April 24, 1780 — to Whom?
BALTIMORE, Md.
ASB_VOL3.PDF, PDF page 42
William Guirey, an early Methodist preacher, became a very severe critic of the episcopacy. He wrote a book entitled The History of the Episcopacy in Four Parts, from Its Rise to the Present Day. The book is not dated. There is a copy of a short letter of Asbury’s in the book which was included under a picture of the head of a bull with the title at the top The Baltimore Methodist Bull. The Bull was a critical publication which was printed for some time and was a thorn in Asbury’s flesh. Asbury was referred to as the Baltimore Methodist Bull. This letter refers to the Virginia preachers who had met in 1779 and agreed to ordain their preachers. Guirey agreed with the Virginia preachers and considered Asbury to be most autocratic. He also used this letter to fortify his argument against the episcopacy. He led an O’Kellyite schism which became the Independent Christian Baptist Church. He later became editor of the Christian Sun. BALTIMORE, Md.1
April 24, 1780
[TO WHOM?]2
We disapprove of the step our brethren have taken in Virginia, and we look upon them no longer as Methodists in connection with Mr. Wesley and us, till they come back. The only condition of our union with them shall be to suspend all their administrations for one year, and all meet in Baltimore. FRANCIS ASBURY
The following comment appears at the bottom of the letter and was evidently put in by the editor of the Baltimore Methodist Bull. He wished Asbury had gone back to England with the early preachers who had left America because of the Revolution.
“Does this bull need any comment? Are any arguments necessary to induce every virtuous American to execrate it? Should not every friend to religion, liberty, and the Methodist connection, in America, lament that Mr. Asbury did not accompany the fugitive missionaries3 to England?” Guirey, The History of the Episcopacy Rare Book Collection, Library of Congress
Notes (3)
- Though the place is not given, it can be supplied from the Journal. ↩
- It is not known to whom it was written. ↩
- Thomas Rankin and George Shadford were sent as missionaries to America by John Wesley. They sailed from England April 9, 1773. Rankin was a Scotsman. He was appointed by Wesley to be the superintendent of Methodism in America. The two missionaries landed in Philadelphia on June 3 and commenced work there. Asbury heard Rankin preach the night after his arrival. Rankin and Asbury went together to New York. Asbury went to New Rochelle, but returned to New York on the twenty-third and found Rankin “well employed in settling matters pertaining to the society.” A revival of religion was in progress, and Rankin and Asbury were not of the same mind in reference to revivals. Strickland, Life and Times of Francis Asbury, 100, says, “Rankin manifested an opposition to the spirit of revivals, asserting that they tended to disgrace religion by the destruction of order. In this he was promptly met by Asbury, although he conceded that some enthusiasm and extravagance might occasionally exist in time of revival, yet deemed it injudicious to animadvert with severity on those exhibitions of passionate excitement which more or less accompanied deep and lasting revivals of religion.” Rankin and Asbury were constitutionally different. Rankin was thoroughly British, and Asbury had already become American. Differences developed between them. Bangs, in his History, I, 86-87, 115-66, speaks of the differences. Asbury thought that Rankin assumed too much authority over the preachers and people. Rankin relayed some of these differences to Wesley, and Wesley’s mind became prejudiced against Asbury. On March 1, 1775, Wesley wrote to Rankin: “Dear Tommy, “As soon as possible you must come to a full and clear explanation both with Brother Asbury and with Jemmy Dempster. But I advised Brother Asbury to return to England the first opportunity.” On April 21, 1775, Wesley wrote: “Brother Asbury has sent me a few lines and I thank him for them but I do not advise him to go to Antigua. Let him come home without delay.” On May 19, 1775, Wesley wrote Rankin again: “I doubt not but Brother Asbury and you will part friends. I hope I shall see him at the conference. He is quite an upright man. I apprehend he will go through his work more cheerfully when he is within a little distance from me.” On August 13, 1775, Wesley wrote to Rankin: “I am not sorry that Brother Asbury stays with you another year. In that time it will be seen what God will do with North America, and you will easily judge whether our preachers are called to remain any longer therein.” (See James M. Buckley, History of Methodism, I, 206-7, for portions of letters.) Not being able to take test oaths or to sympathize with the colonies, Rankin returned to England. He says, “The British being in possession of Philadelphia, I left Maryland in September, and through divers dangers got safe into that city in the month of November. I spent the winter there, and left the Capes of Delaware on the 17th of March, 1778, and arrived safe at the Cove of Cork on the 15th of April.” (The Arminian Magazine, II, 197, quoted by Buckley, 216.) The letter to Joseph Benson, January 15, 1816, shows without doubt Asbury carried with him to the end of his life a feeling that Rankin had been responsible for the differences between Wesley and himself. ↩