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full, proper sense, a new or clean heart: and, that those who have not these two gifts, are only awakened, not justified.

6. Thirdly, as to the way to faith, here are many among us, whom your brethren have advised (what it is not to be supposed they would as yet speak to me, or in their public preaching)* not to use those ordinances which our church terms means of grace, till they have such a faith, as implies a clean heart, and excludes all possibility of doubting. They have advised them, till then, not to search the Scriptures, not to pray, not to communicate: and have often affirmed, that to do these things, is seeking salvation by works; and that till these works are laid aside, no man can receive faith; for "no man (say they) can do these things, without trusting in them. If he do not trust in them, why does he do them?"

7. To those who answered, It is our duty to use the ordinances of God; they replied, "There are no ordinances of Christ, the use of which is now bound upon Christians as a duty, or which we are commanded to use. As to those you mention in particular, (viz. prayer, communicating, and searching the Scripture:) if a man have faith, he need not; if he have not, he must not use them. A believer may use them, though not as enjoined; but an unbeliever (as before defined) may not.”

8. To those who answered, "I hope God will, through these means, convey his grace to my soul;" they replied, "There is no such thing as means of grace; Christ has not ordained any such in his church. But if there were, they are nothing to you; for you are dead. You have no faith. And you cannot work, while you are dead. Therefore let these things alone, till you have faith."

9. And some of our English brethren, who are joined with yours, have said openly, "You will never have faith till you leave running about to church and sacrament, and societies." Another of them has said (in his public expounding), "As many go to hell by praying as by thieving." Another, "I knew one, who leaning over the back of a chair, received a great gift. But he must kneel down to give God thanks, so he lost it immediately. And I know not whether he will ever have it again." And yet another, "You have lost your first joy. Therefore you pray. That is the devil. You read the Bible. That Is the devil. You communicate. That is the devil."

10. Let not any of you, my brethren, say, "We are not chargeable with what they speak." Indeed you are. For you can hinder it, if you will. Therefore, If you do not, it must be charged upon you. If you do not use the power which is in your hands, and thereby prevent their speaking thus, you do, in effect, speak thus yourselves. You make their words your own. And are accordingly chargeable with every ill consequence which may flow therefrom.

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* The substance of the answer to this and the following paragraph is, 1, That " ought to communicate till he has faith, i. e. a sure trust in the mercy of God through Christ." This is granting the charge. 2, That "if the Methodists hold this sacrament is a mean of getting faith, they must act according to their persuasion." We do hold it, and know it to be so, to many of those who are previously convinced of sin.

11. Fourthly, with regard to your church, you greatly, yea, above measure, exalt yourselves and despise others.

I have scarce heard one Moravian brother in my life own his church to be wrong in any thing.

I have scarce heard any of you (I think not one in England) own himself to be wrong in any thing.

Many of you I have heard speak of your church, as if it were infallible; or, so led by the Spirit, that it was not possible for it to err in any thing.

Some of you have set it up (as indeed you ought to do, if it be infallible) as the Judge of all the earth, of all persons (as well as doctrines) therein and you have accordingly past sentence upon them at once, by their agreement or disagreement with your church.

Some of you have said, That there is no true church on earth but yours; yea, that there are no true Christians out of it. And your own members you require to have implicit faith in her decisions, and to pay implicit obedience to her directions.

12. Fifthly, You receive not the Ancients, but the modern mystics, as the best interpreters of Scripture: and in conformity to these, you mix much of man's wisdom with the wisdom of God: you greatly refine the plain religion taught by the letter of the Holy Writ, and philosophize on almost every part of it, to accommodate it to the mystic theory. Hence you talk much, in a manner wholly unsupported by Scripture, against mixing nature with grace, against ima- ← gination, and concerning the animal spirits, mimicking the power of the Holy Ghost. Hence your brethren zealously caution us against animal joy, against natural love of one another, and against selfish love of God, against which (or any of them) there is no one caution in all the Bible. And they have, in truth, greatly lessened, and had will nigh destroyed brotherly love from among us.

