Aberdeen Bible, Feb. 17, 22, April 1, 18, June 8; Mr. Adams, March 28; Mr. Bentley, Jan. 1, 12, April 21; Mr. Brewer, April 15; Darracot's Scripture Marks, March 5, April 3; Mr. De Coetlogon, June 5; Mr. Fletcher, May 4, 5; Mr. Forster, Feb. 10, 20; Dr. Guise, June 11; Bishop Hall, Feb. 12, 26, March 12, May 3, June 9; Mr. Howe, March 1, April 6; Mr. Keash (?), Feb. 1; Mr. King, Jan. 31, Feb. 8; Mr. Law, June 4; Mr. Mason, March 29, 30; Mr. Newton, April 17; Dr. Owen, Feb. 21, March 15, 21; Mr. Romaine, Jan. 29; Spencer's Storehouse, Feb. 16, March 19, 31, April 20, 30, May 29, June 14, 17; Mrs. Thornton, March 10; Mrs. Wills, April 19.
I will only add that most of the corrections of Mr. Berridge were adopted by Mr. Thornton, and have consequently appeared in the London editions in current use.
C. P. PH***.
MORAVIAN HYMNS.
(Vol. iv., p. 502.)
John Wesley was at one time of his life a pupil of the Moravians, and Southey's Life of that remarkable man, like most of his works, pregnant with interest and erudition, affords a satisfactory answer to your correspondent's Query. I quote from the 3rd edition of the Life, 2 vols., 1846. Of the Moravians he says:—
"Madness never gave birth to combinations of more monstrous and blasphemous obscenity than they did in their fantastic allegories and spiritualizations. In such freaks of perverted fancy the abominations of the Phallus and the Lingam have unquestionably originated; and in some such abominations Moravianism might have ended, had it been instituted among the Mingrelian or Malabar Christians, where there was no antiseptic influence of surrounding circumstances to preserve it from putrescence. Fortunately for themselves, and for that part of the heathen world among whom they have laboured, and still are labouring with exemplary devotion, the Moravians were taught by their assailants to correct this perilous error in time."—Vol. i. p. 173.
He adds in a note:
"The reader who may have perused Rimius's Narrative of the Rise and Progress of the Herrnhuters, and the 'Responsorial Letters of the Theological Faculty of Tübingen' annexed to it [the 2nd edition was published London, 1753], will not think this language too strong."
In the Appendix, p. 481., Southey further says:
"The most characteristic parts of the Moravian hymns are too shocking to be inserted here: even in the humours and extravagances of the Spanish religious poets there is nothing which approaches to the monstrous perversion of religious feeling in these astonishing productions. The copy which I possess is of the third edition printed for James Hutton, 1746. An interesting account of James Hutton, who published the Moravian Hymns, may be seen in the great collection of Literary Anecdotes by Mr. Nichols, vol. iii. p. 435. Of their silliness I subjoin only such a specimen as may be read without offence:—