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the sons of apathy , however fit they * may be for the school of Z eno , or that of Calvin , and however numerous they are among the present nominal Christians , they certainly cannot be said to bear any resemblance to Jesus of Nazareth .
When Servetus came to the stake , he made no speech to the people , nor shewed any sign of relenting . It is very likely , considering their former unfeeling and cruel conduct , he thought his enemies would not suffer him to speak to the people , Slichtingius says , " that he died calling upon Christ , in the midst of the flames /'—Such was the end of the memorable
Michael Servetus , one of the most learned and most consciet ^ tious men of that , or perhaps of any other age ; who fell a victim to the resentment and malicg of Calvin , and the cruel zeal of the Protestant magistrates of Geneva , and a flagrant instance of the horrible tendency of religious bigotry and persecution ^ whether found among Papists or Protestants . Calvin , as has been already hinted , never repented of the part he had acted in this murderous affair . He even wrote a
book in defence of it , called " A Faithful Exposition of the Errors of Michael Servetus , and a Refutation of the same , iri which is shewn that Heretics arejto be punished with Fire and Sword . " He also drew up a Confession of Faith , one of whose articles has these words— " We detest all the heresies which
have anciently disturbed the churches , and especially the dia # * bolical imaginations of Servetus , who attributes to the Lord Jesus a fantastical divinity . "— " It is said , " observes the late Erasmus Middleton , " that all the candidates for the ministry in Switzerland , and also in the French reformed churches abroad , are bound , before their ordination , to subscribe that article / ' " Besides , " adds he , in the confession of faith
which all the students of the public school ot Geneva are to make before the rector , there is this article : * Although God is one simple essence , yet there are in him three distinct pensons ; wherefore I detest all the heresies condemned by the first Council of Nice , &c . together with all those errors that have been revived by Servetus and his followers . " Thus it appears that Calvin's obduracy did not forsake him . The
ministers of Switzerland , as was before intimated , were exactly of his mind , heartily consenting to and approving of the death of Servetus ; which seemed to give him no small encouragement and satisfaction , as appears by a letter he wrote to Farrel the day before Servetus died . Nor was his associate Beza a whit behind the most unfeeling bigot among them : even in his Annotations , published ^ bout three years after the death of Servetus , he coijld not forbear justifying the fact , and deviling the hapless sufferer . Having mentioned Servetus ' *
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Brief Account of Servetus . 515
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Citation
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Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), Oct. 2, 1806, page 515, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct1729/page/11/
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