1755 JOHN & CHARLES WESLEY. First Edition of a Public Dispute Over Anglican Church & Education for Ministers.

Very rare first edition of an important public controversial pamphlet between John and Charles Wesley. Last offered at auction at Sotheby's, 1983. 

The early 1750s were a period of growing tension, at times public, between John and Charles Wesley. A key point of divergence concerned the use of lay preachers. While open to this in principle, Charles was convinced that John was encouraging far too many who had neither the gifts nor the grace to take up the calling. For more on this dimension of the tensions, see Richard P. Heitzenrater, “Purging the Preachers: The Wesleys and Quality Control,” in Charles Wesley: Life, Literature & Legacy, edited by Kenneth Newport & Ted Campbell (Peterborough: Epworth, 2007), 486–514.

Even if they were persons of deep spiritual character and clear gifts for preaching, there was another dimension to the challenge of the lay preachers—many of them chafed at the restriction from administering the sacraments. When one of their assistants had sufficient training and could find a willing bishop, the Wesleys supported them seeking ordination. But few were thus qualified. Things came to a head in October 1754 when two lay preachers, Charles Perronet of London and Thomas Walsh in Reading, administered the sacrament of Holy Communion.

Charles suspected that John was ready to bow to the desires of such preachers, in order to provide for sufficient sacramental ministry among the Methodist faithful. This would have amounted to a clear separation from the Church of England and Charles strongly resisted it. He began to muster support prior to the scheduled Conference at Leeds in early May 1755. As part of this preparation for a public dispute, he wrote the presently-offered poetic epistle and began sharing it with some of his sympathetic colleagues.

The epistle stresses Charles’s appreciation for Methodism as a movement, while insisting that it is not the church, and it pleads with John to restrain any act that would turn Methodism into a dissenting church. While John did read a paper at the Leeds Conference rejecting separation from the Church of England, Charles worked to reinforce the point by publishing this Epistle and reading it aloud in various influential Methodist societies around England. 

The effort was generally successful at the time, and the Epistle was allowed to go dormant. Then, in 1784, John Wesley was persuaded that the situation of the Methodists in the newly independent colonies in North America required that he ordain two lay preachers. Charles’s response to this act was to reprint the Epistle. 

Wesley, Charles. An Epistle To the Reverend Mr. John Wesley, By Charles Wesley, Presbyter of the Church of England. London. Printed for J. Robinson, in Ludgate-Street: MDCCLV. 16pp.

Good +, complete as issued, oversewn to spine as shown with two 19th century diminutive steel clips. 5 marginal ink " } " and one word, "can," inked out in an early hand.