13. In conformity to the Mystics, you likewise greatly check joy in the Holy Ghost, by such cautions against sensible comforts, as have no tittle of Scripture to support them. Hence also your brethren here damp the zeal of babes in Christ, talking much of false zeal, forbidding them to declare what God hath done for their souls, even when their hearts burn within them to declare it, and comparing those to uncorked bottles, who simply and artlessly speak, of the ability which God giveth.

14. Hence, lastly, it is, that you undervalue good works, (especially works of outward mercy) never publickly insisting on the necessity

"A religion (you say) and a church, are not all one. A religion is an assembly wherein the Holy Scriptures are taught after a prescribed rule." This is too narrow a definition. For there are many Pagan (as well as a Mahometan) religion. Rather, a religion is, A method of worshipping God, whether in a right or a wrong manner.

The Lord has such a peculiar hand in the several constitutions of religion, that one ought to respect every one of them." I cannot possibly: I cannot respect, either the Jewish (as it is now) or the Romish religion. You add,

"A church (I will not examine, whether there are any in this present age, or whether there is no other beside ours) is, a congregation of sinners who have obtained forgiveness of sins. That such a congregation should be in an error, cannot easily happen.". 'I find no reason, therefore, to retract any thing which is advanced on this or any of the following heads.

VOL. I.

3 D

of them, nor declaring their weight and excellency. Hence, when some of your brethren have spoken of them, they put them on a wrong foot, viz. "If you find yourself moved, if your heart be free to it, then reprove, exhort, relieve." By this mean you wholly avoid the taking up your cross, in order to do good; and also substitute an uncertain, precarious, inward motion, in the place of the plain written word. Nay, one of your members has said of good works in general (whether works of piety or of charity) "A believer is no more obliged to do these works of the law, than a subject of the king of England is obliged to obey the laws of the king of France."

15. My brethren, whether ye will hear, or whether ye will forbear, I have now delivered my own soul. And this I have chosen to do in an artless manner, that if any thing should come home to your hearts, the effect might evidently flow not from the wisdom of man, but from the power of God.

August 8, 1740.

Thus have I declared, and in the plainest manner I can, the real controversy between us and the Moravian Brethren: an unpleasing task, which I have delayed, at least, as long as I could with a clear conscience. But I am constrained at length nakedly to speak the thing as it is, that I may not hinder the work of God.

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I am very sensible of the objection which has so often been made, viz. "You are inconsistent with yourself. You did tenderly love, highly esteem and zealously recommend these very men. And now

you do not love or esteem them at all. You not only do not recommend them, but are bitter against them: nay, and rail at them, before all the world."

This is partly true, and partly false. That the whole case may be better understood, it will be needful to give a short account of what has occurred between us from the beginning.

My first acquaintance with the Moravian brethren began in my voyage to Georgia. Being then with many of them in the same ship, I narrowly observed their whole behaviour. And I greatly approved of all I saw. Therefore I unbosomed myself to them without re

serve.

From February 14, 1735, to Dec. 2, 1737, being with them (except when I went to Frederica or Carolina) twice or thrice every day, I loved and esteemed them more and more. Yet a few things could not approve of. These I mentioned to them from time to time, and then commended the cause to God.

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In February following I met with Peter Bohler. My heart elave to him as soon as he spoke. And the more we conversed, so much the more did I esteem both him and all the Moravian church. So that I had no rest in my spirit until I executed the design, which I had formed long before: until, after a short stay in Holland, I hastened forward, first to Marienborn, and then to Hernhuth.

In September, 1738, soon after my return to England, I began the following letter to the Moravian church. But being fearful of trust

ing my own judgment I determined to wait yet a little longer, and so laid it by unfinished.

66 MY DEAR BRETHREN,

"I cannot but rejoice in your steadfast faith, in your love to our blessed Redeemer, your deadness to the world; your meekness, temperance, chastity, and love of one another. I greatly approve of your conferences and bands; of your method of instructing children; and, in general, of your great care of the souls committed to your charge.

But of some other things I stand in doubt, which I will mention in love and meekness. And I wish that, in order to remove those doubts, you would on each of those heads, first, plainly answer, whether the fact be as I suppose; and, if so, secondly, consider whether it be right.

