rk and its workers must have expected to find.

[Sidenote: 1738--Opposition to Wesleyanism]

Of course a strong opposition to the movement showed itself in many
parts of the country. The Wesleyans were denounced; they were
ridiculed; they were caricatured; they were threatened; they were set
upon by ruffians; they were stoned by mobs. In some places it was said
that the local magistrates actually connived with the attempt to drive
them out by force. Projects are actually declared to have been formed
for their complete extermination. Such projects, however, do not
succeed. No amount of violence has ever yet exterminated religious
zeal and impassioned, even let it be fanatical, enthusiasm. John
Wesley went his way undismayed. He even appears to have positively
enjoyed the excitement and the danger. The persecution began after a
while to languish in its efforts, and the Wesleyans kept growing more
and more numerous and strong. But the movement in growing grew away
from the Church of England. Wesley had been drawn out of his original
intent step after step. He could not help himself, once his movement
had been started. He had had to take to field preaching, for the good
reason that he could not otherwise reach the people whom it was his
heart's warmest longing to reach. He had to take to employing lay
preachers, because without them he could not have got his preaching
done. At last he began to ordain ministers, and even, it is said,
bishops, for the missions in America. He had, in fact, broken away
altogether from the discipline of the Church of England, although he
persisted to his dying day that he never had any design of {142}
separating from the Church, "and had no such design now." Near to the
close of his long life he declared, "I live and die a member of the
Church of England, and none who regard my judgment or advice will ever
separate from it." No one can doubt that Wesley spoke in full
sincerity. When he stepped outside the pale of Church practice it was
only to do what he believed ought to have been the work of the Church
itself, but which the Church did not then care to attempt, and which,
as he felt convinced, could not afford to wait for the indefinite time
when the Church might have the spirit, the energy, and the resources
needed for such an undertaking.

Wesley was a thorough despot; as much of a despot as Peter the Great or
Napoleon. He took no trouble to disguise his despotic purpose.