Another of your cursory remarks on field-preaching, is this; “Have not the Methodist preachers, as well as St. _Anthony_, been attended with a _sturdy set_ of followers, as their guards, armed with clubs under their cloaths, menacing and terrifying such as should dare to speak lightly of their apostle?” You add, “I have heard it often affirmed.” And so might the heathens have said, that they heard it often affirmed, “that when the primitive christians received the blessed sacrament, they killed a young child, and then sucked its blood.” But was that any reason why they should believe it? It is true indeed, some of the Methodist preachers have more than once been attended with a _sturdy set_ of followers armed with clubs and other weapons, not as their guards, but opposers, and persecutors; and who have not only menaced and terrified, but actually abused and beat many of those, who came to hear him, whom you, I suppose, would call their apostle. Both Methodist preachers and Methodist hearers too, for want of better arguments, have often felt the weight of such _irresistible power_, which, literally speaking, hath struck many of them dumb; and I verily believe, had it not been for some superior invisible guard, must have struck them dead. These are all the sturdy set of armed followers, that the Methodists know of. Other guards, besides those common to all christians, they desire none. And whatever you may unkindly insinuate, about my being aware of a turbulent spirit, a fighting enthusiasm amongst them, because I said, “I dread nothing more than the false zeal of my friends in a suffering hour;” I think many years experience may convince the world, that the weapons of their warfare, like those of their blessed Redeemer and his apostles, have not been carnal: but thanks be to GOD, however you may ridicule his irresistible power, they have, through him, been mighty to the pulling down of Satan’s strong-holds, in many a sturdy sinner’s heart.
But to return to the church, where in reality the Methodist adventures were begun. Section 5th, page 15, you tell the world, “that after they had traduced the clergy, as long as they were permitted to do it, in their own churches and pulpits, in order to seduce their flocks, and collect a staring rabble, (pretty language this, Sir,) they set about this pious work of _defamation_ mere heartily in the fields.” I was reading further, expecting to find your parallel. But I see it is wanting. Are the Methodists then originals in this particular? Or could you, among all the histories of your eminent saints, find no instances of St. _Anthony_’s, St. _Francis_’s, and St. _Ignatius_’s carrying on this pious work of defamation in their days? Will you suffer me to supply the deficiency, by laying before you some examples, which, though of an earlier date, may, by unprejudiced persons, be esteemed as suitable, as any of a popish extraction? In the New Testament, (a book you seem to have laid aside, or at least little adverted to, when writing your pamphlet) we are informed, That when _John Baptist_, “saw many of the Pharisees and Sadducees come to his baptism, he said unto them, O generation of vipers, who hath warned you to flee from the wrath to come?” The same book tells us, that St. _Stephen_ being full of the _Holy Ghost_, and within a few moments of his death, said to the whole _Jewish_ sanhedrim, “Ye stiff-necked and uncircumcised in hearts and ears, ye do always resist the Holy Ghost; as your fathers did, so do ye.” And our LORD JESUS CHRIST himself, the master of both these, in one chapter denounces no less than thirteen woes against the scribes and pharisees, whose chief power of doing good, and promoting the common salvation, he well knew, depended upon their character, as much as any clergy in any age of the church whatsoever. Not that I would be understood by this to insinuate, that all which the Methodist preachers have spoken against the clergy, was spoken in the same Spirit, or with the like divine authority, as our LORD, his harbinger, and his protomartyr, spoke. That would be carrying the parallel too far indeed. There is generally much, too much severity in our first zeal. At least there was in mine. All I would therefore infer is this, that what some (not to say you, Sir,) may term “Gall of bitterness and black art of calumny,” may be nothing but an honest testimony against the corruptions of a degenerate church, and may, without any degree of wickedness, be supposed to come from the “Spirit and power given from GOD.” If we deny this, not only _Isaiah_, _Jeremiah_, and almost all the prophets, but likewise JESUS CHRIST and his Apostles, must be looked upon by us, (as I suppose they were by the men in whose day they lived) as great _slanderers_, and dealing much in this black art of calumny and defamation.