During this period some baptized Jews from other places, became members of the Brethren's Church, and one of them made a journey to Poland and Prussia, where an expectation had being excited among the Jews, that the time of their deliverance was at hand. But the gospel found no entrance among them at that time.

SECTION X.

Continuation of the History-Extravagant proceedings at HERRNHAAG and in other congregations—Occasion much Controversy and are happily checked-The Exile of count ZINZENDORF terminates-Evacuation of HERRNHAAG and building of NEUWIED-Financial embarrasment of the Brethren-—Is relieved by count ZINZENDORF and others, &c.

THE labors of the Brethren were beheld with different feelings by persons of different persuasions. Some recognized the hand of God in the revival of their Church, and viewed their undertakings, for the extension of Christ's spiritual kingdom, as the commencement of a new and blessed era in the history of the world. Others considered them as fanaties, whose proceedings were dangerous both to church and state. Others again stood in doubts of them. They saw much in their conduct to approve, while some things excited a suspicion, that the Brethren were neither orthodox in their faith, nor sound in their Christian practice. This difference of opinion may easily be accounted for. The cause of much of the opposition they met with, originated in the natural enmity of the unrenewed heart against all who are determined, at all hazards, faithfully to obey the will of God, as far as they know it. But there were other causes, which operated in an unfavourable manner, and rendered the Brethren suspected of sinister views in the eyes of many worthy and pious men, and justly exposed them to censure. These causes shall now be mentioned with strict regard to truth, and with as much brevity as possible.

Men are ever prone to err, and to go from one extreme to the other; and this was in a degree the case with the Brethren. The founders and first members of the renewed Church of the Brethren were men of much seriousness and gravity. Though

they were sound in every essential article of the Christian faith, they were not wholly delivered from a legal spirit. But in proportion as the evangelical doctrine of justification by faith, without the works of the law, became better understood, and was applied to the hearts by the Holy Ghost, the spirit of bondage was succeeded by the spirit of adoption, and fear gave place to love. Disclaiming all their own works and merit, and relying for pardon and sanctification on the one oblation offered for the sins of the world, the passion of Christ became truly dear and precious to them. Looking unto Jesus as the Author and Finisher of their faith, was now, not only the principal, but almost the exclusive, subject of religious instruction in the Brethren's Church. Repentance, faith, and good works, were derived solely from this doctrine, and maintained in due exercise by its influence. This we must consider as the main spring of the almost incredible exertions of the Brethren during this period.

Thus far all was well. But, through the subtilty of Satan, aided by the deceitfulness of the human heart, the Church of the Brethren was in imminent danger of making shipwreck of the faith in another quarter. In their zeal to root out selfrighteousness, they were not sufficiently on their guard against levity in expression. The delight they took in speaking of the sufferings of Christ, which arose from the penetrating sense they had of their infinite value, by degrees degenerated into fanciful representations of the various scenes of his passion. Their style in speaking and writing lost its former plainness and simplicity, and became turgid, puerile, and fanatical, abounding in playful allusions to Christ as the lamb, the bridegroom, &c. by which he is described in holy writ, and in fanciful representations of the wound in his side. In describing the spiritual relation between Christ and his Church, the highly figurative language of the Canticles was substituted in the place of the dignified simplicity, used by our Saviour and his Apostles, when speaking on this subject. Some less experienced preachers even seemed to vie with each other in introducing into their discourses, the most extravagant, and often wholly unintelligible expressions. This kept the hearers

in a state of constant excitement, but was not calculated to subject every thought of the heart to the obedience of Christ. Religion, instead of enlightening the understanding, governing the affections, and regulating the general conduct, became a play of the imagination.

This species of fanaticism first broke out at Herrnhaag, in the year 1746, and from thence spread into several other congregations. Many were carried away by it, for it seemed to promise a certain joyous perfection, representing believers as innocent, playful children, who might be quite at their ease amidst all the trials and difficulties, incident to the present life. The effect produced was such as might be expected. The more serious members of the Church (and these after all formed the major part) bitterly lamented an evil, which they could not at once eradicate. Others, considering the malady as incurable, withdrew from its communion. The behavior of such as were most infected with this error, though not immoral and criminal, was yet highly disgraceful to their Christian profession. Had not God in mercy averted the impending danger, a spirit of religious levity and antinomianism might by degrees, have sapped the very foundation of the Brethren's Church, and completed her ruin.

