Snethen on lay representation

Introduction

Mr. William S. Stockton issued the first number of his half monthly periodical, called The Wesleyan Repositort , and Religious Intelligencer, in Trenton, New Jersey, April 12th, 1821. He invited me to become a contributor. In No. viii. July 19th, 1821, two essays on church government appeared, signed A Methodist. This was the first intimation I had of his intention to admit of discussions on that subject, in his paper. In No. x. August 16th, 1821, he published my " Animadversions" on those two essays. In a third number, in No. xi. August 30th, 1821, he begins, by saying, "To the Animadversions, published in No. x. of this paper, I have no objections. Between the author and myself there is not a shadow of difference, others have misunderstood me. It is said, my essays lead to seism; I deprecate seism." In No. xxiii., February 14th, 1822, an essay was published ff on Lay Delegation," signed A Methodist. It contains a plan, as follows, "Let the Annual Conferences choose from their own order, man for man. Apportion the delegates among the districts, according to our population in each, &c." The nature and relation of constituents and delegates, are fairly stated. It is an able essay. Mr. Stockton himself wished; and as he said, others also, that I should continue to write on the subject of lay representation. A free and friendly correspondence had taken place between us, without any indications of reserve on his part. No strife ever existed between us who should be greatest. If it were consistent with my plan, which is not to interfere with any other writer, but leave all free to publish their own writings ; I would have inserted in this collection, those essays, which were published before my own. — The publication of those, broke silence, and to break silence, on the subject of church government, in those days, called for no common resolution. But the credit, not of a mere beginner, is due to Mr. Stockton ; his efforts in behalf of lay represention, were unwearied and knew no bounds short of necessity.

In the General Conference of May, 1820, the presiding elder question, which had been agitated for twenty years, was settled in iv INTRODUCTION.

favor of the nomination being in the bishops, and the election in the the annual conferences ; — reconsidered ; — and suspended for four years. I had been known, as being among the earliest advocates for their election ; and also as the mover (1812) of the amendment to leave the nomination with the bishops. In this same General Conference, the local preachers' conference was authorised. My advice was asked. It was, that, whatever the General Conference might do in regard to the local preachers, ought to be real, not nominal ; that their expectations ought not to be raised, with the promise of substances, to be disappointed with shadows. I had been an advocate for the local preachers for twelve years, that is, until their ordination to elder's orders was sanctioned by the General Conference ; but the fate of their conference disclosed facts enough to convince me, that as a body, they would not be apt to profit by any thing which might be gained for them. As I had become local, I ceased to have any immediate personal interest in the election of presiding elders, by the members of the annual conferences. But to preserve consistency, I gave the cause all the continued support in my power; and wrote the first essay in this collection, which was printed in the December following the General Conference, (1820) and circulated by mail confidentially among travelling preachers only. From similar considerations, I wrote the essays on church property. The placing of those essays among the charges and specifications against the editorial committee, with my own proper name as their author ; and the sitting of certain judges, in the courts of appeal, upon them, is perhaps without a parallel in the history of prosecutions against the press. If I could have appeared as evidence, the blood of certain reverend judges must have been in a most uncommon degree under the control of volition, or some portion of it would have mounted to the face.

It was very evident to my mind that it would be difficult, if not impossible to disentangle the relative bearings and interests of presiding elder matters, so as to present the abstract questions of right fully and directly before the public mind. Opinions were far from being unanimous, whether the order ought to exist at all ; and no less diversity of opinion existed respecting its prerogatives, and privileges. Arguments in favor of the rights of a body or order of men, whose very lawfulness, as well as expediency was doubtful, would not be likely to remove those doubts, or to conciliate conflicting opinions. But lay representation was resolvable into an abstract question of right. The principle of right must be conceded

INTRODUCTION. V

to argue its inexpediency. The manner, however, in which the presiding elder question had been treated, in the General Conference, called upon every friend of the principle of lay representation to avail himself of the first opportunity to come forth in its behalf. About thirteen months after the adjournment of that body, which had made itself so conspicuous by its movements and counter-movements, on a question deeply involving the suffrage of its members, this interesting subject, as has been shewn, was broached in the Repository.

For many years my mind had been quieted, as it regarded any immediate danger the principle of lay delegation might be exposed to, by taking it for granted, lhat should a crisis arrive, a majority of travelling preachers, as American citizens, could not be found publicly and officially to declare, that the laity have no right directly to participate in church legislation. Transpiring events, however, continued to excite suspicion, that I might have been too sanguine; and the suspended resolutions converted suspicion into certainty. If liberal principles had prevailed, the evidences of their decline were irresistible. Can men who will yield their own rights, in a struggle with prerogative, be trusted with the rights of others ?

