the American Methodists was dated the following day, September 10, 1784; and liturgy and letter were prepared and the ordination took place in Bristol, to which Wesley was going when, nearly forty years before, he was convinced that presbyters and bishops were the same order, and that presbyters had the same right to ordain. On the 18th of the same month Dr. Coke, accompanied by Whatcoat and Vasey, sailed from Bristol, carrying with them the articles of religion, the liturgy, and the ritual which Wesley had prepared for the American Methodists.

Wesley considered that they were "now totally disentangled both from the state and the English hierarchy," and were "at full liberty simply to follow the Scriptures and the primitive Church;" and hence, while he furnishes them with articles of religion and a liturgy, and ordained ministers to administer the sacraments, he also appointed superintendents to oversee the work and preside over the preachers and people; and these superintendents, like those who occupied the episcopate in the primitive Christian Church, were to be presbyters in order, and presiding presbyters in office.

* Wesley's Letter to the Methodists in North America.

CHAPTER V.

THE ORGANIZATION OF THE METHODIST EPISCOPAL CHURCH.

THE

HE destitution of the people of America in regard to the sacraments created a demand for ordained ministers. So the disturbed ecclesiastical conditions created a demand for Church organization.

All the denominations had been affected more or less injuriously by the Revolutionary War. Even the Presbyterians, who had quite unanimously arrayed themselves on the side of the patriots, suffered greatly, and it was not until 1785 that steps were taken for revising the standards and organizing a General Assembly, and it was not until May, 1788, that a synod convened and resolved itself into a General Assembly. This General Assembly held its first meeting in 1789, and embraced the four synods of New York and New Jersey, Philadelphia, Virginia, and the Carolinas. In 1817 the Baptists formed a triennial convention, but that has since been discontinued.

Our study of the ecclesiastical conditions will turn our attention chiefly to the body with which Methodism was most closely identified.

The war had been disastrous to the Church of England in America. As we have seen, most of the

churches were vacant, and little need be added to the descriptions of distress already presented.

The author of the Memoir of Bishop Hobart speaks of it as a "desolated" Church; and says that "the consequences of the Revolution were for a time fatal;" that it had "neither point of union nor power of increase;" that "the few churches that remained had no tie of brotherhood among themselves; " that, "the external bond being removed, they fell apart like a rope of sand," so that "each stood in its own state of helpless independency, fast tending to use the expressive language of Burke--toward the dust and powder of individuality.'"*

In fact, the Church of England no longer existed in the United States. There were isolated churches, but, as we have already seen, there were few clergymen, and these scattered remains were without organization. There was no convocation or convention for the country, and there was no bishop, and, consequently, no episcopal confirmation.

What remained of the Established Church was unpopular, because it was "identified by popular prejudice with the royal government." †

In the North the clergy were sustained by "foreign funds." They were missionaries employed by the English Society for the Propagation of the Gospel in Foreign Parts, without whose stipends they could not have been sustained. The only clergy who were *Memoir of Bishop Hobart, pp. 78, 80. + Ibid., p. 78.

not so supported in the North were those resident int Boston, Newport, New York city, and Philadelphia.*

A letter written in 1783 to one of the English archbishops shows the effects of the Revolutionary War upon the Northern clergy. It says:

"It may be proper to inform your grace that the late confusions have been fatal to great numbers of the American clergy. Many have died; others have been banished; so that several parishes are now destitute of incumbents. In the four colonies of Connecticut, New York, New Jersey, and Pennsylvania we know at this time of no less than seventy vacant, churches. . . . We believe the case of the other colonies to be nearly similar." The Episcopal clergy were, as Bishop White wrote, "gradually approaching to annihilation." +

The question with some who remained was "how to devise a plan for effecting its revival and organization." How to give unity where there was "neither point of union nor power of increase," and to give cohesion to that which had fallen "apart like a rope of sand" was certainly a knotty problem. Any effort to restore the "desolated " ecclesiasticism looked like a doubtful, if not an impossible, task.

"Great difficulties existed in the way of a success

*Bishop White's Memoirs of the Protestant Episcopal Church. Second Ed., p. 3.

Beardsley's Life of Bishop Seabury, pp. 92, 93.

Memoir of Bishop White, p. 81.

§ Ibid., p. 79.

ful prosecution of this object, arising from the condition of the country; from strong prejudices generally prevailing against that church, partly from her former connection with the Established Church of England, and partly from opposition to her principles of ecclesiastical government; and from the want of union in opinions and feelings among Episcopalians themselves, in the different States."*

Dr. Wilson, author of the Life of Bishop White, says there was "an apprehension that if bishops were consecrated by that Church (the Church of England) for her, a subjection to them, or at least an undue influence, would be the result; and . . . an opinion, unreasonably formed, that episcopacy itself was unfriendly to the political principles of our republican governments. To which may be added the fact that many of her clergy had been led by conscientious scruples to adhere to the British government and leave the country; while others, under the influence of the same scruples, though they remained here and quietly submitted to the established government, disapproved of the Revolution. The prejudices occasioned by these circumstances did not affect only those unconnected with the Episcopal Church, but existed also, in a measure, among her own members. So strong were they in South Carolina that the consent of the Episcopalians of that State to a general union was in danger of being lost *Memoir of Bishop White, pp. 79, 80.