The Oxford Methodists : $b Memoirs of the Rev. Messrs. Clayton, Ingham, Gambold, Hervey, and Broughton, with biographical notices of othersTyerman, L. (Luke)
History
The Oxford Methodists : $b Memoirs of the Rev. Messrs. Clayton, Ingham, Gambold, Hervey, and Broughton, with biographical notices of others
“But where am I running? Pardon me. I am writing to my dear Mr.
Ingham. I rejoice in the expectation of seeing you in town. I
hope to be in town at the time, and to enjoy some of our former
happy seasons. In the mean while, I salute you from my inmost
soul; and desire, as often as opportunity offers, a close
correspondence may be kept up between you and, my dear brother,
your most affectionate unworthy brother and servant,
“GEORGE WHITEFIELD.”
Ingham was now one of the most influential members of the Moravian
Church, in England; and, accompanied by Mr. and Mrs. James Hutton, and
the Sisters, Esther Kinchin, Mary Bowes, and Martha Ireland, set out on
May 20th, 1743, to attend a Moravian Synod, to be held at Hirschberg, in
Germany, from the first to the twelfth of July inclusive. This important
Synod seems to have supervised the Moravian operations generally;
including not only the affairs of the English Churches, but those of the
Continent and Livonia, where fourteen hundred labourers of the Brethren
were employed in endeavouring to bring men to a knowledge of the truth as
it is in Jesus.
So far as the English community was concerned, it was determined:
“That, the London Church should be regarded as a choir of
labourers (distinct from the Society and its general meetings,
etc.); each member of which was to consider him or herself as
in preparation, by the Lord, for future service in any station,
post, or office, to which He might call them.
“That this Church, as a body of labourers, consisting of only a
few souls who were wholly devoted to our Saviour, might enjoy
all the privileges and discipline of a Church elsewhere, which
the mere members of Society, by reason of their not dwelling
together, could not enjoy.
“That this Church should be in stillness, none knowing of it
but such as were in it. (See Rev. ii. 17.) This London Church,
also, should cleave to the Pilgrim Church, as the body to its
soul.
“The Pilgrim Church was described as a congregation of
labourers who go hither and thither; whom no one knows but he
to whom it is revealed.[103] Every one who has a whole mind to
our Saviour, is a member of it. It is composed of persons who
indissolubly cleave together, as a testimony in the Saviour’s
wounds, against all who are unfaithful; witnesses whom the Lord
will preserve in the hour of trial; souls who neither have nor
desire any abiding city in this life, and who labour for the
good of others among all religions, but never form themselves
into a sect.
“This Church is not the Moravian Church, but its servants,
sojourning so long in it as the children and servants of God,
or rather the spiritual Church of God, has freedom of action
and is acknowledged. This relationship to the Moravian Church
remains only so long as she herself abides faithful.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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