'*J^ 
 
 ■»„<■» 
 
 \ 
 
 
 ^.-^t^^r^v- 
 
 .^-^^ 
 
 
 ^^■ 
 

 
 LIBRARY 
 
 OF THE 
 
 U N I VLRSITY 
 
 or ILLl NOIS
 
 A PASTORAL 
 
 TO THE 
 
 WESLEYAN METHODISTS 
 
 IN THE 
 
 DIOCESE OF LINCOLN, 
 
 BY THE 
 
 BISHOP OF LENCOLN. 
 
 NEW EDITION. 
 
 With a Friendly Appeal on the Owston Epitaph. 
 
 " Speaking the truth in love . . . Endeavouring to keep the 
 unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace. Ephes. iv. 3, 15. 
 
 LINCOLN : 
 
 PRINTED BY JAMES WILLIAMSON, HIGH STREET. 
 
 LONDON: RIVINGTONS. 
 
 1875. 
 
 Price Threepence.
 
 A Friendly Appeal on the Owston Epitaph. 
 
 Brethre.v beloved in the Lord, — 
 
 Let me address you by this title, and let me assure you in all 
 sincerity that although, differing from you in some things, and 
 though declining to side with one of your Ministers against the 
 Vicar of Owston, and to overrule the Vicar's objection to the title 
 of reverend claimed by the said Minister as his own designation 
 on the tombstone proposed to be erected in the Churchyard of that 
 Parish, I have done so with no other feelings than those of Christian 
 charity to him and to you. 
 
 The present discussion, as you well know, was not of my 
 seeking ; but it has 'been forced upon me by that claim persistently 
 urged, and I coidd not decline it. I have been required to act, and. 
 to state my reasons for acting. 
 
 Eut though the controversy itself is to be regretted, yet I 
 earnestly hope that, by the divine blessing, good may arise from it. 
 Indeed, I have reason to know that many among yourselves, and 
 others also, have been led by this discussion to consider questions 
 of which they had before thought little, and which are of great 
 interest, as affecting their spiritual welfare and eternal salvation. 
 
 The thing itself may appear trivial and insignificant ; but on 
 examination it will be seen that questions are involved in it of 
 serious importance. 
 
 They may be stated as follows : — 
 
 Has it pleased God to appoint certain persons, ordained accord- 
 ing to certain fixed principles, to perform certain functions in His 
 Church ] And if so, is it lawfid. for men to dispense with tliis 
 divine appointment, and to set up other persons, ordained in a new 
 way of their own choosing ?
 
 Is there such a thing as Schism ; if so, in what does it consist 1 
 Is wilful Schism condemned in Holy Scripture as deadly sin ? 
 Would the Church of Christ be faithful to her Divine Lord, if she 
 were to connive at it, and if she did not warn men against it 1 Is 
 a Wesleyan minister (pardon the question) chargeable with Schism ] 
 and if so, is he to be publicly recognized by the Church on monu- 
 mental inscriptions in her churchyards, and consequently also in 
 her churches, as entitled to reverence and honour, and to be desig- 
 nated by her with the same title as that which she gives to her own 
 Ministers 1 Would she be justihed in thus leading others to identify 
 him with her ministers, and to regard him as equally qualified with 
 them to minister the Holy Sacraments to her people? And if Wesley- 
 anism in its present attitude is a Schism, and if wilful Schism is 
 a deadly sin, would the Church be true to Christ, if she were to 
 wink at that sin and patronize it, instead of warning her people 
 against it 1 And if she Avere thus to countenance one form of 
 Schism, where is she to stop ? How would she be able to deny the 
 same title of reverence to any Minister of any of the countless 
 rehgious denominations which claim it for their own teachers'? 
 And would she not, in her own Churchyards and Churches, be 
 encouraging religious error and confusion, rather than maintaining 
 religious Truth and Unity 1 Would she not be leading her 
 people to imagine that Episcopacy and Episcopal Ordination are 
 matters of indifference 1 And would not the Church of England be 
 thus strengthening the hands of Eome, which exults in our 
 divisions, and foments and multiplies them by authorizing her own 
 emissaries to personate Protestant Dissenters,* and draws our people 
 away from us by representing the Church of England as only one 
 among many discordant sects, and as having no unity of teaching, 
 and as caring nothing for an authorized appointment and succession 
 of Ministers, and as having therefore no claim to allegiance as a 
 sound branch of the Church of Christ 1 
 
 * Proofs may be seen of these tactics of the Church of Rome in Bp. Jewel's Life Eccl. Biog., 
 iv., p. 64; Parr's Life of Airhbishop Uss/ier, Appendix, p. 611; Elrington's Life of Ussher, 
 p. 263 ; and in Ware's Foxes and Firebrands; Abp. Bramhall's Works, i., p. xcvi. ; Evelyn's 
 Diary, 9th March, 1690 ; Paliu's History, p. 93. 

 
 The Church of Eome, as you yourselves deplore, is now putting 
 forth more ambitious claims, and is making more rapid advances. 
 And let me assure you, that no religious community which has not 
 an Apostolical ministry, and which scorns Apostolical succession, 
 will be able to resist her. Eome triumphs by the divisions of 
 Protestants. Eome exults whenever Protestants, with self-com- 
 placent infatuation, vaunting their own superior enlightenment, 
 with intellectual pride which is spiritual darkness, sneer at 
 Apostolical succession, and deride an Apostolic ministry, and 
 thus prove themselves to be sectaries of yesterday. Eichard 
 Baxter himself confessed Avitli sorrow, that at a time when every 
 form of Protestant division had full scope for its development, 
 after the overthrow of the L^hurch of England in the seventeenth 
 century, then the two bitterest enemies of the true Faith reaped 
 the most abundant harvest of perversions — Eome on one side, and 
 Infidelity on the other. 
 
 My dear friends ; whatever the World may think or say uf these 
 things, they are of serious concern, with regard both to this life 
 and another. 
 
 That there is such a thing as Schism, and that wilful Schism is 
 a deadly sin, must, I think, be confessed by all who believe the 
 Bible to be the Word of God. 
 
 St. Paul describes Schism as a carnal thing (1 Cor. iii. 3, 4), 
 and he says that "to be carnally minded is death " (Eom. viii. 6). 
 But what, you may ask, is Schism ] It is, I reply, that sin of 
 which St. Jude speaks, when he says '• these are they who separate 
 themselves" (Jude 19), and who " perish in the gainsaying of 
 Core (or Korah)" (Jude 11). As Korah, who was only a Levitc, 
 separated himself and his company from Aaron the Priest, and 
 intruded into the Priest's office, and perished for his sin (Num. xvi. 
 1, 10, 35), so, in the Christian Church, they who set themselves in 
 opposition to the lawful iSIinisters of the Sacraments, and draw 
 people away from those Ministers and ministrations, have always 
 been regarded by the wisest and most holy men since the time
 
 of the Apostles, as followers in " the gainsaying of Core," and as 
 exposing themselves to his punishment. 
 
 Let me confirm these statements by reference to some writers 
 whose authority cannot be questioned. 
 
 The writings of the Apostolic Fathers (such as St. Clement, the 
 friend of St. Paul, and St. Ignatius and St. Poly carp, the scholars 
 of St. John) were, as you know, translated into English by an 
 Archbishop of Canterbury, Dr. William Wake. The Archbishop 
 made that version and published it, because, as he himself 
 says (in his Preface to that Translation, 3rd edition, a.d. 1719, 
 pp. 107-116), those Fathers "represent in their writings the 
 doctrine, government, and discipline of the Church such as they 
 received it from the Apostles, and the Apostles from Christ, and 
 from that Blessed Spirit Who directed them in what they taught 
 and ordained." He observes also that some of them, such as 
 Ignatius and Polycarp, proved their sincerity and courage by dying 
 as Martyrs for what they taught. "How necessary" (says Arch- 
 bishop Wake, p. 123) "they esteemed it (for Christians) to keep up 
 a communion with their Governors (the Apostolic Orders of 
 Bishops, Priests, and Deacons) ; and how little they thought that 
 the name of a Church could belong to those who separated them- 
 selves from them, we are here taught (by their own writings). 
 And however hght many may make of Schism now, yet it is plain 
 that these holy men had a very different apprehension of it, 
 and hardly thought that such could be saved as continued in it." 
 
 Such is the testimony of Archbishop Wake as to the opinions 
 of those who immediately succeeded the Holy Apostles. 
 
 Another Archbishop of Canterbury delivers a similar witness ; 
 " In the Primitive Church " (says Archbishop Potter on Church 
 Governmeiit, 3rd ed., p. 257,) "the Bishop consecrated the Holy 
 Communion. In the Bishop's absence it was common for Presby- 
 ters to consecrate ; but they did not this without the Bishop's 
 direction or allowance. Let that Eucharist be accounted good
 
 St. Ignatius ad Smyrn. cap. 8,)* which is consecrated by the Bishop, 
 or by one -whom he appoints." And in another place ; " without the 
 Bishop is it neither lawful to baptize nor to consecrate the Feast of 
 Love. And there is a large discourse in Cyprian ;" (Bishop of 
 Carthage in the third century) " where he compares the Priest who 
 performs the offices of religion, particularly those of Baptism and 
 the Lord's Supj^er, without such authority, to Korah and his 
 rebellious associates who conspired against Aaron." (Epist. ad. 
 Magnum, 76.) 
 
 According to the ancient Church, " the Essence of Schism " (as 
 distinguished from Heresy) says Dr. Isaac Barrow,+ " is to set up 
 altar against altar, and jDriesthood against priesthood, and to draw 
 away the sheep and lambs of the Church from their lawfully ap- 
 pointed Shepherds"; and " the rejection of Episcopal Government, 
 wheiever ortixodox and legitimate Bishops exist, is that which pro- 
 perly constitutes mortal Schism." 
 
 "Kothiug, says St. Chrysostom {Hornil. XI.,\n.Ejjist. adJEphes.) 
 so angers God as to divide His Church ; they who rend Christ's 
 mystical body, the Church, are no less guilty than they who 
 crucitied His human body ;" and then he adds the saying of St. 
 Ignatius (fra^. 2, ed. Jacobson), that not even the blood of martyr- 
 dom could wipe away the sin of Schism j a saying repeated several 
 times by St. Cyprian. :{: 
 
 I am well aware, my dear friends, that such language as this 
 will be denounced by very many at the present day, as an obsolete 
 and superannuated utterance of priestcraft, bigotry, and intolerance. 
 But let me ask of you, as sober-minded men, — Who were 
 more likely to know the mind of Christ and of His Apostles, they 
 whc conversed with them, or immediately succeeded them, and who 
 gained no earthly advantage by such testimonies as these, and gladly 
 suffered martyrdom for what they taught, and whose names have 
 
 • Cp. S. Ignat, ad Tralliaii. cup. 2 and 3, and 7, and ad llaenes. cap. 4, and C and 7, ad 
 Ephes. cap. 3 and 4, and 5 ; and Abp. Potter, p. 15, '2i>7, 314. 
 
 t In his treatise De Regimine Episcopali, Tom. iv., p. 17, p. 27. He quotes Cyprian and 
 Optatus, as authorities for these statements. 
 
 % De Unit. EccUsice, p. 113, ad Antontan, p. 114, de Oral. Domin., p. 150, ed. Fell.
 
 been honoured in Christendom lor nearly eighteen hundred 
 or such writers of the present day, — however popular they may 
 ■be — as despise and reject the testimony of the Church in her best 
 and purest ages? And with whom would you wish to have 
 your future lot for Eternity 1 with those who scorn the authority 
 of Christ's Church, or with such holy men as St. Ignatius and 
 St. Polycarp, the disciples of St. John, and with St. Clement, of 
 whom St. Paul says, that his name is in the book of life 1 
 (Phil. iv. 3.) 
 
 Forgive me, brethren, for saying that the question now arises, 
 Whether Wesleyan Teachers are liable to that charge , which is 
 brought in Holy Scripture and by the Primitive Church against 
 the promoters of Schism 1 
 
 For about seven years I have been in the habit of making tours 
 for Confirmation and Visitation in this Diocese, especially in 
 Lincolnshire, and I have observed with sorrow that in almost every 
 parish a building has been erected in which (whatever its original 
 purpose may have been in former years) the Holy Sacraments are 
 now administered by Teachers who are opposed to the Clergy of the 
 Church of England, and Avho draw away the people from her 
 ministrations. I regret to add that many of these Teachers are 
 Wesley ans. 
 
