History Of Methodist Reform, Volume I - Media Sabda Org

of our national independence, who believed that with the loss of kingly power the common law of
England would be lost forever. They, too, could not conceive how laws which had been administered
for hundreds of years in the name of the king could be respected and enforced for their own sakes.
It was not the majesty of the laws which they revered so much as the majesty of the king. The
tendency of all absolute principles of government is to make the ministers of justice more fearful
than justice itself." Entertaining such opinions, the Anglo-American clergy had fled the country for
the most part; Jarratt in Virginia and a few others were exalted exceptions. The English missionaries
of Wesley followed them, in their loyalty to the king. Some of them acted and talked after a manner
which prejudiced the native mind against the whole confraternity, so that, like the Tories, they were
watched and put under disability. George Shadford was the last to leave. He and Asbury, quite
bosom friends, conferred and prayed together over it, and differing answers came to each, as they
professed. Asbury said, "If you are called to go, I am called to stay; so here we must part." They
parted to meet no more.
Meantime Asbury came under suspicion; for while he was discreet and did not meddle with the
polities of the country, yet the test oath was too much for him, as it conditioned that the subscriber
to it would, if called on, take up arms in defense of the country. He did what he conscientiously
could to conciliate public opinion. Finding that he could best conform to the conditions of
citizenship offered in Delaware, he had himself registered as a citizen of that colony, or state. He was
offered a quiet settlement over an Episcopal church, but answered: "I will do nothing that shall
separate me from my brethren. I hope to live and die a Methodist." In March, 1778, the patrol
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became so rigid that Asbury took refuge with Judge White of Kent County, Del. On the 2d of
April the light-horse seized the judge and bore him away from his wife and children. Asbury again
fled and found refuge in the neighborhood. He says," I lay in a swamp until sundown, and was then
kindly taken in by a friend." About a month afterward he ventured back to Judge White's, who after
five weeks' detention was released, the charge against him being that he was a Methodist. From
Judge White's he was able to keep up a surreptitious correspondence with some of the preachers, and
covert visits were paid to him. During this time he formed the acquaintance of Judge Barratt and
Richard Bassett, both names figuring conspicuously in early Methodism. For a year he did not
venture far from his retreat. The governor of Delaware became friendly to him, and a letter he had
written to Rankin about 1777 became known, in which he expressed the opinion that the outcome
of the war would be the independence of the colonies, served him a good purpose in securing him
wider liberty to preach.
Except the name of Perry Hall no retreats for Asbury are so frequently mentioned in his Journal
as Bassett's princely home at Bohemia Manor, and Barratt's, on which the chapel of that name was
built, famous for the meeting of Coke and Asbury in 1784. Asbury's stately manners and wide
intelligence gave him influence with not a few families of social distinction, which gave to the
Methodism of the day more commanding position than it first possessed. To offset these mollifying
influences, Wesley about this time, issued and sent to America his "Calm Address to the Colonies,"
in which the most radical monarchical sentiments were avowed, and exasperated the Americans.
Asbury deprecated this intermeddling of Wesley in the politics of the country. Not a few writers from
time to time have inveighed against Asbury for his concealment at Judge White's, as reflecting upon
his courage and impugning his motives. The writer cannot join them. He acted as a conscientious
Christian man of his avowed sentiments might be expected to act. The deprecatory thing about his