leyan or Arminian Methodists. In point of fact, they are Dissenters from the established Church in doctrine, ritual, discipline, and government; yet they profess to adhere to its doctrinal standards, and for the most part avow an attachment to the Establishment as an ecclesiastical and political institution. This characteristic feature makes no difference, however, in their legal predicament. Their Teachers, in order to screen themselves from the penal consequences of the Conventicle Act, have been compelled to certify as Dissenters. The law has cognizance of them in no other character; nor does the established Church acknowledge them as belonging to her communion, from which they are, in fact, as a sect, completely separated. Mr. Wesley, their founder, always professed a strong affection for the Church of England, of which he aspired to be a reformer; and

he exhorted the societies under his care to attend her services, and to receive the Lord's supper from the Episcopal Clergy. Had it so pleased the rulers of that Church, it would have been very feasible, in the infancy of Methodism, by a slight relaxation of her stern and jealous discipline, to retain the followers of Wesley within the pale of the Establishment; allowing them liberty to maintain their private meetings and peculiar economy under their own Leaders, as, in the Romish Church, the several orders of regulars are permitted to govern themselves by their own rule and officers. In the latter part of his life, however, Mr. Wesley thought proper to assume the functions of the Episcopal office, and not only to ordain several Ministers who were sent out to Scotland, and to America, but also to consecrate some as Bishops." (Page 443.)

That Mr. Wesley appointed a General Superintendent of the Wesleyan societies in America, to which, on the separation of the country from the parent state, he thus gave

Mr. Conder should have expressed himself with more precision here. "Have been compelled" may be explained to mean "were formerly compelled; " but it may likewise convey the notion that it is so at present. Since 1812, Mr. Conder is aware that the case is altered. A place of worship is now certified for "an assembly or congregation of Protestants;' and the Teachers do not certify at all. They must take the accustomed oaths, (which say nothing of Dissent,) when required to do so, and can demand a certificate of their having taken them.-EDIT.

an Episcopal form, we very well know; but that he performed any ceremony to which the term "consecration" can be with any propriety applied, is really a piece of informa

tion for which we are indebted to Mr. Conder. But the whole paragraph is consistent with itself. It is not a statement of facts merely, but of the facts as they appeared to Mr. Conder. A tone of ill-nature, sometimes expressing its dislike in sarcasm, breathes in every sentence; and one which was utterly uncalled for; the facts of the case could have been described far better without it. The Wesleyans never say that they are not Dissenters, if by the term is merely meant that, as a religious society, they exist and act in a state of complete separation from the established Church; but because, at the present day, with the term have been connected certain peculiar notions, not originally belonging to it, and which the Wesleyans, as a body, do not receive, they have often been compelled, in justice to themselves, to describe the position in which they stand. They have done it frequenty, explicitly, and in good faith; and it is well enough understood by all who will give themselves the trouble to inquire into a subject before they speak or write concerning it.

However, we ought to be thankful, that while Mr. Conder states facts under the influence of his own particular feelings, he does not, like his brother Calvinist, Independent, and Voluntary, Dr. Vaughan, advance charges destructive of the Christian character of the body which he is describing. The learned legal rate directly involving the prinProfessor, who first refuses to pay a ciple of an Establishment, because the principle is involved in the payment, and then publishes a book in which he says, that in the present state of things in this country there ought to be an established Church; that is to say, that a compromise and adjustment" with the " prevalent feeling in favour of an established Church" ought to be entered into; and what he, in his conscience, believes to be a bad thing continued, because the prevalent feeling" is

66

in its favour; this learned Doctor and Professor, after a "compromise and adjustment" which we happen to know that some of his brethren considered as a compromise of their principles, yet ventured to pen the following sentence :

Congregationalism is not like Methodism, a system of compromise and adjustment, formed in deference to the prejudice and feeling of the hour. It is the effect of a devout and firm-hearted appeal to the exact nature and design of Christianity."*

Dr. Vaughan is not the man to talk about " compromise and adjustment," at all events; but after such an ebullition, we felt thankful that Mr. Conder had "let us off so easily."

In a note on page 446 we have a specimen of Mr. Conder's method of reasoning on statements which have come before him in the course of his researches. We adduce it for the purpose of showing the animus with which we fear this portion of the work has been written.

In the Minutes of Conference for the year 1766 the following expression occurs :

"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."

(Min. of Conf., vol. i., p. 57.) On this Mr. Conder remarks:"This attempt to distinguish the Methodists from other separatists, at the expense of the original Nonconformists, is not only destitute of candour, but at variance with fact." (Page 446, note.)

