THE piety and candour of Dr. Doddridge led him eagerly to approve and encourage all those who appeared to have the interest of spiritual religion at heart. He was, therefore, much delighted with the accounts which were communicated to him respecting the Moravian Brethren, and so highly did he think of their patron, Count Zinzendorff, as to style him, in the first edition of the Family Expositor (1738), the Moses of this age.' Having received from various quarters the following details, he communicated them in two letters to Dr. Isaac Watts. The extracts were made, we suppose, from the character of the hand in which they are copied, whilst the original letters were in Dr. Watts's possession: though our manuscript unfortunately is without a date, it appears, from an expression in the first letter, that they were written in the year 1737. The good Doctor lived to change his opinions respecting the Brethren of his day. The peace of his own church at Northampton was disturbed by a Moravian teacher, who, during the Doctor's absence, crept in and made a sad breach amongst them."* The interview he had with Count Zinzendorff when in England, together with his hymns and sermons, convinced the Doctor, that the Count's notions of religion were very crude, and did our Lord littlehonour, and tended little to Christian edification. † 66 The late Rev. Samuel Palmer has preserved an extract of a letter from Dr. Watts to Dr. Doddridge, in which it appears, that the latter was in some difficulties with his Moravian acquaintances. "I must say for myself, had I suffered my inclination to run into such acquaintance with the Methodists and Moravians as some . . . . . would have led me to, perhaps I might have been in the same disagreeable circumstances as you; hardly knowing where to stop or refuse. However, God hath kept me from this snare. Though I pay great respect and honour to those persons whom God hath so much owned and honoured, there is a medium of prudence with regard to this sort of conversation and acquaintance, which it is hard to hit exactly, which may neither give offence to Jew nor Gentile, nor the church of Christ. But at present I think it best to keep ourselves, as Dissenters, entirely a separate people.” ‡ After Dr. Doddridge's death, the Moravians represented him, in some of their continental publications, as their friend and advocate. The fact, however, was much otherwise, for he had prepared for publication, a letter addressed to Count Zinzendorff, expostulating with him on account of" his absurd, ridiculous, and pernicious notions." A copy of this work was sent by the N. S. No. 37. * Letters to and from Dr. Doddridge, p. 280. B Rev. Job Orton to a Lutheran Bishop at Riga, for publication in high Dutch, but happily the Moravians having abandoned most of those absurdities, their Protestant brethren were happy to witness their regularity and consistency, and, of course, declined the undertaking. No doubt need be entertained of the authenticity of these letters. The facts they contain deserve a record, and we presume that our readers will peruse with pleasure the statements, which Doddridge thought worthy of the notice of his illustrious friend, Dr. Watts ! "I AM ashamed to think how long I have neglected to fulfil my promise of sending you some account of those remarkable particulars, relating to the Moravian Brethren, which I promised you several months ago. I had just then received from my reverend and worthy friend, Mr. Ingham,* a clergyman of the Church of England, who having spent almost twelve months at Savannah, in company with several of them, received the greatest part of his information from them, and especially from the Rev. Mr. Spangenburge, pastor, or as they call it, Bishop of the Moravian Church at Philadelphia.-I need not tell you, Sir, how well the names of the Moravians, and Bohemian Brethren were known long before Luther's time, for I doubt not you are much better acquainted than I with those singular footsteps of providence, by which the * Mr. Ingham was of Queen's College, Oxford, where he became acquainted with the Wesleys, and in 1732, joined that devoted band, known in Oxford by the title of the Holy Club, Sacramentarians and Methodists! He sailed with the Wesleys for Georgia, October, 1735. There was a party of Germans, members of the Moravian Church on board, amongst whom was a Moravian Bishop. Mr. J. Wesley and himself were much interested with these strangers. The former set himself to learn the German language, in order to converse with them; and the Moravian Bishop and two others commenced English with the same view. In one of Mr. W.'s letters, describing the occupation of himself and fellow-voyagers, from day to day, mentions, that in the morning, Mr. Ingham instructed the chil dren; and in the evening, read between the decks to those who desired to hear.-Moore's Life of Wesley, vol. i. p. 256.. beginning of a reformation was raised among them, as it had long before been among the Waldenses, from whom, nevertheless, I cannot find their doctrine or discipline was derived, though there was a great resemblance between them. Those churches have remained, throughout all the succeeding ages, in part at least, a distinct body, neither incorporated with the Lutherans nor Calvinists, nor any other sect in Germany, and in consequence of that, together with the remarkable strictness of their discipline, though in doctrine they have indulged to a great latitude, they have been continually exposed to persecutions, not only from Papists, but from Protestants too. I think it now fifteen years since* five of them, flying from the violence to which they were exposed at home, took refuge in a wood at Hernhutt, which was a part of the celebrated Count Zinzendorff's estate. That pious nobleman, returning from the Court of Dresden, weary of the impieties and immoralities of it, and fearful of hazarding his salvation by a longer continuance there, happened to pass through that wood, and saw a little hut lately raised, and perceiving a smoke in it, had the curiosity to alight and go into it, where he found these five refugees, who in a very respectful manner owned themselves trespassers on his ground, and discovering their religion and circumstances, implored his protection. This he readily * This event occurred in 1722. |