A crisis had arrived. I did not seek it ; did not provoke it ; but had made my communication to the travelling preachers, on the pending controversy confidential and anoymous. For more than twenty years, I had been a diligent enquirer after information and evidence respecting the right of lay representation ; a closet enquirer; an untiring reader of every work I could procure on the subject. The first book of discipline that was put into my hands, had taught me to regard the discipline itself as the result of observation and experiment, and as still open to improvement. If its compilers or authors meant to teach me its divine rights, and consequently its immutable nature ; I was either a dull or disingenuous scholar, or their method of instruction must have been unhappily chosen. Being older than the church, and the discipline, I had witnessed all its modifications ; and having sought to know what the discipline was in principle ; and what it might become in practice, without finding the principle of lay representation in it ; in endeavoring to find some clue to its practical consequences, my mind slid into the usual train of thought common to all around me. The discipline must depend upon the preachers. Will they always do right ? Hope so. They are good men ; trust they will continue so. What if they do wrong, and will not reform ? Will 1* vi INTRODUCTION.

join with Mr. Wesley in praying that their name may be blotted out. This was taking men and measures for granted, was taking presumptions, for proofs ; but it was the habitual manner of my betters ; the ministerial fashion of the day ; — matters of opinion became fashionable. But on one point my memory seems trustworthy. I do not remember ever to have heard, or read, in the conversations or writings of any of the preachers, that if the government should go incorrigibly and incurably wrong, there is not, and could not be any rightful remedy in the laity. Bishops, and others, when ministerial errors and corruptions have been anticipated or admitted, have shewn no want of zeal and declamation against them. Against anticipated, as well as past wickedness, they prayed and denounced anathemas. Why then this death like silence of the statute book, and this opposition of living legislators against the rights of those who may suffer the wrongs, to remedy them ?

Power combined with interest and inclination cannot be controled by logic. But even power shrinks from the test of logic. Let the rights of the laity to take the remedy of their wrongs into their own hands, be conceded, and the right to introduce lay representation into the legislative department of the government is settled forever. This lay representation has been found to be an excellent preventive, and has wrought some great cures. With the history of its curative, and corrective virtues before us, no doubt can remain, save upon the principle of right. Is it then right to prevent the abuse of ministerial power by this means ? I was fully persuaded in my own mind, that it was right.

The history of church government may be regarded as a record of accidents, but as such, it merely informs without instructing. To know that events have happened, which under the operation of the same causes may never happen again, except by chance, adds nothing to the stock of human wisdom. I had ceased to read history in order to furnish matter for amusement or wonder. Its chapters on human society were studied as examples of those social laws of causes and effects, which have all the uniformity and certainty consistent with human volition. In the anticipated, or prophetic account of the great apostacy, or falling away, in Thessalonians ; can any reader help perceiving clerical and not laical ambition. There were aspirations for power before power did develope itself, and the reason why it did not develope itself sooner, was the foreign or adventitious restraints upon ambition. "For the mystery of iniquity doth already work, only he who now letteth (hin-

INTRODUCTION. vii

dereth) will let (hinder) until he be taken out of the way, and then shall that wicked one, (wickedness) be revealed. Office holders are ambitious of unlimited power ; the ambition of others, is first to get into office ; power without office must prove but an abortion. History abounds with examples and illustrations of this order and progress of social power. Prophecy is only history anticipated ; otherwise there could be no truth in it. When did history ever record as fact, that the representatives of the laity, chosen by their free suffrage, exalted themselves above all that is called God, or is worshipped, and sit in the temple as God, that is, become absolute rulers in principle and practice ? The truth is, that all history falsifies such a construction. Prophecies of social and moral results must be true, not only in the extreme case, but in the analogy and the details. The nature and tendency of things must be like the good or bad things finally to come to pass. Thus in regard to the milenium, so called; all great states of religious prosperity, in the church approach to it. A great apostacy includes the lesser ones. The rule holds true by analogy. It is the same spirit, differing only in degree.

