A History of the Moravian ChurchHutton, J. E. (Joseph Edmund)
Religion
A History of the Moravian Church
Hutton, J. E. (Joseph Edmund)
Moravian Church -- History
At Dublin, John Roche, a Churchman, published his treatise {1751.}, the
"Moravian Heresy." His book was published by private subscription, and
among the subscribers were the Archbishop of Armagh, the Bishops of
Meath, Raphoe, Waterford, Clogher, Kilmore, Kildare, Derry, and Down
and Connor, and several deans, archdeacons and other Irish clergymen. He
denounced the Brethren as Antinomians. It is worth while noting what he
meant by this term. "The moral acts of a believer," said the Brethren,
"are not acts of duty that are necessary to give him a share in the
merits of Christ, but acts of love which he is excited to pay the Lamb
for the salvation already secured to him, if he will but unfeignedly
believe it to be so. Thus every good act of a Moravian is not from a
sense of duty, but from a sense of gratitude." Thus Roche denounced as
Antinomian the very doctrine now commonly regarded as evangelical.
He said, further, that the Moravians suffered from hideous diseases
inflicted on them by the devil; but the chief interest of his book is
the proof it offers of the strength of the Brethren at that time. He
wrote when both Cennick and Wesley had been in Dublin; but Cennick to
him seemed the really dangerous man. At first he intended to expose both
Moravians and Methodists. "But," he added, "the Moravians being the
more dangerous, subtle and powerful sect, and I fear will be the more
obstinate, I shall treat of them first."
For the next attack the Brethren were themselves to blame. As the
Brethren had sunk some thousands of pounds at Herrnhaag, they should now
have endeavoured to husband their resources; and yet, at a Synod held in
London, 1749, they resolved to erect choir-houses in England. At Lindsey
House they sunk £12,000; at Fulneck, in Yorkshire they sunk thousands
more; at Bedford they sunk thousands more; and meanwhile they were
spending thousands more in the purchase and lease of building land,
and in the support of many preachers in the rapidly increasing country
congregations. And here they made an amazing business blunder. Instead
of cutting their coat according to their cloth, they relied on a
fictitious capital supposed to exist on the Continent. At one time John
Wesley paid a visit to Fulneck, saw the buildings in course of erection,
asked how the cost would be met, and received, he says, the astounding
answer that the money "would come from beyond the sea."
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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