unreasonable, or tyrannical, then it is not true. As to the other branch
of the charge, it carries no face of truth. The pope affirms, that
every Christian must do all he bids, and believe all he says, under
pain of damnation. I never affirmed any thing that bears any,




NOTES.                      317
the most distant, resemblance to this. All I affirm is, the preachers who choose to labor with me, choose to serve me as sons in
the gospel; and the people who choose to be under my care,
choose to be so on the same terms they were at first. Therefore
all talk of this kind is highly injurious to me, who bear the burden merely for your sakes. And it is exceedingly mischievous to
the people, tending to confound their understandings, and4 fill their
hearts with evil surmisings, and unkind tempers toward me, to
whom they really owe more, for taking all this load upon me, for
exercising this very power, for shackling myself in this manner,
than for all my preaching put together. Because preaching
twice or thrice a day is no burden to me at all; but the care of
all the preachers, and all the people, is a burden indeed."
In the Conference of 1769, August 4th, Wesley read a paper,
which he had no doubt carefully prepared, and which shows that,
in looking forward to the time when his society should no longer
be cemented by means of his personal influence, the measures he
propounded to his preachers did not include at that time constitutional changes, intended to bring the body of preachers and the
people into any other relationship than that which had hitherto
subsisted between them.
"MY DEAR BRETHREN-It has long been my desire that all
those ministers of our Church, who believe and preach sal.vation by faith, might cordially agree between themselves, and
not hinder, but help one another. After occasionally pressing
this in private conversation, wherever I had opportunity, I wrote
down my thoughts upon the head, and sent them to each in a
letter. Out of fifty or sixty to whom I wrote, only three vouchsafed me an answer. So I gave this up. I can do no more.
They are a rope of sand, and such they will continue.
" But it is otherwise with the Traveling Preachers in our
connection. You are at present one body;' you act in concert
with each other, and by united counsels. And now is the time
to consider what can be done, in order to continue this union.
Indeed as long as I live, there will be no great difficulty: I am,
under God, a centre of union to all our Traveling, as well as
Local Preachers. They all know me and my communication.
They all love me for my work's sake; and, therefore, were it
only out of regard to me, they will continue connected with each
other. But by what meaus may this connection be preserved,




318                     NOTES.
when God removes me from you? I take it for granted it can
not be preserved by any means, between those who have not a,
single eye. Those who aim at any thing but the glory of God,
and the salvation of men; who desire or seek any earthly thing,
whether honor, profit, or ease, will not continue in the connection:
it will not answer their design. Some of them, perhaps a fourth
of the waIle number, will procure preferment in the Church.
Others will turn Independents, and get separate congregations,
like John Edwards and Charles Skelton. Lay your accounts
with this, and be not surprised if some, you do not suspect, be of
this number.
"But what method can be taken to preserve a firm union between those who choose to remain together? Perhaps you might
take some such steps as these: On notice of my death, let all the
preachers in England and Ireland repair to London within six
weeks: Let them seek God by solemn fasting and prayer: Let
them draw up articles of agreement, to be signed by those who
choose to act in concert: Let those be dismissed who do not
choose it, in the most friendly manner possible:
"Let them choose, by votes, a Committee of three, five, or
seven, each of whom is to be Moderator in his turn: Let the
Committee do what I do now: propose Preachers to be tried, admitted, or excluded. Fix the place of each Preacher for the
ensuing year, and the time of the next Conference.
" Can any thing be done now, in order to lay a foundation for
this future union?  Would it not be well, for any that are willing, to sign some articles of agreement before God calls me
hence? Suppose something like these:
"' We whose names are under written, being thoroughly convinced of the necessity of a close union between those whom God
is pleased to use as instruments in this glorious work, in order to
preserve this union between ourselves, are resolved, God being
our helper,
1. To devote ourselves entirely to God; denying ourselves,
taking up our cross daily, steadily aiming at one thing, to save
our own souls, and them that hear us.
2. To preach the old Methodist doctrines, and no other, contained in the Minutes of Conference.
3. To observe and enforce the whole Methodist discipline, laid
down in the said Minutes!
"The Preachers then desired Mr. Wesley to extract the most