When, it seemed to me, that the time had come to write in favor of lay representation, I had little or no new theory to learn, I was in advance of fifty years of age ; had the name of being an indefatigable reader; of possessing a mind given to theory. — Whether I had thought well or ill upon the subject, I had thought much upon it; and thought alone. My editor had, as it were, given me a charte blanche. My matter and manner were all in my own choice. But was I not ambitious ? If to choose an end,, to choose an opportunity and to choose a plan and means to accomplish that end, be necessarily, ambition, I was not innocent of it. The end to be accomplished, what was it? A thousand tongues and a thousand pens have repeated, — to revolutionize, or to corrupt the government of the Methodist Episcopal Church. And do those, who echo these reports, consider how the means I made choice of, were suited to that end ? or do they overlook this important data altogether? The means to revolutionize a government must be force : — the means to corrupt it must be fraud. .Did my means answer to either of these ? They are now of age to answer for themselves. Mr. Compton's correspondence with Mr. Ivy Harris, repeats the charge, "revolutionize." Now all the charges contemplated by the petitioners, or asked for, were to be made by the General Conference itself, not by the lay delegates ; but by the representatives of the travelling preachers alone. Was ever such

Viii INTRODUCTION.

an attempt made to revolutionize, before, or since ? Union societies were gotten up expressly to unite the matter and manner of the petitioners in one common request for lay representation ; in consequence of a complaint in the former General Conference of a want of unity among the numerous petitions which came flying to it, like doves to their windows.

I could not by any analysis come to any other conclusion, than that the government belonged to the genus hierarchy ; but it was a goverment (de facto) in fact, and as such would contend for its own existence ; the question, as I supposed, being settled by common consent, that there is a social and political law, or right of self preservation. It would follow, that whoever attempts to revolutionize a goverment (de facto) must calculate upon resistance, and its possible or probable consequences, defeat. As a member of a church, I could have no right to revolutionize or corrupt its gogovernment, which it had not a right to resist. Even the reformers did not set out with an assumption of right to revolutionize the church of Rome. Lay representation may certainly be introduced into the legislative department of a church, by and with the consent of its governing authorities, without revolutionizing or corrupting it; without destroying its identity or its action. In proof of this, the Protestant Episcopal Church, with all its pertinacity in favor of divine right and succession, admits of lay representation, without any idea of revolution or corruption; and Mr. Wesley's church, the church of England, accords the principle and the practice, as consistent with episcopacy, and episcopal government. No attempt was made to use either force or fraud with the General Conference. They were peacefully petitioned to do the thing in their own way, even after the work of expulsion had been begun. While the principle was claimed as a right, the thing was asked for as a favor.

To check, or to curb unlimited power of action does not necessarily destoy it, in name or in fact. In England, after the commonwealth was destroyed, and the king, (Charles II.) was restored to the throne, the power of the crown was limited, without restoring the commonwealth. A similar event happened in France. It is true, that both these cases are called revolutions in consequence of the forcible displacement of reigning dynasties; but still the kingly form and name of the governments were preserved. No petition was sent to the General Conference by the friends of lay representation to dispense with or destroy any part or member of the government. A new check given principle was to be incorporated

INTRODUCTION. ix

with it, that was all. The lay delegates were not to be vested with any of the existing powers of office. Their commission was to cease with the adjournment of the body. Now the same thing may happen in an inverse order in a democracy ; for though its powers cannot be checked, as those of a monarchy may ; the principles may be expanded, and undergo a variety of modifications to that end, while it undergoes no change destructive of its identity. As for example ; a municipality, being the most simple or elementary of its forms, it cannot be reduced lower; but in this form, it could not be reduced to practice, in a county, or state, or a union of states ; for either of these purposes the principle must be expanded, not limited. If indeed, as may be inferred from the argument of certain persons, they suppose, that every change in the extreme forms of monarchy or democracy, is revolution ; then I was a revolutionist. But I did not so regard the case then, nor do I now. The line of transition between the two forms of government was not approached. I had settled the belief in my own mind by what I conceived to be good authority and sound logic; that lay representation was not revolution, nor corruption, but an improvement. And to show the General Conference, the integrity of professions, the whole of the change was submitted to themselves. Thus in addition to all my previous inquires, I had more than twelve months, as a writer, with the sole control of myself and the subject, to settle upon principle. Whenever I shall be convinced that a hierarchy cannot be checked by lay representation without revolution, in the common meaning of the term, I shall be free to acknowledge, that I was mistaken in the meaning of words.

