orm any new sect, but to reform the
nation, particularly the church; and to spread scriptural holiness over
the land." (Large Minutes of Conference, 1744-89, Qu. 3.) In the same,
Qu. 45, we have this answer: "We are not seceders, nor do we bear any
resemblance to them. We set out upon quite opposite principles."
Southey says: "Wesley had now proposed to himself a clear and
determinate object. He hoped to give a new impulse to the Church of
England, to awaken its dormant zeal, infuse life into a body where
nothing but life was wanting, and lead the way to the performance of
duties which the church had scandalously neglected." (Southey's Life, p.
193, ed. Bohn.)

Mr Curties says: "A disastrous period of Wesleyanism opened with John
Wesley's voyage to America, in 1735. It was a mission nobly undertaken,
at the instance of Dr. Burton, of Corpus College, and of the celebrated
mystic, William Law; and its purpose was twofold; first, that of
ministering to the settlers in Georgia, and then of evangelizing the
neighboring tribes of red Indians. (Southey's Life, p. 47). But its
results were far different from those which either Wesley, or those who
wished him well, could have anticipated. For not only were his services
for the settlers rejected, and his mission to the Indians a failure. (R.
Watson's Life, p. 38.) On his voyage out he had fallen in with
twenty-six Moravian fellow-passengers, on their way from Germany to
settle in Georgia; and they spoilt all. On his as yet unsettled,
enthusiastic, self-dissatisfied frame of mind, the spectacle of their
confident, tranquil, yet fervid piety, fell like a spark on tinder. He
writes, in his journal, now first begun, 'From friends in England I am
awhile secluded; but God hath opened me a door into the whole Moravian
Church.' Here, Wesley learned, and took in, the doctrines of Peter
Bohler, the Moravian, who taught thus: First, when a man has a living
faith in Christ, then he is justified. Second, this living faith is
_always given in a moment_. Third, in that moment he has peace with God.
Fourth, which he can not have without knowing he has it. Fifth, and
being born of God he sinneth not. Sixth, and he can not have this
deliverance from sin, without knowing that he has it." (Southey's Life,
p. 113.)

Such is the origin of the Methodist tenet "that there is a swift and
royal road, not only for some men, but for all men, by which the highest
spiritual things may be reached at a bound.