The part which bears specially upon the superintendency is that which declares in unmistakable terms the parity of bishops and presbyters as to order. Mr. Wesley's words are: "Lord King's account of the primitive Church convinced me many years ago that bishops and presbyters are the same order, and consequently have the same right to ordain."

With such a declaration, so explicitly made, the members of the Christmas Conference could not have supposed Wesley was giving them an episcopacy that was higher in order than the eldership, and as they accepted his views of the primitive episcopacy they could not have intended to elect their superintendent to a higher order than that possessed by the presbyters.

This is a vital principle in Methodism. It was only on this principle that Wesley undertook to justify his ordinations. He held that if it was not true he had no right to ordain, but if it was true then he had a right to ordain; and it was on this principle that the early American Methodists justified their course.

Every thing connected with the organization of the Methodist Episcopal Church is to be read in the light of this declaration-" Bishops and presbyters are the same order." It is the key-note of every utterance. Careless expressions or inaccurate use of words cannot affect this. The doubtful is to be interpreted in the light of the clear, and not the certain by that which is uncertain.

The whole organism was based on this principle that there was no higher order in the Church than that possessed by a presbyter, and it is not to be supposed that the organizers of the Church did any thing which was a violation of this fundamental principle of their charter of rights.

Consequently, as there was no distinction of order between the superintendent and any other presbyter, the distinction must have been one of office; and all the facts cited show that the Conference which organized the Methodist Episcopal Church held views which harmonized with the teaching of Wesley that bishops were the same in order as presbyters, and viewed the superintendency as a superior office, and the superintendent merely as a superior officer. Their effort was to return to the simple episcopate of the early Christian Church.

CHAPTER VII.

THE EPISCOPATE FROM 1784 UNTIL THE DEATH OF ASBURY.

HE Christmas Conference in its action did not

Te the word
THER

use the word bishop in reference to its superior officers, but referred to them as superintendents. When Dr. Coke printed the sermon which he delivered at the setting apart of Asbury he added a footnote, as we have seen, in which he defined bishop as signifying a superior officer in the Church.

The Conference at which the Methodist Episcopal Church was organized adjourned on the 2d of January, 1785. That year the Conferences convened as heretofore, the last being held on the 15th of June. After the Conferences closed the Minutes were published.* Probably those of this year were issued in the latter part of June, or some time in July. They contain a copy of Wesley's Circular Letter, and after it appears the following statement:

Therefore at this Conference we formed ourselves into an

independent Church; and, following the counsel of Mr. John

"This year and the two succeeding years the Minutes were called The Minutes of the General Conference of the Methodist Episcopa! Church in America.' The business of the three Conferences was all arranged in the Minutes as if all had been done at one time and place. And for the first time we had the Annual Minutes printed, which practice we have followed ever since" (Lee's Hist. of the Methodists, p. 118).

Wesley, who recommended the episcopal mode of Church government, we thought it best to become an Episcopal Church, making the episcopal office elective, and the elected superintendent or bishop amenable to the body of ministers and preachers.

This is the first time the word bishop appears in that which purports to be an official or semi-official document. It did not appear in the form of Discipline adopted by the Christmas Conference, neither does it appear in the record given in Lee's History. In the same Minutes there is a foot-note referring to the word superintendents which Wesley uses in his letter. It is as follows:

As the translators of our version of the Bible have used the English word bishop instead of superintendent, it has been thought by us that it would appear more scriptural to adopt their term bishop.*

This suggestion, and the use of the form "superintendent or bishop" in the other paragraph, were without the authority of the Conferences. The insertions were evidently the work of the editor or editors who combined the reports of the three Conferences.

The superintendents themselves appear to have prepared or supervised the preparation of the Minutes for publication, and so the editors had opportunity to make such insertions or comments as they thought necessary for the elucidation of various points, and these insertions were made, no doubt, in good faith on

*Minutes for 1785.

the part of the editor; but, as the Conferences had adjourned before the combined Minutes appeared, the editor and not the Conference is to be held respousible for them. Sometimes, however, it is rather difficult to distinguish the work of the editor from the action of the Conference.

It is probable that, to some extent, both Coke and Asbury were affected by the example of Wesley, who, having gradually created his government, would not divide the responsibility with others. In a letter of the 13th of January, 1790, a little more than a year before his death, he said: "As long as I live the people shall have no share in choosing either stewards or leaders among the Methodists."*

So the Rev. Thomas Ware says:

Mr. Wesley had been in the habit of calling his preachers together, not to legislate, but to confer. Many of them he found to be excellent counselors, and he heard them respectfully on the weighty matters which were brought before them; but the right to decide all questions he reserved to himself. This he deemed the more excellent way; and as we had volunteered and pledged ourselves to obey, he instructed the doctor, conformably to his own usage, to put as few questions to vote as possible, saying, "If you, Brother Asbury, and Brother Whatcoat are agreed it is enough." +

It is just possible that Coke and Asbury thought they had the right to do some things without receiving authority from the Conference, and they may have carried this principle into the matter of editing * Dr. Jenning's Exposition, p. 92. Ware's Life, p. 130.