582 History of Methodism 



sat apart as they always did in the primitive Church; 

 and none were suffered to call airy place their own, 

 but the first comers sat down first. The congregations 

 were not a gay and giddy crowd who came chiefly to 

 see and be seen, nor a company of goodly, formal, out- 

 side Christians, whose religion consisted of a dull 

 round of formal duties, but a people most of whom 

 did, and the rest earnestly sought to, worship God in 

 spirit and in truth. Mr. "Wesley began preaching in 

 the Foundry (November, 1738) at five in the morning 

 and seven in the evening, that the people's labor might 

 not be hindered. He opened the service with a short 

 prayer; then sung a hymn and preached (usually 

 about half an hour) ; then sung a few verses of another 

 hymn, and concluded with prayer. His constant doc- 

 trine was salvation by faith, preceded by repentance 

 and followed by holiness. His assistants preached 

 the genuine gospel of present salvation through faith 

 wrought in the heart by the Holy Ghost, in the most 

 clear, simple, and unaffected language, declaring pres- 

 ent, free, full justification, and enforcing every branch 

 of inward and outward holiness with an earnestness 

 becoming the importance of the subject, and with the 

 demonstration of the Spirit. With regard to the last 

 and most awful part of divine service, the celebration 

 of the Lord's Supper, the whole was performed in a 

 decent and solemn manner, and enlivened by hymns 

 suitable to the occasion, and concluded with prayer 

 that came not out of feigned lips. This plain, script- 

 ural religion was guarded by a few prudential regu- 

 lations. At Bristol, Mr. "Wesley asked, " How shall we 

 pay the debt upon the preaching-house?" Captain 

 Foy stood up and said, " Let every one in the society 

 give a penny a week, and it will easily be done." " But 