 The Church of England (by whose laws her Bishops and Clergy 
 are bound) regards Wesleyan Ministers as not lawfully ordained, 
 and as in a state of Schism. She does not allow them to preach 
 and to minister the Sacraments in her churches. 
 
 I do not mean to say that the guilt of this Schism between 
 ourselves and the Wesleyans — for a Schism there certainly is, and 
 wherever there is Schism there is guilt — lies wholly with them. In 
 the following pages it is freely acknowledged by me that members 
 and ministers of the Church of England have much to answer for 
 in this matter. I am only stating a fact, and deejDly deploring it. 
 
 P)Ut what is the remedy for this sin? How are the miseries 
 consequent upon it to be. removed?
 
 Not by hollow concessions, nor by cowardly compromises on 
 either side, but by "speaking the truth in love." 
 
 This brings me to the special point before us. 
 
 As is shown in the following pages (see the Padural, pp. 6 — 8), 
 the Eev. John "Wesley, the founder of Wesleyanism, who was a 
 Clergyman of the Church of England, forbad his preachers to 
 intrude into the office of the Clergy by ministering Baptism and 
 the Lord's Supper in their chapels ; and in 1793 — two years 
 after John Wesley's death — the Wesleyan Conference forbad their 
 Preachers to assume the title of reverend on pain of exclusion from 
 the connexion. 
 
 And why was this 1 Because John Wesley and the Wesleyan 
 Conference, at that time, earnestly desired to avoid a Schism 
 between Wesleyanism and the Church ; and because they knew that 
 if the things were done which they forbad, a Schism must in- 
 evitably ensue. 
 
 Let me therefore ask you iu all candour.— Is the Church to be 
 required to connive at and encourage Schism, by recognizing in 
 her own churchyards — and, if in her clnirchyards, by monumental 
 inscriptions in her churches also — a Wesleyan Minister by that 
 very title, the assumption of which was forbidden- by Wesley and 
 by the Conference, because the assumption of it showed him in 
 their opinion to be a Scliismatic, and which exposed him to expul- 
 sion as such from the Wesleyan Society ? 
 
 I speak as to wise men, judge ye what 1 say. (1 Cor. x. 15.) 
 It has indeed been alleged by some that the title of " reverend " 
 does not specially belong to the Clergy. 
 
 But pardon me for saying, this is little to the purpose. The 
 question is, What is popularly understood by a title 1 All our 
 best compilers of Dictionaries (such as Dr. Johnson, Webster, 
 and Latham), define the title of reverend to be a title of the 
 Clergy of the Church of England ; and this is its common signifi- 
 cation.
 
 10 
 
 Accordingly Joliu Wesley and the "Wesleyan Conference (whose 
 authority ought to be of weight with you) forbad that title to be 
 assumed by your preachers, hecausp they regarded it as a title of the 
 Clergy. And I fear that some of your preachers wish to have 
 the title, and would even force the Church of England in her own 
 cliurchyards and churches to recognize them by this title, for this 
 very reason, because it is a title of the Clergy ; and because the 
 people, seeing that Wesleyan preachers are publicly recognized by 
 the CJmrch under this title, w her own consecrated places, would 
 thence infer that the Church herself believeb and acknowledges that 
 Wesleyan Teachers are equally qualified with her Clergy to admin- 
 ister the Sacraments. This is the plain English of the present 
 claim. 
 
 Your preachers, holding the opinions they do as to Ordination 
 and as to Schism, — opinions which I believe to be erroneous and 
 dangerous — are acting quite consistently with those opinions, in 
 making the claim ; at the same time, forgive me for saying, that 
 they are not acting consistently Avith their own title of Wesleyans, 
 inasmuch as that claim is one which the founder of Wesleyanism 
 forbad them to make ; and inasmuch as they would compel the 
 Church to acknowledge them by that title which the Conference 
 forbad them to assume, on pain of exclusion from the connexion. 
 
 But the question is, — whether the Bishops and Clergy of the 
 Church of England, who are the appointed Guardians of her Church- 
 yards, would be acting consistently with the canons and rules 
 of the Church which they are bound to maintain, and which they 
 ought to apply in the supervision of monumental inscriptions in her 
 Churches and Churchyards, if they were to allow that claim, and to 
 recognize that title, and to lead their people by means of that 
 recognition, to imagine that Schism is a venial thing, and that 
 Teachers, who are not ordained according to the laws of the Church 
 of England and of the Church Universal (and who, in fact, as I 
 have shewn in the following pages, are laymen), are equally qualified 
 to administer the Sacraments with those who have received
 
 11 
 
 Episcopal Ordination, whicli alone is recognized as lawful Ordina- 
 tion by the Church of England. 
 
 It is true that the title in question has sometimes passed 
 unchallenged, and may be seen in some of our churchyards. Very 
 many Epitaphs there are which are objectionable, for their vicious 
 taste and erroneous doctrine ; and what is the inference from 
 them 1 They shew that more vigilance ought to be exercised by 
 the parochial clergy who have the care of our churchyards. But 
 when an Incumbent (as at Ow.ston) has deemed it his duty to 
 raise an objection to an epitaph, the matter assumes a serious 
 character. Is the objection a reasonable one 1 Or is it to be 
 overruled by the Ordinary 1 This is the question at issue. 
 
 Be it even allow^ed for argument's sake, that the term reverend 
 is no title at aU ; and that it only signifies venerahJe. May I then 
 be allowed to enquire — are Bishops and Clergy to recognize publicly 
 as venerable, and as entitled to reverence, such religious Teachers as 
 are Leaders of Schism 1 — pardon the word. "Would this be con- 
 sistent 1 The Church of England, in her Litany, commands us to 
 pray " From all false doctrine, heresy, and schism, Good Lord 
 deliver us," and in her 9th Canon she censures the authors of 
 Schism, and declares that they ought to be excommimicated. In 
 the 10th and 11th Canons she makes similar statements; and the 
 title of the 110th Canon is that " Schismatics are to be presented," 
 that is, as liable to ecclesiastical censures. 
 
 Suffer me then to ask, Are persons, whom the Church regards 
 as liable to be excommunicated (I speak plainly), to be recognized 
 by her Bishops and Clergy, as venerahle and entitled to reverence, 
 and to be displayed as such in her churchyards and churches to 
 her people ] For my own part, I cannot violate the laws of the 
 Church which I am bound to obey. I cannot in conscience do any 
 thing to efface the distinction between lawful Ordination and its 
 opposite. I could not therefore desert the Vicar of Owston, and 
 disallow his decision, I could not court popularity, by exposing 
 him to obloquy.
 
 12 
 
 The letter addressed by me to the Wesleyan Minister who 
 appealed to me with a request that I would interfere and set 
 aside that decision of the Vicar of Owston, was as follows : — 
 
 ' ' Eiseholme, Lincoln, 
 
 "16th July, 187 4 
 " Sir, 
 
 " I beg to acknowledge your letter of yesterday, enclosing a copy of 
 one from the Archbishop of Canterbury. 
 
 " It is to be regretted that the claim urged by you as a Wesleyan Preacher 
 to be designated by the title of 'Reverend' upon a monument erected in a 
 burial-place of the Church of England, should be mixed up with the question 
 of paying a tribute of parental affection to a beloved daughter now no more. 
 
 "What title should be given you by your own co-religionists is not the 
 point at issue ; and I express no opinion upon it. But the question is, 
 whether the title of ' Reverend ' should be conceded to you, on a tomb-stone, 
 by Ministers of the Church of England, who are the responsible guardians of 
 her churchyards. 
 
 " It is not easy to determine what is the exact meaning of the title of 
 ' Reverend, ' as claimed by a Wesleyan Preacher. 
 
 " If that title is to be taken to imply that he is a person in holy orders, 
 duly qualiiied to minister the Word of God and Sacraments in a Church, 
 then I am bound to say that the Laws to which I am subject would not 
 allow me to recognize him in that capacity. 
 
 " I hope to have the happiness, before long, of admitting some Wesleyan 
 Preachers to Holy Orders in the Church of England, after due training and 
 trial ; but I should be chargeable with equivocation and duplicity towards 
 them, and with dishonesty and treachery towards the Church of England, if I 
 were now to designate them by the title of ' Reverend, ' to which they will 
 have a just claim after Ordination, and by its means. 
 
 "If the title of 'Reverend,' to which you lay claim, and by which 
 you desire to be designated, in a consecrated burial place of the Church of 
 England, is intended only to indicate that you are appointed to preach in a 
 Wesleyan place of worship, I would venture to remind you of another epitaph, 
 that which was inscribed on the tomb of the Founder of Wesleyanism himself. 
 There John Wesley was described as the ' Patron and Friend of Lmj- Preachers'" 
 He regarded his preachers as Laymen ; he warned them against calling them- 
 selves Ministers ; and after his death the Wesleyan Conference, in 1793 and 
 1794, forbad them to assume the title of 'Reverend.'* 
 
 * See the following Pastoral,i)p. x., xi., and pp. 6, 8, 9. 
 
 I
 
 13 
 
 "Any one who gives tliena that title contravenes the injunctions of John 
 Wesley, for whose memory I entertain sincere respect, and to wliose authority 
 I desire to defer in my relations with the members of that important religious 
 community whi(^h derives its name from him 
 
 " A title is a distinctive attribute belonging to a special person or class. 
 If I give a title to a person to whom it does not belong, I am liable to the 
 charge of flattering him. and of wronging those to whom the title does belong. 
 
 "For such reasons as these I have abstaiueil fi-om giving the title of 
 ' Reverend ' to Wesleyan Preachers ; not (I need hardly say) from any feeling 
 of disparagement towards them, but because I honour consistency and truth, 
 and because I am sure they would despise me if I acted against my conscience, 
 and were to practise that kind of liberality which courts popularity by giving 
 away what does not belong to it. 
 
 ' ' T am, dear Sir, 
 
 " Yours faithfully, 
 
 "C. LINCOLN." 
 
 It lias indeed been said by some very distinguished persons, 
 that although Wesleyan Teachers reject Episcopal Ordination, 
 and have not even a Presbyterian succession or ordination, yet 
 inasmuch as they acknowledge the Inspiration of Holy Scripture, 
 and other Articles of the Faith, they cannot be regarded as 
 schismatics. 
 
 This allegation shows how necessary a knowledge of Theology 
 and Ecclesiastical history is to those who have to deal with 
 such questions as these ; and it may well make us tremble for the 
 future of the Church of England, if Ecclesiastical Causes are to 
 be tried and decided in legal Tribunals by Judges who are not 
 versed in Theological learning and in Church History. 
 
 The allegation shows that they who make it have never duly 
 considered the difference between Heresy and Schism. The Dona- 
 tists were not Heretics, but they have been consigned by Optatus 
 and St. Augustine to notoriety as Schismatics. The very essence 
 of Schism, as distinguished from Heresy, is to set up a rival ministry 
 to that of the Church. St. .Ternme defines Schism as antagonism* 
 
 ♦ KpLvoi'iilis disseiifio, St. .Tcrome in Epist. ail Titum, c. 3.
 
 14 
 
 to Episcopal government. And one of our most learned Prelates, 
 Archbishop Bramhall,* says that " whoever sets up altar against 
 altar in Christ's Church, or wilfully breaks the line of Apostolical 
 Succession, which is the very nerve and sinew of Ecclesiastical 
 Unity and Communion both with the present Church and with 
 the CathoKc Church of all sucessive ages, he is a schismatic, 
 whether he be guilty of heretical pravity or not." 
 
 A shrewd man, and learned Judge, Lord Mansfield, said to 
 Charles Wesley (the wise, learned, and pious brother of John 
 Wesley), in 1784, that Wesleyan " Ordination was separation from 
 the Church ;" in other words, that to set up a rival ministry 
 to that of the Church, is an act of Schism ; and Charles Wesley 
 adds in his letter to Dr. Chandler (April 28, 1785), that he 
 himself is of the same mind. 
 
