Note 576 — 1787.

Methodist Magazine, 1788, p. 486. It is only fair to add that all was not sunshine in America. At the conference of 1784, the American preachers had recorded a declaration that, “during the life of Mr. Wesley they were ready to obey his commands in matters belonging to church government”; but, in 1787, and thenceforward, this declaration was omitted from their printed minutes. Why? Because Wesley, without consulting them, had changed the time and place of holding their conference, and had appointed Richard Whatcoat to be co-superintendent with Francis Asbury.—(Etheridge’s Life of Coke, p. 173.) Dr. Coke was present, and, in a letter printed four years afterwards, pronounced this an “excommunication” of Wesley, and declared that, in his opinion, it hastened Wesley’s death; for, “from the time he was informed of it, he began to hang down his head, and to think he had lived long enough.”—(“Impartial Statement of the known Inconsistencies of Rev. Dr. Coke.” By William Hammet: 1792.) We gravely doubt the correctness of Dr. Coke’s opinion.