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    man , for 1 the edification . of his followersl" > ;») To confirm this statement / Mr ; Southey then subjoins the following Note : . ¦ ¦ . ¦' • ¦ » . ¦ ' ' * Of Pelagius , Mr . Wesley says ,

    * By all I can pick up from ancient authors , I guess he was both a holy and a wise man that we know nothing but his name , for his writings are all destroyed ^—not one line of them left . ' So , too , he says of some heretics of an „ . n . « a 1 « ^™ w * SA ^ fe 4 W ^ X K ^ F WV *« rv 4 J ^ "fc j ^^^ Lm vh a . ^^ . j- » . _ a . ^« . ^ J «> earlier * odd

    age , By reflecting on an book which I had read on this journey , The general Delusion of Christians with regard to Prophecy , I was fully convinced of what I had long suspected , 1 , that the Montanists , in the second and third centuries , were real scriptural

    Christians ; and , 2 , that the grand reason why the miraculous gifts were so soon withdrawn , was not only that faith and , holiness were well nigh lost , but that dry , formal , orthodox men began even then to ridicule whatever gifts they had not themselves , and to

    decry them all as either madness or imposture V He vindicated Servetus also . ' Being / says he , c in the Bodleian Library , I lighted on Mr . Calvin s account of the case of Michael Servetus ,

    severaL of whose letters he occasionally inserts , wherein Servetus often declares in terms , / believe the Father is God , the Son is God , and the Holy Ghost is God / Mr . Calvin paints him such a monster as never was—anArian , a blasphemer , and what not , beside strewing over him his flowers of dog , deviL swine , and so on , which are the

    usual appellations he gives to his opponents . But still he utterly denies his being the cause of Servetus ' s death . ' No , * says he , * I only advised our magistrates , as having a right to restrain heretics by the sword , to seize upon and try that arch ~ heretic . But after he was condemned I said not o / ne word

    about his . execution / He reverts to this subject in his remarks upon a tract by Dr . Erskine , that * Michael Seryetus was . one of the wildest Antitrinitari $ ns that c ever appeared is by no means clear . I doubt of it on the

    authority of Calvin himself , who cfertainly was no ^ t p rejudiced in his favour . For if Calvin- does not misquote" Ms words , Jti ^ r was v no Afcti-tiifritarian at all . Calvin himsdi gives drquotat i ^ n from oitei dff his -lettera , in which hfe expressly t declares , / do believe thd

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    Father \ is God * tkevSbmid Qnd 9 Mm the Hoty GKUt is GM , ibup l ^ i 0 W use the wordr trinity tw < pef&oiiiP ^ 1 dare and think them v ^ iy * $ < lo 3 Hvor ^ f but I should think it vejy harid M * & burnt alive for not usmg ^ thefoi > fc $ j * &-

    cially with a . slow ^ re inkde of &mi $ green wood ! I believe Calvin ? was a great instrument of God , arid that he was a wise and pious man , but I cannot but advise those who love his

    memory , to let Servetus alone / Finally , Wesley prefaces the Life of that good man Firmin , in his Magazine , with these words : 'I was exceedingly struck at reading the following Life , haVing long settled it in my mind

    that the entertaining wrong notions concerning the Trinity , was inconsisw tent with real piety . But I cannot argue against matter of fact . I dare not deny that Mr . Firmin was a pious man , although his notions of the Tri * nity were qiiite erroneous /"

    In , transcribing these paragraphs it has afforded me no small pleasure to observe how Mr . Wesley confirms the statement of Dr . William Richards , of Lynn , respecting Pelagius , and the conduct of John Calvin towards

    Servetus , in his Welsh Nonconformists * Memorial . They both reprobate " the cursed ungodliness of zeal , " as altogether destructive of the gentle and forbearing spirit of our common Christianity .

    John Wesley , with his peculiar imperfections , was a great and a good man . A " faultless monster" is not within the range of humanity . I shall subjoin his character by Mr . Southey , the latter part of which is entitled to special attention : " Such was the life and such the labours of John Wesley ,

    a man of great views , great energy , and great virtues . That he awakened a zealous spirit not only in his own community , but in a church which needed something to quicken it , is acknowledged by the members of that

    church itself . —That he encouraged enM ; thusiasm and extravagance , lejit a ready ear to false and impossible relations , and spread superstition '^ s well as pf ^ ky * would hardly be denied byftii ^^ dj ^ and judicious among h | s , o \ i ^ f ;| fecmM In its immediate eireot ^ th ^ principle of religion wH ^ ffelM preachers diffused , has reclaimed inany from ^ a course of sin > : has tj&Om many in poverty , sickness ano afflic ;

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    nry& ^ Evans on Souihey % Life o / WesVeff ^ £ ® $

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    VOL XV , 4 V

• Citation
  • Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), Nov. 2, 1820, page 653, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse-os.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2494/page/25/