“As soon as I got into the house, he called me into the parlour, and desired the company that was with him to go out, for he had something to say to me. When they went, he rose up, barred the door, then sat down, and asked me, ‘Do you know your own heart, think you?’ I answered, ‘Not rightly; but I know Jesus Christ, and He knows and has taken possession of it; and though it be deceitful, yet He can subdue it to Himself; and I trust He will’. He said, ‘Have you not deceived yourself with thinking that your sins are forgiven, and that you are in a state of grace? I was three years seeking before I found Him.’ I replied, ‘Suppose you were, do you confine God to be three years in converting every soul, because you were so long? God is able to convert a soul in three days now, as He was to convert St. Paul seventeen hundred years ago.’ I then began to tell him what I had seen at London under Mr. Wesley’s preaching. He said he pitied poor Mr. Wesley, for he was ignorant of his own state; and he spoke as if he believed Mr. Wesley to be an unconverted man; at which words my corrupt nature began to stir. But it came to my mind, ‘The wrath of man worketh not the righteousness of God’; and I lifted up my heart to the Lord, and my mind was calmed in a moment. He said, ‘You ought not to tell people that they may know their sins forgiven, for the world cannot bear it; and if such a thing were preached, it would raise persecution.’ I replied, ‘Let them quake that fear. By the grace of God, I love every man, but fear no man; and I will tell all I can, that there is such a prize to run for. If I hide it, mischief will come upon me. There is a famine in the land; and I see myself in the case of the lepers that were at the gate of Samaria, who found provisions in the enemy’s camp; and, when they had eat and drank, and loaded themselves, said, “We do not well; for this is a day of glad tidings, let us go and make it known to the king’s household.” When I found God’s wrath removed, for the sake of His dear Son, I saw provision enough for my poor fainting soul, and for all the world if they would come for it. I believe it is a sin not to declare to the children of men what God has done for my soul, that they may seek for the same mercy.’ He told me, I had nothing to do with the Old Testament, or to make comparisons from anything in it. I answered, ‘I have as much to do with it as with the New Testament.’ He replied, ‘I would not have you speak any more to the people till you are better acquainted with your own heart.’ I told him, I would not in his societies, unless I was desired; but what I did in my own house, or any other person’s that requested me, he had no business with. I added, ‘I do not belong to you; and though I have heard you several times, it is no benefit to me; for I have experienced more of the grace of God than ever I heard you preach of it, or any one else since I left London.’”
Nelson here obviously refers to his enjoyment of the Holy Spirit’s witness to the fact that his sins were pardoned; and hence he continues,—
“Soon after Mr. Ingham came out and began to preach; when I was greatly surprised; for what he had forbidden me to do, he himself did directly; for he told the people, that night, they must know their sins forgiven in this world or go to hell.”[80]
Soon after this, Ingham went to London, where the Wesleys were in painful conflict with the Moravians. Philip Henry Molther, who had been the private tutor of Zinzendorf’s only son, was preaching, to large congregations, four times every week, and was much more popular than his talents or his misty doctrines merited. The chief controversy between him and Wesley was concerning the use of the means of grace. Molther recommended penitent inquirers to “be still;” that is, not to search the Scriptures, not to pray, not to communicate, not to do good; for it was impossible to use means, without trusting in them. Wesley, on the other hand, recommended and enforced just the opposite. The contention among their partisans was fierce and furious; and the object of Ingham’s visit to the metropolis seems to have been to reconcile the irritated disputants. Charles Wesley writes:—
“1740. May 22.—I found our dear brother Ingham at Mr. West’s. The holiday mob were very outrageous at the Foundery. God filled my mouth with threatenings and promises; and, at last, we got the victory, and the fiercest rioters were overawed into silence.
“May 25.—At the lovefeast, I was overwhelmed with the burden of our brethren, with such visible signs of dejection, that several, I was since informed, were in great hopes that I was now coming down in my pride, or unsettling, and coming into confusion. Indeed, my faith did well-nigh fail me; for in spite of the seeming reconciliation which brother Ingham forces them into, it is impossible we should ever be of one mind, unless they are convinced of their abrogating the law of Christian ordinances, and taking away the children’s bread.
“May 27.—I rejoiced to find no difference betwixt my brother Ingham and me. He has honestly withstood the deluded brethren; contradicted their favourite errors, and constrained them to be still. That blot he easily hit: ‘You say no man must speak of what he has not experienced; you, Oxley and Simpson, say that one in the Gospel-liberty can have no stirrings of sin.’ ‘Yes.’ ‘Are you in Gospel-liberty?’ ‘No.’ ‘Then out of your own mouth I judge you: you speak of things which you know not of.’
“June 2.—I preached up the ordinances, as they call it, from Isaiah lviii.; but first, with the prophet, I preached them down. Telchig” [Toltschig], “Ingham, etc., were present, which made me use greater plainness, that they might set me right, if I mistook.
“June 11.—I returned” [from the Delamotte family at Blendon] “to be exercised by our still brethren’s contradiction. My brother proposed new-modelling the bands, and setting by themselves those few who were still for the ordinances. Great clamour was raised by this proposal. The noisy still ones well knew that they had carried their point by wearying out the sincere ones scattered among them; so that a remnant is scarcely left. They grudged us even this remnant, which would soon be all their own, unless immediately rescued out of their hands. Benjamin Ingham seconded us, and obtained that the names should be called over, and as many as were aggrieved put into new books.