Editor's Introductory Notes: 1766

[1] John Ellis was the second preacher in the Dales Circuit, in which Rankin was the Assistant. He was a Liverpool man, who became a preacher in 1762 and died in 1772. Matthew Lowes and Moseley Cheek were in the Newcastle Circuit. For John Fenwick, see letter of November 7, 1751.

[2] Rowell was Assistant at Yarm. He is called both Jacob and Matthew Rowell in the Minutes. Atmore says he was 'a plain, upright, honest, faithful, pious man; he was very zealous for God.' See Journal, iv. 67n, 117, 465n; v. 465, 468; and letter of March 24, 1761.

[3] This is No. 8, one of the Dale letters which was missing, and has an antique figure 8 on the back, All the letters were thus numbered.

[4] This pungent and masterly reply was called Forth by a pamphlet entitled 'Methodism Examined and Exposed; or, The Clergy's Duty of guarding their Flocks against False Teachers. A Discourse lately delivered in Four Parts. By the Rev. Mr. Downes, Rector of St. Michael, Wood Street, and Lecturer of St. Mary Le Bow.' (Rivington, 1759, 1S. 6d.) The discourses were based on Acts xx. 28-30, and were afterwards included in the two volumes of Sermons published by John Downes's widow in 1761. See Green's Bibliography, No. 195; and letter of November 22, 1760.

[5] William Warburton, Bishop of Gloucester 1759-79, published in 1762 The Doctrine of Grace; or, The Office and Operations of the Holy Spirit Vindicated from the Insults of Infidelity and the Abuses of Fanaticism. Before it was published the Bishop sent his MS. to Wesley, who corrected the false readings, improper glosses, and other errors, and returned it to him. On January 5, 1763, Wesley told his brother Charles: 'I was a little surprised to find Bishop Warburton so entirely unacquainted with the New Testament; and, notwithstanding all his parade of learning, I believe he is no critic in Greek.' Lord Oxford said on March 21, 1926: 'Warburton, with all his industry and ingenuity, came very near to being an impostor as well as a bully.' In his Journal for November 1762 Wesley writes, 'From Monday the 22nd to Friday the 26th I was employed in answering the Bishop of Gloucester's book'; and on Monday the 29th, 'I retired to transcribe my answer to Bishop Warburton.' See Green's Anti-Methodist Publications No. 342.

Carre de Montgeron was a Councillor of the French Parliament converted from extreme scepticism to full belief in Catholic teaching by his pilgrimages to St. Medard at the tomb of the Abbe Paris. He wrote a quarto volume, La Verite des miracles Operes par l'intercession de M. de Paris, describing his experience and the grounds of his faith in the miracles. Bull Unigenitus, issued by Clement XI on September 8, 1713, was directed against the Jansenist Quesnel's French translation of the New Testament with Notes. Edward Brerewood (1565 -1613), of Brasenose College, Oxford, was first Professor of Astronomy at Gresham College, London, 1596. His mathematical, religious, and antiquarian MSS. were published posthumously.

[6] A MS. of 205 pages by Dr. Warburton, The True Methodist, or Christian in Earnest, has recently come into the possession of the Methodist Book Room. He revised it on July 6, 1755, 'after reading Mr. Hervey's Dialogues between Theron and Aspasio, which savours strongly of Methodism.' The MS., which was regarded as one of his lost works, describes what he regards as the true Methodist in opposition to the Methodist of the Wesley and Whitefield type. It begins with 'his first setting out' and considers him in Private Life with respect to age and natural temper; in Public Life as a Learner and a Teacher, as a Churchman, and Master of a Family, and as engaged in a Secular Calling, &c.

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