May 4, 1791 — to James O’kelly
WILMINGTON, DELAWARE
ASB_VOL3.PDF, PDF page 129
A Letter of Bishop Coke to James O’Kelly
It is easy to see that Coke was collaborating with O’Kelly and that Coke was very much in favor of the General Conference as against the Council.
WILMINGTON, DELAWARE
May 4, 1791
[TO JAMES O’KELLY]1
Dear Friend:
I have written a letter of a sheet and a half to you, but on consideration I believe I shall not send it to you till I reach Europe: then I shall probably write as much again to you. By this time, you probably have been informed of our great loss, in the death of Mr. Wesley.2 I am hastening to Europe at this important crisis. You may depend on my being with you, God willing, at the General Conference. I think no step will be taken during my absence, to prevent the General Conference; it would be so gross an insult on truth, justice, mercy, and peace, that it will not be, I think, attempted. If it be, and successfully, we will call a Congress. I expect you to be faithful. But as Mordecai said to Esther, think not with thyself that thou shalt escape more than others; for if thou altogether holdest thy peace at this time, then shall there enlargement and deliverance arise to the Jews from another place; but thou and thy father’s house shall be destroyed. Oh, be firm, be very firm, and very cautious, and very wise, and depend upon a faithful friend3 in
THOS. COKE
Alexander M’Caine,
Letters on the Organization and Early History of the MethodistEpiscopal Church, 119. Vanderbilt University Library
Notes (3)
- Coke wrote to O’Kelly in 1791 after the February Charleston Conference, also after the Virginia Conference. Coke’s letter to O’Kelly reads, “Methodism is gone. But remember when we meet together and overthrow the new institution (the council) as I believe we shall, if Mr. Asbury is not satisfied with the government as it stood before, we will contend for a Republican government. Give me thy hand—fear not; I am a friend to America.” (M’Caine, Letters, 118.) ↩
- Coke preached a funeral sermon for John Wesley. He was preaching in Baltimore. He said, “The leaving of Mr. Wesley’s name off the Minutes was an almost diabolical thing. No history furnished any parallel to it, that a body of Christian ministers should treat an aged and faithful minister, as Mr. Wesley undoubtedly was, with such disrespect.” Farther on in the sermon he said, “Two of those actors in Mr. Wesley’s expulsion are dead and damned, and the others, with their patron [Mr. Asbury we suppose], will go to hell except they repent.” On May 4, 1791, Wilmington, Delaware, in a letter Coke wrote, “I doubt much whether the cruel usage he received in Baltimore in 1787, when he was excommunicated did not hasten his death. Indeed I little doubt it. For from the time he was informed of it, he began to hold down his head, and to think he had lived long enough.” (M’Caine, Letters, 112.) ↩
- Coke did not stand by O’Kelly at the General Conference, and O’Kelly felt that he had been deceived in Coke. ↩