 • 
 
 My dear friends, let me conclude this appeal, as I began it, 
 with a hearty assurance that it has been prompted by sentiments of 
 Christian charity and affection. I am aware that there are some 
 things in it that will give you pain and cause you offence. But 
 they are spoken in love : and the wise man says, that " faithful are 
 the wounds of a friend, but the kisses of an enemy are deceitful" 
 (Prov. xxvii. G). If what has been now said by me is true (as from 
 my heart I believe it to be) then, however unpalatable it may be, 
 it is the language of love ; and it is really more loving than that 
 specious flattery, which would deceive and injure you while it 
 caresses you. " A man that flattereth his neighbour spreadeth a 
 net for his feet (Prov. xxix. 5). He that rebuketh a man, after- 
 wards shall find more favour than he that flattereth with the 
 tongue" (xxviii. 23). Let me also say with the Apostle, that 
 if in such matters as these " I sought to please men, I should 
 not be the servant of Christ " (Gal. i., 10), and that I am ready to 
 share his lot who says that the more abundantly he loved, the less 
 
 * Works 1, p. 112. ed.Oxf. 1842. See also the words of Archbishops Wake and Potter, 
 and Dr. Barrow, quoted as above, pp, 6 and 7.
 
 15 
 
 he was loved in return (2 Cor. xii. 15), and who asks, — "Am I 
 become your euciny because I tell you the truth'?" (Gal. iv. 16). 
 
 As there are no words strong enough to express the sorrow with 
 which I mourn over the unhappy division which now severs you 
 from us, so no language can adequately declare the desire I feel that 
 the Schism between us may be healed. I cannot, indeed, surrender 
 a single jot or tittle of those principles, and of those laws, which it 
 is my duty to guard and administer ; but there is no earthly sacri- 
 fice which 1 would not gladly make to jiromote that union. Our 
 unhappy divisions weaken us both. They give a triumph to our 
 enemies, and to the adversaries of Christ and of His Truth. 
 
 But if we could be united on sound principles of Christian faith 
 and Apostolic discipline, then the angels of heaven would rejoice 
 over the union ; and we might hope to go forth, side by side, in 
 a glorious campaign against Romanism and Unbelief, which are 
 now threatening to involve England and Europe in religious strife 
 and civil confusion. We, on our part, (let me freely confess it) 
 might gain much from you. "We should derive much benefit 
 from your energy, your zeal, and your self-sacrifice. But it 
 is no less true that you would receive much from us. The spiritual 
 grace of a lawful Ordination and Apostolic Succession, (start not at 
 the words, but examine what the holiest and wisest men of Christen- 
 dom from the days of the Aptjstles for eiglit'.ni hundred years have 
 thought of them,) the due administration of the Holy Sacraments 
 of Baptism and the Lord's Supper, for the remission of sins, for the 
 regeneration and sanctification of the soul, and for a pledge and 
 foretaste of a glorious resurrection and a happy immortality, and 
 for spiritual communion in doctrine and discipline with Apostles 
 and Evangelists, and with holy men of every age and clime in the 
 mystical body of Christ which is the blessed company of all faith- 
 ful people — these are inestimable blessings which we could give 
 to you, or rather which God can impart to you by our means. 
 
 My dear friends, will you reject them 1
 
 16 
 
 The next Wesleyan Conference is, I believe, to be held in this 
 Diocese, at Nottingham. May it not be made an occasion, not for 
 perpetuating religious strife, and for multiplying religious dissen- 
 sions, but for considering the grounds of our differences, with a hearty 
 desire to heal them, and to promote unity in the Truth ? Let \is 
 join in prayer to Almighty God that we may have grace to lay to 
 heart the great dangers we are in by our unhappy divisions ; and 
 that He would take away from us all hatred and prejudice, and 
 whatsoever else may hinder us from godly union and concord, that 
 as there is but one Body and one Spirit, and one hope of our calling, 
 one Lord, one Faith, one Baptism, one God and Father of us all, so 
 we may hencefoi-th be all of one heart and of one soul, united in 
 one holy bond of truth and peace, of faith and charity, and that we 
 may with one mind and one mouth glorify Him through Jesus 
 Christ our Lord. 
 
 Permit me to subscribe myself, my dear friends, 
 Yours sincerely, 
 
 C. LINCOLN.
 
 PEEFACE. 
 
 Let me thank the kind friends wlio have given a welcome to this 
 Pastoral. In some quarters it has met with a different reception. 
 Let me here advert to some comments upon it. 
 
 ' And first, — to prevent misconception, — let me repeat — what is 
 freely allowed in the following Pastoral — that Ave ourselves, the 
 Clergy and Laity of the Church of England, have been much to 
 blame ; and that the unhappy separation between us and the 
 Wesleyans is due, in no small degree, to our Avant of faithfulness 
 and zeal, and to our lack of definite teaching on the doctrines, 
 constitution, and discipline of the Christian Church ; and that 
 therefore we ought to repent and amend our ways ; and to pray 
 earnestly, and to labour diligently, that the schism may be healed ; 
 and to invite them to help us in healing it. 
 
 I have been charged with using strong language, — for instance, 
 in saying that there may be such a sin in the Christian Church, as 
 the " gainsaying of Core " (Korah), as St. Jude calls it, writing to 
 Christians (Jude 11). If my readers will have the goodness to look 
 at the Pastoral (p. 8), they will see that I was quoting John Wesley ; 
 and that they who have censured me have also condemned him. 
 
 But it has been asked, Why should a Bishop write a Pastoral 
 to Wesleyans 1 Why does he not let them alone 1 He had better 
 attend to his Diocese. Why does he trouble theml They are 
 quiet and contented as they are. He is only stirring up strife, and 
 is exposing himself to the charge of foUy, pride, and presumption 
 by meddling with them. 
 
 My friends, (let me reply to such inquirers), precisely the same 
 questions as these were addressed more than 1,460 years ago to one 
 of the wisest Bishops of ancient Christendom, St. Augustine, when 
 lie was endeavouring to bring back the Donatists of Africa to the 
 communion of the; Church, from wliich thoy had then separated 
 themselves.
 
 " Why does Augustine trouble us ] Why does he not let us 
 alone ] We are quite satisfied and happy as we are. We do not 
 belong to him. lie had better look to his own Church, and leave 
 us to take care of ours. He is acting very foolishly, and is charge- 
 able with usurpation, and bigotry, by endeavouring to domineer 
 over us." 
 
 But that wise, loving, learned, and holy Bishop was not moved 
 by such language as that. He thought that the Donatists might be 
 led to consider whether they were in a safe condition ; and for their 
 sake, and the sake of the Church, he longed to heal the separation 
 between them and her. He laboured to restore them to her 
 communion ; and thus encountered obloquy from them, and from 
 some luke-warm Churchmen, who thought him a rash, and fanatical 
 zealot, a hot-headed controversialist, and an impolitic enthusiast. 
 But he pursued the work of " troubling" (as it was called,) because 
 it was a work of love. He compared it to the work of a surgeon, 
 who, while he gives pain, endeavours to restore health. " Not every 
 one (says Augustine, Epist. 93) who spares, is a friend ; nor every 
 one who wounds, is an enemy. " Open rebuke," says the wise man, 
 " is better than secret love ; faithf id are the wounds of a friend, 
 but the kisses of an enemy are deceitful" (Prov. xxvii. 5, 6). 
 " Melius est cum severitate diligere quam cum lenitate decipere." 
 " He who binds a man in a plirenzy, or arouses one in a lethargy, is 
 troublesome to both, but loves both ; and he would not trouble them, 
 if he did not love them." St. Augustine, — when preaching a Sermon 
 on that grand homily of the prophet Ezekiel (Ezek, xxxiv.) to the 
 Shepherds of Israel ; which is a Manual for all Christian Bishops and 
 Pastors; (see St. Augustine, Sermon xlvi.), and referring to the case 
 of the Donatists, — thus speaks : " Many sheep stray from the fold of 
 Christ, and are impatient with those who endeavour to bring them 
 back to it. ' What ' (they ask) do you want with us 1 Why do you 
 seek us ? My answer is, '■ because you are going astray, and are in 
 danger of perishing.' ' But ' (they reply) I love to stray, I am 
 content to perish, — as you call it.' ' Do you indeed desire if? How 
 much better (I answer) do I desire that you should not perish, 
 
 UIUO
 
 but be saved ! Doubtless I am importunate ; but the Apostle com- 
 mands me ' to preach the word, and to be instant in season and out 
 of season ' (2 Tim. iv. 2) ; and Almighty God condemns all careless 
 pastors who do not seek the erring ; He says, by the voice of the 
 prophet Ezekiel, ' The diseased have ye not strengthened, neither 
 have ye healed that which was sick, neither have ye bound up that 
 which Avas broken, neither have ye brought again that which was 
 driven away, neither have ye sought that which was lost ; My sheep 
 wandered through all the mountains, and upon every high hill, yea 
 My flock was scattered upon the face of the earth, and none did 
 search or seek after them. Therefore, thus saith the Lord God, 
 Behold, I am against the Shepherds, and I will require INIy flock at 
 their hands' (Ezek. xxxiv. 4 — 10). Yet, further, (says Augustiue) 
 *' I have a commission from Christ, the Chief Shepherd ; We must 
 all stand before His judgment seat (2 Cor. v. 10). You cannot 
 overturn the tribunal of Christ, and set up that of Donatus in its 
 place. Therefore I must seek and search for Christ's sheep, when 
 they are astray ; and though in doing so I must go among thorns 
 and briars and brambles, which pierce and wound me, yet I will 
 gladly do it." And why? because he loved Christ, Who said, 
 " Feed My sheep" (John xxi. 16, 17), and he did it for His sake, 
 in order to bring back to His fold the sheep for which He shed His 
 blood ; and for which He prayed that they might all be One as He 
 and the Father are One (John xvii. 21, 22) ; so that there might be 
 one Fold and one Shepherd (John x. IG). 
 
 " Besides," adds St. Augustine, " if I do not endeavour to reclaim 
 dissenters, but connive at schism, the members of the Church will 
 imagine that Schism is a harmless thing, and that it matters little 
 whether they belong to the Church or no. They wUl suppose that 
 it is indifi"erent whether they resort to one place of worship or 
 another. They will say, that if religious divisions are sinful, and 
 are condemned as such by Ahnighty God in Holy Scripture, the 
 Bishops and Pastors of the Church would endeavour to heal them. 
 But if the Bishops and Clergy do not endeavour to do so, the 
 members of the Church will infer that the sin of schism is a mere
 
 idle and empty sound, and that only quarrelsome people ever talk 
 about it ; and thus the children of the Church will be lost, because 
 Bishops and Pastors do not care whether schismatics are saved." 
 
 Again, St. Augustine thus speaks (on Psalm xxi. and in 
 other places) — "You Donatists say to me, 'You have your sheep, 
 and we have ours. Do not be troublesome to me and to my 
 sheep, and I will not be troublesome to you and yours.' No, 
 my dear friends (answers Augustine), these sheep are not yours 
 nor mine ; but they belong to Christ. Let His sheep follow 
 Him. Wherever the Good Shepherd is, there let the flock be. 
 If Christ is with you, let my sheep, as you call them, go to you. 
 But no, you have separated yourselves from the Church ; and Christ 
 loves unity, and blames division ; therefore let divisions be healed, 
 and unity prevail. Come back to the communion of the Church 
 from which you have strayed. Nothing, says St. Paul, profits 
 without charity (1 Cor. xiii., 1 — 3), and no one can be rightly said 
 to have charity who breaks the unity of the Church." 
 
