Letters to the Rev. John Maclean, containing an exposition of the government of Wesleyan Methodism, with practical illustrations of its affects

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LETTERS

TO THE

REV. JOHN MACLEAN,

Letter I. To The

REV. JOHN MACLEAN,

Minister in the Wesleyan Methodist Connexion,

Rev. Sir,

It is with much reluctance and with feelings of deep regret that I thus publicly address you. Your conduct, however, has left me no alternative ; and the only apology I owe is to the public, for delay in a work which duty to myself and them required should be expeditiously performed. Unwilling, however, to misrepresent or injure either you or your friends, I have taken much time and labour to verify statements and alleged facts, that I might preserve myself from the charge of negligence and error, and others from the evils produced by misrepresentation. Of my solicitude for correctness, I hope I may appeal to you as a witness, so far, at least, as relates to the allegations against yourself: having, after I had sought out, collected, and compared information, sent it to you, that you might admit, qualify, or deny, as you saw right. The same solicitude I have felt in every other case. If, therefore, I have erred, it has been unintentionally; and so soon as error is proved, it shall be acknowledged and renounced.

Since writing the above, I have had put into my hands a copy of my own address, published by you, without any consent of mine, and, therefore a literary piracy: — published, indeed, for the pretended purpose, that "the entire subject may be brought fairly before the public;" but in reality that you might gain a dishonourable advantage over one whom you are engaged in a fruitless attempt to degrade ; and that you might for a short time lead the public astray, by prefixing to the letter as a fact, what you could scarcely but know was a falsehood, and by imputing as an only motive, what the letter itself proves was not even the principal one.

These charges, Sir, shall in due time be substantiated, to the satisfaction of every honest mind that will take the trouble to examine. Exceedingly do I regret the necessity under which you have laid me of speaking out thus plainly. I once thought you honourable, liberal, and candid : but your treatment of one of your brethren in the ministry, whose piety and talents entitled him at least to courtesy and kindness, especially from you — I mean the Rev. S. Dunn, — convinced me that I and others had mistaken your character, and that, either in your judgment or disposition there was more of the lordliness and narrowness of your order than I had previously suspected. The report of your doings in Norfolk-street and Brunswick Chapels, did not weaken this impression : still I was willing to hope that most, if not all, was the effect of temporary excitement : but even this forlorn hope is done away by your piracy, prefaced, as I shall prove it is, by a statement at which its author ought to blush — by the imputation of a motive as the only one, the influence of which was obviously subordinate — and by an avowal of bigotry and littleness, which, though too characteristic of the party to which you belong-, would be denounced as a reproach by any other respectable body of professing- Christians in this country. But while I reserve these topics for my next letter, I cannot pass over the following note, given by you at the bottom of page 1 : — " The Rev. T. Allin having given notice of his intention to publish a letter founded upon hearsay reports of certain statements made by me in Norfolk-street Chapel, on Sunday, the 23d Ult. it is probable I may, hereafter, have to enter more largely into this subject. — J.

M'L." The evident intention of this note, is to represent the evidence on which my account of your pulpit exercises rests, as being so questionable or uncertain, as to require peculiar caution in those before whom it may be presented, and thus to create a previous prejudice against it. Now, Sir, will this representation add to your celebrity for manly independence, high honour, and unimpeachable integrity, except among such as are resolved not to see, when they are informed that these " hearsay reports" are collected from your own seat -holders and members ; consequently from persons who have no particular inducement to serve me against you, except an honest conviction of the truth of what they relate : — that they are collected from persons of acknowledged intelligence and respectability, and some of them of unquestionable piety: — that these persons report, not what was told them by others, but that which they saw and heard themselves : — that the reports have been collected, not from one or two, but from several, and some of them from many independent sources : — that when thus collected, they were committed to writing, and sent to you by a friend, in order that you might say, if, in your judgment, there was any misrepresentation:* — that you were requested to furnish in writing, any correction you deemed necessary, in order to prevent the possibility of misrepresentation on the part of the friend who waited upon you : — that though you verbally offered some corrections, yet you declined writing ; lest, as you said, you " should fill Mr. Allin's pamphlet." Yet these are " hearsay reports" ! ! Sir, I had before heard of a Jesuitical contrivance, by which words might be so put together as to be separately true, yet collectively have all the effect of a falsehood : how far you have resorted to such a contrivance, or proved yourself worthy of the indulgence shewn, each person may judge ; for myself, after what I have heard and now see, I must be excused if I attach less weight, either to your proposed corrections or subsequent statements, than I was disposed to do when I commenced this letter.

