JOHN WESLEY AND THE CHURCH OF ENGLAND.

Southland Times, Issue 1672, 6 December 1872, Page 1 (Supplement)

JOHN WESLEY AND THE CHURCH OF ENGLAND.

"We have been requested by a correspondent to publish the following very interesting, but hitherto unpublished, letter of John Wesley, which has been sent to the Bristol Times and Mirror, by Mr H. J. Mills, of Bristol, who recently found it among his father's papers. The Miss Bishop, to whom the letter is written, was the second wife of Mr H. J. Mills's grandfather, who was a member of the Society of Friends 5 and it would appear that Miss Bishop, -who was a Methodist before her marriage, consulted John Wesley on the step she was about to take: — London, October 10, .1778. Mr dear Miss Bishop, — I am not un<wflling to wit© to you even upon a tender subject, because you will weigh the matter fairly. And if you have a little prepossession (which who has not?), yet you are willing to give it up to reason. The original Methodists were all of the Church of England, and the more awakened they were, the more zealously they adhered to it in every point, both of doctrine aud discipline. Hence we inserted in the very first rules of our society, ' They that leave the church leave ws.' And this we did, not as a point of prudence, but as a point of conscience. Wo believed it utterly unlawful to separate from the church, unless einful terms of communion were imposed ; just as did Mr Philip Hervey, and most of those holy men that were contemporary with them. ' But the ministers of it do not preach the Gospel.' Neither do the Independent or Anabaptist ministers. Calvinism is not the Gospel ; nay, it is further from it thin most of the sermons I hear at church. These are very frequently unevangelical ; but those are antievangelical. They are (to say no more) equally wrong; and they are far more •dangerously wroni*. Few of the Methodists are now in danger of imbibing error from the church ministers ; but they are Hn great danger of imbibing the grand error, Calvinism, from the Dissenting ministers. Perhaps thousands have done it already, most of whom have drawn back to perdition. I see more instances of this than any one else can do ; and on this ground also exhort all who would keep to the Methodists, and from Calvinism, ' Go to the church and not the meeting.' But to speak freely, T myself find more life in the church prayers than in the formal extemporary prayers of dissenters. Nay, I find more profit in sermons on either good tempers or good works, than in what are vulgarly called gospel sermons. That term has now become a mere cant word. I wish none of our society •would use it. It has no determinate meaning. Let but a pert, Belf-sufficient animal, that has neither sense nor grace, bawl out something about Christ and His blood, or justification by faith, and his hearers cry out, 'What a fine gospel sermon!' Surely the Methodists have not so learnt Christ ? We know no gospel without salvation from sin. There is a Romish error which many Protestants sanction unawares. It is an avowed doctrine of the Romish Church that ' the pure intention of the minister is essential to the validity of the sacraments." If so, we ought not to attend the ministrations of an unholy man. But in flat opposition to this, our church teaches, in the 28th article, that ' the unworthiness of the minister does not binder the validity of the sacraments.' Although, therefore, there are many disagreeable circumstances, yet I advise all our friends to keep to the church. God has surely raised us up for the church chiefly that a little leaven may leaven the whole lump. I wish you would seriously consider that little tract, Seasons against a Separation from the Church of JSngland. These reasons were never answered yet, and I believe they never will be. I am glad you have undertaken that labor of love, and I trust it will increase both your spiritual and. bodily health. I am, my dear Miss Bishop, yours very affectionately, J. Wesley.