At the same time, my Lords, I would not say any thing that might any way encourage disorders; neither would I persuade the Methodists to leave their own parish-churches when the sacrament is administered there. On the contrary, I would have them take the author’s advice, page 6, paragraph 6, “If particular persons are disposed to receive weekly, when the sacrament is not administered at their own parish-church, to repair privately to the church nearest their own, where the sacrament is administered every Lord’s-day, having first signified their names to the minister, as the rubrick directs.” This, I believe, they will readily comply with. For I cannot think with this author (in the same paragraph), that the reason of their coming in such numbers is, that they may have the “vain pleasure of appearing together in a body, and as a distinct sect.” We would rather, according to the rules of that charity which hopeth all things for the best, believe that they come together in such companies to animate and encourage one another. Dr. _Horneck_, I remember, in his account of the primitive christians, remarks, that “where you saw one christian, you might generally see more.” And is it not delightful, my Lords, to behold a communion table crouded? Do not such as complain of it, discover something of the spirit of those _Pharisees_, who were angry when so many people brought their sick to be healed by our LORD JESUS on the sabbath-day? For I cannot think, that the ministers complain of this, only on account of their being hereby “put under the difficulty (paragraph 5, page 6.) either of rejecting great numbers as unknown to them, or administering the sacrament to great numbers, of whom they have no knowledge,” because it is too notorious that hundreds receive the blessed sacrament, both in _London_ and other places, where there are no Methodists, whom the minister knows little or nothing at all about, and takes no pains to enquire after. O that the Author’s mentioning this, may be a means of stirring up the clergy to approve themselves _good shepherds_, by seeking, as much as in them lies, to know the state of all that come to the holy communion! Glad am I, my Lords, to find that the author, in this edition, hath left out the complaint which was in the copy I first read, of such crowds coming to receive the sacrament, “because the ministers who are afternoon-lecturers, were thereby put under the hardship of not having time for necessary rest and refreshment, between morning and evening duties. For might not our LORD say unto them, “You slothful servants, cannot you labour for me one day in a week? Cannot you lose one meal to feed my lambs, without complaining of it as an hardship?” Surely none can make such a complaint, but such “whose god is their belly, whose glory is their shame, who mind earthly things.” But I need not mention this, because the Author himself seems ashamed of it.
And indeed this, as well as the other objections against the Methodists, are so trivial, and the acts referred to as discountenancing their field-preaching, so impertinent, that the Author, without the least degree of a prophetic spirit, might easily foresee, paragraph 8, page 8, “that this, and every other _such complaint_ against the Methodists, would be censured not only by them, (but by every impartial person) as a discouragement to piety and devotion, and particularly a religious observation of the Lord’s-day.” Nay, my Lords, he might have foreseen that it would be censured as a wicked, false, and ill-designing libel. For is it not wicked, to represent innocent and loyal persons as _open defiers of government_, page 4, paragraph 2, and making _open inroads upon the national constitution_, (paragraph 4.) without bringing any real proofs of either?