The recital of all the circumstances which have led to this address, is unnecessary : to you they are sufficiently known ; and others will obtain a competent knowledge of them as I proceed. As considerable dissatisfaction existed with respect to the Wesleyan polity, originating chiefly in the conduct adopted by certain parties whose influence is predominant in Conference, in reference to the union of the church and state, •Because, as I stated to friends, I deemed it but honourable to give you such an opportunity.

and their treatment of the Revds. Dr. A. Clarke, Stephens, Forsyth, Dr. Warren and others — but dissatisfaction, which, to some extent, existed previously, and only took occasion from those cases more fully to manifest itself, it seems to have been deemed necessary to ward off the apparently increasing danger by some extraordinary proceeding. As, therefore, the Rev. R. Newton, whose name has of late been associated with every anti-liberal measure among you, was engaged to preach in Brunswick Chapel, on Tuesday evening, Nov. 25th, when all the officers, who could be prevailed upon to do so, were solemnly to pledge themselves to adhere to the Conference as at present constituted — in other words, to resist the introduction of lay-members, or even of lay-influence into that body ; and as some of their minds might need preparation for the part they were expected to act, the previous Sabbath was fixed upon for this important purpose. The scheme, indeed, was not confined to Sheffield, as the following account from Liverpool will shew : " The Methodist preachers in the Liverpool south circuit, having, on the evening of Sunday last, 23d November, 1834, contrary to an express law of Methodism, made the pulpit the vehicle of abusive attacks on the principles and objects of the Methodist Association, the members of that body have no opportunity of reply except through the medium of the public papers. These attacks we consider calculated to injure our characters, both in the church and in the world, and if persisted in, may be of serious consequence both to ourselves and families.

To the Methodist public we appeal. 'We speak as unto wise men, judge ye what we say.' "* How far the Rev. S. Jackson, from Liverpool, who had been with you the preceding week, assisted in your warlike preparations, I, of course, know not. Two classes of persons, however, seem to have been fixed upon as the objects of attack : the one, those of your o^.rn members who deem some reform necessary in the constitution and proceedings of your Conference: and the other, those from without, who have either conscientiously seceded from you, on account of what they deem your despotic principles and form of government ; or have been expelled by the ruling party from your community, and have since laboured either to lessen the wrongs they have seen perpetrated among you, and under which some of them have painfully suffered, or to secure the more just appreciation, and the more extensive spread of religious liberty : liberty which they believe to be the birth-right of every man ; and of which, they think, no section of the Christian Church can be deprived without ultimate danger to itself, and immediate injury to the character of Christianity. The latter of these parties, you, Sir, and your coadjutors have taken great pains to place in another position ; and, in order to effect the double purpose of degrading them, and securing the adherence of your people to the present constituted order of things, you have represented them as actuated merely by the desire to augment the numbers of their own party : — a petty, paltry feeling which they as much despise as you, and the possession of which they unequivocally disclaim. I shall not attempt to ascertain whether this imputation arises from the belief, either that they are incapable of being actuated by higher motives, or that the subject does not admit of their influence; or whether, which I suspect to be the case, they are thus reproached * See Christian Advocate, Dec. 1, 1834.

because you and your helpers have not taken time to pause, and inquiro how far such motives may and do exist. On these subjects I shall say more hereafter. I may however state, that the low, and false, yet the only position which we have been represented as occupying-, in the present deranged state of things, is that of disturbers of the peace of your societies for the purpose of increasing our own: and this has been done, because some persons cannot, and others will not see any other ; while some doubtless feel that this is the only position which their strength and weapons are adapted to carry, or in which we can be attacked with any prospect of success. In that position, Sir, we are not found ; and, therefore, in expending your strength, and exhausting your ammunition upon it, you are only beating the air, or perpetuating ignorance and prejudice. How far you will deem the latter desirable, or rejoice in it as an appropriate recompence, you will determine for yourself.

