246 LIFE AND CORRESPONDENCE OF THE \M^A 



oppose the Methodists : and upon the whole that such was the temper 

 of the English prelates, that they would much rather choose that the 

 whole body of the Methodists in England, though so very numerous, 

 should be lost to the Church by a total separation, than that they should 

 continue any longer with it. 



To those particulars I made the best reply that I was able, apologized 

 for the great trouble I had given them, and then took my leave of them 

 in the most friendly and affectionate manner. 



Thus ended our negotiation which served no other purpose tlian to 

 discover to us, that the minds of these gentlemen are not wholly free from 

 resentmeftt, and it is a point which among them is indispensably neces- 

 sary that Mr. Wesley be the first link of the chain upon which their Church 

 is suspended. 



Although, as Dr. Andrews observes, Dr. Smith could not derive 

 much satisfaction from a letter which revealed nothing so much 

 as the fact that the estrangement of Coke from the Church was 

 likely to become a schism, — one, too, founded on the spretce injuria 

 forma; much more than on an earnest contention for any faith ever 

 delivered to the saints — this effort at reunion was not without re- 

 sults of a permanently historic kind. The feelings of these gentle- 

 men — whose separation was so much animated by "personal re- 

 sentment" — came under the influence of that great physician Time. 

 Before many years they were "pricked in their hearts" and went 

 to a friend of Smith to inquire "what they should do." 



The following letter (of 1791) of Mr. Coke to Bishop White, is 

 a memorable document indeed ; its confessions and aspirations but 

 the scqiielcB of the efforts made in 1784 and narrated as above, by 

 the Rev. Mr. Andrews : 



Richmond, April 24, 1791. 



Right Reverend Sir: Permit me to intrude a little on your time 

 upon a subject of great importance. 



You, I believe, are conscious that I was brought up in the Church of 

 England, and have been ordained a presbyter of that Church. For 

 many years I was prejudiced, even I think, to bigotry in favor of it: but 

 through a variety of causes and incidents, to mention which would be 

 tedious and useless, my mind was exceedingly biassed on the other side 

 of the question. In consequence of this, I am not sure but I went 

 further in the separation of our Church in America than Mr. AVesley, 

 from whom I had received my commission, did intend. He did indeed 

 solemnly invest me, as far as he had a right so to do, with Episcopal 

 authority, but did not intend, I think, that our entire separation should 



