a name at first given to a society of religious young men at Oxford, and now applied to all those who adhere to the doctrine of the church of England as taught by Whitefield, Wesley, &c. They are said to be, in general, plain well-meaning people, who do not dissent from the established church, but profess to live with great purity according to her articles. At their first appearance their teachers were charged, in the heat of their zeal, with several irregularities, and many expressions in their preaching which were not altogether unexceptionable: but as the civil government, with a moderation and wisdom peculiar to the present time, thought fit to overlook their behaviour, they have since honestly acknowledged wherein they were mistaken; and, in consequence of the perfect liberty of conscience they enjoy, have subsided into a more regular and peaceable conduct, agreeable to the genuine spirit of Christianity.

Methodists, Methodici, is also an appellation given to a sect of ancient physicians, who reduced the whole healing art to a few common principles or appearances.