Son of Man. It is mere Quakerism, making the outward Christ an enemy to the Christ within."

Having then noticed some ravings which Mrs. Hutton had repeated to him, and which, he said, looked like downright madness, he says, "I do not hold it at all unlikely, that perpetual intenseness of thought, and want of sleep, may have disordered my brother. I have been told that the Quakers' introversion of thought has ended in madness: it is a studious stopping of every thought as fast as it arises, in order to receive the Spirit. I wish the canting fellows had never had any fol. lowers among us, who talk of in-dwellings, expe riences, getting into Christ, &c. &c.; as I remember assurances used to make a great noise, which were carried to such a length, that (as far as nonsense can be understood) they rose to fruition; in utter defiance of Christian hope, since the question is unanswerable, What a man hath, why does he yet hope for? But I will believe none, without a miracle, who shall pretend to be rapt up into the third heaven. I hope your son," he continues, "does not think it as plainly revealed that he shall print an enthusiastic book, as it is that he shall obey his father and his mother. Suppose it were never so excellent, can that supersede your authority? God deliver us from visions that shall make the law of God vain! I pleased myself with the expectation of seeing Jack; but now that is over, and I am afraid of it. I know not where to direct to him, or where he is. I heartily pray God to stop the progress of this lunacy."

Before this letter was written John had left England. After his new birth, he had continued about a fortnight in heaviness, because of manifold temptations, -in peace, but not in joy. A letter which he received perplexed him, because it maintained, that "no doubting could consist with the least degree of true faith; that whoever at any time felt any doubt or fear, was not weak in faith, but had no faith at all; and that none had any faith till the law of the spirit of life had made him wholly free from the law of sin and death." Begging God to direct him, he opened his Testament, and his eye fell upon that passage where St. Paul speaks of babes in Christ, who were not able to bear strong meat, yet he says to them, "Ye are God's building, ye are the temple of God." Surely then, he reasoned, these men had some degree of faith, though it is plain their faith was but weak. His mind, however, could not bear to be thus sawn asunder, as he calls it; and he determined to visit the Moravians at Herrnhut, in the hope that "conversing with those holy men, who were themselves living witnesses of the full power of faith, and yet able to bear with those that are weak, would be a means of so establishing his soul, that he might go on from faith to faith, and from strength to strength."

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CHAPTER V.

THE MORAVIANS.

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WESLEY IN GERMANY.

FEW religious communities may look back upon their history with so much satisfaction as the United Brethren. In the ninth century Christianity was introduced into Bohemia, from Greece. When Bohemia was united to the empire by Otho I., the people were brought under the yoke of Rome, and compelled to receive a liturgy which they did not understand. Their first king, Wratislas, remonstrated against this, and entreated the Pope that the church service might continue to be performed in the language of the country. The Pope replied, "Dear son, know that we can by no means grant your request; for having frequently searched the Holy Scriptures, we have there discovered, that it has pleased, and still pleases

*

*The Bohemians pleaded a miracle in support of the privilege which they claimed of having divine service performed in their own tongue. They had requested permission from Pope Nicholas, through the first preachers of Christianity in that country, Methodius and Cyrillus, who undertook the commission without the slightest hope of succeeding in it,—indeed in the expectation that they should subject themselves to the scorn of the Sacred College. But when the matter was propounded in that College, a voice was heard, saying, "Omnis spiritus laudet Dominum, & omnis lingua confiteatur eum." And the Pope, says the legend, in obedience to the text which was thus divinely quoted, acceded to the petition of the Bohemians.

Dubravius, p. 26.

Almighty God, to direct his worship to be conducted in hidden language, that not every one, especially the simple, might understand it. For if it were performed in a manner altogether intelligible, it might easily be exposed to contempt; or if imperfectly understood by half-learned persons, it might happen that by hearing and contemplating the word too frequently, errors might be engendered in the hearts of the people, which would not be easily eradicated. Therefore what your people ignorantly require, can in no wise be conceded to them; and we now forbid it by the power of God and his holy Apostle Peter." The Papacy prevailed, because it was supported by the secular power; but many still retained the custom of their fathers; and when some of the Waldenses sought refuge from persecution in Bohemia, they found people who, if not in fellowship with them, were disposed to receive their doctrines. ground was thus ready for the seed when Wickliffe's writings were introduced: those writings produced a more immediate effect * there than they did in England; and Bohemia gave to reformed religion, in Huss the first, and in Jerome the most illustrious of its martyrs.

The

* Their knowledge of the Scripture was one of the causes which their enemies assigned for their heresy. Tertia causa est, quia Novum Testamentum et Vetus vulgariter transtulerunt, et sic docent et discunt. Vidi et audivi rusticum idiotam, qui Iob recitavit de verbo ad verbum, et plures alios qui Novum Testamentum totum sciverunt perfecte. But, according to this writer's account, they made some extraordinary blunders in their translation. In the first chapter of St. John, for instance, he says, sui, id est porci, eum non receperunt; sui dicentes, id est sues. This is not credible upon such testimony.

De Waldensibus, apud Scriptores rerum Bohemicarum, p. 222.

The story of the religious war which ensued ought to be written in a popular form, and read in all countries: no portion of history exemplifies more strikingly the impolicy of persecution, the madness of fanaticism, and the crimes and the consequences of anarchy. And these aweful lessons would be rendered more impressive, by the heroic circumstances with which they are connected; for greater intrepidity was never displayed than by those peasants, who encountered armed enemies with no better weapons than their flails; and the modern science of fortification may be traced to that general who, after he had lost his only eye in battle, continued to lead his devoted troops to victory; and who, with his dying breath, ordered that a drum should be made of his skin: "the sound of it," he said, "would put the Ger-. mans to flight." This struggle for reformation was made too soon; that under the Elector Palatine too late. His feeble attempt at maintaining the kingdom to which he was elected, ended in the loss of his hereditary dominions: his paternal palace, which for beauty of structure and situation has rarely been equalled, was destroyed, and at this day it is, perhaps, the most impressive of all modern ruins: his family became wanderers, but his grandson succeeded to the British throne, and that succession secured the civil and religious liberties of Britain. Bohemia paid dearly for this final struggle; her best blood was shed by the executioner, and her freedom was extinguished.

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