“These I have set down with all simplicity.――――Yet do I this, because I love them not? God knoweth: yea, and _in part_, I esteem them still: because I verily believe, they have a sincere desire to serve God; because many of them have tasted of his love, and some retain it in simplicity; because they love one another; because they have _so much_ of the truth of the gospel, and _so far_ abstain from outward sin. And lastly, because their discipline is, _in most respects_, so truly excellent: (notwithstanding that visible blemish, the paying _too much_ regard, to their great patron and benefactor, Count _Zinzendorf_.)
“6. I believe if you coolly consider this account, you will not find, either that it is inconsistent with itself; or that ♦it lays you under any necessity of speaking in the following manner: ¹_What charms there may be in a demure look, and a sour behaviour, I know not. But sure they must be in your eye very extraordinary, as they can be sufficient to cover such a multitude of errors and crimes, and keep up the same regard and affection for the authors and abettors of them. I doubt your regard for them was not lessened, till they began to interfere with what you thought your province.――――You was influenced, not by a just resentment to see the honour of religion and virtue so injuriously and scandalously trampled upon, but by a fear of losing your own authority._”
♦ “is” replaced with “it”
¹ Remarks, pages 18, 19.
I doubt, there is scarce one line of all these, which is consistent either with truth or love. But I will transcribe a few more, before I answer. _How could you so long and so intimately converse with, so much commend, and give such countenance to, such desperately wicked people, as the_ Moravians, _according to your own account, were known by you to be?――――And you still speak of them, as if they were, in the main, the best Christians in the world.――――In one place you say, “A few things I could not approve of.” But in God’s name, Sir, is the contempt of almost the whole of our duty, of every Christian ordinance, to be so gently touched? Can detestation in such a case, be too strongly exprest? Either they are some of the vilest wretches in the world, or you are the falsest accuser in the world. Christian charity has scarce an allowance to make for them as you have described them. If you have done this truly, they ought to be discouraged, by all means that can be imagined._
7. Let us now weigh these assertions. _They_ (i. e. _the charms of their_ sour _behaviour_) _must be in your eye very extraordinary._ ――――Do not you stumble at the threshold? The _Moravians_ excel in _sweetness_ of behaviour――――_as they can be sufficient to cover such a_ multitude _of_ errors _and_ crimes――――Such a _multitude_ of _errors_ and _crimes_! I believe, as to errors, they hold _universal salvation_, and are partly _Antinomians_ (in opinion), and partly _Quietists_. And for this cause I cannot join with them. But where is the _multitude_ of errors? Whosoever knows 2 or 300 more, let him please to mention them.
Such a _multitude_ of _crimes_ too! That some of them have used guile, and are of a close, reserved behaviour, I know. And I excuse them not. But to this multitude of crimes I am an utter stranger. Let _him_ prove this charge upon them who _can_. For _me_, I declare, I _cannot_.
_To keep up_ the same _regard and affection_.――――Not so. I say, my affection was _not lessened, till_ after September 1739, till I had proof of what I had _feared_ before. But I had not the same degree of regard for them, when I saw the dark as well as the bright side of their character. _I doubt your regard for them was not lessened, till they began to interfere with what you thought your province._ If this were only a _doubt_, it were not much amiss; but it presently shoots up into an _assertion_: equally groundless; for my _regard_ for them _lessened_, even while I was in _Georgia_. But it increased again, after my return from thence, especially while I was at _Hernhuth_. And it gradually _lessened_ again for some years, as I saw more and more which I approved not. How then does it _appear_, that _I was influenced herein, by a fear of losing my own authority? Not by a just resentment to see the honour of religion and virtue so scandalously trampled upon. ――――Trampled upon!_ By whom? Not by the _Moravians_: I never saw any such thing among them.
* But what do you mean by a just resentment? I hope you do not mean, what is _commonly_ called _Zeal_: a flame which often _sets on fire the whole course of nature, and is in itself set on fire of hell!――――Rivers of water run from my eyes, because men keep not thy law._ This resentment on such an occasion I understand. From all other may God deliver me!