"Had I been the first churchman of modern times to be swung from Tyburn Tree,— had I been then taken for dead, whilst in fact but spending an Intermission among the eventless corridors of Syncope, due to the final Bowl of Ale,— had a riotous throng of medical students taken what they deem'd to be my Cadaver back beneath the somber groins of their College,— had I then been 'resurrected' into an entirely new Knowledge of the terms of being, in which Our Savior,— strange to say in that era of Wesley and Whitefield,— though present, would not have figur'd as pre-eminently as with most Sectarians,— howbeit,— I should closely resemble the nomadic Parson you behold today...."
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Line 37 Vulgarized:
"I'm not saying I was the first parson to be hanged from the gallows in this 18th century after which everybody thought I was dead but I was simply dead drunk and then a bunch of medical students, needing cadavers for their studies, hauled my unconscious form back to the dark basements of their college and thusly 'brought me back to life' believing less in Christ than I had, about as much as most non-religious . . . I'm not saying all of that happened at all! But if it did happen some forty years ago (based on my "time of Wesley and Whitefield comment," for those of you paying attention), there would be little difference between the man you see now and that man I just described. WINK."
Subtext:
First Cherrycoke tells us his very life seems to hinge on how well the stories keep the children entertained, placing him in the role of Scheherazade and the Twins in the role of Shahryār, and thus suggesting the stories are embellished and events hyperbolic. Then he admits that his memory is faulty and he's a total fraud meaning none of his stories can be trusted. Now he begins his story with "Had all of this actually happened to me, I'd be no different than the person you see now. So it probably happened to me. But I won't confirm it, exactly. I'll just let you think it. So it probably didn't happen exactly like this at all. I probably just lost faith while passed out in a mud puddle, some medical student rolled me over thinking I'd sell for a few shilling, heard me burp and fart my way back to consciousness, and left me to wake up thinking, "Fucking Christ. If I'm saved, I guess I'm saved. If not, I'm not. May as well just make the most out of this life!"
The mention of Wesley and Whitefield, the founders of the Methodist church who split over the concept of predestination, probably means more than the passing mention makes it seem (especially since Pynchon seems fascinated by the Preterite in Gravity's Rainbow). First, it gives us a fairly good guess at Cherrycoke's age in 1786. He was probably a young man, say in his twenties, when this story of his begins. Whitefield joins Wesley's little Holy Club at Oxford at the beginning of the 1730s. By 1739, Wesley preaches against predestination and the rift begins. So I'd guess Cherrycoke is referencing the time when they were rising to fame and debating about grace and preterition, the 1740s. Which means Cherrycoke is probably in his mid-sixties, possibly early seventies. He's definitely the old man he painted himself to be. By contrast, Mason died age 58 earlier in the year and Jeremiah Dixon died age 45 seven years earlier.
Bringing up the subject of predestination as a practical aside maybe makes sense in understanding Cherrycoke and his motivations. He confesses to being a "churchman" in his youth but, earlier, confessed to basically living as a fraud. He also points out how, at this moment in his life, Jesus became less important to how he was going to live it. I feel like he's kept his love of Christ and religion but, due to ideas like predestination, finds spiritual matters far less important than earthly matters. He would rather have a large coffee and a dozen sweet treats while telling a raucous tale of adventure to a room full of listeners than preach. He does profess to choose his tales based on their moral quality but that probably has far less to do with preaching and more to do with his young audience.
Ultimately, did somebody attempt to hang Cherrycoke or is this just his interpretation of his general loss of faith? Maybe it'll be clarified later, maybe it should remain exactly as Cherrycoke tells it: ambiguous for reasons he keeps to himself. I like to think it's just a metaphorical death and resurrection as of Christ, denoting a significant change in the man he was and the man he became (while also comparing himself to a reverse Christ: Cherrycoke died to become more earthly).
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