Wesley Corpus

When I preached at Wednesbury first, Mr. Egginton (the vicar) invited me to his house, and told me that the oftener I came the welcomer I should be; for I had done much good there already, and he doubted not but I should do much more. But the next year I found him another man. He had not only heard a vehement Visitation Charge, but had been informed that we had publicly preached against drunkards, which must have been designed for satire on him. From this time we found more and more effects of his unwearied labors, public and private, in stirring up the people on every side, ‘to drive these fellows out of the country.’ One of his sermons I heard with my own ears. I pray God I may never hear such another! The minister of Darlaston and the curate of Walsall trod in the same steps. And these were they who (not undesignedly) occasioned all the disorders which followed there.[See Journal, iii. 74-5.] You add: ‘In countries which you have not much frequented there have appeared Antinomian preachers personating your disciples.’ These have appeared most in countries I never frequented at all, as in the west of Lancashire, in Dorsetshire, and in Ireland. When I came they disappeared, and were seen no more there -- at least, not personating our disciples. And yet, by all I can learn, even these poor wretches have done as little harm as good. I cannot learn that they have destroyed one soul that was before truly seeking salvation. But you think I myself ‘do a great deal of harm by breaking and setting aside order. For, order once ever so little set aside, confusion rushes in like a torrent.’ What do you mean by order a plan of Church discipline What plan the scriptural, the primitive, or our own It is in the last sense of the word that I have been generally charged with breaking or setting aside order--that is, the rules of our own Church, both by preaching in the fields and by using extemporary prayer.