has an equal liberty of speaking, there being none greater or less than another. In 1821, the Conference issued the following mandate: "We again exhort all our people who have opportunity, to meet in band as an old established usage in our Connexion, and an important means of improvement in personal religion; and the Preachers are directed to hold General Meetings of the Bands in every Society where it is practicable."

The LOVE-FEASTS are quarterly or occasional meetings of the members of the Band societies, appointed by consent of the Superintendent, and to which no person is admitted without a Society-ticket or a note from the Preacher. It is strictly enjoined, that no person not willing to join the Society shall be admitted to a love-feast more than once, nor then without a note from a Travelling Preacher; and any person detected in lending a ticket to another not in society, incurs suspension for three months. The meeting begins with singing and prayer: after which small pieces of cake or bread are distributed, and water; and all present eat and drink together in token of their mutual Christian love. Then, if any present have any thing particular to communicate respecting their religious experience, they are permitted. When a few have spoken, a collection is made for the poor, and the meeting is concluded with singing and prayer. No love-feast is allowed to last above an hour and a half. "All breaking the cake with one another" is forbidden.† These feasts are observed, not as positively binding upon Christians, but in imitation of the primitive practice supposed to be referred to Jude 12; 2 Pet. ii. 13. They are not regarded as having any relation to the sacrament of the Lord's Supper; and although they must be acknowledged to bear, in some respects, a strong resemblance to that ordinance, the exclusion of wine indicates that there is no intended reference to the design of the sacred Emblems as showing forth the Lord's death.

The WATCH-NIGHTS, which are somewhat similar to the Vigils of the ancients, are held once a quarter, on the evenings preceding the great festivals. On these occasions, three or ⚫ Warren, pp. 173-176. + Large Minutes, Q. 43.

four preachers officiate, and a vast concourse of people is often brought together. The service commences between eight and nine P.M. After one of the ministers has preached, the rest pray and exhort, giving out suitable hymns at intervals, in which the congregation join, until a few minutes after midnight, when the service is concluded. These meetings are peculiarly solemn, especially the one held on New Year's Eve, the Methodists making it a point of religious duty, to "begin and end the year with God."

A General Fast is ordained to be held in all the Societies on the first Friday after New Year's-Day, after Lady-Day, after Midsummer-Day, and after Michaelmas-Day. On these days, public prayer-meetings are held in all the chapels, to implore a more abundant effusion of the Holy Spirit on the Societies and Congregations; and the Preachers are directed to speak largely upon the subject in their sermons on the preceding Lord's Day.*

Such is the Wesleyan Rule and Discipline, to which, in deference to the venerated Founder, a voluntary obedience is rendered, equalled only by the submissive homage paid by the brethren of the religious orders of the Romish Church to the Rule of the fraternity and the authority of their superior. Among Protestants, the Moravian Church, from which indeed Mr. Wesley is supposed to have borrowed much of his system, alone presents any similar discipline.

THE CALVINISTIC METHODISTS.

The Calvinistic Methodists, so called to distinguish the followers of Whitefield from those of Wesley, are scarcely to be recognised, in England, as a distinct sect. After these two great founders of Methodism separated (about the year 1741), in consequence of their embracing different opinions upon the

* Warren, pp. 79, 80, 102, 162.

doctrines of Free Will and Predestination, Mr. Whitefield gave his whole attention to preaching, without attempting to organize a sect, or to frame any system of discipline for his followers. He died, September 30, 1770, in the fifty-sixth year of his age, at Newbury Port, near Boston, in Massachusetts, on his seventh missionary visit to America. His establishment in Georgia, where he had founded an Orphan House and Academy, he bequeathed to Selina, Countess of Huntingdon; and his chapels in England were left to the management of trustees. His followers composed in 1800, according to Dr. Haweis, an aggregate nearly as numerous as the Arminian Methodists. They were formed into congregations in divers places; but, “though considering themselves as one body, they have not the same union and interchange as the followers of Wesley." Every congregation defrays its own expenses; and they have no general fund. The great chapels in London (the Tabernacle and Tottenham-court chapel) are managed by trustees: but the communion is regulated by the Congregational discipline. They have now few lay preachers, the greater part having been ordained among themselves. In short, in England, they are now scarcely distinguishable from the Congregational Dissenters.

