and deliberately taken. If anyone is pleased to call this separation he may.' 195 So firmly was he convinced of the justice of his conduct, that he announced to all who would bring him to task: "If anyone is minded to dispute, concerning Diocesan Episcopacy, he may dispute. But I have better work."196 Wesley ordained for no other motive than that of expediency. It was the same old story: Men needed to be saved; America needed to be saved, and he was willing to go to all lengths to see this salvation take place. He worked, not in the theoretical world of theology, but in the world of practice. At the time when Wesley ordained Coke for work in America, it was very doubtful whether he thought of this man as ever becoming bishop. Tyerman said that Coke was ambitious, and wished it to be considered as an ordination to a bishopric. 197 Indeed, he was so ambitious that he was willing to go back into the Established Church if they would make him a bishop. Whether this was so or not, Coke himself began to speak of an episcopacy at the ordination service of Asbury, and openly advocated it.198 He spoke of himself as a Protestant defender of the episcopacy, and referred to the Methodist superintendents as "bishops," with every qualification that those of the Church of Alexandria had. 199 Asbury evidently was a ready pupil of Coke's idea, for Wesley wrote to him in the same year he was ordained: "One instance of this, of your greatness, has given me great concern. How can you, how dare you, suffer yourself to be called a bishop? . . . Men may call me a knave or a fool; a rascal, a scoundrel, and I am content; but they shall never, by my consent, call me a bishop! For my sake, for God's sake, for Christ's sake, put a full end to this!"200 But Asbury and Coke did not put a full end to this; they went so far as to name Cokesbury College after themselves. This drew the fire from Wesley. He wrote to Asbury: "I study to be little; you study to be great. I creep; you strut along. I 195 196 197 Of Separation from the Church, Works, vol. vii, p. 314. Life of Wesley, vol. iii, p. 434. 198 Coke: Substance of a Sermon at Asbury's Ordination, p. 9. 199 P. 8. 200 Moore: Life of Wesley, vol. ii, pp. 285-286. found a school; you a college! nay, and call it after your own names! O, beware!"'201 Hence one can see that Wesley intended to establish no more bishoprics in the world. Moore related that Wesley never gave sanction to the departures in America-in spite of Whitehead to the contrary-for he had seen enough of bishops and bishoprics as they were then displayed in the Established Church. 202 The religious developments in America got beyond his control. It is only too obvious to state that the opposition which Wesley faced was very sincere and very bitter. The clergy could not forgive him for this, which they considered the greatest sin of all. Charles Wesley was especially aroused over the matter. Nothing Wesley ever said or did gave his brother so much offense as these ordinations; for Charles Wesley adhered to the principle of apostolic succession.203 He expressed his wrath in a letter to Dr. Chandler in saying, "I can scarcely believe it, that in his eighty-second year, my old intimate friend and companion, should have assumed the episcopal character, ordained elders, consecrated a bishop, and sent him to ordain our lay preachers in America."204 Again he wrote to his brother, John Wesley, "I am on the brink of the grave. Do not push me in and embitter my last moments. Let us not leave an indelible blot on our memory; but let us leave behind us the name and character of honest men."205 Charles went even further and stated that John Wesley separated from the Church because he had ordained. Ordination was ipso facto separation.206 Wesley stoutly denied that he had in any wise separated; for he answered all of Charles's objections with a statement of his principles: "I believe I am a spiritual overseer as much as any man in England, or in Europe, for the uninterrupted succession I know to be a fable, which no man ever did or can prove. But this does in no wise interfere with my remaining within the Church, from which I have no more desire to 205 Ibid., p. 729. "207 separate, that I had fifty years ago.' Thus Wesley stood firm in his rejection of apostolic succession. ... The opposition from the Established Church was very severe. John Hampson might represent a small minority, who together with Wesley rejected the apostolic succession; but the majority believed it, and that conviction gave impetus to their pronouncements.208 George Horne, Bishop of Norwich in 1791, calmly stated the position of the clergy on this matter when he said: "We are informed the liberties taken of late years against the ministry of the Church have terminated in an attempt to begin a spurious episcopacy in America. . . . Mr. Wesley, when questioned about this fact in his lifetime, did not deny it, but pleaded necessity to justify the measure, . a fatal precedent, if it should be followed. . . . and the order of all things inverted.' "209 "Inasmuch as Wesley was never elected or consecrated to the episcopal office, it was impossible for him to function as a bishop, and hence there would be a capital flaw in any new church he might establish. Its bishops are not bishops, and its presbyters are not presbyters."210. The Canons of the Church said that persons should be ordained only upon certain Sundays, and that such ordination should take place in the presence of the dean and two prebendaries, at least.211 This Canon had been violated. Furthermore, the bishops were to examine the candidates for ordination before they could ordain them.212 Not only the law of the Church, but the usages of the Church were felt to have been shamefully treated; for this reason Wesley was denounced. William Jones said that Wesley thought himself a "vicar general" of heaven.213 Charles Daubney described Wesley as "a schismatic grafted upon a Protestant."214 And because Coke carried out Wesley's idea to the limit, Whitehead named him “a felon to Methodism.”215 Op. cit., vol. ii, p. 192. 200 Horne's Works, vol. ii, p. 570, quoted in Mason, p. 411. 210 Hampson: vol. ii, p. 197. 211 Vide Canon 31. 212 Vide Canon 35. 213 Quoted in Mason, p. 411. 215 Moore: vol. ii, p. 275. 214 Ibid., p. 418. And these men were right; for Wesley did break the law of the Church. "Wesley, dit-on, ne possedant pas la charge épiscopale, ne pouvait pas la conferer. En droit canonique strict, céla était incontestable."216 Legally, therefore, Wesley was in error; but again let it be asserted, Wesley was not concerned with Church legalism so much as he was concerned with saving men. "Whether one condemns Wesley's action depends upon the fact as to whether one believes in episcopacy jure divino as does the High Church, or whether one rejects this view as did Wesley. It seems as though the evidence is against the High Church theory."217 The need of getting a certain work done, was the deciding factor with Wesley; and not an abstract High Church theory. This was a very radical departure, and cannot be thought of as making for concord between the Methodists and the Churchmen. No presbyter could usurp the office of a bishop, and continue a member of the Church of England; for the assuming of such an office, in itself, was an offense against the primary and most distinguishing institution in the Church, and therefore an actual renunciation of the Church.218 Wesley had struck a blow at that part of the Church which all Churchmen held most dear—the episcopacy. In spirit, at least, this made him no longer a member of the Established Church. It was not his words of loyalty, but his deeds that counted. Mason said: "It was one of the extraordinary features in the character of that great man, that he was able to persuade himself that he was a loyal and consistent Churchman throughout his long life."219 And yet, though Wesley was quite inconsistent in his conduct, when one considers the high religious values that were at stake, and the fallacy of the doctrine of the apostolic succession, he cannot term Wesley's procedure other than "an act of as high propriety and dignity as it was of urgent necessity." Thus have we reviewed the steps taken by the Methodists Op. cit., p. 406. "220 to carry out the convictions that came from their doctrine. They were willing to preach out of doors; to preach indoors in places other than the Established Church; to travel all over England, so that their circuit riders knew no parish bounds; to use lay preachers; and later to ordain these lay preachers. They resorted to these practices, that vital religion might be brought to every individual in England. And still, they did not resort to a single practice to which there was not a stiff opposition from the clergy and the Churchmen. With this friction and unfriendliness constantly upon the increase, one cannot say that unity of action or spirit between the Methodists and the Churchmen was increasing. The practices of the Methodists increased the tension between the Methodists and the Established Church. |