The bold style and often eccentric expressions, used by count Zinzendorf, has, with some appearance of truth, been considered as the origin of this error. Now though expressions are to be met with in his sermons and hymns, which, especially when separated from their connection, appear paradoxical and are liable to be misconstrued; yet he never countenanced the extravagance here complained of. He may, however, be justly blamed, as is allowed by his biographer, for not interposing the authority, he doubtless possessed, of checking the evil in its first rising, before it had time to gather strength and spread. Two reasons may be assigned for his remissness in this. First, when it broke out in Wetteravia, he and many of the chief ministers were absent; and secondly, he had such an aversion

* Spangenberg's Life of Zinzendorf.

against enforcing discipline, except in case of positive error in doctrine, or immorality of conduct, lest it should produce hypocrisy, that he was always willing to spare offenders, hoping, that by the teaching of the Spirit of God, they would soon discover their error, and be led to repentance. No sooner, however, was he fully informed of the existing evil and its pernicious consequences, if not arrested in its progress, than he adopted means for suppressing it. From London, where he then resided, he, in 1749, addressed a letter to all the congregations, sharply reproving them for their past conduct, and exhorting them to repent and do their first works. With this letter he dispatched some Brethren to Germany, and commissioned his son in law, bishop Watteville, who had just returned from America, to hold a visitation in all the German congregations. He followed them the next year, and convened a Synod, which assembled at Barby in the summer of 1750, and after an adjournment of some months, continued its delibera. tions at Herrnhut in 1751.

By these measures a stop was put to the spreading evil. Very few of those, who had participated in the offence, remained obstinate and separated from the Church. The greater part were convinced of their error, and proved the sincerity of their repentance by gladly returning to the good old way. Those ministers and laborers, who were not sufficiently established, and in whom a relapse might be apprehended, were deposed from their offices. Thus by the merciful help of God this sifting (as the Brethren used to call it,) terminated before it had produced any permanently injurious consequences. It was even overruled for good. It taught the Brethren the necessity of adhering to the simplicity of the gospel, being satisfied to receive their share of its blessings, in the same manner, in which they are imparted to all sincere Christians. Upon many persons, who had observed their proceedings and entertained doubts of them, their deliverance from the spirit of fanaticism made so deep an impression, that they declared it to be their conviction, that the cause of the Brethren was truly the cause of God, by whose interposition alone their Church D d

VOL. I.

had been rescued from the impending danger, and preserved from utter. ruin.

As far then as concerned the Brethren themselves and persons, who formed a candid and charitable judgment, the injurious consequences, which might justly have been apprehended, were happily averted. The public at large, however, were not disposed to put the same favorable construction on these proceedings. They formed a fair pretext for indulging their hatred of the Brethren. And, though they could not justly be charged with any immoral practices; yet their childish, rather than wicked, aberrations from the simplicity of evangelical doctrine, brought upon them a torrent of abuse from all quarters. For it unfortunately happened, that the abettors of these extravagant notions were not content with giving the reins to their wild fancies in their colloquial intercourse, and in their extemporaneous effusions before the congregation; but they sought to perpetuate them by printed discourses and hymns. Many of these were translated into English, Dutch, and other languages; and thus the error was not only widely propagated, but a formidable weapon was put into the hands of their enemies, who were not slack in availing themselves of it. A host of opponents arose. Some indeed wrote with candour and in reality proved the best friends of the Brethren, by shewing them, that though they denied no essential doctrines of the gospel, their deviations from the purity of Scripture language had given just offence to many sincere persons.

But there were others who wrote in a very different spirit. Their object was neither the elucidation of truth, nor the recovery of the Brethren from the error, into which they had fallen. Their pamphlets abounded in mutilated quotations from the Brethren's hymns and other writings, in foul misrepresentations, and barefaced untruths. Having thus succeeded in stringing together a number of objectionable phrases, garbled sentences, and puerile expressions, they drew from them the most unwarrantable, and often contradictory, conclusions,* in

*The following is one instance among many of the contradictory and opposite conclusions drawn from their writings. The archbishop of Upsal, in Sweden cautioned his friends against the Brethren as persons