Do you not wholly neglect joint fasting?

Is not the Count all in all? Are not the rest mere shadows? Calling him Rabbi? Almost implicitly both believing and obeying him? Is there not something of levity in your behaviour? Are you, in general, serious enough?

Are you zealous and watchful to redeem time? Do you not some times fall into trifling conversation?

Do you not magnify your own Church too much?

Do you believe any who are not of it, to be in Gospel liberty? Are you not straitened in your love? Do you love your enemies and wicked men as yourselves?

Do you not mix human wisdom with divine? Joining worldly prudence to heavenly?

Do you not use cunning, guile, or dissimulation, in many cases? Are you not of a close, dark, reserved temper and behaviour? Is not the spirit of secresy the spirit of your communion? Have you that childlike openness, frankness, and plainness, of speech, so manifest to all in the Apostles and first Christians ?"

It may easily be seen, that my objections then, were nearly the same as now. Yet I cannot say my affection was lessened at all, until after September, 1739, when certain men among us began to trouble their brethren, and subvert their souls. However, I cleared the Moravians still, and laid the whole blame on our English brethren.

But from November the first, I could not but see (unwilling as I was to see them) more and more things which I could in no wise reconcile with the Gospel of Christ. And these I have set down with all simplicity, as they occurred in order of time: believing myself indispensably obliged so to do, both in duty to God and man.

Yet do I this because I love them not? God knoweth; yea and in part I esteem them still: because I verily believe, they have a sincere desire to serve God; because many of them have tasted of his love, and some retain it in simplicity; because they love one another; because they have so much of the truth of the Gospel, and so far abstain from outward sin; and, lastly, because their discipline is, in most respects, so truly excellent.

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"But why then are you bitter against them ?" I do not know that I am. Let the impartial reader judge. And if any bitter word has "But do not rail at you escaped my notice, I here utterly retract it. them?" I hope not. God forbid that I should rail at a Turk, Infidel, or Heretic. To one who advanced the most dangerous errors, I durst say no more than, The Lord rebuke thee! But I would point out what those errors were: and, I trust, in the spirit of meekness.

In this spirit, my brethren, I have read and endeavoured to consider, all the books you have published in England, that I might inform myself, whether on farther consideration, you had retracted the errors which were advanced before. But it does by no means appear that you have retracted any of them: for waving the odd and affected phrases therein, the weak mean, silly, childish expressions; the crude, confused, and indigested notions, the whims, unsupported either by Scripture or sound reason: yea, waving these assertions, which, though contrary to Scripture and matter of fact, are however of no importance: those three grand errors run through almost all those books, viz. Universal Salvation, Antinomianism, and a kind of new-reformed Quietism!

1. Can Universal Salvation be more explicitly asserted, than it is in these words:

"By this his Name, All can and shall obtain life and salvation." Sixteen Discourses, p. 30. This must include all men, at least; and include all devils too.

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Again; "The name of the wicked will not be so much as mentioned on the Great Day." Seven Discourses, p. 22. And if they are not so much as mentioned, they cannot be condemned.

2. How can* Antinomianism, i. e. making void the law through faith, be more expressly taught than it is in these words.

"To believe certainly, that Christ suffered death for us-This is the true means to be saved at once

"We want no more. For the History of Jesus, coming into the world, is the power of God unto salvation to every one that believeth: the bare historical knowledge of this." Sixteen Disc. p. 57.

"There is but one duty, which is that of believing."

Ibid. p. 193, "From any demand of the law, no man is obliged now, to go one step, to give away one farthing, to eat or omit one morsel."

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Seven Disc. p. 11. “What did our Lord do with the law? He abolished it.”

Ibid. p. 33. "Here one may think, this is a fine sort of Christianity, where nothing good is commanded, and nothing bad is forbid. But thus it Ibid. p. 34.

is."

"So one ought to speak now.

unfit for our times."

All commands and prohibitions are
Ibid

3. Is not the very essence of Quietism (though in a new shape) contained in these words:

*N. B. I speak of Antinomian doctrine, abstracted from practice good or bad.

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