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Untitled Article
" standing in his opinion even to death" ( in his Note on 2 Pet . i . 4 . ) , he adds an ironical scoff , not much Jess cruel th ^ n his death itself— Yet , good man ! some think he had great wron g done him . " This Beza , no doubt , was worthy to be Calvin ' s associate and successor in the church of Geneva . The more / pne thinks of these men , the , more detestable they appear ; and yet these are the men that are daily recommended to us ,, as our best guides and instructors /
Calvin persecuted Servetus ,, because he disbelieved the doctrine of the Trinity ; yet it has been observed that 'he himself but half believed that doctrine ; so that his zeal for it may be suspected to have been but a preterce , or cloak of maliciousness . In one place ( Admonit . I . ad Polon . ) he says— iTike
not this prayer , ' O holy , blessed , and glorious Trinity !*• It savours of barbarity : the word Triaiiy is barbarous , insipid , profane—a human invention ,, grounded on no testimony of the word of God—the popish god , unknown to the prophets and apostles . " Yet this man could persecute people unto death , / for not being orthodox in regard to the Trinity ! Servetus suffered the same year that bloody Mary , aided by Bonner and Gardener , was burning ; the Protestants in this
country ; and she certainly had as good reasons for her conduct , as Calvin had for his : nor can any one of the martyrs who then perished here be said to suffer more unjustly than Servetus did at Geneva . One hundred and seventy-six persons of quality , besides many of the common people , were burnt that year in England , says Father Paul , in his History of the Council of Trent : and
none of them ., it may be added , who then perished here in the flames ( no , not Cranmer or Latimcr , "Ridley or Hooper , or any of the rest ) suffered more unjustly than Servetus did at Geneva , Nor can even Bonner and Gardener , and the rest of the English
actors in those bloody scenes , be said to have exceeded the wickedness of Calvin ' s conduct towards Servetus : and yet this 5 s the ijian that multitudes of people are so fond of being called by his name ; which is carrying their blind zeal and bigotry even beyond the very Papists themselves , who have never been so extravagantly mad as to assume the name of Bonner , or
express a desire to be called Bonnerites , which they a $ reasonably and decently might have dope . Some , in our day , appear most reyiiarkably fond of being called Calvinists . It is to be hoped they do not really prefer that name to that of Christians ; otherwise they might be said to resemble those of old who denied the Holy One and the Just , and desired a murderer to be granted up to them . Those who are so fond of the name ot Calvin might be asked , Is Christ divided ? Was Calvifi cftly cified for you ?
Untitled Article
51 6 Brief Account of Servetus .
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Citation
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Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), Oct. 2, 1806, page 516, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct1729/page/12/
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