Chap. 9. 



EELIGIOUS INSTITUTIONS. 



181 



METHODIST EPISCOPAL CHURCH. 



ARTICLES OF THE CHURCH. 



of the fact, that their organization and 

 practical economy differ, in some partic- 

 ulars, from all other denominations in the 

 community. Among these are, — 



1. The division of their work into cir- 

 cuits and stations. The former, some- 

 times, and especially in earlier years, em- 

 bracing a whole county or more ; while 

 the latter is restricted to a single congre- 

 gation. Stations, of late years, however, 

 have been greatly multiplied, as the abil- 

 ity of the people has been deemed suffi- 

 cient to give a competent support to a 

 stated ministry. 



2. The itinerant system ; removing the 

 ministry every year, or at the end of two 

 years, is another peculiarity belonging to 

 the Methodist Episcopal Church. These 

 features of their economy render the task 

 of giving a history in detail more difficult 

 than would be the case, did they partake 

 of the stationary form, as is the fact with 

 most other branches of the Christian 

 church. 



From public records, and the testimony 

 of aged persons now living, the fact is 

 well established, that the first Methodist 

 society in Vermont was organized at Ver- 

 ehire, in 1796. This was effected through 

 the labors of the Rev. Nicholas Sneathen, 

 a man of powerful mind and prominent 

 etanding in the Methodist Epis. Church 

 at that time, as the fact of his being chap- 

 lain to Congress for several years is suffi- 

 cient proof. Soon after this, a society 

 was formed in Barnard, and in 1797 one 

 in Barre. This was the origin of Metho- 

 dism in the eastern part of tlie state. 



In 1798 the Rev. Messrs. Joseph Mitch- 

 ell and Abner Wood were appointed to 

 labor on what was then called Vergennes 

 circuit; and in the following year, the 

 celebrated Lorenzo Dow, who was then 

 a Methodist itinerant preacher, was sta. 

 tioned upon Essex circuit, lying north 

 and east of Burlington. 



From these periods, the Methodists en- 

 larged the sphere of their operations, and 

 societies were raised up in all parts of the 

 etate, until, at the present time, they 

 have churches established in almost every 

 town, to which the gospel is regularly 

 preached and tlie ordinances administer- 

 ed. In the early history of tiie Methodist 

 Episcopal Church in Vermont, there were 

 instances of violent opposition to those 

 ministers who first entered this field, over 

 which the author of this article would 

 draw an impenetrable veil of concealment, 

 did not historic truth require an allusion 

 to them. Wesleyan theology, maintain- 

 ing the universality of the atonement by 

 the Lord Jesus Ciirist, the conditionality 

 of salvation by faith, roused up to opposi- 



tion many who regarded themselves as 

 the accredited expounders of the word of 

 God, and entitled to the immunities of 

 imparting instruction, from a pre-occu- 

 pancy of the ground. In a few instances 

 personal violence was resorted to by the 

 profane, but the more common method 

 of opposing what was then considered 

 heretical, was public and private disputa- 

 tion. These days of controversy, how- 

 ever, have passed away ; and calm inves- 

 tigation, and the practical results of the 

 labors of this branch of the Christian 

 church, have led most to the recognition 

 of the members of this communion, as 

 " brethren beloved in the Lord." 



In their early history, the ministry of 

 this church experienced no little incon- 

 venience in their labors, in being without 

 suitable accommodations for divine wor- 

 ship. The consequence was that for ma- 

 ny years they occupied school houses and 

 private dwellings for preaching places ; 

 thankful, indeed, if tiiese were not closed 

 against them. Among the early minis- 

 ters who introduced Methodism into this 

 state, beside those already mentioned, 

 were Ralph Williston, Joseph Crawford, 

 Henry Ryan, Robe/t D}'er, Peter Van- 

 nest, Elijah Chichester, Jesse Lee, Timo- 

 thy Dewey, Truman Bishop, Thomas 

 Branch, James Coleman, Laban Clark, 

 Ezekiel Canfield, Solomon Langdon, Paul 

 Dustin, Samuel Draper, Oliver Beal, Eli- 

 jah Hedding, Ebenezer VVashburne, and 

 Dan Young. 



The following are the articles of rcligioii 

 adhered to by the Methodist Episcopal 

 Church, not only in Vermont, but through- 

 out the Union : 



"I. Of Faith ill the Holy Trinity. Thero 

 is but one living and true God, everlast- 

 ing, without body or parts, of infinite 

 power, wisdom, and goodness : the maker 

 and preserver of all things, visible and in- 

 visible. — And in unity of this Godhead, 

 there are three persons of one sub- 

 stance, power, and eternity \ — the Father, 

 the Son, and the Holy Ghost. 



II. Of the Word., or Son of God, icho 

 2ras made very Man. The Son, who is 

 the Word of the Father, the very and 

 eternal God, of one substance with tho 

 Father, took man's, nature in the womb 

 of the blessed Virgin; so that two whole 

 and perfect natures, that is to say, tho 

 Godhead and manhood, were joined to- 

 gether in one person, never to be divided, 

 whereof is one Christ, very God and very 

 man, who truly suffered, was crucified, 

 dead and buried, to reconcile his Father 

 to us, and to be a sacrifice, not only for 

 orinrinal guilt, but also for actual sins of 

 men. 



