“Answer. Yes. In every place, exhort those who were brought up in the
Church, constantly to attend its service. And in visiting the classes,
ask every one, ‘Do you go to church as often as ever you did?’ Set the
example yourself. And immediately alter every plan that interferes
therewith. Is there not a cause for this? Are we not unawares, by
little and little, tending to a separation from the Church? Oh remove
every tendency thereto with all diligence. (1) Let all our preachers
go to church. (2) Let all our people go constantly. (3) Receive the
sacrament at every opportunity. (4) Warn all against niceness in
hearing; a great and prevailing evil. (5) Warn them likewise against
despising the prayers of the Church. (6) Against calling our society
a church, or the church. (7) Against calling our preachers ministers,
our houses meeting-houses (call them plain preaching houses). (9)
Do not license them as such. The proper form of a petition to the
judge is, ‘A. B. desires to have his house in C. licensed for public
worship.’ (10) Do not license yourself, till you are constrained;
and then not as a Dissenter, but a Methodist preacher. It is time
enough when you are prosecuted, to take the oaths. Thereby you are
licensed.”[545]