The Pamphlet Collection of Sir Robert Stout: Volume 1

Copy of the letter and declaration issued by the President of the Conference, December 26th 1849; with a list of the Wesleyan ministers who have affixed their names to the declaration

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Copy of the Letter and Declaration

Issued by the

President of the Conference,

December 26th, 1849:

With a List of the Wesleyan Ministers

Who have Affixed their Names to the Declaration.

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London: Printed by James Nichols, Hoxton-Square.

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The President's Letter.

Richmond, December 26th, 1849.

My Dear Brother,

The subjoined Declaration has been drawn up at the suggestion of a number of our Brethren, and under a persuasion that a distinct and explicit avowal of our sentiments on the points which it embodies is imperatively called for at the present time, when strenuous attempts are made, by means of the press and of public meetings, under the name of Methodist Reform, to engage our Societies in schemes which, if carried into effect, would subvert the essential principles of our constitution as a religious community. If you approve of this Declaration, you are respectfully requested, without delay, to affix your name to it, and then return it, addressed to the Rev. Messrs. Holgate and Wilson, 24, City-Road, London, in order that it may, with the signatures of the Brethren, be forthwith published and circulated through the Connexion.

I am, my dear Brother,

Yours very sincerely,

Thomas Jackson,

President of the Conference, Rev. Wesleyan Minister.

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Declaration.

We, the Undersigned Wesleyan Ministers, deem it a duty to make known our convictions and purposes in relation to the leading questions which are at present agitated in some parts of our Connexion. They who have voluntarily placed themselves under our pastoral care, that they may enjoy those religious advantages which the system handed down to us from our fathers affords, have a right to expect this from us; and, however painful may be the occasion which renders it necessary, we do not shrink from its fulfilment.

1.	We cannot do this, however, without first pronouncing such an agitation as the present one to be altogether opposed to the spirit of our holy religion, and to the unequivocal dictates of the word of God. Slander and falsehood are distinctly forbidden. They are, with a plainness which admits no possibility of mistake, declared to be as contrary to the great law of love, as sins of the flesh are contrary to the great law of evangelical purity. In the sight of God they occasion the same guilt, and are equally destructive of the Christian character and position.
2.	The agitation is as un-Methodistical as it is un-Christian. There are provisions in our system for the redress of any real grievances, and for the suggestion of any practical improvements which circumstances may show to be safe and desirable. But, instead of taking this constitutional course, the appeal has been made to the public at large; not only to members of other churches, who cannot be supposed to have any sympathy with our peculiar principles and usages, and who in many instances do not even understand them; but also to what the agitators themselves would acknowledge to be "the world." And appeals are made to them on such principles only as worldly men can understand. The objects of ministerial discipline and of Christian communion are obviously beyond the reach of worldly appreciation; and therefore, by an assumed analogy of civil proceedings and social customs, has it been vainly sought to procure the condemnation of decisions founded on a higher law, and having respect to objects altogether different from those which worldly society contemplates.page 5
3.	Nor is the manner in which this is clone by any means to be overlooked. It forms one of the darkest features of the case. It is, in the worst sense of the term, revolutionary. It tends directly to confusion and anarchy. It is the endeavour to procure the redress of alleged grievances in the church by popular clamour and excitement, superseding the investigation of the subject by the regularly constituted authorities, overruling all order and law, and requiring the Ministers of Christ passively to receive as their rule of action the dictates of promiscuous and impassioned assemblies, avowedly hearing only one side of the case. This is not merely injurious to Christian discipline; it is absolutely destructive of it.

For such reasons, as well as for others that might be adduced, the Undersigned deeply deplore the agitation, decidedly protest against it, and affectionately warn all towards whom they sustain the pastoral relation to take heed that they give it no countenance.

II. The Undersigned will now refer to the Objects which this agitation seeks to obtain.

1. And they advert, in the first place, to those Organic Changes which are now so openly demanded. These, though not at the very first brought forward, yet were so soon proposed as to leave no doubt respecting the original views of some among the leading agitators, and their wishes to introduce into Methodism principles totally at variance with those which Mr. Wesley was led to adopt,—and which he not only committed to his successors in religious confidence that they would preserve them inviolate, but left biuding on them by a legal instrument which they cannot nullify. By the Deed of Declaration enrolled in Chancery, the full validity of which has been acknowledged by the highest Courts in the land, Mr. Wesley has so fixed the constitution of the Conference that it must always consist, as he declares it had "always heretofore consisted," of the Ministers of the Connexion. On this foundation, that the Conference shall consist of Ministers alone, does Methodism, as a system acknowledged by law, completely rest. On this condition is the whole amount of Chapel property held. Departure from this would throw all into inextricable confusion. It is not in the power of the Conference, therefore, to alter this its exclusively ministerial character. Were the Conference to cease to be what the Deed of Declaration describes, all its rights to the sole use of the chapels, for the purpose of preserving them to the Connexion, would at once and absolutely cease. The admission of Lay Delegates, therefore, is legally impracticable.

