and sublime operations, as we find it does, without the assistance of some higher and divine principle.—Vol. IV. p. 362. NOTE XVII. Page 168. Wesley dates his Conversion. PHILIP HENRY "would blame those who laid so much stress on people's knowing the exact time of their conversion, which he thought was with many not possible to do. Who can so soon be aware of the day-break, or of the springing up of the seed sown? The work of grace is better known in its effects than in its causes. He would sometimes illustrate this by that saying of the blind man to the Pharisees, who were so critical in examining the recovery of his sight: this and the other I know not concerning it, but "this one thing I know, that whereas I was blind, now I see.” NOTE XVIII. Page 178. "THAT brave old man Johannes Amos Comenius, the fame of whose worth hath been trumpetted as far as more than three languages (whereas every one is indebted to his Janua) could carry it, was agreed withal by our Mr. Winthrop in his travels through the Low Countries, to come over into New England and illuminate this college (Harward) and country in the quality of a President: but the solicitations of the Swedish ambassador diverting him another way, that incomparable Moravian became not an American." Cotton Mather's Magnalia, B. IV. p. 128. NOTE XIX. Page 200. Moravian Marriages. MARRIAGE is enumerated in one of the Moravian Hymns among the services of danger for which the brethren are to hold themselves prepared. "You as yet single and but little tied, That like the former warriors each may stand NOTE XX. Page 203. Fanatical Language of the Moravians. THE circumstance which gave occasion to much of their objectionable language is thus stated by Crantz, as having been" evidently directed by Providence. The Count having thrown some papers, which were of no further use, into the fire, they were all consumed, excepting one small billet, on which was written the daily word for the 14th of February; He chuses us to be his inheritance, the excellency of Jacob whom he loveth.' (Psal. xlvii. 4. according to Luther's version.) Under which the old Lutheran verse stood: O let us in thy nail-prints see "All the brethren and sisters who saw this billet, the only one which remained unconsumed among the cinders, were filled with a child-like joy; and it gave them an occasion to an heart-felt conversation with each other upon the wounds of Jesus, which was attended with such a blessed effect, as to make an happy alteration in their way of thinking and type of doctrine. The Count composed upon this verse the incomparable hymn, Jesu, our glorious Head and Chief, Our pardon and election free,'" &c. History of the Brethren, p. 180. I can produce but one sample of their strains upon this favourite subject, which would not be utterly offensive to every sane mind: "How bright appeareth the Wounds-Star And round the happy places Of the true Wounds-Church here below, Directly on our faces. Dear race of grace, Four Holes crimson And side pierced, Bundle this of all the Blessed." Many of the translations in the volume of their hymns have evidently been made by Germans: - this I believe to have been one, and suppose that the German by help of his dictionary found out bundle and burden to mean the same thing, and therefore happily talks of the bundle of a song. The most characteristic parts of the Moravian hymns are too shocking to be inserted here: even in the humours and extravagances of the Spanish religious poets, there is nothing which approaches to the monstrous perversion of religious feeling in these astonishing productions. The Editor says, "Our Brethren and Sisters who have made ese Hymns are mostly simple and unlearned people, who have wrote them down at the time when the matters therein expressed were lively to their hearts; and therefore they are without art, or the niceties usually expected in poetry: yet notwithstanding to every heart that knows, or desires to know Christ, we doubt not but they will afford some satisfaction and comfort of a much better kind." The book indeed is not a little curious as a literary, or illiterary composition. The copy which I possess is of the third edition, printed for James Hutton, 1746. Of their silliness I subjoin only such a specimen as may be read without offence. "What is now to children the dearest thing here?— To be the Lamb's lambkins and chickens most dear. Such lambkins are nourish'd with food which is best, Such chickens sit safely and warm in the nest." The following pye-bald composition is probably unique in its kind. It is intended for the Jews. "Isróel! to thy Husband turn again; He will deliver thee from curse and ban. The letter of divorcement. 2 Hosea, i. 6. The Mediator. He for Isról with God did intercede, ΤΟ For our 6 Cappóré he did shed his blood, · Out of the 3 Golus and from sin set free. 14 Then shall we to the Tolah, 4 Schevach bring. In transcribing this mingle-mangle of English and Hebrew, I perceive the roots of two English words, sorrow in zoros, gaol in golus. The first we derive from the Saxon and Gothic; the second, in common with the French and Spaniards, from a Keltic origin: but both appear to have their roots in the Hebrew. One of the strangest of these strange pieces is a kind of Litany. (No. 398. pp. 749-756.) Yet even the Moravian Hymns are equalled by a poem of Manchester manufacture, in the Gospel Magazine for August 1808, entitled the "Believer's Marriage to Christ." |