Wesley Corpus

And yet I cannot undertake now either to tran scribe your whole book, or every page or paragraph which I answer. But I must generally abridge before I reply; and that not only to save time, (of which I have none to spare,) but often to make the argument clearer, which is best understood when couched in few words. 7. You complain also of my mentioning all at once sentences which you placed at a distance from each other. I do so; and I think it quite fair and ingenuous to lay together what was before scattered abroad. For instance: You now speak of the conditions of justification, in the eighteenth and following pages; again, from the eighty-ninth to the hundred and second; and yet again, in the hundred and twenty-seventh page. Now, I have not leisure to follow you to and fro. Therefore, what I say on one head, I set in one place. I. 1. This premised, I come to the letter itself. I begin, as before, with the case of the Moravians; of whom you say, “I collected together the character which you had given of these men; the errors and vices which you had charged upon them, and the mischiefs--they had done among your followers. And I proved that, in several respects, you had been the occasion of this mischief; and are therefore, in some measure, accountable for it. Let us see what answer you give to all this. “‘With regard to the denying degrees in faith, you men tioned, that the Moravian Church was cleared from this mis take. But did you not mention this as one of the tenets of the Moravians? Do you not say, that you ‘could not agree with Mr. Spangenberg, that none has any faith so long as he is liable to any doubt or fear? Do you not represent Mr. Molther, and other Moravians in England, as teaching the same? In short, I have not charged the Moravian Church with anything; but only repeat after you. And if you have accused them when you knew them to be guiltless, you must bear the blame. “‘They do use the ordinances of God with reverence and godly fear.’ You have charged Mr. Spangenberg and Mr. Molther with teaching that we ought to abstain from them. And the same you say in general of the Moravian brethren, in your letter to them.