granted, and entering into some religious discourse with them, was so much impressed, that he invited and encouraged their frequent visits; and soon set up, first weekly, and then daily preaching, prayer, and exposition in his family, to which every one that pleased to come were admitted. The number of the congregation soon grew considerable, and one of the Moravians was dispatched to carry the agreeable news into his native country; but either in his journey or return, was seized by the Roman Catholics, whipped from town to town like a felon, frequently threatened with immediate death, all the intimations of which he received with the most heroic resolution, and at last died of their repeated ill usage. Nevertheless, wheresoever he was carried, and even while they were lashing him, he preached the Gospel with great success, and in consequence of his witness and sufferings, crowds flocked into the church at Hernhutt, in which there are, if I recollect right, about 600 adult communicants; 400 who, being under religious convictions, they call illuminati; and 200 Catechumens. They sent out missionaries to propagate the Gospel in various parts, particularly in Lapland, where I am told they meet with considerable success. Though the Count (who it seems has taken orders) has devoted his whole estate, which is very considerable, to charitable uses, yet the great number of exiles following in upon them has been greater than his liberality could support, which, joined with their zeal for propagating religion, has induced many of them to go over into Georgia, as others have done to Pennsylvania. My friend, Mr. Ingham, had the pleasure of fifteen of their pious company in the ship, which carried him and

Mr. Wesley to Georgia; and I cannot forbear mentioning a little circumstance, which I find in the journal, now, by the favour of that fraternity, in my hands, which is this:-A violent storm arising, in which the whole company expected to perish immediately, the English sailors were in the utmost consternation. The Moravians stood upon deck singing Psalms, with all the marks of joy and composure in their countenances, imagining they were come to the period of all their trials, and just entering upon glory. On which Mr. Ingham observes, that he could not forbear representing to the sailors, in a short discourse, the singular happiness of the servants of God above all others. I may perhaps communicate to you, from those original papers, the substance of the conference which those Englishmen had with Mr. Spangenburge. It will be sufficient to add, that they soon entered into measures for a mission to the Indians of Georgia, and another to the negroes, which case has been attended with some remarkable success; those poor creatures running seven or eight miles, after their day's work, to spend great part of the night in receiving religious instructions, though they are sure, at their return in the morning, to be most severely scourged by their Chris

*The Rev. J. Wesley mentions this circumstance in a letter. "In the midst of the Psalm wherewith their service began, the sea broke over, split the main-sail in pieces, covered the ship, and poured in between the decks, as if the great deep bad already swallowed us up. A terrible The Germans certainly sung on. screaming began amongst the English. 1 asked one of them afterwards, Was you not afraid?' He answered, I think, No.' I asked, But were not your women and children afraid?' He replied mildly,

No; our women and children are not afraid to die.'"--Whitehead's Life of Wesley, vol. i. p. 10.

tian masters, if their journey has been discovered. I will, Sir, in my next, which you may very quickly expect, give you a particular account of some very remarkable providences with respect to these Moravians, which, if they may be believed on the credit of these gentlemen mentioned, are very well worthy of notice. To which I shall add something farther of Mr. Ingham."

"I resume the subject of my last, and shall mention two or three remarkable circumstances more, relating to the Moravians, which I had from my good friend, Mr. Ingham. He tells me there is a most remarkable spirit of prayer among them, and especially for the propagation of the Gospel in the world; to which end that prayers may be made continually, there are a certain number of them formed into two little societies, one of men, and one of women, who do, in their turn, keep up prayers throughout all the hours both of night and day. The children of them that are members of the church, are (as they were among the Lacedemonians) looked on rather as the property of the public than of their own parents, from whom they are taken when a year old, and put to a school, where the first lesson taught them, is simple obedience and quietness. They have several elders, whose business it is to give the bishop or pastor (who by the way is a mechanic) the most exact information they can relating to the religious estate of the whole community. They suspend each other from communion, or withdraw themselves from it, not only for any scandalous offence, [which seldom happens among them,] but on account of any little misdemeanour which seems contrary to the honour of the gospel;

and Count Zinzendorff was once suspended for being in a passion with one of his servants, and was obliged to acknowledge his fault, and to ask pardon publicly before he was restored. They tell one remarkable story concerning a person who was a member with them, but something offended at the strictness of their discipline; he did not submit to fraternal correction, as they call it, and therefore they proceeded to admonition, at which he was greatly exasperated, being a person of eminent rank; he then set them at open defiance, and insulted them in a very audacious manner, upon which they excommunicated him very solemnly. He was then seized with the most violent agonies both of body and mind, and when he had for several weeks tried the most noted physicians, and every method of amusement and comfort he could think of, he at last sent for the elders, and desired them to pray for him; but they insisted on his being brought [I think on his couch] to the public assembly, where he made an open confession of his sin. It is a very melancholy incident, which they tell of another of their members, who having made a very florid profession, not without some mixture of ostentation, one day receiving the sacrament among them, was taken with convulsive pains, and died in the assembly, crying out with his last breath, and with the greatest horror, spiritual pride! spiritual pride!