 For saying such things as these, St. Augustine was called a very 
 troublesome person by some in his own day, and was accused of 
 stirring up strife, and was censured by many. But (said he), " The 
 man who willingly detracts from my good name when I labour for 
 Christ, unwillingly adds to my future reward from Him." He 
 looked to posterity and to the judgment-seat of Christ. He looked 
 to the commission he had received from Christ. " Nothing," he 
 says, (Epist. xxi.) " is more easy and more popular, than the office 
 of a Bishop or a Priest, if it be discharged in a careless and adulatory 
 manner ; but nothing is more miserable, or more worthy of con- 
 demnation, in the sight of God, than such an Episcopate or Priest- 
 hood as that." He was, therefore, contented to be accounted 
 troublesome, and to be called a man of strife, as Jeremiah was ; 
 (Jerem. xv., 10.) He remembered that woe is denounced in Holy 
 Scripture against those false teachers who said, " Peace, Peace, when 
 there was no Peace" (Jerem. vi., 14), and who "put bitter for sweet 
 and sweet for bitter, and called evil good and good evil" (Isaiah v., 
 20), and daubed a wall with untempered mortar (Ezek. xiii., 10),
 
 so that it looked white and fair outside, while inside it was unsound 
 and tottering. He remembered also that it was said of the greatest 
 of prophets, "Art thou he that trouhlest Israeli" (1 Kings xviii., 17); 
 and that the pool of Bethesda in the Gospel would have had n( 
 heaHng virtue, unless an angel had decended and troubled the watei 
 (John v., 4) ; and that it was said of St. Paid and his companions, 
 "These men do exceedingly trouble our city" (Acts xvi., 20), and 
 "they have turned the world upside down" (Acts xvii., 6), and 
 that St. Paul was called a madman (Acts xxvi., 24 ; 2 Cor. v., 13.) 
 And more than this, He who is the Lord of Apostles and Prophets, 
 the Prince of Peace, the Incarnate Word and Wisdom of God, the 
 Shepherd and Bishop of our Souls, had to encounter similar treat- 
 ment. They said of Chi-ist, " He stirreth up the people " (Luke 
 xxiii., 5). " He is beside liimself " (Mark iii., 21) ; " He is a Sama- 
 ritan and hath a devil" (John viii., 48). 
 
 St. Augustine was content to be found in such company as that ; 
 and his name is now honoured on earth, and will be blessed 
 for ever in heaven. 
 
 Besides, in addressing a Pastoral to the Wesleyans I desired to 
 recognize them as not unwilling to be followers of John Wesley, 
 who (as I have shewn below) solemnly charged them " never to 
 separate from the Church." I therefore regarded them as not aliens 
 from it, and from myself, a Pastor of the Church. Have I done 
 them wrong in giving them credit of being ready to be loyal to their 
 Founder, and to be true to the name they bear? 
 
 Brethren : it was for such reasons as these, that I put fuith the 
 following Pastoral. I have there invited the Wesleyans to a 
 friendly Conference ; and if a Conference with them, like the 
 " collatio "* of St Augustine with the Donatists, were conducted in 
 a spirit of brotherly love and of prayer to God for the guidance of 
 the Holy Spirit of Truth and Peace, we might hope that the tem- 
 porary trouble would lead to permaueut (quietness and unity, and 
 
 • St. Augiistin. Oi^cra ; Tom. \\. p. 8;i:i, 884.
 
 to our happiness in this life and a better ; and to the advancement 
 of God's glory, and the salvation of many souls. 
 
 It has been alleged that the prevalence of Wesleyanism is partly 
 due to the carelessness, incapacity, or immorality of some Pastors 
 of the Church. I fully believe it. But one of the blessings of the 
 Church of England is, that true doctrine is taught, and grace is dis- 
 pensed, in all her congregations, by reason of the Holy Scriptures 
 read in her Churches, and by the use of her Liturgy, and by the 
 administration of the Holy Sacraments, and by the love of Christ 
 acting in and by His Word and Sacraments, and in answer to the 
 prayers of the faithful. In the Holy Scriptures, Sacraments, 
 Liturgy, Creeds, Catechism, and other formularies of the Church of 
 England, every member of all her congregations possesses safeguards 
 of orthodoxy and symbols of unity, whatever the personal defects 
 or dissensions of her Ministers may be ; and therefore the sheep 
 may be saved everywhere, even though some of their shepherds may 
 be lost. Evil Pastors will be pmiished hereafter, if not here. In 
 the mean time, their failings and sins serve to try and exercise the 
 faith, charity, patience, and steadfastness of the people, which wiU 
 not fail of an eternal reward. It would also be a salutary thing, that 
 unworthy Pastors should be pubKcly warned in a Conference that they 
 are st'vmbling-blocks and offences to many, and be brought to repen- 
 tance and amendment, and thus the discipline of the Church be 
 strengthened. And, as Augustine and his brethren made overtures 
 of union to the Donatist Bishoi^s and Clergy, might not we, in a 
 Conference, invite our Wesleyan brethren to help us in the work of 
 the ministry, and thus the breach between us be healed, and our 
 efficiency be increased in winning souls to Christ 1 
 
 It has also been represented by some, that the tendencies to 
 Eomanism, in doctrine, practice, and ritual, which are now visible 
 in some of our Churches, repel our "Wesleyan brethren from us, and 
 widen the separation between us. This, also, is true. But, again, 
 let me ask, is it not very desirable that these evil results of such 
 tendencies should be plainly set forth and brought to light, and that
 
 Clergy who are chargeable with such delinquencies as these should 
 be warned that they are sinning against Christ, and against souls 
 for which He died 1 Is it not probable that many of them would 
 be debarred from such uncharitable proceedings as these, by plain and 
 affectionate words spoken in public Conference with those who are 
 scandalized by them 1 
 
 It has also been alleged by some, that Wesleyans cannot be said 
 to be chargeable with schism, " because schism means division in a 
 Church, and not separation /Vo??i if ;" and that therefore they have 
 nothing to regret. 
 
 I should have thought, that if a rent in a Church were a sin, a 
 rent from it was a greater one. 
 
 But I had rather reply to this allegation by words of great and 
 good men, than by my own. The original word, which is used 
 in. the New Testament by St. Jude (v. 19) concerning those of 
 whom she speaks so severely, means separatists fro^n the Church. 
 S. Cyprian says (Epist. 65), " Schisma est, quuni de Ecdesid 
 receditur, et altare foris collocatur," and St. Jerome thus writes (in 
 Epist. Paul, ad Tit. c. iii.) — "Schisma ah Ecdesid separatur." 
 
 It has also been said by some, that the doctrine of Apostolic 
 Succession on which I lay stress in the following Pastoral (pp. 14, 15,) 
 is a fable, and Wesley is quoted in support of this statement.* If 
 so, it is a fable which was believed and acted upon for fifteen cen- 
 turies by the Church of Christ Universal — which is His Body and 
 Spouse (Eph. i. 23, " the Pillar and Ground of the Truth," " the 
 House of the Living God," (1 Tim. iii. 15), to which He promised 
 
 • Wesley's Works (Lond., 1812,) Vol. xv., p, 24"). But in the same sentence he adds, 
 " This does in no wise interfere with my remaining in the Church of England, from which 1 
 have no more desire to separate than I had fifty years ago. 1 still attend all the ordinances 
 of the Church at all opportunities, and I constantly and earnestly desire all that are con- 
 nected with me so to do." This was written in 178.5, only six yeai-s before his death. He 
 said in 17.').5 ( Works, xvi. p. 4), " It is not clear to us that Presbyters, so circumstanced as we 
 are, may appoint or ordain others." In 17;!8, when he was asked at Bath by what authority 
 he preached, his reply was, " by the authority of Jesus Christ, conveyed to me by him who is 
 now Archbishop of Canterbury, when he laid "his hands upon me and said, ' take thou authority 
 to preach the Gospel.' " (Tyerman's Life of Wesley, i., 2:18.) And in 1745, he thus wrote in 
 his own name, and in that of his brother, the Rev. Charks Wesley, " We believe that it would 
 not be light for us to administer either Baptism or the Lord's Supjier unless we had a Com- 
 mission from those Bishops wlioni we aj)prohend to be in a succession from the Apostles. We 
 believe that the three-fold order of Ministers is not only authorized by its apostolic insti- 
 tution, but also by the Written Word." (.'/)/erman's Life of Wesley, i., 496. This valuable 
 biography is by a distinguished member of the Wesleyan body.)
 
 His presence even to the end (Matt, xxviii. 20), and the gift of the 
 Holy Ghost to teach her all things, and to guide her into all truth 
 (John xiv. 26, xvi. 13), and to abide with her for ever (John xiv, 6) ; 
 and, therefore, if she was deceived in this, Christ's promise has 
 failed ; and the Holy Ghost has not done the work for which He 
 was sent. Surely no thoughtful and devout Christian will entertain 
 such a supposition as this ; but will reject it with indignation and 
 abhorrence as an insult to our adorable Eedeemer, and to God the 
 Holy Ghost the Comforter. 
 
 Let me assure you that if the Church of England were to be so 
 ill-advised as to give up her claim to "Apostolical Succession," the 
 person who would most exult and triumph at such a surrender on 
 our part, would be the Bishop of Eome. 
 
 Again, it has been urged that John Wesley was of oj)inion that 
 Presbyters or Priests have equal power to ordain with Bishops. Be 
 it so. Then he was very singular in that opinion. It was the 
 opinion of Aerius and Colluthus, and was condemned by the Church 
 of Christ Universal. But let me be pardoned for adding, that even 
 if this were true, it would not serve the Wesleyan cause. The 
 present Wesleyan Ministers have not even Presbyterian ordination. 
 In the Wesleyan Conference of 1792, it was resolved that the title 
 of " Reverend" should not be assumed by Wesleyan Preachers,* and 
 that they " might not wear gowns or bands," and it was not till 
 1836 (in the Conference at Birmingham), that the "laying on of 
 hands "t was adopted by them. And, therefore, (though I shall be said, 
 I fear, to stir up strife,) I am bound to declare that no well-instructed 
 Christian for the first fifteen hundred years after Christ would have 
 thought it safe to receive the Holy Communion at their hands. 
 
 Wesleyans either hold to John Wesley, or they do not. If they 
 do, they must acknowledge that their own Ordinations are invalid, 
 and that the Sacraments ministered by their Preachers are irregular. 
 For John Wesley never supposed that persons could ordain, Avho 
 
 * Peirce, Ecclesiastical Principles and Polity of the Wesleyan Methodists, p. 278. Lond., 
 1873. This is an official work, published by the Conference itself.
 
 are neither Bishops nor Priests ; but their Preachers have not 
 been ordained either by Bishops or Priests. 
 
 But if they do not hold to John "Wesley, ought they to call 
 themselves Wesleyans ] and can they retain those chapels, which 
 were built by him on the condition that they who held them should 
 conform to his opinions 1 Might not those Chapels be claimed by 
 persons, genuine "Wesleyans, who cleave to "Wesleyanisra in that 
 form in which John "Wesley established it ] 
 
 "Wesleyanism is now in a critical condition. In 1872, while 
 population was increasing, its members seemed to be on the decline.* 
 But this is not the main thing. Its Founder committed the care of 
 its places of worsliip to the body called the " Conference," which was 
 constituted by him in the year 1784 by a deed of declaration. t 
 The Conference was composed of One Hundred persons, who were 
 Preachers. But his Preachers (with the exception of a few who 
 were clergymen of the Church of England) were, in his opinion, 
 Laymen. He regarded himself as the founder of an order of Lay 
 preachers. But the Conference now considers itself a body of 
 Clergymen. Its President is a quasi-bishop, and confers Ordination, 
 and has sometimes been styled " Eight Reverend ;" its members are 
 called "Reverend ;" it wiU not admit any whom it regards as a 
 Layman to its Councils. | Is not this a departure from the funda- 
 mental principles, on which the Conference, which sways all the 
 authority of the whole body, was constituted? And will not this 
 deviation eventually lead to consequences which may rend asunder 
 the society itself? "Would not, even in the interests of Wesleyan- 
 ism, the wisest policy be, to return to those principles upon which 
 it was based by its founder 1 
 
 As to the ordination of Wesleyans, an appeal has been made 
 in its favoui to Stillingfleet's Treuiaim, a juvenile Avork, Avhich he 
 himself retracted,§ see Bp. Burnet's Oirn Time, 1, 189), and all that 
 
 * See the official returus of the Conferance from 1854 to 1872. Peirce, p. 68. In Great 
 Britain the entire numbers of members were in 1871, 347,090 ; in 1872, 346,850 ; and the total 
 number throughout the world in 1871, 582,540 ; in 1872, 581,508. 
 
 t Peirce, chap, x., p. 44!). Tyerman, iii. 417. 
 
 X Nor even Reporters of the public press may be present at them, Peirce, p. 467. 
 
