CHAPTER XXI.

WHITEFIELD AND THE LONDON MORAVIANS.

ALTHOUGH Whitefield derived neither the good nor the evil from the Moravians that Wesley did, his personal history would be incomplete, and his Times would lack a slight feature of their true character, were I to pass over his connexion with that singular people, then so ill represented, in some respects, in London. It is, however, with great reluctance I touch the subject. I am dissolving (so far) a charm, which has often soothed and cheered me, when I have been soured or saddened by looking too closely at human nature. Ob, what have the tyrants of conscience to answer for! Truly "oppression makes a wise man mad." Had the first quakers been free to follow the Lamb by the lamp of the New Testament, and to reject "Roman candles," they and their posterity might have been as useful to the church as they have been to the world. In like manner, had the Bohemian church not been deprived of Huss and Jerome, nor denounced for reading Wycliffe, the descendants of her martyrs might have had no startling singularities of sentiment or ceremony. The Moravians were drawn into both, because their fathers were driven into unnatural and trying positions, which inevitably created fancies, and called forth rhapsodies.

It

Time, happily, has so pruned both the wild luxuriance and the worldly policy of Moravianism, that it is almost impossible to believe now, that Molther ever taught the doctrines, or Nitschman ever sung the hymns, or Zinzendorff ever sanctioned the practices in London, which Whitefield and Wesley exposed. These things, however, ought not to be forgotten. Their is the safeguard against their recurrence. memory is wanted too as ballast, by the Moravian church; just as all churches need to remember the blots upon their escutcheon. Dr. Southey says, "few religious communities may look back upon their history with so much satisfaction as the united brethren." This is true of their general history; but it is equally true that their vagaries in London did them no credit.

These first alarmed, and then alienated, both Watts and Doddridge, as well as Whitefield and Wesley. Doddridge was right too in supposing, that "they produced the same sentiments in the archbishop of Canterbury." Potter could forgive much to a people whom he recognized as an "apostolical and episcopal church;" but he seems to have doubted eventually, whether Zinzendorff was elected their bishop, “plaudente toto cœlesti choro." At least his arms were not so "open " to him as at first. And it was well for the Moravians, that good men both took and sounded an alarm, from the exposures made by Rimius. It taught them, as Dr. Southey well says, to correct their perilous error in time;" and since, "they have continued not merely to live without reproach, but to enjoy in a greater degree than any other sect, the general good opinion of every other religious community." Both Wesley and Whitefield contributed not a little to this improvement by the influence they had over Ingham, Dellamotte, and Gambold, and by their writings. The manner in which Whitefield dealt with the subject will be best seen in his own letter to Zinzendorff.

He remonstrated thus with the count, as the lord advocate of the UNITAS FRATRUM. "For these many years past I have been a silent, and I trust I can say, an impartial, observer of the progress and effects of Moravianism, both in England and America; but such shocking things have been lately brought to our ears, and offences have swelled to such an enormous bulk, that a real regard for my king and my country, and, if I am not greatly mistaken, a disinterested love for the ever-blessed Jesus, that King of kings, and the church which he hath purchased with his own blood, will not suffer me to be silent any longer.

"Pardon me, therefore, my lord, if at length, though with great regret, as the Searcher of hearts knows, I am constrained to inform your lordship, that you, together with some of your leading brethren, have been unhappily instrumental in misguiding many real, simple, honest-hearted Christians; of distressing, if not totally ruining, numerous families; and introducing a whole farrago of superstitious, not to say idolatrous, fopperies into the English nation.

"For my own part, my lord, notwithstanding the folio that was published (I presume under your lordship's direction) about three years ago, I am as much at a loss as ever, to know what were the principles and usages of the ancient Mo

ravian church; but if she was originally attired in the same garb, in which she hath appeared of late amongst many truehearted, though deluded Protestants, she is not that simple, apostolical church the English brethren were made to believe about twelve years ago. Sure I am, that we can find no traces of many of her present practices in the yet more ancient, I mean the primitive churches, and which we all know were really under an immediate and truly apostolical in-. spection.

"Will your lordship be pleased to give me leave to descend to a few particulars? Pray, my lord, what instances have we of the first Christians walking round the graves of their deceased friends on Easter-day, attended with hautboys, trumpets, French horns, violins, and other kinds of musical instruments? Or where have we the least mention made of pictures of particular persons being brought into the first Christian assemblies, and of candles being placed behind them, in order to give a transparent view of the figures? Where was it ever known, that the picture of the apostle Paul, representing him handing a gentleman and lady up to the side of Jesus Christ, was ever introduced into the primitive love-feasts?