NOTES.                       319
material part of the Minutes, and send a copy to each Assistant,
which he might ctmanicate to all the Preachers in his Circuit,
to be seriously considered.
"Our meeting was then concluded with solemn prayer."
Five years later this engagement was repeated in the same
terms.
In the year 1785, Wesley addressed a letter to the preachers
constituting the legal body, according to the " Deed of Declaration," which may be regarded as expressing his matured intention as to the constitution of his society, and, therefore, as showing
that he entertained no idea of granting to the people any constitutional privilege, or, indeed, that he recognized their existence
in any such sense. This letter was brought forward, and was
entered upon the minutes, immediately after Wesley's death.
" MANCHESTER; Tuesday, July 26, 1791.
"A copy of a letter from the Rev. John Wesley to the CONFERENCE.'To the Methodist Conference.
Chester, April 7th, 1785.'MY DEAR BRETHREN, —SOMTe of our traveling preachers have
expressed a fear, that, after my decease, you would exclude them
either from preaching in connection with you, or from some other
privileges which they now enjoy.'I know no other way to prevent any such inconvenience.
than to leave these, my last words, with you. I beseech you, by
the mercies of God, that you never avail yourselves of the " Deed
of Declaration," to assume any superiority over your brethren; but
let all things go on, among those' itinerants who choose to remain
together, exactly in the same manner as when I was with you,
so far as circumstances will permit. In particular, I beseech
you, if you ever loved me, and if you now love God and your
brethren, to have no respect of persons in stationing the preachers, in choosing children for Kingswood School, in disposing of
the yearly contribution and the preachers' fund, or any other public money; but do all things with a single eye, as I have done
from the beginning. Go on thus, doing all things without prejudice or partiality, and God will be with you even to the end.'JOHN WESLEY.'
"N.B. —The Conference have unanimously resolved, that all
the preachers who are in full connection with them, shall enjoy




320                      NOTES.
every privilege that the members of the Conference enjoy, agreeably to the above-written letter of our venerably deceased Father
in the Gospel. It may be expected that the Conference malke
some observations on the death of Mr. Wesley; but they find
themselves utterly inadequate to express their ideas and feelings
on this awful and affecting event. Their souls do truly mourn
for their great loss; and they trust they shall give the most substantial proofs of their veneration for the memory of their most
esteemed father and friend, -by endeavoring, with great humility
and diffidence, to follow and imitate him in doctrine, discipline,
and life."
It may seem superfluous to adduce further evidence in proof of
what the writer has repeatedly affirmed in the course of this
volume, and showing that Wesley abjured the imputation of intending to draw off his people from the Church. This point might
be placed beyond all doubt by many extracts from his writings.
These same passages would, of themselves, sustain the inference
that he never entertained the thought of constructing a Church;
but we need not rest upon an inference merely, how inevitable
soever it may be, for we have his explicit declaration to this effect. In the Tract " against separation from the Church of England" occurs a passage which is most conclusive to this effect.
The 8th reason against any such separation is this, that then the
Methodistic Society must be framed upon a different model, which
would involve a very difficult task-a task to which Wesley modestly thinks neither himself nor his friends competent.
" 8. Because to form the plan of a new Church would require
infinite time and care (which might be far more profitably bestowed), with much more wisdom and greater depth and extensiveness of thought than any of us are masters of."
But if so-if in Wesley's deliberately expressed opinion, as we
find it here and elsewhere, the INSTITUTION of which he was the
author, was far from being in his view a Church-and if he
solemnly rejected the imputation of having framed it with the
reserved design of bringing his people into an independent and
separate ecclesiastical condition-if so, we must think that there
was an error on the part of those who, when they found that they
could not turn aside the course of events which, at length, rendered this separation inevitable-did not, at an early time, set
about the work of so reconstructing Wesleyanism as might suffise




NOTES.                        321
for introducing into it that rudiment of Church organization
which would place the people and their ministers in a true rela
tive position?
In the four sections on Wesleyan Methodism mention has been
made, repeatedly, of what is called the -Deed of Declaration,
which, in fact, is, in a legal sense, the basement-work of the
Wesleyan structure, and to which an appeal is always made by
the opposed parties, within the Society. This Deed is of considerable length, and the reader who is not a Wesleyan Methodist, and yet who would wish to know something of the purport of
so important a document, may be content with an abstract of its
clauses, such as shall sufficiently place before him its meaning,
viewed as the basis of a legalized corporation.
"To all to whom these presents shall come, John Wesley,
late of Lincoln College, Oxford, but now of the City
Road, London, Clerk, sendeth greeting.
"Whereas divers buildings, commonly called chapels, with a
messuage and dwelling-house, or other appurtenances to each of
the same belonging, situate in various parts of Great Britain,
have been given and conveyed from time to time, by the said
John Wesley, to certain persons, and their heirs, in each of the
said gifts and conveyances named, which are enrolled in his Majesty's high court of Chancery, upon the acknowledgment of the
said John Wesley, pursuant to the act of Parliament in that case
made and provided, UPON TRUST, that the trustees in the said
several deeds respectively named, and the survivors of them, and
their heirs and assigns, and the trustees for the time being to be
elected, as in the said deeds is appointed, should permit and suffer
the said John Wesley, and such other person and persons as he
should for that purpose from time to time nominate and appoint,
at all times during his life, at his will and pleasure, to have and
enjoy the free use and benefit of the said premises, that he the
said John Wesley, and such person or persons as he should nominate and. appoint, might therein preach and expound God's holy
Word: And upon further trust, that the said respective trustees,
and the survivors of them, and their heirs and assigns,'and the
trustees for the time being, should permit and suffer Charles
Wesley, brother of the said John Wesley, and such other person
and persons as the said Charles Wesley should for that purpose,
from time to time nominate and appoint, in like manner during
0*




