and Wednesbury, hired for the purpose by their betters, broke open their poor neighbours' houses at their pleasure, by day and by night, extorting money from the few that had it; taking away, or destroying their victuals and goods; beating and wounding their bodies; abusing their women, and openly declaring they would destroy every Methodist in the country: the Christian country where his Majesty's peaceable and loyal subjects were so treated for eight months, and then publicly branded in the Whitehall and London Evening-Post, for rioters and incendiaries!

From Cornwall, Mr. Wesley passed over into Wales : on his return he made a short stay at Bristol, and then set out for the North, visiting most of the societies in his way to Newcastle. June 20, he returned to London, where he met his brother, two or three other clergynien, and a few of the preachers, whom he had appointed to come from various parts, to confer with them on the affairs of the societies. Mr. Wesley observes, " Monday, June 25, and the five following days, we spent in conference with our preachers, seriously considering, by what means we might the Inost effectually save our own souls and them that heard us. And the result of our consultations we set down, to be the RULES of our future practice."-This was the first Methodist Conference: and for the better regulation of their affairs, a conference has been held annually ever since; Mr. Wesley having presided at forty-seven such conferences. The subjects of their deliberations were proposed in the form of questions, which were amply discussed; and the questions with the answers agreed upon were written down, and afterwards printed, under the title of, "Minutes of several Conversations between the Reverend Mr. Wesley and others:" commonly called Minutes of Conference.

CHAPTER

CHAPTER II.

Containing further Account of Mr. Wesley's Labours: a Summary of the Minutes of Conference respecting the Doctrines he taught and a View of the Spread of Methodism until the Conference in 1751.

THE plan on which Mr. Wesley had hitherto

governed the societies and the preachers, was imperfect; and as the number increased must soon have become insupportably laborious. When the preachers at first, went out to exhort and preach, it was by Mr. Wesley's permission and authority; some from one part of the kingdom, some from another and though strangers, yet on his credit and sanction alone, they were received and provided for as friends, by the societies wherever they came. But, having little or no communication or intercourse with one another, nor any subordination among themselves, they must have been under a continual necessity of recurring to Mr. Wesley for direction, how and where each one was to labour. By calling them together to a Conference, he brought them into closer union with each other, and made them sensible of the utility of acting in concert and harmony under his direction and appointment. He soon found it necessary, however, to bring their itine rancy under certain regulations, and reduce it to some fixed order; both to prevent confusion, and for his own case. He therefore took fifteen or twenty societies, more or less, which lay round some principal society in those parts, and which were so situated, that

the

the greatest distance from one to the other was not much more than twenty miles, and united them into what was called a circuit. At the yearly couference, he appointed two, three, or four preachers to one of these circuits, according to its extent, which at first was often very considerable, sometimes taking in a part of three or four counties. Here, and here only, they were to labour for one year, that is, until the next conference. One of the preachers on every circuit, was called the Assistant, for the reason before mentioned. He took charge of all the societies within the limits assigned him; he enforced the Rules every where; and superintended and directed the labours of the preachers associated with him. Having received a list of the societies forming his circuit, he took his own station in it, gave to the other preachers a plan of it, and pointed out the day when each should be at the place fixed for him, to begin a progressive motion round it, in such order as the plan directed. They now followed one another through all the societies belonging to that circuit at stated distances of time: all being governed by the same rule, and undergoing the same labour. By this plan, every preacher's daily work was appointed beforehand, each knew every day where the others were, and each society when to expect the preacher, and how long he would stay with them. But of late years, since the great increase of Methodism, the circuits have been divided and subdivided, which has made way for a great increase of preachers, and rendered the fatigues of Itinerancy trifling, compared with what they were in the beginning. Many of the preachers too, have been suffered to stay two years, sometimes three, on the same circuit, and even then have been removed to a circuit only a few miles distant. Nay, it is said, that the societies

in London itself, with the places adjacent, have been divided into three ciruits, by which a few preachers may become stationary for a great number of years. Mr. Wesley considered Itinerancy as of the utmost importance to Methodism; but by dividing the circuits in this manner, the effects of it have already been much diminished, and if care be not taken, may in time be totally destroyed.

The conference being ended, Mr. Wesley observes, "The next week we endeavoured to purge the society of all that did not walk worthy of the gospel. By this means we reduced the number of members to less than nineteen hundred. But number is an inconsiderable circumstance. May God increase them in faith and love!" This shews us, the astonishing increase of members in the Methodist societies. Four years before this period, Mr. Wesley separated from the brethren at Fetter-lane, and soon after fifty or sixty joined with him: these were now increased, in and about London, to nineteen hundred ! the original piety, zeal, and disinterestedness been preserved unabated among all the preachers, and their first plan inviolably kept in every place, it is impossible to say how far the beneficial influence of Methodism over the morals of the people of all ranks in this nation, would have been extended!

Had

"August 24, St. Bartholomew's-Day, says Mr. Wesley) I preached for the last time before the University of Oxford. I am now clear of the blood of these men. I have fully delivered my own soul. And I am well pleased that it should be the very day, on which, in the last century, near two thousand burning and shining lights, were put out at one stroke. Yet what a wide

Bartholomew's-Day has been twice remarkable for the cruelties exercised upon it. The first instance was the massacre of seventy thousand

Frensh

a wide difference is there between their case and mine! They were turned out of house and home, and all that they had whereas I am only hindered from preaching, without any other loss; and that in a kind of honourable manner it being determined, that when my next turn to preach came, they would pay another person to preach for me. And so they did twice or thrice; even to the time that I resigned my fellowship."

All this summer the preachers and people in Cornwall, had hard service, the war against the Methodists being carried on more vigorously than that against the Spaniards. In September Mr. Wesley received the following letter from Mr. Henry Millard, one of the preachers in Cornwall, giving some account of their difficulties. "The word of God (says he) has free course here it runs and is glorified. But the Devil rages horribly. Even at St. Ives, we cannot shut the door of John Nance's house to meet the society, but the mob immediately threatens to break it open. And in other places it is worse. I was going to Crowan on Tuesday, and within a quarter of a mile of the place where I was to preach, when some met me, and begged me not to go up: saying, 'If you do, there will surely be murder; if there is not already for

many

French Protestants throughout the kingdom of France, by the Papists, attended with circumstances of the most horrid treachery and cruelty. It began at Paris, in the night of the festival of St. Bartholomew, August 24, 1572, by secret orders from Charles IX. king of France, at the instigation of the Queen Dowager, Catharine de Medicis, his mother. The second instance was the Act of Uniformity, which was enforced on Bartholomew's-Day, August 24, 1662, by which two thousand ministers, many of them the most pious and learned men in the nation, were cast out from the Church of England, because they could not conform to certain ceremonies in Divine Worship, which the Bishops chose to impose upon them. By this proceeding they were not only deprived of their usefulness, but many of them with their families, reduced to poverty and want!