 § See Bp. Burnet's Own Time, i., ed. Oxf., 1823, and 325. Slillingjieefs own avowal in his 
 Unreasonableness of Separation, p. Ixxii., and in his Ecclesiastical Cases, i., pp. 5-9.
 
 can be said of it is, that it did not condemn p^-eshyterian orders ; — 
 which the Wesleyans have not. Let me add, that one of the most 
 saintly and wise men that Scotland ever produced, Eobert Leighton 
 (afterwards Archbishop of Glasgow), and one of the holiest and 
 most learned men of Lincolnshire, Simon Patrick (afterwards 
 Bishop of Ely), having already Presbyterian orders, thought it right 
 to receive Episcopal Ordination. IS'o one need be ashamed to 
 imitate such examples as those. 
 
 Much might be said in excuse of non-episcopal communities in 
 countries where Episcopacy does not exist, or where the Church 
 enforces sinful terms of communion, as the Church of Eome does. 
 But this plea cannot be alleged on behalf of Wesleyanism, such as 
 it has now become, since the days of Wesley, and in spite of his 
 commands. (See below, pp. 6 — 8.) It now sets up a priesthood 
 of its own, — for the administration of the Sacraments,— against the 
 priesthood of the Church of England. This (I say it with sorrow), 
 if done wilfully, is the essence of schism. Some persons have re- 
 cently urged it to do this the more, in reprisals to the following 
 Pastoral. If it does so, it wiU prove more clearly that the Pastoral 
 is true. 
 
 But, brethren, I am fully aware that much of the separation, to 
 which I have referred, is the result rather of circumstances of birth, 
 education, and society, than to deliberate convictions. There is not 
 sufficient room in our churches in our great towns for the population; 
 the number and endowments of our Clergy are inadequate. 
 
 But here is another reason for conference and co-operation. If 
 the Wesleyans would unite with us in an earnest endeavour to 
 maintain the true faith, and to contend earnestly for it against 
 unbelief, superstition, and vice, how great and glorious would be 
 the result. 
 
 But as it is now, the Church of Eome points with scorn to our 
 rehgious divisions, and triumphs over what she calls the chaotic 
 confusion of our discordant Protestantism, as bearing more resem- 
 blance to a Babel, the Tower of Confusion, than to Zion, the City of 
 Peace. And thus she draws many to herself. Not the arguments
 
 of Rome, -which are utterly unsound, but the divisions of Protes- 
 tants, which are greatly to be deplored, make Romanists. 
 
 And, on the other side also, the unbeliever says to us, " First 
 go and agree among yourselves, as to what the Truth is, and then 
 come and preach it to us — but not till then." 
 
 Thus, brethren, Romanism and Infidelity gain by our religious 
 divisions ; and moral de;)ravity, insubordination, and anarchy, and 
 all their calamitous consequences, public and private, are threaten- 
 ing to rend asunder the fabric of civil society, and to involve 
 England in confusion and ruin. 
 
 For the sake, therefore, of England and of Christendom, T pray 
 for the friendly Conference of those who are separated from one 
 another, and who ought to be united as brethren in Christ. 
 
 It would be premature to express an opinion here as to the 
 terms of agreement that might be arranged between the Church of 
 England and the Wesleyans. For my own part, hoAvever, I have 
 no hesitation in saying that I would consent to such conditions as 
 John Wesley himself would have approved : and which may be 
 gathered from his own works, and from quotations in these pages. 
 
 What the result of the present appeal may be, God only knows. 
 It has been said by some that the Wesleyan Society is immoveably 
 rooted in its present position. But I have seen enough to convince 
 me, that whatever may be the case with the Society itself as a 
 whole, there are very many members of it, and not a few preachers 
 in it, who are not satisfied with their present condition, and who 
 are looking earnestly to the Church • and very many, in my own 
 knowledge, have recently joined it, and many others at this time 
 are preparing to do so. 
 
 I have been told that I ought not to busy myself Avith the 
 affairs of Wesleyans, but to employ myself in attending to the work 
 of my own Diocese, and to be " putting my own house in order, 
 which is tumbling about my ears." 
 
 Let me then be permitted to say — since I am constrained to 
 speak of myself, as St. Paul was, by accusations of others, so that 
 he becomes, he says, "a fool in glorying; ye liave compelled me"
 
 (2 Cor. xii., 11) — that, while conscious of many short-comings, I 
 have endeavoured to attend to the aflfairs of this Diocese, and may 
 I be allowed to add, with feelings of devout thankfulness to God 
 from Whom, and from Whom alone, all strength comes of body and 
 mind, that I have been enabled by Him in the present year to hold 
 Confirmations in numerous places, and to hold Visitations in almost 
 every part of the Diocese, and that (as I have said in the Pastoral), 
 I regard the Wesleyans as forming a very considerable part of the 
 population of this Diocese, and that in addressing them, I was 
 attending to the affairs of the Diocese in a very important respect. 
 
 As to the danger of our house falling about our ears, I am fully 
 aware that it needs a good deal of care, and may be greatly 
 strengthened, improved, and beautified; and that the Wesleyans 
 might do much to help us in this good work. But here, again, let 
 us thank God for His mercy. I trust that our house is buUt on 
 the foundation of the Apostles and Prophets, Jesus Christ being 
 the head corner stone (Eph. ii. 20). I believe it to be built upon 
 Christ, Who is the Eock (Matt. xvi. 18); and while it remains 
 steadfast on that foundation, it will not fall. (Matt. vii. 25). 
 
 As to the work of Christ in this Diocese, let me only mention 
 a single specimen of it. To day is the 21st July ; and if I live for 
 another ten days I shall be called upon in that time to re-open three 
 Churches in this Diocese, two partly re-built from their foundations, 
 namely, at Nettleton, and West Asliby, and Helpringham, in the 
 County of Lincoln ; and my Eight Eeverend Brother the Bishop 
 Suffragan, who has been holding Confirmations throughout Not- 
 tinghamsliire, is engaged to re-open a fourth restored Church — 
 Cromwell, in the County of Nottingham — in the same period of 
 time. Nearly 100 Churches have been either restored or built in 
 the Diocese in the last three years. This does not look as if the 
 house were tumbling about our ears. To God be aU the praise ! 
 
 Let me now bid the reader farewell, with an earnest prayer for 
 a blessing on all endeavours to promote Union in the Truth. 
 Riseholme, Lincoln, July 21st, 1873 : Revised, Aug. 10th, 1874.
 
 EiSEHOLME, Lincoln, 
 
 Tuesday in Wiiitsun Week, 
 June 3, 1873. 
 Brethren, 
 
 A few days ago a Clergyman of tins Diocese came to me 
 for advice concerning a tombstone which had been lately j^laced in 
 his churchyard, bearing the following inscription : — " In memory 
 
 of , a happy labourer in the Wesleyan Methodist Church." 
 
 The question put by him was this : — Would he be justified in 
 allowing a monument to remain, wliich might lead his parishioners 
 to suppose that the Wesleyan Society is a Church ; and that it 
 matters little, whether they belong to it, or to the Church of 
 England ] Ought he not to protect them against such a supposi- 
 tion as that 1 
 
 The answer given was to the following effect : — 
 A clergyman ought to take care that no gravestone is placed in 
 his churchyard, without previous communication with himself. 
 He ought to see the design of the tombstone, and to examine 
 what is intended to be inscribed on it. He ought to see that 
 nothing is engraved on it which is contrary to Holy Scripture, or 
 to the doctrine of the Church of England as declared in her Articles, 
 Canons, and Formularies. And if any dispute arises on this point, 
 there is an appeal to the Ordinary for a final decision.* But to 
 remove a gravestone once placed in a churchyard is a different 
 thing — especially to remove one which was placed there in the 
 presence of the Sexton (as the stone in question was), who is sup- 
 posed to be an officer of the Clergyman and of the Parish. Such 
 removal woidd require a faculty, and this might lead to a legal 
 process, of which it is not easy to forsee the issue. It might also 
 oe alleged, that in popular language a Christian Society, meeting for 
 worship, is called a Church ; though as 1 shall shew, John Wesley 
 did not claim the word for his own Society ; that Richard Hooker,t 
 
 * Burn's Ecclesiastical Law, I., 27.S. 
 t Hooker's Eccl. Pol. Pref. § 6, Book iii., ch. xi. 14 iv. ch. xiii.
 
 and Bishop Andre wes,* and in our own day Mr. Keble,t speak of 
 "Foreign Protestant Churches," — "Swiss Churches," &c., which 
 have not Episcopal Ordination, and that, as is supposed by many, 
 the Presbyterian Kirk is called the "Church of Scotland" in the 
 Canons of 16034 
 
 What, then, should be done 1 The advice given to the Cleigy- 
 man was — Liberate your own conscience. Disabuse your people of 
 erroneous notions. Imitate the Apostle St. Paul, who beheld an 
 altar at Athens, and took a text from it, and preached a sermon 
 upon it.§ Use this Inscription in your churchyard as a subject 
 for one or more sermons to your people, on the present relation of 
 Wesleyanism to the Church, and on the sin and unhappiness of 
 Schism, and on the duty and blessedness of Unity in the Truth, 
 
 Brethren, I now propose to follow the advice which I then gave. 
 
 This holy season, Whitsuntide, in which we bless God for the 
 Coming of the Holy Ghost, the Spirit of Truth, Peace and Love, 
 prompts me to do so. I have just completed a Visitation of this 
 Diocese ; and I cannot overlook you who form so large and 
 important a part of it. I pray God to heal our divisions. My heart 
 yearns for union with you. You often bring your children to be 
 confirmed by me. In how many things are we united with you, 
 and you with us. You have the same Bible with ourselves ; and 
 in many respects the same Prayer Book. Your Service Book is 
 derived from our Liturgy. || We have the same Creed. In how 
 many things are we Avith you, and you with us. And why not 
 in aU? 
 
 Ever since the commencement^of my connexion with the Diocese 
 of Lincoln, in which Wesleyanism had its origin, and in which it 
 largely prevails, I have longed to address you, and to speak to you 
 " the truth in love " (Eph, iv. 15). One of the first Confirmations 
 which I held in this Diocese, in the Spring of 1869, was at Epworth, 
 
 * Bp. Andrewes' Letter to Peter Moulin, Deo. 12, 1618, and Answer to Third Epistle. 
 t Keble in his editiou of Hooker, Vol. I., p. 169, 597, 617. Ed. Oxford, 1836. 
 t Canon Iv, 
 § Acts xvii., 23.
 
 where John Wesley was born, ono hundred and seventy years ago. 
 Tn the churchyard, on tlio south side of the chancel, is the grave- 
 stone of his venerable father, Samuel Wesley, thirty-nine years 
 Rector of that Parish, who, as the inscription on it declares, died, 
 as he had lived, " in the true Catholic Faith of the Undivided and 
 Ever Blessed Trinity, and of the Godhead of Jesus Christ." On 
 that stone John Wesley stood and preached. 
 
 When I visited Epworth, in 18G9, I was informed that no 
 Confirmation had been held in that important Parish* since the 
 22nd August, 1686, when the Bishop of Peterborough of that day 
 confirmed there ; and it is recorded, that on that occasion a 
 multitude of persons, about a thousand in number, was gathered 
 together to be confirmed at once. 
 
 Is it surprising that in such a state of things Wesleyanism 
 should have arisen. 
 
 In the course of several tours of Confirmation and Visitation 
 from Parish to Parish in that and succeeding years, I have ob'jerved 
 that in almost every one, especially in ^N'orth Lincolnshire, 
 Methodism presents itself in two forms, and often in three, viz., 
 Methodism proper, Free Methodism, and Primitive Methodism. 
 
 This suggests serious reflections. 
 
 When Methodism arose. Clerical non-residence was almost the 
 rule, and Clerical residence was the exception. The Parochial 
 Cures were ill endowed, and there were comparatively few Parson- 
 ages. Many of the Parochial Clergy dwelt in the towns, and rode 
 forth on Sunday mornings to serve several churches in rapid suc- 
 cession, and returned in the evening to the towns, and saw little of 
 their country parishes during the week. 
 