322                       NOTES.
his life.-To have, use, and enjoy the said premises, respectively
for the like purposes aforesaid; and after the decease of the survivor of them, the said John Wesley, and Charles Wesley, then
upon further trust that the said respective trustees, and the survivors of them, and their heirs and assigns, and the trustees for
the time being for ever, should permit and suffer such person and
persons, and for such time and times as should be appointed at
the yearly Conference of the people called Methodists in London,
Bristol, or Leeds, and no others, to have and enjoy the said
premises for the purposes aforesaid: and whereas divers persons
have in like manner, given or conveyed many chapels, with messuages and dwelling-houses, or other appurtenances to the same
belonging, situate in various parts of Great Britain, and also in
Ireland, to certain trustees in each of the said gifts and conveyances respectively named, upon the like trusts, and for the same
uses and purposes as aforesaid, except only that in some of the
said gifts and conveyances, no life-estate or other interest is therein
or thereby given and reserved to the said Charles Wesley: and
whereas for rendering effectual the trusts created by the said several gifts and conveyances, and that no doubt or litigation may
arise with respect unto the same, or interpretation and true meaning thereof, it has been thought expedient by the said John Wesley, on behalf of himself as donor of the several chapels, with
messuages, dwelling-houses, or appurtenances to the same belonging, given or conveyed to the like uses and trusts, to explain the
words, Yearly Conference of the people called Methodists, contained in all the said trust deeds, and to declare what persons are
members of the said Conference, and how  the succession and
identity thereof is to be continued: N6w, therefore, these presents
witness, that for accomplishing the aforesaid purposes, the said
John Wesley does hereby declare, that the Conference of the
people called Methodists, in London, Bristol, or Leeds, ever since
there hath been any yearly Conference of the said people called
Methodists, in any of the said places, hath always heretofore consisted of the preachers and expounders of God's holy word, commonly called Methodist preachers, in connection with, and under
the care of the said John Wesley, whom he hath thought expedient, year after year, to summorn to meet him, in one or other of
the said places of London, Bristol, or Leeds, to advise with them
for the promotion of the Gospel of Christ; to appoint the said
persons so summoned, and the ot:i.:r preachers and expounders of




NOTES.                       323
God's holy word, also in connection with, and under the care of
the said John Wesley, not summoned to the said yearly Conference, to the use and enjoyment of the said chapels and premises
so given and conveyed upon trust to the said John Wesley, and
such other person and persons as he shall appoint during his life as
aforesaid; and for the expulsion of unworthy, and admission of
new persons under his care, and into his connection, to be preachers and expounders as aforesaid; and also of other persons upon
trial for the like purposes: the names of all which persons so
summoned by the said John Wesley, the persons appointed, with
the chapels and premises to which they were so appointed, together with the duration of such appointments, and of those expelled, or admitted into connection, or upon trial, with all other
matters transacted and done at the said yearly Conference, have
year by year been printed and published under the title of " Minutes of Conference," and these presentsffurther witness, and the
said John Wesley doth hereby avouch and further declare, that
the several persons hereinafter named, to wit, the said John
Wesley and Charles Wesley".
Then follow the names of those who then constituted the legal
Conference, that is to say, one hundred preachers-the two Wesleys inclusive: these being, although some of them are designated
"gentlemen "-" Preachers and expounders of God's holy word,
under the care and in connection with the said John Wesley;"
of whom it is said that they have been, " and now are, and do,
on the day of the date hereof, constitute the members of the said
Conference, according to the true intent and meaning of the said
several gifts and conveyances, wherein the words'Conference of
the people called Methodists' are-mentioned and contained. And
that the said several persons before named, and their successors
for ever, to be chosen as hereinafter mentioned, are and shdl for
ever be construed, taken and be the Conference of the people
called Methodists. Nevertheless upon the terms, and subject to
the regulations hereinafter prescribed, that is to say:Then follow fifteen regulations, or conditions, defining the
powers of this body of preachers: an abstract of these conditions
will sufficiently inform the reader, as to the true intent and meaning of this " Deed of Declaration."
The first article declaresThat the members of the said Conference, and their successors




