History Of Methodist Reform, Volume I - Media Sabda Org

Of nothing, perhaps, had Wesley such a dread as suffrage or voting. He never allowed it. McCaine
says, "There is now lying before me a letter from a preacher who was a member of the Conference
of '84, which contains the following sentence, 'Dr. Coke in 1787 made a second visit, and brought
instructions with him from Mr. Wesley, which instructions I never saw, or heard but in part.' I
received a letter from a preacher who had seen them, and quoted from them the following words:
'Put as few things as possible to vote. If you (Dr. Coke), brother Asbury, and brother Whatcoat are
agreed, it is sufficient.'" McCaine farther affirms that, if this letter be questioned as a third-hand
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report, he refers to Rev. Nelson Reed as having the same information. This was about the time that
Asbury, in pursuance of the same policy, and utterly at variance with that proposed at the Christmas
Conference of putting things to vote, conceived the "Council plan," and the foregoing letter may
have been received by him through Coke, in response to his views on the subject. And it was in
reference to this very Council plan over which he exercised a negative, and when urged to give it up,
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replied, "My negative is my own." This is in proof of the affirmation that the privilege accorded
him by the Conference of 1784, as noted by Whatcoat, of declining to ordain any one elected by a
Conference, was extended by him without limit. These details, if not intimately germane to the
question considered, are so interwoven with it that no better place could be found for their
introduction. Were Coke and Asbury unanimously voted into position? Asbury himself affirms that
they were, and that everything was decided by vote in this Conference. It is in place to record what
he says of the Conference, and as it is so brief, it may be given in full. "Continued at Perry Hall until
Friday, the twenty-fourth. We then rode to Baltimore, where we met a few preachers" (this is
remarkable, when it is known that sixty-one of eighty-three were there, and may be in proof that
some allowance must be made for his Journal statements); "it was agreed to form ourselves into an
Episcopal Church, and to have superintendents, elders, and deacons. When the Conference was
seated, Dr. Coke and myself were unanimously elected to the Superintendency of the Church, and
my ordination followed, after being previously ordained deacon and elder, as by the following
certificate may be seen:—
Know all men by these presents, that I, Thomas Coke, Doctor of Civil Law, late of Jesus College
in the University of Oxford, Presbyter of the Church of England, and superintendent of the Methodist
Episcopal Church in America, under the protection of Almighty God, and with a single eye to his
glory by the imposition of my hands, and prayer (being assisted by two ordained elders) did on the
twenty-fifth day of this month, December, set apart Francis Asbury for the office of a deacon in the
aforesaid Methodist Episcopal Church. And also on the twenty-sixth day of said month, did by the
imposition of my hands, and prayer (being assisted by the said elders) set apart the said Francis
Asbury for the office of elder in the said Methodist Episcopal Church. And in this twenty-seventh
day of the said mouth, being the day of the date hereof, have, by the imposition of my hands, and
prayer (being assisted by the said elders) set apart the said Francis Asbury for the office of a
superintendent in the said Methodist Episcopal Church, a man whom I judge to be well qualified for
that great work, And I do hereby recommend him to all whom it may concern, as a fit person to
preside over the flock of Christ. In testimony hereof, I have hereunto set my hand and seal this
twenty-seventh day of December, in the year of our Lord, 1784. — "Thomas Coke."
The hand of the reputed author of the Deed of Declaration is seen in this legal phrasing and
iteration, as well as the educated mind. In large part it follows the "testimonial" Wesley gave Coke
of his setting apart as a superintendent. "Twelve elders were elected and solemnly set apart to serve