at he resisted his besetting temptation, and did not send to the
Herrnhut brethren a rude letter which he had written,[721] and thankful
also to find that he did full justice to the good qualities of Count
Zinzendorf.[722] But as to his separation from the London Moravians,
Wesley could not have acted otherwise without seriously damaging the
cause which he had at heart. His dispute with Whitefield will come under
our notice in connexion with the Calvinistic controversy, which forms a
painfully conspicuous feature in the Evangelical movement. It is
sufficient in this place to remark that the Antinomianism which, as a
plain matter of fact, admitted even by the Calvinists themselves, did
result from the perversion of Calvinism, was, if possible, a more fatal
hindrance to Wesley's work than the Moravian stillness itself. This was
obviously the ground of Wesley's dislike of Calvinism,[723] but it did
not separate him from Calvinists; so far as a separation did ensue the
fault did not lie with Wesley.[724]

His misunderstanding with some of the Evangelical clergy of his day
arose from the same cause as that which led him into other disputes. An
overpowering sense of the paramount importance of the great work which
he had to do made him set aside everything which he considered to be an
obstacle to that work without the slightest hesitation. Now, much as
Wesley loved the Church of England, he never appreciated one of her most
marked features, the parochial system. Perhaps under any circumstances
such a system would have found little favour in the eyes of one of
Wesley's temperament. To a man impatient of immediate results the slowly
but surely working influence of a pastor resident in the midst of his
flock, preaching to them a silent sermon every day and almost every hour
by his example among them, would naturally seem flat, tame and
impalpable when compared with the more showy effects resulting from the
rousing preaching of the itinerant. Such a life as that of the parish
priest would have been to Wesley himself simply unbearable. He was of
opinion--surely a most erroneous opinion--that if he were confined to
one spot he should preach himself and his whole congregation to sleep in
a twelvemonth. He never estimated at its proper value the real, solid
work which others were doing in their respective parishes. He bitterly
regretted that Fletcher would persist in wasting his sweetness on the
desert air of Madeley. He had little fa