324                       NOTES.
for the time being for ever, shall assemble once in every year, at
London, Bristol, or Leeds (or elsewhere), for the purposes aforesaid;
each yearly Conference appointing the time and place of the nextf.
Second. The act of the majority in number of the Conference
so assembled, shall be taken as the act of the whole Conference
in all cases.
Third. That the first act of the Conference shall be to fill up
all the vacancies that may have been occasioned by death (or absence, under certain conditions).
Fourth. Conference shall not be competent to act with fewer
than forty members thereof assembled, unless reduced by death
or absence (under circumstances named) since the last Conference, nor until the vacancies have been filled up, so as to make
up the number of one hundred. No act of the Conference shall
be valid unless forty members have been present at the time of
passing the same.
Fifth. Conference shall continue assembled for a time not less
than five days, nor more than three weeks. Nothing done at
other times than during this yearly assemblage shall stand as an
act of Conference.
Sixth. Having filled up all vacancies, the next act of Conference shall be to choose a President and Secretary of their assembly, out of themselves, who shall continue such until the election
of another president or secretary, in the next Conference; the
said president shall have the privilege and power of two members,
in all acts of the Conference.
Seventh. Absence from two successive Conferences shall forfeit membership, that is to say, at the next following Conference.
Eighth. (This article we give verbatim  and entire.)  "The
Conference shall, and may expel and put out from being a member thereof, or from being in connection therewith, or from being
upon trial, any person, member of the Conference, admitted into
connection orupon trial, for any cause which to the Conference
may seem fit or necessary; and every member of the Conference
so expelled and put out, shall cease to be a member thereof, to all
intents and purposes, as though he was naturally dead. And
the Conference, immediately after the expulsion of any member
thereof, as aforesaid, shall elect another person to be member of
the Conference, in the stead of such member so expelled."
Ninth. The Conference shall have power to admit into con



NOTES.                       325
nection with tnem, or upon trial, any person or persons whom
they shall approve as preachers, under the care and direction of
the Conference, such admissions being duly entered in the Minutes of Conference.
Tenth. No person shall be elected as a member of Conference,
who has not been one year in connection as a preacher.
Eleventh. The Conference shall not appoint any person to
preach in the chapels aforesaid, who is not either a member of
the Conference, or has been admitted upon trial as a preacher,
nor appoint any person for more than three years successively to
the same chapel, except ordained ministers of the Church of
England.
Twelfth. The Conference may appoint its meetings elsewhere
than in London, Bristol, or Leeds, when expedient so to do.
Thirteenth. The Conference may delegate its powers to any of
its members, who $all be appointed to act on its behalf in Ireland, or elsewhere, out of the kingdom of Great Britain, the acts
of such delegate or delegates, when duly appointed, being valid as
its own.
Fourteenth. All acts of Conference shall be entered in the
Minutes of the same, and publicly read, and then subscribed by the
President and Secretary thereof, for the time beipg, during the time
such Conference shall be assembled, such entries being received
and taken, in all cases, as sufficient evidence of the acts of Conference. No act not so entered and signed shall be of any force.
Lastly. Provision is made on the supposition that, for three
successive years, Conference may be reduced to fewer than forty
members; or that it may neglect to meet annually for the purposes aforesaid; then, and in that case the Conference of the people called Methodists shall be extinguished, and all its powers
and privileges shall cease; and in that event the chapels and
premises conveyed by this deed shall vest in the trustees for the
time being, and their successors for ever, upon trust that they,
and the survivors of them, shall appoint such persons to preach
in the said chapels, and in such manner as to them shall seem
proper.
Then follows a provision maintaining the life estate of John
and Charles Wesley in the chapels of the Society. This deed
was signed, sealed, and enrolled in Chancery in 1784. It con4tinues to be binding in law upon the Society.




