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
Meanwhile, however, a genuine eye-witness was telling a terrible tale.
He named his book {1753.}, "The True and Authentic Account of Andrew
Frey." For four years, he said, he lived among the Brethren in
Germany, travelled about helping to form societies, and settled down at
Marienborn, when the fanaticism there was in full bloom. He was known
among the Brethren as Andrew the Great. As he wore a long beard, he was
considered rather eccentric. At Marienborn he saw strange sights and
heard strange doctrine. At their feasts the Brethren ate like gluttons
and drank till they were tipsy. "All godliness, all devotion, all
piety," said Rubusch, the general Elder of all the Single Brethren on
the Continent, "are no more than so many snares of the devil. Things
must be brought to this pass in the community, that nothing shall be
spoken of but wounds, wounds, wounds. All other discourse, however
Scriptural and pious, must be spued out and trampled under foot."
Another, Vieroth, a preacher in high repute among the Brethren, said, in
a sermon at Marienborn castle church: "Nothing gives the devil greater
joy than to decoy into good works, departing from evil, shalling and
willing, trying, watching and examining those souls who have experienced
anything of the Saviour's Grace in their hearts." Another, Calic, had
defended self-indulgence. "Anyone," he said, "having found lodging, bed
and board in the Lamb's wounds cannot but be merry and live according to
nature; so that when such a one plays any pranks that the godly ones cry
out against them as sins, the Saviour is so far from being displeased
therewith that he rejoices the more." In vain Frey endeavoured to
correct these cross-air birds; they denounced him as a rogue. He
appealed to Zinzendorf, and found to his dismay that the Count was as
depraved as the rest. "Do not suffer yourselves to be molested in your
merriment," said that trumpet of Satan; and others declared that the
Bible was dung, and only fit to be trampled under foot. At last Andrew,
disgusted beyond all measure, could restrain his soul no longer; and
telling the Brethren they were the wickedest sect that had appeared
since the days of the Apostles, and profoundly thankful that their
gilded poison had not killed his soul, he turned his back on them for
ever.[132]
The next smiter of the Brethren was Lavington, Bishop of Exeter. He
called his book "The Moravians Compared and Detected." He had already
denounced the Methodists in his "Enthusiasm of Methodists and Papists
Compared" {1754.}; and now he described the Brethren as immoral
characters, fitted to enter a herd of swine. In a pompous introduction
he explained his purpose, and that purpose was the suppression of the
"Brethren's Church in England." "With respect to the settlement of
the Moravians in these kingdoms," he said, "it seems to have been
surreptitiously obtained, under the pretence of their being a peaceable
and innocent sort of people. And peaceable probably they will remain
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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