September 20, 1788 — to Francis Asbury
LONDON
ASB_VOL3.PDF, PDF page 87
A Letter from John Wesley to Asbury
The Journal of Asbury refers to this letter. On March 15, 1789, he says, “Here I received a bitter pill from one of my greatest friends. Praise the Lord for my trials also! May they all be sanctified!” It was the last letter he had from Wesley.
LONDON
September 20, 1788
[TO FRANCIS ASBURY]1
My dear Brother:
There is, indeed, a wide difference between the relation wherein you stand to the Americans and the relation wherein I stand to all the Methodists. You are the elder brother of the American Methodists: I am under God the father of the whole family. Therefore I naturally care for you all in a manner no other persons can do. Therefore I in a measure provide for you all; for the supplies which Dr. Coke provides for you, he could not provide were it not for me, were it not that I not only permit him to collect but also support him in so doing.
But in one point, my dear brother, I am a little afraid both the Doctor and you differ from me. I study to be little: you study to be great. I creep; you strut along. I found a school: you a college!2 nay, and call it after your own names! O beware, do not seek to be something! Let me be nothing, and “Christ be all in all!”
One instance of this, of your greatness, has given me great concern. How can you, how dare you suffer yourself to be called Bishop?3 I shudder, I start at the very thought! Men may call me a knave or a fool, a rascal, a scoundrel, and I am content; but they shall never by my consent call me Bishop! For my sake, for God’s sake, for Christ’s sake put a full end to this! Let the Presbyterians do what they please, but let the Methodists know their calling better.
Thus, my dear Franky, I have told you all that is in my heart. And let this, when I am no more seen, bear witness how sincerely I am Your affectionate friend and brother,
JOHN WESLEY
John Telford, The Letters of the Rev. John Wesley, VIII, 91
Notes (3)
- This letter did not see the light of day for nearly forty years after the death of Wesley. It was published by Henry Moore after Coke had died. M’Caine says, “This letter alone, we think, is sufficient to settle the matter of Mr. Wesley’s recommendation of the Episcopal form of church government with every intelligent and disinterested person;…” (Letters, 54.) M’Caine did not agree with the ideas of American Methodist episcopacy, and was most critical. The letter has been published several times. ↩
- Cokesbury College. ↩
- Quotation from Charles Wesley. He created the following poems on Coke and Asbury, the first on Coke: So easily are Bishop’s made, By man’s or woman’s whim; Wesley his hands on Coke hath laid, But who laid hands on him? Now the one on Asbury: A Roman emperor ‘tis said, His favorite horse a consul made; But Coke brings greater things to pass, He makes a bishop of an ass. Edward J. Drinkhouse, History of Methodist Reform and Methodist Protestant Church, I, 259 M’Caine’s Letters, 79 Guirey, History of Episcopacy, 332 Guirey quoted Bradburn, who said that he was present when Wesley wrote the lines. ↩