326                      NOTES.
This declaratory instrument, taken in connection with the trust
deeds of Wesleyan Chapels, and other property, exhibits the
Wesleyan establishment in the light of a decisive contrast with'
any church or community wherewith it might be compared.
Among the English Dissenters, generally, the Meeting-house or
Chapel, with its appurtenances, is vested in local trustees, for the
benefit of the society therein usually assembling. The preacher
or minister, elected by the society (" Church and Congregation,"
or the " Church," the congregation informally assenting) is then
legally seised of the building, for the purposes of public worship;
and he receives the rents or revenues of any property that has
been bequeathed to the society, as his fee simple. The control of
the people over the minister resolves itself legally into their individual liberty to vacate their pews, and thus to leave him to the
enjoyment of the walls, and the endowments. But in fact, the
instances are very rare in which things areQushed to this extreme. Effectively there is an understanding between the congregation and the minister, to this effect, that when his services
cease to be acceptable to them, or to those among them whose
influence is paramount, he retires. It is evident that a relationship Qf this sort is quite susceptible of being so worked, in practice, am to leave no substantial ground of complaint, either with
the people or the minister; all it wants to secure his comfort and
independence, is some easily imagined modification of the congregational principle.
But the Wesleyan system, as constituted by Wesley, thoroughly and absolutely ignores the people, and it did this as well
legally as ecclesiastically; and hence, from the moment almost of
his death, to the present time, successive heavings and convulsions
-allayed for a time by concessions, palliative rather than rudimental, have made up the history of the Society. Nevertheless
such convulsions are so far auspicious, that they indicate an interior vitality,.and could never occur in a society that was not
powerfully wrought upon by a deep-seated attachment to the system itself. Tumultuous secessions may diminish Wesleyanism
for a time, but they will not destroy, or permanently weaken it.
What it might more fear would be the occurrence of noiseless
defections, from year to year-the falling away of its people who
-,with reason, or without reason, yet becoming alienated from
the Wesleyan organization, should cease to be seen in their places.




NOTES.                       327
Too often such a falling away would be-a relapse into the
world; but even if it went to swell the numbers of other churches,
it would be thought of with anxiety and grief by many who,
though not of the society, cordially desire its continued prosperity.
The reader will not doubt that the writer has given some attention to the controversies that, of late, have agitated the Wesleyan body: a pile of publications, thereto relating, he has thought
it incumbent upon him to read; but he is very far from thinking
himself called upon to express any opinion whatever upon the
points debated in these pamphlets. The several questions, either
of Wesleyan constitutional structure, or of discipline, therein discussed, are, unquestionably, of high moment; but they are quite
foreign to the purport of this volume, which relates only to METHODISM-now long ago gone from among us, and to Wesley's Weslevyaism, considered as a part of the writer's general subject. To
form a competent opinion upon the question-How far Wesley's
Wesleyanism is the Wesleyanism of the present time, would demand, not merely an extensive reading of polemical Tracts, Minutes of Conference, and Reports of legal proceedings, but much
personal conference with leading persons on both sides the pending controversy. To no such scrutiny as this is the writer impelled, either by a sense of duty, or by his tastes: controversy of
all kinds he abhors; nor should easily be induced to make himself one in any discussions whatever, that he saw to be moving
the passions of the disputants; nevertheless, while thus thinking
himself quite free to hold off from strife, and while using this
liberty, and intending to use it, the writer anticipates, as probable,
encountering a smart rejoinder from some who will say —" You
abstain from mingling in the fray; but, in fact, you take a part
in it, by expressing opinions concerning WTesley's Institute, of
which a factious use will be made by those who now trouble our
Israel." It may be so; yet the writer has seen no way of forefending this possible consequence. Never hitherto has he written or printed a line which did not convey his sincere and undisguised belief, and he can not-at so late a time —learn the art of
dressing his published opinions from motives of fear or favor,
The Wesleyan reader he will ask to be content with the assurance that, to witness the efective pacification of the Society, and
its re-instauration on principles substantially apostolic, would be
an event giving him the most cordial satisfaction.




328                      NOTES.
The time is not yet come-perhaps it is remote-when any
one of the existing (orthodox) communions might, without dam.
age.to the community, fail from its place among us. Each of'
these bodies has its destined function to discharge, during this
transition period. The means, the labors, the organization of
eachare too few, too small; all is too little: —the aggregate of
Christran ministrations in this home of Christianity, is a tenth of
what it should be.
THE END.
Preparing for Publication, by the Same -.uthor,
THE NONCONFORMISTS OF THE PAST AGE.