Wesley was laid before them, and adopted;* and they accordingly. formed themselves into an independent Church, under the title of The Methodist Episcopal Church.' Dr. Coke was acknowledged as one of their superintendents, agreeably to Mr. Wesley's appointment. Though Mr. Asbury had been appointed by Mr. Wesley a joint superintendent with Dr. Coke, he refused to act as such unless elected to this office by the conference. This election, however, he obtained by a unanimous vote; and he was accordingly ordained a deacon on Christmas day. On the 26th he was ordained an elder, and a superintendent on the 27th, several elders assisting Dr. Coke in his ordination; among whom was Mr. Otterbine, a pious German Presbyterian minister, who was added by the special request of Mr. Asbury.

They also ordained several of the preachers to the offices of deacons and elders; and having made several other necessary regulations, they adjourned the conference.

III. On its constitution.

They were now formed into a regular Episcopal Church, with bishops, elders, and deacons, all of whom were made elective and responsible. The supreme authority of this Church, under God, is vested in the general conference. This conference is now composed of the bishops, who are its presidents, but have no vote among its members; and of a certain proportion of delegates, chosen by each annual conference from among its elders. As the general conference is now a delegated body, its powers are so restricted that it cannot do away the Episcopacy, nor the general itinerant superintendency. Neither can it alter any of the articles of religion, the general rules of the society; nor do away the privileges of the ministers, preachers, nor private members, of a trial by their peers, and of an appeal; nor appropriate the produce of the Book Concern, nor of the Charter Fund, to any other purposes than those to which they are now devoted by the existing canons of the Church. Under these limitations, this conference, which meets quadrennially, has full powers to make rules and regulations for the Church; it also possesses judiciary powers in respect to the bishops, and appellant powers in respect to the members of the several annual conferences, which are severally composed of all the travelling ministers within their bounds.

All the bishops of this Church possess co-ordinate powers. A bishop is constituted by the election of a general conference, and the laying on of the hands of three bishops, or of one bishop and two elders; except there should be no bishop, in which case any three elders, who may be appointed for that purpose by the general conference, may perform the consecration service. It is made the duty of a bishop to travel at large through the conferences; to take the general superintendence of the spiritual and temporal concerns of the Church; to preside in the general and annual conferences; to appoint the travelling ministers and preachers to their several stations; and to ordain elected persons to the offices of elders and deacons. A bishop is responsible to the general conference for his moral, Christian, and official conduct.

* Jesse Lee, in his History of the Methodists, says, it was on the 27th day of December; which is evidently a mistake, as Mr. Asbury was ordained a deacon at that conference on the 25th. See the certificate of his ordination in his Journal, as given under the hand of Dr. Coke, vol. i, p. 378.

A travelling elder is constituted by the election of an annual conference, and the laying on of the hands of a bishop, assisted by several elders. Before any person can be thus elected and ordained, he must have exercised the office of a travelling deacon for two years; except in the case of missionaries. An elder is to do all the duties of a travelling preacher, to administer the sacraments of baptism and the eucharist, and celebrate marriage. He is amenable to an annual conference for his moral, Christian, and ministerial conduct. A presiding elder differs from others, only by his being appointed to the charge of a district. It is his duty to travel through his district, attend the quarterly meetings of the several circuits, hold quarterly meeting conferences for the transaction of the circuit business, (which conferences are to be composed of the travelling and local ministers and preachers, exhorters, class leaders, and stewards of the circuit,) and to take the oversight of all the travelling and local ministers and preachers, and the exhorters of his district, &c. Local elders are constituted by the recommendation of a quarterly meeting conference, the election of an annual conference, and the laying on of the hands of a bishop, and several elders. They are amenable to a quarterly meeting conference; and are to perform all the functions of the ministry, occasionally, except the pastoral duties.