These are very serious charges, especially the latter. Let us examine the proof. After writing

• Vaughan's State of Religious Parties in England, p. 74.

what we have already quoted, Mr. Conder proceeds thus:

"Yet in answer to Question 46, separation from the Church is pronounced allowable:- 1. If the parish Minister be a notoriously wicked man. 2. If he preach Socinianism, Arianism, or other essentially false doctrine.' Is not this laying the foundation in judging and condemning others?" (Ibid.)

We thought it had been notorious that the Nonconformists, in seceding from the national Church, justified their secession by arguing that they could not continue in the Church without violating the allegiance which they considered to be due to Christ. This was the position taken by Micaiah Towgood, and that on which both the earlier and later Nonconformists stood. In saying this, we neither give praise, nor imWe merely state what pute blame. we have always understood to be a And to this plain historical fact. we have been in the habit of referring the practice, still, we believe, in use among the Dissenters, of asking the Minister, at the time of his ordination, why he does not choose to exercise his ministry in the national Establishment, but prefers to be united to the Protestant Dissenters; a practice which often affords the opportunity of expressing the most decided hostility to the Church of England. But what was the origin of the Methodist societies? Simply this: Mr. Wesley, following Mr. Whitefield's noble example, began early to preach in the open air. The subject of his discourses had no reference to questions of ecclesiastical polity. He, and afterwards his Helpers, (as they were called,) "believed it to be their duty to call sinners to repentance," and to this all their efforts were directed. It was their grand work to show all who heard them that they were fallen sinners; and to direct those who received this part of their message to Christ, as their only and all-suffi. cient Saviour. Many came, at a very early period, to the man whose ministry had so impressed them. for further advice and encouragement; and these he formed into a

where the mind is enveloped in the clouds of party, the rays that come to it from surrounding objects become so completely deflected as to make the objects themselves appear distorted; and then, as they are seen, so they are described. No wonder such descriptions are at variance with fact; " but the entire fault is in the obliquity of the describer.

We have answered Mr. Conder according to his own assumption, that by "Seceders" Mr. Wesley meant the English "Nonconformists;" whereas he unquestionably by that term meant the separatists from the Scottish Church, who have appropriated that name to themselves, and whose invectives against the Church from which they separated are known to every reader of modern ecclesiastical history. Mr. Wesley never spoke disrespectfully of "the original Nonconformists," such as Baxter, Philip Henry, and Howe. He admired their piety, and censured in the strongest terms the iniquitous persecutions to which they were subjected; as Mr. Conder would have found, could he have reconciled his mind to read the works of the man concerning whom he takes upon himself to dogmatize, and whom he appears so cordially to dislike. But it evidently formed no part of Mr. Conder's plan thoroughly to understand Mr. Wesley.

We shall now give one or two specimens of the manner in which the doctrinal opinions of the Wesleyan Methodists are described. They show only too plainly the feelings under the influence of which Mr. Conder has written. Thus, he says,

Upon the points at issue between the Calvinistic and Arminian Divines, Mr. Wesley was a zealous, and not very candid anti-Calvinist; imputing to his theological opponents Antinomian tenets, and sometimes maintaining language not easily reconcilable with the Articles to which he professed to adhere. He insisted on general redemption, reprobated the doctrine of election, denied the certain perseverance of the saints,' and yet maintained the possibility of attaining to a state of entire sanctification and

freedom from sin, which he denominated 'Christian perfection." " (Page 455.)

Now this can never be called fair description. The spirit which the whole passage breathes is polemical. Mr. Conder has as much right to think our opinions are wrong as we to think them correct; but in a volume professing to give "a View of all Religions," he was required, in justice to his readers, to describe fairly. Mr. Wesley's views may have been wrong, and Mr. Conder might have thought them so far so as to require a cautionary note; but in the text which professes to describe what they were, he had no right to introduce his own censures.

So upon the doctrine of justification, the fundamental importance of which has always been as sincerely and cordially acknowledged by the Wesleyan Methodists, as by any Protestant church whatever; and upon which, if upon any, Mr. Wesley wrote clearly, abundantly, and consistently. Had Mr. Conder's object been only to give an account of what really was the belief of Mr. Wesley, his Preachers, and societies, on this momentous doctrine, he would have found no difficulty in obtaining the requisite information. Any Methodist Preacher would have told him that the "Large Minutes" are not (as he says, page 455) "the authorized exposition of the Wesleyan tenets." What the peculiar position which they occupy among the Wesleyans is, it would not be difficult to describe, but it is not just now necessary. The Trust-deeds" of the body refer to the "first four volumes of Mr. Wesley's Sermons," and to his "Notes on the New Testament," as the standard exposition of the doctrines of the Connexion. And had he referred to these, he would soon have found that if upon any subject Mr. Wesley spoke explicitly and unwaveringly, it was upon that of justification by faith. But instead of this, he seems to have contented himself with the " Large Minutes," a pamphlet, as our readers know, containing extracts from the Minutes of Conference during Mr. Wesley's life, and the disciplinary