At
this epoch, the Puritans were buried, and the Methodists were not born.
The Bishop of Litchfield, in a sermon delivered in 1724, said, "The
Lord's Day is now the Devil's market day." In Litchfield Cathedral
Library is a copy of Dr. Balguy's Sermons, delivered in 1748, containing
on the fly-leaf an autograph remark by Bishop Bloomfield. It is in these
words, "No Christianity here." It is said of that period of time, by a
noted minister of the Church of England, that a dry rationalism had
taken possession of the church, and that all the powers of her best
intellects were engaged in hot contests with Deists and Unitarians;
that an equally dry morality and stoical praise of "Virtue" formed the
chief part of the exhortations from the pulpit. It was just in these
times that the causes of the reformation of John Wesley sprang into
being. Seven biographies of John Wesley have already been written, and
the subject seems far from being exhausted even yet. As usual in such
cases it is the earlier publications which take the more sober view of
his character and history; while those of a later date surround their
hero with a halo of extravagant admiration. Alexander Knox, a personal
friend of Wesley's, thus writes of him: "How was he competent to form a
religious polity so compact, effective and permanent? I can only express
my firm conviction that he was totally incapable of preconceiving such a
scheme. * * * * That he had uncommon acuteness in fitting expedients to
conjunctures is most certain; this, _in fact_, was his great talent."
(_Letter appended_ to Southey's Third Edition, 2, p. 428.) Methodism, at
the first, sprang up simply as a revival.

Half a century ago a distinguished Wesleyan wrote as follows: "Though
Methodism stands now in a different relation to the establishment than
in the days of Mr. Wesley, _dissent_ has never been professed by the
body--and for obvious reasons: (1) A separation of a part of the society
from the church has not arisen from the principles assumed by the
professed Dissenters, and usually made so prominent in their discussions
on the subject of establishments. (2) A considerable number of our
members are actually in the communion of the Church of England to this
day. (3) To leave that communion is not, in any sense, a condition of
membership with us." (R. Watson's Observations, p. 156.)

"What may we reasonably believe to be God's design in raising up the
preachers called Methodists? Not to f