A travelling deacon is constituted by the election of an annual conference, and the laying on of the hands of a bishop. Before a preacher can be thus ordained, he must have been received on trial in an annual conference, have travelled two years, and been received into full membership with the conference, by the vote of its members. A deacon is to perform all the duties of a travelling preacher, to assist the elder in the administration of the Lord's Supper, to administer baptism, and to celebrate marriage. He is amenable to an annual conference, in the same manner as an elder. A local preacher may be constituted a deacon, after he has held the office of a licensed preacher for four successive years, on the recommendation of a quarterly meeting conference, by the election of an annual conference, and the laying on of the hands of a bishop. Local preachers are constituted, on the recommendation of the class of which they are members, or of a leaders' meeting, by the election of a quarterly meeting conference, and the certificate of a presiding elder. Exhorters are licensed by the minister in charge of the circuit, on the recommendation of the class, as aforesaid, or of a leaders' meeting. Circuit stewards are elected by the quarterly meeting conference on the nomination of the minister in charge. Class leaders are appointed by the minister. Private members of the Church are first admitted by the minister on a probation of six months; at the expiration of which time, provided their conduct has been satisfactory to the society, and they are recommended by their leader, the minister, after due and satisfactory examination, may admit them into full membership in the Church.

But, it has been objected, by persons holding high Church principles, that the Methodist Episcopacy is invalid, because Mr. Wesley, from whom it emanated, was only a presbyter. To this it may be replied, that some of the leading men among the English reformers, especially Archbishop Cranmer, was of Mr. Wesley's opinion; viz. that bishops

and presbyters were originally of the same order. If so the Methodist Episcopacy is valid. Others, who were men of high Church principles, acknowledged that Episcopal ordination (though of Divine right, as they asserted,) is not absolutely necessary to a valid Christian ministry. And others again, who would not admit the correctness of the opinion last stated, did nevertheless acknowledge, that, in a case of necessity, Episcopal ordination might be dispensed with. Now the validity of Methodist Episcopacy may be maintained on any or all these grounds. Mr. Wesley professedly acted on the first. And on that ground there can be no question concerning his right to ordain. According to the second opinion of some of the English reformers, the validity of Methodist ordination cannot be disputed. But if neither of these could be sustained, the third opinion, which appears to have been admitted by the most rigid Episcopalians among these early reformers, will, it is presumed, fully justify the course pursued by Mr. Wesley and the American Methodists, and consequently prove the validity of Methodist Episcopacy. From the facts which have been briefly stated in the preceding part of this discourse, the necessity of the case was such, that every candid and unprejudiced mind, it is presumed, will readily acknowledge the propriety of using any lawful means, by which the existing evils might be removed. The questions to be resolved were: Shall thousands of Christians live and die without the Christian sacraments; and tens of thousands of the children of Christian parents grow up without Christian baptism? Or shall their stated teachers be authorized to administer these sacraments to them? Now, who would hesitate to acknowledge, if necessity can justify a departure from ordination by Episcopal succession in any case, that it was justifiable in the case before us? If any should be found who, after considering all the above grounds of justification of the course pursued by Mr. Wesley and the American Methodists, still deny that the Methodist Episcopacy is valid; and continue to assert, that nothing can justify a departure from ordination, by a regular Episcopal succession from the apostles; it is presumed that they will find but few, among candid and enlightened Christians, who will deliberately agree with them; and they are requested to sit down, and make out their regular Episcopal succession, before they bring the want of it as an objection against the validity of the ministry of the Methodist Episcopal Church. IV. On its government.

In examining into the government of the Methodist Episcopal Church, it must not be forgotten, that it is a great itinerant system; and that this itinerancy could not continue to exist, and its operations be facilitated, without great sacrifices on the part of its itinerant ministry, and a cordial consent on the part of its local ministers and its members in general, to that part of its economy which places the government into the hands of the itinerant ministers. While, therefore, the great body of the Methodist people shall continue to prefer an itinerant to a local ministry, they will prefer the present form of government to any other which might be substituted in its place; but, as soon as they grow weary of this system, and determine to have local pastors of their own immediate selection, they will take the government of the Church into their own hands, and the itinerancy will come to an end. The authority invested in the ministers of this

