To Henry Brooke Date: WHITBY, June 14, 1786. DEAR HARRY, - I will give you an answer to your heart's content. In the year 1729 four young gentlemen joined together at Oxford, all zealous members of the Church of England, and all determined to be Bible Christians. In six years they increased to sixteen, and were exactly of the same mind still. In 1738, only two of these were left together; but a few more joined them, who continually increased till some hundreds were joined together. But they still constantly attended the Church; only if any Dissenter desired to unite with them they had no objection to his attending that worship to which he had been accustomed. But in 1740 Dr. Gibson, then Bishop of London, said, 'Cannot Messrs, Wesleys leave the Church Then they could do no more harm.' This we well understood. It meant,' They could do no more good; for not one in ten of their present hearers would hear them.' See letter of Feb. 21 to Thomas Taylor. But, whether they would or no, we would not leave it; our conscience would not permit. In 1743, the Rules of our Society were published; one of which was, 'to attend the Church and Sacrament.' This all our members (except Dissenters) were required to do, or they could not remain with us. In 1744, at our first Conference, we considered ourselves (Methodist preachers), as extraordinary messengers whom God had raised up to provoke to jealousy the ordinary messengers, the clergy; to preach the gospel to the poor, and to call all men of every denomination to worship Him in spirit and in truth. But it did not once come into our mind to separate from the Church or form ourselves into a distinct party. And herein was a new phenomenon in the earth, a thing never seen before - a body of men highly favored of God, who yet chose to abide in their own religious community, and not to separate themselves, from this very motive, that they might be servants of all.

But it was not easy to keep to this resolution. For those among us who had been Dissenters were frequently urging those words, 'Come out from among them, and be ye separate.' And many of the clergy strengthened their hands either by their railing and lying accusations or by their wicked lives or false doctrines; whereby many were hardened in sin, and many who began to run well returned as a dog to his vomit. These objections were so frequently and strongly urged, that in the year 1758 it was fully considered in the Leeds Conference' whether we should separate from the Church or no.' After weighing the whole matter calmly, we determined upon the negative. Mr. Ingham, being present, commended our determination in very strong terms; concluding whenever the Methodists leave the Church God will leave them. See letter of Aug. 19, 1785. To prevent it we all agreed (1) to exhort all our people constantly to attend the church and sacrament; and (2), still to preach on Sundays, morning and evening, not in the church hours. Indeed, by taking the contrary steps, by exhorting our people not to go to Church, or (which came to the same thing) by appointing to preach in the church hours, we should separate from it at once. Last year the case of our brethren in North America was considered, wholly cut off both from the English Church and State. In so peculiar a case I believed it my duty to take an extraordinary step in order to send them all the help I could. See letter of Sept. 10, 1784. And I bless God it has had an admirable effect. 'But why,' say some, 'should not you take the same step here 'Because it is not the same case. They separate from nobody. They had no Church! alas! no King! We have both. 'Well, but weigh their reasons. Should we go to church to hear ourselves abused, by railing, yea and lying accusations 'What said that blessed man Philip Henry, See letter of Oct. 18, 1778. when his friend said (after hearing such a sermon), 'I hope, sir, you will not go to church any more' 'Indeed, I will go in the afternoon; if the minister does not know his duty, I bless God I know mine.'

We are members of the Church of England, we are no particular sect or party, we are friends to all, we quarrel with none for their opinions or mode of worship, we love those of the Church wherein we were brought up, but we impose them upon none; in some unessential circumstances we vary a little from the usual modes of worship, and we have several little prudential helps peculiar to ourselves; but still we do not, will not, dare not separate from the Church till we see other reasons than we have seen yet. Till then I say with St. Austin (only taking the word 'Heretic' in the scriptural sense, which has nothing to do with opinions), Errare possum, hreticus esse nolo.-I am, dear Harry, Yours very affectionately.