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nate that prove the worst enemies of dissent . We hardly need add , that these principles are of the most slavish nature . They make the people nothing—the priesthood every thing . They are of the very essence of priestcraft . " Methodism is as far removed from democracy , " we are told on authority , " as it is from sin . " «« A princip ] e uniformly avoided in Methodism , * ' another authority says , ** is , that all power is derived from the
people , none from God , save what comes through them . " Now dissent cannot flourish when these principles prevail . They strike at the very root of all secession from established hierarchies . Yet these , and such as these , are the principles with which Methodism has imbued the minds of some myriads of the inhabitants of these islands . It has gone into the strong-holds of dissent—it has gone among the people , and bound those who , in the natural course of things , would have been on our side , with a seven-fold cord ; it
has done more than any other thing to check the progress of liberal sentiments within the last century ; it has pervaded the mass with sentiments , attachments , and fears , all working together to rivet the chains of the human soul . We pray it may not be found to have prepared the way for the increase of Catholicism . We fear it has . We say not much when we affirm , that the Pope has better claims to spiritual dominion than the junto which rules the Conference . The statement of these claims may fascinate minds so constituted as are those of the bulk of the Methodist community .
Of one thing Methodism may boast—it is consistent . Throughout it is a system of slavish principles and lordly rule . There is no spurious mixture of affected liberalism . Methodist preachers are priests , and they avow it ; they exact submission , and they justify their exaction ; they keep the people down , and they plead their right so to do . They are themselves of the powers that be , and under the influence of an esprit de corps , they require from their subjects plenary obedience to all constituted authorities . Thus , in the words of Mr . Watson , they call on the people in spiritual concerns to be docile , obedient to the word of exhortation , willing to submit in the Lord to those who preside over them , and are charged to exercise Christ * s discipline ; " and thus , in the words of the Conference , they , in the stormy times of 1792 , charged their body to be politically subservient : — •« None of us shall , either in writing or conversation , speak lightly or irreverently of the government under which he lives . We are to observe that the oracles of God command us to be subject to the higher powers , and that honour to the kin g is thus connected with the fear of God . " And again , in a worse spirit , in 1794 , " We most affectionately entreat all our brethren , in the name of God , to honour the king . Let us daily pray for our rulers , and submit ourselves to every ordinance of man for the Lord ' s sake . " This time-serving
spirit has attended Methodism down to the present moment , and the leading men of the body are now exclaiming against that " false liberalism which bodes no good either to church or state . " Let the friends of the liberties of man look with a jealous eye on the Methodist community . They have been slaves , they are slaves , and they would , too many of them , be tools to enslave others . The preachers have been tyrants , they are tyrants , and they would , too many of them , be tools to enslave others . In making this assertion we only say , that men will act in consistency with their recognized principles .
Our fears of the probable effects of Methodistic influence are much abated by knowing that a change is going on in the Methodist community . Liberal principles are gaining ground in the minds of many . A determination to defend and multiply their actual liberties no few have manifested . Dis-
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Methodism an instrument of Civil Power . 541
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Citation
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Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), Aug. 2, 1830, page 541, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2587/page/37/
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