es and sacraments of
the Church of England. In his sermon "On Attending Church Service," Mr.
Wesley says, "it was one of our original rules, that every member of our
society should attend the church and sacrament, unless he had been bred
among Christians of another denomination." In his Tract, entitled
"Principles of a Methodist Further Explained," (written in reply to the
Rev. Mr. Church,) Mr. Wesley says:--

The United Society was originally so called, because it consisted
of several smaller societies united together. When any member of
these, or of the United Society, are proved to live in known sin,
we then mark and avoid them: we separate ourselves from every one
that walks disorderly. Sometimes if the case be judged infectious
(though rarely) this is decided openly; but this you style
"excommunication," and say, "does not every one see a separate
ecclesiastical communion?"

Mr. Wesley replies:--

No. This society does not separate from the rest of the Church of
England. They continue steadfast with them both in the apostolical
doctrine, and in breaking of bread, and in prayers.

And in further reply to the charge, that in excluding disorderly persons
from his society, he was usurping a power committed to the higher order
of the clergy, Mr. Wesley says:--

No; not in the power of excluding members from a private society,
unless on the supposition of some such rule as ours is, viz.: "That
if a man separate from the church, he is no longer a member of our
society."

These passages (from scores of similar ones in Mr. Wesley's works), are
sufficient to shew what Mr. Wesley understood and intended by admission
into, or exclusion from, any one of his societies--that it did not in
the least affect the relations of any person to the Church of which he
was a member. Now, the rule which Mr. Wesley imposed as a condition of
membership in a private society in a Church, we impose as a condition of
membership in the Church itself.

It is also worthy of remark, that attendance at class-meeting is not
required of members in the general rules of the society--those very
rules which our ministers are required to give to persons proposing to
join the Wesleyan Church.

In those rules no mention is made of class-meeting, nor is it there
required that each member shall meet the leader, much less meet him in a
class-meeting, in the presence of many others