OF CHRISTIAN CHURCHES AND SECTS FROM THE Earliest Ages of Christianity. BY THE REV. J. B. MARSDEN, M.A. INCUMBENT OF ST. PETER'S, BIRMINGHAM, AUTHOR OF "THE HISTORY OF THE EARLY AND LATER PURITANS," IN TWO VOLUMES. VOL. II. LONDON: RICHARD BENTLEY, NEW BURLINGTON STREET; OLIVER & BOYD, EDINBURGH; AND HODGES & SMITH, DUBLIN. 1856. 1 BIBLIOTHECA REGIA LONDON: PRINTED BY W. CLOWES AND SONS, STAMFORD STREET AND CHARING CROSS. HISTORY OF CHRISTIAN CHURCHES AND SECTS. HUNTINGDON'S (LADY) CONNEXION.-Selina, wife of the ninth Earl of Huntingdon, and daughter of the second Earl Ferrers, of the ancient and noble house of Shirley, gives her name to this community. She became the friend and correspondent of the Wesleys at the opening of their career. In 1739 she was a constant attendant at their chapel in Fetter-lane, and a member of the first Methodist society formed in that place. A division soon occurred in the infant society between the Moravians and the Methodists, and Fetter-lane was abandoned to the Moravians. The Wesleys retired to the Foundry, and Lady Huntingdon accompanied them. Here she was, for some time, one of the most eminent members of the small community, at the head of which were the Wesleys, and their eloquent and zealous coadjutor Whitfield. Whitfield soon afterwards undertook a mission to Georgia, a colony already of importance; but on his return, after four years' absence, in 1748, differences arose between the Wesleys and himself, which widened into an open breach. Whitfield embraced the Calvinistic doctrines, the Wesleys were Arminians; he was forbidden to preach at the Foundry, and he complains that he was even shut out from a chapel in Bristol which he himself had founded. The clergy of the Established Church were equally indisposed to admit either party to their pulpits. The Wesleys formed the society which bears their name. Whitfield, too, as a substitute for parochial congregations, formed societies, as they were VOL. II. B |