Wesley Corpus

4. I am more concerned for their “despising and decrying self-denial;” for their “extending Christian liberty beyond all warrant of holy writ;” for their “want of zeal for good works;” and, above all, for their supposing, that “we may, on some accounts, use guile;” in consequence of which they do “use guile or dissimulation in many cases.” “Nay, in many of them I have found” (not in all, nor in most) “much subtlety, much evasion and disguise; so “becoming all things to all men, as to take the colour and shape of any that were near them.” (Ibid. pp. 307, 258, 332, 327.) I can neither defend nor excuse those among the Moravians whom I have found guilty of this. But neither can I condemn all for the sake of some. Every man shall give an account of himself to God. But you say, “Your protesting against some of theiropinions is not sufficient to discharge you. Have you not prepared the way for these Moravians, by countenancing and commending them; and by still speaking of them as if they were in the main the best Christians in the world, and only deluded or mistaken in a few points?” (Remarks, pp. 11, 12.) I cannot speak of them otherwise than I think. And I still think, (1) That God has some thousands in our own Church who have the faith and love which is among them, without those errors either of judgment or practice. (2.) That, next to these, the body of the Moravian Church, however mistaken some of them are, are in the main, of all whom I have seen, the best Christians in the world. 5. Because I am continually charged with inconsistency 380 ANSWER. To herein, even by the Moravians themselves, it may be “needful to give a short account of what has occurred between us from the beginning. “My first acquaintance with the Moravian brethren began din my voyage to Georgia. Being then with many of them in the same ship, I narrowly observed their whole behaviour. And I greatly approved of all I saw.” (The particulars are related in the First Journal.) “From February 14, 1735, to December 2, 1737, being with them (except when I went to Frederica or Carolina) twice or thrice every day, I loved and esteemed them more and more.