It is important that it should be fully understood, that I choose my end, and my means to accomplish it. The end was to check the power of the hierarchy, the means was lay representation. Any number of persons might have agreed, and united, or began to write simultaneously upon this end and means, or any modification of them. But the fact in this instance, was not so. One editor sustained the press, and one correspondent labored to shape the subject, without a confidential counsellor. Circumstances did not then admit of counsel. May I not say, that I wrote what I wrote, and had my own reasons for it. I had ceased to be a believer in the popular opinion of political "luck and chance," and had become a convert to the doctrine, that the effects of social governing causes are uniform. The common opinion was, the plan works well enough now, and it will be time enough to correct the evils when they do happen, if they ever do.

X INTRODUCTION.

No fears were entertained of consequences. Now I too, was (as they said) for letting well enough alone, wanting no remedy for well enough, but to provide one for bad enough ; because none had been provided, and when it should come, the remedy would be too late. The notion, as I conceived, that a government so constructed might be reformed, has no foundation in science. A carriage, which has no break upon its wheels, when descending a hill cannot be stopped to provide one ; but its motion must grow more rapid as it runs. My editor had a scanty subscription, and I was alone. This state of things could not last, and if it could, would be of no use. The end to be gained implied numbers, and these were to be found. Never was the question how ? calculated to excite more solicitude. Who could solve it? Half month, after half month, were passing away, without proselytes. Other questions also, no less important, demanded the highest consideration. If you make converts by your writings, what relations will exist between them and you? Will they be your inferiors, equals or superiors? Lay representation might be discussed under either of these conditions. A choice was to be made of one among them. My choice was in favor of equals ; — not only liberty, but equality. How shall it be gained ? Not merely by willing it ; not by accident. As an eifect, it must have its own cause. The causes which may produce inferiority, or superiority, will not produce equality, or vise versa. To say to persons individually or collectively, unite with me as equals, to gain lay representation, would be of little avail. Liberty and equality are not gained in this way. Great anxiety to make converts often defeats itself, and never more frequently, than when conditions are cheapened to familiarity. I had as stated, ample leisure to study those problems ; and an ample number of historical precedents. Human intentions and volitions, however pure and strong, cannot materially influence the operation of means. It is in vain, in mechanics, or in nature, to intend, or resolve, that lighter bodies shall predominate over heavier ones. I intended and resolved to be an equal. Of this I was conscious ; but this intention and resolution could only influence myself. Luther, it is said, expressed his regret, that those who embraced his opinions, were called by his name. And Wesley, it seems, signified no intention, that Methodists should be called after his name. There must have been some inherent cause, operating independently of the purposes of these men, to have perpetuated their names as leaders.

The opinion is expressed in the essays (it was my opinion then) that the government had not departed from its own original, that

INTRODUCTION. xi

nothing could be gained for lay representation by contending for its primitive model ; or if at any time, there should be a departure from it, by attempting to bring it back again, and therefore we were not in the usual meaning of the term, reformers. Lay representation, was not intended to reform, any more than to revolutionize, or to corrupt the government ; but to check the tendency of power to excess. But the idea could not be proposed in, or out of the General Conference, by a travelling or a local preacher, or by a layman, and maintained against opposition, without generating a party. This was an element to be taken into calculation. Now, all parties, to exist and to act, must take on some definite mode of existence. But the principles or outlines of party forms, may be resolved into two, viz. Equality and inequality, that is, those who have a leader, and those who have none. Now as had been said, I intended and determined, that if a party should ever be raised up in favor of lay representation, that it should have no leader or head. I resolved not to be a superior, and that no one else should ; resolved not only to repress ambition in my own breast, but in the breasts of all those who should unite with the party ; still it was foreseen, that all this would avail nothing, unless the means should prove adequate to the end. History was then to be consulted. Were all its reports uniform and trustworthy ? Have all who have become heads or leaders of parties, so as to destroy the common equality between them, and the rest of the party, effected it by the same means ? And should I employ the same means, will the effect be the same, although I may intend, and resolve to the contrary ? Truly. It will, it must be so. What then are those means of master making, and master preserving? Are they not all to be resolved into some modification of teaching ? Did not Luther, and Calvin, and Wesley, teach as primary and master teachers ? To go to the great fountain head of example, as well as precept. The great master himself, is the great Didasculus i teacher ; all others are disciples. Now although the blessed Jesus was master by right, or inherent authority and divine appointment, could he have maintained his authority, without teaching? "This is my well beloved son, hear him ! said the voice, that came from excellent glory ;— hear him teach ; — Take my yoke upon you, he says, and learn of me, for I am meek and lowly in heart, and ye shall find rest unto your souls. Whosoever is not converted, and becomes as a little child, and does not receive the kingdom of heaven as a little child, cannot enter into it. Jesus taught all his disciples, and taught them every thing; for they all, had every thing sii INTRODUCTION-.

to learn; being all equally ignorant. Was it not verv plain, that if I began to write on lay representation as a teacher. I should write in vain, without learners • and that before any one could learn of me. he must take my yoke upon him ! I must lead, and he must follow. I must be superior, and he inferior. But did I not be^in to write as a teacher, and continue to write so? I may not be permitted to bear witness of myself The writings themselves are here, their testimony is true.

