METHO- CHAP. ship-if to labour for the good, real or supposed, XIX. of their fellow-creatures, with all their heart, with all their soul, and with all their strength - if the most fervent devotion if the most unconquerable energy, be deserving of respect, let us not speak slightingly of those spiritual leaders, who, mighty even in their errors, and honest even in their contradictions, have stamped their character on their own and on the present times. It is proper to record, it is easy to deride, their frailties; but let us, ere we contemn them, seriously ask ourselves whether we should be equally ready to do and bear every thing in the cause of conscience,—whether, like them, we could fling away all thought of personal ease and personal advantage. It has often been said, that there is no virtue without sacrifices; but surely, it is equally true, that there are no sacrifices without virtue. Generous actions often spring from error; but still we must prefer such error to a selfish and lazy wisdom, and, though neither Jacobites nor Methodists, we may admire the enthusiasm of a Lochiel in politics, and of a Wesley in religion. The breach with the Moravians, and with the party of Whitefield, left Wesley sole and undisputed chief of the remaining brotherhood, and the gap thus made was far more than repaired by the growing multitude of converts. Methodism began to rear its head throughout the land, and the current of events soon carried Wesley far beyond the bounds which he himself had formerly drawn. Thus, he had condemned field-preaching, until he felt the want of pulpits; thus, also, he had con- CHAP. demned lay-preaching, until it appeared that very XIX. few clergymen were disposed to become his METHOfollowers. Slowly, and reluctantly, did he agree that laymen should go round and preach, though not to minister. These were, for the most part, untaught and fiery men, drawn from the loom or the plough by the impulse of an ardent zeal; but not unfrequently of strong intellect, and always of unwearied exertion. Their inferiority to Wesley in birth and education made them only the more willing instruments in his hands; their enthusiasm, it was hoped, would supply every deficiency; and it was found easier, instead of acquiring learning, to contemn it as dross. Their sermons, accordingly, had more of heat than of light, and they not unfrequently ran into extremes, which Wesley himself cannot have approved, and of which it would be easy, but needless, to multiply extraordinary instances. Their rules were very strict; they were required to undergo every hardship, and to abstain from every innocent indulgence, as, for example, from snuff.* But their organization was admirable. Directed by Wesley, as from a common centre, they were constantly transferred from station to station, thus affording to the people the excitement of novelty, and to the Preacher the necessity of labour. The Conference, which assembled once every year, and consisted of preachers selected by Wesley, was his Central Board or ; "Let no preacher touch snuff on any account. Show the "societies the evil of it." Minutes of Conference, Aug. 1765. DISM. METHO- CHAP. Administrative Council, and gave weight and authoXIX. rity to his decisions. Every where the Methodists were divided into classes, a leader being appointed to every class, and a meeting held weekly, when admonitions were made, money contributed, and proceedings reported. There were also, in every quarter, to be Love Feasts, -an ancient institution, intended to knit still closer the bands of Christian brotherhood. Whenever a member became guilty of any gross offence, he was excluded from the Society, so as to remove the Methodists as much as possible from the contagion of bad example, and enable them to boast that their little flock was without a single black sheep. It would be difficult even in the Monastic orders to display a more regular and well-adapted system. Like those Monastic orders the Methodists might still have remained in communion with the Church of their country; but in later life Wesley went several steps further, and took it upon him to ordain Ministers, and even Bishops, for his brethren in America. Yet with all this, Wesley never relinquished, in words at least, his attachment and adherence to the Church of England. On this point, his language was equally strong from first to last. We find, in 1739: "A serious clergyman desired to know in what 66 points we differed from the Church of England. I answered, to the best of my knowledge, in none." In 1766, he says: "We are not Dissenters from * Journal, September 13. 1739. XIX. DISM. the Church, and will do nothing willingly which CHAP. "tends to a separation from it...... Our service "is not such as supersedes the Church-service: METHO"we never designed it should.”* And in December, 1789, only a few months before his death : "I never had any design of separating from the "Church I have no such design now. . . . . I de 66 clare, once more, that I live and die a member of "the Church of England, and that none who re 66 gard my judgment or advice will ever separate from it."+-But, as we have seen, the conduct of Wesley did not always keep pace with these intentions, and his followers have departed from them far more widely. Several, who joined the Methodists from other sects, brought with them an unfriendly feeling to the Church; several others, who would have shrunk with horror from any thing called schism, were less shocked at the words Dissent or Separate Connexion; for of course when the name is changed, the thing is no longer the same! Yet even in the present times an eminent Methodist observes, that, although the relation to the Church has greatly altered since the days of Wesley, dissent has never been formally professed by his persuasion, and that "it forms "a middle body between the Establishment and "the Dissenters." -- * Minutes of Methodist Conferences, August, 1766. + See Wesley's Works, vol. xv. p. 248. Mr. Watson's Observations on Southey's Life, p. 138. and 159. ed. 1821. CHAP. None of Wesley's tenets were, as he believed, at tention to entangle myself or my readers in the The object of Wesley was, as he avowed it, not to secede from the Church of England, not to innovate upon its doctrines, but to infuse new life and vigour into its members. It becomes, therefore, an important question, how far, at this period, the clergy may be justly charged with neglect, or the people with indifference. And if we consult writers the most various in their views and feelings and opinions on most other points, we shall find them |