The first effects of his public preaching have not been surpassed by any thing that we read in the history of fanaticism. On one occasion, as he was inculcating the doctrine of universal redemption, “immediately one, and another, and another, sank to the earth; they dropped down on every side as thunderstruck.” Sometimes, as he began to preach, numbers of his believers fell into violent fits and lay struggling in convulsions around him. At other times his voice was lost amidst the groans and cries of his distracted hearers. Wesley encouraged the storm which he had raised; he shared the fanaticism which he imparted; and in these deplorable spectacles of human imbecility he saw nothing but the hand of God confirming by miraculous interposition the holiness of his mission. But however elated the preacher might be by these spiritual triumphs, however confident in the immediate aid and favour of God, he did not neglect such human means as occurred to him for securing and advancing his conquests. At a very early period he divided his followers at Bristol into male and female _bands_, for purposes of mutual confession and prayer, in imitation of one part of the Moravian discipline. The establishment of love feasts was equally early. Presently Friday was set apart by him for prayer and fasting; and a house was erected (likewise at Bristol) for the meeting of his disciples. Things were already advancing towards schism. The directors of the church discouraged the extravagance of the teacher, and pitied the madness of the people. Many clergymen, with praiseworthy discretion, refused their pulpits to men who might turn them to such strange purposes. And this gave a pretext to Wesley for seeking means of instructing the people independent of the Church. In the mean time he discovered that there were differences between himself and those with whom he had hitherto been most closely connected—differences the more difficult to reconcile, because they concerned points of doctrine—the one with the Moravians, the other with Whitefield and his followers. For the arrangement of the former, Count Zinzendorf came in person to England, and had some conferences with Wesley—but he no longer found in him a timid disciple, or obsequious admirer. Wesley defended fearlessly the opinions which he professed, concerning Christian perfection and the means of grace; and as no concession was possible on the other side, the controversy ended in an entire and final breach between him and the Moravians. The dispute with Whitefield, occasioned by the predestinarian doctrines now nakedly advanced by him, was conducted with considerable bitterness, and came to a similar termination. Not that the separation was in this case so complete as to preclude a temporary reconciliation, which was effected some years afterwards; but the difference was clearly proved to be real and irreconcileable; and the permanent division of methodism may in fact be dated from the year 1740.