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alive to the awful situation in which he stood , and knew that he would be shortly summoned into the presence of his final Judge , neither threats nor enticements could prevail upon him to retract , or to admit that Christ was the Eternal God . When he was led to the place of execution , he repeatedly cried out , " O God ! save my soul ! O Jesus , son of the Eternal God !
have pity on me ! " As soon as he came in sight of the Lieu de Champel T he prostrated himself on the earth , and continued for some time in fervent prayer to God . While he was thus employed , Farell , addressing himself to the people , who bad flocked together in great crowds to witness the execution , said , " Behold the power of Satan , when he has taken possession of his intended victim ! This is a learned man : and a similar fate mi ^ ht have
been yours . " Servetus now rose from the earth , and Fareli urged him to address the assembled multitude , probably in the delusive hope that he might be induced , at the last moment , to retract . But Servetus still continued to invoke the name of the Almighty ; and when Farell persisted in urging him to speak , he asked him , what he could say different from what he had already said ? Farell then tauntingly inquired whether he had no wife or children whom he intended to remember in his will . But Servetus , who was an
unmarried man , and whose property had been seized upon by his persecutors , and confiscated , was silent . Farell now urged him to invoke the Eternal Son of God , which he repeatedly refused to do . " Yet , " says one of his biographers , " he advanced nothing in defence of his doctrine , but suffered himself to be led away to punishment . " This silence Calvin alleges as a proof of Servetus ' s obstinacy , or , as he himself phrases it , " of his beastly stupidity , "—belluince slupiditatis . May it not , however , have been dictated by an anxiety to conform himself to the example of his Divine Master under similar cruel treatment ? " The high-priest arose , and said unto Jesus ,
• Answerest thou nothing ? What is it which these witness against thee ?' But Jesus held his peace . " ( Matt . xxvi . 62 , 63 . ) Servetus was desirous of treading in the footsteps of his Divine Master , even though at an humble distance ; and however imperfect the attempt may have been , it is deeply to be regretted that the conduct of his inhuman persecutors exhibited so striking a parallel to that of the unbelieving Jews who imbrued their hands in the Saviour ' s blood . The pile prepared for the execution of Servetus consisted of wooden billets intermingled with green oaken faggots still in leaf . He was fastened to the trunk of a tree fixed in the earth , his feet reaching to
theground ; and a crown of straw , or leaves , sprinkled over with brimstone , was placed upon his head . His body was bound to the stake with an iron chain , and a coarse twisted rope was loosely thrown round his neck . His book was then fastened to his thigh ; and he requested the executioner to put him out of his misery as speedily as possible . The pile was then lighted , and he cried out in so piteous a tone , that the whole populace was quite horror-struck . When he had suffered for some time , a few of the bystanders , out of mere compassion , and with a view to put an end to his
misery , supplied the fire with a quantity of 'fresh fuel , while the unhappy man kept exclaiming , " Jesus , thou son of the Eternal God ! have pity on me ! " " At length , " says the manuscript account from which the above particulars are taken , " he expired after about half an hour's suffering . " Peter Hyperphrogenus , however , testifies that the sufferings of Servetus were greatly protracted in consequence of a strong breeze springing up , which scattered the dames , and that at last there was scarcely sufficient fuel left to enable the executioner to carry the sentence into effect . He adds likewise that Servetus was writhing about in the fire for the space of three or four
Untitled Article
364 Biographical Notices of Eminent Continental Unitarians .
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Citation
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Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), June 2, 1831, page 364, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2598/page/4/
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