 It reflects great credit on the piety, zeal, and self-sacrifice of the 
 people of Lincolnshire, that they could not exist patiently in such 
 a state of spiritual starvation. The Church did not supply them 
 with religious food, and they resolved to provide it for themselves. 
 Wesleyanism is due, in great measure, to the Church ; it is duo to 
 Clerical Pluralities and to Cleric^al non-residence, and to a lack of 
 
 • The populatiou is 2,295.
 
 adequate Episcopal oversight, which could hardly be exercised in 
 this enormous Diocese, containing at that time more than 1240 
 parishes. This must be allowed. And of all unfair things it 
 would be one of the most unjust, to charge the evil consequences 
 of Wesleyanism mainly on John Wesley and his followers. " Physi- 
 cian, heal thyself" (Luke iv. 23). "We must look at the beam 
 in our own eye and try to cast it out (Matt. vii. 3). 
 
 But still, let us not disguise the truth, declared in God's holy 
 AVord, that wilful Schism — by whomsoever it may be caused — is a 
 heinous sin, and a tremendous evil, for time and eternity ; and 
 that of all the blessings in this world, for which we ought to labour 
 and pray, religious Unity is one of the best ; that " Blessed are the 
 peacemakers : for they shall be called the children of God " (Matt. v. 9). 
 
 Listen, brethren, I in treat you, not to me, but to the Holy 
 Ghost, speaking by the Apostles, whom, as at this time, He was sent 
 to teach, and to guide them into all truth (John xiv. 26 ; xvi. 13), 
 and to abide with them for ever. Hear His divine words — " Wbereas 
 there are divisions among you, are ye not carnalT' (1 Cor. iii, 4). 
 And " to be carnally minded is death " (Eom. viii. 6). Among the 
 " works of the flesh " are " variance, strife, heresy " (Gal v. 20). 
 They that " separate themselves " are described as " sensual, having 
 not the Spirit" (Jude 19). Therefore the Apostle says, " I beseech 
 you, brethren, that ye all speak the same thing, and that there be 
 no divisions among you, but that ye be. perfectly joined together in 
 the same mind and in the same judgment" (1 Cor. i. 10). "I 
 beseech you, that ye walk worthy of the vocation wherewith ye 
 are called, endeavouring to keep the unity of the Spirit in the 
 bond of peace " (Ephes. iv. 1 — 3). 
 
 Brethren, if your revered founder, John Wesley, were to rise 
 from his grave, what would his feelings be"? what would be his 
 language 1 If he stood once more on his father's grave at Epworth, 
 inscribed with that profession of faith to which I have referred 
 and if he looked down upon the town lying on the west beneath 
 the churchyard, there he would see a large building of red 
 bvick, in which a religious sect assembles for worship, which has
 
 split off from the Wesleyans — the sect of Kilhamitcs. '= And if he 
 extended his contemplation to the neighbouring country, he would 
 see in almost every village one or more places of worship frequented 
 by persons who bear the name of Methodists, but who dissent, not 
 only from the Church of England, but from the form of Methodism 
 originated by John Wesley. 
 
 Suffer me also, to enquire, Whether, even as to Weslsyanism 
 itself, as it is now, he would acknowledge it as is own work ] 
 Would John Wesley be a Wesleyan ] Eefer to the inscription on 
 the tombstone recently erected, to which I adverted at the begin- 
 ning of this letter. It describes the deceased as " a happy labourer 
 in the Wesleyan Church." John Wesley acknowledged only one 
 Church in this country, the Church of England. In 1790 he thus 
 wrote : " I never had any design of separating from the Church. 
 I have no such design now. I declare that I live and die a Mem- 
 ber of the Church of England ; and that none who regard my 
 judgmant wiU ever separate from it." t " We do not, and will not 
 form any separate sect ; but from principle we will remain what we 
 always have been, true members of the Church of England." % He 
 did not allow his disciples to call themselves " Dissenters." § He 
 woiild not permit his preachers to license themselves "as dissenters, 
 but as Methodist preachers." || In the "Code of Directions" drawn 
 up by him, and given to his preachers, as " the Eules by which 
 they were to walk," and which are described by the Wesleyan 
 Conference in 1797 as " the Eules to which they consented when 
 they were admitted," are the following instructions : — " How should 
 an Assistant be qualified for his charge "? — By loving the Church of 
 England, and by resolving not to separate from it. Let this be 
 well observed. I fear that when the Methodists leave the Church, 
 
 * In the description of Epworth, in White's Directory of Lineolnthire, p. 440, ed. 1872, it 
 is stated that Mr. Alexander Kilhani, the founder of the " New Connection," was also a native 
 of this parish, and died in 1798, after fiphtinp hard against what he regarded as the " priestly 
 domination of the Wesley Conference." 
 
 t John Wesley in the ^rminiV/n Magazine, quoted in p. \Ti of Mr. Urlin's volume on 
 John Wesley's Flace in Church history. London, 1870. 
 
 X Wesley's Sermons, i., 670. 
 
 § Ibiil. 
 
 II Minutes, A.D. 1772. Vol. i., p. 641.
 
 God will leave them. 0, use every means to prevent this. (1) 
 Exhort all our people to keep close to the Church and Sacrament. 
 
 (2) Warn them all against niceness in hearing — ^a prevailing evil. 
 
 (3) Warn them against despising the prayers of the Church ; (4) 
 against calling our Society 'a Church;' (5) against calling our 
 preachers ' ministers;' our houses ' Meeting Houses :' call them 
 plain ' PveacMng Houses' " 
 
 These " Minutes " were delivered to Wesleyan Preachers on 
 their admission to the office, and these Preachers were then told 
 that they would " be acknowledged as fellow-labourers in the cause 
 as long as they freely consented to these rides, and earnestly 
 endeavoured to walk by them." * 
 
 John Wesley was the founder of an Order of Lay Preachers. 
 This was his special work. He desired to supplement the Church, 
 not to siqoplant it. He had no intention of setting up an indepen- 
 dent Priesthood in opposition to that of the Church, for the 
 ministry of the Sacraments. He expressly disclaimed any such in- 
 tention. Hear his own words : t 
 
 " In 1744 all the Methodist Preachers held their first Conference. 
 But none of them dreamed that the being called to preach gave 
 them any right to administer Sacraments. And when that question 
 was proposed, ' In what light are we to consider ourselves 1 ' It 
 was answered, 'As extraordinary messengers, raised up to provoke 
 the ordinary ones to jealousy.' In order hereto, one of our first 
 rules was, given to each Preacher, ' You are to do that part of the 
 work which we appoint.' But lohat xoork was this % Did we ever 
 appoint you to administer Sacraments, to exercise the Priestly Office? 
 Such a design never entered into our mitid ; it ivas the farthest from 
 our thoughts. And if any Preacher had taken such a step, we 
 should have looked upon it as a palpable breach of this rule, and 
 consequently as a recantation of our connection. 
 
 * Chronicles of Wesleyan Methodism, i. p. vii. p. 78-80, 88. See also Rev. H. W. Holden's 
 Volumeon John Wesley, p. 158. Lond , 1870. 2nd Edition. 
 
 t The Rev. John Wepley : in his Sermon preached at Cork. 4th May, 1789, and printed 
 by him in his Arminian Magazine for 1790.
 
 " For supposing (what I utterly deny) that the receiving you 
 as a Preacher, at the same time gave an authority to administer the 
 Sacraments ; yet, it gave you no other autliority than to do it, or 
 anything else, where 1 appuint. But where did 1 appoint you to 
 do this 1 Nowhere at alL Tlierefore, by this vury rule you are 
 excluded from doing it. And in doing it you renounce the first 
 principle of Methodism, which was wholly and solelij to preach the 
 gospel. 
 
 " It Avas several years after our Society was formed, before any 
 attempt of this kind was made. The first was, I apprehend, at 
 Norwich. One of our Preachers there, yielded to the importunity 
 of a few of the people, and baptized their children. But as soon 
 as it was known, he was informed it must not be, unless he designed 
 to leave our connexion. He promised to do it no more : and I 
 suppose he kept his promise. 
 
 " Now, so long as the Methodists keep to this plan, they cannot 
 separate from the Cliurch. And this is our peculiar glory. It is 
 new upon the earth. Revolve all the histories of the Church, from 
 the earliest ages, and you will find, whenever there was a great 
 work of God in any particular city or nation, the subjects of that 
 work soon said to their neighbours, ' Stand by yourselves, for we 
 are holier than you ! ' As soon as ever they separated themselves, 
 either they retired into deserts, or they built religious houses ; or at 
 least formed parties, into which none was admitted but such as 
 subscribed both to their judgment and practice. But with the 
 Methodists, it is quite otherwise. Tliey are not a Sect or Party. 
 They do not separate from the Religious Community to which they 
 at first belonged. They are still members of the Church ; such 
 they desire to live and to die. And I believe, one reason why God 
 is pleased to continue my life so long, is to confirm them in their 
 present purpose, Not to separate from the Church. 
 
 " I wish all of you who are vulgarly termed Methodists, would 
 seriously consider what has been said. And particularly you, whom 
 God has commissioned to call sinners to repentance. It docs by no
 
 means follow from hence that ye are commissioned to baptize, or to 
 administer the Lord's Supjm: Ye never dreamed of this, for ten 
 or twenty years after ye began to preach. Ye did not then, like 
 Korah, Dathan, and Ahiram, seek the Priesthood also. — (Xum. xvi. 
 10.) Ye knew that " l!^o man taketh this honour unto himself, but 
 he that is called of God, as was Aaron." — (Heb. v. 4.) contain 
 yourselves within your own bounds. Be content with preaching 
 the Gospel. Do the ivork of Evangelists. Proclaim to all the world 
 the loving-kindness of God our Saviour ; declare to all. The king- 
 dom of heaven is at hand : repent ye, and believe the Gosjoel. 1 
 earnestly advise you, abide in your place : keep your own station. 
 Ye were, fifty years ago, those of you that were then Methodist 
 Preachers, extraordinary Messengers of God, not going in your own 
 will, but thrust out, not to supersede, but to provoke to jealousy the 
 ordinary messengers. In God's name, stop there ! Both by your 
 preaching and example, provoke them to love and to good works. 
 Ye are a new phenomenon in the earth ; a body of people who, 
 being of no sect or party, are friends to all parties, and endeavour 
 to forward all, in Heart Eeligion, in the knowledge and love of God 
 and man. Ye yourselves were at first called in the Church of 
 England ; and though ye have, and will have, a thousand tempta- 
 tions to leave it, and set up for yourselves, regard them not. Be 
 Church of England men still. Do not cast away the peculiar glory 
 which God hath put upon you, and frustrate the design of Provi- 
 dence, the very end for which God raised you up." 
 
 Such are John "Wesley's words. I beseech you, ponder them 
 well. 
 
 After Wesley's death, his intimate friend and biographer. Dr. 
 "Whitehead, who was appointed to preach his funeral sremon,* was 
 chosen also to write his epitaph, which was placed on a marble 
 tablet in the New Chapel in the City Eoad ; and in that epitaph 
 John "Wesley was described (in words, I believe, now erased) as 
 "the founder of the Methodists Societies" (they are not called 
 
 • Wesley was born June 17, 1703, and died March, 2, 1791.
 
 churches) and as " the Patron and Friund of Lay Preachers."* He 
 regarded his Preachers as Laymen. 
 
 In the year 1793, two years after Wesley's death, the Conference 
 put forth certain Minutes, in which it is said that " the Wesleyan 
 teachers are only jireachers and expounders of God's Holy Word," 
 and that " the attempts that have been lately made to introduce 
 the Ordination Scheme, have produced many and great evils in 
 various places, and if persisted in must divide the people, and in 
 the end destroy the cause. We, therefore, stand forward to declare 
 our intention of abiding by and supporting the original Methodist 
 plan." 
 
 It is much to be desired, that another John Wesley might arise 
 to preach a sermon on Wesleyanism. He would say in plain words, 
 derived from Holy Scripture, that wilful schism is a deadly sin, 
 that it is a work of the iiesh, and that to be carnally minded is 
 death. He would say that the essence of schism (which means 
 division) is to make a separation or rent in a Church, or from a 
 Church ; that it consists in setting up altar against altar, and priest- 
 hood against priesthood ; and in assimiing a right to minister in 
 holy things, such as the Sacraments of the Church, without a due 
 call and mission. He Avould declare that " no man taketh this 
 honour unto himself, but he that is called of God, as was Aaron." — 
 (Heb. v., 4.) He would remind us, that Korah and his company, 
 (to whom he refers in the sermon which I have quoted) Avho 
 were Levites, and invaded the Priest's office, were consumed 
 by fire from God — (Num. xvi., 35), and that St. Jude,t warns 
 Christian men, under the Gospel dispensation, against the commis- 
 sion of this sin, lest they incur hereafter a punishment like that of 
 those who " perished in the gainsaying of Korah." These are awful 
 words ; but they are spoken in love. 
 
