“Will your lordship give me leave to descend to a few particulars? Pray, my lord, what instances have we of the first Christians walking round the graves of their deceased friends on Easter Day, attended with hautboys, 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 lovefeasts? Or do we ever hear of incense, or something like it, being burnt for him, in order to perfume the room before he made his entrance among the brethren? And yet your lordship knows this has been done for you, and suffered by you, without your having shewn, as far as I can hear, the least dislike of it at all.
“Again, my lord, I beg leave to enquire whether we hear anything in Scripture of eldresses or deaconnesses seating themselves before a table covered with artificial flowers, and 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? And yet your lordship must be sensible, this was done in Fetter Lane chapel, for Mrs. Hannah Nitschmann, the present general eldress of your congregation, with this addition, that all the sisters were seated in German caps, and clothed in white, and the organ also illuminated with three pyramids of wax tapers, each of which was tied with a red ribbon, and over the head of the general eldress was placed her own picture, and over that (horresco referens) the picture of the Son of God. A goodly sight this, my lord, for a company of English Protestants to behold! Alas! to what a long series of childish and superstitious devotions, and unscriptural impositions must they have been habituated, before they could sit as silent spectators of such an anti-Christian scene!”
Besides this general onslaught on Moravian ritualism, Whitefield, in foot-notes, ridicules the absurdity of the “married women” of the Moravian community “being ordered to wear blue knots; the single women, pink; those who are just marriageable, pink and white; widows past child-bearing, white; and those who were not so, blue and white.” He also describes a ludicrous, or rather theatrical and repulsive scene, in Hatton Garden, at the celebration of the birthday of Hannah Nitschmann; and then proceeds to the subject of Moravian fraud and bankruptcy. He writes:—
“I have another question to propose to your lordship. Pray, my lord, did any of the apostles or leaders of the primitive churches ever usurp an authority, not only over people’s consciences, but properties, or draw inthe members of their respective congregations to dispose of whole patrimonies at once, or to be bound for thousands more than they knew they were worth? And yet your lordship knows this has been done again and again, in order to serve the purposes of the Brethren; and that, too, at or very near the time, when, in order to procure an Act in their favour, they boasted to an English Parliament how immensely rich they were.”
Whitefield then specifies some of the Moravian debts; and concludes by speaking of the “horrid equivocations, untruths, and low artifices,” made use of to obtain such enormous loans:—
“At present,” says he, “I shall add no more, but earnestly say Amen to that part of the Brethren’s litany, ‘From untimely projects, and from unhappily becoming great, keep us, our good Lord and God!’ And as heartily praying, that the glorious Jesus may prosper all that is right, and give grace to correct and amend all that is wrong, among all His people of all denominations, I subscribe myself, my lord, your lordship’s most obedient humble servant,
“George Whitefield.”
This was plain speaking. Perhaps some will think that Whitefield’s interference was offensively officious; but it must be borne in mind, that, besides being bound to take a general interest in everything pertaining to the religion of the land, Whitefield was closely associated with the Moravians at the beginning of his ministry; and that, in his extensive itinerancy, he still came into frequent contact with them. And, further, though it may be still contended that Whitefield might have been more usefully employed, there cannot be a doubt that he now rendered a great and lasting service to the Moravian community; for his letter to Zinzendorf helped to check and to correct the extravagance and the absurdly ritualistic practices, into which the Unitas Fratrum had fallen.
Whitefield’s “letter” created almost as great a sensation as Rimius’s “Narrative”; and, in whole or in part, was reprinted in the magazines and newspapers of the day. The Moravians were angry. Peter Bohler declared publicly, in the pulpit, that Whitefield’s letter “was all a lie.” James Hutton spoke of “many bulls of Bashan roaring madly against the Count; and describing him as a Mahomet, a Cæsar, an impostor, a Don Quixote, a devil, the beast, theman of sin, the Antichrist.”[321] He also sent the following threatening letter “to the publisher of the Public Advertiser”:—
“Saturday, June 2, 1752.