JOHN WESLEY AND THE CHURCH OF ENGLAND.

Southland Times, Issue 1692, 21 January 1873, Page 2

JOHN WESLEY AND THE CHURCH OF ENGLAND.

(TO THE EDITOB OF THE TIME 3.) Sir — A number of extracts quoted below from the Bmnptou Lectures in 1871, delivered [ before tliß Uii-e-sity of Oxford, No; 7 specially I upon " Tlie Wesleyans," will 9upport the stvtement originally appearing in your columns, which led to a correspondence, of such interest apparently that the Bruce Ilerald reprinted tha whole. These lectnres are bound, under the will of the testator who furnished the funds, to ba published, and have apparently gone forth to tie world and be ;h unchallenged, and from the | liberal tone of the lecturer are well worth the i perusal of all classes of' religionists. The followin^ are disjointed extracts fro«n the lecture, and contain a number of quotations given in Wesley's own words : — " It is indeed with the greatest reluctance that si- Churchman can bring himself to speak of tho Weslevan body as if its secession were complete, there are still so many indications i anroad that the Methodist Societies hare never fo r gotten, and will norer be able to forget, their j v«Mierable founder's almost dying words : — ' 1 live and die a member of the Church of Engla'd ; and none who regard my judgment or advice will ever separate from it.' An intelligent We»leyan writer a'so affirms, 'There w»9 no intention in Wesley's, mind of a separation from the Church; nor was it even foreseen as a consequence. John Wesley's purpose was not secession, but, if we may believa liis own words, a revival of religion within the Church of England. 5 Two years before hia death, in preaching at Bath, Wesley made use of these words: "Tho Methodists are still members of the Church ; such they desire to live and die. And I believe one reason why God is please 1 to prolong my life so long is, to confirm them in their present purpose, not to separate from tho Chu-ch. I hold all the doctrines of the Church of England ; I love her liturgy ; I approve her p!an of discipline. I do not knowingly depart from the rule of the Church, and I dare not separate from the Church. I believe it would b« a sin so to do." Again, nine months before his death, he solemnly charged his preachars — " In G-oii's name, stop there! Bo Church of England men still." (Wesley's Sermons, 111. 268). The above are a few quotations from many in a lecture the whole tenor of which has an opposite tendency to widening a breach between the Church and her followers, and it its in no spirit of antagonism that I furnish them toa newspaper. As a further proof of good feeling I would add a paragraph of the Church of England lecturer, following on a defence of Church views — " Among all the religious bodies that modern tioie3 have produced, John Wesley's Methodist Society stood pre-eminent, during Lis long lifetime, both for its wonderful efficiency and coherence, under the übiquitous guidauce of his masterly hand, and also for its persistaat attachment to the Church of England, so long as he lived and so long as his distinct opinion was not deliberately suppressed -anil kept out of view, by the men of lower mould who succeeded him. And, whatever be its faults, I boldly say, so it stands pre-eminent still. Grod forbid that, whatever mistakes may have been committed, or whatever sinful temper shown in these later times, a churchman's voice should ever be raised to disparage, or treat with anything but honor, the memory and the work of the purest, noblest, most saintly clergyman of the eighteenth century." Any impartial reader of the lecture to which I refer could form but one idea — that John Wesley's was an impulsive nature. Atone time dragged into Moravian tenets ; later on, abjuring these, he was imbued with some of the German mysticism and fanaticism of French refugees,\at that time flocking to England, some of which resembled hysteria, or the peculiar phenomena subsequently shown among th« followers of Edward Irving. Yet, strange to say, mid all those changes, John Wesley, who, to use his own

wor<?», "Irre4 and died a member of the Church ] of England," all the latter part of his life rai-ed his voice against Calvinism, under th* banners of which, however, his successors are preparing to enrol themselves.— l am, &c, " LATcrrs." Invercargill, January 20fh, 1873.