urch or the Church; against calling our preachers ministers and our
houses meeting-houses: call them plain preaching-houses. Do not license
yourself till you are constrained, and then not as a Dissenter, but as a
Methodist preacher.' In 1766, 'We will not, we dare not, separate from
the Church, for the reasons given several years ago. We are not
seceders.... Some may say, "Our own service is public worship." Yes, in
a sense, but not such as to supersede the Church service. We never
designed it should! If it were designed to be instead of the Church
service it would be essentially defective, for it seldom has the four
grand parts of public prayer--deprecation, petition, intercession, and
thanksgiving. Neither is it, even on the Lord's Day, concluded with the
Lord's Supper. If the people put ours in the place of the Church
service, we _hurt_ them that stay with us and _ruin_ them that leave
us.' In 1768, 'We are, in truth, so far from being enemies to the Church
that we are rather bigots to it. I dare not, like Mr. Venn, leave the
parish church where I am, and go to an Independent meeting. I advise all
over whom I have any influence to keep to the Church.' In 1777, in the
remarkable sermon which he preached on laying the foundation of the City
Road Chapel, after having given a succinct but graphic account of the
rise and progress of Methodism, 'we,' he concludes, 'do not, will not,
form any separate sect, but from principle remain, what we have always
been, true members of the Church of England.'[732] In 1778, 'To speak
freely, I myself find more life in the Church prayers than in any formal
extempore prayers of Dissenters.' In 1780, 'Having had opportunity of
seeing several Churches abroad, and having deeply considered the several
sorts of Dissenters at home, I am fully convinced our own Church, with
all her blemishes, is nearer the Scriptural plan than any other Church
in Europe.' In 1783, 'In every possible way I have advised the
Methodists to keep to the Church. They that do this most prosper best in
their souls. I have observed it long. If ever the Methodists in general
leave the Church, I must leave them.' In 1786, 'Wherever there is any
Church service I do not approve of any appointment the same hour,
because I love the Church of England, and would assist, not oppose it,
all I can.' In 1788, 'Still, the more I reflect the more I am convinced
that the Methodists ought not to leave the Church. I judge that to lose
a th