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As measures had been adopted at the preceding Confér ence to relieve the preachers from dependence upon secular business for a maintenance, another step forward for their support, and toward the permanent organization of the lay ministry, was now taken by the enactment of a regular circuit collection for an "allowance" to their wives. Only about one third of them seem yet to have been married men; but as these had thus far been appointed only to the wealthiest circuits, in order that their families might not unnecessarily suffer, the effective operation of the itinerant system had been seriously restricted, and its talents distributed not so much according to the need of the societies as to the necessities of the preachers. The allowance now made for a wife was small, being but ten pounds a year; but it was the beginning of a better provision, which in our day has secured to Wesleyan preachers and their families a more competent and more reliable average support than is afforded perhaps by any other religious community of England, not excepting the national Church itself.

Wesley was now sixty-six years old. It was prudent to think of the means necessary to perpetuate the unity of his preachers and people after his death. He read a paper to the Conference on this subject. He referred to the failure of all his efforts to secure the co-operation of even the "evangelical" portion of the clergy of the Establishment, and the fact that from among the fifty or sixty to whom he had addressed his circular letter on the subject only three had responded. "So I give this up," he said, with undissembled grief: "I can do no more. They are a rope of sand, and such will they continue." But it was otherwise with his own traveling fellow-laborers. They were one body, acting in concert and by united counsels. And now was the time to consider what could be done in order to continue their unity. As long as he lived there would be no great difficulty, for he, under God, was a center of union to them. They all knew him, they all loved him for his work's sake, and therefore, were it only out of regard to him, would con

tinue connected with each other. But by what means might this connection be preserved when God should remove him?

He proposed that on notice of his death all the preachers in England and Ireland should repair to London within six weeks; that they should seek God by solemn fasting and prayer; draw up articles of agreement, to be signed by those who chose to act in concert; dismiss in a friendly manner those who should not so choose; select by votes a committee of three, five, or seven, each of whom was to be a moderator in his turn to do what he did: "propose preachers to be tried, admitted, or excluded; fix the place of each preacher for the ensuing year, and the time of the next Conference."

It was further proposed that a document should be signed by all who agreed to these suggestions, pledging them, first, To devote themselves entirely to God; denying them selves, taking up their cross daily; steadily aiming at one thing to save their own souls and the souls of their hearers; secondly, To preach the old Methodist doctrines, as contained in the Minutes, and no other; thirdly, To observe and enforce the whole Methodist discipline as defined in the Minutes.

It was finally ordered that this plan should be issued in the Minutes, and submitted to the consideration of the preachers, many of whom were not present at the session. It was held in suspense by Wesley during several years, but was brought up for consideration at the Conferences of 1773, 1774, and 1775, and signed by all the preachers present at these sessions, amounting to one hundred and one. The arrangement was afterward superseded by Wesley's Deed of Declaration, but it is worthy of this passing notice, as a proof of his growing conviction that Methodism would be compelled, sooner or later, to take an independent and permanent form.16

The twenty-seventh Conference was held in London, August 7, 1770. Eighteen candidates were received on proba. tion, and sixteen probationers admitted into membership. Five members ceased to travel. Fifty circuits were reported, being an increase of four. The last in the list is

16 Myles's Chron. Hist., etc., chap. 5.

pecially significant; it reads: "Fiftieth, America, Joseph Pilmoor, Richard Boardman, Robert Williams, John King." Volumes of history were anticipated in that brief sentence.

The returns of members of societies amounted to 29,179, showing a gain of 1143. The payments on society debts amounted to £1700, but the sum remaining unpaid was nearly £7000. A resolution, characteristic of Wesley's strict economy, was adopted, putting a stop to all building for the ensuing year. No new house was to be erected, no alteration nor addition made in any old one, unless the society concerned should defray the expense, without lessening its yearly collections.