Church is fully sustained by the New Testament. And it is worthy of remark, that it not only has been exercised for the good of the private members of the Church; but that it is especially calculated for their spiritual improvement. It imposes nothing upon them which is rigid or severe. The travelling ministers have to sustain the greatest burdens, to make the greatest sacrifices, and possess the smallest earthly advantages of any class of its members. The bishops are placed under the severest restrictions, and are called to perform the most laborious service of any persons over whom this Church exercises a jurisdiction. Next to them, the travelling ministers and preachers have to make the greatest sacrifices, and perform the most laborious service, and that, in general, with a very scanty and uncertain support, while the local ministers and preachers, and the private members of the Church are left to pursue their honest worldly avocations at their pleasure, and not even one cent of their property can be taken from them, without their own consent, by any of the authorities of the Church. This is not designed to disparage the local. ministry of the Church. Many of the local ministers and preachers make considerable sacrifices of their time and their money, in the service of the Church, while they look for no earthly reward for these sacrifices and services; and many times, while the members of the Church look with cold indifference upon their labors of love. The travelling ministers do not stipulate with the people, to serve them for a competent support. They come to them in the name of the Lord, leaving it with them to say whether they shall be supported or not; and many times they are not so much as asked one question on the subject by the committee of the quarterly conference, by whom their allowance is determined; nor even so much as informed by them what amount they are to receive for their support, till more than one half the year has expired for which the appropriation is made. When the appropriation is thus made known to these itinerants, they must be satisfied with it, however scanty; and if the people do not voluntarily pay it, they must be contented to do without it and it frequently happens that one half the appropriation remains unpaid for ever. These statements are made, at the present, not by way of complaint, but of illustration; and to repel the unjust insinuations of many of the enemies of this Church. As the pastors of the people, it is made the duty of these itinerant ministers to watch over them in the Lord; to urge them to the performance of their Christian and relative duties; to reprove such of them as act inconsistently with their Christian profession; to preside in all ecclesiastical trials among the people of their charge; and to excommunicate such members as have been found guilty of a violation of the canons of the Church, by a committee of their lay brethren, acting as jurors in the case. But, the membership of each individual, and his Church privileges are so secured to him by the constitution of the Church, that it is not in the power of any minister, or of all the ministers combined, to deprive him of them, by virtue of any authority invested in the ministers of the Church.

V. On its doctrines.

These have been sufficiently proved to be the same as those of the Church of England, as contained in her articles, liturgy, and homilies, by Messrs. Wesley and Fletcher. And that they are the doctrines of the Holy Scriptures, has not only been proved by them, but by many

other writers, and in all the Methodist pulpits in Europe and America. I shall not, therefore, detain you longer upon them at the present. They are, evidently, in the general, the doctrines of our Lord Jesus Christ, who is the incarnate God, and who has owned them in the conversion and final salvation of myriads of souls.

VI. On its discipline. This also is manifestly founded on, and drawn from the word of God; and it is highly calculated to promote the spirit and practice of Christian holiness and Scriptural morality, which ought to be the end of all ecclesiastical discipline; and, in its requirements and results, gives sufficient evidence that it has the sanction of the great Head of the Church.

VII. On its institutions.

Under this head we might notice class meetings, love feasts, watchnights, quarterly meetings, and missionary, Bible, Sunday school, and tract societies; and also its literary institutions, and the Book Concern, including its periodicals. But it is impossible to enlarge upon all these, within our present limits. Some of these are well calculated to keep alive, in the minds of Christians, the spirit of piety, and to influence them to the practice of every Christian duty: especially weekly class meetings. The Missionary Society of the M. E. Church specially deserves a passing notice, as it has done more toward the evangelization of the world, in proportion to the time it has existed, and the scanty means it has been able to employ, than any other similar institution of the present age. But we should never lose sight of the fact, that the Methodist Episcopal Church is a great missionary institution; and that every one of its travelling ministers and preachers is a missionary. The Sunday school society, too, has done much toward the education of the rising generation, in religion and morals: and a laudable zeal has been manifested among the ministers and members of this Church, in many places, upon this subject. Mr. Wesley was one of the first to promote the Sunday school cause in England; and Mr. Asbury in this country. Mr. Wesley may also be ranked among the fathers of the tract cause, as he wrote and published many religious tracts, which he circulated gratuitously, for many years before a tract society was in existence. The cause of literature also lay near his heart; and the two literary institutions under the Wesleyan Methodists in England, though they had not collegiate powers, are said to stand very high in public estimation, for affording young men an opportunity to obtain a solid, classical education. The first bishops, too, of the M. E. Church, showed a laudable zeal in the cause of literature, by using all their influence to establish a college, under the protection of the Church over which they presided. Cokesbury College was the fruit of this zeal. But it would appear that the time had not then come in which the providence of God would favor this design among the Methodists; and, therefore, after it had been in operation about ten years, it was burned to the ground, and never rebuilt. Other attempts of a similar nature were subsequently made without success. Recently, however, the literary institutions of the M. E. Church, both academies and colleges, have risen up in different parts of the country, and, considering their slender endowments, promise much. One thing is especially worthy of remark concerning them, viz. that revivals of religion have been more or less identified with them; and the students, instead of