[Footnote 726:  See Tyerman’s Life of Wesley, ii. 545.]

[Footnote 727:  See Tyerman’s Life of Wesley, ii. 334.]

[Footnote 728:  Southey, ii. 71.  In 1780 Wesley wrote, ’You seem not to have well considered the rules of a helper or the rise of Methodism.  It pleased God by me to awaken first my brother, then a few others, who severally desired of me as a favour to direct them in all things.  I drew up a few plain rules (observe there was no Conference in being) and permitted them to join me on these conditions.  Whoever, therefore, violates these conditions does ipso facto disjoin himself from me.  This Brother Macnab has done, but he cannot see that he has done amiss.  The Conference has no power at all but what I exercise through them’ (the preachers).]

[Footnote 729:  Letter of Mr. J. Hampson, jun., quoted by Rev. L. Tyerman, Life of Wesley, vol. iii. p. 423.]

[Footnote 730:  Robert Southey, passim.]

[Footnote 731:  In a letter to Mr. Walker, of Truro, 1756.]

[Footnote 732:  To the same effect in his Short History of Methodism Wesley wrote, ’Those who remain with Mr. Wesley are mostly Church of England men.  They love her articles, her homilies, her liturgy, her discipline, and unwillingly vary from it in any instance.’]

[Footnote 733:  See also Wesley’s Works, vol. xii. p. 446, &c.]

[Footnote 734:  For this reason, among others, not much has been said in this sketch about Wesley’s opinions, because they were different at different stages of his life.  Moreover, though Wesley was an able man and a well-read man, and could write in admirably lucid and racy language, he can by no means be ranked among theologians of the first order.  He could never, for instance, have met Dr. Clarke, as Waterland did; or, to compare him with one who was brought into contact with him, he could never have written the Serious Call, nor have answered Tindal, as Law did.]

[Footnote 735:  ’I retract several expressions in our hymns which imply impossibility; of falling from perfection; I do not contend for the term “sinless,” though I do not object against it.’  And in a sermon on the text, ‘In many things we offend all,’ ’We are all liable to be mistaken, both in speculation and practice,’ &c.  ’Christian perfection certainly does admit of degrees,’ &c.]

[Footnote 736:  But, as a staunch Churchman, he agreed with the Baptismal Service.  In his Treatise on Baptism he writes, ’Regeneration, which our Church in so many places ascribes to baptism, is more than barely being admitted into the Church.  By water we are regenerated or born again; a principle of grace is infused which will not be wholly taken away unless we quench the Spirit of God by long-continued wickedness.’  The same sentiments are expressed in his sermon on the ‘New Birth.’]

[Footnote 737:  See inter alia, T. Somerville’s My Own Life and Times (1741-1841).  ’He [J.  Wesley] had attended, he told me, some of the most interesting debates at the General Assembly, which he liked “very ill indeed,” saying there was too much heat,’ &c., pp. 253-4.]