Forty-three preachers' wives were to be provided for during the ensuing year, and the former regulation respecting them was re-enacted. The children of preachers were to be supported by the circuits on which their fathers labored. An illustration of the financial condition of the ministry is afforded by the fact that only twelve pounds a year were allowed for a preacher's wife, and four pounds for each of his children; and the latter sum was to be paid for boys only till their eighth year, when they were to be sent to Kingswood school; and for girls till their fourteenth year, after which no provision was yet made for them.

To prevent scandal, it was enacted that in all cases of insolvency among members of the societies, a committee should examine their accounts, and bankrupts were to be immediately "expelled," if their failure should be seen to have occurred from any unjust cause.

While the Minutes show an increase of members, ten circuits reported a decrease. It was therefore urgently asked: "What can be done to revive the work of God where it has decayed?" And the preachers pledged themselves anew to pastoral diligence, visiting from house to house, to increased care of the religious training of the children of their societies, to field preaching, early morning services, and the circulation of religious books.

This session is memorable for the occasion which i*

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gave for the revival of the Calvinistic controversy. man of his age had clearer views of the great doctrine of the Reformation-Justification by faith-than John Wesley. But he knew its liability to Antinomian abuse. As early as 1738 he guarded it against this perversion, with no little emphasis, in his sermon before the University of Oxford, and in his first Conference he admonished his preachers against it. At that session (1744) it was declared that they had "leaned too much toward Calvinism." He believed that the Calvinism of his day tended to Antinomianism, and the "leaning toward Calvinism," to which he objected, was such a representation of the relation of works to faith as tended to supersede the former by the latter. The doctrine of the "imputation of Christ's righteousness," upon which American Calvinists have in latter years very largely adopted his opinions, was particularly, as he thought, abused by contemporary Calvinists, and the theological world owes him no small obligation for the discrimination with which he guarded the Methodistic movement against this Antinomian tendency.

The Minute on the question at the present Conference was not designed as a popular view of the subject; it was liable itself to abuse in that respect; but as a brief, dogmatic statement, made for his preachers as students of theology, it is safe and Scriptural. It produced the most violent theological controversy known in the history of Methodism, in which Shirley, Toplady, Hill, Sellon, Fletcher, and Olivers were the champions. It has tended, more than any other occasion for a hundred years, to fortify evangelical Arminianism in the Protestant world. It forecast, perhaps irrevocably, the theological character of Methodism, and, by Methodists, at least, must be considered one of those special providences which have developed and determined its history. As this memorable controversy did not take place till the next Conference, and forms one of the most interesting facts in our narrative, the Minute which produced it will be given at that period.

CHAPTER VII

CALVINISTIC METHODISM FROM 1760 TO 1770.

Mutual Relations of the Calvinistic Methodist Societies - Position of the Countess of Huntingdon - She itinerates with her Preachers in Yorkshire-They attend Wesley's Conference - Venn - Grimshaw Fletcher Sketch of Captain Scott Adventures of Captain Joss The Countess and her Preachers at Cheltenham Lord Dartmouth A great "Field Day" "Quadruple Alliance" between the Wesleys and Whitefield and Lady Huntingdon - Trevecca College Expulsion of Methodist Students from Oxford Scenes at Trevecca · Whitefield's Declining Health - He again Visits America - Returns to England in 1765- Last Interviews with Wesley-Last Voyage to America-Happiness of his Religious Frame as he approached his End - His Excursion up the Hudson-Last Sermon-Character

Results.

Ir would be difficult if not impossible to define the mutual relations of the Calvinistic Methodist societies. Calvinism has always tended, by some occult law, to ecclesiastical independence, and has thereby favored freedom of thought rather than effectiveness of organization. Whitefield and Howell Harris were the apostles of Calvinistic Methodism; Romaine, Madan, Venn, and Berridge, their coadjutors; the Countess of Huntingdon was their most important center of union. Her good sense, the influcnce of her social position as a member of the British aristocracy, (an important consideration to the English mind,) and, still more, her munificence, upon which most of the Calvinistic chapels were more or less dependent, enabled her to centralize their sympathies around her own person, and she never abused the moral power which she thus commanded. No formal conferences were held; few, if indeed any, representative consultations were had; but the Calvinistic evangelists naturally resorted to her house

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