The Nature, Design, and General Rules of the United Societies
The short rule that John and Charles Wesley signed on 1 May 1743 for the societies in London, Bristol, Kingswood and Newcastle upon Tyne. It tells how the societies and their classes began and what is expected of members.
Read the text at archive.org ↗The Rules as adopted, with later changes, by the United Methodist Church ↗
The pamphlet is written in John Wesley’s first person. It dates the rise of the United Society to the end of 1739, when eight or ten people came to him in London asking for advice and prayer, and describes the division of each society into classes of about twelve under a leader. The one condition of admission is “a desire to flee from the wrath to come, to be saved from their sins”. Members are expected to show that desire by doing no harm, by doing good and by attending on the ordinances of God, each of which is spelled out in a list.
The United Methodist Church prints the Rules in its Book of Discipline, in a form that differs in places from the text of 1743; that version is linked above. See John Wesley and the Rise of Methodism.
Cited in
- 24 May 1738, firm date