APPENDIX.

It was since I wrote and preached the above Discourses, that Bishop Horsley's Charges were put into my hand; out of which I have transcribed some valuable passages as notes, and cannot deny myself the pleasure of adding some more, equally valuable, as an Appendix; particularly as bearing upon a point which unhappily disturbs the peace of our church in the present day. In bringing each party to a proper understanding (which is greatly to be desired), Bishop Horsley's authority may have much weight.

"It may seem strange to some, that I should have said, that none of the Methodists are dissenters from the Established Church in doctrine.

when at the same time I have said, that they consist of two principal branches, the one Arminian, and the other Calvinistic; since it has been the fashion of late to talk of Arminianism as the system of the Church of England, and

of Calvinism as something which the church is hostile. be misunderstood in what I

opposite to it, to That I may not have said, or may

have occasion farther to say upon this subject, I must here declare, that I use the words Arminianism and Calvinism in that restricted sense in which they are generally taken,-to denote the doctrinal part of each system, as unconnected with the principles either of Arminians or Calvinists upon church discipline and church government. This being premised, I assert, what I often have before asserted, and by God's grace I will persist in the assertion to my dying day, that so far is it from the truth, that the Church of England is decidedly Arminian and hostile to Calvinism, that the truth is this,—that upon the principal points in dispute, between the Arminians and the Calvinists, upon all the points of doctrine characteristic of the two sects, the Church of England maintains an absolute neutrality; her Articles assert nothing but what is believed both by Arminians and by Calvinists. The Calvinists indeed hold some opinions relative to the same points which the Church of England has not gone the length of asserting in her Articles; but neither has she gone the length of explicitly contradicting those opinions."— "The Methodists, therefore, of the Calvinistic, are not more than those of the Arminian persuasion, dissenters from the Esta

blished Church in doctrine. The Calvinists contradict not the avowed doctrine of the church; nor has the church in her dogmata explicitly contradicted them. They have, therefore, no ground or excuse in the opinions which they profess to hold, for separation from the church; and churchmen, on the other hand, would be much to blame, if, by quarrelling with their doctrinal Calvinism, they were to provoke them, to a separation. Any one may hold all the theological opinions of Calvin, hard and extravagant as some of them may seem, and yet be a sound member of the Church of England and Ireland; certainly a much sounder member than one who, loudly declaiming against those opinions (which, if they be erroneous, are not errors that affect the essence of our common faith), runs into all the nonsense, the impiety, the abominations, of the Arian, the Unitarian, and the Pelagian heresies; denying in effect, the Lord who bought him.' These are the things against which you should whet your zeal, rather than against opinions which, if erroneous, are not sinful. What the church has tolerated, her sons are bound to tolerate; and to treat differences of opinion, which may subsist without blame within the pale of the church itself, with lenity and gentleness."

"Indeed it may seem strange, that any one who has gone deep enough in the subject to be

aware of the doubts and difficulties which hang upon both sides of the question (it is hard to say on which side they are the greatest), whichever way his own opinion may incline, should venture to be confident and peremptory, in the condemnation of the opposite.

"It is said that the Methodists are unremitting in their attempts to alienate the minds of the laity from their proper pastors, the regular clergy. I fear there is too much truth in the accusation; and this schismatical spirit, and this desire of promoting schism, I take to be their principal crime; and a heavy crime indeed it is. But the effectual way to counteract these attempts, and to stifle schism in its very birth, is not to enter into controversy from the pulpit, upon abstruse points of doctrine, which have no sort of connexion with the question concerning the duty of church communion, and the sinfulness of causeless separation. But the effectual and sure way to counteract their attempts against you, is not to attack their religious opinions, but to take heed to the soundness of your own doctrine, and the innocency of your own lives. If you preach a doctrine that goes to the hearts of your hearers (and the genuine doctrines of Christianity will always go to the heart of every one that hears them),—if you adorn that doctrine by the good example of your own lives, the laity will be attached to you in spite of all

your enemies can say against you. The pure, unsophisticated, unmutilated doctrine of the Gospel, will always speak for itself: if you really preach that doctrine, they who tell the people you preach it not, will meet with no credit; and what is more, many of those schismatics themselves will be conciliated,—they will · be cured of their schism, and brought to repent of it. This is the method of self-defence I would advise you to pursue."-" I have long been persuaded, that the best thing for the church would be, that the Calvinistic controversy, as it is called, should be suffered to go to sleep; and the worst thing for the church will be, if it is kept alive, by being made the perpetual topic of preachers in common congregations. It relates to points involved in so much obscurity -so far above the powers of the human mind— that the differences of opinion upon them among the very best Christians, can never cease, because the difficulties can never be cleared up; and the effects of the controversy will never be, to reconcile the jarring opinions, but to dissolve brotherly love and disunite the members of Christ's body. But if ever you should be provoked to take a part in these disputes, of all things I entreat you to avoid, what is now become very common, acrimonious abuse of Calvinism, and of Calvin. Remember, I beseech you, that some tenderness is due to the errors and extravagancies of a man