" Qvettt. How shall we try those who profess to he moved by the Holy Ghost to preach ?
" A ii.s.'l. Let tlie following questions be asked, namely : Do they know God as a pardoning God? Have they the love of God avoiding in them ? Dolhey desire nothing but God ? And are thev holv in all manner of conversation ?
"■-'. Have they tlie uifis (as well as the grace) fur the work? Have tliey (in some tolerable degree) a clear, sound understanding, a right judgment in the things of God, a just conception of salvation by faith? And has God given them any degree of utterance ? Do they speak justly, readilv, clearly?
"3. Have they fruit? Are any truly convinced of sin, and converted to God by their })reaching?
"As long as these three marks concur in any one, we believe he'is called of God to preach. These we receive as sufficient proof that he is moved by the Holy Ghost."
From the time of Maxfield's admission as a preacher, many others of similar piety and gifts offered their ser- vices and were accepted. As the work went on, and additions were made to the " societies" in all parts of the kingdom, the demand for preachers increased. Wesley had always thought that preachers would be supplied from the pidpits of the Established Church, but, disap- pointed in this, he came to favor the admission of those who, although not episcopally ordained, were wholly devoted to the work of preaching the Gospel, and gladly recognised them as ministers of Christ. The employ- ment of this class of auxiliaries constantly increasing, finally led to a meeting, held annually thereafter, and known as " the Conference" (q. v."). The first of these assemblies was held in 1744, and from this year Meth- odism began to assume the appearance of an organized system. It was in 1744 that the brothers John and Charles Wesley, with two or three other regularly-or- dained clergymen, met with such of the " preachers" as could conveniently attend, to clothe Jlethodism with the conventional forms of established ecclesiastical gov- ernment. Of course neither John nor Charles could brook the idea of becoming Dissenters, and Methodism was organized as an independent Church body only af- ter the death of John Wesley. See Weslp:yans. To all intents and purposes the Church was organized at this first Conference in 1744, and yet by this very body one of the questions asked was, "Are we Dissenters'?" and its answer an emphatic " A'o." "Although we call sinners to repentance in all places of God's dominion, and although we frequently use extemporary prayer, and unite together in a religious society, yet we are not Dis- senters in the only sense which our law acknowledges,
viz. those who renounce the service of the Church. We do not, we dare not, separate from it. We are not se- ceders, nor do we bear any resemblance to them. We set out upon quite opposite principles. The seceders laid the very foundation of their work in judging and condemning' others. We laid the foundation of our work in judging and condemning ourselves. They be- gin everywhere with showing their hearers how fallen the Church and its ministers are ; we begin everywhere with showing our hearers how fallen they are them- selves" (Coke, Life of Wesley, p. 287). " jNIonday, Jime 25, and the five following days," says the leader of this little band, "we spent in conference with our preachers, seriously considering by what means we might the most eflfectuallj' save our own souls and them that heard its, and the result of our consultations we set down to be the rule of our future practice." Already had the larger portion of England been divided into "circuits," to each of which several preachers ^vere sent for one or two years. A part of the work of each annual assembh' was to arrange these appointments and changes. At the early Conferences various theological questions were dis- cussed with reference to the agreement of all the par- ties in a common standard; and when this was settled, and the doctrinal discussions were discontinued, new regulations of another kind were from year to year adopted, as the state of the societies, and the enlarging opportunities of doing good, seemed to require. The first indication of a desire to see a separate establish- ment was given by John Wesley in 1784, when he or- dained Coke (q. v.) bishop of the Methodist Church in this country. See Mkthodist Episcopal Church. On neither side of the ocean had adherents of Wesley hitherto organized as a Church. They were simply up to this time non-ecclesiastical religious societies, en- tirely voluntary on the part of the members, and all governed by a common discipline, of which their found- er was the sole dictator and the chief executor. Yet even this step to provide for the Methodists in Amer- ica a separate ecclesiastical organization does not clear- ly reveal whether Wesley changed his mind as to his* former relation and that of his adherents within the Anglican rule to the Church of England. Says Dr. Curry, of the Christian Ad'-ocute (N. Y.,May 25, 1871), " No fact respecting the history of John Wesley is more clearly manifest than that he ^vas always a strenuous supporter of the authority of the Established Church of England. He jealously regarded the exclusive ec- clesiastical authority of that Church in all that he did as an evangelist, and seemed always determined that while he lived and ruled — and it was always under- stood that he would rule as long as he lived— nothing should be tolerated in his societies at all repugnant to the sole and exclusive ecclesiastical authority of the Established Church. This rule was applied to his so- cieties in America before the Kevolution just as strictly as to those in England. But the political separation of America from Great Britain, as it also ended the au- thority of the English Church in this country, made it lawful, according to his theory of the case, for the :Meth- odist societies in America to become regidarly organized churches."