History Of Methodist Reform, Volume I - Media Sabda Org

in Virginia. In 1797 his name disappears. He sympathized with, and soon became associated with,
O'Kelly, and was one of the most prominent of his preachers, finally, fraternizing with one section
of the "Christian Church," he separated from O'Kelly on a doctrinal difference, which will be
exposed in the American history of 1792-1803. His "History of Episcopacy" bears no imprint either
of the publisher or of the date of publication, but it exhibits internal evidence that it was written and
issued before 1800. He furnishes some specific information anent this Lichfield secret meeting of
1791, of Coke, Taylor, Clarke, Rodgers, Bradburn, and Moore. It was held at a tavern. "An
accidental traveler discovered their meeting and spoiled their intended secrecy. 'Tis said they
attracted the attention and suspicion of the persons at the Inn, and that if they continued their
meetings any longer the magistrates would have interfered on the suspicion of their being engaged
in seditious consultation," p.189. Taylor afterward exposed the meeting in a letter of April 29, 1794,
which he gives, see pp. 189-190. Their principal deliberation was to form a kind of Episcopacy,
Superintendents of Districts, etc. Sometimes Guirey dips his pen in gall as the following sentence
in continuation, "This induced that little man Coke (who runs with the hare and holds with the
hounds) to write the following lines to Mr. Kilham (the Kilham controversy occurred soon after, and
was violently opposed openly by Coke) — Hitherto we have been, since the death of Mr. Wesley,
the most perfect aristocracy existing, perhaps, on the earth. The people have no power, we the whole
in the fullest sense which can be conceived. If there be any change in favor of religious liberty, the
people certainly should have some place." Signed and dated, "Angrim, April 29, 1795, Thomas
Coke." Another of the Wesleyan preachers of that time, and who subsequently came to America and
wrote "The Portraiture of Wesleyan Methodism," New York, l2mo, 1813, by Jonathan Crowther,
defensive of it, wrote to Kilham on the same subject of Episcopacy, "I told them plainly at the district
meeting last week that I would as soon see the devil at the head of the connection as seven bishops."
Written from Plymouth Dock, February 26, 1796. See pp. 199, 200. Letter-writing is a serious and
tricksome business when freely indulged by inconsistent men.
18 "History of Methodism," Vol. III. p. 53.
19 Stevens' "History of Methodism," Vol. III. p. 55.
20 History of Methodism," Vol. III p. 61.
21 Smith says 200 from every section, and this is confirmed by other authorities.
22 "History of Methodism," Vol. III. pp. 74, 75.
23 Ibid.
24 Dixon's Methodism in its Origin," New York edition, 1853.
25 English Methodist Minutes for 1797.
26 And like Achilles, vulnerable only in his heel.