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Life of Rev Thomas Coke by Drew 1817

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Life of Rev Thomas Coke by Drew 1817 This is a reproduction of a library book that was digitized by Google as part of an ongoing effort to preserve the information in books and make it universally accessible. https://books.google.com NYPL RESEARCH LIBRARIES ||| | 3 3433 08233.425 | - - - - - - - - - - - | - THE REAR ADMIRAL FRANKLIN HANFORD, U.S. N. COLLECTION in the New York PUBLIC LIBRARY • 1929 - * * { : N { | re ---. -- - * . - 2 < . * * - * * : * ~ * --- - * * the A f . , º - * r # * * * * * , 7 ºu ºvº nº ºf - - - ſº. LIFE 9 º'- \ - , , / ºf . ." § OF THE tº . • * "...W. * * & *** REV. THOMAS COKE, LL.D. - y including IN eleTAIL HIS WARIOUS TRAVELS : > *... : And - - - EXTRAORDINARY MISSIONARY EXERTIONS, * * * * ... ... in . ENGLAND, IRELAND, AMERICA, and the WEST-INDIES: witH 3m 3ccount of big Øcati), on The 3d of MAY, 1814, While on a Missionary Voyage to the Island of Ceylon, in the East-INDIEs. INTERSPERSED WITH NUMEROUS REFLECTIONS; AND concLUDING WITH - AN ABSTRACT OF HIS WRITINGS AND CHARACTER. -º- BY SAMUEL DREW, +- Of St. Austell, cº-au. - “So Lycidas sunk Low, BUT MoUNTED HIGh, C THRough THE DEAR MIGHT of HIM who walk'd The waves.” Milton's Lycidas, - LONDON : Printed at the Conference-Office, 14, City-Road, BY THOMAS CORDEUX, AGENT. sold n Y Thom As BLANshARd, 14, city-RoAp; AND At The Methodisr PREACHING-HOUSES IN TOWN AND country. 1817. TTE NEW YORK FºELſ. LIBRARY 507 147 A ASTQ3, LEN Qx A.N.T., TILPEN FOUNDATIONS R 1930 L. DEDICATION. - To Robert Carr Brackenbury, of Raithly Hall, Lin colnshire; Thomas Roberts, King-Street, Bath; and John Holloway, City-Road, London, Esquires; Er ecutors in Trust of the late Reverend Thomas Coke, LL.D. GENTLEMEN, I DEDICATE to you this Volume, from a full persuasion, that as intimate friends of the late Rev. Dr. Coke, and guardians of his property, you must feel an interest in his reputation. When our mutual, but now deceased, friend sailed for India, and consigned to your care the management i of his temporal concerns, he committed to mine the > delineation of his character. You were acquainted ‘‘, with this fact. And it has been to me no small source ` of consolation, while prosecuting the task of high § responsibility, which his unexpected death has now *-*. A 2 iv DEDICATION. assigned me, to learn that his appointment of a Bio grapher has received the sanction of your approbation. For my work, which is now presented through you to the world, I hesitate to entertain correspondent hopes. / - If Dr. Coke had lived to reach the place of his ulti mate destination, my undertaking would, in all proba bility, have been less arduous than it is at present. It was his intention to have furnished me with documents, facts, and incidents in chronological order; and to have transmitted them from India, that they might have been arranged for his inspection, in case he had lived to return, or for publication, if he had visited Europe no more. This was a point which he kept in view while on his voyage, and his last letter to me, which was written off Madeira, chiefly turned on this topic. But the over-ruling Providence of God, which per mitted this plan to be formed, has mysteriously inter posed to prevent the execution of it. And, how para doxical soever it may appear, the same awful stroke, that has partially taken from me the means of fulfilling his wishes, has laid me under an additional obligation to comply with his request. From the difficulties of this situation you have hap pily afforded me some relief, by giving me access to all his papers that were in your possession, and by readily answering such questions as I found it necessary to propose. Furnished with these materials, in addition to my own resources, I have endeavoured to draw the outline of a faithful picture, without introducing an exu DEDICATION. V berance either of light or shade: In this state the work now approaches you; and I cheerfully consign it to your protection and care. That the pages of my volume are free from error and imperfection, I have no more the presumption to suppose, than I have the vanity to imagine that their defects can escape your penetration. Your long and intimate acquaintance with the deceased, must have deeply impressed upon your minds those varied features of his character, through which your judgments of him are formed and matured. This circumstance will preserve me from the imputation of flattery, although it may be at the expense of my labours. It is to this maturity of judgment, however, that I the more readily appeal, from a full conviction, that, because it is matured, it must be equally free from the influence of local prejudice, and the delusion of vision ary expectations. From you I have therefore a