ECCLESIASTICAL HISTORY 



said ' You are not commissioned to preach in this diocese, therefore I advise 

 you to go hence.' l He replied that having been ordained as a Fellow, he 

 was not limited to any particular cure, and therefore held that he had an 

 indeterminate commission to preach in any part of the Church of England. 

 However, Butler determined to provide for the spiritual needs of Kingswood; 

 a church was built and endowed, and a new parish was created by Act of 

 Parliament. 2 He intervened between Whitefield and the chancellor of the 

 diocese, and secured him the opportunity of preaching for any of the clergy 

 who wished for his aid. 8 The strength of the methodist movement excited 

 the displeasure of Bishop Newton. In his charge to the clergy in 1766 he 

 said: ' We should be sedulous to guard our people against methodism as we 

 would guard them against popery.' * He was convinced that from methodism 

 to popery was a natural and easy transition, and saw a remarkably striking 

 parallel between the saints of methodism and the saints of Rome, commend- 

 ing Bishop Lavington's book on the subject to his clergy. 1 In very forcible 

 language he deplored the lack of religion among high and low, rich 

 and poor,' and in 1777 he delivered a charge entitled ' A Dissuasive from 

 Schism.' 7 He expressed his strong disapproval of men professing themselves 

 members of the Church of England, who pretended to hold her doctrines and 

 articles in greater reverence and purity than others, ' and yet contrary to all 

 order and decency, in open violation of the laws of the Church as well as of 

 the State, divine as well as human, set up separate congregations, erect 

 tabernacles, preach in the fields and corners of the streets.' ' Many of them, 

 ordained and licensed only by themselves, invade the priest's offices, revile 

 the clergy of the Established Church, rob them as much as they can of the 

 affections of their parishioners, and even of their parochial dues.' ' For 

 shame,' he concluded, * let them no longer pretend to be of the Church of 

 England.' Bishop Warburton looked upon Wesley and Whitefield as 

 tiresome fanatics, and wrote The Doctrine of Grace in ridicule of them. 8 

 * Were we to make our estimate of the present state of the religious world 

 from the journals of modern fanatics, we should be tempted still to think 

 ourselves in a land of pagans, with all their prejudices full blown upon them.' 

 4 What, for instance, more strongly tends to tumult and disorder, than for 

 one, who professes to propagate only the plain old religion of the Church of 

 England, to set at nought its established discipline by invading the province 

 of the parochial minister ; by assembling in undue places and at unfit times?' 

 He concluded his book by counselling the clergy to avoid bigotry, to favour 

 toleration, to discountenance fanaticism, and to prevent schism, as far as 

 possible, by judicious conciliation and correct example. John Andrews, 

 curate of Stinchcombc, was openly attached to methodism, and had even 

 preached in Lady Huntingdon's chapel at Bath. 9 In 1763 Warburton wrote 

 threatening to revoke his licence unless he held morning and afternoon services 

 in his parish on Sundays, and resided there continuously, ' not so much from 

 the good you are likely to do there, as to prevent the mischief you may do 

 by rambling about in other places.' Whether owing to the influence of their 



1 Works ofjohn Weilty (ed. 1856), xiii, 470-2. 



' Spooner, B'uhop Sutler, z6. ' Ibid. 4 Newton, op. cit. iii, 456. 



1 Ibid. 455. * Ibid. 470. ' Ibid. 501. 



* Watson, Lift of Warburton, 515-39. ' Ibid. 543. 



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