History Of Methodist Reform, Volume I - Media Sabda Org

to Kilham as to cast suspicion upon it. "The charges of the pamphlets against the preachers were then
read over, and pronounced 'unproved' and it was voted that," Whereas Mr. Kilham has brought
charges against Mr. Wesley and the body of the preachers, of a slanderous and criminal nature, which
charges he declared he could prove, and which, upon examination, he could not prove even one of
them, and also considering the disunion and strife which has been occasioned in many of the
societies, we adjudge him to be unworthy of being a member of the Methodist Connection." This
decision was unanimous. Stevens gives as his authority for these proceedings a letter in Henry
Moore's "Life," p.144. Kilham's biographer gives quite another coloring to it, as might be expected.
The Conference sent out a "Circular" to the societies, giving a statement of the trial, which lasted
three days. About a week after, and before the Conference adjourned, Kilham wrote the body,
affirming that, if he was in error, he would submit to its counsels, and protesting his regard for the
Connection, adding, "It is probable that before another Conference our views on these subjects will
be the same." The Conference interpreted this as a disposition to return and conform to its
requirements; and appointed a committee of Mather, Pawson, Thompson, Bradburn, Benson,
Bradford, and Moore to confer with him. He refused, however, to sanction the Plan of Pacification,
and the Conference finally voted that, "He could have no place in the Connection while he continued
in his present opinions." The Conference did not exceed its authority in this act. The sixteenth
section of the Deed of Declaration, heretofore cited, gives it power to expel for any cause deemed
by it sufficient. The seeming unanimity of the Conference is in proof of the cohesive power of
entailed church property. It was a serious thing openly to dissent. The effect of it was a reaction on
the part of the ruling majority against the concessions made, of which a farther test took place at the
ensuing Annual Conference, the fifty-fourth, which met at Leeds, August 1, 1797.
The Plan of Pacification did not pacify, and the old issues were discussed in the principal societies
through the year, and another meeting of delegated trustees, to the number of sixty-seven, [21]
assembled in the same town just before the Conference. An evidence of the Conference reaction is
exhibited in the election of Dr. Coke as President. Samuel Bradburn was made Secretary. The
previous year there had been a net increase of 6977; this year the net increase was 4293. The
assembled trustees were conferred with, and some modifications of the Plan of Pacification made
in the line of a completion of the plan. The Conference addressed a circular to the societies, in which
it says, "Thus, brethren, we have given up the greatest part of our executive government into your
[22]
hands, as represented in your different public meetings." The reactionists took alarm. Moore
declared that "they were sapping the ecclesiastical foundations of Methodism and was strongly
tempted to retire from it in despair." A proposition was made to fortify the executive power of the
Conference after these great modifications. Coke, Mather, and Moore spoke strongly in favor of what
they called "Wesley's plan, which was to appoint twelve ministers or bishops, two of whom should
be in Scotland, three in Ireland, and seven in England. The suggestion was promptly resisted." [23]
It was a death-stroke to the aspirations of Coke, and sealed the record that the British Conference
would not have any form of an Episcopacy, firmly as it held to the powers entailed to it by Wesley.
[24]
They have maintained it to this day, though there have not been wanting men like Dixon in later
years, and even as late as the second Pan-Methodist Conference of 1891, a few who gave out
hankerings after they returned home for the Methodist Episcopal system. Stevens also says that this
Conference of 1797 sent an address to the American General Conference, in which they reverently
give thanks for the preservation of the body and their covenant to keep the "rules of doctrine and
discipline," etc. It is a fact that such an address was sent, and it is also a fact that despite Dr. Coke's