 Would not John Wesley entreat you, as you value your ever- 
 lasting salvation, to consider carefully, whether you are guilty of 
 
 • The Epitaph may be seen in Wesley's Works, vi. 2U3, and in Feirce, p. 5. The follow- 
 ing words were inscribed on his Tomb :— '• This great light arose by the singular providence 
 of God to enlighten these !iations, and to revive, enforce, and defend tlie pure Apostolic 
 doctrine) and practice) of the Primitive Church." (Works vi. '^62, I'eirce p. 6.) 
 t Jude 11,
 
 10 
 
 this sin ; or ibet others in committing it ; lest you fall into the 
 same condemnation 1 
 
 You may perhaps say in reply, that God has visibly blessed the 
 •work of those who minister the Sacraments in your congregations. 
 We do not deny it. But are they, therefore, safe who minister 1 
 The Israelites were refreshed by the water flowing from the rock 
 struck by Moses ; but he was excluded from Canaan for striking it 
 (Xum. XX. 12). Balaam and Caiaphas prophesied of Christ, and 
 many have been edified by their projihecies ; but nevertheless they 
 who prophesied were objects of God's wrath. St. Paul rejoiced 
 that Christ was preached, although some who preached Him 
 "preached in strife" (Philip, i. 15), but yet the same Apostle says, 
 " Let nothing be done through strife " (Phil. ii. 3) ; and St. James 
 declares (James iii. 14 — 16) that "where there is strife, there is 
 every evil worJc," and, " if ye have strife in your hearts, this wisdom 
 is earthly, sensual, devilish." St. Paul did not rejoice in their 
 strife, but in the Gospel of Truth and Unity, which they preached. 
 And how much more would he have rejoiced, if they had preached 
 it in unity ! God often elicits good from evil, and overrules evil 
 for good ; but evil is not the less evil on that account. God 
 brought about the greatest good, namely, the Salvation of the 
 World, from the greatest sin, the Crucifixion of Christ. 
 
 We do not deny that persons who resort to schism atical Teachers 
 and Ministers, and receive the Sacraments at their hands, but who 
 are not wilfully partakers of their schism, or even conscious of it, 
 may derive benefit from God's Word and Sacraments ministered by 
 those Teachers and Ministers ; but this does not in any way diminish 
 the guilt of those who schismatically preach and minister, or who 
 knowingly and wilfully abet and encourage them in their teaching 
 and ministrations. 
 
 It is also said by some persons, that they deem it right to go to 
 any place of worship whatsoever, where they may " get the most 
 good ;" and that they go to a Meeting-house, because they " get more 
 good " there than in a Church. I do not doubt that they think that 
 they get more good there than in a Church. But, my friends, we
 
 11 
 
 shall be judged hereafter, not according to what we think, but 
 according to what God says. And if God says in His Word, — as 
 He certainly does,^that schism is a deadly sin ; then we shall not 
 be saved by thinking that we are wiser than God, and tliat he was 
 mistaken in saying so. No : the Word that He has spoken to us, 
 " that will judge us in the Last Day " (John xii. 48). " There is a 
 way which seemeth right unto a man, but the end thereof are the 
 ways of death" (Prov.xiv. 12). 
 
 But it may be alleged by some, that, if this reasoning is correct, 
 then the Church of England is guilty of sin for separating herself 
 from the Church of Rome ; and it may be asked, " If the Church of 
 England is right in separating herself from the Church of Rome, 
 are the Wesleyans wrong in separating themselves from the Church 
 of England ? " 
 
 Yes, they are ; and allow me to tell you the reason. 
 
 The Church of Rome not merely teaches many great and grievous 
 errors, at variance with Holy Scripture, and with the doctrines of 
 the ancient Catholic Church, but she endeavours to impose those 
 errors upon all men ; and she will not hold communion with any- 
 one who will not communicate with her in those unscriptural and 
 anti-scriptural errors. She makes communion in her errors to be 
 essential to communion with herself. She excommunicates all who 
 will not accept her errors ; and thus she is guilty of the sin of the 
 schism between the Church of England ard herself. Wilful schism 
 is always a deadly sin. But the guilt lies with those who commit 
 the sin, and who cause the separation, not with those who suffer 
 from its commission. 
 
 Brethren, believe me, it will not be enough for you to show 
 that there are evil men and evil ministers in the Church of England, 
 and that some in her conuuunion are semi-rationalists or semi- 
 Romanists ; it will not be enough to show that the Church of 
 England connives at errors in doctrine, discipline, and worship. 
 Even if all these things can be proved, they would not justify you 
 in separating from her, and in making divisions in her. 2s o Church 
 on earth is free from manifold imperfections. Tares grow up among
 
 12 
 
 the wheat, till the harvest. There are bad fish together with good 
 fish in the net ; goats with sheep in the flock ; chaff" with good grain 
 on the threshing-floor ; unfruitful branches with fruitful on the 
 Vine, in every visible Church on earth. And so it will be till the 
 end of the world ; and then a severance will be made. But prove 
 to us, if you can, that the Chuich of England has not the Holy 
 Scriptures in her hands ; prove to us that she has not the Creeds 
 of the ancient Catholic Church ; prove to us that she does not 
 minister the Holy Sacraments by that form of Church Government 
 which, and tohich alone, for fifteen hundred years was known 
 and accepted by the Universal Church of Chrisj, to which He pro- 
 mised His continual presence and the indwelling of the Holy Ghost 
 to "teach her all things," and to "guide her into all truth," — 
 (John xiv., 16, 26, xvi., 13); namely, by the three orders of 
 Bishops, Priests, and Deacons ; prove to us that she imjooses and 
 enforces heretical doctrines, contrary to Holy Scripture and the 
 teaching of the primitive Church, and then you will have said some- 
 thing to palliate what you must allow me to call the sin of sepa- 
 ration from her — but not tiU then. 
 
 Where, then, is the remedy 1 
 
 First, in prayer to God for the outpouring of His Holy Spirit 
 upon us, that He will " give us grace seriously to lay to heart the 
 great dangers we are in by our unhappy divisions ; and that He 
 will take away all hatred and prejudice, and whatsoever else may 
 hinder us from godly union and concord ; that, as there is but one 
 Body, and one Spirit, and one Hope of our Calling, one Lord, one 
 Faith, one Baptism, one God and Father of us all, so we may 
 henceforth be all of one heart and of one soul, united in one holy 
 bond of Truth and Peace, of Faith and Charity, and may with one 
 mind and one mouth glorify God ; through Jesus Christ Our 
 Lord."* 
 
 !N"ext, let the Bishops, Clergy, and Laity of the Church humble 
 themselves before God, and confess their sins, and pray for pardon 
 and grace from Him. If the Bishops and Clergy of England— 
 
 • Prayer for Unity ; in the Book of Common Prayer.
 
 13 
 
 especially in her Provincial and Diocesan 8ynods — had taken 
 counsel together how to guide the great religious movement set in 
 action by John Wesley, it might, by God's providence, have been 
 controlled and regulated, and have done much to quicken the 
 spiritual life of the Church, and to increase her pastoral and minis- 
 terial efficiency, and have conduced to the advancement of His 
 glory and the difiusion of His truth, and to the salvation of souls ; 
 and the evil effects which have proceeded from it might hav^e been 
 averted. 
 
 But the opportunity was lost ; and now we mourn over the loss. 
 
 The Laity also of the Church of England have their share of 
 responsibility. As we have said, Wesleyauism was due in great 
 measure to pluralities and non-residence of the Clergy; and plui-alities 
 and non-residence were due to the poverty of our parochial Cures, and 
 to the want of Parsonages. Even at the present time the clerical 
 income of one-ninth of the benefices in Lincolnshire is not more 
 than £100 a year; and the income of one-third is not more than 
 £200 a year. And more than £30,000 a year of the Tithes of this 
 Diocese are now in the hands of laymen. 
 
 Let the Laity of the Church be entreated to remember that all 
 property is held in trust from God and for God ; and that He has 
 said in His Holy "Word that it is held in trust for certain purposes, 
 one of the first of which is the maintenance of the Christian 
 Ministry (Gal. vi., 6 ; 1 Cor. ix., 13, 14) for the salvation of souls. 
 Can Lay impropriators of tithes be at ease in their consciences, 
 can large Proprietors and Capitalists look forward with any comfort 
 to the Great Day of reckoning (when they will be called upon by 
 the Judge of all to give an account of their stewardship), if, while 
 they themselves are living in attluence, many of the Clergy in 
 Parishes where they themselves reside, or where they have pro- 
 perty, — perhaps tithe property, — are left to pine in poverty, and if 
 all the evils, spiritual and temporal, are allowed to remain unabated 
 which prevail in our Parishes from the indigence of their jMinisters? 
 "Every Man" (says Lord Bacon) "owes to God a tenth of His 
 substance." Let the Laity, for Christ's sake, remember these things.
 
 14 
 
 Let them do their duty in this respect, and they will reap an 
 abundant harvest, even in this world; and how blessed will be 
 their recompense in the life which is to come ! 
 
 Next, let me be permitted to exhort and entreat those, who are 
 "Wesleyan Methodists, to consider their own position, as in the 
 sight of God, Who searcheth tbe hearts, and Who has revealed His 
 Will in His Word, and Who will judge us all. Listen not to me, 
 but to God, Who declares that schism is a sin — a deadly sin ; and 
 that Unity is a great good, which all Christians must desire to 
 attain and hold fast. Consider with yourselves, whether Christ 
 did not promise to be always with His Church even to the end of 
 the world (Matt, xxviii. 20), and to send to her the Holy Ghost, 
 the Comforter, the Spirit of Truth, to teach her all things, and to 
 guide her into all truth, and to abide with her for ever (John xiv. 
 16, 26, xvi. 13). And then ask yourselves this question — Can 
 these promises of Christ have been fulfilled (as assuredly they must 
 have been, for He is the Truth), if the Church of Christ did not 
 know for fifteen centuries what ought to be her own form of govern- 
 ment in the ministry of the Word and Sacraments, and if it was 
 left for men in the seventeenth century to discover it 1 Can we 
 imagine that the Son of God, and the Holy Spirit of God, have 
 failed in their Word and Work ] This is impossible. Such a sup- 
 position must be repudiated with indignation by all faithful 
 Christians, as an insult to the Son of God, and as an outrage against 
 the Spirit of God. Well, then. Can you yourselves be safe, either 
 in ministering the Sacraments without a due mission and ordination 
 to minister them (in opposition to the uniform judgment and practice 
 of the Universal Church of Christ for fifteen centuries), or in 
 abetting and encouraging any who minister them without such mis- 
 sion and ordination, and in receiving the Sacraments at their handsl 
 I think not. And as one who desires your everlasting salvation, I 
 earnestly exhort and implore you to examine these things weU, as 
 in the presence of God ; and, whatever sacrifice it may cost you, to 
 act accordingly. Inquire whether it be not true, that the Universal 
 Church, for fifteen hundred years after Christ believed that none
 
 15 
 
 but Bishops could coufer Holy Orders. Iu(|uire Avhether the 
 Church did not condemn the contrary opinion when broached by 
 Aerius.* Inquire whether it be not true, that what is called the 
 " Apostolical Succession of Ministers" has been actually continued 
 from the Apostolic age 1 and whether this may not be reasonably 
 inferred from the fact that the Church knew that it was necessary 
 for her to provide for herself persons to minister the "Word and 
 Sacraments ; and that she did not knoio of any other way of 
 providing them than by Episcopal Ordination^ In our Book of 
 Common Prayer, which declares the Law of the Church of England, 
 for which John "Wesley ever expressed the greatest reverence, are 
 the following words : t — " It is evident unto all men diligently 
 reading the Holy Scripture and ancient Authors, that from the 
 Apostles' time there have been these Orders of Ministers in Christ's 
 Church — Bishops, Priests, and Deacons ; which Offices were ever- 
 more had in such reverent estimation, that no man might presume 
 to execute any of them, except he were first called, tried, examined, 
 and known to have such qualities as are requsite for the same ; and 
 also by Publick Prayer, with Imposition of Hands, were approved 
 and admitted thereunto by lawful Authority. And, therefore, to 
 the intent that these Orders may be continued, and reverently used 
 and esteemed, in the United Church of England and Ireland, no 
 man shall be accounted or taken to be a lawful Bishop, Priest, or 
 Deacon, in the United Church of England and Ireland, or suffered 
 to execute any of the said functions, except he be called, tried, 
 examined, and admitted thereunto, according to the Form hereafter 
 following, or hath had formerly Episcopal Consecration, or Ordina- 
 tion." Also by the Act of Uniformity (Sect. 14) a person who is 
 only a Deacon {i.e., who has not been ordained Priest by a Bishop 
 and other Priests) is liable to a heavy penalty if lie presumes to 
 consecrate and administer the Holy Communion. 
 
