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The Nonconformist . No . XV . ( Concluded froin p , 685 . ) On the Sentiments of the early Continental Reformers respecting Reli » ( jious Liberty / . THE specimens already given must suffice of the sentiments of the Lutheran school on religious liberty .
The opinions held by the Reformers of Switzerland come next to be considered . At the head of these stands Zuingliiis , whose labours were contemporary with those of Luther , though they acted wholly independently of each other . Zuinglius wrote a treatise on the Office of the
Magistrate : but though in this work he assigns to the magistrate the duty of preserving and protecting the Church , and states several things about punishing certain offenders
capitally , he never drops the least hiut of his right or duty to put reputed heretics to death . His language would , on the contrary , rather seem to imply that he considered him not to be
invested with the power of the sword in such cases . " The obedience , " he observes , " which is due to magistrates should by no means be carried so far , nor has God committed to them such power , as that they should rule the minds and consciences of men . * ' *
And again , " God has ordained that we should be obedient to magistrates , who bear the sword committed to them , in those things which relate to the intercourse of life , to business , friendship and society ; but , "he adds , " let not the magistrate punish any other offence which relates to the
internal consciences of men , for the judgment of these things is in the hand of God . " f ¦ - - - ¦ ¦' "' > ¦ - ' ¦ * "N ^ quaquam autem « a qua ? illis ( Magistratibus ) debetur obedientia tam procul extemU tur , nee tantum potestatis ipsis dinnitas coimnissuin est , ut in animas
quoque et conscientias boininum dominenl et . imperitent . " Minus Celsus , ut s « Pra , fol . H 6 b . T Deuscnim oportet , nos esse subditos agistratu i , qUi gladium sibi com mis sum Z '' 1 ! V hisce * ebus nimirum qua- vitee ^ versatifcnem , comrnei cia , amicitias ., sor ^ . ^ V p < * > psam vitam han c corpom aifine *» , et ad hiu « au < e ju * titire leges ,
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Zuinglius was succeeded in the Church of Zurich by Bui linger , a man of great talents , and a zealous promoter of the Reformation , Builinger is thought to have maintained in some of his earlier works , thartr
errors in opinion should be wholly left to the Divine judgment : but if this be the case , his ideas at a later period were very different * € t There are , " he remarks , " some blasphemies , so impious and horible , that they cannot even be heard , much less be tolerated ; some which tend directly
and openly to the subversion of the state , unless they be suppressed in time . " " ' Those , who pertinaciously err , who labour to draw others with them into error , and to keep them in their mistakes ; blasphemers , disturbers , and subverters of the Church , may lawfully be put to death . " *
The opinion expressed by this writer concerning the fate of Servetus , will both illustrate his sentiments upon religious liberty , and shew the temper and spirit with which he regarded those who dissented from the popular creed , 4 i Servetus , " he writes , *'* was indeed burnt at Geneva , but not without the advice of the other
Evangelical Churches of the Helvetic Republic , to the most honourable Senate of Geneva , which hail applied fofc their opinion . For many ages there have not been seen blasphemies
so foul , atrocious , monstrous and abominable against the Divine Majesty , and the purity of the true faith , as this most filthy monster of a man , and disgraceful wretch , has published in a printed work , and has impiously ,
et praescriptuna possunt refern . " Nee nil inn aliud facinus persequetur , quod iuternam hominis ennscientiam spectat liorum enim judicia in maim Dei sunt . " Minus Celsus , fol . 117 . a .
* " Stint quoedam acjeo blasphema , impia et indig-na ut ne audiri quidein , neduui ferri possint . Sunt quae rcct ^ et palam tendant in subversionem Reipablicse nisi in tern pore sopiantur . "
44 Pertinaciter errantes , et alios secum in errorem abducere , inque erroribus retinere contendentes , blasphemi , et perturbatores imo subveisores ecclesiarum jure cacdi possunt . ^ Vide Bezae , de Haereticis a Civili Magistrate puniemlis Libel . ( 8 iro . 1554 ^ pp . 265 , 266 .
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The Nonconformist . No . XV . 785
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Citation
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Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), Dec. 2, 1819, page 735, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct1779/page/19/
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