"These people were so misrepre→ sented to the late king of Poland, that he sent an order against them, which would, probably, have ended in extirpation; but it was very remarkable, that a few days before it was to be executed, he got that accidental hurt in his toe, which ended in a mortification, and proved the occasion of his

death. The present king sent a commission to inquire after them, but received a report so much in their favour, that he secretly protected them. Mr. Ingham assures me that he has seen among them such extraordinary answers of prayer, as has thrown him into great amazement. Persons have been recovered from dangerous and desperate illnesses, it seems, by this means, and he added a little story, for the truth of which he undertakes to answer upon his own knowledge. One of the Moravian brethren, who is an elder among them, was bathing in a river a little above Savannah, when an alligator darted directly at him. The Moravian did not attempt to fly, but finding himself inwardly supported, as he afterwards declared, with a full assurance of being delivered, he swam directly towards the alligator, and laid his hand on the head of that voracious creature, without the least degree of fear; upon which the alligator sunk like a stone to the bottom of the river, and made no other attempt on him.* He said that several of the inhabitants were at that time in sight, and it was a sort of a standing saying among some sort of the English, that the little man had beat the alligator. I might have added that in dubious cases their church has often recourse to the determination of lots, and Mr. Ingham put his last voyage into England upon that issue. The

*" Mr. Telshee, who was an eye witness to the fact, assured several friends in London that it was repeated twice before the Moravian got on shore. Mr. Telshee is a Moravian minister."-This note is Dr. Doddridge's.

+ It was in February, 1737, Mr. Ingham,

Moravian church was called together upon that occasion, or, at least, the elders of it; and after several hours spent in prayer, one of them threw a lot which determined his return to England; nevertheless this good man, in whom, I must say, there is as much of the Christian and apostolical spirit as I ever saw on so little acquaintance in any person living, is fully determined to return as soon as Providence gives him an opportunity. He speaks of the four months that he spent among the Indians, as the most delightful part of his life, though he was but beginning to understand their language, and had no accommodations of life about him but such as they use, his English dress being excepted. He generally lived upon boiled maze, with only the ashes of oak leaves mingled with it, to supply the place of salt and spice, and drank nothing but water. He proposes, upon his return, to clothe himself with skins as they do, thinking there will be something of a persuasive language in that to convince them how earnestly he seeks their salvation. He tells me, that though his condition was but weak, and he was ill most part of his voyage, yet he had his health very well among them; though besides all his other hardships in his manner of living, he frequently lay for weeks together in the open air, without any shelter but a tree.

returned to England, and brought letters from the Wesleys to General Oglethorpe, and the trustees of Dr. Bray, on behalf of Savannah. Mr. Whitefield was excited to visit America by the letters he sent from Georgia. We know nothing of his sub sequent history.-Editors.

our civil and political rights and privileges.

With our views, which we are happy to believe that we hold in common with all Protestant Dissenters, we could not submit, without remonstrance, to any Religious Test of fitness for civil of fice; because every such test has a tendency to secularize the religion of our Holy Redeemer, whose kingdom is not of this world, and is, besides, an assumption of infallibility on the part of such as impose it, and of a right to dictate to the consciences of those on whom it is imposed.

the 66

But it is not upon this branch of the subject that we are most anxious to address you; and, indeed, it is unnecessary to dwell upon the civil and political view of our case, which has been so amply and satisfactorily explained, in the "Statement" published by United Committee,' * and in the "Petition" of our Deputies to the House of Commons, † documents which have been very widely circulated, and which, in our judgment, must carry conviction to the mind of every dispassionate reader, that the present application of the Protestant Dissenters to the Legislature is founded on the solid basis of fact and argument, and is pre-eminently entitled to the grave consideration of Parliament.

Our principal design, Christian Brethren, is to call your attention to the scandal thrown upon our

Statement of the Case of the Protestant Dissenters under the Corporation and Test Acts, published for the United Committee appointed to conduct their Application for Relief. Third Edition. 8vo. Sold, price 6d., by Hunter, Holdsworth, and Wightman and Cramp, London.

This "Petition" is expected to appear in an early nuinber of "The Test Act Reporter," a monthly publication by the "United Committee," announced as forth coming on the 1st of January, 1828.

any

holy religion by the Sacramental Test. The ordinance of the Lord's Supper is the most solemn institution that was ever established, and its ends are the most momentous that were ever contemplated, even in the scheme of the Divine dispensations. Our Saviour, in commending the Supper to his disciples, said, Do this in remembrance of me; and the faithful Apostle who received it in command from the Head of the Church to guard and vindicate and enforce the ordinance, has explained, that as often as we eat this bread, and drink this cup, we do shew forth the Lord's death till he come. It is manifest, therefore, that the celebration of this sacred rite with other than serious and purely spiritual views, must be a gross perversion of it, a dishonour to the religion of which it constitutes so vital a part, and a high indignity to its great Institutor, “the Lord of all." Yet, by the Corporation Act, no person can hold office in any corporate town or borough, and, by the Test Act, no person can hold any place of trust or emolument under the Crown, or exercise any function of magistracy, without qualifying himself by receiving the Sacrament of the Lord's Supper according to the rites of the Church of England, under very heavy mulcts and ruinous penalties. No account is taken by these Acts of the faith or the character of the communicants. The Sacrament is to be received in all cases, without distinction; and hence, of necessity, many are driven by the Law to the Lord's Table, of whom it is no breach of charity to say, that they have none of the qualifications required by the Christian Scriptures of the partakers of the solemn symbols of the new covenant, and some, who are notorious evillivers, and others, who are un