The morning service of the Sabbath which was to be desecrated by the scene hereafter to be described, was conducted by a circuit preacher from some distance, but who, either acting in concert with yourself, or moved simultaneously by an inferior degree of the same spirit, gratified some of his hearers and offended others, by his attempts to shew, that suspicions of wrong principles, or wrong doings, on the part of Conference or the preachers, are not entertained, except by "wolves and foxes;" — and that unless repented of, given up, and forgiven, they must ensure eternal condemnation. Now, Sir, I allow that ministers are entitled to respect, in proportion to personal holiness and public usefulness — that candour ought to be exercised when judging of their principles and conduct — that in doubtful cases, charity ought, in general, to give a verdict in their favour ; — and that, therefore, there are circumstances, under which, even suspicion betrays an improper, or even a dangerous state of mind. But then the man must be absolutely blind who does not perceive, and utterly besotted who will not acknowledge, that there are circumstances under which suspicion becomes a virtue ; and not to be influenced by it, would be a dereliction of public duty. And, Sir, either openly to teach, or covertly to insinuate, that any class of ministers, whether in their individual, or collective capacity, are so infallible in judgment, or 60 perfect in their principles and conduct, as to be incapable of wrong, and are therefore beyond the legitimate range of suspicion, is to bring into operation one of the causes of popery, and to put on one of its distinguishing characteristics.

More especially, when the principles and acts of Conference and its agents are exciting the surprise and awakening the displeasure of men of unquestionable piety and wisdom in almost all branches of the Christian Church in these kingdoms, and are either disgusting, or driving from your communion, men of the like character among yourselves — to pronounce, at that time, the existence of suspicion to be a proof of impiety, and of an exposure to condemnation, must betray such inability to discriminate, as is dishonourable to the understanding of a professed christian minister; or that reckless disregard of truth which implicates his integrity. Such a representation, under such circumstances, has in it more of craft than of sound wisdom ; and seems rather designed to support the endangered power of the suspected, than to preserve the suspecting from everlasting ruin. I can tell you, Sir, of n more effectual way by which to preserve yourselves from suspicion, your members from that ruin you seem to fear, and your churches from such frequent convulsions, than the application of the terms " wolves and foxes" to your people, and threatening- them with perdition : — Let them enjoy their rights as intelligent beings, and as constituting the great body of the churches : where they cannot individually have a share in the management of affairs which are theirs quite as much as they are yours, let them have it representatively ; and thus far, at least, subject their own affairs to their direct inspection. Give up your assumed divine right to legislate and govern alone : a right which neither in theory nor practice can be consistently maintained, even by yourselves. Throw open the doors of your district meetings and Conferences to the representatives of your people ; and by giving them a direct voice and influence in those arrangements in which they are principally interested, convince them that you have no unholy ambition to gratify, or exclusive interest to serve. Tell them that they are free to scrutinize your plans and conduct to the utmost, and to exercise their undisputed right of private judgment on the whole. And you will thus gain to yourselves more honour, and confer a greater benefit on your people and the world, than by any attempts you either have made or may yet make to support a power which must ultimately fall, or to render me an object of public execration.

The discourse in the morning, however, was only the note of preparation for battle; or the voice of the herald, before the hero was brought upon the stage. That hero, Sir, was yourself, whose courage and prowess had been tried, and had been sufficient to vanquish your more worthy colleague, Mr. Dunn. But before your onset, you addressed the God of armies ; though instead of contenting yourself with asking that he would teach your hands to war, and your fingers to fight ; — or that he would enable you by sound speech to convince the gainsayers ; and, by the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God, to put to flight the armies of the aliens, — as though conscious that were your opponents allowed fairly to meet you, your qualifications would be found unequal to the service in which you had volunteered, you prayed that God wouJd paralyze their hands, and parch their tongues ! You attempt, indeed, to qualify or soften this, by the statement, that your imprecations referred, not to the disturbers of Wesleyanism, but to the enemies of Christ: a qualification, which, if accepted, would not take aw T ay, though it might somewhat mitigate the offensive or horrifying character of your language. But I demur to accept of this qualification, on the following grounds: — A man whose years, and intelligence, and christian experience enable him to judge, and whose memory and peculiar habits of attention in religious exercises entitle his testimony to superior weight, affirms, most unequivocally, that, when representing to the divine Being the conflicts and perils of your oicn church, and the internal and external foes that are arrayed against it, you prayed, with unusual vehemence, that "their hands might be paralyzed, and their tongues made to cleave to the roof of their mouths."

