TO THE READER. THE late Rev. Dr. Coke's Journals were heretofore published in small detached pieces, except in one instance, where Extracts of several of his Journals to North-America and the West-India Islands were collected and published in a small volume, (which was dedicated to the Rev. John Wesley,) and well received in Great Britain and Ireland. Since the time of that publication, many interesting Extracts from the Doctor's Journals of a later date were presented to the Public, in the Arminian or Methodist Magazine for the year 1798, which Extracts were never published separately. The present volume comprises the Collection dedicated to the Rev. John Wesley, the Extracts from the Methodist Magazine already referred to, and the Doctor's last Journal (as far as it has come to hand) of his nearly finished voyage to the island of Bombay in the East: to which is prefixed, a Life of the Doctor, by Mr. Joseph Sutcliffe, Minister of the Gospel. Dublin, Dec. 23, 1815 THE first care of heaven is over the church; it extends to all its members, and numbers the hairs of their head. This assertion is exemplified in the whole scheme of providence. God would not wash away the polluted inhabitants of the ancient world till he had first provided an ark for the faithful family. He refused to indulge Elijah, in his request to die, till he had caused him to throw his mantle on Elisha. And our blessed Lord did not forsake the earth till he had provided a ministry, and thereby ensured the consummation of his work. God's special care is equally distinguishable not only in calling proper instruments from the treasures of his providence, but in qualifying them for his work. Moses had every endowment as a patriarch, a law-giver, and a prophet. David had a double class of talents to vanquish the enemies of his country, and to re-establish religion. St. Paul, called to convert the Gentiles, though feeble in body, had every endowment of wisdom, of languages, and power, proper to bring over the learned and polished heathen into the church. It was the B same The Editor has great pleasure in announcing, that Mr. Drew, of St. Austell, is employed, agreeably to the Doctor's request, in writing his life at large; and from the former productions of his pen, it is augured that the expectations of the public will not be disappointed. same with the reformers. Luther had courage, Melanchton had wisdom, Calvin had diligence, and Erasmus had wit. The same gracious cares of heaven are equally discoverable in the rise and progress of Methodism. When the spirit of religion was almost lost in this country, as is confessed by Watts, Butler, and Secker; and when God raised up the venerable Wesley, aided by a few other clergymen, he gave him a missionary spirit, a cool judgment, a paternal influence, and crowned the whole with the growing lustre of a hoary age. As the work enlarged, Providence acting on its own and primitive plan, raised up the young converts to supply the lack. When certain dignitaries of the church, mortified to see the rising glory of the work, loaded him in a succession of pamphlets with a mass of reproach, he found leisure to reply with that meekness of wisdom, and confidence of truth, which always added new laurels to his cause. But in 1771, when a body of ministers, and others, called Calvinistic Methodists, assembled in Bristol to renew the continental controversies on the doctrines of grace, and with a determination either to force Mr. Wesley to retract what he deemed his purest tenets, or expose him, as many of them had already done, to the most illiberal reproach, God raised him up a Herculean advocate in the late Mr. Fletcher. In this gentleman were united the clearest light of the reformation, with the purest habits of continental piety. The avenues of sacred knowledge were accessible to him by a liberal acquaintance with languages. The French and German were to him vernacular. And a clear understanding, a lively fancy, a felicity of genius, and a Christian urbanity, gave a finish to his polished manners. This great casuist, in the time of danger, and by the efforts of seven years, covered Methodism with the shield of faith, and defended her vitals with the breast-plate of righteousness.-He did more; he stayed her wavering members seduced |