A section of the Calvinistic Methodists, however, still exists as a distinct body, under the name of Lady Huntingdon's Connexion; consisting of the congregations assembling in the chapels erected by Selina, Countess of Huntingdon, and vested in trustees. Many of these, in different parts of the country, have, within the past fifty years, become severed from the Connexion, in consequence of the difficulty of obtaining a succession of ministers, and have become Independent congregations.*

The original plan laid down for supplying these chapels, was an itinerancy similar to the Travelling Preachers of the Wesleyan Connexion. But of late years, a settled ministry has been generally deemed preferable, to avoid the expenses

* The total number of places of worship belonging to the Calvinistic Methodists was estimated, in 1829, at 124. Those of Lady Huntingdon's Connexion scarcely exceed fifty.

attending a frequent change of ministers, and the evils resulting from the unsettled state of the congregations where such a practice prevails.

The Countess of Huntingdon founded, in 1768, a college for the purpose of educating pious young men for the ministry, at Trevecca, near Talgarth, in Brecon, South Wales. After her death, the institution was transferred (in 1792) to Cheshunt, in Hertfordshire, where it still flourishes under the superintending care of the trustees, in whom the absolute management is vested. Fifteen Articles, being the substance of the doctrinal Articles of the Church of England, were drawn up for the Connexion at large and this institution in particular; and to these "every trustee, president, and student must give his hearty assent and consent, and departing therefrom is removeable and to be removed." * In other respects, the constitution of the College is very liberal, the young men who are educated in it being left entirely free in their choice of the denomination of Christians among whom they may prefer to exercise their ministry. The present number of students is sixteen. The term allotted for their studies is four years, the maintenance and education being entirely free.

Lady Huntingdon's Connexion is now to be viewed as a trust, rather than as a separate denomination or communion. The original distinction between the Calvinistic Methodists and the orthodox Dissenters has been almost obliterated by a mutual approximation on the points of free communion, the use of the Liturgy, and itinerancy;† and as they unite without scruple in all religious services, and in the support of various religious institutions, they are, for all practical purposes, one body.

In Wales, the Calvinistic Methodists form a very numerous and compact body.

Report of Trustees at the Thirtieth Anniversary of the College in 1822, to which the Fifteen Articles are subjoined.

The Liturgy of the Church of England is still used in public worship in most of the principal chapels, with some modification, but not to the exclusion of extemporary prayer.

The rise of Methodism in Wales dates from the year 1735, and took place in the following manner.

"A gentleman of Trevecca, in Brecknockshire, Howel Harris, Esq., had intended to take holy orders, and for that purpose entered himself a student in one of the colleges at Oxford. He soon, however, became disgusted at the disorderly and immoral conduct which he witnessed there; and consequently returned to his friends in Wales. He was not long at home before he ventured to go from house to house, in his native parish, to exhort sinners; and, gradually, he extended his sphere of usefulness to the adjoining parishes also. His fame soon spread itself over the whole country, and great multitudes attended his preaching. Family worship was now set up in several houses which hitherto had never heard the voice of prayer. ... In 1736, by the desire of several individuals, he established a school at Trevecca, and thence removed it to the parish church, whither many of the youth flocked to him, to be more largely instructed in the things which concerned their souls. . . . Many were convinced of their sinfulness. This encouraged Mr. Harris to establish regular meetings for religious conversation in several other places; and this was the commencement of those Private Societies which have ever since (taking into consideration the great importance and strictness attached to their observance) formed a principal feature, by which the Welsh Calvinistic Methodists may be distinguished from every other denomination of professing Christians. In 1737, a gentleman of Radnorshire sent for Mr. Harris to preach at his house this was the means of bringing many of the higher order of that county to hear him, and of causing him to be well received by them. Up to this period, he had continued to superintend the school, although he preached on week nights, on the Sabbath, and on holidays. He was no longer allowed to take care of the school at the parish church. This prohibition turned out for good; for now he was at liberty to go whithersoever he was called, day or night, to preach, which he frequently did three, four, and even five times a day.