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Untitled Article
k now so very scarce . Servetus was neither an Arian , nor a Photinian ; for he asserted not only the pre-existence of Christ , but also that he is not a creature , or a being of finite power , hut true God , and that he ought to be worshipped as such .
He calls this doctrine ** a mystery unknown to the world : ' * at the sanje time he owns , that such as acknowledge Christ to be the Messiah , and the Son of God , only as he is a ma ? i r may attain to -salvation * * ' Writers have not agreed , " says * the late Robert Robinson , u in what class of heretics to class
this Spanish physician . His notions of a Christian church , were just , and he protested against all dominion over conscience . He was a confirmed Baptist , and considered the bap ^ tism of little children in a very severe and serious light , calling
it a detestable abomination , -occ "—[ than which scarce any thing could be a more unpardonable heresy in the sight of Cal - vin ^]— He was also * - a determined Unitarian , and held the doctrine of the Trinity in abhorrence . He thought Jesus was * a man , but , like Paul of Samosata , he could never get over
the first chapter of John ., and therefore sometimes called him God ) and accounted for so doing by supposing some sublime inhabitation of the Deity irvthe man / 1 which entitled him to-a divine character and divine homage ; Though the Cfiristianismi Restitutio was printed at Vienner
very privately , without the name of the author , the city , or ther pr inter , yet Calvin somehow got information of it , and obtained a copy of the work . It is not known how he got the : copy , but it must have been surreptitiously , for itiiad not beei * published . He now got one William Trie , a great admirer pf
him , to write a letter to Lyons , in March 1553 ( or rather he him ? - self wrote that letter in Trie ' s name ) , representing Servetus as ?
a pernicious man , who ought not to escape unpunished , but deserved to be burnt , for calling the Trinity , which Calvin and the Papists maintained , a Cerberus , and opposing what the Scripture teaches of ' the eternal generation of the Son of God , and withal condemning the baptism of little children , calling it
a diabolical invention ., &c . On these and other like accounts ^ Calvin urges the Papists to destroy Servetus . This execrable letter was accompanied with the title page , the index , and the first leaves of the book . Servetus complained of it upon his « trial at Geneva , and said that Calvin had sent those sheets tQ
Lyons to have him arrested and prosecuted for heresy About a fortnight after , Calvin sent by the same man above twenty * letters which he had received from Servetus , that he might be the better convicted of his heresy . These letters were mentioned i * i the sentence pronounced against him at Vienne . Tfyus Calvin succeeded in-his bloody design v Servetus was soon after
Untitled Article
Brief Account of frervetus : 4 $$
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Citation
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Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), Sept. 2, 1806, page 455, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct1728/page/7/
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