On this page

• Text (1)

  Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software. The text has not been manually corrected and should not be relied on to be an accurate representation of the item.

  • 

    Untitled Article

• Transcript

  • Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software. The text has not been manually corrected and should not be relied on to be an accurate representation of the item.

    Additionally, when viewing full transcripts, extracted text may not be in the same order as the original document.

    Untitled Article

    it with patience , rather than be eager to punish it with violence . As to the second kind of error , although it deserves chastisement , it is to be treated nevertheless with moderate severity : only that care must be taken that the wickedness and contuniacy of those

    who are endeavouring to break the tmity of faith , be not increased by indulgence . But when religion is overthrown at its foundation , when detestable blasphemies against God are promulgated , and souls are hurried to perdition by impious and pestilent tenets , and when a defection

    from the one God and his pure doctrine is openly attempted , it becomes necessary to recur to that extreme remedy , lest the deadly poison should spread further . " * Quotations need

    not be multiplied to shew what were Calvin ' s ideas on this subject . Indeed , to detail them at length , with the reasons by which they are supported , were to transcribe the greater part of

    this " Golden book , " as Beza has designated it . Here then we shall leave him , and proceed to notice his friend Beza , who has stood forward , with a kindred spirit , as his defender and eulogist . Beza ' s sentiments are to be seen in

    many incidental observations in his different publications , but principally in a letter which he addressed to Dudith , and in his celebrated book ? u Scimus enim tres esse errorum gradus : et quibusdam fatemur dandatn esse veniam , aliis modicatn castigationem sufficere , ut tan turn manifest a impietas capitali

    supplicio plectatur . Fideles saepitis Pau-Jus hortatur ut se invicem tolerent , quamvis aliqua sit inter eos dissentio : nempe , siqua levis superstitio et inscitia simplieium mentes ocenpat , tit earn patientia corrigere potius studiant quam inteniperanter ad vindictana efferveant . Secundum

    crroruni genus etsi castigationem meretur , mediocris tamen adhioenda est severitas : tantum ne indulgentia altLtur e . orum improbitas et contumacia qui fidei unitatem scindeie cuperent . Sed ubi a suis

    fnndamentis convelhtur rehgio , deteslandie in Deirm blasphemise perferuntur , impiis et pestiferis dogm&tilms inexitium rapiuutur animae , denique ubi pal am defectio ab itnico Deojpuraque ejus doctrina tentatur ad extremum illtid remedium descendere necesse est , ne mortale venenum long'ins serpat , " Calvini Defensio Orthod , Fidei , Ste . 8 vo . lf » 54 . n . 31 .

    Untitled Article

    on the right of the Civil Magistrate to punish Heretics , * a title which has been aptly paraphrased " The right of the Civil Magistrate to be the Church ' s or the Presbytery ' s Hangman . " In the former work , a dverting to a remark of Dudith ' s that Beza and the Protestants contended that liberty of conscience should be allowed , he thus replies : " By no means , as this liberty is understood that is , that every man may worship God as he pleases . For it is a mere dogma of devils that any person should ,

    if he wishes , perish . Pastors , therefore , should not only , as far as lies in their power , prevent their sheep from perishing , but should also admonish and chastise them , and at last , if necessary , after other remedies have been tried in vain , drive them from

    the rest of the flock . " " That is a diabolical liberty which at this day fills Poland and Transylvania with so many plagues , which no other region under the sun would tolerate . " f But

    his ideas are developed more at large in the latter publication , wherein he fully explains the policy he would recommend and pursue as the substitute of that ** diabolical liberty" of conscience which was so much the

    object of his abhorrence . It must suffice at present to say of it , without citing the author's words , that he argues at great length , and with much bitterness of language , that heretics may lawfully be put to death , by the civil magistrate , and he refers to the cases of Gentilis and Servetus as

    in-* De Haeretieis a Civili Magistrate puniendis Libellus , ad versus Martini Bellii Farraginem , et novorum Aeademicorum Sectam . Theodoro Beza Vezelio auctore . Oliva Roberti Stephani . 1554 . 8 vo . f " Jactabiinusne libertatein conscientiis pernnttendam esse ? Minime , ut bacc quidem libertas intelligitur , id est , ut qua quisque inodo volet Deum eolat . Est

    enim boc mere diabolicum dogma , sinendum esse unumqueinque ut si volet pereat . Itac | ue nee pastores ovem patientur perire , quantum in se erit , sed monebunt , cornpient , ac tandem si opus fuerit , caetens frustra tentatis remediis u t ^ liquo grege repellent . ' " Et ilia est diabolica libertas , qua 5 Poloniam et Transylvaniam bodie tot pestibus implevit , quas nulte aHoqm sub sole regiones tolerarcnt , "

    Untitled Article

    7 S 8 The Nonconformist . No- XV .

• Citation
  • Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), Dec. 2, 1819, page 738, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct1779/page/22/