Wesley retrospective, part 2; or, So You Wanna Be A Methodist...

I wish when I was marking the stuff up, i had also noted what it was about the particular passage in the Journal that intrigued me. Some I know--the idea or sentiment has stuck with me. Others I am not so sure. For example, the next two I have marked deal with collecting donations for the Methodist building in Bristol, and how no one believed they could raise the money, but Wesley trusted God. Another dealt with a person who was brought back to life by prayer. I know GENERALLY why I marked them-- Providence, the power of prayer, but I wish I had noted what sepcifically struck me, because these entries in themselves are not unique in Wesley's Journals.

But then, I came to one that I did not note why I was impressed by it, but I know why. My first church in Winchester, as part of its history, kicked a man out who had sold a bum mule and would not refund the unfortunate buyer. This goes back to a question I constantly have about church discipline: why do we today believe that church is an open place, where anybody can do, say, and believe as they please, when that is clearly against the constant witness of not just Methodism, but the entire Christian church?

Wesly, In 1743, on his rounds through England, "examining the societies," near Newcastle found that some had left the Methodists voluntarily:

"14 (chiefly Dissenters-- that is, not members of the Church of England) said they left because their Ministers would not give them the sacrament [if they met with Methodists]
9 more because their spouses were not willing that they should stay
12 because their parents were not willing
5, because their master or mistress would not let them come
9, because they would not be laughed at
3, because they would lose the poor's allowance
3 more, because they could not spare time to come
2, because it was too far
1, because she was afraid of falling into fits [uh-oh, sounds like those Methodists were getting a Dose of the Ghost]
1, because people were so rude in the street [being mocked for going to Methodist preaching]
2, because Thomas Naisbit was in the society
1, because he would not turn his back on his baptism
1, because we were mere Church of England men
1, because there was time enough to serve God yet [the old I'll-accept-Christ-right-when-I-am-about-to-die]"

But then Wesley underwent the task of expelling people. "The number expelled was 64:
2, for cursing and swearing
2, for habitual Sabbath-breaking
17, for drunkenness
2, two for retailing spirituous liquors
3, for quarreling and brawling
1, for beating his wife
3, for habitual, willful lying
4, for railing and evil-speaking
1 for idleness and laziness
29, for lightness and carelessness"