Wesley Corpus

Conference, not by me, and would not suffer the Clergy to ride over their heads ; Mr. Smyth in particular, of whom he said all manner of evil. Others warmly defended him. Hence the society was torn in pieces, and thrown into the utmost con- fusion. I read to the society a paper which I wrote near twenty years ago on alike occasion. Herein I observed, that " the rules of our Preachers were fixed by me, before any Con- ference existed," particularly the twelfth : "Above all, you are to preach when and where I appoint." By obstinately opposing which rule, Mr. M'Nab has made all this uproar. In the morn- ing, at a meeting of the Preachers, I informed Mr. M'Nab, that, as he did not agree to our fundamental rule, I could not receive him as one of our Preachers, till he was of another mind. I read the same paper to the society at Bristol, as I found the flame had spread thither also. A few at Bath separated from us on this account : But the restwere thoroughly satisfied. So on Friday, 26, I took coach again, and on Satur- day reached London. In this journey I read Dr. Warner's History of Ireland, from its first settlement to the English Conquest ; and, after calm deliberation, I make no scruple to pronounce it a mere senseless romance. I do not believe one leaf of it is true, from the begin- ning to the end. I totally reject the authorities on which he builds : I will not take Flagherty's or Keating's word for a far- thing. I doubt not, Ireland was, before the Christian era, full as barbarous as Scotland or England. Indeed it appears from their own accounts, that the Irish in general were continually Dec. 1779. plundering and murdering each other from the earliest ages to that period: And so they were ever since, by the account of Dr. Warner himself, till they were restrained by the English. How then were they converted by St. Patrick ? Cousin-german to St. George! To what religion? Not to Christianity. Neither in his age, nor the following, had they the least savour of Chris- tianity, either in their lives or their tempers. -I preached acharity sermon at St. Peter's, Corn- hill. Monday, 29. I visited the societies in Kent, and returned