History Of Methodist Reform, Volume I - Media Sabda Org

ace, Eclipse is first, and that puts the other entries "nowhere." Pardon is craved, but it provokes a
nausea. It might be retorted Seabury was elected first, and so dispute the palm. All this aping of the
thing down to gowns and bands, and other millinery, reads between the lines like a tacit confession
that the Episcopacy of American Methodism is a sham, and needs to be feathered and furbelowed
[sic] to hide it. It is to be sincerely hoped that no future historian of the M. E. Church will perpetuate
this brag. Dear brethren, "reform it altogether."
10 In evidence the following extract from a letter found in an Appendix to "An Inquiry into the
Validity of Methodist Episcopacy, with an Appendix, containing two original documents never
before published, by an Episcopalian of the State of Maryland " (Rev. John Kewley). See Asbury's
"Journal," Vol. III. p.248, edition 1852. Wilmington, 1807. 12mo, 68 pp. Copy in author's
possession. Said letter was written by Dr. Andrews to Dr. Smith, giving an account of an interview
between Mr. West, Dr. Andrews, Dr. Coke, and Mr. Asbury. The letter states that an interview was
appointed on or before the meeting of the Christmas Conference in Baltimore, the letter itself bearing
date, "Baltimore, December 31, 1784. Dr. Coke "came at the appointed hour, six in the evening, and
brought with him Mr. Goff [Gough] and Mr. Asbury." The Episcopalians informed them that they
had seen Wesley's letter of September, 1784, addressed to Asbury and the American preachers, and
wished to know if arrangements could not be made to consolidate the Methodist with the Protestant
Episcopal Church. "The plan of church government which we had instituted in this state was very
simple, and, as we trusted, a very rational plan: that it was to be exercised by a convention consisting
of an equal number of laity and clergy, and having for their president a bishop, elected by the whole
body of the clergy." It was farther suggested that Dr. Coke could be consecrated as a bishop, as "we
could see no impropriety in having two bishops in one state, one of which might always be elected
from among the people called Methodists, so long as that distinction should be kept up among them."
To these proposals Dr. Coke made answer that the utmost he could do would be to submit the
proposal to Mr. Wesley. The matter is discussed between them, Coke pointing out the difficulties
in the way. The interview ended with no practical results, the letter ending with this paragraph,
giving the conclusions of the Episcopalians, "Thus ended our negotiations which served no other
purpose than to discover to us that the minds of these gentlemen are not wholly free from resentment,
and it is a point which among them is indispensably necessary, that Mr. Wesley be the first link of
the chain upon which their church is suspended." The italics are in the letter. It vindicates these
conclusions, and it may be that the proposals were in no wise more acceptable because of the church
government — "an equal number of the laity and clergy." Neither Wesley, nor Coke, nor Asbury,
had any use for a laity in church councils. They were simply the hewers of wood and drawers of
water. Further use of this pamphlet of Kewley's will be made later. The suggestions of the
Episcopalians must have been based upon their knowledge of the arrival of Bishop Seabury as a
"consecrated" man.
This last note, as to Dr. Andrews' interview with Coke and Asbury, was written by the author in
1594. Recently, December, 1898, it is verified in a monogram just published with the title, "The
Garrison Church," sketches of the history of St. Thomas' Parish. Garrison Forest, Baltimore County,
Md., 1742-1852. By the Rev. Ethan Allen, D.D. Edited by Rev. Hobart Smith, rector of St. Thomas'
parish, 1898, with additional sketches. Printed by Paul & Falconer, New York. James Pott &
Company. For sale by F. Allen Lycett, Baltimore, Md. This monogram contains the explicit
statement as given by the Baltimore Sun, in a notice of the book, that "One of the rectors, Dr. John