JUNE 23
As long as I live the people shall have no share in choosing either stewards or leaders among the Methodists. We have not and never had any such custom. We are no republicans and never intend to be. It would be better for those that are so minded to go quietly away. I have been uniform both in doctrine and discipline for above these fifty years; and it is a little too late for me to turn to a new path now I am grey-headed.
to John Mason, 1790
It is not possible to avoid all pleasure even of sense, without destroying the body; neither doth God require it at our hands.
Works, xi. 461
