History Of Methodist Reform, Volume I - Media Sabda Org

The crowning incidents of Dr. Coke's career are at hand, and it is fitting to notice some of them
before tracing his final missionary efforts for Methodism and the world. From about 1796 to 1804,
when he retired from the American continent to visit it no more, an interesting correspondence was
kept up between Asbury, Coke, and the Wesleyan Conference as to the respective claims of the two
countries to the services of Coke. From the time Asbury met him at Barratt's chapel in Delaware, and
embraced him in the pulpit, in November, 1784, this keen-sighted and discerning man had measured
his co-superintendent in all the strong and weak points of his character. From that period until his
superior strategy and prudential wisdom had won from Coke all the cooperation needful for his own
preconceived plans of Episcopal organization for America, and then allowed his personal mistakes
of an official nature to limit his influence with the American Methodists until he withdrew, having
been shorn of the prerogatives Wesley designed him to wear jointly with Asbury, their personal
relations were often strained, as will be seen when this period is under direct examination. In his
declining years and as the infirmities of the body grew upon him, Asbury turned to his old friend and
helpful ally in the one questionable transaction of their respective lives: the organization of the
Methodist Episcopal Church at the Christmas Conference of 1784, in that phase of it only which
connects John Wesley as an authority for it or as recommending it in his instructions to Coke, either
written or verbal. It was a just if not a generous impulse that would win him back to America.
Stevens does not notice this correspondence, but Drew furnishes patches of it with one full letter.
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Asbury knew the worth of Coke and now wished his aid; and for 1803-04 outlined an itinerary of
five thousand miles among the Conferences for him, but he pursued it but in part. The letter in its
full text referred to is found in Drew's "Life of Coke," pp. 299, 300. It is subscribed, "Signed by order
and in the behalf of the general conference of the Methodist Episcopal Church in the Unites States
of America, Francis Asbury, Richard Whatcoat." The significant fact is not noted by other historians,
that in this correspondence under official seal the foregoing subscription is never acknowledged;
neither the title, bishop, nor the name, Methodist Episcopal Church, occurs in it. Dr. Coke before
leaving America, finally, in 1804, preached, by invitation, in the Capitol of the United States before
the assembled Congress an eloquent discourse.
Arrived in England, Dr. Coke, now about sixty years of age, gave himself up to the great
missionary operations of the Wesleyan Conference. A missionary was sent to Gibraltar in 1804, and
another, on the decease of the first, in 1808. In 1805 he married Miss Penelope Smith, a maiden lady
of piety and wealth, but of delicate constitution. It was Coke's first marriage. She lived but six years.
Coke found in her a congenial spirit, and their united means made their liberality lavish. He
contracted a second marriage in December, 1811, with Miss Loxdale, an elderly maiden. December
5, 1812, she died. Meantime he was busy in the Master's work, much upon the wing, while carrying
out the literary labors of his life: the great Commentary which the Conference imposed upon him as
a task, and his "System of Philosophy," and his "Recent Occurrences in Europe." It is an open secret
since his death that nearly all this labor was performed by Samuel Drew under compensation, and
is so acknowledged by him, though he seems to feel it an obligation to carry the details of it as secret
to his grave. It would have been better for the memory of both if the whole truth of a simple business
transaction had been told. It is known that the Commentary was plagiarized almost bodily from the
work of the unfortunate Dr. Dodd, though it bears Dr. Coke's name on the title-page as author. It has
been found, however, that it was an age of easy manners as to literary purloining. John Wesley was
not free from it, Henry Moore was conspicuously guilty, and Coke notorious. Later on, Watson and
Adam Clarke redeemed Methodist literature from the stigma. Dr. Coke was his own publisher, and,