The same testimony, in substance, is given by others. Now when it is remembered that, these persons were endeavouring calmly and profitably to follow you in devotion, with minds unruffled, until the strangeness of your subject and manner excited their surprise, and the language of imprecation shocked their feelings, while you were the subject of agitation, perhaps previously produced, or, as is stated, strongly evinced in that part of your address; could I even put out of my recollection the delinquencies to which I have slightly adverted, yet in order to prefer your representation to theirs, I must do violence to some of the plainest principles on which the rules of judgment rest, by the supposition, that turbulence of feeling is more favourable than calmness to accurate recollection. For these reasons, then, I feel obliged to believe, that the Rev. J. M'Lean, in Norfolk-street Chapel, Sheffield, on the forenoon of Sunday, November 23rd, 1834, when professedly engaged in leading the devotions of a congregation of Wesleyan Methodists, asked, that God would paralyze the hands, and parch the tongues of some parties, supposed to be the enemies of their church. Many of your hearers, therefore, in consequence of what you afterwards said, supposed, and naturally enough, that the imprecation had especial reference to me, in conjunction, perhaps, with Dr. Warren and a few others. Nor am 1 at all certain that this was not the case. At the same time, I fear it not. The impiety and presumption of such a malediction may shock my feelings or awaken disgust, yet so long as it is written, " The curse causeless shall not come," it creates no more apprehensions of danger, than would be created by the rustling of a leaf or the wafting of a feather by the evening breeze.

But, Sir, though I never before heard of any protestant minister, when professedly leading the devotions of a public congregation, having dared to apply language like yours, to the bitterest and most formidable enemy of his sect, or even of the Christian Churchy and though I believe that very few of your own community possess the necessary dispositions for such an act, yet I am not unaware that threats of divine judgments, more or less distinct, according to circumstances, have been employed to secure the continued adherence of your people, and to deter them from asserting that liberty to which some of them deemed themselves entitled : and that afflictive events befalling persons who had become offensive, by exposing what they conscientiously believed to be highly objectionable principles or practices among you, have been attributed to the awakened vengeance of an oifended God. To pass by other cases which might be adduced, such was the representation given of the death of Mr. Kilham ; a man whose sincere and devout piety, purity of motive, and uncompromising independence, honourably distinguished him from contemporaries, by some of whom he was first betrayed, and then forsaken. I had hoped, indeed, that views so narrow and selfish were giving place to more perfect knowledge, and a purer charity, having of late heard less of them than heretofore; and in spite of your example I will cling to the belief that such is the case : but you, Sir, must be left as an exception: for if we are to credit the testimony adduced, you, in your devotions, have recognized the principle on which such representations rest ; carried it out to its utmost limit ; and at once sunk your character as a Christian minister, outraged the feelings of the congregation you were employed to benefit, and insulted that God you were professedly addressing, by calling upon him to mark as the objects of his vengeance, all who dared either to speak or write against the erroneous principles or oppressive acts of the Wesleyan Methodist Conforence. And were your people as willing to imbibe your vindictive feelings as you appear to be to infuse them, soon should we hear mom than we have ever heard before, of divine vengeance desired, prayed for, and inflicted, for acts which both God and every truly liberal man must approve.

But, Sir, were I even to accept your own representation of the language imputed to you, the censure deserved would not be much less severe. Did you expect to gain converts or credit to Christianity, by praying that God would paralyze the hands and parch the tongues of its opponents ? Did the author of our faith thus pray concerning his murderers ? Did an apostle thus pray concerning even the monster, Nero, by whose sword he was to suffer martyrdom ? Do, Sir, before you permit your violence so deeply to stain both yourself and our common Christianity, pause, and ask yourself, whose example you are imitating? whether that of your divine Master, who said, " Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do ;" or that of his disciples, when they asked that fire might be made to descend from heaven upon his enemies; and who met with the merited rebuke, " Ye know not what spirit ye are of: the Son of man is come not to destroy men's lives, but to save them." The spirit, Sir, that ardently breathes in your maledictions, according to your own shewing of it, is the persecuting spirit of Popery in its worst days ; and the same which in a more mature stage led to cursing " with bell, book, and candle," and destroyed the bodies of men for the good of their souls. I rejoice, however, to think that it stands, where I hope it will ever stand, unparalleled in the history of Protestantism ; nor do I know of any of those who have most warmly contended " for the faith delivered to the saints," by whom language like yours has been employed, even towards the most malignant enemies of God and his Son.

Your language in prayer, was, however, only a fit prelude to the discourse and address which were to follow. Having been furnished through the medium of a friend, with a written account of these, by one of your own members, I take the liberty to give it; simply premising, that having been read to you for the purposes of correction, &c, you objected, as I am informed, to two expressions only, both of which I have omitted:

