Wesley Corpus

They saw such failings in those great men, Luther and Calvin Their vehement tenaciousness of their own opinions; their bitterness toward all who differed from them; their impatience of contradiction, and utter want of forbear ance, even with their own brethren. But the grand stumbling-block of all was their open, avowed separation from the Church; their rejecting so many of the doctrines and practices, which the others accounted the most sacred; and their continual invectives against the Church they separated from, so much sharper than Michael’s reproof of Satan. Were there fewer stumbling-blocks attending the Reform ation in England? Surely no: For what was Henry the Eighth ? Consider either his character, his motives to the work, or his manner of pursuing it! And even King Edward’s ministry we cannot clear of persecuting in their turns, yea, and burning heretics. The main stumbling-block also still remained, viz., open separation from the Church. 7. Full as many were the offences that lay in the way of even the sincere members of the Church of England, when the people called Quakers first professed that they were sent of God to reform the land. Whether they were or no is beside our question; it suffices for the present purpose to observe, that over and above their open, avowed, total separation from the Church, and their vehement invectives against many of her doctrines, and the whole frame of her discipline, they spent their main strength in disputing about opinions and externals, rather than in preaching faith, mercy, and the love of God. In these respects the case was nearly the same when the Bap tists first appeared in England. They immediately commenced a warm dispute, not concerning the vitals of Christianity, but concerning the manner and time of administering one of the external ordinances of it. And as their opinion hereof totally differed from that of all the other members of the Church of England, so they soon openly declared their separation from it, not without sharp censures of those that continued therein. 8. The same occasion of offence was, in a smaller degree, given by the Presbyterians and Independents; for they also spent great part of their time and strength in opposing the commonly-received opinions concerning some of the circum stantials of religion; and, for the sake of these, separated from the Church. But I do not include that venerable man, Mr.