To a Member of Parliament.

DCCCXCVII. — To a Member of Parliament.

LAST month a few people met together in Lincolnshire to pray, and praise God, in a friend’s house: There was no preaching at all. The neighboring Justices fined the man of the house twenty pounds. I suppose he was not worth twenty shillings. Upon this, his household goods were distrained and sold, to pay the fine. He appealed to the Quarter-Sessions; but all the Justices averred, the Methodists could have no relief from the Act of Toleration, because they went to church; and that, so long as they did so, the Conventicle Act should be executed upon them.

Last Sunday, when one of our Preachers was beginning to speak to a quiet congregation, a neighboring justice sent a constable to seize him, though he was licensed; and would not release him till he had paid twenty pounds, telling him, his license was good for nothing, because he was a Churchman. Now, Sir, what can the Methodists do? They are liable to be ruined by the Conventicle Act, and they have no relief from the Act of Toleration! If this is not oppression, what is? Where then is English liberty? the liberty of Christians? yea, of every rational creature, who, as such, has a right to worship God according to his own conscience? But, waving the question of right and wrong, what prudence is there in oppressing such at body of loyal subjects? If these good Magistrates could drive them, not only out of Lincolnshire, but out of England, who would be gainers thereby? Not His Majesty, whom we honor and love; not his Ministers, whom we love and serve for his sake. Do they wish to throw away so many thousand friends, who are now bound to them by stronger ties than that of interest? If you will speak a word to Mr. Pitt on that head, you will oblige, etc. —————

DCCCXCVIII. — To the Rev. E. C., of Philadelphia.

MY DEAR BROTHER, Near LONDON, February 1, 1791.

THOSE that desire to write or say anything to me, have no time to lose; for time has shaken me by the hand, and death is not far behind. But I have reason to be thankful for the time that is past: I felt few of the infirmities of old age for fourscore and six years. It was not till a year and a half ago that my strength and my sight failed. And still I am enabled to scrawl a little, and to creep, though I cannot run. Probably I should not be able to do so much, did not many of you assist me by your prayers. I have given a distinct account of the work of God, which has been wrought in Britain and Ireland, for more than half a century. We want some of you to give us a connected relation of what our Lord has been doing in America, from the time that Richard Boardman accepted the invitation, and left his country to serve you. See that you never give place to one thought of separating from your brethren in Europe. Lose no opportunity of declaring to all men, that the Methodists are one people in all the world; and that it is their full determination so to continue,

Though mountain rise, and oceans roll,

To sever us in vain,

To the care of our common Lord I commit you; and am.

Your affectionate friend and brother.

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DCCCXCIX. — To a Friend.

DEAR SIR, LONDON, February 26, 1791.

UNLESS the divine power has raised you up to be as Athanasius contra mundum, 10 I see not how you can go through your glorious enterprise, in opposing that execrable villany, which is the scandal of religion, of