 And further, may I not venture to enquire, whether even in 
 secular respects the present position of Methodism is secure ] If 
 
 • S. Augustin. de fjaeres. § 53. Epiphauius, de Ilaeret, 75. 
 t Book of Common Prayer— Preface to the Ordination Service.
 
 16 
 
 I rightly apprehend the matter, the tenure of its places of worship 
 depends on the fulfilment of certain prescribed terms and stipulations. 
 The Holy Scriptures, as explained in the Sermons of John Wesley 
 and in his Notes on the New Testament, are, I believe, its standards 
 of doctrine and discipline, and its places of worship are held on the 
 condition of conformity to those standards.* To quote the Minutes 
 of Conference itself (Vol. L, p. 417,) " The chapels were to be held 
 in trust for the sole use of such persons as might be appointed at 
 the yearly Conference of the people called Methodists, provided that 
 the said persons preached no other doctrines than those contained in 
 Wesley's Notes on the New Testament, and in his four volumes of 
 Sermons." I have quoted extracts from his Sermons, and from other 
 of his works. Might it not even be alleged, that the Wesleyans 
 incur the danger of losing their own places of worship, if they drift 
 away from what their Founder has repeatedly affirmed in the clearest 
 and most solemn tones in those very works, which are the code and 
 charter of their Society. 
 
 But in saying this, let me add in Christian Truth and Tiove, 
 that we ourselves in the Church of England have need of you, and 
 that you have need of us. " Sirs, ye are brethren, why do ye wrong 
 one to another?" — (Acts vii., 26). We love you for your zeal : 
 and there is much in your organization that we admire. You and 
 we have common enemies, who desire our destruction ; Satan and 
 sin, the world and the flesh. We have formidable foes leagued 
 against us ; Eomanism and Unbelief. Why do we not unite in 
 doing battle against them, and in contending earnestly for the faith ] 
 Our separation has lasted too long already, and if it continues, it 
 will widen itself still more. How many discordant forms of 
 Methodism already exist ! May you not be split into endless divi- 
 sions, and perhaps lapse into secularism 1 But if our separation could 
 be healed, how much would the holy angels rejoice, and what 
 blessings would accrue to us and to countless myriads of souls in 
 time and eternity, from our union ! 
 
 • See John Wesley's Journal, Sept, 5, 1783 ; Peirce, p. 205, 269 ; Tyerman's Life of Weeley 
 ui..,417.
 
 17 
 
 I may be mistaken, but this union, of which I speak, is not 
 impracticable ; and if we would resolve not to contend for our 
 own private opinions, but for the Truth as revealed in God's Word, 
 and as declared by the consent and practice of the ancient Church 
 of Christ, and would conform to that standard, the solution of the 
 problem would be easy. 
 
 Let me be allowed to invite you to a friendly Conference on 
 these matters ; and in doing so, let me advert to some details. 
 
 You have your " Lay Preachers." We in the Church of England 
 have our " Lay Readers." IMight not these two orders be united 1 
 Your Founder, John Wesley, declared with his dying breath that 
 he did not dissent in anything from the doctrine and discipline of 
 the Church of England ; he died in the Communion of the Church ; 
 and he solemnly conjured his followers never to separate from it. 
 In the present address to Wesleyans I am only echoing the words 
 of John Wesley, and of his wise and saintly brother, the Rev. 
 Charles Wesley, who, " hoped and prayed that IMethodism would 
 merge in the Church, and that a Bishop would be found to confer 
 ordination on its preacJwrs."* He being dead yet speaketh (Heb. 
 xi., 4). Will you not listen to his voice ] 
 
 It is not indeed to be forgotten, that, in the year 1784 — and 
 not till then — when Wesley was more than eighty years of age, and 
 when he had attempted in vain to obtain uidination for some of his 
 preachers from the English Ejiiscopate, he took upon himself to 
 appoint two of them to America ; and he gave a commission to Dr. 
 Coke (who was also a Presbyter of the Church of England, and who 
 afterwards desired to be consecrated! a Bishop by American Bishops), 
 to "superintend " the Wesleyan Society in that country.^ 
 
 • See Jackson's Memoirs of the Rev. C. Wesley, pp. Wd, liOfi, 426, 47:!, cited by Urlin, 
 p. 110. 
 
 t Tyerman, iil., 434. 
 
 X Both Wesley and Coke were Tresbytcrs of thft Church of England ; and Dr. \Vliitchead, 
 Wesley's biographer, said truly, " Dr. Coke had the same autliority to ordain Mr. Wesley that 
 Mr. Wesley had to ordain Dr. Coke." Wesley (says Mr. Tyerman, iii., 4S0), we think, never 
 intended doing this, bnt at Dr. Coke's request he acquiesced. Wesley never gave him the 
 title of Bishop. (7'yermnn, iii., 437.)
 
 18 
 
 John Wesley represented these acts as exceptional acts, and as 
 necessitated by circumstances ; but it cannot bo denied that they 
 were infractions of Church discipline ; and that he thus involved 
 himseK in embarrassment, and placed himself in an attidude of 
 inconsistency and self-contradiction, and exposed himself to the 
 charge of doing that very thing which he most deprecated and con- 
 demned, namely, of separating himself from the Church. He set 
 aside the judicious counsels of his pious brother,* Charles "Wesley. 
 He took a false step ; and he was next led on to " yield to the 
 judgment of others " (as he himself expressed it), and to appoint 
 three preachers to minister the Sacraments in Scotland. It has 
 been affirmed by some writers, that he was carried on still further, 
 and was prevailed upon to appoint three of his preachers to minister 
 also in England. But this is doubtful. In fact, after Wesley's 
 death, the Trustees of the Principal Wesleyan places of worship in 
 London and Bristol made the following statement to the Wesleyan 
 Conference in 1793 if — "Although Mr. Wesley, by dint of impor- 
 tunitij, towards the close of his life was prevailed upon to ordain a 
 few of his preachers for America and Scotland, he by no means in- 
 tended to extend it or make it general." 
 
 This declaration is corroborated by Dr. Whitehead, Wesley's 
 biographer, who says that Wesley was prevailed on to ordain, 
 against his own judgment ; and who contravenes the assertion that 
 Wesley intended any of his ordinations for England.j Even* 
 therefore, if it could be conceded that Presbyters are qualified to 
 ordain (a theory repugnant to the judgment of the Universal Church 
 for 1,.500 years), and even though Wesley, who was a Presbyter of 
 the Church, may be appealed to, in a certain limited sense, for such 
 an opinion as that ; yet suffer me to say, it would by no means 
 follow that Wesleyan Ministers have been duly ordained (for they 
 do not possess presbyterian 07'ders), or that they can rightly minister 
 the Sacraments to you, or that you can safely receive the Sacraments 
 
 » See Tyerman, iii., 439—447. 
 t See UrHn,Tp. 162. % Ibid. 1C4.
 
 19 
 
 at their hands ; or that they and you can justly appeal to John 
 "Wesley for any sanction or countenance in doing so. 
 
 But, Brethren, what are men, that we should refer to them 1 let 
 me not speak to you of John Wesley, but of Jesus Christ. Let 
 me affectionately entreat you, to remember the words of Our Blessed 
 Lord and Saviour, Who has piirchased to Himself His Universal 
 Church by His own Blood, and Who wall judge us all at the Great 
 Day, and Who thus prayed for His disciples : ** As Thou, Father, 
 art in Me, and I in Thee, that they also may be one in Us ; that 
 they may be One, even as We are One" (John xvii., 21, 22). 
 I am, beloved brethren in Christ, 
 
 Yours faithfully, 
 
 C. LINCOLN.
 
 THE HOLY BIBLE, 
 
 With Introductions and Notes by CHR. WORDSWORTH, D.D., 
 
 Bishop of Lincoln. New Edition. 
 
 THE OLD TESTAMENT, 
 
 In the Authorized Version, with Introductions, Notes, and Index. 
 
 In Parts. 
 Part 
 
 I. Gronesis and Exodus 
 II. Leviticiis,Numbers,Deu- 
 teronomy 
 
 III. Joshua, Judges, Ruth . . 
 
 IV. Books of Samuel . . 
 
 V. Kings, Chronicles, Ezra, 
 Nehemiah, Esther . . 
 
 VI. Book of Job 
 
 yil. Psalms 
 
 VIII. Proverbs, EcclesiasteR, 
 Song of Solomon . . 
 
 IX. Isaiah 
 
 X. Jeremiah, Lamentations, 
 
 Ezekiel 
 
 XI. Daniel 
 
 XII. Minor Prophets 
 
 Index 
 
 
 
 s. a. 
 
 14 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 12 
 9 
 
 7 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 15 
 7 
 11 
 
 
 
 
 9 
 10 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 le 
 
 5 
 9 
 2 
 
 £6 
 
 ~6~0 
 
 — 
 
 
 
 In Volumes. 
 VOLUME 
 
 I. The Pentateuch .. .. 
 
 II. Jo.=;hua to Samuel 
 
 III. Kings to Esther .. .. 
 
 IV. Job to Song of Solomon 
 
 V. Isaiah to Ezekiel. . .. 
 
 VI. Daniel, Minor Prophets, 
 and Index 
 
 THE GREEK TESTAMENT^ 
 With Introductions, Notes, and Index. 
 
 In Volumes. 
 
 In Parti. 
 PART 
 
 I. Gospels , 
 
 II. Acts of the Apogtlea 
 
 III. St. Paul's Epistles.. 
 
 IV. fJeueral Epistles, Apo^ 
 
 calypse, Index . . 
 
 £ 8. d. 
 
 16 
 
 8 
 
 1 3 
 
 16 
 
 £3 3 
 
 VOLUME £ 8. d. 
 I. Gospels and Acts of the 
 
 Apostles 1 3 
 
 II. Epistles, Apocalypse, 
 
 and Index 1 17 
 
 £3 
 
 Any Part, or any Vohmie, may he had separately. 
 
 By The BISHOP of LINCOLN. 
 ipTHICA LINCOLNIENSIA. Price Is. 
 
 r\^ the MILLENNIUM. Price Is. 6d. 
 
 f\^ the STATE of the SOUL after DEATH. Price Is. 
 
 TTOLY YEAR of HYMNS. 6th ed. Ls. 
 
 rpiiEOPHILUS ANGLICANUS; on the Church. 10th ed. 23. 6d. 
 
 r\N UNION with ROME. 8th ed. Price Is. 
 
 / VN the INSPIRATION of the BIBLE. 8th ed. Price Is. 
 
 / \N BURNING the BODY, and on BURIAL. 2nd ed. 6d. 
 
 QN the PROCESSION of the HOLY SPIRIT. Is. 
 
 rVS the REVISION of the NEW LECTION ARY. 2nd ed. Ls. 
 
 RiviNGTONS : London, Oxford, and Cambridge. 
 The above maybe had of James Williamson, 290, High Street, Lincoln.
 
 ^•^ 
 
 ,^-.-,.- ._ ^' 
 
 LSLJIR^^I 
 
 II2J 
 
 Nf^;^: 
 
 ^»^^>-^P^ 
 
 ^#^,5^^