"Or do we ever hear, my lord, of incense, or something like it, being burned for Paul, in order to perfume the room before he made his entrance among the brethren? Or can it be supposed that he, who, together with Barnabas, so eagerly repelled the Lycaonians, when they brought oxen and garlands, in order to sacrifice unto them, would ever have suffered such things to be done for him, without expressing his abhorrence and detestation of them? And yet your lordship knows both these have been done for you, and suffered by you, without your having shown, as far as I can hear, the least dislike..

"Again, my lord, I beg leave to inquire, whether we hear any thing in Scripture of elderesses or deaconesses of the apostolical churches seating themselves before a table, covered with artificial flowers, and against that a little altar surrounded with wax tapers, on which stood a cross, composed either of mock or real diamonds, or other glittering stones? And yet your lordship must be sensible this was done in Fetter Lane chapel, for Mrs. Hannah Nitschman, the present general elderess of your congregation, with this addition, that all the sisters were seated, clothed in white, and with German caps; the organ also illuminated with three pyramids of wax

tapers, each of which was tied with a red riband; and over the head of the general elderess, was placed her own picture, and over that (horresco referens) the picture of the Son of God. A goodly sight, this, my lord, for a company of English Protestants to behold! Alas! to what a long series of childish and superstitious devotions, and unscriptural impositions, must they have been habituated, before they could sit silent and tame spectators of such an antichristian scene. Surely, had Gideon, though but an Old Testament saint, been present, he would have risen and pulled down this, as he formerly did his father's altar. Or had even that meek man Moses been there, I cannot help thinking, but he would have addressed your lordship, partly at least, in the words with which he addressed his brother Aaron, 'What did this people unto thee, that thou hast introduced such superstitious customs among them?'

"A like scene to this was exhibited by the single brethren, in a room of their house at Hatton Garden. One of them, who helped to furnish it, gave me the following account. The floor was covered with sand and moss, and in the middle of it was paved a star of different coloured pebbles, upon that was placed a gilded dove, which spouted water out of its mouth into a vessel prepared for its reception, which was curiously decked with artificial leaves and flags; the room was hung with moss and shells. The count, his son, and sonin-law, in honour of whom all this was done, with Mrs. Hannah Nitschman, and Mr. Peter Boehler, and some other labourers, were present. These were seated under an alcove, supported by columns made of pasteboard, and over their heads was painted an oval, an imitation of marble, containing the ciphers of Count Zinzendorff's family. Upon a side table, was a little altar covered with shells, and on each side of the altar was a bloody heart, out of or near which proceeded flames. The room was illuminated with wax tapers, and musicians placed in an adjacent apartment, while the company performed their devotions, and regaled themselves with sweatmeats, coffee, tea, and wine. After this the labourers departed, and the single brethren were admitted in. I am told, that most, if not all, of these leading persons were present also at the celebration of Mrs. Hannah Nitschman's birth-day.

"But this is not all; I have another question to propose to your lordship. Pray, my lord, did any of the apostles or lead

ers of the primitive churches, ever usurp an authority, not only over people's consciences, but their properties also? Or draw in the members of their respective congregations to dispose of whole patrimonies at once, or to be bound for thousands of pounds more than they well knew they were worth? And yet your lordship knows this has been done again and again, in order to serve the purposes of the brethren for several years last past; and that too, at, or very near the time, when, in order to procure an act in their favour to go abroad, (which now appears to be rather a scheme to settle at home,) they boasted to an English parliament, how immensely rich they were.

"Your lordship cannot but be sensible, that at this present time you stand indebted to sundry persons to the value of forty thousand pounds sterling; and unless some of your brethren had agreed to stay six years for about twenty thousand pounds, due to them; (though after the expiration of that term, as they have no security, in all probability they will be just where they are now ;) and if the other creditors also, upon consideration of some bonds given, and mortgages made for principal and interest, had not agreed to stay four years, for twenty-one thousand pounds more, many of the English brethren, who, out of I know not what kind of infatuation, have not only given their all, but have been bound for thou sands more than they are able to pay, must either have imme❤ diately become bankrupts, and thereby the creditors perhaps not have had a shilling in the pound, or have been obliged to shut up their shops, go to prison, or be turned out into the wide world, to the utter ruin of themselves and families.

"I have been told of a very singular expedient made use of by Mr. Peter Boehler, one of the brethren's bishops, in order to strengthen the faith and to raise the drooping spirits of Mr. William Bell, who hath unhappily been drawn in (with several others) to be one of their agents. It was this. It being Mr. Bell's birth-day, he was sent for from his house in Nevil's Alley, Fetter Lane; but for a while, having had some words with Mr. Boehler, he refused to come: at length he complied, and was introduced into a hall, in the same alley, where was placed an artificial mountain, which, upon singing a particular verse, was made to fall down, and then behind it was discovered an illumination, representing Jesus Christ and Mr. Bell, sitting very near, or embracing each other; and out of the clouds was also represented plenty of money falling round