This was a singular episode in Moravian history. Zinzendorf was proud of it; and well he might. It was scarcely fifteen years since the Moravians first set foot in England. They had been torn by faction, and persecuted by furious mobs. Their tenets, in many instances, were far from orthodox. Many of their practices were silly and objectionable. Their hymns and literature were loathsomely luscious, and familiarly irreverent. Their leader, though a German noble, and, upon the whole, benevolent and devout, was ambitious and overbearing, if not insane; and yet, the British parliament had already given them not only a legal standing, but an ecclesiastical cognomen of their own selecting, and had granted them exemptions, which they had no right to claim. How was this? We can hardly tell; but a German sat on the British throne, and his court, to a great extent, was a German court.
A few months after the Moravian bill was passed by parliament, Zinzendorf had put to the press, in his own private printing office, a folio volume, entitled “Acta Fratrum in Anglia,” containing (1) all the past public negotiations in England; (2) an exposition of the doctrine, liturgy, and constitutions of the Brethren’s congregations. This was the “folio history,” of which the pamphlet, that we have attributed to Wesley, professes to give the “contents.” The following are a few of the writer’s running observations.
“The absurdities of this history are fairly confuted by only repeating them.” Referring to the expression, “blood and wounds theology,” he asks,—“Is this honouring the name and sacrifice of the glorious Son of God? O count! art thou wiser, or more inspired, than Paul or Peter? If thou art not, surely thou art lost in thine own greatness, and swallowed up in the delusions of the devil.” (Page 38.)
“Here follows a dark apology for their enigmatical jargon, in which they say, ‘The people who pick up and pervert our practical phrases incur a terrible guilt thereby.’ 1. The much greater part of their phrases are altogether unintelligible to any but themselves, and therefore none but some of themselves can pervert them. 2. Those phrases that have a little common sense in them are so encumbered with nonsense and error, that it is hardly possible not to reprove them, which I suppose is called perverting them.” (Page 43.)
“As to ordinances, the Unitas Fratrum have ‘baptism, with a covenant water certainly impregnated with the blood of Christ’; and the Lord’s supper, which they call ‘a partaking of the corpse of our Saviour, at receiving which, they prostrate themselves in awe of His tremendous majesty.’ I cannot once imagine, they have any design to promote popery; but, O count! don’t you see, that these expressions might have been used by Ignatius Loyola, in honour of holy water and his wafer god?” (Page 44.)
“Their thoughts on marriage are dark and mysterious. They call it, ‘an holy mystery, a sacramentum magnum.’ And by their own account, their hymns on this subject are not fit to be read by any that attach bad ideas to bad expressions; but say they, ‘We hold forth chaste matter under usual and express words.’ O ye dreamers! When will ye hold forth nothing but what is taught by God and the holy Scriptures? Why do you choose to express yourselves as if taught in the school of Ignatius Loyola?” (Page 45.)
“Will you receive advice, ye Unitas Fratrum? Then, for the glory of the gospel of Jesus Christ, appear to the world clothed in the robes of innocency and truth. Lay aside your darkness, and bring all your words to light. If you have any meaning, reveal it for the good of souls; if you have no meaning, call yourselves anything but Christians.” (Page 50.)
Attached to the pamphlet is a postscript addressed to those of the Unitas Fratrum, who once were Methodists. The following is an extract:—
“Is not your doctrine dull, flat, and insipid? Does it not come from a floating imagination? Is not its chief aim to fill the mind with ideas of the Lamb’s heart? of soaking and melting in blood? of playing near, and creeping into the side-hole? of pretty, happy sinnership? of beating the little sinner on the bill when he has been naughty? and of a thousand such strange, unheard of absurdities? Your doctors, by playing with words, and jingling soft sounds, may delight the fancy; but whoever they are that look for sense, must miss of edification.” (Page 57.)
Such are fair specimens of the short critiques of the curious “contents” of Zinzendorf’s folio history of the “Acta Fratrum in Anglia.” It is painful to have to record quarrels among old friends and brethren; but facts are too serious to be blinked for an author’s private pleasure. As a sort of counterpoise to this unpleasantness, we subjoin an extract from a letter, addressed to Wesley, by Cennick, at this time the most laborious and successful Moravian preacher in the sister island.