“In private, I tell you so much, that you are mistaken in the chief point you urge with more zeal than knowledge.
“As yet, I owe not a farthing of the £40,000 you are pleased to tell me of; and, if your precipitate officiousness should save me and those foreigners, you forewarn so compassionately, from that debt, your zeal would prove very fatal to the English friends you pity, it seems, no less than the German.
“As for the distinction in the dress of our women, pray consider that St. Paul has thought it worth his while to make certain regulations about the head-dress; and you may remain more quiet, as you have no notion what our ordinances are.
“If some brethren, in their Easter Liturgy, make use of French-horns, (which they are to answer for, not I, for my chapel has none,) let the synod consider of it.
“I have not seen the pamphlet you tell us of. It is dedicated to the Archbishop, you say. If the author got the permission of his Grace fairly, then the thing is serious indeed; yet, I shall have nothing to say to Mr. Rimius.
“I make but one observation for your good, sir. Are you sure that all the quotations out of the Bible are true? If so, is it possible that the interpretations, which some eighty different sects of Christians give to the passages in which they oppose each other, can be the true meaning of the author? Are all those which are made out of your own books to be depended upon? For my own part, I find that the single passage you borrow from Mr. Rimius is an imposition upon the public, as gross as if St. Paul, when he says, ‘We have but one God the Father,’ etc., should be charged with denying the divinity of Jesus. As thousands of our people are satisfied, that I oppose that meaning of the said quotation, with all my credit in the Church; and have supported my opposition, with all my substance and that of my family, above these thirty years; and will continue so long as I have a shirt left;what must they think when they see my book quoted in that manner?[324] I add no more.
“As your heart is not prepared to love me, nor your understanding to listen to my reasons, I wish you well, sir, and am your loving friend,
“Louis.”[325]
These were unsatisfactory and discreditable letters, and not at all an answer to Whitefield’s charges. The truth is, a satisfactory answer was impossible. There can be no question, that the Moravians had begun to practise a ritualism the most silly; and that their expenditure had brought themto the very verge of bankruptcy and disgraceful ruin.[326]
It would be wearisome and unprofitable to pursue the subject. Suffice it to say, that, in the month of November, 1753, a pamphlet, of forty-three pages, was published with the following uncouth title: “He who is a Minister of the Gospel, and highly esteems the Sufferings of the Lamb, his Introduction to the Method or Way of the Evangelical Church of the Brethren in dealing with Souls. To which is prefixed, A short Answer to Mr. Rimius’s long uncandid Narrative. And a Lesson for Mr. Whitefield to read before his Congregation.” The bulk of the pamphlet was a translation of Zinzendorf’s German treatise, entitled, “Method with Souls,” etc., and requires no attention; but that section of it which relates to Whitefield may be quoted:—