But, further: Were the case iu this respect otherwise, there are page 6 religious objections to the proposed scheme of Lay-Delegation; and these we cannot but feel to be of the gravest kind. For the full and fair exertion of Lay-Influence in all matters temporal and financial, we have cheerfully made provision by supplementary Regulations respecting the discussion of such matters in Mixed Committees;—and, as to New Legislation, there are important checks and securities provided by existing Rules. But there are spiritual and ecclesiastical duties, which are confided to us as men called of God to sustain the chief responsibility in His Church, and which we cannot share with others. Mr. Wesley had seen a great work arise by God's blessing on his labours. For the continuance and extension of that work he made provision, by committing the purity of the ministry in charge to the Conference. This sacred trust has descended to successive generations of Ministers. As such, the Undersigned now hold it. They did not frame Methodism. They received it, on the solemn pledge given to God and His Church that they would maintain it. They are not at liberty to change it, in any of its fundamental principles. On the system which they have thus received, the divine blessing has always rested. They are bound, therefore, by all obligations, human and divine, to be faithful to the pledges they have given, and to preserve their trust inviolate. If some additional regulations for the more effectual working of the system had been sought, consistent with the full and unweakened application of the principle laid down by Mr. Wesley, the case would have been different; but now that the principle itself is assailed, the Undersigned deem it their duty to renew the unequivocal declaration of their adherence to it, and their firm resolution, by the help and blessing of God, to maintain it themselves unimpaired, and to deliver it over unimpaired into the hands of their successors, requiring from them the same pledges of fidelity, that were given by the Undersigued themselves to their predecessors.

2. The Undersigned must also firmly adhere to the great principles involved in the Explanatory Declaration of 1835,—namely, that to the Conference alone belongs the determination of the conditions on which ministerial recognition and fraternity are to be accorded; and that, for the proper exercise and discharge of this important function, it must possess the right, which it has exercised from the very beginning, of Personal Examination, whenever it shall judge it to be called for by the circumstances of the case. This, also, they regard as a portion of that ancient trust which they are bound to maintain, and which, as a part of the system of Methodism, they believe to be just and necessary.

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3. And, lastly, they feel now obliged to declare, that they believe the restoration of the persons whom the Conference was reduced to the painful necessity of excluding from ministerial communion and recognition, to be, under existing circumstances, impossible. The original act of discipline was righteous and necessary. It was performed with reluctance, and not until it had become evident that longer forbearance was inconsistent with the peace of the Societies, and with that discipline and good order which the Conference was bound to maintain. Hut the subsequent conduct of these individuals must now be also taken into the account. The original offences have been repeated and aggravated. A course of reckless agitation, for the purpose of revolutionizing the system, has been pursued. With men who avow such principles, who seek such objects, who employ such means, and who manifest such a spirit, the assailed body of Ministers cannot possibly have any communion. The breach with them has become irreparable.

The Undersigned, having thus declared their deliberate opinion, cannot, however, conclude without thanking that great majority of the people of their pastoral charge who have remained tranquil, satisfied with the real benefits which they have derived from Methodism as at present constituted, and perfectly aware that the Ministers of the Connexion cannot possibly have any interest opposed to the spiritual prosperity of the church.

Nor must they omit to put the unwary on their guard. By plausible misrepresentations, these may be induced to join, for a time, in this unhappy course of agitation. What can they gain by it, but spiritual confusion and distress for themselves, with the certainty, if they persevere in the line of conduct on which they have been persuaded to enter, of their own Separation from a system the spiritual advantages of which they and their families have so largely experienced,—and of a calamitous Division in the Connexion, which Ministers, Trustees, and Leaders, as well as the people, must be anxious to avoid? Let them not expect that their Ministers will be led, through intimidation, to depart from the ground which in their conscience they believe to be right. Suspicions are plentifully expressed or insinuated, that many of them are adverse to the just rights and privileges of the people. They fearlessly deny it. They unequivocally declare that the privileges of the people are as sacred to them as the rights of the ministerial office; and that it is their determination to uphold both the one and the other in their mutual and corresponding relations. But, at the same time, they declare that, whatever may page 8 occur, they will not yield to menace. They have made their choice; and, by the help of God, they will abide by it. Never will they agree to mutilate or to alter the essential principles of that pure and simple constitution which, under God, was confided to them as a sacred deposit by Mr. Wesley.