CONTENTS CHAPTER I. THE METHODIST VIEW OF EIGHTEENTH CENTURY LIFE...... I. Methodist Dissatisfaction with the Customs and Religion of II. Methodist View of the Church and the Clergy. CHAPTER II. THE CHURCH MAN'S VIEW OF EIGHTEENTH CENTURY LIFE.. V. The Witness of the Spirit.. VI. The Early Methodist Doctrine of the Church. VII. The Orthodoxy of Early Methodist Doctrine.. CHAPTER IV. PRACTICES OF THE EARLY METHODISTS... II. Early Irregular Indoor Preaching. III. The Beginning of the Itineracy.. IV. The Use of Lay Preachers.... V. The First Methodist Ordinations. II. The Beginning of the Methodist Conferences.. III. Methodist Classes, Bands, Stewards, Quarterly Meetings. V. Summary CHAPTER VI. DEVELOPMENT OF METHODIST SOLIDARITY.. I. Wesley's Opposition to the Unification of Methodism.. PREFACE THIS work is undertaken with the conviction that the profoundest interpretation of the Methodist movement must ultimately be sociological. History may give us the facts; but one must turn to sociology for any satisfying explanation of those facts. At the beginning of the Methodist movement, the Churchmen and the majority of the Methodists were members of the same sociological "group". There were many causes contributing toward the breaking up of this group, and not least among these was the difference in emphasis on doctrine, as well as the efficient and highly centralized organization built up by Wesley and his followers. Opposition to the organization served only to strengthen the movement. Conscious of an ever-increasing strength, and opposed on every hand, the Methodists took a series of steps: they ordained their preachers without permission from the Church; they refused to take the sacrament from the clergy, but administered it in their preaching houses; in Church hours they conducted divine worship; they registered their meeting houses as places of dissent. These steps completed the separation. The so-called Plan of Pacification and the Regulations of Leeds consciously and explicitly confirmed the break. The purpose of this work is to trace the factors resulting in disrupting the sociological group, and thereby making the separation of the Methodists from the Church of England a historical fact. The works here used are listed in the bibliography at the back of the book; but it is necessary to explain the use of the following books: I. All references in the footnotes to the Journal refer to John Wesley's Journal, published in eight volumes by Eaton and Mains, New York, 1909, under the editorship of the Rev. Nehemiah Curnock. This edition is the latest and most scholarly; and is especially rich in notes and documents not readily found elsewhere. 2. All references to Works indicate the Works of Rev. John Wesley, A.M., New York, 1831, edited by 7 John Emory and complete in seven volumes. These Works contain quite accurate copies of many of Wesley's writings otherwise practically inaccessible. 3. All references to Tyerman refer to the Life and Times of the Rev. John Wesley, M.A., by Rev. Luke Tyerman, New York, 1870, in three volumes. This account is quite detailed and contains many documents not published elsewhere. This study could not have been completed without the aid of many friends: I wish to express my appreciation to Mr. George D. Brown, librarian of the General Theological Seminary Library, and the Rev. Robert E. Harned, librarian of Drew Theological Seminary. To the Library of Union Theological Seminary, and especially to Miss Cornelia T. Hudson and Miss Laura S. Turnbull, efficient and skilful members of its staff, I am grateful for their never-failing cooperation. Professor John : Drew Theological Seminary has my. heartiest for sugesting this theme, reading the proof, and giving cisms. I am indebted to Professor William ་་ g onbia University, who kindly read my manuscript. Professor F. J. Foakes Jackson, formerly of Cambridge University, England, now of Union Theological Seminary, has placed me under a great debt of gratitude; for he devoted himself unsparingly to my interests in this work. To Professor William Walker Rockwell of Union Theological Seminary am I deeply grateful. During the past four years he has given me without stint of his keen criticism and inspiring counsel. |