" Mr. M'Lean, in his Sermon on Sunday morning, after having in a most shameful and unbecoming manner, dealt out invective on all those members of our society who are endeavouring b}* every lawful and Christian means, to procure a redress of our grievances, declared that a council had been held lately in hell, and that some men, even ministers among us, who once had run well, were endeavouring to carry the wicked counsels into effect ; telling his congregation he wished them to mark particularly what he was going to state, for he could not withhold it from them. — That a minister of another denomination, nearly allied to our own, who did not reside twenty miles from Sheffield, ' I mean Mr. Allin,' had taken advantage of the present disturbed state of our societies, and had daringly interfered, by publishing a letter [or pamphlet, or address, for I do not remember which,] addressed to the members of our societies, in which he impiously attempted to spread discord and disaffection amongst them ; persuading them not to sit down with the conduct of their preachers, but to leave their Connexion to swell that of his own. He declared there was no mistake, for he had seen one to which Mr. Allin had attached his name. In the course of his remarks on the subject, he stigmatized Mr. Allin in a manner, not only unbecoming, but most disgraceful. In fact, I never heard in my life, such a piece of personal invective from the pulpit, in any place or by any person, making the least pretensions to Christianity, no, nor any thing approaching to it. I am sorry I cannot call to mind the particular expressions used by Mr. M'Lean, when stigmatizing Mr. Allin, but I know thev were such as raised in my mind, the most revolting feelings,

Indeed, I waa both astounded mid disgusted, scarcely being able- to believe niv car*. 1 remember that Mr. Ql'Lean, in the midst of his most disgraceful attack upon Mr. Allin, s.ud that lie wished Mr. Allin vrae by bis side, for be would say the same, — denouncing bis attempts to produce disunion as most infamous, holding bim up to public execration in a manner peculiar to himself. Those wbo know bis warmth, may perhaps form some faint idea, — but tbose only. After reading over the above, I do most sincerely believe I have not in the least overcharged the picture , for wishing not to say any thing untrue, I have been careful to be below rather than beyond the strict line of truth. I do assure vou I was both grieved and disgusted."

Similar feelings to those described in this communication were produced in the minds of others. One pious female, a member of yours, states, that agitation, produced by mingled feelings of astonishment and disgust, caused her whole frame to shake, and at tinies rendered her almost insensible ; while other members of yours left you in disgust. Most happy, Sir, should I have been could I but have stated, that, your anger having spent itself, you here suffered the conflict to close ; — that on returning to your home, what you had felt, and the feelings you had seen excited in others, had led you to reflect on the awful extent to which you had desecrated the Sabbath, the pulpit, and the name of that God whose messenger you professed to be ; — and that, deeply humbled under a conviction of your misdoings, you had afterwards manifested a different spirit. But, no : the principal parts of the same tragedy were repeated in the evening in Brunswick Chapel ; at which time, though there was less of profanity, yet of personal abuse, bitterness and violence, there was little diminution. The cause you allege for the abuse so plentifully heaped upon me, I shall examine in my next letter ; in which I shall give the address to the Delegates in Manchester, with a true account of the circumstances under which it was prepared, and the parties to whom it referred ; as well as notice the remarks prefixed to your pirated edition of it, and some of the gross inaccuracies and imputations of an anonymous libeller, whose name must be concealed, lest he should be visited with that public reprobation which the author of such a production so well deserves.

There are, Sir, as you are aware, other allegations arising out of your performances on the 23rd ult., but which I at present pass over, not because I either deem them unimportant, or doubt their truth, but because I am not influenced by that malignity towards Wesleyan Methodism and Wesleyan Methodist preachers, which some have imputed to me. I do, however, wish you to see yourself, as well as the precipice on which you and some of your brethren stand. Shutting your eyes to the defects and evils of your system, you look only at the good accomplished, till it becomes the object of an admiration almost idolatrous ; and spiritual pride, — impetuous passion — and ungoverned resentment — with their odious train of maledictions and persecutions, are the natural result.

With the sincerest prayers for your welfare and increased usefulness,

I am, Rev. Sir, yours, &c,

T. ALLIN.

Sheffield, December 6, 1834.

Letter II

Rr.v. Sir, — To take an unfair advantage of an opponent, or even of an adversary, is a characteristic of littleness of mind, and indicates a consciousness either that the cau<e espoused cannot be defended by honourable means, or that, through incompetency, the espouser cannot so defend it, That this has been done by you, most persons of whose judgment I have received any information, except your pledged partisan?, have already pronounced. But in that judgment, if I am not much mistaken, many others will concur when "the entire subject is fairly before them." An address, prepared under circumstances which shall hereafter be explained, you first brought before the public in the pulpit ; and, after having laboured with your characteristic ardour to degrade me in places where you knew I was not present, and w r here, had I been, I should have had no liberty to defend myself, as though to shew with what rapidity you could move in the dishonourable career you had thus commenced, you proceeded to publish it ; — an address which was not yours, and which you had no more right so to appropriate, than an atheist would have to publish for his own benefit, the " Discourses on Atheism."