This is a subject of great abstract, as well as relative importance. Our blessed Saviour taught or inspired every thin g | ertaining to his religion, for be a] me understood the whole plan.

There were no ideas in the minds of the disciples fco be called forth. The learners were all like little children in ignorance, and of course the ideas, the very elements of knowledge, as in thr of little children, had to be furnished before they could begin to learn. It was not so with us, in reg-ard to the subject of lay representation. The elements c: 'the su::;ect were well understood. All that wis require '.. was t: excite ;::ention to the principle, and to point out its application to our church membership'. If w 3 n : n much, primary instruct] thai Tras needed, <±> excitement of bbkistincj- ideas, and impulse to action. To produce ideas, where there are none; and bo excite existing ideas into action, require different processes. Infidel writers ire apt to confound these two cases.— Hence, in opposition to all analogy of the laws of the human mind, they labor to prove the impossibility of inspiration. But does not instruction pertain to the class or genus :: inspiration; and not to the genua excitement: Is not the producing of ideas, where they are not, a sj e pies ::" creation; quite different from the calling forth ideas, or waking them from their dormant state? Persons, who have been religiously instructed, and are irreligious, are awakened, or have their religious ideas excited, without much, if any additional instruction. Hence the frequent so I orely

zealous preaching, and the peculiar manner of certain preachers. Parents, who have been religiously educated, ... .. :;edby

a manner of preaching; and the same manner of preaching ... prove entirely unavailing to those oi ' i.ose educa-

tion have been neglected; tut if, by extraordinary excitement, thev are converted, a course of instruction must be gone over to redeem their minds from ignorance, The number and frequency of these cases, prove that the diner-.. een teaching rod ex-

citement is real. Many of the cases of those who are called gospel hardened sinners, may be in whole, or in part accounted for,

INTRODUCTION. xiii

by referring to this distinction of the causes and effects of instruction and excitement. Religious light and knowledge do not increase in proportion to the amount of the exciting matter and manner of preaching; the sinner may hear and so it may happen, that instead of his sinning against light and knowledge, as it supposed, he may be rather sinning for the want of them, or in ignorance. Is not the difference between producing ideas in the mind by instruction ; and calling or quickening them into action, indicated, in the memorable saying of our Saviour; "When the comforter is come, he will bring all things to your remembrance, which I have spoken unto you ?

It was by this mode of reasoning, that before I put pen to paper, I came to the conclusion, that the nature of the case did not require grave didactic essays, to teach or instruct the members of the church the elements of government; and also to the inference, that success in this mode of writing, must involve discipleship. And during all the years, which at longer or shorter intervals, I continued to write, equality, and not discipleship, was never wholly lost sight of, if it may have occasionally escaped my attention; the essays, I trust, will shew casualty, and not design.

My first concern was, if public attention enough could beexcited, to unite a sufficient number in favor of lay representation, to cause jealousy or alarm ; that they should not deserve to be expelled. The second, if they should be expelled, what they should do. Will they unite and embody themselves? How will they unite? As equals, or as unequals? If as the former, the elements of equality must exist, and have begun to operate, as far as circumstances may admit, before the crisis, for no new creation can then take place. I labored under a full conviction, that the only rational hope of success, for the party, in case of expulsion, would be in rallying, as a purely equal, or democratical, or congregational association ; or in acknowledging some one, as a didasculus, or original teacher, w hose yoke disciples might take upon them, in order to learn of him. Let it be supposed, that as new writers appeared from time to time, in our periodicals, I had contended for preeminence, in the manner of those, who have preeminence, in the order of time, usually do contend for it, would not one of two cases have happened ? Would there not have been a strife, who should be greatest? Or would not certain persons have taken on the characters of followers to some leader? How could I have monopolized the pages of our periodicals; or have contended against those, who did write, without maintaining a claim to the mastery ? And how could I claim the mastery, with- 2 xiv INTRODUCTION.