right to expect a decision, that will blend accuracy with candour, without furnishing me with an occasion to complain of severity, or making me a debtor to com passion. Should this work be so fortunate as thus favourably to pass the ordeal of your examination, my confidence in your ability and fidelity will shield me from illiberal criticisms, which may arise from other quarters. Many may censure, and some may approve: but none can be more competent to form an accurate estimate of what I have written, than yourselves. A 3 vi DEDICATION. There is, however, one department in which I expect you will find many rivals, and that is, among Dr. Coke's numerous friends, who, like you, will be soli citous to cherish a strong affection for his name and memory. Yet even here I can scarcely suppose you will have any superiors, when I dare not make an ex ception even in favour of Gentlemen, Your sincere friend, And humble servant, Samuel DREw. St. Austell, May 17, 1817. PR E FA C E. IN sending the following Biographical Sketch into the world, the writer of this volume has no design either to flatter the unreasonable admirers of the deceased, or to gratify his enemies. He has therefore not drawn an artificial picture; but he has followed him through life, and noticed the most distinguishing features in his character, without having an eye to either party, and without always adverting to the opinions, which the facts he records might induce the reader to entertain. Writing under these impressions, he is not conscious of hav ing passed over in silence any material incident in Dr. Coke's life, which could reasonably find a place in these memoirs, without descending to trifles, which can have no necessary connexion with a fair delineation of his character. On the same principle, he has neither emblazoned his virtues, nor am plified his faults; and, it is not improbable, that on this ac count, he has written in a manner that will give offence to all those, whom nothing can please but panegyric or defamation. “The struggling pangs of conscious truth to hide, To quench the blushes of ingenuous shame,” are feelings, to which the author, on the present occasion, is a total stranger. He might have expatiated on a train of fa vourable coincidences, and have exalted accident into a virtue; or he might have given shades to infirmities, which would have sprinkled them with the appearance of vice, without deviating from the rigid dictates of truth; but impartiality demanded from him a statement of naked facts, which should leave the A 3 viii PREFACE. judgment of the reader free from prepossession. To the candid and dispassionate, who are willing to make all reason able allowances for the frailties of human nature; and who must estimate these allowances by the various situations in which the deceased was placed, such a faithful delineation as the author thus proposes cannot fail to afford satisfaction. But after all, the accomplishment of his purpose, may fall short both of his wishes and hopes, and for this he must crave their indulgence. That a man, whose life has been spent in propagating Christianity—in carrying the light of the gospel among hea then nations—in cultivating and spreading the active and passive virtues which adorn social life—and finally, in direct ing sinners to the Saviour of the world, should find himself exposed to enemies, may seem exceedingly strange. But his tory and observation unite to inform us, that this has been the lot of almost every public character. “Censure is a tax which every man must pay the public for being eminent;” and we well know that this fine has been constantly exacted from the greatest benefactors of mankind. Both Wesley and Whitefield were exposed to the charges of pride, ambition, and enthusiasm; and even Mr. Fletcher could not escape the tongue of slander. To the shafts of unmerited censure, Dr. Coke was also exposed; and his name, as well as the names of his illus trious cotemporaries and predecessors, was doomed to bear the base insinuations of invidious tongues. But reproachful epithets merit no reply. It was sufficient for Dr. Coke, by the sanctions of his own conscience, to know that his motives were pure in the sight of God; and, for his numerous friends on each side of the Atlantic, it must be pleasing to learn, that he was beloved and revered in every country which had en joyed the benefits of his labours. Of this fact the following respectable testimonies furnish the most indubitable evidence. “My very dear friend Dr. Coke, “When I consider the solemn offer you made of yourself to the General Conference, and their free and de - PREFACE, ix liberate acceptance of you as their Episcopos, I must view you as most assuredly bound to this branch of the Methodist Episcopal Church in the United States of America.
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