Neither have we space to notice the controversies which he carried on with two of the most eminent divines of his time, bishops Lavington and Warburton; since Wesley, though engaged in dispute with the prelates of the Church, and very frequent and bitter in the reproaches which he cast against its ministers, still adhered to its communion, and had yet committed no act declaratory of absolute independence. But later in life he advanced farther towards schism. First of all, as he did not assume for his lay-preachers the power of administering the sacrament, he caused several to be ordained by one Erasmus, a Greek Bishop of Arcadia—thus evading the spiritual authority, which he could not contest, and which he did not yet venture to dispense with. But this was a feeble resource, unworthy of his courage, and unavailing to his purposes. A stronger measure followed. His disciples were very numerous in America, and it was desirable to send out to them a head, invested with the highest spiritual authority. Dr. Coke, an “evangelical” clergyman, was selected for that office, and Wesley took upon himself to invest him with the requisite dignity. These letters of ordination are dated September 2, 1784, and announce in substance, that Wesley thought himself providentially called, at that time, to set apart some persons for the work of the ministry in America; and therefore, under the protection of Almighty God, and with a single eye to his glory, had that day set apart, as a superintendent, by the imposition of his hands and prayer, Thomas Coke, a doctor of civil law, and a presbyter of the Church of England. In this affair, it was weak in Wesley to plead (as he did) a seasonable conviction, that in the true primitive Church the order of bishop and presbyter were one and the same—for if Wesley exercised as presbyter episcopal authority, so, under the same plea, might Dr. Coke have exercised it, without any imposition of Wesley’s hands. This was a shallow pretence, which could scarcely have deceived himself. The fact was, that Wesley, now acting as the sole head of a separate religious party, assumed the prerogatives of the highest ecclesiastical dignity; and resolved that all the privileges of his ministers should emanate from himself. This is properly considered as a second important epoch in the history of methodism.