Wesley Corpus

Conference, not by me, and would not suffer the Clergy to ride over their heads ; Mr. Smyth in particular, of whom he said all manner of evil. Others warmly defended him. Hence the society was torn in pieces, and thrown into the utmost con- fusion. Tues. 23. I read to the society a paper which I wrote near twenty years ago on alike occasion. Herein I observed, that " the rules of our Preachers were fixed by me, before any Con- ference existed," particularly the twelfth : "Above all, you are to preach when and where I appoint." By obstinately opposing which rule, Mr. M'Nab has made all this uproar. In the morn- ing, at a meeting of the Preachers, I informed Mr. M'Nab, that, as he did not agree to our fundamental rule, I could not receive him as one of our Preachers, till he was of another mind. Wed. 24. I read the same paper to the society at Bristol, as I found the flame had spread thither also. A few at Bath separated from us on this account : But the restwere thoroughly satisfied. So on Friday, 26, I took coach again, and on Satur- day reached London. In this journey I read Dr. Warner's History of Ireland, from its first settlement to the English Conquest ; and, after calm deliberation, I make no scruple to pronounce it a mere senseless romance. I do not believe one leaf of it is true, from the begin- ning to the end. I totally reject the authorities on which he builds : I will not take Flagherty's or Keating's word for a far- thing. I doubt not, Ireland was, before the Christian era, full as barbarous as Scotland or England. Indeed it appears from their own accounts, that the Irish in general were continually [Dec. 1779. plundering and murdering each other from the earliest ages to that period: And so they were ever since, by the account of Dr. Warner himself, till they were restrained by the English. How then were they converted by St. Patrick ? Cousin-german to St. George! To what religion? Not to Christianity. Neither in his age, nor the following, had they the least savour of Chris- tianity, either in their lives or their tempers. Sun. 28.-I preached acharity sermon at St. Peter's, Corn- hill. Monday, 29. I visited the societies in Kent, and returned