PORTRAITURE

OF

METHODISM:

BEING

AN IMPARTIAL VIEW

OF THE

RISE, PROGRESS, DOCTRINES, DISCIPLINE, AND MANNERS

OF THE

WESLEYAN METHODISTS.

IN A

SERIES OF LETTERS, ADDRESSED TO A LADY,

BY JOSEPH NIGHTINGALE.

Sit mihi fas audita loqui-——

VIRGIL.

LONDON:

Printed by C. Stower, 32, Paternoster Row,

FOR LONGMAN, HURST, REES, and orme, PATEN-NOSTER ROW.

PREFACE.

As far as concerns the manner in which the following work is executed, I must be allowed to deprecate the severity of criticism; in what relates to the matter of it, I desire only that it should stand upon its own merits, as an impartial and fair account of the people whose history and internal economy I have attempted to develop. If I appear to have been too personal in my remarks on some living characters among the Methodists, it has arisen from my utter detestation of bigotry and intolerance; and from a desire of distinguishing the precious from the vile. And it should be remembered, that those remarks refer to them in