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formify with the precepts of their meek and glorious master , would have consulted better their own interests with posterity , would have
better deserved of the Gospel cause , if they had chosen different means to evince the sincerity of their belief , and left vengeance to the God of heaven .
Servetus , I doubt not , was often imprudent , rash and violent , and kept no measure in his expressions . Servetus erred , 1 doubt not , in many essential points , but there is no shadow of his insinceritynot even in Farell ' s , Beza ' s , or
Calvin ' s severest criminations . Servetus believed in the gospel , and believed that he discovered the truth : he vainly imagined , and persuaded himself , that he was chosen by God to restore it to its pristine purity : this was an illusion of an ardent and
bewildered imagination , but in this was no crime . He was , unquestionably , a man of great erudition and unfeigned piety : his mind was stored with a variety of knowledge , and he
deserved and actually stood in high esteem by his coternporaries for the acuteness of his judgment , his great knowledge , expertness , and various discoveries in physic . Whatever were his speculative
errors he never preached them to the vulgar , but communicated them freely to a Calvin , ^ Ecolampadius , Capito , Buccrus , with an eagerness to discover the truth which has seldom been surpassed . His atrocious punishment cannot be coloured ; even his impri-
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sonment was unjust . The Senate of Geneva had no title , no shadow of right to lay violent hands upon an innocent traveller , who had no intention to tarry in their city , and
passed it only , to search for an asylum at Naples , and who does not appear to have uttered within the precincts of their dominion , one syllable of his obnoxious Opinions . Hei ^ e Geneva stands
condemned by all civilians . * Much even may be said , if not to justify Servetus in your opinion , to lessen and excuse a pretended crime . His melancholy , choleric temper ; his opinion of his own merits and
M . talents ; his firm persuasion that he was called to something extra - ordinary ; all this co-operated to spur him to defend what he believed the truth , with a constancy bordering upon obstinacy . His moral character was unsullied , so that even his most virulent enemies have been unable , with unrelenting exertions ^ to render it any \ vay suspected , though it even was tried in the course of the
criminal process , but the shame , as th < £ authentic records evidence till this day , recoiled on his
accusers . The affability of his manners , and his vast learning , had procured him numerous friends in France , Germany , and Italy . -The
learned Bockiusj who places Servetus among the fanaticks , cannot , in the exposition of his erroneous sentiments , avoid to declare f that , fc < though he abhors Servetus and his system , he detests tfrje manner and excess , which his judges ^ with
* . Dann Hauerus Hodom . Calvin , pag . ia 88 . f Hist . Antitrin . torn ; ii . cap . % . §» 8 . p . 383- —394 . comp . with Venetfna Hist . Eccl . torn- vii . pag . 479 , 483 . where the errors of Servetus arc , at large , with great ' judgment and impartiality exposed *
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432 Sketch of the Life of Servetus . ' — Letter f .
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Citation
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Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), Sept. 2, 1810, page 432, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2408/page/8/
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