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 this point George Whitefield interfered, and nearly sent the Moravian
ship to the bottom {1753.}. He appealed to the example of Moses and
Paul. As Moses, he said, had rebuked the Israelites when they made the
golden calf, and as Paul had resisted Peter and Barnabas when carried
away with the dissimulation of the Jews, so he, as a champion of the
Church of Christ, could hold his peace no longer. He attacked the
Count in a fiery pamphlet, entitled, "An Expostulatory Letter to Count
Zinzendorf." The pamphlet ran to a second edition, and was circulated in
Germany. He began by condemning Moravian customs as unscriptural. "Pray,
my lord," he said, "what instances have we of the first Christians
walking round the graves of their deceased friends on Easter-Day,
attended with haut-boys, 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? Again, my lord, I beg leave to inquire whether
we hear anything of eldresses or deaconesses of the apostolical churches
seating themselves before a table covered with artificial flowers,
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?" As the Brethren, therefore, practised customs which had no
sanction in the New Testament, George Whitefield concluded that they
were encouraging Popery. At this period the Brethren were certainly
fond of symbols; and on one occasion, as the London Diary records, Peter
Boehler entered Fetter Lane Chapel, arrayed in a white robe to symbolize
purity, and a red sash tied at the waist to symbolize the cleansing
blood of Christ. But the next point in Whitefield's "letter" was cruel.
At the very time when Zinzendorf was giving his money to save his
English Brethren from a debtor's prison, Whitefield accused him and his
Brethren alike of robbery and fraud. He declared that Zinzendorf was
£40,000 in debt; that there was little hope that he would ever pay; that
his allies were not much better; and that the Brethren had deceived the
Parliamentary Committee by representing themselves as men of means. At
the very time, said Whitefield, when the Moravian leaders were boasting
in Parliament of their great possessions, they were really binding down
their English members for thousands more than they could pay. They drew
bills on tradesmen without their consent; they compelled simple folk to
sell their estates, seized the money, and then sent the penniless owners
abroad; and they claimed authority to say to the rich, "Either give
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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