_You “still think_, (page 81) _That next to some thousands in our own church, the body of the_ Moravian _church, however mistaken some of them are, are, in the main, the best Christians in the world.”_ I do; “of all whom I have seen;” (you should not omit these words.)――――_Those dreadful errors and crimes are here softened into mistakes._ (I term them “Errors of judgment and practice.”) _I have proved, that you have charged the body with such._――――At present, the proof does not amount to demonstration. There needs a little farther proof, that I charge any _dreadful crimes on the body of the_ Moravians.
I see no manner of inconsistency still, in those accounts of my intercourse with the _Moravians_, which you suppose irreconcileable with each other. Let any one read them in the journal, and judge.
6. _You had said, “Your objections then were nearly the same as now.” You now add, “only with this difference: I was not then assured, that the facts were as I supposed; I did not dare to determine any thing.”――――No! Not when by conversing among them you saw these things! As indeed the facts are of such a nature, that you could not but be assured of them, if they were true. Nor do the questions in your letter really imply any doubt of their truth: but are so many appeals to their consciences, and equivalent to strong assertions. And if you had not been assured, if you did not dare to determine any thing concerning what you saw, your writing bare suspicions to a body of men in such a manner was inexcusable. This excuse therefore will not serve you_, (83.)
I apprehend it will. “I was not then (in _September 1738_) assured that the facts were as I supposed. [Therefore] I did not [then] dare to determine any thing.” Be pleased to add the immediately following words: “But from _November 1._ [1739] I saw more and more things, which I could not reconcile with the gospel.”
If you had not omitted these words, you could have had no colour to remark, on my saying, “I did not dare to determine any thing.”――――_No! Not when by conversing among them you_ saw _these things._――――No, I did not _dare to determine, in September 1738_, from what I saw in _November 1739.――――But the facts are of such a nature, that you could not but be assured of them if they were true._――――I cannot think so. “Is not the Count all in all among you? Do not you magnify your own church too much? Do you not use guile and dissimulation in many cases?” These facts are by no means of such a nature, as that whoever converses (even intimately) among the _Moravians_, cannot but be assured of them.――――_Nor do the questions in your letter really imply any doubt of their truth._――――No! Are not my very words prefixed to those questions, “Of some other things I stand in doubt”.――――And I wish that, _in order to remove those doubts_, you would――――plainly answer, whether the fact be as I suppose.――――_But_ [these questions] _are so many appeals to their consciences._――――True.――――_And equivalent to strong assertions._ ――――Utterly false.――――_If you had not been assured, if you did not dare to determine any thing, concerning what you saw_ [fifteen months after] _your writing bare suspicions to a body of men, in such a manner, was inexcusable._――――They were _strong presumptions_ then; which yet I did not _write to a body of men_, whom I so highly esteemed; no, not even in the _tenderest_ manner, till I was _assured_, they were not groundless.
7. _In a note at the bottom of_ page 8, _you observe, “the Band- society in_ London _began_ May 1, _some time before I set out for_ Germany.” _Would you insinuate here, that you did not set it up, in imitation of the_ Moravians?――――Sir, I will tell you the naked truth. You had remarked (page 17.) thus――――“You took the trouble of a journey to _Germany_ to them; and were so much in love with their methods, that, at _your return_ hither, you set up their bands among your disciples.” This was an entire mistake: for that society was set up, not only before I returned, but before I set out. And I designed that note to insinuate this to you, without telling your mistake to all the world.