In consequence of
what I saw, I began to be greatly dissatisfied with the manner in which
things were carried on in the society.
A division took place in Leeds, and in several other places, and the
seceders formed a new body, called the Protestant Methodists. I left the
old Body at the same time, but having heard favorable accounts of the
Methodist New Connexion, I joined that community. This Body had seceded
from the Old Connexion some thirty years before, under the Leadership of
Alexander Kilham. Kilham was a great reformer both in religion and
politics. He sympathized with the French revolutionists, and with the
English religious Latitudinarians. He was a great admirer of Robert
Robinson of Cambridge, and reprinted, in his periodical, _the Methodist
Monitor_, his writings on religious liberty. He denounced all human
creeds, and proclaimed the Bible the one sole authority in the church
both in matters of doctrine and matters of duty. The conference of the
Body was to consist of one-half preachers and the other half laymen. In
the circuit and society meetings the power was to be divided in the same
way. A list of doctrines generally held in the Body was afterwards drawn
up and published, but was not put forward as an authoritative creed.
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